PREFACE. (continued 8)

Irons. “A man over whom vulgar prosperity had, in forming him, left everywhere her finger-marks to be seen.... He had a general air of insisting upon his immense superiority to all the world.” His self-complacency does not prevent his meddling offensively in other people’s affairs, and his success gives him the opportunity to ruin the man he hates as his intellectual and moral superior.—Arlo Bates, The Philistines (1888).

Ironside (Sir), called “The Red Knight of the Red Lands.” Sir Gareth, after fighting with him from dawn to dewy eve, subdued him. Tennyson calls him Death, and says that Gareth won the victory with a single stroke. Sir Ironside was the knight who kept the Lady Lionês (called 217by Tennyson “Lyonors”) captive in Castle Perilous.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 134-137 (1470).

Ironside. Edmund II., king of the Anglo-Saxons, was so called from his iron armor (989, 1016-1017).

Sir Richard Steele signed himself “Nester Ironside” in the Guardian (1671-1729).

Ironsides. So were the soldiers of Cromwell called, especially after the battle of Marston Moor, where they displayed their iron resolution (1644).

Ironsides (Captain), uncle of Belfield (Brothers), and an old friend of Sir Benjamin Dove. He is captain of a privateer, and a fine specimen of an English naval officer.

He’s true English oak to the heart of him, and a fine old seaman-like figure he is.—Cumberland, The Brothers, i. 1 (1769).

Iron Tooth, Frederick II., elector of Bradenburg (Dent de Fer), (1657, 1688-1713).

Irrefragable Doctor (The), Alexander Hales, founder of the Scholastic theology (*-1245).

I´rus, the beggar of Ithâca, who ran errands for Penelopê’s suitors. When Ulyssês returned home dressed as a beggar, Irus withstood him, and Ulyssês broke his jaw with a blow. So poor was Irus that he gave birth to the proverbs, “As poor as Irus,” and “Poorer than Irus” (in French, Plus pauvre qu’ Irus).

Irving (Washington). N. P. Willis said of Irving’s reputation in England fifty years ago: “The first questions on the lips of every one to whom I am introduced as an American are of him and Cooper.” Horace Smith, the author of “Rejected Addresses” pronounced him “a delightful fellow.”—N. P. Willis, Pencilings by the Way (1835).

Irwin (Mr), the husband of Lady Eleanor, daughter of Lord Norland. His lordship discarded her for marrying against his will, and Irwin was reduced to the verge of starvation. In his desperation Irwin robbed his father-in-law on the high road, but relented and returned the money. At length the iron heart of Lord Norland was softened, and he relieved the necessities of his son-in-law.

Lady Eleanor Irwin, wife of Mr. Irwin. She retains her love for Lord Norland, even through all his relentlessness, and when she hears that he has adopted a son, exclaims, “May the young man deserve his love better than I have done! May he be a comfort to his declining years, and never disobey him!”—Inchbald, Every One has His Fault (1794).

Irwin (Hannah), former confidante of Clara Mowbray.—Sir W. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well (time, George III.).

Isaac [Mendoza], a rich Portuguese Jew, short in stature, with a snub nose, swarthy skin, and huge beard; very conceited, priding himself upon his cunning, loving to dupe others but woefully duped himself. He chuckles to himself, “I’m cunning, I fancy; a very cunning dog, ain’t I? a sly little villain, eh? a bit roguish; he must be very wide awake who can take Isaac in.” This conceited piece of goods is always duped by every one he encounters. He meets Louisa, whom he intends to make his wife, but she makes him believe she is Clara Guzman. 218He meets his rival, Antonio, whom he sends to the supposed Clara, and he marries her. He mistakes Louisa’s duenna for Louisa, and elopes with her. So all his wit is outwitted.—Sheridan, The Duenna (1775).

Isaac of York, the father of Rebecca. When imprisoned in the dungeon of Front de Bœuf’s castle, Front de Bœuf comes to extort money from him, and orders two slaves to chain him to the bars of slow fire, but the party is disturbed by the sound of a bugle. Ultimately, both the Jew and his daughter leave England and go to live abroad.—Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).

Isaacs (Mr.). A mysterious man, whose majestic beauty, accomplishments, prowess and loves form the staple of the novel bearing his name.—F. Marion Crawford, Mr. Isaacs (1882).

Isabel. A child-love, whose image is recalled by the old man in his wayside musing—

“Poor, unknown,

By the wayside, on a mossy stone.”

Ralph Hoyt, Old (1859).

Isabel. A refined girl, with lofty ideals and aspirations, who marries a widower with one child. She believes him a true man who will uplift her, and finds him a refined voluptuary, coldly calculating upon the advantages to be gained from her fortune. Still faithful to herself, Isabel repels the love of a man who thoroughly appreciates her, and flies from him and temptation.—Henry James, Jr., Portrait of a Lady (1881).

Isabel, called the “She-wolf of France,” the adulterous queen of Edward II., was daughter of Philippe IV. (le bel), of France. According to one tradition, Isabel murdered her royal husband by thrusting a hot iron into his bowels, and tearing them from his body.

Isabell, sister of Lady Hartwell, in the comedy of Wit without Money, by Beaumont and Fletcher (1639).

Isabella or Isabelle, a pale brown or buff color, similar to that of a hare. It is so called from the princess Isabella of Austria, daughter of Philip II. The tale is, that while besieging Ostend, the princess took an oath that she would not change her body-linen before the town was taken. The siege, however, lasted three years, and her linen was so stained that it gave name to the color referred to (1601-1604).

The same story is related of Isabella of Castile at the siege of Grena´da (1483).

The horse that Brightsun was mounted on was as black as jet, that of Felix was grey, Cherry’s was as white as milk, and that of the Princess Fairstar an Isabella.—Comtesse D’Aunoy, Fairy Tales (“Princess Fairstar,” 1682).

Isabella, daughter of the king of Galicia, in love with Zerbi´no, but Zerbino could not marry her because she was a pagan. Her lament at the death of Zerbino is one of the best parts of the whole poem (bk. xii.). Isabella retires to a chapel to bury her lover, and is there slain by Rodomont.—Ariosto, Orlanda Furioso (1516).

Isabella, sister of Claudio, insulted by the base passion of An´gelo, deputy of Vienna, in the absence of Duke Vincentio. Isabella is delivered by the duke himself, and the deputy is made to marry Mariana, to whom he was already betrothed.—Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603).

219Isabella, wife of Hieronimo, in The Spanish Tragedy, by Thomas Kyd (1588).

Isabella, mother of Ludov´ico Sforza, duke of Milan.—Massinger, The Duke of Milan (1622).

Isabella, a nun who marries Biron, eldest son of Count Baldwin, who disinherits him for this marriage. Biron enters the army, and is sent to the siege of Candy, where he falls, and (it is supposed) dies. For seven years Isabella mourns her loss, and is then reduced to the utmost want. In her distress she begs assistance of her father-in-law, but he drives her from the house as a dog. Villeroy (2 syl.) offers her marriage, and she accepts him; but the day after her espousals Biron returns. Carlos, hearing of his brother’s return, employs ruffians to murder him, and then charges Villeroy with the crime; but one of the ruffians impeaches, and Carlos is apprehended. Isabella goes mad, and murders herself in her distraction.—Thomas Southern, The Fatal Marriage (1692).

Isabella, the coadjutor of Zanga in his scheme of revenge against Don Alonzo.—Young, The Revenge (1721).

Isabella, princess of Sicily, in love with Roberto il Diavolo, but promised in marriage to the prince of Grana´da, who challenges Roberto to mortal combat, from which he is allured by Bertram, his fiend-father. Alice tells him that Isabella is waiting for him at the altar, when a struggle ensues between Bertram and Alice, one trying to drag him into hell, and the other trying to reclaim him to the ways of virtue. Alice at length prevails, but we are not told whether or not Roberto marries the princess.—Meyerbeer, Roberto il Diavolo (1831).

Isabella (Donna), daughter of Don Pedro, a Portuguese nobleman, who designs to marry her to Don Guzman, a gentleman of large fortune. To avoid this hateful marriage, she jumps from a window, with a view of escaping from the house, and is caught by a Colonel Briton, an English officer, who conducts her to the house of her friend, Donna Violantê. Here the colonel calls upon her, and Don Felix, supposing Violantê to be the object of his visits, becomes furiously jealous. After a considerable embroglio, the mystery is cleared up, and a double wedding takes place.—Mrs. Centlivre, The Wonder (1714).

Isabella (The countess), wife of Roberto. After a long series of crimes of infidelity to her husband, and of murder, she is brought to execution.—John Marston, The Wonder of Women, or Sophonisba (1605).

Isabella (The lady), a beautiful young girl, who accompanied her father on a chase. Her step-mother requested her to return and tell the cook to prepare the milk-white doe for dinner. Lady Isabella did as she was told, and the cook replied, “Thou art the doe that I must dress.” The scullion-boy exclaimed, “Oh, save the lady’s life, and make thy pies of me!” But the cook heeded him not. When the lord returned and asked for his daughter, the scullion-boy made answer, “If my lord would see his daughter, let him cut the pasty before him.” The father, horrified at the whole affair, adjudged the step-mother to be burnt alive, and the cook to stand in boiling lead, but the scullion-boy he made his heir.—Percy, Reliques iii. 2.

Isabelle, sister of Léonor, an orphan; brought up by Sganarelle according to his own notions of training a girl to make him a good wife. She was to dress in 220serge, and keep to the house, to occupy herself in domestic affairs, to sew, knit, and look after the linen, to hear no flattery, attend no places of public amusement, never to be left to her own devices, but to run in harness like a mill-horse. The result was that she duped Sganarelle and married Valère. (See Léonor).—Molière, L’école des Maris (1661).

Isabinda, daughter of Sir Jealous Traffick, a merchant. Her father is resolved she shall marry Don Diego Barbinetto, but she is in love with Charles Gripe; and Charles, in the dress of a Spaniard, passing himself off as the Spanish don, and marries her.—Mrs. Centlivre, The Busy Body (1709).

Isadore, wife, fondly lamented in Albert Pike’s lines beginning:

“Thou art lost to me forever! I have lost thee, Isadore!”Isadore!”

Albert Pike, Poems (183-).

Isenbras (Sir), a hero of mediæval romance. Sir Isenbras was at first proud and presumptous, but adversity made him humble and pentitent. In this stage he carried two children of a poor wood-cutter across a ford on his horse.

I´sengrin (Sir) or Sir Isengrim, the wolf, afterwards created the earl of Pitwood, in the beast-epic of Reynard the Fox. Sir Isengrin typifies the barons, and Reynard the Church. The gist of the tale is to show how Reynard over-reaches his uncle Wolf (1498).

Ishah, the name of Eve before the Fall; so called because she was taken out of ish, i.e. “man” (Gen. ii. 23); but after the expulsion from paradise, Adam called his wife Eve or Havah, i.e. “the mother of all living” (Gen. iii. 20).

Ishban, meant for Sir Robert Clayton. There is no such name in the Bible as Ishban; but Tate speaks of “extorting Ishban,” pursued by “bankrupt heirs.” He says he had occupied himself long in cheating, but then undertook to “reform the state.”

Ishban of conscience suited to his trade,

As good a saint as usurer e’er made ...

Could David ... scandalize our peerage with his name ...

He’d e’en turn loyal to be made a peer.

