Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol 1
by
The Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D.
Part 1 out of 15
Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Bradley Norton and PG Distributed
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[Illustration]
CHARACTER SKETCHES OF ROMANCE, FICTION AND THE DRAMA
A REVISED AMERICAN EDITION OF THE READER'S HANDBOOK
BY
THE REV. E. COBHAM BREWER, LL.D.
EDITED BY MARION GARLAND
VOLUME I
1892
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
VOLUME I.
PHOTOGRAVURES AND ETCHINGS.
_Illustration_.................._Artist_
ICHABOD CRANE (_colored_).......E.A. ABBEY
CONSTANCE DE BEVERLEY................TOBY ROSENTHAL
LADY BOUNTIFUL.......................ROB. W. MACBETH
SYDNEY CARTON........................FREDERICK BARNARD
BERNHARDT AS CLEOPATRA..............._From a Photograph from Life_
ABBE CONSTANTIN......................MADELEINE LEMAIRE
CAPTAIN CUTTLE.......................FREDERICK BARNARD
THE TRUSTY ECKART....................JULIUS ADAM
ELAINE...............................TOBY ROSENTHAL
* * * * *
WOOD ENGRAVINGS AND TYPOGRAVURES.
ABELARD..............................A. GUILLEMINOT
AENEAS RELATING HIS STORY TO DIDO....P. GUERIN
ALBERICH'S PURSUIT OF THE NIBELUNGEN RING...HANS MAKART
ALETHE, PRIESTESS OF ISIS............EDWIN LONG
ALEXIS AND DORA......................W. VON KAULBACH
ALICE, THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER.........DAVIDSON KNOWLES
ANCIENT MARINER (THE)................GUSTAVE DORE
ANDROMEDA............................
ANGELIQUE AND MONSEIGNEUR DE HAUTECOEUR...JEANNIOT
ANGUS AND DONALD.....................W.B. DAVIS
ANTIGONE AND ISMENE..................EMIL TESCHENDORFF
ANTONY AND THE DEAD CAESAR...........
ARCHIMEDES...........................NIC BARABINO
ARGAN AND DOCTOR DIAFOIRUS...........A. SOLOMON
ASHTON (LUCY) AND RAVENSWOOD.........SIR EVERETT MILLAIS
ATALA (BURIAL OF)....................GUSTAVE COURTOIS
AUGUSTA IN COURT.....................A. FORESTIER
AUTOMEDON............................HENRI REGNAULT
BALAUSTION...........................F.H. LUNGREN
BALDERSTONE (CALEB) AND MYSIE.......GEORGE HAY
BAREFOOT (LITTLE)....................F. VON THELEN-RUeDEN
BARKIS IS WILLIN'....................C.J. STANILAND
BAUDIN (THE DEATH OF)................J.-P. LAURENS
BAYARD (THE CHEVALIER)...............LARIVIERE
BEDREDEEN HASSAN (MARRIAGE OF) AND NOUREDEEN...F. CORMON
BELLENDEN (LADY) AND MAUSE HEADRIGG..WM. DOUGLAS
BENEDICK AND BEATRICE................HUGHES MERLE
BIRCH (HARVEY), THE PEDDLER-SPY.....
BLANCHELYS (QUEEN) AND THE PILGRIM...J. NOEL PATON
BOABDIL-EL-CHICO'S FAREWELL TO GRENADA...E. CORBOULD
BOADICEA.............................THOS. STOTHARD
BONNICASTLE (ARTHUR) AND MILLIE BRADFORD...
BOTTOM AND TITANIA...................SIR EDWIN LANDSEER
BRABANT (GENEVIEVE DE)...............ERNST BOSCH
BRAeSIG, LINING AND MINING............CONRAD BECKMANN
BROOKING'S (JOHN) STUDIO.............A. FORESTIER
CAESAR (THE DEATH OF).................J.L. GEROME
CANTERBURY PILGRIMS (THE)............THOS. STOTHARD; WM. BLAKE
CAREW (FRANCIS) FINDING THE BODY OF DERRICK...HAL LUDLOW
CARMEN...............................J. KOPPAY
CATARINA.............................
CHARLES IX. ON THE EVE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW...P. GROTJOHANN
CHARLOTTE CORDAY AND MARAT..........JULES AVIAT
CHATTERTON'S HOLIDAY AFTERNOON.......W.B. MORRIS
CHILDREN (THE) IN THE WOOD...........J. SANT
CHILLON (THE PRISONER OF)............
CHRISTIAN ENTERING THE VALLEY OF HUMILIATION...F.R. PICKERSGILL
CINDERELLA AND THE FAIRY GOD-MOTHER..GUSTAVE DORE
CIRCE AND HER SWINE..................BRITON RIVIERE
CLARA (DONNA) AND ALMANZOR...........
CLARA, JACQUES AND ARISTIDE..........ADRIEN MARIE
CLAUDIO AND ISABELLA.................HOLMAN HUNT
COLUMBUS AND HIS EGG.................LEO. REIFFENSTEIN
CONSUELO.............................
COSETTE..............................G. GUAY
COSTIGAN (CAPTAIN)...................F. BARNARD
COVERLEY (SIR ROGER DE) COMING FROM CHURCH...CHAS. R. LESLIE
CYMON AND IPHIGENIA..................SIR FREDERICK LEIGHTON
DAPHNIS AND CHLOE....................GERARD
DARBY AND JOAN IN HIGH-LIFE..........C. DENDY SADLER
D'ARTAGNAN...........................
DEANS (EFFIE) AND HER SISTER IN THE PRISON...R. HERDMAN
DERBLAY (MADAME) STOPS THE DUEL......EMILE BAYARD
DIDO ON THE FUNERAL PYRE.............E. KELLER
DOMBEY (PAUL AND FLORENCE)..........
EGMONT AND CLAeRCHEN..................C. HUEBERLIN
ELECTRA..............................E. TESCHENDORFF
ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART............W. VON KAULBACH
ELIZABETH, THE LANDGRAVINE...........THEODOR PIXIS
ELLEN, THE LADY OF THE LAKE..........J. ADAMS-ACTON
ELLIE (LITTLE).......................
ERMINIA AND THE SHEPHERDS............DOMENICHINO
ESMERALDA............................G. BRION
ESTE (LEONORA D') AND TASSO..........W. VON KAULBACH
EVANGELINE...........................EDWIN DOUGLAS
EVE'S FAREWELL TO PARADISE...........E. WESTALL
* * * * *
CHARACTER SKETCHES OF ROMANCE, FICTION, AND THE DRAMA.
AA'RON, a Moor, beloved by Tam'ora, queen of the Goths,
in the tragedy of _Titus Andron'icus_, published among the plays of
Shakespeare (1593).
(The classic name is _Andronicus_, but the character of this play is
purely fictitious.)
_Aaron (St.)_, a British martyr of the City of Legions (_Newport_,
in South Wales). He was torn limb from limb by order of Maximian'us
Hercu'lius, general in Britain, of the army of Diocle'tian. Two
churches were founded in the City of Legions, one in honor of St.
Aaron and one in honor of his fellow-martyr, St. Julius. Newport was
called Caerleon by the British.
... two others ... sealed their doctrine with
their blood;
St. Julius, and with him St. Aaron, have their
room
At Carleon, suffering death by Diocletian's doom.
Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xxiv, (1622).
AAZ'IZ (3 _syl._), so the queen of Sheba or Saba is sometimes called;
but in the Koran she is called Balkis (ch. xxvii.).
ABAD'DON, an angel of the bottomless pit (_Rev_. ix. 11). The word is
derived from the Hebrew, _abad_, "lost," and means _the lost one_.
There are two other angels introduced by Klopstock in _The Messiah_
with similar names, but must not be confounded with the angel referred
to in _Rev_.; one is Obaddon, the angel of death, and the other
Abbad'ona, the repentant devil.
AB'ARIS, to whom Apollo gave a golden arrow, on which to ride through
the air.--See _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_.
ABBAD'ONA, once the friend of Ab'diel, was drawn into the rebellion of
Satan half unwillingly. In hell he constantly bewailed his fall, and
reproved Satan for his pride and blasphemy. He openly declared to the
internals that he would take no part or lot in Satan's scheme for the
death of the Messiah, and during the crucifixion lingered about the
cross with repentance, hope, and fear. His ultimate fate we are not
told, but when Satan and Adramelech are driven back to hell, Obaddon,
the angel of death, says--
"For thee, Abbadona, I have no orders. How long thou art permitted to
remain on earth I know not, nor whether thou wilt be allowed to see
the resurrection of the Lord of glory ... but be not deceived, thou
canst not view Him with the joy of the redeemed." "Yet let me see Him,
let me see him!"--Klopstock, _The Messiah_, xiii.
ABBERVILLE (_Lord_), a young nobleman, 23 years of age, who has for
travelling tutor a Welshman of 65, called Dr. Druid, an antiquary,
wholly ignorant of his real duties as a guide of youth. The young
man runs wantonly wild, squanders his money, and gives loose to his
passions almost to the verge of ruin, but he is arrested and reclaimed
by his honest Scotch bailiff or financier, and the vigilance of his
father's executor, Mr. Mortimer. This "fashionable lover" promises
marriage to a vulgar, malicious city minx named Lucinda Bridgemore,
but is saved from this pitfall also.--Cumberland, _The Fashionable
Lover_ (1780).
ABBOT (_The_), the complacent churchman in Aldrich's poem of _The
Jew's Gift_, who hanged a Jew "just for no crime," and pondered and
smiled and gave consent to the heretic's burial--
"Since he gave his beard to the birds." (1881.)
ABDAL-AZIS, the Moorish governor of Spain after the overthrow of
king Roderick. When the Moor assumed regal state and affected Gothic
sovereignty, his subjects were so offended that they revolted and
murdered him. He married Egilona, formerly the wife of Roderick.--
Southey, _Roderick, etc_., xxii. (1814).
AB'DALAZ'IZ (_Omar ben_), a caliph raised to "Mahomet's bosom" in
reward of his great abstinence and self-denial.--_Herbelot_, 690.
He was by no means scrupulous; nor did he think with the caliph Omar
ben Abdalaziz that it was necessary to make a hell of this world to
enjoy paradise in the next.--W. Beckford, _Vathek_ (1786).
ABDAL'DAR, one of the magicians in the Domdaniel caverns, "under the
roots of the ocean." These spirits were destined to be destroyed by
one of the race of Hodei'rah (3 _syl_.), so they persecuted the race
even to death. Only one survived, named Thal'aba, and Abdaldar was
appointed by lot to find him out and kill him. He discovered the
stripling in an Arab's tent, and while in prayer was about to stab him
to the heart with a dagger, when the angel of death breathed on him,
and he fell dead with the dagger in his hand. Thalaba drew from the
magician's finger a ring which gave him command over the spirits.
--Southey, _Thalaba the Destroyer_, ii. iii. (1797).
ABDALLA, one of sir Brian de Bois Guilbert's slaves.--Sir W. Scott,
_Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).
