=Esprit des Lois= [_es-prē´ dâ lwa_ (or, _Spirit of the Laws_)].--A

celebrated philosophical work by Montesquieu, published at Geneva in

1748. The author begins somewhat formally with the old division of

politics into democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. He discusses the

principles of each, and their bearings on education, on positive law, on

social conditions, on military strength (offensive and defensive) on

individual liberty, on taxation and finance. Then an abrupt return is

made from the effects to the causes of constitutions and polity. The

theory of the influence of physical conditions, and especially of

climate, on political and social institutions--a theory which is perhaps

more than any other identified with the book--received special

attention, and a somewhat disproportionate space is given to the

question of slavery in this connection. From climate Montesquieu passes

to the nature of the soil as in its turn affecting civil polity. He then

attacks the subject of manners and customs as distinct from laws of

trade and commerce, of the family, of jurisprudence, of religion. The

book concludes with an elaborate examination of the feudal system in

France.

=Essay on Man.=--A poem by Alexander Pope, in four epistles: _Of the

Nature and State of Man With Respect to the Universe_; _Of the Nature

and State of Man With Respect to Himself as an Individual_; _Of the

Nature and State of Man With Respect to Society_; and _Of the Nature and

State of Man With Respect to Happiness_. Its fundamental idea is to the

effect that the system of the universe is a “benevolent system, in which

every virtue, as well as every passion, has its object and end.”

“If,” says Professor Ward, “the _Essay on Man_ were shivered into

fragments, it would not lose its value; for it is precisely its details

which constitute its moral as well as literary beauties. Nowhere has

Pope so abundantly displayed his incomparable talent of elevating

truisms into proverbs, in his mastery over language and poetic form.”

=Essays= (or, _Counsels Civil and Moral_).--By Francis, Lord Bacon. In

the dedication to his brother Anthony, the author says he published the

_Essays_ “because many of them had been stolen abroad in writing,” and

he desired to give the world a correct version of his work. The word

_Essays_, he says, “is late; but the thing is ancient, for Seneca’s

Epistles to Lucilius, if you mark them well, are but essays, that is,

dispersed meditations, though conveyed in the form of epistles.” “The

transcendent strength of Bacon’s mind is visible.” says Hallam, “in the

whole tenor of these _Essays_, unequaled as they must be, from the very

nature of such compositions. They are deeper and more discriminating

than any earlier, or almost any later, work, in the English language;

full of recondite observations, long matured, and carefully sifted.”

=Estella.=--The heroine of Dickens’ novel of _Great Expectations_.

=Estotiland=, or =Estotilandia=.--An imaginary region in America, near

the arctic circle, referred to by Milton as “cold Estotiland,” and

variously fabled to have been discovered by Frisian fishermen in the

fourteenth century, and by a Pole named John Scalve, in 1477.

=Etzel= (_et´sel_), _i. e._, =Attila=.--King of the Huns, a monarch

ruling over three kingdoms and more than thirty principalities; being a

widower, he married Kriemhild, the widow of Siegfried. In the

_Nibelungenlied_, where he is introduced, he is made very insignificant.

=Eugénie Grandet= (_u-zhā-nē´ gron-dā´_).--A novel by Balzac, written in

1833, published in 1834. The heroine, Eugenie, is sacrificed to the

cold-blooded avariciousness of her father. This is one of Balzac’s best

novels.

=Eulalia= (_ū-lā´li-ä_), =St.=--In the calendar of saints there is a

virgin martyr called Eulalia. She was martyred by torture February 12,

308. Longfellow calls Evangeline the _Sunshine of St. Eulalia_.

=Eulenspiegel= (_oi´len-spē-gel_).--The hero of a German tale, which

relates the pranks and drolleries of a wandering cottager of Brunswick.

=Euphrasy.=--_Paradise Lost_, Milton. The herb eye-bright, so called

because it was once supposed to be efficacious in clearing the organs of

sight. Hence, the Archangel Michael purged the eyes of Adam with it, to

enable him to see into the distant future.

=Evan Dhu M’Combich.=--_Waverley_, Scott. The foster-brother of M’Ivor.

=Evan Dhu of Lochiel.=--_Legend of Montrose_, Scott. A Highland chief in

the army of Montrose.

=Evangeline.=--The title and heroine of a tale in hexameter verse by

Longfellow, in two parts. Evangeline was the daughter of Benedict

Bellefontaine, the richest farmer of Acadia (now Nova Scotia). At the

age of seventeen she was legally betrothed by the notary-public to

Gabriel, son of Basil the blacksmith; but next day all the colony was

exiled by the order of George II., and their houses, cattle, and lands

were confiscated. Gabriel and Evangeline were parted, and now, sustained

by the brightness of hope, she wandered from place to place to find her

betrothed. Basil had settled in Louisiana; but when Evangeline reached

that distant land, Gabriel had gone. She sought him on the prairies,

and, again far north, in Michigan, but ever a few days, a few weeks, too

late. At length, grown old in this hopeless quest, she came to

Philadelphia and became a sister of mercy. The plague broke out; and, as

she visited the almshouse in ministration, she saw an old man who had

been smitten with the pestilence. It was Gabriel. He tried to whisper

her name; but death closed his lips. “All was ended now;” and “Side by

side, in nameless graves, the lovers are sleeping.”

=Evangelist.=--In Bunyan’s _Pilgrim’s Progress_, represents the

effectual preacher of the gospel who opens the gate of life to

Christian.

=Evans, Sir Hugh.=--In Shakespeare’s _Merry Wives of Windsor_, a Welsh

parson and school-teacher, ignorant but pedantic, who has a ludicrous

quarrel with Dr. Caius.

=Excalibur= (_eks-kal´i-bẽr_), or =Excalibar=, or =Escalibor=.--The

sword of the mythical King Arthur. Arthur received it from the hands of

the Lady of the Lake. It had a scabbard the wearer of which could lose

no blood. There seems, however, to have been also another sword called

Excalibur in the early part of the story. This was the sword, plunged

deep into a stone, which could be drawn forth only by the man who was to

be king. After two hundred knights had failed, Arthur drew it out

without difficulty.

=Excursion, The.=--A poem, in blank verse, by William Wordsworth,

published in 1814, and forming the second part of a poem in three parts,

to be entitled _The Recluse_, which the author had at one time

contemplated. It consists of nine books, respectively entitled _The

Wanderer_, _The Solitary_, _Despondency_, _Despondency Corrected_, _The

Pastor_, _The Churchyard Among the Mountains_, _The Same Subject

Continued_, _The Parsonage_, _Discourse of the Wanderer_, and _An

Evening Visit to the Lake_.

=Eyre= (_âr_), =Jane.=--A novel by Charlotte Brontë, published in 1847,

with a dedication to William Makepeace Thackeray, as “the first social

regenerator of the day.” The early scenes are laid in the Lowood

Institution, which has been identified with a school established by the

Rev. W. Carus Wilson, at Cowen’s Bridge, near Leeds, and which is

described with stern but unpleasing realism. Much of the book was

derived from the author’s own personal experience.

=Ezzelin, Sir.=--_Lara_, Byron. The gentleman who recognizes Lara at the

table of Lord Otho, and charges him with being Conrad the Corsair. A

duel ensues, and Ezzelin is never heard of more. A serf used to say that

he saw a huntsman one evening cast a dead body into the river which

divided the lands of Otho and Lara, and that there was a star of

knighthood on the breast of the corpse.

=F=

=Faa, Gabriel.=--_Guy Mannering_, Scott. Nephew of Meg Merrilies. One of

the huntsmen at Liddesdale.

=Fadladeen.=--The hypercritical grand chamberlain in Moore’s poem _Lalla

Rookh_. Fadladeen’s criticism upon the several tales which make up the

romance are very racy and full of humor; and his crestfallen conceit

when he finds out that the poet was the prince in disguise is well

conceived.

=Faerie Queene= (_fā´e-ri kwēn_), =The.=--A poem by Edmund Spenser,

published in 1590. This great allegorical epic is divided into six

books, of which the first contains the Legend of the Knight of the Red

Cross, or Holiness; the second the Legend of Sir Guyon, or Temperance;

the third the Legend of Britomartis, or Chastity; the fourth the Legend

of Cambal and Telamond, or Friendship; the fifth the Legend of Artegall,

or Justice; and the sixth the Legend of Sir Calidore, or Courtesy. There

originally existed twelve books, but the last six, excepting two cantos

on Mutability, were lost by the poet’s servant in crossing from Ireland

to England--a circumstance to be deeply regretted by every lover of true

poetry. The finest things in Spenser are the character of Una, in the

first book, the House of Pride, the Cave of Mammoth, and the Cave of

Despair; the account of Memory; the description of Belphœbe; the story

of Florimel and the Witch’s Son; the gardens of Adonis and the Bower of

Bliss; the Mask of Cupid; and Colin Clout’s Vision, in the last book.

=Fag.=--A lying servant to Captain Absolute in Sheridan’s _Rivals_.

=Fagin.=--An old Jew in Dickens’ _Oliver Twist_, who employs young

persons of both sexes to carry on a systematic trade of robbery.

=Fainall, Mr. and Mrs.=--Noted characters in Congreve’s comedy _The Way

of the World_.

=Faineant, Le Noir= (_The Black Idler_).--In Sir Walter Scott’s

_Ivanhoe_, a name applied to Richard Cœur de Lion in disguise, by the

spectators of a tournament, on account of his indifference during a

great part of the action, in which, however, he was finally victorious.

=Fair Maid of Perth.=--The title of a novel by Sir Walter Scott, and the

name of the heroine.

=Fair Rosamond.=--Prototype of many heroines of fiction, a daughter of

Walter de Clifford. According to a popular legend, which has no

foundation in fact, Henry II. built a labyrinth or maze to conceal her

from Queen Eleanor, who discovered her by means of a silken clew and put

her to death. She is commonly, though erroneously, stated to have been

the mother of William Longsword and Geoffrey, archbishop of York.

=Fairservice, Andrew.=--A shrewd Scotch gardener at Osbaldistone Hall in

_Rob Roy_, Sir Walter Scott.

=Fairy of the Mine.=--A malevolent being, supposed to live in mines,

busying itself with cutting ore, turning the windlass, etc., and yet

effecting nothing.

=Faithful.=--One of the allegorical personages in Bunyan’s _Pilgrim’s

Progress_, who dies a martyr before completing his journey.

=Faithful, Jacob.=--The title and hero of a sea tale, by Captain Marryat

(1835).

=Fakenham Ghost.=--A ballad by Robert Bloomfield, author of _The

Farmer’s Boy_. The ghost was a donkey.

=Fakreddin’s Valley.=--Over the several portals of bronze were these

inscriptions: (1) _The Asylum of Pilgrims_; (2) _The Traveler’s Refuge_;

(3) _The Depository of the Secrets of All the World_.

=Falkland.=--In Godwin’s novel called _Caleb Williams_. He commits

murder, and keeps a narrative of the transaction in an iron chest.

Williams, a lad in his employ, opens the chest, and is caught in the act

by Falkland. The lad runs away, but is hunted down. This tale,

dramatized by Colman is entitled _The Iron Chest_.

=Falstaff= (_fâl´stȧf_), =Sir John.=--A famous character in

Shakespeare’s comedy of the _Merry Wives of Windsor_, and in the first

and second parts of his historical drama of _Henry IV._ He is as perfect

a comic portrait as was ever sketched. In the former play he is

represented as in love with Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page, who make a butt and

a dupe of him; in the latter he figures as a soldier and a wit; in both

he is exhibited as a monster of fat--sensual, mendacious, boastful, and

cowardly. In _Henry V._ his death is described by Mrs. Quickly.

=Fang.=--(1) A sheriff’s officer, in the second part of Shakespeare’s

_King Henry IV._ (2) _Oliver Twist_, Charles Dickens. A bullying

insolent magistrate, who would have sent Oliver Twist to prison, on

suspicion of theft, if Mr. Brownlow had not interposed.

=Fata Alcina.=--_Orlando Innamorato_, Bojardo. Sister of Fata Morgana.

She carried off Astolfo on the back of a whale to her isle, but turned

him into a myrtle tree when she tired of him.

=Fata Morgana= (_fä´tä mor-gä´nä_).--The name of a potent fairy,

celebrated in the tales of chivalry, and in the romantic poems of Italy.

She was a pupil of the enchanter Merlin, and the sister of Arthur, to

whom she discovered the intrigue of his queen, Geneura, or Guinever,

with Lancelot of the Lake. In the _Orlando Innamorato_ of Bojardo, she

appears at first as a personification of fortune, inhabiting a splendid

residence at the bottom of a lake, and dispensing all the treasures of

the earth, but she is afterward found in her proper station subject to

the all potent Demogorgon. Also, as sister to King Arthur and pupil of

Merlin. She lived at the bottom of the lake and dispensed good fortune

as she liked.

=Fat Boy, The.=--A laughable character in Dickens’ _Pickwick Papers_; a

youth of astonishing obesity whose employment consists in alternate

eating and sleeping.

=Fathom, Ferdinand, Count.=--The title of a novel by Smollett, and the

name of its principal character, a complete villain, who proceeds step

by step to rob his benefactors and finally dies in misery and despair.

=Fatima= (_fä´tē-mä_).--(1) A female worker, in the story of _Aladdin_,

in the _Arabian Nights’ Entertainments_. (2) The last of the wives of

Bluebeard, and the only one who escaped being murdered by him.

=Faust= (_foust_).--A celebrated tragedy by Goethe, the materials of

which are drawn in part from the popular legends of Dr. Faustus, a

famous magician of the sixteenth century. A rich uncle having left him a

fortune, Faust ran to every excess, and, when his fortune was exhausted,

made a pact with the devil (who assumed the name of Mephistopheles, and

the appearance of a little gray monk), that, if he might indulge his

propensities freely for twenty-four years, he would at the end of that

period consign to the devil both body and soul. The compact terminated

in 1550, when Faust disappeared. His sweetheart was Margherita, whom he

seduced, and his faithful servant was Wagner.

=Faustus= (_fâs´tus_).--A tragedy name; represented as a vulgar sorcerer

tempted to sell his soul to the devil (Mephistopheles), on condition of

having a familiar spirit at his command, the possession of earthly power

and glory, and unlimited gratification of his sensual appetites, for

twenty-four years; at the end of which time, when the forfeit comes to

be exacted, he shrinks and shudders in agony and remorse, imploring yet

despairing of the mercy of heaven. This has been the theme of many

writers. It is the subject of an opera by Gounod.

=Femmes Savantes= (_fam sȧ-vä_N´), =Les= (or, _The Learned

Women_).--Comedy by Molière. These women go in for women’s rights,

science, and philosophy, to the neglect of domestic duties and wifely

amenities. The “blue-stockings” are (1) Philaminte, the mother of

Henriette, who discharges one of her servants because she speaks bad

grammar; (2) Armande, sister of Henriette, who advocates platonic love

and science; and (3) Bélise, sister of Philaminte, who sides with her in

all things, but imagines that everyone is in love with her. Henriette,

who has no sympathy with these “lofty flights,” is in love with

Clitandre; but Philaminte wants her to marry Trissotin, a _bel esprit_.

However, the father loses his property through the “savant” proclivities

of his wife, Trissotin retires, and Clitandre marries Henriette, the

“perfect” or thorough woman.

=Fenella.=--A fairy-like creature, a deaf and dumb attendant on the

countess of Derby, in Sir Walter Scott’s _Peveril of the Peak_.

=Fenton= (_fen´ton_).--A character in Shakespeare’s _Merry Wives of

Windsor_, who wooes the rich Anne Page for her money, but soon discovers

inward treasures in her which quite transform him.

=Feramorz= (_fer´a-mōrz_).--_Lalla Rookh_, Thomas Moore. Feramorz in

_Lalla Rookh_ is the young Cashmerian poet, who relates poetical tales

to Lalla Rookh, in her journey from Delhi to Lesser Bucharia. Lalla

Rookh is going to be married to the young sultan, but falls in love with

the poet. On the wedding morn she is led to her future husband, and

finds that the poet is the sultan himself, who had gallantly taken this

course to win the heart of his bride and beguile her journey.

=Ferdinand= (_fer´di-nand_).--(1) A character in Shakespeare’s

_Tempest_. He is a son of the king of Naples, and falls in love with

Miranda, the daughter of Prospero, a banished duke of Milan. (2) King of

Navarre, character in _Love’s Labor’s Lost_.

=Ferrers= (_fer´erz_)--_Endymion._ The hero of Benjamin Disraeli’s novel

_Endymion_.

=Ferrex and Porrex.=--Two sons of Gorboduc, a mythical British king.

Porrex drove his brother from Britain, and when Ferrex returned with an

army he was slain, but Porrex was shortly after put to death by his

mother. One of the first, if not the very first, historical plays in the

English language was _Ferrex and Porrex_, by Thomas Norton and Thomas

Sackville.

=Fib.=--_Nymphidia_, Drayton. One of the fairy attendants to Queen Mab.

=Fidele= (_fi-dē´lē_, or _fi-dāl´_).--Subject of an elegy by Collins.

=Fidelie.=--_Cymbeline_, Shakespeare. The name assumed by Imogen, when,

attired in boy’s clothes, she started for Milford Haven to meet her

husband Posthumus.

=Fidessa.=--_Faërie Queene_, Spenser. The companion of Sansfoy; but when

the Red-cross Knight slew that “faithless Saracen,” Fidessa turned out

to be Duessa, the daughter of Falsehood and Shame. See “Duessa.”

=Figaro= (_fē´gä-rō_).--A character introduced by Beaumarchais in his

plays _Le Barbier de Seville_, _Le Mariage de Figaro_, and _La Mère

Coupable_, used later by Mozart, Paisiello, and Rossini in operas. In

the _Barbier_ he is a barber; in the _Mariage_ he is a valet. In both he

is gay, lively, and courageous; his stratagems are always original, his

lies witty, and his shrewdness proverbial. In the _Mère Coupable_ he has

become virtuous and has lost his nerve. He also appears in Holcroft’s

_Follies of a Day_, taken from Beaumarchais’ _Mariage de Figaro_.

=Finetta= (_fi-net´tä_).--_The Cinder Girl._ A fairy tale by the

Comtesse d’Aulnoy. This is merely the old tale of Cinderella slightly

altered.

=Fingal= (_fing´gal_).--A mythical hero, whose name occurs in Gaelic

ballads and traditions, and in Macpherson’s _Poems of Ossian_.

=Fleance= (_flē´ans_).--A son of Banquo, in Shakespeare’s tragedy of

_Macbeth_. The legend relates that after the assassination of his father

he escaped to Wales, where he married the daughter of the reigning

prince, and had a son named Walter. This Walter afterward became lord

high steward of Scotland, and called himself Walter the Steward. From

him proceeded in a direct line the Stuarts of Scotland, a royal line

which gave James VI. of Scotland, James I. of England. This myth has

been seriously accepted by some as fact.

=Fledgeby.=--_Our Mutual Friend_, Dickens. An overreaching, cowardly

sneak who pretends to do a decent business under the trade name of

Pubsey & Co.

=Florentius.=--A knight whose story is related in the first book of

Gower’s _Confessio Amantis_. He bound himself to marry a deformed hag,

provided she taught him the solution of a riddle on which his life

depended.

=Florian= (_flō-ryon´_).--_The Foundling of the Forest_, W. Dimond.

Discovered in infancy by the Count de Valmont, and adopted as his own

son, Florian is lighthearted and volatile, but with deep affection, very

grave, and the delight of all who know him.

=Florimel= (_flor´i-mel_).--A female character in Spenser’s _Faërie

Queene_, of great beauty, but so timid that she feared the “smallest

monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,” and was abused by everyone. She

was noted for sweetness of temper amid great trials. The word Florimel

signifies “honey-flower.”

=Florizel= (_flor´i-zel_).--A prince of Bohemia, in Shakespeare’s

_Winter’s Tale_, in love with Perdita.

=Fluellen= (_flö-el´en_).--A Welsh captain, who is an amusing pedant, in

Shakespeare’s _Henry V._

=Flying Dutchman.=--A spectral ship, seen in stormy weather off the Cape

of Good Hope, and considered ominous of ill-luck. Captain Marryat has

taken this theme for his novel _The Phantom Ship_.

=Folk.=--Fairies, also called “people,” “neighbors,” “wights.” The

Germans have their kleine volk (little folk), the Swiss their hill

people and earth people. See _Fairies_.

=Ford.=--Mr. and Mrs. Ford are characters in _The Merry Wives of

Windsor_. Mrs. Ford pretends to accept Sir John Falstaff’s protestations

of love, in order to punish him by her devices.

=Fortinbras= (_fôr´tin-bras_).--Prince of Norway, in Shakespeare’s

tragedy _Hamlet_.

=Fortunatus= (_fôr-tū-na´tus_).--The hero in one of Straparolla’s fairy

tales. The nursery tale of Fortunatus records that he had an

inexhaustible purse. It is from the Italian fairy tales.

=Fortunio’s= (_fôr-tu´ni-o_) =Horse.=--Comrade not only possessed

incredible speed, but knew all things, and was gifted with human speech.

=Francesco.=--The Iago of Massinger’s _Duke of Milan_.

=Francesca da Rimini= (_frȧn-ches´kȧ dȧ rē´mē-nē_).--A dramatic poem by

James Henry Leigh Hunt published in 1816. Francesca was the daughter of

Guido da Polenta, Lord of Ravenna, in the latter part of the thirteenth

century, and was married to Lanciotto, son of Malatesta da Rimini, who,

discovering her criminal intercourse with his brother, revenged himself

by putting them both to death. Her story forms an episode in Dante’s

_Inferno_.

=Frankenstein= (_fräng´ken-stīn_) (or, the _Modern Prometheus_).--A

novel by Mrs. Shelley, published in 1818. It was commenced in the summer

of 1816, when Byron and the Shelleys were residing on the banks of the

Lake of Geneva, and when, “during a week of rain, having amused

themselves with reading German ghost stories, they agreed at last to

write something in imitation of them. ‘You and I,’ said Lord Byron to

Mrs. Shelley, ‘will publish ours together.’ He then began his tale of

the _Vampire_;” but “the most memorable result,” writes Moore, “of their

storytelling compact, was Mrs. Shelley’s wild and powerful romance of

_Frankenstein_, one of those original conceptions that take hold of the

public mind at once and forever.”

The hero of the book, a native of Geneva, and a student, constructs a

monster of grewsome human remains and gives it life by galvanism. The

monster feels that he is unlike all other human beings, and in revenge

for the injury inflicted upon him by his creator, murders his friend,

his brother, and his bride, and finally seeks out Frankenstein himself,

with a view to wreaking a similar revenge on him. The hero, however,

happily escapes his enemy, who retires to the utmost extremity of the

globe, in order to put an end to his miserable life; and Frankenstein

himself falls ill and dies on his way home after his last final flight

from the monstrosity whom he has himself brought into the world.

=Freeport, Sir Andrew.=--The name of one of the members of the imaginary

club under whose direction the _Spectator_ was professedly published. He

is represented as a London merchant of great eminence and experience,

industrious, sensible and generous.

=French Revolution, The.=--A history, in three parts, by Thomas Carlyle,

published in 1837, and described by Lowell as “a series of

word-pictures, unmatched for vehement power, in which the figures of

such sons of earth as Mirabeau and Danton loom gigantic and terrible as

in the glare of an eruption; their shadows swaying far and wide,

grotesquely awful. But all is painted by eruptive flashes in violent

light and shade. There are no half tints, no gradations, and we find it

impossible to account for the continuance in power of less Titanic

actors in the tragedy, like Robespierre, on any theory, whether of human

nature or of individual character, supplied by Mr. Carlyle.”

=Friar Lawrence.=--The Franciscan monk who attempted to befriend the

lovers in _Romeo and Juliet_.

=Friar Tuck.=--Chaplain and steward of Robin Hood. Introduced by Sir

Walter Scott in _Ivanhoe_. He is a self-indulgent, combative Falstaff, a

jolly companion to the outlaws in Sherwood forest.

=Friday.=--Robinson Crusoe’s faithful man Friday pictured by Defoe.

=Froissart= (_froi´särt_).--_The Cronicles of England, Fraunce, Spayne,

Portyugale, Scotlande, Bretayne, Flanders, and other places adjoynynge,

translated out of Frenche into our maternalle Englysche Tonge_, by “John

Bourchier, knight, Lord Berners.” Printed in 1523. The history extends

from 1326 to 1400. Froissart resided in England as secretary to Queen

Philippa from 1361 to 1366, and visited it again in 1395, when he paid a

visit to Scotland.

=Frollo, Archdeacon Claude.=--A noted character in Victor Hugo’s _Notre

Dame de Paris_, absorbed in a bewildering search for the philosopher’s

stone.

=Front de Bœuf.=--_Ivanhoe_, Sir Walter Scott. A follower of Prince John

of Anjou, and one of the knight’s challengers.

=Froth, Master.=--A foolish gentleman in Shakespeare’s _Measure for

Measure_. His name explains his character.

=Fusbos= (_fus´bos_).--_Utopia_, Sir Thomas More. Minister of state to

Artaxaminous, king of Utopia.

=Fyrapel, Sir.=--The Leopard, the nearest kinsman of King Lion, in the

beast epic of _Reynard the Fox_.

=G=

=Gadshill.=--A companion of Sir John Falstaff, in the first part of

Shakespeare’s _King Henry IV._

=Galahad= (_gal´a-had_), =Sir.=--A celebrated knight of the Round Table

who achieved the quest of the Holy Grail. Tennyson has made him the

subject of one of his idylls. In Malory he is also represented as the

perfect knight, clad in wonderful armor. He was the only knight who

could sit in the “Siege Perilous” a seat reserved for the “knight

without a flaw,” who achieved the quest of the “Holy Grail.”

=Galapas= (_gal´a-pas_).--A giant of marvelous height in the army of

Lucius, king of Rome. He was slain by King Arthur.

=Galaphrone=, or =Galafron.=--A king of Cathay and father of Angelica in

Bojardo’s _Orlando Innamorato_ and Ariosto’s _Furioso_.

=Gamp, Mrs.=--A nurse who is a prominent character in Dickens’ novel of

_Martin Chuzzlewit_. She is celebrated for her constant reference to a

certain Mrs. Harris, a purely imaginary person, for whose feigned

opinions and utterances she professes the greatest respect, in order to

give the more weight to her own.

=Gan=, =Ganelone=, =Ganelon=, or =Gano.=--The character of Sir Ganelon

was marked with spite, dissimulation, and intrigue, but he was patient,

obstinate, and enduring. He loved solitude, disbelieved in the existence

of moral good, and has become a byword for a false and faithless friend.

Dante has placed him in his _Inferno_.

=Gander-Cleugh.=--“Folly-Cliff,” that mysterious place where a person

make a goose of himself, in _Tales of My Landlord_, Sir Walter Scott.

=Garcia, Pedro.=--A mythical personage, of whom mention is made in the

preface to Gil Bias, in which is related how two scholars of Salamanca

discovered a tombstone with the inscription “Here lies interred the soul

of the Licentiate Pedro Garcia,” and how, on digging beneath the stone,

was found a leathern purse containing a hundred ducats.

=Gareth.=--In _Arthurian Romance_ a knight of the Round Table, who was

first a scullion in King Arthur’s kitchen, but afterward became champion

of the Lady Linet, or Lynette, whose sister Lionès, or Lyonors, he

delivered from Castle Perilous.

=Garganelle= (_gär-ga-nel´_).--The mother of Gargantua in Rabelais’

celebrated romance of this name.

=Gargantua= (_gär-gan´tū-ä_).--Rabelais’ celebrated romance, the hero of

which is a gigantic personage, about whom many wonderful stories are

related. He lived for several centuries, and at last begot a son,

Pantagruel, as wonderful as himself. The _Pleasant Story of the Giant

Gargantua and of his Son Pantagruel_, so satirized the monastic orders

of his time that it was denounced by the spiritual authorities. Francis

I., however, protected the author, and allowed him to print the third

part of it in 1545.

=Gargery= (_gar´jer-i_), =Mrs. Joe.=--_Great Expectations_, Dickens.

Pip’s sister. A virago, who kept her husband and Pip in constant awe.

Joe Gargery, a blacksmith, married to Pip’s sister. A noble-hearted,

simple-minded young man, who loved Pip sincerely. Joe Gargery was one of

nature’s gentlemen.

=Gaspar=, or =Caspar.=--(The white one), one of the three magi or kings

of Cologne. His offering to the infant Jesus was frankincense, in token

of divinity.

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

=Gavotte.=--Name given to a certain dance common among people in the

upper Alps.

=Gawain=, or =Gawayne= (_gä´wān_), =Sir=.--A nephew of King Arthur, and

one of the most celebrated knights of the Round Table; noted for his

sagacity and wonderful strength. He was surnamed “the courteous.” His

brothers were Agravaine, Gaheris, and Gareth.

=Gebir= (_gā´bēr_).--A legendary eastern prince, said to have invaded

Africa and to have given his name to Gibraltar. He is the subject of a

poem of the same name by Walter Savage Landor.

=Gellatley= (_gel´at-li_), =Davie=.--The name of a poor fool in Sir

Walter Scott’s novel of _Waverley_.

=Geneviève= (_zhen-vyāv´_).--(1) The heroine of a ballad by Coleridge.

(2) Under the form _Genovefa_, the name occurs in a German myth as that

of the wife of the Count Palatine Siegfried, in the time of Charles

Martel. Upon false accusations her husband gave orders to put her to

death, but the servant intrusted with the commission suffered her to

escape into the forests of Ardennes, where she lay concealed, until by

accident his husband discovered her retreat, and recognized her

innocence.

=Genevra.=--A lady in Aristo’s _Orlandos’ Furioso_. Her honor is

impeached, and she is condemned to die unless a champion appears to do

combat for her. Her lover, Ariodantes, answers the challenge, kills the

false accuser, and weds the dame. Spenser has a similar story in the

_Faërie Queene_, and Shakespeare availed himself of the main incident in

his comedy of _Much Ado About Nothing_.

=Geraint= (_ge-rānt_), =Sir=.--One of the knights of the Round Table.

His story is told in Tennyson’s _Idylls of the King_ under _Geraint and

Enid_.

=Geraldine.=--A name frequently found in romantic poetry, especially

Scott’s _Lay of the Last Minstrel_. The name is said to have been

adopted from the heroine connected with Surrey, whose praises are

celebrated in a famous sonnet.

=Gertrude of Wyoming.=--Heroine of a poem by Thomas Campbell.

=Gesta Romanorum= (_jes´tä rō-ma-nō´rum_).--A collection of old romances

compiled by Pierre Bercheure, prior of the Benedictine convent of St.

Eloi, Paris. Shakespeare, Spenser, Gower, and many later writers have

gone to this source. It took its present form in England about the

beginning of the fourteenth century, the foundation coming from Roman

writers, to which were added religious and mystical tales.

=Giaour= (_jour_), =The=.--Byron’s tale called _The Giaour_ is

represented as told by a fisherman, a Turk, who had committed a crime

which haunted him all his life. See _Hassan_.

=Gibbie, Goose.=--A half-witted boy in Scott’s _Old Mortality_.

=Gibbie, Sir.=--A simple-hearted, fine character in George Macdonald’s

novel by the same name.

=Giant Despair.=--_Pilgrim’s Progress_, Bunyan. A giant who is the owner

of Doubting Castle, and who, finding Christian and Hopeful asleep upon

his grounds, takes them prisoners, and thrusts them into a dungeon.

=Giant Grim.=--_Pilgrim’s Progress_, Bunyan. A giant who seeks to stop

the march of the pilgrims to the Celestial City, but is slain in a duel

by Mr. Great-heart, their guide.

=Giant Slay-good.=--_Pilgrim’s Progress_, Bunyan. A giant slain in a

duel by Mr. Great-heart.

=Gil Blas= (_zhēl bläs_).--A romance by Le Sage. The hero is the son of

Blas of Santillanê squire or “escudero” to a lady, and brought up by his

uncle, Canon Gil Perês. Gil Blas went to Dr. Godinez’s school of Oviedo

and obtained the reputation of being a great scholar. He had fair

abilities, a kind heart, and good inclinations, but was easily led

astray by his vanity. Full of wit and humor, he was lax in his morals.

Duped by others at first, he afterward played the same devices on those

less experienced. As he grew in years, however, his conduct improved,

and when his fortune was made, he became an honest, steady man.

=Glaucus= (_glâ´kus_).--A fisherman of Bœotia who has become the

fisherman’s patron deity.

=Glaucus.=--Son of Hippolytus. Being smothered in a tub of honey, he was

restored to life by Æsculapius.

=Gloriana.=--In Spenser’s _Faërie Queene_, the “greatest glorious queen

of Faëry land.”

=Glumdalca= (_glum-dal´kä_).--_Tom Thumb_, Fielding. Queen of the

giants, captive in the court of King Arthur.

=Glumdalclitch= (_glum-dal´klich_).--_Gulliver’s Travels_, Swift. A girl

nine years old “and only forty feet high.” Being such a “little thing,”

the charge of Gulliver was committed to her during his sojourn in

Brobdingnag.

=Glumms.=--_Peter Wilkins_, Robert Pullock. The male population of the

imaginary country Nosmubdsgrsutt, visited by Peter Wilkins. Both males

and females had wings which served both for flying and for clothes.

=Godiva= (_gō-dī´vä_).--A poem by Alfred Tennyson. The story of the lady

and _Peeping Tom of Coventry_ is told in full by Dugdale. Godiva was the

wife of Leofric, earl of Mercia, and undertook to ride naked through the

town if he would remit a tax under which the people groaned. The earl

consented and the lady kept her word.

=Golden Ass, The.=--A romance in Latin by Apuleius. It is the adventures

of Lucian, a young man who had been transformed into an ass, but still

retained his human consciousness. It tells us the miseries which he

suffered at the hands of robbers, eunuchs, magistrates, and so on, till

the time came for him to resume his proper form. It is full of wit, racy

humor, and rich fancy, and contains the exquisite episode of Cupid and

Psyche.

=Golden Legend, The.=--The title of an ecclesiastical work in one

hundred and seventy-seven sections, dating from the thirteenth century,

written by one James de Voragine, a Dominican monk, and descriptive of

the various saints’ days in the Roman calendar. It is deserving of study

as a literary monument of the period, and as illustrating the religious

habits and views of the Christians of that time.

=Goneril= (_gon´er-il_).--The oldest of the three daughters to King

Lear, in Shakespeare’s tragedy. Having received her moiety of Lear’s

kingdom, the unnatural daughter first abridged the old man’s retinue,

then gave him to understand that his company was not wanted and sent him

out a despairing old man to seek refuge where he could find it. Her name

is proverbial for filial ingratitude.

=Gonzalo= (_gon-zä´lō_).--An honest old counselor in Shakespeare’s

_Tempest_, a true friend to Prospero.

=Goody Blake.=--A character in Wordsworth’s poem entitled _Goody Blake

and Harry Gill_. A farmer forbids old Goody Blake to carry home a few

sticks, which she had picked up from his land, and in revenge she

invokes upon him the curse that he may “never more be warm;” and ever

after “his teeth they chatter, chatter still.”

=Goody Two-Shoes.=--The name of a well-known character in a nursery tale

by Oliver Goldsmith. Goody Two-Shoes was a very poor child, whose

delight at having a pair of shoes was unbounded. She called constant

attention to her “two-shoes” which gave her the name.

=Gradgrind= (_grad´grīnd_).--A hardware merchant in Dickens’ _Hard

Times_. He is a man of hard facts and cultivates the practical. His

constant demand in conversation is for “facts.” He allows nothing for

the weakness of human nature, and deals with men and women as a

mathematician with his figures.

=Gradgrind, Mrs.=--Wife of Thomas Gradgrind. A little, thin woman,

always taking physic, without receiving from it any benefit.

=Gradgrind, Tom.=--Son of the above, a sullen young man, much loved by

his sister.

=Gradgrind, Louise.=--A faithful daughter and sister.

=Grandison, Sir Charles.=--The hero of Richardson’s novel _The History

of Sir Charles Grandison_. Designed to represent his ideal of a perfect

hero--a union of the good Christian and the perfect English gentleman.

=Gratiano= (_grä-tē-ä´no_).--(1) A friend to Antonio and Bassanio in

Shakespeare’s _Merchant of Venice_. He “talks an infinite deal of

nothing, more than any man in Venice.” (2) Brother to Brabantio, in

Shakespeare’s tragedy of _Othello_. (3) A character in the Italian

popular theater called _Commedia dell’ Arte_. He is represented as a

Bolognese doctor, and has a mask with a black nose and forehead and red

cheeks.

=Great-Heart, Mr.=--In Bunyan’s _Pilgrim’s Progress_, the guide of

Christian’s wife and children upon their journey to the Celestial City.

=Gremio= (_grē´mi-ō_).--In Shakespeare’s _Taming of the Shrew_, an old

man who wishes to wed Bianca.

=Griffin-feet.=--_Fairy Tales_, Comtesse d’Aulnoy. The mark by which the

Desert Fairy was known in all her metamorphoses.

=Grimalkin.=--A cat, the spirit of a witch. Any witch was permitted to

assume the body of a cat nine times.

=Grimwig.=--_Oliver Twist_, Dickens. An irascible old gentleman, who hid

a very kind heart under a rough exterior. He was always declaring

himself ready to “eat his head” if he was mistaken on any point on which

he passed an opinion.

=Griselda= (_gri-zel´dä_), =The Patient=.--A lady in Chaucer’s _Clerk of

Oxenford’s Tales_, immortalized by her virtue and her patience. The

model of womanly and wifely obedience, she comes victoriously out of

cruel and repeated ordeals. The story of Griselda is first told in the

Decameron. Boccaccio derived the incidents from Petrarch, who seems to

have communicated them also to Chaucer, as the latter refers to Petrarch

as his authority.

=Grub Street=, London, is thus described in Dr. Johnson’s dictionary:

“Originally the name of a street near Moorfields, in London, much

inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary

poems, whence any production is called Grub street.” The name was freely

used by Pope, Swift, and others.

=Grundy.=--“What will Mrs. Grundy say?” (What will our rivals or

neighbors say?) The phrase is from Tom Morton’s _Speed the Plough_, but

“Mrs. Grundy” is not introduced into the comedy as one of the _dramatis

personæ_. The solicitude of Dame Ashfield, in this play, as to “what

will Mrs. Grundy say?” has given the latter great celebrity, the

interrogatory having acquired a proverbial currency.

=Gudrun= (_gö-drön´_).--_Edda_, Sämund Sigfusson. A lady, married to

Sigurd by the magical arts of her mother and on the death of Sigurd to

Atli (Attila), whom she hated for his cruelty, and murdered. She then

cast herself into the sea, and the waves bore her to the castle of King

Jonakun, who became her third husband.

=Gudrun.=--North-Saxon poem. A model of heroic fortitude and pious

resignation. She was the daughter of King Hettel (Attila), and the

betrothed of Herwig, king of Heligoland.

=Guendolen= (_gwen´dō-len_).--A fairy whose mother was a human being.

=Guildenstern.=--The name of a courtier in Shakespeare’s tragedy

_Hamlet_.

=Guinevere= (_gwin´e-ver_), or =Guenever=.--A corrupt form of

=Guanhumara=, daughter of King Leodegrance of the land of Camelyard. She

was the most beautiful of women, was the wife of King Arthur, but

entertained a _liaison_ with Sir Launcelot du Lac. Arthur, when informed

of the conduct of Launcelot, went with an army to Brittany to punish

him. Mordred, left as regent, usurped the crown, proclaimed that Arthur

was dead, and tried to marry Guinevere; but she shut herself up in the

Tower of London, resolved to die rather than marry the usurper. When she

heard of the death of Arthur, she stole away to Almesbury, and became a

nun.

=Gulliver, Lemuel.=--The imaginary hero of Swift’s celebrated satirical

romance known as _Gulliver’s Travels_. He is represented as being first

a surgeon in London, and then a captain of several ships. After having

followed the sea for some years he makes in succession four

extraordinary voyages.

=Gummidge= (_gum´ij_), =Mrs.=--In Dickens’ novel of _David Copperfield_,

described herself as a “lone, lorn, creetur, and everythink that reminds

me of creeturs that ain’t lone and lorn goes contrairy with me.”

=Gurton, Gammer.=--The heroine of an old English comedy, long supposed

to be the earliest in the language.

=Guy Mannering.=--The second of Scott’s historical novels, published in

1815, just seven months after _Waverley_. The interest of the tale is

well sustained; but the love scenes, female characters, and Guy

Mannering himself are quite worthless. Not so the character of Dandy

Dinmont, the shrewd and witty counselor Pleydell, the desperate,

sea-beaten villainy of Hatteraick, the uncouth devotion of that gentlest

of all pedants, poor Dominie Sampson, and the savage, crazed

superstition of the gypsy-dweller in Derncleugh.

=Guyon= (_gī´on_).--The impersonation of Temperance or Self-government

in Spenser’s _Faërie Queene_. He destroyed the witch Acrasia, and her

bower, called the “Bower of Bliss.” His companion was Prudence. Sir

Guyon represents the quality of temperance in the largest sense; meaning

the virtuous self-government which holds in check not only the inferior

sensual appetites but also the impulses of passion and revenge.

=Guy, Sir, Earl of Warwick.=--The hero of a famous English legend, which

celebrates the wonderful achievements by which he obtained the hand of

his ladylove, the fair Felice, as well as the adventures he subsequently

met with in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He is reputed to have lived

in the reign of the Saxon King Athelstan. The romance of Sir Guy,

mentioned by Chaucer in the _Canterbury Tales_, cannot be traced further

back than the earlier part of the fourteenth century. His existence at

any period is very doubtful.

=H=

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

=Hagen.=--The murderer of Siegfried, in the German epic, the

_Nibelungenlied_. He is a pale-faced dwarf, who knows everything and

whose sole desire is mischief. After the death of Siegfried he seized

the “Nibelung hoard,” and buried it in the Rhine, intending to

appropriate it. Kriemhild invited him to the court and had him slain.

=Haidee= (_hī-dē´_).--A beautiful young Greek girl in Byron’s poem, _Don

Juan_. She is called the “beauty of the Cyclades.”

=Hakim.=--_The Talisman_, Scott. Saladin, in the disguise of a

physician, visited Richard Cœur de Lion in sickness; gave him a medicine

in which the “talisman” had been dipped, and the sick king recovered.

=Hamlet.=--A tragedy by Shakespeare. The chief character is Hamlet,

prince of Denmark. The ghost of his father appears to him, and urges him

to avenge his murder upon his uncle. But the prince feigns madness, and

puts off his revenge from day to day by “thinking too precisely on the

event.” Hamlet’s mother had married Claudius, king of Denmark, after the

death of her former husband. Claudius prepared poisoned wine, which he

intended for Hamlet; but the queen, not knowing it, drank it, was

poisoned and died. Hamlet, seeing his mother fall dead, rushed on the

king and killed him almost by accident, and is killed himself by a

poisoned rapier in the hands of Laertes.

=Hanswurst= (_häns´vŏrst_).--A pantomimic character formerly introduced

into German comedies. It corresponds to the Italian _Macaroni_, the

French _Jean Potage_, and the English _Jack Pudding_.

=Hardcastle, Mr.=--A character in Goldsmith’s comedy of _She Stoops to

Conquer_, represented as prosy and hospitable.

=Hardcastle, Mrs.=--A very “genteel” lady indeed. Tony Lumpkin is her

son by a former husband.

=Hard Times.=--A novel by Dickens. Bounderby, a street Arab, raised

himself to banker and cotton prince. When past fifty years of age he

married Louisa, daughter of Thomas Gradgrind. The bank was robbed, and

Bounderby believed Stephen Blackpool to be the thief, because he had

dismissed him from his employ. The culprit was Tom Gradgrind, the

banker’s brother-in-law, who escaped out of the country. In the

dramatized version, the bank was not robbed, but Tom removed the money

to another drawer for safety.

=Harlequin= (_här´le-kin_, or _-´kwin_).--The name of a well-known

character in the popular extemporized Italian comedy.

=Harlowe, Clarissa.=--The heroine of Richardson’s novel entitled _The

History of Clarissa Harlowe_. In order to avoid a marriage urged upon

her by her parents, she casts herself on the protection of Lovelace, who

grossly abuses the confidence thus reposed in him. He subsequently

proposes to marry her, but Clarissa rejects the offer.

=Haroun-al-Raschid= (_hä-rŏn´äl-rash´id_).--Caliph of the Abbasside

race, contemporary with Charlemagne, and, like him, a patron of

literature and the arts. Many of the tales in the _Arabian Nights_ are

placed in the caliphate of Haroun-al-Raschid.

=Harpagon= (_är-pä-gôn´_).--The hero of Molière’s comedy of _L’Avare_,

represented as a wretched miser.

=Harpier=, or _Harper_.--Some mysterious personage referred to by the

witches in Shakespeare’s tragedy _Macbeth_.

=Hassan= (_häs´sän_).--_The Giaour_, Byron. Caliph of the Ottoman

empire, noted for his hospitality and splendor. In his seraglio was a

beautiful young slave named Leila, who loved a Christian called the

Giaour. Leila is put to death by an emir, and Hassan is slain by the

Giaour. Caliph Hassan has become the subject of popular romance.

=Hassan, Al.=--The Arabian emir of Persia, father of Hinda, in Moore’s

_Fire Worshipers_.

=Hatto= (_hät´tō_).--In German legend, an archbishop of Mentz in the

tenth century, who, for his hardheartedness to the poor in time of

famine, was eaten by mice in the “Mouse Tower” on an island in the Rhine

near Bingen. Robert Browning has made this legend the subject of a poem.

=Havelock the Dane= (_hav´e-lok_).--A fisherman, known as Grim, rescued

an infant named Havelock, whom he adopted. This infant was the son of

the king of Denmark, and when the boy was restored to his royal sire

Grim was laden with gifts. He built the town which he called after his

own name. This is the foundation of the mediæval tales about _Havelock

the Dane_.

=Hazlewood, Sir Robert.=--The old baronet of Hazlewood.

=Hazlewood, Charles.=--_Guy Mannering_, Scott. Son of Sir Robert. In

love with Lucy Bertram, whom he marries.

=Heart of Midlothian, The.=--A novel by Sir Walter Scott, published in

1818. It has for heroines Jeanie and Effie Deans. Among the other

characters are Dumbiedykes and Madge Wildfire. It has often been

dramatized. “The Heart of Midlothian” was the popular name for the

tollbooth at Edinburgh, the capital of the county of Midlothian.

=Heep, Uriah.=--_David Copperfield_, Dickens. A detestable character,

who, under the garb of the most abject humility, conceals a diabolic

malignity. Mrs. Heep, Uriah’s mother, was a character equally to be

despised for her hypocritical assumption of humility.

=Helena.=--(1) A lady in Shakespeare’s _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, in

love with Demetrius. (2) The heroine of Shakespeare’s _All’s Well That

Ends Well_, in love with Bertram, who marries her against his will and

leaves her, but is finally won by the strength of her affection. (3) A

character in an old popular tale, reproduced in Germany by Tieck.

=Hermann and Dorothea.=--The hero and heroine of Goethe’s poem of the

same name.

=Hermengyld= (_her´men-gild_).--_Canterbury Tales_, Chaucer. The wife of

the lord-constable of Northumberland. She was converted by Constance,

but was murdered by a knight. Hermengyld at the bidding of Constance

restored sight to a blind Briton.

=Hermia= (_her´mi-ä_).--A lady in Shakespeare’s _Midsummer Night’s

Dream_, in love with Lysander.

=Hermione.=--The heroine of the first three acts of Shakespeare’s

_Winter’s Tale_.

=Hernani=, or =Ernani=.--The hero of Victor Hugo’s tragedy of the same

name, and of Verdi’s opera, founded on the play. He was a Spanish noble

in revolt against the Emperor Charles V. and killed himself from a high

sense of honor.

=Hiawatha= (_hi-a-wâ´tä_, or _hī-a-wâ´thä_), =The Song of.=--A poem by

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written in the following peculiar measure:

Should you ask me, “Whence these stories?”

.....

I should answer, I should tell you,

.....

“I repeat them as I heard them

From the lips of Nawadaha,

The musician, the sweet singer.”

The poem is entirely devoted to a description of life among the

aboriginal tribes of America. It was published in 1855. Hiawatha is a

mythical person believed by some of the North American Indians to have

been sent among them to clear their rivers, forests, and

fishing-grounds, and to teach them the arts of peace. When the white man

came, then Hiawatha knew that the time of his departure was at hand,

when he must go

To the kingdom of Ponemah,

The land of the Hereafter.

=Highland Mary.=--A song by Robert Burns, which Burns himself thought

was in his happiest manner, and which refers, he says, to one of the

most interesting passages of his youthful days. By this he means his

attachment to Mary, a servant in the family of Mr. Hamilton, “who will

be remembered,” says Alexander Smith, “with Dante’s Beatrice and

Petrarch’s Laura.” It was arranged that the lovers should become man and

wife, and that Mary should go to her friends to prepare for the wedding.

But before her departure came the farewell scene so touchingly described

in the poem:

Our parting was fu’ tender;

And, pledging aft to meet again,

We tore oursels asunder:

But oh! fell death’s untimely frost

That nipt my flower sae early!

Now green’s the sod, and cauld’s the clay,

That wraps my Highland Mary!

=Hilda.=--A New England girl of the most sensitive delicacy and purity

of mind, in Hawthorne’s romance, _The Marble Faun_. She is an artist,

living in Rome, and typifies, perhaps, the conscience.

=Hildebrand= (_hil´de-brand_).--The Nestor of German romance, a magician

and champion.

=Hildesheim= (_hil´des-hīm_).--In an old German legend, the monk of

Hildesheim, doubting how a thousand years with God could be “only one

day,” listened to the melody of a bird, as he supposed, for only three

minutes, but found that he had been listening to it for a hundred years.

=Hobbididance.=--The name of one of the fiends mentioned by Shakespeare

in _Lear_, and taken from the history of the Jesuits’ impostures.

=Hohenlinden= (_hō[´]en-lin´den_).--A poem by Thomas Campbell, published

in 1802, celebrating the battle of Hohenlinden, gained by Moreau and the

French over the Austrians. The poet visited the battle field on December

3, 1800.

=Holofernes= (_hol-ō-fer´nēz_).--(1) A pedant living in Paris, under

whose care Gargantua is placed for instruction. (2) A pedantic

schoolmaster in Shakespeare’s _Love’s Labor’s Lost_.

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

=Home, Sweet Home.=--A popular lyric contained in the drama of _Clari,

the Maid of Milan_, by John Howard Payne. The beautiful melody to which

it has been wedded is said to be of Italian or Sicilian origin, though

by some it is attributed to Sir Henry Rowley Bishop. Perhaps the latter

merely arranged and harmonized it.

=Homilies.=--The latter entries in the Peterborough _Chronicle_ and a

few homilies are almost all that we have left of the literature of the

twelfth century. Some of these homilies are copied or imitated from

those of Ælfric.

=Honeycomb= (_hun´i-kōm_), =Will.=--One of the members of the imaginary

club by whom the _Spectator_ was professedly edited. He is distinguished

for his graceful affectation, courtly pretension, and knowledge of the

gay world.

=Honeyman, Charles.=--A fashionable preacher in Thackeray’s novel, _The

Newcomes_.

=Hopeful.=--A pilgrim in Bunyan’s _Pilgrim’s Progress_, who accompanies

Christian to the end of his journey.

=Hop-o’-my-Thumb.=--A character in the tales of the nursery. Tom Thumb

and Hop-o’-my-Thumb are not the same, although they are often

confounded. Tom Thumb was the son of peasants, knighted by King Arthur,

and was killed by a spider. Hop-o’-my-Thumb was a nix, the same as the

German “_daumling_,” the French “_le petit pouce_,” and the Scotch

“Tom-a-lin” or “Tamlane.” He was not a human dwarf, but a fay.

=Horatio= (_hō-rā´shi-ō_).--_Hamlet_, Shakespeare. An intimate friend of

Hamlet, a prince, a scholar, and a gentleman.

=Horatius Cocles.=--Captain of the bridge gate over the Tiber. He and

two men to help him held the bridge against vast approaching armies.

Subject and title of a poem by Lord Macauley.

=Horner, Jack.=--The name of a celebrated personage in the literature of

the nursery. A Somersetshire tradition says that the plums which Jack

Horner pulled out of the Christmas pie alluded to the title deeds of the

abbey estates at Wells, which were sent to Henry VIII., in a pasty, and

were abstracted on the way by the messenger, a certain Jack Horner.

=Hortense= (_hôr-ten´s_, or _or-tons´_).--_Bleak House_, Dickens. The

vindictive French maid-servant of Lady Dedlock. In revenge for the

partiality shown by Lady Dedlock to Rosa, Hortense murdered Mr.

Tulkinghorn, and tried to throw the suspicion of the crime on Lady

Dedlock.

=House of the Seven Gables, The.=--A romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne,

published in 1851. “In _The House of the Seven Gables_,” says R. H.

Hutton, “we have a picture studied to impress on us that both personal

character and the malign influences of evil action are transmitted,

sometimes with accumulating force, even through centuries, blighting

every generation through which they pass. The subject would apparently

involve a series of sketches, but only two are introduced from the past,

and the family characteristics are so anxiously preserved as to make

even these seem like slight modifications of some of the living group.

The only incident in the tale is the light thrown upon a crime--which

had been committed thirty years before the story opens--by the sudden

death of the principal representative of a family from the same disease,

in the same chair, and under the same circumstances, as those of the old

ancestor and founder of the family, whose picture hangs above the

chair.”

=Hubbard, Old Mother.=--A well-known nursery rhyme. _Mother Hubbard’s

Tale_, by Edmund Spenser, is a satirical fable in the style of Chaucer.

=Hubert de Burgh= (_börg_, or _berg_).--Justice of England, created Earl

of Kent, introduced by Shakespeare into _King John_. He is the one to

whom the young prince addresses his piteous plea for life. The lad was

found dead soon afterward, either by accident or foul play.

=Hubert, Saint.=--The legend of Saint Hubert makes him a patron saint of

huntsmen.

=Hudibras= (_hū´di-bras_).--The title and hero of a celebrated satirical

poem by Samuel Butler. Hudibras is a Presbyterian justice of the time of

the commonwealth.

=Hugh of Lincoln.=--A legendary personage who forms the subject of

Chaucer’s _Prioress’ Tale_, and also of an ancient English ballad.

Wordsworth has given a modernized version of this tale.

=Hugo Hugonet.=--_Castle Dangerous_, Scott. Minstrel of the earl of

Douglas.

=Humphrey.=--The imaginary collector of the tales in _Master Humphrey’s

Clock_, by Charles Dickens.

=Humpty Dumpty.=--The hero of a well-known nursery rhyme. The name

signifies humped and dumpy, and is the riddle for an egg.

=Huon de Bordeaux= (_ü-ôn´de bor-dō´_).--A hero of one of the romances

of chivalry bearing this name.

=Hural Oyun.=--In the fairy tales found in the Koran, these are the

black-eyed daughters of paradise. They are created from muck, and are

free from all physical weakness and are always young. It is held out to

every male believer that he will have seventy-two of these girls as his

household companions in paradise.

=Hylas= (_hī´las_).--A beautiful boy, beloved by Hercules, who was drawn

into a spring by the enamored nymphs. The story has been treated by

Bayard Taylor, and by William Morris in his _Life and Death of Jason_.

=Hypatia= (_hī-ā´shiä_).--A novel by the Rev. Charles Kingsley, the

scene of which is laid in Alexandria, at a time when Christianity was

gaining ground against Paganism and the neo-Platonism of the schools.

Hypatia herself was born about the year 370, and, after attracting to

her lectures on philosophy a large and brilliant auditory, was torn to

pieces by the rabble of her native city in 415. _Hypatia_ appeared in

1853.

=Hyperion= (_hī-pē´ri-on_, or _hī-per-ī´on_).--A romance in four books,

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This work, which was the result of an

extensive tour in Germany, was published in 1839, and with much that is

purely fanciful and imaginative, contains much that came within the

actual experience of the author who is represented, idealized, in the

character of Paul Flemming. The episode with Mary Ashburton is supposed

to have reference to a real occurrence. The book is full of description

and of eloquent discussion, besides being interspersed with snatches of

legend and of song.

=Hypocrites’ Isle.=--An island described by Rabelais in one of his

satires. He pictures this island of _Hypocrites_ as wholly inhabited by

people of low and defiled natures, as, by sham saints, spiritual

comedians, seducers, and “such-like sorry rogues who live on the alms of

passengers like the hermit of Lamont.”

=I=

=Iago= (_ē-ä´gō_).--_Othello_, Shakespeare. Othello’s ensign and the

villain of the play. Iago is said to be a character next to a devil, yet

not quite a devil, which Shakespeare alone could execute without

scandal.

=Idleness, The Lake of.=--_Faërie Queene_, Spenser. Whoever drank

thereof grew instantly “faint and weary.” The Red Cross Knight drank of

it, and was readily made captive by Orgoglio.

=Idylls of the King.=--A series of poems by Tennyson. Taken together

they form a parable of the life of man. Each idyll taken as a separate

picture represents the war between sense and soul. In _Lancelot and

Guinevere_ the lower nature leads them astray and there is intense

struggle before the higher nature prevails. In _Vivien_, _Tristram_, and

_Modred_, the base and sensual triumph. In _Arthur_, _Sir Galahad_ and

_Percivale_, it is the victory of the spiritual.

=Ignaro.=--_Faërie Queene_, Spenser. Fosterfather of Orgoglio. Spenser

says this old man walks one way and looks another, because ignorance is

always “wrong-headed.”

=Iliad= (_il´ē-ad_).--A famous Greek epic poem by Homer. It is the tale

of the siege of Troy, in twenty-four books. It is written in Greek

hexameters, and commemorates the deeds of Achilles and other Greek

heroes at the siege of Troy. Books one, two and three are introductory

to the war. Paris proposes to decide the contest by a single combat, and

Menelaus accepts the challenge. Paris, being overthrown, is carried off

by Venus, and Agamemnon demands that the Trojans shall give up Troy in

fulfillment of the compact, and the siege follows. The gods take part,

and frightful slaughter ensues. At length Achilles slays Hector, and the

battle is at an end. Old Priam, going to the tent of Achilles, craves

the body of his son Hector; Achilles gives it up, and the poem concludes

with the funeral rites of the Trojan hero. Vergil continues the tale

from this point, shows how the city was taken and burnt, and then

continues with the adventures of Æneas, who escapes from the burning

city, and makes his way to Italy.

=Imogen= (_im´ō-jen_).--The wife of Posthumus, and the daughter of

Cymbeline in the play of Shakespeare’s under title _Cymbeline_. “Of all

Shakespeare’s women,” says Hazlitt, “she is, perhaps, the most tender

and the most artless.”

=Incantation.=--Is derived from a Latin root meaning simply “to sing.”

It is the term in use to denote one of the most powerful and

awe-inspiring modes of magic, resting on a belief in the mysterious

power of words solemnly conceived and passionately uttered.

=Inchcape Rock.=--It is dangerous for navigators, and therefore the

abbot of Aberbrothock fixed a bell on a float, which gave notice to

sailors. Southey says that Ralph the Rover, in a mischievous joke, cut

the bell from the buoy, and it fell into the sea; but on his return

voyage his boat ran on the rock, and Ralph was drowned. Precisely the

same tale is told of St. Goven’s bell.

=Inferno, The.=--_Divine Comedy_, Dante. Epic poem in thirty-four

cantos. Inferno is the place of the souls who are wholly given up to

sin. The ascent is through Purgatory to Paradise.

=Ingoldsby Legends= (_ing´gōldz-bi lej´endz_, or _lē´jendz_).--A

collection of legends in prose and verse, supposed to have been found in

the family chest of the Ingoldsby family, and related by Thomas

Ingoldsby. Of the poetical pieces it is not too much to say that, for

originality of design and diction, for quaint illustration and musical

verse, they are not surpassed in the English language. From the days of

Hudibras to our time, the drollery invested in rhyme has never been so

amply or so felicitously exemplified; and if derision has been

unsparingly applied, it has been to lash knavery and imposture.

=In Memoriam.=--A poem by Alfred Tennyson, published in 1850, and

consisting of one hundred and thirty “short swallow flights of song,” in

a measure which Tennyson has made his own. It is well known that these

“brief lays, of sorrow born,” were written in memory of the author’s

friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, who died in 1833. They are characterized by

George MacDonald as forming “the poem of the hoping doubters, the poem

of our age--the grand minor organ fugue of _In Memoriam_. It is the cry

of the bereaved Psyche into the dark infinite after the vanished love.

His friend is nowhere in his sight, and God is silent. Death, God’s

final compulsion to prayer, in its dread, its gloom, its utter

stillness, its apparent nothingness, urges the cry. Moanings over the

dead are mingled with the profoundest questionings of philosophy, the

signs of nature, and the story of Jesus, while now and then the star of

the morning, bright Phosphor, flashes a few rays through the shifting

cloudy dark. And if the sun has not arisen on the close of the book, yet

the aurora of the coming dawn gives light enough to make the onward

journey possible and hopeful.”

=Innocents Abroad.=--By Mark Twain. Travelers seeing Europe without any

illusions. The fun consists in an irreverent application of modern

common sense to historic associations, ridiculing sentimental humbug. An

air of innocence and surprise adds to the drolleries of their

adventures.

=Instauratio Magna= (_in-stâ-rā´shi-ō mag´nä_).--The title (_The Great

Restoration_) which Bacon gave to his _Magnum Opus_, the design of which

was for six divisions:--(1) _The Advancement of Learning_; (2) the

_Novum Organum_; (3) the _Experimental History of Nature_; (4) the

_Scala Intellectus_, which leads from experience to science; (5) the

_Bodronic_, or anticipations of the second philosophy; and (6) _Active

Science_, or experiment. Of these, only the first two, and a portion of

the third (_Sylva Sylvarum_), were published. The idea that was to run

through the _Instauratio_ was that invention must be based upon

experience, and experience upon experiment.

=Interludes, The.=--Springing from the moralities and bearing some

resemblance to them, though nearer the regular drama, are the

interludes, a class of compositions in dialogue, much shorter and more

merry and farcical. They were generally played in the intervals of a

festival.

=Invocation.=--An address at the commencement of a poem, in which the

author calls for the aid of some divinity, particularly of his muse.

=Iphigenia= (_if=´=i-jē-nī´ä_).--The heroine of Euripides’ tragedy

_Iphigenia in Aulis_, and of Goethe’s tragedy _Iphigenia auf Tauris_.

She was placed on the altar in a rash vow by her father. Artemis at the

last moment snatched her from the altar and carried her to heaven,

substituting a hind in her place. The similarity of this legend to the

scripture stories of Jephthah’s vow and Abraham’s offering of his son

Isaac is noticeable.

=Iras.=--A strongly delineated character in _Ben Hur, a Tale of The

Christ_, by Lew Wallace.

=Iras.=--A female attendant on Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s play, _Antony

and Cleopatra_.

=Isaac of York.=--A wealthy Jew, the father of Rebecca, in Sir Walter

Scott’s novel, _Ivanhoe_.

=Isabella.=--The heroine in Shakespeare’s comedy, _Measure for Measure_.

=Island of Lanterns.=--In the celebrated satire of Rabelais, an

imaginary country inhabited by false pretenders to knowledge. The name

was probably suggested by the _City of Lanterns_, in the Greek romance

of Lucian. Swift has copied this same idea in his _Island of Laputa_.

=Island of St. Brandan.=--A marvelous flying island, the subject of an

old and widely spread legend of the middle ages. Though the island of

St. Brandan has been a disappointment to voyagers, it has been a

favorite theme with poets.

=Island of the Blest.=--Imaginary island in the west. Hither the

favorites of the gods were conveyed without dying, and dwelt in

never-ending joy. The name first occurs in Hesiod’s _Works and Days_.

This phrase is often used in modern literature.

=Ithuriel= (_i-thö´ri-el_).--In Milton’s _Paradise Lost_, an angel

commissioned by Gabriel to search through paradise, in company with

Zephon, to find Satan, who had eluded the vigilance of the angelic

guard, and effected an entrance into the garden. It is related that

Ithuriel found Satan “squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve,” and

transformed him by a touch of his spear into his proper shape.

=Ivanhoe.=--A novel by Sir Walter Scott. The hero, also Ivanhoe, figures

as Cedric of Rotherwood’s disinherited son, the favorite of King Richard

I., and the lover of the Lady Rowena, whom, in the end, he marries. The

scene is laid in England in the reign of Richard I., and we are

introduced to Robin Hood in Sherwood forest, banquets in Saxon halls,

tournaments, and all the pomp of ancient chivalry. Rowena, the heroine,

is quite thrown into the shade by the gentle, meek, yet high-souled

Rebecca.

=Ivory Gate of Dreams.=--Dreams which delude pass through the ivory

gate, but those which come true through the horn gate.

=J=

=Jack and the Bean-Stalk.=--A nursery legend said to be an allegory of

the Teutonic _Al-fader_, the “red hen” representing the all-producing

sun, the “money-bags” the fertilizing rain, and the “harp” the winds.

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

=Jack Robinson.=--A famous comic song by Hudson.

=Jack Sprat.=--The hero of a nursery rhyme. Jack and his wife form a

fine combination in domestic economy.

=Jack the Giant-killer.=--The name of a famous hero in the literature of

the nursery, the subject of one of the Teutonic or Indo-European

legends, which have become nationalized in England and America.

=Jaquenetta= (_jak-e-net´ä_).--_Love’s Labor’s Lost_, Shakespeare. A

country wench courted by Don Adriano de Armado.

=Jaques= (_zhä´kes_).--A lord attending upon the exiled duke, in

Shakespeare’s _As You Like It_. A contemplative character who thinks and

does--nothing. He is called the “melancholy Jaques,” and affects a

cynical philosophy. He could “suck melancholy out of a song, as a weasel

sucks eggs.”

=Jarley, Mrs.=--The proprietor of a waxwork show in Dickens’ _Old

Curiosity Shop_. She has lent her name to a popular game of parlor

tableaux.

=Jarndyce= (_järn´dis_), =John.=--A prominent figure in Dickens’ _Bleak

House_, distinguished for his philanthropy, easy good-nature and good

sense, and for always saying, “The wind is in the east,” when anything

went wrong with him. The famous suit of Jarndyce _vs._ Jarndyce, in this

novel, is a satire upon the court of chancery.

=Jarvie, Nicol.=--A prominent character in Sir Walter Scott’s novel _Rob

Roy_. He is a bailie of Glasgow.

=Javert= (_zhä-var´_).--An officer of the police force in _Les

Misérables_, by Victor Hugo. He is the incarnation of inexorable law.

=Jarvis.=--A faithful old servant, in Moore’s _The Gamester_, who tries

to save his master, Beverley, from his fatal passion of gambling.

=Jaup.=--An old woman at Middlemas village, in Scott’s _The Surgeon’s

Daughter_.

=Jekyll, Doctor, and Mr. Hyde.=--A singular romance by Robert Louis

Stevenson. The hero is a duplex character--Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Doctor Jekyll is a benevolent and upright physician, who by means of a

potion is able to transform himself for a time into a second

personality, Mr. Hyde, of a brutal and animal nature.

=Jellyby= (_jel´i-bi_), =Mrs.=--A character in Dickens’ novel, Bleak

House, a type of sham philanthropy. She spends her time and energy on

foreign missions to the neglect of her family. Mrs. Jellyby is quite

overwhelmed with business correspondence relative to the affairs of

Borrioboola Gha.

=Jenkins, Winifred.=--The name of Miss Tabitha Bramble’s maid in

Smollett’s _Expedition of Humphrey Clinker_. She makes ridiculous

blunders in speaking and writing.

=Jenkinson, Ephraim.=--A green old swindler, whom Dr. Primrose met in a

public tavern. Dr. Primrose sold the swindler his horse, Old Blackberry,

for a draft upon Farmer Flamborough.

=Jeroboam= (_jer-ō-bō´am_) =Sermon.=--One of Dr. Emmons’ sermons, which

made a great noise at the time. It was known as his Jeroboam Sermon. It

was written on the occasion of Jefferson’s inauguration as president,

and, although Jefferson is not named, the delineation of the character

of Jeroboam is such that no one can doubt the personal application

intended.

=Jerusalem Delivered.=--An epic in twenty books, by Torquato Tasso. The

crusaders, encamped on the plains of Tortosa, chose Godfrey for their

chief, and Alandine, king of Jerusalem, made preparations for defense.

The Christian army having reached Jerusalem, the king of Damascus sent

Armida to beguile the Christians. It was found that Jerusalem could

never be taken without the aid of Rinaldo. Godfrey, being informed that

the hero was dallying with Armida in the enchanted island, sent to

invite him back to the army; he returned, and Jerusalem was taken.

Armida fled into Egypt, and offered to marry any knight who slew

Rinaldo. The love of Rinaldo returned, he pursued her and she relented.

The poem concludes with the triumphant entry of the Christian army into

the Holy City, and their devotions at the tomb of the Redeemer. The two

chief episodes are the loves of Olindo and Sofronia, and of Tancred and

Clorinda.

=Jessica= (_jes´i-kä_).--The beautiful daughter of Shylock, in

Shakespeare’s _Merchant of Venice_.

=Jones, Tom.=--The hero of Fielding’s novel entitled _The History of a

Foundling_, represented as a model of generosity, openness, and manly

spirit, though thoughtless and dissipated.

=Joyeuse= (_zhwä-yez´_).--The sword of Charlemagne as mentioned in

romances of chivalry.

=Joyeuse Garde= (_zhwä-yez´ gärd_).--The residence of the famous

Lancelot du Lac.

=Judith.=--The heroine in the book by the same name in the Apocrypha.

She was a beautiful Jewess of Bethulia, who, when her town was besieged

by Holofernes, the general of Nebuchadnezzar, attended him in his tent,

and, when he was drunk, killed him, whereupon her townsmen fell upon the

Assyrians and defeated them with great slaughter. The tale is not

mentioned by Josephus, and has, from an early period, been held to be an

allegory. It has frequently furnished poets and painters with subjects.

=Julius Cæsar.=--An historical tragedy by William Shakespeare. The poet

was in this, as in other plays, materially assisted by North’s

translation of Plutarch. “Shakespeare’s _Julius Cæsar_,” says Hazlitt,

“is not equal, as a whole, to either of his other plays taken from the

Roman history. It is inferior in interest to _Coriolanus_, and both in

interest and power to _Antony and Cleopatra_. It, however, abounds in

admirable and affecting passages, and is remarkable for the profound

knowledge of character, in which Shakespeare could hardly fail.”

=K=

=Kadir, Al.=--The night on which the _Koran_ was sent down to Mohammed.

Al Kadir is supposed to be the seventh of the last ten nights of

Ramadan, or the night between the twenty-third and twenty-fourth days of

the month.

=Kay.=--A foster brother of King Arthur, and a rude and boastful knight

of the Round Table. He was the butt of King Arthur’s court. Called also

Sir Queux. He appears in the _Boy and the Mantle_, in Percy’s

_Reliques_. Sir Kay is represented as the type of rude boastfulness, Sir

Gawain of courtesy, Sir Launcelot of chivalry, Sir Mordred of treachery,

Sir Galahad of chastity, Sir Mark of cowardice.

=Kehama= (_kē-hä´mä_).--A Hindu rajah who obtains and sports with

supernatural power. His adventures are related in Southey’s poem

entitled _The Curse of Kehama_.

=Kenilworth.=--A novel by Sir Walter Scott. This is very superior to

_The Abbot_ and _The Monastery_. For interest it comes next to

_Ivanhoe_, and the portrait of Queen Elizabeth is lifelike and correct.

That of Queen Mary is given in _The Abbot_. Full of courtly gayeties and

splendor, the novel contains the unhappy tale of the beautiful Amy

Robsart, which cannot fail to excite our sympathy and pity.

=Kent, Earl of.=--A rough, plain-spoken, but faithful nobleman in

Shakespeare’s _King Lear_, who follows the fallen fortunes of the king,

disguised as a servant, under the assumed name of Caius.

=Kenwigs= (_ken´wigz_).--A family in Dickens’ novel _Nicholas Nickleby_,

including a number of little girls who differed from one another only in

the length of their frilled pantalets and of their flaxen pigtails tied

with bows of blue ribbon.

=Kilkenny Cats.=--Two cats, in an Irish story, which fought till nothing

was left but their tails. It is probably a parable of a local contest

between Kilkenny and Irishtown, which impoverished both boroughs.

=Kilmansegg, Miss.=--An heiress with great expectations and an

artificial leg of solid gold, in Hood’s poem, _A Golden Legend_.

=King Horn.=--A metrical romance which was very popular in the

thirteenth century. King Horn is a beautiful young prince who is carried

away by pirates; but his life is spared, and after many wonderful

adventures he weds a princess, and regains his father’s kingdom.

=King Lear.=--A tragedy by Shakespeare whose hero is a fabulous or

legendary king of Britain. He had three daughters, and when four score

years old, wishing to retire from the active duties of sovereignty,

resolved to divide his kingdom between them, but was persuaded to

disinherit Cordelia. The beauty of the play is the exquisite character

of Cordelia, who is a “perfect woman.”

=King Log and King Stork.=--Characters in a celebrated fable of Æsop,

which relates that the frogs, grown weary of living without a

government, petitioned Jupiter for a king. Jupiter accordingly threw

down a log among them, which made a satisfactory ruler till the frogs

recovered from their fright and discovered his real nature. They,

therefore, entreated Jupiter for another king, whereupon he sent them a

stork, who immediately began to devour them.

=Klaus, Peter.=--The hero of an old popular tradition of Germany--the

prototype of Rip Van Winkle--represented as a goatherd.

=Knickerbocker, Diedrich.=--The imaginary author of a humorous

fictitious _History of New York_, written by Washington Irving.

=Knight of the Swan.=--Lohengrin, son of Parsival, because his boat was

drawn by a swan.

=Knights of the Round Table.=--King Arthur’s knights were so called

because they sat with him at a round table made by Merlin for King

Leodogran. This king gave it to Arthur on his marriage with Guinevere,

his daughter.

=Koppenberg.=--The mountain of Westphalia to which the pied piper

(Bunting) led the children, when the people of Hamelin refused to pay

him for killing their rats. Browning’s poem, _The Pied Piper_, tells the

tale.

=L=

=Lady of Lyons, The.=--A drama, by Lord Lytton, in which Pauline

Deschappelles, daughter of a Lyonese merchant, rejects the suits of

Beauseant, Glavis, and Claude Melnotte, who therefore combined. Claude,

who was a gardener’s son, aided by the other two, passed himself off as

Prince Como, married Pauline, and brought her home to his mother’s

cottage. The proud beauty was very indignant, and Claude left her to

join the French army. He became a colonel, and returned to Lyons. He

found his father-in-law on the eve of bankruptcy, and that Beauseant had

promised to satisfy the creditors if Pauline would consent to marry him.

Pauline was heartbroken; Claude revealed himself, paid the money

required, and carried home the bride.

=Lady of Shalott, The.=--A poem by Alfred Tennyson, founded on an

incident in _King Arthur_. It is descriptive of “a being whose existence

passes without emotion, without changes, without intelligible motive for

living on, without hope or fear, here or hereafter.”

=Lady of the Lake, The.=--A poem in six cantos by Sir Walter Scott,

published in 1810. “Measured even by the standard of the _Minstrel_ and

_Marmion_, the _Lady of the Lake_ possessed,” says Palgrave, “merits of

its own, which raised his reputation still higher. Jeffrey’s prediction

has been perfectly fulfilled, that the _Lady of the Lake_ would be

‘oftener read than either of the former,’ and it is generally

acknowledged to be, in Lockhart’s words, ‘the most interesting,

romantic, picturesque, and graceful of his great poems.’” The

descriptions of scenery, which form one of the chief charms of the poem,

render it, even now, one of the most minute and faithful handbooks to

the region in which the drama of Ellen and the Knight of Snowdon is

laid.

=Lake Poets, The.=--Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge, who lived about

the lakes of Cumberland.

=Lalla Rookh= (_lal´ä rök_).--An oriental romance by Thomas Moore,

consisting of four tales in verse, entitled _The Veiled Prophet of

Khorassan_, _Paradise and the Peri_, _The Fire-Worshipers_, and _The

Light of the Harem_, and connected by a short prose narrative, in which

it is described how Lalla Rookh, daughter of the Emperor Aurungzebe,

journeys toward Bucharia to meet her engaged husband, and how the

prince gains her love on the way, in the guise of a Cashmerian minstrel.

_Lalla Rookh_ was published in 1817.

=L’Allegro= (_läl-lā´grō_).--A descriptive poem by John Milton, probably

written during his college life.

=L’Amour Médecin= (_la-mōōr´ mād-sa_N´) (or, _The Love Doctor_).--A

comedy by Molière, written about the year 1665. Lucinde, the daughter of

Sganarelle, is in love, and the father calls in four doctors to consult

upon the nature of her malady. They see the patient, and retire to

consult together, but talk about Paris, about their visits, about the

topics of the day; and when the father enters to know what opinion they

have formed, they all prescribe different remedies, and pronounce

different opinions. Lisette then calls in a “quack” doctor (Clitandre,

the lover), who says he must act on the imagination, and proposes a

seeming marriage, to which Sganarelle assents. The assistant being a

notary, Clitandre and Lucinde are married.

=Lampoon.=--A personal satire, often bitter and malignant. These libels,

carried to excess in the reign of Charles II., acquired the name of

lampoons from the burden sung to them: “_Lampone, lampone, camerada

lampone_.”

=Land of Beulah.=--The paradise in which souls wait before the

resurrection. In _Pilgrim’s Progress_ the land from which the pilgrims

enter the Celestial City. The name is found in Isaiah lxii., 4.

=Land of Bondage.=--Name given to Egypt in the Bible.

=Land of Cakes.=--A name sometimes given to Scotland, because oatmeal

cakes are a common national article of food, particularly among the

poorer classes.

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

=Land of Promise.=--The land promised to Abraham--Canaan.

=Land of Shadows.=--A place of unreality, sometimes meaning land of

ghosts.

=Land o’ the Leal.=--An unknown land of happiness, loyalty, and virtue.

Caroline Oliphant, baroness Nairne, meant heaven in her song and this is

now its accepted meaning.

=Land of Wisdom.=--A name given to Normandy, in France, because of the

wise customs which have prevailed there, and also because of the skill

and judgment of the people in making laws.

=Land of Veda= (_vē´dä_).--Name often given to India.

=Landlady’s Daughter.=--She rowed Flemming “over the Rhine-stream, rapid

and roaring wide,” and told to him the story of the _Liebenstein_.

=Last Days of Pompeii= (_pom-pā´yē_), =The.=--A novel by Bulwer Lytton,

Edward George, Baron Lytton, which was published in 1834. The interest

of the book is one of situation and of action rather than of character.

The scenes which linger on our memories longest are the noonday

excursion on the Campanian seas, the temple of Isis, with its hidden

machinery; the funeral pomp and dirge of the murdered Apæcides, Lydon

perishing in the unequal struggle; the price which was to have been paid

for a father’s liberty; and lastly, the grand catastrophe, a subject

which called forth all Lord Lytton’s brilliant powers.

=Last of the Mohicans.=--The Indian chief Uncas is so called by Cooper

in his novel of that title.

=Launfal= (_län´fal_), =Sir.=--Steward of King Arthur. James Russell

Lowell has a poem entitled _The Vision of Sir Launfal_.

=Lavaine.=--Son of the lord of Astolat, who accompanied Sir Lancelot

when he went to tilt for the ninth diamond. Lavaine is described as

young, brave, and a true knight. He was brother to Elaine.

=Lavinia= (_la-vin´i-ä_) =and Palemon.=--Lavinia was the daughter of

Acasto, patron of Palemon. Through Acasto Palemon gained a fortune and

wandered away from his friend. Acasto lost his property, and dying, left

a widow and daughter in poverty. Palemon often sought them, but could

never find them. One day, a lovely modest maiden came to glean in

Palemon’s fields. The young squire was greatly struck with her exceeding

beauty and modesty, but she was known as a pauper and he dared not give

her more than a passing glance. Upon inquiry he found that the beautiful

gleaner was the daughter of Acasto; he proposed marriage, and Lavinia

was restored to her rightful place.

=Leonato= (_lē-ō-nä´tō_).--Governor of Missina in Shakespeare’s _Much

Ado About Nothing_. He prematurely accredited the accusations against

his daughter, Hero.

=Leonine= (_lē´ō-nīn_).--In Shakespeare’s _Pericles_. Servant to

Dionyza. The latter conspired with him to murder Marina, and was saved

from the crime only by the intervention of pirates.

=Léonore= (_lā-ō-nōr´_).--In Molière’s _L’ecole des Maris_, sister of

Isabelle, an orphan; brought up by Ariste according to his notions of

training a girl to make him a good wife. He put her on her honor, tried

to win her confidence and love, gave her all the liberty consistent with

propriety and social etiquette, and found that she loved him, and made a

fond and faithful wife.

=Leviathan= (_lē-vi´a-than_) (or, the _Matter, Form, and Power of a

Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil_).--A work by Thomas Hobbes,

published in 1651. In _Leviathan_, Hobbes’ peculiar theories in politics

received their fullest and ablest expression. They found an illustrious

opponent in Lord Clarendon, who, in 1676, published _A Brief View and

Survey of the Dangerous and Pernicious Errors to Church and State in Mr.

Hobbes’ book Entitled Leviathan_.

=Little Dorrit.=--The heroine and title of a novel by Charles Dickens.

Little Dorrit was born and brought up in the Marshalsea prison,

Bermondsey, where her father was confined for debt; and when about

fourteen years of age she used to do needlework, to earn a subsistence

for herself and her father. The child had a pale, transparent face; was

quick in expression, though not beautiful in feature. Her eyes were a

soft hazel, and her figure slight. The little dove of the prison was

idolized by the prisoners, and when she walked out, every man in

Bermondsey who passed her, touched or took off his hat out of respect to

her good works and active benevolence. Her father, coming into a

property, was set free at length, and Little Dorrit married Arthur

Clennam, the marriage service being celebrated in the Marshalsea, by the

prison chaplain.

=Little John.=--A big, stalwart fellow, named John Little, who

encountered Robin Hood, and gave him a sound thrashing, after which he

was rechristened, and Robin stood godfather. Little John is introduced

by Sir Walter Scott in _The Talisman_.

=Little Nell.=--_Old Curiosity Shop_, Dickens. The prominent character

of the story, pure and true, though living in the midst of selfishness

and crime. She was brought up by her grandfather, who was in his dotage,

and who tried to eke out a narrow living by selling curiosities. At

length, through terror of Quilp, the old man and his grandchild stole

away, and led a vagrant life.

=Lochinvar= (_lock´in-var_).--A young highlander, in the poem of

_Marmion_, was much in love with a lady whose fate was decreed that she

should marry a “laggard.” Young Lochinvar persuaded the too-willing

lassie to be his partner in a dance; and, while the guests were intent

on their amusements, swung her into his saddle and made off with her

before the bridegroom could recover from his amazement.

=Locksley.=--So Robin Hood is sometimes called, from the village in

which he was born.

=Locksley Hall.=--A poem by Tennyson, in which the hero, the lord of

Locksley Hall, having been jilted by his cousin Amy for a rich boor,

pours forth his feelings in a flood of scorn and indignation. The poem

is understood to have been occasioned by a similar incident in the

poet’s own life, but this has been questioned.

=Lohengrin= (_lō´hen-grin_).--The Knight of the Swan; the hero of a

romance by Wolfram von Eschenbach, a German minnesinger of the

thirteenth century, and also of a modern musical drama by Richard

Wagner. He was the son of Parsival, and came to Brabant in a ship drawn

by a white swan, which took him away again when his bride, disobeying

his injunction, pressed him to discover his name and parentage.

=Lorelei=, or =Loreley= (_lō´re-li_).--In German poetry and romance, a

siren supposed to haunt the Lurlenberg rock on the Rhine, and lure

sailors and fisherman to destruction. She is the subject of a beautiful

ballad by Heine.

=Lorna Doone.=--A novel by R. D. Blackmore, published in 1869, the scene

of which is laid in Exmoor. The Doones are a family of robbers and

freebooters from which Lorna, otherwise Lady Lorna Dugal, is rescued by

John Ridd, a young man. Ridd finally broke up the band, drove them from

Doone valley, and married Lorna.

=Love’s Labor’s Lost.=--A comedy by Shakespeare. Ferdinand, king of

Navarre, with three lords named Biron, Dumain, and Longaville, agree to

spend three years in study, during which time no woman was to approach

the court. The compact signed, all went well until the princess of

France, attended by Rosaline, Maria, and Katharine, besought an

interview respecting certain debts said to be due from the king of

France to the king of Navarre. The four gentleman fell in love with the

four ladies. The love of the king sought the princess, by right, Biron

loved Rosaline, Longaville admired Maria, and Dumain adored Katharine.

In order to carry their suits, the four gentlemen, disguised as

Muscovites, presented themselves before the ladies; but the ladies,

being warned of the masquerade, disguised themselves also, so that the

gentlemen in every case addressed the wrong lady. A mutual arrangement

was made that the suits should be deferred for twelve months and a day;

and if, at the expiration of that time, they remained of the same mind,

the matter should be taken into serious consideration.

=Lusiad= (_lū´si-ad_), =The.=--A Portuguese poem by Luiz Camoëns, in

1572. _The Lusiad_ celebrates the chief events in the history of

Portugal, and is remarkable as the only modern epic poem which is

pervaded by anything approaching the national and popular spirit of

ancient epic poems. Bacchus was the guardian power of the Mohammedans,

and Venus, or Divine Love, of the Lusians. The fleet first sailed to

Mozambique, then to Melinda (in Africa), where the adventurers were

hospitably received and provided with a pilot to conduct them to India.

In the Indian Ocean, Bacchus tried to destroy the fleet; Venus, however,

calmed the sea, and Gama arrived in India in safety. Having accomplished

his object, he returned to Lisbon. Among the most famous passages are

the tragical story of Inez de Castro, and the apparition of the giant

Adamastor, who appears as the spirit of the storm to Vasco da Gama, when

crossing the cape. The versification of _The Lusiad_ is extremely

charming.

=M=

=Mab.=--The queen of the fairies, famous in English literature if only

on account of the exquisite description of her put into the mouth of

Mercutio, in _Romeo and Juliet_, beginning “O, then, I see Queen Mab

hath been with you.”

=Macbeth.=--One of Shakespeare’s most celebrated tragedies, whose chief

characters are Macbeth, king of Scotland, and Lady Macbeth, his

murderously ambitious wife. Urged by the latter he kills Duncan, the

rightful king, and in turn is himself slain by Macduff. The tale of

Macbeth and Banquo was borrowed from the legendary history of Scotland,

but the interest of the play is not historical. It is a tragedy of human

life, intensely real, the soul, with all its powers for good or evil,

deliberately choosing evil. The three witches in the desert place, in

thunder, lightning, storm, strike the keynote of evil suggestion. The

awfulness of soul destruction is felt in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as in

no other of Shakespeare’s dramas.

=Macheath, Captain.=--A highwayman who is the hero of Gay’s _Beggar’s

Opera_.

=Mac-Ivor= (_mak-ē´vor_), =Fergus.=--_Waverley_, Scott, Fergus Mac-Ivor

is a prominent character in the novel, and his sister, Flora Mac-Ivor,

the heroine. They are of the family of a Scottish chieftain.

=Macreons, The Island of.=--_Pantagruel_, Rabelais. The title is given

to Great Britain, derived from a Greek word meaning long-lived, “because

no one is put to death there for his religious opinions.” Rabelais says

the island “is full of antique ruins and relics of popery and ancient

superstitions.”

=Madasima, Queen.=--An important character in the old romance called

_Amadis de Gaul_; her constant attendant was Elisabat, a famous surgeon

with whom she roamed in solitary retreats.

=Madoc= (_mad´ok_).--A poem by Southey, founded on one of the legends

connected with the early history of America. Madoc, a Welsh prince of

the twelfth century, is represented as making the discovery of the

western world. His contests with the Mexicans form the subject.

=Maidens’ Castle.=--An allegorical castle mentioned in Malory’s _History

of Prince Arthur_. It was taken from a duke by seven knights, and held

by them till Sir Galahad expelled them. It was called The Maidens’

Castle because these knights made a vow that every maiden who passed it

should be made a captive.

=Maid Marian.=--A half mythical character, but the name is said to have

been assumed by Matilda, daughter of Robert, Lord Fitzwalter, while

Robin Hood remained in a state of outlawry. The name is considered the

foundation of the word marionettes, from Maid Marian’s connection with

the morris dance, or May-day dance, at which she was said to appear.

=Maid of Athens.=--Made famous by Lord Byron’s song of this title.

Twenty-four years after this song was written an Englishman sought out

“the Athenian maid,” and found a beggar without a vestige of beauty.

=Maid of Saragossa.=--_Childe Harold_, Byron. A young Spanish woman

distinguished for her heroism during the defense of Saragossa in

1808-1809. She first attracted notice by mounting a battery where her

lover had fallen, and working a gun in his place.

=Malade Imaginaire, Le= (or, _The Imaginary Invalid_).--A comedy by

Molière. Mons. Argan, who took seven mixtures and twelve lavements in

one month instead of twelve mixtures with twenty lavements, as he had

hitherto done. “No wonder,” he says, “I am not so well.” He fancies his

wife loves him dearly, and that his daughter is undutiful, because she

declines to marry a young medical prig instead of Cleante, whom she

loves. His brother persuades “the malade” to counterfeit death, in order

to test the sincerity of his wife and daughter. The wife rejoices

greatly at his death, and proceeds to filch his property, when Argan

starts up and puts an end to her pillage. Next comes the daughter’s

turn. When she hears of her father’s death, she bewails him with great

grief, says she has lost her best friend, and that she will devote her

whole life in prayer for the repose of his soul. Argan is delighted,

starts up in a frenzy of joy, declares she is a darling, and shall marry

the man of her choice freely, and receive a father’s blessing.

=Malaprop= (_mal´a-prop_), =Mrs.=--A character in Sheridan’s _Rivals_,

noted for her blundering use of words.

=Malbecco.=--_Faërie Queene_, Spenser. The husband of a young wife,

Helinore, and himself a crabbed, jealous old fellow.

=Malengrin.=--A character in Spenser’s _Faërie Queene_, who carried a

net on his back “to catch fools with.” The name has grown to mean the

personification of guile or flattery.

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

of _Reynard the Fox_.

=Malvoisin.=--_Ivanhoe_, Scott. One of the challenging knights at the

tournament (Sir Philip de Malvoisin). Sir Albert de Malvoisin was a

preceptor of the Knights Templar.

=Mambrino= (_mäm-brē´nō_).--_Poems_, Ariosto, etc. A king of the Moors,

who was the possessor of an enchanted golden helmet, which rendered the

wearer invulnerable and which was the object of eager quest to the

paladins of Charlemagne. This helmet was borne away by the knight

Rinaldo. In _Don Quixote_ we are told of a barber who was caught in a

shower of rain, and who, to protect his hat, clapped his brazen basin on

his head. Don Quixote insisted that this basin was the helmet of the

Moorish king; and, taking possession of it, wore it as such.

=Managarm.=--_Prose Edda._ The largest and most formidable of the race

of giants. He dwells in the Iron-wood, Jamvid. Managarm will first fill

himself with the blood of man, and then he will swallow up the moon.

This giant symbolizes war, and the iron wood in which he dwells is the

wood of spears.

=Manfred.=--A poem by Byron. Manfred sold himself to the prince of

darkness, and received from him seven spirits to do his bidding. They

were the spirits of “earth, ocean, air, night, mountains, winds, and the

star of his own destiny.” Wholly without human sympathies, the count

dwelt in splendid solitude among the Alpine mountains. He loved Astarte,

and was visited by her spirit after her death. In spirit form she told

Manfred that he would die the following day; and, when asked if she

loved him, she signed “Manfred,” and vanished.

=Manon l’Escaut= (_mä-non´ les-kō_).--A French novel by A. F. Prévost.

Manon is the “fair mischief” of the story. Her charms seduce and ruin

the chevalier des Grieux, who marries her. After marriage, the selfish

mistress becomes converted into the faithful wife, who follows her

husband into disgrace and banishment, and dies by his side in the wilds

of America. The object of this novel, like that of _La Dame aux

Camélias_, by Dumas _fils_, is to show how true hearted, how

self-sacrificing, how attractive, a _fille de joie_ may be.

=Mantalini= (_man-ta-lē´nē_).--_Nicholas Nickleby_, Dickens. The husband

of madame; he is a man doll, noted for his white teeth, his oaths, and

his gorgeous morning gown. This “exquisite” lives on his wife’s

earnings, and thinks he confers a favor on her by spending. Madame

Mantalini is represented as a fashionable dressmaker near Cavendish

Square, London.

=Marble Faun, The.=--A romance by Hawthorne, published in 1860. The

English edition, published in the same year, is called _Transformation,

or the Romance of Monte Beni_. See _Donatello_. The sole idea of the

_Marble Faun_ is to illustrate the intellectually and morally awakening

power of a sudden impulsive sin, committed by a simple, joyous,

instinctive, “natural” man. The whole group of characters is imagined

solely with a view to the development of this idea.

=Marcellus= (_mär-sel´us_).--_Hamlet_, Shakespeare. An officer of

Denmark, to whom the ghost of the murdered king appeared before it

presented itself to Prince Hamlet.

=Marchioness, The.=--_Old Curiosity Shop_, Dickens. A half-starved

maid-of-all-work, in the service of Sampson Brass and his sister Sally.

She was so lonesome and dull that it afforded her relief to peep at Mr.

Swiveller even through the keyhole of his door. Mr. Swiveller called her

the “marchioness,” when she played cards with him, “because it seemed

more real and pleasant” to play with a marchioness than with a domestic.

While enjoying these games they made the well known “orange peel wine.”

=Mariana= (_mä-rē-ä´nä_).--In Tennyson’s poem _The Moated Grange_, a

young damsel, who sits in the moated grange, looking out for her lover,

who never comes. (2) In Shakespeare’s _Measure for Measure_ Mariana is a

lovely and lovable lady, betrothed to Angelo, who, during the absence of

Vincentio, the duke of Vienna, acted as his lord deputy. Her pleadings

to the duke for Angelo are wholly unrivaled.

=Martin’s Summer, St.=--Halcyon days; a time of prosperity; fine

weather. Mentioned by Shakespeare in _Henry VI._, etc.

=Masora.=--A critical work or canon, whereby is fixed and ascertained

the reading of the text of the Hebrew version of the Bible.

=Mauth Dog.=--_Lay of the Last Minstrel_, Scott. A black specter spaniel

that haunted the guard room of Peeltown in the Isle of Man. A drunken

trooper entered the guard room while the dog was there, but lost his

speech, and died within three days.

=Mazeppa= (_mä-zep´ä_).--A poem by Byron. Mazeppa was a Cossack of noble

family who became a page in the court of the king of Poland, and while

in this capacity intrigued with Theresia, the young wife of a count, who

discovered the amour, and had the young page lashed to a wild horse, and

turned adrift.

=McFingal.=--The hero of Trumbull’s political poem of the same name;

represented as a burly New England squire, enlisted on the side of the

Tory part of the American revolution, and constantly engaged in

controversy with Honorius, the champion of the Whigs.

=Measure for Measure.=--A comedy by Shakespeare. There was a law in

Vienna that made it death for a man to live with a woman not his wife;

but the law was so little enforced that the mothers of Vienna complained

to the duke of its neglect. So the duke deputed Angelo to enforce it;

and, assuming the dress of a friar, absented himself awhile, to watch

the result. Scarcely was the duke gone, when Claudio was sentenced to

death for violating the law. His sister Isabel went to intercede on his

behalf, and Angelo told her he would spare her brother if she would

become his Phryne. Isabel told her brother he must prepare to die, as

the conditions proposed by Angelo were out of the question. The duke,

disguised as a friar, heard the whole story, and persuaded Isabel to

“assent in words,” but to send Mariana (the divorced wife of Angelo) to

take her place. This was done; but Angelo sent the provost to behead

Claudio, a crime which “the friar” contrived to avert. Next day the duke

returned to the city, and Isabel told her tale. Finally the duke married

Isabel, Angelo took back his wife, and Claudio married Juliet.

=Medea= (_mē-dē´ä_).--A play by Euripides. The _Medea_ came out in 431

B. C. along with the poet’s _Philoctetes_, _Dictys_, and the satiric

_Reapers_ (the last was early lost). It was based upon a play of

Neophron’s, and only obtained the third prize, Euphorion being first,

and Sophocles second. It may accordingly be regarded as a failure in its

day--an opinion apparently confirmed by the faults (_viz._, Ægeus and

the winged chariot) selected from it as specimens in Aristotle’s

_Poetica_. There is considerable evidence of there being a second

edition of the play, and many of the variants, or so-called

interpolations, seem to arise from both versions being preserved and

confused. Nevertheless, there was no play of Euripides more praised and

imitated.

=Médecine Malgré Lui, Le= (_mād-saN´ mal-grā´lwē lu_), (or, _The Doctor

in Spite of Himself_).--A comedy by Molière. The “enforced doctor” is

Sganarelle, a fagot maker, who is called in by Géronte to cure his

daughter of dumbness. Sganarelle soon perceives that the malady is

assumed in order to prevent a hateful marriage, and introduces her lover

as an apothecary. The dumb spirit is at once exorcized, and the lovers

made happy with “pills matrimonial.”

In 1733 Fielding produced a farce called _The Mock Doctor_, which was

based on this comedy. The doctor he calls “Gregory,” and Géronte “Sir

Jasper.” Lucinde, the dumb girl, he calls “Charlotta;” and Anglicizes

her lover’s name, Léandre, into “Leander.”

=Meg Merrilies= (_mer´i-lēz_).--A prominent character in Scott’s _Guy

Mannering_, a half-crazy gypsy or sibyl.

=Meistersingers= (_mīs´ter-sing-ers_).--In Germany an association of

master tradesmen, to revive the national minstrelsy, which had fallen

into decay with the decline of the minnesingers or love minstrels

(1350-1523). Their subjects were chiefly moral or religious, and

constructed according to rigid rules.

=Melissa= (_me-lis´ä_).--_Orlando Furioso_, Ariosto. The prophetess who

lived in Merlin’s cave. Bradamante gave her the enchanted ring to take

to Rogero; so, assuming the form of Atlantes, she not only delivered

Rogero but disenchanted all the forms metamorphosed in the island where

he was captive.

=Melnotte, Claude.=--_Lady of Lyons_, Bulwer. The son of a gardener in

love with Pauline, “the Beauty of Lyons,” but treated by her with

contempt. Beauseant and Glavis, two other rejected suitors, conspired

with him to humble her.

=Merchant of Venice.=--A comedy by Shakespeare. Antonio the merchant,

signs a bond in order to borrow money from Shylock, a Jew, for Bassanio,

the lover of Portia. If the loan was repaid within three months, only

the principal would be required; if not, the Jew should be at liberty to

claim a pound of flesh from Antonio’s body. The ships of Antonio being

delayed by contrary winds, the merchant was unable to meet his bill, and

the Jew claimed the forfeiture. Portia, in the dress of a law doctor,

conducted the defense, and saved Antonio by reminding the Jew that a

pound of flesh gave him no drop of blood.

=Merlin.=--The name of an ancient Welsh prophet and enchanter. He is

often alluded to by the older poets, especially Spenser, in his _Faërie

Queene_, and also figures in Tennyson’s _Idylls of the King_. In the

_History of Prince Arthur_ by Malory, Merlin is the prince of enchanters

and of a supernatural origin. He is said to have built the Round Table

and to have brought from Ireland the stones of Stonehenge.

=Merlin’s Cave.=--In Dynevor, near Carmarthen, noted for its ghastly

noises of rattling iron chains, groans, and strokes of hammers. The

cause is said to be this: Merlin set his spirits to fabricate a brazen

wall to encompass the city of Carmarthen, and, as he had to call on the

Lady of the Lake, bade them not slacken their labor till he returned;

but he never did return, for Vivian held him prisoner by her wiles.

=Merry Wives of Windsor, The.=--A comedy by Shakespeare. It is said that

Queen Elizabeth was so pleased with the Falstaff of Henry IV. that she

commanded Shakespeare to show how he conducted himself when in love. For

the plot he was probably but little indebted to other writers. _The Two

Lovers of Pisa_ from Straparola, in Tarleton’s _News Out of Purgatory_,

and a story from _Il Pecorone_ which suggests the hiding of Falstaff in

the soiled linen, may possibly have suggested some of the incidents.

John Dennis wrote a play, _The Comical Gallant, or the Amours of Sir

John Falstaff_, in 1702, in which _The Merry Wives_ may be recognized.

=Messiah= (_me-sī´ä_), =The=.--An epic poem in fifteen books, by F. G.

Klopstock. The subject is the last days of Jesus, his crucifixion and

resurrection.

=Middlemarch=: _A Study of Provincial Life._--A novel, by George Eliot,

published in 1872, and characterized by _The Quarterly Review_ “as the

most remarkable work of the ablest of living novelists, and, considered

as a study of character, unique.” The heroine is Dorothea Brooke, first

married to Mr. Casaubon, afterward to Will Ladislaw. Among the other

characters are Mr. Lydgate, Rosamond Vincy, Mary Garth, and Mrs.

Cadwallader.

=Midlothian=, or =Mid-Lothian= (_mid-lō´_TH_i-an_), =The Heart of=.--A

tale by Scott, of the Porteous riot, in which the incidents of Effie and

Jeanie Deans are of absorbing interest. Effie was seduced by Geordie

Robertson (_alias_ George Staunton), while in the service of Mrs.

Saddletree. She murdered her infant, and was condemned to death; but her

half sister Jeanie went to London, pleaded her cause before the queen,

and obtained her pardon. Jeanie, on her return to Scotland, married

Reuben Butler; and Geordie Robertson (then Sir George Staunton) married

Effie. Sir George being shot by a gypsy boy, Effie (_i. e._, Lady

Staunton) retired to a convent on the continent.

=Midsummer Night’s Dream.=--A comedy by Shakespeare. The author says

there was a law in Athens that if a daughter refused to marry the

husband selected for her by her father, she might be put to death.

Ægeus, an Athenian, promised to give his daughter Hermia in marriage to

Demetrius; but, as the lady loved Lysander, she refused to marry the man

selected by her father, and fled from Athens with her lover. Demetrius

went in pursuit of her, followed by Helena, who doted on him. All four

came to a forest, and fell asleep. In their dreams a vision of fairies

passed before them, and, on awaking, Demetrius resolved to forego

Hermia, who disliked him, and to take to wife Helena, who sincerely

loved him. When Ægeus was informed thereof, he readily agreed to give

his daughter to Lysander, and the force of the law was not called into

action (1592).

=Mildendo.=--_Gulliver’s Travels_, Swift. The metropolis of Lilliput,

the wall of which was two feet and a half in height, and at least eleven

inches thick. The emperor’s palace, called Belfaborac, was in the center

of the city.

=Miles Standish= (or, _Courtship of Miles Standish_).--A poem by H. W.

Longfellow. From this poem the robust figures of the Puritan captain in

his haps and mishaps, and of John Alden and Priscilla, are now part of

our national treasures.

=Miller, Daisy.=--Title and heroine of a story by Henry James. An

American girl traveling in Europe, where her innocence, ignorance, and

disregard of European customs and standards of propriety put her in

compromising situations, and frequently expose her conduct to

misconstruction.

=Mill on the Floss.=--A novel by George Eliot, published in 1860. There

is a simplicity about _The Mill on the Floss_ which reminds us of the

classic tragedy. The vast power of nature over the career and fate of a

family is figured forth in the river, beside which the child Maggie

played, filling her mother’s heart with gloomy and not unveracious

presentiments, and down which she passed with Stephen in her hour of

temptation, with Tom in her last moments; the whole strength of

association and of the ties and instinct of blood breaking in at every

critical point in the story, like the voice of a Greek chorus, full of

traditionary warning and stern common sense, but speaking in the dialect

of English rusticity, and by the mouths of Mr. Tulliver and his wife’s

relations.

=Minna von Barnhelm= (_min´ä fon bärn´helm_).--A comedy by Lessing,

published in 1767. It is the first German national drama which deals

with contemporary events.

=Minnehaha= (_min-e-hä´hä_).--_Hiawatha_, Henry W. Longfellow. The

daughter of the arrow maker of Dacotah, and wife of Hiawatha. She was

called Minnehaha from the waterfall of that name.

=Minnesingers= (_min´e-sing-erz_).--A name given to the German lyric

poets of the middle ages, on account of love being the principal theme

of their lays, the German word “minne” being used to denote a pure and

faithful love.

=Miranda.=--_The Tempest_, Shakespeare. The daughter of Prospero, the

exiled duke of Milan, and niece of Antonio, the usurping duke. She is

brought up on a desert island, with Ariel, the fairy spirit, and

Caliban, the monster, as her only companions.

=Miriam.=--A beautiful and mysterious woman in Hawthorne’s romance _The

Marble Faun_, for love of whom Donatello commits murder, thus becoming

her partner in crime.

=Misanthrope, Le= (_mi-zä_N-_trop´, lu_).--A comedy by Molière, produced

in 1666. This play is an almost inexhaustible source of allusions,

quotations, proverbial sayings, etc. Its principal interest lies in the

development of various pairs of opposing characters in even their

lightest shades. It is the ideal of classic comedy. Alceste, the

impatient, but not cynical, hero. Célimène the coquette, Oronte the fop,

Éliante the reasonable woman, Arsinœ the mischief maker, are all

immortal types.

=Misérables, Les= [(_mi-zā-rabl´, lâ_); or, _The Unfortunates_.]--A

novel by Victor Hugo, in five parts: _Fantine_, _Cosette_, _Marius_,

_L’Idylle Rue Plumet_, and _Jean Valjean_. It was published in 1862.

=Morte d’Arthur= (_môrt där´ther_).--(1) Compilation of Arthurian tales,

called on the title page _The History of Prince Arthur_, compiled from

the French by Sir Thomas Malory, and printed by William Caxton in 1470.

It is divided into three parts. The first part contains the birth of

King Arthur, the establishment of the Round Table, the romance of Balin

and Balan, and the beautiful allegory of Gareth and Linet. The second

part is mainly the romance of Sir Tristram. The third part is the

romance of Sir Launcelot, the quest of the holy grail, and the death of

Arthur, Guinevere, Tristram, Lamorake, and Launcelot.

(2) An idyll by Tennyson, called _The Passing of Arthur_, in the _Idylls

of the King_. The poet supposes Arthur (wounded in the great battle of

the west) to be borne off the field by Sir Bedivere. The wounded monarch

directed Sir Bedivere to cast Excalibur into the mere. Sir Bedivere then

carried the dying king to a barge, in which were three queens, who

conveyed him to the island valley of Avilion.

=Mualox.=--_The Fair God_, Lew Wallace. The old paba or prophet who

assured Nenetzin that she was to be the future queen in her father’s

palace.

=Much Ado About Nothing.=--A comedy by Shakespeare. It was first printed

in 1600. The play was known as _Benedict and Bettris_ in 1613, and is

probably the same as _Love’s Labor’s Won_. The story of Hero is taken

with some variations from one of Bandello’s tales, which probably was

borrowed from the story of Geneura and Ariodantes in the _Orlando

Furioso_ of Ariosto. This part of the play, however, is subordinated by

Shakespeare to the loves of Benedict and Beatrice.

=Mucklebacket.=--_The Antiquary_, Scott. Name of a conspicuous family,

consisting of Saunders Mucklebacket, the old fisherman of Musselcrag;

Old Elspeth, mother of Saunders; Maggie, wife of Saunders; Steenie, the

eldest son, who was drowned; Little Jennie, Saunders’ child.

=Mumblecrust, Madge.=--A character in Edall’s _Ralph Roister Doister_,

whose name was subsequently employed in Dekker’s _Satiro-Mastix_, and

the comedy of _Patient Grissel_. Madge is mentioned in the MS. comedy of

_Misogonus_.

=Münchausen= (_münch´hou-zen_), =The Baron=.--A hero of most marvelous

adventures, and the fictitious author of a book of travels filled with

most extravagant tales. The name is said to refer to Hieronymus Karl

Friedrich von Münchausen, a German officer in the Russian army, noted

for his marvelous stories.

=Mutual Friend, Our.=--A novel by Charles Dickens. The “mutual friend”

is Mr. Boffin, the golden dustman, who was the mutual friend of John

Harmon and of Bella Wilfer. The tale is this: John Harmon was supposed

to have been murdered by Julius Handford; but it was Ratford, who was

murdered by Rogue Riderhood, and the mistake arose from a resemblance

between the two persons. By his father’s will, John Harmon was to marry

Bella Wilfer; but John Harmon knew not the person destined by his father

for his wife, and made up his mind to dislike her. After his supposed

murder, he assumed the name of John Rokesmith, and became the secretary

of Mr. Boffin, “the golden dustman,” residuary legatee of old John

Harmon, by which he became possessor of one hundred thousand dollars.

Boffin knew Rokesmith, but concealed his knowledge for a time. At

Boffin’s house John Harmon (as Rokesmith) met Bella Wilfer, and fell in

love with her. Mr. Boffin, in order to test Bella’s love, pretended to

be angry with Rokesmith for presuming to love Bella; and, as Bella

married him, he cast them both off “for a time,” to live on John’s

earnings. A babe was born, and then the husband took the young mother to

a beautiful house, and told her he was John Harmon, that the house was

their house, that he was the possessor of five hundred thousand dollars

through the disinterested conduct of their “mutual friend,” Mr. Boffin,

and the young couple live happily with Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, in wealth

and luxury.

=My Novel.=--A work of fiction by Edward, Lord Lytton, published in

1853. It is described as the “great work which marks the culminating

point in Lord Lytton’s genius, the work to which, with a rare estimate

of his own powers, he has given the singularly appropriate title of _My

Novel_.... If we except one or two melodramatic scenes, it is throughout

an admirable work.... The plot is complex, but it is unfolded with

marvelous directness and ingenuity, and, notwithstanding the

digressions, the interest never for a moment flags.” Among the

characters are Squire Hazeldean, Mr. Dale, Dick Avenel, Leonard

Fairfield, and Harley L’Estrange.

=N=

=Nathan the Wise= [_Nathan der Wise_ (_nä´tän der vī´ze_).]--A drama by

G. E. Lessing, so called from the name of its principal character. Its

tendency is toward religious tolerance, especially in the episode of the

three rings, which was taken from Boccaccio. Nathan is a persecuted but

noble Jew, an ideal character resembling Moses Mendelssohn.

=Natty Bumppo.=--Called “Leather-Stocking.” He appears in five of

Cooper’s novels: (1) _The Deerslayer_; (2) _The Pathfinder_; (3) As

“Hawk-eye” in _The Last of the Mohicans_; (4) “Natty Bumppo” in _The

Pioneers_; and (5) as the “Trapper” in _The Prairie_, in which he dies.

=Neæra= (_nē-ē´rä_).--The name of a girl mentioned by the Latin poets

Horace, Vergil, and Tibullus; sometimes also introduced into modern

pastoral poetry as the name of a mistress or sweetheart.