Tate, Absalom and Achitophel, ii. (1682).

Ish´bosheth, in Dryden’s satire of Absalom and Achitophel, is meant for Richard Cromwell, whose father, Oliver, is called “Saul.” As Ishbosheth was the only surviving son of Saul, so Richard was the only surviving son of Cromwell. As Ishbosheth was accepted king on the death of his father by all except the tribe of Judah, so Richard was acknowledged “protecter” by all except the royalists. As Ishbosheth reigned only a few months, so Richard, after a few months, retired into private life.

They who, when Saul was dead, without a blow

Made foolish Ishbosheth the crown forego.

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

I´sidore (3 syl.), a Greek slave, the concubine of Don Pèdre, a Sicilian nobleman. This slave is beloved by Adraste (2 syl.) a French gentleman, who plots to allure her away. He first gets introduced as a portrait-painter, and reveals his love. Isidore listens with pleasure, and promises to elope with him. He then sends his slave Zaïde to complain to Don Pèdre of ill-treatment, and to crave protection. Don Pèdre promises to stand her friend, and at this moment Adraste appears and demands that she be given up to the punishment she deserves. Pèdre intercedes; 221Adraste seems to relent; and the Sicilian calls to the young slave to appear. Instead of Zaïde, Isidore comes forth in Zaïde’s veil. “There” says Pèdre, “I have arranged everything. Take her and use her well.” “I will do so,” says the Frenchman, and leads off the Greek slave.—Molière, Le Sicilien ou L’Amour Peindre (1667).

Isis, the moon. The sun is Osi´ris. Egyptian Mythology.

They [the priests] wore rich mitres shapèd like the moon,

To show that Isis doth the moon portend,

Like as Osiris signifies the sun.

Spenser, Faëry Queen, v. 7 (1596).

Iskander Beg=Alexander the Great, George Castriot (1414-1467). (See(See Skanderbeg).

Iskander with the Two Horns, Alexander the Great.

This Friday is the 18th day of the moon of Safar, in the year 653 [i.e. of the heg´ira, or A.D. 1255] since the retreat of the great prophet from Mecca to Medi´na; and in the year 7320 of the epoch of the great Iskander with the two horns.—Arabian Nights (“The Tailor’s Story”).

Island of the Seven Cities, a kind of Dixie’s land, where seven bishops, who quitted Spain during the dominion of the Moors, founded seven cities. The legend says that many have visited the island, but no one has ever quitted it.

Islands of the Blest, called by the Greeks “Happy Islands,” and by the Latins “Fortunate Islands;” imaginary islands somewhere in the West, where the favorites of the gods are conveyed at death, and dwell in everlasting joy.

Their place of birth alone is mute

To sounds that echo further West

Than your sire’s Islands of the Blest.

Byron.

Isle of Lanterns, an imaginary country, inhabited by pretenders to knowledge, called “Lanternois.”—Rabelais, Pantag´ruel, v. 32, 33 (1545).

⁂ Lucien has a similar conceit, called The City of Lanterns; and Dean Swift, in his Gulliver’s Travels, makes his hero visit Laputa, which is an empire of quacks, false projectors, and pretenders to science.

Islington (The marquis of), one of the companions of Billy Barlow, the noted archer. Henry VIII. jocosely created Barlow “duke of Shoreditch”Shoreditch”, and his two companions “earl of Pancras” and “marquis of Islington.”

Ismael “the infidel,” one of the Immortal Guard.—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Ismene. Daughter of Œdipus and Jocasta, and sister to Antigone. She insists upon sharing her sister’s punishment for having buried their brother Cleon in defiance of their father’s prohibition.—Sophocles’ Antigone.

Isme´ne and Isme´nias, a love story in Greek by Eustathius, in the twelfth century. It is puerile in its delineation of character, and full of plagiarisms; but many of its details have been copied by D’Urfé, Montemayor, and others. Ismenê is the “dear and near and true” lady of Ismenias.

⁂ Through the translation by Godfrey of Viterbo, the tale of Ismenê and Ismenias forms the basis of Gower’s Confessio Amantis, and Shakespeare’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre.

Isme´no, a magician, once a Christian, but afterwards a renegaderenegade to Islam. He 222was killed by a stone hurled from an engine.—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered, xviii. (1575).

Isoc´rates (The French), Esprit Fléchier, bishop of Nismes (1632-1710).

Isoline (3 syl.), the high-minded and heroic daughter of the French governor of Messi´na, and bride of Fernando (son of John of Procĭda). Isoline was true to her husband, and true to her father, who had opposite interests in Sicily. Both fell victims to the butchery called the “Sicilian Vespers” (March 30, 1282), and Isoline died of a broken heart.—S. Knowles., John of Procida (1840).

Isolt (Isolde, Iseult). There are two ladies connected with Arthurian romance of this name: one, Isolt “the Fair,” daughter of Anguish, king of Ireland; and the other Isolt “or the White Hands,” daughter of Howell, king of Brittany. Isolt the Fair was the wife of Sir Mark, king of Cornwall, but Isolt of the White Hands was the wife of Sir Tristram. Sir Tristram loved Isolt the Fair; and Isolt hated Sir Mark, her husband, with the same measure that she loved Sir Tristram, her nephew-in-law. Tennyson’s tale of the death of Sir Tristram is so at variance with the romance, that it must be given separately. He says that Sir Tristram was one day dallying with Isolt the Fair, and put a ruby carcanet round her neck. Then, as he kissed her throat:

Out of the dark, just as the lips had touched.

Behind him rose a shadow and a shriek—

“Mark’s way,” said Mark, and clove him thro’ the brain.

Tennyson, The Last Tournament. (See Isond.)

Isond, called La Beale Isond, i.e. La Belle Isond, daughter of Anguish, king of Ireland. When Sir Tristram vanquished Sir Marhaus, he went to Ireland to be cured of his wounds. La Beale Isond was his leech, and fell in love with him; but she married Sir Mark, the dastard king of Cornwall. This marriage was very unhappy, for Isond hated Mark as much as she loved Sir Tristram, with whom she eloped and lived in Joyous Guard Castle, but was in time restored to her husband, and Tristram married Isond the Fair-handed. In the process of time, Tristram, being severely wounded, sent for La Beale Isond, who alone could cure him, and if the lady consented to come the vessel was to hoist a white flag. The ship hove in sight, and Tristram’s wife, out of jealousyjealousy, told him it carried a black flag at the mast-head. On hearing this Sir Tristram fell back on his bed and died. When La Beale Isond landed, and heard that Sir Tristram was dead, she flung herself on the body, and died also. The two were buried in one grave, on which a rose and vine were planted, which grew up and so intermingled their branches that no man could separate them.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, ii. (1470).

⁂ Sir Palamedes, the Saracen (i.e. unbaptized) also loved La Beale Isond, but met with no encouragement. Sir Kay Hedius died for love of her.—History of Prince Arthur, ii. 172.

Isond le Blanch Mains, daughter of Howell, king of Britain (i.e. Brittany). Sir Tristram fell in love with her for her name’s sake; but though he married her, his love for La Beale Isond, wife of his Uncle Mark, grew stronger and stronger. When Sir Tristram was dying and sent for his uncle’s wife, it was Isond le Blanch Mains who told him the ship was in sight, but carried a black flag at the mast head, on hearing which Sir Tristram bowed his head and died.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, ii. 35, etc. (1470).

223Is´rael, in Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, means England. As David was king of Israel, so Charles II. was king of England. Of his son, the duke of Monmouth, the poet says:

Early in foreign fields he won renown

With kings and states allied to Israel’s crown.

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

Is´rafîl, the angel who will sound the “Resurrection blast.” Then Gabriel and Michael will call together the “dry bones” to judgement. When Israfil puts the trumpet to his mouth the souls of the dead will be cast into the trumpet, and when he blows out will they fly like bees, and fill the whole space between earth and heaven. Then will they enter their respective bodies, Mahomet leading the way.—Sale, Korân (Preliminary discourse, iv.).

⁂ Israfil, the angel of melody in paradise. It is said that his ravishing songs, accompanied by the daughters of paradise and the clanging of bells, will give delight to the faithful.

Israfel. Edgar Allan Poe thus spells the name of the angel “whose heart strings are a lute.”

“If I could dwell

Where Israfel

Hath dwelt, and he where I,

He might not sing so wildly well

A mortal melody,

While a bolder note than this might swell

From my lyre within the sky.”

Edgar Allan Poe, Poems (1845).

Ispahan.

“We parted in the streets of Ispahan,

I stopped my camel at the city gate.

Why did I stop? I left my heart behind.

* * * * *

I meet the caravans when they return.

´What news?’ I ask. The drivers shake their heads.

We parted in the streets of Ispahan.”

Richard Henry Stoddard, The Book of the East (1871)

Is´sachar, in Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, is meant for Thomas Thynne, of Longleate Hall, a friend to the duke of Monmouth. There seems to be a very slight analogy between Thomas Thynne and Issachar, son of Jacob. If the tribe (compared to an ass overburdened) is alluded to, the poet could hardly have called the rich commoner “wise Issachar.”

Mr. Thynne and Count Koningsmark both wished to marry the widow of Henry Cavendish, earl of Ogle. Her friends contracted her to the rich commoner, but before the marriage was celebrated, he was murdered. Three months afterwards the widow married the duke of Somerset.

Hospitable treats did most commend

Wise Issachar, his wealthy western friend.

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

Isumbras (Sir) or Ysumbras. (See Isenbras).

Itadach (Colman), surnamed “The Thirsty.” In consequence of his rigid observance of the rule of St. Patrick, he refused to drink one single drop of water; but his thirst in the harvest time was so great that it caused his death.

Item, a money-broker. He was a thorough villain, who could “bully, cajole, curse, fawn, flatter, and filch.” Mr. Item always advised his clients not to sign away their money, but at the same time stated to them the imperative necessity of so doing. “I would advise you strongly not to put your hand to that paper, though Heaven knows how else you can satisfy these duns and escape imprisonment.”—Holcroft, The Deserted Daughter (altered into The Steward).

Itha´can Suitors. During the absence 224of Ulyssês, king of Itaca, in the Trojan war, his wife Penelopê was pestered by numerous suitors, who assumed that Ulyssês, from his long absence, must be dead. Penelope put them off by saying she would finish a certain robe which she was making for Laërtês, her father-in-law, before she gave her final answer to any of them; but at night she undid all the work she had woven during the day. At length Ulyssês returned and relieved her of her perplexity.

All the ladies, each at each,

Like the Ithacensian suitors in old time,

Stared with great eyes and laughed with alien lips.

Tennyson, The Princess, iv.

Ith´oclês (3 syl.), in love with Calantha, princess of Sparta. Ithoclês induces his sister Penthēa to break the matter to the princess, and in time she not only becomes reconciled to his love, but also requites it, and her father consents to the marriage. During a court festival, Calantha is informed by a messenger that her father has suddenly died, by a second that Penthea has starved herself to death, and by a third that Ithoclês has been murdered. The murderer was Or´gilus, who killed him out of revenge.—John Ford, The Broken Heart (1633).

Ithu´riel (4 syl.), a cherub sent by Gabriel to find out Satan. He finds him squatting like a toad beside Eve as she lay asleep, and brings him before Gabriel. (The word means “God’s discovery.”)—Milton, Paradise Lost, iv. 788 (1665).