_Abdal'lah_, brother and predecessor of Giaf'fer (2 _syl_.), pacha of
Aby'dos. He was murdered by the pacha.--Byron, _Bride of Abydos_.
ABDALLAH EL HADGI, Saladin's envoy.--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_
(time, Richard I.).
ABDALS or _Santons_, a class of religionists who pretend to be
inspired with the most ravishing raptures of divine love. Regarded
with great veneration by the vulgar.--_Olearius_, i. 971.
AB'DIEL, the faithful seraph who withstood Satan when he urged those
under him to revolt.
... the seraph Abdiel, faithful found;
Among the faithless faithful only he;
Among innumerable false, unmoved.
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal.
Milton, _Paradise Lost_, v. 896, etc. (1665).
ABELARD and ELOISE, unhappy lovers, whose illicit love was succeeded
by years of penitence and remorse. Abelard was the tutor of Heloise
(or Eloise), and, although vowed to the church, won and returned her
passion. They were violently separated by her uncle. Abelard entered a
monastery and Eloise became a nun. Their love survived the passage of
years, and they were buried together at _Pere la Chaise.--Eloise and
Abelard_. By Alexander Pope (1688-1744).
ABENSBERG (_Count_), the father of thirty-two children. When Heinrich
II. made his progress through Germany, and other courtiers presented
their offerings, the count brought forward his thirty-two children,
"as the most valuable offering he could make to his king and country."
ABES'SA, the impersonation of abbeys and convents in Spenser's _Faery
Queen_, i. 3. She is the paramour of Kirkrapine, who used to rob
churches and poor-boxes, and bring his plunder to Abessa, daughter of
Corceca (_Blindness of Heart_).
ABIGAIL, typical name of a maid.--See Beaumont and Fletcher, Swift,
Fielding, and many modern writers.
ABNEY, called _Young Abney_, the friend of colonel Albert Lee, a
royalist.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, the Commonwealth).
ABON HASSAN, a young merchant of Bag dad, and hero of the tale called
"The Sleeper Awakened," in the _Arabian Nights' Entertainments_.
While Abon Hassan is asleep he is conveyed to the palace of
Haroun-al-Raschid, and the attendants are ordered to do everything
they can to make him fancy himself the caliph. He subsequently becomes
the caliph's chief favorite.
Shakespeare, in the induction of _Taming of the Shrew_, befouls
"Christopher Sly" in a similar way, but Sly thinks it was "nothing but
a dream."
Philippe _le Bon_, duke of Burgundy, on his marriage with Eleonora,
tried the same trick.--Burton, _Anatomy of Melancholy_, ii. 2,4.
ABOU BEN ADHEM, "awakening one night from a deep dream of peace," sees
an angel writing the names of those who love the Lord. Ben Adhem's
name is registered as "one who loves his fellow-men." A second vision
shows his name at the head of the list.
_Abou Ben Adhem_. By Leigh Hunt (1784-1859).
ABRA, the most beloved of Solomon's concubines.
Fruits their odor lost and meats their taste,
If gentle Abra had not decked the feast;
Dishonored did the sparkling goblet stand,
Unless received from gentle Abra's hand; ...
Nor could my soul approve the music's tone
Till all was hushed, and Abra sang alone.
M. Prior, _Solomon_ (1664-1721).
AB'RADAS, the great Macedonian pirate.
Abradas, the great Macedonian pirate, thought every one had a letter
of mart that bare sayles in the ocean.--Greene, _Penelope's Web_
(1601).
ABROC'OMAS, the lover of An'thia in the Greek romance of _Ephesi'aca_,
by Xenophon of Ephesus (not the historian).
AB'SALOM, in Dryden's _Absalom and Achitophel_, is meant for the duke
of Monmouth, natural son of Charles II. _(David)_. Like Absalom, the
duke was handsome; like Absalom, he was beloved and rebellious; and
like Absalom, his rebellion ended in his death (1649-1685).
AB'SOLON, a priggish parish clerk in Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_. His
hair was curled, his shoes slashed, his hose red. He could let blood,
cut hair, and shave, could dance, and play either on the ribible or
the gittern. This gay spark paid his addresses to Mistress Alison,
the young wife of John, a rich but aged carpenter: but Alison herself
loved a poor scholar named Nicholas, a lodger in the house.--_The
Miller's Tale_ (1388).
ABSOLUTE _(Sir Anthony)_, a testy but warm-hearted old gentleman, who
imagines that he possesses a most angelic temper, and when he quarrels
with his son, the captain, fancies it is the son who is out of temper,
and not himself. Smollett's "Matthew Bramble" evidently suggested this
character. William Dowton (1764-1851) was the best actor of this part.
_Captain Absolute_, son of sir Anthony, in love with Lydia Languish,
the heiress, to whom he is known only as ensign Beverley. Bob Acres,
his neighbor, is his rival, and sends a challenge to the unknown
ensign; but when he finds that ensign Beverley is captain Absolute,
he declines to fight, and resigns all further claim to the lady's
hand.--Sheridan, _The Rivals_ (1775).
ABSYRTUS, brother of Medea and companion of her flight from Colchis.
To elude or delay her pursuers, she cut him into pieces and strewed
the fragments in the road, that her father might be detained by
gathering up the remains of his son.
_Abu'dah_, in the drama called _The Siege of Damascus_, by John Hughes
(1720), is the next in command to Caled in the Arabian army set down
before Damascus. Though undoubtedly brave, he prefers peace to war;
and when, at the death of Caled, he succeeds to the chief command, he
makes peace with the Syrians on honorable terms.
ABU'DAH, in the _Tales of the Genii_, by H. Ridley, is a wealthy
merchant of Bag dad, who goes in quest of the talisman of Oroma'nes,
which he is driven to seek by a little old hag, who haunts him every
night and makes his life wretched. He finds at last that the talisman
which is to free him of this hag [_conscience_] is to "fear God and
keep his commandments."
ACADE'MUS, an Attic hero, whose garden was selected by Plato for the
place of his lectures. Hence his disciples were called the "Academic
sect."
The green retreats of Academus. Akenside, _Pleasures of Imagination_,
i (1721-1770).
ACAS'TO (_Lord_), father of Seri'no, Casta'lio, and Polydore; and
guardian of Monimia "the orphan." He lived to see the death of his
sons and his ward. Polydore ran on his brother's sword, Castalio
stabbed himself, and Monimia took poison.--Otway, _The Orphan_ (1680).
ACES'TES (3 _syl_.). In a trial of skill, Acestes, the Sicilian,
discharged his arrow with such force that it took fire from the
friction of the air.--_The AEneid_, Bk. V.
Like Acestes' shaft of old,
The swift thought kindles as it flies.
Longfellow, _To a Child_.
ACHATES [_A-ka'-teze_], called by Virgil "fidus Achates." The name has
become a synonym for a bosom friend, a crony, but is generally used
laughingly.--_The AEneid_.
He, like Achates, faithful to the tomb.
Byron, _Don Juan_, i. 159.
ACHER'IA, the fox, went partnership with a bear in a bowl of: milk.
Before the bear arrived, the fox skimmed off the cream and drank the
milk; then, filling the bowl with mud, replaced the cream atop. Says
the fox, "Here is the bowl; one shall have the cream, and the other
all the rest: choose, friend, which you like." The bear told the fox
to take the cream, and thus bruin had only the mud.--_A Basque Tale_.
A similar tale occurs in Campbell's _Popular Tales of the West
Highlands_ (iii. 98), called "The Keg of Butter." The wolf chooses the
_bottom_ when "oats" were the object of choice, and the _top_ when
"potatoes" were the sowing.
Rabelais tells the same tale about a farmer and the devil. Each was
to have on alternate years what grew _under_ and _over_ the soil. The
farmer sowed turnips and carrots when the _under_-soil produce came
to his lot, and barley or wheat when his turn was the _over_-soil
produce.
ACHILLE GRANDISSIME, "A rather poor specimen of the Grandissime type,
deficient in stature, but not in stage manner."--_The Grandissimes_,
by George W. Cable (1880).
ACHIL'LES (3 _syl_.), the hero of the allied Greek army in the siege
of Troy, and king of the Myr'midons.--See _Dictionary of Phrase and
Fable_.
_The English Achilles_, John Talbot, first earl of Shrewsbury
(1373-1453).
The duke of Wellington is so called sometimes, and is represented by
a statue of Achilles of gigantic size in Hyde Park, London, close to
Apsley House (1769-1852).
_The Achilles of Germany_, Albert, elector of Brandenburg (1414-1486).
_Achilles of Rome_, Sicin'ius Denta'tus (put to death B.C. 450).
ACHIT'OPHEL, "Him who drew Achitophel," Dryden, author of the famous
political satire of _Absalom and Achitophel_. "David" is Charles II.;
his rebellious son "Absalom" is the king's natural son, the handsome
but rebellious James duke of Monmouth; and "Achitophel," the
traitorous counsellor, is the earl of Shaftesbury, "for close designs
and crooked counsels fit."
Can sneer at him who drew Achitophel.
Byron, _Don Juan_, iii. 100.
There is a portrait of the first earl of Shaftesbury (Dryden's
"Achitophel") as lord chancellor of England, clad in ash-colored
robes, because he had never been called to the bar.--E. Yates,
_Celebrities_, xviii.
A'CIS, a Sicilian shepherd, loved by the nymph Galate'a. The monster
Polypheme (3 _syl_.), a Cyclops, was his rival, and crushed him under
a huge rock. The blood of Acis was changed into a river of the same
name at the foot of mount Etna.
Not such a pipe, good reader, as that which Acis did sweetly tune in
praise of his Galatea, but one of true Delft manufacture.--W. Irving
(1783-1859).
ACK'LAND (_Sir Thomas_), a royalist.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time,
the Commonwealth).
AC'OE (3 _syl_.), "hearing," in the New Testament sense (_Rom_. x.
17), "Faith cometh by hearing." The nurse of Fido [_faith_]. Her
daughter is Meditation. (Greek,[Illustration], "hearing.")
With him [_Faith_] his nurse went, careful Acoe,
Whose hands first from his mother's womb
did take him,
And ever since have fostered tenderly.
Phin. Fletcher, _The Purple Island_, ix. (1633).
ACRAS'IA, Intemperance personified. Spenser says she is an enchantress
living in the "Bower of Bliss," in "Wandering Island." She had the
power of transforming her lovers into monstrous shapes; but sir Guyon
(_temperance_), having caught her in a net and bound her, broke down
her bower and burnt it to ashes.--_Faery Queen_, ii. 12 (1590).
ACRA'TES (3 _syl_.), Incontinence personified in _The Purple Island_,
by Phineas Fletcher. He had two sons (twins) by Caro, viz., Methos
(_drunkenness_) and Gluttony, both fully described in canto vii.
(Greek, _akrates_, "incontinent.")
_Acra'tes_ (3 _syl_.), Incontinence personified in _The Faery Queen_,
by Spenser. He is the father of Cymoch'les and Pyroch'les.--Bk. ii. 4
(1590).
