Written English (part 2)

laitue (lā-tü´).—Lettuce.

la la (lȧ lȧ´), so so; indifferently.

l’allegro (It.), (läl lā´grō), the merry man. (The title of one of Milton’s poems.)

l’amour et la fumée ne peuvent se cacher (lȧ mōōr´ ā lȧ fü mā´ ne pöv se kȧ shā´), love and smoke cannot be hidden.

langage des halles (läN gȧzh dā ȧ´), the language of markets; Billingsgate.

langouste (läN-goost´).—The crawfish.

langue (läNg).—Tongue.

lapereau (lä-p’-rō´).—Young rabbit; cony.

la patience est amère, mais son fruit est doux (lȧ pä sēäNs e tȧ mer´, me sôN früē´ e dōō´), patience is bitter, but its reward is sweet.

lapins en accolade (lä paN ä nä-kō-läd´).—A brace of rabbits on a dish.

la povertà e la madre di tutti le arti (It.), (lä pō vār tä´ e lä mä´drā dē tōōt´ tē lā är´tē), poverty is the mother of all the arts.

l’argent (lȧr zhäN), silver; money.

lasagne (lä-säN´y).—Ribbonlike strips of macaroni paste; also noodles.

lasciate ogni speranza voi, ch’entrate (It.), (lä shyä´tā ō nyē spā rän´dzä vôē, kān trä´tā), all hope abandon ye who enter here.

lassen Sie mich gehen (Ger.) (lä´ sen zē mik gā´en), let me alone.

l’avenir (lȧv nēr´), the future.

la vertu est la seule noblesse (lȧ ver tü´ e lȧ söl nôbles´), virtue is the sole nobility.

leason (lē´ son).—Thickening, as flour, starch, egg yolk, etc.

le beau monde (le bō môNd´), the world of fashion; society.

lebkuchen (lāp´koo´ken).—A cake of flour and honey, variously flavored; also, a similar cake of flour and sugar.

le bon temps viendra (le bôN täN´ vēâNdrȧ´), there’s a good time coming.

le coût en ôte le gout (le kōō täN nōt le gōō´), the expense takes away the pleasure.

le demi-monde (le de mē môNd´), Bohemia.

légèreté (lā zher tā), lightness; levity.

le grand monarque (le gräN mô nȧrk´), the grand monarch. A title applied to Louis XIV.

le grand œuvre (le gräN tövr´), the great work; the search for the philosopher’s stone.

legumes (lē-gūmz´).—Peas, lentils, or beans; improperly, fruit or green vegetables.

le jeu n’en vaut pas la chandelle (le zhö´ näN vō pä lȧ shäN del´), the game is not worth the candle (by the light of which it is played); the object is not worth the trouble.

le mot d’énigme (le mō dā nēgm´), the solution of the mystery.

l’empire des lettres (läN pēr´ dā letr´), the empire of letters.

le parole son feminine, e i fatti son maschi (It.) (lā pä rō lā sōn fā mē nē´nā, ā ē fät´tē sōn mäs´kē), words are feminine, and deeds are masculine.

la pas (le pä´), precedence.

le point de jour (le pwâNd zhōōr), daybreak.

le roi et l’état (le rwä´ ā lā tȧ), the king and the state.

le roi le veut (le rwä´ l vö´), the king wills it.

les absents ont toujours tort (lā zȧp säN´ ôN tōō zhōōr tôr´) the absent are always wrong.

les bras croisés (lā brä krwä ze´), the arms crossed.

lèse majesté (lez mȧ zhes tā), high treason.

les extrèmes se touchent (lä zek strem´ se tōōsh), extremes meet.

les larmes aux yeux (lā lärm´ zō zēö´), tears in one’s eyes.

les murailles ont des oreilles (lā mü rä´ y zôN dā zô re´ y), walls have ears.

les plus sages ne le sont pas toujours (lā plü sazh ne l sôN pä tōō zhōōr), the wisest are not always wise.

l’étoile du nord (lā twȧl dü nôr´), the star of the north.

le tout ensemble (le tōō täN säN bl´), the whole taken together.

lettre de cachet (Fr. Hist.), (letre de kȧ she´), a secret letter sealed by the royal seal, containing orders for arrest and imprisonment without trial.

lettre de change (letre d zhäN zh), bill of exchange; promissory note.

lettres de créance (letre d krā äNs´), letters of credit.

lettre de marque (letre d mȧrk´), a letter of marque or reprisal.

levée (le vā´), a morning reception.

lev´eret.—A young hare.

le vrai n’est toujours vraisemblable (le vrā ne tōō zōōr vre säN blȧbl´), truth is not always probable; truth is stranger than fiction.

levreau (lā-vrō´).—A young hare. Levreau au sang (ō säN) is a dish of young hares cooked with added pigeon blood.

l’homme propose, et Dieu dispose (lôm prô pōz´, ā dēö´ dēs pōz´), man proposes and God disposes.

liaisons dangereuses (lē e zôN däN zhröz´), dangerous alliances.

libraire (lē brer´), a bookseller.

l’inconnu (lâN kô nü´), the unknown.

l’incroyable (lâN krwä yȧbl´), the incredible, the marvelous. (The word incroyable was applied substantively to the fops of the directory period in the great French revolution.)

lingerie (lâN zhrē), linen goods; also, collectively, all the linen, cotton, and lace articles of a woman’s wardrobe.

littérateur (lē tā rȧ tör´), a literary man.

lo barato es caro (Sp.), (lō bä rä´tō ās kä´rō), a bargain is dear.

l’occhio del padrone ingrassa il cavallo (It.), (lô´kyō dāl pä drō nā ēn gräs´sä ēl kä väl´lō), the master’s eye fattens the horse.

loyauté m’oblige (lwȧ yō tā´ mô blēzh´), loyalty binds me.

M

macarons (mä-kä-rôN´).—Macaroons.

macaro´ni.—A paste of wheat flour and water dried in the form of long slender tubes. When prepared in still smaller tubes it is called spaghetti and vermicelli.

macaroon.—A small cake composed chiefly of whites of eggs and sugar (meringue) with pounded almonds, or sometimes filberts, cocoanut, or the like.

macédoine of fruit (mä-sā-dwäN´).—A sweet jelly with whole fruit in its substance.

macédoine of veg´etables.—A mixture of several vegetables, cooked, with some white sauce added.

macédoine sal´ad.—A salad of mixed vegetables.

ma chère (mȧ sher´), my dear (fem.).

macroon´.—A macaroon.

mademoiselle (mȧd mwȧ zel´), title given to a young unmarried lady.

madère (mä-dâr´).—Madeira wine.

maestro di color che sanno (It.) (mä es´trō dē kō lor´ kā sän´no), master of those that know. (Applied by Dante to Aristotle.)

ma foi (mȧ fwȧ´), upon my faith; upon my word.

maigre (mē´gr).—Lean meat; also, any food other than meat. Also, a kind of fish. Maigre soups are those without meat, such as those used in Lent.

maintien le droit (mâN tēâN le drwä´), maintain the right.

maison d’arrêt (mā zôN dȧ ret´), house of custody; prison.

maison de campagne (mā zôN de käN pȧn´y), a country house.

maison de force (mā zôN d fôrs´), house of correction; bridewell.

maison de santé (mā zôN d säN tā´), lunatic asylum.

maison de ville (mā zôN d vēl´), a town hall.

maitre des basses œuvres (me´tre dā bäs zövr´), a nightman.

maitre des hautes œuvres (me´tre dā ōt zövr´), an executioner; a hangman.

maitre d’hôtel (me´tre dō tel´), a house steward.

maitre d’hôtel but´ter (mā´tr dō-tel´).—Butter mixed with parsley, lemon juice, salt, and nutmeg—cold maitre d’hôtel sauce.

maitresse (me tres´), mistress.

malade (mȧ lȧd´), sick.

maladie du pays (mȧ lȧ dē´ dü pā ē´), homesickness.

maladresse (mȧ lȧ dres´), want of tact, awkwardness.

manchons de veau à la Gérard (mäN-shôN´ de vō ä lä zhā-rär´).—A dish of slices of veal rolled and stuffed.

manège (mȧ nezh´), the art of horsemanship.

mal à propos (mȧ lȧ prô pō´), ill-timed.

mal de dents (mȧl de däN´), toothache.

mal de mer (mȧl de mer´), seasickness.

mal de tête (mȧl de tet´), headache.

mal entendre (mȧ läN tä Ndr´), a misunderstanding; a mistake.

malgré nous (mȧl grā nōō´), in spite of us.

malheur ne vient jamais seul (mȧ lör´ ne vēâN zhȧ me söl´), misfortunes never come singly.

maraschino (mä-rä-skē´nō).—A cherry cordial made in Dalmatia from a sour cherry called marasca; hence, a similar liqueur prepared elsewhere.

marasquin (mä-rä-skaN´).—French for maraschino.

marchand de vin (mär-shäN´ de vaN´).—Stewed with shallots, espagnole, and claret wine—said especially of kidneys.

march´pane.—A cake of pounded almonds or pistachio nuts and sugar.

mardi gras (mȧr dē grä´), Shrove Tuesday.

mariage de conscience (mȧ rēȧzh de kôN sēäNs´), a private marriage.

mariage de convenance (mȧ rēȧzh de kôN vnäNs´), a marriage of convenience; or from interested motives.

marsala (mär’sälä-lä).—A class of white Sicilian wines, of which the best kinds resemble Madeira, but are lighter.

matinée (mȧ tē nā´), a reception, or a musical or dramatic entertainment, held in the daytime.

mauvaise honte (mô vez ôNt´), false modesty.

mauvais goût (mô ve gōō´), false taste.

mauvaise sujet (mô ve sü zhe´), a worthless fellow.

mauvais quart d’heure (mô ve kȧr dōr´), a bad quarter of an hour; an uncomfortable time; a disagreeable experience.

mauvais ton (mô ve tôN´), vulgarity.

mayonnaise sauce (mā-yō-nāz´).—A sauce of egg yolk and oil worked together, less properly with vinegar.

médecin, guéris-toi-toi-même (mād sâN´, gā rē twȧtwȧ mem´), physician, heal thyself.

mélange (mā lä Nzh), a mixture.—A light entertainment of a mixed character.

mêlée (me lā´), a disorderly fight.

ménage (mā nȧzh´), household.

menu (me nü´), bill of fare.

meringue (mā-raNg´).—Icing of white of egg and sugar thoroughly beaten together, sometimes with starch added. Pure meringues are called baisers (bā-zā´) or Spanish foam.

meringue glacée (glä-sā´).—A glazed meringue.

merluche (mâr-lüsh´).—The haddock.

mesalliance (mā zȧ lēäNz´), marriage with one of lower station.

meunière (me-nyâr´).—With brown butter, lemon juice, and parsley.

mirabelles (mē-rä-bel´).—Plums of a certain superior variety.

mir ist alles einerlei (Ger.), (Mēr´ ist ä´les ī ner lī´), it’s all the same to me.

mise-en-scène (mē zäN sen´), the staging of a play.

mon ami (mô nȧ mē´), my friend.

mon cher (môN sher´), my dear (fellow).

monde chic (môNd shēk´), world of taste; fashionable people.

monsieur (me sēö´), sir, master, gentleman.

morue (mō-rü´).—Codfish.

mot de passe (mō d päs´), the watchword.

mot du guet (mō dü ge´), a watchword.

mot pour rire (mō pōōr rēr´), a witty saying; a joke.

mots d’usage (mō dü zȧzh´), words in common use.

moules (mool).—Mussels.

moules à la bordelaise (ä lä bôr-de-lāz´).—Mussels in forcemeat.

mousseline de laine (mōōs lēn de len´), a thin woolen material.

mousseron (moo-srôN´).—Mushroom (the edible kind).

mouton (moo-tōN´).—Mutton.

mulled (muld).—Properly, heated and spiced; but often used to mean, made mild by sugar (acid wines), or by dilution (alcoholized wine).

mul´ligatawny, or mul´ligatunny.—A spiced or curried soup of hashed chicken and rice.

muraglia bianca, carta di matto (It.) (mōō rä´lyä byäng´kä, kär´tä dē māt´tō), a white wall is the fool’s paper.

N

naïve (nȧ ēv´), having unaffected simplicity.

naïveté´ (nȧ ēv tā´), native simplicity.

Na´ples biscuit.—Lady fingers.

Na´ples ice, Na´ples ice cream.—Same as Neapolitan ice; Neapolitan ice cream.

Neapol´itan ice, Neapol´itan ice cream.—Ice or ice cream prepared in layers, especially when colored, as in white, red and yellow.

Neapol´itan sauce.—Espagnole flavored with grated horseradish, and a sweet and savory wine fumet.

nec´tarine.—A smooth skinned variety of peach. The Spanish nectarine is a plum-like West Indian fruit, which is made into a sweet conserve.

née (nā´), born.

négligé (nā glē zhā´), a morning dress.

nesselrode pudding (nes´sel-rō-de).—Iced or frozen chestnut-and-fruit pudding.

neufchâtel cheese (nûf-shä-tel´).—A cheese made by thickening cream by heat and pressing it in a small mold.

neue Besen kehren gut (Ger.),-(nôi e bā´zen kā ren gōōt´), a new broom sweeps clean.

ni l’un ni l’autre (nē löN´ nē lōtr´), neither the one nor the other.

n’importe (nâN pôrt´), it is of no consequence.

nivernaise (nē-vâr-nāz´).—A ragoût-like dish of carrots stewed in consommé.

noblesse oblige (nô ble sô blēzh´), nobility imposes obligations; much is expected from persons of good position.

nom de guerre (nôN de ger´), a war-name, an assumed name, a pseudonym.

nom de plume (nôN de plüm´), an assumed title.

nonchalance (nôN shȧ läNs´), coolness; easy indifference.

non mi ricordo (It.), (nōn mē rē kôr´dō), I do not remember.

non obstant clameur de haro (nōn ôp stäN klȧ mör´ de ȧ rō´), despite the hue and cry.

non ogni fiore fa buon odore (It.), (nōn ō nyē fyō´rā fȧ bwô nō dō´rā), it is not every flower that smells sweet.

nonpareil (nôN pȧ re´y), unequaled.

non vender la pelle dell ´orse prima di pigliarlo (It.), (nōn vān dār lä pel lā dāl lōr´ sā prē mä dē pē lyär´lō´), don’t sell the bearskin before you have caught the bear.

Noth kennt kein Gebot (Ger.), (nōt´ kent kīn ge bōt´), necessity knows no law.

Notre Dame (nô tre dȧm), Our Lady, the Virgin Mary.

n’oubliez pas (nōō blēā pä´), do not forget.

nougat (noo-gä´).—A mixture of almonds, pistachios, filberts, or the like, and honey or sugar baked together.

nouilles (noo´y).—Noodles.

nous verrons (nōō ve rôN´), we shall see.

nouvelles (nōō vel´), news.

nouvellette (nōō ve let´), a short tale or novel.

nuance (nü äNs´), shade; gradation; tint.

nul bien sans peine (nül bēâN´ säN pen´), no pains, no gains.

nulla nuova, buona nuova (It.), (nōōl lä nwô vä, bwô´-nä nwô´vä), no news is good news.

O

octroi (ôk trwä´), a tax on articles (for sale) entering a town.

oeil de bœuf (ö´ēd böf´), a bull’s-eye.

œufs (ûf).—Eggs.

œufs à la farce (ûf ä lä färs).—Hard boiled eggs with stewed sorrel.

œufs à la tripe (ä lä trēp).—Hard boiled eggs with onion sauce.

œufs broullés.—Scrambled eggs.

ognon (ō-nyôN´).—Onion.

ognon d’Egypte (dā-zhēpt´).—The rocambole, a mild, sweet onion.

o’kra.—A plant, the long green, mucilaginous pods of which are used in soups, stews, etc.

olla (ōl´lä).—Ragoût.

olla podrida (It.), (ōl´lä pō drē´dä), a heterogeneous mixture.

omelette au thon (ōm-let´ ō tôN´).—Omelet with tunny, a kind of fish.

omelette aux confitures (ō kôN-fē-tür´).—An omelet served with fruit jelly. Jams do not go well with omelets.

on connait l’ami au besoin (ôN kô ne lȧ mē´ ō be zwâN´), a friend is known in time of need.

on dit (ôN dē´), they say.

oreilles (ō-rā´y).—Ears; as, oreilles de veau (de vō), calf’s ears.

orgeade (ôr-zhäd´).—Milk of almonds, made by stirring sirup of almonds in water; also, orgeat.

orgeat (ôr-zhä´).—Sirup of almonds; also, orgeade.

Or´leans sauce.—A mince of carrots, anchovies, hard-boiled eggs, and gherkins, with peppersauce.

oro e che oro vale (It.), (ō´rō e kā ō´rō vä´lā), that is gold which is worth gold; all is not gold that glitters.

oublier je ne puis (ōō blēā´zhe n pwē´), I can never forget.

oui-dire (wē dēr´), hearsay.

outrance (ōō träNs´), excess; extremity.

outre (ōōtr´), eccentric.

ouvrage (ōō vrȧzh), work.

ouvrage de longue haleine (ōō vrȧzh de lôNg ȧ len´), a long-winded business.

ouvrier (ōō vrē ā´), a workman, an artisan.

P

pabrica (pä´brē-kä).—Paprika.

padrone (It.), (pä drō´nä), master; employer; landlord.

pain (paN).—Bread.

panais (pä-nā´).—Parsnips.

panée (pä-nā´).—Bread-crumbed (over egg yolk, sauce, butter, or fat) previous to frying.

panier (pä-nyâ´).—A basket, as that for holding a wine bottle. Also, an entrée panée.

pannequets (pän-kā´).—French pancakes.

papeterie (pȧ pe trē´), a case with writing materials.

paprika (pä´prē-kä).—A mild kind of red-pepper condiment obtained from Capsicum annum.

par accord (pȧ rȧ kôr´), by agreement.

par avance (pȧ rȧ väNs´), in advance.

par ci, par là (pȧr sē´ pȧr lȧ´), here and there.

par excellence (pȧ rek se läNs´), preëminently.

par exemple (pȧ rāg zäNpl´), for instance.

parfaitement bien (pȧr fet mäN bēâN´), perfectly well.

Pari´sian loaves.—Finger cakes ornamented with strips of currant jelly, green-gage jam, or the like.

Pari´sian sauce.—Allemande flavored with truffles and tinted.

pas´caline.—White mushroom sauce.

parole d’honneur (pȧ rôl dô nör´), word of honor.

partout (pȧr tōō´), everywhere.

parvenu (pȧr ve nü´), a person of low origin who has risen; upstart.

pas à pas (pä zȧ pä´), step by step.

passe (päs), worn out; out of style.

passe-partout (päs pȧr tōō´), a master key.

pasticcio (It.), (päs tēch´ chyō), patchwork.

pâté (pä-tā´).—A pasty.

pâté aux choux (pä-tā´ ō shoo´).—Cream-cake paste, which resembles a cabbage head when baked.

pâté de foie gras (pä-tā´ de fwä grä´), a pie made in Strasburg from the livers of geese.

pâté mollette (pä-tā´ mō-let´).—A Mecca cake.

pâtés (pä-tā´).—Pasties.

pâtés chauds (shö).—Hot pasties.

pâtés de petit four (de pe-tē´foor).—Small pasties—literally, pasties of the little oven.

pâtés froids (frwä).—Cold pasties.

patois (pȧ twä´), a dialect.

pays latin (pā ē lȧ tâN´), the Latin territory, district, region; the students of the Pays Latin, that is, of the University.

peine forte et dure (pen fôr tā dür´), very severe punishment; a kind of judicial torture.

penchant (päN shäN´),—inclination; liking.

pensée (päN sā´), a thought expressed in terse, vigorous language.

per (It.), (pār), for, through, by.

per cantante (It.), (pār kän tän´tā), for cash.

per contra (It.), (pār kōn´trä), on the contrary.

père de famille (per de fȧ mē´y), the father of the family.

perdreux (pâr-drû´).—Young partridges.

perdrix (pâr-drē´).—A partridge.

perdu (per dü´), lost.

per mese (It.), (pār mā´ sā), by the month.

per piu strade si va a Roma (It.), (pār pyōō strä´dā sē vä ä rō´mä), there are many roads to Rome.

persiflage (per sē flȧzh), chaff; banter.

persillade of fish (pâr-sē-läd´).—Fish with parsley.

personnel (per sô nel´), the staff of an establishment.

petit (pe tē´), small.

petit coup (pe tē kōō´), a small mask; a domino.

petit rôti (pe-tē´ rō-tē´).—A roast fowl.

petit salé (sä lā´).—Pickled pork in small pieces.

petites affiches (pe tēt zȧ fēsh´), advertisements.

petit maître (pe tē metr´), a little master; a fop.

petits choux.—Same as choux pâtissière.

petits pois (pe-tē´ pwä). Peas.

peu-à-peu (pö ȧ pö´), little by little; by degrees.

peu de chose (pö d shōz´), a trifle.

pezzo (It.), (ped´zō), piece; piece of money; a coin.

piccolo (It.), (pēk´kō lō), small.

pièce de résistance (pē es de rā zēs täNs´), the principal dish.

pied à terre (pēā tȧ ter´), a temporary lodging.

pied poudreux (pē ā pōō drö´), a vagabond.

pigeonnaux (pē-zhō-nō´).—Squabs.

pigeons innocents (pē-zhôN´ ē-nō-säN´).—Squabs.

pigliar due colombi a una fava (It.), (pē lyȧr dōō ā kō lōm´bē ä ōō nä fä´vä), to catch two pigeons with one bean; to kill two birds with one stone.

pilau (pi-law´), or pillau.—An oriental dish of rice stewed with mutton, lamb, or fowl, almonds, raisins, and saffron and other spices.

pimen´to.—Allspice, or Jamaica pepper.

pimo´la.—An olive stuffed with sweet peppers.

pioupiou (pē ōō pē ōō´), a private soldier; a French “Tommy Atkins.”

piquant (pē-käN´), pointed, pungent.

piquante sauce (pē-käNt´).—Espagnole with pickles added and flavored with shallots.

pis aller (pē zȧ lā´), the worst or last shift.

plombière (plôN-byâr´).—A kind of frozen fruit pudding.

poché (pō-shā´).—Poached.

poco à poco (It.), (pô´kō ä pô´kō), little by little; by degrees.

point d’appui (pwâN dȧ pwē´), prop; point of support.

poisson (pwä-sôN´).—Fish.

poivrade (pwä-vräd´).—Peppersauce.

polen´ta.—Porridge.

polonaise cakes (pō-lō-nāz´).—A kind of tart made of puff paste with jelly at the corners.

pomme (pum).—Apple.

pomme d´api (pum dä-pē´).—Small rosy apple.

pomme de terre (de târ).—Common Irish potato.

pompa´no.—A highly esteemed marine food fish.

porte-chaise (porte shez´), a sedan.

poste restante (pôs tres täNt´), to remain until called for; applied to letters in a post office, general delivery.

potage (pō-täzh´).—Soup; pottage; broth.

potage a la Camerani (ä lä kä-mā-rä´nē).—A rich kind of chicken-liver soup.

potage croute au pot (kroöt ō pō).—Plain broth with vegetables and crusts browned in gravy.

pot pourri (pō poo-rē´).—A ragoût of various meats and vegetables cooked together.

pour acquit (pōō rȧ kē´), paid; settled; the usual form of receipt.

pour faire rire (pōōr fer rēr´), to excite laughter.

pour faire visite (pōōr fer vē zēt´) to pay a visit.

pour passer le temps (pōōr pä sā l täN´), to while away the time.

pour prendre congé (pōōr präNdre kôN zhā´), to take leave. Usually abbreviated to P. P. C.

précis (prā sē´), a summary; an epitome.

prendre la clef des champs (präN dre lȧ klā dā shäN´), to take the key of the fields; to take French leave.

prendre la lune avec les dents (präN dre lȧ lü´ nȧ vek lā däN´), to seize the moon in one’s teeth; to aim at impossibilities.

presto maturo, presto marcio (It.) (pres tō ma tōō´rō, pres tō mär´chyō), soon ripe, soon rotten.

prêt d´accomplir (pre dȧ kôN plēr´), ready to accomplish.

prêt pour mon pays (pre pōōr môN pā ē´), ready for my country.

preux chevalier (prö shvȧ lēā´), a brave knight.

prima donna (prē mä dôn´nä), leading lady singer in opera.

printanière (praN-tä-nyâr´).—A dish cooked à la printanière. See à la printanière. Printanière soup is the same as jardinière soup, essentially.

procès verbal (prô se ver bȧl´), a detailed statement.

profiterolles (prō-fē-trōl´).—Sweet entremets, a kind of cake filled with custard.

propriétaire (prô prēā ter´), a proprietor.

protégé (prô tā zhā´), one protected by another.

pumpernickel (poom´per-nik´l).—Black bread made in Westphalia of unbolted rye. It is of an acid taste.

purée (pü-rā´).—A pulpy maceration of meat, vegetables, fruit, or the like, passed through a sieve.

quartier (kär-tyā´).—Quarter; especially forequarter.

quasi de veau (kä-zē´de vō).—The thick end of a loin of veal.

Q

quelque chose (kel ke shōz´), something; a trifle.

quenelle (ke-nel´).—A kind of delicate forcemeat ball or dumpling.

qui a bu boira (kē ȧ bü´ bwä rȧ´), the tippler will go on tippling; it is hard to break off bad habits.

quien poco sabe, presto lo reza (Sp.), (kyān pō kō sä´vā, prēs tō lō rā´thä), he who knows little soon tells it.

quien sabe? (Sp.), (kyān sä´vā), who knows?

qu´il soit comme il est désiré (kēl swȧ´ kô mē le dā zē rā´), let it be as desired.

qui m´aime aime mon chien (kē mem´ em môN shēâN´), love me, love my dog.

qui n’a santé, n’a rien (kē nȧ säN tā´, nȧ rē âN´), he who has not health, has nothing.

qui va là? (kē vȧ lȧ´), who goes there?

qui vive (kē vēv´), on the alert.

R

raconteur (rȧ kôN tör´), a relater; a teller.

radis (rä-dē´).—Radish.

ragout (rä-goo´).—A rich compound consisting of quenelles, mushrooms, truffles, etc., mixed with a rich sauce, and used to garnish rich dishes; also, a dish garnished with this.

raison d´état (rā zôN dā tȧ´), a state reason.

raison d´être (rā zôN detr´), the reason for a thing´s existence.

ramequin (ram´ē-kin; French pron. rä-me-kaN´).—A pastry consisting of a preparation of cheese inclosed in or mixed with puff paste, and baked or browned. Cheese straws are thin ramequins of cheese mixed with puff paste.

rapprochement (rȧ prôsh mäN´), the act of bringing together, reconciliation.

ratafia (rä-tä-fē-ä´).—(a) Noyau, curacao, or other liqueur containing kernels of fruit, as of peaches, cherries, etc. (b) A small macaroon made mainly of bitter almonds.

réchauffé (rā-shō-fā´), or réchauffée.—Warmed or heated over a second time.

recherche (re shersh´), elegant; attractive.

reçu (re sü´), received; receipt.

recueil choisi (re kö y shwȧzē´), a choice collection.

rédacteur (en chef), (rā dȧk tö räN shef), editor (of a newspaper).

régime (rā zhēm´), government; mode of living.

relevés (rā-l´-vā´).—Same as removes.

rémoulade (rā-moo-läd´).—A purée of anchovies, capers, parsley, shallots, and hard-boiled eggs, dressed with spices, oil, and vinegar.

rémoulade à la provençale (ä lä prō-väN-säl´).—Rémoulade not sieved and with more oil.

remove.—A dish removed from the table to make room for another; applied generally to the roasts, joints, turkeys, fillets, etc., which follow the soup and fish at an ordinary dinner of several courses.

renaissance (re ne säNs´), regeneration, revival.

rendezvous (räN dā vōō´), a place of meeting.

rentes (räNt), the funds; government stocks.

répondez s’il vous plaît (R. S. V. P.) (rā pôN dā sēl vōō ple´), reply if you please.

répondre en normand (rä pôN dräN nôr mäN´), to answer in Norman; to speak evasively.

restaurateur (res tô rȧ tör´), one who provides.

résumé (rā zü mā´), a summing up.

rete nuova non piglia uccello vecchio (It.), (rā tā nwô´vä nōn pē lyä ōōch chel´lō vek´kyō), a new net won’t catch an old bird.

revenons à nos moutons (rev nôN zȧ nō mōō tôN´), let us return to our sheep; let us come back to our subject.

rien n’est beau que le vrai (rēâN ne bō´ ke l vrā´), there is nothing beautiful but truth.

rira bien qui rira le dernier (rē rȧ bēâN´ kē rē rȧ l der nēä´), he laughs well who laughs last.

rire entre cuir et chair, rire sous cape (rē räN tre kwē´ rā sher´, rēr sōō kȧp´), to laugh in one’s sleeve.

ris de veau (rē de vō).—The sweetbread; pancreas.

rissole (rē-sōl´).—A kind of pastry made of minced and spiced meat or vegetables, or fruit, wrapped in paste, and fried in fat—originally one containing rice as an ingredient.

rissolé (rē-sō-lā´).—Browned by baking or frying.

rissolette (rē-sō-let´).—A croutade, or bit of fried bread containing or holding a little portion of forcemeat.

robe de chambre (rôb de shäN br´), a dressing-gown; a morning gown.

robe de nuit (rôb de nwē´), a night-dress.

rognons (rō-nyôN´).—Kidneys; fries.

rôle (rōl´), a part in a performance.

romaine salad (rō-mān´).—A kind of mixed vegetable salad.