Ithuriel’s Spear, the spear of the angel Ithuriel, whose slightest touch exposed deceit. Hence, when Satan squatted like a toad “close to the ear of Eve,” Ithuriel only touched the creature with his spear, and it resumed the form of Satan.

...for no falsehood can endure

Touch of celestial temper, but returns

Of force to its own likeness.

Milton, Paradise Lost iv. (1665).

Ithuriel, the guardian angel of Judas Iscariot. After Satan entered into the heart of the traitor, Ithuriel was given to Simon Peter as his second angel.—Klopstock, The Messiah, iii. and iv. (1748, 1771).

Ivan the Terrible, Ivan IV. of Russia, a man of great energy, but infamous for his cruelties. It was he who first adopted the title of czar (1529, 1533-1584).

I´vanhoe (3 syl.), a novel by Sir W. Scott (1820). The most brilliant and splendid romance in any language. Rebecca, the Jewess, was Scott’s favorite character. The scene is laid in England, in the reign of Richard I., and we are introduced to Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest, banquets in Saxon hall, tournaments, and all the pomp of ancient chivalry. Rowena, the heroine, is quite thrown into the shade by the gentle, meek, yet high-spirited Rebecca.

Ivanhoe (Sir Wilfred, knight of), the favorite of Richard I., and the disinherited son of Cedric of Rotherwood. Disguised as a palmer, he goes to Rotherwood, and meets there Rowena, his father’s ward, whom he has long loved; but we hear little more of him except as the friend of Rebecca and her father, Isaac of York, to both of whom he shows repeated acts of kindness, and completely wins the affections of the beautiful Jewess. In the grand tournament, Ivanhoe [I´.van.ho] appears as the “Desdichado” or the “Disinherited Knight,” and overthrows all comers. King Richard pleads for him to Cedric, reconciles the father to his son, and the 225young knight marries Rowena.—Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).

Ivan´ovitch (Son of Ivan or John), the popular name of a Russian. Similar in construction to our “John-son,” the Danish “Jan-sen,” and the Scotch “Mac-Ina.”

⁂ The popular name of the English as a people is John Bull; of the Germans, Cousin Michael; of the French, Jean Crapaud; of the Chinese, John Chinaman; of the Americans, Brother Jonathan; of the Welsh, Taffy; of the Scotch, Sandy; of the Swiss, Colin Tampon; of the Russians, Ivanovitch, etc.

Iverach (Allan), or steward of Inveraschalloch, with Gallraith, at the Clachan of Aberfoyle.—Sir W. Scott, Rob Roy (time, George I.).

Ivory Shoulder. Demēter ate the shoulder of Pelops, served up by Tan´talos; so when the gods restored the body to life, Demeter supplied the lacking shoulder by one made of ivory.

Pythag´oras had a golden thigh, which he showed to Ab´aris, the Hyperborĕan priest.

Not Pelops’ shoulder, whiter than her hands,

Nor snowy swans that jet on Isca’s sands.

Wm. Browne, Britannia’s Pastorals, ii. 3 (1613).

I´wein, a knight of the Round Table. He slays the possessor of an enchanted fountain, and marries the widow, whose name is Laudine. Gawein, or Gawain urges him to new exploits, so he quits his wife for a year, in quest of adventures, and as he does not return at the stated time, Laudine loses all love for him. On his return, he goes mad, and wanders in the woods, where he is cured by three sorcerers. He now helps a lion fighting against a dragon, and the lion becomes his faithful companion. He goes to the enchanted fountain, and there finds Lunet´ prisoner. While struggling with the enchanted fountain, Lunet aids him with her ring, and he in turn saves her life. By the help of his lion, Iwein kills several giants, delivers three hundred virgins, and on his return to King Arthur’s court, marries Lunet.—Hartmann von der Aue (thirteenth century).

Ixi´on, king of the Lap´ithæ, attempted to win the love of Hērê (Juno); but Zeus substituted a cloud for the goddess, and a centaur was born.

⁂ Browning rhymes the name cleverly:

“—‘joys prove cloudlets:

Men are the merest Ixions’—

Here the King whistled aloud, ‘Let’s

—Heigho—Heigho ... go look at our lions!’”

R. Browning, Dramatic Lyrics, “The Glove.”

226

J (In Punch), the signature of Douglas Jerrold, who first contributed to No. 9 of the serial (1803-1858).

Jaafer, who carried the sacred banner of the prophet at the battle of Muta. When one hand was lopped off, he clutched the banner with the other; this hand being also lost, he held it with his two stumps. When, at length, his head was cleft from his body, he contrived so to fall as to detain the banner till it was seized by Abdallah, and handed to Khaled.

Cynægeros, in the battle of Marăthon, seized one of the Persian ships with his right hand. When this was lopped off, he 227laid hold of it with his left; and when this was also cut off, he seized it with his teeth, and held on till he lost his head.

Admiral Benbow, in an engagement with the French, near St. Martha, in 1701, was carried on deck on a wooden frame after both his legs and thighs were shivered into splinters by chain-shot.

Almeyda, the Portuguese governor of India, had himself propped against the mainmast after both his legs were shot off.

Jabos (Jock), postillion at the Golden Arms inn, Kippletringan, of which Mrs. M’Candlish was landlady.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Ja´chin, the parish clerk, who purloined the sacramental money, and died disgraced.—Crabbe, Borough (1810).

Jacinta, a first-rate cook, “who deserved to be housekeeper to the patriach of the Indies,” but was only cook to the licentiate Sedillo of Valladŏlid.—Ch. ii. I.

The cook, who was no less dexterous than Dame Jacinta, was assisted by the coachman, in dressing the victuals.—Lesage, Gil Blas, iii. 10 (1715).

Jacin´tha, the supposed wife of Octavio, and formerly contracted to Don Henrique (2 syl.) an uxorious Spanish nobleman.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Spanish Curate (1622).

Jacintha, the wealthy ward of Mr. Strickland; in love with Bellamy. Jacintha is staid but resolute, and though “she elopes down a ladder of rope” in boy’s costume, has plenty of good sense and female modesty.—Dr. Hoadly, The Suspicious Husband (1747).

Jack (Colonel), the hero of Defoe’s novel entitled The History of the Most Remarkable Life and Extraordinary Adventures of the truly Hon. Colonel Jacque, vulgarly called Colonel Jack. The colonel (born a gentleman and bred a pick-pocket) goes to Virginia, and passes through all the stages of colonial life, from that of “slavie” to that of an owner of slaves and plantation.

The transition from their refined Oron´datês and Stati´ras, to the society of Captain [sic] Jack and Moll Flanders...is (to use a phrase of Sterne) like turning from Alexander the Great to Alexander the coppersmith.—Encyc. Brit., Art. “Romance.”

Jack Amend-all, a nickname given to Jack Cade, the rebel, who promised to remedy all abuses (*-1450).(*-1450). As a specimen of his reforms, take the following examples:—

I, your captain, am brave, and vow reformation. There shall be in England seven half-penny loaves sold for a penny, the three hooped pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony to drink small beer.... When I am king, there shall be no money; all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will apparel all in one livery.—Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI. act iv. sc. 2 (1591).

Jack Hamlin. Professional gambler and lady-killer, has an engagement to elope with the wife of Brown, of Calaveras. Brown, ignorant of the friend’s treachery, confides to him his love for the woman who, he knows, is preparing to leave him with “somebody.” Moved by the man’s distress, Jack takes horse and rides away alone.—Bret Harte, Luck of Roaring Camp, etc. (1872).

Jack and Jill, said to be the Saxon and Norman stocks united.

Jack and Jill went up the hill,

To fetch a pail of water;

Jack fell down and cracked his crown,

And Jill came tumbling after.

Nursery Rhyme.

228Or thus:

’Twas not on Alpine ice or snow,

But homely English soil:

“Excelsior!” their motto was;

They spared nor time nor toil;

They did not go for fame or wealth,

But went at duty’s call;

And tho’ united in their aim,

Were severed in their fall.

Jack and the Bean-Stalk. Jack was a very poor lad, sent by his mother to sell a cow, which he parted with to a butcher for a few beans. His mother, in her rage, threw the beans away; but one of them grew during the night as high as the heavens. Jack climbed the stalk, and, by the direction of a fairy, came to a giant’s castle, where he begged food and rest. This he did thrice, and in his three visits stole the giant’s red hen which laid golden eggs, his money-bags, and his harp. As he ran off with the last treasure, the harp cried out, “Master! master!” which woke the giant, who ran after Jack; but the nimble lad cut the bean-stalk with an axe, and the giant was killed in his fall.

⁂ This is said to be an allegory of the Teutonic Al-fader: the “red hen” representing the all-producing sun, the “money-bags” the fertilizing rain, and the “harp” the winds.

Jack-in-the-Green, one of the May-day mummers.

⁂ Dr. Owen Pugh says that Jack-in-the-Green represents Melvas, king of Somersetshire, disguised in green boughs, and lying in ambush for Queen Guenever, the wife of King Arthur, as she was returning from a hunting expedition.

Jack-o’-Lent, a kind of Aunt Sally set up during Lent to be pitched at; hence puppet, a sheepish booby, a boy-page, a scarecrow. Mrs. Page says to Robin, Falstaff’s page:

You little Jack-a-Lent? have you been true to us?—

Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, act iii. sc. 3 (1603).

Jack of Newbury, John Winchcomb, the greatest clothier of the world in the reign of Henry VIII. He kept a hundred looms in his own house at Newbury, and equipped at his own expense a hundred of his men to aid the king against the Scotch in Flodden Field (1513).

Jack Robinson. This famous comic song is by Hudson, tobacconist, No. 98 Shoe Lane, London, in the early part of the nineteenth century. The last line is, “And he was off before you could say ‘Jack Robinson.’” The tune to which the words are sung is the Sailors’ Hornpipe. Halliwell quotes these two lines from an “old play:”

A warke is ys as easie to be doone

As ’tys to saye, Jacke! robys on,

Archaic Dictionary.

Jack Sprat, of nursery rhymes.

Jack Sprat could eat no fat,

His wife could eat no lean?

And so betwixt ’em both,

They licked the platter clean.

Jack the Giant-Killer, a series of nursery tales to show the mastery of skill and wit over brute strength. Jack encounters various giants, but outwits them all. The following would illustrate the sort of combat: Suppose they came to a thick iron door, the giant would belabor it with his club hour after hour without effect; but Jack would apply a delicate key, and the door would open at once. This is not one of the stories, but will serve to illustrate the sundry contests. Jack was a “valiant Cornishman,” and 229his first exploit was to kill the giant Cormoran, by digging a deep pit, which he filmed over with grass, etc. The giant fell into the pit, and Jack knocked him on the head with a hatchet. Jack afterwards obtained a coat of invisibility, a cap of knowledge, a resistless sword, and shoes of swiftness; and, thus armed, he almost rid Wales of its giants.

Jack-with-a-Lantern. This meteoric phenomenon, when seen on the ground or a little above it, is called by sundry names, as Brenning-drake, Burning candle, Corpse candles, Dank Will, Death-fires, Dick-a-Tuesday, Elf-fire, the Fair maid of Ireland, Friar’s lantern, Gillion-a-burnt-tail, Gyl Burnt-tail, Ignis fatuus, Jack-o’-lantern, Jack-with-a-lantern, Kit-o’-the-canstick, Kitty-wi’-a-wisp, Mad Crisp, Peg-a-lantern, Puck, Robin Goodfellow, Shot stars, Spittle of the stars, Star jelly, a Sylham lamp, a Walking fire, Wandering fires, Wandering wild-fire, Will-with-a-wisp.