ACRES (_Bob_), a country gentleman, the rival of ensign Beverley,
_alias_ captain Absolute, for the hand and heart of Lydia Languish,
the heiress. He tries to ape the man of fashion, gets himself up as a
loud swell, and uses "sentimental oaths," _i. e_. oaths bearing on
the subject. Thus if duels are spoken of he says, _ods triggers and
flints_; if clothes, _ods frogs and tambours_; if music, _ods minnums_
[minims] _and crotchets_; if ladies, _ods blushes and blooms_. This
he learnt from a militia officer, who told him the ancients swore by
Jove, Bacchus, Mars, Venus, Minerva, etc., according to the sentiment.
Bob Acres is a great blusterer, and talks big of his daring, but when
put to the push "his courage always oozed out of his fingers' ends."
J. Quick was the original Bob Acres.--Sheridan, _The Rivals_ (1775).
As thro' his palms _Bob Acres_' valor oozed,
So Juan's virtue ebbed, I know not how.
Byron, _Don Juan_.
Joseph Jefferson's impersonation of Bob Acres is inimitable for
fidelity to the spirit of the original, and informed throughout with
exquisite humor that never degenerates into coarseness.
ACRIS'IUS, father of Dan'ae. An oracle declared that Danae would give
birth to a son who would kill him, so Acrisius kept his daughter shut
up in an apartment under ground, or (as some say) in a brazen tower.
Here she became the mother of Per'seus (2 _syl_.), by Jupiter in the
form of a shower of gold. The king of Argos now ordered his daughter
and her infant to be put into a chest, and cast adrift on the sea,
but they were rescued by Dictys, a fisherman. When grown to manhood,
Perseus accidentally struck the foot of Acrisius with a quoit, and the
blow caused his death. This tale is told by Mr. Morris in _The Earthly
Paradise_ (April).
ACTAE'ON, a hunter, changed by Diana into a stag. A synonym for a
cuckold.
Divulge Page himself for a secure and wilful
Actaeon [cuckold].
Shakespeare, _Merry Wives_, etc., act iii. sc. 2 (1596).
ACTE'A, a female slave faithful to Nero in his fall. It was this
hetaera who wrapped the dead body in cerements, and saw it decently
interred.
This Actea was beautiful. She was seated on
the ground; the head of Nero was on her lap,
his naked body was stretched on those winding-sheets
in which she was about to fold him, to lay
him in his grave upon the garden hill.--Ouida,
_Ariadne_, i. 7.
ACTORS AND ACTRESSES. The last male actor that took a woman's
character on the stage was Edward Kynaston, noted for his beauty
(1619-1687). The first female actor for hire was Mrs. Saunderson,
afterwards Mrs. Betterton, who died in 1712.
AD, AD'ITES (2 _syl_.). Ad is a tribe descended from Ad, son of Uz,
son of Irem, son of Shem, son of Noah. The tribe, at the Confusion
of Babel, went and settled on Al-Ahkaf [_the Winding Sands_], in the
province of Hadramant. Shedad was their first king, but in consequence
of his pride, both he and all the tribe perished, either from drought
or the Sarsar (_an icy wind_).--Sale's _Koran_, 1.
Woe, woe, to Irem! Woe to Ad!
Death, has gone up into her palaces!....
They fell around me. Thousands fell around.
The king and all his people fell;
All, all, they perished all.
Southey, _Thalaba the Destroyer_, i. 41, 45 (1797).
A'DAH, wife of Cain. After Cain had been conducted by Lucifer through
the realms of space, he is restored to the home of his wife and child,
where all is beauty, gentleness, and love. Full of faith and fervent
in gratitude, Adah loves her infant with a sublime maternal affection.
She sees him sleeping, and says to Cain--
How lovely he appears! His little cheeks
In their pure incarnation, vying with
The rose leaves strewn beneath them.
And his lips, too,
How beautifully parted! No; you shall not
Kiss him; at least not now. He will awake soon--
His hour of midday rest is nearly over.
Byron, _Cain_.
ADAM. In _Greek_ this word is compounded of the four initial letters
of the cardinal quarters:
Arktos, [Greek: _arktos_]. north.
Dusis, [Greek: _dusis_]. west.
Anatole, [Greek: _anatolae_]. east.
Mesembria, [Greek: _mesaembria_]. south.
The _Hebrew_ word ADM forms the anagram of A [dam], D [avid], M
[essiah].
_Adam, how made_. God created the body of Adam of _Salzal_, _i.e._
dry, unbaked clay, and left it forty nights without a soul. The clay
was collected by Azrael from the four quarters of the earth, and God,
to show His approval of Azrael's choice, constituted him the angel of
death.--Rabadan.
_Adam, Eve, and the Serpent_. After the fall _Adam_ was placed on
mount Vassem in the east; _Eve_ was banished to Djidda (now Gedda,
on the Arabian coast); and the _Serpent_ was exiled to the coast of
Eblehh.
After the lapse of 100 years Adam rejoined Eve on mount Arafaith
[_place of Remembrance_], near Mecca.--D'Ohsson.
_Death of Adam_. Adam died on Friday, April 7, at the age of 930
years. Michael swathed his body, and Gabriel discharged the funeral
rites. The body was buried at Ghar'ul-Kenz [_the grotto of treasure_],
which overlooks Mecca.
His descendants at death amounted to 40,000 souls.--D'Ohsson.
When Noah, entered the ark (the same writer says) he took the body of
Adam in a coffin with him, and when he left the ark restored it to the
place he had taken it from.
_Adam_, a bailiff, a jailer.
Not that Adam that kept the paradise, but that Adam that keeps the
prison.--Shakespeare, _Comedy of Errors_, act iv. sc. 3 (1593).
_Adam_, a faithful retainer in the family of sir Eowland de Boys. At
the age of fourscore, he voluntarily accompanied his young master
Orlando into exile, and offered to give him his little savings.
He has given birth to the phrase, "A Faithful Adam" [_or
man-servant_].--Shakespeare, _As You Like It_ (1598).
ADAM BELL, a northern outlaw, noted for his archery. The name, like
those of Clym of the Clough, William of Cloudesly, Robin Hood, and
Little John, is synonymous with a good archer.
ADAMASTOR, the Spirit of the Cape, a hideous phantom, of unearthly
pallor; "erect his hair uprose of withered red, his lips were black,
his teeth blue and disjointed, his beard haggard, his face scarred by
lightning, his eyes shot livid fire, his voice roared." The sailors
trembled at sight of him, and the fiend demanded how they dared to
trespass "where never hero braved his rage before?" He then told them
"that every year the shipwrecked should be made to deplore their
foolhardiness."--Camoeens, _The Lusiad_, v. (1569).
ADAM'IDA, a planet on which reside the unborn spirits of saints,
martyrs, and believers. U'riel, the angel of the sun, was ordered
at the crucifixion to interpose this planet between the sun and the
earth, so as to produce a total eclipse.
Adamida, in obedience to the divine command, flew amidst overwhelming
storms, rushing clouds, falling mountains, and swelling seas. Uriel
stood on the pole of the star, but so lost in deep contemplation on
Golgotha, that he heard not the wild uproar. On coming to the region
of the sun, Adamida slackened her course, and advancing before the
sun, covered its face and intercepted all its rays.--Klopstock, _The
Messiah_, viii. (1771).
ADAMS _(John)_, one of the mutineers of the _Bounty_ (1790), who
settled in Tahiti. In 1814 he was discovered as the patriarch of a
colony, brought up with a high sense of religion and strict regard to
morals. In 1839 the colony was voluntarily placed under the protection
of the British Government.
_Adams (Parson)_, the beau-ideal of a simple-minded, benevolent, but
eccentric country clergyman, of unswerving integrity, solid learning,
and genuine piety; bold as a lion in the cause of truth, but modest as
a girl in all personal matters; wholly ignorant of the world, being
"_in_ it but not _of_ of it."--Fielding, _Joseph Andrews_ (1742).
His learning, his simplicity, his evangelical purity of mind are so
admirably mingled with pedantry, absence of mind, and the habit of
athletic ... exercise ... that he may be safely termed one of the
richest productions of the muse of fiction. Like Don Quixote, parson
Adams is beaten a little too much and too often, but the cudgel
lights upon his shoulders ... without the slightest stain to his
reputation.--Sir W. Scott.
AD'DISON OF THE NORTH, Henry Mackenzie, author of _The Man of Feeling_
(1745-1831).
ADELAIDE, daughter of the count of Narbonne, in love with Theodore.
She is killed by her father in mistake for another.--Robt. Jephson,
_Count of Narbonne_ (1782).
ADELAIDE FISHER, daughter-in-law of Grandpa and Grandma Fisher in
Sallie Pratt McLean Greene's _Cape Cod Folks_. She has a sweet voice
and an edged temper, and it would seem from certain cynical remarks
of her own, and Grandma's "Thar, daughter, I wouldn't mind!" has a
history she does not care to reveal (1881).
ADELAIDE YATES, the wife of Steve Yates and mother of Little Moses in
Charles Egbert Craddock's _In the "Stranger People's" Country_. Her
husband has been seized and detained by the "moonshiners" in the
mountains, and the impression is that he has wilfully deserted her.
She cannot discredit it, but "She's goin' ter stay thar in her cabin
an' wait fur him," said Mrs. Pettengill. "Sorter seems de-stressin',
I do declar'. A purty, young, good, r'ligious 'oman a-settin' herself
ter spen' a empty life a-waitin' fur Steve Yates ter kum back!"
(1890.)
ADELINE _(Lady)_, the wife of lord Henry Amun'deville (4 _syl_.), a
highly educated aristocratic lady, with all the virtues and weaknesses
of the upper ten. After the parliamentary sessions this noble pair
filled their house with guests, amongst which were the duchess of
Fitz-Fulke, the duke of D----, Aurora Raby, and don Juan, "the Russian
envoy." The tale not being finished, no key to these names is given.
(For the lady's character, see xiv. 54-56.)--Byron, _Don Juan_, xiii.
to the end.
AD'EMAR or ADEMA'RO, archbishop of Poggio, an ecclesiastical warrior
in Tasso's _Jerusalem Delivered_.--See _Dictionary of Phrase and
Fable_.
ADIC'IA, wife of the soldan, who incites him to distress the kingdom
of Mercilla. When Mercilla sends her ambassador, Samient, to negotiate
peace, Adicia, in violation of international law, thrusts her Samient
out of doors like a dog, and sets two knights upon her. Sir Artegal
comes to her rescue, attacks the two knights, and knocks one of them
from his saddle with such force that he breaks his neck. After the
discomfiture of the soldan, Adicia rushes forth with a knife to stab
Samient, but, being intercepted by sir Artegal, is changed into a
tigress.--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, v. 8 (1596).