Ro´man punch.—A water ice flavored, as with lemon, and mixed with rum or other spirits. Also, a complicated punch, similar in preparation to regency punch, with added frozen white of egg froth.

roquefort (rōk-fôr´).—A French cheese made from the milk of ewes, cured in a cavern in the limestone rock at Roquefort, France.

rothe grütze (rō´te grüt´ se).—A flummery of rice grits and fruit juice.

roue (rōō), a debauchee.

rouge (rōōzh), red coloring for the skin.

roulette (roo-let´).—A dish consisting of a slice of meat spread with stuffing, rolled, and stewed or braised.

roux (roo).—Browned by frying in butter or other grease.

roux blanc (bläN).—Starch or flour fried in fat so as to be hardly colored.

roux brun (brüN´).—Fried a dark brown.

ruse de guerre (rüz de ger´), a military stratagem.

Rus´sian sauce.—A velouté with egg yolks and strong herbs.

Rus´sian soup.—A gravy soup of veal, fowl, etc., with souchets of salmon, eel, perch, mullet, quenelles of whiting, lobster coral, and mushroom purée.

S

salade russe (sä-läd´rüs).—A dish of chicken meat, ham, veal, etc., sliced, arranged separately and served with truffles, and tartar sauce, or caviare and sardelles, etc.

salle (sȧl), a hall.

salle à manger (sȧ lȧ mäN zhā), dining room.

Sal´ly Lunn.—An English tea cake.

salmagun´dy.—A salad of cold chicken, veal, eggs, beets, anchovies, etc., finely minced and spiced.

salmis (säl-mē´).—A ragoût of roast game or fowl in rich gravy or sauce.

sal´picon (French pron. säl-pē-kôN´).—A ragoût or rich compound of chopped meat or fish and vegetables with savory sauce, used as a separate dish, as a garnish, to stuff meats, etc.

sanan couchilladas, mas no malas palabras (Sp.), (sä´nän kōō chē lā´thäs, mäs nō mä läs pä lä´vräs), wounds from a knife will heal, but not those from an evil tongue.

sang-froid (säN frwä´), coolness; self-possession.

sans-culottes (säN kü lôt´), without breeches; a term applied to the rabble of the French revolution.

sans façon (säN fȧ sôN´), without form or trouble.

sans pareil (säN pȧ re´y), without equal.

sans peine (säN pen´), without difficulty.

sans peur et sans reproche (säN pör´ ā säN re prôsh´), fearless and stainless.

sans rime et sans raison (säN rēm´ ā säN rā zôN´), without rhyme or reason.

sans souci (säN sōō sē´), free from care.

sauce beurrée à l’Anglaise (bû-rā ä läN-glāz´).—Butter sauce.

sauce blanche (bläNsh).—Butter sauce.

sauce Colbert (kōl-bâr).—Brown sauce with meat glace, lemon juice, parsley, and butter stirred in.

saucé de gourmets (de goor-mā´).—A coulis with a purée of tomatoes and crayfish butter.

sauce en tortue (äN tôr-tü´).—Espagnole sauce, a kind of sauce used for calf’s head.

sauce Italienne rousse (ē-tä-lyen´ roos).—A sauce of espagnole, varied and flavored with shallots, mushrooms, and olive oil.

sauce piquante (pē-käNt´).—An acid or sour sauce.

sauce Robert (French pron. sōs rō-bâr´).—A full-flavored espagnole sauce, strongly flavored with onions, mustard, and zested with lemon juice or vinegar.

sauce rousse (roos).—Brown sauce.

saumon (sō-môN´).—Salmon.

sauté (sō-tā´).—Lightly and quickly fried in little grease.

sauve qui peut (sōv kē pö´), save yourself.

savant (sȧ väN´), a learned man.

savoir (sȧ vwȧr´), knowledge.

savoir faire (sȧ vwȧr fer´), tact.

savoir vivre (sȧ vwȧr vēvr´), good breeding.

savon (sȧ vôN´), soap.

savoy´ cakes.—Lady fingers or other fancy cakes of sponge-cake paste.

scones (skōnz).—Scotch cakes of oatmeal or flour.

scrutin d’arrondissement (skrü tâN´ dȧ rôN dēs mäN´), municipal ballot.

scrutin de liste (skrü tâN d lēst´), voting by ballot; the voting for the departmental representatives.

sdegno d’amante poco dura (It.), (zdā nyō dä män´tā pô kō dōō´rä), a lover’s anger is short-lived.

séance (sā äNs´), a sitting.

selle (sel).—Saddle.

selon les règles (se lôN lā regl´), according to rule.

sempre il mal non vien per nuocere (It.), (sem´prā ēl mäl´ nōn vyān´ pār nwô chā rā), misfortune is not always an evil.

se non e vero e ben trovato (It.), (sā nōn e vā´rō e bān trō vä´tō), if it is not true, it is cleverly invented.

siècle (sē ekl´), an age.

siècle d´or (sē ekl dôr´), the golden age (of Louis XIV).

siècles des ténèbres (sē ekle dā tā nebr´), the dark ages.

Sie sehen gut aus (Ger.), (zē zā en gōōt´ ows), you look well.

sobriquet (sô brē ke´), a nickname.

soi-disant (swȧ dē zäN´), self-styled; would-be; pretended.

soirée (swȧ rā´), an evening party.

soubise sauce (soo-bēz´).—A purée of white onions or souchie.

soubrette (sōō bret´), on the stage a servant girl who acts in comedies the part of an intrigante.

souchet (soo-shā´), or souchie (sōō-shē´).—A stew of fish in a soup-like savory broth.

soufflé (soo-flā´).—A dish consisting of batter of starch or flour, eggs, milk or cream, and butter, beaten light and baked and served hot while light and spongy. Soufflés may be variously flavored, as with ginger, vanilla, chocolate, etc.

souffler le chaud et le froid (sōō fla l shō´ ā l frwä´), to blow hot and cold.

spaghetti (spä-get´tē).—Hollow tubes of dried Italian paste, in size between macaroni and vermicelli.

Span´ish cream.—Gelatine pudding containing custard, gelatine, and beaten white of eggs, set in a mold.

Span´ish puffs.—Maringues.

spirituel (spē rē tü el´), possessing wit, witty.

Sturm und Drang (Ger.), (shtoorm oont dräng´), storm and stress.

suprême sauce (su-prām).—Velouté flavored with mushrooms and consommé of fowls.

T

tableau vivant (tȧ blō vē väN´), the representation of a picture by persons grouped together, silent and motionless.

table d’hôte (tȧble dōt´), table according to the hostess.

tâche sans tache (tȧsh säN tȧsh´), a work without a stain.

taille (tä´y), form; stature; shape.

tapis (tȧ pē´), the carpet.

tar´tare sauce.—Mayonnaise sauce with vinegar and chopped green herbs, pickles, and capers.

tel maître, tel valet (tel metr´, tel vȧ le´), like master, like man.

tendresse (täN dres´), passion; affection.

terra cotta (It.), (ter´rä kôt´tä), baked earth.

tête (tāt).—Head.

tête-à-tête (te tȧ tet´), a conversation between two parties.

tiens à la vérité (tēâN zȧ lȧ vä rē tā´), maintain the truth.

tiens ta foi (tēâN tȧ fwä´), keep thy faith.

timbale (French pron. taN-bäl´).—A drum-like case of macaroni or rice filled with some composition, as with forcemeat or ragoût.

timbre-poste (tâN bre pôst´), postage stamp.

toujours perdrix (tōō zhōōr per drē´), always partridges; the same thing over and over again.

toujours prêt (tōō zhōōr pre´), always ready.

tour de force (tōōr de fôrs´), a feat of strength or skill.

tour d’expression (tōōr dek spre sēôN´), an idiom.

tourner casaque (tōōr nā kȧ zȧk´), to turn one’s coat; to change sides.

tout-à-fait (tōō tȧ fe´), wholly, entirely.

tout-à-l’heure (tōō tȧ lör´), instantly.

tout au contraire (tōō tō kôN trer´), on the contrary.

tout-à-vous (tōō tȧ vōō´), entirely yours.

tout bien ou rien (tōō bēâN´ ōō rēâN´), all or nothing.

tout-de-suite (tōō d swēt´), immediately.

tout ensemble (tōō täN säNbl´), the whole.

tout le monde est sage après coup (tōō l môN de sazh ȧ pre kōō´), everybody is wise after the event.

traduttori, traditori (It.), (trä dōōt tō´rē, trä dē tō´rē), translators are traitors.

trottoir (trô twȧr´), sidewalk.

trousseau (trōō sō´), wedding outfit.

truffes (trüf).—Truffles.

truf´fle.—A kind of edible mushroom that grows underground.

truite (trwet).—Trout.

Turk´ish cof´fee.—Café au Turc.

tutte le strade conducono a Roma (It.), (tōōt´tā lā strä´dā kōn dōō´kō nō ä rō mä), all roads lead to Rome.

tutti-frutti (toot´tē-froot´tē).—A confection consisting of preserved fruits of various kinds.

U

Uebung macht den Meister (Ger.), (ü´boong mäkt den mīs´ter), practice makes perfect.

un bienfait n’est jamais perdu (öN bēâN fe´ ne zhȧ me per dü´), a kindness is never lost.

un sot à triple étage (öN sō´ ȧ trē plā tȧzh´), a consummate fool.

un “tiens” vaut mieux que deux “tu l’auras,” (ōN tēâN vō mēö´ ke dö tü lō rȧ´), one “take it” is worth two “you shall have it”; a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

V

valen´cia rice.—Rice boiled till the grains are soft and then mixed with oil and tomatoes.

valet de chambre (vȧ le d shäN br´), an attendant.

vaurien (vō rēâN´), a worthless fellow.

veau (vō).—Veal.

vedi Napoli e poi muori (It.), (vā dē nä´pō lē ā pôē mwô´rē), see Naples and then die.

vérité sans peur (vā rē tā´ säN pör´), truth without fear.

vers de société (ver de sô sē ā tā´), society verses; poetry dealing lightly with trifling subjects.

verve (verv), animation; spirit.

Viele Hände machen bald ein End (Ger.), (fē le hent´-mäken bält īn ent´), many hands make quick work.

vieux garçon (vē ö gȧr sôN´), old bachelor.

vigueur de dessus (vē gör´ de de sü´), strength from on high.

vin (vaN).—Wine.

vinaigre (vē-nā´gr´).—Vinegar. Vinaigre a l’estragon (ä lās trä-gôN´) is vinegar flavored with tarragon.

vinaigrette of (vē-nā-gret´).—A sauce made sour by acid wine or vinegar.

vino dentro, senno furore (It.) (vē´nō den´trō, sān´no fōō rō´rā), when the wine is in, the wit is out.

vin ordinaire (vaN ôr-dē-nâr´).—Ordinary table wine; claret.

virtuoso (It.), (vēr twō´ sō), one skilled in matters of taste or art.

vis à vis (vē zȧ vē), face to face.

vivat (vē vȧt´), a shout of “long live.”

vive la bagatelle (vēv lȧ bȧ gȧ tel´), success to trifles.

vive la république (vēv lȧ rā pü plēk´), long live the republic.

vive l’empereur (vēv läN prör´), long live the emperor.

vive le roi (vēv le rwä´), long live the king.

voilà (vwȧ lȧ´), see there; there is, there are.

voilà tout (vwȧ lȧ tōō´), that is all.

voilà une autre chose (vwȧ lȧ ü nō tre shōz´), that is quite another thing.

voiture (vwȧ tür´), a carriage.

volaille (vō-lā´y).—Poultry.

vol-au-vent (vō-lō-väN´). A light puff-paste case baked and then filled with a ragoût, fricassée, or the like.

W

wagon-lits (vȧ gô lē), sleeping cars.

Was fehlt Ihnen? (Ger.), (väs fālt´ ē nen), what is the matter with you?

Wie die Arbeit, so der Lohn (Ger.), (vē dē är´bīt, zō der lōn´), as the labor, so the reward.

Welsh rare bit, or rab´bit.—A dish consisting essentially of toasted bread on which is served toasted or melted cheese. The cheese is variously prepared, as with the admixture of ale, or other flavoring material.

white sauce.—Same as velouté, or similar sauce.

wiener schnitzel (vē´ner shnits´el).—A cut of veal from the leg, fried in batter, and seasoned with paprika, etc., after a style attributed to the Viennese.

Z

Zeitgeist (Ger.), (tsīt´gīst), the spirit of the age.

Pronouncing Dictionary of Classic Words and Phrases

Including legal phrases, maxims, mottoes, quotations, proverbs, Latin abbreviations, classic allusions and references of common occurrence in books, periodicals, newspapers and speech.

Key to Pronunciation

The long (marked) vowels are pronounced as in the following words: fāte, fāre, cāre; mē; mīne; mōte; mūte. The short vowels, which include all not marked as above, are pronounced as in the following words: pat; pet; pit; pot; put. The accented syllable in each word is indicated by a mark placed immediately after it.

A

Ab extra (ex´trā).—From without.

Ab initio (in-ish´i-ō).—From the beginning.

Ab origine (or-ī´jin-e).—From the commencement.

Ab ovo (ō´vō).—From the egg—i. e., the beginning. The egg in many ancient mythologies was the supposed origin of life.

Ab ovo usque ad mala (us´kwe ad mā´la).—From the egg to the apples—i. e., from the beginning to the end (the Roman custom being to begin dinner with eggs and end with fruit).

Ab uno disce omnes (ū´nō dis´se om´nēs).—From a single instance infer the whole.

Ab urbe condita—A. U. C. (ur´be kon´di-tā).—From the (year of) building the city (Rome), 753 B. C.

A capite ad calcem (ā kap´i-te ad kal´sem).—From head to heel.

Accipe hoc (ak´sip-e hock).—Accept this.

Ac etiam (ak esh´i-am).—And also.

Ad arbitrium (ar-bit´ri-um).—At pleasure.

Ad captandum vulgus (cap-tan´dum vul´gus).—To catch the rabble.

Ad extremum (ex-tre´mum).—At last.

Ad finem (fī´nem).—To the end.

Ad hominem (hom´in-em).—To the man.

Ad infinitum (in-fī-nī´tum).—To infinity.

Ad interim (in´ter-im).—Meanwhile.

Ad Kalendas Graecas (kal´en-das grē´kas).—At the Greek kalends—i. e., never (there being no kalends in the Greek year).

Ad libitum (lib´it-um).—At pleasure.

Ad majorem Dei gloriam (mā-jor´em Dē´ī glor´i-am).—For the greater glory of God. The motto of the Order of the Jesuits, founded by Ignatius Loyola (1539).

Ad nauseam (naw´se-am).—To disgust.

Ad quod damnum (kwod dam´num).—To what damage.

Ad referendum (ref-er-en´dum).—For further consideration.

Ad rem.—To the point.

Ad unguem (un´gwem).—To a nail—i.e., to a nicety, exactly. An expression borrowed from sculptors, who in modeling, give the finishing touch with the nail.

Ad unum omnes—Cicero (ū-num om´nēs).—All to a man.

Ad valorem (va-lor´em).—According to the value.

Ad vivum (vi´vum).—To the life.

Aegrescit medendo (e-gres´sit med-en´dō).—The disorder increases with the remedy, i. e., the remedy is worse than the disease.

Aequam servare mentem (ē-kwam ser-vār´e men´tem).—To preserve a well-balanced mind; to be unmoved.

Aequo animo (ē´kwo an´im-o).—With resignation, contentedly.

Aetatis suae (ē-tā´tis sū´ē).—Of his (or her) age.

A fortiori (for-shi-or´ī).—With stronger reason.

Alere flammam (al´er-e flam´mam).—To feed the flame.

Alias (al´i-as).—Otherwise.

Alibi (al´i-bī).—Elsewhere. Legal phrase implying that the accused in a criminal case was not on the scene of a crime at the time of its committal.

Alma Mater (al´ma mā´ter).—Benign mother. An expression used by college men, who speak of their college as their Alma mater.

Alter ego (al´ter egg´o).—Another self.

Alter idem (al´ter ī-dem).—Another exactly similar.

Amantium irae amoris integratio est—(am-an´shi-um ī´rē a-mor´iss inte-grā-shi-o est).—The quarrels of lovers are renewals of love.

A mensa et thoro (ā men´sā et thor´ō).—From table and bed. A legal phrase used by the judge in pronouncing the decree of separation in the Divorce Court.

Amicus humani generis (am-ī-cus hu-mā´nī gen´er-iss).—A friend of the human race.

Amor patriæ (am´or pat´ri-ē).—Love of one’s native land.

Anguis in herba—Virgil (an´gwiss in her´bā).—A snake in the grass.

Animo et fide (an´im-o et fī´dē).—By courage and faith.

Anno aetatis suae (an´no ē-tā´tiss sū´ē).—In the year of his (or her) age.

Anno Christi, A. C. (an´no kriss´tī).—In the year of Christ.

Anno Domini, A. D. (an´no Dom´inī).—In the year of our lord.

Anno mundi, A. M. (an´no mun´dī).—In the year of the world. The date of the Creation is given by Bishop Usher as 4004 B. C.

Ante meridiem, A. M. (an´te mer-ī´di-em).—Before noon.

A posse ad esse (ā poss´e ad ess´e).—From possibility to actuality.

A posteriori (ā pos-tē-ri-or´ī).—From the effect to the cause; that is, an argument by induction.

A priori (ā prī-or´ī).—From the cause to the effect; that is, an argument by deduction.

Aqua fortis (ak´wa for´tiss).—Strong water. A common name for nitric acid.

Aqua vitae (ak´wa vī´tē).—Water of life. Alcohol, brandy.

Arbiter elegantiarum (ar´bit-er ele-gan-shi-air´um).—An authority in matters of taste.

Arcana imperii (ar-kā´na im-per´ī-ī).—Secrets of the state.

Ardentia verba (ar-den´shi-a ver´ba).—Burning words.

Argumentum ad hominem (ar-gu-men´tum ad hom´-i-nem).—An argument to the man. An argument in refutation drawn from an opponent’s own principles.

Argumentum ad invidiam (ar-gu-men´tum ad in-vid´-i-am).—An argument appealing to low passions.

Argumentum ad judicium (ar-gu-men´tum ad ju-dish´i-um).—An appeal to the judgment.

Argumentum ad populum (ar-gu-men´tum ad pop´-u-lum).—An appeal to popular prejudice.

Argumentum baculinum (ar-gu-men´tum back-u-li-num).—The argument of the cudgel; appeal to force. Club-law.

Ars celare artem (ars sell-air´e ar´tem).—True art is to conceal art.

Ars longa, vita brevis (ars lon´ga vī´ta brev´iss).—Art is long, life short.

Artium magister, A. M. or M. A. (ar´ti-um ma-jis´ter).—Master of Arts.

Audi alteram partem (aw´dī al´ter-am par´tem).—Hear the other side.

Aura popularis—Cicero (aw´ra pop-u-lair´iss).—The shifting breeze of popular favor.

Aurea mediocritas—Horace (aw´re-a med-i-ok´ri-tass).—The golden mean.

Aut Cæsar, aut nullus (awt Cæsar awt nul´lus).—Either Cæsar or no one.

Aut vincere aut mori (awt vin´ser-e awt mor´ī).—Either to conquer or to die.

A verbis ad verbera (ā ver´bīs ad ver´ber-a).—From words to blows.

A vinculo matrimonii (ā vin´ku-lo mat-ri-mō´nī-ī).—From the bond of marriage.

B

Bis dat, qui cito dat (biss dat kwī sī´tō dat).—He gives twice who gives quickly.

Bona fide (bō´nā fī´dē).—In good faith.

Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio—Horace (brev´iss ess´e lab-or´ō ob-sku´rus fīo).—When I strive to be concise I become obscure.

Brutum fulmen (Bru´tum ful´men).—A harmless thunderbolt.

C

Cacoethes loquendi (kak-o-ē´thēs lo-kwen´dī).—An itch for speaking.

Cacoethes scribendi (skrī-ben´dī).—An itch for scribbling.

Capias (kap´i-ass).—You may take. A writ to authorize the seizure of a defendant’s person (legal).

Caput mortuum (kap´ut mor´tu-um),—The dead head—i.e., the worthless remains.

Caret (care´et).—It is wanting.

Casus belli (kā´sus bell´ī).—A cause for war.

Caveat actor (kav´e-at ak´tor).—Let the doer beware. Law term signifying a notice to stay legal proceedings.

Caveat emptor (emp´tor).—Let the purchaser beware. Term used to show that the vendor does not hold himself responsible for the condition of the goods.

Cetera desunt (sē´ter-a dē-sunt).—The rest is wanting.

Ceteris paribus (sē´ter-is pair´i-bus).—Other things being equal.

Circa—c. (sir´kā).—About, towards (of time).

Circulus in probando (sir´ku-lus in pro-ban´dō).—A circle in the proof; using the conclusion as one of the arguments.

Cogito ergo sum (coj´i-tō er´gõ sum).—I think, therefore I exist. The famous dictum of Descartes, the philosopher.

Commune bonum (com-mū´ne bō´num).—A common good.

Compos mentis (com´pos men´tiss).—Of sane mind.

Conscia mens recti (con´shi-a mens rek´tī).—A mind conscious of rectitude.

Contra bonos mores (con´tra bō´nōs mor´ēz).—Against good manners.

Copia verborum (cō´pi-a ver-bor´um).—Plenty of words.

Coram nobis (cor´am nō´biss).—In our presence; before us.

Corpus delicti (cor´pus de-lik´tī).—The body, i. e. substance, of the offense.

Crimine ab uno disce omnes (krī´min-e ab ū´nō dis´se om´nēz).—From one crime learn the nature of all.

Cui bono? (kī bō´nō).—For whose benefit is it?

Cum grano salis (cum grā´nō sā´lis).—With a grain of salt, i. e., with some allowance.

Cum privilegio (priv-i-le´ji-ō).—By privilege.

Curiosa felicitas (ku-ri-ō´sa fē-lī´si-tas).—Felicity of expression.

D

Data (dā´ta).—Things given or taken for granted.

De auditu (dē aw-dī´tū).—By hearsay.

Deceptio visus (dē-sep´shi-ō vī´sūs).—An optical illusion.

De facto (dē fac´tō).—In point of fact. A legal phrase used to describe that which is fact as opposed to that which is legal.

Dei gratia (Dē´ī grā´shi-ā).—By the grace of God. A phrase used in respect to a sovereign, in royal proclamations, and on coins of the realm.

Disjecta membra (dis-jek´ta mem´bra).—Scattered remains.

Divide et impera (dī´vi-dē et im´per-ā).—Divide and govern.

Docendo discimus (dō-sen´dō dis´si-mus).—By teaching we learn.

Dominus providebit (Dom´īn-us prō-vid-ē´bit).—The Lord will provide.

Dramatis personæ (drä´ma-tiss per-sō´nē).—Characters of a play.

Dulce domum (dul´sē dō´mum).—Sweetly homeward.

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori—Horace (dul´-se et de-kor´um est pro pat´ri-ā mōr´ī).—It is pleasant and befitting to die for one’s country.

Dum spiro, spero (dum spi´ro, sper´ō).—While I breathe, I hope.

Dum vivimus, vivamus (vī´vim-us, vī-vā´mus).—While we live, let us live—i. e., whilst we have life, let us enjoy it.

Durante vita (du-ran´te vī´tā).—During life.

E

Ecce homo! (ek´se hom´o).—Behold the man! A name given to representations of the suffering Savior, because Pilate used those words when Christ came forth wearing the crown of thorns and purple robe (St. John xix. 5).

Editio princeps (e-dish´io prin´seps).—Original edition.

Emeritus (ē-mer´itus).—A soldier who has served his time, a veteran: hence, one retired from active official duties, as an Emeritus professor.

E pluribus unum (ē plūr´i-bus ūnum).—From many, one. Motto of United States.

Esse quam videri malim (es´se kwam vī-dē´rī mā-lim).—I prefer to be, rather than seem to be.

Esto quod es (es-tō quod ēz).—Be what thou art.

Et cetera (et sē´ter-a), &c., or etc. And so forth.

E tenebris oritur lux (ē ten´e-brīs or´i-tur lux).—Out of darkness there arises light.

Et sequentes (et se-kwen´tēs).—And those that follow.

Et sequentia (se-kwen´shia)—et seq.—And what follows.

Et sic de ceteris (et sik dē sē´terīs).—And so of the rest.

Et tu, Brute (tū Brū´te).—And thou also, Brutus! The words were used by Cæsar when he discovered Brutus among the conspirators who assassinated him in the senate-house, B. C. 44.

Ex æquo (ē´kwo).—In like manner, equally.

Ex animo (an´imo).—From the soul, heartily.

Ex cathedra (kath´e-drā).—From the chair—i. e., with authority. The phrase originally referred to the decisions given by popes and prelates in their pontifical character; it is now used in reference to any decision given with the air of authority.

Exceptio probat regulum (ex-sep´shio prō-bat reg´u-lum).—The exception proves the rule.

Ex curia (kū´riā).—Out of court. Originally every full Roman citizen belonged to one of the thirty curiæ or divisions of the city, and was entitled to vote on the laws submitted to his curia. The phrase ex curia was applied to those who had no right to vote in the curia. It is now used to denote a person who has no locus standi before any tribunal.

Ex delicto (dē-lik´tō).—From the crime.

Exempli gratia—e. g. (ex-em´plī grā´shia).—By way of example.

Exeunt (eks´e-unt).—They go out. Used by the older playwrights to indicate the departure of some of the performers from the stage.

Exit (eks´it).—He (or she) goes out.

Exitus acta probat (ex´it-us ak´ta prō´bat).—The event justifies the deed. Motto of George Washington.

Ex nihilo nihil fit (ex nī´hillo ni´hill fit).—Out of nothing nothing comes.

Ex officio (of-fish´iō).—By virtue of his office: e. g., the president of a society is ex officio a member of all committees of the society.

Ex parte (par´te).—On one side only. A phrase indicating an application, concerning a pending action, to a judge by one party in the action in the absence of the other.

Experientia docet sapientiam (ex-pe-ri-en´shia dō´set sap-i-en´shi-am).—Experience teaches wisdom.

F

Faber est quisque fortunæ suæ—Sallust (fab´er est kwis´kwe for-tū´nē sū´ē).—Every man is the maker of his own fortune.

Facile princeps (fas´il-e prin´seps).—Easily the chief—i. e., the admitted chief.

Facilis descensus Averno—Virgil (fas´il-iss dē-sen´sus av-er´nō).—The descent to Avernus (or hell) is easy: the downward road is an easy one. Avernus was a lake of Campania, near which was the cave through which Æneas descended to the lower world.

Fac simile (fak sim´il-e).—Do the like. An exact copy.

Factotum (fak-tō´tum).—Do everything. A man of all work.

Fecit (fē´sit).—He did it. Generally affixed to the pedestal of a statue by the sculptor who executed it.

Felicitas habet multos amicos (fē´lī´si-tas hab´et mul´tōs am-ī´kōs).—Happiness has many friends: i. e., friends flock around those who are prosperous.

Feræ naturæ (fer´ē na-tū´rē).—Of the nature of a wild beast.

Festina lente (fes-tī´nā len´tē).—Hasten slowly: i. e., do nothing in a hurry.

Fiat justitia, ruat cœlum (fī´at jus-tish´i-a rū´at sē´lum).—Let justice be done, even though the heavens should fall.

Fiat lux (fi´at lux).—Let there be light.

Fides Punica (fī´dēs Pū´nik-a).—Punic (i. e. Carthaginian) faith: treachery. A proverbial expression among the Romans for faithlessness.

Fidus Achates (fī´dus Akā´tēz).—The faithful Achates: a true friend. Achates was the distinguished companion of Æneas in his wanderings after his flight from Troy.

Fieri facias (fī´erī fas´i-ass).—Cause it to be done. Usually written fi. fa. The title of a writ of execution issued to give effect to the judgment of a court of justice.

Finem respice (fī´nem res´piss-e).—Look to the end.

Finis coronat opus (fī´nis korō´nat op´us).—The end crowns the work.

Flagrante delicto (de-lik´tō).—In the act of committing the crime: i. e., in the very act.

Fortes fortuna juvat (fōr´tēs fortū´na ju´vat).—Fortune helps the brave.

Fortis cadere, cedere non potest (for´tiss kad´er-e sē´der-e non pot´est).—The brave may fall, but cannot yield.

Fortiter et recte (for´tit-er et rek´tē).—Courageously and uprightly.

Fortitudine et prudentia (forti-tu´din-e et prūden´shi-ā).—By fortitude and prudence.

Fortuna favet fatuis (fortu´na fav´et fat´uīs).—Fortune favors idiots.

Fortunæ filius (for-tu´nē fil´ius).—A son of fortune—i.e., one favored by fortune.

Fortuna sequator (sekwā´tur).—Let fortune follow.

Frangas non flectes (fran´gas non flek´tēs).—You may break, but you shall not bend, me.

