Written English (part 4)

Tales of a Wayside Inn.—Name given by Longfellow to a collection of short poems arranged by himself and collected together much in the same form as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. These “tales” were mostly gathered from old literature and translated into Longfellow’s own verses—only one, The Birds of Killingworth, being said to be entirely original. Seven narratives are represented: the Landlord, the Student, the Spanish Cavalier, the Jew, the Sicilian, the Musician, and the Theologian. Four colonial tales are included in the work: Paul Revere’s Ride, Elizabeth, Lady Wentworth, and The Rhyme of Sir Christopher.

Taming of the Shrew, The.—A comedy by Shakespeare. The incident of Vincentio’s personation by the pedant was borrowed by Shakespeare from George Gascoigne’s Supposes. The chief characters are Petruchio and his wife Katharine, the shrew.

Tam O’Shanter.—The title of a poem by Burns, and the name of its hero, a farmer, who, riding home very late and very drunk from Ayr, in a stormy night, had to pass by the kirk of Alloway, a place reputed to be a favorite haunt of the devil and his friends and emissaries. On approaching the kirk, he perceived a light gleaming through the windows; but, having got courageously drunk, he ventured on till he could look into the edifice, when he saw a dance of witches. His presence became known, and in an instant all was dark; and Tam, recollecting himself, turned and spurred his horse to the top of her speed, chased by the whole fiendish crew. It is a current belief that witches, or any evil spirits, have no power to follow a poor wight any farther than the middle of the next running stream. Fortunately for Tam, the River Doon was near, and he escaped, while the witches held only the tail of his mare Maggie. It has been said of Tam O’Shanter that in no other poem of the same length can there be found so much brilliant description, pathos, and quaint humor, nor such a combination of the terrific and the ludicrous.

Tancred (tang´kred).—In Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, was the greatest of all the Christian warriors, except Rinaldo.

Tartufe, or Tartuffe (tār-tūf´).—One of Molière’s best known comedies. Tartuffe is a religious hypocrite and impostor, who uses “religion” as the means of gaining money, covering deceit, and promoting self-indulgence. He is taken up by one Orgon, a man of property, who promises him his daughter in marriage; but, his true character being exposed, he is not only turned out of the house, but is lodged in jail for felony.

Isaac Bickerstaff adapted Molière’s comedy to the English stage, under the title of The Hypocrite. Tartuffe he calls “Dr. Cantwell,” and Orgon “Sir John Lambert.” It is thought that “Tartuffe” is a caricature of Père la Chaise, the confessor of Louis XIV., who was very fond of truffles (French, truffes), and that this suggested the name to the dramatist.

Task, The.—A poem by William Cowper. “The Task,” says Southey, “was at once descriptive, moral, and satirical. The descriptive parts everywhere bore evidence of a thoughtful mind and a gentle spirit, as well as of an observant eye; and the moral sentiment which pervaded them gave a charm in which descriptive poetry is often found wanting. The best didactic poems, when compared with The Task, are like formal gardens in comparison with woodland scenery.” “The Task,” says Hazlitt, “has fewer blemishes than The Seasons; but it has not the same capital excellence, the ‘unsought grace’ of poetry, the power of moving and infusing the warmth of the author’s mind into that of the reader.”

Teazle (tē´zl), Lady.—The heroine of Sheridan’s comedy The School for Scandal, and the wife of Sir Peter Teazle, an old gentleman who marries late in life. She is represented as being “a lively and innocent, though imprudent, country girl, transplanted into the midst of all that can bewilder and endanger her, but with enough of purity about her to keep the blight of the world from settling upon her.”

Teazle, Sir Peter.—A character in Sheridan’s play The School for Scandal, husband of Lady Teazle.

Télémaque (tā-lā-mȧk´), Les Aventures de: “Adventures of Telemachus”.—A romance by Fenelon, published in 1699. It is founded on the legendary history of Telemachus, and is one of the classics of French literature. Though the beautiful fiction of Telemachus, which has much in common with, and was doubtless suggested to Fenelon by the Argenis, be rather an epic poem in prose than a romance, it seems to have led the way to several political romances, or, at least, to have nourished a state for this species of composition.

