PREFACE. (continued 7)

Quintin Matsys of Antwerp painted a bee on the outstretched leg of a fallen angel so naturally that when old Mandyn, the artist, returned to the studio, he tried to frighten it away with his pocket-handkerchief.

Horse of Brass (The), a present from the king of Araby and Ind to Cambuscan´, king of Tartary. A person whispered in its ear where he wished to go, and having mounted, turned a pin, whereupon the brazen steed rose in the air as high as the rider wished, and within twenty-four hours landed him at the end of his journey.

This steed of brass, that easily and well

Can, in the space of a day natural....

Bearen your body into every place

To which your heartè willeth for to pace.

Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (“The Squire’s Tale,” 1388).

Horse Shoe Robinson. A daring American trooper, who captures five English soldiers without other assistance than a small boy and a horse. When surprised reconnoitering the enemy’s camp from a cliff, he drops upon his knees and “is digging up sassafras roots.”—John Pendleton Kennedy, Horse Shoe Robinson (1852).

Horste (Conrade), one of the insurgents at Liège.—Sir W. Scott, Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).

Hortense´ (2 syl.), the vindictive French maid-servant of Lady Dedlock. In revenge for the partiality shown by Lady Dedlock to Rosa, the village beauty, Hortense murdered Mr. Tulkinghorn, and tried to throw the suspicion of the crime on Lady Dedlock.—C. Dickens, Bleak House (1853).

Horten´sio, a suitor to Bianca, the younger sister of Katharina, “the Shrew.” Katharina and Bianca are the daughters of Baptista.—Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew (1594).

Hortensio, noted for his chivalrous love and valor.—Massinger, The Bashful Lover (1636).

Hosier’s Ghost (Admiral), a ballad by Richard Glover (1739). Admiral Hosier was sent with twenty sail to the Spanish West Indies, to block up the galleons of that country. He arrived at the Bastimentos, near Portobello, but had strict orders not to attack the foe. His men perished by disease but not in fight, and the admiral himself died of a broken heart. After Vernon’s victory, Hosier and his 3000 men rose, “all in dreary hammocks shrouded, which for winding-sheets they wore,” and lamented the cruel orders that forbade them to attack the foe, for “with twenty ships he surely could have achieved what Vernon did with only six.”

Hotspur. So Harry Percy was called from his fiery temper, over which he had no control.—Shakespeare, 1 Henry IV. (1597).

William Bensley [1738-1817] had the true poetic enthusiasm.... None that I remember possessed even a portion of that fine madness which he threw out in Hotspur’s fine rant about glory. His voice had the dissonance and at times the inspiring effect of the trumpet.—C. Lamb.

Hotspur of Debate (The), Lord Derby, 187called by Maccaulay “The Rupert of Debate” (1799-1869).

Houd (1 syl.), a prophet sent to preach repentance to the Adites (2 syl.), and to reprove their King Shedad for his pride. As the Adites and their king refused to hear the prophet, God sent on the kingdom first a drought of three years’ duration, and then the Sarsar or icy wind for seven days, so that all the people perished. Houd is written “Hûd” in Sale’s Korân, i.

Then stood the prophet Houd and cried,

“Woe! woe to Irem! woe to Ad!

Death is gone up into her palaces!

Woe! woe! a day of guilt and punishment!

A day of desolation!”

Southey, Thalaba, the Destroyer, i. 41 (1797).

Hough´ton (Sergeant), in Waverley’s regiment.—Sir W. Scott, Waverley (time, George II.).

Hounds (Gen. Custer’s). “His pack of hounds was an endless source of delight to the general. He had about forty, the stag-hounds that run by sight, and are on the whole, the fleetest and most enduring dogs in the world, and the fox-hounds that follow the trail with their noses close to the ground. The first rarely bark, but the latter are very noisy. We used to listen with amusement to their attempts to strike the key-note of the bugler when he sounded the calls summoning the men to guard-mount, stables, or retreat.”—Elizabeth Bacon Custer, Boots and Saddles, (1885).

Hounslow, one of the gang of thieves that conspire to break into Lady Bountiful’s house.—Farquhar, The Beaux’ Stratagem (1705).

Houri, plu. Houris, the virgins of paradise; so called from their large black eyes (hûr al oyûn). According to Mohammedan faith, intercourse with these lovely women is to constitute the chief delight of the faithful in the “world to come.”—Al Korân.

House that Jack Built (The), a cumulative nursery story, in which every preceding statement is repeated after the introduction of a new one; thus;

1. [This is] the house that Jack built.

2. [This is] the malt that lay in ...

3. [This is] the rat that ate ...

4. [This is] the cat that killed ...

5. [This is] the dog that worried ...

6. [This is] the cow with the crumpled horn, that tossed ...

7. [This is] the maiden all forlorn, that milked ...

8. [This is] the man all tattered and torn, that kissed ...

9. This is the priest all shaven and shorn, that married ...

A similar accumulation occurs in another nursery tale, with this difference—the several clauses are repeated twice: once by entreaty of the old woman to perform some service to get her pig to cross over a bridge that she may get home; and then the reverse way, when each begins the task requested of them. It begins with a statement that an old woman went to market to buy a pig; they came to a bridge, which the pig would not go over, so the old woman called to a stick, and said:

1. [Stick, stick, beat pig, for] pig won’t go over the bridge, and I shan’t get home to-night.

2. [Fire, fire] burn stick, stick won’t beat pig ...

3. [Water, water] quench fire, fire won’t ...

4. [Ox, ox] drink water, water won’t ...

5. [Butcher, butcher] kill ox, ox won’t ...

6. [Rope, rope] hang butcher, butcher won’t ...

7. [Rat, rat] gnaw rope, rope won’t ...

8. [Cat, cat] kill rat, rat won’t ...

Then the cat began to kill the rat, and the rat began to gnaw the rope, and the rope began ... 188etc., and the pig went over the bridge, and so the old woman got home that night.

Dr. Doran gave the following Hebrew “parable” in Notes and Queries:—

1. [This is] the kid that my father bought for two zuzim [=1/2d.].

2. [This is] the cat that ate ...

3. [This is] the dog that bit ...

4. [This is] the stick that beat ...

5. [This is] the fire that burnt ...

6. [This is] the water that quenched ...

7. [This is] the ox that drank ...

8. [This is] the butcher that killed ...

9. This is the angel, the angel of death, that slew ...

Hous´sain (Prince), the elder brother of Prince Ahmed. He possessed a carpet of such wonderful powers that if any one sat upon it it would transport him in a moment to any place he liked. Prince Houssain bought this carpet at Bisnagar, in India.—Arabian Nights (“Ahmed and Paribanou”).

⁂ Solomon’s carpet (q. v.) possessed the same locomotive power.

Houyhnhnms [Whin´.ims], a race of horses endowed with human reason, and bearing rule over the race of man.—Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (1726).

“True, true, ay, too true,” replied the Domine, his houyhnhnms laugh sinking into an hysterical giggle.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (1815).

Hover (Paul), bee-hunter in Last of the Mohicans, in love with Ellen Wade.—James Fennimore Cooper.

Howard, in the court of Edward IV.—SirSir W. Scott, Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).

How´atson (Luckie), midwife at Ellangowan.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Howden (Mrs.), a saleswoman.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).

Howe (Miss), the friend of Clarissa Harlowe, to whom she presents a strong contrast. She has more worldly wisdom and less abstract principle. In questions of doubt, Miss Howe would suggest some practical solution, while Clarissa was mooning about hypothetical contingencies. She is a girl of high spirit, disinterested friendship, and sound common sense.—Richardson, Clarissa Harlowe (1749).

Howel or Hoel, king of the West Welsh in the tenth century, surnamed “the Good.” He is a very famous king, especially for his code of laws. This is not the Howel or Hoel of Arthurian romance, who was the duke of Armorica in the sixth century.

What Mulmutian laws, or Martian, ever were

More excellent than those which our good Howel here

Ordained to govern Wales?

Drayton, Polyolbion, ix. (1612).

Howie (Jamie), bailie to Malcolm Bradwardine (3 syl.), of Inchgrabbit.—Sir W. Scott, Waverley (time, George II.).

Howlaglass (Master), a preacher. Friend of Justice Maulstatute.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Howle´glas (Father), the abbot of Unreason, in the revels held at Kennaquhair Abbey.—Sir W. Scott, The Abbot (time, Elizabeth).

Howleglass (2 syl.), a clever rascal, so called from the hero of an old German jest-book, popular in England in Queen Elizabeth’s reign.—See Eulenspiegel.

189Hoyden (Miss), a lively, ignorant, romping country girl.—Vanbrugh, The Relapse (1697).

Hoyden (Miss), daughter of Sir Tunbelly Clumsy, a green, ill-educated, country girl, living near Scarborough. She is promised in marriage to Lord Foppington, but as his lordship is not personally known, either by the knight or his daughter, Tom Fashion, the nobleman’s younger brother, passes himself off as Lord Foppington, is admitted into the family, and marries the heiress.—Sheridan, A Trip to Scarborough (1777).

⁂ Sheridan’s comedy is The Relapse of Vanbrugh (1697), abridged, recast, and somewhat modernized.

Hrasvelg, the giant who keeps watch on the North side of the root of the Tree of the World, to devour the dead. His shape is that of an eagle. Winds and storms are caused by the movement of his wings.—Scandinavian Mythology.

Hrimfax´i, the horse of Night, from whose bit fall the rime-drops that every morning bedew the earth.—Scandinavian Mythology.

Hrothgar, king of Denmark, whom Beowulf delivered from the monster Grendel. Hrothgar built Heorot, a magnificent palace, and here he distributed rings (treasure), and held his feasts; but the monster, Grendel, envious of his happiness, stole into the hall after a feast, and put thirty of the thanes to death in their sleep. The same ravages were repeated night after night, till Beowulf, at the head of a mixed band of soldiers, went against him and slew him.—Beowulf (an Anglo-Saxon epic poem, sixth century).

Hry´mer, pilot of the ship Nagelfar (made of the “nails of the dead”).—Scandinavian Mythology.

Hubba and Ingwar, two Danish chiefs, who, in 870, conquered East Anglia and wintered at Thetford, in Norfolk. King Edmund fought against them, but was beaten and taken prisoner. The Danish chiefs offered him his life and kingdom if he would renounce Christianity and pay them tribute; but as he refused to do so, they tied him to a tree, shot at him with arrows, and then cut off his head. Edmund was therefore called “St. Edmund.” Alu´red fought seven battles with Hubba, and slew him at Abington, in Berkshire.

Alured ...

In seven brave foughten fields their champion Hubba chased,

And slew him in the end at Abington [sic].

Drayton, Polyolbion, xii. (1613).

Hubbard (Mother). Mother Hubbard’s Tale, by Edmund Spenser, is a satirical fable in the style of Chaucer, supposed to be told by an old woman (Mother Hubbard) to relieve the weariness of the poet during a time of sickness. The tale is this: An ape and a fox went into partnership to seek their fortunes. They resolved to begin their adventures as beggars, so Master Ape dressed himself as a broken soldier, and Reynard pretended to be his dog. After a time they came to a farmer, who employed the ape as shepherd, but when the rascals had so reduced the flock that detection was certain, they decamped. Next they tried the Church, under advice of a priest; Reynard was appointed rector to a living, and the ape was his parish clerk. From this living they were obliged also to remove. Next they went to court as foreign potentates, and drove a splendid business, but came to grief ere long. 190Lastly, they saw King Lion asleep, his skin was lying beside him, with his crown and sceptre. Master Ape stole the regalia, dressed himself as King Lion, usurped the royal palace, made Reynard his chief minister, and collected round him a band of monsters, chiefly amphibious, as his guard and court. In time Jupiter sent Mercury to rouse King Lion from his lethargy; so he awoke from sleep, broke into his palace, and bit off the ape’s tail, with a part of its ear.

