The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

urden and heat of the day ourselves” (Mark Twain,
<strong>The</strong> Innocents Abroad, 1869).
beast with ten horns See whore of babylon.
beast with two backs <strong>The</strong> act of lovemaking. <strong>The</strong>
phrase is usually credited to William Shakespeare,
who employed it in his tragedy Othello (c. 1603),
in which iago uses it to provoke desdemona’s
father concerning the elopement of his daughter
and her lover othello: “I am one, sir, that comes
to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now
making the beast with two backs.” In reality, the
phrase is older and of French origin, appearing in
the works of Rabelais (c. 1494–c. 1553). He had
long since given up trying to persuade her to make the
beast with two backs with him.
Beat Generation (beet) <strong>The</strong> young of the 1950s
and early 1960s, especially young U.S. writers and
artists of the period known for their unconventional,
Bohemian lifestyle and espousal of antiestablishment
values. Notable fi gures of the Beat
Generation, who were largely motivated by
despair at the state of the world around them,
included the writers Jack Kerouac (1922–69),
Allen Ginsberg (1926–97), and William Burroughs
(1914–97). <strong>The</strong> name Beat Generation was
based on the slang usage of the word “beat” meaning
“exhausted,” although Kerouac also linked it to
“beatitude.” She was one of the last of the Beat Generation
to settle in Greenwich Village.
beatitude (beeatitood) A blessing, especially one
of a formulaic nature. <strong>The</strong> original Beatitudes were
the eight sayings spoken by Christ in the Sermon
on the Mount, as recorded at Matthew 5:1–12. In
these, Christ promises that the poor in spirit,
those who mourn, the meek, those who thirst for
righ teousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the
peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for
righ teousness’s sake will receive the blessing of
heaven. “Indeed, throughout all the great soft- coal
country, people who consider themselves comparatively
poor may fi nd this consolation: cleanliness
has been added to the virtues and beatitudes
that money can not buy” (Booth Tarkington, Alice
Adams, 1921). See also meek shall inherit the
earth, the.
Beatrice See benedick; dante and beatrice.
Beau Brummell
beat swords into plowshares To make peace; to
adapt the weapons of war for peaceful purposes.
<strong>The</strong> phrase is biblical in origin, appearing in Isaiah
2:4 (and also Micah 4:3), as follows: “And he shall
judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many
people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruninghooks: nation
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more.” <strong>The</strong> same imagery
recurs at Joel 3:10, but with the reverse meaning:
“Beat your plowshares into swords.” On the surface,
this latest nuclear disarmament treaty amounts to the
most determined attempt in recent years to beat the
swords of the two superpowers into plowshares.
Beau Brummell (bo brbmbl) A fop, a person
obsessed with fashion. George Bryan Brummell
(1778–1840) was a celebrated trendsetter during
the regency of the future George IV and moved in
the highest social circles, championing a restrained
elegance of dress in fashionable society. His nickname
Beau, meaning “dandy,” refl ected his love of
fi ne clothes. He gambled away most of his money
and fell out with the future king in 1812, however,
eventually dying in poverty in a hospital for the
insane in France. He was the Beau Brummell of the
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