Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 3 (part 2)

Nancy, the sailor’s fancy. At half-past four he parted from her; at eight next morn he bade her adieu. Next day a storm arose, and when it lulled the enemy appeared; but when the fight was hottest, the jolly tar “put up a prayer for Nancy.” Dibdin, Sea Songs (“’Twas post meridian half-past four,” 1790).

Nancy (Miss), Mrs. Anna Oldfield, a celebrated actress, buried in Westminster Abbey. She died in 1730, and lay in state, attended by two noblemen. Mrs. Oldfield was buried in a “very fine Brussels lace head-dress, a new pair of kid gloves, and a robe with lace ruffles and a lace collar.” (See Narcissa.)

Nancy Dawson, a famous actress, who took London by storm. Her father was a poster in Clare Market (1728-1767).

Her easy mien, her shape so neat,
She foots, she trips, she looks so sweet;
I die for Nancy Dawson.

Nancy of the Vale, a village maiden, who preferred Strephon to the gay lordlings who sought her hand in marriage.—Shenstone, A Ballad (1554).

Nannic, deformed brother of Guenn, and her darling. He is versed in all manner of auguries and much feared and consulted by the peasants on this account.—Blanche Willis Howard, Guenn.

Nannie, Miss Fleming, daughter of a farmer in the parish of Tarbolton, in Ayrshire. Immortalized by R. Burns.

Nannie (Little).

“This world, whose brightest day
Seems to us so dreary,
Nannie found all bright and gay,
Love-alight and cheery,
Stayed a little while to play
And went home unweary.”

Elizabeth Akers Allen, Poems (1866).

Nan´tolet, father of Rosalura and Lillia-Bianca.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Wild-Goose Chase (1652).

Napoleon I., called by the Germans “Kaiser Kläs” (q.v.).

“M” is curiously coupled with the history of Napoleon I. and III. (See M.)

The following is a curious play on the word Napoleon.

Napoleôn apoleôn poleôn oleôn leôn eôn ôn

Napoleon Apollyon cities destroying a lion going
about } being.

That is:

Napoleon Apollyon is [being] a lion going about destroying cities.

Chauvinism, Napoleon idolatry. Chauvvin is a blind idolater of Napoleon I., in Scribe’s drama entitled Soldat Laboureur.

Napoleon III. His nicknames.

Arenenberg (Comte d’). So he called himself after his escape from the fortress of Ham.

Badinguet, the name of the man he shot in his Boulogne escapade.

Boustrapa, a compound of Bou[logne], Stra[sbourg] and Pa[ris], the places of his noted escapades.

Grosbec. So called from the rather unusual size of his nose.

Man of December. So called because December was his month of glory. Thus, he was elected president December 11, 1848; made his coup d’état December 2, 1851; and was created emperor December 2, 1852.

Man of Sedan. So called because at Sedan he surrendered his sword to the king of Prussia (September, 1870).

Ratipole, same as the west of England Rantipole, a harum-scarum, half idiot, half madcap.

The Little. Victor Hugo gave him this title; but the hatred of Hugo to Napoleon was monomania.

Verhuel, the name of his supposed father.

Number 2. The second of the month was Louis Napoleon’s day. It was also one of the days of his uncle, the other being the fifteenth.

The coup d’état was December 2; he was made emperor December 2, 1852; the Franco-Prussian war opened at Saarbrück, August 2, 1870; he surrendered his sword to William of Prussia, September 2, 1870.

Napoleon I. was crowned December 2, 1804; and the victory of Austerlitz was December 2, 1805.

Numerical Curiosities. 1. 1869, the last year of Napoleon’s glory; the next year was that of his downfall. As a matter of curiosity, it may be observed that if the day of his birth, or the day of the empress’s birth, or the date of the capitulation of Paris, be added to that of the coronation of Napoleon III., the result always points to 1869. Thus, he was crowned 1852; he was born 1808; the Empress Eugénie was born 1826: the capitulation of Paris was 1871. Whence:

1852 1852 1852 coronation

1

birth of
Napoleon. 1

birth of
Eugénie. 1

capitulation
of Paris.

8 8 8

0 2 7

8 6 1

1869 1869 1869

2. 1870, the year of his downfall. By adding the numerical values of the birth date either of Napoleon or Eugénie to the date of the marriage, we get their fatal year of 1870. Thus, Napoleon was born 1808; Eugénie, 1826; married, 1853.

1853 1853 year of marriage.

1

birth of
Napoleon. 1

birth of
Eugénie.

8 8

0 2

8 6

1870 1870

2. Empereur. The votes for the president to be emperor were 7,119,791; those against him were 1,119,000. If now the numbers 711979r/ be written on a piece of paper, and held up to the light, the reverse side will show the word empereur. (The dash is the dividing mark, and forms the long stroke of the “p.”)

Napoleon and Talleyrand. Napoleon I. one day entered a roadside inn, and called for breakfast. There was nothing in the house but eggs and cider (which Napoleon detested). “What shall we do?” said the emperor to Talleyrand. In answer to this, the grand chambellan improvised the rhymes following:—

Le bon roi Dagobert
Aimait le bon vin au dessert.
Le grand St. Eloi
Lui dit, “O mon roi,
Le droit réuni
L’a bien renchéri.”
“Eh bien!” lui dit le roi ...

But he could get no further. Whereupon Napoleon himself instantly capped the line thus:

“Je boirai du cidre avec toi.”

Chapus, Dieppe, etc. (1853).

Our royal master, Dagobert,
Good wine loved at his dessert.
But St. Eloi
Once said, “Mon roi,
We here prepare
No dainty fare.”
“Well,” cried the king, “so let it be,
Cider to-day we’ll drink with thee.”

Napoleon of the Drama. Alfred Bunn, lessee of Drury Lane Theatre (1819-1826) was so called; and so was Robert William Elliston, his predecessor (1774-1826, died 1831).

Napoleon of Mexico, the emperor Augusto Iturbidê (1784-1824).

Napoleon of Oratory, W. E. Gladstone (1809- ).

Napoleon of Peace, Louis Philippe of France (1773, reigned 1830-1848, died 1850).

Narcissa, meant for Elizabeth Lee, the step-daughter of Dr. Young. In Night ii. the poet says she was clandestinely buried at Montpelier, because she was a Protestant.—Dr. Young, Night Thoughts (1742-6).

Narcissa, Mrs. Oldfield, the actress, who insisted on being rouged and dressed in Brussels lace when she was “laid out.” (See Nancy.)

“Odious! In woolen? ’Twould a saint provoke!”
Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke.
“No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs and shade my lifeless face;
One would not, sure, be frightful when one’s dead!
And, Betty, give this cheek a little red.”

Pope, Moral Essays, i. (1731).

Narcisse, an airy young Creole. He has boundless faith in himself, and a Micawberish confidence in the future. He would like to be called “Papillon,” the butterfly; “’Cause thass my natu’e! I gatheth honey eve’y day fum eve’y opening floweh, as the bahd of Avon wemawked.”—George W. Cable, Dr. Sevier (1883).

Narcissus, a flower. According to Grecian fable, Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection in a fountain, and, having pined away because he could not kiss it, was changed into the flower which bears his name.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, iii. 346, etc.

Echo was in love with Narcissus, and died of grief because he would not return her love.

Narcissus fair,
As o’er the fabled fountain hanging still.

Thomson, Seasons (“Spring,” 1728).

* Glück, in 1779, produced an opera called Echo et Narcisse.

Narren-Schiff (“The ship of fools”), a satirical poem, in German, by Brandt (1491), lashing the follies and vices of the period. Brandt makes knowledge of one’s self the beginning of wisdom; maintains the equality of man; and speaks of life as a brief passage only. The book at one time enjoyed unbounded popularity.

Narses (2 syl.), a Roman general against the Goths; the terror of children.

The name of Narses was the formidable sound with which the Assyrian mothers were accustomed to terrify their infants.—Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, viii. 219 (1776-88).

Narses, a domestic slave of Alexius Comnēnus, emperor of Greece.—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Naso, Ovid, the Roman poet, whose full name was Publius Ovidius Naso. (Naso means “nose.”) Hence the pun of Holofernes:

And why Naso, but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy?—Shakespeare, Love’s Labor’s Lost, act iv. sc. 2 (1594).

Nathan the Wise, a prudent and wealthy old Jew who lives near Jerusalem in the time of Saladin. The play is a species of argument for religious toleration.—G. E. Lessing, Nathan der Weise (1778).

Nathaniel (Sir), the grotesque curate of Holofernês.—Shakespeare, Love’s Labor’s Lost (1594).

Nathos, one of the three sons of Usnoth, lord of Etha (in Argyllshire), made commander of the Irish army at the death of Cuthullin. For a time he propped up the fortune of the youthful Cormac, but the rebel Cairbar increased in strength and found means to murder the young king. The army under Nathos then deserted to the usurper, and Nathos, with his two brothers, was obliged to quit Ireland. Dar´-Thula, the daughter of Colla, went with them to avoid Cairbar, who persisted in offering her his love. The wind drove the vessel back to Ulster, where Cairbar lay encamped, and the three young men, being overpowered, were slain. As for Dar-Thula, she was pierced with an arrow, and died also.—Ossian, Dar-Thula.

Nation of Gentlemen. The Scotch were so called by George IV., when he visited Scotland in 1822.

Nation of Shopkeepers. The English were so called by Napoleon I.

National Assembly. (1) The French deputies which met in the year 1789. The states-general was convened, but the clergy and nobles refused to sit in the same chamber with the commons, so the commons or deputies of the tiers état withdrew, constituted themselves into a deliberative body, and assumed the name of the Assemblée Nationale. (2) The democratic French parliament of 1848, consisting of 900 members elected by manhood suffrage, was so called also.

National Convention, the French parliament of 1792. It consisted of 721 members, but was reduced, first to 500, then to 300. It succeeded the National Assembly.

Natty Bumpo, called “Leather-stocking.” He appears in five of F. Cooper’s novels: (1) The Deerslayer; (2) The Pathfinder; (3) “Hawkeye” in The Last of the Mohicans; (4) “Natty Bumpo,” in The Pioneer; and (5) “The Trapper,” in The Prairie, in which he dies.

Nausic´aa (4 syl.), daughter of Alcinous, king of the Phœa´cians, who conducted Ulysses to the court of her father when he was shipwrecked on the coast.

Navigation (The Father of), Don Henrique, duke of Viseo, the greatest man that Portugal has produced (1394-1460).

Navigation (The Father of British Inland), Francis Egerton, duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803).

Neæra, a name used by Horace, Virgil, Tibullus, and Milton as a synonym of sweetheart.

To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,
Or with the tangles of Neæra’s hair.

Milton, Lycidas (1638).

Neal´liny (4 syl.), a suttee, the young widow of Ar´valan, son of Keha´ma.—Southey, Curse of Kehama, i. 11 (1809).

Nebuchadnezzar [Ne-boch-ad-ne-Tzar], in Russian, means “there is no God but the Czar.”—M. D., Notes and Queries (21st July, 1877).

Neck. Calig´ula, the Roman emperor used to say, “Oh that the Roman people had but one neck, that I might cut it off at a blow!”

I love the sex, and sometimes would reverse
The tyrant’s wish, that, “mankind only had
One neck, which he with one fell stroke might pierce.”

Byron, Don Juan, vi. 27 (1824).

Neck or Nothing, a farce by Garrick (1766). Mr. Stockwell promises to give his daughter in marriage to the son of Sir Harry Harlowe, of Dorsetshire, with a dot of £10,000; but it so happens that the young man is privately married. The two servants of Mr. Belford and Sir Harry Harlowe try to get possession of the money, by passing off Martin (Belford’s servant) as Sir Harry’s son; but it so happens that Belford is in love with Miss Stockwell, and hearing of the plot through Jenny, the young lady’s-maid, arrests the two servants as vagabonds. Old Stockwell gladly consents to his marriage with Nancy, and thinks himself well out of the terrible scrape.

Nectaba´nus, the dwarf at the cell of the hermit of Engaddi. Sir W. Scott, The Talisman (time, Richard I.).

Nectar, the beverage of the gods. It was white as cream, for when Hebê spilt some of it, the white arch of heaven, called the Milky Way, was made. The food of the gods was ambrosia.

Ned (Lying), “the chimney-sweeper of Savoy,” that is, the duke of Savoy, who joined the allied army against France in the war of the Spanish Succession.—Dr. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull (1712).

Negro´ni, a princess, the friend of Lucrezia di Borgia. She invited the notables who had insulted the Borgia to a banquet, and killed them with poisoned wine.—Donizetti, Lucrezia di Borgia (an opera, 1834).

Ne´gus, sovereign of Abyssinia. Erco´co, or Erquico, on the Red Sea, marks the north-east boundary of this empire.

The empire of Negus to his utmost port,
Ercoco.

Milton, Paradise Lost, xi. 397 (1665).

Nehemiah Holdenough, a Presbyterian preacher.—Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, commonwealth).

Neilson (Mr. Christopher), a surgeon at Glasgow.—Sir W. Scott, Rob Roy (time, George I.).

Neim´heid (2 syl.) employed four architects to build him a palace in Ireland; and, that they might not build another like it or superior to it for some other monarch, had them all secretly murdered.—O’Halloran, History of Ireland.

* A similar story is told of Nômanal-Aôuar, king of Hirah, who employed Senna´mar to build him a palace. When finished, he cast the architect headlong from the highest tower, to prevent his building another to rival it.—D’Herbelot, Bibliothèque Oriental (1697).

Nekayah, sister of Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia. She escapes with her brother from the “happy valley,” and wanders about with him to find what condition or rank of life is the most happy. After roaming for a time, and finding no condition of life free from its drawbacks, the brother and sister resolved to return to the “happy valley.”—Dr. Johnson, Rasselas (1759).

Nell, the meek and obedient wife of Jobson; taught by the strap to know who was lord and master. Lady Loverule was the imperious, headstrong bride of Sir John Loverule. The two women by a magical hocus-pocus, were changed for a time, without any of the four knowing it. Lady Loverule was placed with Jobson, who soon brought down her turbulent temper with the strap, and when she was reduced to submission, the two women were restored again to their respective husbands.—C. Coffey, The Devil to Pay (1731).

Nell (Little), or Nelly Trent, a sweet, innocent, loving child of 14 summers, brought up by her old miserly grandfather, who gambled away all his money. Her days were monotonous and without youthful companionship, her evenings gloomy and solitary; there were no child-sympathies in her dreary home, but dejection, despondence akin to madness, watchfulness, suspicion, and imbecility. The grandfather being wholly ruined by gaming, the two went forth as beggars, and ultimately settled down in a cottage adjoining a country churchyard. Here Nell died, and the old grandfather soon afterwards was found dead upon her grave.—C. Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop (1840).

Nelly, the servant-girl of Mrs. Dinmont.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Nelson’s Ship, the Victory.

Now from the fleet of the foemen past
Ahead of the Victory,
A four-decked ship, with a flagless mast,
An Anak of the sea.
His gaze on the ship Lord Nelson cast:
“Oh, oh! my old friend!” quoth he.
“Since again we have met, we must all be glad
To pay our respects to the Trinidad.”
So, full on the bow of the giant foe,
Our gallant Victory runs;
Thro’ the dark’ning smoke the thunder broke
O’er her deck from a hundred guns.

Lord Lytton, Ode, iii. 9 (1839).

Nem´ean Lion, a lion of Argŏlis, slain by Herculês.

In this word Shakespeare has preserved the correct accent: “As hardy as the Nem´ean lion’s nerve” (Hamlet, act i. sc. 5); but Spenser incorrectly throws the accent on the second syllable, which is e short: “Into the great Neme´an’s lion’s grove” (Faëry Queen, v. 1).

Ere Nemĕa’s beast resigned his shaggy spoils.

Statius, The Thebaid, i.

Nem´esis, the Greek personification of retribution, or that punishment for sin which sooner or later overtakes the offender.

... and some great Nemesis
Break from a darkened future.

Tennyson, The Princess, (1847).

Ne´mo, the name by which Captain Hawdon was known at Krook’s. He had once won the love of the future Lady Dedlock, by whom he had a child called Esther Summerson; but he was compelled to copy law-writings for daily bread, and died a miserable death from an overdose of opium.—C. Dickens, Bleak House (1852).

Nepen´the (3 syl.) or Nepenthes, a care-dispelling drug, which Polydamna, wife of Tho´nis, king of Egypt, gave to Helen (daughter of Jove and Leda). A drink containing this drug “changed grief to mirth, melancholy to joyfulness, and hatred to love.” The water of Ardenne had the opposite effects. Homer mentions the drug nepenthê in his Odyssey, iv. 228.

That nepenthês which the wife of Thone,
In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena.

Milton, Comus, (1634).

Nepenthê is a drink of sovereign grace.
Devisèd by the gods for to assuage
Heart’s grief, and bitter gall away to chase
Which stirs up anger and contentious rage;
Instead thereof sweet peace and quietage
It doth establish in the troubled mind ...
And such as drink, eternal happiness do find.

Spencer, Faëry Queen, iv. 2 (1596).

Nep´omuk or Nep´omuck (St. John), canon of Prague. He was thrown from a bridge in 1381, and drowned by order of King Wenceslaus, because he refused to betray the secrets confided to him by the queen in the holy rite of confession. The spot whence he was cast into the Moldau is still marked by a cross with five stars on the parapet, indicative of the miraculous flames seen flickering over the dead body for three days. Nepomuk was canonized in 1729, and became the patron saint of bridges. His statue in stone usually occupies such a position on bridges as it does in Prague.

Like St. John Nep´omuck in stone, Looking down into the stream. Longfellow, The Golden Legend (1851).

* The word is often accented on the second syllable.

Neptune (Old Father), the ocean or sea-god.

Nerestan, son of Gui Lusignan D’Outremer, king of Jerusalem, and brother of Zara. Nerestan was sent on his parole to France, to obtain ransom for certain Christians, who had fallen into the hands of the Saracens. When Osman, the sultan, was informed of his relationship to Zara, he ordered all Christian captives to be at once liberated “without money and without price.”—A. Hill, Zara (adapted from Voltaire’s tragedy).

Nereus (2 syl.), father of the water-nymphs. A very old prophetic god of great kindliness. The scalp, chin and breast of Nereus were covered with seaweed instead of hair.

By hoary Nêreus’ wrinkled look.

Milton, Comus, (1634).

Neri´nê, Doto, and Nysê, the three nereids who guarded the fleet of Vasco da Gama. When the treacherous pilot had run Vasco’s ship upon a sunken rock, these three sea-nymphs lifted up the prow and turned it round.

The lovely Nysê and Nerinê spring
With all the vehemence and speed of wing.

Camoens, Lusiad, ii. (1569).

Nerissa, the clever confidential waiting-woman of Portia, the Venetian heiress. Nerissa is the counterfeit of her mistress, with a fair share of the lady’s elegance and wit. She marries Gratiano, a friend of the merchant Antonio.—Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (1698).

Nero of the North, Christian II. of Denmark (1480, reigned 1534-1558, died 1559).

Nesle (Blondel de), the favorite minstrel of Richard Cœur de Lion [Nesle = Neel].—Sir W. Scott, The Talisman (time, Richard I.).

Nessus’s Shirt. Nessos (in Latin Nessus), the centaur, carried the wife of Herculês over a river, and, attempting to run away with her, was shot by Herculês. As the centaur was dying, he told Deïani´ra (5 syl.), that if she steeped in his blood her husband’s shirt, she would secure his love forever. This she did, but when Herculês put the shirt on, his body suffered such agony, that he rushed to Mount Œta, collected together a pile of wood, set it on fire, and rushing into the midst of the flames, was burnt to death.

When Creūsa (3 syl.), the daughter of King Creon, was about to be married to Jason, Medēa sent her a splendid wedding robe; but when Creusa put it on, she was burnt to death by it in excruciating pain.

Morgan le Fay, hoping to kill King Arthur, sent him a superb royal robe. Arthur told the messenger to try it on, that he might see its effect; but no sooner had the messenger done so, than he dropped down dead, “burnt to mere coal.”—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 75 (1470).

Nestor (A), a wise old man. Nestor of Pylos, was the oldest and most experienced of all the Greek chieftains who went to the siege of Troy.—Homer, Iliad.

Nestor of the Chemical Revolution. Dr. Black is so called by Lavoisier (1728-1799).

Nestor of Europe, Leopold, king of Belgium (1790, 1831-1865).

Neu´ha, a native of Toobouai, one of the Society Islands. It was at Toobouai that the mutineers of the Bounty landed, and Torquil married Neuha. When a vessel was sent to capture the mutineers, Neuha conducted Torquil to a secret cave, where they lay perdu till all danger was over, when they returned to their island home.—Byron, The Island. (The character of Neuha is given in canto ii. 7.)

Nevers (Comte de), to whom Valenti´na (daughter of the governor of the Louvre) was affianced, and whom she married in a fit of jealousy. The count having been shot in the Bartholomew slaughter, Valentina married Raoul [Rawl] her first love, but both were killed by a party of musketeers commanded by the governor of the Louvre.—Meyerbeer, Les Huguenots (opera, 1836).

* The duke [not count] de Nevers, being asked by the governor of the Louvre to join in the Bartholomew Massacre, replied that his family contained a long list of warriors, but not one assassin.

Neville (Major), an assumed name of Lord Geraldin, son of the earl of Geraldin. He first appears as Mr. William Lovell.

Mr. Geraldin Neville, uncle to Lord Geraldin.—Sir W. Scott, The Antiquary (time, George III.).

Neville (Miss), the friend and confidante of Miss Hardcastle. A handsome, coquettish girl, destined by Mrs. Hardcastle for her son Tony Lumpkin, but Tony did not care for her, and she dearly loved Mr. Hastings; so Hastings and Tony plotted together to outwit madam, and of course won the day.—O. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer (1773).

Neville (Sir Henry), chamberlain of Richard Cœur de Lion.—Sir W. Scott, The Talisman (time, Richard I.).

New Atlantis (The), an imaginary island in the middle of the Atlantic. Bacon in his allegorical fiction so called, supposes himself wrecked on this island, where he finds an association for the cultivation of natural science, and the promotion of arts.—Lord Bacon, The New Atlantis (1626).

* Called the New Atlantis to distinguish it from Plato’s Atlantis, an imaginary island of fabulous charms.

New Inn (The), or The Light Heart, a comedy by Ben Jonson (1628).

New Way to Pay Old Debts, a drama by Philip Massinger (1625). Wellborn, the nephew of Sir Giles Overreach, having run through his fortune and got into debt, induces Lady Allworth, out of respect and gratitude to his father, to give him countenance. This induces Sir Giles to suppose that his nephew is about to marry the wealthy dowager. Feeling convinced that he will then be able to swindle him out of all the dowager’s property, as he had ousted him out of his paternal estates, Sir Giles pays his nephew’s debts, and supplies him liberally with ready money, to bring about the marriage as soon as possible. Having paid Wellborn’s debts, the overreaching old man is compelled, through the treachery of his clerk, to restore the estates also, for the deeds of conveyance are found to be only blank sheets of parchment, the writing having been erased by some chemical acids.

New Zealander, It was Macaulay who said the time might come when some “New Zealand artist shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul’s.”

* Shelley was before Macaulay in the same conceit.—See Dedication of Peter Bell the Third.

Newcastle (The duchess of), in the court of Charles II.).—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Newcastle (The marquis of), a royalist in the service of Charles I.—Sir W. Scott, Legend of Montrose (time, Charles I.).

Newcastle Apothecary (The), Mr. Bolus, of Newcastle, used to write his prescriptions in rhyme. A bottle bearing the couplet, “When taken to be well shaken,” was sent to a patient, and when Bolus called next day to inquire about its effect, John told the apothecary his master was dead. The fact is, John had shaken the sick man instead of the bottle, and had shaken the life out of him.—G. Colman, Jr.

Newcome (Clemency), about 30 years old, with a plump and cheerful face, but twisted into a tightness that made it comical. Her gait was very homely, her limbs seemed all odd ones; her shoes were so self-willed that they never wanted to go where her feet went. She wore blue stockings, a printed gown of hideous pattern and many colors, and a white apron. Her sleeves were short, her elbows always grazed, her cap anywhere but in the right place; but she was scrupulously clean, and “maintained a kind of dislocated tidiness.” She carried in her pocket “a handkerchief, a piece of wax-candle, an apple, an orange, a lucky penny, a cramp-bone, a padlock, a pair of scissors, a handful of loose beads, several balls of worsted and cotton, a needle-case, a collection of curl-papers, a biscuit, a thimble, a nutmeg-grater, and a few miscellaneous articles.” Clemency Newcome married Benjamin Britain, her fellow-servant at Dr. Jeddler’s, and opened a country inn called the Nutmeg-Grater, a cozy, well-to-do place as any one could wish to see, and there were few married people so well matched as Clemency and Ben Britain.—C. Dickens, The Battle of Life (1846).

Newcome (Colonel), a widower, distinguished for the moral beauty of his life. He loses his money and enters the Charter House.

Clive Newcome, his son. He is in love with Ethel Newcome, his cousin, whom he marries as his second wife.—Thackeray, The Newcomes (1855).

Newcome (Johnny), any raw youth when he first enters the army or navy.

Newman Noggs. Ralph Nickleby’s clerk, but Ralph’s nephew’s friend and secret coadjutor.—Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby.

Newland (Abraham), one of the governors of the Bank of England, to whom, in the early part of the nineteenth century, all Bank of England notes were made payable. A bank-note was called an “Abraham Newland;” and hence the popular song, “I’ve often heard say, sham Ab’ram you may, but must not sham Abraham Newland.”

Trees are notes issued from the bank of nature, and as current as those payable to Abraham Newland.—G. Colman, The Poor Gentleman, i. 2 (1802).

Newman. An intelligent American who has made a fortune as a manufacturer, yet kept his head steady. He sees life with clear, sometimes with amused eyes.

“In America,” Newman reflected, “lads of twenty-five and thirty have old heads and young hearts, or at least, young morals; abroad they have young heads and very aged hearts, morals the most grizzled and wrinkled.”—Henry James Jr., The Americans (1877).

Newton.

Newton ... declared, with all his grand discoveries recent,
That he himself felt only “like a youth
Picking up shells by the great ocean, truth.”

Byron, Don Juan, vii. 5 (1824).

Newton discovered the prismatic colors of light, and explained the phenomenon by the emission theory.

Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night.
God said, “Let Newton be,” and all was light.

Pope, Epitaph, intended for Newton’s Monument in Westminster Abbey (1727).

Newton is called by Campbell “The Priest of Nature.”—Pleasures of Hope, i. (1799).

Newton and the Apple. It is said that Newton was standing in the garden of Mrs. Conduitt, of Woolsthorpe, in the year 1665, when an apple fell from a tree and set him thinking. From this incident he ultimately developed his theory of gravitation.

Nibelung, a mythical king of Nibelungeland (Norway). He had twelve paladins, all giants. Siegfried [Sege.freed], prince of the Netherlands, slew the giants, and made Nibelungeland tributary.—Nibelungen Lied, iii. (1210).

Nibelungen Hoard, a mythical mass of gold and precious stones which Siegfried [Sege.freed], prince of the Netherlands, took from Nibelungeland and gave to his wife as a dowry. The hoard filled thirty-six wagons. After the murder of Siegfried, Hagan seized the hoard, and, for concealment, sank it in the “Rhine at Lockham,” intending to recover it at a future period, but Hagan was assassinated, and the hoard was lost for ever.—Nibelungen Lied, xix.

Nibelungen Lied [Ne.by-lung.’nleed], the German Iliad (1210). It is divided into two parts, and thirty-two lieds or cantos. The first part ends with the death of Siegfried, and the second part with the death of Kriemhild.

Siegfried, the youngest of the kings of the Netherlands, went to Worms, to crave the hand of Kriemhild in marriage. While he was staying with Günther, king of Burgundy (the lady’s brother), he assisted him to obtain in marriage Brunhild, queen of Issland, who announced publicly that he only should be her husband who could beat her in hurling a spear, throwing a huge stone, and in leaping. Siegfried, who possessed a cloak of invisibility, aided Günther in these three contests, and Brunhild became his wife. In return for these services, Günther gave Siegfried his sister Kriemhild, in marriage. After a time, the bride and bridegroom went to visit Günther, when the two ladies disputed about the relative merits of their respective husbands, and Kriemhild, to exalt Siegfried, boasted that Günther owed to him his victories and his wife. Brunhild, in great anger, now employed Hagan to murder Siegfried, and this he did by stabbing him in the back while he was drinking from a brook.

Thirteen years elapsed, and the widow married Etzel, king of the Huns. After a time, she invited Brunhild and Hagan to a visit. Hagan, in this visit, killed Etzel’s young son, and Kriemhild was like a fury. A battle ensued, in which Günther and Hagan were made prisoners, and Kriemhild cut off both their heads with her own hand. Hildebrand, horrified at this act of blood, slew Kriemhild; and so the poem ends.—Authors unknown (but the story pieced together by the minnesingers).

* The Völsunga Saga is the Icelandic version of the Nibelungen Lied. This saga has been translated into English by William Morris.

The Nibelungen Lied has been ascribed to Heinrich von Ofterdingen, a minnesinger; but it certainly existed before that epoch, if not as a complete whole, in separate lays, and all that Heinrich von Ofterdingen could have done was to collect the floating lays, connect them, and form them into a complete story.

F. A. Wolf, in 1795, wrote a learned book to prove that Homer did for the Iliad and Odyssey what Ofterdingen did for the Nibelungen Lied.

Richard Wagner composed a series of operas founded on the Nibelungen Lied.

Nibelungen Nôt, the second part of the Nibelungen Lied, containing the marriage of Kriemhild with Etzel, the visit of the Burgundians to the court of the Hun, and the death of Günther, Hagan, Kriemhild, and others. This part contains eighty-three four-line stanzas more than the first part. The number of lines in the two parts is 9836; so that the poem is almost as long as Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Nibelungers, whoever possessed the Nibelungen hoard. When it was in Norway, the Norwegians were so called: when Siegfried [Sege.freed] got the possession of it, the Netherlanders were so called; and when the hoard was removed to Burgundy, the Burgundians were the Nibelungers.

Nic. Frog, the Dutch as a nation; as the English are called John Bull.—Dr. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull (1712).

Nica´nor, “the Protospathaire,” a Greek general.—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Nice (Sir Courtley), the chief character and title of a drama by Croune (1685).

Nicholas, a poor scholar, who boarded with John, a rich old miserly carpenter. The poor scholar fell in love with Alison, his landlord’s young wife, who joined him in duping the foolish old carpenter. Nicholas told John that such a rain would fall on the ensuing Monday as would drown every one in “less than an hour;” and he persuaded the old fool to provide three large tubs, one for himself, one for his wife, and the other for his lodger. In these tubs, said Nicholas, they would be saved; and when the flood abated, they would then be lords and masters of the whole earth. A few hours before the time of the “flood,” the old carpenter went to the top chamber of his house to repeat his pater nosters. He fell asleep over his prayers, and was roused by the cry of “Water! water! Help! help!” Supposing the rain had come, he jumped into his tub, and was let down by Nicholas and Alison into the street. A crowd soon assembled, were delighted at the joke, and pronounced the old man an idiot and fool.—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (“The Miller’s Tale,” 1388).

