BOOK OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (continued 7)

Hural Oyun.—In the fairy tales found in the Koran, these are the black-eyed daughters of paradise. They are created from muck, and are free from all physical weakness and are always young. It is held out to every male believer that he will have seventy-two of these girls as his household companions in paradise.

Hylas (hī´las).—A beautiful boy, beloved by Hercules, who was drawn into a spring by the enamored nymphs. The story has been treated by Bayard Taylor, and by William Morris in his Life and Death of Jason.

Hypatia (hī-ā´shiä).—A novel by the Rev. Charles Kingsley, the scene of which is laid in Alexandria, at a time when Christianity was gaining ground against Paganism and the neo-Platonism of the schools. Hypatia herself was born about the year 370, and, after attracting to her lectures on philosophy a large and brilliant auditory, was torn to pieces by the rabble of her native city in 415. Hypatia appeared in 1853.

Hyperion (hī-pē´ri-on, or hī-per-ī´on).—A romance in four books, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This work, which was the result of an extensive tour in Germany, was published in 1839, and with much that is purely fanciful and imaginative, contains much that came within the actual experience of the author who is represented, idealized, in the character of Paul Flemming. The episode with Mary Ashburton is supposed to have reference to a real occurrence. The book is full of description and of eloquent discussion, besides being interspersed with snatches of legend and of song.

Hypocrites’ Isle.—An island described by Rabelais in one of his satires. He pictures this island of Hypocrites as wholly inhabited by people of low and defiled natures, as, by sham saints, spiritual comedians, seducers, and “such-like sorry rogues who live on the alms of passengers like the hermit of Lamont.”

I

Iago (ē-ä´gō).—Othello, Shakespeare. Othello’s ensign and the villain of the play. Iago is said to be a character next to a devil, yet not quite a devil, which Shakespeare alone could execute without scandal.

Idleness, The Lake of.—Faërie Queene, Spenser. Whoever drank thereof grew instantly “faint and weary.” The Red Cross Knight drank of it, and was readily made captive by Orgoglio.

Idylls of the King.—A series of poems by Tennyson. Taken together they form a parable of the life of man. Each idyll taken as a separate picture represents the war between sense and soul. In Lancelot and Guinevere the lower nature leads them astray and there is intense struggle before the higher nature prevails. In Vivien, Tristram, and Modred, the base and sensual triumph. In Arthur, Sir Galahad and Percivale, it is the victory of the spiritual.

Ignaro.—Faërie Queene, Spenser. Fosterfather of Orgoglio. Spenser says this old man walks one way and looks another, because ignorance is always “wrong-headed.”

Iliad (il´ē-ad).—A famous Greek epic poem by Homer. It is the tale of the siege of Troy, in twenty-four books. It is written in Greek hexameters, and commemorates the deeds of Achilles and other Greek heroes at the siege of Troy. Books one, two and three are introductory to the war. Paris proposes to decide the contest by a single combat, and Menelaus accepts the challenge. Paris, being overthrown, is carried off by Venus, and Agamemnon demands that the Trojans shall give up Troy in fulfillment of the compact, and the siege follows. The gods take part, and frightful slaughter ensues. At length Achilles slays Hector, and the battle is at an end. Old Priam, going to the tent of Achilles, craves the body of his son Hector; Achilles gives it up, and the poem concludes with the funeral rites of the Trojan hero. Vergil continues the tale from this point, shows how the city was taken and burnt, and then continues with the adventures of Æneas, who escapes from the burning city, and makes his way to Italy.

Imogen (im´ō-jen).—The wife of Posthumus, and the daughter of Cymbeline in the play of Shakespeare’s under title Cymbeline. “Of all Shakespeare’s women,” says Hazlitt, “she is, perhaps, the most tender and the most artless.”

Incantation.—Is derived from a Latin root meaning simply “to sing.” It is the term in use to denote one of the most powerful and awe-inspiring modes of magic, resting on a belief in the mysterious power of words solemnly conceived and passionately uttered.

Inchcape Rock.—It is dangerous for navigators, and therefore the abbot of Aberbrothock fixed a bell on a float, which gave notice to sailors. Southey says that Ralph the Rover, in a mischievous joke, cut the bell from the buoy, and it fell into the sea; but on his return voyage his boat ran on the rock, and Ralph was drowned. Precisely the same tale is told of St. Goven’s bell.

Inferno, The.—Divine Comedy, Dante. Epic poem in thirty-four cantos. Inferno is the place of the souls who are wholly given up to sin. The ascent is through Purgatory to Paradise.

Ingoldsby Legends (ing´gōldz-bi lej´endz, or lē´jendz).—A collection of legends in prose and verse, supposed to have been found in the family chest of the Ingoldsby family, and related by Thomas Ingoldsby. Of the poetical pieces it is not too much to say that, for originality of design and diction, for quaint illustration and musical verse, they are not surpassed in the English language. From the days of Hudibras to our time, the drollery invested in rhyme has never been so amply or so felicitously exemplified; and if derision has been unsparingly applied, it has been to lash knavery and imposture.

In Memoriam.—A poem by Alfred Tennyson, published in 1850, and consisting of one hundred and thirty “short swallow flights of song,” in a measure which Tennyson has made his own. It is well known that these “brief lays, of sorrow born,” were written in memory of the author’s friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, who died in 1833. They are characterized by George MacDonald as forming “the poem of the hoping doubters, the poem of our age—the grand minor organ fugue of In Memoriam. It is the cry of the bereaved Psyche into the dark infinite after the vanished love. His friend is nowhere in his sight, and God is silent. Death, God’s final compulsion to prayer, in its dread, its gloom, its utter stillness, its apparent nothingness, urges the cry. Moanings over the dead are mingled with the profoundest questionings of philosophy, the signs of nature, and the story of Jesus, while now and then the star of the morning, bright Phosphor, flashes a few rays through the shifting cloudy dark. And if the sun has not arisen on the close of the book, yet the aurora of the coming dawn gives light enough to make the onward journey possible and hopeful.”

Innocents Abroad.—By Mark Twain. Travelers seeing Europe without any illusions. The fun consists in an irreverent application of modern common sense to historic associations, ridiculing sentimental humbug. An air of innocence and surprise adds to the drolleries of their adventures.

Instauratio Magna (in-stâ-rā´shi-ō mag´nä).—The title (The Great Restoration) which Bacon gave to his Magnum Opus, the design of which was for six divisions:—(1) The Advancement of Learning; (2) the Novum Organum; (3) the Experimental History of Nature; (4) the Scala Intellectus, which leads from experience to science; (5) the Bodronic, or anticipations of the second philosophy; and (6) Active Science, or experiment. Of these, only the first two, and a portion of the third (Sylva Sylvarum), were published. The idea that was to run through the Instauratio was that invention must be based upon experience, and experience upon experiment.

Interludes, The.—Springing from the moralities and bearing some resemblance to them, though nearer the regular drama, are the interludes, a class of compositions in dialogue, much shorter and more merry and farcical. They were generally played in the intervals of a festival.

Invocation.—An address at the commencement of a poem, in which the author calls for the aid of some divinity, particularly of his muse.

Iphigenia (if´i-jē-nī´ä).—The heroine of Euripides’ tragedy Iphigenia in Aulis, and of Goethe’s tragedy Iphigenia auf Tauris. She was placed on the altar in a rash vow by her father. Artemis at the last moment snatched her from the altar and carried her to heaven, substituting a hind in her place. The similarity of this legend to the scripture stories of Jephthah’s vow and Abraham’s offering of his son Isaac is noticeable.

Iras.—A strongly delineated character in Ben Hur, a Tale of The Christ, by Lew Wallace.

Iras.—A female attendant on Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s play, Antony and Cleopatra.

Isaac of York.—A wealthy Jew, the father of Rebecca, in Sir Walter Scott’s novel, Ivanhoe.

Isabella.—The heroine in Shakespeare’s comedy, Measure for Measure.

Island of Lanterns.—In the celebrated satire of Rabelais, an imaginary country inhabited by false pretenders to knowledge. The name was probably suggested by the City of Lanterns, in the Greek romance of Lucian. Swift has copied this same idea in his Island of Laputa.

Island of St. Brandan.—A marvelous flying island, the subject of an old and widely spread legend of the middle ages. Though the island of St. Brandan has been a disappointment to voyagers, it has been a favorite theme with poets.

Island of the Blest.—Imaginary island in the west. Hither the favorites of the gods were conveyed without dying, and dwelt in never-ending joy. The name first occurs in Hesiod’s Works and Days. This phrase is often used in modern literature.

Ithuriel (i-thö´ri-el).—In Milton’s Paradise Lost, an angel commissioned by Gabriel to search through paradise, in company with Zephon, to find Satan, who had eluded the vigilance of the angelic guard, and effected an entrance into the garden. It is related that Ithuriel found Satan “squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve,” and transformed him by a touch of his spear into his proper shape.

Ivanhoe.—A novel by Sir Walter Scott. The hero, also Ivanhoe, figures as Cedric of Rotherwood’s disinherited son, the favorite of King Richard I., and the lover of the Lady Rowena, whom, in the end, he marries. The scene is laid in England in the reign of Richard I., and we are introduced to Robin Hood in Sherwood forest, banquets in Saxon halls, tournaments, and all the pomp of ancient chivalry. Rowena, the heroine, is quite thrown into the shade by the gentle, meek, yet high-souled Rebecca.

Ivory Gate of Dreams.—Dreams which delude pass through the ivory gate, but those which come true through the horn gate.

J

Jack and the Bean-Stalk.—A nursery legend said to be an allegory of the Teutonic Al-fader, the “red hen” representing the all-producing sun, the “money-bags” the fertilizing rain, and the “harp” the winds.

Jack-in-the-Green.—A prominent character in Maypole dances.

Jack Robinson.—A famous comic song by Hudson.

Jack Sprat.—The hero of a nursery rhyme. Jack and his wife form a fine combination in domestic economy.

Jack the Giant-killer.—The name of a famous hero in the literature of the nursery, the subject of one of the Teutonic or Indo-European legends, which have become nationalized in England and America.

Jaquenetta (jak-e-net´ä).—Love’s Labor’s Lost, Shakespeare. A country wench courted by Don Adriano de Armado.

Jaques (zhä´kes).—A lord attending upon the exiled duke, in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. A contemplative character who thinks and does—nothing. He is called the “melancholy Jaques,” and affects a cynical philosophy. He could “suck melancholy out of a song, as a weasel sucks eggs.”

Jarley, Mrs.—The proprietor of a waxwork show in Dickens’ Old Curiosity Shop. She has lent her name to a popular game of parlor tableaux.

Jarndyce (järn´dis), John.—A prominent figure in Dickens’ Bleak House, distinguished for his philanthropy, easy good-nature and good sense, and for always saying, “The wind is in the east,” when anything went wrong with him. The famous suit of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce, in this novel, is a satire upon the court of chancery.

