BOOK OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (continued 6)

Clouds, The.—A famous comedy by Aristophanes. Strepsiades (“Turncoat”) sends his spendthrift son Phidippides to the phrontistery (“thinking shop”) of Socrates, who appears as a sophist, to be reformed by training in rhetoric. Phidippides refuses to go; so Strepsiades goes himself, and finds Socrates swinging in a basket, observing the sun and ether. Socrates summons the Clouds, his new deities, and undertakes to make a sophist of him and free him from the religion of his fathers. Unfortunate results of his new knowledge show Strepsiades his error, and he abandons Socrates and sets the phrontistery on fire.

Cock, The.—A famous tavern in Fleet street, London, opposite the Temple. Tennyson has immortalized it in his Will Waterproof’s Lyrical Monologue.

Cœlebs (sē´lebz).—The hero of a novel by Hannah More, Cœlebs in Search of a Wife.

Colada. (kō-lä´THä).—The sword taken by the Cid from Ramon Berenger, count of Barcelona. This sword had two hilts of solid gold.

Colin Clout (kol´in klout).—A name that Spenser applies to himself in the Faërie Queene and Shepherd’s Calendar. Colin Clout also is introduced into Gay’s pastorals.

Cologne (kō-lōn´), The Three Kings of.—The three magi who visited the Infant Savior, and whose bodies are said to have been brought by the Empress Helena from the East to Constantinople, whence they were transferred to Milan. Afterward they were removed to Cologne and placed in the principal church of the city. Their names are commonly said to be Jaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar.

Comedy of Errors.—A comedy by Shakespeare. Twin brothers of exact likeness named Antipholus are served by attendant slaves named Dromio also of striking resemblance. The humor of the play lies in the complications that arise. The two brothers are lost at sea with their servants and are picked up by different vessels. After long separation they all reappear in Ephesus. There is great entanglement of plot until both brothers face each other in a trial before the duke and all is explained.

Complete Angler, The (or, The Contemplative Man’s Recreation. “A discourse, of Fish and Fishing, not unworthy the Perusal of most Anglers”).—A famous treatise by Izaak Walton, published in 1653. “Whether,” says Sir John Hawkins, “we consider the elegant simplicity of the style, the ease and unaffected humor of the dialogue, the lovely scenes which it delineates, the enchanting pastoral poetry which it contains, or the fine morality it so sweetly inculcates, it has hardly its fellow in any of the modern languages.”

Comus.—A masque, or dramatic poem, by John Milton, published in 1637. It was written for the earl of Bridgewater, and acted at his residence, Castle Ludlow, in Shropshire, on Michaelmas night, 1634. The music is by Henry Lawes. Comus (a revel) was the Roman god of banqueting and festive amusements; but in Milton’s poems he appears as a lewd enchanter, whose pleasure it is to deceive and ruin the chaste and innocent.

Coningsby (kon´ingz-bi).—A novel by B. Disraeli. The characters are meant for portraits: thus, “Rigby” represents Croker; “Monmouth,” Lord Hertford; “Eskdale,” Lowther; “Ormsby,” Irving; “Lucretia,” Mme. Zichy; “Countess Colonna,” Lady Strachan; “Sidonia,” Baron A. de Rothschild; “Henry Sidney,” Lord John Manners; “Belvoir,” duke of Rutland, second son of Beaumanoir.

Consuelo (kôN-sü-ā-lō´).—A noted novel by George Sand. The heroine has the same name, and is an impersonation of noble purity sustained amidst great temptations.

Cophetua (kō-fet´ū-ä).—An imaginary African king, of whom a legendary ballad told that he fell in love with a beggar maid and married her. This ballad is found in Percy’s Reliques. Tennyson has given us a modern version in The Beggar Maid.

Copperfield, David.—A novel by Charles Dickens. David is Dickens himself, and Micawber is Dickens’ father. According to the tale, David’s mother was nursery governess in a family where Mr. Copperfield visited. At the death of Mr. Copperfield, the widow married Edward Murdstone, a hard, tyrannical man, who made the home of David a dread and terror to the boy. When his mother died, Murdstone sent David to lodge with the Micawbers, and bound him apprentice to Messrs. Murdstone and Grinby, by whom he was put into the warehouse, and set to paste labels upon wine and spirit bottles. David soon became tired of this dreary work, and ran away to Dover, where he was kindly received by his [great-]aunt Betsy Trotwood, who clothed him, and sent him as day-boy to Dr. Strong, but placed him to board with Mr. Wickfield, a lawyer, father of Agnes, between whom and David a mutual attachment sprang up. David’s first wife was Dora Spenlow, but at the death of this pretty little “child-wife,” he married Agnes Wickfield.

Cordelia (kôr-dē´liä).—King Lear, Shakespeare. The youngest of Lear’s three daughters, and the one that truly loved him.

Corinne (ko-rēn´).—The heroine of a novel, of the same name, by Madame de Staël.

Coriolanus (kō´ri-ō-lā´nus).—An historical play by William Shakespeare. In the plot, and in many of the speeches, Shakespeare has followed Sir Thomas North’s Life of Coriolanus, included in his translation of Amyot’s Plutarch. “The subject of Coriolanus,” says Prof. Dowden, “is the ruin of a noble life through the sin of pride. If duty be the dominant ideal with Brutus, and pleasure of a magnificent kind be the ideal of Antony and Cleopatra, that which gives tone and color to Coriolanus is an ideal of self-centered power. The greatness of Brutus is altogether that of the moral conscience; his external figure does not dilate upon the world through a golden haze like that of Antony, nor bulk massively and tower like that of Coriolanus. A haughty and passionate personal feeling, a superb egoism, are with Coriolanus the sources of weakness and of strength.”

Corsair, The.—A poem, in three cantos, by Lord Byron, published in 1814. The hero is called Conrad, and is described, in a well-known passage, as leaving

The heroines are Medora, whom Conrad loves, and Gulnare, “the Harem queen,” whose love is given to Conrad, and who kills her master, Seyd, in order that Conrad may be free.

Corydon (kor´i-don).—A shepherd in one of the Idylls of Theocritus, and one of the Eclogues of Vergil. Used by Shakespeare and later poets to designate a rustic swain.

Costard (kos´tärd).—A clown, in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost, who apes the display of wit, and misapplies, in the most ridiculous manner, the phrases and modes of combination in argument that were then in vogue.

Cotter’s Saturday Night, The.—A poem by Robert Burns of which his brother remarks: “Robert had frequently remarked to me that there was something particularly venerable in the phrase, ‘Let us worship God,’ used by a decent, sober head of a family introducing family worship. To this sentiment of the author the world is indebted for the Cotter’s Saturday Night. The hint of the plan and title of the poem are taken from Ferguson’s Farmer’s Ingle.”

Count of Monte Cristo.—A celebrated romance by Alexander Dumas, in which Edmond Dantes, the hero, suffers unjust imprisonment for many years. He finally escapes, only to be apprised of the death of his father and the marriage of his former sweetheart. From information derived from a fellow prisoner, he then comes into possession of great riches through the successful discovery of hoards of treasure in the island of Monte Cristo. His remaining years are given over to a vindication of his former life.

Coverly (papers by Steele and Addison), Sir Roger de, was a member of a hypothetical club, and was noted for his modesty, generosity, hospitality, and eccentric whims. He was most courteous to his neighbors, most affectionate to his family, most amiable to his domestics. Sir Roger, who figures in thirty papers of the Spectator, is the very beau-ideal of an amiable country gentleman of Queen Anne’s time.

Crabtree.—A character in Smollett’s novel, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle.

Crane, Ichabod.—The name of a Yankee schoolmaster, whose adventures are related in the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, in Irving’s Sketch-Book.

Crawley (krâ´li), Rawdon.—The husband of Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair, Thackeray’s novel without a hero.

Creakle (krē´kl), Mr.—A tyrannical and cruel schoolmaster in Dickens’ David Copperfield.

Cressida (kres´i-dä).—The heroine of Shakespeare’s play, Troilus and Cressida, also the heroine of one of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

Croaker.—A character in Goldsmith’s comedy, The Good-Natured Man.

Crummles (krum´lz), Vincent.—A theatrical head of a theatrical family in Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby.

Crusoe, Robinson.—Title and hero of a novel by Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe is a shipwrecked sailor, who leads a solitary life for many years on a desert island, and relieves the tedium of life by ingenious contrivances (1719). The story is based on the adventures of Alexander Selkirk, a Scotch sailor, who in 1704 was left by Captain Stradding on the uninhabited island of Juan Fernandez. Here he remained for four years and four months, when he was rescued by Captain Woodes Rogers and brought to England.

Cuttle, Captain.—A character in Dickens’ Dombey and Son, good-humored, eccentric, pathetic in his simple credulity.

Cymbeline (sim´be-lin).—Title and hero of Shakespeare’s play. Imogen, daughter of Cymbeline, king of Britain, married clandestinely Posthumus Leonatus; and Posthumus, being banished for the offense, retired to Rome. One day, in the house of Philario, the conversation turned on the merits of wives, and Posthumus bet his diamond ring that nothing could tempt the fidelity of Imogen. Through the villainy of Iachimo, Cymbeline was forced to believe Imogen untrue. The villainy was in time disclosed, and the beautiful character of Imogen revealed.

D

Dalgetty (dal´get-i), Captain Dugald.—A soldier of fortune in Sir Walter Scott’s Legend of Montrose, distinguished for his pedantry, conceit, valor, vulgar assurance, knowledge of the world, greediness, and a hundred other qualities, making him one of the most amusing, admirable, and natural characters ever drawn by the hand of genius.

Damocles (dam´ō-klēz).—A flatterer in the court of Dionysius of Syracuse. By way of answer to his constant praises of the happiness of kings, Dionysius seated him at a royal banquet, with a sword hung over his head by a single horsehair. In the midst of his magnificent banquet, Damocles, chancing to look upward, saw a sharp and naked sword suspended over his head. A sight so alarming instantly changed his views on the felicity of kings. The phrase signifies now evil foreboding or dread, a tantalizing torment.

Damon and Pythias (pith´i-as).—(1) A play by Richard Edwards, printed in 1571. Its main subject is tragic, but it calls itself a comedy. (2) A tragedy by John Banim and Richard Lalor Sheil, produced in 1821. (3) Two noble Pythagoreans of Syracuse, who have been remembered as models of faithful friendship. Pythias having been condemned to death by Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, begged to be allowed to go home, for the purpose of arranging his affairs, Damon pledging his own life for the reappearance of his friend. Dionysius consented, and Pythias returned just in time to save Damon from death. Struck by so noble an example of mutual affection, the tyrant pardoned Pythias, and desired to be admitted into their sacred fellowship.

Dandie Dinmont.—A jovial, true-hearted store-farmer, in Sir Walter Scott’s Guy Mannering.

Daphnis (daf´nis) and Chloe (klō´ē).—A prose-pastoral love story in Greek, by Longus, a Byzantine. Gessner has imitated the Greek romance in his idyll called Daphnis. In this love story Longus says he was hunting in Lesbos, and saw in a grove consecrated to the nymphs a beautiful picture of children exposed, lovers plighting their faith, and the incursions of pirates, which he now expresses and dedicates to Pan, Cupid and the nymphs. Daphnis, of course, is the lover of Chloe.

Darby and Joan.—This ballad is frequently called The Happy Old Couple. The words are sometimes attributed to Prior. Darby and Joan are an old-fashioned, loving couple, who are wholly averse to change of any sort. It is generally said that Henry Woodfall was the author of the ballad, and that the originals were John Darby (printer, of Bartholomew Close, who died 1730) and his wife Joan. Woodfall served his apprenticeship with John Darby.

