BET 



340 



BET 



it U wid to resemble in miniature in Guiana and Brazil, 

 where it is a native. 



HKTHY'LL'S, in entomology, a genus of hymenopterous 

 insect* of the family Proctotrupidas : iu principal distinctive 

 characters are, antenna) geniculated, thirteen jointed in both 

 sexes ; the head is depressed and the prolhorax very elon- 

 gate and almost triangular. The wings have only one 

 urge marginal cell, not closed ; abdomen conical, legs short, 

 femora thick. 



These little four-winged flics, which are remarkable for 

 their large depressed heads, are not very unlike ante in 

 their appearance, and are found in (lowers and sometimes 

 on the leaves of shrubs, to which they resort in search of 

 small caterpillars, which they store up in cells to nourish 

 their future progeny. The principal haunts of these in- 

 sects are dry, sandy situations. 



Mr. Haliday has given an interesting account of a spe- 

 cies of this genus in the seventh number of the Entomo- 

 logical Magazine. 



BETLIS. [See BBDLIS.] 



BETCXNICA, or BETON Y, a suppressed genus of her- 

 baceous plants, belonging to the natural order Labiates. 

 [See STACHYS.] 



BETROTHMENT. We sometimes hear of parties being 

 betrothed to each other, which means that each has pledged 

 his or her troth or truth to the other, to enter at some con- 

 venient time, fixed or undetermined, into the state of matri- 

 mony. It now has seldom any other meaning than that 

 the parties have engaged themselves privately, sometimes, 

 though it is presumed very rarely, in the presence of one or 

 more friends who might, if necessity of doing so arose, bear 

 testimony to such an engagement having been entered into. 

 Kven the rustic ceremonies which heretofore were in use to 

 (ive some kind of formality to such contracts seem almost 

 to have fallen into entire disuse. In anticnt times, however, 

 there were engagements of this kind of a very formal nature, 

 and they were not thought unworthy the notice of the great 

 legislators of antiquity. In the laws of Moses there are 

 certain provisions respecting the state of the virgin who is 

 betrothed. In the Roman law, the ' sponsalia,' or betroth- 

 ment, is defined to be a ' promise of a future marriage.' It 

 could take place after the parties were seven years of age. 

 There was no fixed time alter betrothment at which mar- 

 riage necessarily followed, but it might for various reasons 

 be deferred for several years. The spongalia might be made 

 without the two parties being present at the ceremony. 

 (See Digett. xxiii. tit. i.) 



The canonists speak of betrothing and of marrying, de- 

 scribing the former as being sponsalia, or espousals, with the 

 terba de futuro, the latter with the verba de praaenti. In 

 England, there is no doubt that formal engagements of this 

 kind were usual down to the time of the Reformation. One 

 class of the documents which have descended in families 

 who have been careful in the preservation of their antient 

 evidences, are marriage-contracts, which are generally be- 

 tween parents, and set out with stating that a marriage shall 

 be solemnized between certain parties when they attain to a 

 certain age, or at some distant period, as after six months or 

 a year; and amongst the terms of the contract it is not un- 

 ijsiiiil to find stipulations respecting the apparel of the future 

 bride, and the cost of the entertainment which is to be 

 provided on the occasion. When these contracts were 

 entered into by the parents, there is reason to believe 

 that the younger parties solemnly plighted their troth to 

 each other. 



The late Mr. Francis Douce, who was very learned in all 

 matters relating to the popular customs of our own and other 

 int urns, describes the ceremony of betrothment (Illustra- 

 tion* of Shahrjifare and of Antient Manners, vol.i. p. 108) 

 a having consisted in ' the interchangement of rings the 

 the joining of hands; to which is to be added the 

 testimony of witnesses.' In France, where the ceremony is 

 known by the name of Jianpiillet, the presence of the cure, 

 or of a priest commissioned by him, was essential to the 

 completeness of the contract In England, such contracts 

 were brought under the cognizance of the ecclesiastical law. 

 taints are made by a writer about the time of the Re- 

 formation, riled in Ellis's edition of Brand's Popular Anli- 

 ijnitift, that certain superstitious ceremonies had l>ecome 

 connected with these engagements ; but Mr. Douce was un- 

 able to find in any of the antient rituals of the church any 

 prescribed form in which this kind of espousals were to be 

 celebrated. The church, however, undertook to punish the 



violation of the contract. Whoever, after betrothment, re- 

 fused to proceed to matrimony, in facie ecclesiee, was liable 

 to excommunication till relieved by public penance. This 

 was taken away by act 26 ( . i, and the aggrieved 



party was left to seek his remedy by an action at common 

 law for breach of promise of marriage. The church also 

 declared that no kind of matrimonial engagement could be 

 entered into by infants under seven years of age; and that 

 from seven to twelve, and in the case of males to fourteen, 

 they might betroth themselves, but not be contracted in 

 matrimony. Further, if any betrothment at all took place, 

 it was to be done openly, and this the priests were instructed 

 to urge upon the people as of importance. 