Nicholas, the barber of the village in which Don Quixote lived.—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. (1605).

Nicholas (Brother), a monk at St. Mary’s Convent.—Sir W. Scott, The Monastery (time, Elizabeth).

Nicholas (St.), patron saint of boys, parish clerks, sailors, thieves, and of Aberdeen, Russia, etc.

Nicholas (St.). The legend is, that an angel told him a father was so poor he was about to raise money by the prostitution of his three daughters. On hearing this St. Nicholas threw in at the cottage window three bags of money, sufficient to portion each of the three damsels.

The gift
Of Nicholas, which on the maidens he
Bounteous bestowed, to save their youthful prime
Unblemished.

Dantê, Purgatory, xx. (1308).

Nicholas of the Tower (The), the duke of Exeter, constable of the Tower.

Nicholas’s Clerks, highwaymen; so called by a pun on the phrase Old Nick and St. Nicholas who presided over scholars.

St. Nicholas’s Clerks, scholars; so called because St. Nicholas was the patron of scholars. The statutes of Paul’s School require the scholars to attend divine service on St. Nicholas’s Day.—Knight, Life of Dean Colet, 362 (1726).

Nicholas Minturn, hero of novel of that name, by Josiah Gilbert Holland (1876).

Nickleby (Nicholas), the chief character and title of a novel by C. Dickens (1838). He is the son of a poor country gentleman, and has to make his own way in the world. He first goes as usher to Mr. Squeers, schoolmaster at Dotheboys Hall, in Yorkshire; but leaves in disgust with the tyranny of Squeers and his wife, especially to a poor boy named Smike. Smike runs away from the school to follow Nicholas, and remains his humble follower till death. At Portsmouth, Nicholas joins the theatrical company of Mr. Crummles, but leaves the profession for other adventures. He falls in with the brothers Cheeryble, who make him their clerk; and in this post he rises to become a merchant, and ultimately marries Madeline Bray.

Mrs. Nickleby, mother of Nicholas, and a widow. She is an enormous talker, fond of telling long stories with no connection. Mrs. Nickleby is a weak, vain woman, who imagines an idiot neighbor is in love with her because he tosses cabbages and other articles over the garden wall. In conversation, Mrs. Nickleby rides off from the main point at every word suggestive of some new idea. As a specimen of her sequence of ideas, take the following example: “The name began with ‘B’ and ended with ‘g,’ I am sure. Perhaps it was Waters” (p. 198).

* “The original of ‘Mrs. Nickleby,’” says John Foster, “was the mother of Charles Dickens.”—Life of Dickens, iii. 8.

Kate Nickleby, sister of Nicholas; beautiful, pure-minded, and loving. Kate works hard to assist in the expenses of housekeeping, but shuns every attempt of Ralph and others to allure her from the path of virgin innocence. She ultimately marries Frank, the nephew of the Cheeryble brothers.

Ralph Nickleby, of Golden Square (London), uncle to Nicholas and Kate. A hard, grasping money-broker, with no ambition but the love of saving, no spirit beyond the thirst of gold, and no principle except that of fleecing every one who comes into his power. This villain is the father of Smike, and ultimately hangs himself, because he loses money, and sees his schemes one after another burst into thin air.—C. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, (1838).

Nicneven, a gigantic, malignant hag of Scotch superstition.

* Dunbar, the Scotch poet, describes her in his Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy (1508).

Nicode´mus, one of the servants of General Harrison.—Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, Commonwealth).

Nicole (2 syl.), a female servant of M. Jourdain, who sees the folly of her master, and exposes it in a natural and amusing manner.—Molière, Le Bourgeois Gentlehomme (1670).

Night or Nox. So Tennyson calls Sir Peread, the Black Knight of the Black Lands, one of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle Perilous.—Tennyson, Idylls of the King (“Gareth and Lynette”); Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 126 (1470).

Nightingale (The Italian), Angelica Catala´ni; also called “The Queen of Song” (1782-1849).

Nightingale (The Swedish), Jenny Lind, afterwards Mde. Goldschmidt. She appeared in London 1847, and retired from public life in 1851 (1821-1887).

Nightingale and the Lutist. The tale is, that a lute-master challenged a nightingale in song. The bird, after sustaining the contest for some time, feeling itself outdone, fell on the lute, and died broken-hearted.

* This tale is from the Latin of Strada, translated by Richard Crashaw, and called Music’s Duel (1650). It is most beautifully told by John Ford, in his drama entitled The Lover’s Melancholy, where Men´aphon is supposed to tell it to Ame´thus (1628).

Nightingale and the Thorn.

As it fell upon a day
In the merry month of May,
Sitting in a pleasant shade
Which a grove of myrtles made—
Beasts did leap, and birds did sing,
Trees did grow, and plants did spring,
Everything did banish moan,
Save the nightingale alone;
She, poor bird, as all forlorn,
Leaned her breast up-till a thorn.

Richard Barnfield, Address to the Nightingale (1594).

So Philomel, perched on an aspen sprig,
Weeps all the night her lost virginity,
And sings her sad tale to the merry twig,
That dances at such joyful mysery.
Never lets sweet rest invade her eye;
But leaning on a thorn her dainty chest,
For fear soft sleep should steal into her breast,
Expresses in her song grief not to be expressed.

Giles Fletcher, Christ’s Triumph over Death (1610).

The nightingale that sings with the deep thorn,
Which fable places in her breast.

Byron, Don Juan, vi. 87 (1824).

Nightmare of Europe (The), Napoleon Bonaparte (1769, reigned 1804-1814, died 1821).

Nightshade (Deadly). We are told that the berries of this plant so intoxicated the soldiers of Sweno, the Danish king, that they became an easy prey to the Scotch, who cut them to pieces.

* Called “deadly,” not from its poisonous qualities, but because it was used at one time for blackening the eyes in mourning.

Nimrod, pseudonym of Charles James Apperley, author of The Chase, The Road, The Turf (1852), etc.

Nim´ue, a “damsel of the lake,” who cajoled Merlin in his dotage to tell her the secret “whereby he could be rendered powerless;” and then, like Delilah, she overpowered him, by “confining him under a stone.”

Then after these quests, Merlin fell in a dotage on ... one of the damsels of the lake, hight Nimue, and Merlin would let her have no rest, but always he would be with her in every place. And she made him good cheer till she learned of him what she desired.... And Merlin shewed to her in a rock, whereas was a great wonder ... which went under a stone. So by her subtle craft, she made Merlin go under that stone ... and he never came out, for all the craft that he could do.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 60 (1470).

It is not unlikely that this name is a clerical error for Nineve or Ninive. It occurs only once in the three volumes. (See Ninive.)

* Tennyson makes Vivien the seductive betrayer of Merlin, and says she enclosed him “in the four walls of a hollow tower;” but the History says “Nimue put him under the stone” (pt. i. 60).

Nino-Thoma, daughter of Tor-Thoma (chief of one of the Scandinavian islands). She eloped with Uthal (son of Larthmor, a petty king of Berrathon, a neighboring island); but Uthal soon tired of her, and, having fixed his affections on another, confined her in a desert island. Uthal, who had also dethroned his father, was slain in single combat by Ossian, who had come to restore the deposed monarch to his throne. When Nina-Thoma heard of her husband’s death, she languished and died, “for though most cruelly entreated, her love for Uthal was not abated.”—Ossian, Berrathon.

Nine. “It is by nines that Eastern presents are given, when they would extend their magificence to the highest degree.” Thus, when Dakiānos wished to ingratiate himself with the shah,

He caused himself to be preceded by nine superb camels. The first was loaded with nine suits of gold adorned with jewels; the second bore nine sabres, the hilts and scabbards of which were adorned with diamonds; upon the third camel were nine suits of armor; the fourth had nine suits of house furniture; the fifth had nine cases full of sapphires; the sixth had nine cases full of rubies; the seventh nine cases full of emeralds; the eighth had nine cases full of amethysts; and the ninth had nine cases full of diamonds.—Comte de Caylus, Oriental Tales (“Dakianos and the Seven Sleepers,” 1743).

Nine Gods (The) of the Etruscans: Juno, Minerva, and Tin´ia (the three chief). The other six were Vulcan, Mars, Saturn, Herculês, Summa´nus, and Vedius. (See Novensiles.)

Lars Por´sĕna of Clusium
By the nine gods he swore
That the great house of Tarquin
Should suffer wrong no more.
By the nine gods he swore it,
And named a trysting day ...
To summon his array.

Lord Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome (“Horatius,” i., 1842).

Nine Orders of Angels (The): (1) Seraphim, (2) Cherubim (in the first circle); (3) Thrones, (4) Dominions (in the second circle); (5) Virtues, (6) Powers, (7) Principalities, (8) Archangels, (9) Angels (in the third circle).

In heaven above
The effulgent bands in triple circles move.

Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered, xi. 13 (1575).

Novem vero angelorum ordines dicimus; ... scimus (1) Angelos, (2) Archangelos, (3) Virtues, (4) Potestates, (5) Principatus, (6) Dominationes, (7) Thronos, (8) Cherubim, (9) Seraphim.—Gregory, Homily, 34 (A.D. 381).

Nine Worthies (The). Three were pagans: Hector, Alexander, and Julius Cæsar. Three were Jews: Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabæus. Three were Christians: Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon.

Nine. Worthies (privy councillors to William III.). Four were Whigs: Devonshire, Dorset, Monmouth, and Edward Russell. Five were Tories: Caermarthen, Pembroke, Nottingham, Marlborough, and Lowther.

Nine Worthies of London (The): Sir William Walworth, Sir Henry Pritchard, Sir William Sevenoke, Sir Thomas White, Sir John Bonham, Christopher Croker, Sir John Hawkwood, Sir Hugh Caverley, and Sir Henry Maleverer.

* The chronicles of these nine worthies are written in prose and verse by Richard Johnson (1592), author of The Seven Champions of Christendom.

Nineve (2 syl.), the Lady of the Lake, in Arthurian romance.

Then the Lady of the Lake, that was always friendly unto King Arthur, understood by her subtle craft that he was like to have been destroyed; and so the Lady of the Lake, that hight Nineve, came into the forest to seek Sir Launcelot du Lake.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, ii. 57 (1470).

* This name occurs three times in the Morte d’Arthur—once as “Nimue,” once as “Nineve,” and once as “Ninive.” Probably “Nimue” (q.v.) is a clerical error.

Ninon de Lenclos, a beautiful Parisian, rich, spirituelle, and an atheist, who abandoned herself to epicurean indulgence, and preserved her charms to a very advanced age. Ninon de Lenclos renounced marriage, and had numberless lovers. Her house was the rendezvous of all the most illustrious persons of the period, as Molière, St. Evremont, Fontenelle, Voltaire, and so on (1615-1705).

Niobe [Ne´.oby], the beau-ideal of grief. After losing her twelve children, she was changed into a stone, which wept continually.

* The group of “Niobe and her Children” in Florence, discovered at Rome in 1583, is now arranged in the Uffizii Gallery.

She followed my poor father’s body,
Like Niobê, all tears.

Shakespeare, Hamlet, act i. sc. 2 (1596).

Niobe of Nations (The). Rome is so called by Byron.—Childe Harold, iv. 79 (1817).

Nipper (Susan), generally called “Spitfire,” from her snappish disposition. She was the nurse of Florence Dombey, to whom she was much attached. Susan Nipper married Mr. Toots (after he had got over his infatuation for Florence).

Nippotate (4 syl.), “a live lion stuffed with straw,” exhibited in a raree-show. This proved to be the body of a tame hedgehog exhibited by Old Harry, a notorious character in London at the beginning of the eighteenth century (died 1710).

Of monsters stranger than can be expressed,
There’s Nippotatê lies amongst the rest.

Sutton Nicholls.

Niquee [Ne´.kay], the sister of Anasterax, with whom she lived in incest. The fairy Zorphee was her godmother, and enchanted her, in order to break off this connection.—Vasco de Lobeira, Amadis de Gaul (thirteenth century).

Nisroch [Niz´.rok], “of principalities the prince.” A god of the Assyrians. In the book of Kings the Septuagint calls him “Meserach,” and in Isaiah “Nasarach.” Josephus calls him “Araskês.” One of the rebel angels in Milton’s Paradise Lost. He Says:

Sense of pleasure we may well
Spare out of life, perhaps, and not repine,
But live content, which is the calmest life;
But pain is perfect misery, the worst
Of evils, and, excessive, overturns
All patience.

Milton, Paradise Lost, (1665).

Nit, one of the attendants of Queen Mab.

Hop, and Mop, and Drap so clear,
Pip, and Trip, and Skip, that were
To Mab their sovereign dear—
Her special maids of honor.
Fib, and Tib, and Pinck, and Pin,
Tick, and Quick, and Jil, and Jin,
Tit, and Nit, and Wap, and Win—
The train that wait upon her.

Drayton, Nymphidia (1563-1631).

Nitchs, daughter of Amases, king of Egypt. She was sent to Persia to become the wife of Cambyses.—Georg Ebers, An Egyptian Princess.

Nixon (Christal), agent to Mr. Edward Redgauntlet, the Jacobite.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Nixon (Martha), the old nurse of the earl of Oxford.—Sir W. Scott, Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).

No One (Cæsar or). Julius Cæsar said, “Aut Cæsar aut nullus.” And again, “I would sooner be first in a village than second at Rome.”

Milton makes Satan say, “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.”

Jonathan Wild used to say, “I’d rather stand on the top of a dunghill than at the bottom of a hill in paradise.”

Tennyson says, “All in all or not at all.”—Idylls (“Vivien”).

“Six thrice or three dice” (aces were called dice, and did not count).

No Song no Supper, a musical drama by Prince Hoare, F.S.A. (1790). Crop, the farmer, has married a second wife called Dorothy, who has an amiable weakness for a rascally lawyer named Endless. During the absence of her husband, Dorothy provides a supper for Endless, consisting of roast lamb and a cake; but just as the lawyer sits down to it, Crop, with Margaretta, knocks at the door. Endless is concealed in a sack, and the supper is carried away. Presently Robin, the sweetheart of Margaretta, arrives, and Crop regrets there is nothing but bread and cheese to offer him. Margaretta now volunteers a song, the first verse of which tells Crop there is roast lamb in the house, which is accordingly produced; the second verse tells him there is a cake, which is produced also; and the third verse tells him that Endless is concealed in a sack. Had there been no song there would have been no supper, but the song produced the roast lamb and new cake.

Noah’s Wife, Wâïla (3 syl.), who endeavored to persuade the people that her husband was distraught.

The wife of Noah [Wâïla] and the wife of Lot [Wâhela] were both unbelievers ... and deceived their husbands ... and it shall be said to them at the last day, “Enter ye into hell fire.”—Sale, Al Korân, lxvi.

Nobbs, the horse of “Dr. Dove of Doncaster.”—Southey, The Doctor (1834).

Noble (The), Charles III. of Navarre (1361, 1387-1425).

Soliman, Tchelibi, the Turk (died 1410).

* Khosrou or Chosroës I. was called “The Noble Soul” (*, 531-579).

Nodel, the lion, in the beast-epic called Reynard the Fox. Nodel, the lion, represents the regal element of Germany; Isengrin, the wolf, represents the baronial element; and Reynard, the fox, the Church element (1498).

Noel (Eusebe), schoolmaster of Bout du Monde. “His clothes are old and worn, and his manner vacant.”—E. Stirling, The Gold Mine, or Miller of Grenoble, act i. sc. 2 (1854).

Noggs (Newman), Ralph Nickleby’s clerk. A tall man of middle age, with two goggle eyes (one of which was fixed), a rubicund nose, a cadavarous face, and a suit of clothes decidedly the worse for wear. He had the gift of distorting and cracking his finger-joints. This kind-hearted, dilapidated fellow “kept his hunter and hounds once,” but ran through his fortune. He discovered a plot of old Ralph, which he confided to the Cheeryble brothers, who frustrated it, and then provided for Newman.—C. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (1838).

Noko´mis, mother of Weno´nah, and grandmother of Hiawatha. Nokomis was the daughter of the Moon. While she was swinging one day, some of her companions, out of jealousy, cut the ropes, and she fell to earth in a meadow. The same night her first child, a daughter, was born, and was named Wenonah.

There among the ferns and mosses ...
Fair Nokomis bore a daughter,
And she called her name Wenonah.

Longfellow, Hiawatha, iii. (1855).

Non Mi Ricordo, the usual answer of the Italian courier and other Italian witnesses when on examination at the trial of Queen Caroline (the wife of George IV.), in 1820.

“Lord Flint,” in Such Things Are, by Mrs. Inchbald (1786), when asked a question he wished to evade, used to reply, “My people know, no doubt, but I cannot recollect.”

“Pierre Choppard,” in The Courier of Lyons, by Edward Stirling (1852), when asked an ugly question, always answered “I’ll ask my wife, my memory’s so slippery.”

The North American society called the “Know Nothings,” founded in 1853, used to reply to every question about their order, “I know nothing about it.”

Nona´cris’ Stream, the river Styx, in Arcadia. Cassander says he has in a phial some of this “horrid spring,” one drop of which, mixed with wine, would act as a deadly poison. To this Polyperchon replies:

I know its power, for I have seen it tried.
Pains of all sorts thro’ every nerve and artery
At once it scatters,—burns at once and freezes—
Till, by extremity of torture forced,
The soul consents to leave her joyless home.

N. Lee, Alexander the Great, iv. i (1678).

Nonentity (Dr.), a metaphysician, and thought by most people to be a profound scholar. He generally spreads himself before the fire, sucks his pipe, talks little, drinks much, and is reckoned very good company. You may know him by his long grey wig, and the blue handkerchief round his neck.

Dr. Nonentity, I am told, writes indexes to perfection, makes essays, and reviews any work with a single day’s warning.—Goldsmith, A Citizen of the World, xxix. (1759).

Norbert (Father), Pierre Parisot Norbert, the French missionary (1697-1769).

Norland (Lord), father of Lady Eleanor Irwin, and guardian of Lady Ramble (Miss Maria Wooburn). He disinherited his daughter for marrying against his will, and left her to starve, but subsequently relented, and relieved her wants and those of her young husband.—Inchbald, Every One has His Fault (1794).

Norma, a vestal who had been seduced, and discovers her paramour trying to seduce a sister vestal. In despair, she contemplates the murder of her base-born children.—Bellini, Norma (1831); libretto, by Romani.

Norman, forester of Sir William Ashton, lord-keeper of Scotland.—Sir W. Scott, Bride of Lammermoor (time, William III.).

Norman, a “sea-captain,” in love with Violet, the ward of Lady Arundel. It turns out that this Norman is her ladyship’s son by her first husband, and heir to the title and estates; but Lady Arundel, having married a second husband, had a son named Percy, whom she wished to make her heir. Norman’s father was murdered, and Norman, who was born three days afterwards, was brought up by Onslow, a village priest. At the age of 14 he went to sea, and became captain of a man-of-war. Ten years later he returned to Arundel, and though at first his mother ignored him, and Percy flouted him, his noble and generous conduct disarmed hostility, and he not only reconciled his half-brother, but won his mother’s affection, and married Violet, his heart’s “sweet sweeting.”—Lord Lytton, The Sea-Captain (1839).

Norm-nan-Ord or Norman of the Hammer, one of the eight sons of Torquil of the Oak.—Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

Normandy (The Gem of), Emma, daughter of Richard I. (died 1052).

Norna of the Fitful Head, “The Reimkennar.” Her real name was, Ulla Troil, but after her seduction by Basil Mertoun (Vaughan), and the birth of a son named Clement Cleveland (the future pirate), she changed her name. Towards the end of the novel, Norna gradually recovered her senses. She was the aunt of Minna and Brenda Troil.—Sir W. Scott, The Pirate (time, William III.).

[One] cannot fail to trace in Norna—the victim of remorse and insanity, and the dupe of her own imposture, her mind too flooded with all the wild literature and extravagant superstitions of the north—something distinct from the Dumfriesshire gypsy, whose pretensions to supernatural powers are not beyond those of a Norwood prophetess.—The Pirate (introduction, 1821).

Norris, a family to whom Martin Chuzzlewit was introduced while he was in America. They were friends of Mr. Bevan, rabid abolitionists, and yet hankering after titles as the gilt of the gingerbread of life.—C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

Norris (Black), a dark, surly man, and a wrecker. He wanted to marry Marian, “the daughter” of Robert (also a wrecker); but Marian was betrothed to Edward, a young sailor. Robert, being taken up for murder, was condemned to death; but Norris told Marian he would save his life if she would promise to marry him. Marian consented, but was saved by the arrest of Black Norris for murder.—S. Knowles, The Daughter (1836).

North (Christopher), pseudonym of John Wilson, professor of moral philosophy, Edinburgh, editor of Blackwood’s Magazine, in which appeared the “Noctes Ambrosianæ” (1805-1861).

North (Lord), one of the judges in the State trial of Geoffrey Peveril, Julian, and the dwarf, for being concerned in the popish plot.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II).

North Britain (The), a radical periodical, conducted by John Wilkes. The celebrated number of this serial was No. 45, in which the ministers are charged “with putting a lie in the king’s mouth.”

Northamptonshire Poet (The), John Clare (1793-1864).

Northern Harlot (The), Elizabeth Petrowna, empress of Russia; also called “The Infamous” (1709-1761).

Northern Wagoner, a group of seven stars called variously Charles’s Wain, or Wagon, i.e. churl’s wain; Ursa Major, The Great Bear, and The Dipper. Four make the wagon, or the dipper, three form the shaft, or the handle. Two are called Pointers because they point to the Pole-star.

By this the northern wagoner has set
His sevenfold team behind the steadfast star
That was in ocean waves yet never wet,
But firm is fixed, and sendeth light from far
To all that on the wide deep wandering are.

Spenser, Faëry Queen, I. ii. 1 (1590).

Norval (Old), a shepherd, who brings up Lady Randolph’s son (Douglas) as his own. He was hidden at birth in a basket, because Sir Malcolm (her father) hated Douglas, whom she had privately married. The child being found by old Norval, was brought up as his own, but the old man discovered that the foundling was “Sir Malcolm’s heir and Douglas’s son.” When 18 years old, the foster-son saved the life of Lord Randolph. Lady Randolph took great interest in the young man, and when old Norval told her his tale, she instantly perceived that the young hero was in fact her own son.

Young Norval, the infant exposed and brought up by the old shepherd as his own son. He turned out to be Sir Malcolm’s heir. His mother was Lady Randolph, and his father Lord Douglas, her first husband. Young Norval, having saved the life of Lord Randolph, was given by him a commission in the army. Glenalvon, the heir-presumptive of Lord Randolph, hated the new favorite, and persuaded his lordship that the young man was too familiar with Lady Randolph. Being waylaid, Norval was attacked, slew Glenalvon, but was in turn slain by Lord Randolph. After the death of Norval, Lord Randolph discovered that he had killed the son of his wife by a former marriage. The mother, in her distraction, threw herself headlong from a lofty precipice, and Lord Randolph went to the war then raging between Denmark and Scotland.—J Home, Douglas (1757).

(This was a favorite character with John Kemble, 1757-1823.)

Norway (The Fair Maid of), Margaret, granddaughter of Alexander III. of Scotland. She died (1290) of sea-sickness on her passage from Norway to Scotland. Her father was Eric II., king of Norway, and her mother was Margaret, only daughter of Alexander III.

Nose (Golden), Tycho Brahê, the Danish astronomer. Having lost his nose in a duel with one Passberg, he adopted a golden one, and attached it to his face by a cement which he carried about with him.

Nosebag (Mrs.), wife of a lieutenant in the dragoons. She is the inquisitive travelling companion of Waverley when he travels by stage to London.—Sir W. Scott, Waverley (time, George II.).

Nosey (Play up!) This exclamation was common in our theatres in the days of Macklin, etc. M. Nozay was the leader of the orchestra in Covent Garden Theatre.

* Some persons affirm that “Old Nosey” was Cervetto, the violoncello player at Drury Lane (1753), and say that he was so called from his long nose.

Napoleon III., was nicknamed Grosbec (“Nosey”).

Nosnot-Bocai [Bo´.ky], prince of purgatory.

Sir, I last night received command
To see you out of Fairy-land.
Into the realm of Nosnot-Bocai.

King, Orpheus and Eurydice.

Nostrada´mus (Michael), an astrologer of the sixteenth century, who published an annual Almanac and a Recueil of Prophecies, in verse (1503-1566).

Nostrada´mus of Portugal, Gonçalo Annês Bandarra, a poet-cobbler, whose career was stopped, in 1556, by the Inquisition.

Nottingham (The countess of), a quondam sweetheart of the earl of Essex, and his worst enemy, when she heard that he had married the countess of Rutland. The queen sent her to the Tower to ask Essex if he had no petition to make, and the earl requested her to take back a ring, which the queen had given him as a pledge of mercy in time of need. As the countess out of jealousy forbore to deliver it, the earl was executed.—Henry Jones, The Earl of Essex (1745).

Nottingham Lambs, (The), the Nottingham roughs.

Nottingham Poet (The), Philip James Bailey, the author of Festus, etc. (1816- ).

No´tus, the south wind; Afer is the south-west wind.

Notus and Afer, black with thundrous clouds.

Milton, Paradise Lost, (1665).

Noukhail, the angel of day and night.

The day and night are trusted to my care. I hold the day in my right hand and the night in my left; and I maintain the just equilibrium between them, for if either were to overbalance the other, the universe would either be consumed by the heat of the sun, or would perish with the cold of darkness.—Comte de Caylus, Oriental Tales (“History of Abdal Motallab,” 1743).

Nouman (Sidi), an Arab who married Amīnê, a very beautiful woman, who ate her rice with a bodkin. Sidi, wishing to know how his wife could support life and health without more food than she partook of in his presence, watched her narrowly, and discovered that she was a ghoul, who went by stealth every night and feasted on the fresh-buried dead. When Sidi made this discovery, Aminê changed him into a dog. After he was restored to his normal shape, he changed Aminê into a mare, which every day he rode almost to death.—Arabian Nights (“History of Sidi Nouman”).

Your majesty knows that ghouls of either sex are demons which wander about the fields. They commonly inhabit ruinous buildings, whence they issue suddenly on unwary travellers, whom they kill and devour. If they fail to meet with travellers, they go by night into burying grounds, and dig up dead bodies, on which they feed.—“History of Sidi Nouman.”

Nouredeen, son of Khacan (vizier of Zinebi, king of Balsora). He got possession of the “beautiful Persian” purchased for the king. At his father’s death he soon squandered away his patrimony in the wildest extravagance, and fled with his beautiful slave to Bagdad. Here he encountered Haroun-al-Raschid in disguise, and so pleased the caliph, that he was placed in the number of those courtiers most intimate with his majesty, who also bestowed on him so plentiful a fortune, that he lived with the “beautiful Persian” in affluence all the rest of his life.—Arabian Nights (“Nouredeen and the Beautiful Persian”).

Nour´eddin´ Ali, younger son of the vizier of Egypt. “He was possessed of as much merit as can fall to the lot of man.” Having quarrelled with his elder brother, he travelled to Baso´ra, where he married the vizier’s daughter, and succeeded his father-in-law in office. A son was born to him in due time, and on the very same day the wife of his elder brother had a daughter. Noureddin died when his son was barely twenty, and unmarried.—Arabian Nights (“Noureddin Ali,” etc.).

Nourgehan’s Bracelet. Nourgehan, emperor of the Moguls, had a bracelet which had the property of discovering poison, even at a considerable distance. When poison was anywhere near the wearer, the stones of the bracelet seemed agitated, and the agitation increased as the poison approached them.—Comte de Caylus, Oriental Tales (“The Four Talismans,” 1743).

Nour´jahad, a sleeper, like Rip Van Winkle, Epimen´idês, etc. (See Sleepers.)

Nourjeham (“light of the world”). So the Sultana Nourmahal was subsequently called.—T. Moore, Lalla Rookh (“The Light of the Haram,” 1817).

Nourmahal´ (The sultana), i.e. “Light of the Haram,” afterwards called Nourjeham (“light of the world”). She was for a season estranged from the sultan, till he gave a grand banquet, at which she appeared in disguise as a lute-player and singer. The sultan was so enchanted with her performance, that he exclaimed, “If Nourmahal had so played and sung, I could forgive her all;” whereupon the sultana threw off her mask, and Selim “caught her to his heart.”—T. Moore, Lalla Rookh (“The Light of the Haram,” 1817).

Nouron´ihar, daughter of the Emir Fakreddin; a laughing, beautiful girl, full of fun and pretty mischief, dotingly fond of Gulchenrouz, her cousin, a boy of 13. She married the Caliph Vathek, with whom she descended into the abyss of Eblis, whence she never after returned to the light of day.

The trick she played Bababalouk was this: Vathek, the caliph, was on a visit to Fakreddin, the emir´, and Bababalouk, his chief eunuch, intruded into the bathroom, where Nouronihar and her damsels were bathing. Nouronihar induced the old eunuch to rest himself on the swing, when the girls set it going with all their might. The cords broke, the eunuch fell into the bath, and the girls made off with their lamps, and left the meddlesome old fool to flounder about till morning, when assistance came, but not before he was half dead.—W. Beckford, Vathek (1784).

Nouroun´nihar, niece of a sultan of India, who had three sons, all in love with her. The sultan said he would give her to him who, in twelve months, gave him the most valuable present. The three princes met in a certain inn at the expiration of the time, when one prince looked through a tube, which showed Nourounnihar at the point of death; another of the brothers transported all three instantaneously on a magic carpet to the princess’s chamber; and the third brother gave her an apple to smell of which effected an instant cure. It was impossible to decide which of these presents was the most valuable; so the sultan said he should have her who shot an arrow to the greatest distance. The eldest (Houssian) shot first; Ali overshot the arrow of his eldest brother; but that of the youngest brother (Ahmed) could nowhere be found. So the award was given to Ahmed.—Arabian Nights (“Ahmed and Pari-Banou”).

Novel (Father of the English). Henry Fielding is so called by Sir W. Scott (1707-1754).

Noven´siles (4 syl.), the nine Sabine gods, viz.: Herculês, Romulus, Esculapius, Bacchus, Ænēas, Vesta, Santa, Fortuna and Fidês or Faith. (See Nine Gods of the Etruscans.)

Novit (Mr. Nichil), the lawyer of the old laird of Dumbiedikes.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).

Novius, the usurer, famous for the loudness of his voice.

... at hic si plaustra ducenta
Concurrantque foro tria funera magna sonabit
Cornua quod vincatque tubas.

Horace, Satires, i. 6.

These people seem to be of the race of Novius, that Roman banker, whose voice exceeded the noise of carmen.—Lesage, Gil Blas, vii. 13 (1735).

Now-now (Old Anthony), an itinerant fiddler. The character is a skit on Anthony Munday, the dramatist.—Chettle, Kindheart’s Dream (1592).

Nuath (2 syl.), father of Lathmon and Oith´ona (q.v.).—Ossian, Oithona.

