BRIGGS, one of the ten young gentlemen in the school of Dr. Blimber when Paul Dombey was a pupil there.  Briggs was nicknamed the “Stoney,” because his brains were petrified by the constant dropping of wisdom upon them.—­C.  Dickens, Dombey and Son (1846).

BRIGLIADORO [Bril.ye.dor.ro], Orlando’s steed.  The word means “Gold bridle.”—­Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Sir Guyon’s horse, in Spenser’s Faery Queen, is called by a similar name.

BRILLIANT (Sir Philip), a great fop, but brave soldier, like the famous Murat.  He would dress with all the finery of a vain girl, but would share watching, toil, and peril with the meanest soldier.  “A butterfly in the drawing-room, but a Hector on the battle-field.”  He was a “blade of proof; you might laugh at the scabbard, but you wouldn’t at the blade.”  He falls in love with lady Anne, reforms his vanities, and marries.—­S.  Knowles, Old Maids (1841).

BRILLIANT MADMAN (The), Charles XII. of Sweden (1682, 1697-1718).

BRILLIANTA (The lady), a great wit in the ancient romance entitled Tirante le Blanc, author unknown.

Here (in Tirante le Blanc) we shall find the famous knight don Kyrie Elyson of Montalban, his brother Thomas, the knight Fonseca ... the stratagems of the widow Tranquil ... and the witticisms of lady Brillianta.  This is one of the most amusing books ever written.—­Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. i. 6 (1605).

BRIS (Il conte di San), governor of the Louvre.  He is father of Valenti’na and leader of the St. Bartholomew massacre.—­Meyerbeer, Les Huguenots (1836).

BRISAC’ (Justice), brother of Miramont.

Charles Brisac, a scholar, son of justice Brisac.

Eustace Brisac, a courtier, brother of Charles.—­Beaumont and Fletcher, The Elder Brother (1637).

BRISE’IS (3 syl.), whose real name was Hippodami’a, was the daughter of Brises, brother of the priest Chryses.  She was the concubine of Achilles, but when Achilles bullied Agamemnon for not giving Chryse’is to her father, who offered a ransom for her, Agamemnon turned upon him and said he would let Chryseis go, but should take Briseis instead.—­Homer, Iliad, i.

BRISK, a good-natured conceited coxcomb, with a most voluble tongue.  Fond of saying “good things,” and pointing them out with such expressions as “There I had you, eh?” “That was pretty well, egad, eh?” “I hit you in the teeth there, egad!” His ordinary oath was “Let me perish!” He makes love to lady Froth.—­W.  Congreve, The Double Dealer (1694).

BRIS’KIE (2 syl.), disguised under the name of Putskie.  A captain in the Moscovite army, and brother of general Archas “the loyal subject” of the great-duke of Moscovia.—­Beaumont and Fletcher, The Loyal Subject (1618).

BRIS’SOTIN, one of the followers of Jean Pierre Brissot, an advanced revolutionist.  The Brissotins were subsequently merged in the Girondists, and the word dropped out of use.