sult: Keith, Catalogue of the Bishops (Edinburgh, 1755, 1824); Spottiswood, History of the Church of Scotland (London, 1655; Edinburgh, 1851); Chambers, Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen (London, 1875); Burton, History of Scotland (Edinburgh, n.d.. Index.)
BEATRICE, be'a-tres. A city and county-
seat of Gage County, Neb., 40 miles south of Lincoln, on the Big Blue River, and on the Union Pacific, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, the Burlington Route, and other railroads (Map: Nebraska, H 3). It contains a public library, a State Institute for the feeble-minded, and a fine court-house and Federal buildings. The city has excellent water-power and is the seat of extensive manufactures, particularly of flour and agricultural implements. Settled in 1859, Beatrice was incorporated as a town in 1871 and became a city two years later. The government is administered under a charter of 1901, which provides for a mayor, elected every two years, and a city council. The water-works are owned and operated bv the municipality. Population, in 1900, 7875.
BEATRICE. A brilliant and witty character in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. She finally marries her male counterpart. Benedick, in spite of herself.
BEATRICE CENCI, ba'a-tre'eha chen'che.
A Roman lady of the Sixteenth Century, and the heroine of Shelley's tragedy The Cenci; also the subject of a celebrated painting by Guido Reni, in the Palazzo Barberini, Rome.
BEATRICE, Joanna. The vicious heroine of Middleton's play, The Changeling, who persuades De Flores to murder a persistent lover for whom she does not care. She is finally murdered herself by De Flores.
BEATRICE PORTINARI, por'tenil'rs
(1266-90). The daughter of a Florentine noble, Folco Portinari, and wife of Simone dei Bardi, identified by Boccaccio with Beatrice of Dante's poems. Dante first saw her when she was but nine years old, and but seldom afterwards; yet his passion for her forms the theme of his Vita Nuova, and after her untimely death his love assumed a more and more mystic form, and he made her the central symbol of his Divina Commedia, the personification of divine truth. The identity of Beatrice and her allegorical significance in the Divina Commedia have been made the subject of quite an extensive literature. Consult Scartazzini, "Beatrice," in Enciclopedia Dantesea (Milan, 1865-67).
BEATRIX, be'a-triks. (1) A character in
Dryden's comedy, An Evening's Love; or, the Mock Astrologer. (2) Beatrix Esmond, a cousin to Henry Esmond in Thackeray's novel of that name: a beautiful, vain, ambitious woman, who also appears in the sequel, The Virginians, as Madame de Bernstein. Henry Esmond was in love with her, and for her sake engages in the plot to bring back the Stuarts, on the death of Queen Anne.
BEATRIX (be-a'triks) AN'TELOPE. An
Arabian gemsbok (Oryx beatrix), resembling the beisa (q.v.), but without black markings on the hind quarters. See Oryx.
BEATTIE, b.-i'te, James (1735-1803). A
Scottish poet and moral philosopher. He was born October 25, 1735, at Laurencekirk. He studied at Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he acquired a high reputation as a classical scholar. In 1758 he was appointed one of the masters of the grammar school in that city, and in 1760 professor of moral philosophy in Marischal College. Ten years afterwards appeared Beattie's famous Essay on Truth, an attempt to refute the skepticism of Hume. The book, which now reads like an invective against Hume, at once made Beattie conspicuous as a defender of orthodoxy. He was introduced to George III., given a pension of £200, and offered a living in the Anglican Church and the chair of moral philosophy at Edinburgh. Though his head was slightly turned by this success, he declined all these offers. The essay is of little importance in the history of philosophy, and has consequently been long neglected. In 1771 appeared the first part of The Minstrel, written in the Spenserian stanza, and in 1774 the second part. It is a delightful poem. It overflows with true poetical emotion, and is rich in picturesque descriptions, while the versification has a quiet fullness of melody. The poem describes "the progress of a poetical genius born in a rude age, from the first dawning of fancy and reason till that period at which he may be supposed capable of appearing in the world as a minstrel." Beattie intended to add a third part, but circumstances prevented his doing so. In 1776 he published a series of essays on poetry, music, etc.; in 1783, Dissertations Moral and Critical; in 1786, The Evidences of the Christian Religion Briefly and Plainly Stated; and in 1790-93, The Elements of Moral Science; all of which works are written in a clear and elegant style, and with a high appreciation of whatever is beautiful and good. He died August 18, 1803. Consult Forbes, Life and Writings of James Beattie (Edinburgh. 1824).
BEAU BRUM'MELL. See Brummell, George B.
BEAUCAIRE, bo'kfir' (anciently, Lat. Ugernum; later Bellum Quadrum, beautiful square). A well-built commercial town of France, on the right bank of the Rhône, in the Department of Gard, opposite Tarascon, with which it is connected by a suspension bridge. The harbor is commodious for vessels, which enter it by a canal communication with the Mediterranean, and thus avoid the sand-banks at the mouths of the Rhône. The importance of Beaucaire lies in its great fair, established, it is said, as early as the Twelfth Century. It is held annually, beginning July 22, and lasts six days. In former times, when this fair was free from duties, it was attended by merchants and manufacturers from almost all parts of Europe, from the Levant, and even from Persia and Armenia; but the numerous imposts demanded since 1632, foreign wars, and the competition of Marseilles, Lyons, and other large places, reduced the traffic of Beaucaire. which sank still lower in the days of the Revolution. The fair, however, is still held in much repute, 50,000 persons sometimes attending it. The chief articles of commerce are silks, wines, oil, almonds, and other fruits, spices, drugs, leather, wool, and cotton. Population, in 1896, 9000.
BEAUCAIRE, Monsieur. The hero of a dramatic story of the same title by Booth Tarkington (1900), which relates the adventures of a French prince moving incognito in fash-
