“If I ever win the home in heaven
For whose sweet rest I ever hope and pray,
In the great company of the forgiven
I shall be sure to find old Daniel Gray.”
Josiah Gilbert Holland, _Old Daniel Gray_ (1879).
_Gray_ (_Duncan_) wooed a young lass called Maggie, but as Duncan looked
asklent, Maggie “coost her head” and bade Duncan behave himself. “Duncan
fleeched, and Duncan prayed,” but Meg was deaf to his pleadings; so
Duncan took himself off in dudgeon. This was more than Maggie meant, so
she fell sick and like to die. As Duncan “could na be her death,” he
came forward manfully again, and then “they were crouse [_merry_] and
canty bath. Ha, ha! the wooing o’t.”—R. Burns, _Duncan Gray_ (1792).
_Gray_ (_Mary_), daughter of a country gentleman of Perth. When the
plague broke out in 1668, Mary Gray and her friend Bessy Bell retired to
an unfrequented spot called Burn Braes, where they lived in a secluded
cottage and saw no one. A young gentleman brought them food, but he
caught the plague, communicated it to the two ladies, and all three
died.—Allan Ramsay, _Bessy Bell and Mary Gray_.
_Gray_ (_Auld Robin_). Jennie, a Scotch lass, was loved by young Jamie;
“but saving a crown, he had naething else besides.” To make that crown a
pound, young Jamie went to sea, and both were to be for Jennie. He had
not been gone many days when Jennie’s mother fell sick, her father broke
his arm, and their cow was stolen; then auld Robin came forward and
maintained them both. Auld Robin loved the lass, and “wi’ tears in his
’ee,” said, “Jennie, for their sakes, oh, marry me!” Jennie’s heart said
“nay,” for she looked for Jamie back; but her father urged her, and the
mother pleaded with her eye, and so she consented. They had not been
married above a month when Jamie returned. They met; she gave him one
kiss, and though she “gang like a ghaist,” she made up her mind, like a
brave good lassie, to be a gude wife, for auld Robin was very kind to
her (1772).
This ballad was composed by Lady Anne Lindsay, daughter of the earl of
Balcarres (afterwards Lady Barnard). It was written to an old Scotch
tune called _The Bridegroom Grat when the Sun went down_. Auld Robin
Gray was her father’s herdsman. When Lady Anne was writing the ballad,
and was piling distress on Jennie, she told her sister that she had sent
Jamie to sea, made the mother sick, and broken the father’s arm, but
wanted a fourth calamity. “Steal the cow, sister Anne,” said the little
Elizabeth; and so “the cow was stolen awa’,” and the song completed.
=Grayson= (_Mrs._). Brave wife who, weaponless and alone, when an Indian
tries to enter the block-house by an upper window, clamps his wrist to
the window sill in such a way that, as his foot slips, he is suspended
by it. He hangs thus for a moment, and the wrist breaks. She lets him
go, and he falls to ground without.—William Gilmore Simms, _The
Yemassee_ (1835).
=Graysteel=, the sword of Kol, fatal to its owner. It passed into
several hands, and always brought ill-luck with it.—_Icelandic Edda._
=Gray Swan=. Ship in which a sailor-boy sails away, not to return for
twenty years, when he comes back to his mother and incites her to
defence of the missing son by feigning to blame him for his twenty
years’ silence. Her spirited vindication of her darling causes him to
discover himself to her.—Alice Cary, _Poems_ (1876).
=Great Captain= (_The_), Gonsalvo de Cor´dova, _el Gran Capitan_
(1453-1515).
Manuel I. [Comnēnus], emperor of Trebizond, is so called also (1120,
1143-1180).
=Great Cham of Literature=, Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784).
=Great Commoner= (_The_), William Pitt (1759-1806).
=Great Dauphin= (_The_), Louis, the son of Louis XIV. (1661-1711).
⁂ The “Little Dauphin” was the duke of Bourgoyne, son of the Great or
Grand Dauphin. Both died before Louis XIV.
=Great Duke= (_The_), the duke of Wellington (1769-1852).
Bury the Great Duke
With an empire’s lamentation;
Let us bury the Great Duke
To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation.
Tennyson.
=Great-Head= or CANMORE, Malcolm III. of Scotland (* 1057-1093).
=Great Heart=. The valiant guide reappears in George Wood’s satire.
_Modern Pilgrims_, published in 1855.
=Great-heart= (_Mr._), the guide of Christiana and her family to the
Celestial City. Bunyan, _Pilgrim’s Progress_, ii. (1685).
=Great Magician= (_The_) or _The Great Magician of the North_, Sir
Walter Scott. So called by Professor John Wilson (1771-1832).
=Great Marquis= (_The_), James Graham, marquis of Montrose (1612-1650).
I’ve told thee how we swept Dundee,
And tamed the Lindsays’ pride;
But never have I told thee yet
How the Great Marquis died.
Aytoun.
_Great Marquis_ (_The_), Dom Sebastiano Jose de Carvalho, Marquis de
Pombal, greatest of all the Portuguese statesmen (1699-1782).
=Great Moralist= (_The_), Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784).
=Great Unknown= (_The_), Sir Walter Scott, who published his _Waverley
Novels_ anonymously (1771-1832).
=Great Unwashed= (_The_). The artisan class were first so called by Sir
W. Scott.
=Greaves= (_Sir Launcelot_), a well-bred young English squire of the
George II. period; handsome, virtuous, and enlightened, but
crack-brained. He sets out, attended by an old sea-captain, to detect
fraud and treason, abase insolence, mortify pride, discourage slander,
disgrace immodesty, and punish ingratitude. Sir Launcelot, in fact, is a
modern Don Quixote, and Captain Crow is his Sancho Panza. T. Smollet,
_The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves_ (1760).
Smollett became editor of the _Critical Review_, and an attack in that
journal on Admiral Knowles led to a trial for libel. The author was
sentenced to pay a fine of £100, and suffer three months imprisonment.
He consoled himself in prison by writing his novel of _Launcelot
Greaves_.—Chambers, _English Literature_, ii. 65.
=Grecian Daughter= (_The_), Euphrasia, daughter of Evander, a Greek who
dethroned Dionysius the Elder, and became king of Syracuse. In his old
age he was himself dethroned by Dionysius the Younger, and confined in a
dungeon in a rock, where he was saved from starvation by his daughter,
who fed him with “the milk designed for her own babe.” Timoleon having
made himself master of Syracuse, Dionysius accidentally encountered
Evander, his prisoner, and was about to kill him, when Euphrasia rushed
forward and stabbed the tyrant to the heart.—A. Murphy, _The Grecian
Daughter_ (1772).
⁂ As an historical drama, this plot is much the same as if the writer
had said that James I. (of England) abdicated and retired to St.
Germain, and when his son James II. succeeded to the crown, he was
beheaded at White hall; for Murphy makes Dionysius the Elder to have
been dethroned, and going to Corinth to live (act i.), and Dionysius the
Younger to have been slain by the dagger of Euphrasia; whereas Dionysius
the Elder never was dethroned, but died in Syracuse at the age of 63;
and Dionysius the Younger was not slain in Syracuse, but being
dethroned, went to Corinth, where he lived and died in exile.
=Greedy= (_Justice_), thin as a thread paper, always eating and always
hungry. He says to Sir Giles Overreach (act iii. 1), “Oh, I do much
honor a chine of beef! Oh, I do reverence a loin of veal!” As a justice,
he is most venial—the promise of a turkey will buy him, but the promise
of a haunch of venison will out-buy him.—Massinger, _A New Way to Pay
Old Debts_ (1628).
=Greek Church= (_Fathers of the_): Eusebius, Athana´sius, Basil “the
great,” Gregory Nazianze´nus, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Jerusalem,
Chrys´ostom, Epipha´nius, Cyril of Alexandria, and Ephraim, deacon of
Edessa.
=Greeks= (_Last of the_) Philopœ´men of Megalop´olis, whose great object
was to infuse into the Achæans a military spirit, and establish their
independence (B.C. 252-183).
_Greeks joined Greeks._ Clytus said to Alexander that Philip was the
greater warrior:
I have seen him march,
And fought beneath his dreadful banner, where
The boldest at this table would have trembled.
Nay, frown not, sir, you cannot look me dead;
When Greeks joined Greeks, then was the tug of
war.
N. Lee, _Alexander the Great, iv. 2_ (1678).
⁂ Slightly altered into _When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of
war_. This line of Nathaniel Lee has become a household phrase.
_To play the Greek_, to act like a harlot. When Cressid says of Helen,
“Then she’s a merry Greek indeed,” she means that Helen is no better
than a _fille publique_. Probably Shakespeare had his eye upon “fair
Hiren,” in Peel’s play called _The Turkish Mahomet and Hyren the Fair
Greek._ “A fair Greek” was at one time a euphemism for a courtezan.
=Green= (_Mr. Paddington_), clerk at Somerset House.
_Mrs. Paddington Green_, his wife.—T.M. Morton, _If I had a Thousand a
Year_.
_Green_ (_Verdant_), a young man of infinite simplicity, who goes to
college, and is played upon by all the practical jokers of _alma mater_.
After he has bought his knowledge by experience, the butt becomes the
“butter” of juveniles greener than himself. Verdant Green wore
spectacles, which won for him the nickname of “Gig-lamps.”—Cuthbert Bede
[Rev. Edw. Bradley], _Verdant Green_ (1860).
_Green_ (_Widow_), a rich, buxom dame of 40, who married first for
money, and intended to choose her second husband “to please her vanity.”
She fancied Waller loved her, and meant to make her his wife, but Sir
William Fondlove was her adorer. When the politic widow discovered that
Waller had fixed his love on another, she gave her hand to the old beau,
Sir William; for if the news got wind of her love for Waller, she would
become the laughing-stock of all her friends.—S. Knowles, _The
Love-Chase_ (1837).
_Green Bird_ (_The_), a bird that told one everything it was asked. An
oracular bird, obtained by Fairstar after the failure of Cherry and her
two brothers. It was this bird who revealed to the king that Fairstar
was his daughter and Cherry his nephew. Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_
(“Fairstar and Prince Cherry,” 1682).
=Green Horse= (_The_), the 5th Dragoon Guards (_not_ the 5th Dragoons).
So called from their green velvet facings.
=Green Howard=, (_The_), the 19th Foot. So called from the Hon. Charles
Howard, their colonel from 1738 to 1748.
=Green Knight= (_The_), Sir Pertolope (3 _syl_.), called by Tennyson
“Evening Star” or “Hesperus.” He was one of the four brothers who kept
the passages of Castle Perilous, and was overthrown by Sir Gareth.—Sir
T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 127 (1470); Tennyson, _Idylls_
(“Gareth and Lynette”).
⁂ Tennyson in his “Gareth and Lynette” chooses to call the _Green_
Knight “Evening Star,” and the _Blue_ Knight “Morning Star.” In the old
romance the combat with the “Green Knight” was at _dawn_, and with the
“Blue Knight” at _sunset_.—See _Notes_ and _Queries_ (February 16,
1878).
_Green Knight_ (_The_), a pagan knight, who demanded Fezon in marriage,
but being overcome by Orson, was obliged to resign his claim.—_Valentine
and Orson_ (fifteenth century).
=Green Linnets=, the 39th Foot. Their facings are green.
=Green Man= (_The_). The man who used to let off fireworks was so called
in the reign of James I.
Have you any squibs, any green man in your shows?—John Kirke [R.
Johnson], _The Seven Champions of Christendom_ (1617).
_Green Man_ (_The_), a gentleman’s gamekeeper, at one time clad in
green.
But the green man shall I pass by unsung?...
A squire’s attendant clad in keeper’s green.
Crabbe, _Borough_ (1810).
=Greenhalgh=, messenger of the earl of Derby.—Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of
the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).
=Greenhorn= (_Mr. Gilbert_), an attorney, in partnership with Mr.
Gabriel Grinderson.
_Mr. Gernigo Greenhorn_, father of Mr. Gilbert.—Sir W. Scott, _The
Antiquary_ (time, George III.).
=Greenleaf= (_Gilbert_), the old archer at Douglas Castle.—Sir W. Scott,
_Castle Dangerous_ (time, Henry I.).
=Gregory=, a faggot-maker of good education, first at a charity school,
then as waiter on an Oxford student, and then as the fag of a travelling
physician. When compelled to act the doctor, he says the disease of his
patient arises from “propria quæ maribus tribuuntur mascula dicas, ut
sunt divorum, Mars, Bacchus, Apollo, virorum.” And when Sir Jasper says,
“I always thought till now that the heart is on the left side and the
liver on the right,” he replies, “Ay, sir, so they were formerly, but we
have changed all that.” In Molière’s comedy, _Le Médecin Malgré Lui,_
Gregory is called “Sganarelle,” and all these jokes are in act ii.
6.—Henry Fielding, _The Mock Doctor_.
_Gregory_, father and son, hangmen in the seventeenth century. In the
time of the Gregorys, hangmen were termed “esquires.” In France,
executioners were termed “monsieur,” even to the breaking out of the
Revolution.
=Gregson= (_Widow_), Darsie Latimer’s landlady at Shepherd’s Bush.—Sir
W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).
_Gregson_ (_Gilbert_), the messenger of Father Buonaventura.—Sir W.
Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).
=Gre´mio,= an old man who wishes to marry Bianca, but the lady prefers
Lucentio, a young man.—Shakespeare, _Taming of the Shrew_ (1594).
=Grendel=, the monster from which Beowulf delivered Hrothgar, king of
Denmark. It was half monster, half man, whose haunt was the marshes
among “a monster race.” Night after night it crept stealthily into the
palace called Heorot, and slew sometimes as many as thirty of the
inmates. At length Beowulf, at the head of a mixed band of warriors,
went against it and slew it.—_Beowulf_, an Anglo-Saxon epic (sixth
century).
=Grenville= (_Sir Richard_), the commander of _The Revenge_, in the
reign of Queen Elizabeth. Out of his crew, ninety were sick on shore,
and only a hundred able-bodied men remained on board. _The Revenge_ was
one of the six ships under the command of Lord Thomas Howard. While
cruising near the Azores, a Spanish fleet of fifty-three ships made
towards the English, and Lord Howard sheered off, saying, “My ships are
out of gear, and how can six ships-of-the-line fight with fifty-three?”
Sir Richard Grenville, however, resolved to stay and encounter the foe,
and “ship after ship the whole night long drew back with her dead; some
were sunk, more were shattered;” and the brave hundred still fought on.
Sir Richard was wounded and his ship riddled, but his cry was still
“Fight on!” When resistance was no longer possible, he cried, “Sink the
ship, master gunner! sink her! Split her in twain, nor let her fall into
the hands of the foe!” But the Spaniards boarded her and praised Sir
Richard for his heroic daring. “I have done my duty for my queen and
faith,” he said, and died. The Spaniards sent the prize home, but a
tempest came on, and _The Revenge_, shot-shattered, “went down, to be
lost evermore in the main.”—Tennyson, _The Revenge_, a ballad of the
fleet (1878).
Froude has an essay on the subject. Canon Kingsley, in _Westward Ho_!
has drawn Sir Richard Grenville, and alludes to the fight. Arber
published three small volumes on Sir Richard’s noble exploit. Gervase
Markham has a long poem on the subject. Sir Walter Raleigh says: “If
Lord Howard had stood to his guns, the Spanish fleet would have been
annihilated.” Probably Browning’s _Hervé Riel_ was present to the mind
of Tennyson when he wrote the ballad of _The Revenge_.
=Gresham and the Pearl.= When Queen Elizabeth visited the Exchange, Sir
Thomas Gresham pledged her health in a cup of wine containing a precious
stone crushed to atoms, and worth £15,000.
Here £15,000 at one clap goes
Instead of sugar; Gresham drinks the pearl
Unto his queen and mistress. Pledge it lords.
Heywood, _If You Know not Me, You Know Nobody_.
⁂ It is devoutly to be hoped that Sir Thomas was above such absurd
vanity. Very well for Queen Cleopatra, but more than ridiculous in such
an imitation.
_Gresham and the Grasshopper._ There is a vulgar tradition that Sir
Thomas Gresham was a foundling, and that the old beldame who brought him
up was attracted to the spot where she found him, by the loud chirping
of a grasshopper.
⁂ This tale arose from the grasshopper, which forms the crest of Sir
Thomas.
_To Sup with Sir Thomas Gresham_, to have no supper. Similarly, “to dine
with Duke Humphrey,” is to have nowhere to dine. The Royal Exchange was
at one time a common lounging-place for idlers.
Tho’ little coin thy purseless pockets line,
Yet with great company thou’rt taken up;
For often with Duke Humphrey thou dost dine,
And often with Sir Thomas Gresham sup.
Hayman, _Quidlibet_ (Epigram on a loafer, 1628).
=Gretchen.= Viragoish wife of _Rip Van Winkle,_ in Washington Irving’s
story of that name.
_Gretchen_, a German diminutive of Margaret; the heroine of Goethe’s
_Faust_. Faust meets her on her return from church, falls in love with
her, and at last seduces her. Overcome with shame, Gretchen destroys the
infant to which she gives birth, and is condemned to death. Faust
attempts to save her; and, gaining admission to the dungeon, finds her
huddled on a bed of straw, singing wild snatches of ballads, quite
insane. He tries to induce her to flee with him, but in vain. At
daybreak Gretchen dies, and Faust is taken away.
Gretchen is a perfect union of homeliness and simplicity, though her
love is strong as death; yet is she a human woman throughout, and never
a mere abstraction. No other character ever drawn takes so strong a hold
on the heart.
=Greth´el= (_Gammer_), the hypothetical narrator of the tales edited by
the brothers Grimm.
⁂ Said to be Frau Viehmänin, wife of a peasant in the suburbs of Hessê
Cassel, from whose mouth the brothers transcribed the tales.
=Grey= (_Lady Jane_), a tragedy by N. Rowe, (1715).
In _French_, Laplace (1745), Mde. de Staël (1800), Ch. Brifaut (1812),
and Alexandre Soumet (1844), produced tragedies on the same subject.
Paul Delaroche has a fine picture called “Le Supplice de Jane Grey”
(1835).
=Gribouille=, the wiseacre who threw himself into a river that his
clothes might not get wetted by the rain.—_A French Proverbial Saying._
=Gride= (_Arthur_), a mean old usurer, who wished to marry Madeline
Bray, but Madeline loved Nicholas Nickleby, and married him. Gride was
murdered.—C. Dickens, _Nicholas Nickleby_ (1838).
=Grier= (_Mrs._), straight-laced pietist, who says “if she didn’t think
the heathen would be lost she wouldn’t see the use of the plan of
salvation.”—Margaret Deland, _John Ward, Preacher_.
=Grieux= (_le chevalier de_), the hero of a French novel by the Abbé
Antoine François Prévost (1697-1763). The passionate love of the hero,
the Chevalier de Grieux, for Manon, leads him into a hundred dangers,
the consequences of her frivolity and inconstancy. But he dares and
suffers all for her sake, and at last, when she is sent into shameful
exile by the authorities, he follows her, shares her privations, and
remains with her till she dies.
=Grieve= (_Jackie_), landlord of an ale-house near Charlie’s Hope.—Sir
W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).
=Griffin= (_Allan_), landlord of the Griffin inn, at Perth.—Sir W.
Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).
=Griffin-feet=, the mark by which the Desert Fairy was known in all her
metamorphoses.—Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“The Yellow Dwarf,”
1682).
=Griffiths= (_Old_), steward of the earl of Derby.—Sir W. Scott,
_Peveril of the Peak_ (time Charles II.).
_Griffiths_ (_Samuel_), London agent of Sir Arthur Darsie
Redgauntlet.—Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time George III.).
=Griflet= (_Sir_), knighted by King Arthur at the request of Merlin, who
told the king that Sir Griflet would prove “one of the best knights of
the world, and the strongest man of arms.”—Sir T. Malory, _History of
Prince Arthur_, i. 20 (1470).
=Griggsby’s Station.= Old home of a newly-made rich family, for which
they pine,—
“In a great big house with cyarpets on the stairs
And the pump right in the kitchen.”
“Let’s go a-visitin’ back to Griggsby Station.
Back where they’s nothin’ aggervatin’ any more,
Shet away safe in the woods around the old location,
Back where we ust to be so happy an’ so pore.”
James Whitcomb Reilly, _Afterwhiles_ (1888).
=Grildrig=, a mannikin.
She gave me the name “Grildrig,” which the family took up, and
afterwards the whole kingdom. The word imports what the Latin calls
_manunculus_ the Italian _homunceletion_, and the English
_mannikin_.—Dean Swift, _Gulliver’s Travels_ (“Voyage to Brobdingnag,”
1726).
=Grim=, a fisherman who rescued, from a boat turned adrift, an infant
named Habloc, whom he adopted and brought up. This infant was the son of
the king of Denmark, and when restored to his royal father, the
fisherman, laden with rich presents, built the village, which he called
after his own name, _Grims-by_ or “Grim’s town.”
⁂ The ancient seal of the town contained the names of “Gryme” and
“Habloc.”
_Grim (Giant,)_ a huge giant, who tried to stop pilgrims on their way to
the Celestial City. He was slain by Mr. Greatheart.—Bunyan, _Pilgrim’s
Progress_, ii. (1684).
=Grimalkin=, a cat, the spirit of a witch. Any witch was permitted to
assume the body of a cat nine times. When the “first Witch” (in
_Macbeth_) hears a cat mew, she says, “I come, Grimalkin” (act i. sc.
1).
=Grime=, the partner of Item the usurer. It is to Grime that Item
appeals when he wants to fudge his clients. “Can we do so, Mr. Grime?”
brings the stock answer, “Quite impossible, Mr. Item.”—Holcroft, _The
Deserted Daughter_ (1784), altered into _The Steward_.
=Grimes= (_Peter_) the drunken thievish son of a steady fisherman. He
had a boy, whom he killed by ill-usage, and two others he made away
with; but escaped conviction through defect of evidence. As no one would
live with him, he turned mad, was lodged in the parish poor-house,
confessed his crimes in delirium, and died.—Crabbe, _Borough_, xxii,
(1810).
=Grimes´by= (_Gaffer_), an old farmer at Marlborough.—Sir. W. Scott,
_Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).
=Grimwig=, an irascible old gentleman, who hid a very kind heart under a
rough exterior. He was Mr. Brownlow’s great friend, and was always
declaring himself ready to “eat his head” if he was mistaken on any
point on which he passed an opinion.—C. Dickens, _Oliver Twist_ (1837).
=Grinderson= (_Mr. Gabriel_), partner of Mr. Greenhorn. They are the
attorneys who press Sir Arthur Wardour for the payment of debts. Sir. W.
Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).
=Grip=, the clever raven of Barnaby Rudge. During the Gordon riots it
learnt the cry of “No Popery!” Other of its phrases were: “I’m a devil!”
“Never say die!” “Polly, put the kettle on!” etc.—C. Dickens, _Barnaby
Rudge_ (1841).
=Gripe= (_1 syl._), a scrivener, husband of Clarissa, but with a
_tendre_ for Araminta, the wife of his friend Moneytrap. He is a
miserly, money-loving, pig-headed hunks, but is duped out of £250 by his
foolish liking for his neighbors wife.—Sir John Vanbrugh, _The
Confederacy_ (1695).
_Gripe_ (_1 syl._), the English name of Géronte, in Otway’s version of
Molière’s comedy of _Les Fourberies de Scapin_. His daughter, called in
French, Hyacinthe, is called “Clara,” and his son Leandre is Anglicized
into “Leander.”—Th. Otway, _The Cheats of Scapin_.
_Gripe (Sir Francis)_, a man of 64, guardian of Miranda, an heiress, and
father of Charles. He wants to marry his ward for the sake of her money,
and as she cannot obtain her property without his consent to her
marriage, she pretends to be in love with him, and even fixes the day of
espousals. “Grady,” quite secure that he is the man of her choice, gives
his consent to her marriage, and she marries Sir George Airy, a man of
24. The old man laughs at Sir George, whom he fancies he is duping, but
he is himself the dupe all through.—Mrs. Centlivre, _The Busy Body_
(1709).
December 2, 1790, Munden made his bow to the Covent Garden audience as
Sir Francis Gripe.”—_Memoir of J.S. Munden_ (1832).
=Gripus=, a stupid, venal judge, uncle of Alcmēna, and the betrothed of
Phædra (Alcmena’s waiting-maid), in Dryden’s comedy of _Amphitryon_.
Neither Gripus nor Phædra is among the _Dramatis personæ_ of Molière’s
comedy of _Amphitryon_.
=Grisilda= or =Griselda=, the model of patience and submission, meant to
allegorize the submission of a holy mind to the will of God. Grisilda
was the daughter of a charcoal-burner, but became the wife of Walter,
marquis of Saluzzo. Her husband tried her, as God tried Job, and with
the same result: (1) He took away her infant daughter, and secretly
conveyed it to the queen of Pa´via to be brought up, while the mother
was made to believe that it was murdered. (2) Four years later she had a
son, which was also taken from her, and was sent to be brought up with
his sister. (3) Eight years later, Grisilda was divorced, and sent back
to her native cottage, because her husband, as she was told, intended to
marry another. When, however, Lord Walter saw no indication of murmuring
or jealousy, he told Grisilda that the supposed rival was her own
daughter, and her patience and submission met with their full
reward.—Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (“The Clerk’s Tale,” 1388).
=Griskinis´sa=, wife of Artaxaminous, king of Utopia. The king felt in
doubt, and asked his minister of state this knotty question:
Shall I my Griskiniss’s charms forego,
Compel her to give up the royal chair,
And place the rosy Distaffina there?
The minister reminds the king that Distaffina is betrothed to his
general.
And would a king his general supplant?
I can’t advise, upon my soul I can’t.
W.B. Rhodes, _Bombastes Furioso_ (1790).
=Grissel= or =Grizel=. Octavia, the wife of Mark Antony, and sister of
Augustus, is called the “patient Grizel of Roman story.” Forms of the
name Griselda.
For patience she will prove a second Grissel.
Shakespeare, _Taming of the Shrew_, act iii. sc. 1 (1594).
=Griz´el Dal´mahoy= (_Miss_), the seamstress.—Sir W. Scott, _Heart of
Midlothian_ (time, George II.).
=Griz´zie,= maid-servant to Mrs. Saddletree.—Sir W. Scott, _Heart of
Midlothian_ (time, George II.).
_Grizzie_, one the servants of the Rev. Josiah Gargill.—Sir W. Scott,
_St. Ronan’s Well_ (time, George III.).
=Griz´zle=, chambermaid at the Golden Arms inn, at Kippletringan.—Sir W.
Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).
_Grizzle (Lord)_, the first peer of the realm in the court of King
Arthur. He is in love with the Princess Huncamunca, and as the lady is
promised in marriage to the valiant Tom Thumb, he turns traitor, and
“leads his rebel rout to the palace gate.” Here Tom Thumb encounters the
rebels, and Glumdalca, the giantess, thrusts at the traitor, but misses
him. Then the “pigmy giant-killer” runs him through the body. The black
cart comes up to drag him off, but the dead man tells the carter he need
not trouble himself, as he intends “to bear himself off,” and so he
does.—_Tom Thumb_, by Fielding the novelist (1730), altered by Kane
O’Hara, author of _Midas_ (1778).
=Groat´settar= (_Miss Clara_), niece of the old lady Glowrowrum, and one
of the guests at Burgh Westra.
_Miss Maddie Groatsettar_, niece of the old lady Glowrowrum, and one of
the guests at Burgh Westra.—Sir W. Scott, _The Pirate_ (time, William
III.).
=Groffar´ius=, king of Aquitania, who resisted Brute, the mythical
great-grandson of Æneas, who landed there on his way to Britain.—M.
Drayton, _Polyolbion_, i. (1612).
=Gronovius=, father and son, critics and humanists (father, 1611-1671;
son, 1645-1716).
I have more satisfaction in beholding you than I should have in
conversing with Grævius and Gronovius. I had rather possess your
approbation than that of the elder Scaliger.—Mrs. Cowley, _Who’s the
Dupe?_ i. 3.
(Scaliger, father (1484-1558), son (1540-1609), critics and humanists).
=Groom= (_Squire_), “a downright, English, Newmarket, stable-bred
gentleman-jockey, who, having ruined his finances by dogs, grooms,
cocks, and horses ... thinks to retrieve his affairs by a matrimonial
alliance with a City fortune.” (canto i. 1). He is one of the suitors of
Charlotte Goodchild; but, supposing the report to be true that she has
lost her money, he says to her guardian:
“Hark ye! Sir Theodore; I always make my match according to the weight
my thing can carry. When I offered to take her into my stable, she was
sound and in good case; but I hear her wind is touched. If so, I would
not back her for a shilling. Matrimony is a long course, ... and it
won’t do.”—C. Macklin, _Love â la Mode_ ii. 1 (1779).
This was Lee Lewes’s great part [1740-1803]. One morning at rehearsal,
Lewes said something not in the play. “Hoy, hoy!” cried Macklin; “what’s
that? what’s that?” “Oh,” replied Lewes, “’tis only a bit of my
nonsense.” “But,” said Macklin, gravely, “I like my nonsense, Mr. Lewes,
better than yours.”—J. O’Keefe.
=Grotto of Eph´esus.= Near Ephesus was a grotto containing a statue of
Diana, to which was attached a pipe of reeds. If a young woman, charged
with dishonor, entered this grotto, and the reed gave forth _musical_
sounds, she was declared to be a pure virgin; but if it gave forth
_hideous noises_, she was denounced and never seen more. Corinna put the
grotto to the test, at the desire of Glaucon of Lesbos, and was never
seen again by the eye of man.—E. Bulwer Lytton, _Tales of Milētus_, iii.
(See CHASTITY, for other tests.)
=Groveby= (_Old_), of Gloomstock Hall, aged 65. He is the uncle of Sir
Harry Groveby. Brusque, hasty, self-willed, but kind-hearted.
_Sir Harry Groveby_, nephew of old Groveby, engaged to Maria “the maid
of the Oaks.”—J. Burgoyne, _The Maid of the Oaks_.
=Groves= (_Jem_), landlord of the Valiant Soldier, to which was attached
“a good dry skittle-ground.”—C. Dickens, _The Old Curiosity Shop_, xxix.
(1840).
=Grub= (_Jonathan_), a stock broker, weighted with the three plagues of
life—a wife, a handsome marriageable daughter, and £100,000 in the
Funds, “any one of which is enough to drive a man mad; but all three to
be attended to at once is too much.”
_Mrs. Grub_, a wealthy city woman, who has moved from the east to the
fashionable west quarter of London, and has abandoned merchants and
tradespeople for the gentry.
_Emily Grub_, called _Milly_, the handsome daughter of Jonathan. She
marries Captain Bevil of the Guards.—O’Brien, _Cross Purposes_.
=Grub´binol=, a shepherd who sings with Bumkinet a dirge on the death of
Blouzelinda.
Thus wailed the louts in melancholy strain,
Till bonny Susan sped across the plain;
They seized the lass, in apron clean arrayed,
And to the ale-house forced the willing maid;
In ale and kisses they forgot their cares,
And Susan, Blouzelinda’s loss repairs.
Gay, _Pastoral_, v. (1714).
(An imitation of Virgil’s _Ecl._, v. “Daphnis.”)
=Gru´dar and Bras´solis.= Cairbar and Grudar both strove for a spotted
bull “that lowed on Golbun Heath,” in Ulster. Each claimed it as his
own, and at length fought, when Grudar fell. Cairbar took the shield of
Grudar to Brassolis, and said to her, “Fix it on high within my hall;
’tis the armor of my foe;” but the maiden, “distracted, flew to the
spot, where she found the youth in his blood,” and died.
Fair was Brassolis on the plain. Stately was Grudar on the hill.—Ossian,
_Fingal_, I.
=Grueby= (_John_), servant to Lord George Gordon. An honest fellow, who
remained faithful to his master to the bitter end. He twice saved
Haredale’s life; and, although living under Lord Gordon and loving him,
detested the crimes into which his master was betrayed by bad advice and
false zeal.—C. Dickens, _Barnaby Rudge_ (1841).
=Grugeon=, one of Fortunio’s seven attendants. His gift was that he
could eat any amount of food without satiety. When Fortunio first saw
him, he was eating 60,000 loaves for his breakfast.—Comtesse D’Aunoy,
_Fairy Tales_ (“Fortunio,” 1682).
=Grum´ball= (_The Rev. Dr._), from Oxford, a papist conspirator with
Redgauntlet.—Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.)
=Grumbo=, a giant in the tale of _Tom Thumb_. A raven having picked up
Tom Thumb, dropped him on the flat roof of the giant’s castle. When old
Grumbo went there to sniff the air, Tom crept up his sleeve; the giant,
feeling tickled, shook his sleeve, and Tom fell into the sea below. Here
he was swallowed by a fish, and the fish, being caught, was sold for
King Arthur’s table. It was thus that Tom got introduced to the great
king, by whom he was knighted.
=Grumio=, one of the servants of Petruchio.—Shakespeare, _Taming of the
Shrew_ (1594).
=Grundy= (_Mrs._). Dame Ashfield, a farmer’s wife, is jealous of a
neighboring farmer named Grundy. She tells her husband that Farmer
Grundy got five shillings a quarter more for his wheat than they did;
that the sun seemed to shine on purpose for Farmer Grundy; that Dame
Grundy’s butter was the crack butter of the market. She then goes into
her day-dreams, and says, “If our Nelly were to marry a great baronet, I
wonder what Mrs. Grundy would say?” Her husband makes answer:
“Why dan’t thee letten Mrs. Grundy alone? I do verily think when thee
goest to t’other world, the vurst question thee’ll ax ’ill be, if Mrs.
Grundy’s there?”—Th. Morton, _Speed the Plough_, i. 1 (1798).
=Gryll=, one of those changed by Acras´ia into a hog. He abused Sir
Guyon for disenchanting him; whereupon the palmer said to the knight,
“Let Gryll be Gryll, and have his hoggish mind.”—Spenser, _Faëry Queen_,
ii. 12 (1590).
Only a target light upon his arm
He careless bore, on which old Gryll was drawn,
Transformed into a hog.
Phin. Fletcher, _The Purple Island_, vii. (1633).
=Gryphon=, a fabulous monster, having the upper part like a vulture or
eagle, and the lower part like a lion. Gryphons were the supposed
guardians of goldmines, and were in perpetual strife with the
Arimas´pians, a people of Scythia, who rifled the mines for the
adornment of their hair.
As when a gryphon thro’ the wilderness,
With winged course, o’er hill or moory dale,
Pursues the Arimaspian, who, by stealth,
Had from his wakeful custody purloined
The guarded gold.
Milton, _Paradise Lost_, ii. 943, etc. (1665).
_The Gryphon_, symbolic of the divine and human union of Jesus Christ.
The fore part of the gryphon is an eagle, and the hinder part a lion.
Thus Dantê saw in purgatory the car of the Church drawn by a
gryphon.—Dantê, _Purgatory_, xxix. (1308).
=Guadia´na=, the ’squire of Durandartê, changed into a river of the same
name. He was so grieved at leaving his master that he plunged
instantaneously under ground, and when obliged to appear “where he might
be seen, he glided in sullen state to Portugal.”—Cervantes, _Don
Quixote_, II. ii. 6 (1615).
=Gualber´to= (_St._), heir of Valdespe´sa, and brought up with the
feudal notion that he was to be the avenger of blood. Anselmo was the
murderer he was to lie in wait for, and he was to make it the duty of
his life to have blood for blood. One day, as he was lying in ambush for
Anselmo, the vesper bell rang, and Gualberto (3 _syl._) fell in prayer,
but somehow could not pray. The thought struck him that if Christ died
to forgive sin, it could not be right in man to hold it beyond
forgiveness. At this moment Anselmo came up, was attacked, and cried for
mercy. Gualberto cast away his dagger, ran to the neighboring convent,
thanked God he had been saved from blood-guiltiness, and became a hermit
noted for his holiness of life.—Southey, _St. Gualberto_.
=Gua´rini= (_Philip_), the ’squire of Sir Hugo de Lacy.—Sir W. Scott,
_The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).
=Guari´nos= (_Admiral_), one of Charlemagne’s paladins, taken captive at
Roncesvallês. He fell to the lot of Marlo´tês, a Moslem, who offered him
his daughter in marriage, if he would become a disciple of the Arabian
prophet. Guarinos refused, and was kept in a dungeon for seven years,
when he was liberated, that he might take part in a joust. The admiral
then stabbed the Moor to his heart, and, vaulting on his gray horse,
Treb´ozond, escaped to France.
=Gu´drun=, a lady married to Sigurd by the magical arts of her mother;
and on the death of Sigurd to Atli, (_Attila_), whom she hated for his
fierce cruelty, and murdered. She then cast herself into the sea, and
the waves bore her to the castle of King Jonakun, who became her third
husband.—_Edda_ of Sämund Sigfusson (1130).
_Gudrun_, a model of heroic fortitude and pious resignation. She was the
daughter of King Hettel (_Attila_), and the betrothed of Herwig, king of
Heligoland, but was carried off by Harmuth, king of Norway, who killed
Hettel. As she refused to marry Harmuth, he put her to all sorts of
menial work. One day, Herwig appeared with an army, and having gained a
decisive victory, married Gudrun, and at her intercession pardoned
Harmuth the cause of her great misery.—_A North-Saxon Poem_ (thirteenth
century).
=Gud´yill= (_Old John_), butler to Lady Bellenden.—Sir W. Scott, _Old
Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).
=Guelph´o= (3 _syl._), son of Actius IV. Marquis d’Este and of Cunigunda
(a German). Guelpho was the uncle of Rinaldo, and next in command to
Godfrey. He led an army of 5000 men from Carynthia, in Germany, to the
siege of Jerusalem, but most of them were cut off by the Persians.
Guelpho was noted for his broad shoulders and ample chest.—Tasso,
_Jerusalem Delivered_, iii. (1575).
=Guen´dolen= (3 _syl._), a fairy whose mother was a human being. King
Arthur fell in love with her, and she became the mother of Gyneth. When
Arthur deserted the frail fair one, she offered him a parting cup; but
as he took it in his hands, a drop of the liquor fell on his horse and
burnt it so severely that it “lept twenty feet high,” ran mad, and died.
Arthur dashed the cup on the ground, whereupon it set fire to the grass
and consumed the fairy palace. As for Guendolen, she was never seen
afterwards.—Sir W. Scott, _The Bridal of Triermain_, i. 2 (“Lyulph’s
Tales,” 1813).
=Guendolϫna,= wife of Locrin (eldest son of Brute, whom he succeeded),
and daughter of Cori´neus (3 _syl._). Being divorced, she retired to
Cornwall, and collected an army, which marched against Locrin, who “was
killed by the shot of an arrow.” Guendolœna now assumed the reins of
government, and her first act was to throw Estrildis (her rival) and her
daughter Sabre, into the Severn, which was called Sabri´na or Sabren
from that day.—Geoffrey, _British History_, ii. 4, 5 (1142.)
=Guenever= or =Guinever=, a corrupt form of _Guanhuma´ra_ (4 _syl._),
daughter of King Leodegrance, of the land of Camelyard. She was the most
beautiful of women, was the wife of King Arthur, but entertained a
criminal attachment for Sir Launcelot du Lac. Respecting the latter part
of the queen’s history, the greatest diversity occurs. Thus Geoffrey
says:
King Arthur was on his way to Rome ... when news was brought him that
his nephew Mordred, to whose care he had entrusted Britain had ... set
the crown upon his own head; and that the queen Guanhumara had wickedly
married him.... When King Arthur returned and put Mordred and his army
to flight ... the queen fled from York to the City of Legions [_Newport
in South Wales_], where she resolved to lead a chaste life among the
nuns of Julius the martyr.—_British History_, xi. 1 (1142).
Another version is, that Arthur, being informed of the adulterous
conduct of Launcelot, went with an army to Bentwick (_Brittany_), to
punish him. That Mordred (his son by his own sister), left as regent,
usurped the crown, proclaimed that Arthur was dead, and tried to marry
Guenever, the queen; but she shut herself up in the Tower of London,
resolved to die rather than marry the usurper. When she heard of the
death of Arthur, she “stole away” to Almesbury, “and there she let make
herself a nun, and wore white cloaths and black.” And there lived she
“in fasting, prayers and almsdeeds, that all marvelled at her virtuous
life.”—Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, iii, 161-170 (1470).
⁂ For Tennyson’s version, see GUINEVERE.
=Guene´vra= (3 _syl._), wife of Necetaba´nus, the dwarf, at the cell of
the hermit of Engaddi.—Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).
=Guenn.= Beautiful Breton peasant, haughty and gay, who refuses to sit
as a model to the artists who haunt the region, until Hamor prevails
over her scruples. Up to now, her love for her deformed brother has been
the strongest passion of her strong nature. The love she learns to feel
for Hamor masters all else, and when convinced that it is hopeless she
grows desperate. She is “found drowned.”—Blanche Willis Howard, _Guenn_.
=Guer´in= or =Gueri´no=, son of Millon, king of Alba´nia. On the day of
his birth his father was dethroned, but the child was rescued by a Greek
slave, who brought it up and surnamed it _Meschi´no_ or “the Wretched.”
When grown to man’s estate Guerin fell in love with the princess
Elizena, sister of the Greek emperor, who held his court at
Constantinople.—_An Italian Romance._
=Guesclin’s Dust a Talisman.= Guesclin, or rather Du Guesclin, constable
of France, laid siege to Châteauneuf-de-Randan, in Auvergne. After
several assaults the town promised to surrender if not relieved within
fifteen days. Du Guesclin died in this interval, but the governor of the
town came and laid the keys of the city on the dead man’s body, saying
he resigned the place to the hero’s ashes (1380).
France ... demands his bones [_Napoleon’s_],
To carry onward in the battle’s van,
To form, like Guesclin’s dust, her talisman.
Byron, _Age of Bronze_, iv. (1821).
=Gugner=, Odin’s spear, which never failed to hit. It was made by the
dwarf Eitri.—_The Eddas_.
=Guide´rius=, eldest son of Cym´beline, (3 _syl._), king of Britain, and
brother of Arvir´agus. They were kidnapped in infancy by Belarius, out
of revenge for being unjustly banished, and were brought up by him in a
cave. When grown to manhood, Belarius introduced them to the king and
told their story; whereupon Cymbeline received them as his sons, and
Guiderius succeeded him on the throne.—Shakespeare, _Cymbeline_ (1605).
Geoffrey calls Cymbeline “Kymbelinus, son of Tenuantius;” says that he
was brought up by Augustus Cæsar, and adds, “In his days was born our
Lord Jesus Christ.” Kymbeline reigned ten years, when he was succeeded
by Guiderius. The historian says that Kymbeline _paid_ the tribute to
the Romans, and that it was Guiderius who refused to do so, “for which
reason Claudius the emperor marched against him, and he was killed by
Hamo.”—_British History_, iv. 11, 12, 13 (1142).
=Guido,= “the Savage,” son of Amon and Constantia. He was the younger
brother of Rinaldo. Being wrecked on the coast of the Am´azons, he was
compelled to fight their ten male champions, and having slain them all,
to marry ten of the Amazons. From this thraldom Guido made his escape,
and joined the army of Charlemagne.—Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).
_Guido_ [FRANCESCHINI], a reduced nobleman, who tried to repair his
fortune by marrying Pompilia, the putative child of Pietro and Violantê.
When the marriage was accomplished, and the money secure, Guido
ill-treated the putative parents; and Violantê, in revenge, declared
that Pompilia was not their child at all, but the offspring of a Roman
wanton. Having made this declaration, she next applied to the law-courts
for the recovery of the money. When Guido heard this tale, he was
furious, and so ill-treated his child-wife that she ran away, under the
protection of a young canon. Guido pursued the fugitives, overtook them,
and had them arrested; whereupon the canon was suspended for three
years, and Pompilia sent to a convent. Here her health gave way, and as
the birth of a child was expected, she was permitted to leave the
convent and live with her putative parents. Guido, having gained
admission, murdered all three, and was himself executed for the
crime.—R. Browning, _The Ring and the Book_.
=Guild= (_Engineer_), who, in passing through Providence at night, was
wont to give a signal to his wife which meant—
“To my trust true,
So, love to you!
Working or waiting, good night!”
One night the whistle was not heard.
“Guild lay under his engine dead.”—Francis Bret Harte, _Guild’s Signal_.
=Guil´denstern=, one of Hamlet’s companions, employed by the king and
queen to divert him, if possible, from his strange and wayward
ways.—Shakespeare, _Hamlet_ (1596).
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are favorable examples of the
thorough-paced time-serving court knave ... ticketed and to be hired for
any hard or dirty work.—Cowden Clarke.
=Guillotine= (3 _syl._). So named from Joseph Ignace Guillotin, a French
physician, who proposed its adoption, to prevent unnecessary pain. Dr.
Guillotin did not invent the guillotine, but he improved the Italian
machine (1791). In 1792 Antoine Louis introduced further improvements,
and hence the instrument is sometimes called _Louisette, or Louison_.
The original Italian machine was called _mannaja_; it was a clumsy
affair, first employed to decapitate Beatrice Cenci, in Rome, A.D. 1600.
It was the popular theme for jests. It was [called _La mère
Guillotine_], the “sharp female,” the “best cure for headache.” It
“infallibly prevented the hair from turning grey.” It “imparted a
peculiar delicacy to the complexion.” It was the “national razor,” which
shaved close. Those “who kissed the guillotine, looked through the
little window and sneezed into the sack.” It was the sign of “the
regeneration of the human race.” It “superseded the cross.” Models were
worn[_as ornaments_].—C. Dickens, A _Tale of Two Cities_, iii. 4 (1859).
=Guinart= (_Roque_), whose true name was Pedro Rocha Guinarda, chief of
a band of robbers who levied black mail in the mountainous districts of
Catalonia. He is introduced by Cervantes in his tale of _Don Quixote._
=Guinea= (_Adventures of a_), a novel by Charles Johnstone (1761). A
guinea, as it passes into different hands, is the historian of the
follies and vices of its master for the time being; and thus a series of
scenes and personages is made to pass before the reader, somewhat in the
same manner as in _The Devil upon Two Sticks_ and in _The Chinese
Tales_.
=Guin´evere= (_3 syl._). So Tennyson spells the name of Arthur’s queen
in his _Idylls_. He tells us of the liaison between her and “Sir
Lancelot,” and says that Mordred, having discovered this familiarity,
“brought his creatures to the basement of the tower for testimony.” Sir
Lancelot flung the fellow to the ground, and instantly took to horse;
while Guinevere fled to the nunnery at Almesbury. Here the king took
leave of her; and when the abbess died, the queen was appointed her
successor, and remained head of the establishment for three years, when
she also died.
⁂ It will be seen that Tennyson departs from the _British History_, by
Geoffrey, and the _History of Prince Arthur_ as edited by Sir T. Malory.
(See GUENEVER.)
=Guiomar=, mother of the vain-glorious Duar´te.—Beaumont and Fletcher,
_The Custom of the Country_ (1647).
=Guiscardo=, the ’squire, but previously the page, of Tancred, king of
Salerno. Sigismunda, the king’s daughter, loved him, and clandestinely
married him. When Tancred discovered it, he ordered the young man to be
waylaid and strangled. He then went to his daughter’s chamber, and
reproved her for loving a base-born “slave.” Sigismunda boldly defended
her choice, but next day received a human heart in a golden casket. It
needed no prophet to tell her what had happened, and she drank a draught
of poison. Her father entered just in time to hear her dying request
that she and Guiscardo might be buried in the same tomb. The royal
father
Too late repented of his cruel deed,
One common sepulchre for both decreed;
Intombed the wretched pair in royal state,
And on their monument inscribed their fate.
Dryden, _Sigismunda and Guiscardo_ (from Boccaccio).
=Guise= (_Henri de Lorraine, duc de_) commenced the Massacre of St.
Bartholomew by the assassination of Admiral Coligny [_Co.leen´.ye_].
Being forbidden to enter Paris, by order of Henri III., he disobeyed the
injunction, and was murdered (1550-1588).
⁂ Henri de Guise has furnished the subject of several tragedies. In
_English_ we have _Guise, or the Massacre of France_, by John Webster
(1620); _The Duke of Guise_, by Dryden and Lee. In _French_ we have
_Etats de Blois (the Death of Guise)_, by François Raynouard (1814).
=Guis´la= (2 _syl._). sister of Pelayo, in love with Numac´ian, a
renegade. “She inherited her mother’s leprous taint.” Brought back to
her brother’s house by Adosinda, she returned to the Moor, “cursing the
meddling spirit that interfered with her most shameless love.”—Southey,
_Roderick, Last of the Goths_ (1814).
=Gui´zor= (2 _syl._), groom of the Saracen Pollentê. His “scalp was
bare, betraying his state of bondage.” His office was to keep the bridge
on Pollentê’s territory, and to allow no one to pass without paying “the
passage penny.” This bridge was full of trap-doors, through which
travellers were apt to fall into the river below. When Guizor demanded
toll of Sir Artĕgal, the knight gave him a “stunning blow, saying, ‘Lo!
there’s my hire;’” and the villain dropped down dead.—Spenser, _Faëry
Queen_, v. 2 (1596).
⁂ Upton conjectures that “Guizor” is intended for the Duc de Guise, and
his master “Pollentê” for Charles IX. of France, both notorious for the
St. Bartholomew Massacre.
=Gulbey´az,= the sultana. Having seen Juan amongst Lambro’s captives,
“passing on his way to sale,” she caused him to be purchased, and
introduced into the harem in female attire. On discovering that he
preferred Dudù, one of the attendant beauties, to herself, she commanded
both to be sewed up in a sack, and cast into the Bosphorus. They
contrived, however, to make their escape.—Byron, _Don Juan_, vi. (1824).
=Gul´chenraz=, surnamed “Gundogdi” (“morning”), daughter of
Malek-al-salem, king of Georgia, to whom Fum-Hoam, the mandarin, relates
his numerous and extraordinary transformations, or rather
metempsychoses.—T. S. Gueulette, _Chinese Tales_, (1723).
=Gul´chenrouz=, son of Ali Hassan (brother of the Emir´ Fakreddin); the
“most delicate and lovely youth in the whole world.” He could “write
with precision, paint on vellum, sing to the lute, write poetry, and
dance to perfection; but could neither hurl the lance nor curb the
steed.” Gulchenrouz was betrothed to his cousin Nouron´ihar, who loved
“even his faults;” but they never married, for Nouronihar became the
wife of the Caliph Vathek.—W. Beckford, _Vathek_ (1784).
Even beggars, in soliciting alms, will give utterance to some
appropriate passage from the _Gulistan_.—J. J. Grandville.
=Gul´liver= (_Lemuel_), first a surgeon, then a sea-captain of several
ships. He gets wrecked on the coast of Lilliput, a country of pygmies.
Subsequently he is thrown among the people of Brobdingnag, giants of
tremendous size. In his next voyage he is driven to Lapu´ta, an empire
of quack pretenders to science and knavish projectors. And in his fourth
voyage he visits the Houyhnhnms [_Whin´.nms_], where horses are the
dominant powers.—Dean Swift, _Travels in Several Remote Nations_ ... _by
Lemuel Gulliver_ (1726).
=Gulna´rê= (3 _syl._), daughter of Faras´chê (3 _syl._), whose husband
was king of an under-sea empire. A usurper drove the king, her father,
from his throne, and Gulnarê sought safety in the Island of the Moon.
Here she was captured, made a slave, sold to the king of Persia, and
became his favorite, but preserved a most obstinate and speechless
silence for twelve months. Then the king made her his wife, and she told
him her history. In due time a son was born, whom they called Beder
(“the full moon”).
Gulnarê says that the under-sea folk are never wetted by the water, that
they can see as well as we can, that they speak the language “of
Solomon’s seal,” and can transport themselves instantaneously from place
to place.—_Arabian Nights_ (“Beder and Giauharê”).
_Gulnare_ (2 _syl._), queen of the harem, and the most beautiful of all
the slaves of Seyd [_Seed_]. She was rescued by Conrad the corsair from
the flames of the palace; and, when Conrad was imprisoned, she went to
his dungeon, confessed her love, and proposed that he should murder the
sultan and flee. As Conrad refused to assassinate Seyd, she herself did
it, and then fled with Conrad to the “Pirate’s Isle.” The rest of the
tale is continued in _Lara_, in which Gulnare assumes the name of Kaled,
and appears as a page.—Byron, _The Corsair_ (1814).
=Gulvi´gar= (“_weigher of gold_”), the Plutus of Scandinavian mythology.
He introduced among men the love of gain.
=Gum´midge= (_Mrs._), the widow of Dan’el Peggotty’s partner. She kept
house for Dan’el, who was a bachelor. Old Mrs. Gummidge had a craze that
she was neglected and uncared for, a waif in the wide world, of no use
to any one. She was always talking of herself as the “lone lorn
cre’tur’.” When about to sail for Australia, one of the sailors asked
her to marry him, when “she ups with a pail of water and flings it at
his head.”—C. Dickens, _David Copperfield_ (1849.)
=Gundof´orus=, an Indian king for whom the Apostle Thomas built a palace
of sethym wood, the roof of which was ebony. He made the gates of the
horn of the “horned snake,” that no one with poison might be able to
pass through.
=Gungnir=, Odin’s spear.—_Scandinavian Mythology_.
=Günther=, king of Burgundy, and brother of Kriemhild (2 _syl._). He
resolved to wed Brunhild, the martial queen of Issland, and won her by
the aid of Siegfried; but the bride behaved so obstreperously that the
bridegroom had again to apply to his friend for assistance. Siegfried
contrived to get possession of her ring and girdle, after which she
became a submissive wife. Günther, with base ingratitude, was privy to
the murder of his friend, and was himself slain in the dungeon of Etzel
by his sister Kriemhield.—_The Nibelungen Lied._
⁂ In history, Günther is called “Güntacher,” and Etzel “Attila.”
=Gup´py= (_Mr._), clerk in the office of Kenge and Carboy. A weak,
commonplace youth, who has the conceit to propose to Esther Summerson,
the ward in Chancery.—C. Dickens, _Bleak House_ (1853).
=Gurgus´tus=, according to Drayton, son of Belīnus. This is a mistake,
as Gurgustus, or rather Gurgustius, was son of Rivallo; and the son of
Belīnus was Gurgiunt Brabtruc. The names given by Geoffrey, in his
_British History_, run thus; Leir (_Lear_), Cunedag, his grandson,
Rivallo, his son, Gurgustius, his son, Sisillius, his son, Jago,
nephew of Gurguitius, Kinmarc, son of Sisillius, then Gorbogud. Here
the line is broken, and the new dynasty begins with Molmutius of
Cornwall, then his son Belinus, who was succeeded by his son Gurgiunt
Brabtruc, whose son and successor was Guithelin, called by Drayton
“Guynteline.”—Geoffrey, _British History,_ ii., iii. (1142).
In greatness next succeeds Belinus’ worthy son
Gurgustus, who soon left what his great father won
To Guynteline his heir
M. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, viii. (1612).
=Gurney= (_Gilbert_), the hero and title of a novel by Theodore Hook.
This novel is a spiced autobiography of the author himself (1835).
_Gurney_ (_Thomas_), shorthand writer, and author of a work on the
subject called _Brachygraphy_ (1705-1770).
If you would like to see the whole proceedings...
The best is that in shorthand ta’en by Gurney,
Who to Madrid on purpose made a journey.
Byron, _Don Juan_, i. 189 (1819).
_Gurney._ City visitor to Cedarswamp, making fishing and flirting his
business while there. Deserts a country girl, “Lett,” to make love to
the new teacher, Miss Hungerford.—Sally Pratt McLean, _Cape Cod Folks_
(1881).
=Gurth=, the swine-herd and thrall of Cedric of Rotherwood.—Sir W.
Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).
=Gurton= (_Gammer_), the heroine of an old English comedy. The plot
turns upon the loss of a needle by Gammer Gurton, and its subsequent
discovery sticking in the breeches of her man Hodge.—Mr. J. S., Master
of Arts (1561).
=Guse Gibbie=, a half-witted lad in the service of Lady Bellenden.—Sir
W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).
=Gushington= (_Angelina_), the _nom de plume_ of Lady Dufferin.
=Gusta´vus Vasa= (1496-1560), having made his escape from Denmark, where
he had been treacherously carried captive, worked as a common laborer
for a time in the copper-mines of Dalecarlia [_Da´.le.karl´.ya_]; but
the tyranny of Christian II. of Denmark induced the Dalecarlians to
revolt, and Gustavus was chosen their leader. The rebels made themselves
masters of Stockholm; Christian abdicated, and Sweden henceforth became
an independent kingdom.—H. Brooke, _Gustavus Vasa_ (1730).
=Gus´ter=, the Snagsbys’ maid-of-all-work. A poor, overworked drudge,
subject to fits.—C. Dickens, _Bleak House_ (1853).
=Gusto Picaresco= (“_taste for roguery_”). In romance of this school the
Spaniards especially excel, as Don Diego de Mondo´za’s _Lazarillo de
Tormes_ (1553); Mateo Aleman’s _Guzman d’Alfarache_ (1599); Guevedo’s
_Gran Tacano_, etc.
=Guthrie= (_John_), one of the archers of the Scottish guard in the
employ of Louis XI—Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.)
=Gutter Lyrist= (_The_), Robert Williams Buchanan; so called from his
poems on the loves of costermongers and their wenches (1841- ).
=Guy Carleton.= Wealthy young Englishman who is converted from
skepticism by the gentle leadings of the child Fleda, and never forgets
her. He meets her eight or nine years afterward and marries her.—Susan
Warner, _Queechy_ (1852).
=Guy Morville.= High-spirited, generous youth, whose religious faith
helps him to overcome a fiery temper. He dies, while on his bridal tour
of fever contracted in nursing his cousin Philip, his rival and
enemy.—C. M. Yonge, _The Heir of Redclyffe_.
Guy (_Thomas_), the miser and philanthropist. He amassed an immense
fortune in 1720 by speculations in South Sea stock, and gave £238,292 to
found and endow Guy’s hospital (1644-1724).
=Guy, earl of Warwick=, an English knight. He proposed marriage to
Phelis or Phillis, who refused to listen to his suit till he had
distinguished himself by knightly deeds. He first rescued Blanch,
daughter of the emperor of Germany, then fought against the Saracens,
and slew the doughty Coldran, Elmage, king of Tyre, and the Soldan
himself. Then, returning to England, he was accepted by Phelis and
married her. In forty days he returned to the Holy Land, when he
redeemed Earl Jonas out of prison, slew the giant Am´erant, and
performed many other noble exploits. Again he returned to England, just
in time to encounter the Danish giant Colebrond (_2 syl._) or Colbrand,
which combat is minutely described by Drayton, in his _Polyolbion_, xii.
At Windsor he slew a boar “of passing might.” On Dunsmore Heath he slew
the dun cow of Dunsmore, a wild and cruel monster. In Northumberland he
slew a winged dragon, “black as any cole,” with the paws of a lion, and
a hide which no sword could pierce (_Polyolbion_, xiii.). After this he
turned hermit, and went daily to crave bread of his wife Phelis, who
knew him not. On his death-bed he sent her a ring, and she closed his
dying eyes (890-958).
=Guy Fawkes=, the conspirator, went under the name of John Johnstone,
and pretended to be the servant of Mr. Percy (1577-1606).
=Guy Mannering=, the second of Scott’s historical novels, published in
1815, just seven months after _Waverley_. The interest of the tale is
well sustained; but the love scenes, female characters, and Guy
Mannering himself, are quite worthless. Not so the character of Dandy
Dinmont, the shrewd and witty counsellor Pleydell, the desperate
sea-beaten villainy of Hatteraick, the uncouth devotion of that gentlest
of all pedants, poor Domine Sampson, and half-crazed, but noble-hearted,
Meg Merrilies, the true heroine of the novel.
_Guy Mannering_ was the work of six weeks about Christmas time,
and marks of haste are visible both in the plot and in its
development.—Chambers, _English Literature_, ii. 586.
=Guyon Guerndale.= Sensitive, imaginative young man, “forever looking
for this year’s birds in the nests of the last.” He carries in a locket
with him an heirloom diamond said to have been wrested from the rightful
owner by a wicked ancestor. Guerndale loves a woman who marries his
friend; he seeks glory and is wounded at Plevna. He “had started by
believing in three things, truth, love, and friendship,” and he never
recants. While in the hospital, news comes of “Annie’s” death. He
determines to cast away the diamond he had once meant for her. It is an
evil stone. He wrenches open the locket, reopens his wound, and bleeds
to death. His friend, finding him dead, picks up the historic stone.
“The diamond was only a crystal after all.” Frederic Jesup Stimson,
_Guerndale_ (1881).
=Guyn´teline= or =Guithtlin=, according to Geoffrey, son of Gurgiun´e
Brabtrue (_British History_, iii. 11, 12, 13); but, according to
Drayton, son of Gurgustus, an early British king. (See GURGUSTUS). His
queen was Martia, who codified what are called the Martian Laws,
translated into Anglo-Saxon by King Alfred. (See MARTIAN LAWS.)
Gurgustus ... left what his great father won
To Guynteline his heir, whose queen ...
To wise Mulmutius laws her Martian first did frame.
Drayton, _Polyolbion_, viii. (1612).
=Guyon=, (_Sir_), the personification of “temperance.” The victory of
temperance over intemperance is the subject of bk. ii. of the _Faëry
Queen_. Sir Guyon first lights on Amavia (intemperance of _grief_), a
woman who kills herself out of grief for her husband; and he takes her
infant boy and commits it to the care of Medi´na. He next meets
Braggadoccio (intemperance of the _tongue_), who is stripped bare of
everything. He then encounters Furor (intemperance of _anger_), and
delivers Phaon from his hands. Intemperance of _desire_ is discomfited
in the persons of Pyr´oclês and Cym´oclês; then intemperance of
_pleasure_, or wantonness, in the person of Phædria. After his victory
over wantonness, he sees Mammon (intemperance of _worldly wealth and
honor_); but he rejects all his offers, and Mammon is foiled. His last
and great achievement is the destruction of the “Bower of Bliss,” and
the binding in chains of adamant the enchantress Acrasia (or
_intemperance_ generally). This enchantress was fearless against Force,
but Wisdom and Temperance prevail against her.—Spenser, _Faëry Queen_,
ii. 12 (1500).
=Guyot= (_Bertrand_), one of the archers in the Scottish guard attached
to Louis XI.—Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).
=Guzman d’Alfara´che= (_4 syl._), hero of a Spanish romance of roguery.
He begins by being a dupe, but soon becomes a knave in the character of
stable-boy, beggar, swindler, pander, student, merchant, and so
on.—Mateo Aleman (1599).
=Guzman.= The priest who brings up _Don Juan_ in Mansfield’s play of
that name. He tries to train the boy aright; failing in this, he screens
him and palliates his offences; makes a desperate effort to save his
life when he is menaced by Don Alonzo, frustrated by the youth’s
chivalric self-devotion, and is with the hapless prisoner at the moment
of his death.—Richard Mansfield, _Don Juan_ (1891).
=Gwenhid´wy=, a mermaid. The white foamy waves are called her sheep, and
the ninth wave her ram.
Take shelter when you see Gwenhidwy driving her flock ashore.—_Welsh
Proverb_.
... they watched the great sea fall,
Wave after wave, each mightier than the last;
Till, last a ninth one, gathering half the deep,
And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged,
Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame.
Tennyson, _The Holy Grail_.
=Gwilt= (_Miss_), plotter and betrayer, in Wilkie Collins’s novel,
_Armadale_.
=Gwynne= (_Nell_), one of the favorites of Charles II. She was an
actress, but in her palmy days was noted for her many works of
benevolence and kindness of heart. The last words of King Charles were,
“Don’t let poor Nellie starve!”—Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_
(time, Charles II.).
=Gyas and Cloan´thus=, two companions of Æne´as, generally mentioned
together as “fortis Gyas fortisque Cloanthus.” The phrase has become
proverbial for two very similar characters.—Virgil, _Æneid_.
The “strong Gyas” and the “strong Cloanthus” are less distinguished by
the poet than the strong Percival and the strong Osbaldistones were by
outward appearance.—Sir W. Scott.
=Gyges= (_2 syl._), one of the Titans. He had fifty heads and a hundred
hands.
_Gyges_, a king of Lydia, of whom Apollo said he deemed the poor
Arcadian Ag´laos more happy than the King Gyges, who was proverbial for
his wealth.
_Gyges_ (_2 syl._), who dethroned Candaulês (_3 syl._), king of Lydia,
and married Nyssia, the young widow. Herodotos says that Candaulês
showed Gyges the queen naked, and the queen, indignant at this
impropriety, induced Gyges to kill the king and marry her (bk. i. 8). He
reigned B.C. 716-678.
_Gyges’s Ring_ rendered the wearer invisible. Plato says that Gyges
found the ring in the flanks of a brazen horse, and was enabled by this
talisman to enter the king’s chamber unseen, and murder him.
Why did you think that you had Gyges’ ring,
Or the herb [_fern seed_] that gives invisibility?
Beaumont and Fletcher, _Fair Maid of the Inn_, i. 1 (1647).
=Gyneth=, natural daughter of Guendŏlen and King Arthur. The king
promised to give her in marriage to the bravest knight in a tournament
in which the warder was given to her to drop when she pleased. The
haughty beauty saw twenty knights fall, among whom was Vanoc, son of
Merlin. Immediately Vanoc fell, Merlin rose, put an end to the jousts,
and caused Gyneth to fall into a trance, from which she was never to
wake till her hand was claimed in marriage by some knight as brave as
those who had fallen in the tournament. After the lapse of 500 years, De
Vaux undertook to break the spell, and had to overcome four temptations,
viz., fear, avarice, pleasure, and ambition. Having succeeded in these
encounters, Gyneth awoke and became his bride.—Sir W. Scott, _Bridal of
Triermain_ (1813).
=Gyp=, the college servant of Blushington, who stole his tea and sugar,
candles, and so on. After Blushington came into his fortune he made Gyp
his chief domestic and private secretary.—W.T. Moncrieff, _The Bashful
Man_.
=Gyptian= (_Saint_), a vagrant.
Percase [_perchance_] sometimes St. Gyptian’s pilgrymage
Did carie me a month (yea, sometimes more)
To brake the bowres [_to reject the food provided_],
Bicause they had no better cheere in store.
G. Gascoigne, _The Fruites of Warre_, 100 (died 1557).
=H. B.=, the initials adopted by Mr. Doyle, father of Richard Doyle, in
his _Reform Caricatures_ (1830).
=H. H.=, Pen-name of Helen Hunt Jackson, authoress of _Ramona, A Century
of Dishonor_, etc.
=Hackburn= (_Simon of_), a friend of Hobbie Elliott, farmer at the
Heugh-foot.—Sir W. Scott, _The Black Dwarf_ (time, Anne).
=Hackum= (_Captain_), a thick-headed bully of Alsatia, once a sergeant
in Flanders. He deserted his colors, fled to England, took refuge in
Alsatia, and assumed the title of captain.—Shadwell, _Squire of Alsatia_
(1688).
=Hadad=, one of the six Wise Men of the East led by the guiding star to
Jesus. He left his beloved consort, fairest of the daughters of
Bethu´rim. At his decease she shed no tear, yet was her love exceeding
that of mortals.—Klopstock, _The Messiah_, v. (1771).
=Had´away= (_Jack_), a former neighbor of Nanty Ewart, the
smuggler-captain.—Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).
=Ha´des= (_2 syl_.), the god of the unseen world; also applied to the
grave, or the abode of departed spirits.
⁂ In the _Apostles’ Creed_, the phrase “descended into hell” is
equivalent to “descended into hadês.”
=Hadgi= (_Abdallah el_), the soldan’s envoy.—Sir W. Scott, _The
Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).
=Hadoway= (_Mrs._), Lovel’s landlady at Fairport.—Sir W. Scott, _The
Antiquary_ (time, George III.).
=Hafed=, a gheber or fire-worshipper, in love with Hinda, the emir’s
daughter. He was the leader of a band sworn to free their country or die
in the attempt. His rendezvous was betrayed, but when the Moslem came to
arrest him, he threw himself into the sacred fire, and was burnt to
death.—T. Moore, _Lalla Rookh_ (“The Fire-Worshippers,” 1817).
=Haf´edal=, the protector of travellers, one of the four gods of the
Adites (_2 syl._).
=Hafiz=, the _nom de plume_ of Mr. Stott in the _Morning Press_. Byron
calls him “grovelling Stott,” and adds, “What would be the sentiment of
the Persian Anacreon ... if he could behold his name assumed by one
Stott of Dromore, the most impudent and execrable of literary
poachers?”—_English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_ (1809).
=Hafod.= _As big a fool as Jack Hafod._ Jack Hafod was a retainer of Mr.
Bartlett, of Castlemore, Worcestershire, and the _ultimus scurrarum_ of
Great Britain. He died at the close of the eighteenth century.
=Hagan=, son of a mortal and a sea-goblin, the Achillês of German
romance. He stabbed Siegfried while drinking from a brook, and laid the
body at the door of Kriemhild, that she might suppose he had been killed
by assassins. Hagan, having killed Siegfried, then seized the “Nibelung
hoard,” and buried it in the Rhine, intending to appropriate it.
Kriemhild, after her marriage with Etzel, king of the Huns, invited him
to the court of her husband, and cut off his head. He is described as
“well grown, strongly built, with long sinewy legs, deep broad chest,
hair slightly gray, of terrible visage, and of lordly gait” (stanza
1789).—_The Nibelungen Lied_ (1210).
=Ha´garenes= (3 _syl._), the descendants of Hagar. The Arabs and the
Spanish Moors are so called.
Often he [_St. James_] hath been seen conquering and destroying the
Hagarenes.—Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. iv. 6 (1615).
=Hagenbach= (_Sir Archibald von_), governor of La Frette.—Sir W. Scott,
_Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).
=Hahlreiner= (_Fraulein_). The Münich landlady who accompanies H.H. as
maid in her travels through Germany. During the jaunt she learns so much
of other landlord’s ways and manners that “I fear me from this time
henceforth, the lodgers in my dear Fraulein’s house will not find it
such a marvel of cheap comfort as we did.”—Helen Hunt Jackson, _Bits of
Travel_ (1872).
=Haiatal´nefous= (_5 syl._), daughter and only child of Ar´manys, king
of the “Isle of Ebony.” She and Badoura were the two wives of Prince
Camaral´zaman, and gave birth at the same time to two princes. Badoura
called her son Amgiad (“the most glorious”), and Haiatalnefous called
her’s Assad (“the most happy”).—_Arabian Nights_ (“Camaralzaman and
Badoura”).
=Haidée=, “the beauty of the Cycladês,” was the daughter of Lambro, a
Greek pirate, living in one of the Cycladês. Her mother was a Moorish
maiden of Fez, who died when Haidee was a mere child. Being brought up
in utter loneliness, she was wholly Nature’s child. One day, Don Juan
was cast on the shore, the only one saved from a shipwrecked crew,
tossed about for many days in the long-boat. Haidée lighted on the lad,
and, having nursed him in a cave, fell in love with him. A report being
heard that Lambro was dead, Don Juan gave a banquet, but in the midst of
the revelry, the old pirate returned, and ordered Don Juan to be seized
and sold as a slave. Haidée broke a blood-vessel from grief and fright,
and, refusing to take any nourishment, died.—Byron, _Don Juan_, ii. 118;
iii., iv. (1819, 1821).
=Haimon= (_The Four Sons of_), the title of a minnesong in the
degeneracy of that poetic school, which rose in Germany with the house
of Hohenstaufen, and went out in the middle of the thirteenth century.
=Hair.= Every three days, when Cor´sina combed the hair of Fairstar and
her two brothers, “a great many valuable jewels were combed out, which
she sold at the nearest town.”—Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_
(“Princess Fairstar,” 1682).
“I suspected,” said Corsina, “that Cherry is not the brother of
Fairstar, for he has neither a star nor collar of gold as Fairstar and
her brothers have.” “That’s true,” rejoined her husband; “but jewels
fall out of his hair, as well as out of the others.”—_Princess
Fairstar_.
_Hair._ Mrs. Astley, an actress of the last century, wife of “Old
Astley,” could stand up and cover her feet with her flaxen hair.
She had such luxuriant hair that she could stand upright and it covered
her to her feet like a veil. She was very proud of these flaxen locks;
and a slight accident by fire having befallen them, she resolved ever
after to play in a wig. She used, therefore, to wind this immense
quantity of hair round her head, and put over it a capacious caxon, the
consequence of which was that her head bore about the same proportion to
the rest of her figure that a whale’s skull does to its body.—Philip
Astley (1742-1814).
_Hair._ Mdlle. Bois de Chêne, exhibited in London in 1852-3, had a most
profuse head of hair, and also a strong black beard, large whiskers, and
thick hair on her arms and legs.
Charles XII. had in his army a woman whose beard was a yard and a half
long. She was taken prisoner at the battle of Pultowa, and presented to
the Czar in 1724.
Johann Mayo, the German painter, had a beard which touched the ground
when he stood up.
Master George Killingworthe, in the court of Ivan “the Terrible” of
Russia, had a beard five feet two inches long. It was thick, broad, and
of a yellowish hue.—Hakluyt (1589).
=Hair Cut Off.= It was said by the Greeks and Romans that life would not
quit the body of a devoted victim till a lock of hair had first been cut
from the head of the victim and given to Proserpine. Thus, when Alcestis
was about to die as a voluntary sacrifice for the life of her husband,
Than´atos first cut off a lock of her hair for the queen of the
infernals. When Dido immolated herself, she could not die till Iris had
cut off one of her yellow locks for the same purpose.—Virgil, _Æneid_,
iv. 693-705.
Iris cut the yellow hair of unhappy Dido, and broke the charm.—O. W.
Holmes, _Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_.
=Hair, Sign of Rank.=
The Parthians and ancient Persians of high rank wore long flowing hair.
Homer speaks of “the long-haired Greeks” by way of honorable
distinction. Subsequently the Athenian cavalry wore long hair, and all
Lacedæmonian soldiers did the same.
The Gauls considered long hair a notable honor, for which reason Julius
Cæsar obliged them to cut off their hair in token of submission.
The Franks and ancient Germans considered long hair a mark of noble
birth. Hence Clodion, the Frank, was called “The Long-Haired,” and his
successors are spoken of as _les rois chevelures_.
The Goths looked on long hair as a mark of honor, and short hair as a
mark of thraldom.
For many centuries long hair was in France the distinctive mark of kings
and nobles.
=Haïz´um= (_3 syl._), the horse on which the archangel Gabriel rode when
he led a squadron of 3000 angels against the Koreishites (_3 syl._) in
the famous battle of Bedr.
=Hakem´ or Hakeem=, chief of the Druses, who resides at Deir-el-Kamar.
The first hakem was the third Fatimite caliph, called B’amr-ellah, who
professed to be incarnate deity, and the last prophet who had personal
communication between God and man. He was slain on Mount Mokattam, near
Cairo (Egypt).
Hakem the khalif vanished erst,
In what seemed death to uninstructed eyes,
On red Mokattam’s verge.
Robert Browning, _The Return of the Druses_, i.
=Hakim= _(Adonbec el_), Saladin in the disguise of a physician. He
visited Richard Cœur de Lion in sickness; gave him a medicine in which
the “talisman” had been dipped, and the sick king recovered from his
fever.—Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).
=Halcro= (_Claud_), the old bard of Magnus Troil, the udaller of
Zetland.—Sir W. Scott, _The Pirate_ (time, William III.).
⁂ A udallar is one who holds his land by allodial tenure.
=Halden or Halfdene= (_2 syl._), a Danish king, who with Basrig or
Bagsecg, another Scandinavian king, made (in 871) a descent upon Wessex,
and in that one year nine pitched battles were fought with the
islanders. The first was Englefield, in Berkshire, in which the Danes
were beaten; the second was Reading, in which the Danes were victorious;
the third was the famous battle of Æscesdun or Ashdune, in which the
Danes were defeated with great loss, and King Bagsecg was slain. In 909,
Halfdene was slain in the battle of Wodnesfield (Staffordshire).
Reading ye regained....
Where Basrig ye outbraved, and Halden sword to sword.
Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xii. (1613).
=Hal´dimund= (_Sir Ewes_), a friend of Lord Dalgarno.—Sir W. Scott,
_Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).
Hales (_John_), called “The Ever-Memorable” (1584-1656).
The works of John Hales were published after his death, in 1659, under
the title of _The Golden Remains of the Ever-Memorable Mr. John Hales of
Eton College_ (three vols.).
=Halifax= (_John_), noble character, rising from poverty to affluence
and honor by his own exertions, and winning for himself the name written
by his mother in his Bible, “_John Halifax, Gentleman._”—Dinah Maria
Muloch, Mrs. Craik.
=Halkit= (_Mr._), a young lawyer in the introduction of Sir W. Scott’s
_Heart of Midlothian_ (1818).
=Hall= (_Sir Christopher_), an officer in the army of Montrose.—Sir W.
Scott, _Legend of Montrose_ (time, Charles I.).
=Hall= (_Ruth_), vivacious woman, who is happily married, then widowed,
reduced to poverty, and wins fortune and fame by her pen. Supposed to be
the author’s own life under a thin veil of fiction.—Sarah Payson Willis
(Fanny Fern), _Ruth Hall_ (184-).
=Haller= (_Mrs._). At the age of 16, Adelaid [Mrs. Haller] married the
Count Waldbourg, from whom she eloped. The count then led a roving life,
and was known as “the stranger.” The countess, repenting of her folly,
assumed (for three years) the name of Mrs. Haller, and took service
under the countess of Wintersen, whose affection she won by her
amiability and sweetness of temper. Baron Steinfort fell in love with
her, but hearing her tale, interested himself in bringing about a
reconciliation between Mrs. Haller and “the stranger,” who happened, at
the time, to be living in the same neighborhood. They met and bade
adieu, but when their children were brought forth, they relented, and
rushed into each other’s arms.—Benj. Thompson, _The Stranger_ (1797).
Adapted from Kotzebue.
=Halliday= (_Tom_), a private in the royal army.—Sir W. Scott, _Old
Mortality_ (time Charles II.).
=Hamarti´a=, Sin personified, offspring of the red dragon and Eve. “A
foul deformed” monster, “more foul deformed the sun yet never saw.” “A
woman seemed she in the upper part,” but “the rest was in serpent form,”
though out of sight. Fully described in canto xii. of _The Purple
Island_ (1633), by Phineas Fletcher. (Greek _hamartia_, “sin.”)
=Hamet=, son of Mandānê and Zamti (a Chinese mandarin). When the infant
prince, Zaphimri, called “the orphan of China,” was committed to the
care of Zamti, Hamet was sent to Corea, and placed under the charge of
Morat; but when grown to manhood, he led a band of insurgents against
Ti´murkan´ the Tartar, who had usurped the throne of China. He was
seized and condemned to death, under the conviction that he was
Zaphimri, the prince. Etan (who was the real Zaphimri) now came forward
to acknowledge his rank, and Timurkan, unable to ascertain which was the
true prince, ordered them both to execution. At this juncture a party of
insurgents arrived, Hamet and Zaphimri were set at liberty, Timurkan was
slain, and Zaphimri was raised to the throne of his forefathers.—Murphy,
_The Orphan of China_.
_Hamet_, one of the black slaves of Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert,
preceptor of the Knights Templars.—Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time,
Richard I.).
_Hamet_, (_the Cid_) or THE CID HAMET BENENGEL´I, the hypothetical
Moorish chronicler who is fabled by Cervantês to have written the
adventures of “Don Quixote.”
O Nature’s noblest gift my gray goose quill!...
Our task complete, like Hamet’s shall be free.
Byron, _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_
(1809).
The shrewd Cid Hamet, addressing himself to his pen, says, “And now my
slender quill, whether skillfully cut or otherwise, here from this rack,
suspended by a wire, shalt thou peacefully live to distant times, unless
the hand of some rash historian disturb thy repose by taking thee down
and profaning thee.”—Cervantes, _Don Quixote_ (last chap., 1615).
=Hamilton= (_Lady Emily_), sister of Lord Evandale.—Sir W. Scott, _Old
Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).
_Hamilton_ (_Mrs._), model Christian mother, whose character and modes
of government are delineated in _Home Influence_ and _The Mother’s
Recompense_.—Grace Aquilar (185-).
=Hamiltrude= (_3 syl._), a poor Frenchwoman, the first of Charlemagne’s
nine wives. She bore him several children.
Her neck was tinged with a delicate rose.... Her locks were bound about
her temples with gold and purple bands. Her dress was looped up with
ruby clasps. Her coronet and her purple robes gave her an air of
surpassing majesty.—L’Epine, _Croquemitaine_, iii.
=Hamlet=, prince of Denmark, a man of mind, but not of action; nephew of
Claudius, the reigning king, who had married the widowed queen. Hamlet
loved Ophelia, daughter of Polo´nius, the lord chamberlain; but feeling
it to be his duty to revenge his father’s murder, he abandoned the idea
of marriage and treated Ophelia so strangely that she went mad, and,
gathering flowers from a brook, fell into the water and was drowned.
While wasting his energy in speculation, Hamlet accepted a challenge
from Laertês of a friendly contest with foils; but Laertês used a
poisoned rapier, with which he stabbed the young prince. A scuffle
ensued, in which the combatants changed weapons, and Laertês being
stabbed, both died.—Shakespeare, _Hamlet_ (1596).
“The whole play,” says Schlegel, “is intended to show that calculating
consideration which exhausts ... the power of action.” Goethe is of the
same opinion, and says that “Hamlet is a noble nature, without the
strength of nerve which forms a hero. He sinks beneath a burden which he
cannot bear, and cannot [_make up his mind to_] cast aside.”
⁂ In the _History of Hamblet_, Hamlet’s father is called “Horvendille.”
=Hammer= (_The _),Judas Asamonæus, surnamed _Maccabæus_, “the hammer”
(B.C. 166-136).
Charles Martel (689-741).
On prétend qu’on lui donna le surnom de _Martel_ parcequ’il avait écrasé
comme avec un marteau les Sarrasins qui, sous la conduite d’Abdérame,
avaient envahi la France.—Bouillet.
=Hammer and Scourge of England=, Sir William Wallace (1270-1305).
=Hammer of Heretics=.
1. PIERRE D’AILLY, president of the council which condemned John Huss
(1350-1425).
2. ST. AUGUSTINE, “the pillar of truth and hammer of heresies”
(395-430).—Hakewell.
3. JOHN FABER. So called from the title of one of his works, _Malleus
Hereticorum_ (1470-1541).
=Hammer of Scotland=, Edward I. His son inscribed on his tomb: “Edwardus
Longus Scotorum Malleus hic est” (1239, 1272-1307).
=Hammerlein= (_Claus_), the smith, one of the insurgents at Liège.—Sir
W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).
=Hamond,= captain of the guard of Rollo (“the bloody brother” of Otto,
and duke of Normandy). He stabs the duke, and Rollo stabs the captain;
so that they kill each other.—Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Bloody
Brother_ (1639).
=Hamor= (_Everett_), artist to whom Gwenn consents to sit as a model,
and who reciprocates the favor by stealing her heart, his own fancy
being enthralled, while he knows that he cannot marry her.
While she dances—a breathing poem, her clear eyes seeking Hamor’s with a
kind of proud pleading—“Your smile, too, O my master,” they pleaded;
“your smile to crown my joy,”—he is talking of art to a young Danish
woman, also an artist, and not seeing Gwenn.—Blanche Willis Howard,
_Gwenn_ (1883).
=Hampden= (_John_), was born in London, but after his marriage lived as
a country squire. He was imprisoned in the gatehouse for refusing to pay
a tax called ship-money, imposed without the authority of parliament.
The case was tried in the Exchequer Chamber, in 1638, and given against
him. He threw himself heart and soul into the business of the Long
Parliament, and commanded a troop in the parliamentary army. In 1643 he
fell in an encounter with Prince Rupert; but he has ever been honored as
a patriot, and the defender of the rights of the people (1597-1643).
[_Shall_] Hampden no more, when suffering Freedom calls,
Encounter Fate, and triumph as he falls?
Campbell, _Pleasures of Hope_, i. (1790).
Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast,
The little tyrant of his fields withstood.
Grey, _Elegy_ (1749).
=Hamzu-ben-Ahmud=, who, on the death of Hakeem. B’amr-ellah (called the
incarnate deity and last prophet), was the most zealous propagator of
the new faith, out of which the semi-Mohammedan sect, called Druses,
subsequently arose.
N.B.—They were not called “Druses” till the eleventh century, when one
of their “apostles,” called Durzi, led them from Egypt to Syria, and the
sect was called by his name.
=Handel’s Monument=, in Westminster Abbey, is by Roubillac. It was the
last work executed by this sculptor.
=Han= (_Sons of_), the Chinese, so called from Hân, the village in which
Lieou-pang was chief. Lieou-pang conquered all who opposed him, seized
the supreme power, assumed the name of Kao-hoâng-tee and the dynasty,
which lasted 422 years, was “the fifth imperial dynasty, or that of
Hân.” It gave thirty emperors, and the seat of government was Yn. With
this dynasty the modern history of China begins (B.C. 202 to A.D. 220).
=Handsome Englishman= (_The_). The French used to call John Churchill,
duke of Marlborough, _Le Bel Anglais_ (1650-1722).
=Handsome Swordsman= (_The_). Joachim Murat was popularly called _Le
Beau Sabreur_ (1767-1815).
=Handy Andy=, (See ANDY).
=Handy= (_Sir Abel_), a great contriver of inventions which would not
work, and of retrograde improvements. Thus “his infallible axletree”
gave way when it was used, and the carriage was “smashed to pieces.” His
substitute for gunpowder exploded, endangered his life, and set fire to
the castle. His “extinguishing powder” might have reduced the flames,
but it was not mixed, nor were his patent fire-engines in workable
order. He said to Farmer Ashfield:
“I have obtained patents for tweezers, toothpicks, and tinder-boxes ...
and have now on hand two inventions, ... one for converting saw-dust
into deal boards, and the other for cleaning rooms by steam-engines.”
_Lady Nelly Handy_ (his wife), formerly a servant in the house of Farmer
Ashfield. She was full of affectations, overbearing, and dogmatical.
Lady Nelly tried to “forget the dunghill whence she grew, and thought
herself the Lord knows who.” Her extravagance was so great that Sir Abel
said his “best coal-pit would not find her in white muslin, nor his
India bonds in shawls and otto of roses.” It turned out that her first
husband, Gerald, who had been absent twenty years, reappeared and
claimed her. Sir Abel willingly resigned his claim, and gave Gerald
£5000 to take her off his hands.
_Robert Handy_ (always called _Bob_), son of Sir Abel by his first wife.
He fancied he could do everything better than any one else. He taught
the post boy to drive, but broke the horse’s knees. He taught Farmer
Ashfield how to box, but got knocked down by him at the first blow. He
told Dame Ashfield he had learned lace-making at Mechlin, and that she
did not make it in the right way; but he spoilt her cushion in showing
her how to do it. He told Lady Handy (his father’s bride) she did not
know how to use the fan, and showed her; he told her she did not know
how to curtsey, and showed her. Being pestered by this popinjay beyond
endurance, she implored her husband to protect her from further insults.
Though light-hearted, Bob was “warm, steady, and sincere.” He married
Susan, the daughter of Farmer Ashfield.—Th. Morton, _Speed the Plough_
(1798).
=Hanging Judge= (_The_), Sir Francis Page (1718-1741).
The earl of Norbury, who was chief justice of the Common Pleas in
Ireland from 1820 to 1827, was also stigmatized with the same unenviable
title.
=Hannah.= The friend of the Quaker widow in the garden after her
husband’s funeral—“the single heart that comes at need.”—Bayard Taylor,
_The Quaker Widow_.
_Hannah_, housekeeper to Mr. Fairford, the lawyer.—Sir W. Scott,
_Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).
=Hannah Thurston.= A country girl, a Quaker by birth and breeding, whose
Madonna face and nobility of character win the regard of a wealthy
citizen of the world, a travelled man who yet does not sympathize with
Hannah’s “progressive” ideas on the subject of woman’s suffrage, etc. He
marries her and converts her.—Bayard Taylor, _Hannah Thurston_, (1868.)
=Hans=, a simple-minded boy of five and twenty, in love with Esther, but
too shy to ask her in marriage. He is a “Modus” in a lower social grade;
and Esther is a “cousin Helen,” who laughs at him, loves him, and
teaches him how to make love to her and win her.—S. Knowles, _The Maid
of Mariendorpt_ (1838).
_Hans_, the pious ferryman on the banks of the Rhine.—Sir W. Scott,
_Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).
_Hans_ (_Adrian_), a Dutch merchant killed at Boston.—Sir W. Scott,
_Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).
=Hans of Iceland=, a novel by Victor Hugo (1824). Hans is a stern,
savage, Northern monster, ghastly and fascinating.
=Hans von Rippach= [_Rip.pak_], _i.e._ Jack of Rippach. Rippach is a
village near Leipsic. This Hans von Rippach is is a “Mons.
Nong-tong-pas,” that is, a person asked for, who does not exist. The
“joke” is to ring a house up at some unseasonable hour, and ask for Herr
Hans von Rippach or Mons. Nongtongpas.
=Hanson= (_Neil_), a soldier in the castle of Garde Doloureuse.—Sir W.
Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).
=Hanswurst=, the “Jack Pudding” of old German comedy, but almost
annihilated by Gottsched, in the middle of the eighteenth century. He
was clumsy, huge in person, an immense gourmand, and fond of vulgar
practical jokes.
⁂ The French “Jean Potage,” the Italian “Macaroni,” and the Dutch
“Pickel Herringe,” were similar characters.
=Hapmouche= (_2 syl._), _i.e_. “fly-catcher,” the giant who first hit
upon the plan of smoking pork and neats’ tongues.—Rabelais,
_Pantagruel_, ii. 1.
=Happer= or =Hob=. the miller who supplies St. Mary’s Convent.
_Mysie Happer_, the miller’s daughter. Afterwards, in disguise, she acts
as the page of Sir Piercie Shafton, whom she marries.—Sir W. Scott, _The
Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).
=Happuck=, a magician, brother of Ulin, the enchantress. He was the
instigator of rebellion, and intended to kill the Sultan Misnar at a
review, but Misnar had given orders to a body of archers to shoot the
man who was left standing when the rest of the soldiers fell prostrate
in adoration. Misnar went to the review, and commanded the army to give
thanks to Allah for their victory, when all fell prostrate except
Happuck, who was thus detected, and instantly despatched.—Sir C. Morell
[James Ridley], _Tales of the Genii_ (“The Enchanter’s Tale,” vi.,
1751).
Have we prevailed against Ulin and Happuck, Ollomand and Tasnar, Ahaback
and Desra; and shall we fear the contrivance of a poor vizier?—_Tales of
the Genii_, vii. (1751).
=Har´apha=, a descendant of Anak, the giant of Gath. He went to mock
Samson in prison, but durst not venture within his reach.—Milton,
_Samson Agonistes_ (1632).
=Harbor= (_In_).
“I know it is over, over!
I know it is over at last!
Down sail! the sheathed anchor uncover,
For the stress of the voyage has passed.
Life, like a tempest of ocean,
Hath outbreathed its ultimate blast;
There’s but a faint sobbing seaward,
While the calm of the tide deepens leeward;
And, behold! like the welcoming quiver
Of heart-pulses throbbed through the river.
Those lights in the harbor at last;
The heavenly harbor at last!”
Paul Hamilton Hayne (1882).
=Har´bothel= (_Master Fabian_), the squire of Sir Aymer de Valence.—Sir
W. Scott, _Castle Dangerous_ (time, Henry I.).
=Hard Times,= a novel by C. Dickens (1854), dramatized in 1867 under the
titlef of _Under the Earth_ or _The Sons of Toil_. Bounderby, a street
Arab, raised himself to banker and cotton prince. When 55 years of age,
he proposed marriage to Louisa, daughter of Thomas Gradgrind, Esq.,
J.P., and was accepted. One night the bank was robbed of £150, and
Bounderby believed Stephen Blackpool to be the thief, because he had
dismissed him, being obnoxious to the mill hands; but the culprit was
Tom Gradgrind, the banker’s brother-in-law, who lay _perdu_ for a while,
and then escaped out of the country. In the dramatized version, the bank
was not robbed at all, but Tom merely removed the money to another
drawer for safe custody.
=Hardcastle= (_Squire_), a jovial, prosy, but hospitable country
gentleman of the old school. He loves to tell his long-winded stories
about Prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough. He says, “I love
everything that’s old—old friends, old times, old manners, old books,
old wine,” and he might have added, “old stories.”
_Mrs. Hardcastle_, a very “genteel” lady indeed. Mr. Hardcastle is her
second husband, and Tony Lumpkin her son by her former husband. She is
fond of “genteel” society, and the last fashions. Mrs. Hardcastle says,
“There’s nothing in the world I love to talk of so much as London and
the fashions, though I was never there myself.” She, foolishly mistaking
her husband for a highwayman, and imploring him on her knees to take
their watches, money, all they have got, but to spare their lives:
“Here, good gentleman, whet your rage upon me, take my money, my life,
but spare my child!” is infinitely comic.
The princess, like Mrs. Hardcastle, was jolted to a jelly.—Lord W.P.
Lennox, _Celebrities_, i. 1.
_Miss Hardcastle_, the pretty, bright-eyed, lively daughter of Squire
Hardcastle. She is in love with young Marlow, and “stoops” to a
pardonable deceit “to conquer” his bashfulness and win him.—Goldsmith,
_She Stoops to Conquer_ (1773).
=Hardie= (_Mr._), a young lawyer, in the introduction of Sir W. Scott’s
_Heart of Midlothian_ (1818).
_Hardie_ (_Alfred_), lover of Julia Dodd, in Charles Reade’s _Very Hard
Cash_. His father, _Richard Hardie_, wealthy and fraudulent banker,
cheats _David Dodd_, Julia’s father, of £14,000, and hinders his son’s
marriage to the daughter of his victim by every means in his power,
going so far as to shut him up in an insane asylum on what was to have
been his wedding-day.—Charles Reade, _Very Hard Cash_.
=Hardouin= (_2 syl._). Jean Hardouin, the jesuit, was librarian to Louis
XIV. He doubted the truth of all received history; denied that the
_Æne´id_ was the work of Virgil, or the _Odes_ of Horace the production
of that poet; placed no credence in medals and coins; regarded all
councils before that of Trent as chimerical; and looked on all
Jansenists as infidels (1646-1729).
=Hardy= (_Mr._), father of Letitia. A worthy little fellow enough, but
with the unfortunate gift of “foreseeing” everything (act v. 4).
_Letitia Hardy_, his daughter, the _fiancée_ of Dor´icourt. A girl of
great spirit and ingenuity, beautiful and clever. Doricourt dislikes her
without knowing her, simply because he has been betrothed to her by his
parents; but she wins him by stratagem. She first assumes the airs and
manners of a raw country hoyden, and disgusts the fastidious man of
fashion. She then appears at a masquerade, and wins him by her many
attractions. The marriage is performed at midnight, and, till the
ceremony is over, Doricourt has no suspicion that the fair masquerader
is his affianced, Miss Hardy.—Mrs. Cowley, _The Belle’s Stratagem_
(1780).
=Harding= (_Mr._), gentle warden of Barchester almshouse; precentor and
rector of St. Cuthbert’s. Harried nearly out of his sober wits by
newspaper persecution.—Anthony Trollope, _The Warden_ and _Barchester
Towers_.
=Haredale= (_Geoffrey_), brother of Reuben, the uncle of Emma Haredale.
He was a papist, and incurred the malignant hatred of Gashford (Lord
George Gordon’s secretary) by exposing him in Westminster Hall. Geoffrey
Haredale killed Sir John Chester in a duel, but made good his escape,
and ended his days in a monastery.
_Reuben Haredale_, (_2 syl._), brother of Geoffrey, and father of Emma
Haredale. He was murdered.
_Emma Haredale_, daughter of Reuben, and niece of Geoffrey, with whom
she lived at “The Warren.” Edward Chester entertained a _tendresse_ for
Emma Haredale.—C. Dickens, _Barnaby Rudge_ (1841).
=Harefoot= (_Harold_). So Harold I. was called because he was swift of
foot as a hare (1035-1040).
=Hargrave=, a man of fashion. The hero and title of a novel by Mrs.
Trollope (1843).
=Harley=, “the man of feeling.” A man of the finest sensibilities and
unbounded benevolence, but bashful as a maiden.—Mackenzie, _The Man of
Feeling_ (1771).
The principal object of Mackenzie is ... to reach and sustain a tone of
moral pathos by representing the effect of incidents ... upon the human
mind, ... especially those which are just, honorable, and
intelligent.—Sir W. Scott.
=Harlot= (_The Infamous Northern_), Elizabeth Petrowna, empress of
Russia (1709-1761).
=Har´lowe= (_Clarissa_), a young lady, who, to avoid a marriage to which
her heart cannot consent, but to which she is urged by her parents,
casts herself on the protection of a lover, who most scandalously abuses
the confidence reposed in him. He afterwards proposes marriage; but she
rejects his proposal, and retires to a solitary dwelling, where she
pines to death with grief and shame.—S. Richardson, _The History of
Clarissa Harlowe_ (1749).
The dignity of Clarissa under her disgrace ... reminds us of the saying
of the ancient poet, that a good man struggling with the tide of
adversity, and surmounting it, is a sight upon which the immortal gods
might look down with pleasure.—Sir W. Scott.
The moral elevation of this heroine, the saintly purity which she
preserves amidst scenes of the deepest depravity and the most seductive
gaiety, and the never-failing sweetness and benevolence of her temper,
render Clarissa one of the brightest triumphs of the whole range of
imaginative literature.—Chambers, _English Literature_, ii. 161.
=Harmon= (_John_), _alias_ JOHN ROKESMITH, Mr. Boffin’s secretary. He
lodged with the Wilfers, and ultimately married Bella Wilfer. He is
described as “a dark gentleman, 30 at the utmost, with an expressive,
one might say, a handsome face.”—C. Dickens, _Our Mutual Friend_ (1864).
⁂ For explanation of the mystery see vol. I. ii. 13.
=Harmo´nia’s Necklace=, an unlucky possession, something which brings
evil to its possessor. Harmonia was the daughter of Mars and Venus. On
the day of her marriage with King Cadmus, she received a necklace made
by Vulcan for Venus. This unlucky ornament afterwards passed to Sem´elê,
then to Jocasta, then Eriphy´lê, but it was equally fatal in every case.
(See LUCK.)—Ovid, _Metaph._, iv. 5; Statius, _Thebaid_, ii.
=Harmonious Blacksmith.= It is said that the sound of hammers on an
anvil suggested to Handel the “theme” of the musical composition to
which he has given this name.—See SCHOELCHER, _Life of Handel_, 65.
A similar tale is told of Pythagoras.
=Harmony= (_Mr._), a general peace-maker. When he found persons at
variance, he went to them separately, and told them how highly the other
spoke and thought of him or her. If it were man and wife, he would tell
the wife how highly her husband esteemed her, and would apply the “oiled
feather” in a similar way to the husband. “We all have our faults,” he
would say, “and So-and-so-knows it, and grieves at his infirmity of
temper; but though he contends with you, he praised you to me this
morning in the highest terms.” By this means he succeeded in smoothing
many a ruffled mind.—Inchbald, _Every One has His Fault_ (1794).
=Harold= “the Dauntless,” son of Witikind, the Dane. “He was rocked on a
buckler, and fed from a blade.” Harold married Eivir, a Danish maid, who
had waited on him as a page.—Sir W. Scott, _Harold the Dauntless_
(1817).
_Harold_ (_Childe_), a man of good birth, lofty bearing, and peerless
intellect, who has exhausted by dissipation the pleasures of youth, and
travels. Sir Walter Scott calls him “Lord Byron in a fancy dress.” In
canto i. the childe visits Portugal and Spain (1809); in canto ii.,
Turkey in Europe (1810); in canto iii., Belgium and Switzerland (1816);
in canto iv., Venice, Rome, and Florence (1817).
⁂ Lord Byron was only 21 when he began _Childe Harold_, and 28 when he
finished it.
=Haroun-al-Raschid=, caliph, of the Abbasside race, contemporary with
Charlemagne, and, like him, a patron of literature and the arts. The
court of this caliph was most splendid, and under him the caliphate
attained its greatest degree of prosperity (765-809).
⁂ Many of the tales in the _Arabian Nights_ are placed in the caliphate
of Haroun-al-Raschid, as the histories of “Am´inê,” “Sindbad the
Sailor,” “Aboul-hasson and Shemselnihar,” “Noureddin,” “Codadad and his
Brothers,” “Sleeper Awakened,” and “Cogia Hassan.” In the the third of
these the caliph is a principal actor.
=Har´pagon=, the miser, father of Cléante (_2 syl._) and Elise (_2
syl._). Both Harpagon and his son desire to marry Mariane (_3 syl._);
but the father, having lost a casket of money, is asked which he
prefers—his casket or Mariane, and as the miser prefers the money,
Cléante marries the lady. Harpagon imagines that every one is going to
rob him, and when he loses his casket, seizes his own arm in the frenzy
of passion. He proposes to give his daughter in marriage to an old man
named Anselme, because no “dot” will be required; and when Valère (who
is Elise’s lover) urges reason after reason against the unnatural
alliance, the miser makes but one reply, “sans dot.” “Ah,” says Valère,
“il est vrai cela ferme la bouche à tout, _sans dot_.” Harpagon, at
another time, solicits Jacques (_1 syl._) to tell him what folks say of
him: and when Jacques replies he cannot do so, as it would make him
angry, the miser answers, “Point de tout, au contraire, c’est me faire
plaisir.” But when told that he is called a miser and a skinflint, he
towers with rage, and beats Jacques in his uncontrolled passion.
“Le seigneur Harpagon est de tous les humains l’humain le moins humain,
le mortel de tous les mortels le plus dur et le plus serré” (ii. 5).
Jacques says to him, “Jamais on ne parle de vous que sous les noms
d’avare, de ladre, de vilain, et de fesse-Matthiæ” (iii. 5).—Molière,
_L’Avare_ (1667).