Tell, William.—Title of a drama by Schiller. The hero is chief of the confederates of the forest cantons of Switzerland, and son-in-law of Walter Fürst. Having refused to salute the Austrian cap which Gessler, the Austrian governor, had set up in the market-place of Altdorf, he was condemned to shoot an apple from the head of his own son. He succeeded in this perilous task, but, letting fall a concealed arrow, was asked by Gessler with what object he had secreted it. “To kill thee, tyrant,” he replied, “if I had failed.” The governor now ordered him to be carried in chains across the Lake Lucerne to Küssnacht Castle, “there to be devoured alive by reptiles”; but, a violent storm having arisen on the lake, he was unchained, that he might take the helm. Gessler was on board; and, when the vessel neared the castle, Tell leaped ashore, gave the boat a push into the lake, and shot the governor. After this he liberated his country from the Austrian yoke.

Tempest, The.—One of Shakespeare’s fairy plays. The story runs: Prospero, duke of Milan, was dethroned by his brother Antonio, and left on the open sea with his three-year-old daughter Miranda, in “a rotten carcass of a boat.” In this they were carried to an enchanted island, uninhabited except by a hideous creature, Caliban, the son of a witch. Prospero was a powerful enchanter, and soon had not only Caliban, but all the spirits of the region under his control, including Ariel, chief of the spirits of the air. Years afterward Antonio, Alfonso, Sebastian and other friends of the usurper came near the island. Prospero, by his magic, raises a storm which casts their ship on the shore and the whole party are spellbound and brought to Prospero. Plots and counterplots follow, bringing in Caliban and clowns; but all are made ridiculous and are defeated by Prospero and Ariel.

Tessa (tes´ä).—In George Eliot’s novel of Romola is the peasant girl who is deceived into marriage with Tito Melema.

Thangbrand.—Tales of a Wayside Inn, Henry W. Longfellow. King Olaf’s drunken priest, “short of stature, large of limb,” who was sent to Iceland, found the people poring over their books, and sailed backed to Norway to say to Olaf “little hope is there of these Iceland men.”

Theagenes (thē-aj´e-nēz) and Chariclea (kar-i-klē´ä).—The chief characters in a Greek love story, by Heliodorus, bishop of Trikka, fourth century. A charming fiction, largely borrowed from by subsequent novelists, and especially by Mdlle. de Scudéri, Tasso, Guarini, and D’Urfé.

Thekla.—The daughter of Wallenstein in Schiller’s drama of this name. She is an invention of the poet.

Theodorus.—The name of a physician, in Rabelais’ romance of Gargantua. At the request of Ponocrates, Gargantua’s tutor, he undertook to cure the latter of his vicious manner of living, and accordingly “purged him canonically with Anticyrian hellebore,” by which medicine he cleared out all the perverse habits of his brain, so that he became a man of honor, sense, courage, and piety.

Theresa, or Teresa (te-rē´sä, or tā-rā´sä).—Daughter of the count palatine of Padolia, beloved by Mazeppa, in Byron’s Mazeppa.

Thersites (ther-sī´tēz).—A scurrilous Grecian chief, loquacious, loud and coarse, in the Iliad. His chief delight was to inveigh against the kings of Greece. He squinted, halted, and on his tapering head grew a few white patches of starveling down.

Thopas, Sir.—In the Canterbury Tales, a capital sportsman, archer, wrestler, and runner, who resolved to marry no one but an “elf queen,” and accordingly started for Faëryland. Story left unfinished.

Thorberg Skafting.—Tales of a Wayside Inn, Henry W. Longfellow. The master-builder ordered by King Olaf to build a ship twice as long and twice as large as the Dragon, built by Raud the Strong, which was stranded.

Three Musketeers [Trois Mousquetaires (trwä mös-ke-tar´), Les].—A novel by Alexander Dumas père, published in 1844. The scene is laid in the time of Richelieu. The three musketeers are Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, but D’Artagnan is the principal character. He is a young Gascon of an adventurous yet practical nature, with a genius for intrigue, who goes up to Paris to seek his fortune with an old horse, a box of miraculous salve given to him by his mother, and his father’s counsels. His career is one of hairbreadth escapes (with death, in the end, on the field of battle) in the society of the three musketeers.

Thyestean Banquet.—Referred to in Milton’s Paradise Lost. A cannibal feast. Thyestes was given his own two sons to eat at a banquet served up to him by his brother Atreus.