Fronti nulla fides (fron´tī null´a fī´dēs).—Do not judge by appearances.

Frustra laborat qui omnibus placere studet (frus´trā labōr´at kwī om´nibus pla-sē´re stū´det).—He labors in vain who studies to please all.

Fugit irreparabile tempus—Virgil (fū´jit ir-rep-ar-ā´-bil-e tem´pus).—Time, once gone, can never be regained.

Furor arma ministrat—Virgil (fū´ror ar´ma min´is-trat).—Rage supplies them with arms.

Furor loquendi (fu´ror lo-kwen´dī).—A rage for speaking.

Furor poeticus (po-ēt´ik-us).—Poetical fire.

Furor scribendi (skrī-ben´dī).—A rage for writing.

G

Gaudeamus (gawdeā´mus).—Let us rejoice.

Gloria in excelsis Deo (glor´i-a in ex-sel´sis dē´ō).—Glory to God in the highest. The opening words of the greater doxology sung in the ancient Church; chiefly used in the Communion service and private devotion.

Gratis (grā´tiss).—Free; for nothing.

Gutta cavat lapidem non vi, sed semper cadendo (gut´ta kav´at lap´id-em non vī sed sem´per ka-den´dō).—The drop hollows the stone not by force, but by constant falling.

H

Haud passibus æquis—Virgil (hawd pass´i-bus ē´kwīs).—With unequal steps.

Hic et ubique (hik et ubī´kwe).—Here and everywhere. (“Here, there, and everywhere.”)

Hic jacet (hik ja´set).—Here lies. An inscription frequently carved on monuments dedicated to deceased persons.

Hoc age (hok aj´e).—Do this.

Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto—Terence (hom´o sum humā´nī nī´hil ā mē ali-ē´num pū´to).—I am a man: I count nothing human indifferent to me.

Honesta mors turpi vita potior—Tacitus (hones´ta maws tur´pī vī´tā pō´shior).—An honorable death is preferable to a base life.

Honor virtutis præmium (hon´or virtu´tiss prē´mium).—Honor is the reward of virtue (or valor).

Humani generis decus (humā´nī jen´er-iss dek´us).—The glory of the human race. These words are inscribed on Sir Isaac Newton’s monument on the rood-screen in Westminster Abbey.

Humanum est errare (humā´num est errā´re).—It is human to err. “To err is human, to forgive, divine.”—Pope.

I

Ibidem (ibī´dem).—In the same place.

Idem (ī´dem).—The same.

Id est (i. e.).—That is, that is to say.

Ignis fatuus (ig´niss fat´u-us).—A deceiving fire: a Will-o’-the-wisp; an inflammable gas frequently seen over marshes, which leads the traveler who pursues it into the bog.

Ignorantia legis excusat neminem (ignoran´shia lē´jis excū´sat nem´inem).—Ignorance of the law excuses nobody.

Imo pectore (ī´mo pek´tor-e).—From the bottom of the heart.

Impedimenta (im-pedi-men´ta).—The baggage of an army; luggage in traveling.

Imperium in imperio (imper´ium in imper´io).—One government within another.

Imprimatur (imprimā´tur).—Let it be printed. The term is used to signify the permission to print a book.

Imprimis (im-prī´miss).—In the first place, chiefly, especially.

In æternum (in ēter´num).—Forever.

In articulo mortis (ar-tik´ulo mor´tis).—At the point of death.

In capite (kap´i-te).—In chief.

In cauda venenum (kaw´dā venē´num).—There is poison in the tail. The sting of the scorpion is at the tip of its tail.

In cœlo quies (se´lo kwī´ēs).—There is rest in heaven.

In commendam (commen´dam).—In recommendation.

In curia (kū´ri-ā).—In the court.

Index expurgatorius (in´dex expurgator´ius).—A list of prohibited books. The term employed for the list of books which are allowed to be read after revision by the papal authorities. The I. E. was commenced by Pope Paul IV. (1555), and published by Pope Pius IV. (1559), after organization by the Council of Trent (1545-1563). Press censorship exists in Russia and some other nations.

In esse (ess´e).—In being.

In extenso (exten´so).—At full length.

In extremis (extrē´miss).—At the point of death.

In flagrante delicto (flā-gran´te delik´ō).—In the very act.

In formâ pauperis (for´mā paw´per-iss).—As a poor man. A law term denoting the status of a person who, having just cause of action, has no money to pay costs, counsel under these circumstances being appointed by the court.

In foro conscientiæ (for´ō con-shi-en´shi-ē).—Before the tribunal of conscience.

Infra dignitatem (in´frā dignitā´tem).—Beneath one’s dignity.

In hoc signo vinces (in hoc sig´nō vin´sēs).—Under this standard (sign) thou shalt conquer. Motto of the Emperor Constantine, who first used it on his standard (labarum) in the battle against Maxentius, A. D. 312.

In limine (lī-min-e)—At the threshold.

In loco parentis (lō´kō paren´tiss).—In the place of a parent. A law term denoting the guardian who takes charge of a child in the event of the death or mental incapacity of its parents.

In medias res (med´i-ass rēs).—Into the midst of things, e. g., to come to the point at once.

In medio virtus (med´i-o vir´tus).—Virtue lies in the mean.

In memoriam (memor´i-am).—To the memory of.

In nomine (nom´i-ne).—In the name of.

In nubibus (nū´bi-bus).—In the clouds.

In nuce (nū´se).—In a nutshell.

In pace (pā´se).—In peace.

In perpetuum (per-pet´u-um).—Forever.

In posse (poss´e).—Possible.

In præsenti (prē-sen´tī).—At present, now.

In propria persona (prō´pri-ā persō´nā).—In person. A law term applied to a litigant who conducts his own case.

In puris naturalibus (pūr´īs naturā´li-bus).—Stark naked.

In re (rē).—In the matter of (legal).

In rerum natura (rēr´um natū´rā).—In the nature of things.

In situ (sī´tū).—In its original situation.

In statu pupillari (stā´tū pupillār´ī).—In the state of being a ward (legal).

In statu quo (kwō).—In the state in which it was, we were, etc. (legal).

In tenebris (ten´e-brīs).—In darkness.

Inter alia (in´ter al´i-a).—Among other things (legal).

Inter nos (nōs).—Between ourselves.

Inter pocula (pō´ku-la).—At one’s cups.

Inter se (in´ter sē).—Among themselves.

In toto (tō´tō).—In the whole; entirely.

Intra muros (in´trā mū´rōs).—Within the walls.

In transitu (trans´i-tū).—On the passage.

In vacuo (vak´u-ō).—In a space devoid of air.

In vino veritas (vī´no ver´i-tas).—There is truth in wine—i. e., the truth comes out under its influence.

Ipse dixit (ip´se dix´it).—He himself said it: dogmatic assertion.

Ipsissima verba (ipsīss´i-ma ver´ba).—The very words.

Ipso facto (ip´so fak´to).—In the fact itself.

Ipso jure (ip´so ju´re).—By the law itself.

Ira furor brevis est—Horace (ī´ra fū´ror brev´iss est).—Anger is a short madness.

Ita lex scripta est (it´a lex scrip´ta est).—Thus the law is written.

J

Jacta alea est (jak´ta ā´le-a).—The die has been cast. Famous phrase said to have been used by Julius Cæsar on crossing (49 B. C.) the Rubicon, the sacred boundary of the domestic Roman Empire, by which act he declared war against Pompey and the Senate.

Jure divino (jū´re dīvī´no).—By divine law.

Jure humano (humā´no).—By human law.

Jus civile (jus sīvī´le).—The civil law. The term commonly used to describe the Roman law and the various modern systems based upon it, as contrasted with the English common law.

Jus divinum (dīvī´num).—The divine law; the law which is right with respect to things divine.

Jus gentium (jen´shium).—The law of nations; the law that all nations esteemed to be equitable.

L

Laborare est orare (laborār´e est orār´e).—To labor is to pray (or Work is worship).

Labore et honore (labōr´e et honōr´e).—By industry and honor.

Labor ipse voluptas (lab´or ip´se vo-lup´tas).—Labor itself a pleasure.

Labor omnia vincit (lab´or om´ni-a vin´sit).—Labor conquers all things.

Lapsus calami (lap´sus cal´a-mi).—A slip of the pen.

Lapsus linguæ (lin´gwē).—A slip of the tongue.

Lapsus memoriæ (mem-ōr´i-ē).—A slip of the memory.

Lares et Penates (Lār-ēs et Penā´tēs).—Household gods.

Latet anguis in herba—Virgil (la´tet an´gwis in her´bā).—A snake is concealed in the grass.

Laus Deo (laws Dē´o).—Praise to God.

Lex non scripta (skrip´ta).—The unwritten law—i. e., the common law.

Lex scripta.—The written law—i. e., the statute law.

Lex talionis (tal-i-ō´niss).—The law of retaliation.

Lex terræ (ter´rē).—The law of the land.

Loco citato—loc. cit. (lok´ō sit-ā´tō).—In the place quoted.

Locus in quo (kwō).—The place in which (legal).

Locus sigilli (si-jill´ī).—The place of the seal.

Lusus naturæ (lū´sus natū´rē).—A freak of nature.

M

Magna est veritas, et prævalebit (mag´na est very´tass et prē-val-ē´bit).—Great is truth, and it will prevail.

Magni nominis umbra (mag´nī nom´i-niss um´bra).—The shadow of a great name.

Magnum bonum (mag´num bō´num).—A great good.

Magnum opus (op´us).—A great work. The chief work of a distinguished author is frequently so called.

Mala fide (mā´lā fī´dē).—In bad faith.

Mandamus (mandā´mus).—We command: a law writ.

Manibus pedibusque—Terence (man´i-bus pedi-bus´kwe).—With hands and feet—i. e., with might and main.

Materia medica (mā-ter´i-a med´ic-ca).—Substances used in medicine.

Mea culpa (mē´ā kul´pā).—By my fault.

Medio tutissimus ibis (med´i-o tū-tiss´imus ī´bis).—The middle is the safest course.

Me judice (jū´di-se).—I being judge; i. e., in my own opinion.

Memento mori (me-men´tō mor´ī).—Remember that you must die. Words used at Egyptian banquets to remind the guests of their mortality.

Memorabilia (memorabil´i-a).—Things to be remembered. The name of a work by Xenophon, the Athenian general, historian, and philosopher (c. 445-359 B. C.).

Mensa et thoro (men´sā et thor´ō).—From bed and board.

Mens conscia recti (mens con´shia rek´tī).—A mind conscious of rectitude.

Mens sana in corpore sano (mens sā´na in kor´por-e sā´no).—A sound mind in a healthy body.

Meo animo (mē´o an´im-o).—In my opinion.

Meo periculo (per-ī´kulo).—At my own risk.

Meum et tuum (mē´um et tū´um).—Mine and thine.

Mirabile dictu—Virgil (mī-rā´bil-e dik´tū).—Wonderful to tell.

Mirabile visu (vī´su).—Wonderful to see.

Mirabilia (mī-ra-bil´i-a).—Wonderful things.

Mittimus (mit´i-mus).—We send. A writ by which a culprit is committed to jail. A legal phrase for the writ transferring records from one court to another.

Modo et forma (mod´o et for´mā).—In manner and form.

Modus operandi (mod´us operan´dī).—The manner of operation.

More suo (su´o).—In his own way.

Mors janua vitæ (maws jan´u-a vī´tē).—Death the gate of life.

Mors omnibus communis (om´nibus kommū´nis).—Death is common to all of us.

Mors ultima linea rerum est—Horace (ul´tim-a lī´ne-a rēr´um est).—Death is the boundary line of all things.

Mos pro lege (mōs pro lē´je).—Custom for law (a law phrase).

Motu proprio (mō´tū prō´priō).—Of his own accord.

Multum in parvo (mul-tum in par´vō).—Much in little.

Mutatis mutandis (mu-tā´tis mu-tan´dis).—Things being changed which ought to be changed; i. e., with necessary changes.

N

Necessitas non habet legem (necess´it-ass non hab´et lē´jem).—Necessity has no law.

Ne fronti crede (nē front´tī krē´de).—Trust not to appearances.

Nem. con.—abbreviation for nemine contradicente (nem´in-e contra-dī-sent´e).—No one speaking in opposition: without opposition.

Nem. dis.—abbreviation for nemine dissentiente (dis-sen-shi-en´te).—No one dissenting: without a dissenting voice.

Ne plus ultra (nē plus ul´trā).—No more beyond: i. e., perfection.

Ne quid nimis—Terence (nē kwid nim´iss).—Not too much of anything; i. e., shun extremes.

Nescit vox missa reverti—Horace (nes´sit vox miss´a rever´tī).—The spoken word cannot be recalled.

Ne sutor ultra crepidam—Pliny (sū´tor ul´tra crep´i-dam).—Let the cobbler stick to his last; i. e., let everyone attend to his own business.

Nihil ad rem (ni´hil ad rem).—Nothing to the point.

Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit (kwod tet´i-git non ornā´vit).—He touched nothing which he did not adorn. These Latin words form part of Dr. Johnson’s epitaph on Oliver Goldsmith in Westminster Abbey.

Nil conscire sibi—Horace (con-sī´re sib´ī).—To be conscious of no wrong.

Nil desperandum.—Never despair.

Nisi Dominus frustra (ni´si dom´in-us frus´trā).—Unless the Lord be with us, we strive in vain. Motto of the City of Edinburgh.

Nisi prius (ni´si prī´us)—literally, Unless previously. A trial at Nisi Prius may be defined as a trial, before a judge and jury, of a civil action that has been brought in one of the superior courts.

Nolens volens (nō´lens vō´lens).—Whether he will or not.

Noli me tangere (nō´lī me tan´jer-e).—Don’t touch me.

Nolle prosequi (noll´e prō´sek-wī).—To be unwilling to proceed (legal term). An undertaking by a plaintiff that he will not proceed with part or the whole of his suit.

Non compos mentis (kom´poss men´tiss).—Not sound in mind.

Non constat (kon´stat).—It does not appear.

Non est inventus (inven´tus).—He has not been found.

Non licet (liss´et).—It is not lawful.

Non multa, sed multum (mul´ta sed mul´tum).—Not many things, but much.

Non obstante (ob-stan´te).—Notwithstanding.

Non omnia possumus omnes—Virgil (om´ni-a poss´u-mus om´nēs).—We cannot, all of us, do all things.

Non quo sed quomodo (kwō sed kwō´mod-ō).—Not by whom, but in what manner.

Non sequitur (sek´wit-ur).—It does not follow.

Non sibi, sed patriæ (sib´i sed pat´ri-ē).—Not for himself, but for his country.

Nosce teipsum (nos´se tē-ip´sum).—Know thyself. The Latin form of the Greek inscription over the portico of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.

Noscitur ex sociis (noss´i-tur ex sō´si-īs).—He is known by his companions.

Nota bene (N. B.) (nō´tā bē´nē).—Mark well.

Novus homo (nov´us hom´o).—A new man—one who has raised himself from obscurity. Term applied to men who in the days of the Roman Republic and Empire rose to distinction but did not belong to an ancient gens.

Nulli secundus (null´ī se-kun´dus).—Second to none.

Nunc aut nunquam (nunk awt nun´kwam).—Now or never.

O

Obiit (ob´i-it).—He (or she) died. An inscription on tombs, indicating the fact of the death of the person interred.

Obiter dictum (ob´it-er dik´tum).—A thing said by the way, incidentally; plural, obiter dicta.

Odium theologicum (ō´di-um theo-loj´i-kum).—Hatred among divines. Theological controversy usually provoking great bitterness on the part of the disputants.

Omnia ad Dei gloriam (om´ni-a ad Dē´ī glor´i-am).—All things to the glory of God.

Omnia bona bonis (om´ni-a bō´na bō´nīs).—To the good all things are good.

Onus probandi (ō´nus pro-ban´dī).—The burden of proving (legal).

Optimates (op-ti-mā´tēs).—Aristocrats. Literally, the best. In ancient times the aristocracy was composed of men selected for their superior vigor as the best in the tribe.

Opum furiosa cupido—Ovid (op´um furi-ō´sa ku-pī´dō).—The ungovernable greed for wealth.

Ora et labora (ōr´ā et lab-ōr´ā).—Pray and work.

Ora pro nobis (ōr´ā pro nō´bis).—Pray for us. The words of the refrain of the well-known hymn in the Roman Catholic mass.

Ore rotundo (ōr´ē rō-tun´dō).—With round, full voice.

O tempora! O mores!—Horace (tem´por-a mor´ēz).—O the times! O the manners!

Otium cum dignitate (ō´shi-um kum dig-ni-tā´te).—Ease with dignity.

Otium sine dignitate (sin´e).—Ease without dignity.

P

Pace tua (pā´se tū´ā).—With your permission.

Pacta conventa (pak´ta con-ben´ta).—Terms agreed on.

Pari passu (par´i pass´u).—With equal pace; in equal proportion.

Pariter pax bello—Cornelius Nepos (par´it-er pax bell´o).—Peace is produced by war: i. e. by a show of hostile preparations war is often averted.

Particeps criminis (par´ti-seps krī´min-iss).—A sharer in the guilt: an accomplice (legal).

Passim (pas´sim).—Everywhere.

Pater noster (pat´er nos´ter).—Our father. The two first words at the commencement of the Lord’s Prayer.

Pater patriæ (pat´er pat´ri-ē).—The father of his country. The name given to Cicero by the Roman Senate. The term was also applied to some other distinguished Romans. In later times Andrea Dorea and George Washington were thus distinguished.

Patres conscripti (pat´rēz kon-skrip´tī), i. e. patres et conscripti.—Fathers and elect—the title of the assembled Senate.

Patria cara, carior libertas (pat´ri-a cār´a cār´i-or lib´er-tas).—My country is dear, but liberty is dearer.

Pax in bello (bell´o).—Peace in war—i. e., a weak prosecution of hostilities.

Pax vobiscum (vo-bis´kum).—Peace be with you.

Peccavi (pek-kā´vī).—I have sinned.

Pendente lite (pen-den´te lī´te).—While the lawsuit is pending (legal).

Peraget angusta ad augusta (per-ag´et an-gus´ta ad aw-gus´ta).—Through difficulties to grandeur.

Per annum.—By the year.

Per centum.—By the hundred.

Per contra.—Contrariwise.

Per diem (dī´em).—By the day.

Per fas et nefas (fass et nef´ass).—Through right and wrong.

Per mare, per terras (mar´e ter´ras).—By sea and by land: i. e., everywhere.

Permitte Divis cetera (per-mitt´e dī´vīs sē´ter-a).—Leave the rest to the gods.

Per saltum (salt´um).—By a leap. A legal phrase frequently used.

Per se.—By itself (legal).

Perseverando (per-sev-er-an´dō).—By perseverance.

Petitio principii (pet-ī´shi-o prin-sip´i-i).—A begging of the question.

Pinxit (pinks´it).—He painted it; word placed in the corner of a canvas after the signature of the artist.

Plebs (pleb´s).—Common people. The name given to the third and lowest rank of the orders into which the Roman state was divided.

Pleno jure (plē´no jū´re).—With full authority.

Pluries (plū´ri ēz).—Often, frequently.

Poeta nascitur, non fit—Horace (po-ē´ta nass´it-ur non fit).—A poet is born, not made.

Pons asinorum (ass´in-or´um).—The bridge of asses (applied to Euclid i. 5).

Posse comitatus (poss´e com-i-tā´tūs).—The power of the county. A legal phrase expressing the power of the county or citizens, who are summoned to assist an officer, as the sheriff, in suppressing a riot or executing any legal process.

Post bellum auxilium (pōst bell´um awx-il´i-um).—Help after the war.

Postea (post´e-ā).—Afterwards.

Post factum nullum consilium (fak´tum null´um con-sil´i-um).—After the deed is done there is no need for consultation.

Post meridiem—P. M. (mer-ī´di-em).—After mid-day.

Post mortem.—After death. Term applied to the examination of a body to discover the cause of death.

Post nubila Phœbus (nū´bil-a fē´bus).—After clouds the sun shines. Phœbus Apollo, “the radiant Apollo,” a god who personified the sun.

Post obitum (ob´it-um).—After death. An undertaking given to a usurer to repay a loan on the death of a relative, from whom money is expected, is called a post obit.

Post tenebras lux (ten´e-bras).—After darkness comes light.

Postulata (post-u-lā´ta).—Things demanded.

Prima facie (prī´mā fā´si-ē).—On the first view or appearance. A legal term frequently employed to denote that on the evidence already given there is a good case for further investigation.

Primum mobile (prī´mum mō´bil-e).—The source of motion: the mainspring.

Primus inter omnes (prī´mus in´ter om´nēs).—The first among all.

Primus inter pares (par´ēs).—The first among his equals or peers: e. g., an archbishop among bishops.

Principia, non homines (prin-sip´i-a non hom´in-ēs).—Principles, not men.

Principiis obsta (prin-sip´i-īs ob´sta).—Withstand the beginnings (i. e. of evil).

Pro aris et focis (ar´is et fō´sīs).—For our altars and our hearths.

Pro bono publico (prō bōnō pub´li-kō).—For the public good.

Pro et con.—For and against.

Profanum vulgus—Horace (pro-fā´num vul´gus).—The common herd.

Pro forma (for´mā).—For the sake of form.

Pro hac vice (hak vi´se).—For this time.

Pro patria (pat´ri-ā).—For our country.

Pro rata (rā´ta).—Proportionally.

Pro rege, lege, et grege (rē´je lē´je et grej´e).—For the king, the law, and the people.

Pro re nata (rē na´tā).—Under the present circumstances, as matters are.

Pro salute animæ (sal-ū´te an´im-ē).—For the welfare of the soul.

Pro tanto (tan´to).—As far as it goes.

Pro tempore—pro. tem. (tem´por-e).—For the time being.

Punica fides (pū´nik-a fīdēs).—Punic (or Carthaginian) faith, i. e. treachery.

Q

Quantum (kwan´tum).—As much, so much.

Quantum sufficit (kwan´tum suf-fī´sit).—As much as is sufficient. A term frequently used in medical prescriptions, as Q. S.

Quasi (kwā´si).—As if, just as, as it were.

Quid nunc? (kwid nunk).—What now? What news? Also applied as a name to a person who is always seeking to satisfy his curiosity as to current news.

Quid pro quo (kwid prō kwō).—One thing for another.

Quoad hoc (kwō´ad hok).—To this extent.

Quo animo? (kwō an´im-ō).—With what purpose or intention?

Quod erat demonstrandum—Q. E. D. (kwod er´at dem-on-stran´dum).—Which was to be proved. A term used in geometry at the end of propositions, to indicate that the theorem is proved.

Quod erat faciendum—Q. E. F. (fas-i-en´dum).—Which was to be done. A term used in geometry at the end of problems, to show that they have been solved.

Quod scripsi, scripsi (skrip´sī).—What I have written, I have written. Words used by Pilate when he refused to alter the inscription he had written over the crucified Savior.

Quod vide—q. v. (vī´de).—Which see.

Quo jure (kwō jū´re).—By what right.

Quomodo (kwō-mod-o).—In what manner, how.

Quondam (kwon´dam).—At one time, once, formerly.

Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat (kwōs dē´us vult per´der-e, prī´us dē-men´tat).—Those whom God has a mind to destroy, He first deprives of their senses.

R

Rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima cygno—Ovid (rār´a av´iss in ter´rīs nī-grō´kwe sim-ill´im-a sig´no).—A rare bird on the earth, and very like a black swan: i. e., a prodigy. This species being almost entirely unknown in the time of the Romans.

Recipe (res´ip-e).—Receive.

Recte et suaviter (rek´tē et swa´vit-er).—Justly and pleasantly.

Redeunt Saturnia regna (red´e-unt sat-ur´ni-a reg´na).—The age of Saturn (i. e. the golden age) returns.

Reductio ad absurdum (re-duk´shi-o ad ab-surd´um).—A reducing a position to an absurdity.

Rem acu tetigisti (rem ak´ū teti-gist´ī).—You have hit the nail on the head (lit. touched the matter with a needle-point).

Requiescat in pace—R. I. P. (rek-wi-ess´kat in pā´se).—May he (or she) rest in peace. Symbol used on monuments, expressing a prayer for the repose of the soul.

Res gestæ (rēs jest´ē).—Exploits.

Res judicata (jūdi-ka´ta).—A case or suit already decided.

Respice finem (res´-piss-e fī´nem).—Look to the end.

Respublica (rēs-pub´lik-a).—The common weal; the commonwealth. Name applied to the Roman state prior to the time of the Empire.

Resurgam (re-sur´gam).—I shall rise again. Frequently inscribed on memorials to the dead.

Ride si sapis (rī´de sī sap´iss).—Laugh if you are wise; i. e., the wise cultivate a cheerful habit of mind.

Ruat cœlum (rū´at sē´lum).—Let the heavens fall.

Rus in urbe (russ in ur´be).—The country in town.

S

Sal atticum (sal at´tik-um).—Attic salt—i. e., wit. Salt was used both by the Greeks and Romans as the common term for wit; Attic (i. e. Athenian) wit being especially delicate and elegant.

Salus populi suprema est lex (sal´us pop´u-li su-prē´ma est lex).—The welfare of the people is the supreme law.

Salve (sal´vē).—How are you? I hope you are well. A form of familiar salutation among the Romans.

Salvo jure (sal´vō jū´re).—Saving the right.

Sanctum sanctorum (sank´tum sank-tor´um).—The holy of holies. In ecclesiastical law the chancel of a church is so called; also frequently applied to a private room or study.

Sartor resartus (sar´tor re-sar´tus).—The tailor patched. The title of Carlyle’s well-known work.

Satis superque (sat´iss su-per´kwe).—Enough and more than enough.

Satis verborum (ver-bor´um).—Enough of words.

Secundum artem (sek-un´dum ar´tem).—According to rule.

Secundum naturam (na-tūr´am).—According to nature.

Semper avarus eget—Horace (sem´per av-ār´us ej´et).—The covetous man is ever in want.

Semper felix (fē´lix).—Always happy.

Semper fidelis (fid-ē´liss).—Always faithful.

Semper idem (ī´dem).—Always the same. (This is the masculine form; the feminine form is e´a-dem, and the neuter id´em—all three singular.)

Semper paratus (par-a´tus).—Always ready.

Senatus populusque Romanus—S. P. Q. R. (sen-ā´tus popu-lus´kwe Ro-mā´nus).—The senate and the Roman people.

Seniores priores (sen-i-or´ēz pri-or´ēz).—Elders first. Elderly persons being accorded in ancient times special reverence. Cicero (106-43 B. C.) wrote a work, De Senectute, in praise of old age.

Seriatim (ser-i-ā´tim).—In a series.

Servabo fidem (ser-vā´bō fid´em).—I will keep faith.

Sic (sik).—Thus: so. Generally used ironically to call attention to a literary error.

Sic itur ad astra—Virgil (sik it´ur ad ass´tra).—Such is the way to immortality (lit., to the stars).

Sic passim (pas´sim).—So everywhere.

Sic transit gloria mundi (sik trans´it glor´i-a mun´dī).—Thus passes away earthly glory. Words said to have been used at the inauguration of the early Popes.

Sic vos non vobis—Virgil (sik vōs non vō´biss).—Thus you toil, but not for yourselves. The poet here refers to bees, who make honey, but not for their own use.

Similia similibus curantur (sim-il´i-a sim-il´i-bus ku-ran´tur).—Like things are cured by like. Motto of homœopathic school of medicine.

Sine die (sin´e dī´ē).—Without a day being appointed: indefinitely.

Sine invidia (in-vid´i-ā).—Without envy.

Sine odio (ō´di-ō).—Without hatred.

Sine qua non (sin´e kwā non).—An indispensable condition.

Siste, viator (sis´te vi-ā´tor).—Stop, traveler.

Si vis pacem, para bellum (sī viss pā´sem par´ā bell´um).—If you wish for peace, prepare for war.

Sola nobilitas virtus (sō´la no-bil´itas vir´tus).—Virtue alone is true nobility.

Sola virtus invicta (sō´la vir´tus in-vik´ta).—Virtue alone is invincible.

Spectemur agendo (spek-tē´mur a-jen´dō).—Let us be tried by our actions.

Spes mea in Deo (spēs mē´a in Dē´o).—My hope is in God.

Spes tutissima cœlis (spēs tu-tiss´im-a sē´līs).—The safest hope is in heaven.

Sponte sua (spon´te su´ā).—Of one’s own accord.

Stat magni nominis umbra—Lucan (stat mag´nī nom´in-iss um´bra).—He stands the shadow of a mighty name.

Status quo (stā´tus kwō).—The state in which. A legal term indicating the position in which a case stood before certain action was taken in it.

Status quo ante bellum (an´te bell´um).—The state in which both parties were before the war.

Stet.—Let it stand—i. e., remain as it was.

Sua cuique voluptas (sū´a ku-ī´kwe vol-up´tas).—Every man has his own pleasures.

Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re (su-ā´vit-er in mod´o for´ti-ter in rē).—Gentle in the manner, but vigorous in the deed.

Sub judice (jū´diss-e).—Under consideration. A legal phrase used to indicate that a case is still under consideration, during which time it is held to be contempt of court to comment upon the case in the public press or elsewhere.

Sub pœna (pē´nā).—Under a penalty.