Nubbles (Mrs.), a poor widow woman, who was much given to going to Little Bethel.

Christopher or Kit Nubbles, her son, the servant in attendance on little Nell, whom he adored. After the death of little Nell, Kit married Barbara, a fellow-servant.—C. Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop (1840).

Nugent Dubourg, twin brother of Oscar Dubourg, somewhat conceited, who patronizes his brother, and would like to marry his brother’s betrothed, Lucilla Finch, blind and an heiress. Her sight is restored by an operation, and Nugent places himself where her eyes will first fall upon him, instead of on his disfigured brother. Beginning with this, he personates Oscar until Lucilla again loses her sight. He then yields her to his brother, joins an Arctic exploring expedition, and perishes in the Polar regions.—Wilkie Collins, Poor Miss Finch.

Numa Roumestan, French deputy from the South of France. Audacious, gay and unprincipled, he possesses all the qualities that render him “the joy of the street, the sorrow of the home.”—Alphonse Daudet, Numa Roumestan.

Number Nip, the name of the gnome king of the Giant Mountains.—Musæus, Popular Tales (1782).

* Musæus was a German, uncle of Kotzebue (died 1788).

Nuncanou (Aurore and Clotilde). Beautiful Creoles, mother and daughter, in George W. Cable’s novel, The Grandissimes.

Nun’s Tale (The), the tale of the cock and the fox. One day, dan Russell, the fox, came into the poultry-yard, and told Master Chanticlere, he could not resist the pleasure of hearing him sing, for his voice was so divinely ravishing. The cock, pleased with this flattery, shut his eyes, and began to crow most lustily; whereupon dan Russell seized him by the throat, and ran off with him. When they got to the wood, the cock said to the fox, “I would recommend you to eat me at once, I think I can hear your pursuers.” “I am going to do so,” said the fox; but when he opened his mouth to reply, off flew the cock into a tree, and while the fox was deliberating how he might regain his prey, up came the farmer and his men with scythes, flails, and pitchforks, with which they despatched the fox without mercy.—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (1388).

* This fable is one of those by Marie, of France, called Don Coc and Don Werpil.

Nun’s Tale (The Second). This is the tale about Maxime and the martyrs, Valerian and Tiburcê. The prefect ordered Maxime (2 syl.) to put Valerian and Tiburcê to death, because they refused to worship the image of Jupiter; but Maxime showed kindness to the two Christians, took them home, became converted, and was baptized. When Valerian and Tiburcê were put to death, Maxime declared that he saw angels come and carry them up to heaven, whereupon the prefect caused him to be beaten to death with whips of lead.—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (1388).

* This tale is very similar to that of St. Cecilia, in the Legenda Aurea. See also Acts xvi. 25-34.

Nupkins, mayor of Ipswich, a man who has a most excellent opinion of himself, but who, in all magisterial matters, really depends almost entirely on Jinks, his half-starved clerk.—C. Dickens, The Pickwick Papers (1836).

Nurse (Rebecca). Accused of witchcraft and acquitted by the court. “And suddenly, after all the afflicted out of court made a hideous outcry ... one of the judges expressed himself not satisfied, another, as he was going off the bench, said they would have her indicted anew.”

At the second trial she was condemned, and she was executed with the rest.

“The testimonials of her Christian behavior, both in the course of her life and at her death, and her extraordinary care in educating her children, and setting them a good example, etc., under the hands of so many, are so numerous that for brevity they are here omitted.”—Robert Calef, More Wonders of the Invisible World (1700).

Nut-Brown Maid (The), the maid wooed by the “banished man.” The “banished man” describes to her the hardships she would have to undergo if she married him; but finding that she accounted these hardships as nothing compared with his love, he revealed himself to be an earl’s son, with large hereditary estates in Westmoreland, and married her.—Percy, Reliques, II.

This ballad is based on the legendary history of Lord Henry Clifford, called “The Shepherd Lord.” It was modernized by Prior, who called his version of the story Henry and Emma. The oldest form of the ballad extant is contained in Arnolde’s Chronicle (1502).

Nydia. Greek flower-girl, blind and friendless. Glaucus is kind to, and protects her, finally purchases her of her brutal master. She loves him passionately and hopelessly, saves his life and that of his betrothed at the destruction of Pompeii; embarks with them in a skiff bound for a safer harbor, and while all are asleep, springs overboard and drowns herself.—E. L. Bulwer, Last Days of Pompeii (1834).

Nym, corporal in the army under Captain Sir John Falstaff, introduced in The Merry Wives of Windsor and in Henry V., but not in Henry IV. It seems that Lieutenant Peto had died, and given a step to the officers under him. Thus, Ensign Pistol becomes lieutenant, Corporal Bardolph becomes ensign, and Nym takes the place of Bardolph. He is an arrant rogue, and both he and Bardolph are hanged (Henry V.). The word means to “pilfer.”

It would be difficult to give any other reply save that of Corporal Nym—it was the author’s humor or caprice.—Sir W. Scott.

Nymphid´ia, a mock-heroic by Drayton. The fairy Pigwiggen is so gallant to Queen Mab as to arouse the jealousy of King Oberon. One day, coming home and finding his queen absent, Oberon vows vengeance on the gallant, and sends Puck to ascertain the whereabouts of Mab and Pigwiggen. In the mean time, Nymphidia gives the queen warning, and the queen, with all her maids of honor, creep into a hollow nut for concealment. Puck, coming up, sets foot in the enchanted circle which Nymphidia had charmed, and, after stumbling about for a time, tumbles into a ditch. Pigwiggen, seconded by Tomalin, encounters Oberon, seconded by Tom Thum, and the fight is “both fast and furious.” Queen Mab, in alarm, craves the interference of Proserpine, who first envelopes the combatants in a thick smoke, which compels them to desist, and then gives them a draught “to assuage their thirst.” The draught was from the river Lethê; and immediately the combatants had tasted it, they forgot not only the cause of the quarrel, but even that they had quarrelled at all.—M. Drayton, Nymphidia (1593).

Nysa, daughter of Silēno and Mys´is, and sister of Daphnê. Justice Mi´das is in love with her; but she loves Apollo, her father’s guest.—Kane O’Hara, Midas (1764).

Nysê, Doto, and Neri´nê, the three nereids who went before the fleet of Vasco da Gama. When the treacherous pilot steered the ship of Vasco towards a sunken rock, these three sea-nymphs lifted up the prow and turned it round.—Camoens, Lusiad, ii. (1569).

O (Our Lady of). The Virgin Mary is so called in some old Roman rituals, from the ejaculation at the beginning of the seven anthems preceding the Magnificat, as: “O, when will the day arrive...?” “O, when shall I see...?” “O, when...?” and so on.

Oakly (Major), brother to Mr. Oakly, and uncle to Charles. He assists his brother in curing his “jealous wife.”

Mr. Oakly, husband of the “jealous wife.” A very amiable man, but deficient in that strength of mind which is needed to cure the idiosyncrasy of his wife; so he obtains the assistance of his brother, the major.

Mrs. Oakly, “the jealous wife” of Mr. Oakly. A woman of such suspicious temper, that every remark of her husband is distorted into a proof of his infidelity. She watches him like a tiger, and makes both her own and her husband’s life utterly wretched.

Charles Oakly, nephew of the major. A fine, noble-spirited young fellow, who would never stand by and see a woman insulted; but a desperate debauchee and drunkard. He aspires to the love of Harriot Russet, whose influence over him is sufficiently powerful to reclaim him.—George Colman, The Jealous Wife (1761).

Oates (Dr. Titus), the champion of the popish plot.

Forth came the notorious Dr. Oates, rustling in the full silken canonicals of priesthood, for ... he affected no small dignity of exterior decoration and deportment.... His exterior was portentous. A fleece of white periwig showed a most uncouth visage, of great length, having the mouth ... placed in the very centre of the countenance, and exhibiting to the astonished spectator as much chin below as there was nose and brow above it. His pronunciation was after a conceited fashion of his own, in which he accented the vowels in a manner altogether peculiar to himself.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Oaths.

John Perrot, a natural son of Henry VIII., was the first to employ the profane oath of God’s Wounds, which Queen Elizabeth adopted, but the ladies of her court minced and softened it into zounds and zouterkins.

William the Conqueror swore by the Splendor of God.

William Rufus, by St. Luke’s face.

King John, by God’s Tooth.

Henry VIII., by God’s Wounds.

Charles II., by Ods fish [God’s Flesh].

Louis XI. of France, by God’s Easter.

Charles VIII. of France, by God’s Light.

Louis XII., by The Devil take me (Diable m’emporte).

The Chevalier Bayard by God’s Holyday.

Francois I. used for asseveration, On the word of a gentleman.

Henry III. of England, when he confirmed “Magna Charta,” used the expression, On the word of a gentleman, a king and a knight.

Earl of Angus (reign of Queen Mary), when incensed, used to say, By the might of God, but at other times his oath was By St. Bride of Douglas.—Godscroft, 275.

St. Winfred or Boni´face used to swear by St. Peter’s tomb.

In the reign of Charles II. fancy oaths were the fashion. (For specimens, see Foppington.)

The most common oath of the ancient Romans was By Herculês! for men; and By Castor! for women; By Pollux! for both.

Viri per Herculem, mulieres per Castorem, utrique per Pollucem jurare soliti.—Gellius, Noctes Atticœ, ii. 6.

Obad´don, the angel of death. This is not the same angel as Abbad´ona, one of the fallen angels, and once the friend of Ab´diel (bk. vi.).

My name is Ephod Obaddon or Sevenfold Revenge. I am an angel of destruction. It was I who destroyed the first-born of Egypt. It was I who slew the army of Sennacherib.—Klopstock, The Messiah, xiii. (1771).

Obadi´ah, “the foolish fat scullion” in Sterne’s novel of Tristram Shandy (1759).

Obadiah, clerk to Justice Day. A nincompoop, fond of drinking, but with just a shade more brains than Abel Day, who is “a thorough ass” (act i. 1).—T. Knight, The Honest Thieves (died 1820).

This farce is a mere réchauffé of The Committee (1670), a comedy by the Hon. Sir R. Howard, the names and much of the conversation being identical. Colonel Blunt is called in the farce “Captain Manly.”

Obadiah Prim, a canting, knavish hypocrite; one of the four guardians of Anne Lovely, the heiress. Colonel Feignwell personates Simon Pure, and obtains the Quaker’s consent to his marriage with Anne Lovely.—Mrs. Centlivre, A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1717).

Obermann, the impersonation of high moral worth without talent, and the tortures endured by the consciousness of this defect.—Etienne Pivert de Sen´ancour, Obermann (1804).

Oberon, king of the fairies, quarrelled with his wife, Titania, about a “changeling” which Obĕron wanted for a page, but Titania refused to give up. Oberon, in revenge, anointed her eyes in sleep with the extract of “Love in Idleness,” the effect of which was to make the sleeper in love with the first object beheld on waking. Titania happened to see a country bumpkin, whom Puck had dressed up with an ass’s head. Oberon came upon her while she was fondling the clown, sprinkled on her an antidote, and she was so ashamed of her folly that she readily consented to give up the boy to her spouse for his page.—Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream (1592).

Oberon, the Fay, king of Mommur, a humpty dwarf, three feet high, of angelic face. He told Sir Huon that the lady of the Hidden Isle (Cephalonia) married Neptanēbus, king of Egypt, by whom she had a son named Alexander “the Great.” Seven hundred years later she had another son, Oberon, by Julius Cæsar, who stopped in Cephalonia on his way to Thessaly. At the birth of Oberon the fairies bestowed their gifts on him. One was insight into men’s thoughts, and another was the power of transporting himself instantaneously to any place. At death he made Huon his successor, and was borne to paradise.—Huon de Bordeaux (a romance).

Oberthal (Count), lord of Dordrecht, near the Meuse. When Bertha, one of his vassals, asked permission to marry John of Leyden, the count withheld his consent, as he designed to make Bertha his mistress. This drove John into rebellion, and he joined the anabaptists. The count was taken prisoner by Gio´na, a discarded servant, but was liberated by John. When John was crowned prophet-king the count entered the banquet-hall to arrest him, and perished with him in the flames of the burning palace.—Meyerbeer, Le Prophète (opera, 1849).

Obi. Among the negroes of the West Indies “Obi” is the name of a magical power, supposed to affect men with all the curses of an “evil eye.”

Obi-Woman (An), an African sorceress, a worshipper of Mumbo Jumbo.

Obi´dah, a young man who meets with various adventures and misfortunes allegorical of human life.—Dr. Johnson, The Rambler (1750-2).

Obid´icut, the fiend of lust, and one of the five which possessed “poor Tom.”—Shakespeare, King Lear, act iv. sc. 1 (1605).

O’Brallaghan (Sir Callaghan), “a wild Irish soldier in the Prussian army. His military humor makes one fancy he was not only born in a siege, but that Bellōna had been his nurse, Mars his schoolmaster and the Furies his playfellows.” He is the successful suitor of Charlotte Goodchild.—Macklin, Love-à-la-mode (1759).

O’Brien, the Irish lieutenant under Captain Savage.—Captain Marryat, Peter Simple (1833).

Observant Friars, those friars who observe the rule of St. Francis; to abjure books, land, house and chapel, to live on alms, dress in rags, feed on scraps and sleep anywhere.

Obstinate, an inhabitant of the City of Destruction, who advised Christian to return to his family, and not run on a wild-goose chase.—Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, i. (1678).

Occasion, the mother of Furor; an ugly, wrinkled old hag, lame of one foot. Her head was bald behind, but in front she had a few hoary locks. Sir Guyon seized her, gagged her and bound her.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, ii. 4 (1590).

Ochiltree (Old Edie), a king’s bedesman or blue-gown. Edie is a garrulous, kind-hearted, wandering beggar, who assures Mr. Lovel that the supposed ruin of a Roman camp is no such thing. The old bedesman delighted “to daunder down the burnsides and green shaws.” He is a well-drawn character.—Sir W. Scott, The Antiquary (time, George III.).

Ocnus (The Rope of), profitless labor. Ocnus is represented as twisting with unwearied diligence a rope, which an ass eats as fast as it is made. The allegory signifies that Ocnus worked hard to earn money, which his wife spent by her extravagance.

Octave (2 syl.), the son of Argante (2 syl.). During the absence of his father, Octave fell in love with Hyacinthe, daughter of Géronte, and married her, supposing her to be the daughter of Signor Pandolphe, of Tarentum. His father wanted him to marry the daughter of his friend Géronte, but Octave would not listen to it. It turned out, however, that the daughter of Pandolphe and the daughter of Géronte were one and the same person, for Géronte had assumed the name of Pandolphe while he lived in Tarentum, and his wife and daughter stayed behind after the father went to live at Naples.—Molière, Les Fourberies de Scapin (1671).

* In the English version, called The Cheats of Scapin, by Thomas Otway, Octave is called “Octavian,” Argante is called “Thrifty,” Hyacinthe is called “Clara,” and Géronte is “Gripe.”

Octavian, the lover of Floranthê. He goes mad because he imagines Floranthê loves another; but Roque, a blunt, kind-hearted old man, assures him that Doña Floranthê is true to him, and induces him to return home.—Colman, the younger, The Mountaineers (1793).

Octavian, the English form of “Octave” (2 syl.), in Otway’s Cheats of Scapin. (See Octave.)

Octa´vio, the supposed husband of Jacintha. This Jacintha was at one time contracted to Don Henrique, but Violante (4 syl.), passed for Don Henrique’s wife.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Spanish Curate (1622).

Octavio, the betrothed of Donna Clara.—Jephson, Two Strings to your Bow (1792).

Octer, a sea-captain in the reign of King Alfred, who traversed the Norwegian mountains, and sailed to the Dwina in the north of Russia.

The Saxon swaying all, in Alfred’s powerful reign,
Our English Octer put a fleet to sea again.

Drayton, Polyolbion, xix. (1622).

O’Cutter (Captain), a ridiculous Irish captain, befriended by Lady Freelove and Lord Trinket. He speaks with a great brogue, and interlards his speech with sea terms.—George Colman, The Jealous Wife (1761).

Oc´ypus, son of Podalirius and Astasia, noted for his strength, agility and beauty. Ocypus used to jeer at the gout, and the goddess of that disease caused him to suffer from it for ever.—Lucian.

Odalisque, in Turkey, one of the female slaves in the sultan’s harem (odalik, Arabic, “a chamber companion,” oda, “a chamber”).

He went forth with the lovely odalisques.

Byron, Don Juan, vi. 29 (1824).

Ode (Prince of the), Pierre de Ronsard (1534-1585).

Odoar, the venerable abbot of St. Felix, who sheltered King Roderick after his dethronement.—Southey, Roderick, Last of the Goths, iv. (1814).

* Southey sometimes makes the word Odoar´ [O´.dor], and sometimes O´doar (3 syl.), e.g.:

Odoar´, the venerable abbot sat (2 syl.)....
Odoar´ and Urban eyed him while he spake....
The Lady Adosinda O´doar cried (3 syl.)....
Tell him in O´doar’s name the hour has come!

O’Doh´erty (Sir Morgan), a pseudonym of W. Maginn, LL.D., in Blackwood’s Magazine (1819-1842).

O’Donohue’s White Horses. The boatmen of Killarney, so call those waves which, on a windy day, come crested with foam. The spirit of O’Donohue is supposed to glide over the lake of Killarney every May-day on his favorite white horse, to the sound of unearthly music.

Odori´co, a Biscayan, to whom Zerbi´no commits Isabella. He proves a traitor, and tries to defile her, but is interrupted in his base endeavor. Almonio defies him to single combat, and he is delivered bound to Zerbino, who condemns him, in punishment, to attend on Gabrina for twelve months, as her squire. He accepts the charge, but hangs Gabrina on an elm, and is himself hung by Almonio to the same tree.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Odors for Food. Plutarch, Pliny, and divers other ancients tell us of a nation in India that lived only upon pleasing odors. Democ´ritos lived for several days together on the mere effluvia of hot bread.—Dr. John Wilkins (1614-1672).

O’Dowd (Cornelius), the pseudonym of Charles James Lever, in Blackwood’s Magazine (1809-1872).

Odyssey. Homer’s epic, recording the adventures of Odysseus (Ulysses) in his voyage home from Troy.

Book I. The poem opens in the island of Calypso, with a complaint against Neptune and Calypso for preventing the return of Odysseus (3 syl.) to Ithaca.

II. Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, starts in search of his father, accompanied by Pallas, in the guise of Mentor.

III. Goes to Pylos, to consult old Nestor, and

IV. Is sent by him to Sparta; where he is told by Menelāus that Odysseus is detained in the island of Calypso.

V. In the mean time, Odysseus leaves the island, and, being shipwrecked, is cast on the shore of Phæācia.

VI. Where Nausicāa, the king’s daughter, finds him asleep, and

VII. Takes him to the court of her father, Alcinöos, who

VIII. Entertains him hospitably.

IX. At a banquet, Odysseus relates his adventures since he started from Troy. Tells about the Lotus-eaters and the Cyclops, with his adventures in the cave of Polyphēmos. He tells how

X. The wind-god gave him the winds in a bag. In the island of Circê, he says, his crew were changed to swine, but Mercury gave him a herb called Mōly, which disenchanted them.

XI. He tells the king how he descended into Hadês;

XII. Gives an account of the syrens; of Scylla and Charybdis; and of his being cast on the island of Calypso.

XIII. Alcinoos gives Odysseus a ship which conveys him to Ithăca, where he assumes the disguise of a beggar,

XIV. And is lodged in the house of Eumœos, a faithful old domestic.

XV. Telemachus, having returned to Ithaca, is lodged in the same house,

XVI. And becomes known to his father.

XVII. Odysseus goes to his palace, is recognized by his dog, Argos; but

XVIII. The beggar Iros insults him, and Odysseus breaks his jaw-bone.

XIX. While bathing, the returned monarch is recognized by a scar on his leg;

XX. And when he enters his palace, becomes an eye-witness to the disorders of the court, and to the way in which

XXI. Penelopê is pestered by suitors. To excuse herself, Penelopê tells her suitors he only shall be her husband who can bend Odysseus’s bow. None can do so but the stranger, who bends it with ease. Concealment is no longer possible or desirable;

XXII. He falls on the suitors hip and thigh;

XXIII. Is recognized by his wife.

XXIV. Visits his old father, Laertês; and the poem ends.

Œa´grian Harpist (The), Orpheus, son of Œa´gros and Cal´liōpê.

... can no lesse
Tame the fierce walkers of the wilderness,
Than that Œagrian harpist, for whose lay
Tigers with hunger pined and left their prey.

Wm. Browne, Brittania’s Pastorals, v. (1613).

Œ´dipos (in Latin Œdipus), son of Laïus and Jocasta. The most mournful tale of classic story.

* This tale has furnished the subject matter of several tragedies. In Greek we have Œdipus Tyrannus and Œdipus at Colōnus, by Sopho´oclês. In French, Œdipe, by Corneille (1659); Œdipe, by Voltaire (1718); Œdipe chez Admète, by J. F. Ducis (1778); Œdipe Roi and Œdipe à Colone, by Chénier; etc. In English, Œdipus, by Dryden and Lee.

Œno´ne (3 syl.), a nymph of Mount Ida, who had the gift of prophecy, and told her husband, Paris, that his voyage to Greece would involve him and his country (Troy) in ruin. When the dead body of old Priam’s son was laid at her feet, she stabbed herself.

Hither came at noon
Mournful Œnōnê, wandering forlorn
Of Paris, once her playmate on the hills [Ida]

Tennyson, Œnone.

* Kalkbrenner, in 1804, made this the subject of an opera.

Œno´pian, father of Mer´opê, to whom the giant Orīon made advances. Œnopian, unwilling to give his daughter to him, put out the giant’s eyes in a drunken fit.

Orion ...
Reeled as of yore beside the sea,
When blinded by Œnopian.

Longfellow, The Occultation of Orion.

Œte´an Knight (The). Her´culês is so called, because he burnt himself to death on Mount Œta or Œtæa, in Thessaly.

So also did that great Œtean knight
For his love’s sake his lion’s skin undight.

Spenser, Faëry Queen, v. 8 (1596).

Offa, king of Mercia, was the son of Thingferth, and the eleventh in descent from Woden. Thus: Woden (1) his son Wihtlæg, (2) his son Wærmund, (3) Offa I., (4) Angeltheow, (5) Eomær, (6) Icel, (7) Pybba, (8) Osmod, (9) Enwulf, (10) Thingferth, (11) Offa, whose son was Egfert, who died within a year of his father. His daughter, Eadburga, married Bertric, king of the West Saxons; and after the death of her husband, she went to the court of King Charlemagne. Offa reigned thirty-nine years (755-794).

O’Flaherty (Dennis), called “Major O’Flaherty.” A soldier, says he, is “no livery for a knave,” and Ireland is “not the country of dishonor.” The major pays court to old Lady Rusport, but when he detects her dishonest purposes in bribing her lawyer to make away with Sir Oliver’s will, and cheating Charles Dudley of his fortune, he not only abandons his suit, but exposes her dishonesty.—Cumberland, The West Indian (1771).

Og, king of Basan. Thus saith the rabbis:

The height of his stature was 23,033 cubits [nearly six miles]. He used to drink water from the clouds, and toast fish by holding them before the orb of the sun. He asked Noah to take him into the ark, but Noah would not. When the flood was at its deepest, it did not reach to the knees of this giant. Og lived 3000 years, and then he was slain by the hand of Moses.

Moses was himself ten cubits in stature [fifteen feet], and he took a spear ten cubits long, and threw it ten cubits high, and yet it only reached the heel of Og.... When dead, his body reached as far as the river Nile, in Egypt.

Og’s mother was Enac, a daughter of Adam. Her fingers were two cubits long [one yard], and on each finger she had two sharp nails. She was devoured by wild beasts.—Maracci.

In the satire of Absalom and Achitophel, by Dryden and Tate, Thomas Shadwell, who was a very large man, is called “Og.”

O´gier, the Dane, one of the paladins of the Charlemagne epoch. When 100 years old, Morgue, the fay, took him to the island of Av´alon, “hard by the terrestrial paradise;” gave him a ring which restored him to ripe manhood, a crown which made him forget his past life, and introduced him to King Arthur. Two hundred years afterwards, she sent him to defend France from the paynims, who had invaded it; and having routed the invaders, he returned to Avalon again.—Ogier, le Danois (a romance).

In a pack of French cards, Ogier, the Dane, is knave of spades. His exploits are related in the Chansons de Geste; he is introduced by Ariosto in Orlando Furioso, and by Morris in his Earthly Paradise (“August”).

Ogier’s Swords, Curtāna (“the cutter”) and Sauvagine.

Ogier’s Horse, Papillon.

Ogle (Miss), friend of Mrs. Racket; she is very jealous of young girls, and even of Mrs. Racket, because she was some six years her junior.—Mrs. Cowley, The Belle’s Stratagem (1780).

O´gleby (Lord), an old fop, vain to excess, but good-natured withal, and quite the slave of the fair sex, were they but young and fair. At the age of 70, his lordship fancied himself an Adonis, notwithstanding his qualms and his rheumatism. He required a great deal of “brushing, oiling, screwing, and winding up before he appeared in public,” but when fully made up, was game for the part of “lover, rake, or fine gentleman.” Lord Ogleby made his bow to Fanny Sterling, and promised to make her a countess; but the young lady had been privately married to Lovewell for four months.—Colman and Garrick, The Clandestine Marriage (1766).

O´gri, giants who fed on human flesh.

O’Groat (John), with his two brothers, Malcolm and Gavin, settled in Caithness in the reign of James IV. The families lived together in harmony for a time, and met once a year at John’s house. On one occasion a dispute arose about precedency—who was to take the head of the table, and who was to go out first. The old man said he would settle the question at the next annual muster; accordingly he made as many doors to his house as there were families, and placed his guests at a round table.

Oig M’Combich (Robin), or M’Gregor, a Highland drover, who quarrels with Harry Wakefield, an English drover, about a pasture-field, and stabs him. Being tried at Carlisle for murder, Robin is condemned to death.—Sir W. Scott, The Two Drovers (time, George III.).

Oina-Morul, daughter of Mal-Orchol, king of Fuärfed (a Scandinavian Island). Ton-Thormod asked her in marriage, and being refused by the father, made war upon him. Fingal sent his son Ossian to the aid of Mal-Orchol, and he took Ton-Thormod prisoner. The king now offered Ossian his daughter to wife, but the warrior-bard discovered that the lady had given her heart to Ton-Thormod; whereupon he resigned his claim, and brought about a happy reconciliation.—Ossian, Oina-Morul.

Oith´ona, daughter of Nuäth, betrothed to Gaul, son of Morni, and the day of their marriage was fixed; but before the time arrived, Fingal sent for Gaul to aid him in an expedition against the Britons. Gaul promised Oithona, if he survived, to return by a certain day. Lathmon, the brother of Oithona, was called away from home at the same time, to attend his father on an expedition; so the damsel was left alone in Dunlathmon. It was now that Dunrommath, lord of Uthal (one of the Orkneys) came and carried her off by force to Trom´athon, a desert island, where he concealed her in a cave. Gaul returned on the day appointed, heard of the rape, sailed for Trom´athon, and found the lady, who told him her tale of woe; but scarcely had she ended when Dunrommath entered the cave with his followers. Gaul instantly fell on him, and slew him. While the battle was raging, Oithona, arrayed as a warrior, rushed into the thickest of the fight, and was slain. When Gaul had cut off the head of Dunrommath, he saw what he thought a youth dying of a wound, and taking off the helmet, perceived it was Oithona. She died, and Gaul returned disconsolate to Dunlathmon.—Ossian, Oithona.

Okba, one of the sorcerers in the caves of Dom-Daniel “under the roots of the ocean.” It was decreed by fate that one of the race of Hodei´rah (3 syl.), would be fatal to the sorcerers; so Okba was sent forth to kill the whole race, both root and branch. He succeeded in cutting off eight of them, but Thal´aba contrived to escape. Abdaldar was sent to hunt down the survivor, but was himself killed by a simoom.

“Curse on thee, Okba!” Khawla cried....
“Okba, wert thou weak of heart?
Okba, wert thou blind of eye?
Thy fate and ours were on the lot ...
Thou hast let slip the reins of Destiny.
Curse thee, curse thee, Okba!”

Southey, Thalaba, the Destroyer, ii. 7 (1797).

O’Kean (Lieutenant), a quondam admirer of Mrs. Margaret Bertram, of Singleside.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Olave, brother of Norma, and grandfather of Minna and Brenda Troil.—Sir W. Scott, The Pirate (time, William III.).

Old Bags. John Scott, Lord Eldon; so called because he carried home with him in sundry bags the cases pending his judgment (1751-1838).

Old Bona Fide (2 syl.), Louis XIV. (1638, 1643-1715).

Old Curiosity Shop (The), a tale by C. Dickens (1840). An old man, having run through his fortune, opened a curiosity shop in order to earn a living, and brought up a granddaughter, named Nell [Trent], 14 years of age. The child was the darling of the old man, but, deluding himself with the hope of making a fortune by gaming, he lost everything, and went forth, with the child, a beggar. Their wanderings and adventures are recounted till they reach a quiet country village, where the old clergyman gives them a cottage to live in. Here Nell soon dies, and the grandfather is found dead upon her grave. The main character, next to Nell, is that of a lad named Kit [Nubbles], employed in the curiosity shop, who adored Nell as “an angel.” This boy gets in the service of Mr. Garland, a genial, benevolent, well-to-do man in the suburbs of London; but Quilp hates the lad, and induces Brass, a solicitor of Bevis Marks, to put a £5 bank-note in the boy’s hat, and then accuse him of theft. Kit is tried, and condemned to transportation, but the villainy being exposed by a girl-of-all-work, nicknamed “The Marchioness,” Kit is liberated and restored to his place, and Quilp drowns himself.

Old Cutty Soames (1 syl.), the fairy of the mine.

Old Fox (The), Marshal Soult; so called from his strategic abilities and never-failing resources (1769-1851).

Old Glory, Sir Francis Burdett; so called by the radicals, because at one time he was their leader. In his later years Sir Francis joined the tories (1770-1844).

Old Grog, Admiral Edward Vernon; so called from his wearing a grogram coat in foul weather (1684-1757).

Old Harry, the devil. The Hebrew seirim (“hairy ones”) is translated “devils” in Lev. xvii. 7, probably meaning “he-goats.”

Old Hickory. General Andrew Jackson was so called in 1813. He was first called “Tough,” then “Tough as Hickory,” then “Hickory,” and lastly “Old Hickory.”

Old Humphrey, the pseudonym of George Mogridge, of London (died 1854).

Old Maid (The), a farce by Murphy (1761). Miss Harlow is the “old maid,” aged 45, living with her brother and his bride, a beautiful young woman of 23. A young man of fortune, having seen them at Ranelagh, falls in love with the younger lady; and, inquiring their names, is told they are “Mrs. and Miss Harlow.” He takes it for granted that the elder lady is the mother, and the younger the daughter, so asks permission to pay his addresses to “Miss Harlow.” The request is granted, but it turns out that the young man meant Mrs. Harlow; and the worst of the matter is that the elder spinster was engaged to be married to Captain Cape, but turned him off for the younger man; and, when the mistake was discovered, was left like the last rose of summer to “pine on the stem,” for neither felt inclined to pluck and wear the flower.

