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.

... of her courageous kings,
Brute Green-Shield, to whose name we providence impute
Divinely to revive the land's first conqueror, Brute.
Drayton, _Polyolbion_, viii. (1612).

BRUTUS (_Lucius Junius_), first consul of Rome, who condemned his own
two sons to death for