Sub rosa (rō´sā).—Under the rose: privately. The rose in ancient times was the emblem of silence, and was used in decorations to show that anything said during the entertainment was not to be divulged. Cupid presented Harpocrates (the god of Silence) with a rose, not to betray the amours of Venus.

Sub silentio (sil-en´shi-o).—In silence.

Sufficit (suf-fī´sit).—It is enough.

Sui generis (sū´ī jen´er-iss).—Of its own kind; i. e., not referable to any particular class.

Summum bonum (sum´mum bō´num).—The chief good.

Suo marte (sū´o mar´te).—By one’s own exertions, without the assistance of others.

Suppressio veri (sup-press´i-o vēr´ī).—Suppression of the truth.

Suum cuique (su´um ku-ī´kwe).—Let every man have his own.

T

Tabula rasa (tab´u-la rā´sa).—A smooth or blank tablet. From the waxen tablets on which the ancients wrote with a sharp instrument called a stilus or style, and with the broad upper end of which writing was erased.

Tanto melior! (tan´tō mel´i-or).—So much the better! well done! excellent!

Telum imbelle sine ictu—Virgil (tē´lum im-bell´e sin´e ik´tū).—A feeble weapon, thrown without effect.

Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis (tem´-por-a mū-tan´tur et nōs mū-tā´mur in ill´īs).—The times are changed, and we with them.

Tempus fugit (fū´jit).—Time flies. A Latin inscription frequently seen upon sun-dials and old church clocks.

Tempus omnia revelat (om´nia re-vē´lat).—Time unveils all things.

Terra firma (ter´ra firm´a).—Solid earth; a safe footing.

Terra incognita (ter´ra in-kog´nit-a).—An unknown country.

Tertium quid (ter´shi-um kwid).—A third something. A logical term.

Toga virilis (tog´a vir-ī liss).—The garb of manhood, assumed by Roman youth in their sixteenth year with considerable ceremony, usually at the feasts of Bacchus in March.

Totidem verbis (tot´id-em ver´bis).—In just so many words.

Toto cœlo (tō´tō sē´lō).—By the whole heavens: diametrically opposite.

Tria juncta in uno (trī´a junk´ta in ū´no).—Three joined in one.

Troja fuit (Trō´ja fū´it).—Troy was—i. e., exists no longer. Refers to the destruction of Troy by the Greeks (1184 B. C.).

Tu quoque, Brute! (tū kwō´kwe Brū´tē).—And thou too, Brutus! When Brutus, the friend and favorite of Julius Cæsar, struck the latter at his assassination, he uttered the words Tu quoque, Brute! pulled his toga over his face, and sank, pierced with wounds, at the foot of Pompey’s statue.

U

Ubique (ub-ī´kwe).—Everywhere.

Ubi supra (ub´i su´prā).—Where above mentioned.

Ultima ratio regum (ul´tim-a rā´shi-o rē´jum).—The last argument of kings. Louis XIV. placed this inscription on his great guns.

Ultima Thule (ul´tim-a Thū´lē).—The utmost boundary or limit. Thule was an island regarded by the ancients as the most northerly point in the whole earth, and variously supposed to have been Iceland and one of the Shetland group.

Ultimus Romanorum (ul´tim-us Ro-man-or´um).—The last of the Romans.

Ultra vires (ul´trā vī´rēs).—Beyond one’s powers; beyond the rights possessed (legal).

Uno animo (ū´no an´im-o).—Of the same opinion.

Usque ad nauseam (us´kwe ad naw´se-am).—To utter disgust.

Ut infra (in´frā).—As below.

Ut supra (su´prā).—As above.

V

Vade mecum (vā´de mē´cum).—Go with me: a constant companion. Title given to medical and other handbooks for convenient reference.

Vale (valē´), or Valeas (val´e-ass).—Farewell, adieu. The usual parting salutation of the Romans.

Valeat quantum valere potest (val´e-at kwant´um val-ēr´e pot´est).—Let it pass for what it is worth.

Valete, ac plaudite (val-ē´te ak plaud´it-e).—Farewell, and clap. (The concluding words of a Latin comedy.)

Vanitas vanitatum (van´it-ass van-it-ā´tum).—Vanity of vanities.

Variæ lectiones (var´i-ē lek-shi-ō´nēs).—Various readings.

Variorum notæ (var-i-or´um nō´tē).—The notes of various authors.

Varium et mutabile semper femina—Virgil (var´i-um et mū-tā´bil-e sem´per fē´min-a).—A woman is ever changeable and capricious.

Velis remisque (vē´līs rē-mīs´kwe).—With sails and oars—i. e., with tooth and nail, with might and main.

Veni, vidi, vici (vē´nī, vī´dī, vī´sī).—I came, I saw, I conquered. By these three words—so easy was the victory—Julius Cæsar informed the Senate of his having defeated Pharnaces near Zela, 47 B.C.

Ventis secundis (ven´tīs se-kun´dīs).—With favorable winds.

Verbatim et literatim (ver-bā´tim et lit-er-ā´tim).—Word for word and letter for letter.

Verba volant, scripta manent (ver´ba vol´ant, scrip´ta man´ent).—Words fly, writings remain.

Verbum sat sapienti (ver´bum sat sap-i-en´tī).—A word is enough to a wise man.

Veritas odium parit—Terence. Truth procures hatred.

Veritas vincit (very´tass vin´sit).—Truth conquers.

Versus (ver´sus).—Against. A legal term.

Vestigia (ves-tī´ji-a).—Tracks; traces.

Vestigia nulla retrorsum (ves-tī´ji-a null´a ret-ror´sum).—No steps backward.

Vetera extollimus, recentium incuriosi—Tacitus (vet´er-a ex-toll´im-us re-sen´shi-um in-ku-ri-ō´sī).—We exalt the deeds of old, being indifferent to those of recent times.

Vexata quæstio (vex-ā´ta kwēs´ti-o).—A much-debated question.

Via (vī´ā).—By way of.

Via media (vī´a med´i-a).—A middle course.

Vice (vi´se).—In the place of.

Vice versa (vi´se ver´sā).—The terms being exchanged.

Vide (vī´dē)—See.

Vide et crede (vī´de et krē´de).—See and believe.

Vide ut supra (vī´de ut sū´prā).—See as above; see the preceding statement.

Videlicet—viz. (vid-ē´liss-et).—To wit; namely.

Vi et armis (vī et ar´mīs).—By force and arms—i.e., by main force.

Vincit amor patriæ (vin´sit am´or pat´ri-ē).—The love of our country prevails.

Vincit omnia veritas (vin´sit óm´ni-a very´tass).—Truth conquers all things.

Vincit veritas (vin´sit very’tass).—Truth conquers.

Vinculum matrimonii (vin’ku-lum mā-tri-mō´ni-i).—The bond of marriage.

Vindex injuriæ (vin’dex in-jū´ri-ē).—An avenger of injury.

Vir sapit qui pauca loquitur (vir sap´it kwī paw´sa lok´-wit-ur).—He is a wise man who says but little.

Virtus est vitium fugere—Horace (vir´tus est vish´i-um fū´jer-e).—It is virtue to avoid vice.

Virtuti nihil obstat et armis (vir-tū´tī ni´hil ob´stat et ar´mīs).—Nothing can resist valor and arms.

Virtuti non armis fido (vir-tū´tī non ar´mīs fī´dō).—I trust to virtue, and not to arms.

Virtutis amor (vir-tū´tiss am´or).—The love of virtue.

Vis inertiæ (viss in-er´shi-ē).—The power of inertia: passive resistance.

Vivat regina! (vī´vat rē-jī´na).—Long live the Queen! The phrase formerly used at the conclusion of royal proclamations.

Vivat rex! (vī´vat rex).—Long live the King!

Viva voce (vī´vā vō´se).—By the living voice: by oral testimony. That portion of an examination in which the candidate is tested as to his knowledge of the subject by an examiner who personally interrogates him.

Vivida vis animi (vī´vid-a viss an´im-ī).—The vigorous strength of intellect: the lively vigor of genius.

Vivit post funera virtus (vi´vit post fū´ner-a vir´tus).—Virtue survives the grave.

Vox et præterea nihil (vox et prē-ter´e-ā ni´hil).—A voice and nothing more.

Vox populi, vox Dei (pop´u-lī, Dē´ī).—The voice of the people is the voice of God. Quoted as a proverb by William of Malmesbury, author of “De Gestis Regum Anglorum,” twelfth century.

Vulgo (vul´gō).—Generally, commonly.

Vultus est index animi (vul´tus est in´dex an´im-ī).—The countenance is the index of the mind.

Literature

Literature, in the widest sense, is the record of the impressions made by external realities of every kind upon great men, and of the reflections which these men have made upon them.

Vast Range of Literature

The subject matter of literature covers the whole range of human life and activity, as well as every known manifestation of physical nature. For not only are actual events and the doings and sayings of actual persons reproduced in it, but the rules deduced from the observation of the conditions of man’s life are included in its records. Similarly it presents to us not merely what individual men found to interest them in particular countries in a particular epoch, but also the general laws which have been gradually formulated by long-continued observation of the processes of nature.
Literature, therefore, plays a very important part in the life of man. It is the greatest of the secondary sources of knowledge, and it makes an immense contribution to the sum total of facts—the joint result of the experience of the individual and of the race—which gives to each one of us a wide outlook upon the world at large. But we must remember that literature—as literature—is concerned solely with the subjective outlook upon the world.

Why We Study Literature

In order to realize to how large an extent the subjective existence of man is made up of the material of books, we will pause a moment to consider what literature does for us. Through literature we converse with the great dead, with Plato, with Buddha, with Montaigne, with Addison; we walk the streets of Babylon, of Athens, of Rome, of Alexandria; we see great monuments, reared ages ago and long since crumbled to the dust; we recreate the life of distant epochs, and thus by comparison gauge the progress achieved by the men of today. Through literature we learn wisdom from Aristotle, geometry from Euclid, law from Justinian, morality from Christ and St. Paul. Literature makes the physical features, the inhabitants, the climate, the products of the antipodes as familiar as those of the neighboring county.

How It Has Created New Worlds and Peoples

More than this, the masters of creative literature have made regions of their own which they have peopled with the children of their genius. Homer has given us an Ægean of sunlit islands and purple seas; Dante, a dark and mysterious Inferno; Milton, a Garden of Eden; Shakespeare, an Elizabethan England, with landscapes more brightly hued, and men and women more finely real, than the landscapes or the people of the England of Elizabeth; Molière, a France more natural and more vivid than the France of the Grand Monarque. And so it is that Odysseus, Antigone, Beatrice, Hamlet, Tartufe and the rest, these spiritual offspring of great souls, live side by side with Moses, Alexander, Cæsar, Joan of Arc, Henry VIII., and Washington: for literature has made the personalities of each almost as familiar to us as those of our dearest or most intimate friends.

How Literature Helps Us Interpret Life

There is one other important point which must be noticed. It is this: the subjective outlook reacts upon the objective. The knowledge of the world which we gain through our own previous experiences, and through literature, increases our capacity for understanding the objective world, and heightens and intensifies the pleasure which we derive from the contemplation of works of art or of nature. It is this principle which underlies the truth which Goethe states when he says that a traveler does not take anything out of Rome which he has not first brought into it.

Literature Is the Brain of Humanity

Just as in the individual the brain preserves a record of his previous sensations, of his experience, and of his acquired knowledge, and it is in the light of this record that he interprets every fresh sensation and experience, so the race at large has a record of its past in literature, and it is in the light of this record alone that its present conditions and circumstances can be understood. The message of the senses is indistinct and valueless to the individual without the co-operation of the brain; the life of the race would be degraded to a mere animal existence without the accumulated stores of previous experience which literature places at its disposal.

Books as Liberal Educators

So great is the part that books play in our life, or, at least, in the formation of our several personalities, that to master the contents of certain books of admitted excellence has always been considered a chief element in a liberal education; that is to say, it is a recognized method of introducing the mind to the world at large. We must, nevertheless, recognize a broad distinction in the manner in which books render us this assistance. In the case of some books the value of the contribution consists mainly, though not exclusively, in the actual facts which they contain; in others, the actual facts are of secondary importance and their chief value consists in the manner in which these facts are brought before our minds. No hard and fast line can be drawn between the two classes, but the difference may be broadly indicated by saying that while the former give us the facts of life, the latter give us pictures of life.
The distinction may be illustrated by one or two examples. Such works as Locke’s Essay on the Human Understanding, and Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of Rome, must obviously be placed under the head of books in which the facts are of first importance. Equally, the novels of George Eliot, in which she gives us a full and truthful picture of English midland life, must be included among those books where the presentation of the facts is of more importance than the facts themselves. And so, too, in the case of The Story of an African Farm, where we have a picture of rural life in South Africa, or in Diana of the Crossways. Only in the latter work the personality of the central character is so commanding that the book is not so much a picture as a portrait—a portrait of a beautiful and wayward woman exposed to temptation by the very abundance of her own gifts.
Here, then, we have two distinct elements, matter and manner; and it is upon the degree in which these elements are respectively present in any given work that the main divisions of literature—the division which separates works of creative literature from works of literature, simply so-called—is based.
Poetry, drama, history, biography, essays, description, criticism, the great masterpieces of fiction—all open up to us the untold wealth of reality and imagination.

English Literature

The English is the most remarkable as well as the most prolific of modern literatures. Before the Saxons invaded Britain there was a Celtic literature of a rhythmic character, preserved, in the main, orally by the Gaelic and Cymric elements of the population. Gaelic literature is associated with Fionn, Ossian, and the battle of Gabhra, alleged to have been fought A. D. 284, while Cymric literature finds powerful utterance in Aneurin’s poem, the Gododin, which celebrates the battle of Cattraeth, fought, according to tradition, in the year 570. During the fifth and sixth centuries various Teutonic tribes effected a settlement in Britain, and the island was ultimately subjugated by the Saxons. In the middle of the eleventh century it again suffered conquest at the hands of the Normans. The institutions and language of the conquerors were largely imposed upon the natives, and so great has been the vitality of the Saxon speech that about two-thirds of the words now composing the English language are, radically or derivatively, of Saxon origin.
So, the fabric of English literature is colored with the varying tints of racial characteristics—the somber imagination of the Celt, the flaming passion of the Saxon, the golden gaiety of France, and the prismatic fancy of the South. There have been many influences brought to bear upon its speech; yet, in this composite texture, the Anglo-Saxon element is dominant. That is the first outstanding fact of importance.

The Anglo-Saxon Period, 449-1066

The existing remains of Anglo-Saxon literature include compositions in prose and poetry, some of which must be referred to a very early period, one or two perhaps to a time before the Angles and Saxons emigrated to England. Gildas, the author of a Latin treatise on British history, is the precursor of the Anglo-Saxon writers, but the earliest author of real distinction is St. Columbanus, an Irish missionary to western Europe, who wrote religious treatises and Latin poetry, and died in 615.
Cædmon, a monk of Whitby, was the first Anglo-Saxon writer of eminence who composed in his native tongue. Encouraged by the Abbess Hilda, he wrote his Paraphrase, in which he discoursed of the Creation and the Fall, and other Biblical themes. His verse was constructed neither in measure nor rhyme, but it was differentiated from prose by a kind of rough poetic alliteration.
The most important Anglo-Saxon poem is that called Beowulf, after its hero, extending to more than six thousand lines. This poem may be described as the heathen complement to Cædmon’s Christian Paraphrase. Beowulf is a Scandinavian prince, who slays a fiendish cannibal, after encountering supernatural perils, and is at last slain in a contest with a frightful dragon. Its scene appears to be laid entirely in Scandinavia. Its date is uncertain; parts of it may have been brought over at the emigration from Germany, though in its present form it is much later than this.
The next great name in the early literature is that of the Venerable Bede, who was born at Jarrow, and became the great monastic teacher of Wearmouth, dying in 735. He wrote numerous works in Latin, the chief of which was his famous Ecclesiastical History of the Anglo-Saxons.
Alcuin, a native of northern England and an earnest student and teacher, became the chief intellectual light in the court of Charlemagne. John Scotus Erigena wrote, among other things, a work on the Division of Nature, which is regarded as laying the foundation of the scholastic philosophy. King Alfred (901), great in arms and noble and enlightened in character, translated into Anglo-Saxon the histories of Bede and Orosius, and Boethius’s Consolations of Philosophy. Other contributions to literature are likewise attributed to him. Ælfric, the grammarian, who died in 1006, wrote his eighty Homilies for the use of the common people.
The well-known Saxon Chronicle is a survey of early English history, written by various authors. It began soon after the time of Alfred, and continued to the death of Stephen in 1154. Among its entries in verse is a spirited poem on the battle of Brunanburh, fought victoriously by Athelstan against his combined Danish and Celtic foes in 937. Besides the leading writers above cited, there were others of less importance who graced the Anglo-Saxon period—a period embracing some five hundred years from the time of Columbanus to the Norman Conquest.

The Norman-French Period, 1066-1400

New conditions were imported into the learning and literature of England by the Norman Conquest. Although the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, referred to above, was continued until 1154, the native language practically ceased for a time to be employed in literature. For nearly a century and a half the old language was supplanted, Latin being employed in law, history, and philosophy, French in the lighter forms of literature. Monastic chronicles were the order of the day, and these were only of real value as they drew near to, and actually dealt with, contemporary events. The Norman trouvère displaced the Saxon scop, or gleeman, introducing the Fabliau and the Romance.
English literature was not greatly influenced by the Fabliau until the time of Chaucer; but the Romance attained an early and striking development in the Arthurian cycle, founded upon the legends of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph, who wrote the History of British Kings.
Much of this Latin chronicle is imaginative. It began with a mythical Brutus of Troy, and ended with Cadwallader. King Arthur was a prominent figure in the book, and from this time the romantic legends concerning him and his court became a prominent feature in the Anglo-Norman literature. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Chronicle was abridged by Alfred of Beverley, and rewritten in French verse by Geoffrey Gaimar and “Maistre” Wace, the latter version becoming permanent as the Roman de Brut. Wace, who died in 1184, was also the author of the Roman de Rou.
Walter Map or Mapes, poet and prose writer, gave form and substance to the Arthurian legends, uniting them into a harmonious whole as the spiritual allegory of the Holy Grail. Map attacked the abuses and corruptions of the Church in a series of witty and vigorous Latin poems. Hitherto there had been no man of such genius among the early writers.
Two of the most important of the monastic chroniclers were Ordericus Vitalis, who wrote the Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, a conscientious if disorderly record, and William of Malmesbury, who flourished at the same time and wrote a History of English Kings. The latter writer has been placed by Milton next to Bede.
Early in the thirteenth century English began to recover its position, and Layamon’s Brut was the first important piece of literature in transition English. Layamon, who was “a priest of Ernleye-upon-Severne,” wrote in English verse, and he interpolated many things into Wace’s narrative. His work was completed about 1205. A St. Augustine canon, named Ormin, was the author of Ormulum, a metrical paraphrase, with expositions, of the Gospel of the day. To the same period belong the early ballads of the Robin Hood type and the rendering into English verse of Havelok the Dane and other metrical romances.
Roger Bacon, the great scientific investigator, was a Franciscan who settled at Oxford. Bacon enshrined the results of his knowledge in his Opus Majus, Opus Minus, and Opus Tertium. Robert of Gloucester was a monk in the time of Henry III. and Edward I. who wrote in English rhyme a chronicle from the siege of Troy to the death of Henry III.
Period of Chaucer.—The first great era of English literature may be said to begin about the year 1300, and to extend to the introduction of printing by Caxton in 1477. The overshadowing name in this period is that of Chaucer, who has been styled the Father of English Poetry.
The accounts of Chaucer’s early life are uncertain, but he acquired the favor of Edward III. through John of Gaunt. In the reign of Richard II., however, he fell upon evil times, and he died in the year 1400 at the age of seventy-two. His Canterbury Tales are immortal, alike for their poetic qualities, their unrivaled delineations of character, and their pictures of the middle-class English life of the period. Although the poet was influenced in his style and choice of subject by Dante and Boccaccio, he infused into his creations a dramatic force and a breath of sympathy which are the characteristics of the highest genius. His earlier and minor poems—such as The Romaunt of the Rose, The Court of Love, and The House of Fame—were the fruit of his French and Italian studies. Hallam classes Chaucer with Dante and Petrarch in the mighty poetic triumvirate of the Middle Ages.
John Gower, next in contemporary importance to Chaucer, wrote the Confessio Amantis, an English poem, which included a number of tales that were moralized to illustrate the seven deadly sins.
Langlande, or Longlande, author of The Visions of Piers Plowman—a poem which stands out for its graphic force—“sought to animate men to the search for Christ, and battled vigorously with Church corruptions.” Langlande is more distinctly English in his language than Chaucer, and his poem was a representative one as showing the workings of the national mind in religion and politics.
James I. of Scotland takes high rank for The King’s Quhair, and Lawrence Minot for his series of poems on the victories of Edward III. Barbour’s heroic poem of the Bruce also calls for mention. Thomas Occleve, author of a poem on the duty of kings, and John Lydgate, to whom we owe the Falls of Princes, and other compositions, were likewise considerable poets.
For a long period Sir John de Mandeville was regarded as “the father of English prose,” but this claim is now abandoned. The larger portion of his Travels was borrowed from a worthy Friar Odoric and from other writers, while the whole narrative is more entertaining than veracious. John Wyclif, who gave to his countrymen the first English version of the whole Bible, has been not inaptly styled the “Morning Star of the English Reformation.” Sir John Fortescue, Chief Justice in the reign of Henry VI., was the author of a fine legal treatise, De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, and of an admirable constitutional work on the Difference Between Absolute and Limited Monarchy, in which he contrasted the French rule with the English to the disparagement of the former.
Influence of Caxton.—William Caxton, who introduced the art of printing into England, gave an impetus to literature whose effects have been of incalculable value. The earliest work which can with certainty be maintained to have been printed in England was the Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, published in 1477. In 1474, however, Caxton had issued at Bruges the first book printed in the English tongue, the Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, and soon after this he printed the Game and Playe of the Chesse. Caxton was a most assiduous workman, and produced editions of Chaucer, Lydgate, Gower, and Sir Thomas Mallory’s King Arthur, translations of Cicero’s De Senectute and De Amicitia, and other works.
William Dunbar, the Chaucer of the North, is placed by Sir Walter Scott at the head of the roll of Scottish poets. Dunbar led a checkered life, and his works are remarkable for their strong human lights and shadows. His allegorical poem, The Thistle and the Rose, was written in celebration of the marriage of James IV. with Henry VII.’s daughter Margaret. The Golden Terge, another of his poems of fantasy, is very descriptive and rhetorical. The Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins powerfully depicts—under the lead of Pride—a procession of the seven deadly sins in the infernal regions. Dunbar was equally remarkable in the comic as in the serious vein.
At the close of the fifteenth century many of the best spirits of the age were drawn to Oxford for the study of Greek. It was taught by William Grocyn and the physician Linacre. Erasmus came over from Paris to acquire it, and while at Oxford he made the acquaintance of young Thomas More, who wrote a defense of the new branch of learning. More afterwards entered upon the thorny paths of statecraft, and paid for his opposition to Henry VIII. with his head. More was the leading prose writer of his time, and his Life and Reign of Edward V.—in which he draws a somber picture of the usurper Richard—is the earliest specimen of classical English prose; but his real fame rests upon the Utopia, in which he imagines an ideal commonwealth in the New World, discovered by a supposed companion of Amerigo Vespucci. The root idea was borrowed from Plato.
When William Tyndale completed his famous translation of the New Testament in 1525, More adversely criticized it on the ground of its Lutheran bias in the choice of words. Tyndale replied with spirit, however, and also defended against More the exposition of the Lord’s Supper published by John Frith. In 1530 Tyndale completed, with the help of Miles Coverdale, his translation of the Pentateuch, and six years later he was put to death for heresy in Belgium. Coverdale’s translation of the whole Bible appeared in 1535.
Many Church writers and reformers flourished at this time. To Cranmer was largely due The Book of Common Prayer, a work which contains some of the noblest specimens of English in our literature. He was also responsible for a book of Twelve Homilies and a revised translation of the Scriptures, known as Cranmer’s Bible. The martyr Latimer was the author of sermons which are rare specimens of vigorous eloquence, while Bishop Fisher preached and wrote trenchantly on the other side. John Knox, the great Scottish reformer, wrote a History of the Scottish Reformation, and he was so indignant at the fact that three ruling sovereigns were women that just before the accession of Elizabeth he issued from Geneva his First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. John Foxe, the martyrologist did much for Protestantism by his work on the Acts and Monuments of the Church; and Roger Ascham, classical tutor to Queen Elizabeth, and author of Toxophilus and The Schoolmaster, was the first writer on education in the language. Mention must not be omitted here of the unfortunate Earl of Surrey, who was the first writer of blank verse in England, and who did much to invest English poetry with accuracy, polish, and a general spirit of refinement. Surrey used the medium of blank verse in translating two books of the Æneid. With his friend, Sir Thomas Wyatt, he also transplanted the sonnet into the garden of English verse.

