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 HARLAND

VOLUME I



NEW YORK SELMAR HESS PUBLISHER M D C C C X C I I

Copyright, 1892, by SELMAR HESS



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,, "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).

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.

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").