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Bezoʹnian

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A new recruit; applied originally in derision, to young soldiers sent from Spain to Italy, who landed both ill-accoutred and in want of everything (Ital. besogni, from bisogno, need; French besoin).

“Base and pilfering besognios and marauders.”—Sir W. Scott: Monastery, xvi.

“Great men oft die by vile bezonians.”

Shakespeare: 2 Henry VI., act iv. 1.

“Under which king, Bezonian? Speak or die” (2 Hen. IV., act v. 3). Choose your leader or take the consequences—Cæsar or Pompey? “Speak or die.”

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Under which King, Bezonian?