The Elizabethan and Puritan Periods, 1559-1660

The most brilliant, as well as the most virile, era in English literature was that extending from the accession of Elizabeth in 1558 to the closing of the theaters by the Long Parliament in 1648. No other period of ninety years in English history exhibits such a profusion of literary effort and achievement, especially on the dramatic and imaginative sides. The former portion of this period, however, known as the Elizabethan age—but really extending to the middle of the reign of James I.—was the greater in conception. It witnessed not only the rise but the culminating splendor of the drama. Miracle plays or mysteries were the forerunners of the drama. They were acted in churches and convents, and by their dramatic representations of Biblical episodes it was sought to influence the people in favor of virtue.
There was something grotesque, however, in the choice of Satan as the first comedian, while the general treatment of sacred subjects was most objectionable. In course of time the plays changed into moralities, in which abstract qualities such as Justice and Vice took the place of Scripture characters. Next to these, and before the drama proper, came a series of farcical productions, of which Heywood’s Interludes may be taken as a type.
Edmund Spenser.—One great name interposes between these early plays and the drama, namely, that of Edmund Spenser. He restored the glory of English poetry from the long eclipse it suffered after the death of Chaucer. Spenser’s Shepherd’s Calendar applied pastoral images to the religious conflicts of the time, and under the name of Algrind he introduced Archbishop Grindal, whose firmness in encouraging free search for Scripture truth he applauded. To his master, Chaucer, the poet paid tribute under the name of Tityrus. In 1590 Spenser published his great but unfinished allegorical epic The Faerie Queene, in which he depicted man with all his capacity for good striving heavenwards. The work is “an intense utterance of the spiritual life of England under Elizabeth.” Spenser’s Colin Clout Come Home Again was written in memory of his friendship for Sir Walter Raleigh. The purely poetic qualities were redundant in Spenser, and these have made him a favorite with all his singing brethern since his death.
Sir Philip Sidney has gained a reputation as an English classic for his Defense of Poesie, but his romance of Arcadia is the more widely known, as it was the more warmly appreciated on its publication. Later critics have censured it, but it is rich and highly finished in its phrases, and “full of fine enthusiasm and courtesy of high sentiment, and of the breath of a gentle and heroic spirit.”
Beginning of English Comedy and Tragedy.—The first English comedy, Ralph Roister Doister, was written by Nicholas Udall, Master of Eton, between 1534 and 1541. It was avowedly modeled upon Plautus, and intended for the edification of Eton boys.
The first tragedy was Gorboduc, a new rendering of the old British story of Ferrex and Porrex by Thomas Sackville (Lord Buckhurst), and Thomas Norton. It was acted at the Inner Temple in 1561, and also before the queen by command. It substituted English for Latin in a play constructed after the manner of Seneca, and “its grave dwelling upon the need of union to keep a people strong, a truth of deep significance to England at that time, pleased Elizabeth.” But nearly twenty years yet elapsed before the drama obtained a stable hold, and theaters began to be built.
John Lyly, author of the Euphues, wrote a number of mythological plays, and George Peele produced The Arraignment of Paris and The Device of the Pageant in 1584-1585; but Christopher Marlowe, with his “mighty line,” was the first great Elizabethan dramatist. His genius was somber, and his tragedies dark and terrible. His Tamburlaine the Great was produced in 1587, but his Doctor Faustus was not published until ten years after his death, which occurred in 1593.
William Shakespeare.—In the latter part of the sixteenth century began the career of the greatest poet the world has ever seen, William Shakespeare. A period of less than twenty-five years covers the production of all those comedies and histories which are the wonder of modern literature. We marvel what kind of man that could be whose intellect could conceive such widely different works as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Venus and Adonis, Romeo and Juliet, The Rape of Lucrece, the famous Sonnets, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, and Hamlet. Shakespeare seems to sum up within himself the whole of poetry and of human philosophy. His power and universality are unique, and will probably ever remain so.
Ben Jonson, the greatest and most scholarly of his contemporaries, wrote from 1596 to 1637; but he lacked the freedom and naturalness of Shakespeare. Beaumont and Fletcher worked in unison with a success rarely attained by collaborators. Massinger was a dramatist of undoubted power, as his New Way to Pay Old Debts testifies; and Dekker, Heywood, Marston, and Middleton would all have taken a higher niche in the temple of fame had they lived in a less prolific age. Ford and Webster produced plays of a dark and terrible cast, and the list of Elizabethan dramatists closes with James Shirley who was purer in thought and expression than any of his predecessors. Other poets of this period were Thomas Tusser, who gave an excellent picture of English peasant life in his Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, and Michael Drayton described this favored isle itself in his Polyolbion. The learned John Donne gave utterance to his metaphysical conceits, while Drummond of Hawthornden attested his claim to the title of the finest Scottish poet of his day. Carew, Herrick, and Suckling produced their exquisite lyrics, and Herbert chanted the solemn strains of The Temple.
Elizabethan Prose Writers.—The great prose writers of the period must be headed with the illustrious name of Francis Bacon. The father of the inductive philosophy was regarded by those of his contemporaries who knew him best as “one of the greatest men and most worthy of admiration that had been for ages.” His adventurous intellect could not be bound by mere tradition. He brought his keen analytical faculty to bear upon the study of man and nature, so that in his matchless Essays we have the result of his penetration into the human mysteries, while his philosophy of nature stands revealed in the two books of the Advancement of Learning, in which he laid the basis for his New Organon.
“Who is there,” Burke demands, “that upon hearing the name of Lord Bacon does not instantly recognize everything of genius the most profound, everything of literature the most extensive, everything of discovery the most penetrating, everything of observation of human life the most distinguishing and refined?”
George Buchanan ranks as the Scottish Virgil from the elegance of his Latin verse, while he exhibited equal command over Latin prose. Richard Hooker gave a new elevation and dignity to English prose by his Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Sir Walter Raleigh, the admirable Crichton of his age, carried the English name abroad, but returned only to find imprisonment and the scaffold. He glorified his prison life by the production of his great History of the World, which is especially memorable for its vivid recital of the histories of Greece and Rome. Camden the antiquary constructed his Britannia, and Hakluyt and Purchas indited their wonderful records of travel. James I. threw his ill-digested learning into treatises on Divine Right, Witchcraft, etc.; Burton wrote his quaint and erudite work, The Anatomy of Melancholy; Selden, the chief of the learned men of his time, according to Milton, alternated politics with the production of his Treatise on Titles of Honour and his History of Tithes; Hobbes of Malmesbury, the terseness of whose style is unique, promulgated his theory of action and morals, as well as his absolutism in politics, in The Leviathan; Howell first showed what correspondence might become in his Familiar Letters, and genial old Izaak Walton wove an immortal spell over all lovers of good literature by his Lives of Donne, Hooker, and others, and The Complete Angler. Altogether the age was one eminently full of intellectual life.
The Puritan Period.—The decline of the drama, and the end of what we may call the Pagan Renaissance, were contemporaneous with the birth of the great constitutional struggle which began with James I. and did not terminate until the English Revolution.
It is strange that such a time of upheaval should have produced the greatest Christian epic, The Paradise Lost, and the greatest Christian allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, which are to be found in any literature. Three great men represented the various forms of the religious struggle going forward; the saintly Jeremy Taylor, a poet among preachers, upheld the cause of Episcopacy; Richard Baxter, while desiring the church discipline and the form of belief, advocated a greater liberty for the individual conscience; and John Milton was a type of the religious freedom and toleration which found best exposition in the principles of the Independents. Milton’s Eikonoklastes broke down the buttresses of kingly authority; his Areopagitica was a noble argument in behalf of intellectual liberty; while his Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes were not merely magnificently great as poetry, but Christian evidences of the most sublime type.
John Bunyan, a man of the people, came forward with words that burn and images that enthrall, to show the way from a world of vice to a pure and Holy City. Thomas Fuller, remembering that “blessed are the peacemakers,” sought to heal that strife between king and people which was beyond all healing save that of the sword. Some men held themselves aloof from violent controversy while yet maintaining independence of thought—as, for example, Thomas Browne in the Religio Medici, published in 1642.
The anti-Puritans had their champions in Samuel Butler, whose fierce wit blazed forth in Hudibras; in the great Royalist writer, Clarendon; and in that staunch Royalist and Churchman, Bishop South, whose antipathy to the Nonconformists may be partly condoned by his brilliant wit. Among other writers of the time may be mentioned the versatile Barrow; the powerful satirists Wither, and Bishop Hall; Harrington, the author of the Oceana; the patriotic Algernon Sidney, with his admirable Discourses on Government; and those garrulous but inimitable chroniclers, Pepys and Evelyn.
The poets were many and varied, including Waller, Davenant, Denham, Marvell, Lovelace, and Cowley.

Period of the Restoration to the Rise of the Novel, 1660-1740

Extremes always lead to revulsion, and from Puritanism we pass to the licentious court of Charles II., with the songs of Rochester, and the works of Etherege. The comic dramatists of the Restoration and the period immediately succeeding—Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar—vividly and wittily reflect the glittering life and base morality of the age. One stronger intellect did bring with it for a time the sense of a fresher and diviner air, when John Dryden sang with vigor and insight, and also produced his best comedies and tragedies. Otway likewise showed a momentary gleam of the old Elizabethan dramatic fire. In the sphere of mental and natural philosophy, Locke, Newton, and Boyle grappled with problems hitherto considered unsolvable, and illumined for the world the devious and mysterious paths of scientific inquiry. The selection of names in every branch of English literature, and in every age, can, of course, only be illustrative, not exhaustive.
Period of Dryden and Pope.—The eighteenth century witnessed a great revolution in English literature, especially on the poetic side. Imagination, passion, and nature were dethroned, and poetry became didactic, philosophical, and political.
Dryden manifested something of the qualities of both schools, but when Alexander Pope arose the new order triumphed. Everything was sacrificed to precision and artificiality.
Pope was the most brilliant and impressive of the new writers. His Essay on Man and his Essay on Criticism enshrined many old philosophical truths in epigrammatic form. The heroic couplet became in his hands an instrument for cutting diamonds, but the lover of poetry longs after a time to exchange his dazzling couplets for the flowers of poesy. In all that he did, however, whether the work took the form of satires, essays, epistles, or translations, Pope was the finished artist.
The minor poets of Pope’s period included John Philips, known by his Splendid Shilling; John Gay, the author of the Shepherd’s Week, and the Fables; Samuel Garth, the writer of the mock heroic poem of The Dispensary; and Richard Blackmore, who tried to restore the epic in Prince Arthur.
Prose literature had many distinguished exponents. Jonathan Swift looms up before us as a gloomy, overshadowing figure, whose saturnine genius found bitter yet powerful expression in Gulliver’s Travels, the Battle of the Books, and the Tale of a Tub. His command of English was masterly, but his wit was coarse, his life hopelessly sad, and his death miserable.
Daniel Defoe was not only one of the most vigorous of political pamphleteers, but practically the father of the English novel by his Robinson Crusoe, a work which has surpassed almost every other in its uninterrupted popularity. Defoe invested fictitious events with an unapproachable semblance of truth. Metaphysical literature had its best representative in the philosopher Bishop Berkeley, the founder of Idealism in English philosophy; Bernard de Mandeville unfolded a new satirical philosophy in The Fable of the Bees, which was intended to prove that the vices of society are the foundation of civilization; and Bishop Butler sought to reconcile reason and revelation by his closely argumentative work, the Analogy of Religion.
Rise of the Essay and Modern Newspaper.—A new and interesting form of literary effort, which popularized letters and criticism, was the periodical essay, instituted by Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele.
The latter began the Tatler, which dealt in humorous and incisive fashion with the social and political life of the times. Steele was aided by Addison, and they afterwards founded the more famous Spectator, which was inimitable in its humor and criticism. The Guardian and the Freeholder followed, and a higher tone was given to both literature and manners by these admirable publications.
The modern newspaper had its origin in the Public Intelligencer, begun in August, 1663, by Sir Roger L’Estrange. The Oxford Gazette began in November, 1665, and the London Gazette on the 5th of February, 1666. Defoe, while in prison, began the publication of the Review (February, 1704).
The drama at the close of the seventeenth century had, besides the greater names already mentioned, Sedley, Shadwell, Mrs. Behn, and Mrs. Centlivre, all of whose comedies, however, were licentious. Nicholas Rowe wrote heavy tragedies, which are no more likely to rise again in popularity than Addison’s Cato. Foote, Cibber, and Fielding reproduced the follies of the times in their comedies and farces; and the Beggar’s Opera, by Gay, produced in 1728, was the first specimen of the English ballad opera. Sentimental comedy is associated with Macklin, the Colmans, Murphy, Cumberland, and others; but the two greatest names in English comedy in the eighteenth century are Goldsmith and Sheridan. The delightful humor of The Good-natured Man and She Stoops to Conquer is only to be matched by the sparkling wit of the Rivals and the School for Scandal.
Samuel Johnson, born in 1709, began to write in 1744, and from that period until his death in 1784 he was an acknowledged leading power in letters. His Lives of the Poets, his Rasselas, The Rambler, and the great Dictionary were remarkable undertakings in various fields; while the world could afford to part with a thousand masterpieces rather than lose that immortal Biography by Boswell which has enshrined his master’s opinions and conversations. The Letters of Junius remind us of the right of criticism over public events and public men, and of the struggle by which the freedom of the press was ultimately won.

Rise of the Novel and Period of Romanticism, 1740-1837

The modern novel of actual life and manners dates from 1740, when Samuel Richardson published his Pamela, a story that was the talk and wonder of the town. It was followed by Clarissa Harlowe, its author’s masterpiece—a book charged with pathos, and instinct with tenderness and morality. Henry Fielding, “the prose Homer of human nature,” and, if not so delicate, a more powerful artist than Richardson, issued his Joseph Andrews in 1742, and his world-famous Tom Jones in 1749. Tobias Smollett wrote his Roderick Random in 1748, and this was followed by other stories as realistic as Fielding’s but much more marred by caricature. Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy and the Sentimental Journey were novelties in prose writing, and, although they are thin as novels, they will live for their peculiar wit and pathos. Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield, published in 1766, stands alone for its idyllic beauty and charming simplicity. Fanny Burney’s Evelina and Cecilia were noticeable for invention and observation and skill in portraiture.
The poetry of the second half of the century was varied in character, but it closed with a noble elevation in Burns. To the heavy religious poems of Blair and Young succeeded the more artistic strains of Gray and Collins and Goldsmith, and the mystical yearnings and Elizabethan fervor of Blake. Thomson, one of the most excellent of descriptive poets, had given place to Shenstone, who had less genius but more taste, and a third writer of the Spenserian stanza was found in Beattie. Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry brought the ballad again into favor; while Chatterton deceived the very elect by his marvelous imitation of the older forms of poetry.
William Cowper, notwithstanding his fastidiousness and over-refinement, was a poet of a high and genuine order. He let nature have its way in such exquisite poems as the Lines to His Mother’s Picture and the Loss of the “Royal George,” while any humorist might envy the delightful abandonment of John Gilpin. His larger poems are severer in style, yet many of their pictures, testifying to a reverent love of nature, remain imprinted on the memory; and they are full of happy phrases and turns of expression.
The new life infused into Scottish poetry was heralded by Michael Bruce, a sweet singer who died at twenty-one, and by Allan Ramsay, whose pastoral drama of the Gentle Shepherd affords one of the most beautiful and tender pictures of Scottish rural life. The ballad acquired a new pathos and interest in such productions as Lady Anne Barnard’s Auld Robin Gray.
But the poetic genius of Scotland found its ripest and fullest expression in Robert Burns. His love songs have the freshness and fervor of the Elizabethan lyrics; his poems of man and of nature, like those of Cowper, reveal the highest aspirations for the welfare of humanity; his humorous compositions are as lifelike in their character-painting as they are full to overflowing of fun; and his serious poems reveal a pathos which has never been excelled. Nature seemed to put on new beauties when Robert Burns chanted her praises, and the daisy can never again seem commonplace since he immortalized it. The poor at length acquired their laureate in this sweet singer of the North.
Historical and philosophical literature attained a high level at this period. Edward Gibbon, though lacking human sympathy, had great creative power and originality, and his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is one of the most massive of historical conceptions, worked out with stately eloquence. David Hume, whose History of England does not take such high rank, was more original in his philosophical speculations, referring all actual knowledge to experience, and making utility the standard of virtue.
Adam Smith, by his Wealth of Nations, established his claim to be regarded as the founder of the modern system of political economy, and one of the benefactors of his species. All questions of labor and capital were placed by this work on a scientific basis, and it paved the way for the doctrine of free trade.
Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution caused a revulsion of feeling against France, while his Letters on a Regicide Peace increased the war fever in England. The former work was answered by Thomas Paine in his Rights of Man, and the latter by Sir James Mackintosh in his Vindiciæ Gallicæ. Burke’s philosophical works are models of eloquence and construction. William Paley, in his Evidences of Christianity and other works, skillfully defended revealed religion against the attacks of its enemies.
Towards the close of the century the newspaper press received a strong impetus by the establishment of The Times and other important journals; knowledge likewise began to be condensed and methodized in Cyclopædias; while criticism took a wider as well as a more popular range in the first decade of the nineteenth century by the foundation of the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews.
We cannot pass from the eighteenth century without noticing the remarkable development in hymnology. George Wither issued the earliest English hymn-book in 1623, Hymns and Songs of the Church; but the first hymn-book of the modern type was published by John Wesley for use in the Church of England in 1737. Among the hymnologists of the eighteenth century whose compositions remain in general use until this day may be mentioned A. M. Toplady, John Newton, the Wesleys, Isaac Watts, William Cowper, and Philip Doddridge.
Romanticism and the Early Nineteenth Century.—The literature of the nineteenth century is almost overwhelming in its magnitude and variety. In nearly every branch it has attained a higher level than in the preceding century, and in nothing is this more noticeable than in poetry. Although the century opened when Crabbe, the reporter of rural life, was painting his Dutch-like pictures, we soon pass on to higher things. There was a great revival in imaginative poetry before 1820.
Byron, with his precociousness in love and genius, took a high flight in his Childe Harold, and although all his works—Don Juan, Manfred, Cain, etc.—were impressed by his own gloomy personality, he yet made living verse.
Shelley, imbued with revolutionary ideas and aspirations after an ideal being, was one of the greatest poets of the age, now Miltonic in his elegiac verse in Adonais, and now unapproachable in his lyrics. No singer has ever drawn deeper from the wells of poetic inspiration.
Wordsworth, contemplative and philosophic the patriarch of the Lake School, taught the dependence of the poet on nature, and from the Lyrical Ballads to the Excursion he illustrated his own saying in his works, that “poetry is emotion recollected in tranquillity.” He threw off the conventional, and endeavored to pierce to the heart of things, whether in man or in nature.
Fancy and imagination were made perfect in the exquisite creations and sensuous verse of Keats; wit and pathos abounded in Thomas Hood; while historic and romantic poetry found notable exemplars in Southey, Scott, Rogers, Campbell, and Coleridge. Hannah More and Joanna Baillie sought to galvanize the classical drama; Cunningham sang his Scottish songs; and Keble consecrated sacred hopes in the Christian Year.
The historic novel was made memorable by Sir Walter Scott, whose extraordinary fecundity was the wonder of his generation. His novels were the first and greatest prose result of the revived spirit of romanticism. Jane Austen did for the domestic novel what Scott did for the historical. The pictures of English life in Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and the remaining stories by this writer, have never been excelled. Her painting of manners was exquisite, and while her characters and incidents were of the most every-day description, she lifted them out of the commonplace by her exquisite touch and her absolute truthfulness to nature.

The Victorian Period to the Present, 1837- ——

The Victorian age may justly be called great in history, philosophy, biography, fiction, and poetry. Macaulay, in the earlier half of the Victorian period, illumined history by the brilliant glow of his imagination; while in the latter half Carlyle was not only his equal in history, but the first man of letters of his time. In his prose epic, The French Revolution, there was the vigor of a Rembrandt; biography was ennobled by his Cromwell; while throughout all his works—from Sartor Resartus to the latest of his utterances—he upheld the dignity of labor, and the sacredness of duty.
English history in all periods, and the progress and growth of the constitution, found brilliant chroniclers or scholarly interpreters in Hallam, Freeman, Froude, Green, Stubbs, Brewer, and Gardiner; while the philosophical aspects of history have been vividly presented by Buckle and Lecky. Rome lived again in the pages of Merivale; the Jewish race in those of Milman; and Greece in those of Grote and Thirlwall.
Turning to philosophy and science, John Stuart Mill exercised a profound influence upon the age as metaphysician, logician, politician, and moralist. Charles Darwin revolutionized scientific thought by promulgating the theory of evolution, which Herbert Spencer, its most conspicuous philosophical exponent, applied to psychology, morals, and politics. Logic and science had other exponents in Brewster, Whately, Bain, Hugh Miller, John Tyndall, T. H. Huxley, T. G. Tait, and W. K. Clifford. John Ruskin has eloquently wedded art and morality, while biography and criticism have found representative writers in Lockhart, Forster, De Quincey, Masson, Arnold, “Christopher North,” Lewes, Helps, Trevelyan, John Morley, and others. Religious thought was deeply impressed by the school of religious literature which arose with the Oxford movement. In poetry, its greatest result was Keble’s Christian Year, while its greatest product in prose was the beautiful and haunting style of Cardinal Newman, best shown in his Apologia.
Pusey, Arnold, Maurice, Robertson, Stanley, Liddon, Martineau, Gladstone, Spurgeon, and many more of all creeds contributed in a lesser degree.

ALFRED TENNYSON’S BEAUTIFUL “LADY OF SHALOTT”

From the exquisite painting of J. W. Waterhouse, who has interpreted for us in flesh and blood Tennyson’s far-famed poem. This is the dramatic moment when the curse is falling upon the lady of the silent isle.

The literature of fiction was surprising in its growth, and practically limitless in its variety. Thackeray showed to what a pitch of literary excellence and finish the novel might attain, and also demonstrated its power as a moral scourge. Dickens, the Hogarth of modern novelists, evoked smiles and tears in myriads of homes by his vivid pictures of life; and George Eliot reflected much of the sadness and unrest of the time in her searching and minutely conscientious works. Charlotte Brontë uttered a passionate note on behalf of her suffering sisters; and Mrs. Gaskell proved herself a genuine artist in the delineation of human life.
Of later women writers, mention must be made of Mrs. Oliphant, Miss Braddon, Mrs. Henry Wood, and “Ouida”—all different in style, yet all equally prolific. Marryat, James, Ainsworth, Warren, and others still find readers.
Charles Kingsley struck a sympathetic human note in his fictions; Anthony Trollope was the most interesting even of all his brethren; Wilkie Collins was a master of mystery; Richard Jefferies was the interpreter of nature; Charles Reade was an intense moral reformer; George Meredith has delighted and puzzled his admirers by his brilliant powers and genius; Lord Lytton is still read for two or three of his healthiest works; and Lever and Lover for their rollicking Irish wit.
It would be invidious to attempt to give a catalogue of all contemporary novelists worthy of mention; but in addition to those already mentioned the names will occur of R. D. Blackmore, Thomas Hardy, Robert Buchanan, George Macdonald, and William Black—all widely different in their gifts and work, but all imbued with a sense of the dignity of the novelist’s art. Newer writers of imaginative and adventurous fiction have sprung up in Hall Caine, J. M. Barrie, Rider Haggard, R. L. Stevenson, and Rudyard Kipling.
Tennyson and Other Poets.—In poetry two names stand out above the rest through the Victorian age. Tennyson, the most artistic of all poets, deservedly occupies the first place from the breadth of his range. His lyrics are the finest since Shelley; his Idylls of the King deserve the name of epic poetry; his dramas are finely conceived; and his In Memoriam sums up the religious aspirations of the time.
Robert Browning, massive and profound in thought, was of all modern poets the most full of pith, energy, and moral aspiration. Mrs. Browning may well be called the daughter of Shakespeare, for never did poet play more divinely upon the Æolian harp of the human heart. Walter Savage Landor exhibited the classical spirit, and Matthew Arnold had an unbroken elevation in his verse. Swinburne is a master of music and rhythm, Rossetti is a perfect artist in construction, while William Morris is a Spenserian singer cast upon a later age.
Among later poets of undoubted gifts are Alfred Austin, William Watson, Clough, Christina Rossetti, Coventry Patmore, and Sir Lewis Morris.
The dramas of Talfourd, Sheridan Knowles, R. H. Horne, Lord Lytton, and Sir Henry Taylor exhibited striking but widely varying merits.
The minor poetic singers and writers of fugitive verse of both sexes are too numerous for particularization.

Summary of English Literature

Note.—Titles of words in italics indicate that they are poetic or dramatic.

I. THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD, 449-1066

Author and Dates Representative Works Literary Characteristics

Unknown
700 Traveller’s Song Illustrates the sentiment of a wandering singer and the Anglo-Saxon’s love of home.

Unknown Beowulf An epic song, illustrating the powerful imagination of the race.

Unknown
700-1154 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Contains in addition to historical data, one or two war-songs: Battle of Malden, etc.

Caedmon
600-? Paraphrase of Scripture Showing how strong an appeal the Bible Story made to the reverence of the race.

Bede
673-735 Ecclesiastical History; Poems Inspired by early Christian sentiment.

Unknown
710-? Judith Paraphrase of Bible narrative.

Cynewulf
750-? Poems Serious poems of moral simplicity and power.

Alfred the Great
849-901 Translations Some original matter interpolated, e. g., narrative of Othere, versified by Longfellow.

Alcuin
735-804 Letters, Biographies; Christ, Elene Andreas, etc. Friend of Charlemagne. Wrote a comparatively pure Latin.

Ælfric
955-1020 Homilies, Grammar Writings in Latin; a man of power and sincerity.

II. THE NORMAN-FRENCH PERIOD, 1066-1400

William of Malmesbury
1095-1142 History of Kings of England Of some value as an original.

Geoffrey of Monmouth
1154 History of English Kings Largely legendary. The stories are rehashed in subsequent authors down to Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton.

Wace, Richard
1112-1184 Romance of Rollo; Brut d’Angleterre In reality a French trouvere though a subject of the King of England. First mention of Arthur’s Round Table.

Mapes, Walter
1143-1210 De Nugus Curialium; Queste de Saint Graal, etc. First mention of the Holy Grail.

Layamon
1150-1210 Chronicles of Britain A devout priest and the first to make the new English a literary medium.

Orm
1187-1237 Ormulum (paraphrase) Also English. Some of the homilies are simple and touching expressions of devotion.

Bacon, Roger
1214-1294 Natural Science Philosophy A man in advance of his age, he is said to have anticipated Francis Bacon in making experiment the basis of knowledge.

Gloucester, Robert of
13th Century Chronicle of England Valuable for giving outlines of history of Norman England.

Mandeville, Sir John
1300-1371 Travels Possibly a pen-name. His travels are an extraordinary farrago of invention and report.

Barbour, John
1316-1395 The Bruce Spirited and patriotic, loved by true Scotchmen.

Langland, William
1330-1400 Piers, the Plowman Extraordinary man of broad humanity. First expression of the voice of the poor.

Wycliffe, John
1324-1384 Translation of Bible A man of great power and sincerity. A philosopher and scholar.

Gower, John
1325-1408 Ballads; Lover’s Confession Friend of Chaucer. A voluminous poet, not of high rank.

CHAUCER, GEOFFREY
1330-1400 Canterbury Tales; Short poems A scholar. A poet of chivalry and a witty narrator of stories in verse. Introduced French and Italian metres. Equally eminent in description and characterization.

III. ENGLISH PERIOD TO THE TIME OF ELIZABETH, 1400-1559

James I. of Scotland
1394-1437 The King’s Quhair, (Choir, etc.) A decided poetic talent in the chivalric fashion.

Malory, Sir Thomas
1430 Morte d’Arthur Worked over a large part of the Arthurian legends in prose. The original for Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King.”

Caxton, William
1422-1492 The Game of Chess; Translation of the Æneid Introduced the Art of printing, brought out Malory’s book and made and published many translations and adaptations.

Dunbar, William
1460-1530 Thistle and Rose; Golden Terge The Scotch Chaucer; much inferior to Chaucer and less of a popular poet.

More, Sir Thomas
1478-1535 Utopia, Life of Edward V. A man of fine character. “Utopia” first written in Latin and translated into nervous English. Plan suggested, perhaps, by Plato’s “Republic.”

Tyndale, William
1484-1536 Translation of Bible On his translations of the Scriptures, later versions are founded.

Wyntoun, Andrew
15th Century Chronicle of Scotland Story of Wallace. Much admired by Walter Scott.

IV. THE ELIZABETHAN AND PURITAN PERIODS, 1559-1660

Wyatt, Sir Thomas
1503-1542 Sonnets and Lyrics Introduced with Howard the Italian forms; sonnet and madrigal, made Italian literature a new force in England.

Howard, Henry, Earl of Surrey
1517-1547 Translation of the Aeneid; Songs and Sonnets Introduced Italian forms and blank verse.

Foxe, John
1517-1587 Book of Martyrs His book had great influence in strengthening the reformers and was one of the literary influences on the Puritans who came to America.

Sackville, Thomas
1536-1608 Mirror for Magistrate A poet of force and imagination. Afterwards, as Lord Buckhurst, a courtier and politician, worked in collaboration with others and had a hand in first English Tragedy.

SPENCER, EDMUND
1552-1599 Fairie Queen; Shepherd’s Calendar Called the “poet’s poet.” Great in romantic allegory, the ode, and the sonnet.

Raleigh, Sir Walter
1552-1618 History of the World A politician and adventurer; friend of Spenser. Some fine passages in his work.

Hooker, Richard
1553-1600 Ecclesiastical Polity His prose has dignity and force. His book is the authority for the Church of England.

BACON, FRANCIS
1561-1626 Essays, Novum Organum Many beautiful and acute things in his essays and his philosophical works.

SHAKESPEARE, WM.
1564-1616 Dramas, Sonnets, (37 plays) Compounded of all writers best: wit, humor, characterizations, philosophy, musical phrase, power and construction.

Chapman, George
1559-1634 Translation of Homer Full of vigor and verve, especially his Homer.

JONSON, BEN
1574-1637 The Alchemist; Sejanus; Timber, etc. A scholar and literary man. A learned constructor of plays, had also the true lyrical faculty.

Beaumont, Francis
1584-1616 Dramas: Philaster; Maid - Well constructed plays but of a decidedly low moral tone. Beaumont is supposed to have been the more promising but died before Fletcher, who continued to produce plays alone, about forty.

Fletcher, John
1579-1625 Tragedy: Woman Hater; etc.

Burton, Robert
1577-1640 Anatomy of Melancholy Full of out-of-the-way learning and quotations bearing on the subject.

Herbert, George
1593-1633 The Temple, etc. Animated by a devotional spirit and an aesthetic spiritualism.

Herrick, Robert
1591-1674 Poems Lyrics, many of them of charming quality and ingenious construction.

Walton, Isaak
1593-1683 The Compleat Angler Prose of a delightful character, full of simple piety and love of out-door nature.

Fuller, Thomas
1608-1661 Church History of England, etc. A chronicle, with passages of wit or natural pathos.

MILTON, JOHN
1608-1674 Areopagitica: L’Allegro and Il Penseroso; Comus; Paradise Lost; Paradise Regained, etc. A poet, grave, learned, of mental dignity but gifted with musical power as much as Shakespeare.

Taylor, Jeremy
1613-1667 Holy Living, etc. The “Shakespeare of Divines.” Passages of rare poetic beauty and organ-like volume.

Baxter, Richard
1615-1691 Saint’s Rest One of the “Vade mecums” of the later Puritans. Earnest and sincere.

V. PERIOD OF THE RESTORATION TO THE RISE OF THE NOVEL, 1660-1740

BUNYAN, JOHN
1628-1688 Pilgrim’s Progress; Holy War Simple, idiomatic, with passages of rare beauty. Animated by simple, natural piety. A classic too much neglected.

Butler, Samuel
1612-1680 Hudibras A rhyming jingle, destitute of elevation but with here and there a witty couplet. Anti-Puritan throughout—favorite book of Charles II.

DRYDEN, JOHN
1631-1700 Virgil Translated; St. Cecilia’s Day, etc. A fine critic. The father of fluent prose. Many energetic lines of verse, especially in his satires. A man of fine talent but limited genius.

Pepys, Samuel
1633-1703 Diary His Diary, not intended to be public, throws light on the life and habits of a capable business man of the 18th century.

LOCKE, JOHN
1632-1704 On Human Understanding; Essays; Thoughts on Education, etc. A sound, practical thinker, whose works illustrate the common sense and unspiritual tone of his age.

Newton, Sir Isaac
1642-1727 Principia, etc. A great mathematician, he laid the foundation of our understanding of the mechanical structure of the universe.

Defoe, Daniel
1661-1731 Robinson Crusoe A born story-teller and pamphleteer.

Swift, Jonathan
1667-1745 Tale of a Tub; Gulliver’s Travels Unequalled as a satirist, and writer of allegories, in simple, nervous, idiomatic English.

Steele, Sir Richard
1672-1729 Essays (established the Tatler) A good second to Addison.

Addison, Joseph
1672-1719 Essays in The Tatler and The Spectator Originator of the Social essay marked by kindly, gentlemanlike humor in the urbane style.

Berkeley, Bishop
1684-1753 Philosophy A very acute thinker. English founder of one form of idealism.

Young, Edward
1683-1765 Night Thoughts Rather a ponderous poet, on semi-doctrinal subjects.