Thyrsis (ther´sis).—A herdsman introduced in the Idylls of Theocritos, and in Vergil’s Eclogues.

Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes
From betwixt two aged oaks,
Where Corydon and Thyrsis, met,
Are at their savory dinner set.
Milton, L’Allegro.

Timias.—King Arthur’s squire in Spenser’s Faërie Queene. He went after the “wicked foster,” from whom Florimel fled, and the “foster” with his two brothers, falling on him, were all slain.

Tobey, Uncle.—A character in Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. A captain who was wounded at the siege of Namur, and was obliged to retire from the service. He is the impersonation of kindness, benevolence, and simple-heartedness; his courage is undoubted, and his gallantry delightful for its innocence and modesty.

Tommy Atkins.—Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling. The name is here used in its general meaning, a British soldier. The name came from the little pocket ledgers served out, at one time, to all British soldiers. In these manuals were to be entered the name, the age, the date of enlistment, etc. The war office sent with each little book a form for filling it in, and the hypothetical name selected was Tommy Atkins. The books were instantly so called, and it did not require many days to transfer the name from the book to the soldier.

Tom Sawyer, Adventures of.—By Mark Twain. An “elastic” youth whose performances delight both old and young readers. Queer enterprises, influenced by the old superstitions among slaves and children in the Western states give reliable pictures of boy-life in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Topsy.—Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Mrs. Stowe. A young slave-girl, who never knew whether she had either father or mother, and being asked by Miss Ophelia St. Clare how she supposed she came into the world, replied, “I ’spects I growed.”

Touchstone (tuch´stōn).—A clown in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. His seven degrees of the lie are: (1) The retort courteous, (2) the quip modest, (3) the reply churlish, (4) the reproof valiant, (5) the countercheck quarrelsome, (6) the lie circumstantial, (7) the lie direct.

Townley Mysteries.—Certain religious dramas; so called because the MS. containing them belonged to P. Townley. These dramas are supposed to have been acted at Widkirk abbey, in Yorkshire.

Tranio (trā´ni-ō).—In Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, one of the servants of Lucentio, the gentleman who marries Bianca, sister of Katharina “the Paduan shrew.”

Triads.—Three subjects, more or less connected, formed into one continuous poem or subject; thus the “Creation, Redemption, and Resurrection” would form a triad.

Trim, Corporal.—Uncle Toby’s attendant, in Sterne’s novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent., distinguished for his fidelity and affection, his respectfulness, and his volubility.

Tristram (tris´tram), Sir.—One of the most celebrated heroes of mediæval romance. His adventures form an episode in the history of Arthur’s court, and are related by Thomas the Rhymer, as well as by many romancists.

Tubal (tū´bal).—A wealthy Jew, the friend of Shylock, in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

Tuck, Friar.—Ivanhoe, Scott. The father-confessor of Robin Hood and connected with Fountain’s Abbey. He is represented as a clerical Falstaff, very fat and self-indulgent, very humorous, and somewhat coarse. His dress was a russet habit of the Franciscan order. He was sometimes girt with a rope of rushes. Friar Tuck also appears in the “morris dance” on Mayday.

Turveydrop.—Bleak House, Dickens. A conceited dancing-master, who imposes on the world by his majestic appearance and elaborate toilette. He is represented as living upon the earnings of his son, who has a most slavish reverence for him as a perfect “master of deportment.”

Tutivillus (tū-ti-vil´us).—In Langland’s Visions of Piers Plowman, the demon who collects all the fragments of words omitted, mutilated, or mispronounced by priests in the performance of religious services, and stores them up in that “bottomless” pit which is “paved with good intentions.”

Tweedledum and Tweedledee.—The prince of Wales was the leader of the Handel party, supported by Pope and Dr. Arbuthnot; and the duke of Marlborough led the Bononcinists, and was supported by most of the nobility.

Twelfth Night.—A drama by Shakespeare. The story is said to have come from a novelette written early in the sixteenth century. A brother and sister, twins, are shipwrecked. Viola, dressed like her brother, becomes page to the duke Orsino. The duke was in love with Olivia, and, as the lady looked coldly on his suit, he sent Viola to advance it; but the willful Olivia, instead of melting toward the duke, fell in love with his beautiful page. Sebastian, the twin-brother of Viola, was attacked in a street brawl before Olivia, and, thinking him to be the page, she invited him in. The result was the marriage of Sebastian to Olivia, and of the duke to Viola.

Twice-Told Tales.—A collection of tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne, some of which had been already published in the Token, and other periodicals. They are mystical and, though in prose form, are the work of a poet. The tales are nearly all American in subject, but are treated from the spiritual rather than the practical side.

Two Gentlemen of Verona (vā-rō´nä).—A drama by Shakespeare, the story of which is taken from the Diana of Montemayor (sixteenth century). The plot resembles that of Twelfth Night, as Julia, disguised as a page, is a prominent figure.

U

Uarda (ö-är´dä).—A novel by Ebers, published in 1877. The scene is laid chiefly in Egypt at the time of the reign of Rameses II.

Ubaldo.—Jerusalem Delivered, Tasso. One of the older crusaders, who had visited many regions. He and Charles the Dane went to bring back Rinaldo from the enchanted castle.

Ubeda.—Don Quixote, Cervantes. A noted artist who one day painted a picture, but was obliged to write under it, “This is a cock,” in order that the spectator might know what was intended to be represented.

Thule (thū´lē).—“Ultima Thule.” The extremity of the world; the most northern point known to the ancient Romans. Pliny and others say it is Iceland.

Una (ū´nä).—Faërie Queene, Spenser. The personification of truth. She goes, leading a lamb and riding on a white ass, to the court of Gloriana, to crave that one of her knights might undertake to slay the dragon which kept her father and mother prisoners. The adventure is accorded to the Red Cross Knight. Being driven by a storm into Wandering Wood, a vision is sent to the knight which causes him to leave Una, and she goes in search of him. In her wanderings a lion becomes her attendant. After many adventures, she finds St. George, “the Red Cross Knight,” but he is severely wounded. Una takes him to the House of Holiness, where he is carefully nursed, and then leads him to Eden.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin.—A work of fiction by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. It had an enormous sale, and at once made the author famous. As a picture of slave life as it once obtained in the Southern states of America it is certainly unsurpassed. The scenes described in it are so terrible that Mrs. Stowe deemed it advisable to publish in 1853 a Key to the work, showing the large extent to which it is founded upon fact. The hero is, of course, Uncle Tom.

Uncle Tom was an old negro slave of unaffected piety, and most faithful in the discharge of all his duties. His master, a humane man, becomes embarrassed in his affairs, and sells him to a slave-dealer. After passing through various hands, and suffering intolerable cruelties, he dies. The figure next in interest is Legree, the brutal slave-owner. Everyone, also, will remember Eva and Topsy.

Urganda (ör-gän´dä).—In the romance of Amadis de Gaul, a powerful fairy sometimes appearing in all the terrors of an evil enchantress.

Uriel (ū´ri-el), or Israfil.—In the Koran, the angel who is to sound the resurrection trumpet. Longfellow, in The Golden Legend, calls him “the minister of Mars,” and says that he inspires man with “fortitude to bear the brunt and suffering of life.”

Uther (ū´ther).—Son of Constans, one of the fabulous or legendary kings of Britain, and the father of Arthur.

Utopia (ū-tö´pi-ä).—The name of an imaginary island described in the celebrated work of Sir Thomas More, in which was found the utmost perfection in laws, politics, and social arrangements. More’s romance obtained a wide popularity, and the epithet Utopian has since been applied to schemes for the improvement of society which are deemed not practicable.

Uzziel.—In Paradise Lost, the next in command to Gabriel. The word means “God’s strength.”

V

Valentine (val´en-tīn).—(1) One of the heroes in the old romance of Valentine and Orson. (2) One of the Two Gentlemen of Verona, by Shakespeare. (3) A gentleman attending on the duke in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. (4) One of the characters in Goethe’s Faust. He is a brother of Margaret.

Valerian (va-lē´ri-an).—Canterbury Tales, Chaucer. The husband of St. Cecilia. Cecilia told him she was beloved by an angel, who constantly visited her; and Valerian requested to see this visitant. Cecilia replied that he could do so if he went to Pope Urban to be baptized. This he did, and on returning home the angel gave him a crown of lilies, and to Cecilia a crown of roses, both from the garden of paradise.

Valley of Humiliation.—Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan. The place where Christian encountered Apollyon, just before he came to the “Valley of the Shadow of Death.”

Vanity Fair.—A novel without a hero, by Thackeray. “There are scenes of all sorts,” says the author in his preface to the work, “some dreadful combats, some grand and lofty horse-riding, some scenes of high life and some of very middling indeed, some love making for the sentimental, and some light comic business; the whole accompanied by appropriate scenery, and brilliantly illuminated by the author’s own candle.”

Vathek (vath´ek).—By Beckford. Originally written in French. “It was composed,” says the author, “at twenty-two years of age. It took me three days and two nights of hard labor. I never took off my clothes the whole time.” The description of the Hall of Eblis, which is often quoted, was taken, it appears, from the old hall at Fonthill, Beckford’s residence, probably the largest in any private house in England. “It was from that hall I worked, magnifying and coloring it with Eastern character. All the female characters were portraits drawn from the domestic establishment of old Fonthill, their good or evil qualities ideally exaggerated to suit my purpose.” Vathek was translated into English, it is not known by whom, immediately on its appearance. “It was one of the tales,” says Byron, “I had a very early admiration of. For correctness of costume, beauty of description, and power of imagination, it far surpasses all European imitations, and bears such marks of originality that those who have visited the East will find some difficulty in believing it to be more than a translation.”

Veck, Toby.—The Chimes, Dickens. A ticket-porter who went on errands and bore the nickname Trotty. One New Year’s eve he had a nightmare and fancied he had mounted to the steeple of a neighboring church, and that goblins issued out of the bells. He was roused from his sleep by the sound of the bells ringing in the new year.

Veiled Prophet.—Lalla Rookh, Moore. He assumed to be a god, and maintained that he had been Adam, Noah, and other representative men. Having lost an eye, and being otherwise disfigured in battle, he wore a veil to conceal his face, but his followers said it was done to screen his dazzling brightness.

Vernon, Di, or Diana.—Rob Roy, Scott. The heroine of the story, a high-born girl of great beauty and talents. She is an enthusiastic adherent to a persecuted religion and an exiled king.

Vicar of Wakefield.—A novel by Goldsmith. The hero is Dr. Primrose, a simple-minded, pious clergyman, with six children. He begins life with a good fortune, a handsome house, and wealthy friends, but is reduced to poverty without any fault of his own, and, being reduced like Job, like Job he is restored.

Vincentio (vin-sen´shiō).—The duke of Vienna in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. He commits his scepter to Angelo, under the pretext of being called to take an urgent and distant journey, and by exchanging the royal purple for a monk’s hood, observes incognito the condition of his people.

Vincy (vin´si), Rosamond.—One of the principal female characters in George Eliot’s novel Middlemarch.

Viola. (vi´ō-lä)—Twelfth Night, Shakespeare. A sister of Sebastian. They were twins, and so much alike that they could be distinguished only by their dress. When they were shipwrecked Viola was brought to shore by the captain, but her brother was left to shift for himself. Being in a strange land, Viola dressed as a page, and, under the name of Cesario, entered the service of Orsino, duke of Illyria. The duke greatly liked his beautiful page, and, when he discovered her true sex, married her.

Violenta.—All’s Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare. A character in the play who enters upon the scene only once, and then she neither speaks nor is spoken to. The name has been used to designate any young lady nonentity; one who contributes nothing to the amusement or conversation of a party.

Virgilia (ver-jil´i-ä).—In Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, was the wife of Coriolanus, and Volumnia his mother; but historically Volumnia was his wife and Veturia his mother.

Virginia (ver-jin´i-ä).—A young Roman plebeian of great beauty, decoyed by Appius Claudius, one of the decemvirs, and claimed as his slave. Her father, Virginius, being told of it, hastened to the forum, and arrived at the moment when Virginia was about to be delivered up to Appius. He seized a butcher’s knife, stabbed his daughter to the heart, rushed from the forum, and raised a revolt. This has been the subject of a host of tragedies. It is one of Lord Macauley’s lays (1842), supposed to be sung in the forum on the day when Sextus and Licinius were elected tribunes for the fifth time.

Vivian (viv´i-an), or Viviane, or Vivien.—In the Arthurian cycle of romance, an enchantress, the mistress of Merlin. She brought up Lancelot in her palace, which was situated in the midst of a magical lake; hence her name “the Lady of the Lake.”

Volpone (vol-pō´ne), or the Fox.—A comedy by Ben Jonson, written in 1605. Hazlitt calls it his best play; prolix and improbable, but intense and powerful. It seems formed on the model of Plautus in unity of plot and interest. The principal character is represented as a wealthy sensualist, who tests the character of his friends and kinsmen by a variety of strategems, obtains from them a large addition to his riches by the success of his impostures, and finally falls under the vengeance of the law. “Volpone,” says Campbell, “is not, like the common misers of comedy, a mere money-loving dotard, a hard, shriveled old mummy, with no other spice than his avarice to preserve him—he is a happy villain, a jolly misanthrope, a little god in his own selfishness; and Mosca is his priest and prophet. Vigorous and healthy, though past the prime of life, he hugs himself in his harsh humor, his successful knavery and imposture, his sensuality and his wealth, with an unhallowed relish of selfish existence.”

W

Wallenstein (väl´len-stīn).—A trilogy by Schiller, comprising Wallenstein’s Lager, Die Piccolomini, and Wallenstein’s Tod. Schiller conceives his hero in these dramas as the type of the practical realist, serious, solitary, and reserved.

Wandering Jew, The—(F. Le Juif Errant).—A novel by Eugene Sue. The chief character is an imaginary person in a legend connected with the history of Christ’s passion. As the Savior was on the way to the place of execution, overcome with the weight of the cross, he wished to rest on a stone before the house of a Jew, who drove him away with curses. Driven by fear and remorse, he has since wandered, according to the command of the Lord, from place to place, and has never yet been able to find a grave.

War and Peace.—An historical novel by Tolstoi, published 1865-1868. The scene is laid in the time of the Czar Alexander I., and the novel is a picture of Russian society during the Russo-French wars.

Waverley (wā´ver-li) Novels.—General name given to Scott’s historical novels.

Wayside Inn, Tales of a.—Poems in various meters by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The first series includes a Prelude (The Wayside Inn), the Landlord’s Tale (Paul Revere’s Ride), the Student’s Tale (The Falcon of Ser Federigo), the Spanish Jew’s Tale (The Legend of Rabbi Ben Levi), the Sicilian’s Tale (King Robert of Sicily), the Musician’s Tale (The Saga of King Olaf), the Theologian’s Tale (Torquemada), the Poet’s Tale (The Birds of Killingworth), several Interludes, and Finale.

Weller (wel´er), Sam.—In Dickens’ celebrated Pickwick Papers. A servant to Mr. Pickwick, to whom he becomes devotedly attached. Rather than leave his master when he is sent to the Fleet, Sam Weller gets his father to arrest him for debt. He is an inimitable compound of wit, simplicity, quaint humor, and fidelity. Tony Weller, father of Sam; a coachman of the old school, who drives between London and Dorking. On the coachbox he is a king, elsewhere a mere London “cabby.” He marries a widow, and his constant advice to his son is, “Sam, beware of the vidders.”

Westward Ho!—A novel by Charles Kingsley, the scene of which is laid in “the spacious times of great Elizabeth,” when the safety of England was threatened by the Spanish armada. Several historical personages figure in the story, such as Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Richard Grenville, Admiral Hawkins, and Sir Francis Drake; and the narrative carries the reader from Bideford to London, and from thence to Ireland, to the Spanish main, and the South American continent, back again to Bideford and Plymouth, whence the hero, Amyas Leigh, sails to take part in the famous sea-fight.

Wild (wīld), Jonathan.—A cool, calculating, heartless villain, with the voice of a Stentor, hero of Defoe’s romance of the same name.

Wilford.—(1) In Knowles’ The Hunchback, supposed to be earl of Rochdale. (2) In Knowles’ The Beggar of Bethnal Green, the truant son of Lord Woodville, who fell in love with Bess, the daughter of the “blind beggar of Bethnal Green.”

Wilhelm Meister (vil´helm mīs´ter).—Title of a philosophic novel by Goethe. The object is to show that man, despite his errors and shortcomings, is led by a guiding hand, and reaches some higher aim at last. This is considered to be the first true German novel.

Wimble (wim´bl), Will.—A member of the fictitious Spectator Club, said to be intended as a portrait of a Mr. Thomas Morecroft, a gentleman of simple habits and good nature.

Winter’s Tale, The.—A play by Shakespeare. Leontês, King of Sicily, invites his friend Polixenês to visit him, becomes jealous, and commands Camillo to poison him. Camillo warns Polixenês, and flees with him to Bohemia. Leontês casts his queen, Hermionê, into prison, where she gives birth to a daughter. Hermoinê is reported dead and the child is brought up by a shepherd, who calls it Perdita. Florizel sees Perdita and falls in love with her; but Polixenês, his father, tells her that she and the shepherd shall be put to death if she encourages the suit. Florizel and Perdita flee to Sicily, and being introduced to Leontês, it is soon discovered that Perdita is his lost daughter. Polixenês tracks his son to Sicily, and consents to the union. The party are invited to inspect a statue of Hermoinê, and the statue turns out to be the living queen.

Worldly-Wiseman, Mr.—One of the characters in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, who converses with Christian by the way, and endeavors to deter him from proceeding on his journey.

Wrayburn (rā´bern) Eugene.—Our Mutual Friend, Dickens. Barrister-at-law; an indolent, moody, whimsical young man, who loves Lizzie Hexam. After he is nearly killed by Bradley Headstone, he reforms and marries Lizzie, who saved his life.

Y

Yahoo (yȧ-hö´).—A name given by Swift, in his satirical romance of Gulliver’s Travels, to one of a race of brutes having the form and all the vices of man. The Yahoos are represented as being subject to the Houyhnhnms, or horses endowed with reason.

Yorick (yor´ik).—(1) The King of Denmark’s jester, mentioned in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Hamlet picks up his skull in the churchyard and apostrophizes it. (2) A humorous and careless parson in Sterne’s Tristram Shandy.

Z

Zadig.—The title of a novel by Voltaire. Zadig is a wealthy young Babylonian, and the object of the novel is to show that the events of life are beyond human control.

Zanoni (za-nō´ni).—Hero of a novel, so-called, by Lord Lytton. Zanoni is supposed to possess the power of communicating with spirits, prolonging life, and producing gold, silver, and precious stones.

Zara (zä´rä; French, zaire), a tragedy by Voltaire. Zara is the daughter of Lusignan d’Outremer, king of Jerusalem and brother of Nerestan. For twenty years Lusignan and his two children were captives at the court of the sultan Osman. The latter loves Zara, and was jealous of Nerestan, of whose relationship he was ignorant, and stabbed her to the heart. Nerestan being brought before the sultan, told him he had slain his sister. Osman then stabbed himself out of remorse.

Zenobia (ze-nō´bi-ä).—Blithedale Romance, Hawthorne. A strong-minded woman, beautiful and intelligent, who was interested in playing out the pastoral of the life at Brook Farm. She is represented as disappointed in love, and at last she drowned herself.

Zephon.—A “strong and subtle spirit” in Milton’s Paradise Lost, whom Gabriel dispatched with Ithuriel to find Satan.

Zillah.—One of Southey’s characters, beloved by Hamuel, a brutish sot. Zillah rejected his suit, and Hamuel vowed vengeance. Accordingly, he gave out that Zillah had intercourse with the devil, and she was condemned to be burnt alive. God averted the flames, which consumed Hamuel; but Zillah stood unharmed, and the stake to which she was bound threw forth white roses, “the first ever seen on earth since paradise was lost.”

Zimri (zim´ri).—In Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, is intended for George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, who had satirized Dryden in The Rehearsal as Bayes.

Zophiel (zō´fi-el).—In Milton’s Paradise Lost, an angelic scout.

Zuleika (zū-lē´kä).—The heroine in Byron’s poem of The Bride of Abydos, in love with Selim:

“Fair, as the first that fell of womankind...
Soft, as the memory of buried love;
Pure, as the prayer which childhood wafts above:
Such was Zuleika—such around her shone
The nameless charms unmark’d by her alone:
The light of love, the purity of grace,
The mind, the music breathing from her face,
The heart whose softness harmonized the whole—
And, oh! that eye was in itself a soul!”

This beautiful Roman temple, said to have been erected by Agrippa in 27 B. C, was dedicated to all the gods of Greece and Rome. It is lighted by a single aperture in the center of its magnificent dome. (See illustration on next page.)