Bernard, the
French poet (1710-1755), is called _Le gentil Bernard._

_Bernard_, an ass; in Italian _Bernardo_. In the beast-epic called
_Reynard the Fox_, the _sheep_ is called "Bernard," and the _ass_ is
"Bernard l'archipetre" (1498).

BERNARD LANGDON, fine young fellow of the "Brahmin Caste," who teaches
school while preparing for a profession.--Oliver Wendell Holmes,
_Elsie Venner_ (1861).

BERNAR'DO, an officer in Denmark, to whom the ghost of the
murdured king appeared during the night-watch at the royal
castle.--Shakespeare, _Hamlet_ (1596).

BERNARDO DEL CARPIO, one of the favorite subjects of the old Spanish
minstrels. The other two were _The Cid_ and _Lara's Seven Infants_.
Bernardo del Carpio was the person who assailed Orlando (or Rowland)
at Roncesvalles, and finding him invulnerable, took him up in his arms
and squeezed him to death, as Hercules did Antae'os.--Cervantes, _Don
Quixote_, II. ii. 13 (1615).

[Illustration] The only vulnerable part of Orlando was the sole of the
foot.

BERSER'KER, grandson of the eight-handed Starka'der and the beautiful
Alfhil'de. He was so called because he wore "no shirt of mail," but
went to battle unharnessed. He married the daughter of Swaf'urlam, and
had twelve sons. (_Baer-syrce_, Anglo-Saxon, "bare of shirt;" Scotch,
"bare-sark.")

You say that I am a Berserker, and ... bare-sark I go to-morrow to the
war, and bare-sark I win that war or die.--Rev. C. Kingsley, _Hereward
the Wake_, i. 247.

BERTHA, the supposed daughter of Vandunke (2 _syl_.), burgomaster of
Bruges, and mistress of Goswin, a rich merchant of the same city. In
reality. Bertha is the duke of Brabant's daughter _Gertrude_, and
Goswin is _Florez_, son of Gerrard king of the beggars.--Beaumont and
Fletcher, _The Beggars' Bush_ (1622).

_Ber'tha_, daughter of Burkhard duke of the Alemanni, and wife of
Rudolf II. king of Burgundy beyond Jura. She is represented on
monuments of the time as sitting on her throne spinning.

Yon are the beautiful Bertha the Spinner, the queen of Helvetia; ...
Who as she rode on her palfrey o'er valley, and meadow, and mountain,
Ever was spinning her thread from the distaff fixed to her saddle.
She was so thrifty and good that her name passed into a proverb.

Longfellow, _Courtship of Miles Standish_, viii.

_Bertha, alias_ AGATHA, the betrothed of Hereward (3 _syl_.), one of
the emperor's Varangian guards. The novel concludes with Hereward
enlisti