POPE, ALEXANDER
1688-1744 Essays on Man, etc. The model poet of his time and century. Used the decasyllabic couplet almost exclusively, but imparted to it vigor, pungency and some variety.

Butler, Bishop
1692-1752 Natural and Revealed Religion The orthodox moralist of his day, ponderous in style and commonplace in method.

Carey, Henry
1700-1743 Sally in our Alley, etc. A light gift of doggerel satire.

Thompson, James
1700-1748 The Seasons, etc. A delicate feeling for the quieter aspects of nature, harmoniously expressed.

VI. RISE OF THE NOVEL AND PERIOD OF ROMANTICISM, 1740-1837

Richardson, Samuel
1689-1761 Clarissa Harlowe; Pamela; Sir Chas. Grandison Sentimentally moral, but gifted with the story-telling faculty.

FIELDING, HENRY
1707-1754 Tom Jones; Amelia; Jonathan Wild, etc. Depicts life broadly and faithfully. The first great realistic novelist.

Johnson, Samuel
1709-1784 Dictionary; Rasselas; Lives of the Poets A man of eighteenth century learning and letters. The critical authority of his day.

HUME, DAVID
1711-1776 History of England The first learned historian of England. A philosopher of acumen.

Sterne, Laurence
1713-1768 Tristram Shandy; Sentimental Journey A writer in whom affectation becomes an art. Some pathetic passages have become classic.

Gray, Thomas
1716-1771 Elegy in Country Churchyard, etc. A scholar-poet. Production limited, but of fine workmanship.

Smollet, T. George
1721-1771 Humphrey Clinker, Roderick Random, etc. Originator of the Sea-Story. Inclined to vulgar coarseness.

Akenside, Mark
1721-1770 Pleasures of the Imagination A man of scholarship and culture, who wrote poetry without a decided gift.

Smith, Adam
1723-1790 Wealth of Nations The first great economist. The moderns hardly equal to him in natural keenness of insight.

Goldsmith, Oliver
1728-1774 Vicar of Wakefield; Essays; She Stoops to Conquer; Deserted Village, etc. A true and graceful touch both in prose and poetry. Makes hack-work literature. Supposed to be the original compiler of “Mother Goose’s Melodies.”

Blackstone, Sir William
1723-1780 Commentaries on Laws of England Learned and careful, with conception of the dignity of law.

Burke, Edmund
1729-1797 Essays, Orations Prose, sometimes musical and poetical and at the same time, a statesman’s grasp of principle.

GIBBON, EDWARD
1737-1794 Decline and Fall of Roman Empire A pains-taking and learned historian. Constructive powers of broad scope.

Boswell, James
1740-1795 Life of Samuel Johnson The true reporter’s instinct for the point of a story. Otherwise, a toady.

COWPER, WILLIAM
1731-1800 The Task; John Gilpin; etc. Divests poetry of the affectations of Pope. Writes on simple themes.

Paley, William
1743-1805 Evidence of Christianity, Natural Theology A cognent reasoner on the old premises.

More, Hannah
1745-1833 Coelebs in Search of a Wife; Sacred Dramas Something of a minor poet, something of a dramatist and story-teller.

Sheridan, Richard B.
1751-1816 Speeches; The Rivals; School for Scandal; Song; etc. Writer of witty dialogue and constructor of telling stage situations. Comedies still acted.

BURNS, ROBERT
1759-1796 Cotter’s Saturday Night, etc. Lyrics, songs and satires in Scotch dialect, marked by music, pathos and wit.

Edgeworth, Maria
1767-1849 Popular Tales, etc. Stories of middle-class domestic life of excellent moral tone and some power of characterization.

WORDSWORTH, WM.
1770-1850 The Excursion; Poems Nature poems and descriptive poems. Many fine sonnets. First expression of modern feeling for nature.

Hogg, James
1770-1835 Shepherd’s Calendar; Pastorals Scotch verses. One or two lyrics of sweetness and simplicity.

Montgomery, James
1771-1854 Hymns, Poems A man universally esteemed; best remembered now for his hymns of which some hundred are found in our Hymnals.

SCOTT, SIR WALTER
1771-1832 Waverly Novels, etc. Lady of the Lake, etc. Originator of the historical novel. Tone natural and wholesome. Secure in the estimation of posterity.

Smith, Sidney
1771-1845 Sermons, Essays, etc. A witty divine. Master of the expository style.

Coleridge, Samuel T.
1772-1834 Essays; Rhyme of Ancient Mariner, etc. A man of remarkable gifts, both intellectual and poetic; a natural master of verbal melody.

Southey, Robert
1774-1843 Biographies of Nelson, Wesley; Poems, etc. A man of industry and worth. Better as a prose stylist than a poet.

Lamb, Charles
1775-1834 Essays of Elia, etc. A quaint and delicate essayist— friend of Coleridge.

Landor, Walter Savage
1775-1864 Imaginary Conversations, etc. Count Julian; Heroic Idyls, etc. Classic scholar and writer. Reactionary and old-fashioned in his thought but a remarkable stylist.

Austen, Jane
1775-1817 Pride and Prejudice, Emma, etc. Her novels depicting upper middle-class life are delightfully realistic and full of quiet life.

Porter, Jane
1776-1850 Scottish Chiefs, Thaddeus of Warsaw Novels in an antiquated style of exaggerated romance.

Campbell, Thomas
1777-1844 Pleasures of Hope, Lyrics, etc. Something of a critic, his lyrics have much vigor and verve.

Hallam, Henry
1777-1859 Europe during Middle Ages, Introduction to Literature, Constitutional History of England Strong, vigorous, historical writing from a standpoint now antiquated.

Hazlitt, William
1778-1830 Table Talk, English Poets, etc. Critical essays; contain some true eloquence, and many powerful phrases.

Moore, Thomas
1779-1852 Biographies; Lalla Rookh, Irish Melodies, etc. Songs of much melody, but of an unreal sentimentality.

De Quincey, Thomas
1785-1859 Confessions of an Opium Eater, etc. Passages of magnificent color. A learned man, lacking in sound realistic judgment.

Hunt, Leigh
1784-1859 Essays, Sketches, Memoirs; Poems A minor poet. A literateur of appreciation rather than of creative power.

Wilson, John
1785-1854 Noctes Ambrosiannae, etc.; Poems A virile man. As a writer, “of his age, not for all time” nor indeed for an entire century.

Peacock, Thos. L.
1785-1866 Crotchet Castle, Rododaphne, etc. A literatteur, novel writer, and verse writer of wit and epigrammatic power but no constructor.

Byron, Lord
1788-1824 Poems Vigorous, eloquent, sardonic, iconoclastic, lacking in divine sympathy. A great satirist, and in many regards a great poet.

SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE
1792-1822 Queen Mab, Adonais, The Sky Lark, etc. A remarkable gift of lyrical melody. Full of generous impulse and the unbalanced judgment of youth. A genius.

Marryat, Capt. Fred
1792-1848 Peter Simple, Jacob Faithful, etc. Boy’s stories but evincing considerable narrative skill.

Hemans, Felicia
1793-1835 Lyrics A minor poet of grace, sweetness and tenderness.

Grote, George
1794-1871 History of Greece A learned and sound historian, but superseded by modern exact research.

Arnold, Thomas
1795-1842 Roman History, Sermons, Essays A man of wide influence as head-master of Rugby. An historian of the old school.

Keats, John
1795-1821 Endymion, Hyperion, etc. A true poet, dying too young to reach full fruition of his remarkable artistic powers.

Pollock, Robert
1798-1827 Course of Time A poet, sound, serious and heavy; suits Scotch theologians.

Hood, Thomas
1798-1845 Poems A humorous poet of the first rank; some pathetic verses of high quality.

VII. THE VICTORIAN PERIOD TO THE PRESENT, 1837- ——

Lover, Samuel
1797-1868 Handy Andy, Rory O’More; Songs, Ballads A writer of slap-dash Irish and other good stories.

CARLYLE, THOMAS
1795-1881 French Revolution, Cromwell, etc. A very great though one-sided man. A prose poet, an historian of insight and industry, impatient of shams.

Macaulay, Thomas B.
1800-1859 Essays, History of England; Lays of Ancient Rome He makes history alive and readable. A partisan but on the right side.

James, G. P. R.
1801-1860 Novels (historical) Historical novels of an antiquated pattern, popular in their day for good reasons.

Miller, Hugh
1802-1856 Old Red Sandstone, Schools and Schoolmasters, etc. A self-made scientific geologist, who did good service in popularizing science.

Praed, Winthrop Mackworth
1802-1839 The Vicar; The Red Fisherman The best writer of “Society Verse,” urbane, cultured, witty. His verses are beautifully finished.

Martineau, Harriet
1802-1876 Political Economy, etc. A woman of remarkably strong intellect. Her positions well argued but perhaps too radical.

Lytton, Sir Edward Bulwer
1803-1873 Last Days of Pompeii, Last of the Barons, etc. A versatile and successful literatteur, successful in several forms of the novel, but pre-eminent in none.

Disraeli, Benjamin
1804-1881 Lothair, Vivian Grey, etc. Society novels eminently readable but thoroughly artificial.

Martineau, James
1805-1900 Philosophical Works, etc. A philosophical thinker of insight and honesty.

Mill, John Stuart
1806-1873 Political Economy Of thorough intellectual honesty and diamond-clear intellect, he furthered the cause of political justice and personal freedom.

Lever, Charles
1806-1872 Tom Burker, Charles O’Malley, etc. Irish tales full of pith and spirit.

DARWIN, CHARLES
1809-1882 Origin of Species, Descent of Man Lucid and attractive in style, and an unflinching lover of truth; he has had a greater influence on thought than any man of his time.

Milnes, Richard Monckton (Lord Houghton)
1809-1885 Life and Remains of Keats; Poems, legendary and historical A man of culture not without distinction as a minor poet. A true lover of literature.

FitzGerald, Edward
1809-1883 Euphranor, etc.; The Rubaiyat The Rubaiyat is the only instance where a translation of a classic equals the original.—FitzGerald was one of the last of the “Letter Writers.”

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
1806-1861 Aurora Leigh, Poems A pleasing lyrical gift and warm, human sympathy made her a favorite poetess in the Victorian era.

TENNYSON, ALFRED
1809-1892 In Memoriam, Idyls of the King The national poet of the late 19th century; a painstaking artist and master of verbal melody.

Kinglake, Alex. William
1809-1890 Eothen A brilliant historian of the Crimean war.

Gaskell, Elizabeth
1810-1865 Cranford, Mary Barton, etc. A writer of charming quiet feminine humor. One of the first to make the economic problems the basis of a story.

Thackeray, William Makepeace
1811-1863 Vanity Fair, The Newcomes Satirist and humorist, but with great powers of characterization, especially of the every-day social elements.

Dickens, Charles
1812-1870 David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, etc. A broader humorist than Thackeray, appealing to the common human sympathies and the ordinary sense of the ridiculous.

BROWNING, ROBERT
1812-1889 Dramatic Lyrics, Poems, The Ring and the Book A powerful poet, intent more on subtlety than lucidity, intellectual rather than sympathetic.

Reade, Charles
1814-1884 Peg Woffington, Cloister and Hearth, etc. A vigorous narrator, animated by hatred of injustice. Analysis of human motives, superficial.

Rawlinson, George
1815-1902 Five Great Monarchies A learned Assyrian and Oriental scholar.

Trollope, Anthony
1815-1882 Barchester Towers, etc. Admirably realistic presentation of English society, political and ecclesiastical.

Froude, James Anthony
1818-1894 History of England A brilliant prose writer, makes history human and interesting and suggestive.

Kingsley, Charles
1819-1875 Hypatia, etc.; Poems His novels, in spite of slight affectations and a taint of sentimentality, are vigorous and wholesome.

Ruskin, John
1819-1900 Stones of Venice, Modern Painters A great stylist. As art-critic too subjective and governed by the moral suggestiveness of the object. As political economist, too idealistic and regardless of human nature.

Bronte, Charlotte
1816-1855 Jane Eyre, The Professor, etc. Great power in her novels which, however, are based on narrow experience.

SPENCER, HERBERT
1820-1903 First Principles, etc. Applied principle of evolution to sociology, history, etc. A thinker, but ponderous in style.

Eliot, George
1819-1880 Silas Marner, etc., Spanish Gypsy, Poems The greatest woman novelist. A realist with insight. Powers of wit and characterization; construction not remarkable.

Tyndall, John
1820-1893 Scientific Papers Unsurpassed as a popularizer of Darwin’s ideas, unless it be by Huxley.

Arnold, Matthew
1822-1888 Essays and Criticisms; Sohrab and Rustum, etc. Critic and poet. Liberal in thought but dominated by aristocratic prejudice on the literary side. As a poet, inclined to despairing pessimism; weak in the power of verbal melody.

Muller, Max
1823-1900 Science of Language, etc. Did much to spread knowledge of the general facts and principles of philology and Oriental learning.

Freeman, Edward A.
1823-1892 Histories A conscientious, honest, painstaking historian, destitute of the power to make his subject interesting except to himself.

Hughes, Thomas
1823-1896 Tom Brown at Oxford, etc. A manly, breezy person, who wrote one good book for boys.

Collins, Wilkie
1824-1889 Woman in White, etc. Unsurpassed as a constructor of plots, i. e. born story-teller, not misled by psychological analysis.

Macdonald, George
1824-1905 Sir Gibbie, Alec Forbes, etc. Wrote many novels showing some power of writing dialogue. Essentially of his day.

Huxley, Thomas Henry
1825-1895 Man’s Place in Nature A master of exposition and, with Tyndall, very effective in presenting the idea of evolution.

Blackmore, R. D.
1825-1900 Lorna Doone, etc. Infused an element of romance into the modern novel, “Lorna Doone.”

Bagehot, Walter
1826-1877 Physics and Politics Original, sound, and striking on political and economic topics.

Mulock, Dinah Naria
1826-1887 John Halifax, etc. Author of some twenty novels of which “John Halifax” is the best. Also of pleasing minor verse.

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel
1828-1882 The Blessed Damozel, etc. A highly imaginative poet; a master of color in verse and on canvas.

Oliphant, Margaret
1828-1897 Chronicles of Carlingford, etc. Novels of middle-class life, of excellent tone, full of quiet observation. Plots, slight, but hold the attention.

Meredith, George
1828-1910 The Egoist, Diana of the Crossways, etc. Novels of extraordinary power. Style epigrammatic and not attractive.

McCarthy, Justin
1830-1912 History of our own Times, Novels A prolific journalist, novelist and historian of modern times.

Ingelow, Jean
1820-1897 Poems, High Tide on Coast of Lincolnshire A charming lyrical talent, of limited productive power.

Meredith, Owen
1831-1891 Biography of Bulwer Lytton; Lucile Fluent writer of light verse and society verse.

Arnold, Edwin
1832-1904 Light of Asia, Poems An able journalist and prolific minor poet.

Seeley, John Robert
1834-1895 Ecce Homo, etc. An able historical writer, his “Ecce homo” had considerable influence on contemporary philosophies—religious thought.

Morris, William
1834-1896 Essays on Art, etc.; Poems, Earthly Paradise Prolific as a narrative poet, fond of classic and medieval legends. As a poet, more fluent than thoughtful.

Hamerton, Philip I.
1834-1894 Intellectual Life An excellent critic of pictorial art and interpreter of French life and character for Englishmen.

Green, John Richard
1837-1883 History of the English People Industrious and conscientious, he viewed the “History of the English People” as something more than a record of war and politics. Clear and simple as a stylist.

Swineburne, Algernon Chas.,
1837-1909 Poems A poet of remarkable musical power, a master of headlong but involved prose, a critic of enthusiasm and eloquence, caring little for principles or reasoned judgment.

Bryce, James
1838- American Commonwealth, Holy Roman Empire A writer on politics of great common sense and statesmanlike scope. A trustworthy authority.

Besant, Walter
1838-1901 East London, etc., Novels A voluminous writer of novels, his History of London is a real contribution of knowledge of the past.

Morley, John
1838- English Men of Letters A sound literary historian and critic and a thinker of force and scope.

Pater, Walter Horatio
1839-1891 Marius the Epicurean, etc. A wonderfully finished prose style which sometimes diverts attention from the justness and beauty of the thought.

Dobson, Henry Austin
1840- Vignettes in Rhyme, Proverbs in Porcelain The English Horace. An authority on eighteenth century social and literary life. Charming light verses.

Hardy, Thomas
1840- Tess of D’Urbeville, etc., Novels Novels depicting country life. A writer of broad humanity. His books possess at once wit, realism and an idyllic quality.

Black, William
1841-1898 In Silk Attire, etc., Novels His stories have considerable charm but not much force. They depict Gaelic Scotland pleasantly but unconvincingly.

Buchanan, Robert W.
1841-1901 Alone in London; Poems A minor poet and dramatist of considerable output. Known for his mistaken attack on Rossetti in “The Fleshly School of Poetry.”

Stevenson, Robert Louis
1850-1894 Essays, Novels; Child’s Garden of Verses, etc. Careful and finished as a stylist, an excellent story-teller: “Treasure Island” and his Scottish Tales are true classics.

Zangwill, Israel
1864- Novels, Dramas, Essays As Jew, an exponent of the Zionistic movement. Successful in the essay and especially in the novels depicting Jewish scenes and characters.

Kipling, Rudyard
1865- Stories, Novels, Poems A vigorous, audacious, efficient writer. The most original genius among English literary men of today.

Phillips, Stephen
1868- Ulysses, Paolo and Francesca A writer of lyric tragedies in blank verse, akin in spirit to to the French classic drama.

American Literature

The development of American literature may be treated under three distinctly marked periods: (1) a colonial or ante-revolutionary period (1620-1775), during which the literature of the colonies was closely assimilated in form and character to that of England; (2) a first American period (1775-1865), which witnessed the transition from a style for the most part imitative to one in some degree national; and (3) a second American period from 1865 to the present time, in which the literature of the country has assumed a more decided character of originality.

The Colonial Period, 1620-1775

The literary traditions of the United States were in large part inherited from England. Although from the time of the Stuart restoration in England, in 1660, there are indications of a divergence in social and political temper, which in the long run must find expression in a distinct American literature, yet the literary emancipation of America was much more gradual than the political.
The first literature in America was the product of men educated in other lands, who happened to be drawn to the New World, and who wrote about the new country.
The first work of broad interest concerning the colonies that subsequently became the United States was the famous Captain John Smith’s True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia. This is an interesting and romantic work; but Smith was in America for three years only of his adventurous life, and consequently his narrative is highly colored. The History of the Plymouth Plantation, by Governor Bradford, and the History of New England, by John Winthrop, are productions of a colder clime than Virginia and of a less glowing imagination than Captain John Smith’s.
Aside from such records, more interesting always from the standpoint of history than from that of literature, the sum of colonial production, north or south, is very small. In New England, where most books were written, if not always there published, we find chiefly theological polemics, often presented with attractive titles but rarely with any other power to carry them to posterity.
The Poems of Anne Bradstreet were very highly praised in their day, but almost the only book of lasting value and interest written in the century was Cotton Mather’s Magnalia Christi Americana (1702). Mather was one of a great clerical and literary family. He wrote many other books, but none retains the interest of posterity. The Magnalia, however, is still a noble monument of a wonderful generation.
Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac, begun in 1732 and carried on by him for twenty-five years, was a book of almost literary rank. “Poor Richard” was a fictitious character in whose mouth Franklin put a simple philosophy which became as widely popular in its sphere as the more scholarly utterances of the Spectator.
The two great literary figures of the eighteenth century may be properly considered together. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) may represent to us the passing domination of theology; Benjamin Franklin, the domination just beginning of politics and secular common sense. They are the first Americans to make a lasting reputation by letters, and, curiously enough, with each literature was but a means to an end.
The remarkable effect of the preaching and writing of Jonathan Edwards came largely from the direct simplicity and clearness which makes his style almost no style at all. As for Franklin, he learned to write systematically, as he did everything else, and regarded his power to express himself chiefly as one of the means whereby he accomplished his purposes for the good of society. Edward’s great works on the Freedom of the Will and other theological topics are probably read now by few, and the same may be said of much of Franklin’s writings. But Franklin’s Autobiography is still one of the most interesting things of its kind. Both men belonged to the time and place: America was expressing herself, whether in literary form or not.
In the years preceding the Revolution another real opportunity opened, and oratory became one of the genuine modes of national expression. Patrick Henry, James Otis, John Adams, Joseph Warren, Richard Henry Lee, Samuel Adams, spoke under the best conditions for literature, because they had something that had to be said. Yet their eloquence now is more a matter of fame than of fact. Of some, hardly more than a few slight reports remain to give us a notion of the powers that fired an earlier generation. This summary of colonial literature gives an idea of a very meagre literary production that was but natural. There was little written in America, and that little was compelled by the practical issues of the politics or theology of the time.
We shall readily understand that though such a review indicates slight literary appreciation as we understand the term, it does not imply a lack of intelligence. If the colonists had been less intelligent they might have produced more literature. Folk poetry and legend, with which true literature is apt to begin, is not the result of education.
The Americans were, comparatively speaking, a well-educated people. They very early provided for that literary scholarship training which comes from scholastic training. The colleges of the colonies, Harvard (1636), William and Mary (1693), Yale (1701), Princeton (chartered as the College of New Jersey, 1746), Columbia (originally King’s, 1754), Brown (College of Rhode Island, 1764), Rutgers (originally Queens, 1766), Dartmouth (1769), and the University of Pennsylvania (founded as an academy by Franklin, 1754; chartered 1779), show a great appreciation of learning on the part of the colonists.
A somewhat wider if less scholastic culture is evidenced by the foundation of libraries, the Library Company of Philadelphia (1731), the Redwood Library of Newport (1747), the Charleston Library (1748), and the New York Society Library (1754), being the earliest.

First National Period, 1775-1865

The two decades that brought the eighteenth century to a close were full of exciting political events, but barren of literature. The fathers could make a nation by adopting a constitution and abiding by it, but the creation of a national literature was not so easy a matter. National poetry did not come with national life. The efforts of Trumbull (1750-1831), and Barlow (1754-1812), are as good as the ordinary poetical work of the time in England, but they are not the expression of the soul of the new nation.
The first real literature was in prose, arising from natural imitation of past models under conditions of culture which led to appreciation of such imitation.
Washington Irving, then twenty-four years old, living the pleasant life of a clever young fellow in a small provincial city, joined with his brother William and James Kirke Paulding in one of the periodicals modeled after the Spectator common in the eighteenth century. Their venture was called Salmagundi, and although not remarkable in itself, its success gave confidence, so that two years afterward, feeling his own power, Irving wrote Knickerbocker’s History of New York, one of the first pieces of American belles-lettres to become known in Europe as well as America. These productions came naturally from the conditions of Irving’s life; so did the Sketch Book, with which he became a professed man of letters, the representative, we may say, of the first period of our national literature.
Irving had pre-eminently the gift for literary expression; in his hands everything became literature—history, biography, descriptive as well as satire, story, essay. He showed the possibility of giving literary form to American material.
The same thing was done in a special department of literature by James Fenimore Cooper. Charles Brockden Brown had written novels, but they have not survived. Cooper, on the other hand, so far saw the essential quality of certain elements of American life, that the figures of Leatherstocking, the American pioneer, Harvey Birch, the patriot, and Long Tom Coffin, the sailor, are still living figures.
In fiction also two masters of equal power were shortly to develop a form of literature in which America has produced much of the first order. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe made of the short story a means of artistic presentation, which has been more highly appreciated in our day than it was in their own.
The first true poet was William Cullen Bryant. In the same year with Cooper’s first American novel (1821) appeared a volume of Bryant’s poems, of which one at least, Thanatopsis, had already excited admiring attention. Bryant’s long and honorable life was devoted to many interests beside poetry, but he maintained throughout the pure and idealistic touch, and the intimate appreciation of nature that characterized his first work.
The first quarter of the nineteenth century, then, saw a beginning, slight indeed, but such as to endure, of a true literature in the departments of poetry, fiction, belles-lettres. The fifty years following saw more substantial production in each direction.
The American poets of the middle of the century are not of the very first rank, but each is genuinely representative of some true poetic quality or way of looking at things.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow presents the beauty and charm of American life and history in melodious and figured verse; John Greenleaf Whittier expresses the soul of our life and history in lyrics of most sincere human quality; Edgar Allan Poe gives a few most intense emotions in singularly perfect and individual form, while Walt Whitman expresses a certain American ideality in a strange mode of utterance, which despite its faults is characteristically strong.
As a poet Lowell is at his best in satire, Holmes in wit, Emerson in sententious wisdom.
In the field of fiction there was not so much that was good. It was not till he had written short stories for twenty years that Hawthorne found time for the novel for which he had so long felt himself capable. He wrote four, of which three at least are masterpieces. As a novelist he had no rivals; but there were not a few who carried on the tradition of the short story, of whom the most noteworthy were Fitz James O’Brien (1828-1862), Harriet Prescott, 1835 (afterward Mrs. Spofford), and Edward Everett Hale. The Diamond Lens, The Amber Gods, and The Man Without a Country of the latter are very typical works.
In history also there was first-rate expression. George Bancroft, William H. Prescott, John Lothrop Motley, and Francis Parkman, were all original workers and all men of literary power. The first two were rather too much influenced by the literary ideals of the past, but Motley and Parkman attain a perfection of literary history which seems impossible in our day of development and division of labor.
More specifically American, though perhaps more temporary, is the oratory of the period. Political conditions were still such as to encourage eloquence. Three names stand together as representative of American public life: Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun. Their oratory has dignity, representative character and force. Three other orators should be mentioned: Edward Everett, Wendell Phillips, and Henry Ward Beecher, one eminent on great public occasions, one in public discussion and agitation, and the third in the pulpit. And we must add the name of a speaker whose simple sincerity gave him at times a greater power of speech than that of any other man of his day, Abraham Lincoln.
Several other elements of the literature of this time are important. The New England movement of idealistic thought, somewhat expressed by Transcendentalism, is represented by Ralph Waldo Emerson, a figure more thoroughly characteristic of American thinking than any other writer. Singularly individual and different from any other man of his time, he is yet typical of a combination of ideality and common sense thoroughly American.
James Russell Lowell is another important figure of the period: noteworthy as a poet, a critic, a scholar, an essayist, he is especially interesting as the successor of Irving as the representative man of his literary generation. He made literature an active factor in life and yet never allowed it to lose its literary quality.
Oliver Wendell Holmes is best known as a humorist, and perhaps the most American in that field in which America has a very special place. Humor is more than most branches of literature a matter of taste. It must be enough, therefore, to note, without attempting to discriminate or describe, the achievements of Artemus Ward (1834-1867), of Mark Twain and of Frank R. Stockton (1834-1902). In this second period of our literature occurred the Civil war. Such an event could not have been without its effect upon men of letters both South and North. In the North especially do we perceive the strongest influence: the anti-slavery element cannot be dissociated from the work of Lowell or Whittier. Yet in literature the war produced little of permanence. It is the backbone of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s title to remembrance; but powerfully effective as was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, it is probable that there was more real genius in those presentations of that old New England life of which she was herself a product.

Second National Period, 1865- ——

In considering the period from the Civil war to the present, the most remarkable thing is the great increase of production and the slight accession to the rolls of genius. Such is especially the case with fiction; there have been very many good novels and short stories written, but there is no such commanding personality as Hawthorne.
The two chief figures of the seventies and eighties, at least, were Henry James and William Dean Howells. With great differences, they are yet both masters of the realistic school which was dominant in the second half of the century, in Europe as well as in America. Their superiority might remain unquestioned, were it not for the decline of interest in the kind of novel in which they excelled. In the early eighties a change in tone was perceptible.
The first noteworthy American representative of romantic or idealistic fiction which then began to appear was Marion Crawford, who has retained power and popularity for twenty-five years. He and a few other innovators were followed by a number of writers who found and presented the charm and romance of American history. These have now in their turn passed away except Winston Churchill who would seem really to have more enduring power than his companions. But the realistic movement was not without its results, for it directed American novelists, and especially story writers, into an appreciation of the specific qualities of different parts of their country.
The first writer to have this especial flavor was, it is true, the romanticist Bret Harte. His followers were more realistic: George Washington Cable gave a charming presentation of Creole life in New Orleans, and since the Grandissimes (1880) there have been a great number who have drawn pictures of the especial life of particular localities. Most noteworthy of these are Miss Mary N. Murfree (“Charles Egbert Craddock”), Miss Mary E. Wilkins (now Mrs. Freeman), James Lane Allen, Thomas Nelson Page, and Hamlin Garland.