Jarvie, Nicol.—A prominent character in Sir Walter Scott’s novel Rob Roy. He is a bailie of Glasgow.

Javert (zhä-var´).—An officer of the police force in Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo. He is the incarnation of inexorable law.

Jarvis.—A faithful old servant, in Moore’s The Gamester, who tries to save his master, Beverley, from his fatal passion of gambling.

Jaup.—An old woman at Middlemas village, in Scott’s The Surgeon’s Daughter.

Jekyll, Doctor, and Mr. Hyde.—A singular romance by Robert Louis Stevenson. The hero is a duplex character—Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Doctor Jekyll is a benevolent and upright physician, who by means of a potion is able to transform himself for a time into a second personality, Mr. Hyde, of a brutal and animal nature.

Jellyby (jel´i-bi), Mrs.—A character in Dickens’ novel, Bleak House, a type of sham philanthropy. She spends her time and energy on foreign missions to the neglect of her family. Mrs. Jellyby is quite overwhelmed with business correspondence relative to the affairs of Borrioboola Gha.

Jenkins, Winifred.—The name of Miss Tabitha Bramble’s maid in Smollett’s Expedition of Humphrey Clinker. She makes ridiculous blunders in speaking and writing.

Jenkinson, Ephraim.—A green old swindler, whom Dr. Primrose met in a public tavern. Dr. Primrose sold the swindler his horse, Old Blackberry, for a draft upon Farmer Flamborough.

Jeroboam (jer-ō-bō´am) Sermon.—One of Dr. Emmons’ sermons, which made a great noise at the time. It was known as his Jeroboam Sermon. It was written on the occasion of Jefferson’s inauguration as president, and, although Jefferson is not named, the delineation of the character of Jeroboam is such that no one can doubt the personal application intended.

Jerusalem Delivered.—An epic in twenty books, by Torquato Tasso. The crusaders, encamped on the plains of Tortosa, chose Godfrey for their chief, and Alandine, king of Jerusalem, made preparations for defense. The Christian army having reached Jerusalem, the king of Damascus sent Armida to beguile the Christians. It was found that Jerusalem could never be taken without the aid of Rinaldo. Godfrey, being informed that the hero was dallying with Armida in the enchanted island, sent to invite him back to the army; he returned, and Jerusalem was taken. Armida fled into Egypt, and offered to marry any knight who slew Rinaldo. The love of Rinaldo returned, he pursued her and she relented. The poem concludes with the triumphant entry of the Christian army into the Holy City, and their devotions at the tomb of the Redeemer. The two chief episodes are the loves of Olindo and Sofronia, and of Tancred and Clorinda.

Jessica (jes´i-kä).—The beautiful daughter of Shylock, in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.

Jones, Tom.—The hero of Fielding’s novel entitled The History of a Foundling, represented as a model of generosity, openness, and manly spirit, though thoughtless and dissipated.

Joyeuse (zhwä-yez´).—The sword of Charlemagne as mentioned in romances of chivalry.

Joyeuse Garde (zhwä-yez´ gärd).—The residence of the famous Lancelot du Lac.

Judith.—The heroine in the book by the same name in the Apocrypha. She was a beautiful Jewess of Bethulia, who, when her town was besieged by Holofernes, the general of Nebuchadnezzar, attended him in his tent, and, when he was drunk, killed him, whereupon her townsmen fell upon the Assyrians and defeated them with great slaughter. The tale is not mentioned by Josephus, and has, from an early period, been held to be an allegory. It has frequently furnished poets and painters with subjects.

Julius Cæsar.—An historical tragedy by William Shakespeare. The poet was in this, as in other plays, materially assisted by North’s translation of Plutarch. “Shakespeare’s Julius Cæsar,” says Hazlitt, “is not equal, as a whole, to either of his other plays taken from the Roman history. It is inferior in interest to Coriolanus, and both in interest and power to Antony and Cleopatra. It, however, abounds in admirable and affecting passages, and is remarkable for the profound knowledge of character, in which Shakespeare could hardly fail.”

K

Kadir, Al.—The night on which the Koran was sent down to Mohammed. Al Kadir is supposed to be the seventh of the last ten nights of Ramadan, or the night between the twenty-third and twenty-fourth days of the month.

Kay.—A foster brother of King Arthur, and a rude and boastful knight of the Round Table. He was the butt of King Arthur’s court. Called also Sir Queux. He appears in the Boy and the Mantle, in Percy’s Reliques. Sir Kay is represented as the type of rude boastfulness, Sir Gawain of courtesy, Sir Launcelot of chivalry, Sir Mordred of treachery, Sir Galahad of chastity, Sir Mark of cowardice.

Kehama (kē-hä´mä).—A Hindu rajah who obtains and sports with supernatural power. His adventures are related in Southey’s poem entitled The Curse of Kehama.

Kenilworth.—A novel by Sir Walter Scott. This is very superior to The Abbot and The Monastery. For interest it comes next to Ivanhoe, and the portrait of Queen Elizabeth is lifelike and correct. That of Queen Mary is given in The Abbot. Full of courtly gayeties and splendor, the novel contains the unhappy tale of the beautiful Amy Robsart, which cannot fail to excite our sympathy and pity.

Kent, Earl of.—A rough, plain-spoken, but faithful nobleman in Shakespeare’s King Lear, who follows the fallen fortunes of the king, disguised as a servant, under the assumed name of Caius.

Kenwigs (ken´wigz).—A family in Dickens’ novel Nicholas Nickleby, including a number of little girls who differed from one another only in the length of their frilled pantalets and of their flaxen pigtails tied with bows of blue ribbon.

Kilkenny Cats.—Two cats, in an Irish story, which fought till nothing was left but their tails. It is probably a parable of a local contest between Kilkenny and Irishtown, which impoverished both boroughs.

Kilmansegg, Miss.—An heiress with great expectations and an artificial leg of solid gold, in Hood’s poem, A Golden Legend.

King Horn.—A metrical romance which was very popular in the thirteenth century. King Horn is a beautiful young prince who is carried away by pirates; but his life is spared, and after many wonderful adventures he weds a princess, and regains his father’s kingdom.

King Lear.—A tragedy by Shakespeare whose hero is a fabulous or legendary king of Britain. He had three daughters, and when four score years old, wishing to retire from the active duties of sovereignty, resolved to divide his kingdom between them, but was persuaded to disinherit Cordelia. The beauty of the play is the exquisite character of Cordelia, who is a “perfect woman.”

King Log and King Stork.—Characters in a celebrated fable of Æsop, which relates that the frogs, grown weary of living without a government, petitioned Jupiter for a king. Jupiter accordingly threw down a log among them, which made a satisfactory ruler till the frogs recovered from their fright and discovered his real nature. They, therefore, entreated Jupiter for another king, whereupon he sent them a stork, who immediately began to devour them.

Klaus, Peter.—The hero of an old popular tradition of Germany—the prototype of Rip Van Winkle—represented as a goatherd.

Knickerbocker, Diedrich.—The imaginary author of a humorous fictitious History of New York, written by Washington Irving.

Knight of the Swan.—Lohengrin, son of Parsival, because his boat was drawn by a swan.

Knights of the Round Table.—King Arthur’s knights were so called because they sat with him at a round table made by Merlin for King Leodogran. This king gave it to Arthur on his marriage with Guinevere, his daughter.

Koppenberg.—The mountain of Westphalia to which the pied piper (Bunting) led the children, when the people of Hamelin refused to pay him for killing their rats. Browning’s poem, The Pied Piper, tells the tale.

L

Lady of Lyons, The.—A drama, by Lord Lytton, in which Pauline Deschappelles, daughter of a Lyonese merchant, rejects the suits of Beauseant, Glavis, and Claude Melnotte, who therefore combined. Claude, who was a gardener’s son, aided by the other two, passed himself off as Prince Como, married Pauline, and brought her home to his mother’s cottage. The proud beauty was very indignant, and Claude left her to join the French army. He became a colonel, and returned to Lyons. He found his father-in-law on the eve of bankruptcy, and that Beauseant had promised to satisfy the creditors if Pauline would consent to marry him. Pauline was heartbroken; Claude revealed himself, paid the money required, and carried home the bride.

Lady of Shalott, The.—A poem by Alfred Tennyson, founded on an incident in King Arthur. It is descriptive of “a being whose existence passes without emotion, without changes, without intelligible motive for living on, without hope or fear, here or hereafter.”

Lady of the Lake, The.—A poem in six cantos by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1810. “Measured even by the standard of the Minstrel and Marmion, the Lady of the Lake possessed,” says Palgrave, “merits of its own, which raised his reputation still higher. Jeffrey’s prediction has been perfectly fulfilled, that the Lady of the Lake would be ‘oftener read than either of the former,’ and it is generally acknowledged to be, in Lockhart’s words, ‘the most interesting, romantic, picturesque, and graceful of his great poems.’” The descriptions of scenery, which form one of the chief charms of the poem, render it, even now, one of the most minute and faithful handbooks to the region in which the drama of Ellen and the Knight of Snowdon is laid.

Lake Poets, The.—Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge, who lived about the lakes of Cumberland.

Lalla Rookh (lal´ä rök).—An oriental romance by Thomas Moore, consisting of four tales in verse, entitled The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, Paradise and the Peri, The Fire-Worshipers, and The Light of the Harem, and connected by a short prose narrative, in which it is described how Lalla Rookh, daughter of the Emperor Aurungzebe, journeys toward Bucharia to meet her engaged husband, and how the prince gains her love on the way, in the guise of a Cashmerian minstrel. Lalla Rookh was published in 1817.

L’Allegro (läl-lā´grō).—A descriptive poem by John Milton, probably written during his college life.

L’Amour Médecin (la-mōōr´ mād-saN´) (or, The Love Doctor).—A comedy by Molière, written about the year 1665. Lucinde, the daughter of Sganarelle, is in love, and the father calls in four doctors to consult upon the nature of her malady. They see the patient, and retire to consult together, but talk about Paris, about their visits, about the topics of the day; and when the father enters to know what opinion they have formed, they all prescribe different remedies, and pronounce different opinions. Lisette then calls in a “quack” doctor (Clitandre, the lover), who says he must act on the imagination, and proposes a seeming marriage, to which Sganarelle assents. The assistant being a notary, Clitandre and Lucinde are married.

Lampoon.—A personal satire, often bitter and malignant. These libels, carried to excess in the reign of Charles II., acquired the name of lampoons from the burden sung to them: “Lampone, lampone, camerada lampone.”

Land of Beulah.—The paradise in which souls wait before the resurrection. In Pilgrim’s Progress the land from which the pilgrims enter the Celestial City. The name is found in Isaiah lxii., 4.

Land of Bondage.—Name given to Egypt in the Bible.

Land of Cakes.—A name sometimes given to Scotland, because oatmeal cakes are a common national article of food, particularly among the poorer classes.

Land of Nod.—In common speech sleepy-land or land of dreams.

Land of Promise.—The land promised to Abraham—Canaan.