=Harpax=, centurion of the “Immortal Guard.”—Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert
of Paris_ (time, Rufus).
=Harpê= (_2 syl._), the cutlass with which Mercury killed Argus, and
with which Perseus (_2 syl._) subsequently cut off the head of Medusa.
=Harper=, a familiar spirit of mediæval demonology.
Harper cries, “’Tis time, ’tis time!”
Shakespeare, _Macbeth_, act iv. sc. 1 (1606).
=Harpoc´rates= (_4 syl._), the god of silence. Cupid bribed him with a
rose not to divulge the amours of Venus. Harpocratês is generally
represented with his second finger on his mouth.
He also symbolized the sun at the end of winter, and is represented with
a cornucopia in one hand and a lotus in the other. The lotus is
dedicated to the sun, because it opens at sunrise and closes at sunset.
I assured my mistress she might make herself quite easy on that score
[i.e. _my making mention of what was told me_], for I was the
Harpocrates of trusty valets.—Lesage, _Gil Blas_, iv. 2 (1724).
=Harriet=, the elder daughter of Sir David and Lady Dunder, of Dunder
Hall. She was in love with Scruple, whom she accidentally met at Calais;
but her parents arranged that she should marry Lord Snolts, a stumpy,
“gummy” old nobleman of five-and-forty. To prevent this hateful
marriage, Harriet consented to elope with Scruple; but the flight was
intercepted by Sir David, who, to prevent a scandal, consented to the
marriage, and discovered that Scruple, both in family and fortune, was a
suitable son-in-law.—G. Colman, _Ways and Means_ (1788).
=Harriet= [=Mowbray=], the daughter of Colonel Mowbray, an orphan
without fortune, without friends, without a protector. She marries
clandestinely Charles Eustace.—J. Poole, _The Scapegoat_.
=Harriot= [RUSSET], the simple, unsophisticated daughter of Mr. Russet.
She loves Mr. Oakly, and marries him, but becomes “a jealous wife,”
watching her husband like a lynx, to find out some proof of infidelity,
and distorting every casual remark as evidence thereof. Her aunt, Lady
Freelove, tries to make her a woman of fashion, but without success.
Ultimately, she is cured of her idiosyncrasy.—George Colman, _The
Jealous Wife_ (1761).
=Harriet= (_Shattuck_), superannuated tailoress who, with her blind
sister, lives in the little house in which she was born. It leaks and
shakes in the wind, and they are often hungry, but when they are removed
to a “Home,” they steal away and walk fourteen miles back to the old
house.—Mary E. Wilkins, _A Humble Romance_ (1887.)
=Harris= (_Mrs._), a purely imaginary character, existing only in the
brain of Mrs. Sarah Gamp, and brought forth on all occasions to
corroborate the opinions and trumpet the praises of Mrs. Gamp, the
monthly nurse.
_Harris_, one of the trio of invalids who go up the Thames in quest of
health. Their adventures are the theme of Jerome K. Jerome’s _Three Men
in a Boat_ (1889).
=Harrises= (_The_), family who live and die in the faith that, to be a
born Harris is a career in itself. They are not rich, or learned, or
accomplished, but eminently respectable, and clad in simple egotism as
with a garment.—Annie Sheldon Coombs, _As Common Mortals_ (1886).
=Harrison= (_Dr._), the model of benevolence, who nevertheless takes in
execution the goods and person of his friend Booth, because Booth, while
pleading poverty, was buying expensive and needless jewelery.—Fielding,
_Amelia_ (1751).
_Harrison_ (_Major-General_), one of the parliamentary
commissioners.—Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).
_Harrison_, the old stewart of Lady Bellenden, of the Tower of
Tillietudlem.—Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).
=Har´rowby= (_John_), of Stock’s Green, a homely, kind-hearted, honest
Kentish farmer, with whom Lieutenant Worthington and his daughter Emily
take lodgings. Though most desirous of showing his lodger kindness, he
is constantly wounding his susceptibilities from blunt honesty and want
of tact.
_Dame Harrowby_, wife of Farmer Harrowby.
_Stephen Harrowby_, son of Farmer Harrowby, who has a mania for
soldiering, and calls himself “a perspiring young hero.”
_Mary Harrowby_, daughter of Farmer Harrowby.—G. Colman, _The Poor
Gentleman_ (1802).
=Harringtons= (_The_), Melchisedec. Fashionable tailor; “a grand man,
despite his calling.” Of him and _Mrs. Harrington_ it was said that she
“had a Port, and Melchisedec a Presence.”
_Caroline_, married to Major Strike.
_Harriet_, married to Mr. Andrew Cogglesby.
_Louisa_, married to Señor Silva Diaz, Conde de Saldar.
_Evan_, the only son, brought up in polite circles, hates the name and
trade of “tailor,” but bound in honor to pay his father’s debts. After
many struggles and divers reverses, the contest between tradesman and
diplomatist within him ends in his marriage to an heiress long beloved
by him, and the appointment to the position of attaché to the Naples
Embassy.—George Meredith, _Evan Harrington_ (1888).
=Harry= (_Sir_), the servant of a baronet, who assumed the airs and
title of his master, and was addressed as “Baronet,” or “Sir Harry.” He
even quotes a bit of Latin: “O tempora! O Moses!”—Rev. James Townley,
_High Life Below Stairs_ (1759).
_Harry_ (_Blind_), the minstrel, friend of Henry Smith.—Sir. W. Scott,
_Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).
_Harry_ (_The Great_), or _Henri Grace à Dieu_, a man-of-war built in
the reign of Henry VII.
Towered the _Great Harry_, crank and tall.
Longfellow, _The Building of the Ship_.
=Harry Paddington=, a highwayman in the gang of Captain Macheath.
Peachum calls him “a poor, petty-larceny rascal, without the least
genius;” and says, “even if the fellow were to live six months, he would
never come to the gallows with credit.”—Gay, _The Beggar’s Opera_
(1727).
=Hart´house= (_2 syl._) a young man who begins life as a cornet of
dragoons, but, being bored with everything, coaches himself up in
statistics, and comes to Coketown to study facts. He falls in love with
Louisa [_née_ Gradgrind], wife of Josiah Bounderby, banker and
mill-owner, but, failing to induce the young wife to elope with him, he
leaves the place.—C. Dickens, _Hard Times_ (1854).
=Hartley= (_Adam_), afterwards Dr. Hartly. Apprentice to Dr. Gray.—Sir
W. Scott, _The Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.).
=Hartwell= (_Lady_), a widow, courted by Fountain, Bellamore, and
Harebrain.—Beaumont and Fletcher, _Wit without Money_ (1639).
=Harût and Marût=, two angels sent by Allah to administer justice upon
earth, because there was no righteous judgment among men. They acted
well till Zoha´ra, a beautiful woman, applied to them, and then they
both fell in love with her. She asked them to tell her the secret name
of God, and immediately she uttered it, she was borne upwards into
heaven, where she became the planet Venus. As for the two angels, they
were imprisoned in a cave near Babylon.—Sale’s _Korân_, ii.
Allah bade
That two untempted spirits should descend,
Judges on earth. Haruth and Maruth went,
The chosen sentencers. They fairly heard
The appeals of men ... At length,
A woman came before them; beautiful
Zohara was, etc.
Southey, _Talaba the Destroyer_, iv. (1797).
=Hassan=, caliph of the Ottoman empire, noted for his splendor and
hospitality. In his seraglio was a beautiful young slave named Leila (_2
syl_.), who had formed an attachment to “the Giaour” (_2 syl_.). Leila
is put to death by the emir, and Hassan is slain near Monut Parnassus by
the giaour [_djow´.er_].—Byron, _The Giaour_ (1813).
_Hassan_, the story-teller, in the retinue of the Arabian physician.—Sir
W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).
_Hassan_ (_Al_), the Arabian emir of Persia, father of Hinda. He won the
battle of Cadessia, and thus became master of Persia.—T. Moore, _Lalla
Rookh_ (“the Fire-Worshippers,” 1817).
_Hassan_ surnamed _Al Habbal_ (“the rope-maker”), and subsequently
_Cogia_ (“merchant”); his full name was then Cogia Hassan Alhabbal. Two
friends, named Saad and Saadi, tried an experiment on him. Saadi gave
him 200 pieces of gold in order to see if it would raise him from
extreme poverty to affluence. Hassan took ten pieces for immediate use,
and sewed the rest in his turban; but a kite pounced on his turban and
carried it away. The two friends, after a time, visited Hassan again,
but found him in the same state of poverty; and, having heard his tale,
Saadi gave him another 200 pieces of gold. Again he took out ten pieces,
and, wrapping the rest in a linen rag, hid it in a jar of bran. While
Hassan was at work, his wife exchanged this jar of bran for fuller’s
earth, and again the condition of the man was not bettered by the gift.
Saad now gave the rope-maker a small piece of lead, and this made his
fortune thus: A fisherman wanted a piece of lead for his nets, and
promised to give Hassan for Saad’s piece whatever he caught in his first
draught. This was a large fish, and in it the wife found a splendid
diamond, which was sold for 100,000 pieces of gold. Hassan now became
very rich, and when the two friends visited him again, they found him a
man of consequence. He asked them to stay with him, and took them to his
country house, when one of his sons showed him a curious nest, made out
of a turban. This was the very turban which the kite had carried off,
and the money was found in the lining. As they returned to the city,
they stopped and purchased a jar of bran. This happened to be the very
jar which the wife had given in exchange, and the money was discovered
wrapped in linen at the bottom. Hassan was delighted, and gave the 180
pieces to the poor.—_Arabian Nights_ (“Cogia Hassan Alhabbal”).
_Hassan_ (_Abou_), the son of a rich merchant of Bagdad, and the hero of
the tale called “The Sleeper Awakened” (_q.v._).—_Arabian Nights_.
=Hassan Aga=, an infamous renegade, who reigned in Algiers, and was the
sovereign there when Cervantes (author of _Don Quixote_) was taken
captive by a Barbary corsair in 1574. Subsequently, Hassan bought the
captive for 500 ducats, and he remained a slave till he was redeemed by
a friar for 1000 ducats.
Every day this Hassan Aga was hanging one, impaling another, cutting off
the ears or breaking the limbs of a third ... out of mere
wantonness.—Cervantes (1605).
=Hassan ben Sabah=, the old man of the mountain, founder of the sect
called the Assassins.
Dr. Adam Clark has supplemented Rymer’s _Fœdera_ with two letters by
this sheik. This is not the place to point out the want of judgment in
these addenda.
=Hastie= (_Robin_), the smuggler and publican at Annan.—Sir W. Scott,
_Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).
=Hastings=, the friend of young Marlow, who entered with him the house
of Squire Hardcastle, which they mistook for an inn. Here the two young
men met Miss Hardcastle and Miss Neville. Marlow became the husband of
the former, and Hastings, by the aid of Tony Lumpkins, won the
latter.—Goldsmith, _She Stoops to Conquer_ (1773).
_Hastings_, one of the court of King Edward IV.—Sir W. Scott, _Anne of
Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).
=Haswell=, the benevolent physician who visited the Indian prisons, and
for his moderation, benevolence, and judgment, received the sultan’s
signet, which gave him unlimited power.—Mrs. Inchbald, _Such Things Are_
(1786).
=Hat= (_Gessler’s_). The governor of the Swiss cantons in the reign of
Albert I. set up his hat at Altorf, requiring the Swiss to salute it in
passing. William Tell refused, and was sentenced to shoot an apple from
the head of his son. Tell from this became prominent in achieving the
liberties of Switzerland.
_Hat_ (_A White_), used to be a mark of radical proclivities, because
orator Hunt, the great demagogue, used to wear a white hat during the
Wellington and Peel administration.
=Hat worn in the Royal Presence.= Lord Kingsdale acquired the right of
wearing his hat in the presence of royalty by a grant from King John.
Lord Forester is possessed of the same right, from a grant confirmed by
Henry VIII.
=Hats and Caps=, two political factions of Sweden in the eighteenth
century. The “Hats” were partisans in the French interest, and were so
called because they wore French _chapeaux_. The “Caps” were partisans in
the Russian interest, and were so called because they wore the Russian
caps as a badge of their party.
=Hatchway= (_Lieutenant Jack_), a retired naval officer on half pay,
living with Commodore Trunnion as a companion.—Smollett, _The Adventures
of Peregrine Pickle_ (1751).
Who can read the calamities of Trunnion and Hatchway, when run away with
by their mettled steed ... without a good hearty burst of honest
laughter.—Sir W. Scott.
=Hatef= (_i.e. the deadly_), one of Mahomet’s swords, confiscated from
the Jews when they were exiled from Medi´na.
=Hatim= (_Generous as_), an Arabian expression. Hatim was a Bedouin
chief, famous for his warlike deeds and boundless generosity. His son
was contemporary with Mahomet the prophet.
=Hathaway= (_Richard_). Young farmer whose “silent side” is imperfectly
understood by his wife, Anstis Dolbeare, until a mutual sorrow brings
them into sympathy each with the other.—A. D. T. Whitney, _Hitherto_
(1869).
=Hatteraick= (_Dirk_), _alias_ JANS JANSON, a Dutch smuggler-captain,
and accomplice of lawyer Glossin in kidnapping Henry Bertrand. Meg
Merrilies conducts young Hazelwood and others to the smuggler’s cave,
when Hatteraick shoots her, is seized, and imprisoned. Lawyer Glossin
visits the villain in prison, when a quarrel ensues, in which Hatteraick
strangles the lawyer, and then hangs himself.—Sir W. Scott, _Guy
Mannering_ (time, George II.).
=Hatto=, archbishop of Mentz, was devoured by mice in the Mouse-tower,
situated in a little green island in the midst of the Rhine, near the
town of Bingen. Some say he was eaten of rats, and Southey, in his
ballad called _God’s Judgment on a_ _Wicked Bishop_, has adopted the
latter tradition.
This Hatto, in the time of the great famine of 914, when he saw the poor
exceedingly oppressed by famine, assembled a great company of them
together into a barne at Kaub, and burnt them ... because he thought the
famine would sooner cease if those poor folks were despatched out of the
world, for like mice they only devour food, and are of no good
whatsoever.... But God ... sent against him a plague of mice, ... and
the prelate retreated to a tower in the Rhine as a sanctuary; ... but
the mice chased him continually, ... and at last he was most miserably
devoured by those sillie creatures.—Coryat, _Crudities_, 571, 572.
⁂ Giraldus Cambrensis, in his _Itinerary_, xi. 2, says: “the larger sort
of mice are called _rati_.” This may account for the substitution of
rats for mice in the legend.
The legend of Hatto is very common, as the following stories will
prove:—
_Widerolf_, bishop of Strasburg (997), was devoured by mice in the
seventeenth year of his episcopate, because he suppressed the convent of
Seltzen, on the Rhine.
_Bishop Adolf_, of Cologne, was devoured by mice or rats in 112.