Old Maids, a comedy by S. Knowles (1841). The “old maids” are Lady Blanche and Lady Anne, two young ladies who resolved to die old maids. Their resolutions, however, are but ropes of sand, for Lady Blanche falls in love with Colonel Blount, and Lady Anne with Sir Philip Brilliant.

Old Man (An), Sir Francis Bond Head, Bart., who published his Bubbles from the Brunnen of Nassau under this signature.

Old Man Eloquent (The), Isoc´ratês, the orator. The defeat of the Athenians at Cheronæ´a had such an effect on his spirits that he languished and died within four days, in the 99th year of his age.

... that dishonest victory
At Cheronæa, fatal to liberty,
Killed with report that Old Man Eloquent.

Milton, Sonnet, ix.

The same sobriquet was freely applied to John Quincy Adams.

Old Man of the Mountains, Hussan-ben-Sabah, sheik al Jebal; also called subah of Nishapour, the founder of the band (1090). Two letters are inserted in Rymer’s Fœdera by Dr. Adam Clarke, the editor, said to be written by this sheik.

Aloaddin, “prince of the Assassins” (thirteenth century).

Old Man of the Sea (The), a monster which contrived to get on the back of Sindbad the sailor, and refused to dismount. Sindbad at length made him drunk, and then shook him off.—Arabian Nights (“Sindbad the Sailor,” fifth voyage).

Old Man of the Sea (The), Phorcus. He had three daughters, with only one eye and one tooth between ’em.—Greek Mythology.

Old Manor-House (The), a novel by Charlotte Smith. Mrs. Rayland is the lady of the manor (1793).

Old Moll, the beautiful daughter of John Overie or Audery (contracted into Overs) a miserly ferryman. “Old Moll” is a standing toast with the parish officers of St. Mary Overs’.

Old Mortality, the best of Scott’s historical novels (1716). Morton is the best of his young heroes, and serves as an excellent foil to the fanatical and gloomy Burley. The two classes of actors, viz., the brave and dissolute cavaliers, and the resolute, oppressed covenanters, are drawn in bold relief. The most striking incidents are the terrible encounter with Burley in his rocky fastness; the dejection and anxiety of Morton on his return from Holland; and the rural comfort of Cuddie Headrigg’s cottage on the banks of the Clyde, with its thin blue smoke among the trees, “showing that the evening meal was being made ready.”

Old Mortality always appeared to me the “Marmion” of Scott’s novels.—Chambers, English Literature, ii. 587.

Old Mortality, an itinerant antiquary, whose craze is to clean the moss from gravestones, and keep their letters and effigies in good condition.—Sir W. Scott, Old Mortality (time, Charles II.).

* The prototype of “Old Mortality” was Robert Patterson.

Old Noll, Oliver Cromwell (1590-1658).

Old Noll’s Fiddler, Sir Roger Lestrange, who played the base-viol at the musical parties held at John Hingston’s house, where Oliver Cromwell was a constant guest.

Old Rowley, Charles II., so called from his favorite race-horse (1630, 1660-1685).

Old Stone. Henry Stone, statuary and painter (died 1653).

Oldboy (Colonel), a manly retired officer, fond of his glass, and not averse to a little spice of the Lothario spirit.

Lady Mary Oldboy, daughter of Lord Jessamy, and wife of the colonel. A sickly nonentity, “ever complaining, ever having something the matter with her head, back, or legs.” Afraid of the slightest breath of wind, jarred by a loud voice, and incapable of the least exertion.

Diana Oldboy, daughter of the colonel. She marries Harman.

Jessamy, son of the colonel and Lady Mary. An insufferable prig.—Bickerstaff, Lionel and Clarissa.

Oldbuck (Jonathan), the antiquary, devoted to the study and accumulation of old coins and medals, etc. He is sarcastic, irritable, and a woman-hater; but kind-hearted, faithful to his friends, and a humorist.—Sir W. Scott, The Antiquary (time, George III.).

An excellent temper, with a slight degree of subacid humor; learning, wit, and drollery, the more poignant that they were a little marked by the peculiarities of an old bachelor; a soundness of thought, rendered more forcible by an occasional quaintness of expression—these were the qualities in which the creature of my imagintion resembled my benevolent and excellent friend.—Sir W. Scott.

The merit of The Antiquary as a novel rests on the inimitable delineation of Oldbuck, that model of black-letter and Roman-camp antiquaries, whose oddities and conversation are rich and racy as any of the old crusted port that John of the Girnel might have held in his monastic cellars.—Chambers, English Literature, ii. 586.

Oldcastle (Sir John), a drama by Anthony Munday (1600). This play appeared with the name of Shakespeare on the title-page.

Old Sledge. Game of cards that, played at the “Settlemint”—(a group of log huts) among the Tennessee mountains, has a fatal fascination for Josiah Tait, who loses to a former suitor of the woman he has married everything he owns. The property is restored through the unexpected magnanimity of the winner, and the playing of Old Sledge becomes a lost art at the “Settlemint.”—Charles Egbert Craddock, In the Tennessee Mountains (1884).

Oldworth, of Oldworth Oaks, a wealthy squire, liberally educated, very hospitable, benevolent, humorous, and whimsical. He brings up Maria, “the maid of the Oaks” as his ward, but she is his daughter and heiress.—J Burgoyne, The Maid of the Oaks (1779).

Ole ’Stracted, a superannuated negro, formerly a slave, whose fancy is to wait in a hut on the old plantation for his master’s return. He was “sold South” forty years before, and his young master promised to go down next summer and buy him back. The poor fellow has saved in these years twelve hundred dollars to pay for his freedom. Unknown to himself or to them, his son and daughter-in-law minister to him in his last moments. He has put on his clean shirt, sure that “young marster” will come to-day. Rising to his feet he cries out:

“Heah de one you lookin’ for, Marster! Mymy—heah’s Little Ephrum!”

And with a smile on his face he sank back into his son’s arms.—Thomas Nelson Page, In Ole Virginia (1887).

Olifant, the horn of Roland or Orlando. This horn and the sword “Durinda´na” were buried with the hero. Turpin tells us in his Chronicle that Charlemagne heard the blare of this horn at a distance of eight miles.

Olifant (Basil), a kinsman of Lady Margaret Bellenden, of the Tower of Tillietudlem.—Sir W. Scott, Old Mortality (time, Charles II.).

Olifaunt (Lord Nigel), of Glenvarloch. On going to court to present a petition to James I. he aroused the dislike of the duke of Buckingham. Lord Dalgarno gave him the cut direct, and Nigel struck him, but was obliged to seek refuge in Alsatia. After various adventures he married Margaret Ramsay, the watch-maker’s daughter, and obtained the title-deeds of his estates.—Sir W. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).

Olim´pia, the wife of Bireno, uncompromising in love, and relentless in hate.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Olimpia, a proud Roman lady of high rank. When Rome was sacked by Bourbon, she flew for refuge to the high altar of St. Peter’s, where she clung to a golden cross. On the advance of certain soldiers in the army of Bourbon to seize her, she cast the huge cross from its stand, and as it fell it crushed to death the foremost soldier. Others then attempted to seize her, when Arnold dispersed them and rescued the lady; but the proud beauty would not allow the foe of her country to touch her, and flung herself from the high altar on the pavement. Apparently lifeless, she was borne off; but whether she recovered or not we are not informed, as the drama was never finished.—Byron, The Deformed Transformed (1821).

Olindo, the lover of Sophronia. Aladine, king of Jerusalem, at the advice of his magicians, stole an image of the Virgin, and set it up as a palladium in the chief mosque. During the night it was carried off, and the king, unable to discover the thief, ordered all his Christian subjects to be put to death. To prevent this massacre, Sophronia delivered up herself as the perpetrator of the deed, and Olindo, hearing thereof, went to the king and declared Sophronia innocent, as he himself had stolen the image. The king commanded both to be put to death, but, by the intercession of Clorinda, they were both set free.—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered, ii. (1575).

Oliphant or Ollyphant, the twin-brother of Argan´tê, the giantess. Their father was Typhæus, and their mother Earth.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, iii. 7, 11 (1590).

Olive Litchfield, young woman married to an elderly man, whose fatherly kindness wins her grateful esteem. With her knowledge and sanction he leaves the bulk of his property to charitable objects, thereby disappointing her rapacious relatives. She is quite willing, as a widow, to marry the man her mother dismissed in order to wed her to a millionaire, but James Merion, the cured suitor, prefers a fresh love.—Ellen Olney Kirk, A Daughter of Eve.

Olive Tree (The), emblem of Athens, in memory of the famous dispute between Minerva (the patron goddess of Athens) and Neptune. Both deities wished to found a city on the same spot; and, referring the matter to Jove, the king of gods and men decreed that the privilege should be granted to whichever would bestow the most useful gift on the future inhabitants. Neptune struck the earth with his trident, and forth came a war-horse; Minerva produced an olive tree, emblem of peace; and Jove gave the verdict in favor of Minerva.

Olive Carraze, beautiful quadroon, virtuous and accomplished, whose mother, Madame Delphine, swears Olive is not her child, that she may secure the girl’s legal marriage with a white man who loves her honorably. On the afternoon of the marriage-day, when the wedded pair have taken their departure, Madame Delphine seeks her confessor, owns the perjury, receives absolution, and falls dead in the confessional.—George W. Cable, Madame Delphine (1879).

Oliver, the elder son of Sir Rowland de Bois [Bwor], left in charge of his younger brother, Orlando, whom he hated and tried indirectly to murder. Orlando, finding it impossible to live in his brother’s house, fled to the forest of Arden, where he joined the society of the banished duke. One morning he saw a man sleeping, and a serpent and lioness bent on making him their prey. He slew both the serpent and lioness, and then found that the sleeper was his brother Oliver. Oliver’s disposition from this moment underwent a complete change, and he loved his brother as much as he had before hated him. In the forest the two brothers met Rosalind and Celia. The former, who was the daughter of the banished duke, married Orlando; and the latter, who was the daughter of the usurping duke, married Oliver.—Shakespeare, As You Like It (1598).

Oliver and Rowland, the two chief paladins of Charlemagne. Shakespeare makes the duke of Alençon say:

Froissart, a countryman of ours, records,
England all Olivers and Rowlands bred
During the time Edward the Third did reign.

1 Henry VI. act i. sc. 2 (1589).

Oliver’s Horse, Ferrant d’Espagne.

Oliver’s Sword, Haute-claire.

Oliver le Dain or Oliver le Diable, court barber, and favorite minister of Louis XI. Introduced by Sir W. Scott in Quentin Durward and Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).

Oliver Floyd, a dashing lawyer, with iron-gray hair, and separated from his wife. His guardianly attention to Carol Lester set village and town gossip to talking.—Charlotte Dunning, Upon a Cast (1885).

Oliv´ia, a rich countess, whose love was sought by Orsino, duke of Illyria; but having lost her brother, Olivia lived for a time in entire seclusion, and in no wise reciprocated the duke’s love; in consequence of which Viola nicknamed her “Fair Cruelty.” Strange as it may seem, Olivia fell desperately in love with Viola, who was dressed as the duke’s page, and sent her a ring. Mistaking Sebastian (Viola’s brother) for Viola, she married him out of hand.—Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (1614).

Never were Shakespeare’s words more finely given than by Miss M. Tree [1802-1862] in the speech to “Olivia,” beginning, “Make me a willow cabin at thy gate.”—Talfourd (1821).

Olivia, a female Tartuffe (2 syl.), and consummate hypocrite of most unblushing effrontery.—Wycherly, The Plain Dealer (1677).

The duc de Montausier was the prototype of Wycherly’s “Mr. Manly,” the “plain dealer,” and of Molière’s “Misanthrope.”

Olivia, daughter of Sir James Woodville, left in charge of a mercenary wretch, who, to secure to himself her fortune, shut her up in a convent in Paris. She was rescued by Leontine Croaker, brought to England, and became his bride.—Goldsmith, The Good-natured Man (1768).

Olivia, the tool of Ludovĭco. She loved Vicentio, but Vicentio was plighted to Evadne, sister of Colonna. Ludovico induced Evadne to substitute the king’s miniature for that of Vicentio, which she was accustomed to wear. When Vicentio returned, and found Evadne with the king’s miniature, he believed what Ludovico had told him that she was the king’s wanton, and he cast her off. Olivia repented of her duplicity, and explained it all to Vicentio, whereby a reconciliation took place, and Vicentio married his troth-plighted lady, “more sinned against than sinning.”—Shiel, Evadne or The Statue (1820).

Olivia, “the rose of Aragon,” was the daughter of Ruphi´no, a peasant, and bride of Prince Alonzo of Aragon. The king refused to recognize the marriage, and, sending his son to the army, compelled the cortez to pass an act of divorce. This brought to a head a general revolt. The king was dethroned, and Almagro made regent. Almagro tried to make Olivia marry him; ordered her father to the rack, and her brother to death. Meanwhile the prince returned at the head of his army, made himself master of the city, put down the revolt, and had his marriage duly recognized. Almagro took poison and died.—S. Knowles, The Rose of Aragon (1842).

Olivia [Primrose], the elder daughter of the vicar of Wakefield. She was a sort of a Hebê in beauty, open, sprightly, and commanding. Olivia Primrose “wished for many lovers,” and eloped with Squire Thornhill. Her father went in search of her, and on his return homeward, stopped at a roadside inn, called the Harrow, and there found her turned out of the house by the landlady. It was ultimately discovered that she was legally married to the squire.—Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield (1765).

Olivia, young girl who hearkens to The Talking Oak in Tennyson’s poem of that name (1842).

Olivia de Zenuga, daughter of Don Cæsar. She fixed her heart on having Julio de Melessina for her husband, and so behaved to all other suitors as to drive them away. Thus to Don Garcia, she pretended to be a termagant; to Don Vincentio, who was music-mad, she professed to love a Jew’s-harp above every other instrument. At last Julio appeared, and her “bold stroke” obtained as its reward “the husband of her choice.”—Mrs. Cowley, A Bold Stroke for a Husband (1782).

Olla, bard of Cairbar. These bards acted as heralds.—Ossian.

Ol´lapod (Cornet), at the Galen’s Head. An eccentric country apothecary, “a jumble of physic and shooting.” Dr. Ollapod is very fond of “wit,” and when he has said what he thinks a smart thing he calls attention to it, with “He! he! he!” and some such expression as “Do you take, good sir! do you take?” But when another says a smart thing, he titters, and cries, “That’s well! that’s very well! Thank you, good sir, I owe you one!” He is a regular rattle; details all the scandal of the village; boasts of his achievements or misadventures; is very mercenary, and wholly without principle.—G. Colman, The Poor Gentleman (1802).

* This character is evidently a copy of Dibdin’s “Doctor Pother” in The Farmer’s Wife (1780).

Ol´lomand, an enchanter, who persuaded Ahu´bal, the rebellious brother of Misnar, sultan of Delhi, to try by bribery to corrupt the troops of the sultan. By an unlimited supply of gold, he soon made himself master of the southern provinces and Misnar marched to give him battle. Ollomand, with 5000 men, went in advance and concealed his company in a forest; but Misnar, apprised thereof by spies, set fire to the forest, and Ollomand was shot by the discharge of his own cannons, fired spontaneously by the flames: “For enchantment has no power except over those who are first deceived by the enchanter.”—Sir C. Morell [J. Ridley], Tales of the Genii (“The Enchanter’s Tale,” vi., 1751).

Oluf (Sir), a bridegroom who rode late to collect guests to his wedding. On his ride, the daughter of the erl king met him and invited him to dance a measure, but Sir Oluf declined. She then offered him a pair of gold spurs, a silk doublet, and a heap of gold, if he would dance with her: and when he refused to do so, she struck him “with an elf-stroke.” On the morrow, when all the bridal party was assembled, Sir Oluf was found dead in a wood.—A Danish Legend (Herder).

Olympia, countess of Holland and wife of Bire´no. Being deserted by Bireno, she was bound naked to a rock by pirates, but was delivered by Orlando, who took her to Ireland, where she married King Oberto (bks. iv., v.),—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Olympia, sister to the grand-duke of Muscovia.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Loyal Subject (1618).

Omawhaws [Om´.a.waws] or Omahas, an Indian tribe of Dakota.

O, chief of the mighty Omahaws!

Longfellow, To the Driving Cloud.

Ombre´lia, the rival of Smilinda, for the love of Sharper; “strong as the footman, as the master sweet.”—Pope, Eclogues (“The Basset Table,” 1715).

O’Neal (Shan), leader of the Irish insurgents in 1567. Shan O’Neal was notorious for profligacy.

O’Malley (Charles). Dashing Irishman in Charles James Lever’s novel Charles O’Malley.

O’More (Rory). Hero of a novel of same name and the lover of Katharine O’Bawn, in the popular song, Rory O’More. Novel and song are by Samuel Lover.

Onei´za (3 syl.), daughter of Moath, a well-to-do Bedouin, in love with Thal´aba, “the destroyer” of sorcerers. Thalaba, being raised to the office of vizier, married Oneiza, but she died on the bridal night.—Southey, Thalaba, the Destroyer, ii., vii. (1797).

Oneida Warrior (The), Outalissi (q.v.).—Campbell, Gertrude of Wyoming (1809).

Only (The), Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, called by the Germans Der Einzige, from the unique character of his writings.

* The Italians call Bernardo Accolti, an Italian poet of the sixteenth century, “Aretino the Only,” or L’Unico Aretino.

Open, Ses´ame! (3 syl.) the magic words which caused the cave door of the “forty thieves” to open of itself. “Shut Sesamê!” were the words which caused it to shut. Sesame is a grain, and hence Cassim, when he forgot the word, cried, “Open, Wheat!” “Open, Rye!” “Open, Barley!” but the door obeyed no sound but “Open, Sesamê!”—Arabian Nights (“Ali Baba or The Forty Thieves”).

Ophelia, the young, beautiful, and pious daughter of Polo´nius, lord chamberlain to the king of Denmark. Hamlet fell in love with her, but her father forbade her holding word or speech with the Prince, and she obeyed so strictly that her treatment of him, with his other wrongs, drove him to upbraid and neglect her. Ophelia was so wrought upon by his conduct that her mind gave way. In her madness, attempting to hang a wreath of flowers on a willow by a brook, a branch broke, and she was drowned.—Hamlet (1596).

Tate Wilkinson, speaking of Mrs. Cibber (Dr. Arne’s daughter, 1710-1766), says: “Her features, figure and singing, made her the best ‘Ophelia’ that ever appeared either before or since.”

Ophiuchus [Of´.i.ū´.kus], the constellation Serpentarius. Ophiuchus is a man who holds a serpent (Greek Ophis) in his hands. The constellation is situated to the south of Herculês; and the principal star, called “Ras Alhague,” is in the man’s head. (Ras Alhague) is from the Arabic, rás-al-hawwá, “the serpent-charmer’s head.”)

Satan stood
Unterrified, and like a comet burned,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge,
In the Arctic sky.

Milton, Paradise Lost, ii. 709, etc. (1665).

Opium-Eater (The English), Thomas de Quincey, who published Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1845).

O. P. Q., Robert Merry (1755-1798); object of Gifford’s satire in Baviad and Mæviad, and of Byron’s in his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. He marries Miss Brunton, the actress.

And Merry’s metaphors appear anew,
Chained to the signature of O. P. Q.

Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809).

Oracle of the Church (The), St. Bernard (1091-1153).

Oracle of the Holy Bottle (The), an oracle sought for by Rabelais, to solve the knotty point “whether Panurge (2 syl.) should marry or not.” The question had been put to sibyl and poet, monk and fool, philosopher and witch, but none could answer it. The oracle was ultimately found in Lantern-land.

This, of course, is a satire on the celibacy of the clergy and the withholding of the cup from the laity. Shall the clergy marry or not?—that was the moot point; and the “Bottle of Tent Wine,” or the clergy, who kept the bottle to themselves, alone could solve it. The oracle and priestess of the bottle were both called Bacbuc (Hebrew for “bottle”).—Rabelais, Pantag´ruel, iv., v. (1545).

Oracle (Sir), name used in Merchant of Venice to express conceited, pugnacious man.

... I am Sir Oracle,
And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!”

Orange (Prince of), a title given to the heir-apparent of the king of Holland. “Orange” is a petty principality in the territory of Avignon, in the possession of the Nassau family.

Orania, the lady-love of Am´adis of Gaul.—Lobeira, Amadis of Gaul (fourteenth century).

Orator Henley, the Rev. John Henley, who for about thirty years delivered lectures on theological, political, and literary subjects (1692-1756).

* Hogarth has introduced him into several of his pictures; and Pope says of him:

Imbround with native bronze, lo! Henley stands,
Tuning his voice, and balancing his hands,
How fluent nonsense trickles from his tongue!
How sweet the periods, neither said nor sung!...

Oh, great restorer of the good old stage,
Preacher at once and zany of thy age!
Oh, worthy thou of Egypt’s wise abodes;
A decent priest where monkeys were the gods!

The Dunciad (1742).

Orator Hunt, the great demagogue in the time of the Wellington and Peel administration. Henry Hunt, M.P., used to wear a gray hat, and these hats were for the time a badge of democratic principles, and called “radical hats” (1773-1835).

Orbaneja, the painter of Ube´da, who painted so preposterously that he inscribed under his objects what he meant them for.

Orbaneja would paint a cock so wretchedly designed that he was obliged to inscribe under it, “This is a cock.”—Cervantes, Don Quixote, II. i. 3 (1615).

Orbilius, the schoolmaster who taught Horace. The poet calls him “the flogger” (plagōsus).—Ep. ii. 71.

* The Orbilian Stick is a birch rod or cane.

Ordigale, the otter in the beast-epic of Reynard the Fox, i. (1498).

Ordovi´ces (4 syl.), people of Ordovicia, that is, Flintshire, Denbighshire, Merionetshire, Montgomeryshire, Carnarvonshire and Anglesey. (In Latin the i is short: Ordovĭcês.)

The Ordovīces now which North Wales people be.

Drayton, Polyolbion, xvi. (1613).

Or´dovies (3 syl.), the inhabitants of North Wales. (In Latin North Wales is called Ordovic´ia.)

Beneath his [Agricola’s] fatal sword the Ordovies to fall
(Inhabiting the west), those people last of all
... withstood.

Drayton, Polyolbion, viii. (1612).

Or´ead (3 syl.), a mountain-nymph. Tennyson calls “Maud” an oread, because her hall and garden were on a hill.

I see my Oreäd coming down.

Maud, I. xvi. 1 (1855).

Oreäd. Echo is so called.

Ore´ades (4 syl.) or O´reads (3 syl.), mountain-nymphs.

Ye Cambrian [Welsh] shepherds then, whom these our mountains please,
And ye our fellow-nymphs, ye light Oreädês.

Drayton, Polyolbion, ix. (1612).

Orel´io, the favorite horse of King Roderick, the last of the Goths.

’Twas Orelio
On which he rode, Roderick’s own battle-horse,
Who from his master’s hand had wont to feed,
And with a glad docility obey
His voice familiar.

Southey, Roderick, etc., xxv. (1814).

Ores´tes (3 syl.), son of Agamemnon, betrothed to Hermi´onê (4 syl.), daughter of Menela´us (4 syl.), king of Sparta. At the downfall of Troy Menelāus promised Hermionê in marriage to Pyrrhus, king of Epīrus, but Pyrrhus fell in love with Androm´achê, the widow of Hector, and his captive. An embassy, led by Orestês, was sent to Epirus to demand that the son of Andromachê should be put to death, lest, as he grew up, he might seek to avenge his father’s death. Pyrrhus refused to comply. In this embassage Orestês met Hermionê again, and found her pride and jealousy aroused to fury by the slight offered her. She goaded Orestês to avenge her insults, and the ambassadors fell on Pyrrhus and murdered him. Hermionê, when she saw the dead body of the king borne along, stabbed herself, and Orestês went raving mad.—Ambrose Philips, The Distressed Mother (1712).

Orfeo and Heuro´dis, the tale of Orpheus and Eurydĭcê, with the Gothic machinery of elves and fairies.

* Glück has an opera called Orfeo; the libretto, by Calzabigi, based on a dramatic piece by Poliziano (1764).

Orgari´ta, “the orphan of the Frozen Sea,” heroine of a drama. (See Martha.)—Stirling, The Orphan of the Frozen Sea (1856).

Or´gilus, the betrothed lover of Penthe´a, by the consent of her father; but, at the death of her father, her brother, Ith´oclês, compelled her to marry Bass´anês, whom she hated. Ithoclês was about to marry the princess of Sparta, but a little before the event was to take place Penthea starved herself to death, and Orgilus was condemned to death for murdering Ithoclês.—John Ford, The Broken Heart (1633).

Orgoglio [Or.gole´.yo], a hideous giant, as tall as three men, son of Earth and Wind. Finding the Red Cross Knight at the fountain of Idleness he beats him with a club, and makes him his slave. Una informs Arthur of it, and Arthur liberates the knight and slays the giant (Rev. xiii. 5, 7, with Dan. vii. 21, 22).—Spenser, Faëry Queen, i. (1590).

* Arthur first cut off Orgoglio’s left arm, i. e. Bohemia was cut off first from the Church of Rome; then he cut off the giant’s right leg, i. e. England.

Orgon, brother-in-law of Tartuffe (2 syl.). His credulity and faith in Tartuffe, like that of his mother, can scarcely be shaken even by the evidence of his senses. He hopes against hope, and fights every inch of ground in defence of the religious hypocrite.—Molière, Tartuffe (1664).

Oria´na, daughter of Lisuarte, king of England, and spouse of Am´adis of Gaul (bk. ii. 6). The general plot of this series of romances bears on this marriage, and tells of the thousand and one obstacles from rivals, giants, sorcerers and so on, which had to be overcome before the consummation could be effected. It is in this unity of plot that the Amadis series differs from its predecessors—the Arthurian romances, and those of the paladins of Charlemagne, which are detached adventures, each complete in itself, and not bearing to any common focus.—Amadis de Gaul (fourteenth century).

* Queen Elizabeth is called “the peerless Oriana,” especially in the madrigals entitled The Triumphs of Oriana (1601). Ben Jonson applies the name to the queen of James I. (Oriens Anna).

Oriana, the nursling of a lioness, with whom Esplandian fell in love, and for whom he underwent all his perils and exploits. She was the gentlest, fairest, and most faithful of her sex.—Lobeira, Amadis de Gaul (fourteenth century).

Orian´a, the fair, brilliant, and witty “chaser” of the “wild goose” Mirabel, to whom she is betrothed, and whose wife she ultimately becomes.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Wild-Goose Chase (1652).

Oriana, the ward of old Mirabel, and bound by contract to her guardian’s son whom she loves; but young Mirabel shilly-shallies, till he gets into trouble with Lamorce (3 syl.), and is in danger of being murdered, when Oriana, dressed as a page, rescues him. He then declared that his “inconstancy has had a lesson,” and he marries the lady.—G. Farquhar, The Inconstant (1702).

Oriana, in Tennyson’s ballad so called, “stood on the castle wall,” to see her spouse, a Norland chief, fight. A foeman went between “the chief, and the wall,” and discharged an arrow, which, glancing aside, pierced the lady’s heart and killed her. The ballad is the lamentation of the spouse on the death of his bride (1830).

O´riande (3 syl.), a fay who lived at Rosefleur, and was brought up by Maugis d’Aygremont. When her protégé grew up, she loved him, “d’un si grand amour, qu’elle doute fort qu’il ne se departe d’avecques elle.”—Romance de Maujis d’Aygremont et de Vivian son Frère.

O´riel, a fairy, whose empire lay along the banks of the Thames, when King Oberon held his court in Kensington Gardens.—Tickell, Kensington Gardens (1686-1740).

Orient (The). In The New Priest of Conception Bay, Fanny Dare sings to little Mary Barré how the good ship Orient was wrecked.

“Woe for the brave ship Orient!
Woe for the old ship Orient!
For in the broad, broad light
With the land in sight,—
Where the waters bubbled white,—
One great, sharp shriek!—one shudder of affright!
And——
down went the brave old ship, the Orient!”

Robert Lowell, The New Priest of Conception Bay (1858).

Oriflamme, the banner of St. Denis. When the counts of Vexin became possessed of the abbey, the banner passed into their hands, and when, in 1082, Philippe I. united Vexin to the crown, the oriflamme or sacred banner belonged to the king. In 1119 it was first used as a national banner. It consists of a crimson silk flag, mounted on a gilt staff (un glaive tout doré où est attaché une banière vermeille). The loose end is cut into three wavy vandykes, to represent tongues of flame, and a silk tassel is hung at each cleft. In war the display of this standard indicates that no quarter will be given. The English standard of no quarter was the “burning dragon.”

Raoul de Presle says it was used in the time of Charlemagne, being the gift of the patriarch of Jerusalem. We are told that all infidels were blinded who looked upon it. Froissart says it was displayed at the battle of Rosbecq, in the reign of Charles VI., and “no sooner was it unfurled than the fog cleared away, and the sun shone on the French alone.”

I have not reared the Oriflamme of death.
... me it behooves
To spare the fallen foe.

Southey, Joan of Arc, viii. 621, etc. (1837).

Origilla, the lady-love of Gryphon, brother of Aquilant; but the faithless fair one took up with Martāno, a most impudent boaster and a coward. Being at Damascus during a tournament in which Gryphon was the victor, Martano stole the armor of Gryphon, arrayed himself in it, took the prizes, and then decamped with the lady. Aquilant happened to see them, bound them, and took them back to Damascus, where Martano was hanged, and the lady kept in bondage for the judgment of Lucīna.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Orillo, a magician and robber, who lived at the mouth of the Nile. He was the son of an imp and fairy. When any one of his limbs was lopped off, he had the power of restoring it; and when his head was cut off, he could take it up and replace it. When Astolpho encountered this magician, he was informed that his life lay in one particular hair; so instead of seeking to maim his adversary, Astolpho cut off the magic hair, and the magician fell lifeless at his feet.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Orinda, “the incomparable,” Mrs. Katherine Philipps, who lived in the reign of Charles II., and died of small-pox.

* Her praises were sung by Cowley, Dryden, and others.

We allowed you beauty, and we did submit ...
Ah, cruel sex, will you depose us too in wit?
Orinda does in that too reign.

Cowley, On Orinda’s Poems (1647).

Ori´on, a giant of great beauty, and a famous hunter, who cleared the island of Chios of wild beasts. While in the island, Orion fell in love with Merŏpê, daughter of king Œnop´ion; but one day, in a drunken fit, having offered her violence, the king put out the giant’s eyes, and drove him from the island. Orion was told if he would travel eastward, and expose his sockets to the rising sun, he would recover his sight. Guided by the sound of a Cyclop’s hammer, he reached Lemnos, where Vulcan gave him a guide to the abode of the sun. In due time, his sight returned to him, and at death he was made a constellation. The lion’s skin was an emblem of the wild beasts which he slew in Chios, and the club was the instrument he employed for the purpose.