Bishop Sparrow (Rationale on the Common Prayer, p. 203) 

 regards the marriage service of the Church of England as 

 containing in it both the verba de futuro and the rerba de 

 prtesenti,OT as being in fact both a betrothment and a mar- 

 riage. The first he finds in the questions, ' If 'ill them take,' 

 &c., and the answers, ' I will,' attributing to the word in//. 

 perhaps erroneously, the sense of intention rather than of 

 rftolution. The words of contract which follow are the 

 verba de preesenti. 



The northern nations, including the English and the 

 Scotch, called this ceremony by the expressive term, hand- 

 fasting, or hand-fastning. In Germany the parties are 

 called respectively ' bride' and ' bridegroom,' ' braut' and 

 ' briiutigam,' from the time of the betrothment (verlobung) 

 until the marriage, when these designations cease. 



BETTE RTON, THOMAS. This celebrated actor was 

 born in August, 1635, in Tothill -street, Westminster, his 

 father being at that time under-cook to King Charles I. 

 Evincing early a lave of literature, it was originally the in- 

 tention of his parents to educate him for one of the liberal 

 professions, but the breaking out of the civil wars frustrating 

 this design, the boy was at his own request apprenticed to a 

 bookseller named Rhodes; at the sign of the Bible, Charing 

 Cross. In 1659 Rhodes, who had been wardrobe-keeper at 

 the theatre in Blackl'riars before the troubles, obtained a 

 license for a company of players to act at the Cock-pit in 

 Drury-lane, and here young Betterton commenced his 

 career as an actor at the age of twenty-four, performing 

 with the greatest success in several of Beaumont and 

 Fletcher's plays, then most in fashion. 



In 1662 he was engaged by Sir William Davenant, and 

 appeared on the opening of the theatre in Lincoln's Inn 

 Fields in Sir William's new play the ' Siege of Rhodes. 

 His performance of Hamlet about this time is said by Downs 

 to have raised his reputation to the highest pitch. II' 

 be said to have received traditionally, thronuh Sir William 

 Davenant, the instructions of Shakspeare himself for the 

 representation of this character, t'lhher, Addison, and the 

 author of 'A Lick at the Laureat,' all concur in their admi- 

 ration of him in this part. The last particularizes the scene 

 with the ghost, in which he says Betterton's countenance, 

 naturally ruddy and sanguine, would turn, with the violent 

 emotions of amazement and horror, 'as pale as his neck- 

 cloth.' He became so much in favour with Charles II. 

 that Cibber asserts he went over to Paris at his Majesty's 

 especial command to study the French stage, and introduce 

 from it whatever he thought would improve our own, and 

 that it is to him wo are indebted for moving scenery, al- 

 though some writers ascribe its introduction to Sir William 

 Davenant. 



In 1670 he married an actress of the name of Saunderson, 

 a most amiable woman, who ranked as high among the 

 fi'iiiale, as her husband among the male performers. HIT 

 Lady Macbeth was considered one of the most admirable 

 representations on the stage. So great was l ' lc estimation 

 in which they were both held, that in 1675, on the perform- 

 ance of Crowne's pastoral, called ' Calisto, or the Chaste 

 Nymph,' by the Princesses Mary and Anne, the Unke of 

 Monmouth and other persons of distinction, Mr. and Mrs. 

 Betterton were employed to instruct the royal and noble 

 amateurs during the rehearsals. 



In 1692 Bclterton had the misfortune to lose all his little 

 savings (which, though his salary is said never to have ex- 

 i !/. per week, hail amounted to 2000/.) in a com- 

 mercial speculation. The influence of the Karl of Doi>ei 

 obtained liir him shortly afterwards the rojal license fora 

 nrw theatre, which he was speedily enabled, !>j the voluntary 

 MiliM-nptions of many persons of quality, to erect within 

 tin- walls of the Tennis Court, Lincoln's Inn Fields. II, 

 opened it, April 30th, 1 695, with Congrcvo's comedy of ' Love 