[Illustration] The "soldan" is king Philip II. of Spain; "Mercilla" is
queen Elizabeth; "Adicia" is Injustice personified, or the bigotry of
popery; and "Samient" the ambassadors of Holland, who went to Philip
for redress of grievances, and were most iniquitously detained by him
as prisoners.
AD'ICUS, Unrighteousness personified in canto vii. of _The Purple
Island_ (1633), by Phineas Fletcher. He has eight sons and daughters,
viz., Ec'thros _(hatred)_, Eris _(variance)_, a daughter, Zelos
_(emulation)_, Thumos _(wrath)_, Erith'ius _(strife)_, Dichos'tasis
_(sedition)_, Envy, and Phon'os _(murder)_; all fully described by the
poet. (Greek, _adikos_, "an unjust man.")
ADIE OF AIKENSHAW, a neighbor of the Glendinnings.--Sir W. Scott, _The
Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).
ADME'TUS, a king of Thessaly, husband of Alcestis. Apollo, being
condemned by Jupiter to serve a mortal for twelve months for slaying a
Cyclops, entered the service of Admetus. James R. Lowell has a poem on
the subject, called _The Shepherd of King Admetus_ (1819-1891).
AD'MIRABLE _(The)_: (1) Aben-Ezra, a Spanish rabbin, born at
Tole'do (1119-1174). (2) James Crichton _(Kry-ton)_, the Scotchman
(1551-1573). (3) Roger Bacon, called "The Admirable Doctor"
(1214-1292).
ADOLF, bishop of Cologne, was devoured by mice or rats in 1112. (See
HATTO.)
AD'ONA, a seraph, the tutelar spirit of James, the "first martyr of
the twelve."--Klopstock, _The Messiah_, iii. (1748).
ADONAI, the mysterious spirit of pure mind, love, and beauty that
inspires _Zanoni_, in Bulwer's novel of that name.
ADONAIS, title of Percy Bysshe Shelley's elegy upon John Keats,
written in 1821.
A'DONBEC EL HAKIM, the physician, a disguise assumed by Saladin, who
visits sir Kenneth's sick squire, and cures him of a fever.--Sir W.
Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).
ADO'NIS, a beautiful youth, beloved by Venus and Proser'pina, who
quarrelled about the possession of him. Jupiter, to settle the
dispute, decided that the boy should spend six months with Venus in
the upper world and six with Proserpina in the lower. Adonis was gored
to death by a wild boar in a hunt.
Shakespeare has a poem called _Venus and Adonis_. Shelley calls his
elegy on the poet Keats _Adona'is_, under the idea that the untimely
death of Keats resembled that of Adonis.
(_Adonis_ is an allegory of the sun, which is six months north of the
horizon, and six months south. Thammuz is the same as Adonis, and so
is Osiris).
ADONIRAM PENN, the obstinate and well-to-do farmer in Mary E.
Wilkins's _Revolt of "Mother_". He persists in building a new barn
which the cattle do not need instead of the much-needed dwelling for
his family. In his absence, "Mother," who was wont to "stand before
her husband in the humble fashion of a Scripture woman," moves
household and furniture into the commodious barn.
"Adoniram was like a fortress whose walls had no active resistance,
and went down the instant the right besieging tools were used" (1890).
AD'ORAM, a seraph, who had charge of James the son of
Alphe'us.--Klopstock, _The Messiah_, iii. (1748).
ADOSINDA, daughter of the Gothic governor of Auria, in Spain. The
Moors having slaughtered her parents, husband, and child, preserved
her alive for the captain of Alcahman's regiment. She went to his tent
without the least resistance, but implored the captain to give her one
night to mourn the death of those so near and dear to her. To this he
complied, but during sleep she murdered him with his own scymitar.
Roderick, disguised as a monk, helped her to bury the dead bodies of
her house, and then she vowed to live for only one object, vengeance.
In the great battle, when the Moors were overthrown, she it was who
gave the word of attack, "Victory and Vengeance!"--Southey, _Roderick,
etc._, iii. (1814).
ADRAM'ELECH _(ch=k)_, one of the fallen angels. Milton makes him
overthrown by U'riel and Raphael (_Paradise Lost_, vi. 365). According
to Scripture, he was one of the idols of Sepharvaim, and Shalmane'ser
introduced his worship into Samaria. [The word means "the mighty
magnificent king."]
The Sepharvites burnt their children in the fire to Adramelech.--2
_Kings_ xvii. 31.
Klopstock introduces him into _The Messiah_, and represents him as
surpassing Satan in malice and guile, ambition and mischief. He is
made to hate every one, even Satan, of whose rank he is jealous, and
whom he hoped to overthrow, that by putting an end to his servitude
he might become the supreme god of all the created worlds. At the
crucifixion he and Satan are both driven back to hell by Obad'don, the
angel of death.
ADRASTE' (_2 syl_.), a French gentleman, who inveigles a Greek slave
named Isidore from don Pedre. His plan is this: He gets introduced as
a portrait-painter, and thus imparts to Isidore his love, and obtains
her consent to elope with him. He then sends his slave Zaide (_2
syl_.) to don Pedre, to crave protection for ill treatment, and Pedre
promises to befriend her. At this moment Adraste appears, and demands
that Zaide be given up to him to punish as he thinks proper. Pedre
intercedes; Adraste seems to relent; and Pedre calls for Zaide. Out
comes Isidore instead, with Zaide's veil. "There," says Pedre, "take
her and use her well." "I will do so," says the Frenchman, and leads
off the Greek slave.--Moliere, _Le Sicilien, ou L'Amour Peintre_
(1667).
ADRIAN'A, a wealthy Ephesian lady, who marries Antiph'olus,
twin-brother of Antipholus of Syracuse. The abbess Aemilia is her
mother-in-law, but she knows it not; and one day when she accuses her
husband of infidelity, she says to the abbess, if he is unfaithful it
is not from want of remonstrance, "for it is the one subject of our
conversation. In bed I will not let him sleep for speaking of it; at
table I will not let him eat for speaking of it; when alone with him I
talk of nothing else, and in company I give him frequent hints of
it. In a word, all my talk is how vile and bad it is in him to love
another better than he loves his wife" (act v. sc. 1).--Shakespeare,
_Comedy of Errors_ (1593).
ADRIA'NO DE ARMA'DO _(Don)_, a pompous, fantastical Spaniard, a
military braggart in a state of peace, as Parolles (3 _syl_.) was in
war. Boastful but poor; a coiner of words, but very ignorant; solemnly
grave, but ridiculously awkward; majestical in gait, but of very low
propensities.--Shakespeare, _Love's Labour Lost_ (1594).
(Said to be designed for John Florio, surnamed "The Resolute," a
philologist. Holofernes, the pedantic schoolmaster, in the same play,
is also meant in ridicule of the same lexicographer.)
You may remember, scarce five years are past
Since in your brigantine you sailed to see
The Adriatic wedded to our duke.
T. Otway, _Venice Preserved_, i. 1 (1682).
AD'RIEL, in Dryden's _Absalom and Achitophel_, the earl of Mulgrave, a
royalist.
Sharp-judging Adriel, the Muses' friend;
Himself a muse. In sanhedrim's debate
True to his prince, but not a slave to state;
Whom David's love with honours did adorn,
That from his disobedient son were torn.
Part i.
(John Sheffield, earl of Mulgrave (1649-1721) wrote an _Essay on
Poetry_.)
ADRIENNE LECOUVREUR, French actress, said to have been poisoned by
flowers sent to her by a rival. Died in 1730.
AE'ACUS, king of Oeno'pia, a man of such integrity and piety, that he
was made at death one of the three judges of hell. The other two were
Minos and Rhadaman'thus.
AEGE'ON a huge monster with 100 arms and 50 heads, who with his
brothers, Cottus and Gyges, conquered the Titans by hurling at them
300 rocks at once. Homer says _men_ call him "Aege'on," but by the
_gods_ he is called Bri'areus (3 _syl_.).
Briareos or Typhon, whom the den
By ancient Tarsus held.
--Milton, _Paradise Lost_, I. 199.
_Aege'on_, a merchant of Syracuse, in Shakespeare's _Comedy of Errors_
(1593).
AEMYLIA, a lady of high degree, in love with Am'yas, a squire of
inferior rank. Going to meet her lover at a trysting-place, she was
caught up by a hideous monster, and thrust into his den for future
food. Belphoebe (3 _syl_.) slew "the caitiff" and released the maid
(canto vii.). Prince Arthur, having slain Corflambo, released Amyas
from the durance of Paea'na, Corflambo's daughter, and brought the
lovers together "in peace and joyous blis" (canto ix.).--Spencer,
_Faery Queen_, iv. (1596).
AEMIL'IA, wife of Aege'on the Syracusian merchant, and mother of the
twins called Antiph'olus. When the boys were shipwrecked, she was
parted from them and taken to Ephesus. Here she entered a convent, and
rose to be the abbess. Without her knowing it, one of her twins also
settled in Ephesus, and rose to be one of its greatest and richest
citizens. The other son and her husband AEgeon both set foot in Ephesus
the same day without the knowledge of each other, and all met together
in the duke's court, when the story of their lives was told, and they
became again united to each other.--Shakespeare, _Comedy of Errors_
(1593).
AENE'AS, a Trojan prince, the hero of Virgil's epic called _Aeneid._
He was the son of Anchi'ses and Venus. His first wife was Creu'sa (3
_syl_.), by whom he had a son named Asca'nius; his second wife
was Lavinia, daughter of Latinus king of Italy, by whom he had a
posthumous son called Aene'as Sylvius. He succeeded his father-in-law
in the kingdom, and the Romans called him their founder.
According to Geoffrey of Monmouth "Brutus," the first king of Britain
(from whom the island was called _Britain_), was a descendant of
AEneas.
AENE'ID, the epic poem of Virgil, in twelve books. When Troy was taken
by the Greeks and set on fire, Aene'as, with his father, son, and
wife, took flight, with the intention of going to Italy, the original
birthplace of the family. The wife was lost, and the old father died
on the way; but after numerous perils by sea and land, AEneas and his
son Asca'nius reached Italy. Here Latinus, the reigning king, received
the exiles hospitably, and promised his daughter Lavin'ia in marriage
to AEneas; but she had been already betrothed by her mother to prince
Turnus, son of Daunus, king of Ru'tuli, and Turnus would not forego
his claim. Latinus, in this dilemma, said the rivals must settle
the dispute by an appeal to arms. Turnus being slain, AEneas married
Lavinia, and ere long succeeded his father-in-law on the throne.
Book I. The escape from Troy; AEneas and his son, driven by a tempest
on the shores of Carthage, are hospitably entertained by queen Dido.
II. AEneas tells Dido the tale of the wooden horse, the burning of
Troy, and his flight with his father, wife, and son. The wife was lost
and died.
III. The narrative continued. The perils he met with on the way, and
the death of his father.
IV. Dido falls in love with AEneas; but he steals away from Carthage,
and Dido, on a funeral pyre, puts an end to her life.
V. AEneas reaches Sicily, and celebrates there the games in honor of
Anchises. This book corresponds to the _Iliad_, xxiii.