He [Orion]
Reeled as of yore beside the sea,
When, blinded by Œnopion,
He sought the blacksmith at his forge,
And, climbing up the mountain gorge,
Fixed his blank eyes upon the sun.

Longfellow, The Occultation of Orion.

Orion and the Blacksmith. The reference is to the blacksmith mentioned in the preceding article, whom Orion took on his back to act as guide to the place where the rising sun might be best seen.

Orion’s Dogs were Arctophŏnus (“the bear-killer”) and Ptoophăgos (“the glutton of Ptoon,” in Bœōtia).

Orion’s Wife, Sidê.

Orion. After Orion has set in the west, Aurīga (the Charioteer) and Gem´ini (Castor and Pollux) are still visible. Hence Tennyson says:

... the Charioteer
And starry Gemini hang like glorious crowns
Over Orion’s grave low down in the west.

Maud, III. vi. 1 (1855).

Orion, a seraph, the guardian angel of Simon Peter.—Klopstock, The Messiah, iii. (1748).

Orith´yia or Orith´ya, daughter of Erectheus, carried off by Boreas to Thrace.

Such, dalliance as alone the North wind hath with her,
Orithya not enjoyed, from Thrace when he her took,
And in his saily plumes the trembling virgin shook.

Drayton, Polyolbion, x. (1612).

Phineas Fletcher calls the word “Orithy´a.”

None knew mild zephyr’s from cold Eurus’ mouth,
Nor Orithya’s lover’s violence [North wind].

Purple Island, i. (1633).

Orlando, the younger son of Sir Rowland de Bois [Bwor]. At the death of his father, he was left under the care of his elder brother, Oliver, who was charged to treat him well; but Oliver hated him, wholly neglected his education, and even tried by many indirect means to kill him. At length, Orlando fled to the forest of Arden´, where he met Rosalind and Celia in disguise. They had met before at a wrestling match, when Orlando and Rosalind fell in love with each other. The acquaintance was renewed in the forest, and ere many days had passed the two ladies resumed their proper characters, and both were married, Rosalind to Orlando, and Celia to Oliver, the elder brother.—Shakespeare, As You Like It (1598).

Orlando (in French Roland, q.v.), one of the paladins of Charlemagne, whose nephew he was. Orlando was confiding and loyal, of great stature, and possessed unusual strength. He accompanied his uncle into Spain, but on his return was waylaid in the valley of Roncesvallês (in the Pyrenees) by the traitor Ganelon, and perished with all his army, A.D. 778. His adventures are related in Turpin’s Chronique; in the Chanson de Roland, attributed to Théroulde. He is the hero of Bojardo’s epic, Orlando Innamorato; and of Ariosto’s continuation called Orlando Furioso (“Orlando mad”). Robert Greene, in 1594, produced a drama which he called The History of Orlando. Rhode’s farce of Bombastês Furioso (1790) is a burlesque of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso.

Orlando’s Ivory Horn, Olifant, once the property of Alexander the Great. Its bray could be heard for twenty miles.

Orlando’s Horse, Brigliadoro (“golden bridal”).

Orlando’s Sword, Durinda´na or Durandana, which once belonged to Hector, is “preserved at Rocamadour, in France; and his spear is still shown in the cathedral of Pa´via, in Italy.”

Orlando was of middling stature, broad-shouldered, crooked-legged, brown-visaged, red-bearded, and had much hair on his body. He talked but little, and had a very surly aspect, although he was perfectly good-humored.—Cervantes, Don Quixote, II. i. 1 (1615).

Orlando’s Vulnerable Part. Orlando was invulnerable except in the sole of his foot, and even there nothing could wound him but the point of a large pin; so that when Bernardo del Carpio assailed him at Roncesvallês, he took him in his arms and squeezed him to death, in imitation of Herculês, who squeezed to death the giant Antæ´us (3 syl.).—Cervantes, Don Quixote, II. ii. 13 (1615).

Orlando Furioso, a continuation of Bojardo’s story, with the same hero. Bojardo leaves Orlando in love with Angelica, whom he fetched from Cathay and brought to Paris. Here, says Ariosto, Rinaldo falls in love with her, and, to prevent mischief, the king placed the coquette under the charge of Namus; but she contrived to escape her keeper, and fled to the island of Ebūda, where Rogēro found her exposed to a sea-monster, and liberated her. In the mean time, Orlando went in search of his lady, was decoyed into the enchanted castle of Atlantês, but was liberated by Angelica, who again succeeded in effecting her escape to Paris. Here she arrived just after a great battle between the Christians and pagans, and, finding Medōra, a Moor, wounded, took care of him, fell in love with him, and eloped with him to Cathay. When Orlando found himself jilted, he was driven mad with jealousy and rage, or rather his wits were taken from him for three months by way of punishment, and deposited in the moon. Astolpho went to the moon in Elijah’s chariot, and St. John gave him “the lost wits” in an urn. On reaching France Astolpho bound the madman, then, holding the urn to his nose, the wits returned to their nidus, and the hero was himself again. After this, the siege was continued, and the Christians were wholly successful. (See Orlando Innamorato.)—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

* This romance in verse extends to forty-six cantos. Hoole, in his translation, has compressed the forty-six cantos into twenty-four books; but Rose has retained the original number. The adventures of Orlando, under the French form “Roland,” are related by Turpin in his Chronicle, and by Théroulde in his Chanson de Roland.

* The true hero of Ariosto’s romance is Rogēro, and not Orlando. It is with Rogero’s victory over Rodomont that the poem ends. The concluding lines are:

Then at full stretch he [Rogero] raised his arm above
The furious Rodomont, and the weapon drove
Thrice in his gaping throat—so ends the strife,
And leaves secure Rogero’s fame and life.

Orlando Innamora´to, or Orlando in love, in three books, by Count Bojardo, of Scandiano, in Italy (1495). Bojardo supposes Charlemagne to be warring against the Saracens in France, under the walls of Paris. He represents the city to be besieged by two infidel hosts—one under Agramantê, emperor of Africa, and the other under Gradasso, king of Sirica´na. His hero is Orlando, whom he supposes (though married at the time to Aldebella) to be in love with Angelica, a fascinating coquette from Cathay, whom Orlando had brought to France. (See Orlando Furioso.)

* Berni of Tuscany, in 1538, published a burlesque in verse on the same subject.

Orleans, a most passionate innamorato, in love with Agripy´na.—Thomas Dekker, Old Fortunatus (1600).

Orleans talks “pure Biron and Romeo;” he is almost as poetical as they, quite as philosophical, only a little madder.—C. Lamb.

(“Biron,” in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost; “Romeo,” in his Romeo and Juliet.)

Orleans (Gaston, duke of), brother of Louis XIII. He heads a conspiracy to assassinate Richelieu and dethrone the king. If the plot had been successful, Gaston was to have been made regent; but the conspiracy was discovered, and the duke was thwarted in his ambitious plans.—Lord Lytton, Richelieu (1839).

Orleans (Louis, duc d’), to whom the Princess Joan (daughter of Louis XI.) is affianced.—Sir W. Scott, Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).

Orlick (Dolge), usually called “Old Orlick,” though not above five and twenty, journeyman to Joe Gargery, blacksmith. Obstinate, morose, broad-shouldered, loose-limbed, swarthy, of great strength, never in a hurry, and always slouching. Being jealous of Pip, he allured him to a hut in the marshes, bound him to a ladder, and was about to kill him, when, being alarmed by approaching steps, he fled. Subsequently, he broke into Mr. Pumblechook’s house, was arrested, and confined in the county jail. This surly, ill-conditioned brute was in love with Biddy, but Biddy married Joe Gargery.—C. Dickens, Great Expectations (1860).

Orloff Diamond (The), the third largest cut diamond in the world, set in the top of the Russian sceptre. The weight of this magnificent diamond is 194 carats, and its size is that of a pigeon’s egg. It was once one of the eyes of the idol Sheringham, in the temple of Brahma; came into the hands of the Shah Nadir; was stolen by a French grenadier and sold to an English sea-captain for £2000; the captain sold it to a Jew for £12,000; it next passed into the hands of Shafras; and in 1775, Catherine II. of Russia gave for it £90,000. (See Diamonds.)

Or´mandine (3 syl.), the necromancer who threw St. David into an enchanted sleep for seven years, from which he was reclaimed by St. George.—R. Johnson, The Seven Champions of Christendom, i. 9 (1617).

Orme (Victor), a poor gentleman in love with Elsie.—Wybert Reeve, Parted.

Ormond (The duke of), a privy councillor of Charles II.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Ormston (Jock), a sheriff’s officer at Fairport.—Sir W. Scott, The Antiquary (time, George III.).

Ornithol´ogy (The Father of), George Edwards (1693-1773).

Oroma´zes (4 syl.), the principle of good in Persian mythology. Same as Yezad (q.v.).

Oroonda´tes (5 syl.), only son of a Scythian king, whose love for Statīra (widow of Alexander the Great) led him into numerous dangers and difficulties, which, however, he surmounted.—La Calprenède, Cassandra (a romance).

Oroono´ko (Prince), son and heir of the king of Angola, and general of the forces. He was decoyed by Captain Driver aboard his ship; his suite of twenty men were made drunk with rum; the ship weighed anchor; and the prince, with all his men, were sold as slaves in one of the West Indian Islands. Here Oroonoko met Imoin´da (3 syl.), his wife, from whom he had been separated, and whom he thought was dead. He headed a rising of the slaves, and the lieutenant-governor tried to seduce Imoinda. The result was that Imoinda killed herself, and Oroonoko (3 syl.) slew first the lieutenant-governor and then himself. Mrs. Aphra Behn became acquainted with the prince at Surinam, and made the story of his life the basis of a novel, which Thomas Southern dramatized (1696).

Orozem´bo, a brave and dauntless old Peruvian. When captured and brought before the Spanish invaders, Orozembo openly defied them, and refused to give any answer to their questions (act i. 1).—Sheridan, Pizarro (altered from Kotzebue, 1799).

Orpas, once archbishop at Sev´ille. At the overthrow of the Gothic kingdom in Spain, Orpas joined the Moors and turned Moslem. Of all the renegades “the foulest and the falsest wretch was he that e’er renounced his baptism.” He wished to marry Florinda, daughter of Count Julian, in order to secure “her wide domains;” but Florinda loathed him. In the Moorish council Orpas advised Abulcacem to cut off Count Julian, “whose power but served him for fresh treachery; false to Roderick first, and to the caliph now.” This advice was acted on; but, as the villain left the tent, Abulcacem muttered to himself, “Look for a like reward thyself; that restless head of wickedness in the grave will brood no treason.”—Southey, Roderick, etc., xx., xxii. (1814).

Orphan of China, a drama by Murphy. Zaphimri, the sole survivor of the royal race of China, was committed in infancy to Zamti, the mandarin, that he might escape from the hand of Ti´murkan´, the Tartar conqueror. Zamti brought up Zaphimri as his son, and sent Hamet, his real son, to Corea, where he was placed under the charge of Morat. Twenty years afterwards, Hamet led a band of insurgents against Timurkan, was seized, and ordered to be put to death under the notion that he was “the orphan of China.” Zaphimri, hearing thereof, went to the Tartar and declared that he, not Hamet, was the real prince; whereupon Timurkan ordered Zamti and his wife, Mandānê, with Hamet and Zaphimri, to be seized. Zamti and Mandanê were ordered to the torture, to wring from them the truth. In the interim, a party of insurgent Chinese rushed into the palace, killed the king, and established “the orphan of China” on the throne of his fathers (1759).

Orphan of the Frozen Sea, Martha, the daughter of Ralph de Lascours (captain of the Uran´ia) and his wife, Louise. The crew having rebelled, the three, with their servant, Bar´abas, were cast adrift in a boat, which ran on an iceberg in the Frozen Sea. Ralph thought it was a small island, but the iceberg broke up, both Ralph and his wife were drowned, but Barabas and Martha escaped. Martha was taken by an Indian tribe, which brought her up and named her Orgari´ta (“withered wheat”), from her white complexion. In Mexico she met with her sister, Diana, and her grandmother, Mde. de Theringe (2 syl.), and probably married Horace de Brienne.—E. Stirling, Orphan of the Frozen Sea (1856).

Orphan of the Temple, Marie Thérèse Charlotte, duchess d’Angoulême, daughter of Louis XVI.; so called from the Temple, where she was imprisoned. She was called “The Modern Antig´onê” by her uncle, Louis XVIII.

Orphant Annie. A bound girl, who is credited by l’enfant terrible of the household with the goblin-lore he lavishes upon a visitor, this being the moral:

“You better mind yer parents and yer teachers fond and dear,
An’ churish ’em ’at loves you an’ dry the orphant’s tear,
An’ he’p the poor an’ needy ones ’at clusters all about,
Er the gobble-uns ’ll git you
Ef you
Don’t
Watch
Out!”

James Whitcomb Riley, The Boss Girl and Other Sketches (1886).

Orpheus. (For a parallel fable, see Wainamoinen.)

Orpheus and Eurydice (4 syl.), Glück’s best opera (Orfeo). Libretto by Calzabigi, who also wrote for Glück the libretto of Alceste (1767). King produced an English version of Orpheus and Eurydice.

* The tale is introduced by Pope in his St. Cecilia’s Ode.

Of Orpheus now no more let poets tell,
To bright Cecilia greater power is given;
His numbers raised a shade from hell,
Hers lift the soul to heaven.

Pope, St. Cecilia’s Day (1709).

Orpheus of Highwaymen, John Gay, author of The Beggar’s Opera (1688-1732).

Orpheus of the Green Isle (The), Furlough O’Carolan, poet and musician (1670-1738).

Or´raca (Queen), wife of Affonso II. The legend says that five friars of Morocco, went to her, and said, “Three things we prophesy to you: (1) we five shall all suffer martyrdom; (2) our bodies will be brought to Coimbra; and (3) which ever see our relics the first, you or the king, will die the same day.” When their bodies were brought to Coimba, the king told Queen Orraca she must join the procession with him. She pleaded illness, but Affonso replied the relics would cure her; so they started on their journey. As they were going, the queen told the king to speed on before, as she could not travel so fast; so he speeded on with his retinue, and started a boar on the road. “Follow him!” cried the king, and they went after the boar and killed it. In the mean time, the queen reached the procession, fully expecting her husband had joined it long ago; but lo! she beheld him riding up with great speed. That night the king was aroused at midnight with the intelligence that the queen was dead.—Southey, Queen Orraca (1838); Francisco Manoel da Esperança, Historia Sarafica (eightteenth century).

Orrock (Puggie), a sheriff’s officer at Fairport.—Sir W. Scott, The Antiquary (time, George III.).

Orsin, one of the leaders of the rabble rout that attacked Hudibras at the bear-baiting.—S. Butler, Hudibras (1663).

Orsi´ni (Maffio), a young Italian nobleman, whose life was saved by Genna´ro at the battle of Rim´ini. Orsini became the fast friend of Gennaro, but both were poisoned by the Princess Neg´roni at a banquet.—Donizetti, Lucrezia di Borgia (opera, 1834).

Orsi´no, duke of Illyria, who sought the love of Olivia, a rich countess; but Olivia gave no encouragement to his suit, and the duke moped and pined, leaving manly sports for music and other effeminate employments. Viola entered the duke’s service as a page, and soon became a great favorite. When Olivia married Sebastian (Viola’s brother), and the sex of Viola became known, the duke married her, and made her duchess of Illyria.—Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (1614).

Orson, twin brother of Valentine, and son of Bellisant. The twin-brothers were born in a wood near Orleans, and Orson was carried off by a bear, which suckled him with its cubs. When he grew up he became the terror of France, and was called “The Wild Man of the Forest.” Ultimately, he was reclaimed by his brother Valentine, overthrew the Green Knight, and married Fezon, daughter of the duke of Savary, in Aquitane.—Valentine and Orson (fifteenth century).

Orson and Ellen. Young Orson was a comely young farmer from Taunton, stout as an oak, and very fond of the lasses, but he hated matrimony, and used to say, “the man who can buy milk is a fool to keep a cow.” While still a lad, Orson made love to Ellen, a rustic maiden; but, in the fickleness of youth, forsook her for a richer lass, and Ellen left the village, wandered far away, and became waiting maid to old Boniface, the innkeeper. One day Orson happened to stop at this very inn, and Ellen waited on him. Five years had passed since they had seen each other, and at first neither knew the other. When, however, the facts were known, Orson made Ellen his wife, and their marriage feast was given by Boniface himself.—Peter Pindar [Dr. Wolcot], Orson and Ellen (1809).

Ortel´lius (Abraham), a Dutch geographer, who published in 1570, his Theatrum Orbis Terræ, or Universal Geography (1527-1598).

I more could tell to prove the place our own,
Than by his spacious maps are by Ortellius shown.

Drayton, Polyolbion, vi. (1612).

Ortheris, cockney companion of Mulvaney. He suffers violently from homesickness in India.—Rudyard Kipling, Soldiers Three.

Orthodoxy. When Lord Sandwich said, “he did not know the difference between orthodoxy and heterodoxy,” Warburton, bishop of Gloucester, replied, “Orthodoxy, my lord, is my doxy, and heterodoxy is another man’s doxy.”

Orthodoxy (The Father of), Athanasius (296-373).

Orthrus, the two-headed dog of Euryt´ion, the herdsman of Geryon´eo. It was the progeny of Typha´on and Echidna.

With his two-headed dogge that Orthrus hight,
Orthrus begotten by great Typhaon
And foule Echidna in the house of Night.

Spenser, Faëry Queen, v., 10 (1596).

Ortwine (2 syl.), knight of Metz, sister’s son of Sir Hagan of Trony, a Burgundian.—The Nibelungen Lied (eleventh century).

Or´ville (Lord), the amiable and devoted lover of Evelina, whom he ultimately marries.—Miss Burney, Evelina (1778).

Osbaldistone (Mr.), a London merchant.

Frank Osbaldistone, his son, in love with Diana Vernon, whom he marries.

Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone, of Osbaldistone Hall, uncle of Frank, his heir.

His Sons were: Percival, “the sot;” Thorncliffe, “the bully;” John, “the gamekeeper;” Richard, “the horse-jockey:” Wilfred, “the fool;” and Rashleigh, “the scholar,” a perfidious villain killed by Rob Roy.—Sir W. Scott, Rob Roy (time, George I.).

Rob Roy Macgregor was dramatized by Pocock.

Osborne (Mr.), a hard, money-loving, purse-proud, wealthy London merchant, whose only gospel was that “according to Mammon.” He was a widower, and his heart of hearts was to see his son, Captain George, marry a rich mulatto. While his neighbor, Sedley, was prosperous, old Sedley encouraged the love-making of George and Miss Sedley; but when old Sedley failed, and George dared to marry the bankrupt’s daughter, to whom he was engaged, the old merchant disinherited him. Captain George fell on the field of Waterloo, but the heart of old Osborne would not relent, and he allowed the widow to starve in abject poverty. He adopted, however, the widow’s son George, and brought him up in absurd luxury and indulgence. A more detestable cad than old Sedley cannot be imagined.

Maria and Jane Osborne, daughters of the merchant, and of the same mould. Maria married Frederick Bullock, a banker’s son.

Captain George Osborne, son of the merchant; selfish, vain, extravagant, and self-indulgent. He was engaged to Amelia Sedley, while her father was in prosperity, and Captain Dobbin induced him to marry her after the father was made a bankrupt. Happily, George fell on the field of Waterloo, or one would never vouch for his conjugal fidelity.—Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848).

Oscar, son of Ossian and grandson of Fingal. He was engaged to Malvi´na, daughter of Toscar, but before the day of marriage arrived, he was slain in Ulster, fighting against Cairbar, who had treacherously invited him to a banquet and then slew him, A.D. 296. Oscar is represented as most brave, warm-hearted, and impetuous, most submissive to his father, tender to Malvina, and a universal favorite.

Oscar Roused from Sleep. “Caolt took up a huge stone and hurled it on the hero’s head. The hill for three miles round shook with the reverberation of the blow, and the stone, rebounding, rolled out of sight. Whereupon Oscar awoke, and told Caolt to reserve his blows for his enemies.”

Gun thog Caoilte a chlach nach gàn,
Agus a n’ aighai’ chiean gun bhuail;
Tri mil an tulloch gun chri.

Gaelic Romances.

Oscar Dubourg. Amiable, affectionate young fellow, betrothed to blind Lucilla Finch. To cure the epilepsy attendant upon an injury to his head, he takes nitrate of silver, concealing the discoloration of his complexion caused by the drug from the knowledge of his betrothed, who has a nervous horror of ugliness and deformity. When she regains her sight, he leaves her because he dares not disclose the truth that she has mistaken his brother for himself, and does not enter her presence until her sight again leaves her.—Wilkie Collins, Poor Miss Finch.

Os´ewald (3 syl.), the reeve, of “the carpenteres craft,” an old man.—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (1388).

Oseway (Dame), the ewe, in the beast-epic of Reynard the Fox (1498).

O’Shanter (Tam), a farmer, who, returning home from Ayr very late and well-soaked with liquor, had to pass the kirk of Alloway. Seeing it was illuminated, he peeped in, and saw there the witches and devils dancing, while old Clootie was blowing the bagpipes. Tam got so excited that he roared out to one of the dancers, “Weel done, Cutty Sark!” In a moment all was dark. Tam now spurred his “grey mare Meg” to the top of her speed, while all the fiends chased after him. The river Doon was near, and Tam just reached the middle of the bridge when one of the witches, whom he called Cutty Sark, reached him; but it was too late—he had passed the middle of the stream, and was out of the power of the crew. Not so his mare’s tail—that had not yet passed the magic line, and Cutty Sark, clinging thereto, dragged it off with an infernal wrench.—R. Burns, Tam O’Shanter.

Osi´ris, judge of the dead, brother and husband of Isis. Osiris is identical with Adonis and Thammuz. All three represent the sun, six months above the equator, and six months below it. Adonis passed six months with Aphrodītê in heaven, and six months with Persephŏnê in hell. So Osiris in heaven was the beloved of Isis, but in the land of darkness was embraced by Nepthys.

Osiris, the sun; Isis, the moon.

They [the priests] wore rich mitres shaped like the moon,
To show that Isis doth the moon portend,
Like as Osiris signifies the sun.

Spenser, Faëry Queen, v. 7 (1596).

Osman, sultan of the East, the great conqueror of the Christians, a man of most magnanimous mind and of noble generosity. He loved Zara, a young Christian captive, and was by her beloved with equal ardor and sincerity. Zara was the daughter of Lusignan d’Outremer, a Christian king of Jerusalem; she was taken prisoner by Osman’s father, with her elder brother, Nerestan, then four years old. After twenty years’ captivity, Nerestan was sent to France for ransom, and on his return presented himself before the sultan, who fancied he perceived a sort of intimacy between the young man and Zara, which excited his suspicion and jealousy. A letter, begging that Zara would meet him in a “secret passage” of the seraglio, fell into the sultan’s hands, and confirmed his suspicions. Zara went to the rendezvous, where Osman met her and stabbed her to the heart. Nerestan was soon brought before him, and told him he had murdered his sister, and all he wanted of her was to tell her of the death of her father, and to bring her his dying benediction. Stung with remorse, Osman liberated all his Christian captives, and then stabbed himself.—Aaron Hill, Zara (1735).

* This tragedy is an English adaptation of Voltaire’s Zaïre (1733).

Osmand, a necromancer, who, by enchantment, raised up an army to resist the Christians. Six of the champions were enchanted by Osmand, but St. George restored them. Osmand tore off his hair, in which lay his spirit of enchantment, bit his tongue in two, disembowelled himself, cut off his arms, and died.—R. Johnson, Seven Champions of Christendom, i. 19 (1617).

Osmond, an old Varangian guard.—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Osmond (Gilbert), the incarnation of polished selfishness. He deserts one woman, who has sacrificed everything for him, and marries Isabel Archer for her money; eyes his only child as he might a pretty puppet, and sends her back to her convent upon finding that she will not increase his social consequence by marrying an English nobleman.—Henry James, Jr., Portrait of a Lady (1881).

Osmyn, alias Alphonso, son of Anselmo, king of Valentia, and husband of Alme´ria, daughter of Manuel, king of Grana´da. Supposed to have been lost at sea, but in reality cast on the African coast, and tended by Queen Zara, who falls in love with him. Both are taken captive by Manuel, and brought to Granada. Here Manuel falls in love with Zara, but Zara retains her passionate love for Alphonso. Alphonso makes his escape, returns at the head of an army to Granada, finds both the king and Zara dead, but Almeria, being still alive, becomes his acknowledged bride.—W. Congreve, The Mourning Bride (1697).

Osric, a court fop, contemptible for his affectation and finical dandyism. He is made umpire by King Claudius, when Laertês and Hamlet “play” with rapiers in “friendly” combat.—Shakespeare, Hamlet (1596).

Osse´o, son of the Evening Star, whose wife was O´weenee. In the Northland there were once ten sisters of surpassing beauty; nine married beautiful young husbands, but the youngest, named Oweenee, fixed her affections on Osseo, who was “old, poor and ugly,” but “most beautiful within.” All being invited to a feast, the nine set upon their youngest sister, taunting her for having married Osseo; but forthwith Osseo leaped into a fallen oak, and was transformed into a most handsome young man, his wife to a very old woman, “wrinkled and ugly,” but his love changed not. Soon another change occurred; Oweenee resumed her former beauty, and all the sisters and their husbands were changed to birds, who were kept in cages about Osseo’s wigwam. In due time a son was born, and one day he shot an arrow at one of the caged birds, and forthwith the nine, with their husbands, were changed to pygmies.

From the story of Osseo
Let [us] learn the fate of jesters.

Longfellow, Hiawatha, xii. (1855).

Ossian, the warrior-bard. He was son of Fingal (king of Morven) and his first wife, Ros-crana (daughter of Cormac, king of Ireland).

His wife was Evir-Allen, daughter of Branno (a native of Ireland); and his son was Oscar.

Oswald, steward to Goneril, daughter of King Lear.—Shakespeare, King Lear (1605).

Oswald, the cup-bearer to Cedric, the Saxon, of Rotherwood.—Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).

Oswald (Prince), being jealous of Gondibert, his rival for the love of Rhodalind (the heiress of Aribert, king of Lombardy), headed a faction against him. A battle was imminent, but it was determined to decide the quarrel by four combatants on each side. In this combat Oswald was slain by Grondibert.—Sir W. Davenant, Gondibert, i. (died 1668).

Othel´lo, the Moor, commander of the Venetian army. Iago was his ensign or ancient. Desdemona, the daughter of Brabantio, the senator, fell in love with the Moor, and he married her; but Iago, by his artful villainy, insinuated to him such a tissue of circumstantial evidence of Desdemona’s love for Cassio, that Othello’s jealousy being aroused, he smothered her with a pillow, and then killed himself.—Shakespeare, Othello (1611).

* The story of this tragedy is taken from the novelletti of Giovanni Giraldi Cinthio (died 1573).

Addison says of Thomas Betterton (1635-1710): “The wonderful agony which he appeared in when he examined the circumstance of the handkerchief in the part of ‘Othello,’ and the mixture of love that intruded on his mind at the innocent answers of ‘Desdemona,’ ... were the perfection of acting.” Donaldson, in his Recollections, says that Spranger Barry (1719-1777) was the beau-ideal of an “Othello;” and C. Leslie, in his Autobiography, says the same of Edmund Kean (1787-1833).

Otho, the lord at whose board Count Lara was recognized by Sir Ezzelin. A duel was arranged for the next day, and the contending parties were to meet in Lord Otho’s hall. When the time of meeting arrived, Lara presented himself, but no Sir Ezzelin put in his appearance; whereupon Otho, vouching for the knight’s honor, fought with the count, and was wounded. On recovering from his wound, Lord Otho became the inveterate enemy of Lara, and accused him openly of having made away with Sir Ezzelin. Lara made himself very popular, and headed a rebellion; but Lord Otho opposed the rebels, and shot him.—Byron, Lara (1814).

Otnit, a legendary emperor of Lombardy, who gains the daughter of the soldan for wife, by the help of Elberich, the dwarf.—The Heldenbuch (twelfth century).

Otranto (Tancred, prince of), a crusader.

Ernest of Otranto, page of the prince of Otranto.—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Otranto (The Castle of), a romance by Horace Walpole (1769).

O’Trigger (Sir Lucius), a fortune-hunting Irishman, ready to fight every one, on any matter, at any time.—Sheridan, The Rivals (1775).

Otta´vio (Don), the lover of Donna Anna, whom he was about to make his wife, when Don Giovanni seduced her and killed her father (the commandant of the city) in a duel.—Mozart, Don Giovanni (opera, 1787).

Otto, duke of Normandy, the victim of Rollo, called “The Bloody Brother.”—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Bloody Brother (1639).

Ot´uel (Sir), a haughty and presumptuous Saracen, miraculously converted. He was a nephew of Ferragus or Ferracute, and married a daughter of Charlemagne.

Ouida, an infantile corruption of Louisa. The full name is Louise de la Ramée, authoress of Under Two Flags (1867), and many other novels.

Outalissi, eagle of the Indian tribe of Onei´da, the death-enemies of the Hurons. When the Hurons attacked the fort under the command of Waldegrave (2 syl.), a general massacre was made, in which Waldegrave and his wife was slain. But Mrs. Waldegrave, before she died, committed her boy, Henry, to the charge of Outalissi, and told him to place the child in the hands of Albert of Wy´oming, her friend. This Outalissi did. After a lapse of fifteen years, one Brandt, at the head of a mixed army of British and Indians, attacked Oneida, and a general massacre was made; but Outalissi, wounded, escaped to Wyoming, just in time to give warning of the approach of Brandt. Scarcely was this done, when Brandt arrived. Albert and his daughter, Gertrude, were both shot, and the whole settlement was extirpated.—Campbell, Gertrude of Wyoming (1809).

Outis (Greek for “nobody”), a name assumed by Odysseus (Ulysses) in the cave of Polypheme (3 syl.). When the monster roared with pain from the loss of his eye, his brother giants demanded who was hurting him. “Outis” (Nobody), thundered out Polypheme, and his companions left him.—Homer, Odyssey.

Outram (Lance), park-keeper to Sir Geoffrey Peveril.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Overdees (Rowley), a highwayman.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

O´verdo (Justice), in Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair (1614).

Overdone (Mistress), a bawd.—Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603).

Overreach (Sir Giles), Wellborn’s uncle. An unscrupulous, hard-hearted rascal, grasping and proud. He ruined the estates both of Wellborn and Allworth, and by overreaching grew enormously rich. His ambition was to see his daughter Margaret marry a peer; but the overreacher was overreached. Thinking Wellborn was about to marry the rich dowager Allworth, he not only paid all his debts, but supplied his present wants most liberally, under the delusion “if she prove his, all that is her’s is mine.” Having thus done, he finds that Lady Allworth does not marry Wellborn, but Lord Lovell. In regard to Margaret, fancying she was sure to marry Lord Lovell, he gives his full consent to her marriage; but finds she returns from church not Lady Lovell, but Mrs. Allworth.—Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old Debts (1628).