Dares (dā´rēz).—One of the competitors at the funeral games of Anchises in Sicily, described in the fifth book of Vergil’s Æneid.

David.—(1) He was the uncle of King Arthur. St. David first embraced the ascetic life in the Isle of Wight, but subsequently removed to Menevia, in Pembrokeshire, where he founded twelve convents. (2) One of the Israelite kings. (3) In Dryden’s satire called Absalom and Achitophel, represents Charles II.; Absalom, his beautiful but rebellious son, represents the duke of Monmouth.

Davy.—Henry IV., Shakespeare. The varlet of Justice Shallow, who so identifies himself with his master that he considers himself half host, half varlet. Thus when he seats Bardolph and Page at table, he tells them they must take “his” good will for their assurance of welcome.

Dawfyd.—The Betrothed, Scott. The one-eyed freebooter chief.

Dawkins (dâ´kinz).—Oliver Twist, Dickens. Known by the sobriquet of the Artful Dodger. He is one of Fagin’s tools. Jack Dawkins is a scamp, but of a cheery, buoyant temper.

Dayonet, Sir.—In the romance Le Mort d’Arthur he is called the fool of King Arthur.

Deans, Douce Davie.—A poor herdsman at Edinburgh, and the father of Effie and Jeanie Deans, in Sir Walter Scott’s novel, The Heart of Midlothian.

Deans, Effie.—A beautiful but unfortunate character in Sir Walter Scott’s Heart of Midlothian.

Deans, Jeanie.—The heroine of Sir Walter Scott’s Heart of Midlothian, described as a perfect model of sober heroism, of the union of good sense and strong affections, firm principles, and perfect disinterestedness; and of calm superiority to misfortune, danger, and difficulty which such a union must create.

Decameron (de-kam´e-ron), The.—A collection of romances by Giovanni Boccaccio. It derives its name from its framework. Seven gentlemen and three ladies retire from Florence, during the plague, to a pleasant garden retreat, where they beguile the time by narrating various stories of love adventure.

Dedlock, Lady.—Wife of Sir Leicester, beautiful, and apparently cold and heartless, but suffering constant remorse. The daughter’s name is Esther Summerson, the heroine of the novel.

Dedlock, Sir Leicester.—A character in Bleak House, by Charles Dickens. An honorable and truthful man, but of such fixed ideas that no man could shake his prejudices. He had an idea that the one thing of greatest importance to the world was a certain family by the name of Dedlock. He loved his wife, Lady Dedlock, and believed in her implicitly. His pride had a terrible fall when he learned the secret of her life before her marriage and knew the terrible fact she had been hiding from him that she had a daughter.

Deerslayer, The.—The title of a novel by J. F. Cooper, and the nickname of its hero, Natty, or Nathaniel Bumppo. He is a model uncivilized man, honorable, truthful, and brave, pure of heart and without reproach. He is introduced in five of Cooper’s novels: The Deerslayer, The Pathfinder, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pioneers, and The Prairie. He is called “Hawk-Eye” in The Last of the Mohicans; “Leather-Stocking” in The Pioneers; and “The Trapper” in The Prairie, in which last book he dies.

Defarge (da-färzh´), Mme.—Wife of the following, a dangerous woman, everlastingly knitting.

Defarge, Mons.—Tale of Two Cities, Dickens. Keeper of a wine shop in the Faubourg St. Antoine in Paris. He is a bull-necked, implacable-looking man.

Della Crusca Accademia (del´lä krös´kä äk-kä-dā´mē-ä).—Applied in England to a brotherhood of poets, at the close of the eighteenth century, under the leadership of Mrs. Piozzi. This school was conspicuous for affectation and high-flown panegyrics on each other. It was stamped out by Gifford, in The Baviad, in 1794, and The Mæviad, in 1796. Robert Merry, who signed himself Della Crusca, James Cobb, a farce-writer, James Boswell, biographer of Dr. Johnson, O’Keefe, Morton, Reynolds, Holcroft, Sheridan, Colman the Younger, Mrs. H. Cowley, and Mrs. Robinson were its best exponents.

Delphin Classics.—For the use of the dauphin, son of Louis XIV. the writings of thirty-nine Latin authors were collected and published in sixty volumes. Notes and an index were added to each work. An edition of the Delphin Classics was published in London in the year 1818.

Delphine, Madame.—Old Creole Days, George W. Cable. A free quadroon connected with the splendor of Lafitte, the smuggler and patriot. Madame Delphine disowned her beautiful daughter Olive in order to assure to her the rights of a white woman.

Demetrius (de-mē´tri-us).—Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare. The young Athenian to whom Egeno promised his daughter Hermia in marriage.

Dempster, Janet.—A character from George Eliot’s Scenes From Clerical Life. She was a woman of generous impulse, succumbed to drink through the brutality of her husband, but was restored by a clergyman to a life of nobility.

De Profundus.—Out of the Depths. The one hundred and thirtieth Psalm is so called from the first two words in the Latin version. In the Catholic liturgy it is sung when the dead are committed to the grave.

Deronda, Daniel.—One of George Eliot’s strongest character sketches in her novel of the same name.

Deserted Village, The.—A poem by Oliver Goldsmith. It was “instantaneously popular. Two new editions of it were called for in the following month, and a fourth in August, and passages from the poem were in every mouth, and the topics which it suggested, of depopulation, luxury, and landlordism, were discussed in connection with it.”

The Deserted Village has been identified with Lissoy, a quaint Irish village in the parish of Kilkenny West, of which Goldsmith’s father was the pastor, and whose natural features are accurately described in the poem.

Desmas.—The repentant thief is so called in The Story of Joseph of Arimathea. Longfellow, in The Golden Legend, calls him Dumachus. The impenitent thief is called Gestas, but Longfellow calls him Titus.

Dhu, Roderick.—A highland chieftain and outlaw in Scott’s poem Lady of the Lake, cousin of Ellen Douglas, and also her suitor. He is slain by James Fitz-James.

Diana.—In Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, daughter of the widow of Florence with whom Helena lodged on her way to the shrine of St. Jacques le Grand. Count Bertram wantonly loved Diana, but she brought about a reconciliation between Bertram and his wife Helena.

Diggon (dig´on), Davie.—A shepherd in the Shepherd’s Calendar, by Spenser. He drove his sheep into foreign lands, hoping to find better pasture; but was amazed at the luxury and profligacy of the shepherds whom he saw there.

Diggory (dig´ō-ri).—In Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer, a barn laborer, employed on state occasions for butler and footman by Mr. and Mrs. Hardcastle. He is both awkward and familiar, laughs at his master’s jokes and talks to his master’s guests while serving.

Dimmesdale (dimz´dāl), Arthur.—In Hawthorne’s romance, The Scarlet Letter, a Puritan minister of great eloquence, whose conscience compels him to make a public confession of sin.

Dinah.—(1) St. Ronan’s Well, Scott, Daughter of Sandie Lawson, landlord of the Spa hotel. (2) A character in Mrs. Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Dinah, Aunt.—In Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. She leaves Mr. Walter Shandy one thousand pounds, which he fancies will enable him to carry out all the schemes that enter into his head.

Dinah Friendly.—The Bashful Man, Moncrieff. Daughter of Sir Thomas Friendly.

Dingley Hall.—Pickwick Papers, Dickens. The home of Mr. Wardle and his family.

Divina Commedia (dē-vē´nä kom-mā´dē-ä), (or, Divine Comedy).—The first poem of note ever written in the Italian language. It is an epic by Danté Alighieri, and is divided into three parts: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Danté called it a comedy, because the ending is happy; and his countrymen added the word divine from admiration of the poem. The poet depicts a vision, in which he is conducted, first by Vergil (human reason) through hell and purgatory; and then by Beatrice (revelation), and finally by St. Bernard through the several heavens, where he beholds the Triune God.

“Hell” is represented as a funnel-shaped hollow, formed of gradually contracting circles, the lowest and smallest of which is the earth’s center. “Purgatory” is a mountain rising solitary from the ocean on that side of the earth which is opposite to us. It is divided into terraces, and its top is the terrestrial paradise. From this “top” the poet ascends through the seven planetary heavens, the fixed stars, and the “primum mobile.”

In all parts of the regions thus traversed there arise conversations with noted personages. The deepest questions of philosophy and theology are discussed and solved; and the social and moral condition of Italy, with the corruptions of church and state, are depicted with indignation. Fifty-two years after the poet’s death the republic of Florence set apart an annual sum for public lectures to explain the Divine Comedy to the people in one of the churches, and Boccaccio himself was appointed first lecturer.

Doctor Syntax.—The hero of a work entitled The Tour of Dr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque. Doctor Syntax is a simple-minded, pious, hen-pecked clergyman, but of excellent taste and scholarship, who left home in search of the picturesque. His adventures are told in eight-syllable verse by William Combe.

Dods.—The old landlady in Scott’s novel called St. Ronan’s Well. An excellent character, a mosaic of oddities, all fitting together and forming an admirable whole. She was so good a housewife that a cookery book of great repute bears her name.

Dodson and Fogg.—The lawyers employed by the plaintiff in the famous case of “Bardell vs. Pickwick,” in the Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens.

Doeg (dō´eg).—Absalom and Achitophel, Dryden. Doeg was Saul’s herdsman, who had charge of his mules and asses. He told Saul that the priests of Nob had provided David with food; whereupon Saul sent him to put them to death, and eighty-five were ruthlessly massacred.

Dogberry (dog´ber-i) and Verges (ver´gēz).—Two ignorant conceited constables, in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

Dolla Murrey.—A character in Crabbe’s Borough who was devoted to playing cards. She died at the card table.

Dolly Varden (vär´den).—Barnaby Rudge, Dickens. Daughter of Gabriel Varden, locksmith. Dolly dressed in the Watteau style, and was lively, pretty, and bewitching.

Dombey and Son.—A novel by Dickens. Mr. Dombey is a self-sufficient, purse-proud, frigid merchant who feels satisfied there is but one Dombey in the world, and that is himself. When Paul was born, his ambition was attained, his whole heart was in the boy, and the loss of the mother was but a small matter. The boy’s death turned his heart to stone.

Dombey, Florence.—A motherless child, hungering and thirsting to be loved, but regarded with indifference by her father, who thinks that sons alone are worthy of regard.

Domesday Book (or, Doomsday Book),—The name of one of the oldest and most valuable records of England, containing the results of a statistical survey of that country made by William the Conqueror, and completed in the year 1086. The origin of the name—which seems to have been given to other records of the same kind—is somewhat uncertain; but it has obvious reference to the supreme authority of the book in doom or judgment on the matters contained in it.

Dominie Sampson.—Guy Mannering, Scott. A village schoolmaster and scholar, poor as a church mouse, and modest as a girl. He cites Latin like a porcus literarum and exclaims “prodigious!” He is no uncommon personage in a country where a certain portion of learning is easily attained by those who are willing to suffer hunger and thirst in exchange for acquiring Greek and Latin.

Don Adriano de Armado.—A pompous, fantastical Spaniard in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost, who had a mint of phrases in his brain.

Donatello (don-ä-tel´lō).—The hero of Hawthorne’s romance The Marble Faun. He is a young Italian with a singular likeness to the Faun of Praxiteles. He leads an innocent but purely animal existence, until a sudden crime awakens his conscience and transforms his whole nature.