VI. AEneas visits the infernal regions. This book corresponds to
_Odyssey_, xi.
VII. Latinus king of Italy entertains AEneas, and promises to him
Lavinia (his daughter) in marriage, but prince Turnus had been already
betrothed to her by the mother, and raises an army to resist AEneas.
VIII. Preparations on both sides for a general war.
IX. Turnus, during the absence of AEneas, fires the ships and assaults
the camp. The episode of Nisus and Eury'alus.
X. The war between Turnus and AEneas. Episode of Mezentius and Lausus.
XI. The battle continued.
XII. Turnus challenges AEneas to single combat, and is killed.
N.B.--1. The story of Sinon and taking of Troy is borrowed from
Pisander, as Macrobius informs us.
2. The loves of Dido and AEneas are copied from those of Medea and
Jason, in Apollonius.
3. The story of the wooden horse and the burning of Troy are from
Arcti'nus of Miletus.
AE'OLUS, god of the winds, which he keeps imprisoned in a cave in
the AEolian Islands, and lets free as he wishes or as the over-gods
command.
Was I for this nigh wrecked upon the sea,
And twice by awkward wind from England's bank
Drove back again unto my native clime?...
Yet Aeolus would not be a murderer,
But left that hateful office unto thee.
Shakespeare, 2 _Henry VI_. act v, sc. 2 (1591).
AESCULA'PIUS, in Greek, ASKLE'PIOS, the god of healing.
What says my AEsculapius? my Galen?...
Ha! is he dead?
Shakespeare, _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act ii.
sc. 3 (1601).
AE'SON, the father of Jason. He was restored to youth by Medea, who
infused into his veins the juice of certain herbs.
In such a night,
Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs
That did renew old Aeson.
Shakespeare, _Merchant of Venice_, act v. sc. I
(before 1598).
AESOP, the fabulist, said to be humpbacked; hence, "an AEsop" means a
humpbacked man. The young son of Henry VI. calls his uncle Richard of
Gloster "AEsop."--3 _Henry VI_. act v. sc. 5.
_Aesop of Arabia_, Lokman; and Nasser (fifth century).
_Aesop of England_, John Gay (1688-1732).
_Aesop of France_, Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695).
_Aesop of Germany_, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781).
_Aesop of India_, Bidpay or Pilpay (third century B.C.).
AFER, the south-west wind; Notus, the full south.
Notus and Afer, black with thundrous clouds. Milton, _Paradise Lost_,
x. 702 (1665).
AFRICAN MAGICIAN (_The_), pretended to Aladdin to be his uncle, and
sent the lad to fetch the "wonderful lamp" from an underground cavern.
As Aladdin refused to hand it to the magician, he shut him in the
cavern and left him there. Aladdin contrived to get out by virtue of
a magic ring, and learning the secret of the lamp, became immensely
rich, built a superb palace, and married the sultan's daughter.
Several years after, the African resolved to make himself master of
the lamp, and accordingly walked up and down before the palace, crying
incessantly, "Who will change old lamps for new!" Aladdin being on a
hunting excursion, his wife sent a eunuch to exchange the "wonderful
lamp" for a new one; and forthwith the magician commanded "the slaves
of the lamp" to transport the palace and all it contained into Africa.
Aladdin caused him to be poisoned in a draught of wine.--_Arabian
Nights_ ("Aladdin or The Wonderful Lamp").
AF'RIT OR AFREET, a kind of Medusa or Lamia, the most terrible and
cruel of all the orders of the deevs.--_Herbelot_, 66.
From the hundred chimneys of the village,
Like the Afreet in the Arabian story [_Introduct.
Tale_],
Smoky columns tower aloft into the air of amber.
Longfellow, _The Golden Milestone_.
AGAG, in Dryden's satire of _Absalom and Achit'ophel_, is sir
Edmondbury Godfrey, the magistrate, who was found murdered in a ditch
near Primrose Hill. Dr. Oates, in the same satire, is called "Corah."
Corah might for Agag's murder call,
In terms as coarse as Samuel used to Saul.
Part i.
AGAMEMNON, king of the Argives and commander-in-chief of the allied
Greeks in the siege of Troy. Introduced by Shakespeare in his _Troilus
and Cres'sida_.
_Vixere fortes ante Agamem'nona_, "There were brave men before
Agamemnon;" we are not to suppose that there were no great and good
men in former times. A similar proverb is, "There are hills beyond
Pentland and fields beyond Forth."
AGANDECCA, daughter of Starno king of Lochlin [_Scandinavia_],
promised in marriage to Fingal king of Morven [_north-west of
Scotland_]. The maid told Fingal to beware of her father, who had set
an ambush to kill him. Fingal, being thus forewarned, slew the men in
ambush; and Starno, in rage, murdered his daughter, who was buried by
Fingal in Ardven [_Argyll_].
The daughter of the snow overheard, and left
the hall of her secret sigh. She came in all her
beauty, like the moon from the cloud of the east.
Loveliness was around her as light. Her step
was like the music of songs. She saw the youth,
and loved him. He was the stolen sigh of her
soul. Her blue eyes rolled in secret on him, and
she blessed the chief of Morven.--_Ossian_ ("Fingal,"
iii.)
AGANIP'PE (4 syl.), fountain of the Muses, at the foot of mount
Helicon, in Boeo'tia.
From Helicon's harmonious springs
A thousand rills their mazy progress take.
Gray, _Progress of Poetry_.
AG'APE (3 syl.) the fay. She had three sons at a birth, Primond,
Diamond, and Triamond. Being anxious to know the future lot of her
sons, she went to the abyss of Demogorgon, to consult the "Three Fatal
Sisters." Clotho showed her the threads, which "were thin as those
spun by a spider." She begged the fates to lengthen the life-threads,
but they said this could not be; they consented, however, to this
agreement--
When ye shred with fatal knife
His line which is the eldest of the three,
Eftsoon his life may pass into the next:
And when the next shall likewise ended be,
That both their lives may likewise be annext
Unto the third, that his may so be trebly wext.
Spenser, _Faery Queen_, iv. 2 (1590).
AGAPI'DA _(Fray Antonio_), the imaginary chronicler of _The Conquest
of Granada_, written by Washington Irving (1829).
AGAST'YA (3 _syl._), a dwarf who drank the sea dry. As he was walking
one day with Vishnoo, the insolent ocean asked the god who the pigmy
was that strutted by his side. Vishnoo replied it was the patriarch
Agastya, who was going to restore earth to its true balance. Ocean, in
contempt, spat its spray in the pigmy's face, and the sage, in revenge
of this affront, drank the waters of the ocean, leaving the bed quite
dry.--Maurice.
AG'ATHA, daughter of Cuno, and the betrothed of Max, in Weber's opera
of _Der Freischuetz._--See _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable._
AGATH'OCLES (4 _syl_.) tyrant of Sicily. He was the son of a potter,
and raised himself from the ranks to become general of the army.
He reduced all Sicily under his power. When he attacked the
Carthaginians, he burnt his ships that his soldiers might feel
assured they must either conquer or die. Agathocles died of poison
administered by his grandson (B.C. 361-289).
Voltaire has a tragedy called _Agathocle_, and Caroline Pichler has an
excellent German novel entitled _Agathocles_.
AGATHON, the hero and title of a philosophic romance, by C. M. Wieland
(1733-1813). This is considered the best of his novels, though some
prefer his _Don Sylvia de Rosalva_.
AGDISTES, the name given by Spenser to our individual consciousness or
self. Personified in the being who presided over the Acrasian "bowre
of blis."
That is our selfe, whom though we do not see
Yet each doth in himselfe it well perceive to bee.
Therefore a God him sage Antiquity
Did wisely make, and good Agdistes call--
Spenser, _Faerie Queene_, ii. 12.
AGDISTIS, a genius of human form, uniting the two senses and born of
an accidental union between Jupiter and Tellus. The story of Agdistis
and Atys is apparently a myth of the generative powers of nature.
AGED (_The_), so Wemmick's father is called. He lived in "the castle
at Walworth." Wemmick at "the castle" and Wemmick in business are two
"different beings."
Wemmick's house was a little wooden cottage,
in the midst of plots of garden, and the top of
it was cut out and painted like a battery mounted
with guns.... It was the smallest of houses,
with queer Gothic windows (by far the greater
part of them sham), and a Gothic door, almost
too small to get in at.... On Sundays he ran
up a real flag.... The bridge was a plank, and
it crossed a chasm about four feet wide and two
deep.... At nine o'clock every night "the gun
fired," the gun being mounted in a separate fortress
made of lattice-work. It was protected
from the weather by a tarpaulin ... umbrella.--
C. Dickens, _Great Expectations_, xxv. (1860).
AG'ELASTES (_Michael_), the cynic philosopher.--Sir W. Scott, _Count
Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).
AGESILA'US (5 _syl_.). Plutarch tells us that Agesilaus, king of
Sparta, was one day discovered riding cock-horse on a long stick, to
please and amuse his children.
A'GIB (_King_), "The Third Calender" (_Arabian Nights'
Entertainments_). He was wrecked on the loadstone mountain, which
drew all the nails and iron bolts from his ship; but he overthrew
the bronze statue on the mountain-top, which was the cause of the
mischief. Agib visited the ten young men, each of whom had lost
the right eye, and was carried by a roc to the palace of the forty
princesses, with whom he tarried a year. The princesses were then
obliged to leave for forty days, but entrusted him with the keys of
the palace, with free permission to enter every room but one. On the
fortieth day curiosity induced him to open this room, where he saw a
horse, which he mounted, and was carried through the air to Bag dad.
The horse then deposited him, and knocked out his right eye with a
whisk of its tail, as it had done the ten "young men" above referred
to.
AGITATOR (_The Irish_), Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847).
AGLAE, the unwedded sister in T. B. Aldrich's poem, _The Sisters'
Tragedy_ (1891).
Two sisters loved one man. He being dead,
Grief loosed the lips of her he had not wed,
And all the passion that through heavy years,
Had masked in smiles, unmasked itself in tears.
AGNEI'A (3 _syl_.), wifely chastity, sister of Parthen'ia or maiden
chastity. Agneia is the spouse of Encra'tes or temperance. Fully
described in canto x. of _The Purple Island_, by Phineas Fletcher
(1633). (Greek, _agneia_, "chastity.")
AG'NES, daughter of Mr. Wickfield the solicitor, and David
Copperfield's second wife (after the death of Dora, "his child wife").
Agnes is a very pure, self-sacrificing girl, accomplished, yet
domestic.--C. Dickens, _David Copperfield_ (1849).
AGNES, in Moliere's _L'Ecole des Femmes_, the girl on whom Arnolphe
tries his pet experiment of education, so as to turn out for himself
a "model wife." She is brought up in a country convent, where she
is kept in entire ignorance of the difference of sex, conventional
proprieties, the difference between the love of men and women, and
that of girls for girls, the mysteries of marriage, and so on. When
grown to womanhood she quits the convent, and standing one evening on
a balcony a young man passes and takes off his hat to her, she returns
the salute; he bows a second and third time, she does the same; he
passes and repasses several times, bowing each time, and she does as
she has been taught to do by acknowledging the salute. Of course,
the young man (_Horace_) becomes her lover, whom she marries, and M.
