BRUNO (Bishop), bishop of Herbipolitanum.  Sailing one day on the Danube with Henry III. emperor of Germany, they came to Ben Strudel ("the devouring-gulf"), near Grinon Castle, in Austria.  Here the voice of a spirit clamored aloud, “Ho! ho!  Bishop Bruno, whither art thou travelling?  But go thy ways, bishop Bruno, for thou shalt travel with me tonight.”  At night, while feasting with the emperor, a rafter fell on his head and killed him.  Southey has a ballad called Bishop Bruno, but it deviates from the original legend given by Heywood in several particulars:  It makes bishop Bruno hear the voice first on his way to the emperor, who had invited him to dinner; next, at the beginning of dinner; and thirdly, when the guests had well feasted.  At the last warning an ice-cold hand touched him, and Bruno fell dead in the banquet hall.

BRUSH, the impertinent English valet of lord Ogleby.  If his lordship calls he never hears unless he chooses; if his bell rings he never answers it till it suits his pleasure.  He helps himself freely to all his master’s things, and makes love to all the pretty chambermaids he comes into contact with.—­Colman and Garrick, The Clandestine Marriage (1766).

BRUTE (1 syl.), the first king of Britain (in mythical history).  He was the son of AEneas Silvius (grandson of Ascanius and great-grandson of AEneas of Troy).  Brute called London (the capital of his adopted country) Troynovant (New Troy).  The legend is this:  An oracle declared that Brute should be the death of both his parents; his mother died in child-birth, and at the age of fifteen Brute shot his father accidentally in a deer-hunt.  Being driven from Alba Longa, he collected a band of old Trojans and landed at Totness, in Devonshire.  His wife was Innogen, daughter of Pandra’sus king of Greece.  His tale is told at length in the Chronicles of Geoffrey of Monmouth, in the first song of Drayton’s Polyolbion, and in Spenser’s Faery Queen, ii.

Brute (Sir John), a coarse, surly, ill-mannered brute, whose delight was to “provoke” his young wife, who he tells us “is a young lady, a fine lady, a witty lady, and a virtuous lady, but yet I hate her.”  In a drunken frolic he intercepts a tailor taking home a new dress to lady Brute; he insists on arraying himself therein, is arrested for a street row, and taken before the justice of the peace.  Being asked his name, he gives it as “lady John Brute,” and is dismissed.

Lady Brute, wife of sir John.  She is subjected to divers indignities, and insulted morn, noon, and night by her surly, drunken husband.  Lady Brute intrigues with Constant, a former lover; but her intrigues are more mischievous than vicious.—­Vanbrugh, The Provoked Wife (1697).

BRUTE GREEN-SHIELD, the successor of Ebranc king of Britain.  The mythical line is:  (1) Brute, great-great-grandson of AEneas; (2) Locrin, his son; (3) Guendolen, the widow of Locrin; (4) Ebranc; (5) Brute Green-Shield.  Then follow in order Leil, Hudibras, Bladud, Leir [Shakespeare’s “Lear"], etc.