Shakespearean Characters - B

B

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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.

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