Don Cherubim.—The Bachelor of Salamanca, in Le Sage’s novel of this name; a man placed in different situations of life, and made to associate with all classes of society, in order to give the author the greatest possible scope for satire.

Donegild.—Man of Law’s Tale, Chaucer. The mother of Alla, king of Northumberland, hating Constance, the wife of Alla, because she was a Christian, she put her on a raft with her infant son and turned her adrift. When Alla returned from Scotland and discovered this cruelty of his mother, he put her to death. The tradition of St. Mungo resembles the Man of Law’s Tale in many respects.

Don Juan (don jū´an; Sp. pron. dōn Hö-än´).—Typifies in literature a profligate. He gives himself up so entirely to the gratification of sense, especially to the most powerful of all the impulses, that of love, that he acknowledges no higher consideration, and proceeds to murder the man that stands between him and his wish, fancying that in so doing he had annihilated his very existence. He then defies that Spirit to prove to his senses his existence. The Spirit returns and compels Don Juan to acknowledge the supremacy of spirit, and the worthlessness of a merely sensuous existence. The traditions concerning Don Juan have been dramatized by Tirso de Molina. Glück has a musical ballet, Don Juan, and Mozart has immortalized the character in his opera Don Giovanni; and Byron in a half-finished poem.

Don Quixote (dōn kē-hō´tā).—A celebrated Spanish romance by Cervantes. Don Quixote is represented as “a gaunt country gentleman of La Mancha, full of genuine Castilian honor and enthusiasm, gentle and dignified in his character, trusted by his friends, and loved by his dependents,” but “so completely crazed by long reading the most famous books of chivalry that he believes them to be true, and feels himself called on to become the impossible knight-errant they describe, and actually goes forth into the world to defend the oppressed and avenge the injured, like the heroes of his romances.” The fame of Cervantes will always rest upon this incomparable satire.

Dorrit.—See Little Dorrit.

Doorm.—Idylls of the King (Enid), Tennyson. An earl called “the Bull,” who tried to make Enid his handmaid; but, when she would neither eat, drink, nor array herself in bravery at his bidding, “he smote her on the cheek”; whereupon Geraint slew the “russet-bearded earl” in his own hall.

Dora.—David Copperfield, Dickens. The child-wife to David, affectionate and tender-hearted. She was always playing with her poodle and saying simple things to her “Dody.” She could never be his helper, but she looked on her husband with idolatrous love. When quite young she died.

Dorastus.—The hero of an old popular “history” or romance, upon which Shakespeare founded his Winter’s Tale. It was written by Robert Greene, and was first published in 1588, under the title of Pandosto, the Triumph of Time.

Dorothea.—The heroine of Goethe’s celebrated poem of Herman und Dorothea.

Dory, John.—A character in Wild Oats or The Strolling Gentleman, a comedy by John O’Keefe.

Dotheboys Hall (dö´the-boiz hâl).—Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens. A school for boys kept by a Mr. Squeers, a puffing, ignorant, overbearing brute, whose system of education consisted of alternately beating and starving.

Doubting Castle.—The castle of the giant Despair, in which Christian and Hopeful were incarcerated, but from which they escaped by means of the key called “Promise,” which was able to open any lock in the castle.

Dousterswivel (dös´ter-swiv-el), Herman.—Scott, The Antiquary. A German schemer, who obtains money under the promise of finding hidden wealth by a divining rod.

Drawcansir (drâ´kan-ser).—A bragging, blustering bully, in George Villiers, duke of Buckingham’s The Rehearsal, who took part in a battle, and killed everyone on both sides, “sparing neither friend nor foe.”

Driver.—Guy Mannering, Scott. Clerk to Mr. Pleydell, advocate, Edinburgh.

Dromio.—The Brothers Dromio. Twin brothers exactly alike, who serve two brothers exactly alike, in Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, based on the Menæchmi of Plautus.

Dry-as-dust, The Rev.—An imaginary personage who serves to introduce Scott’s novels to the public.

Dudu.—One of the three beauties of the harem, into which Juan, by the sultana’s order, had been admitted in female attire.

Duessa (dū-es´sa).—A foul witch, in Spenser’s Faërie Queene, who under the assumed name of Fidessa, and the assumed character of a distressed and lovely woman, entices the Red-cross Knight into the House of Pride.

Duff, Jamie.—Guy Mannering, Scott. The idiot boy attending Mrs. Bertram’s funeral.

Dulcinea del Toboso (dul-sin´ē-ä del tō-bō´zō).—A country girl whom Don Quixote courts as his lady love.

Dumain (dū-mān´).—A lord attending on the king of Navarre in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost.

Duncan.—(1) A king of Scotland immortalized in Shakespeare’s tragedy of Macbeth. Shakespeare represents him as murdered by Macbeth, who succeeds to the Scottish throne, but according to history he fell in battle. (2) A highland hero in Scott’s Lady of the Lake.

Dunder, Sir David, of Dunder Hall.—A conceited, whimsical old gentleman, who forever interrupts a speaker with “Yes, yes, I know it,” or “Be quiet, I know it.” Ways and Means, by Colman.

Dundreary (dun-drēr´i), Lord.—A grotesque character in Taylor’s comedy, Our American Cousin, noted for his aristocratic haughtiness of manner. The character is said to have been created by the actor Sothern.

Durandana (dö-rän-dä´nä).—The name of the marvelous sword of Orlando, the renowned hero of romance, said to have been wrought by the fairies, who endued it with such power that its owner was able to cleave the Pyrenees with it at a blow.

Durandarte (dö-rän-där´te).—A fabulous hero of Spain. Cervantes has introduced him, in Don Quixote, in the celebrated adventure of the knight in the cave of Montesinos.

Durden (der´den), Dame.—(1) The heroine of a popular English song. She is described as a notable housewife, and the mistress of five serving-girls and five laboring men. The five men loved the five maids. (2) A sobriquet playfully applied to Esther Summerson, the heroine of Dickens’ Bleak House.

Durward (der´wārd), Quentin.—A novel by Scott. Quentin Durward is a young archer of the Scottish guard in the service of Louis XI. of France. When Liège is assaulted, Quentin Durward and the Countess Isabelle, who has been put into his charge, escape on horseback. The countess publicly refuses to marry the Duc d’Orléans, to whom she has been promised, and ultimately marries the young Scotchman.

Dwarf, Alberich.—In the Nibelungen Lied the dwarf “Alberich” is the guardian of the famous hoard won by Siegfried from the Nibelungs. The dwarf is twice vanquished by the hero, who gets possession of his “Tarn-Kappe” (cloak of invisibility).

Dwarf, The Black.—A novel by Sir Walter Scott. The dwarf is a fairy of the most malignant character; a genuine northern Duergar, and once held by the dalesmen of the border as the author of all the mischief that befell their flocks and herds. In Scott’s novel the black dwarf is introduced under the aliases of Sir Edward Mauley; Elshander, the recluse; Cannie Elshie; and the Wise Wight of Mucklestane Moor.

E

Ecce Homo (ek´sē hō´mō).—The title of a semi-theological work, attributed to Professor Seeley, and published in 1865, in which the humanity of Christ is considered and enforced, apart from his divinity. The phrase, “The enthusiasm of humanity,” was originated in this work; to which, it may be mentioned, Dr. Joseph Parker replied in his Ecce Deus published in 1866.

Eckhardt, The Faithful.—A legendary hero of Germany, represented as an old man with a white staff, who, in Eisleben, appears on the evening of Maundy Thursday, and drives all the people into their houses, to save them from being harmed by a terrible procession of dead men, headless bodies, and two-legged horses, which immediately after passes by. Other traditions represent him as the companion of the knight Tannhäuser, and as warning travelers from the Venusberg, the mountain of fatal delights in the old mythology of Germany. Tieck has founded a story upon this legend, which has been translated into English by Carlyle, in which Eckhardt is described as the good servant who perishes to save his master’s children from the seducing fiends of the mountain. The German proverb, “Thou art the faithful Eckhardt; thou warnest everyone,” is founded upon this tradition.

Eclecta.—The “Elect” personified in The Purple Island, by Phineas Fletcher. She is the daughter of Intellect and Voletta (free-will).

Ector, Sir.—The foster-father of King Arthur, and lord of many parts of England and Wales. Father of Sir Kay, seneschal to King Arthur.

Edenhall, The Luck of.—A painted goblet in the possession of the Musgrave family of Edenhall, Cumberland, said to have been left by the fairies on St. Cuthbert’s Well. The tradition runs that the luck of the family is dependent on the safe-keeping of this goblet. The German poet Uhland embodied the legend in a ballad, translated into English by Longfellow.

Edgar.—Son to Gloucester, in Shakespeare’s tragedy of Lear. He was disinherited for his half-brother Edmund.

Edgar, or Edgardo.—Master of Ravenswood, in love with Lucy Ashton in Scott’s Bride of Lammermoor.

Edith.—The Maid of Lorn in Scott’s Lord of the Isles, who married Ronald when peace was restored after the battle of Bannockburn.

Edith, The Lady.—Ivanhoe, Scott. Mother of Athelstane “the Unready” (thane of Coningsburgh).

Edith Granger.—Daughter of the Hon. Mrs. Skewton, married to Colonel Granger of Ours, who died within two years. Edith became Mr. Dombey’s second wife, but the marriage was altogether unhappy.

Edith Plantagenet (plan-taj´e-net), The Lady.—The Talisman, Scott. Called “The Fair Maid of Anjou,” a kinswoman of Richard I., and attendant on Queen Berengaria.

Edmund.—A bastard son of Gloucester in Shakespeare’s tragedy of King Lear.

Edward, Sir.—The Iron Chest, Colman. He commits a murder, and keeps a narrative of the transaction in an iron chest. Later, he trusts the secret to his secretary, Wilfred, and the whole transaction now becomes public.

Edward.—Count Robert of Paris, Scott. Brother of Hereward, the Varangian guard. He was slain in battle.

Edwin.—(1) The hero of Goldsmith’s ballad entitled The Hermit. (2) The hero of Mallet’s ballad Edwin and Emma. (3) The hero of Beattie’s Minstrel.

Edyrn.—Idylls of the King (Enid), Tennyson. Son of Nudd. A suitor for the hand of Enid and an evil genius of her father, who opposed him. Later, Edyrn went to the court of King Arthur and became quite a changed man—from a malicious “sparrow-hawk” he was converted into a courteous gentleman.

Egeus (ējē´us).—Father of Hermia in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Eglamour.—A character, in Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona, who is an agent of Silvia in her escape.

Eglamour (eg´la-mör), Sir.—A valiant knight of the Round Table, celebrated in the romances of chivalry, and in an old ballad.

Eglantine (eg´lan-tīn), Madame.—The prioress in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, who was “full pleasant and amiable of port.” She was distinguished for the ladylike delicacy of her manners at table, and for her partiality to “small hounds,” and a peculiar mixture in her manner and dress of feminine vanity and slight worldliness, together with an ignorance of the world.

Egyptian Thief.—A personage alluded to by the Duke in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The reference is to the story of Thyamis, a robber-chief and native of Memphis.

Elvir.—Harold the Dauntless, Scott. A Danish maid, who assumes boy’s clothing, and waits on Harold “the Dauntless,” as his page.

Elaine.—A mythical lady in the romances of King Arthur’s court. She is called “the lily maid of Astolat” in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. She died for love of Sir Launcelot, and then at her request was borne on a barge to the castle of King Arthur, holding a lily in one hand, and a letter to Launcelot in the other.