Since which, all apes but half their ears have left,

And of their tails are utterly bereft.

As for Reynard, he ran away at the first alarm, and tried to curry favor with King Lion; but the king only exposed him and let him go (1591).

Hubbard (Old Mother) went to her cupboard to get a bone for her dog, but, not finding one, trotted hither and thither to fetch sundry articles for his behoof. Every time she returned she found Master Doggie performing some extraordinary feat, and at last, having finished all her errands, she made a grand curtsey to Master Doggie. The dog, not to be outdone in politeness, made his mistress a profound bow; upon which the dame said, “Your servant!” and the dog replied, “Bow, wow!”—Nursery Tales.

Hubble (Mr.), wheelwright; a tough, high-shouldered, stooping old man, of a sawdusty fragrance, with his legs extraordinarily wide apart.

Mrs. Hubble, a little, curly, sharp-edged person, who held a conventionally juvenile position, because she had married Mr. Hubble when she was much younger than he.—C. Dickens, Great Expectations (1860).

Hubert, “the keeper” of young Prince Arthur. King John conspired with him to murder the young prince, and Hubert actually employed two ruffians to burn out both the boy’s eyes with red-hot irons. Arthur pleaded so lovingly with Hubert to spare his eyes, that he relented; however, the lad was found dead soon afterwards, either by accident or foul play.—Shakespeare, King John, (1596).

⁂ This “Hubert” was Hubert de Burgh, justice of England and earl of Kent.

One would think, had it been possible, that Shakespeare, when he made King John excuse his intentions of perpetrating the death of Arthur by his comment on Hubert’s face, by which he saw the assassin in his mind, had Sanford in idea, for he was rather deformed, and had a most forbidding countenance.—C. Dibdin, History of the Stage.

Hubert, an honest lord, in love with Jac´ulin, daughter of Gerrard, king of the beggars.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Beggar’s Bush (1622).

Hubert, brother of Prince Oswald, severely wounded by Count Hurgonel, in the combat provoked by Oswald, against Gondibert, his rival for the love of Rhodalind, the heiress of Aribert, king of Lombardy.—Sir W. Davenant, Gondibert (died 1568).

Hubert, an archer in the service of Sir Philip de Malvoisin.—Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).

Hubert (St), patron saint of huntsmen. He was son of Bertrand, duc d’Acquitaine, and cousin of King Pepin.

Huddibras (Sir), a man “more huge in strength than wise in works,” the suitor of Perissa (extravagance).—Spenser, Faëry Queen, ii. 2 (1590).

191Hudibras, the hero and title of a rhyming political satire, by S. Butler. Sir Hudibras is a Presbyterian justice in the Commonwealth, who sets out with his squire, Ralph (an independent), to reform abuses, and enforce the observance of the laws for the suppression of popular sports and amusements (1663, 1664, 1678).

Hudjadge, a shah of Persia, suffered much from sleeplessness, and commanded Fitead, his porter and gardener, to tell him tales to while away the weary hours. Fitead declared himself wholly unable to comply with this request. “Then find some one who can,” said Hudjadge, “or suffer death for disobedience.” On reaching home, greatly dejected, he told his only daughter, Moradbak, who was motherless, and only 14 years old, the shah’s command, and she undertook the task. She told the shah the stories called The Oriental Tales, which not only amused him, but cured him, and he married her.—Comte de Caylus, Oriental Tales (1743).

Hudson (Sir Geoffrey), the famous dwarf, formerly page to Queen Henrietta Maria. Sir Geoffrey tells Julian Peveril how the late queen had him enclosed in a pie and brought to table. Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

⁂ Vandyke has immortalized Sir Geoffrey by his brush; and some of his clothes are said to be preserved in Sir Hans Sloane’s museum.

Hudson (Tam), gamekeeper.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Hugh, blacksmith at Ringleburn; a friend of Hobbie Elliott, the Heughfoot farmer.—Sir W. Scott, The Black Dwarf (time, Anne).

Hugh, servant at the Maypole Inn. This giant in stature and ringleader in the “No Popery riots,” was a natural son of Sir John Chester and a gypsy. He loved Dolly Varden, and was very kind to Barnaby Rudge, the half-witted lad. Hugh was executed for his participation in the “Gordon riots.”—C. Dickens, Barnaby Rudge (1841).

Hugh (Langmuir), young man from the country, who comes to New York to seek his fortune and gets a clerkship. He becomes attached to an ambitious, but well-meaning girl, and to hasten their marriage, he embezzles one thousand dollars. He confesses it to her and attempts suicide. She pays the money out of her own savings and marries him. They begin the world together humbly and wisely.—Charlotte Dunning, A Step Aside (1886).

Hugh, Count of Vermandois, a crusader.—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Hugh de Brass (Mr.), in A Regular Fix, by J.M. Morton.

Hugh of Lincoln, a boy eight years old, said to have been stolen, tortured and crucified by Jews in 1255. Eighteen of the wealthiest Jews of Lincoln were hanged for taking part in this affair, and the boy was buried in state.

⁂ There are several documents in Rymer’s Fœdera relative to this event. The story is told in the Chronicles of Matthew Paris. It is the subject of the Prioress’s Tale in Chaucer, and Wordsworth has a modernized version of Chaucer’s tale.

A similar story is told of William of Norwich, said to have been crucified by the Jews in 1137.

Percy, in his Reliques, i. 3, has a ballad about a boy named Hew, whose mother 192was “Lady Hew of Merryland” (? Milan). He was enticed by an apple, given him by a Jewish damsel, who “stabbed him with a penknife, rolled him in lead, and cast him into a well.”

Werner is another boy said to have been crucified by the Jews. The place of this alleged murder was Bacharach.

Hugo, count of Vermandois, brother of Phillippe I. of France, and leader of the Franks in the first crusade. Hugo died before Godfrey was appointed general-in-chief of the allied armies (bk. i.), but his spirit appeared to Godfrey when the army went against the Holy City (bk. xviii.).—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered (1575).

Hugo, brother of Arnold; very small of stature, but brave as a lion. He was slain in the faction fight stirred up by Prince Oswald against Duke Gondibert, his rival in the love of Rhodalind, daughter and only child of Aribert, king of Lombardy.

Of stature small, but was all over heart,

And tho’ unhappy, all that heart was love.

Sir W. Davenant, Gondibert, i. 1 (died 1668).

Hugo, natural son of Azo, chief of the house of Este (2 syl.) and Bianca, who died of a broken heart, because, although a mother, she was never wed. Hugo was betrothed to Parisina, but his father, not knowing it, made Parisina his own bride. One night Azo heard Parisina in her sleep confess her love for Hugo, and the angry marquis ordered his son to be beheaded. What became of Parisina “none knew, and none can ever know.”—Byron, Parisina (1816).

Hugo Hugonet, minstrel of the earl of Douglas.—Sir W. Scott, Castle Dangerous (time, Henry I.).

Hugo von Kronfels. At the age of twenty-two or three, a handsome man with the world before him, has a fall that cripples him hopelessly. He becomes a bitter-thoughted recluse, more feared than beloved by the few who see him, until the sunshine of a young girl’s society and the wholesome talk of a man of the people change the tenor of thought and feeling, teaching him that to live is nobler than to cast away the existence God has given.—Blanche Willis Howard, The Open Door (1889).

Hugon (King), the great nursery ogre of France.

Huguenot Pope (The). Philippe de Mornay, the great supporter of the French Huguenots, is called Le Pape des Huguenots (1549-1623).

⁂ Of course, Philippe de Mornay was not one of the “popes of Rome.”

Huguenots (Les), an opera by Meyerbeer (1836). The subject of this opera is the massacre of the French Huguenots or Protestants, planned by Catharine de Medicis on St. Bartholomew’s Day (August 24, 1572), during the wedding festivities of her daughter Margherita (Marguerite) and Henri le Bearnais (afterwards Henri IV. of France).

Hul´sean Lectures, certain sermons preached at Great St. Mary’s Church, Cambridge, and paid for by a fund, the gift of the Rev. John Hulse, of Cheshire, in 1777.

⁂ Till the year 1860, the Hulsean Lecturer was called “The Christian Advocate.”

Hull, (Dr.). Person of imposing deportment and plausible speech, business-manager of Mrs. Legrand, a spiritualistic medium 193and imposter.—Edward Bellamy, Miss Luddington’s Sister (1884).

Humber or Humbert, mythical king of the Huns, who invaded England during the reign of Locrin, some 1000 years B.C. In his flight, he was drowned in the river Abus, which has ever since been called the Humber.—Geoffrey, British History, ii. 2; Milton, History of England.

Humgud´geon (Grace-be-here), a corporal in Cromwell’s troop.—Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, Commonwealth).

Humm (Anthony), chairman of the “Brick Lane Branch of the United Grand Junction Ebenezer Temperance Association.”—C. Dickens, The Pickwick Papers (1836).

Humma, a fabulous bird, of which it was said that “the head over which the shadow of its wings passes will assuredly wear a crown.”—Wilkes, South of India, v. 423.

Belike he thinks

The humma’s happy wings have shadowed him,

And, therefore, Fate with royalty must crown

His chosen head.

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

Humming-bird. John James Audubon’s story of the Loves of the Hummingbirds reads like romantic fiction rather than fact. The male, when wooing his bride, feeds her with honey, and fans her with his wings while she sips it. After marriage and during incubation, his tender assiduities are redoubled instead of abated. By John James Audubon, Ornithological Biography (1831).

Humorous Lieutenant (The), the chief character and title of a comedy by Beaumont and Fletcher (1647). The lieutenant has no name.

Humpback (The). Andrea Sola´ri, the Italian painter, was called Del Gobbo (1470-1527).

Geron´imo Amelunghi was also called Il Gobbo di Pisa (sixteenth century).

Humphrey (Master), the hypothetical compiler of the tale entitled “Barnaby Rudge” in Master Humphrey’s Clock, by Charles Dickens (1840).

Humphrey (Old), pseudonym of George Mogridge.

⁂ George Mogridge has also issued several books under the popular name of “Peter Parley,” which was first assumed by S.G. Goodrich, in 1828. Several publishers of high standing have condescended to palm books on the public under this nom de plume, some written by William Martin, and others by persons wholly unknown.

Humphrey (The good duke), Humphrey Plantagenet, duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Henry IV., murdered in 1446.

Humphrey (To dine with duke), to go without dinner. To stay behind in St. Paul’s aisles, under pretence of finding out the monument of Duke Humphrey, while others more fortunate go home to dinner.

⁂ It was really the monument of John Beauchamp that the “dinnerless” hung about, and not that of Duke Humphrey. John Beauchamp died in 1359, and Duke Humphrey in 1446.

Huncamunca (Princess), daughter of King Arthur and Queen Dollallolla, beloved by Lord Grizzle and Tom Thumb. The king promises her in marriage to the “pigmy giant-queller.” Huncamunca kills Frizaletta “for killing her mamma.” But Frizaletta killed the queen for killing her sweetheart Noodle, and the queen killed 194Noodle because he was the messenger of ill news.—Tom Thumb, by Fielding, the novelist (1730), altered by O’Hara, author of Midas (1778).