Those led astray by these “fool-fires” are said to be Elf-led, Mab-led, or Puck-led.

When seen on the tips of the fingers, the hair of the head, mast-tops, and so on, the phenomenon is called Castor and Pollux (if double), Cuerpo Santo (Spanish), Corpusanse, Dipsas, St. Elmo or Fires of St. Elmo (Spanish), St. Ermyn, Feu d’Hélène (French), Fire-drakes, Fuole or Looke Fuole, Haggs, Helen (if single), St. Hel´ena, St. Helme’s fires, Leda’s twins, St. Peter and St. Nicholas (Italian), or Fires of St. Peter and St. Nicholas.

Jacks (The Two Genial), Jack Munden and Jack Dowton. Planché says: “They were never called anything else.” The former was Joseph Munden (1758-1832), and the latter, William Dowton (1764-1851)—Planché, Recollections etc., i. 28.

Jackson Reed, aged light-house keeper. Believes in special providences and personal deliverances. Part of his religion is to keep the “light” burning. One afternoon he is detained by an upset on the road, and a storm arises. His skeptical wife, almost bed-ridden with rheumatism, bethinks herself that her nephew is on the sea, and the light is not kindled. After hours of agony she drags herself up the stairs, praying as she goes, and finds the lamp lighted, she believes, miraculously. Her husband coming home, guesses that a girl once beloved by the nephew, was his guardian angel.

“Abbey Weaver lit that lamp; but Sarah needn’t know!”—Mary E. Wilkins, The Bar Light-House (1887).

Jacob, the Scourge of Grammar, Giles Jacob, master of Romsey, in Southamptonshire, brought up for an attorney. Author of a Law Dictionary, Lives and Characters of English Poets, etc. (1686-1744).

Jac´omo, an irascible captain and a woman-hater. Frank (the sister of Frederick) is in love with him.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Captain (1613).

Jacques (1 syl.), one of the domestic men-servants of the duke of Aranza. The duke, in order to tame down the overbearing spirit of his bride, pretends to be a peasant, and deputes Jacques to represent the duke for the nonce. Juliana, the duke’s bride, lays her grievance before “duke” Jaques, but of course receives no redress, although she learns that if a Jaques is “duke,” the “peasant” Aranza is a better man.—J. Tobin, The Honeymoon (1804).

Jacques (Pauvre), the absent sweet-heart of a love-lorn maiden. Marie Antoinette 230sent to Switzerland for a lass to attend the dairy of her “Swiss village” in miniature, which she arranged in the Little Trianon (Paris). The lass was heard sighing for pauvre Jacques, and this made a capital sentimental amusement for the court idlers. The swain was sent for, and the marriage celebrated.

Pauvre Jacques, quand j’etais près de loi

Je ne sentais pas ma misère;

Mais à présent que tu vis loin de moi

Je manque de tout sur la terre.

Marquise de Travanet, Pauvre Jacques.

Jacques. (See Jaques.)

Jac´ulin, daughter of Gerrard, king of the beggars, beloved by Lord Hubert.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Beggar’s Bush (1622).

Jael Dence, sturdy, beautiful daughter of the people, maid and beloved companion of Grace Garden. From afar off, Jael loves Henry Little, yet it is through her intrepidity and loyalty that he is restored to her mistress.—Charles Reade, Put Yourself in His Place.

Jaffier, a young man befriended by Priuli, a proud Venetian senator. Jaffier rescued the senator’s daughter, Belvidera, from shipwreck, and afterwards married her clandestinely. The old man now discarded both, and Pierre induced Jaffier to join a junto for the murder of the senators. Jaffier revealed the conspiracy to his wife, and Belvidera, in order to save her father, induced her husband to disclose it to Priuli, under promise of free pardon to the conspirators. The pardon, however, was limited to Jaffier, and the rest were ordered to torture and death. Jaffier now sought out his friend Pierre, and, as he was led to execution, stabbed him to prevent his being broken on the wheel, and then killed himself. Belvidera went mad and died.—T. Otway, Venice Preserved (1682).

Jaga-naut, the seven-headed idol of the Hindûs, described by Southey in the Curse of Kehama, xiv. (1809).

Jaggers, a lawyer of Little Britain, London. He was a burly man, of an exceedingly dark complexion, with a large head and large hand. He had bushy black eyebrows that stood up bristling, sharp suspicious eyes set very deep in his head, and strong black dots where his beard and whiskers would have been if he had let them. His hands smelt strongly of scented soap, he wore a very large watch-chain, was in the constant habit of biting his fore-finger, and when he spoke to any one, he threw his fore-finger at him pointedly. A hard logical man was Mr. Jaggers, who required an answer to be “yes” or “no,” allowed no one to express an opinion, but only to state facts in the fewest possible words. Magwitch appointed him Pip’s guardian, and he was Miss Havisham’s man of business.—C. Dickens, Great Expectations (1860).

Jairus’s Daughter, restored to life by Jesus, is called by Klopstock Cidli.—Klopstock, The Messiah, iv. (1771).

Jalût, the Arabic name for Goliath.—Sale, Al Korân, xvii.

James (Prince), youngest son of King Robert III. of Scotland, introduced by Sir W. Scott in The Fair Maid of Perth (1828).

James I. of England, introduced by Sir W. Scott in The Fortunes of Nigel (1822).

Ja´mie (Don), younger brother of Don 231Henrique (2 syl.), by whom he is cruelly treated.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Spanish Curate (1622).

Jamie Duffs. Weepers are so called, from a noted Scotchman of the eighteenth century, whose craze was to follow funerals in deep mourning costume.—Kay, Original Portraits, i. 7; ii. 9. 17, 95.

Ja´mieson (Bet), nurse at Dr. Grey’s, surgeon at Middlemas.—Sir W. Scott, The Surgeon’s Daughter (time, George II.).

Jamshid, king of the Genii, famous for a golden cup filled with the elixir of life. The cup was hidden by the genii, but found when digging the foundations of Persep´olis.

I know, too, where the genii hid

The jewelled cup of their King Jamshid,

With life’s elixir sparkling high.

T. Moore, Lalla Rookh (“Paradise and the Peri,” 1817).

Jane Eyre, heroine of a novel so called by Currer Bell.

Jane, early and lost love of Ralph Hoyt’s nonogenarian.

“I am fleeing!—all I loved are fled;

Yon green meadow was our place for playing;

That old tree can tell of sweet things said,

When round it Jane and I were straying.

She is dead!

I am fleeing!—all I loved are fled!”

Ralph Hoyt, Old (1859).

Jan´at, the Scotch laundress of David Ramsay, the watchmaker.—Sir W. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).

Jan´et of Tomahourich (Muhme), aunt of Robin Oig M’Combich, a Highland drover.—Sir W. Scott, The Two Drovers (time, George III.).

Janey Briarley. Twelve-year-old girl, her mother’s assistant in rearing the other children. Since her third year she has done with the follies of youth. She is given to grave speculations and sage counsels and her sharp eyes do notable service to her friends.—Frances Hodgson Burnett, Haworth’s (1879).

Jannekin (Little), apprentice of Henry Smith, the armorer.—Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

Jannie Duff, with her little sister and brother, were sent to gather broom, and were lost in the bush (Australia). The parents called in the aid of the native blacks to find them, and on the ninth day they were discovered. “Father,” cried the little boy, “why didn’t you come before? We cooed quite loud, but you never came.” The sister only said, “cold!” and sank in stupor. Jannie had stripped herself to cover little Frank, and had spread her frock over her sister to keep her warm, and there all three were found almost dead, lying under a bush.

January and May. January is an old Lombard baron, some 60 years of age, who marries a girl named May. This young wife loves Damyan, a young squire. One day, the old baron found them in close embrace; but May persuaded her husband that his eyes were so dim he had made a mistake, and the old baron, too willing to believe, allowed himself to give credit to the tale.—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (“The Merchant’s Tale,” 1388).

⁂ Modernized by Ogle (1714).

Jaquemart, the automata of a clock, consisting of a man and woman who strike the hours on a bell. So called from Jean Jacquemart, of Dijon, a clockmaker, who 232devised this piece of mechanism. Menage erroneously derives the word from jaccomarchiardus (“a coat of mail”), “because watchmen watched the clock of Dijon fitted with a jacquemart.”

Jaquenetta, a country wench, courted by Don Adriano de Armado.—Shakespeare, Love’s Labor’s Lost (1594).

Jaques (1 syl.), one of the lords attendant on the banished duke, in the forest of Arden. A philosophic idler, cynical, sullen, contemplative, and moralizing. He could “suck melancholy out of a song, as a weazel sucks eggs.” Jaques resents Orlando’s passion for Rosalind, and quits the duke as soon as he is restored to his dukedom.—Shakespeare, As You Like It (1598).

Shakespeare always makes two syllables of the name Jaques; Sir Walter Scott makes one syllable of it, but Charles Lamb two. For example:

Whom humorous Jaques with envy viewed (1

syl.).

Sir W. Scott.

Where Jaques fed his solitary vein (2 syl.).—C. Lamb.

The “Jaques” of [Charles M. Young, 1777-1856], is indeed most musical, most melancholy, attuned to the very wood-walks among which he muses.—New Monthly Magazine (1822).

Jaques (1 syl.), the miser in a comedy by Ben Jonson, entitled The Case is Altered (1584-1637).

Jaques (1 syl.), servant to Sulpit´ia, a bawd. (See Jacques.)—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Custom of the Country (1647).

Jarley (Mrs.), a kind-hearted woman, mistress of a travelling wax-work exhibition, containing “one hundred figures the size of life;” the “only stupendous collection of real wax-work in the world;” “the delight of the nobility and gentry, the royal family, and crowned heads of Europe.” Mrs. Jarley was kind to little Nell, and employed her as a decoy-duck to “Jarley’s unrivalled collection.”—C. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop.

Jarnac (Coup de), a cut which severs the ham-string. So called from a cut given by Jarnac to La Chateigneraie in a duel fought in the presence of Henri II., in 1547.

Jarn´dyce v. Jarn´dyce ( 2 syl.), a Chancery suit “never ending, still beginning,” which had dragged its slow length along over so many years that it had blighted the prospects and ruined the health of all persons interested in its settlement.—C. Dickens, Bleak House (1853).

Jarndyce (Mr.), client in the great Chancery suit of “Jarndyce v. Jarndyce,” and guardian of Esther Summerson. He concealed the tenderest heart under a flimsy churlishness of demeanor, and could never endure to be thanked for any of his numberless acts of kindness and charity. If anything went wrong with him, or his heart was moved to melting, he would say, “I am sure the wind is in the east.”—C. Dickens, Bleak House (1853).

Jarvie (Bailie Nicol), a magistrate at Glasgow, and kinsman of Rob Roy. He is petulant, conceited, purse proud, without tact, and intensely prejudiced, but kind-hearted and sincere. Jarvie marries his maid. The novel of Rob Roy has been dramatized by J. Pocock, and Charles Mackay was the first to appear in the character of “Bailie Nicol Jarvie.” Talfourd says (1829): “Other actors are 233sophisticate, but Macay is the thing itself.”—Sir W. Scott, Rob Roy (time, George I.).