Elbow.—A constable, in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, modest and well-meaning, though of simple mind and the object of wit among those who are wiser but not better.

El Dorado.—A name given by the Spaniards to an imaginary country, supposed, in the sixteenth century, to be situated in the interior of South America, and abounding in gold and all manner of precious stones.

Electra.—The daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and the heroine of a tragedy by Sophocles and of another by Euripides.

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.—By Thomas Gray. Dr. Johnson gives 1750 as the date of publication; and declares that the piece “abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo.” The churchyard was that of Stoke Poges, near Eton.

Elim.—The Messiah, Klopstock. The guardian angel of Libbeus the Apostle. Libbeus, the tenderest and most gentle of the apostles, at the death of Jesus also died from grief.

Elissa.—Step-sister of Medina and Perissa, in Spenser’s Faërie Queene. They could never agree upon any subject.

Elliott, Hobbie.—There are seven by this name in the Black Dwarf, by Sir Walter Scott. The farmer Elliott himself and his bride-elect, Grace Armstrong; Mrs. Elliott, Hobbie’s grandmother; John and Harry, Hobbie’s brothers; Lilias, Jean, and Arnot, Hobbie’s sisters.

Elops.—Milton gives this name to the dumb serpent which gives no warning of its approach.

Elsie.—The daughter of Gottlieb, a farm tenant of Prince Henry of Hohenneck, who offered her life as a substitute for the prince. She was rescued as she was about to make the sacrifice. Longfellow has told this story in The Golden Legend.

Elspeth (el´speth).—(1) A character in Sir Walter Scott’s Antiquary. (2) An old servant to Dandie Dinmont in Scott’s Guy Mannering.

Elvira.—(1) In Cibber’s Love Makes a Man, sister of Don Duart, and niece of the governor of Lisbon. She marries Clodio, the coxcomb son of Don Antonio. (2) The young wife of Gomez, a rich old banker, in Dryden’s The Spanish Fryer. She carries on a liaison with Colonel Lorenzo, by the aid of her father-confessor Dominick, but is always checkmated, and it turns out that Lorenzo is her brother.

Emelye.—The sister-in-law of “Duke Theseus,” beloved by the two knights, Palamon and Arcyte.

Emile (ā-mēl´).—A philosophical romance on education by Jean Jacques Rousseau (1762). Emile, the chief character, is the author’s ideal of a young man perfectly educated, every bias but that of nature having been carefully withheld.

Emilia (ē-mil´i-ä).—(1) A lady attending Hermione in Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale. (2) Wife to Iago, and waiting woman to Desdemona, in the tragedy of Othello, a woman of thorough vulgarity and loose principles, united to a high degree of spirit, energetic feeling, strong sense, and low cunning. (3) The sweetheart of Peregrine Pickle in Smollett’s novel The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle.

Em’ly, Little.—David Copperfield, Dickens. Daughter of Tom, the brother-in-law of Dan’el Peggotty, a Yarmouth fisherman, by whom the orphan child was brought up. David Copperfield and Em’ly were at one time playfellows. While engaged to Ham Peggotty (Dan’el’s nephew) Little Em’ly runs away with Steerforth, a friend of David’s, who was a handsome but unprincipled gentleman. Being subsequently reclaimed, she emigrates to Australia with Dan’el Peggotty and old Mrs. Gummidge.

Empyrean.—According to Ptolemy, there are five heavens, the last of which is pure elemental fire and the seat of Deity; this fifth heaven is called the empyrean.

Endell, Martha.—David Copperfield, Dickens. A poor girl, to whom Em’ly goes when Steerforth deserts her.

Endymion (en-dim´i-on).—A beautiful shepherd boy whom Diana kissed while he lay asleep on Mount Latmus. The story was made the subject of an English poem by Keats, in memory of his much loved friend, the poet Shelley. Shelley pronounced it “full of some of the highest and the finest gleams of poetry.”

Also a lyric by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow founded on the old mythic story of the mortal youth who was beloved by Diana, and received her kiss—

Enid.—A mythical lady mentioned in a Welsh triad as one of the three celebrated ladies of Arthur’s court—a beautiful picture of conjugal patience and affection. Her story is told in the Mabinogion and in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. In the midst of an impure court she is the personification of purity.

Eolian Harp.—Baruch. There is a rabbinical story of the aërial harmony of the harp of David, which, when hung up at night, was played upon by the north wind.

Epigram.—A short, pointed or antithetical poem; or any short composition happily or antithetically expressed.

Epithalamium (ep´i-thā-lā´mi-um).—Was a species of poem which it was the custom among the Greeks and Romans to sing in chorus near the bridal-chamber of a newly married couple. Anacreon, Stesichorus, and Pindar composed poems of this kind, but only scanty fragments have been preserved. Spenser’s Epithalamium, written on the occasion of his marriage, is one of the finest specimens of this kind of verse.

Eppie.—(1) St. Ronan’s Well, Scott. One of the servants of the Rev. Josiah Cargill. In the same novel is Eppie Anderson, one of the servants at the Mowbray Arms, Old St. Ronan’s, held by Meg Dods. (2) In George Eliot’s Silas Marner the child of Godfrey Cass, brought up and adopted by Silas Marner, whose love transformed him from a miser into a tender, loving father.

Ermangarde of Baldringham, Lady.—The Betrothed, Scott. Aunt of the Lady Eveline Berenger, “the Betrothed.”

Ermeline.—The wife of Reynard, in the tale of Reynard the Fox.

Ermina.—The heroine of Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, who fell in love with Tancred. When the Christian army besieged Jerusalem, she dressed herself in Clorinda’s armor to go to Tancred, but, being discovered, fled, and lived awhile with some shepherds on the banks of the Jordan. Meeting with Vafrino, sent as a secret spy by the crusaders, she revealed to him the design against the life of Godfrey, and, returning with him to the Christian camp, found Tancred wounded. She cured his wounds, so that he was able to take part in the last great day of the siege.

Ernest, Duke.—A poetical romance by Henry of Veldig (Waldeck), contemporary with Frederick Barbarossa. It is a mixture of Greek and oriental myths and hero adventures of the crusader.

Error.—Faërie Queene, Spenser. A monster who lived in a den in “Wandering Wood,” and with whom the Red-cross Knight had his first adventure. She had a brood of one thousand young ones of sundry shapes, and these cubs crept into their mother’s mouth when alarmed, as young kangaroos creep into their mother’s pouch. The knight was nearly killed by the stench which issued from the foul fiend, but he succeeded in “rafting” her head off, whereupon the brood lapped up the blood, and burst with satiety.

Escalus (es´ka-lus).—An ancient and kind hearted lord, in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, whom Vincentio, the duke of Vienna, joins with Angelo as his deputy during a pretended absence on a distant journey.

Escanes (es´ka-nēz).—A lord of Tyre, in Shakespeare’s Pericles.

Esmeralda.—Notre Dame de Paris, Victor Hugo. A beautiful gypsy girl, who, with tambourine and goat, dances in the “place” before Notre Dame.

Esmond, Henry.—A cavalier and fine-spirited gentleman in the reign of Queen Anne. Hero of Thackeray’s novel by the same name.

Esmond.—A novel by W. M. Thackeray, published in 1852. Its most striking feature is its elaborate imitation of the style and even the manner of thought of the time of Queen Anne’s reign, in which its scenes are laid.

Esprit des Lois [es-prē´ dâ lwa (or, Spirit of the Laws)].—A celebrated philosophical work by Montesquieu, published at Geneva in 1748. The author begins somewhat formally with the old division of politics into democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. He discusses the principles of each, and their bearings on education, on positive law, on social conditions, on military strength (offensive and defensive) on individual liberty, on taxation and finance. Then an abrupt return is made from the effects to the causes of constitutions and polity. The theory of the influence of physical conditions, and especially of climate, on political and social institutions—a theory which is perhaps more than any other identified with the book—received special attention, and a somewhat disproportionate space is given to the question of slavery in this connection. From climate Montesquieu passes to the nature of the soil as in its turn affecting civil polity. He then attacks the subject of manners and customs as distinct from laws of trade and commerce, of the family, of jurisprudence, of religion. The book concludes with an elaborate examination of the feudal system in France.

Essay on Man.—A poem by Alexander Pope, in four epistles: Of the Nature and State of Man With Respect to the Universe; Of the Nature and State of Man With Respect to Himself as an Individual; Of the Nature and State of Man With Respect to Society; and Of the Nature and State of Man With Respect to Happiness. Its fundamental idea is to the effect that the system of the universe is a “benevolent system, in which every virtue, as well as every passion, has its object and end.”

“If,” says Professor Ward, “the Essay on Man were shivered into fragments, it would not lose its value; for it is precisely its details which constitute its moral as well as literary beauties. Nowhere has Pope so abundantly displayed his incomparable talent of elevating truisms into proverbs, in his mastery over language and poetic form.”

Essays (or, Counsels Civil and Moral).—By Francis, Lord Bacon. In the dedication to his brother Anthony, the author says he published the Essays “because many of them had been stolen abroad in writing,” and he desired to give the world a correct version of his work. The word Essays, he says, “is late; but the thing is ancient, for Seneca’s Epistles to Lucilius, if you mark them well, are but essays, that is, dispersed meditations, though conveyed in the form of epistles.” “The transcendent strength of Bacon’s mind is visible.” says Hallam, “in the whole tenor of these Essays, unequaled as they must be, from the very nature of such compositions. They are deeper and more discriminating than any earlier, or almost any later, work, in the English language; full of recondite observations, long matured, and carefully sifted.”

Estella.—The heroine of Dickens’ novel of Great Expectations.

Estotiland, or Estotilandia.—An imaginary region in America, near the arctic circle, referred to by Milton as “cold Estotiland,” and variously fabled to have been discovered by Frisian fishermen in the fourteenth century, and by a Pole named John Scalve, in 1477.

Etzel (et´sel), i. e., Attila.—King of the Huns, a monarch ruling over three kingdoms and more than thirty principalities; being a widower, he married Kriemhild, the widow of Siegfried. In the Nibelungenlied, where he is introduced, he is made very insignificant.

Eugénie Grandet (u-zhā-nē´ gron-dā´).—A novel by Balzac, written in 1833, published in 1834. The heroine, Eugenie, is sacrificed to the cold-blooded avariciousness of her father. This is one of Balzac’s best novels.

Eulalia (ū-lā´li-ä), St.—In the calendar of saints there is a virgin martyr called Eulalia. She was martyred by torture February 12, 308. Longfellow calls Evangeline the Sunshine of St. Eulalia.

Eulenspiegel (oi´len-spē-gel).—The hero of a German tale, which relates the pranks and drolleries of a wandering cottager of Brunswick.

Euphrasy.—Paradise Lost, Milton. The herb eye-bright, so called because it was once supposed to be efficacious in clearing the organs of sight. Hence, the Archangel Michael purged the eyes of Adam with it, to enable him to see into the distant future.

Evan Dhu M’Combich.—Waverley, Scott. The foster-brother of M’Ivor.

Evan Dhu of Lochiel.—Legend of Montrose, Scott. A Highland chief in the army of Montrose.

