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- Bagot (hist) is a favourite of Richard in Richard II.
- Balthasar:
- Balthasar is Romeo's servant in Romeo and Juliet.
- Balthasar is a singer, attending on Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing.
- Balthasar is a merchant in The Comedy of Errors.
- Balthasar is a servant of Portia in The Merchant of Venice.
- See also Portia in The Merchant of Venice, who takes the name Balthasar in her disguise as a lawyer from Rome.
- Three Bandits in Timon of Athens seek Timon's gold, but he persuades them to give up villainy.
- Banquo is a captain in Macbeth who, with Macbeth, meets the three witches and hears their prophecies. He is later murdered on Macbeth's orders, but his ghost haunts Macbeth at a feast.
- Baptista Minola is the father of Katherine and Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew.
- For Barbary, see Countrywomen.
- Bardolph:
- Bardolph (fict) is a follower of Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2. In The Merry Wives of Windsor he becomes a drawer for the Host of the Garter. He is hanged for stealing a pax in Henry V.
- Lord Bardolph (hist) is a nobleman, one of the Percy faction, in Henry IV, Part 2.
- Barnardine is too drunk to consent to be executed, in Measure for Measure.
- Barnardo and Marcellus are soldiers who invite Horatio to see the ghost of Old Hamlet, in Hamlet.
- For Bartholomew, or Barthol'mew, see the Page in the induction to The Taming of the Shrew.
- Bassanio, loved by Antonio, is the suitor who wins the heart of Portia in The Merchant of Venice.
- Basset (fict) is a follower of the Duke of Somerset, in Henry VI, Part 1.
- Bassianus is the younger brother of Saturninus, and is betrothed to Lavinia, in Titus Andronicus. Chiron and Demetrius murder him, laying the blame on Martius and Quintus.
- Bastard:
- The Bastard of Orleans (hist) is one of the French leaders in Henry VI, Part 1.
- Philip (the Bastard) Faulconbridge is a central character in King John, the bravest and most articulate of John's supporters.
- Several characters are bastards, most notably Don John and Edmund.
- John Bates (fict) is a soldier in the English army in Henry V.
- A Bavian (a baboon) is played by one of the Maying entertainers in The Two Noble Kinsmen.
- A Bawd and a Pander run the brothel into which Marina is sold, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre.
- Beadle:
- A Beadle arrests Doll Tearsheet in Henry IV, Part 2.
- A Beadle whips Simpcox in Henry VI, Part 2.
- For Beaufort see Bishop of Winchester.
- Beatrice is a central character in Much Ado About Nothing. She falls in love with Benedick.
- For Bedford see Prince John of Lancaster, who was the Duke of Bedford.
- Belarius (also known as Morgan) steals the two infant princes in Cymbeline, and raises them as his own.
- Sir Toby Belch is a drunken knight, and kinsman to Olivia, in Twelfth Night.
- Benedick is a central character in Much Ado About Nothing. He falls in love with Beatrice.
- Benvolio is a friend and kinsman of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet.
- Berkeley:
- Berkeley and Tressell (fict) are the two gentlemen accompanying Lady Anne, and Henry VI's coffin, in Richard III.
- Lord Berkeley (hist) acts as messenger from York to Bolingbroke, in Richard II.
- Berowne is a witty lord of Navarre in Love's Labour's Lost. He breaks his oath by falling in love with Rosaline.
- The Duke of Berry (hist) is a French leader in Henry V.
- Bertram is the Count of Roussillon in All's Well That Ends Well. He is married, against his will, to Helena.
- Bianca:
- Bianca is the younger sister of Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew. She is loved by Gremio and Hortensio, and eventually marries Lucentio.
- Bianca is Michael Cassio's mistress in Othello.
- Lord Bigot, together with Salisbury and Pembroke, fear for the life of young Arthur, and later discover his body, in King John.
- Biondello is a servant to Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew.
- Bishop (title):
- The Bishop of Carlisle (hist) supports Richard in Richard II.
- Bishop of Ely:
- The Bishop of Ely (1) (hist) conspires with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the opening scene of Henry V.
- The Bishop of Ely (2) (hist) ultimately shows his opposition to Richard, in Richard III.
- The Bishop of Lincoln (hist) speaks in favour of Henry's divorce, in the trial scene of Henry VIII.
- Bishop of Winchester:
- The Bishop of Winchester (hist) (later "the Cardinal") is the chief enemy of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester in Henry VI, Part 1 and Henry VI, Part 2.
- For The Bishop of Winchester in Henry VIII, see Gardiner.
- Blanche (hist) is the king's niece in King John, married (by arrangement among the kings, to seal an alliance) to the Dauphin.