The character of Bailie Nicol Jarvie is one of the author’s happiest conceptions, and the idea of carrying him to the wild, rugged mountains, among outlaws and desperadoes—at the same time that he retained a keen relish of the comforts of the Saltmarket of Glasgow, and a due sense of his dignity as a magistrate—complete the ludicrous effect of the picture.—Chambers, English Literature, ii. 587.

Jarvis, a faithful old servant, who tries to save his master, Beverly, from his fatal passion of gambling.—Edward Moore, The Gamester (1753).

Jarvis (Warner). Cynical traveller who comes to Castle Nowhere, and loses his heart to Silver.—Constance Fennimore Woolson, Castle Nowhere.

Jason. King of Thessaly, commander of Argonautic expedition, and unfaithful husband of Medea.

Jaspar was poor, heartless, and wicked; he lived by highway robbery, and robbery led to murder. One day he induced a poor neighbor to waylay his landlord; but the neighbor relented, and said, “Though dark the night, there is One above who sees in darkness.” “Never fear!” said Jaspar; “for no eye above or below can pierce this darkness.” As he spoke an unnatural light gleamed on him, and he became a confirmed maniac.—R. Southey, Jaspar (a ballad).

Jasper (Old), a ploughman at Glendearg Tower.—Sir W. Scott, The Monastery (time, Elizabeth).

Jasper (Sir), father of Charlotte. He wants her to marry a Mr. Dapper; but she loves Leander, and, to avoid a marriage she dislikes, pretends to be dumb. A mock doctor is called in who discovers the facts of the case, and employs Leander as his apothecary. Leander soon cures the lady with “pills matrimoniac.” In Molière’s Le Médecin Malgré Lui (from which this play is taken) Sir Jasper is called “Géronte” (2 syl.).—H. Fielding, The Mock Doctor.

Jasper Packlemerton, of atrocious memory, one of the chief figures in Mrs. Jarley’s wax work exhibition.

“Jasper courted and married fourteen wives, and destroyed them all by tickling the soles of their feet when they were asleep. On being brought to the scaffold and asked if he was sorry for what he had done, he replied he was only sorry for having let them off so easy. Let this,” said Mrs. Jarley, “be a warning to all young ladies to be particular in the character of the gentleman of their choice. Observe his fingers are curled as if in the act of tickling, and there is a wink in his eyes.”—C. Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, xxviii. (1840).

Jasper Western, otherwise Eau Douce. Gallant young captain of a small schooner cruising among the Thousand Islands, the fast friend of Pathfinder, and unwittingly his rival for the hand of Mabel Dunham, who becomes Mrs. Western.—James Fennimore Cooper, The Pathfinder (1840).

Jaup (Alison), an old woman at Middlemas villagevillage.—Sir W. Scott, The Surgeons’ Daughter (time, George II.).

Jaup (Saunders), a farmer at Old St. Ronan’s.—Sir. W. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well (time, George III.).

Javan lost his father on the day of his birth, and was brought up in the “patriarch’s glen” by his mother, till she also died. He then sojourned for ten years 234with the race of Cain, and became the disciple of Jubal, the great musician. He then returned to the glen and fell in love with Zillah; but the glen being invaded by giants, Zillah and Javan, with many others, were taken captives. Enoch reproved the giants; and, as he ascended up to heaven, his mantle fell on Javan, who released the captives, and conducted them back to the glen. The giants were panic-struck by a tempest, and their king was killed by some unknown hand.—James Montgomery, The World Before the Flood (1812).

Javan’s Issue, the Ionians and Greeks generally (Gen. x. 2). Milton uses the expression in Paradise Lost, i. 508.

⁂ In Isaiah lxvi. 19, and in Ezek. xxvii. 13, the word is used for Greeks collectively.

Javert, an officer of police, the impersonation of inexorable law.—Victor Hugo, Les Miserables.

Jay (John), sarcastic artist and man of the world, who seeks solitude at Misery Landing, and falls in love with little Marthy, a backwoods maiden.—Constance Fennimore Woolson, Misery Landing (1875).

Ja´zer, a city of Gad, personified by Isaiah. “Moab shall howl for Moab, every one shall howl ... I will bewail, with the weeping of Jazer, the vine of Sibmah; I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon.”—Isaiah xvi. 7-9.

It did not content the congregation to weep all of them; but they howled with a loud voice, weeping with the weeping of Jazer.—Kirkton, 150.

Jealous Traffick (Sir), a rich merchant, who fancies everything Spanish is better than English, and intends his daughter, Isabinda, to marry Don Diego Barbinetto, who is expected to arrive forthwith. Isabinda is in love with Charles [Gripe], who dresses in a Spanish costume, passes himself off as Don Diego Barbinetto, and is married to Isabinda. Sir Jealous is irritable, headstrong, prejudiced, and wise in his own conceit.—Mrs. Centlivre, The Busy Body (1709).

Jealous Wife (The), a comedy by George Colman (1761). Harriet Russet marries Mr. Oakly, and becomes “the jealous wife;” but is ultimately cured by the interposition of major Oakly, her brother-in-law.

⁂ This comedy is founded on Fielding’s Tom Jones.

Jeames de la Pluche, a flunky. Jeames means the same thing.—Thackeray, Jeames’s Diary (1849).

Jean des Vignes, a French expression for a drunken blockhead, a good-for-nothing. The name Jean is often used in France, as synonymous with clown or fool, and etre dans les vignes is a popular euphuism, meaning “to be drunk.” A more fanciful explanation of the term refers its origin to the battle of Poietiers, fought by King John, among the vines. Un mariage de Jean des Vignes, means an illicit marriage, or, in the English equivalent, “a hedge marriage.”

Jean Folle Farine, a merry Andrew, a poor fool, a Tom Noodle. So called because he comes on the stage like a great loutish boy, dressed all in white, with his face, hair, and hands thickly covered with flour. Scaramouch is a sort of Jean Folle Farine.

Ouida has a novel called Folle Farine, 235but she uses the phrase in quite another sense.

Jean Jacques. So J. J. Rousseau is often called (1712-1778).

That is almost the only maxim of Jean Jacques, to which I can ... subscribe.—Lord Lytton.

Jean Paul. J. P. Friedrich Richter, is generally so called (1763-1825).

Jeanne of Alsace, a girl ruined by Dubosc, the highwayman. She gives him up to justice, in order to do a good turn to Julie Lesurques (2 syl.), who had befriended her.—E. Stirling, The Courier of Lyons (1852).

Jeddler (Dr.), “a great philosopher.” The heart and mystery of his philosophy was to look upon the world as a gigantic practicalpractical joke—something too absurd to be considered seriously by any rational man. A kind and generous man by nature, was Dr. Jeddler, and though he had taught himself the art of turning good to dross, and sunshine into shade, he had not taught himself to forget his warm benevolence and active love. He wore a pigtail, and had a streaked face like a winter pippin, with here and there a dimple “to express the peckings of the birds;” but the pippin was a tempting apple, a rosy, healthy apple after all.

Grace and Marion Jeddler, daughters of the doctor, beautiful, graceful, and affectionate. They both fell in love with Alfred Heathfield; but Alfred loved the younger daughter. Marion, knowing the love of Grace, left her home clandestinely one Christmas Day, and all supposed she had eloped with Michael Warden. In due time, Alfred married Grace, and then Marion made it known to her sister that she had given up Alfred, out of love to her, and had been living in concealment with her Aunt Martha. Report says she subsequently married Michael Warden, and became the pride and honor of his country mansion.—C. Dickens, The Battle of Life (1846).

Jed´ida and Benjamin, two of the children that Jesus took into His arms and blessed.

“Well I remember,” said Benjamin, “when we were on earth, with what loving fondness He folded us in His arms; how tenderly He pressed us to His heart. A tear was on His cheek, and I kissed it away. I see it still, and shall ever see it.” “And I, too,” answered Jedida, “remember when His arms were clasped around me, how He said to our mothers, ‘Unless ye become as little children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.’”—Klopstock, The Messiah, i. (1748).

Jehoi´achim, the servant of Joshua Geddes, the quaker.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Je´hu, a coachman, one who drives at a rattling pace.

The driving is like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously.—2 Kings ix. 20.

Jehu (Companions of). The “Chouans” were so called, from a fanciful analogy between their self-imposed task and that appointed to Jehu, on his being set over the kingdom of Israel. As Jehu was to cut off Ahab and Jezebel, with all their house; so the Chouans were to cut off Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette and all the Bourbons.

Jekyll (Doctor). He discovers the secret of transformation, by means of a potent elixir, into the embodiment of his worse nature. As Dr. Jekyll, he is beneficent and beloved. As Edward Hyde, he is a monster of vice and cruelty. Finally, the baser elements prevail, and he is forced to 236remain Hyde—a horror that drives him to madness and death.—Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Jel´licot (Old Goody), servant at the under-keeper’s hut, Woodstock Forest.—Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, Commonwealth).

Jel´lyby (Mrs.), a sham philanthropist, who spends her time, money, and energy on foreign missions, to the neglect of her family and home duties. Untidy in dress, living in a perfect litter, she has a habit of looking “a long way off,” as if she could see nothing nearer to her than Africa. Mrs. Jellyby is quite overwhelmed with business correspondence relative to the affairs of Borrioboola Gha.—C. Dickens Bleak House, iv. (1852).

Jemlikha, the favorite Greek slave of Dakiānos of Ephesus. Nature had endowed him with every charm, “his words were sweeter than the honey of Arabia, and his wit sparkled like a diamond.” One day, Dakianos was greatly annoyed by a fly, which persisted in tormenting the king, whereupon Jemlikha said to himself, “If Dakianos cannot rule a fly, how can he be the creator of heaven and earth?” This doubt he communicated to his fellow-slaves, and they all resolved to quit Ephesus, and seek some power superior to that of the arrogator of divine honors.—Comte Caylus, Oriental Tales (“Dakianos and the Seven Sleepers,” 1743).

Jemmie Duffs, weepers. (See Jamie Duffs).

Jemmy. This name, found on engravings of the eighteenth century, means James Worsdale (died 1767).

Jemmy Twitcher, a cunning and treacherous highwayman.—Gay, The Beggar’s Opera (1727).

⁂ Lord Sandwich, member of the Kit-Kat Club, was called “Jemmy Twitcher” (1765).

Jenkin, the servant of George-a-Green. He says a fellow ordered him to hold his horse, and see that it took no cold. “No, no,” quoth Jenkin, “I’ll lay my cloak under him.” He did so, but “mark you,” he adds, “I cut four holes in my cloak first, and made his horse stand on the bare ground.”ground.”—Robert Greene, George-a-Green, the Pinner of Wakefield (1584).

Jenkin, one of the retainers of Julian Avenel (2 syl.), of Avenel Castle.—Sir W. Scott, The Monastery (time, Elizabeth).

Jencks (Mr.). Tall, well-mannered young Englishman, appointed professor in a rising fresh-water university in America. On ship-board he falls in love with Lily Floyd-Curtis, whose mother is a society leader—or would be. Jencks rises faster even than his university but fate and Floyd-Curtisism award Lily to Lord Melrose, malgré his spotted reputation.—Constance Cary Harrison, The Anglomaniacs (1890).