Arnolphe loses his "model wife." (See PINCH-WIFE.)
_Elle fait l'Agnes._ She pretends to be wholly unsophisticated and
verdantly ingenuous.--_French Proverb_ (from the "Agnes" of Moliere,
_L'Ecole des Femmes_, 1662).
_Agnes_ (_Black_), the countess of March, noted for her defence of
Dunbar against the English.
_Black Agnes_, the palfry of Mary queen of Scots, the gift of her
brother Moray, and so called from the noted countess of March, who was
countess of Moray (Murray) in her own right.
_Agnes_ (_St._), a young virgin of Palermo, who at the age of thirteen
was martyred at Rome during the Diocletian persecution of A.D. 304.
Prudence (Aurelius Prudentius Clemens), a Latin Christian poet of the
fourth century, has a poem on the subject. Tintoret and Domenichi'no
have both made her the subject of a painting.--_The Martyrdom of St.
Agnes_.
_St. Agnes and the Devil_. St. Agnes, having escaped from the prison
at Rome, took shipping and landed at St. Piran Arwothall. The devil
dogged her, but she rebuked him, and the large moor-stones between St.
Piran and St. Agnes, in Cornwall, mark the places where the devils
were turned into stone by the looks of the indignant saint.--Polwhele,
_History of Cornwall_.
_Agnes of Sorrento_, heroine of novel of same name, by Harriet Beecher
Stowe. The scene of the story is laid in Sorrento, Italy.
AGRAMAN'TE (4 _syl_.) or AG'RAMANT, king of the Moors, in _Orlando
Innamorato_, by Bojardo, and _Orlando Furioso_, by Ariosto.
AGRAWAIN (_Sir_) or SIR AGRAVAIN, surnamed "The Desirous," and also
"The Haughty." He was son of Lot (king of Orkney) and Margawse
half-sister of king Arthur. His brothers were sir Gaw'ain, sir
Ga'heris, and sir Gareth. Mordred was his half-brother, being the son
of king Arthur and Margawse. Sir Agravain and sir Mordred hated sir
Launcelot, and told the king he was too familiar with the queen; so
they asked the king to spend the day in hunting, and kept watch. The
queen sent for sir Launcelot to her private chamber, and sir Agravain,
sir Mordred, and twelve others assailed the door, but sir Launcelot
slew them all except sir Mordred, who escaped.--Sir T. Malory,
_History of Prince Arthur_, iii. 142-145 (1470).
AGRICA'NE (4 _syl._), king of Tartary, in the _Orlando Innamorato_, of
Bojardo. He besieges Angelica in the castle of Albracca, and is slain
in single combat by Orlando. He brought into the field 2,200,000
troops.
Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp,
When Agrican, with all his northern powers,
Besieged Albracca.
Milton, _Paradise Regained_, iii. (338).
AGRICOLA FUSILIER, a pompous old creole, a conserver of family
traditions, and patriot who figures in George W. Cable's
_Grandissimes_ (1880).
He seemed to fancy himself haranguing a
crowd; made another struggle for intelligence,
tried once, twice to speak, and the third time
succeeded: "Louis--_Louisian--a--for--ever!_"
and lay still. They put those two words on his
tomb.
AG'RIOS, Lumpishness personified; a "sullen swain, all mirth that in
himself and others hated; dull, dead, and leaden." Described in canto
viii. of _The Purple Island_, by Phineas Fletcher (1635). (Greek,
_agrios_; "a savage.")
AGRIPPINA was granddaughter, wife, sister, and mother of an emperor.
She was granddaughter of Augustus, wife of Claudius, sister of
Caligula, and mother of Nero.
[Illustration] Lam'pedo of Lacedaemon was daughter, wife, sister, and
mother of a king.
AGRIPY'NA or AG'RIPYNE (3 _syl._), a princess beloved by the "king
of Cyprus'son, and madly loved by Orleans."--Thomas Dekker, _Old
Fortunatus_ (a comedy, 1600).
AGUE-CHEEK _(Sir Andrew_), a silly old fop with "3000 ducats a year,"
very fond of the table, but with a shrewd understanding that "beef had
done harm to his wit." Sir Andrew thinks himself "old in nothing but
in understanding," and boasts that he can cut a caper, dance the
coranto, walk a jig, and take delight in masques, like a young
man.--Shakespeare, _Twelfth Night_ (1614).
Woodward (1737-1777) always sustained "sir Andrew Ague-cheek" with
infinite drollery, assisted by that expression of "rueful dismay,"
which gave so peculiar a zest to his _Marplot_.--Boaden, _Life of
Siddons_ Charles Lamb says that "Jem White saw James Dodd one evening
in _Ague-cheek_, and recognizing him next day in Fleet Street, took
off his hat, and saluted him with 'Save you, sir Andrew!' Dodd simply
waved his hand and exclaimed, 'Away, fool!'"
A'HABACK AND DES'RA, two enchanters, who aided Ahu'bal in his
rebellion against his brother Misnar, sultan of Delhi. Ahu'bal had a
magnificent tent built, and Horam the vizier had one built for the
sultan still more magnificent. When the rebels made their attack, the
sultan and the best of the troops were drawn off, and the sultan's
tent was taken. The enchanters, delighted with their prize, slept
therein, but at night the vizier led the sultan to a cave, and asked
him to cut a rope. Next morning he heard that a huge stone had fallen
on the enchanters and crushed them to a mummy. In fact, this stone
formed the head of the bed, where it was suspended by the rope which
the sultan had severed in the night.--James Ridley, _Tales of the
Genii_ ("The Enchanters' Tale," vi.).
AHASUE'RUS, the cobbler who pushed away Jesus when, on the way to
execution. He rested a moment or two at his door. "Get off! Away with
you!" cried the cobbler. "Truly, I go away," returned Jesus, "and that
quickly; but tarry thou till I come." And from that time Ahasuerus
became the "wandering Jew," who still roams the earth, and will
continue so to do till the "second coming of the Lord." This is the
legend given by Paul von Eitzen, bishop of Schleswig (1547).--Greve,
_Memoir of Paul von Eitzen_ (1744).
AHER'MAN AND AR'GEN, the former a fortress, and the latter a suite of
immense halls, in the realm of Eblis, where are lodged all creatures
of human intelligence before the creation of Adam, and all the animals
that inhabited the earth before the present races existed.--W.
Beckford, _Vathek_ (1786).
AH'MED _(Prince)_, noted for the tent given him by the fairy
Pari-banou, which would cover a whole army, and yet would fold up so
small that it might be carried in one's pocket. The same good
fairy also gave him the apple of Samarcand', a panacea for all
diseases.--_Arabian Nights' Entertainments_ ("Prince Ahmed, etc.").
AHOLIBA'MAH, granddaughter of Cain, and sister of Anah. She was loved
by the seraph Samias'a, and like her sister was carried off to another
planet when the Flood came.--Byron, _Heaven and Earth_.
Proud, imperious, and aspiring, she denies that
she worships the seraph, and declares that his
immortality can bestow no love more pure and
warm than her own, and she expresses a conviction
that there is a ray within her "which,
though forbidden yet to shine," is nevertheless
lighted at the same ethereal fire as his own.--Finden,
_Byron Beauties_.
AH'RIMAN OR AHRIMA'NES (4 _syl_.), the angel of darkness and of evil
in the Magian system, slain by Mithra.
AIKWOOD (_Ringan_), the forester of sir Arthur Wardour, of
Knockwinnock Castle.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_.
AIMEE, the prudent sister, familiarly known as "the wise one" in
the Bohemian household described by Francis Hodgson Burnett in
_Vagabondia_ (1889).
AIM'WELL _(Thomas, viscount_), a gentleman of broken fortune, who pays
his addresses to Dorin'da, daughter of Lady Bountiful. He is very
handsome and fascinating, but quite "a man of the world." He and
Archer are the two beaux of _The Beaux' Stratagem_, a comedy by George
Farquhar (1705).
I thought it rather odd that Holland should be the only "mister" of
the party, and I said to myself, as Gibbet said when he heard that
"Aimwell" had gone to church, "That looks suspicions" (act ii. sc.
2).--James Smith, _Memoirs, Letters, etc_. (1840).
AIRCASTLE, in the _Cozeners_, by S. Foote. The original of this
rambling talker was Gahagan, whose method of conversation is thus
burlesqued:
_Aircastle_: "Did I not tell you what parson Prunello said? I
remember, Mrs. Lightfoot was by. She had-been brought to bed that
day was a month of a very fine boy--a bad birth; for Dr. Seeton, who
served his time with Luke Lancet, of Guise's.--There was also a talk
about him and Nancy the daughter. She afterwards married Will Whitlow,
another apprentice, who had great expectations from an old uncle in
the Grenadiers; but he left all to a distant relation, Kit Cable,
a midshipman aboard the _Torbay_. She was lost coming home in the
channel. The captain was taken up by a coaster from Eye, loaded with
cheese--" [Now, pray, what did parson Prunello say? This is a pattern
of Mrs. Nickleby's rambling gossip.]
AIR'LIE (_The earl of_), a royalist in the service of king Charles
I.--Sir W. Scott, _Legend of Montrose_.
AIRY (_Sir George_), a man of fortune, in love with Miran'da, the ward
of sir Francis Gripe.--Mrs. Centlivre, _The Busylody_ (1709).
A'JAX, son of Oileus [_O.i'.luce_], generally called "the less." In
conseqnence of his insolence to Cassan'dra, the prophetic daughter of
Priam, his ship was driven on a rock, and he perished at sea.--Homer,
_Odyssey_, iv. 507; Virgil, _AEneid_, i. 41.
A'JAX TEL'AMON. Sophocles has a tragedy called _Ajax_, in which "the
madman" scourges a ram he mistakes for Ulysses. His encounter with
a flock of sheep, which he fancied in his madness to be the sons of
Atreus, has been mentioned at greater or less length by several Greek
and Roman poets. Don Quixote had a similar adventure. This Ajax is
introduced by Shakespeare in his drama called _Troilus and Cressida._
(See ALIFANFARON).
The Tuscan poet [_Ariosto_] doth advance
The frantic paladin of France [_Orlando Furioso_];
And those more ancient [_Euripides_ and _Seneca_] do enhance
Alcides in his fury [_Hercules Furens_];
And others, Ajax Telamon;--
But to this time there hath been none
So bedlam as our Oberon;
Of whom I dare assure you.
M. Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (1536-1631).
AJUT AND ANNINGAIT, in _The Rambler_.
Part, like Ajut, never to return.
Campbell, _Pleasures of Hope_, ii. (1799).