- Blunt:
- Sir James Blunt is a supporter of Richmond in Richard III.
- Sir John Blunt is a supporter of the king in Henry IV, Part 2.
- Sir Walter Blunt is a soldier and messenger to the king in Henry IV, Part 1. He is killed by Douglas while wearing the king's armour.
- The Boatswain is a character in the first and last acts of The Tempest.
- Bolingbroke:
- Bolingbroke, later King Henry IV (hist) leads a revolt against King Richard in Richard II. He is the title character of Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2 which chart the rebellions against him by the Percy faction, and his difficult relationship with his eldest son, Hal.
- Bolingbroke, with Southwell, Jourdain and Hume, are the supernatural conspirators with Eleanor Duchess of Gloucester in Henry VI, Part 2.
- Borachio is a villain, a servant of Don John, in Much Ado About Nothing.
- Nick Bottom is a weaver, one of the mechanicals, in A Midsummer Night's Dream. While rehearsing a play, Puck changes Bottom's head for an ass's head. Titania falls in love with him. He plays Pyramus in Pyramus and Thisbe.
- Boult is a servant of the Pander and the Bawd in Pericles, Prince of Tyre. He resolves to rape Marina, but is persuaded to help her to leave the brothel, instead.
- The Duke of Bourbon (hist) fights on the French side in Henry V.
- Cardinal Bourchier (hist) delivers the little Duke of York from sanctuary, and into the hands of Richard and Buckingham, in Richard III.
- Boy:
- Boy (hist) in Richard III is the young son of the murdered Clarence (described in one speech as little Ned Plantagenet).
- Boy is young Martius, son of Caius Martius Coriolanus, in Coriolanus.
- The Boy (fict) is a follower of Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 2 and The Merry Wives of Windsor (in which he is called Robin). He is also a character in Henry V, who goes to war with Pistol, Bardolph and Nym.
- A boy sings the wedding song which opens The Two Noble Kinsmen.
- A boy is a servant of Troilus, in Troilus and Cressida.
- A boy attends on Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing.
- A boy sings a song to Mariana, in Measure for Measure.
- A boy sings "Come, thou monarch of the vine...", in Antony and Cleopatra.
- The Master Gunner's Boy kills Salisbury, in Henry VI, Part 1.
- Boyet, a French lord, is the Princess of France's personal assistant, in Love's Labour's Lost.
- Brabantio is the father of Desdemona, in Othello.
- Brackenbury (hist) is the Lieutenant of the Tower of London in Richard III.
- Brandon (fict) arrests Buckingham, in Henry VIII.
- The Duke of Britain (hist) is a French leader in Henry V.
- For Master Brook see Master Ford, who calls himself Master Brook when he disguises himself to encounter Falstaff.
- Brother(s):
- The Jailer's Brother accompanies his niece, in her madness, in The Two Noble Kinsmen.
- See Leonatus
- See Stafford's Brother.
- Brutus:
- Decius Brutus (hist) is one of the conspirators against Caesar in Julius Caesar.
- Junius Brutus and Sicinius Velutus, two of the tribunes of the people, are the protagonist's chief political enemies in Coriolanus, and prove more effective than his military foes.
- Marcus Brutus (hist) (usually just Brutus) is a central character of Julius Caesar, who conspires against Caesar's life and stabs him.
- Buckingham:
- The Duke of Buckingham (1) (hist) is a Lancastrian in Henry VI, Part 2. His death is reported in Henry VI, Part 3.
- The Duke of Buckingham (2) (hist) is a Yorkist in Henry VI, Part 3, and is a co-conspirator with Richard - although he is eventually rejected, then murdered on Richard's orders - in Richard III.
- The Duke of Buckingham (3) (hist), an enemy of Wolsey, falls from grace and is executed by Henry in Henry VIII.
- Bullcalf is nearly pressed into military service by Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 2.
- Anne Bullen (hist), known to history as Anne Boleyn, is a maid of Honour to Katherine who later becomes King Henry's second wife, in Henry VIII.
- Burgundy:
- The Duke of Burgundy (1) (hist) brokers the peace treaty between the kings of France and England in the last act of Henry V.
- The Duke of Burgundy (2) (hist) fights firstly in alliance with the English, and later in alliance with the French, in Henry VI, Part 1.
- The Duke of Burgundy (3) refuses to marry Cordelia without a dowry, in King Lear.
- Bushy (hist) is a favourite of Richard in Richard II.
- Dick the Butcher (fict) is a follower of Jack Cade in Henry VI, Part 2.
- Doctor Butts (hist) is the king's physician in Henry VIII. He alerts the king to Cranmer's humiliation in refused admittance to the council chamber.
Read more about this topic: Shakespearean Characters