* The prototype of “Sir Giles Overreach” was Sir Giles Mompesson, a usurer outlawed for his misdeeds.

Overs (John), a ferryman who used to ferry passengers from Southwark to the City, and accumulated a considerable hoard of money by his savings. On one occasion, to save the expenses of board, he simulated death, expecting his servants would fast till he was buried; but they broke into his larder and cellar and held riot. When the old miser could bear it no longer he started up and belabored his servants right and left; but one of them struck the old man with an oar and killed him.

Mary Overs, the beautiful daughter of the ferryman. Her lover, hastening to town, was thrown from his horse, and died. She then became a nun, and founded the church of St. Mary Overs on the site of her father’s house.

Overton (Colonel), one of Cromwell’s officers.—Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, Commonwealth).

Ovid (The French), Du Bellay; also called “The Father of Grace and Elegance” (1524-1560).

Ovid and Corinna. Ovid disguises, under the name of Corinna, the daughter of Augustus, named Julia, noted for her beauty, talent and licentiousness. Some say that Corinna was Livia, the wife of Augustus.—Amor., i. 5.

So was her heavenly body comely raised
On two faire columnes; those that Ovid praised
In Julia’s borrowed name.

O´wain (Sir), the Irish knight of King Stephen’s court, who passed through St. Patrick’s purgatory by way of penance.—Henry of Saltrey, The Descent of Owain (1153).

O´weenee, the youngest of ten sisters, all of surpassing beauty. She married Osseo, who was “old, poor, and ugly,” but “most beautiful within.” (See Osseo.)—Longfellow, Hiawatha, xii. (1855).

Owen (Sam), groom of Darsie Latimer, i.e. Sir Arthur Darsie Redgauntlet.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Owen, confidential clerk of Mr. Osbaldistone, senior.—Sir W. Scott, Rob Roy (time, George I.).

Owen (Sir), passed in dream through St. Patrick’s purgatory. He passed the convent gate, and the warden placed him in a coffin. When the priests had sung over him the service of the dead, they placed the coffin in a cave, and Sir Owen made his descent. He came first to an ice desert, and received three warnings to retreat, but the warnings were not heeded, and a mountain of ice fell on him. “Lord, Thou canst save!” he cried, as the ice fell, and the solid mountain became like dust, and did Sir Owen no harm. He next came to a lake of fire, and a demon pushed him in. “Lord, Thou canst save!” he cried, and angels carried him to paradise. He woke with ecstacy, and found himself lying before the cavern’s mouth.—R. Southey, St. Patrick’s Purgatory (from the Fabliaux of M. le Grand.

Owen Meredith, Robert Bulwer Lytton, afterwards Lord Lytton, son of the poet and novelist (1831-1892).

Owl (The), sacred to Minerva, was the emblem of Athens.

Owls hoot in B♭ and G♭, or in F♯ and A♭.—Rev. G. White, Natural History of Selborne, xlv. (1789).

Owl a Baker’s Daughter (The). Our Lord once went into a baker’s shop to ask for bread. The mistress instantly put a cake in the oven for Him, but the daughter, thinking it to be too large, reduced it to half the size. The dough, howover, swelled to an enormous bulk, and the daughter cried out, “Heugh! heugh! heugh!” and was transformed into an owl.

Well, God ’ield you! They say the owl was a baker’s daughter.—Shakespeare, Hamlet (1596).

Ox (The Dumb), St. Thomas Aqui´nas; so named by his fellow-students on account of his taciturnity (1224-1274).

An ox once spoke as learned men deliver.—Beaumont and Fletcher, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife, iii. 1 (1640).

Ox. The black ox hath trod on his foot, he has married and is hen-pecked; calamity has befallen him. The black ox was sacrificed to the infernals, and was consequently held accursed. When Tusser says the best way to thrive is to get married, the objector says:

Why, then, do folk this proverb put,
“The black ox near trod on thy foot,”
If that way were to thrive?

Wiving and Thriving, lvii. (1557).

The black oxe had not trode on his or her foote;
But ere his branch of blesse could reach any roote,
The flowers so faded that in fifteen weekes
A man might copy the change in the cheekes
Both of the poore wretch and his wife.

Heywood (1646).

Oxford (John, earl of), an exiled Lancastrian. He appears with his son Arthur as a travelling merchant, under the name of Philipson.

* The son of the merchant Philipson is Sir Arthur de Vere.

The countess of Oxford, wife of the earl.—Sir W. Scott, Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).

Oxford (The young earl of), in the court of Queen Elizabeth.—Sir W. Scott, Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).

Ozair (2 syl.), a prophet. One day, riding on an ass by the ruins of Jerusalem, after its destruction by the Chaldeans, he doubted in his mind whether God could raise the city up again. Whereupon God caused him to die, and he remained dead a hundred years, but was then restored to life. He found the basket of figs and cruse of wine as fresh as when he died, but his ass was a mass of bones. While he still looked, the dry bones came together, received life, and the resuscitated ass began to bray. The prophet no longer doubted the power of God to raise up Jerusalem from its ruins.—Al Korân, ii. (Sale’s notes).

* This legend is based on Neh. ii. 12-20.

P Placenticus, the Dominican, wrote a poem of 253 Latin hexameters, called Pugna Porcorum, every word of which begins with the letter p (died 1548). It begins thus:

Plaudite, Porcelli, porcorum pigra propago
Progreditur ... etc.

There was one composed in honor of Charles le Chauve, every word of which began with c.

The best known alliterative poem in English is the following:—

An Austrian army, awfully arrayed,
Boldly by battery besieged Belgrade.
Cossack commanders, cannonading, come,
Dealing destruction’s devastating doom;
Every endeavor engineers essay
For fame, for fortune, forming furious fray.
Gaunt gunners grapple, giving gashes good;
Heaves high his head heroic hardihood.
Ibraham, Islam, Ismael, imps in ill,
Jostle John, Jarovlitz, Jem, Joe, Jack, Jill;
Kick kindling Kutusoff, kings’ kinsmen kill;
Labor low levels loftiest, longest lines;
Men march ’mid moles, ’mid mounds, ’mid murderous mines.
Now nightfall’s nigh, now needful nature nods,
Opposed, opposing, overcoming odds.
Poor peasants, partly purchased, partly pressed,
Quite quaking, “Quarter! Quarter!” quickly quest.
Reason returns, recalls redundant rage,
Saves sinking soldiers, softens signiors sage.
Truce, Turkey, truce! truce, treacherous Tartar train!
Unwise, unjust, unmerciful Ukraine!
Vanish, vile vengeance! vanish, victory vain!
Wisdom walls war—wails warring words. What were
Xerxes, Xantippê, Ximenês, Xavier?
Yet Yassy’s youth, ye yield your youthful yest
Zealously, zanies, zealously, zeal’s zest.

From H. Southgate, Many Thoughts on Many Things.

Tusser has a poem of twelve lines, in rhyme, every word of which begins with t. The subject is on Thriftiness (died 1580).

P’s (The Five), William Oxberry, printer, poet, publisher, publican and player (1784-1824).

Pache (J. Nicolas), a Swiss by birth. He was minister of war in 1792, and maire de Paris 1793. Pache hated the Girondists, and at the fall of Danton, was imprisoned. After his liberation, he retired to Thym-le-Moutiers (in the Ardennes), and died in obscurity (1740-1823).

Swiss Pache sits sleek-headed, frugal, the wonder of his own ally for humility of mind.... Sit there, Tartuffe, till wanted.—Carlyle.

Pacific (The), Amadeus VIII., count of Savoy (1383, 1391-1439, abdicated, and died 1451).

Frederick III., emperor of Germany (1415, 1440-1493).

Olaus III. of Norway (*, 1030-1093).

Pac´olet, a dwarf, “full of great sense and subtle ingenuity.” He had an enchanted horse, made of wood, with which he carried off Valentine, Orson and Clerimond from the dungeon of Ferrăgus. This horse is often alluded to. “To ride Pacolet’s horse” is a phrase for going very fast.—Valentine and Orson, fifteenth century).

Pacolet, a familiar spirit.—Steele, The Tatler (1709).

Pacolet, or Nick Strumpfer, the dwarf servant of Norna “of the Fitful Head.”—Sir W. Scott, The Pirate (time William III.).

Pacomo (St.), an Egyptian, who lived in the fourth century. It is said that he could walk among serpents unhurt; and when he had occasion to cross the Nile, he was carried on the back of a crocodile.

The hermit fell on his knees before an image of St. Pacomo, which was glued to the wall.—Lesage, Gil Blas, iv. 9 (1724).

Paddington (Harry), one of Macheath’s gang of thieves. Peachum describes him as a “poor, petty-larceny rascal, without the least genius. That fellow,” he says, “though he were to live for six months, would never come to the gallows with credit” (act i. 1).—Gay, The Beggar’s Opera (1727).

Paddy, an Irishman. A corruption of Padhrig, Irish for Patrick.

Padlock (The), a comic opera by Bickerstaff. Don Diego (2 syl.), a wealthy lord of 60, saw a country maiden named Leonora, to whom he took a fancy, and arranged with the parents to take her home with him and place her under the charge of a duenna for three months, to see if her temper was as sweet as her face was pretty; and then either “to return her to them spotless, or make her his lawful wife.” At the expiration of the time, the don went to arrange with the parents for the wedding, and locked up his house, giving the keys to Ursula, the duenna. To make assurance doubly sure, he put a padlock on the outer door, and took the key with him. Leander, a young student, smitten with the damsel, laughed at locksmiths and duennas, and, having gained admission into the house, was detected by Don Diego, who returned unexpectedly. The old don, being a man of sense, perceived that Leander was a more suitable bridegroom than himself, so he not only sanctioned the alliance, but gave Leonora a handsome wedding dowry (1768).

Pæan, the physician of the immortals.

Pæa´na, daughter of Corflambo, “fair as ever yet saw living eye,” but “too loose of life and eke too light.” Pæana fell in love with Amĭas, a captive in her father’s dungeon; but Amias had no heart to give away. When Placĭdae was brought captive before Pæana, she mistook him for Amias, and married him. The poet adds, that she thenceforth so reformed her ways “that all men much admired the change, and spake her praise.”—Spenser, Faëry Queen, iv. 9 (1596).

Pagan, a fay who loved the Princess Imis; but Imis rejected his suit, as she loved her cousin, Philax. Pagan, out of revenge, shut them up in a superb crystal palace, which contained every delight except that of leaving it. In the course of a few years, Imis and Philax longed as much for a separation as, at one time, they wished to be united.—Comtesse D’Aunoy, Fairy Tales (“Palace of Revenge,” 1682).

Page (Mr.), a gentleman living at Windsor. When Sir John Falstaff made love to Mrs. Page, Page himself assumed the name of Brooke, to outwit the knight. Sir John told the supposed Brooke his whole “course of wooing,” and how nicely he was bamboozling the husband. On one occasion, he says, “I was carried out in a buck-basket of dirty linen before the very eyes of Page, and the deluded husband did not know it.” Of course, Sir John is thoroughly outwitted and played upon, being made the butt of the whole village.

Mrs. Page, wife of Mr. Page of Windsor. When Sir John Falstaff made love to her, she joined with Mrs. Ford to dupe him and punish him.

Anne Page, daughter of the above, in love with Fenton. Slender calls her “the sweet Anne Page.”

William Page, Anne’s brother, a schoolboy.—Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor (1595).

Page (Sir Francis), called “The Hanging Judge” (1661-1741).

Slander and poison dread from Delia’s rage;
Hard words or hanging if your judge be Page.

Pope.

Page (Ruth). A dainty little miss, bright, happy and imaginative, called sometimes “Teenty-Taunty.” Her head is full of fairy-lore, and when she tumbles into the water one day, she dreams in her swoon of Fairy-Land and the wonders thereof, of a bunch of forget-me-nots she was to keep alive if she would have her mother live, and so many other marvellous things, that her distressed father opines that “the poor child would be rational enough, if she had not read so many fairy-books.”—John Neal, Goody Gracious and the Forget-me-not (183-).

Paget (The Lady), one of the ladies of the bedchamber in Queen Elizabeth’s court.—Sir W. Scott, Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).

Paine (Squire). “Hard-headed, hard fe’tured Yankee,” whose conversion to humanity and Christianity is effected by Roxanna Keep.

She “drilled the hole, an’ put in the powder of the Word, an’ tamped it down with some pretty stiff facts ... but the Lord fired the blast Himself.”—Rose Terry Cooke, Somebody’s Neighbors (1881).

Painter of Nature. Remi Belleau, one of the Pleiad poets, is so called (1528-1577).

The Shepheardes Calendar, by Spenser, is largely borrowed from Belleau’s Song of April.

Painter of the Graces. Andrea Appiani (1754-1817).

Painters.

A Bee. Quentin Matsys, the Dutch painter, painted a bee so well that the artist Mandyn thought it a real bee, and proceeded to brush it away with his handkerchief (1450-1529).

A Cow. Myro carved a cow so true to nature that bulls mistook it for a living animal (B.C. 431).

A Curtain. Parrhasios painted a curtain so admirably that even Zeuxis, the artist, mistook it for real drapery (B.C. 400).

A Fly. George Alexander Stevens says, in his Lectures on Heads:

I have heard of a connoisseur who was one day in an auction-room where there was an inimitable piece of painting of fruits and flowers. The connoisseur would not give his opinion of the picture till he had first examined the catalogue; and, finding it was done by an Englishman, he pulled out his eye-glass. “Oh, sir,” says he, “those English fellows have no more idea of genius than a Dutch skipper has of dancing a cotillion. The dog has spoiled a fine piece of canvas; he is worse than a Harp Alley signpost dauber. There’s no keeping, no perspective, no foreground. Why, there now, the fellow has actually attempted to paint a fly upon that rosebud. Why, it is no more like a fly than I am like—;” but, as he approached his finger to the picture, the fly flew away (1772)

Grapes. Zeuxis (2 syl.) a Grecian painter, painted some grapes so well that birds came and pecked at them, thinking them real grapes (B.C. 400).

A Horse. Apellês painted Alexander’s horse Bucephalos so true to life that some mares came up to the canvas neighing, under the supposition that it was a real animal (about B.C. 334).

A Man. Velasquez painted a Spanish admiral so true to life that when King Felipe IV. entered the studio he mistook the painting for the man, and began reproving the supposed officer for neglecting his duty in wasting his time in the studio, when he ought to have been with his fleet (1590-1660).

Accidental effects in painting.

Apellês, being at a loss to paint the foam of Alexander’s horse, dashed his brush at the picture in a fit of annoyance, and did by accident what his skill had failed to do (about B.C. 334).

The same tale is told of Protog´enês, who dashed his brush at a picture, and thus produced “the foam of a dog’s mouth,” which he had long been trying in vain to represent (about B.C. 332).

Painters (Prince of). Parrhasios and Apellês are both so called (fourth century B.C.).

Painters’ Characteristics.

Angelo (Michael): an iron frame, strongly developed muscles, and an anatomical display of the human figure. The Æschylos of painters (1474-1564).

Carracci: eclectic artists, who picked out and pieced together parts taken from Correggio, Raphael, Titian and other great artists. If Michael Angelo is the Æschylos of artists, and Raphael the Sophoclês, the Carracci may be called the Euripidês of painters. I know not why in England the name is spelt with only one r.

Correggio: known by his wonderful foreshortenings, his magnificent light and shade. He is, however, very monotonous (1494-1534).

Crome (John): an old woman in a red cloak walking up an avenue of trees (1769-1821).

David: noted for his stiff, dry, pedantic, “highly classic” style, according to the interpretation of the phrase by the French in the first Revolution (1748-1825).

Dolce (Cario): famous for his Madonnas, which were all finished with most extraordinary delicacy (1616-1686).

Domenichi´no: famed for his frescoes, correct in design and fresh in coloring (1581-1614).

Guido: his specialty is a pallid or bluish-complexioned saint, with saucer or uplifted eyes (1574-1642).

Holbein: characterized by bold relief, exquisite finish, force of conception, delicacy of tone, and dark background (1498-1554).

Lorraine (Claude): a Greek temple on a hill, with sunny and highly finished classic scenery. Aerial perspective (1600-1682).

Murillo: a brown-faced Madonna (1618-1682).

Ommeganck: sheep (1775-1826).

Perugino (Pietro): known by his narrow, contracted figures and scrimpy drapery (1446-1524).

Poussin: famous for his classic style. Reynolds says: “No works of any modern have so much the air of antique painting as those of Poussin” (1593-1665).

Poussin (Gaspar): a landscape painter, the very opposite of Claude Lorraine. He seems to have drawn his inspiration from Hervey’s Meditations Among the Tombs, Blair’s Grave, Young’s Night Thoughts, and Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy (1613-1675).

Raphael: the Sophoclês of painters. Angelo’s figures are all gigantesque and ideal, like those of Æschylos. Raphael’s are perfect human beings (1483-1520).

Reynolds: a portrait-painter. He presents his portraits in bal masqué, not always suggestive either of the rank or character of the person represented. There is about the same analogy between Watteau and Reynolds as between Claude Lorraine and Gaspar Poussin (1723-1792).

Rosa (Salvator): dark, inscrutable pictures, relieved by dabs of palette-knife. He is fond of savage scenery, broken rocks, wild caverns, blasted heaths, and so on (1615-1673).

Rubens: patches of vermillion dabbed about the human figure, wholly out of harmony with the rest of the coloring (1577-1640).

Steen (Jan): an old woman peeling vegetables, with another old woman looking at her (1636-1679).

Tintoretti: full of wild fantastical inventions. He is called “The Lightning of the Pencil” (1512-1594).

Titian: noted for his broad shades of divers gradations (1477-1576).

Veronese (Paul): noted for his great want of historical correctness and elegance of design; but he abounds in spirited banquets, sumptuous edifices, brilliant aerial spectres, magnificent robes, gaud, and jewelry (1530-1588).

Watteau: noted for his fêtes galantes, fancy-ball costumes, and generally gala-day figures (1684-1721).

Paix des Dames (La), the treaty of peace concluded at Cambray in 1529, between François I. of France and Karl V., emperor of Germany. So called because it was mainly negotiated by Louise of Savoy (mother of the French king), and Margaret, the emperor’s aunt.

Palabras Carinosas.

“Good-night! I have to say good-night
To such a host of peerless things!
Good-night unto the fragile hand
All queenly with its weight of rings;
Good-night to fond uplifted eyes,
Good-night to chestnut braids of hair,
Good-night unto the perfect mouth
And all the sweetness nestled there,—
The snowy hand detains me,—then
I’ll have to say Good-night again!”

Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Poems, 1858-84.

Paladore, a Briton in the service of the king of Lombardy. One day, in a boar-hunt, the boar turned on the Princess Sophia, and, having gored her horse to death, was about to attack the lady, but was slain by the young Briton. Between these two young people a strong attachment sprang up; but the Duke Bire´no, by an artifice of false impersonation, induced Paladore to believe that the princess was a wanton, and had the audacity to accuse her as such to the senate. In Lombardy, the punishment for this offence was death, and the princess was ordered to execution. Paladore, having learned the truth, accused the duke of villainy. They fought, and Bireno fell. The princess, being cleared of the charge, married Paladore.—Robert Jephson, The Law of Lombardy (1779).

Palame´des (4 syl.), son of Nauplios, was, according to Suidas, the inventor of dice. (See Alea.)

Palamedes (Sir), a Saracen, who adored Isolde, the wife of King Mark of Cornwall. Sir Tristram also loved the same lady, who was his aunt. The two “lovers” fought, and Sir Palamedês, being overcome, was compelled to turn Christian. He was baptized, and Sir Tristram stood his sponsor at the font.—Thomas of Erceldoune, called “The Rhymer,” Sir Tristram (thirteenth century).

Palame´des of Lombardy, one of the allies of the Christian army in the first crusade. He was shot by Corinda with an arrow (bk. xi.).—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered (1575).

Palamon and Arcite (2 syl.), two young Theban knights, who fell into the hands of Duke Theseus (2 syl.), and were by him confined in a dungeon at Athens. Here they saw the duke’s sister-in-law, Emily, with whom both fell in love. When released from captivity, the two knights told to the duke their tale of love; and the duke promised that whichever proved the victor in single combat, should have Emily for his prize. Arcite prayed to Mars “for victory,” and Palamon to Venus that he might “obtain the lady,” and both their prayers were granted. Arcite won the victory, according to his prayer, but, being thrown from his horse, died; so Palamon, after all, “won the lady,” though he did not win the battle.—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (“The Knight’s Tale,” 1388).

This tale is taken from the Le Teseide of Boccaccio.

The Black Horse, a drama by John Fletcher, is the same tale. Richard Edwards has a comedy called Palæmon and Arcyte (1566).

Pale (The), or The English Pale, a part of Ireland, including Dublin, Meath, Carlow, Kilkenny and Louth.

Pale Faces. So the American Indians call the European settlers.

Pale´mon, son of a rich merchant. He fell in love with Anna, daughter of Albert, master of one of his father’s ships. The purse-proud merchant, indignant at this, tried every means to induce his son to abandon such a “mean connection,” but without avail; so at last he sent him in the Britannia (Albert’s ship) “in charge of the merchandise.” The ship was wrecked near Cape Colonna, in Attica; and although Palēmon escaped, his ribs were so broken that he died almost as soon as he reached the shore.

A gallant youth, Palemon was his name,
Charged with the commerce hither also came;
A father’s stern resentment doomed to prove,
He came, the victim of unhappy love.

Falconer, The Shipwreck, i. 2 (1756).

Pale´mon and Lavinia, a poetic version of Boaz and Ruth. “The lovely young Lavinia” went to glean in the fields of young Palemon, “the pride of swains;” and Palemon, falling in love with the beautiful gleaner, both wooed and won her.—Thomson, The Seasons (“Autumn,” 1730).

Pales (2 syl.), god of shepherds and their flocks.—Roman Mythology.

Pomōna loves the orchard;
And Liber loves the vine;
And Palês loves the straw-built shed,
Warm with the breath of kine.

Lord Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome (“Prophecy of Capys,” 1842).

Pal´inode (3 syl.), a shepherd in Spenser’s Eclogues. In ecl. v. Palinode represents the Catholic priest. He invites Piers (who represents the Protestant clergy) to join in the fun and pleasures of May. Piers then warns the young man of the vanities of the world, and tells him of the great degeneracy of pastoral life, at one time simple and frugal, but now discontented and licentious. He concludes with the fable of the kid and her dam. The fable is this: A mother-goat, going abroad for the day, told her kid to keep at home, and not to open the door to strangers. She had not been gone long when up came a fox, with head bound from “headache,” and foot bound from “gout,” and carrying a ped of trinkets. The fox told the kid a most piteous tale, and showed her a little mirror. The kid, out of pity and vanity, opened the door; but while stooping over the ped to pick up a little bell, the fox clapped down the lid and carried her off.

In ecl. vii. Palinode is referred to by the shepherd Thomalin, as “lording it over God’s heritage,” feeding the sheep with chaff, and keeping for himself the grains.—Spenser, Shepheardes Calendar (1572).

Palinode (3 syl.), a poem in recantation of a calumny. Stesich´oros wrote a bitter satire against Helen, for which her brothers, Castor and Pollux, plucked out his eyes. When, however, the poet recanted, his sight was restored to him again.

The bard who libelled Helen in his song,
Recanted after, and redressed the wrong.

Ovid, Art of Love, iii.

Horace’s Ode, xvi. i. is a palinode. Samuel Butler has a palinode, in which he recanted what he said in a previous poem of the Hon. Edward Howard. Dr. Watts recanted in a poem the praise he had previously bestowed on Queen Anne.

Palinu´rus, the pilot of Æne´as. Palinurus, sleeping at the helm, fell into the sea and was drowned. The name is employed as a generic word for a steersman or pilot, and sometimes for a chief minister. Thus, Prince Bismarck might have been called the palinurus of William, emperor of Germany and king of Prussia.

More had she spoke, but yawned. All nature nods ...
E’en Palinurus nodded at the helm.

Pope, The Dunciad, iv. 614 (1742).

Palisse (La), a sort of M. Prudhomme; a pompous utterer of truisms and moral platitudes.

Palissy (Bernard, the potter), succeeded, after innumerable efforts and privations, in inventing the art of enamelling stone ware. He was arrested and confined in the Bastille for Huguenot principles, and died there in 1589.

Palla´dio (Andrea), the Italian classical architect (1518-1580).

The English Palladio, Inigo Jones (1573-1653).

Palla´dium.

Of Ceylon, the deláda or tooth of Buddha, preserved in the Malegawa temple at Kandy. Natives guard it with great jealousy, from a belief that whoever possesses it acquires the right to govern Ceylon. When, in 1815, the English obtained possession of the tooth, the Ceylonese submitted to them without resistance.

Of Eden Hall, a drinking-glass, in the possession of Sir Christopher Musgrave, Bart., of Edenhall, Cumberland.

Of Jerusalem. Aladine, king of Jerusalem, stole an image of the Virgin, and set it up in a mosque, that she might no longer protect the Christians, but become the palladium of Jerusalem. The image was rescued by Sophronia, and the city taken by the crusaders.

Of Meg´ara, a golden hair of King Nisus. Scylla promised to deliver the city into the hands of Minos, and cut off the talismanic lock of her father’s head while he was asleep.

Of Rome, the ancīle or sacred buckler which Numa said fell from heaven, and was guarded by priests called Salii.

Of Scotland, the great stone of Scone, near Perth, which was removed by Edward I. to Westminster, and is still there, preserved in the coronation chair.

Of Troy, a colossal wooden statue of Pallas Minerva, which “fell from heaven.” It was carried off by the Greeks, by whom the city was taken, and burned to the ground.

Pallet, a painter, in Smollett’s novel of Peregrine Pickle (1751).

The absurdities of Pallet are painted an inch thick, and by no human possibility could such an accumulation of comic disasters have befallen the characters of the tale.

Pal´merin of England, the hero and title of a romance in chivalry. There is also an inferior one entitled Palmerin d’Oliva.

The next two books were Palmerin d’Ol´iva and Palmerin of England. “The former,” said the curé, “shall be torn in pieces and burnt to the last ember; but Palmerin of England shall be preserved as a relique of antiquity, and placed in such a chest as Alexander found amongst the spoils of Darius, and in which he kept the writings of Homer. This same book is valuable for two things: first, for its own especial excellency, and next because it is the production of a Portuguese monarch, famous for his literary talents. The adventures of the castle of Miraguarda therein, are finely imagined, the style of composition is natural and elegant, and the utmost decorum is preserved throughout.”—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. i. 6 (1605).

Palmi´ra, daughter of Alcānor, chief of Mecca. She and her brother, Zaphna, were taken captives in infancy, and brought up by Mahomet. As they grew in years they fell in love with each other, not knowing their relationship; but when Mahomet laid siege to Mecca, Zaphna was appointed to assassinate Alcanor, and was himself afterwards killed by poison. Mahomet then proposed marriage to Palmira, but to prevent such an alliance, she killed herself.—James Miller, Mahomet, the Impostor (1740).

Pal´myrene (The), Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, who claimed the title of “Queen of the East.” She was defeated by Aurelian, and taken prisoner (A.D. 273). Longinus lived at her court, and was put to death on the capture of Zenobia.

The Palmyrene that fought Aurelian.

Tennyson, The Princess, ii. (1847).

Pal´omides (Sir), son and heir of Sir Astlabor. His brothers were Sir Safire and Sir Segwar´idês. He is always called the Saracen, meaning “unchristened.” Next to the three great knights (Sir Launcelot, Sir Tristram, and Sir Lamorake), he was the strongest and bravest of the fellowship of the Round Table. Like Sir Tristram, he was in love with La Belle Isond, wife of King Mark, of Cornwall; but the lady favored the love of Sir Tristram, and only despised that of the Saracen knight. After his combat with Sir Tristram, Sir Palomides consented to be baptized by the bishop of Carlisle (pt. iii. 28).

He was well made, cleanly and bigly, and neither too young nor too old. And though he was not christened, yet he believed in the best manners, and was faithful and true of his promise, and also well conditioned. He made a vow that he would never be christened unto the time that he achieved the beast Glatisaint.... And also he avowed never to take full christendom unto the time that he had done seven battles within the lists.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, ii. 149 (1470).

Pam, Henry John Temple, viscount Palmerston (1784-1865).

Pam´ela. Lady Edward Fitzgerald is so called (*-1831).

Pam´ela [Andrews], a simple, unsophisticated country girl, the daughter of two aged parents, and maid-servant of a rich young squire, called B, who tries to seduce her. She resists every temptation, and at length marries the young squire, and reforms him. Pamela is very pure and modest, bears her afflictions with much meekness, and is a model of maidenly prudence and rectitude. The story is told in a series of letters which Pamela sends to her parents.—S. Richardson, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740).

The pure and modest character of the English maiden [Pamela] is so well maintained, ... her sorrows and afflictions are borne with so much meekness; her little intervals of hope ... break in on her troubles so much like the specks of blue sky through a cloudy atmosphere—that the whole recollection is soothing, tranquilizing, and doubtless edifying.—Sir W. Scott.

Pamela is a work of much humbler pretensions than Clarissa Harlowe.... A simple country girl whom her master attempts to seduce, and afterwards marries.... The wardrobe of poor Pamela, her gown of sad-colored stuff, and her round-eared caps; her various attempts at escape, and the conveyance of her letters; the hateful character of Mrs. Jewkes, and the fluctuating passions of her master before the better part of his nature obtains ascendancy—these are all touched with the hand of a master.—Chambers, English Literature, ii. 161.

Pamina and Tam´ino, the two lovers who were guided by “the magic flute” through all worldly dangers to the knowledge of divine truth (or the mysteries of Iris).—Mosart, Die Zauberflöte (1790).

Pamphlet (Mr.), a penny-a-liner. His great wish was “to be taken up for sedition.” He writes on both sides, for as he says, he has “two hands, ambo dexter.”

“Time has been,” he says, “when I could turn a penny by an earthquake, or live upon a jail distemper, or dine upon a bloody murder; but now that’s all over—nothing will do now but roasting a minister, or telling the people they are ruined. The people of England are never so happy as when you tell them they are ruined.”—Murphy, The Upholsterer, ii. 1 (1758).

Pan, Nature personified, especially the vital crescent power of nature.

Universal Pan.
Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance,
Led on the eternal spring.

Milton, Paradise Lost, iv. 266, etc. (1665).

Pan, in Spenser’s ecl. iv., is Henry VIII., and “Syrinx” is Anne Boleyn. In ecl. v. “Pan” stands for Jesus Christ in one passage, and for God the Father in another.—Spenser, Shepheardes Calendar (1572).

Pan (The Great), François M. A. de Voltaire; also called “The Dictator of Letters” (1694-1778).

Pancaste (3 syl.), or Campaspe, one of the concubines of Alexander the Great. Apellés fell in love with her while he was employed in painting the king of Macedon, and Alexander, out of regard to the artist, gave her to him for a wife. Apellês selected for his “Venus Rising from the Sea” (usually called “Venus Anadyomĕnê”) this beautiful Athenian woman, together with Phrynê, another courtezan.