ALA'CIEL, the genius who went on a voyage to the two islands,
Taciturnia and Merry land [_London_ and _Paris_].--De la Dixmerie
_L'isle Taciturne et l'isle Enjouee, ou Voyage du Genie Alaciel dans
les deux Iles_ (1759).
ALADDIN, son of Mustafa, a poor tailor, of China, "obstinate,
disobedent, and mischievous," wholly abandoned "to indolence and
licentiousness." One day an African magician accosted him, pretending
to be his uncle, and sent him to bring up the "wonderful lamp," at the
same time giving him a "ring of safety." Aladdin secured the lamp,
but would not hand it to the magician till he was out of the cave,
whereupon the magician shut him up in the cave, and departed for
Africa. Aladdin, wringing his hands in despair, happened to rub the
magic ring, when the genius of the ring appeared before him, and asked
him his commands. Aladdin requested to be delivered from the cave, and
he returned home. By means of his lamp, he obtained untold wealth,
built a superb palace, and married Badroul'boudour, the sultan's
daughter. After a time, the African magician got possession of the
lamp, and caused the palace, with all its contents, to be transported
into Africa. Aladdin was absent at the time, was arrested and ordered
to execution, but was rescued by the populace, with whom he was an
immense favorite, and started to discover what had become of his
palace. Happening to slip, he rubbed his ring, and when the genius of
the ring appeared and asked his orders, was instantly posted to the
place where his palace was in Africa. He poisoned the magician,
regained the lamp, and had his palace restored to its original place
in China.
Yes, ready money is Aladdin's lamp.
Byron, _Don Juan_, xii. 12.
_Aladdin's Lamp_, a lamp brought from an underground cavern in "the
middle of China." Being in want of food, the mother of Aladdin began
to scrub it, intending to sell it, when the genius of the lamp
appeared, and asked her what were her commands. Aladdin answered, "I
am hungry; bring me food;" and immediately a banquet was set before
him. Having thus become acquainted with the merits of the lamp, he
became enormously rich, and married the sultan's daughter. By artifice
the African magician got possession of the lamp, and transported the
palace with its contents to Africa. Aladdin poisoned the magician,
recovered the lamp, and retranslated the palace to its original site.
_Aladdin's Palace Windows_. At the top of the palace was a saloon,
containing tweny-four windows (six on each side), and all but one
enriched with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. One was left for the
sultan to complete, but all the jewellers in the empire were unable to
make one to match the others, so Aladdin commanded "the slaves of the
lamp" to complete their work.
_Aladdin's Ring_, given him by the African magician, "a preservative
against every evil."--_Arabian Nights_ ("Aladdin and the Wonderful
Lamp").
AL'ADINE, the sagacious but cruel king of Jerusalem, slain by
Raymond.--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).
_Al'adine_ (3 _syl_.), son of Aldus, "a lusty knight."--Spenser,
_Faery Queen_, vi. 3 (1596).
ALAFF, ANLAF, or OLAF, son of Sihtric, Danish king of Northumberland
(died 927). When Aethelstan [_Athelstan_] took possession of
Northumberland, Alaff fled to Ireland, and his brother Guthfrith or
Godfrey to Scotland.
Our English Athelstan,
In the Northumbrian fields, with most victorious might,
Put Alaff and his powers to more inglorious flight.
Drayton, _Potyolbion_, xii. (1612).
ALAIN, cousin of Eos, the artist's wife, in _Desert Sands_, by Harriet
Prescott Spofford (1863).
ALAR'CON, king of Barca, who joined the armament of Egypt against
the crusaders, but his men were only half armed.--Tasso, _Jerusalem
Delivered_ (1575).
ALARIC COTTIN. Frederick the Great of Prussia was so called by
Voltaire. "Alaric" because, like Alaric, he was a great warrior, and
"Cottin" because, like Cottin, satirized by Boileau, he was a very
indifferent poet.
ALAS'CO, _alias_ DR. DEMETRIUS DOBOOBIE, an old astrologer, consulted
by the earl of Leicester.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time,
Elizabeth).
ALAS'NAM (_Prince Zeyn_) possessed eight statues, each a single
diamond on a gold pedestal, but had to go in search of a ninth, more
valuable than them all. This ninth was a lady, the most beautiful and
virtuous of women, "more precious than rubies," who became his wife.
One pure and perfect _[woman]_ is ... like Alasnam's lady, worth them
all.--Sir Walter Scott.
_Alasnam's Mirror_. When Alasnam was in search of his ninth statue,
the king of the Genii gave him a test mirror, in which he was to
look when he saw a beautiful girl; "if the glass remained pure and
unsullied, the damsel would be the same, but if not, the damsel would
not be wholly pure in body and in mind." This mirror was called "the
touchstone of virtue."--_Arabian Nights_ ("Prince Zeyn Alasnam").
ALAS'TOR, a surname of Zeus as "the Avenger." Or, in general, any
deity or demon who avenges wrong done by man. Shelley wrote a poem,
_Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude_.
Cicero says he meditated killing himself that he might become the
Alastor of Augustus, whom he hated.--Plutarch, _Cicero, etc._
("Parallel Lives.")
God Almighty mustered up an army of mice against the archbishop
[_Hatto_], and sent them to persecute him as his furious
Alastors.--Coryat, _Crudities_, 571.
AL'BAN (_St._) of Ver'ulam, hid his confessor, St. Am'phibal, and
changing clothes with him, suffered death in his stead. This was
during the frightful persecution of Maximia'nus Hercu'lius, general of
Diocle'tian's army in Britain, when 1000 Christians fell at Lichfield.
Alban--our proto-martyr called.
Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xxiv. [1622].
AL'BERICK OF MORTEMAR, the same as Theodorick the hermit of Engaddi,
an exiled nobleman. He tells king Richard the history of his life,
and tries to dissuade him from sending a letter of defiance to the
archduke of Austria.--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).
_Al' berick_, the squire of prince Richard, one of the sons of Henry
II. of England.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).
ALBERT, commander of the _Britannia_. Brave, liberal, and just,
softened and refined by domestic ties and superior information. His
ship was dashed against the projecting verge of Cape Colonna, the most
southern point of Attica, and he perished in the sea because Rodmond
(second in command) grasped one of his legs and could not be shaken
off.
Though trained in boisterous elements, his mind
Was yet by soft humanity refined;
Each joy of wedded love at home he knew,
Abroad, confessed the father of his crew....
His genius, ever for th' event prepared,
Rose with the storm, and all its dangers shared.
Falconer, _The Shipwreck_, i. 2 (1756).
_Albert_, father of Gertrude, patriarch and judge of Wyo'ming (called
by Campbell Wy'oming). Both Albert and his daughter were shot by a
mixed force of British and Indian troops, led by one Brandt, who made
an attack on the settlement, put all the inhabitants to the sword, set
fire to the fort, and destroyed all the houses.--Campbell, _Gertrude
of Wyoming_ (1809).
_Albert_, in Goethe's romance called _The Sorrows of Werther_, is
meant for his friend Kestner. He is a young German farmer, who married
Charlotte Buff (called "Lotte" in the novel), with whom Goethe was in
love. Goethe represents himself under the name of Werther (_q. v._).
ALBERT OF GEI'ERSTEIN (_Count_), brother of Arnold Biederman, and
president of the "Secret Tribunal." He sometimes appears as a
"black priest of St. Paul's," and sometimes as the "monk of St.
Victoire."--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).
ALBERTAZ'ZO married Alda, daughter of Otho, duke of Saxony. His
sons were Ugo and Fulco. From this stem springs the Royal Family of
England.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).
ALBIA'ZAR, an Arab chief, who joins the Egyptian armament against the
crusaders.
A chief in rapine, not in knighthood bred. Tasso, _Jerusalem
Delivered_, xvii. (1575).
AL'BION. In legendary history this word is variously accounted for.
One derivation is from Albion, a giant, son of Neptune, its first
discoverer, who ruled over the island for forty-four years.
Another derivation is Al'bia, eldest of the fifty daughters of
Diocle'sian king of Syria. These fifty ladies all married on the same
day, and all murdered their husbands on the wedding night. By way of
punishment, they were cast adrift in a ship, unmanned, but the wind
drove the vessel to our coast, where these Syrian damsels disembarked.
Here they lived the rest of their lives, and married with the
aborigines, "a lawless crew of devils." Milton mentions this legend,
and naively adds, "it is too absurd and unconscionably gross to be
believed." Its resemblance to the fifty daughters of Dan'aos is
palpable.
Drayton, in his _Polyolbion_, says that Albion came from Rome, was
"the first martyr of the land," and dying for the faith's sake, left
his name to the country, where Offa subsequently reared to him "a rich
and sumptuous shrine, with a monastery attached."--Song xvi.
_Albion_, king of Briton, when O'beron held his court in what is now
called "Kensington Gardens." T. Tickell has a poem upon this subject.
_Albion wars with Jove's Son_. Albion, son of Neptune, wars with
Her'cules, son of Jove. Neptune, dissatisfied with the share of his
father's kingdom, awarded to him by Jupiter, aspired to dethrone
his brother, but Hercules took his father's part, and Albion was
discomfited.
Since Albion wielded arms against the son of
Jove.
M. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, iv. (1612).
ALBO'RAK, the animal brought by Gabriel to convey Mahomet to the
seventh heaven. It had the face of a man, the cheeks of a horse, the
wings of an eagle, and spoke with a human voice.
ALBUMA'ZAR, Arabian astronomer (776-885).
Chaunteclere, our cocke, must tell what is o'clocke,
By the astrologye that he hath naturally
Conceyued and caught; for he was never taught
By Albumazar, the astronomer,
Nor by Ptholomy, prince of astronomy.
J. Skelton, _Philip Sparoiv_ (time, Henry VIII.).
Alcestis or Alcestes, daughter of Pelias and wife of Admetus (_q. v_.)
On his wedding-day Admetus neglected to offer sacrifice to Diana and
was condemned to die, but Apollo induced the Fates to spare his life
if he could find a voluntary substitute. His wife offered to give her
life for his, and went away with death; but Hercules fought with Death
and restored Alcestes to her husband. This story is the subject of a
tragedy _Alcestes_, by Euripides. Milton alludes to the incident in
one of his sonnets:
Methought I saw my late espoused saint
Brought to me like Alcestes from the grave.
John Milton, Sonnet _On his deceased Wife_.
William Morris has made Alcestes the subject of one of the tales in
his _Earthly Paradise._
A variation of the story is found in Longfellow's _The Golden Legend_,
Henry of Hoheneck when dying was promised his life if a maiden could
be found who would give up her life for his. Elsie, the daughter
of Gottlieb, a tenant-farmer of the prince offered herself as a
sacrifice, and followed her lord to Sorrento to give herself up to
Lucifer; but Henry heard of it, and, moved by gratitude, saved Elsie
and made her his wife.
_Alceste_, the hero of Moliere's comedy _Le Misanthrope_. He has a
pure and noble mind that has been soured and disgusted by intercourse
with the world. Courtesy he holds to be the vice of fops, and the
manners of society mere hypocrisy. He courts Celmene, a coquette and
her treatment of his love confirms his bad opinion of mankind.