Evangeline.—The title and heroine of a tale in hexameter verse by Longfellow, in two parts. Evangeline was the daughter of Benedict Bellefontaine, the richest farmer of Acadia (now Nova Scotia). At the age of seventeen she was legally betrothed by the notary-public to Gabriel, son of Basil the blacksmith; but next day all the colony was exiled by the order of George II., and their houses, cattle, and lands were confiscated. Gabriel and Evangeline were parted, and now, sustained by the brightness of hope, she wandered from place to place to find her betrothed. Basil had settled in Louisiana; but when Evangeline reached that distant land, Gabriel had gone. She sought him on the prairies, and, again far north, in Michigan, but ever a few days, a few weeks, too late. At length, grown old in this hopeless quest, she came to Philadelphia and became a sister of mercy. The plague broke out; and, as she visited the almshouse in ministration, she saw an old man who had been smitten with the pestilence. It was Gabriel. He tried to whisper her name; but death closed his lips. “All was ended now;” and “Side by side, in nameless graves, the lovers are sleeping.”

Evangelist.—In Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, represents the effectual preacher of the gospel who opens the gate of life to Christian.

Evans, Sir Hugh.—In Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor, a Welsh parson and school-teacher, ignorant but pedantic, who has a ludicrous quarrel with Dr. Caius.

Excalibur (eks-kal´i-bẽr), or Excalibar, or Escalibor.—The sword of the mythical King Arthur. Arthur received it from the hands of the Lady of the Lake. It had a scabbard the wearer of which could lose no blood. There seems, however, to have been also another sword called Excalibur in the early part of the story. This was the sword, plunged deep into a stone, which could be drawn forth only by the man who was to be king. After two hundred knights had failed, Arthur drew it out without difficulty.

Excursion, The.—A poem, in blank verse, by William Wordsworth, published in 1814, and forming the second part of a poem in three parts, to be entitled The Recluse, which the author had at one time contemplated. It consists of nine books, respectively entitled The Wanderer, The Solitary, Despondency, Despondency Corrected, The Pastor, The Churchyard Among the Mountains, The Same Subject Continued, The Parsonage, Discourse of the Wanderer, and An Evening Visit to the Lake.

Eyre (âr), Jane.—A novel by Charlotte Brontë, published in 1847, with a dedication to William Makepeace Thackeray, as “the first social regenerator of the day.” The early scenes are laid in the Lowood Institution, which has been identified with a school established by the Rev. W. Carus Wilson, at Cowen’s Bridge, near Leeds, and which is described with stern but unpleasing realism. Much of the book was derived from the author’s own personal experience.

Ezzelin, Sir.—Lara, Byron. The gentleman who recognizes Lara at the table of Lord Otho, and charges him with being Conrad the Corsair. A duel ensues, and Ezzelin is never heard of more. A serf used to say that he saw a huntsman one evening cast a dead body into the river which divided the lands of Otho and Lara, and that there was a star of knighthood on the breast of the corpse.

F

Faa, Gabriel.—Guy Mannering, Scott. Nephew of Meg Merrilies. One of the huntsmen at Liddesdale.

Fadladeen.—The hypercritical grand chamberlain in Moore’s poem Lalla Rookh. Fadladeen’s criticism upon the several tales which make up the romance are very racy and full of humor; and his crestfallen conceit when he finds out that the poet was the prince in disguise is well conceived.

Faerie Queene (fā´e-ri kwēn), The.—A poem by Edmund Spenser, published in 1590. This great allegorical epic is divided into six books, of which the first contains the Legend of the Knight of the Red Cross, or Holiness; the second the Legend of Sir Guyon, or Temperance; the third the Legend of Britomartis, or Chastity; the fourth the Legend of Cambal and Telamond, or Friendship; the fifth the Legend of Artegall, or Justice; and the sixth the Legend of Sir Calidore, or Courtesy. There originally existed twelve books, but the last six, excepting two cantos on Mutability, were lost by the poet’s servant in crossing from Ireland to England—a circumstance to be deeply regretted by every lover of true poetry. The finest things in Spenser are the character of Una, in the first book, the House of Pride, the Cave of Mammoth, and the Cave of Despair; the account of Memory; the description of Belphœbe; the story of Florimel and the Witch’s Son; the gardens of Adonis and the Bower of Bliss; the Mask of Cupid; and Colin Clout’s Vision, in the last book.

Fag.—A lying servant to Captain Absolute in Sheridan’s Rivals.

Fagin.—An old Jew in Dickens’ Oliver Twist, who employs young persons of both sexes to carry on a systematic trade of robbery.

Fainall, Mr. and Mrs.—Noted characters in Congreve’s comedy The Way of the World.

Faineant, Le Noir (The Black Idler).—In Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, a name applied to Richard Cœur de Lion in disguise, by the spectators of a tournament, on account of his indifference during a great part of the action, in which, however, he was finally victorious.

Fair Maid of Perth.—The title of a novel by Sir Walter Scott, and the name of the heroine.

Fair Rosamond.—Prototype of many heroines of fiction, a daughter of Walter de Clifford. According to a popular legend, which has no foundation in fact, Henry II. built a labyrinth or maze to conceal her from Queen Eleanor, who discovered her by means of a silken clew and put her to death. She is commonly, though erroneously, stated to have been the mother of William Longsword and Geoffrey, archbishop of York.

Fairservice, Andrew.—A shrewd Scotch gardener at Osbaldistone Hall in Rob Roy, Sir Walter Scott.

Fairy of the Mine.—A malevolent being, supposed to live in mines, busying itself with cutting ore, turning the windlass, etc., and yet effecting nothing.

Faithful.—One of the allegorical personages in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, who dies a martyr before completing his journey.

Faithful, Jacob.—The title and hero of a sea tale, by Captain Marryat (1835).

Fakenham Ghost.—A ballad by Robert Bloomfield, author of The Farmer’s Boy. The ghost was a donkey.

Fakreddin’s Valley.—Over the several portals of bronze were these inscriptions: (1) The Asylum of Pilgrims; (2) The Traveler’s Refuge; (3) The Depository of the Secrets of All the World.

Falkland.—In Godwin’s novel called Caleb Williams. He commits murder, and keeps a narrative of the transaction in an iron chest. Williams, a lad in his employ, opens the chest, and is caught in the act by Falkland. The lad runs away, but is hunted down. This tale, dramatized by Colman is entitled The Iron Chest.

Falstaff (fâl´stȧf), Sir John.—A famous character in Shakespeare’s comedy of the Merry Wives of Windsor, and in the first and second parts of his historical drama of Henry IV. He is as perfect a comic portrait as was ever sketched. In the former play he is represented as in love with Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page, who make a butt and a dupe of him; in the latter he figures as a soldier and a wit; in both he is exhibited as a monster of fat—sensual, mendacious, boastful, and cowardly. In Henry V. his death is described by Mrs. Quickly.

Fang.—(1) A sheriff’s officer, in the second part of Shakespeare’s King Henry IV. (2) Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens. A bullying insolent magistrate, who would have sent Oliver Twist to prison, on suspicion of theft, if Mr. Brownlow had not interposed.

Fata Alcina.—Orlando Innamorato, Bojardo. Sister of Fata Morgana. She carried off Astolfo on the back of a whale to her isle, but turned him into a myrtle tree when she tired of him.

Fata Morgana (fä´tä mor-gä´nä).—The name of a potent fairy, celebrated in the tales of chivalry, and in the romantic poems of Italy. She was a pupil of the enchanter Merlin, and the sister of Arthur, to whom she discovered the intrigue of his queen, Geneura, or Guinever, with Lancelot of the Lake. In the Orlando Innamorato of Bojardo, she appears at first as a personification of fortune, inhabiting a splendid residence at the bottom of a lake, and dispensing all the treasures of the earth, but she is afterward found in her proper station subject to the all potent Demogorgon. Also, as sister to King Arthur and pupil of Merlin. She lived at the bottom of the lake and dispensed good fortune as she liked.

Fat Boy, The.—A laughable character in Dickens’ Pickwick Papers; a youth of astonishing obesity whose employment consists in alternate eating and sleeping.

Fathom, Ferdinand, Count.—The title of a novel by Smollett, and the name of its principal character, a complete villain, who proceeds step by step to rob his benefactors and finally dies in misery and despair.

Fatima (fä´tē-mä).—(1) A female worker, in the story of Aladdin, in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. (2) The last of the wives of Bluebeard, and the only one who escaped being murdered by him.

Faust (foust).—A celebrated tragedy by Goethe, the materials of which are drawn in part from the popular legends of Dr. Faustus, a famous magician of the sixteenth century. A rich uncle having left him a fortune, Faust ran to every excess, and, when his fortune was exhausted, made a pact with the devil (who assumed the name of Mephistopheles, and the appearance of a little gray monk), that, if he might indulge his propensities freely for twenty-four years, he would at the end of that period consign to the devil both body and soul. The compact terminated in 1550, when Faust disappeared. His sweetheart was Margherita, whom he seduced, and his faithful servant was Wagner.

Faustus (fâs´tus).—A tragedy name; represented as a vulgar sorcerer tempted to sell his soul to the devil (Mephistopheles), on condition of having a familiar spirit at his command, the possession of earthly power and glory, and unlimited gratification of his sensual appetites, for twenty-four years; at the end of which time, when the forfeit comes to be exacted, he shrinks and shudders in agony and remorse, imploring yet despairing of the mercy of heaven. This has been the theme of many writers. It is the subject of an opera by Gounod.

Femmes Savantes (fam sȧ-väN´), Les (or, The Learned Women).—Comedy by Molière. These women go in for women’s rights, science, and philosophy, to the neglect of domestic duties and wifely amenities. The “blue-stockings” are (1) Philaminte, the mother of Henriette, who discharges one of her servants because she speaks bad grammar; (2) Armande, sister of Henriette, who advocates platonic love and science; and (3) Bélise, sister of Philaminte, who sides with her in all things, but imagines that everyone is in love with her. Henriette, who has no sympathy with these “lofty flights,” is in love with Clitandre; but Philaminte wants her to marry Trissotin, a bel esprit. However, the father loses his property through the “savant” proclivities of his wife, Trissotin retires, and Clitandre marries Henriette, the “perfect” or thorough woman.

Fenella.—A fairy-like creature, a deaf and dumb attendant on the countess of Derby, in Sir Walter Scott’s Peveril of the Peak.

Fenton (fen´ton).—A character in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor, who wooes the rich Anne Page for her money, but soon discovers inward treasures in her which quite transform him.

Feramorz (fer´a-mōrz).—Lalla Rookh, Thomas Moore. Feramorz in Lalla Rookh is the young Cashmerian poet, who relates poetical tales to Lalla Rookh, in her journey from Delhi to Lesser Bucharia. Lalla Rookh is going to be married to the young sultan, but falls in love with the poet. On the wedding morn she is led to her future husband, and finds that the poet is the sultan himself, who had gallantly taken this course to win the heart of his bride and beguile her journey.

Ferdinand (fer´di-nand).—(1) A character in Shakespeare’s Tempest. He is a son of the king of Naples, and falls in love with Miranda, the daughter of Prospero, a banished duke of Milan. (2) King of Navarre, character in Love’s Labor’s Lost.

Ferrers (fer´erz)—Endymion. The hero of Benjamin Disraeli’s novel Endymion.

Ferrex and Porrex.—Two sons of Gorboduc, a mythical British king. Porrex drove his brother from Britain, and when Ferrex returned with an army he was slain, but Porrex was shortly after put to death by his mother. One of the first, if not the very first, historical plays in the English language was Ferrex and Porrex, by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville.

Fib.—Nymphidia, Drayton. One of the fairy attendants to Queen Mab.

Fidele (fi-dē´lē, or fi-dāl´).—Subject of an elegy by Collins.

Fidelie.—Cymbeline, Shakespeare. The name assumed by Imogen, when, attired in boy’s clothes, she started for Milford Haven to meet her husband Posthumus.