* Phrynê was also the academy figure for the “Cnidian Venus” of Praxitĕlês.

Pancks, a quick, short, eager, dark man, with too much “way.” He dressed in black and rusty iron grey; had jet-black beads for eyes, a scrubby little black chin, wiry black hair striking out from his head in prongs like hair-pins, and a complexion that was very dingy by nature, or very dirty by art, or a compound of both. He had dirty hands, and dirty, broken nails, and looked as if he had been in the coals. He snorted and sniffed, and puffed and blew, and was generally in a perspiration. It was Mr. Pancks who “moled out” the secret that Mr. Dorrit, imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea prison, was heir-at-law to a great estate, which had long lain unclaimed, and was extremely rich (ch. xxxv.). Mr. Pancks also induced Clennam to invest in Merdle’s bank shares, and demonstrated by figures the profit he would realize; but the bank being a bubble the shares were worthless.—C. Dickens, Little Dorrit (1857).

Pancrace, a doctor of the Aristotelian school. He maintained that it was improper to speak of the “form of a hat,” because form “est la disposition extérieure des corps qui sont animés,” and therefore we should say the “figure of a hat,” because figure “est la disposition extérieure des corps qui sont inanimés;” and because his adversary could not agree, he called him “un ignorant, un ignorantissime, ignorantifiant, et ignorantifiè” (sc. viii.).—Molière, Le Mariage Forcé (1664).

Pancras (The earl of), one of the skillful companions of Barlow, the famous archer; another was called the “Marquis of Islington;” while Barlow himself was mirthfully created by Henry VIII., “Duke of Shoreditch.”

Pancras (St.), patron saint of children, martyred by Diocletian at the age of 14 (A.D. 304).

Pan´darus, the Lycian, one of the allies of Priam in the Trojan war. He is drawn under two widely different characters: In classic story he is depicted as an admirable archer, slain by Diomed, and honored as a hero-god in his own country; but in mediæval romance he is represented as a despicable pimp, insomuch that the word pander is derived from his name. Chaucer, in his Troïlus and Cresseide, and Shakespeare, in his drama of Troilus and Cressida, represent him as procuring for Troilus the good graces of Cressid, and in Much Ado About Nothing, it is said that Troilus “was the first employer of pandars.”

Pandemo´nium, “the high capital of Satan and his peers.” Here the infernal parliament was held, and to this council Satan convened the fallen angels to consult with him upon the best method of encompassing the “fall of man.” Satan ultimately undertook to visit the new world; and, in the disguise of a serpent, he tempted Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit.—Milton, Paradise Lost, ii. (1665).

Pandi´on, king of Athens, father of Procnê and Philome´la.

None take pity on thy pain;
Senseless trees, they cannot hear thee;
Ruthless bears, they will not cheer thee;
King Pandion he is dead;
All thy friends are lapped in lead.

Richard Barnfield, Address to the Nightingale (1594).

Pandolf (Sir Harry), the teller of whole strings of stories, which he repeats at every gathering. He has also a stock of bon-mots. “Madam,” said he, “I have lost by you to-day.” “How so, Sir Harry!” replies the lady. “Why, madam,” rejoins the baronet, “I have lost an excellent appetite.” “This is the thirty-third time that Sir Harry hath been thus arch.”

We are constantly, after supper, entertained with the Glastonbury Thorn. When we have wondered at that a little, “Father,” saith the son, “let us have the Spirit in the Wood.” After that, “Now tell us how you served the robber.” “Alack!” saith Sir Harry, with a smile, “I have almost forgotten that; but it is a pleasant conceit, to be sure;” and accordingly he tells that and twenty more in the same order over and over again.—Richard Steele.

Pandolfe (2 syl.), father of Lélie.—Molière, L’Etourdi (1653).

Pando´ra, the “all-gifted woman.” So called because all the gods bestowed some gift on her to enhance her charms. Jove sent her to Prometheus for a wife, but Hermês gave her in marriage to his brother, Epime´theus (4 syl.). It is said that Pandora enticed the curiosity of Epimetheus to open a box in her possession, from which flew out all the ills that flesh is heir to. Luckily the lid was closed in time to prevent the escape of Hope.

More lovely than Pandora, whom the gods
Endowed with all their gifts, ... to the unwiser son
Of Japhet brought by Hermês, she ensnared
Mankind with her fair looks, to be avenged
On him [Promētheus] who had stole Jove’s ... fire.

Milton, Paradise Lost, iv. 714, etc. (1665).

* “Unwiser son” is a Latinism, and means “not so wise as he should have been;” so audacior, timidior, vehementior, iracundior, etc.

Pandos´to, or The Triumph of Time, a tale by Robert Greene (1588), the quarry of the plot of The Winter’s Tale by Shakespeare.

Panel (The), by J. Kemble, is a modified version of Bickerstaff’s comedy ’Tis Well ’tis no Worse. It contains the popular quotation:

Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love;
But why do you kick me downstairs?

Pangloss (Dr. Peter), an LL.D. and A.S.S. He began life as a muffin-maker in Milk Alley. Daniel Dowlas, when he was raised from the chandler’s shop in Gosport to the peerage, employed the doctor “to larn him to talk English;” and subsequently made him tutor to his son Dick, with a salary of £300 a year. Dr. Pangloss was a literary prig of ponderous pomposity. He talked of a “locomotive morning,” of one’s “sponsorial and patronymic appellations,” and so on; was especially fond of quotations, to all of which he assigned the author, as “Lend me your ears. Shakespeare. Hem!” or “Verbum sat. Horace. Hem!” He also indulged in an affected “He! he!”—G. Colman, The Heir-at-Law (1797).

A.S.S. stands for Artium Societatis Socius (“Fellow of the Society of Arts”).

Pangloss, an optimist philosopher. (The word means “All Tongue.”)—Voltaire, Candide.

Panjam, a male idol of the Oroungou tribes of Africa; his wife is Alēka, and his priests are called panjans. Panjam is the special protector of kings and governments.

Panjandrum (The Grand), and village potentate or Brummagem magnate. The word occurs in S. Foote’s farrago of nonsense, which he wrote to test the memory of old Macklin, who said in a lecture “he had brought his own memory to such perfection that he could learn anything by rote on once hearing it.”

He was the Great Panjandrum of the place.—Percy Fitzgerald.

* The squire of a village is the Grand Panjandrum, and the small gentry the Picninnies, Joblillies, and Garyulies.

Foote’s nonsense lines are these:

So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage leaf to make an apple pie; and at the same time a great she-bear, coming up the street, pops its head into the shop. “What! no soap?” So he died, and she very imprudently married the barber! and there were present the Picninnies, and the Joblillies, and the Garyulies, and the Grand Panjandrum himself, with the little round button at top, and they all fell to playing the game of catch as catch can, till the gunpowder ran out at the heel of their boots.—S. Foote, The Quarterly Review, xcv. 516, 517 (1854).

Pan´ope (3 syl.), one of the nereids. Her “sisters” are the sea-nymphs. Panopê was invoked by sailors in storms.

Sleek Panope with all her sisters played.

Milton, Lycidas, 95 (1638).

Pansy Osmund, daughter of Mr. Osmund and Madame Merle, but ignorant who her mother is. After her father’s second marriage, the girl, who has been brought up by the nuns, is extremely fond of her step-mother, and when she grows under her fostering care into a lovely woman, becomes attached to Edward Rosier, a man of small fortune. Her father, cold and hard as stone, decrees that she shall marry an English lord, and upon her refusal, sends her back to the convent.—Henry James, Jr., Portrait of a Lady (1881).

Pantag´ruel´, king of the Dipsodes (2 syl.), son of Gargantua, and last of the race of giants. His mother, Badebec, died in giving him birth. His paternal grandfather was named Grangousier. Pantagruel was a lineal descendant of Fierabras, the Titans, Goliath, Polypheme (3 syl.), and all the other giants traceable to Chalbrook, who lived in that extraordinary period noted for its “week of three Thursdays.” The word is a hybrid, compounded of the Greek panta (“all”), and the Hagarene word gruel (“thirsty”). His immortal achievement was his “quest of the oracle of the Holy Bottle.”—Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, ii. (1533).

Pantagruel’s Course of Study. Pantagruel’s father, Gargantua, said in a letter to his son:

“I intend and insist that you learn all languages perfectly; first of all Greek, in Quintillian’s method; then Latin, then Hebrew, then Arabic and Chaldee. I wish you to form your style of Greek on the model of Plato, and of Latin on that of Cicero. Let there be no history you have not at your finger’s ends, and study thoroughly cosmography and geography. Of liberal arts, such as geometry, mathematics and music, I gave you a taste when not above five years old, and I would have you now master them fully. Study astronomy, but not divination and judicial astrology, which I consider mere vanities. As for civil law, I would have thee know the digests by heart. You should also have a perfect knowledge of the works of Nature, so that there is no sea, river, or smallest stream, which you do not know for what fish it is noted, whence it proceeds, and whither it directs its course; all fowls of the air, all shrubs and trees, whether forest or orchard, all herbs and flowers, all metals and stones should be mastered by you. Fail not at the same time most carefully to peruse the Talmudists and Cabalists, and be sure by frequent anatomies to gain a perfect knowledge of that other world called the microcosm, which is man. Master all these in your young days, and let nothing be superficial; as you grow into manhood, you must learn chivalry, warfare, and field manœuvres.”—Rabelais, Pantagruel, ii. 8 (1533).

Pantag´ruel’s Tongue. It formed shelter for a whole army. His throat and mouth contained whole cities.

Then did they [the army] put themselves in close order, and stood as near to each other as they could, and Pantagruel put out his tongue half-way, and covered them all, as a hen doth her chickens.—Rabelais, Pantagruel, ii. 32 (1533).

Pantagruelian Lawsuit (The). This was between Lord Busqueue and Lord Suckfist, who pleaded their own cases. The writs, etc., were as much as four asses could carry. After the plaintiff had stated his case, and the defendant had made his reply, Pantagruel gave judgment, and the two suitors were both satisfied, for no one understood a word of the pleadings, or the tenor of the verdict.—Rabelais, Pantagruel, ii. (1533).

Pantaloon. In the Italian comedy, Il Pantalo´ne is a thin, emaciated, old man, and the only character that acts in slippers.

The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered Pantaloon.

Shakespeare, As You Like It, act ii. sc. 7 (1600).

Panther (The), symbol of pleasure. When Dantê began the ascent of fame, this beast met him, and tried to stop his further progress.

Scarce the ascent
Began, when lo! a panther, nimble, light,
And covered with a speckled skin, appeared,
... and strove to check my onward going.

Dantê, Hell, i. (1300).

Panther (The Spotted), the Church of England. The “milk-white doe” is the Church of Rome.

The panther, sure the noblest next the hind,
The fairest creature of the spotted kind;
Oh, could her inborn stains be washed away,
She were too good to be a beast of prey.

Dryden, The Hind and the Panther, i. (1687).

Panthino, servant of Antonio (the father of Protheus, one of the two heroes of the play).—Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594).

Panton, a celebrated punster in the reign of Charles II.

And Panton, waging harmless war with words.

Dryden, MacFlecknoe, (1682).

Panurge, a young man, handsome and of good stature, but in very ragged apparel when Pantag´ruel first met him on the road leading from Charenton Bridge. Pantagruel, pleased with his person, and moved with pity at his distress, accosted him, when Panurge replied, first in German, then in Arabic, then in Italian, then in Biscayan, then in Bas-Breton, then in Low Dutch, then in Spanish. Finding that Pantagruel knew none of these languages, Panurge tried Danish, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, with no better success. “Friend,” said the prince, “can you speak French?” “Right well,” answered Panurge, “for I was born in Touraine, the garden of France.” Pantagruel then asked him if he would join his suite, which Panurge most gladly consented to do, and became the fast friend of Pantagruel. His great forte was practical jokes. Rabelais describes him as of middle stature, with an aquiline nose, very handsome, and always moneyless. Pantagruel made him governor of Salmygondin.—Rabelais, Pantagruel, iii. 2 (1545).

Panza (Sancho), of Adzpetia, the squire of Don Quixote de la Mancha; “a little squat fellow, with a tun belly and spindle shanks” (pt. I. ii. 1). He rides an ass called Dapple. His sound common sense is an excellent foil to the knight’s craze. Sancho is very fond of eating and drinking, is always asking the knight when he is to be put in possession of the island he promised. He salts his speech with most pertinent proverbs, and even with wit of a racy, though sometimes of rather a vulgar savor.—Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605).

* The wife of Sancho is called “Joan Panza” in pt. I., and “Teresa Panza” in pt. II. “My father’s name,” she says to Sancho, “was Cascajo, and I, by being your wife, am now called Teresa Panza, though by right I should be called Teresa Cascajo” (pt. II. i. 5).

Paolo (2 syl.), the cardinal brother of Count Guido Franceschi´ni, who advised his bankrupt brother to marry an heiress, in order to repair his fortune.

When brother Paolo’s energetic shake
Should do the relics justice.

R. Browning, The Ring and the Book, ii. 409.

Paper King (The), John Law, projector of the Mississippi Bubble (1671-1729).

The basis of Law’s project was the idea that paper money may be multiplied to any extent, provided there be security in fixed stock.—Rich.

Paphian Mimp, a certain plie of the lips, considered needful for “the highly genteel.” Lady Emily told Miss Alscrip, “the heiress,” that it was acquired by placing one’s self before a looking-glass, and repeating continually the words “nimini pimini;” “when the lips cannot fail to take the right plie.”—General Burgoyne, The Heiress, iii. 2 (1781).

(C. Dickens has made Mrs. General tell Amy Dorrit that the pretty plie is given to the lips by pronouncing the words “papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism.”)

Papillon, a broken-down critic, who earned four shillings a week for reviews of translations “without knowing one syllable of the original,” and of “books which he had never read.” He then turned French valet, and got well paid. He then fell into the service of Jack Wilding, and was valet, French marquis, or anything else to suit the whims of that young scapegrace.—S. Foote, The Liar (1761).

Papy´ra, goddess of printing and literature; so called from papyrus, a substance once used for books, before the invention of paper.

Till to astonished realms Papyra taught
To paint in mystic colors sound and thought.
With Wisdom’s voice to print the page sublime,
And mark in adamant the steps of Time.

Darwin, Loves of the Plants, ii. (1781).

Paracelsus is said to have kept a small devil prisoner in the pommel of his sword. He favored metallic substances for medicines, while Galen preferred herbs. His full name was Philippus Aure´olus Theophrastus Paracelsus, but his family name was Bombastus (1493-1541).

Paracelsus, at the age of 20, thinks knowledge the summum bonum, and, at the advice of his two friends, Festus and Michal, retires to a seat of learning in quest thereof. Eight years later, being dissatisfied, he falls in with Aprile, an Italian poet, and resolves to seek the summum bonum in love. Again he fails, and finally determines “to know and to enjoy.”—R. Browning, Paracelsus.

Par´adine (3 syl.), son of Astolpho, and brother of Dargonet, both rivals for the love of Laura. In the combat provoked by Prince Oswald against Gondibert, which was decided by four combatants on each side, Hugo “the Little” slew both the brothers.—Sir. Wm. Davenant, Gondibert, i. (died 1668).

Paradisa´ica (“the fruit of paradise”). So the banana is called. The Mohammedans aver that the “forbidden fruit” was the banana or Indian fig, and cite in confirmation of this opinion that our first parents used fig leaves for their covering after their fall.

Paradise, in thirty-three cantos, by Dantê (1311). Paradise is separated from Purgatory by the river Lethê; and Dantê was conducted through nine of the spheres by Beatrice, who left him in the sphere of “unbodied light,” under the charge of St. Bernard (canto xxxi.). The entire region is divided into ten spheres, each of which is appropriated to its proper order. The first seven spheres are the seven planets, viz. (1) the Moon, for angels, (2) Mercury, for archangels, (3) Venus, for virtues, (4) the Sun, for powers, (5) Mars, for principalities, (6) Jupiter, for dominions, (7) Saturn, for thrones. The eighth sphere is that of the fixed stars for the cherubim; the ninth is the primum mobĭlê for the seraphim; and the tenth is the empyre´an for the Virgin Mary and the triune deity. Beatrice, with Rachel, Sarah, Judith, Rebecca and Ruth, St. Augustin, St. Francis, St. Benedict, and others, were enthroned in Venus, the sphere of the virtues. The empyrean, he says, is a sphere of “unbodied light,” “bright effluence of bright essence, uncreate.” This is what the Jews called “the heaven of the heavens.”

Paradise was placed in the legendary maps of the Middle Ages, in Ceylon; but Mahomet placed it “in the seventh heaven.” The Arabs have a tradition that when our first parents were cast out of the garden, Adam fell in the isle of Ceylon, and Eve in Joddah (the port of Mecca).—Al Korân, ii.

Paradise and the Pe´ri. A peri was told she would be admitted into heaven if she would bring thither the gift most acceptable to the Almighty. She first brought a drop of a young patriot’s blood, shed on his country’s behalf; but the gates would not open for such an offering. She next took thither the last sigh of a damsel who had died nursing her betrothed, who had been stricken by the plague; but the gates would not open for such an offering. She then carried up the repentant tear of an old man converted by the prayers of a little child. All heaven rejoiced, the gates were flung open, and the peri was received with a joyous welcome.—T. Moore, Lalla Rookh (“Second Tale,” 1817).

Paradise Lost. Satan and his crew, still suffering from their violent expulsion out of heaven, are roused by Satan’s telling them about a “new creation;” and he calls a general council to deliberate upon their future operations (bk. i.). The council meet in the Pandemonium hall, and it is resolved that Satan shall go on a voyage of discovery to this “new world” (bk. ii.). The Almighty sees Satan, and confers with His Son about man. He foretells the Fall, and arranges the scheme of man’s redemption. Meantime, Satan enters the orb of the sun, and there learns the route to the “new world” (bk. iii.). On entering Paradise, he overhears Adam and Eve talking of the one prohibition (bk. iv.). Raphael is now sent down to warn Adam of his danger, and he tells him who Satan is (bk. v.); describes the war in heaven, and expulsion of the rebel angels (bk. vi.). The angel visitant goes on to tell Adam why and how this world was made (bk. vii.); and Adam tells Raphael his own experience (bk. viii.) After the departure of Raphael, Satan enters into a serpent, and, seeing Eve alone, speaks to her. Eve is astonished to hear the serpent talk, but is informed that it had tasted of “the tree of knowledge,” and had become instantly endowed with both speech and wisdom. Curiosity induces Eve to taste the same fruit, and she persuades Adam to taste it also (bk. ix.). Satan now returns to hell, to tell of his success (bk. x.). Michael is sent to expel Adam and Eve from the garden (bk. xi.); and the poem concludes with the expulsion, and Eve’s lamentation (bk. xii.).—Milton (1665).

Paradise Lost was first published by Matthias Walker, of St. Dunstan’s. He gave for it £5 down; on the sale of 1300 copies, he gave another £5. On the next two impressions, he gave other like sums. For the four editions, he therefore paid £20. The agreement between Walker and Milton is preserved in the British Museum.

It must be remembered that the wages of an ordinary workman was at that time about 3d. a day, and now we give 3s.; so that the price given was equal to about £250, according to the present value of money. Goldsmith tells us that the clergyman of his “deserted village” was “passing rich” with £40 a year = £500 present value of money.

Paradise Regained, in four books. The subject is the Temptation. Eve, being tempted, lost paradise; Christ, being tempted, regained it.

Book I. Satan presents himself as an old peasant, and, entering into conversation with Jesus, advises Him to satisfy His hunger by miraculously converting stones into bread. Jesus gives the tempter to know that He recognizes him, and refuses to follow his suggestion.

II. Satan reports progress to his ministers, and asks advice. He returns to the wilderness, and offers Jesus wealth, as the means of acquiring power; but the suggestion is again rejected.

III. Satan shows Jesus several of the kingdoms of Asia, and points out to Him their military power. He advises Him to seek alliance with the Parthians, and promises his aid. He says by such alliance He might shake off the Roman yoke, and raise the kingdom of David to first-class power. Jesus rejects the counsel, and tells the tempter that the Jews were for the present under a cloud for their sins, but that the time would come when God would put forth His hand on their behalf.

IV. Satan shows Jesus Rome, with all its greatness, and says, “I can easily dethrone Tiberius, and seat Thee on the imperial throne.” He then shows Him Athens, and says, “I will make Thee master of their wisdom and high state of civilization, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.” “Get thee behind Me, Satan!” was the indignant answer; and Satan, finding all his endeavors useless, tells Jesus of the sufferings prepared for Him, takes Him back to the wilderness, and leaves Him there; but angels come and minister unto Him.—Milton (1671).

Paraguay (A Tale of), by Southey, in four cantos (1814). The small-pox, having broken out amongst the Guarānis, carried off the whole tribe except Quiāra and his wife, Monnĕma, who then migrated from the fatal spot to the Mondai woods. Here a son (Yerūti) and afterwards a daughter (Mooma) were born; but before the birth of the latter, the father was eaten by a jagŭar. When the children were of a youthful age, a Jesuit priest induced the three to come and live at St. Joăchin (3 syl.); so they left the wild woods for a city life. Here, in a few months, the mother flagged and died. The daughter next drooped, and soon followed her mother to the grave. The son, now the only remaining one of the entire race, begged to be baptized, received the rite, cried, “Ye are come for me! I am ready;” and died also.

Par´cinus, a young prince, in love with his cousin, Irolit´a, but beloved by Az´ira. The fairy Danamo was Azira’s mother, and resolved to make Irolita marry the fairy Brutus; but Parcinus, aided by the fairy Favorable, surmounted all obstacles, married Irolita, and made Brutus marry Azira.

Parcinus had a noble air, a delicate shape, a fine head of hair admirably white.... He did everything well, danced and sang to perfection, and gained all the prizes at tournaments, whenever he contended for them.—Comtesse D’Aunoy, Fairy Tales (“Perfect Love,” 1682).

Par´dalo, the demon-steed given to Iniguez Guerra, by his gobelin mother, that he might ride to Tolēdo and liberate his father, Don Diego Lopez, lord of Biscay, who had fallen into the hands of the Moors.—Spanish Story.

Par´diggle (Mrs.) a formidable lady, who conveyed to one the idea “of wanting a great deal more room.” Like Mrs. Jellyby, she devoted herself to the concerns of Africa, and made her family of small boys contribute all their pocket money to the cause of the Borrioboola Gha mission.—C. Dickens, Bleak House (1853).

Pardoner’s Tale (The), in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, is “Death and the Rioters.” Three rioters agree to hunt down Death, and kill him. An old man directs them to a tree in a lane, where, as he said, he had just left him. On reaching the spot, they find a rich treasure, and cast lots to decide who is to go and buy food. The lot falls on the youngest; and the other two, during his absence, agree to kill him on his return. The rascal sent to buy food poisons the wine, in order to secure to himself the whole treasure. Now comes the catastrophe: The two set on the third and slay him, but die soon after of the poisoned wine; so the three rioters find death under the tree, as the old man said, paltering in a double sense (1388).

Parian Verse, ill-natured satire; so called from Archil´ochus, a native of Paros.

Pari-Ba´nou, a fairy who gave Prince Ahmed a tent, which would fold into so small a compass that a lady might carry it about as a toy, but, when spread, it would cover a whole army.—Arabian Nights (“Prince Ahmed and Pari-Banu”).

Paridel is a name employed in the Dunciad for an idle libertine—rich, young, and at leisure. The model is Sir Paridel, in the Faëry Queen.

Thee, too, my Paridel, she marked thee there,
Stretched on the rack of a too-easy chair,
And heard thy everlasting yawn confess
The pains and penalties of idleness.

Pope, The Dunciad, iv. 341 (1742).

Paridel (Sir), descendant of Paris, whose son was Parius, who settled in Paros, and left his kingdom to his son, Par´idas, from whom Paridel descended. Having gained the hospitality of Malbecco, Sir Paridel eloped with his wife, Dame Hel´inore (3 syl.), but soon quitted her, leaving her to go whither she would. “So had he served many another one” (bk. iii. 10). In bk. iv. 1 Sir Paridel is discomfited by Sir Scudamore.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, iii. 10; iv. 1 (1590, 1596).

* “Sir Paridel” is meant for Charles Nevil, sixth and last of the Nevils, earls of Westmoreland. He joined the Northumberland rebellion of 1569 for the restoration of Mary queen of Scots; and when the plot failed, made his escape to the Continent, where he lived in poverty and obscurity. The earl was quite a Lothario, whose delight was to win the love of women, and then to abandon them.

Paris, a son of Priam and Hecŭba, noted for his beauty. He married Œnōnê, daughter of Cebren, the river-god. Subsequently, during a visit to Menelāus, king of Sparta, he eloped with Queen Helen, and this brought about the Trojan war. Being wounded by an arrow from the bow of Philoctētês, he sent for his wife, who hastened to him with remedies; but it was too late—he died of his wound, and Œnonê hung herself.—Homer, Iliad.

Paris was appointed to decide which of the three goddesses (Juno, Pallas or Minerva) was the fairest fair, and to which should be awarded the golden apple thrown “to the most beautiful.” The three goddesses tried by bribes to obtain the verdict: Juno promised him dominion if he would decide in her favor; Minerva promised him wisdom; but Venus said she would find him the most beautiful of women for wife if he allotted to her the apple. Paris handed the apple to Venus.

Not Cytherea from a fairer swain
Received her apple on the Trojan plain.

Falconer, The Shipwreck, i. 3 (1756).

Paris, a young nobleman, kinsman of Prince Es´calus of Verona, and the unsuccessful suitor of his cousin, Juliet.—Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1598).

Paris (Notre Dame de), by Victor Hugo (1831). (See Esmeralda and Quasimodo.)

Parisina, wife of Azo, chief of Ferrara. She had been betrothed before her marriage to Hugo, a natural son of Azo, and after Azo took her for his bride, the attachment of Parisina and Hugo continued and had freer scope for indulgence. One night Azo heard Parisina in sleep confess her love for Hugo, whereupon he had his son beheaded, and, though he spared the life of Parisina, no one ever knew what became of her.—Byron, Parisina (1816).

Such is Byron’s version; but history says Niccolo III. of Ferrara (Byron’s “Azo”) had for his second wife Parisina Malatesta, who showed great aversion to Ugo, a natural son of Niccolo, whom he greatly loved. One day, with the hope of lessening this strong aversion, he sent Ugo to escort her on a journey, and the two fell in love with each other. After their return the affection of Parisina and Ugo continued unabated, and a servant, named Zoe´se (3 syl.), having told the marquis of their criminal intimacy, he had the two guilty ones brought to open trial. They were both condemned to death; Ugo was beheaded first, then Parisina. Some time after, Niccolo married a third wife, and had several children.—Frizzi, History of Ferrara.

Parisme´nos, the hero of the second part of Parismus (q.v.). This part contains the adventurous travels of Parismenos, his deeds of chivalry, and love for the Princess Angelica, “the Lady of the Golden Tower.”—Emanuel Foord, Parismenos (1598).

Paris´mus, a valiant and renowned prince of Bohemia, the hero of a romance so called. This “history” contains an account of his battles against the Persians, his love for Laurana, daughter of the king of Thessaly, and his strange adventures in the Desolate Island. The second part contains the exploits and love affairs of Parisme´nos.—Emanuel Foord, Parismus (1598).

Pariza´de (4 syl.), daughter of Khrosrou-schah, sultan of Persia, and sister of Bahman and Perviz. These three, in infancy, were sent adrift, each at the time of birth, through the jealousy of their two maternal aunts, who went to nurse the sultana in her confinement; but they were drawn out of the canal by the superintendent of the sultan’s gardens, who brought them up. Parizadê rivalled her brothers in horsemanship, archery, running and literature. One day, a devotee who had been kindly entreated by Parizadê, told her the house she lived in wanted three things to make it perfect: (1) the talking bird, (2) the singing tree, and (3) the golden-colored water. Her two brothers went to obtain these treasures, but failed. Parizadê then went, and succeeded. The sultan paid them a visit, and the talking bird revealed to him the story of their birth and bringing up. When the sultan heard the infamous tale, he commanded the two sisters to be put to death, and Parizadê, with her two brothers, were then proclaimed the lawful children of the sultan.—Arabian Nights (“The Two Sisters,” the last story).

* The story of Cherry and Fairstar, by the Comtesse D’Aunoy, is an imitation of this tale; and introduces the “green bird,” the “singing apple,” and the “dancing water.”

Parkes (Mr.). A clergyman “of simplicity and sincerity, fully in earnest to do the Lord’s work and do it with all his might.” He suggests to his congregation when the Week of Prayer comes around that they “make a Week of Practice instead.” The result is told in The Deacon’s Week.—Rose Terry Cooke (1886).

Parley (Peter), Samuel Griswold Goodrich, an American. Above seven millions of his books were in circulation in 1859 (1793-1860).

* Several piracies of this popular name have appeared. Thus, S. Kettell, of America, pirated the name in order to sell under false colors; Darton and Co, issued a Peter Parley’s Annual (1841-1855); Simkins, a Peter Parley’s Life of Paul (1845); Bogue, a Peter Parley’s Visit to London, etc. (1844); Tegg, several works under the same name; Hodson, a Peter Parley’s Bible Geography (1839); Clements, a Peter Parley’s Child’s First Step (1839). None of which works were by Goodrich, the real “Peter Parley.”

William Martin was the writer of Darton’s “Peter Parley series.” George Mogridge wrote several tales under the name of Peter Parley. How far such “false pretences” are justifiable, public opinion, must decide.

Parliament (The Black), a parliament held by Henry VIII. in Bridewell.

(For Addled parliament, Barebone’s parliament, the Devil’s parliament, the Drunken parliament, the Good parliament, the Long parliament, the Mad parliament, the Pensioner parliament, the Rump parliament, the Running parliament, the Unmerciful parliament, the Useless parliament, the Wonder-making parliament, the parliament of Dunces, see Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 657.)

Parnelle (Mde.), the mother of M. Orgon, and an ultra-admirer of Tartuffe, whom she looks on as a saint. In the adaptation of Molière’s comedy by Isaac Bickerstaff, Mde. Parnelle is called “old Lady Lambert;” her son, “Sir John Lambert;” and Tartuffe, “Dr. Cantwell.”—Molière, Tartuffe (1664); Bickerstaff, The Hypocrite (1768).

* The Nonjuror, by Cibber (1706), was the quarry of Bickerstaff’s play.

Parody (Father of), Hippo´nax of Ephesus (sixth century B.C.).

Parol´les (3 syl.), a boastful, cowardly follower of Bertram, count of Rousillon. His utterances are racy enough, but our contempt for the man smothers our mirth, and we cannot laugh. In one scene the bully is taken blindfolded among his old acquaintances, whom he is led to suppose are his enemies, and he villifies their characters to their faces in most admired foolery.—Shakespeare, All’s Well that Ends Well (1598).

He [Dr. Parr] was a mere Parolles in a pedagogue’s wig.—Noctes Ambrosianæ.

(For similar tongue-doughty heroes, see Basilisco, Bessus, Bluff, Bobadil, Boroughcliff, Brazen, Flash, Pistol, Pyrgo, Polinices, Scaramouch, Thraso, Vincent de la Rosa, etc.)