Land of Shadows.—A place of unreality, sometimes meaning land of ghosts.

Land o’ the Leal.—An unknown land of happiness, loyalty, and virtue. Caroline Oliphant, baroness Nairne, meant heaven in her song and this is now its accepted meaning.

Land of Wisdom.—A name given to Normandy, in France, because of the wise customs which have prevailed there, and also because of the skill and judgment of the people in making laws.

Land of Veda (vē´dä).—Name often given to India.

Landlady’s Daughter.—She rowed Flemming “over the Rhine-stream, rapid and roaring wide,” and told to him the story of the Liebenstein.

Last Days of Pompeii (pom-pā´yē), The.—A novel by Bulwer Lytton, Edward George, Baron Lytton, which was published in 1834. The interest of the book is one of situation and of action rather than of character. The scenes which linger on our memories longest are the noonday excursion on the Campanian seas, the temple of Isis, with its hidden machinery; the funeral pomp and dirge of the murdered Apæcides, Lydon perishing in the unequal struggle; the price which was to have been paid for a father’s liberty; and lastly, the grand catastrophe, a subject which called forth all Lord Lytton’s brilliant powers.

Last of the Mohicans.—The Indian chief Uncas is so called by Cooper in his novel of that title.

Launfal (län´fal), Sir.—Steward of King Arthur. James Russell Lowell has a poem entitled The Vision of Sir Launfal.

Lavaine.—Son of the lord of Astolat, who accompanied Sir Lancelot when he went to tilt for the ninth diamond. Lavaine is described as young, brave, and a true knight. He was brother to Elaine.

Lavinia (la-vin´i-ä) and Palemon.—Lavinia was the daughter of Acasto, patron of Palemon. Through Acasto Palemon gained a fortune and wandered away from his friend. Acasto lost his property, and dying, left a widow and daughter in poverty. Palemon often sought them, but could never find them. One day, a lovely modest maiden came to glean in Palemon’s fields. The young squire was greatly struck with her exceeding beauty and modesty, but she was known as a pauper and he dared not give her more than a passing glance. Upon inquiry he found that the beautiful gleaner was the daughter of Acasto; he proposed marriage, and Lavinia was restored to her rightful place.

Leonato (lē-ō-nä´tō).—Governor of Missina in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. He prematurely accredited the accusations against his daughter, Hero.

Leonine (lē´ō-nīn).—In Shakespeare’s Pericles. Servant to Dionyza. The latter conspired with him to murder Marina, and was saved from the crime only by the intervention of pirates.

Léonore (lā-ō-nōr´).—In Molière’s L’ecole des Maris, sister of Isabelle, an orphan; brought up by Ariste according to his notions of training a girl to make him a good wife. He put her on her honor, tried to win her confidence and love, gave her all the liberty consistent with propriety and social etiquette, and found that she loved him, and made a fond and faithful wife.

Leviathan (lē-vi´a-than) (or, the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil).—A work by Thomas Hobbes, published in 1651. In Leviathan, Hobbes’ peculiar theories in politics received their fullest and ablest expression. They found an illustrious opponent in Lord Clarendon, who, in 1676, published A Brief View and Survey of the Dangerous and Pernicious Errors to Church and State in Mr. Hobbes’ book Entitled Leviathan.

Little Dorrit.—The heroine and title of a novel by Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit was born and brought up in the Marshalsea prison, Bermondsey, where her father was confined for debt; and when about fourteen years of age she used to do needlework, to earn a subsistence for herself and her father. The child had a pale, transparent face; was quick in expression, though not beautiful in feature. Her eyes were a soft hazel, and her figure slight. The little dove of the prison was idolized by the prisoners, and when she walked out, every man in Bermondsey who passed her, touched or took off his hat out of respect to her good works and active benevolence. Her father, coming into a property, was set free at length, and Little Dorrit married Arthur Clennam, the marriage service being celebrated in the Marshalsea, by the prison chaplain.

Little John.—A big, stalwart fellow, named John Little, who encountered Robin Hood, and gave him a sound thrashing, after which he was rechristened, and Robin stood godfather. Little John is introduced by Sir Walter Scott in The Talisman.

Little Nell.—Old Curiosity Shop, Dickens. The prominent character of the story, pure and true, though living in the midst of selfishness and crime. She was brought up by her grandfather, who was in his dotage, and who tried to eke out a narrow living by selling curiosities. At length, through terror of Quilp, the old man and his grandchild stole away, and led a vagrant life.

Lochinvar (lock´in-var).—A young highlander, in the poem of Marmion, was much in love with a lady whose fate was decreed that she should marry a “laggard.” Young Lochinvar persuaded the too-willing lassie to be his partner in a dance; and, while the guests were intent on their amusements, swung her into his saddle and made off with her before the bridegroom could recover from his amazement.

Locksley.—So Robin Hood is sometimes called, from the village in which he was born.

Locksley Hall.—A poem by Tennyson, in which the hero, the lord of Locksley Hall, having been jilted by his cousin Amy for a rich boor, pours forth his feelings in a flood of scorn and indignation. The poem is understood to have been occasioned by a similar incident in the poet’s own life, but this has been questioned.

Lohengrin (lō´hen-grin).—The Knight of the Swan; the hero of a romance by Wolfram von Eschenbach, a German minnesinger of the thirteenth century, and also of a modern musical drama by Richard Wagner. He was the son of Parsival, and came to Brabant in a ship drawn by a white swan, which took him away again when his bride, disobeying his injunction, pressed him to discover his name and parentage.

Lorelei, or Loreley (lō´re-li).—In German poetry and romance, a siren supposed to haunt the Lurlenberg rock on the Rhine, and lure sailors and fisherman to destruction. She is the subject of a beautiful ballad by Heine.

Lorna Doone.—A novel by R. D. Blackmore, published in 1869, the scene of which is laid in Exmoor. The Doones are a family of robbers and freebooters from which Lorna, otherwise Lady Lorna Dugal, is rescued by John Ridd, a young man. Ridd finally broke up the band, drove them from Doone valley, and married Lorna.

Love’s Labor’s Lost.—A comedy by Shakespeare. Ferdinand, king of Navarre, with three lords named Biron, Dumain, and Longaville, agree to spend three years in study, during which time no woman was to approach the court. The compact signed, all went well until the princess of France, attended by Rosaline, Maria, and Katharine, besought an interview respecting certain debts said to be due from the king of France to the king of Navarre. The four gentleman fell in love with the four ladies. The love of the king sought the princess, by right, Biron loved Rosaline, Longaville admired Maria, and Dumain adored Katharine. In order to carry their suits, the four gentlemen, disguised as Muscovites, presented themselves before the ladies; but the ladies, being warned of the masquerade, disguised themselves also, so that the gentlemen in every case addressed the wrong lady. A mutual arrangement was made that the suits should be deferred for twelve months and a day; and if, at the expiration of that time, they remained of the same mind, the matter should be taken into serious consideration.

Lusiad (lū´si-ad), The.—A Portuguese poem by Luiz Camoëns, in 1572. The Lusiad celebrates the chief events in the history of Portugal, and is remarkable as the only modern epic poem which is pervaded by anything approaching the national and popular spirit of ancient epic poems. Bacchus was the guardian power of the Mohammedans, and Venus, or Divine Love, of the Lusians. The fleet first sailed to Mozambique, then to Melinda (in Africa), where the adventurers were hospitably received and provided with a pilot to conduct them to India. In the Indian Ocean, Bacchus tried to destroy the fleet; Venus, however, calmed the sea, and Gama arrived in India in safety. Having accomplished his object, he returned to Lisbon. Among the most famous passages are the tragical story of Inez de Castro, and the apparition of the giant Adamastor, who appears as the spirit of the storm to Vasco da Gama, when crossing the cape. The versification of The Lusiad is extremely charming.

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Mab.—The queen of the fairies, famous in English literature if only on account of the exquisite description of her put into the mouth of Mercutio, in Romeo and Juliet, beginning “O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.”

Macbeth.—One of Shakespeare’s most celebrated tragedies, whose chief characters are Macbeth, king of Scotland, and Lady Macbeth, his murderously ambitious wife. Urged by the latter he kills Duncan, the rightful king, and in turn is himself slain by Macduff. The tale of Macbeth and Banquo was borrowed from the legendary history of Scotland, but the interest of the play is not historical. It is a tragedy of human life, intensely real, the soul, with all its powers for good or evil, deliberately choosing evil. The three witches in the desert place, in thunder, lightning, storm, strike the keynote of evil suggestion. The awfulness of soul destruction is felt in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as in no other of Shakespeare’s dramas.

Macheath, Captain.—A highwayman who is the hero of Gay’s Beggar’s Opera.

Mac-Ivor (mak-ē´vor), Fergus.—Waverley, Scott, Fergus Mac-Ivor is a prominent character in the novel, and his sister, Flora Mac-Ivor, the heroine. They are of the family of a Scottish chieftain.

Macreons, The Island of.—Pantagruel, Rabelais. The title is given to Great Britain, derived from a Greek word meaning long-lived, “because no one is put to death there for his religious opinions.” Rabelais says the island “is full of antique ruins and relics of popery and ancient superstitions.”

Madasima, Queen.—An important character in the old romance called Amadis de Gaul; her constant attendant was Elisabat, a famous surgeon with whom she roamed in solitary retreats.

Madoc (mad´ok).—A poem by Southey, founded on one of the legends connected with the early history of America. Madoc, a Welsh prince of the twelfth century, is represented as making the discovery of the western world. His contests with the Mexicans form the subject.

Maidens’ Castle.—An allegorical castle mentioned in Malory’s History of Prince Arthur. It was taken from a duke by seven knights, and held by them till Sir Galahad expelled them. It was called The Maidens’ Castle because these knights made a vow that every maiden who passed it should be made a captive.

Maid Marian.—A half mythical character, but the name is said to have been assumed by Matilda, daughter of Robert, Lord Fitzwalter, while Robin Hood remained in a state of outlawry. The name is considered the foundation of the word marionettes, from Maid Marian’s connection with the morris dance, or May-day dance, at which she was said to appear.

Maid of Athens.—Made famous by Lord Byron’s song of this title. Twenty-four years after this song was written an Englishman sought out “the Athenian maid,” and found a beggar without a vestige of beauty.

Maid of Saragossa.—Childe Harold, Byron. A young Spanish woman distinguished for her heroism during the defense of Saragossa in 1808-1809. She first attracted notice by mounting a battery where her lover had fallen, and working a gun in his place.