Jenkins (Mrs. Winifred), Miss Tabitha Bramble’s maid, noted for her bad spelling, misapplication of words, and ludicrous misnomers. Mrs. Winifred Jenkins is the original of Mrs. Malaprop.—Smollett, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771).

Jenkins, a vulgar lick-spittle of the aristocracy, who retails their praises and witticisms, records their movements and deeds, gives flaming accounts of their dresses and parties, either viva voce or in newspaper paragraphs: “Lord and Lady Dash 237attended divine service last Sunday, and were very attentive to the sermon” (wonderful!). “Lord and Lady Dash took a drive or walk last Monday in their magnificent park of Snobdoodleham. Lady Dash wore a mantle of rich silk, a bonnet with ostrich feathers, and shoes with rosettes.” The name is said to have been first given by Punch to a writer in the Morning Post.

Jenkinson (Ephraim), a green old swindler, whom Dr. Primrose met in a public tavern. Imposed on by his venerable appearance, apparent devoutness, learned talk about “cosmogony,” and still more so by his flattery of the doctor’s work on the subject of monogamy, Dr. Primrose sold the swindler his horse, Old Blackberry, for a draft upon Farmer Flamborough. When the draft was presented for payment, the farmer told the vicar that Ephraim Jenkinson “was the greatest rascal under heaven,” and that he was the very rogue who had sold Moses Primrose the spectacles. Subsequently the vicar found him in the county jail, where he showed Dr. Primrose great kindness, did him valuable service, became a reformed character, and probably married one of the daughters of Farmer Flamborough.—Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield (1765).

Jenness (Captain). Master of the Aroostook, in which Lydia Blood (unchaperoned) takes passage for Venice. Has “a girl just about her age up at Deer Isle.”

“Good land! I know what girls are, I hope!”hope!”

After which, the young lady needs no duenna, although she is the only woman on board.—W.D. Howells, The Lady of the Aroostook (1879).

Jennie, housekeeper to the old laird of Dumbiedikes.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).

Jenny [Diver]. Captain Macheath says, “What, my pretty Jenny! as prim and demure as ever? There’s not a prude, though ever so high bred, hath a more sanctified look, with a more mischievous heart.” She pretends to love Macheath, but craftily secures one of his pistols, that his other “pals” may the more easily betray him into the hands of the constables (act ii. 1.).—J. Gay, The Beggar’s Opera (1727).

Jenny l’Ouvrière, the type of a hard-working Parisian needle-woman. She is contented with a few window-flowers which she terms “her garden,” a caged bird which she calls “her songster,” and when she gives the fragments of her food to some one poorer than herself, she calls it “her delight.”

Entendez-vous un oiseau familier?

C’est le chanteur de Jenny l’Ouvrière,

Au cœur content, content de peu

Elle pourrait être riche, et préfére

Ce qui vient de Dieu.

Emile Barateau (1847).

Jeph´thah’s Daughter. When Jephthah went forth against the Ammonites, he vowed that if he returned victorious he would sacrifice, as a burnt offering, whatever first met him on his entrance into his native city. He gained a splendid victory, and at the news thereof his only daughter came forth dancing to give him welcome. The miserable father rent his clothes in agony, but the noble-spirited maiden would not hear of his violating his vow. She demanded a short respite, to bewail upon the mountains her blighted hope of becoming a mother, and then submitted to her fate.—Judges, xi.

An almost identical tale is told of Idomeneus, king of Crete. On his return from the Trojan war, he made a vow in a tempest that, if he escaped, he would offer to 238Neptune the first living creature that presented itself to his eye on the Cretan shore. His own son was there to welcome him home, and Idomeneus offered him up a sacrifice to the sea-god, according to his vow. Fénelon has introduced this legend in his Télémaque, v.

Agamemnon vowed to Diana, if he might be blessed with a child, that he would sacrifice to her the dearest of all his possessions. Iphigenīa, his infant daughter, was, of course, his “dearest possession;” but he refused to sacrifice her, and thus incurred the wrath of the goddess, which resulted in the detention of the Trojan fleet at Aulis. Iphigenia being offered in sacrifice, the offended deity was satisfied, and interposed at the critical moment, by carrying the princess to Tauris and substituting a stag in her stead.

The latter part of this tale cannot fail to call to mind the offering of Abraham. As he was about to take the life of Isaac, Jehovah interposed, and a ram was substituted for the human victim.—Gen. xxii.

[Be] not bent as Jephthah once,

Blindly to execute a rash resolve;

Whom better it had suited to exclaim,

“I have done ill!” than to redeem his pledge

By doing worse. Not unlike to him

In folly that great leader of the Greeks—

Whence, on the altar, Iphigenia mourned

Her virgin beauty.

Dantê, Paradise, v. (1311).

⁂ Euripides wrote two plays: Iphigenia in Aulis, and Iphigenia in Tauris.

⁂ Jephthah’s daughter has often been dramatized. Thus we have in English Jephtha his Daughter, by Plessie Morney, Jephtha (1546), by Christopherson; Jephtha, by Buchanan; and Jephthah (an opera, 1752), by Handel.

Jepson (Old), a smuggler.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Jeremi´ah (The British), Gildas, (A. D. 516-570), author of De Exidio Britanniæ, a book of lamentations over the destruction of Britain. He is so called by Gibbon.

Jer´emy (Master), head domestic of Lord Saville.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Jeremy Diddler, an adept at raising money on false pretenses.—Kenney, Raising the Wind.

Jerningham (Master Thomas), the duke of Buckingham’s gentleman.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Jerome (Don), father of Don Ferdinand and Louisa; pig-headed, passionate, and mercenary, but very fond of his daughter. He insists on her marrying Isaac Mendoza, a rich Portuguese Jew, but Louisa, being in love with Don Antonio, positively refuses to do so. She is turned out of the house by mistake, and her duenna is locked up, under the belief that she is Louisa. Isaac, being introduced to the duenna, elopes with her, supposing her to be Don Jerome’s daughter; and Louisa, taking refuge in a convent, gets married to Don Antonio. Ferdinand, at the same time, marries Clara, the daughter of Don Guzman. The old man is well content, and promises to be the friend of his children, who, he acknowledges, have chosen better for themselves than he had done for them.—Sheridan, The Duenna (1775).

Jerome (Father), abbot at St. Bride’s Convent.—Sir W. Scott, Castle Dangerous (time, Henry I.).

Jeron´imo, the principal character in The Spanish Tragedy, by Thomas Kyd 239(1597). On finding his application to the king ill-timed, he says to himself, “Go by! Jeronimo;” which so tickled the fancy of the audience that it became a common street jest.

Jerry, manager of a troupe of dancing dogs. He was a tall, black-whiskered man, in a velveteen coat.—C. Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, xviii. (1840).

Jerry Sneak, a hen-pecked husband.—Foote, Mayor of Garrat (1763).

Jeru´salem, in Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, means London; “David” is Charles II., and “Absalom” the duke of Monmouth, etc.

Jerusalem. Henry IV. was told “he should not die but in Jerusalem.” Being in Westminster Abbey, he inquired what the chapter-house was called, and when he was told it was called the “Jerusalem Chamber,” he felt sure that he would die there “according to the prophecy,” and so he did.

Pope Sylvester II. was told the same thing, and died as he was saying mass in a church so called at Rome.—Brown, Fasciculus.

Cambyses, son of Cyrus, was told that he should die in Ecbat´ana, which he supposed meant the capital of Medĭa; but he died of his wounds in a place so called in Syria.

Jerusalem Delivered, an epic poem in twenty books, by Torquato Tasso (1575).

The crusaders, having encamped on the plains of Torto´sa, choose Godfrey for their chief. The overtures of Argantês being declined, war is declared by him in the name of the king of Egypt. The Christian army reaches Jerusalem, but it is found that the city cannot be taken without the aid of Rinaldo, who had withdrawn from the army because Godfrey had cited him for the death of Girnando, whom he had slain in a duel. Godfrey sends to the enchanted island of Armi´da to invite the hero back, and on his return Jerusalem is assailed in a night attack. The poem concludes with the triumphant entry of the Christians into the Holy City, and their adoration at the Redeemer’s tomb.

The two chief episodes are the loves of Olindo and Sophronia, and of Tancred and Corinda.

Jervis (Mrs.), the virtuous housekeeper of young Squire B. Mrs. Jervis protects Pam´ela when her young master assailsassails her.—Richardson, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740).

Jessamy, the son of Colonel Oldboy. He changed his name in compliment to Lord Jessamy, who adopted him and left him his heir. Jessamy is an affected, conceited prig, who dresses as a fop, carries a muff to keep his hands warm, and likes old china better than a pretty girl. This popinjay proposes to Clarissa Flowerdale; but she despises him, much to his indignation and astonishment.—Bickerstaff, Lionel and Clarissa (1735-1790).

He’s a coxcomb, a fop, a dainty milksop,

Who essenced and dizened from bottom to top,

And looked like a doll from a milliner’s shop...

He shrugs and takes snuff, and carries a muff,

A minickin, finicking, French powdered puff.

Act i. 1.

Jessamy Bride (The), Mary Horneck, with whom Goldsmith fell in love in (1769).

240Jes´sica, daughter of Shylock, the Jew. She elopes with Lorenzo.—Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice (1597).

Jessica cannot be called a sketch, or, if a sketch, she is dashed off in glowing colors from the rainbow palette of a Rubens. She has a rich tint of Orientalism shed over her.—Mrs. Jameson.

Jesters. (See Fools.)

Jests (The Father of), Joseph or Joe Miller, an English comic actor, whose name has become a household word for a stale joke (1684-1738). The book of jests which goes by his name was compiledcompiled by Mr. Mottley, the dramatist (1739). Joe Miller himself never uttered a jest in his life, and it is a lucus a non lucendo to father them on such a taciturn, commonplace dullard.

Jesus Christ and the Clay Bird. The Korân says: “O Jesus, son of Mary, remember ... when thou didst create of clay the figure of a bird ... and did breathe thereon, and it became a bird!”—Ch. v.

The allusion is to a legend that Jesus was playing with other children who amused themselves with making clay birds, but when the child Jesus breathed on the one He had made, it instantly received life and flew away.—Hone, Apocryphal New Testament (1820).

Jew (The), a comedy by R. Cumberland (1776), written to disabuse the public mind of unjust prejudices against a people who have been long “scattered and peeled.” The Jew is Sheva, who was rescued at Cadiz from an auto da fe, by Don Carlos, and from a howling London mob by the son of Don Carlos, called Charles Ratcliffe. His whole life is spent in unostentatious benevolence, but his modesty is equal to his philanthropy. He gives £10,000 as a marriage portion to Ratcliffe’s sister, who marries Frederick Bertram, and he makes Charles the heir of all his property.

Jew (The).

This is the Jew.

That Shakespeare drew

This couplet was written by Pope, and refers to the “Shylock” of Charles Macklin (1690-1797).

Jew (The Wandering).

1. Of Greek tradition. Aris´teas, a poet who continued to appear and disappear alternately for above 400 years, and who visited all the mythical nations of the earth.

2. Of Jewish story. Tradition says that Cartaph´ilos, the door-keeper of the judgment hall, in the service of Pontius Pilate, struck our Lord as he led Him forth, saying, “Get on! Faster, Jesus!” Whereupon the Man of Sorrows replied “I am going; but tarry thou till I come [again].” This man afterwards became a Christian, and was baptized by Ananias under the name of Joseph. Every hundred years he falls into a trance, out of which he rises again at the age of 30.