AL'CHEMIST (_The_), the last of the three great comedies of Ben Jonson
(1610). The other two are _Vol'pone_ (2 _syl_.), (1605), and _The
Silent Woman_ (1609). The object of _The Alchemist_ is to ridicule
the belief in the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life. The
alchemist is "Subtle," a mere quack; and "sir Epicure Mammon" is
the chief dupe, who supplies money, etc., for the "transmutation of
metal." "Abel Drugger" a tobacconist, and "Dapper" a lawyer's
clerk, are two other dupes. "Captain Face," _alias_ "Jeremy," the
house-servant of "Lovewit," and "Dol Common" are his allies. The whole
thing is blown up by the unexpected return of "Lovewit."
ALCIB'ADES (5 _syl._), the Athenian general. Being banished by the
senate, he marches against the city, and the senate, being unable to
offer resistance, open the gates to him (B.C. 450-404). This incident
is introduced by Shakespeare in _Timon of Athens_.
ALCIBI'ADES' TABLES represented a god or goddess outwardly, and
a Sile'nus, or deformed piper, within. Erasmus has a "curious
dissertation on these tables" (_Adage_, 667, edit. R. Stephens); hence
emblematic of falsehood and dissimulation.
Whose wants virtue is compared to these
False tables wrought by Alcibiades;
Which noted well of all were found t've bin
Most fair without, but most deformed within.
Wm. Browne, _Britannia's Pastorals_, i. (1613).
ALCI'DES, a name sometimes given to Hercules as the descendent of the
hero Alcoeus through his son Amphitryon (_q. v._) The name is applied
to any valiant hero.
The Tuscan poet [_Ariosto_] doth advance
The frantic paladin of France [_Orlando Furioso_];
And those more ancient do enhance
Alcides in his fury.
M. Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (1563-1631).
Where is the great Alcides of the field,
Valiant lord Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury?
Shakespeare, 1 _Henry VI_. act. iv. sc. 7 (1589).
ALCI'NA, Carnal Pleasure personified. In Bojardo's _Orlando
Innamorato_ she is a fairy, who carries off Astolfo. In Ariosto's
_Orlando Furioso_ she is a kind of Circe, whose garden is a scene of
enchantment. Alcina enjoys her lovers for a season, and then converts
them into trees, stones, wild beasts, and so on, as her fancy
dictates.
AL'CIPHRON, or _The Minute Philosopher_, the title of a work by bishop
Berkeley, so called from the name of the chief speaker, a freethinker.
The object of this work is to expose the weakness of infidelity.
_Al'ciphron_, "the epicurean," the hero of T. Moore's romance entitled
_The Epicurean_.
Like Aleiphron, we swing in air and darkness,
and know not whither the wind blows us.
--_Putnam's Magazine._
ALCME'NA (in Moliere, _Alcmene_), the wife of Amphitryon, general
of the Theban army. While her husband is absent warring against the
Telebo'ans, Jupiter assumes the form of Amphitryon; but Amphitryon
himself returns home the next day, and great confusion arises between
the false and true Amphitryon, which is augmented by Mercury, who
personates Sos'ia, the slave of Amphitryon. By this amour of Jupiter,
Alcmena becomes the mother of Her'cules. Plautus, Moliere, and Dryden
have all taken this plot for a comedy entitled _Amphitryon_.
ALCOFRI'BAS, the name by which Rabelais was called, after he came out
of the prince's mouth, where he resided for six months, taking toll of
every morsel of food that the prince ate. Pantag'ruel gave "the merry
fellow the lairdship of Salmigondin."--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, ii. 32
(1533).
AL'COLOMB, "subduer of hearts," daughter of Abou Aibou of Damascus,
and sister of Ganem. The caliph Haroun-al-Raschid, in a fit of
jealousy, commanded Ganem to be put to death, and his mother and
sister to do penance for three days in Damascus, and then to be
banished from Syria. The two ladies came to Bag dad, and were taken in
by the charitable syndic of the jewellers. When the jealous fit of the
caliph was over he sent for the two exiles. Alcolomb he made his wife,
and her mother he married to his vizier.--_Arabian Nights_ ("Ganem,
the Slave of Love ").
ALCY'ON "the wofullest man alive," but once "the jolly shepherd swain
that wont full merrily to pipe and dance," near where the Severn
flows. One day he saw a lion's cub, and brought it up till it followed
him about like a dog; but a cruel satyr shot it in mere wantonness. By
the lion's cub he means Daphne, who died in her prime, and the cruel
satyr is death. He said he hated everything--the heaven, the earth,
fire, air, and sea, the day, the night; he hated to speak, to hear, to
taste food, to see objects, to smell, to feel; he hated man and woman
too, for his Daphne lived no longer. What became of this doleful
shepherd the poet could never ween. Alcyon is sir Arthur
Gorges.--Spencer, _Daphnaida_ (in seven fyttes, 1590).
And there is that Alcyon bent to mourn,
Though fit to frame an everlasting ditty.
Whose gentle sprite for Daphne's death doth turn
Sweet lays of love to endless plaints of pity.
Spenser, _Colin Clout's Come Home Again_ (1591).
ALCY'ONE or HALCYONE (4 _syl_.), daughter of Aeolus, who, on hearing
of her husband's death by shipwreck, threw herself into the sea, and
was changed to a kingfisher. (See HALCYON DAYS.)
ALDABEL'LA, wife of Orlando, sister of Oliver, and daughter of
Monodan'tes.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso, etc_. (1516).
_Aldabella_, a marchioness of Florence, very beautiful and
fascinating, but arrogant and heartless. She used to give
entertainments to the magnates of Florence, and Fazio was one who
spent most of his time in her society. Bian'ca his wife, being jealous
of the marchioness, accused him to the duke of being privy to the
death of Bartoldo, and for this offence Fazio was executed. Bianca
died broken-hearted, and Aldabella was condemned to spend the rest of
her life in a nunnery.--Dean Milman, _Fazio_ (a tragedy, 1815).
ALDEN (_John_), one of the sons of the Pilgrim fathers, in love with
Priscilla, the beautiful puritan. Miles Standish, a bluff old soldier,
wishing to marry Priscilla, asked John Alden to go and plead for him;
but the maiden answered archly, "Why don't you speak for yourself,
John!" Soon after this, Standish being reported killed by a poisoned
arrow, John spoke for himself, and the maiden consented. Standish,
however, was not killed, but only wounded; he made his reappearance
at the wedding, where, seeing how matters stood, he accepted the
situation with the good-natured remark:
If you would be served you must serve yourself;
and moreover
No man can gather cherries in Kent at the season
of Christmas.
Longfellow, _Courtship of Miles Standish_ (1858).
ALDIBORONTEPHOSCOPHORNIO _[Al'diboron'te-fos'co-for'nio]_, a character
in _Chrononhotonthologos_, by H. Carey.
(Sir Walter Scott used to call James Ballantyne, the printer, this
nickname, from his pomposity and formality of speech.)
AL'DIGER, son of Buo'vo, of the house of Clarmont, brother of
Malagi'gi and Vivian.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).
AL'DINE (2 _syl_.), leader of the second squadron of Arabs which
joined the Egyptian armament against the crusaders. Tasso says of
the Arabs, "Their accents were female and their stature diminutive"
(xvii.).--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).
AL'DINGAR _(Sir)_, steward of queen Eleanor, wife of Henry II. He
impeached the queen's fidelity, and agreed to prove his charge
by single combat; but an angel (in the shape of a little child)
established the queen's innocence. This is probably a blundering
version of the story of Gunhilda and the emperor Henry.--Percy,
_Reliques_, ii. 9.
ALDO, a Caledonian, was not invited by Fingal to his banquet on his
return to Morven, after the overthrow of Swaran. To resent this
affront, he went over to Fingal's avowed enemy, Erragon king of Sora
(in Scandinavia), and here Lorma, the king's wife, fell in love
with him. The guilty pair fled to Morven, which Erragon immediately
invaded. Aldo fell in single combat with Erragon, Lorma died of grief,
and Erragon was slain in battle by Graul, son of Morni.--_Ossian_
("The Battle of Lora").
ALDRICK the Jesuit, confessor of Charlotte countess of Derby.--Sir W.
Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).
ALDROVAND _(Father)_, chaplain of sir Raymond Berenger, the old Norman
warrior.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).
ALDUS, father of Al'adine (3 _syl_), the "lusty knight."--Spenser,
_Faery Queen_, vi. 3 (1596).
ALEA, a warrior who invented dice at the siege of Troy; at least so
Isidore of Seville says. Suidas ascribes the invention to Palamedes.
Alea est ludus tabulae inventa a Graecis, in otio Trojani belli, a
quodam milite, nomine ALEA, a quo et ars nomen accepit.--Isidorus,
_Orig_. xviii. 57.
ALEC'TRYON, a youth set by Mars to guard against surprises, but he
fell asleep, and Apollo thus surprised Mars and Venus in each others'
embrace. Mars in anger changed the boy into a cock.
And from out the neighboring farmyard
Loud the cock Alectryon crowed.
Longfellow, _Pegasus in Pound_.
ALEC YEATON, the Gloucester skipper in T. B. Aldrich's ballad, _Alec
Yeaton's Son_.
The wind it wailed, the wind it moaned,
And the white caps flecked the sea;
"An' I would to God," the skipper groaned,
"I had not my boy with me!"
* * * * *
Long did they marvel in the town
At God His strange decree;
That let the stalwart skipper drown,
And the little child go free. (1890.)
ALE'RIA, one of the Amazons, and the best beloved of the ten wives of
Guido the Savage.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).
ALESSANDRO, husband of the Indian girl Ramona, in Helen Hunt Jackson's
novel _Ramona_. The story of the young couple is a series of
oppressions and deceits practised by U. S. officials (1884). ALESSIO,
the young man with whom Lisa was living in concubinage, when Elvi'no
promised to marry her. Elvino made the promise out of pique, because
he thought Ami'na was not faithful to him, but when he discovered his
error he returned to his first love, and left Lisa to marry Alessio,
with whom she had been previously cohabiting.--Bellini's opera, _La
Sonnamlula_ (1831).
ALE'THES (3 _syl_.), an ambassador from Egypt to king Al'adine
(3 _syl_.); subtle, false, deceitful, and full of wiles.--Tasso,
_Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).
ALEXANDER PATOFF, brother of the young Russian who figures most
prominently in F. Marion Crawford's novel _Paul Patoff_. Alexander's
mysterious disappearance in a mosque leads to suspicions involving
his brother, even the mother of the two brothers accusing Paul of
fratricide (1887).
ALEX. WALTON, physician and suitor of Margaret Kent in _The Story of
Margaret Kent_, by Henry Hayes (Ellen Olney Kirke) (1886).
ALEXANDER THE GREAT, a tragedy by Nathaniel Lee (1678). In French we
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