Malade Imaginaire, Le (or, The Imaginary Invalid).—A comedy by Molière. Mons. Argan, who took seven mixtures and twelve lavements in one month instead of twelve mixtures with twenty lavements, as he had hitherto done. “No wonder,” he says, “I am not so well.” He fancies his wife loves him dearly, and that his daughter is undutiful, because she declines to marry a young medical prig instead of Cleante, whom she loves. His brother persuades “the malade” to counterfeit death, in order to test the sincerity of his wife and daughter. The wife rejoices greatly at his death, and proceeds to filch his property, when Argan starts up and puts an end to her pillage. Next comes the daughter’s turn. When she hears of her father’s death, she bewails him with great grief, says she has lost her best friend, and that she will devote her whole life in prayer for the repose of his soul. Argan is delighted, starts up in a frenzy of joy, declares she is a darling, and shall marry the man of her choice freely, and receive a father’s blessing.

Malaprop (mal´a-prop), Mrs.—A character in Sheridan’s Rivals, noted for her blundering use of words.

Malbecco.—Faërie Queene, Spenser. The husband of a young wife, Helinore, and himself a crabbed, jealous old fellow.

Malengrin.—A character in Spenser’s Faërie Queene, who carried a net on his back “to catch fools with.” The name has grown to mean the personification of guile or flattery.

Malepardus.—The castle of Master Reynard, the Fox, in the beast epic of Reynard the Fox.

Malvoisin.—Ivanhoe, Scott. One of the challenging knights at the tournament (Sir Philip de Malvoisin). Sir Albert de Malvoisin was a preceptor of the Knights Templar.

Mambrino (mäm-brē´nō).—Poems, Ariosto, etc. A king of the Moors, who was the possessor of an enchanted golden helmet, which rendered the wearer invulnerable and which was the object of eager quest to the paladins of Charlemagne. This helmet was borne away by the knight Rinaldo. In Don Quixote we are told of a barber who was caught in a shower of rain, and who, to protect his hat, clapped his brazen basin on his head. Don Quixote insisted that this basin was the helmet of the Moorish king; and, taking possession of it, wore it as such.

Managarm.—Prose Edda. The largest and most formidable of the race of giants. He dwells in the Iron-wood, Jamvid. Managarm will first fill himself with the blood of man, and then he will swallow up the moon. This giant symbolizes war, and the iron wood in which he dwells is the wood of spears.

Manfred.—A poem by Byron. Manfred sold himself to the prince of darkness, and received from him seven spirits to do his bidding. They were the spirits of “earth, ocean, air, night, mountains, winds, and the star of his own destiny.” Wholly without human sympathies, the count dwelt in splendid solitude among the Alpine mountains. He loved Astarte, and was visited by her spirit after her death. In spirit form she told Manfred that he would die the following day; and, when asked if she loved him, she signed “Manfred,” and vanished.

Manon l’Escaut (mä-non´ les-kō).—A French novel by A. F. Prévost. Manon is the “fair mischief” of the story. Her charms seduce and ruin the chevalier des Grieux, who marries her. After marriage, the selfish mistress becomes converted into the faithful wife, who follows her husband into disgrace and banishment, and dies by his side in the wilds of America. The object of this novel, like that of La Dame aux Camélias, by Dumas fils, is to show how true hearted, how self-sacrificing, how attractive, a fille de joie may be.

Mantalini (man-ta-lē´nē).—Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens. The husband of madame; he is a man doll, noted for his white teeth, his oaths, and his gorgeous morning gown. This “exquisite” lives on his wife’s earnings, and thinks he confers a favor on her by spending. Madame Mantalini is represented as a fashionable dressmaker near Cavendish Square, London.

Marble Faun, The.—A romance by Hawthorne, published in 1860. The English edition, published in the same year, is called Transformation, or the Romance of Monte Beni. See Donatello. The sole idea of the Marble Faun is to illustrate the intellectually and morally awakening power of a sudden impulsive sin, committed by a simple, joyous, instinctive, “natural” man. The whole group of characters is imagined solely with a view to the development of this idea.

Marcellus (mär-sel´us).—Hamlet, Shakespeare. An officer of Denmark, to whom the ghost of the murdered king appeared before it presented itself to Prince Hamlet.

Marchioness, The.—Old Curiosity Shop, Dickens. A half-starved maid-of-all-work, in the service of Sampson Brass and his sister Sally. She was so lonesome and dull that it afforded her relief to peep at Mr. Swiveller even through the keyhole of his door. Mr. Swiveller called her the “marchioness,” when she played cards with him, “because it seemed more real and pleasant” to play with a marchioness than with a domestic. While enjoying these games they made the well known “orange peel wine.”

Mariana (mä-rē-ä´nä).—In Tennyson’s poem The Moated Grange, a young damsel, who sits in the moated grange, looking out for her lover, who never comes. (2) In Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure Mariana is a lovely and lovable lady, betrothed to Angelo, who, during the absence of Vincentio, the duke of Vienna, acted as his lord deputy. Her pleadings to the duke for Angelo are wholly unrivaled.

Martin’s Summer, St.—Halcyon days; a time of prosperity; fine weather. Mentioned by Shakespeare in Henry VI., etc.

Masora.—A critical work or canon, whereby is fixed and ascertained the reading of the text of the Hebrew version of the Bible.

Mauth Dog.—Lay of the Last Minstrel, Scott. A black specter spaniel that haunted the guard room of Peeltown in the Isle of Man. A drunken trooper entered the guard room while the dog was there, but lost his speech, and died within three days.

Mazeppa (mä-zep´ä).—A poem by Byron. Mazeppa was a Cossack of noble family who became a page in the court of the king of Poland, and while in this capacity intrigued with Theresia, the young wife of a count, who discovered the amour, and had the young page lashed to a wild horse, and turned adrift.

McFingal.—The hero of Trumbull’s political poem of the same name; represented as a burly New England squire, enlisted on the side of the Tory part of the American revolution, and constantly engaged in controversy with Honorius, the champion of the Whigs.

Measure for Measure.—A comedy by Shakespeare. There was a law in Vienna that made it death for a man to live with a woman not his wife; but the law was so little enforced that the mothers of Vienna complained to the duke of its neglect. So the duke deputed Angelo to enforce it; and, assuming the dress of a friar, absented himself awhile, to watch the result. Scarcely was the duke gone, when Claudio was sentenced to death for violating the law. His sister Isabel went to intercede on his behalf, and Angelo told her he would spare her brother if she would become his Phryne. Isabel told her brother he must prepare to die, as the conditions proposed by Angelo were out of the question. The duke, disguised as a friar, heard the whole story, and persuaded Isabel to “assent in words,” but to send Mariana (the divorced wife of Angelo) to take her place. This was done; but Angelo sent the provost to behead Claudio, a crime which “the friar” contrived to avert. Next day the duke returned to the city, and Isabel told her tale. Finally the duke married Isabel, Angelo took back his wife, and Claudio married Juliet.

Medea (mē-dē´ä).—A play by Euripides. The Medea came out in 431 B. C. along with the poet’s Philoctetes, Dictys, and the satiric Reapers (the last was early lost). It was based upon a play of Neophron’s, and only obtained the third prize, Euphorion being first, and Sophocles second. It may accordingly be regarded as a failure in its day—an opinion apparently confirmed by the faults (viz., Ægeus and the winged chariot) selected from it as specimens in Aristotle’s Poetica. There is considerable evidence of there being a second edition of the play, and many of the variants, or so-called interpolations, seem to arise from both versions being preserved and confused. Nevertheless, there was no play of Euripides more praised and imitated.

Médecine Malgré Lui, Le (mād-saN´ mal-grā´lwē lu), (or, The Doctor in Spite of Himself).—A comedy by Molière. The “enforced doctor” is Sganarelle, a fagot maker, who is called in by Géronte to cure his daughter of dumbness. Sganarelle soon perceives that the malady is assumed in order to prevent a hateful marriage, and introduces her lover as an apothecary. The dumb spirit is at once exorcized, and the lovers made happy with “pills matrimonial.”

In 1733 Fielding produced a farce called The Mock Doctor, which was based on this comedy. The doctor he calls “Gregory,” and Géronte “Sir Jasper.” Lucinde, the dumb girl, he calls “Charlotta;” and Anglicizes her lover’s name, Léandre, into “Leander.”

Meg Merrilies (mer´i-lēz).—A prominent character in Scott’s Guy Mannering, a half-crazy gypsy or sibyl.

Meistersingers (mīs´ter-sing-ers).—In Germany an association of master tradesmen, to revive the national minstrelsy, which had fallen into decay with the decline of the minnesingers or love minstrels (1350-1523). Their subjects were chiefly moral or religious, and constructed according to rigid rules.

Melissa (me-lis´ä).—Orlando Furioso, Ariosto. The prophetess who lived in Merlin’s cave. Bradamante gave her the enchanted ring to take to Rogero; so, assuming the form of Atlantes, she not only delivered Rogero but disenchanted all the forms metamorphosed in the island where he was captive.

Melnotte, Claude.—Lady of Lyons, Bulwer. The son of a gardener in love with Pauline, “the Beauty of Lyons,” but treated by her with contempt. Beauseant and Glavis, two other rejected suitors, conspired with him to humble her.

Merchant of Venice.—A comedy by Shakespeare. Antonio the merchant, signs a bond in order to borrow money from Shylock, a Jew, for Bassanio, the lover of Portia. If the loan was repaid within three months, only the principal would be required; if not, the Jew should be at liberty to claim a pound of flesh from Antonio’s body. The ships of Antonio being delayed by contrary winds, the merchant was unable to meet his bill, and the Jew claimed the forfeiture. Portia, in the dress of a law doctor, conducted the defense, and saved Antonio by reminding the Jew that a pound of flesh gave him no drop of blood.

Merlin.—The name of an ancient Welsh prophet and enchanter. He is often alluded to by the older poets, especially Spenser, in his Faërie Queene, and also figures in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. In the History of Prince Arthur by Malory, Merlin is the prince of enchanters and of a supernatural origin. He is said to have built the Round Table and to have brought from Ireland the stones of Stonehenge.

Merlin’s Cave.—In Dynevor, near Carmarthen, noted for its ghastly noises of rattling iron chains, groans, and strokes of hammers. The cause is said to be this: Merlin set his spirits to fabricate a brazen wall to encompass the city of Carmarthen, and, as he had to call on the Lady of the Lake, bade them not slacken their labor till he returned; but he never did return, for Vivian held him prisoner by her wiles.

Merry Wives of Windsor, The.—A comedy by Shakespeare. It is said that Queen Elizabeth was so pleased with the Falstaff of Henry IV. that she commanded Shakespeare to show how he conducted himself when in love. For the plot he was probably but little indebted to other writers. The Two Lovers of Pisa from Straparola, in Tarleton’s News Out of Purgatory, and a story from Il Pecorone which suggests the hiding of Falstaff in the soiled linen, may possibly have suggested some of the incidents. John Dennis wrote a play, The Comical Gallant, or the Amours of Sir John Falstaff, in 1702, in which The Merry Wives may be recognized.

Messiah (me-sī´ä), The.—An epic poem in fifteen books, by F. G. Klopstock. The subject is the last days of Jesus, his crucifixion and resurrection.

Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life.—A novel, by George Eliot, published in 1872, and characterized by The Quarterly Review “as the most remarkable work of the ablest of living novelists, and, considered as a study of character, unique.” The heroine is Dorothea Brooke, first married to Mr. Casaubon, afterward to Will Ladislaw. Among the other characters are Mr. Lydgate, Rosamond Vincy, Mary Garth, and Mrs. Cadwallader.

Midlothian, or Mid-Lothian (mid-lō´THi-an), The Heart of.—A tale by Scott, of the Porteous riot, in which the incidents of Effie and Jeanie Deans are of absorbing interest. Effie was seduced by Geordie Robertson (alias George Staunton), while in the service of Mrs. Saddletree. She murdered her infant, and was condemned to death; but her half sister Jeanie went to London, pleaded her cause before the queen, and obtained her pardon. Jeanie, on her return to Scotland, married Reuben Butler; and Geordie Robertson (then Sir George Staunton) married Effie. Sir George being shot by a gypsy boy, Effie (i. e., Lady Staunton) retired to a convent on the continent.

Midsummer Night’s Dream.—A comedy by Shakespeare. The author says there was a law in Athens that if a daughter refused to marry the husband selected for her by her father, she might be put to death. Ægeus, an Athenian, promised to give his daughter Hermia in marriage to Demetrius; but, as the lady loved Lysander, she refused to marry the man selected by her father, and fled from Athens with her lover. Demetrius went in pursuit of her, followed by Helena, who doted on him. All four came to a forest, and fell asleep. In their dreams a vision of fairies passed before them, and, on awaking, Demetrius resolved to forego Hermia, who disliked him, and to take to wife Helena, who sincerely loved him. When Ægeus was informed thereof, he readily agreed to give his daughter to Lysander, and the force of the law was not called into action (1592).

Mildendo.—Gulliver’s Travels, Swift. The metropolis of Lilliput, the wall of which was two feet and a half in height, and at least eleven inches thick. The emperor’s palace, called Belfaborac, was in the center of the city.

Miles Standish (or, Courtship of Miles Standish).—A poem by H. W. Longfellow. From this poem the robust figures of the Puritan captain in his haps and mishaps, and of John Alden and Priscilla, are now part of our national treasures.

Miller, Daisy.—Title and heroine of a story by Henry James. An American girl traveling in Europe, where her innocence, ignorance, and disregard of European customs and standards of propriety put her in compromising situations, and frequently expose her conduct to misconstruction.

Mill on the Floss.—A novel by George Eliot, published in 1860. There is a simplicity about The Mill on the Floss which reminds us of the classic tragedy. The vast power of nature over the career and fate of a family is figured forth in the river, beside which the child Maggie played, filling her mother’s heart with gloomy and not unveracious presentiments, and down which she passed with Stephen in her hour of temptation, with Tom in her last moments; the whole strength of association and of the ties and instinct of blood breaking in at every critical point in the story, like the voice of a Greek chorus, full of traditionary warning and stern common sense, but speaking in the dialect of English rusticity, and by the mouths of Mr. Tulliver and his wife’s relations.

Minna von Barnhelm (min´ä fon bärn´helm).—A comedy by Lessing, published in 1767. It is the first German national drama which deals with contemporary events.

Minnehaha (min-e-hä´hä).—Hiawatha, Henry W. Longfellow. The daughter of the arrow maker of Dacotah, and wife of Hiawatha. She was called Minnehaha from the waterfall of that name.

Minnesingers (min´e-sing-erz).—A name given to the German lyric poets of the middle ages, on account of love being the principal theme of their lays, the German word “minne” being used to denote a pure and faithful love.

Miranda.—The Tempest, Shakespeare. The daughter of Prospero, the exiled duke of Milan, and niece of Antonio, the usurping duke. She is brought up on a desert island, with Ariel, the fairy spirit, and Caliban, the monster, as her only companions.

Miriam.—A beautiful and mysterious woman in Hawthorne’s romance The Marble Faun, for love of whom Donatello commits murder, thus becoming her partner in crime.

Misanthrope, Le (mi-zäN-trop´, lu).—A comedy by Molière, produced in 1666. This play is an almost inexhaustible source of allusions, quotations, proverbial sayings, etc. Its principal interest lies in the development of various pairs of opposing characters in even their lightest shades. It is the ideal of classic comedy. Alceste, the impatient, but not cynical, hero. Célimène the coquette, Oronte the fop, Éliante the reasonable woman, Arsinœ the mischief maker, are all immortal types.

Misérables, Les [(mi-zā-rabl´, lâ); or, The Unfortunates.]—A novel by Victor Hugo, in five parts: Fantine, Cosette, Marius, L’Idylle Rue Plumet, and Jean Valjean. It was published in 1862.

Morte d’Arthur (môrt där´ther).—(1) Compilation of Arthurian tales, called on the title page The History of Prince Arthur, compiled from the French by Sir Thomas Malory, and printed by William Caxton in 1470. It is divided into three parts. The first part contains the birth of King Arthur, the establishment of the Round Table, the romance of Balin and Balan, and the beautiful allegory of Gareth and Linet. The second part is mainly the romance of Sir Tristram. The third part is the romance of Sir Launcelot, the quest of the holy grail, and the death of Arthur, Guinevere, Tristram, Lamorake, and Launcelot.

(2) An idyll by Tennyson, called The Passing of Arthur, in the Idylls of the King. The poet supposes Arthur (wounded in the great battle of the west) to be borne off the field by Sir Bedivere. The wounded monarch directed Sir Bedivere to cast Excalibur into the mere. Sir Bedivere then carried the dying king to a barge, in which were three queens, who conveyed him to the island valley of Avilion.

Mualox.—The Fair God, Lew Wallace. The old paba or prophet who assured Nenetzin that she was to be the future queen in her father’s palace.

Much Ado About Nothing.—A comedy by Shakespeare. It was first printed in 1600. The play was known as Benedict and Bettris in 1613, and is probably the same as Love’s Labor’s Won. The story of Hero is taken with some variations from one of Bandello’s tales, which probably was borrowed from the story of Geneura and Ariodantes in the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto. This part of the play, however, is subordinated by Shakespeare to the loves of Benedict and Beatrice.

Mucklebacket.—The Antiquary, Scott. Name of a conspicuous family, consisting of Saunders Mucklebacket, the old fisherman of Musselcrag; Old Elspeth, mother of Saunders; Maggie, wife of Saunders; Steenie, the eldest son, who was drowned; Little Jennie, Saunders’ child.

Mumblecrust, Madge.—A character in Edall’s Ralph Roister Doister, whose name was subsequently employed in Dekker’s Satiro-Mastix, and the comedy of Patient Grissel. Madge is mentioned in the MS. comedy of Misogonus.

Münchausen (münch´hou-zen), The Baron.—A hero of most marvelous adventures, and the fictitious author of a book of travels filled with most extravagant tales. The name is said to refer to Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Münchausen, a German officer in the Russian army, noted for his marvelous stories.

Mutual Friend, Our.—A novel by Charles Dickens. The “mutual friend” is Mr. Boffin, the golden dustman, who was the mutual friend of John Harmon and of Bella Wilfer. The tale is this: John Harmon was supposed to have been murdered by Julius Handford; but it was Ratford, who was murdered by Rogue Riderhood, and the mistake arose from a resemblance between the two persons. By his father’s will, John Harmon was to marry Bella Wilfer; but John Harmon knew not the person destined by his father for his wife, and made up his mind to dislike her. After his supposed murder, he assumed the name of John Rokesmith, and became the secretary of Mr. Boffin, “the golden dustman,” residuary legatee of old John Harmon, by which he became possessor of one hundred thousand dollars. Boffin knew Rokesmith, but concealed his knowledge for a time. At Boffin’s house John Harmon (as Rokesmith) met Bella Wilfer, and fell in love with her. Mr. Boffin, in order to test Bella’s love, pretended to be angry with Rokesmith for presuming to love Bella; and, as Bella married him, he cast them both off “for a time,” to live on John’s earnings. A babe was born, and then the husband took the young mother to a beautiful house, and told her he was John Harmon, that the house was their house, that he was the possessor of five hundred thousand dollars through the disinterested conduct of their “mutual friend,” Mr. Boffin, and the young couple live happily with Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, in wealth and luxury.

My Novel.—A work of fiction by Edward, Lord Lytton, published in 1853. It is described as the “great work which marks the culminating point in Lord Lytton’s genius, the work to which, with a rare estimate of his own powers, he has given the singularly appropriate title of My Novel.... If we except one or two melodramatic scenes, it is throughout an admirable work.... The plot is complex, but it is unfolded with marvelous directness and ingenuity, and, notwithstanding the digressions, the interest never for a moment flags.” Among the characters are Squire Hazeldean, Mr. Dale, Dick Avenel, Leonard Fairfield, and Harley L’Estrange.

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Nathan the Wise [Nathan der Wise (nä´tän der vī´ze).]—A drama by G. E. Lessing, so called from the name of its principal character. Its tendency is toward religious tolerance, especially in the episode of the three rings, which was taken from Boccaccio. Nathan is a persecuted but noble Jew, an ideal character resembling Moses Mendelssohn.

Natty Bumppo.—Called “Leather-Stocking.” He appears in five of Cooper’s novels: (1) The Deerslayer; (2) The Pathfinder; (3) As “Hawk-eye” in The Last of the Mohicans; (4) “Natty Bumppo” in The Pioneers; and (5) as the “Trapper” in The Prairie, in which he dies.

Neæra (nē-ē´rä).—The name of a girl mentioned by the Latin poets Horace, Vergil, and Tibullus; sometimes also introduced into modern pastoral poetry as the name of a mistress or sweetheart.

Nepenthe.—A care-dispelling drug, which Polydamna, wife of Thonis, king of Egypt, gave to Helen. A drink containing this drug “changed grief to mirth, melancholy to joyfulness, and hatred to love.” The water of Ardenne had the opposite effects. Homer mentions this drug nepenthe in his Odyssey. It is also mentioned in Poe’s Raven.

New Atlantis, The.—An imaginary island in the middle of the Atlantic. Bacon, in his allegorical fiction, so called, supposes himself wrecked on this island, where he finds an association for the cultivation of natural science and the promotion of arts. Called the “New” Atlantis to distinguish it from Plato’s Atlantis, an imaginary island of fabulous charms.

Newcomes, The.—Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, by William Makepeace Thackeray. The hero is Clive Newcome, a young artist, son of Colonel Newcome, and cousin of Ethel Newcome, whom he marries after the death of his first wife, Rosa Mackenzie. Among the other characters are Comte de Florac, Charles Honeyman, “J. J.,” Fred Bayham, Lady Kew, Jack Belsize, Dr. Goodenough, and others.

Colonel Newcome, is “the finest portrait,” says Hannay, “that has been added to the gallery of English fiction since Sir Walter’s time. The pathos, at once manly and delicate, with which his ruin and death are treated, places Thackeray in a high rank in poetic sentiment.”