If we are to mention any other novelist of the present day whose work seems likely to endure, it must be Mrs. Edith Wharton, who rather continues the traditions of Henry James.
In poetry no one has for forty years appeared who has been considered the equal of the earlier generation. Sidney Lanier and Edmund Clarence Stedman will probably be considered the chief figures of the seventies, while Richard Hovey (1864-1900) and James Whitcomb Riley are superior to their later contemporaries.
There has been much history in recent years, and if there are no historians of the rank of Motley and Parkman, the reason may lie in the difference that has come into the methods of historical study. John Fiske was a philosopher before he became a historian. Justin Winsor was a master of authorities, and his labors as an editor rendered possible one of the characteristic productions of the time, the Narrative and Critical History of America, written by a number of special scholars. Of other contemporary writers most noteworthy are probably Henry C. Lea, whose works deal with different phrases of the history of civilization, and Captain A. T. Mahan, whose studies of the influence of sea power on history have attracted the attention of the world.
Coincidently, a new school of humor has risen in the writing of F. P. Dunne, creator of the sagacious Mr. Dooley, and George Ade, author of Fables in Slang. Earlier humorists, aside from “Mark Twain” and Charles F. Browne (“Artemus Ward”), are Henry W. Shaw (“Josh Billings”) (1818-1885), Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908), the author of Uncle Remus’ Stories, amusing dialect fantasies. In the summary of American literature one can hardly omit the names of Sarah Margaret Fuller (“Ossoli”), R. H. Dana, author of Two Years Before the Mast, and Donald G. Mitchell, author of Reveries of a Bachelor and Dream Life.
Recent and contemporary historians and essayists deserving of mention are T. W. Higginson, C. E. Norton, and William James.
Another form of writing should be mentioned, though its results are perhaps too ephemeral to be called literature. The newspaper is, however, a very important part of everybody’s reading. It has been learning, however, to appeal more and more to an enormously wide audience, with the result that whatever literary character it may have had is now hard to find. In the middle of the century certain great editors had very definite literary standing, as Bryant of the New York Evening Post, Henry J. Raymond (1820-1869) of the Times, Horace Greeley (1811-1872) of the Tribune. Later figures must include Charles A. Dana (1819-1897), who gave a very distinctive character to the Sun; James Gordon Bennett (1841) of the Herald, and E. L. Godkin (1831-1902) of the New York Evening Post, and Henry Watterson of the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Summary of American Literature

Note.—Poetic and dramatic writings are indicated by italics.

Author and Dates Representative Works Literary Characteristics

John Smith
Virginia—1580-1631 True Relation of Virginia A romantic recital of thrilling adventures.

William Bradford
Plymouth Col.—1588-1657 History of Plymouth Plantation A full and clearly written account to 1649.

John Winthrop
Massachusetts—1590-1649 History of New
England—1630-1649 A simple, personal narrative, with occasional freshness of style.

Anne Bradstreet
Massachusetts—1613-1672 Poems; The Tenth Muse An affected and cumbersome didactic poem.

Henry Norwood
Virginia—1628-1670(?) A Voyage to Virginia Surprisingly well written in parts, and informative.

William Penn
Pennsylvania—1644-1718 Brief Account of Pennsylvania Confidently religious and philanthropic in tone.

James Blair
Virginia—1656-1742 Sermons, No Cross, No Crown Comparatively modern prose, written with pious zeal.

Cotton Mather
Massachusetts—1663-1728 Elegy of Rev. Nathaniel Collins, Sermons, etc. Voluminous ecclesiastical writings of “pedantic and fantastic quaintness.”

William Byrd
Virginia—1674-1744 The Dividing Line, and other tracts Full of fresh, humorous observations on life.

Robert Beverly
Virginia—1675-1716 History of Virginia A straightforward narrative of slightly polemic purpose.

Jonathan Edwards
Connecticut—1703-1758 Sermons, Surprising Conversions, etc. Strong and highly imaginative proclamations of Calvinism.

Benjamin Franklin
Pennsylvania—1706-1790 Poor Richard’s Almanac, Autobiography Wise and sagacious utterances of a fair, avowed utilitarian.

Thomas Jefferson
Virginia—1743-1826 Notes on Virginia, Declaration of Independence Full of wise foresight and keen acumen.

John Marshall
Virginia—1755-1835 Life of Washington, Decisions, etc. Profound and wise, but rather heavy.

Alexander Hamilton
New York—1757-1804 Contributions to the Federalist Keen and ingenious, full of information.

Alexander Wilson
Scotland—1766-1813 American Ornithology Pioneer investigations of a shrewd observer.

Charles Brockden Brown
Pennsylvania—1771-1810 Wieland, Ormond, etc. Weird and sensational, of the Godwin type.

William Wirt
Maryland—1772-1834 Life of Patrick Henry, Letters of a British Spy Interesting and informative, but also imaginative.

Robert Treat Paine
Massachusetts—1773-1811 Adams and Liberty; Poems Superficial, but of noticeable metrical facility.

Henry Clay
Kentucky—1777-1852 Speeches, Letters Attractive because of personality and power.

Washington Allston
South Carolina—1779-1843 Art Lectures; Poems Highly artistic in intent and achievement.

James Kirk Paulding
New York—1779-1860 Novels Romances of little present interest.

Francis Scott Key
Maryland—1780-1843 Poems, Star Spangled Banner, etc. The chief poem is a national song of patriotic ardor.

William E. Channing
Massachusetts—1780-1842 Addresses, Sermons, Essays Social papers, clear, tolerant, thoughtful.

John James Audubon
Louisiana—1780-1851 Birds of America, Quadrupeds of America Marked by keen observation and wide interest.

John C. Calhoun
South Carolina—1782-1850 Speeches, Papers, etc. Forceful in logical thinking and clear exposition.

Daniel Webster
New Hampshire—1782-1852 Orations Elevated in thought and eloquent.

Thomas Hart Benton
North Carolina—1782-1858 Thirty Years View Rich and racy observations of wide experience.

Washington Irving
New York—1783-1859 Knickerbocker’s History of New York, Sketch Book, etc. Humorous, with delicate sentiment and grace.

Richard Henry Dana
Massachusetts—1787-1879 Poems, The Buccaneer, etc. Overambitious and not wholly successful.

James Fenimore Cooper
New Jersey—1789-1851 Leather Stocking Tales, The Spy, etc. Romantic and overfortunate in coincidence, but readable.

Jared Sparks
Connecticut—1789-1866 American Biographies Commendable efforts of a pioneer biographer.

Fitz Greene Halleck
Connecticut—1790-1867 Poems, Marco Bozzaris, etc. Frankly humorous and delightfully fresh.

George Ticknor
1791-1871 History of Spanish Literature Scholarly and authentic.

John Howard Payne
New York—1792-1852 Home Sweet Home, Poems Universal in appeal and satisfying in form.

Samuel G. Goodrich
Connecticut—1793-1860 Peter Parley Books Popular introductions with a flavor of fiction.

William Cullen Bryant
Massachusetts—1794-1878 Addresses, Letters; Poems, Thanatopsis Dignified and poised, serious and helpful.

Joseph Rodman Drake
New York—1795-1820 The Culprit Fay, Poems Cleverly executed, but ingeniously fanciful.

James G. Percival
Connecticut—1795-1856 Poems; Prometheus, etc. Unsustained, though not without positive merits.

John Pendleton Kennedy
Maryland—1795-1870 Swallow Barn, Horse Shoe Robinson, etc. Old-fashioned but interesting pictures of southern life.

WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT
Massachusetts—1796-1859 Conquest of Peru, Ferdinand and Isabella, etc. Excellent history, very interestingly told.

Amos Bronson Alcott
Massachusetts—1799-1888 Concord Days, Table Talks; Sonnets and Canzonets Suggestingly idealistic, but lacking in general interest.

George Bancroft
Massachusetts—1800-1891 History of the United States Faithfully prepared and honestly presented.

Horace Bushnell
Connecticut—1802-1876 Nature and the Supernatural, Work and Play Serious, didactic efforts with spiritual purpose.

George D. Prentice
Connecticut—1802-1870 Essays; Poems Witty, sarcastic, daring and effective.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Mass.—1803-1882 Conduct of Life, Representative Men, Essays; Poems The prophet of American culture. Coalesces oriental conceptions and occidental individualism.

Jacob Abbott
Maine—1803-1879 Rollo Books Popular favorites of unsophisticated youth.

NATHAN’L HAWTHORNE
Massachusetts—1804-1864 Twice Told Tales, Scarlet Letter, Marble Faun, etc. Marked by a subtle mastery and the touch of genius.

Charles E. A. Gayarré
Louisiana—1805-1895 History of Louisiana, Fernando de Lemos, etc. Entertaining and scholarly bilingual productions.

Nathaniel P. Willis
Maine—1806-1867 Poems; Sketches, Editorials, etc. Skillfully elaborated but diminishing in fame.

William Gilmore Simms
South Carolina—1806-1870 Poems; Novels, Biography, etc. Versatile, original and artistic.

HENRY W. LONGFELLOW
Maine—1807-1882 Outre Mer, Hyperion, Poems, Hiawatha, etc. Popular in appeal and simple in form.

John G. Whittier
Massachusetts—1807-1892 Editorials; Household Poems With Burns’ love of nature and human nature.

EDGAR ALLAN POE
Maryland—1809-1849 Tales; Poems, Raven, Annabel Lee, etc. Excellent in artistic “totality of effect.”

Albert Pike
Massachusetts—1809-1891 Hymns to the Gods, Poems, etc. Of recognized interest and merit.

Oliver Wendell Holmes
Massachusetts—1809-1894 Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, Novels; Poems Clever, witty, versatile, and skillful.

Margaret Fuller Ossoli
Massachusetts—1810-1850 Summer on the Lakes, Papers on Literature and Art Notable in transcendental aim and in merit of achievement.

Harriet Beecher Stowe
Connecticut—1811-1896 Uncle Tom’s Cabin, etc. Far-reaching in its influence.

JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
Massachusetts—1814-1877 Dutch Republic, United Netherlands A rapid, easy style in presenting results of research.

Rufus W. Griswold
Vermont—1815-1857 Christian Ballads; Poets and Poetry of America, Famous Poets Valuable critical studies marred by partisanry.

John G. Saxe
Vermont—1816-1887 The Money King, New Rape of the Lock, etc. Humorous and sprightly.

Samuel A. Allibone
Pennsylvania—1816-1889 Literature and Authors, etc. Laborious and valuable.

Henry D. Thoreau
Massachusetts—1817-1862 Walden, Excursions Redolent of nature love, and cultured scholarship.

J. G. Holland
Massachusetts—1819-1881 Timothy Titcomb’s Letters, Katrina Enjoyed a large popularity.

Edwin P. Whipple
Massachusetts—1819-1886 Essays and Reviews, American Literature Of very distinct cultural value.

James Russell Lowell
Massachusetts—1819-1891 Among My Books, My Study Windows, Biglow Papers, Poems, Sir Launfal, etc. Keen, sparkling, scholarly, and artistic.

Walt Whitman
New York—1819-1892 Poems, Leaves of Grass, My Captain, etc. Unique in claim and form.

Julia Ward Howe
New York—1819-1910 Social and Philosophical Papers, Battle Hymn of the Republic Representative of the spirit of the times.

Margaret J. Preston
Virginia—1820-1897 Beechen Brook, Cartoons, Colonial Ballads Cultured and of human interest.

Richard Grant White
New York—1821-1885 Words and Their Uses; Everyday English Scholarly and suggestive.

Thomas Buchanan Read
Pennsylvania—1822-1872 Poems; Drifting; Sheridan’s Ride, etc. Commendable, especially in form.

Edward Everett Hale
Massachusetts—1822-1909 The Man Without a Country, His Level Best Vigorous and pointed, but provincial.

Donald G. Mitchell
Connecticut—1822-1909 Dream Life, Reveries of a Bachelor Attractive in meditation and grace.

Francis Parkman
Massachusetts—1823-1893 Oregon Trail, Montcalm and Wolfe, etc. Romantic, picturesque and of real interest.

George W. Curtis
New York—1824-1892 Potiphar Papers, Prue and I, etc. Widely popular and effective.

Bayard Taylor
Pennsylvania—1825-1878 Northern Travel, Greece and Russia; Poems of the Orient, Translation of Faust Too good at many things to be best at any.

Stephen Collins Foster
Pennsylvania—1826-1864 Old Folks at Home, Old Uncle Ned, etc. Popular in vein and melody.

Lew Wallace
Indiana—1827-1905 The Fair God, Prince of India, Ben Hur Uneven, but at times highly successful.

Chas. Dudley Warner
Massachusetts—1829-1900 My Summer in a Garden, Little Journeys, etc. Catholic in interests and attainments.

John Esten Cooke
Virginia—1830-1886 Novels, Survey of Eagle’s Nest, etc., Lives of Lee and Jackson Prime favorites with romantic youth.

Paul Hamilton Hayne
South Carolina—1831-1886 Sonnets, Legends, Lyrics In sonnets excellent, in other poems too prolific.

Louisa May Alcott
Massachusetts—1832-1888 Little Women, Little Men Influential in their popular appeal.

Edmund C. Stedman
Connecticut—1833-1908 Victorian Poets, Poets of America, Alice of Monmouth Showing creative power and critical ability.

Chas. Farrar Browne (Artemus Ward),
Maine—1834-1867 Artemus Ward, His Book, etc. Humorous in exaggeration and perversion.

Frank R. Stockton
Pennsylvania—1834-1902 Rudder Grange, The Lady or the Tiger Ingenious in plot, straightforward in style.

Moses Coit Tyler
Connecticut—1835-1900 History of American Literature Accurate and exhaustive.

Samuel L. Clemens
Missouri—1835-1910 Innocents Abroad, Huckleberry Finn, etc. Thoroughly representative of American humor.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich
New Hampshire—1836-1907 Novels, Marjorie Daw, etc. Cultivated and of literary talent.

William Dean Howells
Ohio—1837- Venetian Life; Rise of Silas Lapham, etc. Realistic and entertainingly descriptive.

John Burroughs
New York—1837- Wake Robin, Winter Sunshine Strongly uttering the charms of nature.

Mary Mapes Dodge
New York—1838-1905 Hans Brinker In high favor with children.

Albion W. Tourgee
Ohio—1838-1905 A Fool’s Errand, Bricks Without Straw Valuable for the point of view.

Thomas R. Lounsbury
New York—1838-1915 Life of Cooper, Studies in Chaucer, etc. Of recognized scholarship and ability.

Francis Bret Hart
New York—1839-1902 Luck of Roaring Camp, Gabriel Controy; Poems Of international fame. Faithful and skillfull character portrayal.

Joaquin Miller
Indiana—1841- The Danites in the Sierras, Surge of the Sierras With the sweep and breadth of the prairies.

Sidney Lanier
Georgia—1842-1881 The Boy’s Froissart; Tiger-Lilies, Poems Artistic to a high degree.

John Fiske
Connecticut—1842-1901 Myths and Mythmakers, Histories Scholarly and fairminded.

Henry James
New York—1843-1916 Daisy Miller, Portrait of a Lady, etc. Of characteristic conception and style.

George W. Cable
Louisiana—1844- Old Creole Days, etc. Successful in achievement of purpose.

Elizabeth S. Phelps Ward
Massachusetts—1844- Gates Ajar, etc. Widely read for religious sentiment.

Arthur S. Hardy
1847- Passe Rose, etc. Of trained literary ability.

James Lane Allen
Kentucky—1849- Flute and Violin, The Choir Invisible, etc. Reaching a high standard of excellence.

Francis Marion Crawford
New York—1854-1909 Novels, Travel, Descriptive Sketches Best known for his Saracinesca series, the scenes of which are laid in modern Rome.

James Whitcomb Riley
Indiana—1852-1916 Poems, Rhymes of Childhood, The Book of Joyous Children, etc. His combination of humor, pathos, and sentiment appeals to high and low alike.

Mary N. Murfree (Charles Egbert Craddock),
Tenn.—1850- Novels, In the Tennessee Mountains, etc. Absorbing studies in southern life and character.

Eugene Field
Missouri—1850-1895 Poems, Little Boy Blue, A Dutch Lullaby, Love Song of Childhood, etc. Holds a special place in American literature as the poet of Christmas and childhood.

Amelie Rives
Virginia—1863- Novels, Virginia of Virginia, The Quick or the Dead, etc. Poems Her later writings show more charity of thought and richness of expression than was characteristic of her earlier productions.

Thomas Nelson Page
Virginia—1853- Novels, On Newfound River, Marse Chan, etc. An interpreter of local life and color of unusual insight.

Henry J. Van Dyke
Pennsylvania—1852- Novels, The Other Wise Man, etc.; Poems Keen in observation, healthful in tone, delightful in style.

Pronouncing Dictionary of Literary Allusions

Concise, explanatory paragraphs concerning Famous Books, Poems and Dramas; Literary Characters, Plots and Scenes; Pen Names of Famous Writers; Soubriquets and Nicknames; Literary Geography, Shrines and Haunts; and numerous other literary references.

Key to the Sounds of Letters

ä, as in farm, father; ȧ, as in ask, fast; a, as in at, fat; ā, as in day, fate; â, as in care, fare; a, as in final; e, as in met, set; ē, as in me, see; ẽ, as in her, ermine; i, as in pin, sin; ī, as in pine, line; o, as in not, got; ō, as in note, old; ô, as in for, fought; ö, as in sole, only; õ, as in fog, orange; ö, sound cannot be exactly represented in English. The English sound of u in burn is perhaps the nearest equivalent to ö; oo, as in cook, look; ōō, as in coon, moon; u, as in cup, duck; ū, as in use, amuse; û, as in fur, urge; ü sound cannot be exactly represented in English. The English sound of u in luke and duke resembles the original sound of ü. The letter N represents the nasal tone of the preceding vowel, as in encore (äN-kōr´).

A

Aaron (ā´ron or ar’on).—A character in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, a Moor of unnatural wickedness beloved by Tamora, queen of the Goths. The character shows originality of conception, but is otherwise repellant.

Abaddon (a-bad´on).—The Hebrew name of an evil spirit or destroying angel called Apollyon in Greek. In mediæval literature he is regarded as the chief of the demons of the seventh hierarchy and the one who causes wars and uproars. Klopstock introduced him in his Messiah under the name of Abbadona. He represents him as a fallen angel still bearing traces of his former dignity and repenting of his part in the rebellion against God. In Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress he meets and fights with Pilgrim.

Abdalla (ab-dal´ä).—(1) The Mufti, a character in Dryden’s tragedy Don Sebastian. (2) One of Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert’s slaves, in Scott’s Ivanhoe. (3) Brother and predecessor of Giaffer, pasha of Abydos, by whom he was murdered, in Byron’s Bride of Abydos.

Abdiel (ab´di-el).—A seraph in Milton’s Paradise Lost, the only seraph who remained loyal when Satan stirred up the angels to revolt.

Abonde (a-bön-de´).—A character in French literature that corresponds to our Santa Claus, the good fairy who comes at night, especially New Year’s night, to bring toys to children while they sleep.

Abu-Hassan (ā-bö-has´an).—As related in the Arabian Nights, Abou Hassan is a merchant of Bagdad who is carried in his sleep to the bed of the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid and on awaking is made to believe himself the caliph. Twice in this way he was made to believe himself caliph and afterward became in reality the caliph’s favorite and companion.

Absalom and Achitophel (ab´sa-lom and a-kit´ō-fel).—A poetical satire by John Dryden, directed against the political faction led by the Earl of Shaftesbury. The names in the title are given to the duke of Monmouth and the earl of Shaftesbury. Like Absalom, the son of David, Monmouth was remarkable for his personal beauty, his popularity, and his undutifulness to his father.

Absolute, Captain.—A character in Sheridan’s comedy, The Rivals. He is distinguished for his gallant, determined spirit, his quickness of speech, and dry humor.

Absolute, Sir Anthony.—An amusing character in Sheridan’s Rivals. He is represented as testy, positive, impatient, and overbearing, but yet of a warm and generous disposition.

Acadia (a-kā´di-ä), Acadie (ä-kä´-dē´).—The original, and now the poetic, name of Nova Scotia. In 1755, the French inhabitants were seized, forcibly removed and dispersed among the English colonists on the Atlantic coast. Longfellow has made this event the subject of his poem Evangeline.

Acrasia (a-krā´zi-ä).—In Spencer’s Faërie Queene, a witch represented as a lovely and charming woman, whose dwelling is the Bower of Bliss, which is situated on an island floating in a lake or gulf, and is adorned with everything in nature that can delight the senses. The word signifies intemperance. She is the personification of sensuous indulgence and intoxication. Sir Guyon, who illustrates the opposite virtue, is commissioned by the fairy queen to bring her into subjection, and to destroy her residence.

Acres, Bob.—A character in Sheridan’s The Rivals, celebrated for his cowardice and his peculiar method of allegorical swearing.

Adam.—(1) Adam is a character frequently alluded to in the Talmud. Many strange legends are related of him. He was buried, so Arabian tradition says, on Aboncais, a mountain of Arabia. (2) In As You Like It, Shakespeare, he is an aged servant to Orlando and offers to accompany Orlando in his flight and to share with him his carefully-hoarded savings of five hundred pounds. (3) In Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, Adam is an officer known by his dress, a skin-coat.

Adamastor (ad-am-ȧs´tor).—The phantom of the Cape of Good Hope in the Lusiad: a terrible spirit described by Camoens as appearing to Vasco da Gama and prophesying the misfortunes which should fall upon other expeditions to India.

Adam Bede (bēd).—A novel by George Eliot, the chief character of which is a young carpenter, a keen and clever workman, somewhat sharp-tempered and with a knowledge of some good books. He has an alert conscience, good common sense and “well-balanced shares of susceptibility and self-control.” He loves Hetty Sorrel, but finally marries Dinah Morris.

Adams, Parson.—A character in Fielding’s story of Joseph Andrews, distinguished for his goodness of heart, poverty, learning, and ignorance of the world, combined with courage, modesty, and a thousand oddities.

Adonais (ad-ō-nā´is).—An elegiac poem by Shelley, commemorating the death of Keats. The name was coined by Shelley probably to hint an analogy between Keats’ fate and that of Adonis.

Advancement of Learning, The.—A prose treatise by Francis, Lord Bacon, which contains not only the germ of his Latin work, De Augmentis Scientiarum, but really the pith and marrow of the Baconian philosophy, if taken in connection with the second book of the Novum Scientiarum Organum. An analysis of the work may be read in Hazlitt’s Lectures on the Literature of the Age of Elizabeth.

Æneid (ē-nē´id), or Æneis (-is).—An epic poem, in twelve books, by Vergil, recounting the adventures of Æneas after the fall of Troy, founded on the Roman tradition that Æneas settled in Latium and became the ancestral hero of the Roman people. The hero, driven by a storm on the coast of Africa, is hospitably received by Dido, queen of Carthage, to whom he relates the fall of Troy and his wanderings. An attachment between them is broken by the departure of Æneas, in obedience to the will of the gods, and the suicide of Dido follows. After a visit to Sicily, Æneas lands at Cumæ in Italy. In a descent to the infernal regions he sees his father, Anchises, and has a prophetic vision of the glorious destiny of his race as well as of the future heroes of Rome. He marries Lavinia, daughter of Latinus, king of the Latini, and a contest with Turnus, king of the Rutuli, the rejected suitor follows, in which Turnus is slain. The poem is a glorification of Rome and of the Emperor Augustus, who, as a member of the Julian gens, traced his descent from Julus (sometimes identified with Ascanius), the grandson of Æneas.

Agamemnon (ag-ȧ-mem´non).—The greatest of the tragedies of Æschylus. The scene is laid in Argos, in the palace of Agamemnon, at the time of the king’s return from the capture of Troy; the catastrophe is the murder (behind the scenes) of Agamemnon and Cassandra (whom he has brought captive with him) by the queen Clytemnestra, urged on by her paramour Ægisthus.

Agnes.—(1) A young girl in Molière’s L’Ecole des Femmes, who affects to be remarkably simple and ingenuous. The name has passed into popular use, and is applied to any young woman unsophisticated in affairs. (2) A strong womanly character in David Copperfield who proves a true friend to David’s “child-wife,” Dora, and to David himself. Later Dora dies and David marries Agnes.

Agnes, The Eve of St.—(1) A poem by John Keats. It is characterized by Leigh Hunt as “the most delightful and complete specimen of his genius; ... exquisitely loving; ... young but full-grown poetry of the rarest description; graceful as the beardless Apollo; glowing and gorgeous with the colors of romance.” St. Agnes was a Roman virgin who suffered martyrdom in the reign of Diocletian. (2) A poem by Tennyson, published in 1842.

Agapida (ä-gä-pē´thä), Fray Antonio.—The fictitious writer to whom Washington Irving originally attributed the authorship of the Conquest of Granada.

Agib (ā´gib).—(1) The third Calendar in the story of “The Three Calendars” in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. (2) In the story of Noureddin Ali and Bedredden Hassan in The Arabian Nights, a son of Bedredden Hassan and the Queen of Beauty.

Agramant (ä´grä-mänt).—In Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato and Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, the young king of Africa.

Ague-Cheek (ā´gū-chēk), Sir Andrew. A character in Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night, a timid, silly but amusing country squire, to whom life consists only of eating and drinking. He is stupid even to silliness, but so devoid of self-love or self-conceit that he is delightful in his simplicity.

Ahasuerus (a-haz-ū-ē´rus).—Chief character in Sue’s A Wandering Jew, the cobbler who pushed away Jesus when, on the way to execution, He rested a moment or two at his door. “Get off! Away with you!” cried the cobbler. “Truly, I go away,” returned Jesus, “and that quickly; but tarry thou till I come.” And from that time Ahasuerus became the “wandering Jew,” who still roams the earth, and will continue so to do till the “second coming of the Lord.”

Ahmed (äh´med), or Achmet (äch´met).—In the Arabian Nights, noted for a magic tent he possessed which would cover a whole army but might be carried in the pocket. He also possessed a magic apple which would cure all diseases.

Aladdin (a-lad´in).—In the story of “Aladdin or the Wonderful Lamp,” in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, the son of a poor widow in China, who becomes possessed of a magic lamp and ring which command the services of two terrific jinns. Learning the magic power of the lamp, by accidentally rubbing it, Aladdin becomes rich and marries the Princess of Cathay through the agency of the “slave of the lamp” who also builds in a night a palace for her reception. One window of this palace was left unfinished, and no one could complete it to match the others. Aladdin therefore directs the jinns to finish it, which is done in the twinkling of an eye (hence the phrase “to finish Aladdin’s window”; that is, to attempt to finish something begun by a greater man). After many years the original owner of the lamp, a magician, in order to recover it, goes through the city offering new lamps for old. The wife of Aladdin, tempted by this idea, exchanges the old rusty magic lamp for a brand new useless one (hence the phrase “to exchange old lamps for new”), and the magician transports both palace and princess to Africa, but the ring helps Aladdin to find them. He kills the magician, and, possessing himself of the lamp, transports the palace to Cathay, and at the sultan’s death succeeds to the throne.

Al Araf (äl ä rȧf).—The Mohammedan limbo, between paradise and jehennam, for those who die without sufficient merit to deserve the former, and without sufficient demerit to deserve the latter. Here lunatics, idiots, and infants go at death, according to the Koran. The subject of an uncompleted poem by Edgar A. Poe.

Alasnam (a-las´nam).—The hero of a story in the Arabian Nights entitled “The History of Prince Zeyn Alasnam and the Sultan of the Genii,” Alasnam has eight diamond statues, but had to go in quest of a ninth more precious still, to fill the vacant pedestal. The prize was found in the lady who became his wife, at once the most beautiful and the most perfect of her race.

Albracca (äl-bräk´kä).—In Bojardo’s Orlando Innamorato, a castle of Cathay to which Angelica retires in grief at being scorned and shunned by Rinaldo, with whom she is deeply in love. Here she is besieged by Agricane, King of Tartary, who resolves to win her, notwithstanding her indifference to his suit.

Alceste (äl-sest´).—The principal character in Molière’s comedy The Misanthrope: a disagreeable but upright man who scorns the civilities of life and the shams of society.

Alcina (äl-che´na).—A fairy, the embodiment of carnal delights, in Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato and Ariosoto’s Orlando Furioso the sister of Logistalla (reason) and Morgana (lasciviousness). When tired of her lovers she changed them into trees, beasts, etc., and was finally, by means of a magic ring, displayed in her real senility and ugliness. Compare Acrasia, Armida, and Circe.

Aldine (al´din) Press.—The press established at Venice by Aldus Manutius. See Manutius.

Aldingar (al´ding-gär), Sir.—A character in Percy’s Reliques. This ballad relates how the honor of Queen Elianor, wife of Henry Plantagenet, impeached by Sir Aldingar, her steward, was submitted to the chance of a duel, and how an angel, in the form of a little child, appeared as her champion, and established her innocence.

Alhambra (al-ham´brä).—A volume of legends and descriptive sketches by Washington Irving. “The account of my midnight rambles about the old place,” says the author, “literally true, yet gives but a feeble idea of my feelings and impressions, and of the singular haunts I was exploring. Everything in the work relating to myself and to the actual inhabitants of the Alhambra is unexaggerated fact; it was only in the legends that I indulged in romancing, and these were founded on material picked up about the place.”

Ali Baba (ä´lē bä´bä).—A character in The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, in the story “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” a poor wood-cutter who, concealed in a tree, sees a band of robbers enter a secret cavern, and overhears the magic words “open sesame” which opens its door. After their departure he repeats the spell and the door opens, disclosing a room full of treasures with which he loads his asses and returns home. His brother Cassim, who discovers his secret, enters the cave alone, forgets the word “sesame,” and is found and cut to pieces by the robbers. The thieves, discovering that Ali Baba knows their secret, resolve to kill him, but are outwitted by Morgiana, a slave.

Alice in Wonderland.—A little girl through whose dream pass the scenes of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Behind the Looking-glass, two popular stories for children by Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson). They have been translated into several European languages.