Parpaillons (King of the), the father of Gargamelle, “a jolly pug and well-mouthed wench,” who married Grangousier “in the vigor of his age,” and became the mother of Gargantua.—Rabelais, Gargantua, i. 3 (1533).

Parr (Old). Thomas Parr, we are told, lived in the reign of ten sovereigns. He married his second wife when he was 120 years old, and had a child by her. He was a husbandman, born at Salop, in 1483, and died 1635, aged 152.

Parricide (The Beautiful), Beatrice Cenci, who is said to have murdered her father for the incestuous brutality with which he had treated her (died 1599).

Shelley has a tragedy on the subject, called The Cenci (1819).

Parsley Peel, the first Sir Robert Peel. So called from the great quantity of printed calico with the parsley-leaf pattern manufactured by him (1750-1830).

Parson Adams, a simple-minded country clergyman of the eighteenth century. At the age of 50 he was provided with a handsome income of £23 a year (nearly £300 of our money).—Fielding, Joseph Andrews (1742).

Timothy Burrell, Esq., in 1715, bequeathed to his nephew Timothy, the sum of £20 a year, to be paid during his residence at the university, and to be continued to him till he obtained some preferment worth at least £30 a year.—Sussex Archæological Collections, iii. 172.

Parson Bate, a stalwart choleric, sporting parson, editor of the Morning Post in the latter half of the eighteenth century. He was afterwards Sir Henry Bate Dudley, Bart.

When Sir Henry Bate Dudley was appointed an Irish dean, a young lady of Dublin said, “Och! how I long to see our dane! They say ... he fights like an angel.”—Cassell’s Magazine (“London Legends,” iii.)

Parson Collins, shrewd backwoodsman, ready for fight or prayer. He suffers at the hands of desperadoes, but is dauntless, and always gets the better of his partner in a trade. His white mule Ma’y Jane, is the only creature that outwits him, and that only at fence-corners.—Octave Thanet, Expiation (1890).

Parson Runo (A), a simple-minded clergyman, wholly unacquainted with the world; a Dr. Primrose, in fact. It is a Russian household phrase, having its origin in the singular simplicity of the Lutheran clergy of the Isle of Runo.

Parson Trulliber, a fat clergyman, slothful, ignorant, and intensely bigoted.—Fielding, Joseph Andrews (1742).

Parsons (Walter), the giant porter of King James I. (died 1622).—Fuller, Worthies (1662).

Parsons’ Kaiser (The), Karl IV., of Germany, who was set up by Pope Clement VI., while Ludwig IV. was still on the throne. The Germans called the pope’s protégé “pfaffen kaiser.”

Parthe´nia, the mistress of Argălus.—Sir Philip Sidney, Arcadia (1580).

Parthenia, Maidenly Chastity personified. Parthenia is sister of Agnei´a (3 syl.), or wifely chastity, the spouse of Encra´tês, or temperance. Her attendant is Er´ythre, or modesty. (Greek, parthĕnia, “maidenhood.”)—Phineas Fletcher, The Purple Island, x. (1633).

Parthen´ope (4 syl.), one of the three syrens. She was buried at Naples. Naples itself was anciently called Parthenopê, which name was changed to Neap´olis (“the new city”) by a colony of Cumæans.

By dead Parthenope’s dear tomb.

Milton, Comus, 879 (1634).

Loitering by the sea
That laves the passionate shores of soft Parthenopê.

Lord Lytton, Ode, iii. 2 (1839).

(The three syrens were Parthenopê, Ligēa, and Leucos´ia, not Leucoth´ea, q.v.)

Parthenope (4 syl.), the damsel beloved by Prince Volscius.—Duke of Buckingham, The Rehearsal (1671).

Parthen´ope of Naples, Sannazora, the Neapolitan poet called “The Christian Virgil.” Most of his poems were published under the assumed name of Actius Sincerus (1458-1530).

At last the Muses ... scattered ...
Their blooming wreaths from fair Valclusa’s bowers [Petrarch]
To Arno [Dante and Boccaccio] ... and the shore
Of soft Parthenope.

Akenside, Pleasures of Imagination, ii. (1744).

Partington (Mrs.), an old lady of amusing affectations and ridiculous blunders of speech. Sheridan’s “Mrs. Malaprop” and Smollett’s “Tabitha Bramble” are similar characters.—B. P. Shillaber (an American humorist).

I do not mean to be disrespectful; but the attempt of the lords to stop the progress of reform reminds me very forcibly of the great storm of Sidmouth, and the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington on that occasion. In the winter of 1824, there set in a great flood upon that town; the tide rose to an incredible height; the waves rushed in upon the houses; and everything was threatened with destruction. In the midst of this sublime storm, Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused, Mrs. Partington’s spirit was up; but I need not tell you that the contest was unequal. The Atlantic beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent at a slop or puddle, but should never have meddled with a tempest.—Sydney Smith (speech at Taunton, 1831).

Partlet, the hen, in “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” and in the famous beast-epic of Reynard the Fox (1498).—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (1388).

Sister Partlet with her hooded head, the cloistered community of nuns; the Roman Catholic clergy being the “barn-door fowls.”—Dryden, Hind and Panther (1687).

Partridge. Talus was changed into a partridge.

Partridge, cobbler, quack, astrologer, and almanac-maker (died 1708). Dean Swift wrote an elegy on him.

Here five feet deep, lies on his back,
A cobbler, starmonger, and quack,
Who, to the stars in pure gold will,
Does to his best look upward still,
Weep all you customers that use
His pills, his almanacs, or shoes.

Partridge, the attendant of Tom Jones, as Strap, is of Smollett’s “Roderick Random.” Faithful, shrewd, and of child-like simplicity. He is half-barber and half-schoolmaster. His excitement in the play-house when he went to see Garrick in “Hamlet” is charming.—Fielding, The History of Tom Jones (1749).

The humor of Smollett, although genuine and hearty, is coarse and vulgar. He was superficial where Fielding showed deep insight; but he had a rude conception of generosity of which Fielding seems incapable. It is owing to this that “Strap” is superior to “Partridge.”—Hazlitt, Comic Writers.

Parvenue. One of the O’Neals, being told that Barrett of Castlemone had only been 400 years in Ireland, replied, “I hate the upstart, which can only look back to yesterday.”

Parviz (“victorious”), surname of Khosrou II. of Persia. He kept 15,000 female musicians, 6000 household officers, 20,500 saddle-mules, 960 elephants, 200 slaves to scatter perfumes when he went abroad, and 1000 sekabers to water the roads before him. His horse, Shibdiz, was called “the Persian Bucephălus.”

The reigns of Khosrou I. and II. were the golden period of Persian history.

Parzival, the hero and title of a metrical romance, by Wolfram v. Eschenbach. Parzival was brought up by a widowed mother, in solitude, but when grown to manhood, two wandering knights persuaded him to go to the court of King Arthur. His mother, hoping to deter him, consented to his going if he would wear the dress of a common jester. This he did, but soon achieved such noble deeds that Arthur made him a knight of the Round Table. Sir Parzival went in quest of the Holy Graal, which was kept in a magnificent castle called Graalburg, in Spain, built by the royal priest Titurel. He reached the castle, but having neglected certain conditions, was shut out, and, on his return, the priestess of Graalburg insisted on his being expelled the court and degraded from knighthood. Parzival then led a new life of abstinence and self-abnegation, and a wise hermit became his instructor. At length he reached such a state of purity and sanctity that the priestess of Graalburg declared him worthy to become lord of the castle (1205).

* This, of course, is an allegory of a Christian giving up everything in order to be admitted a priest and king in the city of God, and becoming a fool in order to learn true wisdom (see 1 Cor. iii. 18).

Pasquin, a Roman cobbler of the latter half of the fifteenth century, whose shop stood in the neighborhood of the Braschi palace near the Piazza Navoni. He was noted for his caustic remarks and bitter sayings. After his death, a mutilated statue near the shop was called by his name, and made the repository of all the bitter epigrams and satirical verses of the city; hence called pasquinades (3 syl.).

Passamonte (Gines de), the galley-slave set free by Don Quixote. He returned the favor by stealing Sancho’s wallet and ass. Subsequently he reappeared as a puppet-showman.—Cervantes, Don Quixote.

Passatore (Il), a title assumed by Belli´no, an Italian bandit chief who died 1851.

Passel´yon, a young foundling brought up by Morgan la Fée. He was detected in an intrigue with Morgan’s daughter. The adventures of this amorous youth are related in the romance called Perceforest, iii.

Passe Rose, fair orphan girl, warm of heart and single of purpose. Ingenuous as a babe, and made strong by love. Her adventures are the theme of the novel bearing her name.—Arthur Sherburne Hardy, Passe Rose (1889).

Passetreul, the name of Sir Tristram’s horse.

Passe-tyme of Plesure, an allegorical poem in forty-six capitulos and in seven-line stanzas, by Stephen Hawes (1506) The poet supposes that while Graunde Amoure was walking in a meadow he encountered Fame, “enuyroned with tongues of fyre,” who told him about La bell Pucell, a ladye fair, living in the Tower of Musike, and then departed, leaving him under the charge of Gouernaunce and Grace, who conducted him to the Tower of Doctrine. Countenaunce, the portress, showed him over the tower, and Lady Science sent him to Gramer. Afterwards he was sent to Logyke, Rethorike, Inuention, Arismetrike and Musike. In the Tower of Musike he met La bell Pucell, pleaded his love, and was kindly entreated; but they were obliged to part for the time being, while Graunde Amoure continued his “passe-tyme of plesure.” On quitting La bell Pucell he went to Geometrye and then to Dame Astronomy. Then, leaving the Tower of Science, he entered that of Chyualry. Here Mynerue introduced him to Kyng Melyzyus, after which he went to the temple of Venus, who sent a letter on his behalf to La bell Pucell. Meanwhile the giant False Report (or Godfrey Gobilyue) met him, and put him to great distress in the house of Correction, but Perceueraunce at length conducted him to the manor-house of Dame Comfort. After sundry trials Graunde Amoure married La bell Pucell, and, after many a long day of happiness and love, was arrested by Age, who took him before Policye and Auarice. Death in time came for him, and Remembraunce wrote his epitaph.

Pastor Fi´do (Il), a pastoral by Giovanni Battista Guari´ni of Ferrara (1585).

Pastoral Romance (The Father of), Honoré d’Urfé (1567-1625).

Pastorella, the fair shepherdess (bk. vi. 9), beloved by Corydon, but “neither for him nor any other did she care a whit.” She was a foundling, brought up by the shepherd Melibee. When Sir Calidore (3 syl.) was the shepherd’s guest, he fell in love with the fair foundling, who returned his love. During the absence of Sir Calidore in a hunting expedition, Pastorella, with Melibee and Corydon, were carried off by brigands. Melibee was killed, Corydon effected his escape, and Pastorella was wounded. Sir Calidore went to rescue his shepherdess, killed the brigand chief, and brought back the captive in safety (bk. vi. 11). He took her to Belgard Castle, and it turned out that the beautiful foundling was the daughter of Lady Claribel and Sir Bellamour (bk, vi. 12).—Spenser, Faëry Queen, vi. 9-12 (1596).

“Pastorella” is meant for Frances Walsingham, daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, whom Sir Philip Sidney (“Sir Calidore”) married. After Sidney’s death the widow married the earl of Essex (the queen’s favorite). Sir Philip being the author of a romance called Arcadia suggested to the poet the name Pastorella.

Patch, the clever, intriguing waiting-woman of Isabinda, daughter of Sir Jealous Traffick. As she was handing a love-letter in cipher to her mistress, she let it fall, and Sir Jealous picked it up. He could not read it, but insisted on knowing what it meant. “O,” cried the ready wit, “it is a charm for the toothache!” and the suspicions of Sir Jealous were diverted (act iv. 2).—Mrs. Centlivre, The Busy Body (1709).

Patch (Clause), king of the beggars. He died in 1730, and was succeeded by Bampfylde Moore Carew.

Patche (1 syl.), Cardinal Wolsey’s jester. When the cardinal felt his favor giving way, he sent Patche as a gift to the king, and Henry VIII. considered the gift a most acceptable one.

We call one Patche or Cowlson, whom we see to do a thing foolishly, because these two in their time were notable fools.—Wilson, Art of Rhetorique (1553).

Patelin (2 syl.), the hero of an ancient French comedy. He contrives to obtain on credit six ells of cloth from William Josseaume, by artfully praising the tradesman’s father. Any subtle, crafty fellow, who entices by flattery and insinuating arts, is called a Patelin.—P. Blanchet, L’Avocat Patelin (1459-1519).

On lui attribue, mais à tort, la farce de L’Avocat Patelin, qui est plus ancienne que lui.—Bouillet, Dictionary Universel d’Histoire, etc., art. “Blanchet.”

Consider, sir, I pray you, how the noble Patelin, having a mind to extol to the third heavens, the father of William Josseaume, said no more than this: he did lend his goods freely to those who were desirous of them.—Rabelais, Pantagruel, iii. 4 (1545).

Pater Patrum. St. Gregory, of Nyssa is so called by the council of Nice (332-395).

Paterson (Pate), serving-boy to Bryce Snailsfoot, the pedlar.—Sir W. Scott, The Pirate (time, William III.).

Pathfinder (The), Natty Bumpo; also called “The Deerslayer” “The Hawk-eye,” and “The Trapper.”—Fenimore Cooper, (five novels called The Pathfinder, The Pioneers, The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, and The Prairie).

Pathfinder of the Rocky Mountains. (The), Major-General John Charles Fremont, who conducted four exploring expeditions across the Rocky Mountains in 1842.

Patient Griselda or Grisildis, the wife of Wautier, marquis of Salucês. Boccaccio says she was a poor country lass, who became the wife of Gualtiere, marquis of Saluzzo. She was robbed of her children by her husband, reduced to abject poverty, divorced, and commanded to assist in the marriage of her husband with another woman; but she bore every affront patiently, and without complaint.—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (“The Clerk’s Tale,” 1388); Boccaccio, Decameron, x. 10 (1352).

Patience Strong. Delightful old maid, who, after passing most of her life in a quiet New England township, goes abroad and tells her experiences in Sights and Insights.—A. D. T. Whitney (1860).

She is also the central figure in a quiet story of domestic life, entitled Patience Strong’s Outings (1858).

Patin, brother of the emperor of Rome. He fights with Am´adis of Gaul, and has his horse killed under him.—Vasco de Lobeira, Amadis de Gaul (thirteenth century).

Patison, licensed jester to Sir Thos. More. Hans Holbein has introduced this jester in his famous picture of the lord chancellor.

Patriarch of Dorchester, John White, of Dorchester, a puritan divine (1574-1648).

Patriarchs (The Last of the). So Christopher Casby, of Bleeding-heart Yard was called. “So grey, so slow, so quiet, so impassionate, so very bumpy in the head, that patriarch was the word for him.” Painters implored him to be a model for some patriarch they designed to paint. Philanthropists looked on him as famous capital for a platform. He had once been town agent in the Circumlocution Office, and was well-to-do.

His face had a bloom on it like ripe wall-fruit, and his blue eyes seemed to be the eyes of wisdom and virtue. His whole face teemed with the look of benignity. Nobody could say where the wisdom was, or where the virtue was, or where the benignity was, but they seemed to be somewhere about him.... He wore a long wide-skirted bottle-green coat, and a bottle-green pair of trousers, and a bottle-green waistcoat. The patriarchs were not dressed in bottle-green broadcloth, and yet his clothes looked patriarchal.—C. Dickens, Little Dorrit (1857).

Patrick, an old domestic at Shaw’s Castle.—Sir W. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well (time, George III.).

Patrick (St.), the tutelar saint of Ireland. Born at Kirk Patrick, near Dumbarton. His baptismal name was “Succeath” (“valor in war”), changed by Milcho, to whom he was sold as a slave into “Cotharig” (four families or four masters, to whom he had been sold). It was Pope Celestine who changed the name to “Patricius,” when he sent him to convert the Irish.

Certainly the most marvellous of all the miracles ascribed to the saints is that recorded of St. Patrick. “He swam across the Shannon with his head in his mouth!”

Saint Patrick and King O’Neil. One day, the saint set the end of his crozier on the foot of O’Neil, king of Ulster, and, leaning heavily on it, hurt the king’s foot severely; but the royal convert showed no indication of pain or annoyance whatsoever.

A similar anecdote is told of St. Areed, who went to show the king of Abyssinia a musical instrument he had invented. His majesty rested the head of his spear on the saint’s foot, and leaned with both his hands on the spear while he listened to the music. St. Areed, though his great toe was severely pierced, showed no sign of pain, but went on playing as if nothing was the matter.

St. Patrick and the Serpent. St Patrick cleared Ireland of vermin. One old serpent resisted, but St. Patrick overcame it by cunning. He made a box, and invited the serpent to enter in. The serpent insisted it was too small; and so high the contention grew that the serpent got into the box to prove that he was right, whereupon St. Patrick slammed down the lid, and cast the box into the sea.

This tradition is marvellously like an incident of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. A fisherman had drawn up a box or vase in his net, and on breaking it open a genius issued therefrom, and threatened the fisherman with immediate destruction because he had been enclosed so long. Said the fisherman to the genius, “I wish to know whether you really were in that vase.” “I certainly was,” said the genius. “I cannot believe it,” replied the fisherman, “for the vase could not contain even one of your feet.” Then the genius, to prove his assertion, changed into smoke, and entered into the vase, saying, “Now, incredulous fisherman, dost thou believe me?” But the fisherman clapped the leaden cover on the vase, and told the genius that he was about to throw the box into the sea, and that he would build a house on the spot to warn others not to fish up so wicked a genius.—Arabian Nights (“The Fisherman,” one of the early tales).

* St. Patrick, I fear, had read the Arabian Nights, and stole a leaf from the fisherman’s book.

St. Patrick a Gentleman.

Oh, St. Patrick was a gentleman,
Who came of dacent people ...

This song was written by Messrs. Bennet and Toleken, of Cork, and was first sung by them at a masquerade in 1814. It was afterwards lengthened for Webbe, the comedian, who made it popular.

Patriot King (The), Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751). He hired Mallet to traduce Pope after his decease, because the poet refused to give up certain copies of a work which the statesman wished to have destroyed.

Write as if St. John’s soul could still inspire,
And do from hate what Mallet did for hire.

Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809).

Patriot of Humanity. So Byron calls Henry Grattan (1750-1820).—Don Juan (preface to canto vi., etc.. 1824).

Patron (The), a farce by S. Foote (1764). The patron is Sir Thomas Lofty, called by his friends, “sharp-judging Adriel, the Muse’s friend, himself a Muse,” but by those who loved him less, “the modern Midas.” Books without number were dedicated to him, and the writers addressed him as the “British Pollio, Atticus, the Mæcēnas of England, protector of arts, paragon of poets, arbiter of taste, and sworn appraiser of Apollo and the Muses.” The plot is very simple: Sir Thomas Lofty has written a play called Robinson Crusoe, and gets Richard Bever to stand godfather to it. The play is damned past redemption, and to soothe Bever, Sir Thomas allows him to marry his niece, Juliet.

Horace Walpole, earl of Orford, is the original of “Sir Thomas Lofty” (1717-1797).

Patten, according to Gay, is so called from Patty, the pretty daughter of a Lincolnshire farmer, with whom the village blacksmith fell in love. To save her from wet feet when she went to milk the cows, he mounted her clogs on an iron eke.

The patten now supports each frugal dame,
Which from the blue-eyed Patty takes its name.

Gay, Trivia, i. (1712).

(Of course, the word is the French patin, “a skate or high-heeled shoe,” from the Greek, patein, “to walk.”)

Pattieson (Mr. Peter), in the introduction of The Heart of Midlothian, by Sir W. Scott, and again in the introduction of The Bride of Lammermoor. He is a hypothetical assistant teacher at Gandercleuch, and the feigned author of The Tales of My Landlord, which Sir Walter Scott pretends were published by Jedediah Cleishbotham, after the death of Pattieson.

Patton (Mrs.). Tailoress and talker, otherwise known as “the Widow Jim,” who has all genealogy and relationship at her tongue’s end. “She chatters all day as the swallows chatter, and you do not tire of her.”—Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven (1877).

Patterson (Elizabeth). One of the most remarkable women of this century. The beautiful daughter of a Baltimore merchant prince, she captivated Jerome Bonaparte, (then a minor, and dependent on his brother), who was visiting America. In the face of parental opposition, she married him Dec. 24, 1803. Napoleon (First Consul) promptly repudiated the marriage, ordered his brother home, and forbade all French vessels to receive as a passenger, “the young person with whom Citizen Joseph has connected himself.” In October, 1804, the young couple sailed for France in the ship Philadelphia, but were blown ashore at Lewes, Del. In March, 1805, they embarked again, reaching Lisbon, April 2. Napoleon (now emperor) refused to allow them to enter France, but sent to know “what he could do for Miss Patterson.” She replied that “Madame Bonaparte demanded her rights as one of the imperial family.” The contest was unequal. She was sent back to America, and the marriage declared null and void. Her son, Jerome, was born in England, July 7, 1805. She was never allowed to see her husband again, yet her ambitious projects for “Bo,” as she called her son, were unremitting until the downfall of the Bonarparte family. After this, she aimed to ally him with the English nobility, a design thwarted by his love-match with a lovely Baltimorean. She was an able financier, and became one of the richest women in Baltimore. Retaining her mind and many traces of her extraordinary beauty to the last, she died, April 3, 1879, at the age of ninety-four.

“By the laws of justice and of the Church she was a queen, although she was never allowed to reign.... There was about her the brilliancy of courts and palaces, the enchantment of a love-story, the suffering of a victim of despotic power.”—Eugene Dìdier, Life and Letters of Madame Bonaparte (1879).

Patty, “the maid of the mill,” daughter of Fairfield, the miller. She was brought up by the mother of Lord Aimworth, and was promised by her father in marriage to Farmer Giles; but she refused to marry him, and became the bride of Lord Aimworth. Patty was very clever, very pretty, very ingenuous, and loved his lordship to adoration.—Bickerstaff, The Maid of the Mill (1765).

Pattypan (Mrs.), a widow who keeps lodgings, and makes love to Tim Tartlet, to whom she is ultimately engaged.

By all accounts, she is just as loving now as she was thirty years ago.—James Cobb, The First Floor, i. 2 (1756-1818).

Patullo (Mrs.), waiting-woman to Lady Ashton.—Sir W. Scott, Bride of Lammermoor (time, William III.).

Pau-Puk-Keewis, a cunning mischief-maker, who taught the North American Indians the game of hazard, and stripped them, by his winnings, of all their possessions. In a mad freak Pau-Puk-Keewis entered the wigwam of Hiawatha and threw everything into confusion; so Hiawatha resolved to slay him. Pau-Puk-Keewis, taking to flight, prayed the beavers to make him a beaver ten times their own size. This they did; but when the other beavers made their escape, at the arrival of Hiawatha, Pau-Puk-Keewis was hindered from getting away by his great size; and Hiawatha slew him. His spirit, escaping, flew upwards, and prayed the storm-fools to make him a “brant” ten times their own size. This was done, and he was told never to look downwards, or he would lose his life. When Hiawatha arrived, the “brant” could not forbear looking at him; and immediately he fell to earth, and Hiawatha transformed him into an eagle.

Now in winter, when the snowflakes
Whirl in eddies round the lodges,...
“There,” they cry, “comes Pau-Puk-Keewis;
He is dancing thro’ the village,
He is gathering in his harvest.”

Longfellow, Hiawatha, xvii. (1855).

Paul, the love-child of Margaret, who retired to Port Louis, in the Mauritius, to bury herself, and bring up her only child. Hither came Mde. de la Tour, a widow, and was confined of a daughter, whom she named Virginia. Between these neighbors a mutual friendship arose, and the two children became playmates. As they grew in years their fondness for each other developed into love. When Virginia was 15, her mother’s aunt adopted her, and begged she might be sent to France to finish her education. She was above two years in France; and as she refused to marry a count of the “aunt’s” providing, she was disinherited and sent back to her mother. When within a cable’s length of the island a hurricane dashed the ship to pieces, and the dead body of Virginia was thrown upon the shore. Paul drooped from grief, and within two months followed her to the grave.—Bernardin de St. Pierre, Paul et Virgine (1788).

In Cobb’s dramatic version, Paul’s mother (Margaret) is made a faithful domestic of Virginia’s parents. Virginia’s mother dies, and commits her infant daughter to the care of Dominique, a faithful old negro servant, and Paul and Virginia are brought up in the belief that they are brother and sister. When Virginia is 15 years old, her aunt, Leonora de Guzman, adopts her, and sends Don Antonio de Guardes to bring her to Spain and make her his bride. She is taken by force on board ship; but scarcely has the ship started, when a hurricane dashes it on rocks, and it is wrecked. Alhambra, a runaway slave whom Paul and Virginia had befriended, rescues Virginia, who is brought to shore and married to Paul; but Antonio is drowned (1756-1818).

Paul (Father), Paul Sarpi (1552-1628).

Paul (St.). The very sword which cut off the head of this apostle is preserved at the convent of La Lisla, near Tolēdo, in Spain. If any one doubts the fact he may, for a gratuity, see a “copper sword, twenty-five inches long and three and a half broad, on one side of which is the word MUCRO (‘a sword’), and on the other PAULUS ... CAPITE.” Can anything be more convincing?

Paul (The Second St.). St Remi or Remigius, “The Great Apostle of the French.” He was made bishop of Rheims when only 22 years old. It was St Remi who baptized Clovis, and told him that henceforth he must worship what he hitherto had hated, and abjure what he had hitherto adored (439-535).

* The cruse employed by St. Remi in the baptism of Clovis was used through the French monarchy in the anointing of all the kings.

Paul Pry, an idle, inquisitive, meddlesome fellow, who has no occupation of his own, and is forever poking his nose into other people’s affairs. He always comes in with the apology, “I hope I don’t intrude.”—John Poole, Paul Pry.

Thomas Hill, familiarly called “Tommy Hill,” was the original of this character, and also of “Gilbert Gurney,” by Theodore Hook. Planché says of Thomas Hill:

His specialité was the accurate information he could impart on all the petty details of the domestic economy of his friends, the contents of their wardrobes, their pantries, the number of pots of preserves in their store-closets, and of the table-napkins in their linen-presses, the dates of their births and marriages, the amounts of their tradesmen’s bills, and whether paid weekly or quarterly. He had been on the press, and was connected with the Morning Chronicle. He used to drive Mathews crazy by ferreting out his whereabouts when he left London, and popping the information into some paper.—Recollections, i. 131-2.

Paul Rushleigh, son of a wealthy manufacturer, and in love from boyhood with Faith Gartney. She can give him only sisterly affection in return, but her refusal makes a man of the boy. Ten years afterwards, as General Rushleigh, a noble, high-minded patriot, he meets Margaret Regis and marries her.—A. D. T. Whitney, Sights and Insights (1876).

Pauletti (the Lady Erminia), ward of Master George Heriot, the king’s goldsmith.—Sir W. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).

Pauli´na, the noble-spirited wife of Antig´onus, a Sicilian lord, and the kind friend of Queen Hermi´onê. When Hermionê gave birth in prison to a daughter, Paulina undertook to present it to King Leontês, hoping that his heart would be softened at the sight of his infant daughter; but he commanded the child to be cast out on a desert shore, and left there to perish. The child was drifted to the “coast” of Bohemia, and brought up by a shepherd, who called it Perdĭta. Florizel, the son of king Polixĕnês, fell in love with her, and fled with her to Sicily, to escape the vengeance of the angry king. The fugitives being introduced to Leontês, it was soon discovered that Perdita was the king’s daughter, and Polixenês consented to the union he had before forbidden. Paulina now invited Leontês and the rest to inspect a famous statue of Hermionê, and the statue turned out to be the living queen herself.—Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale (1604).

Pauline, “The Beauty of Lyons,” daughter of M. Deschappelles, a Lyonese merchant; “as pretty as Venus, and as proud as Juno.” Pauline rejected the suits of Beauseant, Glavis and Claude Melnotte; and the three rejected lovers combined on vengeance. To this end, Claude, who was a gardener’s son, pretended to be the Prince Como, and Pauline married him, but was indignant when she discovered the trick which had been played upon her. Claude left her, and entered the French army, where in two years and a half he rose to the rank of colonel. Returning to Lyons, he found his father-in-law on the eve of bankruptcy, and Pauline about to be sold to Beauseant for money to satisfy the creditors. Being convinced that Pauline really loved him, Claude paid the money required, and claimed the lady as his loving and grateful wife.—Lord L. B. Lytton, The Lady of Lyons (1838).

Pauline (Mademoiselle) or Monna Paula, the attendant of Lady Erminia Pauletti, the goldsmith’s ward.—Sir W. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).

Pauline Pavlovna, heroine of T. B. Aldrich’s drama of that name (1890).

Pauli´nus of York, christened 10,000 men, besides women and their children in one single day in the Swale. (Altogether some 50,000 souls, i.e. 104 every minute, 6,250 every hour, supposing he worked eight hours without stopping.)

When the Saxons first received the Christian faith,
Paulinus of old York, the zealous bishop then,
In Swale’s abundant stream christened ten thousand men,
With women and their babes, a number more besides,
Upon one happy day.

Drayton, Polyolbion, xxviii. (1622).

Paulo, the cardinal and brother of Count Guido Franceschi´ni. He advised the count to repair his bankrupt fortune by marrying an heiress.—R. Browning, The Ring and the Book.

Paupiah, the Hindû steward of the British governor of Madras.—Sir W. Scott, The Surgeon’s Daughter (time, George II.).

Pausa´nias (The British), William Camden (1551-1623). Pausanias was a traveller and geographer in the 2d century A.D., who wrote an Itinerary of Greece. Camden wrote in Latin his “Brittania,” a survey of the British Isles.

Pauvre Jacques. When Marie Antoinette had her artificial Swiss village in the “Little Trianon,” a Swiss girl was brought over to heighten the illusion. She was observed to pine, and was heard to sigh out, pauvre Jacques! This little romance pleased the queen, who sent for Jacques, and gave the pair a wedding portion; while the Marchioness de Travanet wrote the song called Pauvre Jacques, which created at the time quite a sensation. The first and last verses run thus:

Pauvre Jacques, quand j’etais près de toi,
Je ne sentais pas ma misère;
Mais à présent que tu vis loin de moi,
Je manque de tout sur la terre.

Poor Jack, while I was near to thee,
Tho’ poor, my bliss was unalloyed;
But now thou dwell’st so far from me,
The world appears a lonesome void.

Pa´via (Battle of). Francis I. of France is said to have written to his mother these words, after the loss of this battle: “Madame, tout est perdu hors l’honneur;” but what he really wrote was: “Madame ... de toutes choses ne m’est demeuré pas que l’honneur et la vie.”

And with a noble siege revolted Pavia took.

Drayton, Polyolbion, xviii. (1613).

Pavillon (Meinheer Hermann), the syndic at Liège [Le-aje].

Mother Mabel Pavillon, wife of Meinheer Hermann.