Nibelungenlied (nē´be-loong-en-lēd).—An historic poem, generally called the German Iliad. It is the only great national epic that European writers have produced since antiquity, and belongs to every country that has been peopled by Germanic tribes, as it includes the hero traditions of the Franks, the Burgundians and the Goths, with memorials of the ancient myths carried with them from Asia. The poem is divided into two parts, and thirty-two lieds, or cantos. The first part ends with the death of Siegfried, and the second part with the death of Kriemhild. The death of Siegfried and the revenge of Kriemhild have been celebrated in popular songs dating back to the lyric chants now a thousand years old. These are the foundation of the great poem.

Nicholas Nickleby.—A novel by Dickens. The mother of the hero, Nicholas, is a widow fond of talking and of telling long stories with no connection. She imagined her neighbor, a mildly insane man, was in love with her because he tossed cabbages and other articles over the garden wall. She had a habit of introducing in conversation topics wholly irrelevant to the subject under consideration, and of always declaring, when anything unanticipated occurred, that she had expected it all along, and had prophesied to that precise effect on divers (unknown) occasions. Nicholas Nickleby has to make his own way in the world. He first goes as usher to Mr. Squeers, schoolmaster at Dotheboys Hall; but leaves in disgust with the tyranny of Squeers and his wife, especially to a poor boy named Smike. Smike runs away from the school to follow Nicholas, and remains his humble follower till death. At Portsmouth, Nicholas joins the theatrical company of Mr. Crummles, but leaves the profession for other adventures. He falls in with the Brothers Cheeryble, who make him their clerk; and in this post he rises to become a merchant, and finally marries Madeline Bray.

Nightingale, Ode to a.—Poem by John Keats, which “was written,” says Leigh Hunt, “in a house at the foot of Highgate Hill, on the border of the fields looking toward Hampstead. The poet had then his mortal illness upon him, and knew it; never was the voice of death sweeter.”

Notre Dame de Paris.—A prose romance by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. The scene is laid in Paris at the end of the reign of Louis XI. It is a vigorous but somber picture of mediæval manners.

Nourmahal (nör-ma-häl´).—Lalla Rookh, Moore. “Light of the Harem.” She was for a season estranged from the sultan, till he gave a grand banquet, at which she appeared in disguise as a lute-player and singer. The sultan was so enchanted with her performance that he exclaimed, “If Nourmahal had so played and sung, I could forgive her all;” whereupon the sultana threw off her mask.

Nucta.—Paradise and the Peri, Moore. The name given to the miraculous drop which falls from heaven, in Egypt, on St. John’s day, and is supposed to stop the plague.

Nun of Nidaros.—Tales of a Wayside Inn, Longfellow. The abbess of the Drontheim convent, who heard the voice of St. John while she was kneeling at her midnight devotions.

Nut-Brown Maid.—Reliques, Percy. The maid who was wooed by the “banished man.” The “banished man” described to her the hardships she would have to undergo if she married him; but finding that she accounted these hardships as nothing compared with his love, he revealed himself to be an earl’s son, with large hereditary estates in Westmoreland, and married her.

O

Obermann (ō-ber-män´).—The impersonation of high moral worth without talent, and the tortures endured by the consciousness of this defect. This name was given to the hero and imaginary author of a work of the same name by Etienne Pivert de Senancourt, a French writer.

Oberon (ō´be-ron).—King of the fairies, whose wife was Titania. Shakespeare introduces both Oberon and Titania in his Midsummer Night’s Dream. He and Titania, his queen, are fabled to have lived in India, and to have crossed the seas to northern Europe to dance by the light of the moon.

Oberon the Fay.—A humpty dwarf only three feet high, but of angelic face, lord and king of Mommur.

Odyssey (od´i-si).—Homer’s epic poem recording the adventures of Odysseus (Ulysses) in his voyage home from Troy. The poem opens in the island of Calypso, with a complaint against Neptune and Calypso for preventing the return of Odysseus to Ithaca. Telemachos, the son of Odysseus, starts in search of his father, accompanied by Pallas in the guise of Mentor. He goes to Pylos to consult old Nestor, and is sent by him to Sparta, where he is told by Menelaus that Odysseus is detained in the island of Calypso. In the meantime, Odysseus leaves the island, and, being shipwrecked, is cast on the shore of Phæacia. After twenty years’ absence Odysseus returns to his home. Penelope is tormented by suitors. To excuse herself, Penelope tells her suitors he only shall be her husband who can bend Odysseus’ bow. None can do so but the stranger, who bends it with ease. Odysseus is recognized by his wife, and the false suitors are all slain, and peace is restored to Ithaca.

Œdipus (ed´i-pus) Coloneus [(kō-lō-nē´us); or, Œdipus at Colonus (kō-lō´nus)].—A tragedy of Sophocles, which was not exhibited till four years after his death, and was said to be the last he wrote. In it Œdipus, driven from Thebes by Creon, with his daughters, Antigone and Ismene, seeks asylum with Theseus at Athens, and there obtains pardon from the gods, and peace.

Œdipus Tyrannus (ti-ran´us).—A tragedy by Sophocles, of uncertain date, “placed by the scholiasts, and by most modern critics, at the very summit of Greek tragic art.”

Ogier (ō-zhyā´) the Dane.—One of the paladins of the Charlemagne epoch. Also made the hero of an ancient French romance, and the subject of a ballad whose story is probably a contribution from the stores of Norman tradition, Holger, or Olger, Danske, being the national hero of Denmark. He figures in Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso.

O’Groat.—A name often alluded to in early English parables or sayings coming from the legend of John O’Groat’s House. This ancient building was supposed to stand on the most northerly point in Great Britain. John of Groat and his brothers were originally from Holland. According to tradition, the house was of an octagonal shape, being one room with eight windows and eight doors, to admit eight members of the family, the heads of eight different branches of it, to prevent their quarrels for precedence at table, which, on a previous occasion, had well-nigh proved fatal.

Oldbuck, Jonathan.—Antiquary, Scott. The character whose whimsies gave name to the novel. He is represented as devoted to the study and accumulation of old coins, medals, and relics. He is irritable, sarcastic, and cynical from an early disappointment in love, but full of humor and a faithful friend.

Old Curiosity Shop, The.—A tale by Charles Dickens. An old man, having run through his fortune, opened a curiosity shop in order to earn a living and brought up a granddaughter, named Nell [Trent], fourteen years of age. The child was the darling of the old man, but, deluding himself with the hope of making a fortune by gaming, he lost everything, and went forth, with the child, a beggar. Their wanderings and adventures are recounted till they reach a quiet country village, where the old clergyman gives them a cottage to live in. Here Nell soon dies, and the grandfather is found dead upon her grave. The main character, next to Nell, is that of a lad named Kit [Nubbles], employed in the curiosity shop, who adored Nell as “an angel.” This boy gets in the service of Mr. Garland, a genial, benevolent, well-to-do man, in the suburbs of London; but Quilp hates the lad, and induces Brass, a solicitor of Bevis Marks, to put a five pound banknote in the boy’s hat, and then accuse him of theft. Kit is tried, and condemned to transportation; but, the villainy being exposed by a girl-of-all-work nicknamed “The Marchioness,” Kit is liberated and restored to his place, and Quilp drowns himself.

Old Man of the Sea.—In the Arabian Nights, a monster encountered by Sindbad the sailor in his fifth voyage. After carrying him upon his shoulders a long time, Sindbad at last succeeds in intoxicating him, and effects his escape. The Old Man of the Sea was also made the title of a humorous and well-known poem by O. W. Holmes.

Old Mortality, the best of Scott’s historical novels. Morton is the best of his young heroes, and serves as an excellent foil to the fanatical and gloomy Burley. The two classes of actors, viz., the brave and dissolute cavaliers, and the resolute oppressed covenanters, are drawn in bold relief. The most striking incidents are the terrible encounter with Burley in his rocky fastness; the dejection and anxiety of Morton on his return from Holland; and the rural comfort of Cuddie Headrigg’s cottage on the banks of the Clyde, with its thin blue smoke among the trees, “showing that the evening meal was being made ready.” Old Mortality is an itinerant antiquary, whose craze is to clean the moss from gravestones, and keep their letters and effigies in good condition.

Old Red Sandstone.—One of the most noted of Hugh Miller’s famous writings on geological subjects. It revealed his discovery of fossils in a formation which, up to that time, had been deemed almost destitute of them.

Oliver.—As You Like It, Shakespeare. Son and heir of Sir Rowland de Bois, who hated his youngest brother, Orlando, and whom he planned to murder by indirect methods. Orlando, finding it impossible to live in his brother’s house, fled to the forest of Arden, where he joined the society of the banished duke. Oliver pursued him, and as he slept in the forest a snake and a lioness lurked near to make him their prey. Orlando chanced to be passing, slew the two monsters, and then found that the sleeper was his brother Oliver. Oliver’s feelings underwent a change, and he loved his brother as much as he had before hated him. In the forest the two brothers met Rosalind and Celia. The former, who was the daughter of the banished duke, married Orlando; and the latter, who was the daughter of Frederick, the usurping duke, married Oliver.

Oliver Twist.—A novel by Charles Dickens. Thackeray, writing of this novel, in the character of “Ikey Solomons,” says: “The power of the writer is so amazing that the reader at once becomes his captive, and must follow him whithersoever he leads: and to what are we led? Breathless to watch all the crimes of Fagin, tenderly to deplore the errors of Nancy, to have for Bill Sikes a kind of pity and admiration, and an absolute love for the society of the Dodger. All these heroes stepped from the novel on to the stage; and the whole London public, from peers to chimney sweeps, were interested about a set of ruffians whose occupations are thievery, murder, and prostitution.” A remarkable feature of the work, and one which, on its publication, brought considerable odium on the writer, was its unsparing exposure of the poor-law and the workhouse system, which led to its representation on the stage being forbidden for a time.

Olivia.—Twelfth Night, Shakespeare. A rich countess, whose love was sought by Orsino, duke of Illyria; but, having lost her brother, Olivia lived for a time in entire seclusion, and in no wise reciprocated the duke’s love. Olivia fell in love with Viola, who was dressed as the duke’s page, and sent her a ring. Mistaking Sebastian (Viola’s brother) for Viola, she married him out of hand.

Ophelia (ō-fē´liä).—Hamlet, Shakespeare. Daughter of Polonius, the chamberlain. Hamlet fell in love with her, but, after his interview with the Ghost, finds that his plans must lead away from her. During his real or assumed madness, he treats her with undeserved and angry rudeness, and afterward, in a fit of inconsiderate rashness, kills her father, the old Polonius. The terrible shock given to her mind by these events completely shatters her intellect, and leads to her accidental death by drowning.

Organon (ôr´ga-non).—The name given to the first work on logic by Aristotle. He is said to have created the science of logic. The Organon has been enlarged and recast by some modern authors, especially by Mr. John Stuart Mill in his System of Logic, into a structure commensurate with the vast increase of knowledge and extension of positive method belonging to the present day.