Alice Brand.—In Scott’s Lady of the Lake, Alice signed Urgan the dwarf thrice with the sign of the cross, and he became “the fairest knight in all Scotland”; when Alice recognized in him her own brother.

Allan-a-Dale.—A friend of Robin Hood’s in the ballad. He is introduced into Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe as Robin Hood’s minstrel.

All’s Well That Ends Well.—A comedy by Shakespeare. The hero and heroine are Bertram, Count of Roussillon, and Helena, a physician’s daughter, who are married by the command of the king of France, but part because Bertram thought the lady not sufficiently well-born for him. Bertram flees to Florence, but, ultimately, Helena wins his love and all ends well.

Allworthy, Mr.—In Fielding’s novel of Tom Jones, a man of amiable and benevolent character; intended for Mr. Ralph Allen, who was also celebrated by Pope.

Almighty Dollar.—A personification of American worship. Washington Irving originated the phrase in The Creole Village.

Alp.—Siege of Corinth, Byron. The hero of this poem.

Amadis de Gaul.—The hero of an ancient and celebrated Portuguese romance.

Amanda (a-man´dä).—A young woman who impersonates Spring in Thomson’s Seasons.

Amaryllis, Amarillis (am-a-ril´is).—In Spenser’s pastoral Colin Clout’s Come Home Again, is the countess of Derby. Her name was Alice, and she was the youngest of the six daughters of Sir John Spenser, of Althorpe, ancestor of the noble houses of Spenser and Marlborough. After the death of the earl, the widow married Sir Thomas Egerton, keeper of the great seal (afterward baron of Ellesmere and viscount Brackley). It was for this very lady, during her widowhood, that Milton wrote his Arcades.

Ambrose.—A sharper in Lesage’s Gil Blas, who assumed in the presence of Gil Blas the character of a devotee. He was in league with a fellow who assumed the name of Don Raphael, and a young woman who called herself Camilla, cousin of Donna Mencia. These three sharpers allure Gil Blas to a house which Camilla says is hers, fleece him of his ring, his portmanteau, and his money, decamp, and leave him to find out that the house is only a hired lodging.

Amelia (a-mē´liä).—The title of one of Fielding’s novels, and the name of its heroine, who is distinguished for her tenderness and affection. The character of Amelia is said to have been drawn from Fielding’s wife.

Amine (ä-mēn´).—In Arabian Nights a female character who leads her three sisters by her side as a leash of hounds.

Aminte (ä-mant´).—Les Précieuses Ridicules, Molière. A contradictory character in this comedy. She dismisses her admirers for proposing to marry her, scolds her uncle for not carrying himself as a gentleman, and marries a valet whom she believes to be a nobleman.

Amlet (am´let).—The name of a gamester in Vanbrugh’s Confederacy.

Amoret (am´ō-ret).—(1) The name of a lady married to Sir Scudamore, in Spenser’s Faërie Queene. She is the type of a devoted, loving wife. (2) The heroine of Fletcher’s pastoral drama, The Faithful Shepherdess.

Amys and Amylion.—Two faithful friends. The Pylades and Orestes of the feudal ages. Their adventures are the subjects of ancient romances.

Ancient Man.—In Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, means Merlin, the old magician, King Arthur’s protector and teacher.

Ancient Mariner, The.—A poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The hero, an ancient mariner “with a long gray beard and glittering eye,” suffers terrible evils, and likewise inflicts them on his companions, from having shot an albatross, a bird of good omen. All his comrades perish of hunger, but, as he repents, he is permitted to regain the land. At intervals his agony returns, and he is driven from place to place to ease his soul by confessing his crime and sufferings to his fellows, and enforcing upon them a lesson of love for “all things, both great and small.”

“The Ancient Mariner,” says Swinburne, “is perhaps the most wonderful of all poems. In reading it we seem rapt into that paradise revealed by Swedenborg, where music and color and perfume were one, where you could see the hues and hear the harmonies of heaven. For absolute melody and splendor it were hardly rash to call it the first poem in the language.”

Andrews, Joseph.—The hero in Fielding’s novel by the same name, written to ridicule Richardson’s Pamela. Fielding presents Joseph Andrews as a brother to the modest and prudish Pamela, and pictures him as a model young man.

Angelica (an-jel´i-kä).—(1) In Bojardo’s Orlando Innamorato, is daughter of Galaphron, king of Cathay. She goes to Paris, and Orlando falls in love with her, forgetful of wife, sovereign, country and glory. Angelica, on the other hand, disregards Orlando, but passionately loves Rinaldo, who positively dislikes her. Angelica and Rinaldo drink of certain fountains, when opposite effects are produced in their hearts, for then Rinaldo loves Angelica, while Angelica loses all love for Rinaldo. (2) The heroine of Congreve’s comedy of Love for Love; in love with Valentine, but the ward of Sir Sampson Legend, who seeks to marry her. She jilts the old man, however, and marries the younger lover. Angelica is supposed to represent Mrs. Bracegirdle; Valentine the author himself who was enamoured of the actress, and was the rival of the dramatist, Rowe, in her affections. (3) The heroine of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso. She was beloved by Orlando, but married Medoro. Also the name of the heroine of Farquhar’s plays of the Constant Couple, and Sir Harry Wildair.

Angelic Doctor.—A name bestowed upon Thomas Aquinas, because he discussed the knotty point of “how many angels can dance on the point of a needle.”

Angelo (an´je-lō).—A character in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure; also the name of a goldsmith in the Comedy of Errors.

Angiolina.—The wife of the doge of Venice, in Byron’s Marino Faliero.

Anna Karénina (än´nä kä-rā´nē-nä).—A novel of Tolstoy, perhaps the most representative of his works. It first appeared serially, but with long intervals, in a Moscow review, and was published in 1877.

Annabel Lee.—The title and subject of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, which begins—

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee.

Anne.—Perrault’s La Barbe Bleue, the sister of Fatima, the seventh and last wife of Bluebeard. Fatima, having disobeyed her lord by looking into the locked chamber, is allowed a short respite before execution. Sister Anne ascends the high tower of the castle, with the hope of seeing her brothers, who were expected to arrive every moment. Fatima, in her agony, keeps asking “sister Anne” if she can see them, and Bluebeard keeps crying out for Fatima to use greater dispatch. As the patience of both is exhausted the brothers arrive, and Fatima is rescued from death.

Annie Laurie, eldest of the three daughters of Sir Robert Laurie, of Maxwelton. In 1709 she married James Fergusson, of Craigdarroch, and was the mother of Alexander Fergusson, the hero of Burns’ song The Whistle. The song of Annie Laurie was written by William Douglas, of Fingland, in the stewardy of Kirkcudbright, hero of the song Willie Was a Wanton Wag.

Antipholus of Ephesus (an-tif´ō-lus ov ef´e-sus), and Antipholus of Syracuse (sir´a-kūs).—Twin brothers, sons to Ægeon and Æmilia, in Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors.

Antonio (än-tō´nē-ō).—(1) The merchant of Venice in Shakespeare’s play of that name, the friend of Bassanio, and the object of Shylock’s hatred. (2) The usurping Duke of Milan, and brother to Prospero, in Shakespeare’s Tempest. (3) The father of Proteus, in Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona. (4) A minor character in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. (5) A sea captain, friend to Sebastian, in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

Antony and Cleopatra.—Historical tragedy by Shakespeare which may be considered as a continuation of Julius Cæsar. In the opening scene of Julius Cæsar absolute power is lodged in one man. In the conclusion of Antony and Cleopatra a second Cæsar is again in possession of absolute power, and the entire Roman world is limited under one imperial ruler. There are four prominent characters in this play: Cleopatra, voluptuous, fascinating, gross in her faults, but great in the power of her affections; Octavius Cæsar, cool, prudent, calculating, avaricious; Antony, quick, brave, reckless, prodigal; Enobarbus, a friend of Antony, at first jocular and blunt, but transformed by penitence into a grief-stricken man who dies in the bitterness of despair.

Apocalypse.—The Greek name of the last book of the Testament, termed in English Revelation. It has been generally attributed to the Apostle St. John, but some wholly reject it as spurious. In the first centuries many churches disowned it, and in the fourth century it was excluded from the sacred canon by the council of Laodicea, but was again received by other councils, and confirmed by that of Trent, held in the year 1545. Most commentators suppose it to have been written after the destruction of Jerusalem, about A. D. 96; while others assign it an earlier date. Its figures and symbols are impressive.

Apocrypha (a-pok´ri-fä).—The word originally meant secret or hidden, and it is said that books of the Apocrypha are not found in either the Chaldean or the Hebrew language. These books were not in the Jewish canon, but they were received as canonical by the Catholic church, by the council of Trent. The apocryphal writings are ten in number: Baruch, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom of Solomon, Tobit, Judith, two books of the Maccabees, Song of the Three Children, Susannah, and Bell and the Dragon. Their style proves that they were a part of the Jewish-Greek literature of Alexandria, within three hundred years before Christ; and as the Septuagint Greek version of the Hebrew Bible came from the same quarter, it was often accompanied by these Greek writings, and they gained a general circulation. No trace of them is found in the Talmud; they are mostly of legendary character, but some of them are of value for their historical information, their moral and maxims, and for the illustrations they give of ancient life.

Apologia pro Vita Sua: “Being a History of His Religious Opinions,” published by John Henry Newman. The Apologia will probably never be equaled as a specimen of acute self-analysis. The only subsequent work of a similar nature with which it can be compared or associated is Mr. Gladstone’s Chapter of Autobiography, which was designed to defend the consistency of his action in reference to the Irish church.

Arabian Nights Entertainments, consisting of one thousand and one stories, told by the sultana of the Indies to divert the sultan from the execution of a bloody vow he made to marry a lady every day and have her head cut off next morning, to avenge himself for the disloyalty of the first sultana. The story on which all the others hang is familiar. Scheherezade, the generous, beautiful young daughter of the vizier, like another Esther, resolves to risk her life in order to save the poor maidens of her city, whom the sultan is marrying and beheading at the rate of one a day. She plans to tell an interesting story each night to the sultan, breaking off in a very exciting place in order that the sultan may be tempted to spare her life so that he may hear the sequel.

Aram (ā´ram), Eugene.—A romance by Lord Lytton, founded on the story of the Knaresborough schoolmaster who committed a murder under peculiar circumstances.

Archimage (är´ki-māj), or Archimago (är-ki-mā´gō).—A character in Spenser’s Faërie Queene, a hypocrite or deceiver. He is opposed to holiness embodied in the Red Cross Knight, wins the confidence of the knight in the disguise of a reverend hermit, and by the help of Duessa, or Deceit, separates him from Una, or Truth.

B

Barons’ Wars, The.—An historical poem, in six books, by Michael Drayton. “In some historic sketches,” says Campbell, “he reaches a manner beyond himself. The pictures of Mortimer and the queen, and of Edward’s entrance into the castle, are splendid and spirited.”

Bartholomew (bär-thol´ō-mū) Fair.—A comedy by Ben Jonson, valuable for its lively pictures of the manners of the times. It is chiefly remarkable for the exhibition of odd humors and tumblers’ tricks.

Basilisco (bas-i-lis´kō).—Soliman and Perseda, old play. A boasting knight who became so popular with his foolish bragging that his name grew into a proverb.

Bassanio (ba-sä´ni-ō).—Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare. The lover of Portia who won her when he chose a leaden casket in which her portrait was hidden.

Bath, Major.—Amelia, Henry Fielding. A noble-minded gentleman, pompous in spite of poverty, and striving to live according to the “dignity and honor of man.” He tries to hide his poverty under bold speech even when found doing menial service.

Battle, Sarah.—Essays of Elia, Lamb. Sarah considered whist the business of life and literature one of the relaxations. When a young gentleman, of a literary turn, said to her he had no objection to unbend his mind for a little time by taking a hand with her, Sarah declared, “Whist was her life business; her duty; the thing she came into the world to do. She unbent her mind afterward over a book.”

Beatrice (bē´a-tris, or -trēs).—Divine Comedy, Dante. Daughter of an illustrious family of Florence for whom Dante had a great love. In his poem she is represented as being his guide through paradise. Beatrice is also the name of the heroine of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

Beauty and the Beast.—Fairy tale by Mme. Villeneuve. Oft repeated in stories for children, Beauty and the Beast are known in many forms. In the original tale young and lovely Beauty saved the life of her father by putting herself in the power of a frightful but kind-hearted monster, whose respectful affection and deep melancholy finally overcame her aversion to his hideousness, and induced her to consent to marry him. By her love Beast was set free from enchantment and allowed to assume his own form, a handsome and graceful young prince.

Bede, Adam.—Adam Bede, George Eliot. An ideal workman, hero of the novel.

Bedivere (bed´i-vēr).—Tales of the Round Table. Bedivere was the last knight of King Arthur’s Round Table.

Beggar’s Opera, The, by John Gay, first acted at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, in 1727, is the first, and perhaps the best, specimen of English ballad opera. It was acted in London amid unprecedented applause, and obtained scarcely less popularity through the provinces. It was said that it made Rich, the manager, gay; and Gay, the poet, rich. Hazlitt says of the Opera, that “it is indeed a masterpiece of wit and genius, not to say of morality.”

Belarius (be-lā´ri-us).—A nobleman and soldier in the army of Cymbeline, king of Britain.

Belch (belch), Sir Toby.—Twelfth Night, Shakespeare. Uncle to Olivia, a jolly, carefree fellow, type of the roysterers of Queen Elizabeth’s days.

Belinda (be-lin´dä).—Rape of the Lock, Pope. Poetical name of the heroine, whose real name was said to be Arabella Fermor. In a frolic Lord Petre cut a lock from the lady’s hair. This was so much resented that it broke the great friendship between the two families. The poem, Rape of the Lock, was written to bring the people into a better temper and lead to reconciliation. Belinda is also the name of the heroine in a novel written by Maria Edgeworth.

Bell, Adam.—Old Ballad. A famous wild outlaw belonging to the north country and celebrated for his skill as an archer.

Bell, Laura.—Pendennis, Thackeray. One of the sweetest heroines in English literature.

Bellman.—L’Allegro, Milton. The watchman who patrolled the streets and called out the hour of night. Sometimes he repeated scraps of pious poetry in order to charm away danger.

Bell-the-Cat.—Name given to a nobleman at Lauder, Scotland, early in the sixteenth century. King James II. called an assembly of Scottish barons to resist a threatened invasion of his realm by Edward IV. of England. After long discussion one of the barons related the nursery tale of a convention of mice in which it was proposed to hang a bell on the cat’s neck, to give warning of her presence. No one would serve on the mouse committee. To the story Archibald Douglas responded by saying, “I will bell the cat,” and was afterward known by the name, Bell-the-Cat.

Belphœbe (bel-fē´bē).—Faërie Queene, Spenser. A delicate and graceful flattery offered to Queen Elizabeth through the huntress, Belphœbe, intended as a likeness of the queen. The name taken from belle, meaning beautiful, and Phœbe, a name sometimes bestowed on Diana.

Belvawney, Miss.—Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens. She belonged to the wonderful Portsmouth theater, always took the part of a page and gloried in silk stockings.

Belvidera (bel-vē-dā´rä).—Venice Preserved, Otway. The beautiful heroine of the almost forgotten tragedy. Sir Walter Scott said “more tears have been shed, probably, for the sorrows of Belvidera and Monimia than for those of Juliet and Desdemona.”

Benedick (ben´ē-dik).—Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare. A young lord of Padua who is gentleman, wit, and soldier. He was a pronounced bachelor, but after a courtship full of witty sayings and coquetry he marries the lovely Beatrice. From this gentleman comes the name Benedick or Benedict, applied to married men who were not going to marry.

Benengeli (ben-en-gē´lē), Cid Hamet.—Don Quixote, Cervantes. Supposed to be a writer of chronicles among the Moors and claimed as authority for the tales of adventure recorded by Cervantes. The name, Cid Hamet, has been often quoted by writers.

Ben Hur.—A novel by General Lew Wallace. Messala, the Roman playmate and young friend of Ben Hur, afterward became his remorseless enemy. Ambitious, hard, and cruel, when he came into power he made Ben Hur a galley slave, confiscated his property and imprisoned the mother and sister. Ben Hur escaped, returned later as a wealthy Roman, and entered in the famous chariot race against Messala, who had put up enormous sums in wagers. Messala recognized Ben Hur, and hoped to win the race and bring him to final ruin; but Messala himself was thrown and seriously injured. His cruelties were made known, and he was at last slain by his wife, Isas, the daughter of Balthasar.

Bennet, Mrs.—Amelie, Fielding. An improper character.

Benvolio (ben-vō´li-ō).—Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare. One of Romeo’s friends who would “quarrel with a man that had a hair more or a hair less in his beard than he had.” Mercutio says to him, “Thou hast quarreled with a man for coughing in the street.”

Beowulf (bā´ō-wulf).—The name of an Anglo-Saxon epic poem of the sixth century. It received its name from Beowulf, who delivered Hrothgar, King of Denmark, from the monster Grendel. This Grendel was half monster and half man, and night after night stole into the king’s palace, called Heorot, and slew sometimes as many as thirty of the sleepers at a time. Beowulf put himself at the head of a mixed band of warriors, went against the monster and slew it. This epic is very Ossianic in style, full of beauties, and most interesting.

Bertram (ber´tram).—Guy Mannering, Scott. The character was suggested by James Annesley, Esq., rightful heir of the earldom of Anglesey, of which he was dispossessed by his uncle Richard. He died in 1743. Bertram was also the name of the haughty and dissolute count, husband of Helena in Shakespeare’s comedy All’s Well That Ends Well.

Bianca (bi-an´kä).—(1) The youngest daughter of Baptista of Padua, as gentle and meek as her sister Katherine was violent and irritable. (2) The sweetheart, “almost” wife of Cassio, in Shakespeare’s Othello.

Biglow Papers, The.—A series of satirical poems, in the quaint Yankee dialect, ascribed to a certain Hosea Biglow, but really written by the American poet, James Russell Lowell.

Birch, Harvey.—The Spy, Cooper. The chief character of the novel.

Biron (bē-rôn´).—Love’s Labor’s Lost, Shakespeare. A merry madcap young lord, in attendance on Ferdinand, king of Navarre.

Black-Eyed Susan.—Ballad, John Gay. The heroine of the popular sea song.

Black Knight of the Black Lands.—Sir Peread. Called by Tennyson Night or Nox. He was one of the four brothers who kept the passages of Castle Dangerous, and was overthrown by Sir Gareth. Idylls (Gareth and Lynette).

Blatant Beast.—Faërie Queene, Spenser. A bellowing monster typical of slander; or, an impersonation of what we now call Vox Populi, or the Voice of the People.

Bleak House.—A novel by Charles Dickens, the title of which was suggested, it is said, by the situation of a certain tall brick house at Broadstairs, which stands high above and far away from the remainder of the town, and in which the author resided for several seasons.

Blimber (blim´er), Miss Cornelia.—Dombey and Son, Dickens. The daughter of Dr. Blimber, the head of a first-class educational establishment conducted on the forcing, or cramming, principle. She is a very learned, grave, and precise young lady, “no light nonsense about her,” who has become “dry and sandy with working in the graves of deceased languages.”

Blithedale (blīth´dāl) Romance, The.—A story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, founded on the author’s experience as a member of the Brook Farm community. “Its predominant idea,” says R. H. Hutton, “is to delineate the deranging effect of an absorbing philanthropic idea on a powerful mind; the unscrupulous sacrifices of personal claims which it induces, and the misery in which it ends. There is scarcely one incident in the tale properly so called except the catastrophe.”

Blowzelinda (blou-ze-lin´dä), or Blowsalinda (blou-za-lin´dä).—Shepherd’s Week, John Gay. The country girl, heroine of this pastoral poem, written more than one hundred and fifty years ago, but quoted as a picture of the poverty and rudeness of rural life at that time.

Bobadil (bob´a-dil), Captain.—Every Man in His Humor, Jonson. A boasting coward, who passes himself off with young and simple people for a Hector.

Bœuf, Front de (beuf, fron du).—Ivanhoe, Scott. One of King John’s followers. A ferocious scoundrel.

Bois-Guilbert (bwa´gel-bär´), Brian de.—Ivanhoe, Scott. A brave but cruel, crafty, and dissolute commander of the Knights Templar.

Boniface (bon´i-fās).—The Beaux’s Stratagem, Farquhar. A fine representation of an English landlord. Hence applied to landlords generally.

Bontemps (bôn-ton´), Roger.—Song, Beranger. Known in France as the personification of care-free leisure. The equivalent, among the French peasantry, for the English proverb, “There’s a good time coming,” is Roger Bontemps. This one of Beranger’s most celebrated songs was written in 1814.

Bottom, Nick.—A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare. A man who fancies he can do everything, and do it better than anyone else. Shakespeare has drawn him as profoundly ignorant and with an overflow of self-conceit. Oberon, the fairy king, desiring to punish Titania, his queen, commissioned Puck to watch her till she fell asleep, and then to anoint her eyelids with the juice of a plant called “love-in-idleness,” the effect of which, when she awoke, was to make her dote upon Bottom, upon whom Puck had fixed an ass’s head.

Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Le (bōōr-zhwä´ zhon-tē-yōm´ lû).—A comedy by Molière, with music by Lulli, produced in 1670. The hero is a tradesman, M. Jourdain, who is ambitious to marry his daughter to a titled husband.

Bowling, Tom.—Roderick Random, Smollett. A name made almost famous as hero of the novel. Critics have said, “The character of Tom Bowling, in Roderick Random will be regarded in all ages as a happy exhibition of those naval heroes to whom Britain is indebted for so much of her happiness and glory.” The Tom Bowling referred to in Dibdin’s famous sea song was Captain Thomas Dibdin, brother of Charles Dibdin, who wrote the song.

Boz (boz), Sketches by.—By Charles Dickens. They were the first of their class. Dickens was the first to unite the delicately playful thread of Charles Lamb’s street musings—half experiences, half bookish fantasies—with the vigorous wit and humor and observation of Goldsmith’s Citizen of the World, his Indigent Philosopher, and Man in Black, and twine them together in the golden cord of essay, which combines literature with philosophy, humor with morality, amusement with instruction. The most powerful and popular of the sketches are probably those entitled, A Visit to Newgate, The Drunkard’s Death, Election for Beadle, Greenwich Fair, and Miss Evans at the Eagle.

Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists.—Miscellaneous sketches, in fiction and essay, by Washington Irving, published in 1822.

Brag, Jack.—Jack Brag, Theodore Hook. Hero of the novel and a spirited embodiment of the arts employed by a vulgar pretender to creep into aristocratic society, and of his ultimate discomfiture. General Burgoyne figures in an old ballad known as Sir Jack Brag.

Bramble, Matthew.—Humphrey Clinker, Smollett. Noted character in the novel described as “an odd kind of humorist,” afflicted with the gout, and “always on the fret,” but full of generosity and benevolence.

Brass, Sally, and Sampson.—Old Curiosity Shop, Dickens. Brother and sister, well mated, he a shystering lawyer and she getting ahead of him in villainy. Sampson was dishonest, sentimental, and affected in manner, and both are interesting characters to read about.

Brentford (brent´fōrd), The Two Kings of.—The Rehearsal, Villiers. Much question has been raised as to who was to be ridiculed under these characters. The royal brothers, Charles II. and James II., have been suggested; others say the fighting kings of Granada. In the farce the two kings are represented as walking hand in hand, as dancing together and singing in concert.

Briana (brī-ā´nä).—Spenser’s Faërie Queene. The lady of a castle who demanded for toll the locks of every lady and the beard of every knight that passed. This toll was established because Sir Crudor, with whom she was in love, refused to marry her till she had provided him with human hair sufficient to purfle a mantle with. Sir Crudor, having been overthrown in knightly combat by Sir Calidore, who refused to give the passage pay, is made to release Briana from the condition imposed on her, and Briana swears to discontinue the discourteous toll.

Brick, Jefferson.—In Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit. A very weak, pale young man, the war correspondent of the New York Rowdy Journal, of which Colonel Diver was editor.

Bride of Abydos, The.—A Turkish tale, told in octosyllabic verse by Lord Byron, and published in 1813. It is in two cantos, and opens with the well-known song imitated from Goethe, beginning: “Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle.” The name of the “bride” is Zuleika, and that of her lover, Selim.

Bride of Lammermoor, The.—A romance of Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819, and characterized as a tragedy of the highest order, uniting excellence of plot with Scott’s usual merits of character and description.

Brook Farm.—The full name was “Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education,” a stock company of nearly seventy members, located on a farm of two hundred acres at West Roxbury, Mass. Among the members were George Ripley, Charles A. Dana, George William Curtis, Margaret Fuller and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Among their frequent visitors were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker, Bronson Alcott. This idyllic life lasted about five years, from 1841 to 1846. Brook Farm was a financial failure but it was important in intellectual results. Hawthorne has written the story of the experiment in Blithedale Romance.

Brown, Tom.—Tom Brown’s School Days and Tom Brown at Oxford, Thomas Hughes. The hero of these stories of school days, a typical English schoolboy and undergraduate.

Brunhild (brön´hild).—Nibelungenlied. The story of Brunhild holds large place in ancient German romance. She was, herself, a warrior, proud and skillful, and she promised to be the bride of the man who could conquer her in three trials, in hurling the lance, in throwing the stone, and in leaping after the stone when thrown. By the arts and bravery of Siegfried, she was deluded into marrying Gunther, king of Burgundy; but, discovering the trick, she planned and accomplished the destruction of Siegfried, and the humiliation of Chriemhild, his wife.

Bumble, Mr.—Oliver Twist, Dickens. A pompous, disagreeable beadle, who figures largely in the beginning of the story. The name Bumble has since attached itself to the office.

Bunsby (bunz´bi), Jack.—Dombey and Son, Dickens. A commander of a ship looked up to as an oracle by his friend Captain Cuttle. He is described as wearing a “rapt and imperturbable manner,” and seeming to be “always on the lookout for something in the extremest distance.”

Bunthorne (bun´thôrn).—Patience, Sullivan. A gloomy poet showing most distinctly in his gloom surrounded by the characters of a comic opera. He was inserted as a satire on the æsthetic craze, turning into ridicule the imitators of Rossetti.

Burchell (ber´chel), Mr.—Vicar of Wakefield, Goldsmith. A prominent character who passes himself off as a poor man, but is really a baronet in disguise. He is noted for his habit of crying out “Fudge!” by way of expressing his strong contempt for the opinions of others.

Burd Helen.—Scotch Ballad. A traditional name standing for constancy. She was carried to England by fairies and imprisoned in a castle. The youngest brother of the fair Burd Helen was guided by the enchanter Merlin and accomplished the perilous task of rescuing his sister. This is recited in the line “Childe Rowland to the dark tower came,” quoted by Shakespeare. Only a fragment of the old ballad has been preserved.

Buskin.—Tragedy. The Greek tragic actors used to wear a sandal some two or three inches thick, to elevate their stature. To this sole was attached a very elegant buskin.

Buzfuz, (buz´fuz) Serjeant.—Pickwick Papers, Dickens. A pompous, chaffing lawyer, who bullies Mr. Pickwick and the witnesses in the famous breach of promise suit, Bardell vs. Pickwick.

Byfield.—A New England parish, the scene of an historical novel by John Lewis Ewell. Here lived the ancestor of Longfellow to whom the poet dedicated The Village Blacksmith, himself a blacksmith, keeping his accounts in peculiar orthography. According to the deed of sale in 1681, the Byfield Indians got a larger price from the first English settlers than was paid for Manhattan Island.

C

Caius (kā´yus), Doctor.—Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare. A physician in the comedy who adds a touch of humor. He is most conspicuous as the lover of Anne Page.

Calandrino (kä-län-drē´nō).—A simpleton frequently introduced in Boccaccio’s Decameron; expressly made to be befooled and played upon. His mishaps, as Macaulay states, “have made all Europe merry for more than four centuries.”

Caleb.—(1) The enchantress who carried off St. George in infancy. (2) A character in Dryden’s satire of Absalom and Achitophel, meant for Lord Grey, one of the adherents of the Duke of Monmouth.

Caleb Quotem.—A parish clerk or jack-of-all-trades, in Coleman’s play The Review, or Ways of Windsor. Coleman borrowed the character from Throw Physic to the Dogs, an old farce.

Caliban (kal´i-ban).—A savage and deformed slave of Prospero in Shakespeare’s Tempest. He is represented as being the “freckled whelp” of Sycorax, a foul hag, who was banished from Argier (or Algiers) to the desert island afterward inhabited by Prospero. From his rude, uncouth language we get the phrase “Caliban style,” “Caliban speech,” meaning the coarsest possible use of words.

Calidore (kal´i-dōr).—A knight in Spenser’s Faërie Queene, typical of courtesy, and said to be intended for a portrait of Sir Philip Sidney.

Calista.—The name of a celebrated character in Rowe’s Fair Penitent.

Callipolis (ka-lip´o-lis).—Battle of Alcazar, George Peele. A character in the Battle of Alcazar, used by Sir Walter Scott and others as a synonym for lady-love, sweetheart, charmer. Sir Walter always spells the word Callipolis, but Peele calls it Calipolis.

Calydon (kal´i-don).—A forest celebrated in the romances relating to King Arthur and Merlin.