344 BRA 
fellow.—The world abounds in terrible fanfarons, in the 
mafque of men of honour ; but thefe braggadocios are eafy 
to be detected. I' F.Ji range. 
BR AG'G ARD 13 M,_/ [from brag.] Boaftfulnefs; vain 
oftentation. 
BRAG'GART, adj. Boaftful; vainly oftentatious : 
Shall I, noneVflave, of High born or rais’d men 
Fear frowns; and my miflrefs, truth, betray thee 
To th’ huffing braggart, puft nobility i Donne. 
BRAG'GART, J. A boafter: 
Who knows himfelf a braggart, 
Let him fear this; for it will come to pafs, 
Tliat every braggart fliali be found an aft. Sliakcfpeare. 
BR AG'GF.R, f. A boafter ; an oftentatious fellow.— 
Such as have had opportunity to found thefe braggers tho¬ 
roughly, by having fometimes endu red the penance of their 
ioitifli company, have found them in converfe empty and 
inflpid. South. 
BR AG'GOT./l A kind of drink made of malt, honey, 
and fpices, much ufed in Wales. 
BRAG'LESS, adj. Without a boaft; without often- 
ta-t ion : 
The bruit is, Heclor’s (lain, and by Achilles.— 
— If it is fo, braglefs let if be, 
Great Hedlor was as good a man as he. Shakcfpeare. 
BRAG'LY, adv. Finely; fo as it may be bragged; 
Seed not thilk hawthorn find, 
How bragly it begins to bud ? 
Flora now calleth forth each flower, 
And bids him make ready Maia’s bower. Spenfer. 
BRA'GOS, a river of Spain, in Catalonia, which runs 
into the Segre, fix leagues north-eaft of Balaguer. 
BRAGUZ', a town of Germany, in the county of Ty¬ 
rol : twenty-feven miles weft of Trent. 
BRA'HE (Tycho), a celebrated aftronomer, defeended 
of an illuftrious family, originally of Sweden, but fettled 
in Denmark, was born in Knudftorp, in 1546. He was, 
by the. direction- of George Brahe, his fathet’s brother, 
taught Latin when only feven years old. He ftudied five 
years under private tutors, and acquired a tafte for poetry. 
His uncle fent him, in 1559, to ftudy rhetoric and philo- 
fophy at Copenhagen ; his father had died a little before. 
The great eclipfe of the fun, on the 21ft of Auguft, 1560, 
happening at the precife time the afironomers had fore¬ 
told, lie began to look upon aftronomy as fomething di¬ 
vine ; and, .purchafing the tables of Stadius, gained lome 
notion of the theory of the planets. In 1562, he was fent 
to Leipfic to ftudy law, but aftronomy wholly engroffed Iris 
thoughts ; and in purchafing books of that fcience he em¬ 
ployed his pocket-money. Having procured a fmall ce- 
leftial globe, he ufed to wait till His tutor was gone to 
bed, in order to examine the conftellations, and learn their 
names; when the fky was clear, he fpent whole nights in 
viewing the ftars. I11 1565, the death of his uncle occa- 
fioned his return home ; but, his relations thinking the ftudy 
of aftronomy beneath his rank, he went in 1566 to Wit- 
temberg, which the plague forced him to leave in 1567 to 
go to Koftock. In December that year, a difference ari- 
fing between Brahe and a Danilli nobleman, they fought, 
and the former had part of his nofe cut off; which defedi 
he fo artfully fupplied with one made of gold and filver, 
that it was not perceivable. It was about this time that 
he began to apply himfelf to chemiftry, propofing nothing 
lefs than to obtain the philofopher’s ftone. In 1569, he 
removed to Auglburg, where he was vifited by Peter Ra¬ 
mus. In 1571, he returned to Denmark, and was favoured 
by his mother’s brother, Steno Belle, a lover of learning, 
with a convenient place at his caftle of Hcrritzvad, near 
Knudftorp, for making his obfervations, aiid building a 
laboratory. His marrying a country girl beneath his rank, 
occafioned fuch a violent quarrel between him and his re* 
lati.on's, that the king was obliged to interpofe, to recon- 
B R A 
cite them, In 1574, by his majefty’s command, he read 
ladtures upon the theory of comets, at Copenhagen ; and 
the year following vifited Hefl'e Caffel, Frankfort, and Ba- 
fil, and fome other parts of Swifferland. From thence he 
went to Italy, ftaid fome time in Venice, and returned by 
way of Germany to Copenhagen, to fettle his affairs, pur- 
poling to remove with his family to Balil the following 
fpring ; but he dropped this defign, upon the king of Den¬ 
mark’s bellowing upon him for life the ifiand of Kuen in 
the Sound, and a promife that an obfervatory and labora¬ 
tory fhould be built for him, with a fupply alfo of money 
for carrying on his defigns. The firff ftone of the obfer- 
vatcry was laid Auguft 8, 1576. Though that, with the 
feveral buildings to it, and the neceffary machines, coft the 
king an immenfe film, Brahe laid out of hjs own money 
above an hundred thoufand crowns during the twenty years 
he continued there, fparing no expence to cultivate the 
fcience. of aftronomy. The king belides affigned him a 
penfion of two thoufand crowns out of the treafury, a lee 
in Norway, and the canonry of Rofliild, worth a thoufaijd 
crowns a year. James VI. of Scotland, afterwards king 
of England, coming into Denmark to marry Anne, daugh¬ 
ter of Frederic II. Vifited Brahe at Uraniburg, the name 
given to the obfervatory ; made him feveral noble pre- 
fents, and wrote a copy of verfes in his praife. The par¬ 
ticular diftindtions paid to Brahe excited the jealoufy of 
the nobles. The phyficians alfo were uneafy, becaufe their 
patients deferted them to apply to him for the fovereign 
medicines which he diftributed gratis. Thefe things con- 
fpired to his ruin. It was reprefented to the king, that, 
tiie treafury being exhaufted, many penfions, particularly 
Brahe’s, ought to be retrenched; that the fee which he 
had long enjoyed ought to be given to fome perfon more 
capable of ferving the ftate ; and that, though Brahe was 
obligee! to make the neceffary reparations to the chapel be¬ 
longing to his canonry at Rofliild, he had fuffered it to fall 
to ruin. Thefe infinuations had their efteft : and in 1569 he 
was deprived of his penfion, his fee, and his canonry. Being 
thus rendered incapable of fupporting the expence of his 
laboratory, he went to Copenhagen, and continued his af- 
tronomical obfervations and chemical experiments in that 
city, till he had an order from the king to defift. This 
put him upon the thoughts of getting introduced to the 
emperor, who was fond of mechanifm and chemical expe¬ 
riments. He waited upon him at Prague, was moft gra- 
cioufly received, had a magnificent houfe given him till 
one more proper for aftronomical obfervations could be 
procured, and a penfion of three thoufand crowns affigned 
him, with a promife of a fee for himfelf and his defeend- 
ants. This good fortune he enjoyed but a fhort time ; for, 
going to dine with a nobleman, he forgot to make water, 
before he fat down to table, according to his ufual cuftom. 
During the entertainment he drank more than common, 
and found himfejf uneafy, yet imprudently continued fome 
time longer at table; and upon his return home was feized 
with a total fuppreffion of urine, of which he died, the 
24th of OTober, 1601. His great fkill in aftronomy is uni- 
verfally allowed; and his fyftem, oppofed to that of Co¬ 
pernicus, is fully deferibed, and illuftrated by an engraving, 
under the article Astronomy, vol. ii. p. 336, 344, 
BRAHELIN'NA, a town of Sweden, in the province 
of Savolax. 
BRA'HESTAD, a town of Sweden, in the province 
of Eaft Bothnia. 
BR ATI I LOW, a town of Wallachia, on the Danube, 
on the confines of Moldavia, oppofite Siliftria. 
BRA'HIN, a town of Lithuania, in the palatinate of 
Minlk: forty-eight miles eaft of Mozyr. 
BRAH'MIN, or Bra'min. See Brachman. 
To BRAID, v. a. \_bradan , Sax.] To weave together.— 
Oiler wands, lying loofely, may each of them be eafily dift 
fociated from the reft; bat, when braided into a bafket, 
they cohere ftrongly. Boyle. 
BRAID,/. A texture; a knot, or complication of fome¬ 
thing woven together: 
No. 