Origin of Species, The.—A work by Charles Robert Darwin, in which he put forward his theory of “natural selection.” It was published in 1859, and by many is regarded as the most important scientific work of the nineteenth century.

Orlando Furioso (or-län´dō fö-rē-ō´sō).—An epic poem in forty-six cantos, by Ariosto, which occupied his leisure for eleven years, and was published in 1516. This poem, which celebrates the semi-mythical achievements of the paladins of Charlemagne in the wars between the Christians and the Moors, became immediately popular, and has since been translated into all European languages, and passed through innumerable editions.

Ormulum (ôr´mū-lum).—The Ormulum is a collection of metrical homilies, one for each day of the year; but the single existing copy gives the homilies for thirty-two days only. There are very few French words in the poem, but Scandinavian words and constructions abound. The writer, Orm, or Ormin, belonged to the east of England, and he and his brother Walter were Augustinian monks. He makes no use of rhyme, but his verses are smooth and regular.

Osbaldistone (os-bâl´dis-ton).—Rob Roy, Scott. A family name in the story which tells of nine of the members: (1) the London merchant and Sir Hildebrand, the heads of two families; (2) the son of the merchant is Francis; (3) the offspring of the brother are Percival, the sot; Thorncliffe, the bully; John, the gamekeeper; Richard, the horse-jockey; Wilfred, the fool; and Rashleigh, the scholar, by far the worst of all. This last worthy is slain by Rob Roy, and dies cursing his cousin Frank, whom he had injured.

O’Shanter.—See Tam O’Shanter.

Osman (os-män´).—Sultan of the East, conqueror of the Christians, a magnanimous man. He loved Yara, a young Christian captive. This forms the subject of a once famous ballad.

Osrick (oz´rik).—A court fop in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. He is made umpire by Claudius in the combat between Hamlet and Laertes.

Osseo.—Hiawatha, Longfellow. Son of the Evening Star. When broken with age, he married Oweenee, one of ten daughters of a northland hunter. She loved him in spite of his ugliness and decrepitude, because “all was beautiful within him.” As he was walking with his nine sisters-in-law and their husbands, he leaped into the hollow of an oak tree and came out strong and handsome; but Oweenee at the same moment was changed into a weak old woman. But the love of Osseo was not weakened. The nine brothers and sisters-in-law were transformed into birds. Oweenee, recovering her beauty, had a son, whose delight was to shoot the birds that mocked his father and mother. An Algonquin legend gave the foundation of the story.

Othello (ō-thel´ō).—A tragedy by Shakespeare. The chief character is a Moor of Venice, who marries Desdemona, the daughter of a Venetian senator, and is led by his ensign, Iago, a consummate villain, to distrust her fidelity and virtue. Iago hated the Moor both because Cassio, a Florentine, was preferred to the lieutenancy instead of himself, and also from a suspicion that the Moor had tampered with his wife; but he concealed his hatred so well that Othello wholly trusted him. Iago persuaded Othello that Desdemona intrigued with Cassio, and urged him on till he murdered his bride.

Outre-Mer (ōōtr-mèr).—A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea.—A series of prose tales and sketches by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published in 1835. “The Pays d’Outre-Mer,” says the writer, “is a name by which the pilgrims and crusaders of old designated the Holy Land. I, too, in a certain sense, have been a pilgrim of Outre-Mer; for to my youthful imagination the Old World was a kind of Holy Land, lying afar off beyond the blue horizon of the ocean. In this, my pilgrimage, I have traversed France from Normandy to Navarre; smoked my pipe in a Flemish inn; floated through Holland in a Trekschuit; trimmed my midnight lamp in a German university; wandered and mused amid the classic scenes of Italy; and listened to the gay guitar and merry castanet on the borders of the blue Guadalquivir.”

P

Pacolet (pak´ō-let).—In Valentine and Orson, an old romance, a character who owned an enchanted steed, often alluded to by early writers. The name of Pacolet was borrowed by Steele for his familiar spirit in the Tatler. The French have a proverb, “It is the horse of Pacolet;” that is, it is one that goes very fast.

Page.—Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare. Name of a family of Windsor, conspicuous in the play. When Sir John Falstaff made love to Mrs. Page, Page himself assumed the name of Brook. Sir John told the supposed Brook his whole “course of wooing.”

Page, Anne.—Daughter of the above, in love with Fenton. Slender calls her “the sweet Anne Page.”

Page, Mrs.—Wife of Mr. Page, of Windsor. When Sir John Falstaff made love to her, she joined with Mrs. Ford to dupe him and punish him.

Palamon.—(1) A character in The Knight’s Tale in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in love with Emilia, who is also beloved by Palamon’s friend, Arcite. (2) In Falconer’s poem of The Shipwreck, is in love with the daughter of Albert, the commander of the vessel in which he sails. (3) In Thomson’s poem of Autumn in The Seasons, is a young man, “the pride of swains,” in love with Lavinia. He is a poetical representation of Boaz, while Lavinia is intended for Ruth.

Pangloss (pan´glos), Doctor.—(1) A poor pedant, in Colman the Younger’s comedy of the Heir at Law, who has been created an Artium Societatis Socius (A. S. S.). He is remarkable for the aptness, if triteness, of his quotations. (2) An optimist philosopher in Voltaire’s Candide.

Pantagruelian (pan-tag´rö-el-an) Law Case.—Pantagruel, Rabelais. This case, having nonplused all the judges in Paris, was referred to Lord Pantagruel for decision. After much “statement” the bench declared, “We have not understood one single circumstances of the defense.” Then Pantagruel gave sentence, but his judgment was as unintelligible as the case itself. So, as no one understood a single sentence of the whole affair, all were perfectly satisfied.

Paracelsus (par-a-sel´sus).—A dramatic poem by Robert Browning, published in 1835. It is a work of singular beauty, and is replete with lofty and solemn thoughts on the fate of genius and the chance and change of life. The Paracelsus of the poem is a very different person from the Paracelsus of history—the brilliant and daring quack who professed to have discovered the philosopher’s stone, but who, by the introduction of opium among the remedies of the Pharmacopæia, in some wise made amends for his absurd extravagance.

Paradise and the Peri.—The second tale in Moore’s poetical romance of Lalla Rookh. The Peri laments her expulsion from heaven, and is told that she will be readmitted if she will bring to the gate of heaven the “gift most dear to the Almighty.” After several failures the Peri offered the “Repentant Tear,” and the gates flew open to receive the gift.

Paradise Lost.—An epic poem by Milton. The poem opens with the awaking of the rebel angels in hell after their fall from heaven, the consultation of their chiefs how best to carry on the war with God, and the resolve of Satan to go forth and tempt newly created man to fall. Satan reaches Eden, and finds Adam and Eve in their innocence. This is told in the first four books. The next four books contain the Archangel Raphael’s story of the war in heaven, the fall of Satan, and the creation of the world. The last four books describe the temptation and the fall of man, and tell of the redemption of man by Christ, and the expulsion from Paradise.

Paradise Regained.—An epic by Milton on the redemption of man. In this poem the author tells of the journey of Christ into the wilderness after his baptism, and its four books describe the temptation of Christ by Satan.

Parallel Lives of Greeks and Romans.—A celebrated biographical work by Plutarch, consisting of forty-six comparisons. In spite of all exceptions on the score of inaccuracy, want of information, or prejudice, Plutarch’s Lives must remain one of the most valuable relics of Greek literature, not only because they stand in the place of many volumes of lost history, but also because they are written with a graphic and dramatic vivacity such as we find in few biographies, ancient or modern; because they are replete with reflections which, if not profound, are always moderate and sensible; and because the author’s aim throughout is to enforce the highest standard of morality of which a heathen was capable. As one of his most enthusiastic admirers has said, “He stands before us as the legate, the ambassador, and the orator on behalf of those institutions whereby the old-time men were rendered wise and virtuous.”

Partington (pär´ting-ton), Mrs.—An imaginary old lady whose laughable sayings have been recorded by an American humorist, B. P. Shillaber.

Paul and Virginia.—A popular romance by Bernardin de St. Pierre. According to a tradition, or version, Paul and Virginia are brought up in the belief that they are brother and sister. Don Antonio is sent to bring her to Spain, and make her his bride. She is taken by force on board ship, but scarcely has the ship started, when a hurricane dashes it on the rocks and it is wrecked. Alhambra, a runaway slave, whom Paul and Virginia had befriended, rescues Virginia, who is brought to shore and married to Paul. Antonio is drowned.

Pauline.—The Lady of Lyons in Bulwer-Lytton’s play of this name. She was married to Claude Melnotte, a gardener’s son, who pretended to be a count.

Paul Pry.—Paul Pry, John Poole. An idle, inquisitive, meddlesome fellow, who has no occupation of his own, and is forever poking his nose into other people’s affairs. He always comes in with the apology “I hope I don’t intrude.”

Peau de Chagrin (pō du shä-grin), “The Ass’ Skin.”—A story by Balzac. The hero becomes possessed of a magical wild ass’ skin, which yields him the means of gratifying every wish; but for every wish thus gratified the skin shrank somewhat, and at last vanished, having been wished entirely away. Life is a peau d’âne, for every vital act diminishes its force, and when all its force is gone, life is spent.

Peeping Tom of Coventry.—A tailor of Coventry, the only soul in the town mean enough to peep at the Lady Godiva as she rode naked through the streets to relieve the people from oppression.

Peggotty (peg´o-ti), Clara.—The nurse of David Copperfield in Dickens’ novel of this name. Being very plump, whenever she makes any exertion some of the buttons on the back of her dress fly off.

Peggotty, Dan’l.—Brother of David Copperfield’s nurse. Dan’l was a Yarmouth fisherman. His nephew, Ham Peggotty, and his brother-in-law’s child, “little Em’ly,” lived with him.

Peggotty, Em’ly.—She was engaged to Ham Peggotty; but being fascinated with Steerforth she eloped. She was afterward reclaimed, and emigrated to Australia.

Peggotty, Ham.—Represented as the very beau ideal of an uneducated, simple-minded, honest, and warm-hearted fisherman. He was drowned in his attempt to rescue Steerforth from the sea.

Pendennis (pen-den´is), The History of.—By William Makepeace Thackeray. The hero, Arthur Pendennis, reappears in the author’s Adventures of Philip, and is represented as telling the story of The Newcomes.

Pendennis.—Name of the hero of a novel by Thackeray, published in 1849 and 1850, the immediate successor of Vanity Fair. Literary life is described in the history of Pen, a hero of no very great worth.

Pendennis, Laura.—Sister of Arthur, considered one of the best of Thackeray’s characters.

Pendennis, Major.—A tuft-hunter, who fawns on his patrons for the sake of wedging himself into their society.

Penseroso (pen-se-rō´sō), Il.—A poem by John Milton, written as a companion to L’Allegro. The latter is composed in the character of a cheerful, the former in that of a melancholy man, and the whole tone of each poem is regulated accordingly. The one begins with the dawn, the other with evening. The one opens with the lark, the other with the nightingale, and so on.

Pepys’ (pēps, or pips, or pep´is) Diary.—A book by Samuel Pepys, written in shorthand, and deciphered and published in 1825. It extends over the nine years from 1660 to 1669, and is the gossipy chronicle of that gay and profligate time. We have no other book which gives so lifelike a picture of that extraordinary state of society.

Peregrine Pickle (per´e-grin pik´l).—The title of a novel by Smollett. Peregrine Pickle is a savage, ungrateful spendthrift, fond of practical jokes, and suffering with evil temper the misfortunes brought on himself by his own willfulness.

Peter Bell.—A tale in verse, by Wordsworth. A wandering tinker, subject of Wordsworth’s poem, whose hard heart was touched by the fidelity of an ass to its dead master. Shelley wrote a burlesque of this poem, entitled Peter Bell the Third, intended to ridicule the ludicrous puerility of language and sentiment which Wordsworth often affected. This burlesque was given the name of the Third because it followed a parody already published as Peter the Second.

Petruchio (pe-trö´chō, or ki-ō).—A gentleman of Verona, in Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. A very honest fellow, who hardly speaks a word of truth, and succeeds in all his tricks. He acts his assumed character to the life, with untired animal spirits, and without a particle of ill-humor.

Phædo (fē´dō), or Phædon (fe´don).—An ancient and well known work by Plato, in which the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is most fully set forth. It is in the form of a dialogue, which combines, with the abstract philosophical discussion, a graphic narrative of the last hours of Socrates, which, for pathos and dignity, is unsurpassed.

Phédre (fā´dr).—A tragedy by Racine, produced January 1, 1677. It was founded on the story of Phædra, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and wife of Theseus. She conceived a criminal love for Hippolytus, her stepson, and, being repulsed by him, accused him to her husband of attempting to dishonor her. Hippolytus was put to death, and Phædra, wrung with remorse, strangled herself. Phédre was the great part of Mdlle. Rachel; she first appeared in this character in 1838. It is unquestionably the most remarkable of Racine’s regular tragedies. By it the style must stand or fall, and a reader need hardly go farther to appreciate it. For excellence of construction, artful beauty of verse, skillful use of the limited means of appeal at the command of the dramatist, no play can surpass Phédre.

Philip.—The Madness of Philip, Josephine Daskam. A representation of the unregenerate child—“the child of strong native impulses who has not yet yielded to the shaping force of education; the child, therefore, of originality, of vivacity, of humor, and of fascinating power of invention in the field of mischief.”

Philippics (fi-lip´iks), The.—A group of nine orations of Demosthenes, directed against Philip of Macedon. The real adversary in all these famous speeches is not so much the king of Macedon as the sloth and supineness of the Athenians, and the influence of the peace party, whether honest or bribed by Philip. They are the first Philippic, urging the sending of a military force to Thrace, delivered 351 B. C; three orations in behalf of the city of Olynthus (destroyed by Philip), delivered in 349-348; the oration On the Peace, 346; the second Philippic, 344; the oration On the Embassy, 344; the speech On the Chersonese, 341; and the third Philippic, 341.

The name is also given to a series of fourteen orations of Cicero against Mark Antony, delivered 44-43 B. C.

Philtra.—Faërie Queene, Spenser. A lady of large fortune, betrothed to Bracidas; but, seeing the fortune of Amidas daily increasing, and that of Bracidas getting smaller, she attached herself to the more prosperous younger brother.

Phineas (fin´e-as).—Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Mrs. Stowe. The quaker, an “underground railroad” man who helped the slave family of George and Eliza to reach Canada, after Eliza had crossed the river on cakes of floating ice.

Phyllis (fil´is).—In Vergil’s Eclogues, the name of a rustic maiden. This name, also written Phillis, has been in common use as meaning any unsophisticated country girl.

Pickwick (pik´wik), Mr. Samuel.—The hero of the Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens. He is a simple-minded, benevolent old gentleman, who wears spectacles and short black gaiters. He founds a club, and travels with its members over England, each member being under his guardianship. They meet many laughable adventures.

Pied Piper of Hameln (hä´meln).—Old German legend. Robert Browning, in his poem entitled The Pied Piper, has given a metrical version. The legend recounts how a certain musician came into the town of Hameln, in the country of Brunswick, and offered, for a sum of money, to rid the town of the rats by which it was infested. Having executed his task, and the promised reward having been withheld, he in revenge blew again his pipe, and by its tones drew the children of the town to a cavern in the side of a hill, which, upon their entrance, closed and shut them in forever.

Piers Plowman (pērs plou´man).—A satirical poem of the fourteenth century. The hero falls asleep, like John Bunyan, on the Malvern hills, and has different visions, which he describes, and in which he exposes the corruptions of society, the dissoluteness of the clergy, and the allurements to sin. The author is supposed to be Robert or William Langland. No other writings so faithfully reflect the popular feeling during the great social and religious movements of that century as the bitterly satirical poem. The Vision of Piers Plowman. In its allegory, the discontent of the commons with the course of affairs in church and state found a voice.

Pietro.—The Ring and the Book, Browning. The professed father of Pompilia, criminally assumed as his child to prevent certain property from passing to an heir not his own.

Pilgrim’s Progress.—A celebrated allegory by Bunyan. It recounts the adventures of the hero, Christian, from his conversion to his death. He wanders from the way to Doubting Castle, and is held there by Giant Despair. His sins are a pack; his Bible is a chart, his minister Evangelist, his conversion a flight from the City of Destruction, his struggle with besetting sins a fight with Apollyon, his death a toilsome passage over a deep stream which flows between him and heaven.

Pilot, The.—Title of a sea-story by Cooper, which was called the “first sea-novel of the English language.” It was published in the year 1823, and soon translated into Italian, German, and French. It is founded on the adventures of John Paul Jones.

Pinch, Tom.—A character in Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit, distinguished by his guilelessness, his oddity, and his exhaustless goodness of heart.

Pippa (pēp´pä) Passes.—A drama, Italian in scene and character, by Robert Browning. “It is,” says Stedman, “a cluster of four scenes, with prologue, epilogue, and interludes, half prose, half poetry, varying with the refinement of the dialogue. Pippa is a delicately pure, good, blithesome peasant maid. It is New Year’s Day at Ardo. She springs from bed at sunrise, resolved to enjoy to the full her sole holiday. Others may be happy throughout the year; haughty Ottima and Sebald, the lovers on the hill; Jules and Phene, the artist and his bride; Luigi and his mother; Monsignor, the bishop; but Pippa has only this one day to enjoy. Now, it so happens that she passes, this day, each of the groups or persons we have named, at an important crisis in their lives, and they hear her various carols as she trills them forth in the innocent gladness of her heart. Pippa Passes is a work of pure art, and has a wealth of original fancy and romance, apart from its wisdom.” It appeared in 1842.

Pistol (pis´tol).—A follower of Falstaff, in Shakespeare’s comedy of The Merry Wives of Windsor, and in the second part of King Henry IV. “A roguing beggar, a cantler, an upright man that liveth by cozenage.”

Pocket.—Great Expectations, Dickens. Name of a family prominent in the story.

Pocket.—A real scholar, educated at Harrow, and an honor-man at Cambridge, but, having married young, he had to take up the calling of “grinder” and literary fag for a living. Pip was placed in his care.

Pocket, Herbert.—Son of Mr. Matthew Pocket, wonderfully hopeful, but had not the stuff to push his way into wealth.

Pocket, Mrs.—Daughter of a city knight, brought up to be an ornamental nonentity, helpless, shiftless, and useless. She was the mother of eight children, whom she allowed to “tumble up” as best they could, under the charge of her maid, Flopson.

Pocket, Sarah.—Sister of Matthew Pocket, a little, dry, old woman, with a small face that might have been made of walnut-shell, and a large mouth.

Poor Richard’s Almanac.—An almanac published by Benjamin Franklin, 1732-1757, noted for its maxims. He made it the medium for teaching thrift, temperance, order, cleanliness, chastity, forgiveness, and so on. The maxims or precepts of these almanacs generally end with the words, “as poor Richard says.”

Portia (pôr´shiä).—In The Merchant of Venice, a rich heiress, whose hand and fortune hang upon the right choosing between a gold, a silver, and a leaden casket. She is in love with Bassanio, who, luckily, chooses well. She appears at the trial of Antonio as a “young doctor of Rome,” named Balthazar.

Poyser (poi´zer), Mrs.—A character in Adam Bede. Some of her wonderfully shrewd and humorous observations have passed into the language. Here are some specimens: “It seems as if them as aren’t wanted here are th’ only folks as aren’t wanted in the other world.” “I’m not denyin’ the women are foolish; God Almighty made ’em to match the men.” “It’s hard to tell which is Old Harry when everybody’s got boots on.” “There’s many a good bit o’ work done with a sad heart.” “It’s poor work allays settin’ the dead above the livin’. It ’ud be better if folks ’ud make much on us beforehand, istid o’ beginning when we’re gone.” “Some folks’ tongues are like the clocks as run on strikin’ not to tell you the time of day, but because there’s summat wrong in their own inside.”

Précieuses Ridicules (prā-syuz´ ri-di-kul´), Les.—A comedy by Molière, in ridicule of the Précieuses, as they were styled, forming the coterie of the Hotel de Rambouillet in the seventeenth century. The soirées held in this hotel were a great improvement on the licentious assemblies of the period; but many imitators made the thing ridiculous, because they lacked the same presiding talent and good taste.

The two girls of Molière’s comedy are Madelon and Cathos, the daughter and niece of Gargibus, a bourgeois. They change their names to Polixène and Aminte, which they think more genteel, and look on the affectations of two flunkies as far more distingués than the simple, gentlemanly manners of their masters. However, they are cured of their folly, and no harm comes of it.

Prelude (prē´lūd, or prel´ūd), The, or The Growth of a Poet’s Mind.—An autobiographical poem, in blank verse, by William Wordsworth. It was intended as an introduction to “a philosophical poem, containing views of Man, Nature, and Society; and to be entitled The Recluse, as having for its principal subject the sensations and opinions of a poet living in retirement.” This poem was to have consisted of three parts, of which the second only, The Excursion, was completed and published. The Prelude consists of fourteen books: Book one, Childhood and Schooltime; book two, Schooltime, continued; book three, Residence at Cambridge; book four, Summer Vacation; book five, Books; book six, Cambridge and the Alps; book seven, Residence in London; book eight, Retrospect—Love of Nature Leading to Love of Man; book nine, Residence in France; book ten, Residence in France, continued; book eleven, France, concluded; book twelve, Imagination and Taste, How Impaired and Restored; book thirteen, the same subject continued and concluded; and book fourteen, Conclusion.

Primrose (prim´rōz), Rev. Charles.—Vicar of Wakefield, Goldsmith. A clergyman, rich in heavenly wisdom, but poor indeed in all worldly knowledge.