lived under the protection of the Count d'Orsay.


BLIND HARRY or HENRY THE MINSTREL (_fl._ 1470-1492).--Is spoken of by
John Major in his _History of Scotland_ as a wandering minstrel, skilled
in the composition of rhymes in the Scottish tongue, who "fabricated" a
book about William Wallace, and gained his living by reciting it to his
own accompaniment on the harp at the houses of the nobles. Harry claims
that it was founded on a Latin _Life of Wallace_ written by Wallace's
chaplain, John Blair, but the chief sources seem to have been
traditionary. Harry is often considered inferior to Barbour as a poet,
and has little of his moral elevation, but he surpasses him in graphic
power, vividness of description, and variety of incident. He occasionally
shows the influence of Chaucer, and is said to have known Latin and
French.


BLIND, MATHILDE (1841-1896).--Poetess, _b._ at Mannheim, but settled in
London about 1849, and _pub._ several books of poetry, _The Prophecy of
St. Oran_ (1881), _The Heather on Fire_ (1886), _Songs and Sonnets_
(1893), _Birds of Passage_ (1895), etc. She also translated Strauss's
_Old Faith and New_, and other works, and wrote Lives of George Eliot and
Madame Roland. Her own name was Cohen, but she adopted that of her
stepfather, Karl Blind.


BLOOMFIELD, ROBERT (1766-1823).--Poet, _b._ at Honington in Suffolk, lost
his _f._ when he was a year old, and received the rudiments of education
from his mother, who kept the village school. While still a boy he went
to London, and worked as a shoemaker under an elder brother, enduring