Fidessa.—Faërie Queene, Spenser. The companion of Sansfoy; but when the Red-cross Knight slew that “faithless Saracen,” Fidessa turned out to be Duessa, the daughter of Falsehood and Shame. See “Duessa.”

Figaro (fē´gä-rō).—A character introduced by Beaumarchais in his plays Le Barbier de Seville, Le Mariage de Figaro, and La Mère Coupable, used later by Mozart, Paisiello, and Rossini in operas. In the Barbier he is a barber; in the Mariage he is a valet. In both he is gay, lively, and courageous; his stratagems are always original, his lies witty, and his shrewdness proverbial. In the Mère Coupable he has become virtuous and has lost his nerve. He also appears in Holcroft’s Follies of a Day, taken from Beaumarchais’ Mariage de Figaro.

Finetta (fi-net´tä).—The Cinder Girl. A fairy tale by the Comtesse d’Aulnoy. This is merely the old tale of Cinderella slightly altered.

Fingal (fing´gal).—A mythical hero, whose name occurs in Gaelic ballads and traditions, and in Macpherson’s Poems of Ossian.

Fleance (flē´ans).—A son of Banquo, in Shakespeare’s tragedy of Macbeth. The legend relates that after the assassination of his father he escaped to Wales, where he married the daughter of the reigning prince, and had a son named Walter. This Walter afterward became lord high steward of Scotland, and called himself Walter the Steward. From him proceeded in a direct line the Stuarts of Scotland, a royal line which gave James VI. of Scotland, James I. of England. This myth has been seriously accepted by some as fact.

Fledgeby.—Our Mutual Friend, Dickens. An overreaching, cowardly sneak who pretends to do a decent business under the trade name of Pubsey & Co.

Florentius.—A knight whose story is related in the first book of Gower’s Confessio Amantis. He bound himself to marry a deformed hag, provided she taught him the solution of a riddle on which his life depended.

Florian (flō-ryon´).—The Foundling of the Forest, W. Dimond. Discovered in infancy by the Count de Valmont, and adopted as his own son, Florian is lighthearted and volatile, but with deep affection, very grave, and the delight of all who know him.

Florimel (flor´i-mel).—A female character in Spenser’s Faërie Queene, of great beauty, but so timid that she feared the “smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,” and was abused by everyone. She was noted for sweetness of temper amid great trials. The word Florimel signifies “honey-flower.”

Florizel (flor´i-zel).—A prince of Bohemia, in Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale, in love with Perdita.

Fluellen (flö-el´en).—A Welsh captain, who is an amusing pedant, in Shakespeare’s Henry V.

Flying Dutchman.—A spectral ship, seen in stormy weather off the Cape of Good Hope, and considered ominous of ill-luck. Captain Marryat has taken this theme for his novel The Phantom Ship.

Folk.—Fairies, also called “people,” “neighbors,” “wights.” The Germans have their kleine volk (little folk), the Swiss their hill people and earth people. See Fairies.

Ford.—Mr. and Mrs. Ford are characters in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Mrs. Ford pretends to accept Sir John Falstaff’s protestations of love, in order to punish him by her devices.

Fortinbras (fôr´tin-bras).—Prince of Norway, in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet.

Fortunatus (fôr-tū-na´tus).—The hero in one of Straparolla’s fairy tales. The nursery tale of Fortunatus records that he had an inexhaustible purse. It is from the Italian fairy tales.

Fortunio’s (fôr-tu´ni-o) Horse.—Comrade not only possessed incredible speed, but knew all things, and was gifted with human speech.

Francesco.—The Iago of Massinger’s Duke of Milan.

Francesca da Rimini (frȧn-ches´kȧ dȧ rē´mē-nē).—A dramatic poem by James Henry Leigh Hunt published in 1816. Francesca was the daughter of Guido da Polenta, Lord of Ravenna, in the latter part of the thirteenth century, and was married to Lanciotto, son of Malatesta da Rimini, who, discovering her criminal intercourse with his brother, revenged himself by putting them both to death. Her story forms an episode in Dante’s Inferno.

Frankenstein (fräng´ken-stīn) (or, the Modern Prometheus).—A novel by Mrs. Shelley, published in 1818. It was commenced in the summer of 1816, when Byron and the Shelleys were residing on the banks of the Lake of Geneva, and when, “during a week of rain, having amused themselves with reading German ghost stories, they agreed at last to write something in imitation of them. ‘You and I,’ said Lord Byron to Mrs. Shelley, ‘will publish ours together.’ He then began his tale of the Vampire;” but “the most memorable result,” writes Moore, “of their storytelling compact, was Mrs. Shelley’s wild and powerful romance of Frankenstein, one of those original conceptions that take hold of the public mind at once and forever.”

The hero of the book, a native of Geneva, and a student, constructs a monster of grewsome human remains and gives it life by galvanism. The monster feels that he is unlike all other human beings, and in revenge for the injury inflicted upon him by his creator, murders his friend, his brother, and his bride, and finally seeks out Frankenstein himself, with a view to wreaking a similar revenge on him. The hero, however, happily escapes his enemy, who retires to the utmost extremity of the globe, in order to put an end to his miserable life; and Frankenstein himself falls ill and dies on his way home after his last final flight from the monstrosity whom he has himself brought into the world.

Freeport, Sir Andrew.—The name of one of the members of the imaginary club under whose direction the Spectator was professedly published. He is represented as a London merchant of great eminence and experience, industrious, sensible and generous.

French Revolution, The.—A history, in three parts, by Thomas Carlyle, published in 1837, and described by Lowell as “a series of word-pictures, unmatched for vehement power, in which the figures of such sons of earth as Mirabeau and Danton loom gigantic and terrible as in the glare of an eruption; their shadows swaying far and wide, grotesquely awful. But all is painted by eruptive flashes in violent light and shade. There are no half tints, no gradations, and we find it impossible to account for the continuance in power of less Titanic actors in the tragedy, like Robespierre, on any theory, whether of human nature or of individual character, supplied by Mr. Carlyle.”

Friar Lawrence.—The Franciscan monk who attempted to befriend the lovers in Romeo and Juliet.

Friar Tuck.—Chaplain and steward of Robin Hood. Introduced by Sir Walter Scott in Ivanhoe. He is a self-indulgent, combative Falstaff, a jolly companion to the outlaws in Sherwood forest.

Friday.—Robinson Crusoe’s faithful man Friday pictured by Defoe.

Froissart (froi´särt).—The Cronicles of England, Fraunce, Spayne, Portyugale, Scotlande, Bretayne, Flanders, and other places adjoynynge, translated out of Frenche into our maternalle Englysche Tonge, by “John Bourchier, knight, Lord Berners.” Printed in 1523. The history extends from 1326 to 1400. Froissart resided in England as secretary to Queen Philippa from 1361 to 1366, and visited it again in 1395, when he paid a visit to Scotland.

Frollo, Archdeacon Claude.—A noted character in Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris, absorbed in a bewildering search for the philosopher’s stone.

Front de Bœuf.—Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott. A follower of Prince John of Anjou, and one of the knight’s challengers.

Froth, Master.—A foolish gentleman in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. His name explains his character.

Fusbos (fus´bos).—Utopia, Sir Thomas More. Minister of state to Artaxaminous, king of Utopia.

Fyrapel, Sir.—The Leopard, the nearest kinsman of King Lion, in the beast epic of Reynard the Fox.

G

Gadshill.—A companion of Sir John Falstaff, in the first part of Shakespeare’s King Henry IV.

Galahad (gal´a-had), Sir.—A celebrated knight of the Round Table who achieved the quest of the Holy Grail. Tennyson has made him the subject of one of his idylls. In Malory he is also represented as the perfect knight, clad in wonderful armor. He was the only knight who could sit in the “Siege Perilous” a seat reserved for the “knight without a flaw,” who achieved the quest of the “Holy Grail.”

Galapas (gal´a-pas).—A giant of marvelous height in the army of Lucius, king of Rome. He was slain by King Arthur.

Galaphrone, or Galafron.—A king of Cathay and father of Angelica in Bojardo’s Orlando Innamorato and Ariosto’s Furioso.

Gamp, Mrs.—A nurse who is a prominent character in Dickens’ novel of Martin Chuzzlewit. She is celebrated for her constant reference to a certain Mrs. Harris, a purely imaginary person, for whose feigned opinions and utterances she professes the greatest respect, in order to give the more weight to her own.

Gan, Ganelone, Ganelon, or Gano.—The character of Sir Ganelon was marked with spite, dissimulation, and intrigue, but he was patient, obstinate, and enduring. He loved solitude, disbelieved in the existence of moral good, and has become a byword for a false and faithless friend. Dante has placed him in his Inferno.

Gander-Cleugh.—“Folly-Cliff,” that mysterious place where a person make a goose of himself, in Tales of My Landlord, Sir Walter Scott.

Garcia, Pedro.—A mythical personage, of whom mention is made in the preface to Gil Bias, in which is related how two scholars of Salamanca discovered a tombstone with the inscription “Here lies interred the soul of the Licentiate Pedro Garcia,” and how, on digging beneath the stone, was found a leathern purse containing a hundred ducats.

Gareth.—In Arthurian Romance a knight of the Round Table, who was first a scullion in King Arthur’s kitchen, but afterward became champion of the Lady Linet, or Lynette, whose sister Lionès, or Lyonors, he delivered from Castle Perilous.

Garganelle (gär-ga-nel´).—The mother of Gargantua in Rabelais’ celebrated romance of this name.

Gargantua (gär-gan´tū-ä).—Rabelais’ celebrated romance, the hero of which is a gigantic personage, about whom many wonderful stories are related. He lived for several centuries, and at last begot a son, Pantagruel, as wonderful as himself. The Pleasant Story of the Giant Gargantua and of his Son Pantagruel, so satirized the monastic orders of his time that it was denounced by the spiritual authorities. Francis I., however, protected the author, and allowed him to print the third part of it in 1545.

Gargery (gar´jer-i), Mrs. Joe.—Great Expectations, Dickens. Pip’s sister. A virago, who kept her husband and Pip in constant awe. Joe Gargery, a blacksmith, married to Pip’s sister. A noble-hearted, simple-minded young man, who loved Pip sincerely. Joe Gargery was one of nature’s gentlemen.

Gaspar, or Caspar.—(The white one), one of the three magi or kings of Cologne. His offering to the infant Jesus was frankincense, in token of divinity.

Gaunt, Griffith.—Hero of a novel by Charles Reade, of same title.

Gavotte.—Name given to a certain dance common among people in the upper Alps.

Gawain, or Gawayne (gä´wān), Sir.—A nephew of King Arthur, and one of the most celebrated knights of the Round Table; noted for his sagacity and wonderful strength. He was surnamed “the courteous.” His brothers were Agravaine, Gaheris, and Gareth.

Gebir (gā´bēr).—A legendary eastern prince, said to have invaded Africa and to have given his name to Gibraltar. He is the subject of a poem of the same name by Walter Savage Landor.

Gellatley (gel´at-li), Davie.—The name of a poor fool in Sir Walter Scott’s novel of Waverley.

Geneviève (zhen-vyāv´).—(1) The heroine of a ballad by Coleridge. (2) Under the form Genovefa, the name occurs in a German myth as that of the wife of the Count Palatine Siegfried, in the time of Charles Martel. Upon false accusations her husband gave orders to put her to death, but the servant intrusted with the commission suffered her to escape into the forests of Ardennes, where she lay concealed, until by accident his husband discovered her retreat, and recognized her innocence.

Genevra.—A lady in Aristo’s Orlandos’ Furioso. Her honor is impeached, and she is condemned to die unless a champion appears to do combat for her. Her lover, Ariodantes, answers the challenge, kills the false accuser, and weds the dame. Spenser has a similar story in the Faërie Queene, and Shakespeare availed himself of the main incident in his comedy of Much Ado About Nothing.

Geraint (ge-rānt), Sir.—One of the knights of the Round Table. His story is told in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King under Geraint and Enid.

Geraldine.—A name frequently found in romantic poetry, especially Scott’s Lay of the Last Minstrel. The name is said to have been adopted from the heroine connected with Surrey, whose praises are celebrated in a famous sonnet.

Gertrude of Wyoming.—Heroine of a poem by Thomas Campbell.

Gesta Romanorum (jes´tä rō-ma-nō´rum).—A collection of old romances compiled by Pierre Bercheure, prior of the Benedictine convent of St. Eloi, Paris. Shakespeare, Spenser, Gower, and many later writers have gone to this source. It took its present form in England about the beginning of the fourteenth century, the foundation coming from Roman writers, to which were added religious and mystical tales.

Giaour (jour), The.—Byron’s tale called The Giaour is represented as told by a fisherman, a Turk, who had committed a crime which haunted him all his life. See Hassan.

Gibbie, Goose.—A half-witted boy in Scott’s Old Mortality.

Gibbie, Sir.—A simple-hearted, fine character in George Macdonald’s novel by the same name.

Giant Despair.—Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan. A giant who is the owner of Doubting Castle, and who, finding Christian and Hopeful asleep upon his grounds, takes them prisoners, and thrusts them into a dungeon.

Giant Grim.—Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan. A giant who seeks to stop the march of the pilgrims to the Celestial City, but is slain in a duel by Mr. Great-heart, their guide.

Giant Slay-good.—Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan. A giant slain in a duel by Mr. Great-heart.

Gil Blas (zhēl bläs).—A romance by Le Sage. The hero is the son of Blas of Santillanê squire or “escudero” to a lady, and brought up by his uncle, Canon Gil Perês. Gil Blas went to Dr. Godinez’s school of Oviedo and obtained the reputation of being a great scholar. He had fair abilities, a kind heart, and good inclinations, but was easily led astray by his vanity. Full of wit and humor, he was lax in his morals. Duped by others at first, he afterward played the same devices on those less experienced. As he grew in years, however, his conduct improved, and when his fortune was made, he became an honest, steady man.

Glaucus (glâ´kus).—A fisherman of Bœotia who has become the fisherman’s patron deity.

Glaucus.—Son of Hippolytus. Being smothered in a tub of honey, he was restored to life by Æsculapius.

Gloriana.—In Spenser’s Faërie Queene, the “greatest glorious queen of Faëry land.”

Glumdalca (glum-dal´kä).—Tom Thumb, Fielding. Queen of the giants, captive in the court of King Arthur.

Glumdalclitch (glum-dal´klich).—Gulliver’s Travels, Swift. A girl nine years old “and only forty feet high.” Being such a “little thing,” the charge of Gulliver was committed to her during his sojourn in Brobdingnag.

Glumms.—Peter Wilkins, Robert Pullock. The male population of the imaginary country Nosmubdsgrsutt, visited by Peter Wilkins. Both males and females had wings which served both for flying and for clothes.

Godiva (gō-dī´vä).—A poem by Alfred Tennyson. The story of the lady and Peeping Tom of Coventry is told in full by Dugdale. Godiva was the wife of Leofric, earl of Mercia, and undertook to ride naked through the town if he would remit a tax under which the people groaned. The earl consented and the lady kept her word.

Golden Ass, The.—A romance in Latin by Apuleius. It is the adventures of Lucian, a young man who had been transformed into an ass, but still retained his human consciousness. It tells us the miseries which he suffered at the hands of robbers, eunuchs, magistrates, and so on, till the time came for him to resume his proper form. It is full of wit, racy humor, and rich fancy, and contains the exquisite episode of Cupid and Psyche.

Golden Legend, The.—The title of an ecclesiastical work in one hundred and seventy-seven sections, dating from the thirteenth century, written by one James de Voragine, a Dominican monk, and descriptive of the various saints’ days in the Roman calendar. It is deserving of study as a literary monument of the period, and as illustrating the religious habits and views of the Christians of that time.

Goneril (gon´er-il).—The oldest of the three daughters to King Lear, in Shakespeare’s tragedy. Having received her moiety of Lear’s kingdom, the unnatural daughter first abridged the old man’s retinue, then gave him to understand that his company was not wanted and sent him out a despairing old man to seek refuge where he could find it. Her name is proverbial for filial ingratitude.

Gonzalo (gon-zä´lō).—An honest old counselor in Shakespeare’s Tempest, a true friend to Prospero.

Goody Blake.—A character in Wordsworth’s poem entitled Goody Blake and Harry Gill. A farmer forbids old Goody Blake to carry home a few sticks, which she had picked up from his land, and in revenge she invokes upon him the curse that he may “never more be warm;” and ever after “his teeth they chatter, chatter still.”

Goody Two-Shoes.—The name of a well-known character in a nursery tale by Oliver Goldsmith. Goody Two-Shoes was a very poor child, whose delight at having a pair of shoes was unbounded. She called constant attention to her “two-shoes” which gave her the name.

Gradgrind (grad´grīnd).—A hardware merchant in Dickens’ Hard Times. He is a man of hard facts and cultivates the practical. His constant demand in conversation is for “facts.” He allows nothing for the weakness of human nature, and deals with men and women as a mathematician with his figures.

Gradgrind, Mrs.—Wife of Thomas Gradgrind. A little, thin woman, always taking physic, without receiving from it any benefit.

Gradgrind, Tom.—Son of the above, a sullen young man, much loved by his sister.

Gradgrind, Louise.—A faithful daughter and sister.

Grandison, Sir Charles.—The hero of Richardson’s novel The History of Sir Charles Grandison. Designed to represent his ideal of a perfect hero—a union of the good Christian and the perfect English gentleman.

Gratiano (grä-tē-ä´no).—(1) A friend to Antonio and Bassanio in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. He “talks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in Venice.” (2) Brother to Brabantio, in Shakespeare’s tragedy of Othello. (3) A character in the Italian popular theater called Commedia dell’ Arte. He is represented as a Bolognese doctor, and has a mask with a black nose and forehead and red cheeks.

Great-Heart, Mr.—In Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, the guide of Christian’s wife and children upon their journey to the Celestial City.

Gremio (grē´mi-ō).—In Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, an old man who wishes to wed Bianca.

Griffin-feet.—Fairy Tales, Comtesse d’Aulnoy. The mark by which the Desert Fairy was known in all her metamorphoses.

Grimalkin.—A cat, the spirit of a witch. Any witch was permitted to assume the body of a cat nine times.

Grimwig.—Oliver Twist, Dickens. An irascible old gentleman, who hid a very kind heart under a rough exterior. He was always declaring himself ready to “eat his head” if he was mistaken on any point on which he passed an opinion.

Griselda (gri-zel´dä), The Patient.—A lady in Chaucer’s Clerk of Oxenford’s Tales, immortalized by her virtue and her patience. The model of womanly and wifely obedience, she comes victoriously out of cruel and repeated ordeals. The story of Griselda is first told in the Decameron. Boccaccio derived the incidents from Petrarch, who seems to have communicated them also to Chaucer, as the latter refers to Petrarch as his authority.

Grub Street, London, is thus described in Dr. Johnson’s dictionary: “Originally the name of a street near Moorfields, in London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems, whence any production is called Grub street.” The name was freely used by Pope, Swift, and others.

Grundy.—“What will Mrs. Grundy say?” (What will our rivals or neighbors say?) The phrase is from Tom Morton’s Speed the Plough, but “Mrs. Grundy” is not introduced into the comedy as one of the dramatis personæ. The solicitude of Dame Ashfield, in this play, as to “what will Mrs. Grundy say?” has given the latter great celebrity, the interrogatory having acquired a proverbial currency.

Gudrun (gö-drön´).—Edda, Sämund Sigfusson. A lady, married to Sigurd by the magical arts of her mother and on the death of Sigurd to Atli (Attila), whom she hated for his cruelty, and murdered. She then cast herself into the sea, and the waves bore her to the castle of King Jonakun, who became her third husband.

Gudrun.—North-Saxon poem. A model of heroic fortitude and pious resignation. She was the daughter of King Hettel (Attila), and the betrothed of Herwig, king of Heligoland.

Guendolen (gwen´dō-len).—A fairy whose mother was a human being.

Guildenstern.—The name of a courtier in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet.

Guinevere (gwin´e-ver), or Guenever.—A corrupt form of Guanhumara, daughter of King Leodegrance of the land of Camelyard. She was the most beautiful of women, was the wife of King Arthur, but entertained a liaison with Sir Launcelot du Lac. Arthur, when informed of the conduct of Launcelot, went with an army to Brittany to punish him. Mordred, left as regent, usurped the crown, proclaimed that Arthur was dead, and tried to marry Guinevere; but she shut herself up in the Tower of London, resolved to die rather than marry the usurper. When she heard of the death of Arthur, she stole away to Almesbury, and became a nun.

Gulliver, Lemuel.—The imaginary hero of Swift’s celebrated satirical romance known as Gulliver’s Travels. He is represented as being first a surgeon in London, and then a captain of several ships. After having followed the sea for some years he makes in succession four extraordinary voyages.

Gummidge (gum´ij), Mrs.—In Dickens’ novel of David Copperfield, described herself as a “lone, lorn, creetur, and everythink that reminds me of creeturs that ain’t lone and lorn goes contrairy with me.”

Gurton, Gammer.—The heroine of an old English comedy, long supposed to be the earliest in the language.

Guy Mannering.—The second of Scott’s historical novels, published in 1815, just seven months after Waverley. The interest of the tale is well sustained; but the love scenes, female characters, and Guy Mannering himself are quite worthless. Not so the character of Dandy Dinmont, the shrewd and witty counselor Pleydell, the desperate, sea-beaten villainy of Hatteraick, the uncouth devotion of that gentlest of all pedants, poor Dominie Sampson, and the savage, crazed superstition of the gypsy-dweller in Derncleugh.

Guyon (gī´on).—The impersonation of Temperance or Self-government in Spenser’s Faërie Queene. He destroyed the witch Acrasia, and her bower, called the “Bower of Bliss.” His companion was Prudence. Sir Guyon represents the quality of temperance in the largest sense; meaning the virtuous self-government which holds in check not only the inferior sensual appetites but also the impulses of passion and revenge.

Guy, Sir, Earl of Warwick.—The hero of a famous English legend, which celebrates the wonderful achievements by which he obtained the hand of his ladylove, the fair Felice, as well as the adventures he subsequently met with in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He is reputed to have lived in the reign of the Saxon King Athelstan. The romance of Sir Guy, mentioned by Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales, cannot be traced further back than the earlier part of the fourteenth century. His existence at any period is very doubtful.

H

Hadad.—One of the six wise men led by the guiding star to Jesus.

Hagen.—The murderer of Siegfried, in the German epic, the Nibelungenlied. He is a pale-faced dwarf, who knows everything and whose sole desire is mischief. After the death of Siegfried he seized the “Nibelung hoard,” and buried it in the Rhine, intending to appropriate it. Kriemhild invited him to the court and had him slain.

Haidee (hī-dē´).—A beautiful young Greek girl in Byron’s poem, Don Juan. She is called the “beauty of the Cyclades.”

Hakim.—The Talisman, Scott. Saladin, in the disguise of a physician, visited Richard Cœur de Lion in sickness; gave him a medicine in which the “talisman” had been dipped, and the sick king recovered.

Hamlet.—A tragedy by Shakespeare. The chief character is Hamlet, prince of Denmark. The ghost of his father appears to him, and urges him to avenge his murder upon his uncle. But the prince feigns madness, and puts off his revenge from day to day by “thinking too precisely on the event.” Hamlet’s mother had married Claudius, king of Denmark, after the death of her former husband. Claudius prepared poisoned wine, which he intended for Hamlet; but the queen, not knowing it, drank it, was poisoned and died. Hamlet, seeing his mother fall dead, rushed on the king and killed him almost by accident, and is killed himself by a poisoned rapier in the hands of Laertes.

Hanswurst (häns´vŏrst).—A pantomimic character formerly introduced into German comedies. It corresponds to the Italian Macaroni, the French Jean Potage, and the English Jack Pudding.

Hardcastle, Mr.—A character in Goldsmith’s comedy of She Stoops to Conquer, represented as prosy and hospitable.

Hardcastle, Mrs.—A very “genteel” lady indeed. Tony Lumpkin is her son by a former husband.

Hard Times.—A novel by Dickens. Bounderby, a street Arab, raised himself to banker and cotton prince. When past fifty years of age he married Louisa, daughter of Thomas Gradgrind. The bank was robbed, and Bounderby believed Stephen Blackpool to be the thief, because he had dismissed him from his employ. The culprit was Tom Gradgrind, the banker’s brother-in-law, who escaped out of the country. In the dramatized version, the bank was not robbed, but Tom removed the money to another drawer for safety.

Harlequin (här´le-kin, or -´kwin).—The name of a well-known character in the popular extemporized Italian comedy.

Harlowe, Clarissa.—The heroine of Richardson’s novel entitled The History of Clarissa Harlowe. In order to avoid a marriage urged upon her by her parents, she casts herself on the protection of Lovelace, who grossly abuses the confidence thus reposed in him. He subsequently proposes to marry her, but Clarissa rejects the offer.

Haroun-al-Raschid (hä-rŏn´äl-rash´id).—Caliph of the Abbasside race, contemporary with Charlemagne, and, like him, a patron of literature and the arts. Many of the tales in the Arabian Nights are placed in the caliphate of Haroun-al-Raschid.

Harpagon (är-pä-gôn´).—The hero of Molière’s comedy of L’Avare, represented as a wretched miser.

Harpier, or Harper.—Some mysterious personage referred to by the witches in Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth.

Hassan (häs´sän).—The Giaour, Byron. Caliph of the Ottoman empire, noted for his hospitality and splendor. In his seraglio was a beautiful young slave named Leila, who loved a Christian called the Giaour. Leila is put to death by an emir, and Hassan is slain by the Giaour. Caliph Hassan has become the subject of popular romance.

Hassan, Al.—The Arabian emir of Persia, father of Hinda, in Moore’s Fire Worshipers.

Hatto (hät´tō).—In German legend, an archbishop of Mentz in the tenth century, who, for his hardheartedness to the poor in time of famine, was eaten by mice in the “Mouse Tower” on an island in the Rhine near Bingen. Robert Browning has made this legend the subject of a poem.

Havelock the Dane (hav´e-lok).—A fisherman, known as Grim, rescued an infant named Havelock, whom he adopted. This infant was the son of the king of Denmark, and when the boy was restored to his royal sire Grim was laden with gifts. He built the town which he called after his own name. This is the foundation of the mediæval tales about Havelock the Dane.

Hazlewood, Sir Robert.—The old baronet of Hazlewood.

Hazlewood, Charles.—Guy Mannering, Scott. Son of Sir Robert. In love with Lucy Bertram, whom he marries.

Heart of Midlothian, The.—A novel by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1818. It has for heroines Jeanie and Effie Deans. Among the other characters are Dumbiedykes and Madge Wildfire. It has often been dramatized. “The Heart of Midlothian” was the popular name for the tollbooth at Edinburgh, the capital of the county of Midlothian.

Heep, Uriah.—David Copperfield, Dickens. A detestable character, who, under the garb of the most abject humility, conceals a diabolic malignity. Mrs. Heep, Uriah’s mother, was a character equally to be despised for her hypocritical assumption of humility.

Helena.—(1) A lady in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, in love with Demetrius. (2) The heroine of Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, in love with Bertram, who marries her against his will and leaves her, but is finally won by the strength of her affection. (3) A character in an old popular tale, reproduced in Germany by Tieck.

Hermann and Dorothea.—The hero and heroine of Goethe’s poem of the same name.

Hermengyld (her´men-gild).—Canterbury Tales, Chaucer. The wife of the lord-constable of Northumberland. She was converted by Constance, but was murdered by a knight. Hermengyld at the bidding of Constance restored sight to a blind Briton.

Hermia (her´mi-ä).—A lady in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, in love with Lysander.

Hermione.—The heroine of the first three acts of Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale.

Hernani, or Ernani.—The hero of Victor Hugo’s tragedy of the same name, and of Verdi’s opera, founded on the play. He was a Spanish noble in revolt against the Emperor Charles V. and killed himself from a high sense of honor.

Hiawatha (hi-a-wâ´tä, or hī-a-wâ´thä), The Song of.—A poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written in the following peculiar measure:

The poem is entirely devoted to a description of life among the aboriginal tribes of America. It was published in 1855. Hiawatha is a mythical person believed by some of the North American Indians to have been sent among them to clear their rivers, forests, and fishing-grounds, and to teach them the arts of peace. When the white man came, then Hiawatha knew that the time of his departure was at hand, when he must go

Highland Mary.—A song by Robert Burns, which Burns himself thought was in his happiest manner, and which refers, he says, to one of the most interesting passages of his youthful days. By this he means his attachment to Mary, a servant in the family of Mr. Hamilton, “who will be remembered,” says Alexander Smith, “with Dante’s Beatrice and Petrarch’s Laura.” It was arranged that the lovers should become man and wife, and that Mary should go to her friends to prepare for the wedding. But before her departure came the farewell scene so touchingly described in the poem:

Hilda.—A New England girl of the most sensitive delicacy and purity of mind, in Hawthorne’s romance, The Marble Faun. She is an artist, living in Rome, and typifies, perhaps, the conscience.

Hildebrand (hil´de-brand).—The Nestor of German romance, a magician and champion.

Hildesheim (hil´des-hīm).—In an old German legend, the monk of Hildesheim, doubting how a thousand years with God could be “only one day,” listened to the melody of a bird, as he supposed, for only three minutes, but found that he had been listening to it for a hundred years.

Hobbididance.—The name of one of the fiends mentioned by Shakespeare in Lear, and taken from the history of the Jesuits’ impostures.

Hohenlinden (hō´en-lin´den).—A poem by Thomas Campbell, published in 1802, celebrating the battle of Hohenlinden, gained by Moreau and the French over the Austrians. The poet visited the battle field on December 3, 1800.

Holofernes (hol-ō-fer´nēz).—(1) A pedant living in Paris, under whose care Gargantua is placed for instruction. (2) A pedantic schoolmaster in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost.

Holt, Felix.—The hero of George Eliot’s novel by the same name.

Home, Sweet Home.—A popular lyric contained in the drama of Clari, the Maid of Milan, by John Howard Payne. The beautiful melody to which it has been wedded is said to be of Italian or Sicilian origin, though by some it is attributed to Sir Henry Rowley Bishop. Perhaps the latter merely arranged and harmonized it.

Homilies.—The latter entries in the Peterborough Chronicle and a few homilies are almost all that we have left of the literature of the twelfth century. Some of these homilies are copied or imitated from those of Ælfric.

Honeycomb (hun´i-kōm), Will.—One of the members of the imaginary club by whom the Spectator was professedly edited. He is distinguished for his graceful affectation, courtly pretension, and knowledge of the gay world.

Honeyman, Charles.—A fashionable preacher in Thackeray’s novel, The Newcomes.

Hopeful.—A pilgrim in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, who accompanies Christian to the end of his journey.

Hop-o’-my-Thumb.—A character in the tales of the nursery. Tom Thumb and Hop-o’-my-Thumb are not the same, although they are often confounded. Tom Thumb was the son of peasants, knighted by King Arthur, and was killed by a spider. Hop-o’-my-Thumb was a nix, the same as the German “daumling,” the French “le petit pouce,” and the Scotch “Tom-a-lin” or “Tamlane.” He was not a human dwarf, but a fay.

Horatio (hō-rā´shi-ō).—Hamlet, Shakespeare. An intimate friend of Hamlet, a prince, a scholar, and a gentleman.

Horatius Cocles.—Captain of the bridge gate over the Tiber. He and two men to help him held the bridge against vast approaching armies. Subject and title of a poem by Lord Macauley.

Horner, Jack.—The name of a celebrated personage in the literature of the nursery. A Somersetshire tradition says that the plums which Jack Horner pulled out of the Christmas pie alluded to the title deeds of the abbey estates at Wells, which were sent to Henry VIII., in a pasty, and were abstracted on the way by the messenger, a certain Jack Horner.

Hortense (hôr-ten´s, or or-tons´).—Bleak House, Dickens. The vindictive French maid-servant of Lady Dedlock. In revenge for the partiality shown by Lady Dedlock to Rosa, Hortense murdered Mr. Tulkinghorn, and tried to throw the suspicion of the crime on Lady Dedlock.

House of the Seven Gables, The.—A romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1851. “In The House of the Seven Gables,” says R. H. Hutton, “we have a picture studied to impress on us that both personal character and the malign influences of evil action are transmitted, sometimes with accumulating force, even through centuries, blighting every generation through which they pass. The subject would apparently involve a series of sketches, but only two are introduced from the past, and the family characteristics are so anxiously preserved as to make even these seem like slight modifications of some of the living group. The only incident in the tale is the light thrown upon a crime—which had been committed thirty years before the story opens—by the sudden death of the principal representative of a family from the same disease, in the same chair, and under the same circumstances, as those of the old ancestor and founder of the family, whose picture hangs above the chair.”

Hubbard, Old Mother.—A well-known nursery rhyme. Mother Hubbard’s Tale, by Edmund Spenser, is a satirical fable in the style of Chaucer.

Hubert de Burgh (börg, or berg).—Justice of England, created Earl of Kent, introduced by Shakespeare into King John. He is the one to whom the young prince addresses his piteous plea for life. The lad was found dead soon afterward, either by accident or foul play.

Hubert, Saint.—The legend of Saint Hubert makes him a patron saint of huntsmen.

Hudibras (hū´di-bras).—The title and hero of a celebrated satirical poem by Samuel Butler. Hudibras is a Presbyterian justice of the time of the commonwealth.

Hugh of Lincoln.—A legendary personage who forms the subject of Chaucer’s Prioress’ Tale, and also of an ancient English ballad. Wordsworth has given a modernized version of this tale.

Hugo Hugonet.—Castle Dangerous, Scott. Minstrel of the earl of Douglas.

Humphrey.—The imaginary collector of the tales in Master Humphrey’s Clock, by Charles Dickens.

Humpty Dumpty.—The hero of a well-known nursery rhyme. The name signifies humped and dumpy, and is the riddle for an egg.

Huon de Bordeaux (ü-ôn´de bor-dō´).—A hero of one of the romances of chivalry bearing this name.