⁂ The earliest account of the Wandering Jew, is in the Book of the Chronicles of the Abbey of St. Alban’s, copied and continued by Matthew Paris (1228). In 1242 Philip Mouskes, afterwards bishop of Tournay, wrote the “rhymed chronicles.”

Another legend is that Jesus, pressed down by the weight of His cross, stopped to rest at the door of a cobbler, named Ahasue´rus, who pushed him away, saying, “Get off! Away with you! away!” Our Lord replied, “Truly, I go away, and that quickly; but tarry thou till I come.”

⁂ This is the legend given by Paul von Eitzen, bishop of Schleswig, in 1547. 241*—Greve, Memoirs of Paul von Eitzen (1744).

A third legend says that it was the cobbler Ahasue´rus who haled Jesus to the judgment seat; and that, as the Man of Sorrows stayed to rest awhile on a stone, he pushed Him, saying, “Get on, Jesus! Here you shall not stay!” Jesus replied, “I truly go away, and go to rest; but thou shalt go away, and never rest till I come.”

3. In German legend, the Wandering Jew is associated with John Buttadæus, seen at Antwerp in the thirteenth century, again in the fifteenth, and again in the sixteenth centuries. His last appearance was in 1774, at Brussels.

⁂ Leonard Doldius, of Nürnberg, in his Praxis Alchymiæ (1604), says that the Jew, Ahasue´rus, is sometimes called “Buttadæus.”

Signor Gualdi, who had been dead 130 years, appeared in the latter half of the eighteenth century, and had his likeness taken by Titian. One day he disappeared as mysteriously as he had come.—Turkish Spy, ii. (1682).

4. The French legend. The French call the Wandering Jew Isaac Lake´dion or Laquedem.—Mitternacht, Dissertatio in Johan., xxxi. 19.

5. Of Dr. Croly’s novel. The name given to the Wandering Jew by Dr. Croly is Salathiel ben Sadi, who appeared and disappeared towards the close of the sixteenth century, at Venice, in so sudden a manner as to attract the attention of all Europe.

⁂ Dr. Croly, in his novel called Salathiel (1827), traces the course of the Wandering Jew; so does Eugène Sue, in Le Juif Errant (1845); but in these novels the Jew makes no figure of importance.

G Doré, in 1861, illustrated the legend of the Wandering Jew in folio wood engravings.

6. It is said in legend that Gypsies are doomed to be everlasting wanderers, because they refused the Virgin and Child hospitality in their flight into Egypt.—Adventinus, Annalium Boiorum, libri septem vii. (1554).

The legend of the Wild Huntsman, called by Shakespeare “Herne, the Hunter,” and by Father Matthieu “St Hubert,” is said to be a Jew who would not suffer Jesus to drink from a horse-trough, but pointed out to Him some water in a hoof-print, and bade Him go there and drink.—Kuhn von Schwarz, Nordd. Sagen, 499.

Jews (The), in Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, means those English who were loyal to Charles II. called “David” in the the satire (1681-2).

Jewkes (Mrs.), a detestable character in Richardson’s Pamela (1740).

Jez´ebel (A Painted), a flaunting woman, of brazen face, but loose morals. So called from Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, king of Israel.

Jim, the boy of Reginald Lowestoffe, the young Templar. Sir W. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).

Jin Vin, i.e. Jenkin Vincent, one of Ramsay’s apprentices, in love with Margaret Ramsay.—Sir W. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).

Jin´gle (Alfred), a strolling actor, who, by his powers of amusing and sharp-wittedness, imposes for a time on the members of the Pickwick Club, and is admitted to their intimacy; but being found to be an impostor, he is dropped by them. The generosity of Mr. Pickwick in rescuing Jingle from the Fleet, reclaims him, and 242he quits England. Alfred Jingle talks most rapidly and flippantly, but not without much native shrewdness; and he knows a “hawk from a handsaw.”—C. Dickens, The Pickwick Papers (1836).

Jingo, a corruption of Jainko, the Basque Supreme Being. “By Jingo!” or “By the living Jingo!” is an appeal to deity. Edward I. had Basque mountaineers conveyed to England to take part in his Welsh wars, and the Plantagenets held the Basque provinces in possession. This Basque oath is a land-mark of these facts.

Jingoes (The), the anti-Russians in the war between Russia and Turkey; hence the English war party. The term arose (1878) from a popular music-hall song, beginning thus:

We don’t want to fight; but, by Jingo, if we do,

We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, we’ve got the money, too.

(This song has also furnished the words jingoism (bragging war spirit, Bobadilism) and the adjective jingo).

Jiniwin (Mrs.), a widow, the mother of Mrs. Quilp. A shrewd, ill-tempered old woman, who lived with her son-in-law in Tower Street.—C. Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop (1840).

Jinker (Lieutenant Jamie), horse-dealer at Doune.—Sir W. Scott, Waverley (time, George II.).

Jinn, plu. of Jinnee, a sort of fairy in Arabian mythology, the offspring of fire. The jinn propagate their species like human beings, and are governed by kings called suleymans. Their chief abode is the mountain Kâf, and they appear to men under the forms of serpents, dogs, cats, etc., which become invisible at pleasure. Evil jinn are hideously ugly, but good jinn are exquisitely beautiful.

⁂ Jinnistan means the country of the jinn. The connection of Solomon with the jinn is a mere blunder, arising from the similarity of suleyman and Solomon.

J.J., in Hogarth’s “Gin Lane,” written on a gibbet, is Sir Joseph Jekyll, obnoxious for his bill for increasing the duty on gin.

⁂ Jean Jacques [Rousseau] was often referred to by these initials in the eighteenth century.

Jo, a poor little outcast, living in one of the back slums of London, called “Tom All-alone.” The little human waif is hounded about from place to place, till he dies of want.—C. Dickens, Bleak House (1853).

Jo March. The author-sister of Little Women, by Louisa M. Alcott. Jo has much originality and more prankishness, writes blood-and-thunder stories because they pay, and ceases to write them when they pay best, because her conscience has awakened. Supposed to be drawn as the author’s own character.—Louisa M. Alcott, Little Women (1867).

Joan. Cromwell’s wife was always called Joan by the cavaliers, although her real name was Elizabeth.

Joan, princess of France, affianced to the duke of Orleans.—Sir W. Scott, Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).

Joan of Arc, surnamed La Pucelle, born in a village upon the marches of Barre, called Domremy, near Vaucouleurs. Her father was James of Arc, and her 243mother Isabel, poor country-folk, who brought up their children to keep their cattle. Joan professed to be inspired to liberate France from the English, and actually raised the siege of Orleans, after which Charles II. was crowned (1402-1431).

A young wench of an eighteene years old; of favor was she counted likesome, of person stronglie made and manlie, of courage great, hardie and stout, withall ... she had great semblance of chastitie both of body and behavor.—Holinshed, Chronicles, 600 (1577).

... there was no bloom of youth

Upon her cheek; yet had the loveliest hues

Of health, with lesser fascination, fixed

The gazer’s eye; for wan the maiden was,

Of saintly paleness, and there seemed to dwell,

In the strong beauties of her countenance,

Something that was not earthly.

Southey, Joan of Arc (1795).

⁂ Schiller has a tragedy on the subject, Jungfrau von Orleans (1801); Soumet another, Jeanne d’Arc (1825). Besides Southey’s epic, we have one by François Cazaneaux; another by Chapelain, called La Pucelle (1656), on which he labored for thirty years. Casimir Delavigne has an admirable elegy on The Maid (1816), and Voltaire a burlesque. Shakespeare introduces her in the First Part of Henry VI.

Joanna, the “deserted daughter” of Mr. Mordent. Her father abandoned her in order to marry Lady Anne, and his money-broker placed her under the charge of Mrs. Enfield, who kept a house of intrigue. Cheveril fell in love with Joanna, and described her as having “blue eyes, auburn hair, aquiline nose, ivory teeth, carnation lips, a ravishing mouth, enchanting neck, a form divine, and the face of an angel.”—Holcroft, The Deserted Daughter (altered into The Steward).

Job and Elspat, father and mother of Sergeant Houghton.—Sir W. Scott, Waverley (time, George II.).

Job’s Wife. Some call her Rahmat, daughter of Ephraim, son of Joseph; and others call her Makhir, daughter of Manasses.—Sale, Korân, xxi. note.

Joblillies (The), the small gentry of a village, the squire being the Grand Panjandrum.

There were present the Picninnies and the Joblillies and the Garyulies, and the Grand Panjandrum himself.—S. Foote, The Quarterly Review, xcv. 516-7.

Jobling, medical officer to the “Anglo-Bengalee Company.” Mr. Jobling was a portentous and most carefully dressed gentleman, fond of a good dinner, and said by all to be “full of anecdote.” He was far too shrewd to be concerned with the Anglo-Bengalee bubble company, except as a paid functionary.—C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

Jobson (Joseph), clerk to Squire Inglewood, the magistrate.—Sir W. Scott, Rob Roy (time, George I.).

Jobson (Zekel), a very masterful cobbler, who ruled his wife with a rod of iron.

Neil Jobson, wife of Zekel, a patient, meek, sweet-tempered woman.—C. Coffey, The Devil to Pay (died, 1745).

Jocelyn (Martin). Man who yields gradually to the opium-habit, beggars his family, and blasts his reputation by it. Once and again he reforms for a few months, then relapses, and finally blows out his brains in a paroxysm of despairing remorse.—Edward Payson Roe, Without a Home (1881).

Jock o’ Dawston Cleugh, the quarrelsome 244neighbor of Dandie Dinmont, of Charlie’s Hope.

Jock Jabos, postilion to Mrs. M’Candlish, the landlady of the Golden Arms inn, Kippletringan.

Slounging Jock, one of the men of M’Guffog, the jailer.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Jock o’ Hazeldean, the young man beloved by a “ladye fair.” The lady’s father wanted her to marry Frank, “the chief of Errington and laird of Langley Dale,” rich, brave and gallant; but “aye she let the tears down fa’ for Jock of Hazeldean.” At last the wedding morn arrived, the kirk was gaily decked, the priest and bridegroom, with dame and knight, were duly assembled; but no bride could be seen; she had crossed the border and given her hand to Jock of Hazeldean.

This ballad, by Sir W. Scott, is a modernized version of an ancient ballad entitled Jock o’ Hazelgreen.

Jockey of Norfolk, Sir John Howard, a firm adherent of Richard III. On the night before the battle of Bosworth Field, he found in his tent this warning couplet:

Jockey of Norfolk, be not too bold,

For Dickon, thy master, is bought and sold.

Jodelet, valet of Du Croisy. In order to reform two silly girls, whose heads have been turned by novels, Du Croisy and his friend La Grange get their lackeys introduced to them, as the “Viscount of Jodelet,” and the “Marquis of Mascarille.” The girls are delighted with their “aristocratic visitors;” but when the game has gone far enough, the masters step in and unmask the trick. The two girls are taught a most useful lesson, but are saved from serious ill consequences.—Molière, Les Précieuses Ridicules (1659).

Joe. Sick boy, to whom his brother brings a bouquet he has begged for him; and tells him of the country Joe has never seen.