Hunchback (The). Master Walter, “the hunchback,” was the guardian of Julia, and brought her up in the country, training her most strictly in knowledge and goodness. When grown to womanhood, she was introduced to Sir Thomas Clifford, and they plighted their troth to each other. Then came a change. Clifford lost his title and estates, while Julia went to London, became a votary of fashion and pleasure, abandoned Clifford, and promised marriage to Wilford, earl of Rochdale. The day of espousals came. The love of Julia for Clifford revived, and she implored her guardian to break off the obnoxious marriage. Master Walter now showed himself to be the earl of Rochdale, and the father of Julia; the marriage with Wilford fell through, and Julia became the wife of Sir Thomas Clifford.——S. Knowles, (1831).

⁂ Similarly, Maria, “the maid of the Oaks,” was brought up by Oldworth as his ward, but was in reality his motherless child.—J. Burgoyne, The Maid of the Oaks.

Hunchback (The Little), the buffoon of the sultan of Casgar. Supping with a tailor, the little fellow was killed by a bone sticking in his throat. The tailor, out of fear, carried the body to the house of a physician, and the physician, stumbling against it, knocked it downstairs. Thinking he had killed the man, he let the body down a chimney into the store-room of his neighbor, who was a purveyor. The purveyor, supposing it to be a thief, belabored it soundly; and then, thinking he had killed the little humpback, carried the body into the street, and set it against a wall. A Christian merchant, reeling home, stumbled against the body, and gave it a blow with his fist. Just then the patrol came up, and arrested the merchant for murder. He was condemned to death; but the purveyor came forward and accused himself of being the real offender. The merchant was accordingly released, and the purveyor condemned to death; but then the physician appeared, and said he had killed the man by accident, having knocked him downstairs. When the purveyor was released, and the physician led away to execution, the tailor stepped up, and told his tale. All were then taken before the sultan, and acquitted; and the sultan ordered the case to be enrolled in the archives of his kingdom amongst the causes célèbres.—Arabian Nights (“The Little Hunchback”).

Hundebert, steward to Cedric of Rotherwood.—Sir. W. Scott, Ivanhoe.

Hundred Fights (Hero of a), Conn, son of Cormac, king of Ireland. Called in Irish “Conn Keadcahagh.”

Arthur Wellesley, Lord Wellington.

For this is England’s greatest son,

He who gained a hundred fights

And never lost an English gun.—Tennyson.

Admiral Horatio, Lord Nelson.

Hundred-Handed (The). Briar´eos (4 syl.) or Ægæon, with his brothers Gygês and Kottos, were all hundred-handed giants.

Homer makes Briareos 4 syl.; but Shakespeare writes it in the Latin form, “Briareus,” and makes it 3 syl.

Then, called by thee, the monster Titan came,

Whom gods Briareös, men Ægēon name.

Pope, Iliad, 1 (1715).

195He is a gouty Briareus. Many hands,

And of no use.

Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, act, i. sc. 2 (1602).

Hundwolf, steward to the old lady of Baldringham.—Sir W. Scott, The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).

Hunia´des (4 syl.), called by the Turks “The Devil.” He was surnamed “Corvīnus,” and the family crest was a crow (1400-1456).

The Turks employed the name of Huniadês to frighten their perverse children. He was corruptly called “Jancus Lain.”Lain.”—Gibbon, Decline and Fall, etc., xii. 166 (1776-88).

Hunsdon (Lord), cousin of Queen Elizabeth.—Sir W. Scott, Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).

Hunter (Mr. and Mrs. Leo), persons who court the society of any celebrity, and consequently invite Mr. Pickwick and his three friends to an entertainment in their house. Mrs. Leo Hunter wrote an “Ode to an Expiring Frog,” considered by her friends a most masterly performance.—C. Dickens, The Pickwick Papers (1836).

Can I view thee panting, lying

On thy stomach, without sighing;

Can I unmoved see thee dying

On a log, expiring frog!

Say, have fiends in shape of boys,

With wild halloo, and brutal noise,

Hunted thee from marshy joys,

With a dog, expiring frog!

Ch. xv.

Hunter (The Mighty), Nimrod; so called in Gen. x. 9.

Proud Nimrod first the bloody chase [war] began,

A mighty hunter, and his prey was man.

Pope, Windsor Forest (1713).

Huntingdon (Robert, earl of), generally called “Robin Hood.” In 1601 Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle produced a drama entitled The Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntingdon (attributed often to T. Heywood). Ben Jonson began a beautiful pastoral drama on the subject of Robin Hood (The Sad Shepherd or A Tale of Robin Hood), but left only two acts of it when he died (1637). We have also Robin Hood and His Crew of Souldiers, a comedy acted at Nottingham, and printed 1661; Robin Hood, an opera (1730). J. Ritson edited, in 1795, Robin Hood: a Collection of Poems, Songs and Ballads relative to that Celebrated English Outlaw.

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

Huntingdon (David, earl of), prince royal of Scotland. He appears first as Sir Kenneth, knight of the Leopard, and afterwards as Zohauk, the Nubian slave.—Sir W. Scott, The Talisman (time, Richard I.).

Huntinglen (The earl of), an old Scotch nobleman.—Sir W. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).

Huntley (Earl), George of Gordon was killed in battle with the troops of the Regent Murray. His body was taken to Holyrood and tried for high treason.

“No word he spake, though thrice adjured;

Then came the sentence drear:

Foul traitor to thy queen and realm,

Our laws denounce thee here.”

* * * * * * * * *

“Light thing to him that earthly doom,

Or man’s avenging rod,

Who in the land of souls doth bide

The audit of his God.”

Lydia Huntley Sigourney, The Western Home and Other Poems (1854).

196Huntly (The Marquis of), a royalist.—Sir W. Scott, Legend of Montrose (time, Charles I.).

Huon, a serf, secretary and tutor of the Countess Catherine, with whom he falls in love. He reads with music in his voice, talks enchantingly, writes admirably, translates “dark languages,” is “wise in rare philosophy,” is master of the hautboy, lute, and viol, “proper in trunk and limb and feature;” but the proud countess, though she loves him, revolts from the idea of marrying a serf. At length it comes to the ears of the duke that his daughter loves Huon, and the duke commands him, on pain of death, to marry Catherine, a freed serf. He refuses until the countess interferes; he then marries and rushes to the wars. Here he greatly distinguishes himself, and is created a prince, when he learns that the Catherine he has wed is not Catherine, the freed serf, but Catherine the countess.—S. Knowles, Love (1840.)

Huon de Bordeaux (Sir), who married Esclairmond, and, when Oberon went to paradise, succeeded him as “king of all Faëry.”

In the second part, Huon visits the terrestrial paradise, and encounters Cain, the first murderer, in performance of his penance.—Huon de Bordeaux.

⁂ An abstract of this romance is in Dunlop’s History of Fiction. See also Keightley’s Fairy Mythology. It is also the subject of Wieland’s Oberon, which has been translated by Sotheby.

Hur al Oyûn, the black-eyed daughters of paradise, created of pure musk. They are free from all bodily weakness, and are ever young. Every believer will have seventy-two of these girls as his household companions in paradise, and those who desire children will see them grow to maturity in an hour.—Al Korân, Sale’s notes.

Hurgonel (Count), the betrothed of Orna, sister of Duke Gondibert.—Sir Wm. Davenant, Gondibert, iii. (died 1668).

Hurry, servant of Oldworth, of Oldworth Oaks. He is always out of breath, wholly unable to keep quiet or stand still, and proves the truth of the proverb, “The more haste the worse speed.” He fancies everything must go wrong if he is not bustling about, and he is a constant fidget.—J. Burgoyne, The Maid of the Oaks.

Hurry (Harry), alias Hurry Skurry. Gigantic backwoodsman and hunter, friend of Deerslayer, and enamoured of Judith Hutter.—James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer.

Hurtali, a giant who reigned in the time of the Flood.

The Massorets affirm that Hurtali, being too big to get into the ark, sat astride upon it, as children stride a wooden horse—Rabelais, Pantagruel, ii. 1.

(According to Menage, the rabbins say that it was Og, not Hurtali, who thus outrode the Flood.—See Le Pelletier, chap. XXV. of his Noah’s Ark.)

Hush´ai (2 syl.), in Dryden’s satire of Absalom and Achitophel, is Hyde, earle of Rochester. As Hushai was David’s friend and wise counsellor, so was Hyde the friend and wise counsellor of Charles II. As the counsel of Hushai rendered abortive that of Achitophel, and caused the plot of Absalom to miscarry, so the counsel of Hyde rendered abortive that of Lord 197Shaftesbury, and caused the plot of Monmouth to miscarry.

Hushai, the friend of David in distress;

In public storms of manly steadfastness;

By foreign treaties he informed his youth,

And joined experience to his native truth.

Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, I. (1681).

Hut´cheon, the auld domestic in Wandering Willie’s tale.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Hutcheon, one of Julian Avenel’s retainers.—Sir W. Scott, The Monastery (time, Elizabeth).

Hutter (Tom). A trapper, with two handsome daughters, who has built a house upon a long shoal extending far into the Glimmerglass (Lake George). Wary, stolid, old fellow, with a reputation for cunning and skill among the Indians.

Hutter (Hetty). “Feeble-minded, but right-thinking and right-feeling girl,” daughter of “Old Tom.” She is hurt by a chance ball in a fight between whites and Indians, and dies, seeing her “mother and bright beings” around her.—James Fenimore Cooper, The Deer-slayer.

Hutin (Le), Louis X. of France; so called from his expedition against the Hutins, a seditious people of Navarre and Lyons (1289, 1314-1316).

Hy´acinth, son of Amyclas, the Spartan king. He was playing quoits with Apollo, when the wind drove the quoit of the sun-god against the boy’s head, and killed him on the spot. From the blood grew the flower called hyacinth, which bears on its petals the words, “AI! AI!” (“alas! alas!”).—Grecian Fable.

Hyacinthe (3 syl.), the daughter of Seigneur Géronte (2 syl.). who passed into Tarentum under the assumed name of Pandolphe (2 syl.). When he quitted Tarentum, he left behind him his wife and daughter Hyacinthe. Octave (2 syl.), son of Argante (2 syl.) fell in love with Hyacinthe (supposing her surname to be Pandolphe), and Octave’s father wanted him to marry the daughter of his friend, Seigneur Géronte. The young man would not listen to his father, and declared that Hyacinthe, and Hyacinthe alone, should be his wife. It was then explained to him that Hyacinthe Pandolphe was the same person as Hyacinthe Géronte, and that the choice of father and son were in exact accord.—Molière, Les Fourberies de Scapin (1671).

(In The Cheats of Scapin, Otway’s version of this play, Hyacinthe is called “Clara,” her father, Géronte, “Gripe,” and Octave is Anglicized into “Octavian.”).

Hyacinthe (Father), Charles Loyson, a celebrated pulpit orator and French theologian (1827-).

Hyder (El), chief of the Ghaut Mountains; hero and title of a melodrama by Barrymore.

Hyder Ali Khan Behauder, the nawaub of Mysore (2 syl.), disguised as the Sheik Hali.—Sir W. Scott, The Surgeon’s Daughter (time, George II.).

Hydra or Dragon of the Hesperian Grove. The golden apples of the Hesperian field were guarded by women called the Hesperĭdês, assisted by the hydra or dragon named Ladon.

Her flowery store

To thee nor Tempê shall refuse, nor watch

Of wingéd hydra guard Hesperian fruits

From thy free spoil.

Akenside, Pleasures of Imagination, i. (1744).

Hydropsy, personified by Thomson:

On limbs enormous, but withal unsound,

Soft, swoln and wan, here lay pale Hydropsy—

198Unwieldy man; with belly monstrous round,

For ever fed with watery supply,

For still he drank, and yet was ever dry.

Castle of Indolence, i. 73 (1748).

Hymbercourt (Baron d’), one of the duke of Burgundy’s officers.—Sir W. Scott, Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).

Hymen, god of marriage; the personification of the bridal song; marriage.

Till Hymen brought his love-delighted hour,

There dwelt no joy in Eden’s rosy bower...

The world was sad, the garden was a wild,

And man, the hermit, sighed—till woman smiled.

Campbell, Pleasures of Hope, ii. (1799).

Hyndman (Master), usher to the council-chamber at Holyrood.—Sir W. Scott, The Abbott (time, Elizabeth).

Hypatia. Beautiful and learned pagan, whose school of philosophy was celebrated in Alexandria in 415 A. D. She was torn to pieces in a church by a Christian mob, in the flower of her youth and beauty.—Charles Kingsley, Hypatia (1853).

Hyperi´on, the sun. His parents were Cælum and Tellus (heaven and earth). Strictly speaking, he was the father of the sun, but Homer uses the word for the sun itself.

When the might

Of Hyperi´on from his noon-tide throne

Unbends their languid pinions [i.e. of the winds].

Akenside, Hymn to the Naiads (1767).

Blow, gentle Africus,

Play on our poops, when Hyperion’s son

Shall couch in west.

Fuimus Troes.

Placat equo Persis radiis Hyperīone sinctum.

Ovid, Fasti, i, 385.

Shakespeare throws the accent on the antepenult: “Hype´rion to a satyr” (Hamlet, act i. sc. 2). In this he is followed by almost all English poets, but as shown above, Akenside returns to the classical accent.

⁂ Keats has left the fragment of a poem entitled Hyperion, of which Byron says: “It seems inspired by the Titans, and is as sublime as Æschylus.”

Hypnos, god of sleep, brother of Oneiros (dreams) and Thanătos (death).

In every creature that breathes, from the conqueror, resting on a field of blood, to the nest-bird cradled in its bed of leaves, Hypnos holds a sovereignty which nothing mortal can long resist.—Ouida, Folle-Farine, iii. 11.

Hypochondria, personified by Thomson:

And moping here, did Hypochondria sit,

Mother of spleen, in robes of various dye...

And some her frantic deemed, and some her deemed a wit.

Castle of Indolence, i. 75 (1748).

Hyp´ocrite (The), Dr. Cantwell, in the English comedy by Isaac Bickerstaff, and Tartuffe in the French comedy by Molière. He pretends to great sanctity, but makes his “religion” a mere trade for getting money, advancing his worldly prospects, and for the better indulgence of his sensual pleasures. Dr. Cantwell is made the guest of Sir John Lambert (in French, “Orgon”), who looks on him as a saint, and promises him his daughter in marriage; but his mercenary views and his love-making to Lady Lambert being at length exposed, Sir John forbids him to remain in the house, and a tipstaff arrests him for a felonious fraud (1768).

Hyp´ocrites (The). Abdallah ibn Obba and his partisans were so called by Mahomet.

Hypocrites (The prince of), Tiberius Cæsar (B. C. 42, 14 to A. D. 37).

Hyppolito. (See Hippolytus.)

199

Iachimo [Eák´.ĭ.mo], an Italian libertine. When Posthu´mus, the husband of Imogen, was banished for marrying the king’s daughter, he went to Rome, and in the house of Philario the conversation fell on the fidelity of wives. Posthumus bet a diamond ring that nothing could change the fidelity of Imogen, and Iachimo accepted the wager. The libertine contrived to get into a chest in Imogen’s chamber, made himself master of certain details, and took away with him a bracelet belonging to Imogen. With these vouchers, Iachimo easily persuaded Posthumus that he had won the bet, and Posthumus handed over to him the ring. A battle subsequently ensued, in which Iachimo and other Romans, with Imogen disguised as a page, were made prisoners, and brought before King Cymbeline. Imogen was set free, and told to ask a boon. She asked that Iachimo might be compelled to say how he came by the ring which he had on his finger, and the whole villainy was brought to light. Posthumus was pardoned, and all ended happily—Shakespeare, Cymbeline (1605).

⁂ The tale of Cymbeline is from the Decameron of Boccaccio (day ii. 9), in which Iachimo is called “Ambrose,” Imogen is “Zineura,” her husband, Bernard “Lomellin,” and Cymbeline is the “sultan.” The assumed name of Imogen is “Fidelê,” but in Boccaccio it is “Sicurano da Finale.”

Ia´go (3 syl.), ancient of Othello, commander of the Venetian army, and husband of Emilia. Iago hated Othello, both because Cassio (a Florentine) was promoted to the lieutenancy over his head, and also from a suspicion that the Moor had tampered with his wife; but he concealed his hatred so artfully that Othello felt confident of his “love and honesty.” Iago strung together such a mass of circumstantial evidence in proof of Desdemona’s love for Cassio, that the Moor killed her out of jealousy. One main argument was that Desdemona had given Cassio the very handkerchief which Othello had given her as a love-gift; but in reality Iago had induced his wife Emilia to purloin the handkerchief. When this villainy was brought to light, Othello stabbed Iago; but his actual death is no incident of the tragedy.—Shakespeare, Othello (1611).

The cool malignity of Iago, silent in his resentment, subtle in his designs, and studious at once of his interest and his vengeance,...are such proofs of Shakespeare’s skill in human nature as it would be vain to seek in any modern writer.—Dr. Johnson.

⁂ Bryon, speaking of John P. Kemble, says: “Was not his ’Iago’ perfection—particularly the last look? I was close to him, and I never saw an English countenance half so expressive.”

Iambic Verse (The Father of), Achil´ochos of Paros (B. C. 714-676).

Ianthe (3 syl.), in The Siege of Rhodes, by Sir William Davenant.

Mrs. Betterton was called “Ianthe” by Pepys, in his Diary, as having performed that character to his great approval. The old gossip greatly admired her, and praised her “sweet voice and incomparable acting.”—W.C. Russell, Representative Actors.

Ianthe (3 syl.), to whom Lord Byron dedicated his Childe Harold, was Lady Charlotte Harley, who was only eleven years old at the time (1809).

Ibe´ria’s Pilot. Christopher Columbus. Spain is called “Iberia” and the Spaniards the “Ibe´ri.” The river Ebro 200is a corrupt form of the Latin word Ibe´rus.

Launched with Iberia’s pilot from the steep,

To worlds unknown, and isles beyond the deep.

Campbell, The Pleasures of Hope, ii. (1799).

Iblis (“despair”), called Aza´zil before he was cast out of heaven. He refused to pay homage to Adam, and was rejected by God.—Al Korân.

“We created you, and afterwards formed you, and all worshipped except Eblis.” ... And God said unto him, “What hindered you from worshipping Adam, since I commanded it?” He answered, “I am more excellent than he. Thou hast created me of fire, but him of clay.” God said, “Get thee down, therefore, from paradise ... thou shalt be one of the contemptible.”—Al Korân, vii.

Ib´rahim or L’Illustre Bassa, an heroic romance of Mdlle. de Scudéri (1641).

Ice´ni (3 syl.), the people of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire. Their metropolis was Venta (Caistar near Norwich).—Richard of Cirencester, Chronicle, vi. 30.

The Angles, ... allured with ... the fitness of the place

Where the Iceni lived, did set their kingdom down ...

And the East Angles’ kingdom those English did instile.

Drayton, Polyolbion, xvi. (1613).

Ida Slater, daughter of a charlatan calling himself Dr. Hull. She lends herself to his scheme of imposing her upon a rich, superstitious spinster as the materialization of her dead sister until the adopted mother’s kindness and the girl’s love for the dupe’s nephew impel her to confession.—Edward Bellamy, Miss Luddington’s Sister (1884).

Idalia, Venus; so called from Idălĭum, a town in Cyprus, where she was worshipped.

Iden (Alexander), a poor squire of Kent, who slew Jack Cade, the rebel, and brought the head to King Henry VI., for which service the king said to him:

Iden, kneel down. Rise up a knight.

We give thee for reward a thousand marks;

And will that thou henceforth attend on us.

Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI. act v. sc. 1 (1591).

Idenstein (Baron), nephew of General Kleiner, governor of Prague. He marries Adolpha, who turns out to be the sister of Meeta, called “The Maid of Mariendorpt.”—S. Knowles, The Maid of Mariendorpt (1838).

Idiot (The Inspired), Oliver Goldsmith. So called by Horace Walpole (1728-1774).

Idleness (The Lake of). Whoever drank thereof grew instantly “faint and weary.” The Red Cross Knight drank of it, and was readily made captive by Orgoglio.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, i. (1590).

Idom´eneus [I.dom´.e.nuce], king of Crete. He made a vow when he left Troy, if the gods would vouchsafe him a safe voyage, to sacrifice to them the first living being that he encountered in his own kingdom. The first living object he met was his own son, and when the father fulfilled his vow, he was banished from his country as a murderer.

⁂ The reader will call to mind Jephthah’s rash vow.—Judges xi.

Agamemnon vowed to Diana to offer up in sacrifice to her the most beautiful thing that came into his possession within the next twelve months. This was an infant daughter named Iphigeni´a; but Agamemnon deferred the offering till she was 201full grown. The fleet, on its way to Troy, being wind-bound at Aulis, the prophet Calchas told Agamemnon that it was because the vow had not been fulfilled; accordingly Iphigenia was laid on the altar for sacrifice, but Diana interposed, carried the victim to Tauris, and substituted a hind in her place. Iphigenia in Tauris became a priestess of Diana.

⁂ Abraham, being about to sacrifice his son to Jehovah, was stayed by a voice from heaven, and a ram was substituted for the lad Isaac.—Gen. xxii.

Idwal, king of North Wales, and son of Roderick the Great. (See Ludwal).

Idyl (An Old Man’s). The old man dreams over a checquered life, since the golden days of the beautiful early summer weather, to the time when—

“We sit by our household fires together,

Dreaming the dreams of long ago;

Then it was balmy summer weather,

And now the valleys are laid in snow;

Icicles hang from the slippery eaves;

The wind blows cold—’tis growing late;

Well, well! we have garnered all our sheaves,

I and my darling, and we can wait.”wait.”

Richard Realf (1866).

Iger´na, Igerne (3 syl.), or Igrayne (3 syl.), wife of Gorloïs, duke of Tintag´il, in Cornwall. Igerna married Uther, the pendragon of the Britons, and thus became the mother of Prince Arthur. The second marriage took place a few hours after the duke’s death, but was not made public till thirteen days afterwards.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur (1470).

Igna´ro, foster-father of Orgoglio. The old dotard walked one way and looked another. To every question put to him, his invariable answer was, “I cannot tell.”—Spenser, Faëry Queen i. (1590).

⁂ Lord Flint, chief minister of state to one of the sultans of India, used to reply to every disagreeable question, “My people know, no doubt; but I cannot recollect.”—Mrs. Inchbald, Such Things Are (1786).

The Italian witnesses summoned on the trial of Queen Charlotte, answered to almost every question, “non mi ricordo.”

⁂ The “Know-Nothings” of the United States, replied to every question about their secret society, “I know nothing about it.”

Igna´tius (Brother), Joseph Leycester Lyne, monk of the order of St. Benedict.

Ignatius (Father), the Hon. and Rev. George Spencer, superior of the order of Passionists (1799-1864).

Ig´noge (3 syl.), daughter of Pan´drasus of Greece, given as wife to Brute, mythical king of Britain. Spenser calls her “Inogene” (3 syl.), and Drayton “Innogen.”—Geoffrey, British History, i. 11 (1142).

I.H.S. In German, I [esus], H [eiland], S [eligmacher], i.e. Jesus, Saviour, Sanctifier. In Greek, Ι [ησους], Ἡ [μετερος] Σ [οτηρ], i.e. Jesus, our Saviour. In Latin, I [esus], H [ominum], S [alvator], i.e. Jesus, Men’s Saviour. Those who would like an English equivalent may adopt J [esus], H [eavenly] S [aviour].

The Latin equivalent is attributed to St. Bernardine of Sienna (1347).

Ilderton (Miss Lucy and Miss Nancy), cousins to Miss Vere.—Sir W. Scott, The Black Dwarf (time, Anne).

Il´iad (3 syl.), the tale of the siege of Troy, an epic poem in twenty-four books, by Homer. Menelāos, king of Sparta, received as a guest, Paris, a son of Priam, king of Troy. Paris eloped with Helen, 202his host’s wife, and Menelaos induced the Greeks to lay siege to Troy, to avenge the perfidy. The siege lasted ten years, when Troy was taken and burned to the ground. Homer’s poem is confined to the last year of the siege.

Book I. opens with a pestilence in the Grecian camp, sent by the sun-god to avenge his priest, Chrysês. The case is this: Chrysês wished to ransom his daughter, whom Agamemnon, the Greek commander-in-chief, kept as a concubine, but Agamemnon refused to give her up; so the priest prayed to Apollo for vengeance, and the god sent a pestilence. A council being called, Achillês upbraids Agamemnon as the cause of the divine wrath, and Agamemnon replies he will give up the priest’s daughter, but shall take instead Achillês’ concubine. On hearing this, Achillês declares he will no longer fight for such an extortionate king, and accordingly retires to his tent and sulks there.

II. Jupiter, being induced to take the part of Achillês, now sends to Agamemnon a lying dream, which induces him to believe that he shall take the city at once; but in order to see how the soldiers are affected by the retirement of Achillês, the king calls them to a council of war, asks them if it would not be better to give up the siege and return home. He thinks the soldiers will shout “no” with one voice; but they rush to their ships, and would set sail at once if they were not restrained by those privy to the plot.

III. The soldiers, being brought back, are then arrayed for battle. Paris proposes to decide the contest by single combat, and Menelaos accepts the challenge. Paris, being overthrown, is carried off by Venus, and Agamemnon demands that the Trojans shall give up Troy in fulfillment of the compact.

IV. While Agamemnon is speaking, Pandărus draws his bow at Menelaos and wounds him, and the battle becomes general.

V. Pandarus, who had violated the truce, is killed by Diomed.

VI. Hector, the general of the Trojan allied armies, recommends that the Trojan women in a body should supplicate the gods to pardon the sin of Pandarus, and in the meantime he and Paris make a sally from the city gate.

VII. Hector fights with Ajax in single combat, but the combatants are parted by the heralds, who declare it a drawn battle; so they exchange gifts and return to their respective tents.

VIII. The Grecian host, being discomfitted, retreats; and Hector prepares to assault the enemy’s camp.

IX. A deputation is sent to Achillês, but the sulky hero remains obdurate.

X. A night attack is made on the Trojans by Diomed and Ulyssês;

XI. And the three Grecian chiefs (Agamemnon, Diomed, and Ulyssês) are all wounded.

XII. The Trojans force the gates of the Grecian ramparts.

XIII. A tremendous battle ensues in which many on both sides are slain.

XIV. While Jupiter is asleep, Neptune interferes in the quarrel in behalf of the Greeks;

XV. But Jupiter rebukes him, and Apollo, taking the side of the Trojans, puts the Grecians to a complete rout. The Trojans, exulting in their success, prepare to set fire to the Grecian camp.

XVI. In this extremity, Patroclos arrays himself in Achillês’ armor, and leads the Myrmĭdons to the fight; but he is slain by Hector.

XVII. Achillês is told of the death of his friend,

203XVIII. Resolves to return to the battle;

XIX. And is reconciled to Agamemnon.

XX. A general battle ensues, in which the gods are permitted to take part.

XXI. The battle rages with great fury, the slaughter is frightful; but the Trojans, being routed, retreat into their town, and close the gates.

XXII. Achillês slays Hector before he is able to enter the gates, and the battle is at an end. Nothing now remains but

XXIII. To burn the body of Patroclos, and celebrate the funeral games.

XXIV. Old Priam, going to the tent of Achillês, craves the body of his son Hector; Achillês gives it up, and the poem concludes with the funeral rites of the Trojan hero.

⁂ Virgil continues the tale from this point. Shows how the city was taken and burnt, and then continues with the adventures of Æne´as, who escapes from the burning city, makes his way to Italy, marries the king’s daughter, and succeeds to the throne. (See Æneid).

Iliad (The French), The Romance of the Rose (q.v.).

Iliad (The German), The Nibelungen Lied (q.v.).

Iliad (The Portuguese), The Lusiad (q.v.).

Iliad (The Scotch), The Epigoniad, by William Wilkie (q.v.).

Iliad of Old English Literature, “The Knight’s Tale” of Palămon and Arcite (2 syl.) in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1388).

Illuminated Doctor (The), Raymond Lully (1235-1315).

John Tauler, the German mystic, is so called also (1294-1361).

Imis, the daughter and only child of an island king. She was enamoured of her cousin Philax. A fay named Pagan loved her, and, seeing she rejected his suit, shut up Imis and Philax in the “Palace of Revenge.” This palace was of crystal, and contained everything the heart could desire except the power of leaving it. For a time Imis and Philax were happy enough, but after a few years they longed as much for a separation as they had once wished to be united.—Comtesse D’Aunoy, Fairy Tales (“Palace of Revenge,” 1682).

Imlac of Goiama, near the mouth of the Nile; the son of a rich merchant. Imlac was a great traveller and a poet, who accompanied Rasselas in his rambles, and returned with him to the “happy valley.”—Dr. Johnson, Rasselas (1759).

Immo and Hildegard. As the sun went down, it threw its golden light over the heights on which the Idisburg stands. The old tower glowed, bathed in the many-colored light, and the branches of the bramble-berry overspread the low wall of the castle with a net work of purple and gold. In the lower portion of the enclosed court, the children of the townspeople, brought there by their parents, were shouting and calling in their play. On the highest point within the castle wall, stands a linden tree, that makes a thick arbor, with its broad leaves reaching nearly to the ground. It was a lovely spot. Wild hare-bells bloomed in its light shade, and little butterflies fluttered here and there. The birds gathered their young ones together in the sheltering branches of the tree, and the crickets chirped in chorus to the note of the feathered songsters. Here sat Hildegard, the count’s daughter, her hands folded in 204her lap as she looked down into the valley, over the fields of heather, over the forest trees, and over the rolling hills, far into the distance, where earth and sky seemed to melt together in the evening glow. At a respectful distance, some old servingmen, who had been sent up there for her protection, were lying on the ground, but their backs were turned to the maiden as they looked down to the Main, and pointed out to one another the border towns of the enemy, descried under the light clouds. Where Hildegard sat all was still; only a few sounds from the bustling camp made their way up to her. From one side came the lowing of the cows, and every now and then a hoof drew nearer, and the leaves of her tree were pulled about, and there was a crackling and a rustling in the branches. Hildegard turned and scared away the intruders, but they came back again, and the maiden at last forgot in her dreaming her dainty-mouthed visitors.

Her lips stirred, and softly sounded the words of a holy hymn, as she sang:

Audi, benigne Conditor,

Nostras preces cum fletibus

Hear, Kind Creator,

Our prayers and our weeping.

But, in her singing, her thoughts dwelt less on the Creator than on a certain suppliant who, only a few weeks before, had repeated these same words to her in jest. And while she sang, and with clear eyes looked straight before her, it seemed to her that her song was echoed from above her in the tree. She stopped singing; then there was a rustling in the branches, and through the whispering of the leaves, she heard the same air repeated above her head, but to other words; and she heard from the height:

Rana coaxit suaviter

In foliis viridibus.

The frog croaks softly

In the green herbage.

Hildegard sat motionless; a smile hovered about her mouth, and a deep blush suffused her cheek; but she dared not risk looking up, for fear lest the pleasant dream should be ended. “Is it thou, my comrade?” she softly murmured. But hardly had she spoken before she repented the too familiar speech.

“I am lying herehere above thee, in the green leaves,” sounded back to her from overhead. “Right comfortable is my bed on the strong branch; look upward, if so please thee, that I may once more see those large eyes of thine, since it is they that have brought me hither.”

The maiden sprang lightly up, and turned toward the branch. In the same instant Immo thrust his head quickly out, and clinging to the branch with one hand he threw the other round her neck, and kissed her on the mouth. “Good day, comrade,” he said. “That is what I made up my mind to do, and I have done it!” He looked out once more from his hiding-place, and gazed tenderly upon her blushing cheek.—Gustav Freytag, The Wrens’ Nest.

Immortal Four of Italy (The): Dantê (1265-1321), Petrarch (1304-1374), Ariosto (1474-1533), and Tasso (1544-1595).

The poets read he o’er and o’er,

And most of all the Immortal Four

Of Italy.

Longfellow, The Wayside Inn, (prelude).

Imogen, daughter of Cym´beline (3 syl.), king of Britain, married clandestinely Posthumus Leonātus; and Posthumus, being banished for the offence, retired to Rome. One day, in the house of Philario, the conversation turned on the merits of wives, and Posthumus bet his diamond ring that nothing could 205tempt the fidelity of Imogen. Iachimo acceptedaccepted the wager, laid his plans, and after due time induced Posthumus to believe that Imogen had played false, showing, by the way of proof, a bracelet, which he affirmed she had given him; so Posthumus handed over to him the ring given him by Imogen at parting. Posthumus now ordered his servant Pisanio to inveigle Imogen to Milford Haven, under pretence of seeing her husband, and to murder her on the road; but Pisanio told Imogen his instructions, advised her to enter the service of Lucius, the Roman general in Britain, as a page, and promised that he would make Posthumus believe that she was dead. This was done; and not long afterwards a battle ensued, in which the Romans were defeated, and Lucius, Iachimo, and Imogen were taken prisoners. Posthumus also took part in the battle, and obtained for his services the royal pardon. The captives being brought before Cymbeline, Lucius entreated the king to liberate Imogen. The petition was not only granted, but Imogen was permitted, at the same time, to ask a boon of the British king. She only begged that Iachimo should inform the court how he came by the ring he was wearing on his finger. The whole villainy was thus revealed, a reconciliation took place, and all ended happily. (See Zineura.)—Shakespeare, Cymbeline (1605).

Im´ogine (The Fair), the lady betrothed to Alonzo “the Brave,” and who said to him, when he went to the wars: “If ever I marry another, may thy ghost be present at the bridal feast, and bear me off to the grave.” Alonzo fell in battle; Imogine married another; and, at the marriage feast, Alonzo’s ghost, claimingclaiming the fulfilment of the compact, carried away the bride.—M. G. Lewis, Alonzo the Brave and the Fair Imogine (1795).

Imogine (The lady), wife of St. Aldobrand. Before her marriage she was courted by Count Bertram, but the attachment fell through, because Bertram was outlawed and became the leader of a gang of thieves. It so happened one day that Bertram, being shipwrecked off the coast of Sicily, was conveyed to the castle of Lady Imogine, and the old attachment revived on both sides. Bertram murdered St. Aldobrand; Imogine, going mad, expired in the arms of Bertram; and Bertram killed himself.—C. Maturin, Bertram (1816).

Imoin´da (3 syl.), daughter of a white man who went to the court of Angola, changed his religion, and grew great as commander of the forces. His daughter was married to Prince Oroonoko. Soon afterwards the young prince was trapanned by Captain Driver, taken to Surinam, and sold for a slave. Here he met his young wife, whom the lieutenant-governor wanted to make his mistress, and Oroonoko headed a rising of the slaves. The end of the story is that Imoinda slew herself; and Oroonoko, having stabbed the lieutenant-governor, put an end to his own life.—Thomas Southern, Oroonoko (1696).

Impertinent (The Curious), an Italian, who, to make trial of his wife’s fidelity, persuades his friend to try and seduce her. The friend succeeds in winning the lady’s love, and the impertinent curiosity of the husband is punished by the loss of his friend and wife too.—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. iv. 5 (an episode, 1605).

206Impostors (Literary).

1. Bertram (Dr. Charles Julius), professor of English at Copenhagen. He gave out that he had discovered, in 1747, in the library of that city, a book entitled De Situ Britanniæ, by Richardus Corinensis. He published this with two other treatises (one by Gildas Badon´icus, and the other by Nennius Banchorensis) in 1757. The forgery was exposed by J. E. Mayor, in his preface to Ricardi de Cirencestria Speculum Historiale.

2. Chatterton (Thomas), published in 1777 a volume of poems, which he asserted to be from the pen of Thomas Rowley, a monk of the fifteenth century. The forgery was exposed by Mason and Gray.

3. Ireland (Samuel William Henry), published, in 1796, a series of papers which he affirmed to be by ShakespeareShakespeare, together with the tragedy of Lear and a part of Hamlet. Dr. Parr, Dr. Valpy, James Boswell, Herbert Croft, and Pye, the laureatelaureate, signed a document certifying their convictions that the collection was genuine; but Ireland subsequently confessed the forgery. He also wrote a play entitled Vortigern and Rowena, which he asserted was by Shakespeare; but Malone exposed the imposition.

4. Lauder (William), published, in 1751, false quotations from Masenius, a Jesuit of Cologne, Taubman, a German, Staphorstius, a learned Dutchman, and others, to “prove Milton a gross plagiarist.” Dr. Douglas demonstrated that the citations were incorrect, and that often several lines had been foisted in to make the parallels. Lauder confessed the fact afterwards (1754).

5. Mentz, who lived in the ninth century, published fifty-nine decretals, which he ascribed to Isadore of Seville, who died in the sixth century. The object of these letters was either to exalt the papacy, or to enforce some law assuming such exaltation. Among them is the decretal of St. Fabian, instituting the rite of the chrism, with the decretals of St. Anaclētus, St. Alexander, St. Athanasius, and so on. They have all been proved to be barefaced forgeries.

6. Pereira (Colonel), a Portuguese, professed to have discovered in the convent of St. Maria de Merinhâo, nine books of Sanchoni´athon, which he published in 1837. It was found that the paper of the MS. bore the water-mark of the Osnabrück paper-mills.

7. Psalmanazar (George), who pretended to be a Japanese, published, in 1705, an Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa, an Island belonging to the Empire of Japan. He was an Englishman, born in London, name unknown (died 1763).

8. Smith (Joseph), professed that his Book of Mormon, published in 1830, was a direct revelation to him by the angel Mormon; but it was really the work of a Rev. Solomon Spalding. Smith was murdered in Carthage jail in 1844.

9. Surtees (Robert), sent Sir Walter Scott several ballads, which were inserted in good faith in the Border Minstrelsy, but were in fact forgeries. For example, a ballad on A Feud between the Ridleys and the Featherstones, said to be taken down from the mouth of an old woman on Alston Moor (1806); Lord Ewrie, said to be taken down from the mouth of Rosa Smith of Bishop Middleham, æt. 91 (1807); and Barthram’s Dirge (1809).

The Korân was said by Mahomet to be revealed to him by the angel Gabriel, but it was in reality the work of a Persian Jew, a Jacobite and a Nestorian. The detached parts of the Korân were collected into a volume by Abû Bekr in 634. Mahomet died in 632.

207Improvisators.

Accolti (Bernardo), of Arezzo, called the Unico Areti´no (1465-1535).

Aquilano (Serafino), born at Aquila (1466-1500).

Bandettini (Teresa), (1756-*). Marone, Quercio, and Silvio Antoniano (eighteenth century).

Beronicius (P. J.), who could convert extempore into Latin or Greek verse a Dutch newspaper or anything else which he heard (died 1676).

Corilla (Maria Magdalena), of Pistoia. Mde. de Staël has borrowed her Corinne from this improvisatrix. Crowned at Rome in 1766 (1740-1800).

Gianni (Francis), an Italian, made imperial poet by Napoleon, whose victories he celebrated in verse (1759-1823).

Jehan (Núr), of Bengal, during the sultanship of Jehánger. She was the inventor of the otto of roses (died 1645).

Karsch (Anne Louisa), of Germany.

Mazzei (Signora), the most talented of all improvisators.

Metastasio (Pietro B.), of Assisi, who developed, at the age of ten, a wonderful talent for extemporizing in verse (1698-1782).

Perfetti (Bernardino), of Sienna, who received a laurel crown in the capitol, an honor conferred only on Petrarch and Tasso (1681-1747).

Petrarch (Francesco), who introduced the amusement of improvisation (1304-1374).

Rossi, beheaded at Naples in 1799.

Serafino d’Aquila. (See above, “Aquilano.”)

Serio, beheaded at Naples in 1799.

Sgricci (Tommaso), of Tuscany (1788-1832). His Death of Charles I., Death of Mary Queen of Scots, and Fall of Missolonghi are very celebrated.

Taddei (Rosa), (1801- ).

Zucco (Marc Antonio), of Verona (*-1764).

To these add Cicconi, Bindocci, Sestini, the brothers Clercq of Holland, Wolfe of Altŏna, Langenschwarz of Germany, Eugène de Pradel of France, and Thomas Hood (1798-1845).

Inconstant (The), a comedy by G. Farquhar (1702). “The inconstant” is young Mirabel, who shilly-shallies with Oria´na till she saves him from being murdered by four bravoes in the house of Lamorce (2 syl.).

This comedy is a réchauffé of the Wild-goose Chase.—Beaumont and Fletcher (1652).

Incorruptible (The). Maximilian Robespierre was so called by his friends in the Revolution (1756-1794).

“William Shippen,” says Horace Walpole, “is the only man proof against a bribe.”

⁂ Fabricius, the Roman hero, could not be corrupted by bribes, nor influenced by threats. Pyrrhus declared it would be as easy to divert the sun from its course as Fabricius from the path of duty.—Roman Story.

In´cubus, a spirit half human and half angelic, living in mid-air between the moon and our earth.—Geoffrey, British History, vi. 18 (1142).

Indra, god of the elements. His palace is described by Southey in The Curse of Kehama, vii. 10 (1809).

Inesilla de Cantarilla, daughter of a Spanish lute-maker. She had the unusual power of charming the male sex during the whole course of her life, which exceeded 75 years. Idolized by the noblemen of the 208old court, she saw herself adored by those of the new. Even in her old age she had a noble air, an enchanting wit, and graces peculiar to herself suited to her years.—Lesage, Gil Blas, viii. 1 (1735).

I´nez of Cadiz, addressed in Childe Harold, i. (after stanza 84). Nothing known of her.

Inez (Donna), mother of Don Juan. She trained her son according to prescribed rules with the strictest propriety, and designed to make him a model of all virtues. Her husband was Don José, whom she worried to death by her prudery and want of sympathy. Donna Inez was a “blue-stocking,” learned in all the sciences, her favorite one being “the mathematical.” She knew every European language, “a little Latin and less Greek.” In a word, she was “perfect as perfect is,” according to the standard of Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Trimmer, and Hannah More, but had “a great opinion of her own good qualities.” Like Tennyson’s “Maud,” this paragon of women was, to those who did not look too narrowly, “faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null.”—Bryon, Don Juan, i. 10-30 (1819).

Inez de Castro, crowned six years after her death. The tale is this: Don Pedro, son of Alfonso IV. of Portugal, privately married, in 1345, the “beauty of Castile,” and Alfonso was so indignant that he commanded her to be put to death (1355). Two years afterwards, Don Pedro succeeded to the crown, and in 1361 had the body of Inez exhumed and crowned.

Camoens, the Portuguese poet, has introduced this story in his Lusiad. A. Ferreira, another Portuguese poet, has a tragedy called Inez de Castro (1554); Lamotte produced a tragedy with the same title (1723); and Guiraud another in 1826. (See next art).

Inez de Castro, the bride of Prince Pedro, of Portugal, to whom she was clandestinely married. The King Alfonso and his minister Gonzalez, not knowing of this marriage, arranged a marriage for the young prince with a Spanish princess, and when the prince refused his consent, Gonzalez ferreted out the cause, and induced Inez to drink poison. He then put the young prince under arrest, but as he was being led away, the announcement came that Alfonso was dead and Don Pedro was his successor. The tables were now turned, for Pedro was instantly released, and Gonzalez led to execution.—Ross Neil, Inez de Castro or The Bride of Portugal. (See previous art).

Inez Morse. A New England woman, determined to pay off the mortgage left by her dead father upon the farm. She sells all her honey to help on this object; “When the mortgage is paid off, we’ll have warm biscuit and honey for supper,” she says, half-jestingly. She holds off a suitor for years, until the mortgage is paid. She promised her father it should be done. The day the last payment is made, she hears that “Willy” has married another girl. They have warm biscuits and honey for tea that night.—Mary E. Wilkin’s A Taste of Honey (1887).

Infant Endowed with Speech. The Imâm Abzenderoud excited the envy of his confraternity by his superior virtue and piety, so they suborned a woman to father a child upon him. The imâm prayed to Mahomet to reveal the truth, whereupon the new-born infant told in good Arabic who his father was, and Abzenderoud 209was acquitted with honor.—T. S. Gueulette, Chinese Tales (“Imâm Abzenderoud,” 1723).

Infant of Luback, Christian Henry Heinecken. At one year old he knew the chief events of the Pentateuch!! at thirteen months he knew the history of the Old Testament!! at fourteen months he knew the history of the New Testament!! at two and a half years he could answer any ordinary question of history or geography!! and at three years old he knew German, French, and Latin!!

Inferno (The), in thirty-four cantos, by Dantê [Alighieri] (1300). While wandering through a wood (this life), the poet comes to a mountain (fame), and begins to climb it, but first a panther (pleasure), then a lion (ambition), and then a she-wolf (avarice), stand in his path to slay him. The appearance of Virgil (human wisdom), however, encourages him (canto i.), and the Mantuan tells him he is sent by three ladies [Beatrice (faith), Lucia (grace), and Mercy] to conduct him through the realms of hell (canto ii.). On they proceed together till they come to a portal bearing this inscription: ALL HOPE ABANDON YE WHO ENTER HERE; they pass through, and come to that neutral realm where dwell the spirits of those not good enough for heaven nor bad enough for hell, “the praiseless and the blameless dead.” Passing through this border-land, they command old Charon to ferry them across the Achĕron to Limbo (canto iii.), and here they behold the ghosts of the unbaptized, “blameless of sin,” but not members of the Christian Church. Homer is here, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan, who enroll Dantê “sixth of the sacred band.” On leaving Limbo, our adventurer follows his guide through the seven gates which lead to the inferno, an enormous funnel-shaped pit, divided into stages. The outer, or first “circle,” is a vast meadow, in which roam Electra (mother of Dardănus, the founder of Troy), Hector, Æne´as, and Julius Cæsar; Camilla and Penthesile´a; Latīnus and Junius Brutus; Lucretia, Marcia (Cato’s wife), Julia (Pompey’s wife), and Cornelia; and here “a part retired,” they see Saladin, the rival of Richard the Lion-heart. Linos is here and Orpheus; Aristotle, Socratês, and Plato; Democrĭtos, who ascribed creation to blind chance, Diogĕnês, the cynic, Heraclītos, Emped´oclês, Anaxag´oras, Thalĕs, Dioscor´idês, and Zeno; Cicero and Senĕca, Euclid and Ptolemy, Hippocrătês and Galen, Avĭcen, and Averroês, the Arabian translator and commentator of Aristotle (canto iv.). From the first stage they descend to the second, where Minos sits in judgment on the ghosts brought before him. He indicates what circle a ghost is to occupy by twisting his tail round his body: two twists signify that the ghost is to be banished to the second circle; three twists that it is to be consigned to the third circle, and so on. Here, says the poet, “light was silent all,” but shrieks and groans and blasphemies were terrible to hear. This circle is the hell of carnal and sinful love, where Dante recognizes Semirămis, Dido, Cleopatra, and Helen; Achillês and Paris; Tristan, the lover of his uncle’s wife, Isoldê; Lancelot, the lover of Queen Guinever; and Francesca, the lover of Paolo, her brother-in-law (canto v.). The third circle is a place of deeper woe. Here fall in ceaseless showers, hail, black rain, and sleety flaw; the air is cold and dun; and a foul stench arises from the soil. Cerbĕrus keeps watch here, and this part of the inferno is set apart for gluttons, like Ciacco (2 syl.). From this stage the two poets 210pass on to the “fourth steep ledge,” presided over by Plutus (canto vi.), a realm which “hems in all the woe of all the universe.” Here are gathered the souls of the avaricious, who wasted their talents, and made no right use of their wealth. Crossing this region, they come to the “fifth steep,” and see the Stygian Lake of inky hue. This circle is a huge bog in which “the miry tribe” flounder, and “gulp the muddy lees.” It is the abode of those who put no restraint upon their anger (canto vii.). Next comes the city of Dis, where the souls of heretics are “interred in vaults” (cantos viii., ix.). Here Dantê recognizes Farina´ta (a leader of the Ghibelline faction), and is informed that the Emperor Frederick II. and Cardinal Ubaldini are amongst the number (canto x.). The city of Dis contains the next three circles (canto xi.), through which Nessus conducts them; and here they see the Minotaur and the Centaurs, as Chiron, who nursed Achillês and Pholus the passionate. The first circle of Dis (the sixth) is for those who by force or fraud have done violence to man, as Alexander the Great, Dionysius of Syracuse, Attila, Sextus, and Pyrrhus (canto xii.). The next (the seventh circle) is for those who have done violence to themselves, as suicides; here are the Harpies, and here the souls are transformed to trees (canto xiii.). The eighth circle is for the souls of those who have done violence to God, as blasphemers and heretics; it is a hell of burning, where it snows flakes of fire. Here is Cap´aneus (3 syl.) (canto xiv.), and here Dantê held converse with Brunetto, his old schoolmaster (canto xv.). Having reached the confines of the realm of Dis, Ger´yon carries Dantê into the region of Malêbolgê (4 syl.), a horrible hell, containing ten pits or chasms (canto xvii.): In the first is Jason; the second is for harlots (canto xviii.); in the third is Simon Magus, “who prostituted the things of God for gold;” in the fourth, Pope Nicholas III. (canto xix.); in the fifth the ghosts had their heads “reversed at the neckbone,” and here are Amphiarāos, Tirēsias, who was first a woman and then a man, Michael Scott, the magician, with all witches and diviners (canto xx.); in the sixth, Caïaphas and Annas, his father-in-law (canto xxiii.); in the seventh, robbers of churches, as Vanni Fucci, who robbed the sacristy of St James’ in Pistoia, and charged Venni della Nona with the crime, for which she suffered death (canto xxiv.); in the eighth, Ulyssês and Diomed, who were punished for the stratagem of the Wooden Horse (cantos xxvi., xxvii.); in the ninth, Mahomet and Ali, “horribly mangled” (canto xxviii.); in the tenth, alchemists (canto xxix.), coiners and forgers, Potiphar’s wife, Sinon the Greek, who deluded the Trojans (canto xxx.), Nimrod, Ephialtés, and Antæus, with other giants (canto xxxi.). Antæus carries the two visitors into the nethermost gulf, where Judas and Lucifer are confined. It is a region of thick-ribbed ice, and here they see the frozen river of Cocy´tus (canto xxxii.). The last persons the poet sees are Brutus and Cassius, the murderers of Julius Cæsar (canto xxxiv.). Dantê and his conductor, Virgil, then make their exit on the “southern hemisphere,” where once was Eden, and where the “moon rises when here evening sets.” This is done that the poet may visit Purgatory, which is situated in mid-ocean, somewhere near the antipodes of Judea.

⁂ Canto xvi. opens with a description of Fraud, canto xxxiii. contains the tale of Ugoli´no, and canto xxxiv. the description of Lucifer.

Ingeborg. Daughter of a Norwegian 211king. She is loved as child and woman by Frithiof, who finally marries her.—Frithiof Saga.

Ingelram (Abbot), formerly superior of St. Mary’s Convent.—Sir W. Scott, The Monastery (time, Elizabeth).

Inglewood (Squire), a magistrate near Osbaldistone Hall.—Sir W. Scott, Rob Roy (time, George I.).

Inglis (Corporal), in the royal army under the leadership of the duke of Monmouth.—Sir W. Scott, Old Mortality (time, Charles II.).

Ingo, the son of Ingbert, king of the Vandals. Driven from his throne by his uncle, he seeks refuge among the Thuringians, where he loves and marries Irmgard. They are both slain in a siege, leaving one son, an infant.

Ingoldsby (Thomas), the Rev. Richard Harris Barham, author of Ingoldsby Legends (1788-1845).

Ingraban, a descendant of the child of Ingo and Irmgard, a wild, untamed young Pagan, who is finally converted to Christianity under Bishop Winfried, or Boniface.

Ini, Ine, or Ina, king of Wessex; his wife was Æthelburh; both were of the royal line of Cerdic. After a grand banquet, King Ini set forth to sojourn in another of his palaces, and his queen privately instructed his steward to “fill the house they quitted with rubbish and offal, to put a sow and litter of pigs in the royal bed, and entirely dismantle the room.” When the king and queen had gone about a mile or so, the queen entreated her husband to return to the house they had quitted, and great was his astonishment to behold the change. Æthelburh then said, “Behold what vanity of vanities is all earthly greatness! Where now are the good things you saw here but a few hours ago? See how foul a beast occupies the royal bed. So will it be with you unless you leave earthly things for heavenly.” So the king abdicated his kingdom, went to Rome, and dwelt there as a pilgrim for the rest of his life.

... in fame great Ina might pretend

With any king since first the Saxons came to shore.

Drayton, Polyolbion, xi. (1613).

Inkle and Yar´ico, hero and heroine of a story by Sir Richard Steele, in the Spectator (No. 11). Inkle is a young Englishman who is lost in the Spanish main. He falls in love with Yarico, an Indian maiden, with whom he consorts; but no sooner does a vessel arrive to take him to Barbadoes than he sells Yarico as a slave.

George Colman has dramatized this tale (1787).

Innocents (The), the babes of Bethlehem cut off by Herod the Great.

⁂ John Baptist Marino, an Italian poet, has a poem on The Massacre of the Innocents (1569-1625).

Innogen or Inogene (3 syl.), wife of Brute (1 syl.), mythical king of Britain. She was daughter of Pan´drasos of Greece.

Thus Brute this realme unto his rule subdewd ...

And left three sons, his famous progeny,

Born of fayre Inogene of Italy.

Spenser, Faëry Queen, ii. 10 (1590).

And for a lasting league of amity and peace,

Bright Innogen, his child, for wife to Brutus gave.

M. Drayton, PolyolbionPolyolbion, I. (1612).

212Insane Root (The), hemlock. It is said that those who eat hemlock can see objects otherwise invisible. Thus when Banquo had encountered the witches, who vanished as mysteriously as they appeared, he says to Macbeth, “Were such things [really] here ... or have we eaten [hemlock] of the insane root, that takes the reason prisoner,” so that our eyes see things that are not?—Macbeth, act i. sc. 3 (1606).

Interpreter (Mr.), in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, means the Holy Ghost as it operates on the heart of a believer. He is lord of a house a little beyond the Wicket Gate.—Pt. i. (1678).

Inveraschal´loch, one of the Highlanders at the Clachan of Aberfoyle.—Sir W. Scott, Rob Roy (time, George I.).

Invin´cible Doctor (The), William of Occam; also called Doctor Singulāris (1270-1347).

Invisible Knight (The), Sir Garlon, brother of King Pellam (nigh of kin to Joseph of Arimathy).

“He is Sir Garlon,” said the knight, “he with the black face, he is the marvellest knight living, for he goeth invisible.”—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 39 (1470).

Invisibility is obtained by amulets, dress, herbs, rings, and stones.

Amulets: as the capon-stone called “Alectoria,” which rendered those invisible who carried it about their person.—Mirror of Sornes.

Dress: as Alberich’s cloak called “Tarnkappe” (2 syl.) which Siegfried got possession of (The Nibelungen Lied); the mantle of Hel Keplein (q.v.); and Jack the Giantkiller had a cloak of invisibility as well as a cap of knowledge. The helmet of Perseus of Hadês (Greek Fable) and Mambrino’s helmet rendered the wearers invisible. The moros musphonon was a girdle of invisibility.—Mrs. Centlivre, A Bold Stroke for a Wife.

Herbs: as fern-seed, mentioned by Shakespeare and Beaumont and Fletcher.

Rings: as Gyges’s ring, taken from the flanks of a brazen horse. When the stone was turned inwards, the wearer was invisible (Plato). The ring of Otnit, king of Lombardy, according to The Heldenbuch, possessed a similar virtue. Reynard’s wonderful ring had three colors, one of which (the green) caused the wearer to be invisible (Reynard the Fox, 1498); this was the gem called heliotrope.

Stones: as heliotrope, mentioned by Boccaccio in his Decameron (day viii. 3). It is of a green hue. Solīnus attributes this power to the herb heliotrope: “Herba ejusdem nominis ... eum, a quocumque gestabitur, suptrahit visibus obviorum.”—Geog., xl.

Invulnerability. Stones taken from the cassan plant, which grows in Pauten, will render the possessor invulnerable.—Odoricus, In Hakluyt.

A dip in the river Styx rendered Achillês invulnerable.

Medea rendered Jason proof against wounds and fire by anointing him with the Promethe´an unguent.—Greek Fable.

Siegfried was rendered invulnerable by bathing his body in dragon’s blood.—Niebelungen Lied.

Ion, the title and hero of a tragedy by T. N. Talfourd (1835). The oracle of Delphi had declared that the pestilence which raged in Argos was sent by way of punishment for the misrule of the race of Argos, and that the vengeance of the gods could be averted only by the extirpation 213of the guilty race. Ion, the son of the king, offered himself a willing sacrifice, and as he was dying, Irus entered and announced that “the pestilence was abating.”

Io´na’s Saint, St. Columb, seen on the top of the church spires, on certain evenings every year, counting the surrounding islands, to see that none of them have been sunk by the power of witchcraft.

As Iona’s saint, a giant form,

Throned on his towers conversing with the storm ...

Counts every wave-worn isle and mountain hoar

From Kilda to the green Ierne’s shore [from the Hebrides to Ireland].

Campbell, The Pleasures of Hope, ii. (1799).

I-pal-ne-mo´-ani (i.e. He by whom we live), a title of God, used by the ancient Mexicans.

“We know him,” they reply,

“The great ‘Forever-One,’ the God of gods,

Ipalnemoani.”—Southey, Madoc, i. 8 (1805).

Iphigeni´a,daughter of Agamemnon, king of Argos. Agamemnon vowed to offer up to Artĕmis the best possession that came into his hands during the ensuing twelve months. This happened to be an infant daughter, to whom he gave the name of Iphigenīa, but he forbore to fulfil his vow. When he went on his voyage to Troy, the fleet was wind-bound at Aulis, and Kalchas, the priest, said it was because Agamemnon had not carried out his vow; so Iphigenia, then in the pride of womanhood, was bound to the altar. Artemis, being satisfied, carried the maiden off to Tauris, where she became a priestess, and substituted a hind in her place.

For parallel instances, such as Abraham and Isaac, Jephthah and his daughter, Idomeneus and his son, etc., see Idomeneus.

When a new Iphigene, she went to Tauris.

Byron, Don Juan, x. 49 (1821).

Iphis, the woman who was changed to a man. The tale is this: Iphis was the daughter of Lygdus and Telethusa of Cretê. Lygdus gave orders that if the child about to be born was a girl, it was to be put to death. It happened to be a girl; but the mother, to save it, brought it up as a boy. In due time, the father betrothed Iphis to Ianthê, and the mother, in terror, prayed to Isis for help. Her prayer was heard, for Isis changed Iphis into a man on the day of espousals.—Ovid, Metaph., ix. 12; xiv. 699.

⁂ Cæneus [Se.nuce] was born of the female sex, but Neptune changed her into a man. Ænēas found her in hadês changed back again.

Tirēsias, the Theban prophet, was converted into a girl for striking two serpents, and married. He afterwards recovered his sex.

Ippolito (Don), Italian priest, who should never have taken orders. He is handsome, sensitive and susceptible, and has for a pupil Florida Vervain, an American girl. He loves her and tells her so. She pities him, advises him to break the shackles of his priesthood and go to America. When she departs, he succumbs to despair and Roman fever. On his death-bed he disabuses Florida’s American lover of the impression that the girl loved the priest.—W. D. Howells, A Foregone Conclusion (1874).

Iras, a female attendant on Cleopatra. When Cleopatra had arrayed herself with robe and crown, prior to applying the asps, 214she said to her two female attendants, “Come take the last warmth of my lips. Farewell, kind Charmian! Iras, farewell!” And having kissed them, Iras fell down dead, either broken-hearted or else because she had already applied an asp to her arm, as Charmian did a little later.—Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1608).

Ireby (Mr), a country squire.—Sir W. Scott, Two Drovers (time, George III.).

Ireland (S. W. H.), a literary forger. His chief forgery is Miscellaneous Papers and Instruments, under the hand and seal of William Shakespeare, including the tragedy of King Lear, and a small fragment of Hamlet, from the original, folio, £6 4s. (1795).

His most impudent forgery was the production of a new play, which he tried to palm off as Shakespeare’s. It was called Vortigern and Rowena, and was actually represented at Drury Lane Theatre, in 1796.

Weeps o’er false Shakesperian lore

Which sprang from Maisterre Ireland’s store,

Whose impudence deserves the rod

For having aped the Muse’s god.

Chalcographomania.

Ireland (The Fair Maid of), the ignis fatuus.

He had read ... of ... the ignis fatuus, ... by some called “Will-with-the-whisp” or “Jack-with-the-lantern,” and likewise ... “The Fair Maid of Ireland.”—R. Johnson, The Seven Champions of Christendom, i. 7. (1617).

Ireland’s Three Saints. The three great saints of Ireland are St. Patrick, St. Columb, and St. Bridget.

Ireland’s Three Tragedies: (1) The Death of the Children of Touran; (2) The Death of the Children of Lir; and (3) The Death of the Children of Usnach.—O’Flannagan, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, i.

Irem (The Garden of), mentioned in the Korân, lxxxix. It was the most beautiful of all earthly paradises, laid out for Shedad´, king of Ad; but no sooner was it finished than it was struck with the lightning-wand of the death-angel, and was never after visible to the eye of man.

The paradise of Irem this ...

A garden more surpassing fair

Than that before whose gate

The lightning of the cherub’s fiery sword

Waves wide to bar access.

Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer, i. 22 (1797).

Ire´na, Ireland personified. Her inheritance was withheld by Grantorto (rebellion), and Sir Artegal was sent by the queen of Faëry-land to succor her. Grantorto being slain Irena was restored, in 1588, to her inheritance.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, v. (1596).(1596).

Ire´ne (3 syl.), daughter of Horush Barbarossa, the Greek renegade and corsair-king of Algiers. She was rescued in the siege of Algiers by Selim, son of the Moorish king, who fell in love with her. When she heard of the conspiracy to kill Barbarossa, she warned her father; but it was too late; the insurgents succeeded, Barbarossa was slain by Othman, and Selim married Irenê.—J. Browne, Barbarossa (1742).

Irene (3 syl.), wife of Alexius Comne´nus, emperor of Greece.—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Irene Lapham. Second daughter of a self-made man; wonderfully beautiful, unsophisticated, and beginning to have 215social ambitions, founded upon acquaintance with the Bromfield Coreys. She is quite sure and naively glad that Tom Corey admires, perhaps loves her, until undeceived by his declaration to her sister. Then she gives him up and goes away for a while. Hearing of her father’s failure in business, she rushes back and takes her place in the family as an energetic spinster. William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham (1884).

Ire´nus. Peaceableness personified. (Greek, eirênê, “peace”). Phineas Fletcher, The Purple Island, x. (1633).

Iris, a messenger, a go-between. Iris was the messenger of Juno.

Wheresoe’er them art in this world’s globe,

I’ll have an Iris that shall find thee out.

Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI, act v. sc. 2 (1591).

Iris and the Dying. One of the duties of Iris was to cut off a lock of hair (claimed by Proserpine) from those devoted to death, and till this was done, Death refused to accept the victim. Thus, when Dido mounted the funeral pile, she lingered in suffering till Iris was sent by Juno to cut off a lock of her hair as an offering to the black queen, but immediately this was done her spirit left the body. Than´atos did the same office to Alcestis when she gave her life for that of her husband. In all sacrifices, a forelock was first cut from the head of the victim an an offering to Proserpine.—See Euripides, Alcestis; Virgil, Æneid, iv.

Iris. Daughter of an old Latin tutor. Of her mother it is said—“Seated with her companion at the chess-board of matrimony, she had but just pushed forward her one little white pawn upon an empty square, when the Black Knight, who cares nothing for castles, or kings or queens, swooped down upon her and swept her from the larger board of life.” The child’s father lingered but a little while longer, and the little Iris lived with a village spinster and went to a village school. All the same, the artistic principle grew and prevailed with her, and she became painter and poet.—Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Professor at the Breakfast-Table (1853).

Irish Whiskey Drinker (The), John Sheehan, a barrister, who with “Everard Olive of Tipperary Hall,” Hall,” wrote a series of pasquinades in verse, which were published in Bentley’s Miscellany, in 1846, and attracted considerable attention.

Irish Widow (The), a farce by Garrick (1757). Martha Brady, a blooming young widow of 23, is in love with William Whittle, the nephew of old Thomas Whittle, a man 63 years of age. It so happens that William cannot touch his property without his uncle’s consent, so the lovers scheme together to obtain it. The widow pretends to be in love with the old man, who proposes to her and is accepted; but she now comes out in a new character, as a loud, vulgar, rollicking, extravagant low Irishwoman. Old Whittle is thoroughly frightened, and not only gets his nephew to take the lady off his hands, but gives him £5000 for doing so.

Irol´do, the friend of Prasildo, of Babylon. Prasildo falls in love with Tisbi´na, his friend’s wife, and, to escape infamy, Iroldo and Tisbina take “poison.” Prasildo, hearing from the apothecary that the supposed poison is innocuous, goes and tells them so, whereupon Iroldo is so struck with his friend’s generosity that he quits Babylon, leaving Tisbina to Prasildo. Subsequently Iroldo’s life is in peril, and 216Prasildo saves his friend at the hazard of his own life.—Bojardo, Orlando Innamorato (1495).

Irolit´a, a princess, in love with Prince Parcĭnus, her cousin. The fairy Dan´amo wanted Parcinus to marry her daughter Az´ira, and therefore tried to marry Irolita to Brutus; but her plans were thwarted, for Parcinus married Irolita, and Brutus married Azira.—D’Aunoy, Perfect Love.

Iron Arm. Captain François de Lanoue, a Huguenot, was called Bras de Fer. He died at the siege of Lamballe (1531-1591).

Iron Chest (The), a drama by G. Colman, based on W. Godwin’s novel of Caleb Williams. Sir Edward Mortimer kept in an iron chest certain documents relating to a murder for which he had been tried and honorably acquitted. His secretary, Wilford, out of curiosity, was prying into this box, when Sir Edward entered and threatened to shoot him; but on reflection, spared the young man’s life, and told him all about the murder, and swore him to secrecy. Wilford, unable to endure the watchful and suspicious eye of his master, ran away; but Sir Edward dogged him like a bloodhound, and at length accused him of robbery. The charge could not be substantiated, so Wilford was acquitted. Sir Edward confessed himself a murderer, and died (1796).

Iron Duke (The), the duke of Wellington (1769-1852).

Iron Emperor (The), Nicholas of Russia (1796, 1826-1855).

Iron Hand, Goetz von Berlichingen, who replaced his right hand, which he lost at the siege of Landshut, by an iron one (sixteenth century).

⁂ Goethe has made this the subject of an historical drama.

Iron Mask (The Man in the). This mysterious man went by the name of Lestang, but who he was is as much in nubibus as the author of the Letters of Junius. The most general opinion is that he was Count Er´colo Antonio Matthioli, a senator of Mantua and private agent of Ferdinand Charles, duke of Mantua; and that his long imprisonment of twenty-four years was for having deceived Louis XIV. in a secret treaty for the purchase of the fortress of Casale. M. Loiseleur utterly denies this solution of the mystery.—See Temple Bar, 182-4, May, 1872.

⁂ The tragedies of Zschokke in German (1795), and Fournier, in French, are based on the supposition that the man in the mask was Marechal Richelieu, a twin-brother of the Grand Monarque, and this is the solution given by the Abbé Soulavie.