“Flowers in Heaven? ’M— I s’pose so;

Dunno much about it, though;

Aint as fly as what I might be

On them topics, little Joe.

* * * * *

——Don’t you have no fear.

Heaven was made fur such as you is—

Joe! what makes you look so queer?

Here! wake up! Oh, don’t look that way!

Here’s yer flowers—you dropped ’em—Joey,

Oh, my God! can Joe be dead?”

David Law Proudfit, Poor Little Joe (1883).

Joe, “the fat boy,” page in the family of Mr. Wardle. He has an unlimited capacity for eating and sleeping.—C. Dickens, The Pickwick Papers (1836).

Joe Gargery, a smith. He was a fair man, with curls of flaxen hair on each side of his smooth face, and with eyes of “such very undecided blue, that they seemed to have got mixed with their own whites. He was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow. A Herculês in strength, and in weakness also.” He lived in terror of his wife, but loved Pip, whom he brought up. His great word was “meantersay.” Thus: “What I meantersay, if you come a-badgering me, come out. Which I meantersay as sech, if you’re a man, come on. Which I meantersay that what I say I meantersay and stand to it” (ch. xviii.). His first wife was a shrew; but soon after her death he married Biddy, a young woman wholly suited to him.

Mrs. Joe Gargery, the smith’s first wife; a “rampageous woman,” always “on the 245ram-page.” By no means good-looking was Mrs. Joe, with her black hair and fierce eyes, and prevailing redness of skin, looking as if “she scrubbed herself with a nutmeg-grater instead of soap and flannel.” She “was tall and bony, and wore a coarse apron fastened over her figure behind with two loops, and having a square bib in front, stuck full of needles and pins.” She brought up Pip, but made his home as wretched as she could, always keeping a rod called “Tickler” ready for immediate use. Mrs. Joe was a very clean woman, and cleanliness is next to godliness; but Mrs. Joe had the art of making her cleanliness as disagreeable to every one as many people do their godliness. She died after a long illness.—C. Dickens, Great Expectations (1860).

John, a proverbially unhappy name for royalty.—See Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 461.

We shall see, however, that this poor king [Robert II.] remained as unfortunate as if his name had still been John [He changed it from John to Robert].—Sir W. Scott, Tales of a Grandfather, i. 17.

John, a Franciscan friar.—Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1598).

John, the bastard brother of Don Pedro.—Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing (1600).

John, the driver of the Queen’s Ferry diligence.—Sir W. Scott, The Antiquary (time, George III.).

John Andruss. Clever fellow, but weak in principles, who becomes once and again a tool in the hands of designing men and silly women, rallying after each fall, to attempt a better life. Drowned at last in rescuing a fellow-bather from the surfsurf, the bather being the “Anna” of his early idolatry, now the fat, ruddy wife of another man.—Rebecca Harding Davis, John Andruss.

John (Don), brother of Leonato, governor of Messina, whom he hates. In order to torment the governor, Don John tries to mar the happiness of his daughter Hero, who is about to be married to Lord Claudio. Don John tells Claudio that his fiancée has promised him a rendezvous by moonlight, and if Claudio will hide in the garden, he may witness it. The villain had bribed the waiting-woman of Hero to dress up in her mistress’s clothes and to give him this interview. Claudio believes the woman to be Hero, and when the bride appears at the altar next morning, he rejects her with scorn. The truth, however, comes to light; Don John takes himself to flight; and Hero is married to Lord Claudio, the man of her choice.—Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing (1600).

I have seen the great Henderson [1747-1785].... His “Don John” is a comic “Cato,” and his “Hamlet” a mixture of tragedy, comedy, pastoral, farce, and nonsense.—David Garrick 1775.

John (Friar), a tall, lean, wide-mouthed, long-nosed friar of Seville, who despatched his matins and vigils quicker than any of his fraternity. He swore like a trooper, and fought like a Trojan. When the army from Lernê pillaged the convent vineyard, Friar John seized the staff of a cross and pummelled the rogues without mercy, beating out brains, smashing limbs, cracking ribs, gashing faces, breaking jaws, dislocating joints, in the most approved Christian fashion, and never was corn so mauled by the flail as were these pillagers by “the baton of the cross.”—Rabelais, Gargantua, i. 27 (1533).

246⁂ Of course, this is a satire of what are called Christian or religious wars.

John Humphreys. Pious and priggish hero of The Wide, Wide World. He is the brother of Alice Humphreys, the adopted sister of Ellen Montgomery, the little heroine of the story. He trains and molds Ellen from childhood, and finally marries her.—Susan Warner, The Wide, Wide World (1851).

John (King), a tragedy by Shakespeare (1508). This drama is founded on The First and Second Parts of the Troublesome Raigne of John, King of England, etc. As they were sundry times publickly acted by the Queenes Majesties players in the Honourable Citie of London (1591).

In “Macbeth,” “Hamlet,” “Wolsey,” “Coriolanus,” and “King John,” he [Edmund Kean, 1787-1833] never approached within any measurable distance of the learned, philosophical, and majestic Kemble.—Quarterly Review (1835).

W.C. Macready [1793-1873], in the scene where he suggests to “Hubert” the murder of “Arthur,” was masterly, and his representation of death by poison, was true, forcible, and terrific.—Talfourd.

⁂ Kynge Johan, a drama of the transition state between the moralities and tragedy. Of the historical persons introduced, we have King John, Pope Innocent, Cardinal Pandulphus, Stephen Langton, etc.; and of allegorical personages, we have Widowed Britannia, Imperial Majesty, Nobility, Clergy, Civil Order, Treason, Verity, and Sedition. This play was published in 1838 by the Camden Society, under the care of Mr. Collier (about 1550).

John (Little), one of the companions of Robin Hood.—Sir W. Scott, The Talisman (time, Richard I.).

John (Prester). According to Mandeville, Prester John was a lineal descendant of Ogier, the Dane. This Ogier penetrated into the north of India, with fifteen barons of his own country, among whom he divided the land. John was made sovereign of Teneduc, and was called Prester, because he converted the natives.

Another tradition says he had seventy kings for his vassals, and was seen by his subjects only three times a year.

Marco Polo says that Prester John was the Khan Ung, who was slain in battle by Jenghiz Khan, in 1202. He was converted by the Nestorians, and his baptismal name was John. Gregory Bar-Hebræus says that God forsook him because he had taken to himself a wife of the Zinish nation, called Quarakhata.

Otto, of Freisingen, is the first author who makes mention of Prester John. His chronicle is brought down to the year 1156, and in it we are assured that this most mysterious personage was of the family of the Magi, and ruled over the country of these Wise Men. “He used” (according to Otto) “a sceptre made of emeralds.”

Bishop Jordānus, in his description of the world, sets down Abyssinia as the kingdom of Prester John. At one time Abyssinia went by the name of Middle India.

Maimonidês mentions Prester John, and calls him Preste-Cuan. The date of Maimonidês is 1135-1204.

⁂ Before 1241 a letter was addressed by Prester John to Manuel Comne´nus, emperor of Constantinople. It is to be found in the Chronicle of Albericus Trium Fontium, who gives the date as 1165.

In Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, xvii., Prester John is called Sena´pus, king of Ethiopia. He was blind. Though the richest monarch of the world, he pined “in plenty with endless famine,” because harpies carried off his food whenever the 247table was spread; but this plague was to cease “when a stranger came to his kingdom on a flying horse.” Astolpho came on a flying griffin, and with his magic horn chased the harpies into Cocy´tus.

John (Prince), son of Henry II., introduced by Sir W. Scott in The Betrothed (1825).

John (Prince), brother of Richard I., introduced by Sir W. Scott in The Talisman (1825).

John and the abbot of Canterbury. King John, being jealous of the state kept by the abbot of Canterbury, declared he should be put to death unless he answered these three questions: (1) “How much am I worth? (2) How long would it take me to ride round the world? (3) What are my thoughts?” The king gave the abbot three weeks for his answers. A shepherd undertook to disguise himself as the abbot, and to answer the questions. To the first he said, “The king’s worth is twenty-nine pence, for the Saviour Himself was sold for thirty pence, and his majesty is mayhap a penny worse than He.” To the second question he answered, “If you rise with the sun and ride with the sun, you will get round the world in twenty-four hours.” To the third question he replied, “Your majesty thinks me to be the abbot, but I am only his servant.”—Percy, Reliques, II. iii. 6.

John Blunt, a person who prides himself on his brusqueness, and in speaking unpleasant truths in the rudest manner possible. He not only calls a spade a spade, but he does it in an offensive tone and manner.

John Bull, the national name for an Englishman, (See Bull).

John Chinaman, a Chinese.

John Company, the old East India Company.

In old times, John Company employed nearly 4000 men in warehouses.—Old and New London, ii (185).

John Grueby, the honest, faithful servant of Lord George Gordon, who wished “the blessed old creatur, named Bloody Mary, had never been born.” He had the habit of looking “a long way off.” John loved his master, but hated his religious craze.

“Between Bloody Marys, and blue cockades, and glorious Queen Besses, and no poperys, and Protestant associations,” said Grueby to himself, “I believe my lord’s half off his head.”—Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, xxxvi.

John of Bruges, (1 syl.) John Van Eyck, the Flemish painter (1370-1441).

John o’ Groat, a Dutchman, who settled in the most northerly part of Scotland, in the reign of James IV. He is immortalized by the way he settled an open dispute among his nine sons respecting precedency. He had nine doors made to his cottage, one for each son, and they sat at a round table.

From John o’ Groat’s house to the Land’s End, from furthest north to furthest south of the island, i. e. through its entire length.

John of Hexham, Johannes Hagustaldensis, a chronicler (twelfth century).

John of Leyden, John Bockhold or Boccold, a fanatic (1510-1536).

In the opera he is called “the prophet.” Being about to marry Bertha, three anabaptists meet him, and observe in him a strong likeness to a picture of David in Munster Cathedral. Having induced him 248to join the rebels, they take Munster, and crown him “Ruler of Westphalia.” His mother meets him while he is going in procession, but he disowns her; subsequently, however, he visits her in prison, and is forgiven. When the emperor arrives the anabaptists fall off, and John, setting fire to the banquet-room of the palace, perishes with his mother in the flames.—Meyerbeer, Le Prophète (1849).

John with the Leaden Sword. The duke of Bedford, who acted as regent for Henry VI. in France, was so called by Earl Douglas (surnamed Tine-man).

Johnny, the infant son of Mrs. Betty Higden’s “daughter’s daughter.” Mrs. Boffin wished to adopt the child, and to call him John Harmon, but it died. During its illness, Bella Wilfer went to see it, and the child murmured, “Who is the boofer lady?” The sick child was placed in the Children’s Hospital, and, just at the moment of death, gave his toys to a little boy with a broken leg in an adjoining bed, and sent “a kiss to the boofer lady.”—C. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (1864).

Johnny Crapaud. A Frenchman was so called by English sailors in the time of Napoleon I. The Flemings called the French “Crapaud Franchos.” The allusion is to the toads borne in the ancient arms of France.

John Ridd, herculean hero of Exmoor, and lover of Lorna Doone. By various exploits, he achieves knighthood, and marries Lorna.—R. D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone.

Johnson (Dr. Samuel), lexicographer, essayist, and poet (1709-1784).

I own I like not Johnson’s turgid style,

That gives an inch th’ importance of a mile: