C. Marlowe, _Dr. Faustus_ (1590).

=Muscadins of Paris=, Paris exquisites, who aped the London cockneys in

the first French Revolution. Their dress was top-boots with thick soles,

knee-breeches, a dress-coat with long tails and high stiff collar, and a

thick cudgel called a _constitution_. It was thought John Bull-like to

assume a huskiness of voice, a discourtesy of manners, and a swaggering

vulgarity of speech and behavior.

Cockneys of London! Muscadins of Paris!

Byron, _Don Juan_, viii. 124 (1824).

=Mus´carol=, king of flies, and father of Clarion, the most beautiful of

the race.--Spenser, _Muiopotmos, or The Butterfly’s Fate_ (1590).

=Muse= (_The Tenth_), Marie Lejars de Gournay, a French writer

(1566-1645).

Antoinette Deshoulieres; also called “The French Callĭŏpê.” Her best

work is an allegory called _Les Moutons_ (1633-1694).

Mdlle. Scudéri was preposterously so called (1607-1701).

Also Delphine Gray, afterwards Mde. Emile de Girardin. Her _nom de

plume_ was “viconte de Launay.” Béranger sang of “the beauty of her

shoulders,” and Châteaubriand, of “the charms of her smile” (1804-1855).

=Muse-Mother=, Mnemos´ynê, goddess of memory, and mother of the Muses.

Memory,

That sweet Muse-mother.

E. B. Browning, _Prometheus Bound_ (1850).

=Muses= (_Symbols of the_).

CAL´LIOPE [_Kăl´.ly.ŏ.py_], the epic Muse: a tablet and stylus,

sometimes a scroll.

CLIO, Muse of history: a scroll or open chest of books.

ER´ATO, Muse of love ditties: a lyre.

EUTER´PÊ, Muse of lyric poetry: a flute.

MELPOM´ENÊ, Muse of tragedy: a tragic mask, the club of Hercules, or a

sword. She wears the cothurnus, and her head is wreathed with vine

leaves.

POL´YHYM´NIA, Muse of sacred poetry: sits pensive, but has no attribute,

because deity is not to be represented by any visible symbol.

TERPSIC´HORÊ [_Terp.sick´.o.ry_], Muse of choral song and dance: a lyre

and the plectrum.

THALI´A, Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry: a comic mask, a shepherd’s

staff, or a wreath of ivy.

URAN´IA, Muse of astronomy: carries a staff pointing to a globe.

=Museum= (_A Walking_), Longīnus, author of a work on _The Sublime_

(213-273).

=Musgrave= (_Sir Richard_), the English champion who fought with Sir

William Deloraine, the Scotch champion, to decide by combat whether

young Scott, the heir of Branksome Hall, should become the page of King

Edward, or be delivered up to his mother. In the combat, Sir Richard was

slain, and the boy was delivered over to his mother.--Sir W. Scott, _Lay

of the Last Minstrel_ (1805).

_Musgrave_ (_Sir Miles_), an officer in the king’s service under the

earl of Montrose.--Sir W. Scott, _Legend of Montrose_ (time, Charles

I.).

=Music.= Amphion is said to have built the walls of Thebes by the music of

his lyre. Ilium and the capital of Arthur’s kingdom were also built to

divine music. The city of Jericho was destroyed by music (_Joshua_ vi.

20).

They were building still, seeing the city was built

To music.

Tennyson.

_Music and Men of Genius._ Hume, Dr. Johnson, Sir W. Scott, Robert Peel

and Lord Byron had no ear for music, and neither vocal nor instrumental

music gave them the slightest pleasure. To the poet Rogers it gave

actual discomfort. Even the harmonious Pope preferred the harsh

dissonance of a street organ to Handel’s oratorios.

_Music_ (_Father of_), Giovanni Battista Pietro Aloisio da Palestri´na

(1529-1594).

_Music_ (_Father of Greek_), Terpander (fl. B.C. 676).

=Music’s First Martyr.= Menaphon says that when he was in Thessaly he saw

a youth challenge the birds in music; and a nightingale took up the

challenge. For a time the contest was uncertain; but then the youth, “in

a rapture,” played so cunningly that the bird, despairing, “down dropped

upon his lute, and brake her heart.”

⁂ This beautiful tale, by Strada (in Latin) has been translated in rhyme

by R. Crashaw. Versions have been given by Ambrose Philips, and others;

but none can compare with the exquisite relation of John Ford, in his

drama entitled _The Lover’s Melancholy_ (1628).

=Musical Small-Coal Man=, Thos. Britton, who used to sell small coals and

keep a musical club (1654-1714).

=Musicians= (_Prince of_), Giovanni Battista Pietro Aloisio da Palestri´na

(1529-1594).

=Musidora=, the _dame du cœur_ of Damon. Damon thought her coyness was

scorn; but one day he caught her bathing, and his delicacy on the

occasion so enchanted her that she at once accepted his proffered

love.--Thomson, _Seasons_ (“Summer,” 1727).

=Musido´rus=, a hero, whose exploits are told by Sir Philip Sidney, in his

_Arcadia_ (1581).

=Musketeer=, a soldier armed with a musket, but specially applied to a

company of gentlemen who were a mounted guard in the service of the king

of France from 1661.

They formed two companies, the _grey_ and the _black_; so called from

the color of their hair. Both were clad in scarlet, and hence their

quarters were called the _Maison rouge_. In peace they followed the

king in the chase, to protect him; in war they fought either on foot or

horseback. They were suppressed in 1791; restored in 1814, but only for

a few months; and after the restoration of Louis XVIII. we hear no more

of them. Many Scotch gentlemen enrolled themselves among these dandy

soldiers, who went to war with curled hair, white gloves, and perfumed

like milliners.

⁂ A. Dumas has a novel called _The Three Musketeers_ (1844), the first

of a series; the second is _Twenty Years Afterwards_; and the third,

_Viconte de Bragelonne_.

=Muslin=, the talkative, impertinent, intriguing _suivante_ of Mrs.

Lovemore. Mistress Muslin is sweet upon William, the footman, and loves

cards.--A. Murphy, _The Way to Keep Him_ (1760).

=Mus´tafa=, a poor tailor of China, father of Aladdin, killed by illness

brought on by the idle vagabondism of his son.--_Arabian Nights_

(“Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp”).

=Mutton=, a courtezan, sometimes called a “laced mutton.” “Mutton Lane,”

in Clerkenwell, was so called because it was a suburra or quarter for

harlots. The courtezan was called a “Mutton” even in the reign of Henry

III., for Bracton speaks of them as _oves_.--_De Legibus_, etc., ii.

(1569).

=Mutton-Eating King= (_The_), Charles II. of England (1630, 1659-1685).

Here lies our mutton-eating king,

Whose word no man relies on;

He never _said_ a foolish thing,

And never _did_ a wise on’.

Earl of Rochester.

=Mutual Friend= (_Our_), a novel by Charles Dickens (1864). 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 £100,000. 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 baby 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 £100,000 through the disinterested conduct of their

“mutual friend,” Mr. Boffin; and the young couple lived happily with Mr.

and Mrs. Boffin, in wealth and luxury.

=Mutusa-ili=, Babylonian sage and unsuspected Jew, high in repute for

wisdom and prophetic powers.--Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Herbert D.

Ward, _The Master of the Magicians_ (1890).

=My Book= (_Dr._). Dr. John Aberne´thy (1765-1830) was so called because

he used to say to his patients, “Read my book” (_On Surgical

Observations_).

=My Little All.=

I was twice burnt out, and lost my little all both

times.--Sheridan, _The Critic_, i. 1 (1779).

=Myrebeau= (_Le sieure de_), one of the committee of the states of

Burgundy.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

=Myro=, a statuary of Eleu´thĕræ, who carved a cow so true to nature that

even bulls mistook it for a living animal. (See HORSE PAINTED.)

E’en Myro’s statues, which for art surpass

All others, once were but a shapeless mass.

Ovid, _Art of Love_, iii.

=Myrra=, an Ionian slave, and the beloved concubine of Sardanapa´lus, the

Assyrian king. She roused him from his indolence to resist Arba´cês, the

Mede, who aspired to his throne, and when she found his cause hopeless,

induced him to mount a funeral pile, which she fired with her own hand,

and then, springing into the flames, she perished with the

tyrant.--Byron, _Sardanapalus_ (1819).

=Myrtle= (_Mrs. Lerviah_), sentimental Christian, who finds Magdalens and

poor, ill-clad, homeless girls “so depressing,” but begs Nixy Trent, the

only one who ever entered her house, “to consider that there is hope for

us all in the way of salvation which our Lord has marked out for

sinners.” After which crumb of ghostly consolation she proceeds to turn

Nixy out of the house.--Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, _Hedged In_ (1870).

=Mysie=, the female attendant of Lady Margaret Bellenden, of the Tower of

Tillietudlem.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

_Mysie_, the old housekeeper at Wolf’s Crag Tower.--Sir W. Scott, _Bride

of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

=Mysis=, the scolding wife of Sile´no, and mother of Daph´nê and Nysa. It

is to Mysis that Apollo sings that popular song, “Pray, Goody, please to

moderate the rancour of your tongue” (act i. 3).--Kane O’Hara, _Midas_

(1764).

=Mysterious Husband= (_The_), a tragedy by Cumberland (1783). Lord

Davenant was a bigamist. His first wife was Marianne Dormer, whom he

forsook in three months to marry Louisa Travers. Marianne, supposing her

husband to be dead, married Lord Davenant’s son. Miss Dormer’s brother

was the betrothed of the second Lady Davenant before her marriage with

his lordship. She was told that he had proved faithless and had married

another. The report of Lord Davenant’s death and the marriage of Captain

Dormer were both false. When the villainy of Lord Davenant could be

concealed no longer, he destroyed himself.

=Nat=, the fairy that addressed Orpheus, in the infernal regions, and

offered him for food a roasted ant, a flea’s thigh, butterflies’ brains,

some sucking mites, a rainbow tart etc., to be washed down with

dew-drops and beer made from seven barleycorns--a very heady

liquor.--King, _Orpheus and Eurydice_ (1730-1805).

=Nab-man= (_The_), a sheriff’s officer.

Old Dornton has sent the nab-man after him at last.--_Guy

Mannering_, ii. 3.

⁂ This is the dramatized version of Sir W. Scott’s novel, by Terry

(1816).

=Nacien=, the holy hermit who introduced Galahad to the “Siege Perilous,”

the only vacant seat in the Round Table. This seat was reserved for the

knight who was destined to achieve the quest of the Holy Graal. Nacien

told the king and his knights that no one but a virgin knight could

achieve that quest.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, iii.

(1470).

=Nadab=, in Dryden’s satire of _Absalom and Achitophel_, is meant for Lord

Howard, a profligate, who laid claim to great piety. As Nadab offered

incense with strange fire and was slain, so Lord Howard, it is said,

mixed the consecrated wafer with some roast apples and sugar.--Pt. i.

(1681).

=Nadgett=, a man employed by Montague Tigg (manager of the “Anglo-Bengalee

Company”) to make private inquiries. He was a dried-up, shrivelled old

man. Where he lived and how he lived, nobody knew; but he was always to

be seen waiting for some one who never appeared; and he would glide

along apparently taking no notice of any one.--C. Dickens, _Martin

Chuzzlewit_ (1844).

=Nag’s Head Consecration=, a scandal perpetuated by Pennant, on the dogma

of “apostolic succession.” The “high-church clergy” assert that the

ceremony called holy orders has been transmitted without interruption

from the apostles. Thus, the apostles laid hands on certain persons, who

(say they) became ministers of the gospel; these persons “ordained”

others in the same manner; and the succession has never been broken.

Pennant says, at the Reformation the bishops came to a fix. There was

only one bishop, viz., Anthony Kitchen, of Llandaff, and Bonner would

not allow him to perform the ceremony. In this predicament, the fourteen

candidates for episcopal ordination rummaged up Story, a deposed bishop,

and got him to “lay hands” on Parker, as archbishop of Canterbury. As it

would have been profanation for Story to do this in a cathedral or

church, the ceremony was performed in a tavern called the Nag’s Head,

corner of Friday Street, Cheapside. Strype refutes this scandalous tale

in his _Life of Archbishop Parker_, and so does Dr. Hook; but it will

never be stamped out.

=Naggleton= (_Mr._ and _Mrs._), types of a nagging husband and wife. They

are for ever jangling at trifles and willful misunderstandings.--_Punch_

(1864-5).

=Naked Bear= (_The_). _Hush! the naked bear will hear you!_ a threat and

reproof to unruly children in North America. The naked bear, says the

legend, was larger and more ferocious than any of the species. It was

quite naked, save and except one spot on its back, where was a tuft of

white hair.--Heckewelder, _Transactions of the American Phil. Soc._, iv.

260.

Thus the wrinkled old Nokomis

Nursed the little Hiawatha,

Rocked him in his linden cradle,

Stilled his fretful wail by saying

“Hush! the naked bear will get thee!”

Longfellow, _Hiawatha_, iii. (1855).

=Nakir´=, =Nekir=, or =Nakeer=. (See MONKER AND NAKIR.)

=Nala=, a legendary king of India, noted for his love of Damayanti, and

his subsequent misfortunes. This legendary king has been the subject of

numerous poems.

⁂ Dean Milman has translated into English the episode from the

_Mahâbhârata_, and W. Yates has translated the Nalodaya of the great

Sanskrit poem.

=Nama=, a daughter of man, beloved by the angel Zaraph. Her wish was to

love intensely and to love holily, but as she fixed her love on a

seraph, and not on God, she was doomed to abide on earth, “unchanged in

heart and frame,” so long as the earth endureth; but at the great

consummation both Nama and her seraph will be received into those courts

of love, where “love never dieth.”--Moore, _Loves of the Angels_, ii.

(1822).

=Namby= (_Major_), a retired officer, living in the suburbs of London. He

had been twice married; his first wife had four children, and his second

wife three. Major Namby, though he lived in a row, always transacted his

domestic affairs by bawling out his orders from the front garden, to the

annoyance of his neighbors. He used to stalk half-way down the garden

path, with his head high in the air, his chest stuck out, and

flourishing his military cane. Suddenly he would stop, stamp with one

foot, knock up the hinder brim of his hat, begin to scratch the nape of

his neck, wait a moment, then wheel round, look at the first-floor

window, and roar out, “Matilda!” (the name of his wife) “don’t do

so-and-so;” or “Matilda! do so-and-so.” Then he would bellow to the

servants to buy this, or not to let the children eat that, and so

on.--Wilkie Collins, _Pray Employ Major Namby_ (a sketch).

=Names of Terror.= The following amongst others, have been employed as

bogie-names to frighten children with:--

ATTILA was a bogie-name to the Romans.

BO or BOH, son of Odin, was a fierce Gothic captain. His name was used

by his soldiers when they would fight or surprise the enemy.--Sir

William Temple.

⁂ Warton tells us that the Dutch scared their children with the name of

Boh.

BONAPARTE, at the close of the eighteenth and beginning of the

nineteenth centuries, was a name of terror in Europe.

CORVI´NUS (_Mathias_), the Hungarian, was a scare-name to the Turks.

LILIS or LILITH was a bogie-name used by the ancient Jews to unruly

children. The rabbinical writers tell us that Lilith was Adam’s wife

before the creation of Eve. She refused to submit to him, and became a

horrible night-spectre, especially hostile to young children.

LUNSFORD, a name employed to frighten children in England. Sir Thomas

Lunsford, governor of the Tower, was a man of most vindictive temper,

and the dread of everyone.

Made children with your tones to run for’t,

As bad as Bloody-bones or Lunsford.

S. Butler, _Hudibras_, iii. 2, line 1112, (1678).

NARSES (2 _syl._) was the name used by Assyrian mothers to scare their

children with.

The name of Narses was the formidable sound with which the Assyrian

mothers were accustomed to terrify their infants.--Gibbon, _Decline

and Fall of the Roman Empire_, viii. 219 (1776-88).

RAWHEAD and BLOODY-BONES were at one time bogie-names to children.

Servants awe children and keep them in subjection by telling them

of Rawhead and Bloody-bones.--Locke.

RICHARD I., “Cœur de Lion.” This name, says Camden (_Remains_), was

employed by the Saracens as a “name of dread and terror.”

His tremendous name was employed by the Syrian mothers to silence

their infants; and if a horse suddenly started from the way, his

rider was wont to exclaim, “Dost thou think King Richard is in the

bush?”--Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, xi. 146

(1776-88).

SEBASTIAN (_Don_), a name of terror once used by the Moors.

Nor shall Sebastian’s formidable name

Be longer used to still the crying babe.

Dryden, _Don Sebastian_ (1690).

TALBOT (_John_), a name used in France _in terrorem_ to unruly children.

They in France to feare their young children crye, “The Talbot

commeth!”--Hall, _Chronicles_ (1545).

Here (said they) is the terror of the French,

The scarecrow that affrights our children so.

Shakespeare, 1 _Henry VI._ act.[TN-27] i. sc. 4 (1589).

Is this the Talbot so much feared abroad,

That with his name the mothers still their babes?

Shakespeare, 1 _Henry VI._ act iv. sc. 5 (1589).

TAMERLANE, a name used by the Persians _in terrorem_.

TARQUIN, a name of terror in Roman nurseries.

The nurse to still her child, will tell my story,

And fright her crying babe with Tarquin’s name.

Shakespeare, _Rape of Lucrece_ (1594).

(See also NAKED BEAR.)

=Namo=, duke of Bavaria, and one of Charlemagne’s twelve

paladins.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

=Namou´na=, an enchantress. Though first of created beings, she is still

as young and beautiful as ever.--_Persian Mythology._

=Namous=, the envoy of Mahomet in paradise.

=Nancy=, eldest daughter of an English country family, in straitened

circumstances. Nancy is a romp and untamed, but sound-hearted, and

loves her brothers and sister tenderly. To advance their interests she

marries Sir Roger Tempest, who is much her senior. In time, and after

many misunderstandings, she learns to love him, and “they live happily

together ever after.”--Rhoda Broughton, _Nancy_.

_Nancy_, servant to Mrs. Pattypan. A pretty little flirt, who coquets

with Tim Tartlet and young Whimsey, and helps Charlotte Whimsey in her

“love affairs.”--James Cobb, _The First Floor_ (1756-1818).

_Nancy_, a poor misguided girl, who really loves the villain Bill Sykes

(1 _syl._). In spite of her surroundings, she has still some good

feelings, and tries to prevent a burglary planned by Fagin and his

associates. Bill Sykes, in a fit of passion, strikes her twice upon the

face with the butt-end of a pistol, and she falls dead at his feet.--C.

Dickens, _Oliver Twist_ (1837).

_Nancy_, the sailor’s fancy. At half-past four he parted from her; at

eight next morn he bade her adieu. Next day a storm arose, and when it

lulled the enemy appeared; but when the fight was hottest, the jolly tar

“put up a prayer for Nancy.” Dibdin, _Sea Songs_ (“’Twas post meridian

half-past four,” 1790).

_Nancy_ (_Miss_), Mrs. Anna Oldfield, a celebrated actress, buried in

Westminster Abbey. She died in 1730, and lay in state, attended by two

noblemen. Mrs. Oldfield was buried in a “very fine Brussels lace

head-dress, a new pair of kid gloves, and a robe with lace ruffles and a

lace collar.” (See NARCISSA.)

=Nancy Dawson=, a famous actress, who took London by storm. Her father

was a poster in Clare Market (1728-1767).

Her easy mien, her shape so neat,

She foots, she trips, she looks so sweet;

I die for Nancy Dawson.

=Nancy of the Vale=, a village maiden, who preferred Strephon to the gay

lordlings who sought her hand in marriage.--Shenstone, _A Ballad_

(1554).

=Nannic=, deformed brother of Guenn, and her darling. He is versed in all

manner of auguries and much feared and consulted by the peasants on this

account.--Blanche Willis Howard, _Guenn_.

=Nannie=, Miss Fleming, daughter of a farmer in the parish of Tarbolton,

in Ayrshire. Immortalized by R. Burns.

_Nannie (Little)._

“This world, whose brightest day

Seems to us so dreary,

Nannie found all bright and gay,

Love-alight and cheery,

Stayed a little while to play

And went home unweary.”

Elizabeth Akers Allen, _Poems_ (1866).

=Nan´tolet=, father of Rosalura and Lillia-Bianca.--Beaumont and Fletcher,

_The Wild-Goose Chase_ (1652).

=Napoleon I.=, called by the Germans “Kaiser Kläs” (_q.v._).

“M” is curiously coupled with the history of Napoleon I. and III. (See

M.)

The following is a curious play on the word Napoleon.

Napoleôn apoleôn poleôn oleôn leôn eôn ôn

_Napoleon_ _Apollyon_ _cities_ _destroying_ _a lion_ _going_} _being._

_about_}

That is:

Napoleon Apollyon is [_being_] a lion going about destroying cities.

_Chauvinism_, Napoleon idolatry. Chauvvin[TN-28] is a blind idolater of

Napoleon I., in Scribe’s drama entitled _Soldat Laboureur_.

=Napoleon III.= _His nicknames._

ARENENBERG (_Comte d’_). So he called himself after his escape from

the fortress of Ham.

BADINGUET, the name of the man he shot in his Boulogne escapade.

BOUSTRAPA, a compound of Bou[logne], Stra[sbourg] and Pa[ris], the

places of his noted escapades.

GROSBEC. So called from the rather unusual size of his nose.

MAN OF DECEMBER. So called because December was his month of glory.

Thus, he was elected president December 11, 1848; made his _coup

d’état_ December 2, 1851; and was created emperor December 2, 1852.

MAN OF SEDAN. So called because at Sedan he surrendered his sword

to the king of Prussia (September, 1870).

RATIPOLE, same as the west of England RANTIPOLE, a harum-scarum,

half idiot, half madcap.

THE LITTLE. Victor Hugo gave him this title; but the hatred of Hugo

to Napoleon was monomania.

VERHUEL, the name of his supposed father.

_Number 2._ The second of the month was Louis Napoleon’s day. It was

also one of the days of his uncle, the other being the fifteenth.

The _coup d’état_ was December 2; he was made emperor December 2, 1852;

the Franco-Prussian war opened at Saarbrück, August 2, 1870; he

surrendered his sword to William of Prussia, September 2, 1870.

Napoleon I. was crowned December 2, 1804; and the victory of Austerlitz

was December 2, 1805.

_Numerical Curiosities._ 1. 1869, the last year of Napoleon’s glory; the

next year was that of his downfall. As a matter of curiosity, it may be

observed that if the day of his birth, or the day of the empress’s

birth, or the date of the capitulation of Paris, be added to that of

the coronation of Napoleon III., the result always points to 1869. Thus,

he was crowned 1852; he was born 1808; the Empress Eugénie was born

1826: the capitulation of Paris was 1871. Whence:

1852 1852 1852 coronation

1 } 1 } 1 }

8 } birth of 8 } birth of 8 } capitulation

0 } Napoleon. 2 } Eugénie. 7 } of

8 } 6 } 1 } Paris.

____ ____ ____

1869 1869 1869

2. 1870, the year of his downfall. By adding the numerical values of the

birth date either of Napoleon or Eugénie to the date of the marriage, we

get their fatal year of 1870. Thus, Napoleon was born 1808; Eugénie,

1826; married, 1853.

1853 1853 year of marriage.

1 } 1 }

8 } birth of 8 } birth of Eugénie.

0 } Napoleon. 2 }

8 } 6 }

____ ____

1870 1870

2. _Empereur._ The votes for the president to be emperor were 7,119,791;

those against him were 1,119,000. If now the numbers 711979r/[1][1][1][6]

be written on a piece of paper, and held up to the light, the reverse

side will show the word _empereur_. (The dash is the dividing mark, and

forms the long stroke of the “p.”)

=Napoleon and Talleyrand.= Napoleon I. one day entered a roadside inn, and

called for breakfast. There was nothing in the house but eggs and cider

(which Napoleon detested). “What shall we do?” said the emperor to

Talleyrand. In answer to this, the _grand chambellan_ improvised the

rhymes following:--

Le bon roi Dagobert

Aimait le bon vin au dessert.

Le grand St. Eloi

Lui dit, “O mon roi,

Le droit réuni

L’a bien renchéri.”

“Eh bien!” lui dit le roi ...

But he could get no further. Whereupon Napoleon himself instantly capped

the line thus:

“Je boirai du cidre avec toi.”

Chapus, _Dieppe, etc._ (1853).

Our royal master, Dagobert,

Good wine loved at his dessert.

But St. Eloi

Once said, “Mon roi,

We here prepare

No dainty fare.”

“Well,” cried the king, “so let it be,

Cider to-day we’ll drink with thee.”

=Napoleon of the Drama.= Alfred Bunn, lessee of Drury Lane Theatre

(1819-1826) was so called; and so was Robert William Elliston, his

predecessor (1774-1826, died 1831).

=Napoleon of Mexico=, the emperor Augusto Iturbidê (1784-1824).

=Napoleon of Oratory=, W. E. Gladstone (1809- ).

=Napoleon of Peace=, Louis Philippe of France (1773, reigned 1830-1848,

died 1850).

=Narcissa=, meant for Elizabeth Lee, the step-daughter of Dr. Young. In

Night ii. the poet says she was clandestinely buried at Montpelier,

because she was a Protestant.--Dr. Young, _Night Thoughts_ (1742-6).

_Narcissa_, Mrs. Oldfield, the actress, who insisted on being rouged and

dressed in Brussels lace when she was “laid out.” (See NANCY.)

“Odious! In woolen? ’Twould a saint provoke!”

Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke.

“No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace

Wrap my cold limbs and shade my lifeless face;

One would not, sure, be frightful when one’s dead!

And, Betty, give this cheek a little red.”

Pope, _Moral Essays_, i. (1731).

=Narcisse=, an airy young Creole. He has boundless faith in himself, and a

Micawberish confidence in the future. He would like to be called

“Papillon,” the butterfly; “’Cause thass my natu’e! I gatheth honey

eve’y day fum eve’y opening floweh, as the bahd of Avon

wemawked.”--George W. Cable, _Dr. Sevier_ (1883).

=Narcissus=, a flower. According to Grecian fable, Narcissus fell in love

with his own reflection in a fountain, and, having pined away because he

could not kiss it, was changed into the flower which bears his

name.--Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, iii. 346, etc.

Echo was in love with Narcissus, and died of grief because he would not

return her love.

Narcissus fair,

As o’er the fabled fountain hanging still.

Thomson, _Seasons_ (“Spring,” 1728).

⁂ Glück, in 1779, produced an opera called _Echo et Narcisse_.

=Narren-Schiff= (“_The ship of fools_”), a satirical poem, in German, by

Brandt (1491), lashing the follies and vices of the period. Brandt makes

knowledge of one’s self the beginning of wisdom; maintains the equality

of man; and speaks of life as a brief passage only. The book at one time

enjoyed unbounded popularity.

=Narses= (2 _syl._), a Roman general against the Goths; the terror of

children.

The name of Narses was the formidable sound with which the Assyrian

mothers were accustomed to terrify their infants.--Gibbon, _Decline

and Fall of the Roman Empire_, viii. 219 (1776-88).

_Narses_, a domestic slave of Alexius Comnēnus, emperor of Greece.--Sir

W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

=Naso=, Ovid, the Roman poet, whose full name was Publius Ovidius Naso.

(_Naso_ means “nose.”) Hence the pun of Holofernes:

And why Naso, but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of

fancy?--Shakespeare, _Love’s Labor’s Lost_, act iv. sc. 2 (1594).

=Nathan the Wise=, a prudent and wealthy old Jew who lives near Jerusalem

in the time of Saladin. The play is a species of argument for religious

toleration.--G. E. Lessing, _Nathan der Weise_ (1778).

=Nathaniel= (_Sir_), the grotesque curate of Holofernês.--Shakespeare,

_Love’s Labor’s Lost_ (1594).

=Nathos=, one of the three sons of Usnoth, lord of Etha (in Argyllshire),

made commander of the Irish army at the death of Cuthullin. For a time

he propped up the fortune of the youthful Cormac, but the rebel Cairbar

increased in strength and found means to murder the young king. The army

under Nathos then deserted to the usurper, and Nathos, with his two

brothers, was obliged to quit Ireland. Dar´-Thula, the daughter of

Colla, went with them to avoid Cairbar, who persisted in offering her

his love. The wind drove the vessel back to Ulster, where Cairbar lay

encamped, and the three young men, being overpowered, were slain. As for

Dar-Thula, she was pierced with an arrow, and died also.--Ossian,

_Dar-Thula_.

=Nation of Gentlemen.= The Scotch were so called by George IV., when he

visited Scotland in 1822.

=Nation of Shopkeepers.= The English were so called by Napoleon I.

=National Assembly.= (1) The French deputies which met in the year 1789.

The states-general was convened, but the clergy and nobles refused to

sit in the same chamber with the commons, so the commons or deputies of

the _tiers état_ withdrew, constituted themselves into a deliberative

body, and assumed the name of the _Assemblée Nationale_. (2) The

democratic French parliament of 1848, consisting of 900 members elected

by manhood suffrage, was so called also.

=National Convention=, the French parliament of 1792. It consisted of 721

members, but was reduced, first to 500, then to 300. It succeeded the

National Assembly.

=Natty Bumpo=, called “Leather-stocking.” He appears in five of F.

Cooper’s novels: (1) _The Deerslayer_; (2) _The Pathfinder_; (3)

“Hawkeye” in _The Last of the Mohicans_; (4) “Natty Bumpo,” in _The

Pioneer_; and (5) “The Trapper,” in _The Prairie_, in which he dies.

=Nausic´aa= (4 _syl._), daughter of Alcinous, king of the Phœa´cians, who

conducted Ulysses to the court of her father when he was shipwrecked on

the coast.

=Navigation= (_The Father of_), Don Henrique, duke of Viseo, the greatest

man that Portugal has produced (1394-1460).

_Navigation_ (_The Father of British Inland_), Francis Egerton, duke of

Bridgewater (1736-1803).

=Neæra=, a name used by Horace, Virgil, Tibullus, and Milton as a synonym

of sweetheart.

To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,

Or with the tangles of Neæra’s hair.

Milton, _Lycidas_ (1638).

=Neal´liny= (4 _syl._), a suttee, the young widow of Ar´valan, son of

Keha´ma.--Southey, _Curse of Kehama_, i. 11 (1809).

=Nebuchadnezzar= [_Ne-boch-ad-ne-Tzar_], in Russian, means “there is no

God but the Czar.”--M. D., _Notes and Queries_ (21st July, 1877).

=Neck.= Calig´ula, the Roman emperor used to say, “Oh that the Roman

people had but one neck, that I might cut it off at a blow!”

I love the sex, and sometimes would reverse

The tyrant’s wish, that, “mankind only had

One neck, which he with one fell stroke might pierce.”

Byron, _Don Juan_, vi. 27 (1824).

=Neck or Nothing=, a farce by Garrick (1766). Mr. Stockwell promises to

give his daughter in marriage to the son of Sir Harry Harlowe, of

Dorsetshire, with a _dot_ of £10,000; but it so happens that the young

man is privately married. The two servants of Mr. Belford and Sir Harry

Harlowe try to get possession of the money, by passing off Martin

(Belford’s servant) as Sir Harry’s son; but it so happens that Belford

is in love with Miss Stockwell, and hearing of the plot through Jenny,

the young lady’s-maid, arrests the two servants as vagabonds. Old

Stockwell gladly consents to his marriage with Nancy, and thinks himself

well out of the terrible scrape.

=Nectaba´nus=, the dwarf at the cell of the hermit of Engaddi. Sir W.

Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=Nectar=, the beverage of the gods. It was white as cream, for when Hebê

spilt some of it, the white arch of heaven, called the Milky Way, was

made. The food of the gods was _ambrosia_.

=Ned= (_Lying_), “the chimney-sweeper of Savoy,” that is, the duke of

Savoy, who joined the allied army against France in the war of the

Spanish Succession.--Dr. Arbuthnot, _History of John Bull_ (1712).

=Negro´ni=, a princess, the friend of Lucrezia di Borgia. She invited the

notables who had insulted the Borgia to a banquet, and killed them with

poisoned wine.--Donizetti, _Lucrezia di Borgia_ (an opera, 1834).

=Ne´gus=, sovereign of Abyssinia. Erco´co, or Erquico, on the Red Sea,

marks the north-east boundary of this empire.

The empire of Negus to his utmost port,

Ercoco.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, xi. 397 (1665).

=Nehemiah Holdenough=, a Presbyterian preacher.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_

(time, commonwealth).

=Neilson= (_Mr. Christopher_), a surgeon at Glasgow.--Sir W. Scott, _Rob

Roy_ (time, George I.).

=Neim´heid= (2 _syl._) employed four architects to build him a palace in

Ireland; and, that they might not build another like it or superior to

it for some other monarch, had them all secretly murdered.--O’Halloran,

_History of Ireland_.

⁂ A similar story is told of Nômanal-Aôuar, king of Hirah, who employed

Senna´mar to build him a palace. When finished, he cast the architect

headlong from the highest tower, to prevent his building another to

rival it.--D’Herbelot, _Bibliothèque Oriental_[TN-29] (1697).

=Nekayah=, sister of Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia. She escapes with her

brother from the “happy valley,” and wanders about with him to find what

condition or rank of life is the most happy. After roaming for a time,

and finding no condition of life free from its drawbacks, the brother

and sister resolved to return to the “happy valley.”--Dr. Johnson,

_Rasselas_ (1759).

=Nell=, the meek and obedient wife of Jobson; taught by the strap to know

who was lord and master. Lady Loverule was the imperious, headstrong

bride of Sir John Loverule. The two women by a magical hocus-pocus, were

changed for a time, without any of the four knowing it. Lady Loverule

was placed with Jobson, who soon brought down her turbulent temper with

the strap, and when she was reduced to submission, the two women were

restored again to their respective husbands.--C. Coffey, _The Devil to

Pay_ (1731).

_Nell_ (_Little_), or NELLY TRENT, a sweet, innocent, loving child of 14

summers, brought up by her old miserly grandfather, who gambled away all

his money. Her days were monotonous and without youthful companionship,

her evenings gloomy and solitary; there were no child-sympathies in her

dreary home, but dejection, despondence akin to madness, watchfulness,

suspicion, and imbecility. The grandfather being wholly ruined by

gaming, the two went forth as beggars, and ultimately settled down in a

cottage adjoining a country churchyard. Here Nell died, and the old

grandfather soon afterwards was found dead upon her grave.--C. Dickens,

_The Old Curiosity Shop_ (1840).

=Nelly=, the servant-girl of Mrs. Dinmont.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_

(time, George II.).

=Nelson’s Ship=, the _Victory_.

Now from the fleet of the foemen past

Ahead of the _Victory_,

A four-decked ship, with a flagless mast,

An Anak of the sea.

His gaze on the ship Lord Nelson cast:

“Oh, oh! my old friend!” quoth he.

“Since again we have met, we must all be glad

To pay our respects to the _Trinidad_.”

So, full on the bow of the giant foe,

Our gallant _Victory_ runs;

Thro’ the dark’ning smoke the thunder broke

O’er her deck from a hundred guns.

Lord Lytton, _Ode_, iii. 9 (1839).

=Nem´ean Lion=, a lion of Argŏlis, slain by Herculês.

In this word Shakespeare has preserved the correct accent: “As hardy as

the Nem´ean lion’s nerve” (_Hamlet_, act i. sc. 5); but Spenser

incorrectly throws the accent on the second syllable, which is _e_

short: “Into the great Neme´an’s lion’s grove” (_Faëry Queen_, v. 1).

Ere Nemĕa’s beast resigned his shaggy spoils.

Statius, _The Thebaid_, i.

=Nem´esis=, the Greek personification of retribution, or that punishment

for sin which sooner or later overtakes the offender.

... and some great Nemesis

Break from a darkened future.

Tennyson, _The Princess_, (1847).

=Ne´mo=, the name by which Captain Hawdon was known at Krook’s. He had

once won the love of the future Lady Dedlock, by whom he had a child

called Esther Summerson; but he was compelled to copy law-writings for

daily bread, and died a miserable death from an overdose of opium.--C.

Dickens, _Bleak House_ (1852).

=Nepen´the= (3 _syl._) or NEPENTHES, a care-dispelling drug, which

Polydamna, wife of Tho´nis, king of Egypt, gave to Helen (daughter of

Jove and Leda). A drink containing this drug “changed grief to mirth,

melancholy to joyfulness, and hatred to love.” The water of Ardenne had

the opposite effects. Homer mentions the drug nepenthê in his _Odyssey_,

iv. 228.

That nepenthês which the wife of Thone,

In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena.

Milton, _Comus_, (1634).

Nepenthê is a drink of sovereign grace.

Devisèd by the gods for to assuage

Heart’s grief, and bitter gall away to chase

Which stirs up anger and contentious rage;

Instead thereof sweet peace and quietage

It doth establish in the troubled mind ...

And such as drink, eternal happiness do find.

Spencer, _Faëry Queen_, iv. 2 (1596).

=Nep´omuk= or =Nep´omuck= (_St. John_), canon of Prague. He was thrown

from a bridge in 1381, and drowned by order of King Wenceslaus, because

he refused to betray the secrets confided to him by the queen in the

holy rite of confession. The spot whence he was cast into the Moldau is

still marked by a cross with five stars on the parapet, indicative of

the miraculous flames seen flickering over the dead body for three days.

Nepomuk was canonized in 1729, and became the patron saint of bridges.

His statue in stone usually occupies such a position on bridges as it

does in Prague.

Like St. John Nep´omuck in stone, Looking down into the stream.

Longfellow, _The Golden Legend_ (1851).

⁂ The word is often accented on the second syllable.

=Neptune= (_Old Father_), the ocean or sea-god.

=Nerestan=, son of Gui Lusignan D’Outremer, king of Jerusalem, and brother

of Zara. Nerestan was sent on his parole to France, to obtain ransom for

certain Christians, who had fallen into the hands of the Saracens. When

Osman, the sultan, was informed of his relationship to Zara, he ordered

all Christian captives to be at once liberated “without money and

without price.”--A. Hill, _Zara_ (adapted from Voltaire’s tragedy).

=Nereus= (2 _syl._), father of the water-nymphs. A very old prophetic god

of great kindliness. The scalp, chin and breast of Nereus were covered

with seaweed instead of hair.

By hoary Nêreus’ wrinkled look.

Milton, _Comus_, (1634).

=Neri´nê=, =Doto=, and =Nysê=, the three nereids who guarded the fleet of

Vasco da Gama. When the treacherous pilot had run Vasco’s ship upon a

sunken rock, these three sea-nymphs lifted up the prow and turned it

round.

The lovely Nysê and Nerinê spring

With all the vehemence and speed of wing.

Camoens, _Lusiad_, ii. (1569).

=Nerissa=, the clever confidential waiting-woman of _Portia_, the Venetian

heiress. Nerissa is the counterfeit of her mistress, with a fair share

of the lady’s elegance and wit. She marries _Gratiano_, a friend of the

merchant _Antonio_.--Shakespeare, _The Merchant of Venice_ (1698).[TN-30]

=Nero of the North=, Christian II. of Denmark (1480, reigned 1534-1558,

died 1559).

=Nesle= (_Blondel de_), the favorite minstrel of Richard Cœur de Lion

[Nesle = _Neel_].--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=Nessus’s Shirt.= Nessos (in Latin _Nessus_), the centaur, carried the

wife of Herculês over a river, and, attempting to run away with her, was

shot by Herculês. As the centaur was dying, he told Deïani´ra (5

_syl._), that if she steeped in his blood her husband’s shirt, she would

secure his love forever. This she did, but when Herculês put the shirt

on, his body suffered such agony, that he rushed to Mount Œta, collected

together a pile of wood, set it on fire, and rushing into the midst of

the flames, was burnt to death.

When Creūsa (3 _syl._), the daughter of King Creon, was about to be

married to Jason, Medēa sent her a splendid wedding robe; but when

Creusa put it on, she was burnt to death by it in excruciating pain.

Morgan le Fay, hoping to kill King Arthur, sent him a superb royal robe.

Arthur told the messenger to try it on, that he might see its effect;

but no sooner had the messenger done so, than he dropped down dead,

“burnt to mere coal.”--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 75

(1470).

=Nestor= (_A_), a wise old man. Nestor of Pylos,[TN-31] was the oldest and

most experienced of all the Greek chieftains who went to the siege of

Troy.--Homer, _Iliad_.

=Nestor of the Chemical Revolution.= Dr. Black is so called by Lavoisier

(1728-1799).

=Nestor of Europe=, Leopold, king of Belgium (1790, 1831-1865).

=Neu´ha=, a native of Toobouai, one of the Society Islands. It was at

Toobouai that the mutineers of the _Bounty_ landed, and Torquil married

Neuha. When a vessel was sent to capture the mutineers, Neuha conducted

Torquil to a secret cave, where they lay _perdu_ till all danger was

over, when they returned to their island home.--Byron, _The Island_.

(The character of Neuha is given in canto ii. 7.)

=Nevers= (_Comte de_), to whom Valenti´na (daughter of the governor of the

Louvre) was affianced, and whom she married in a fit of jealousy. The

count having been shot in the Bartholomew slaughter, Valentina married

Raoul [_Rawl_] her first love, but both were killed by a party of

musketeers commanded by the governor of the Louvre.--Meyerbeer, _Les

Huguenots_ (opera, 1836).

⁂ The duke [not _count_] de Nevers, being asked by the governor of the

Louvre to join in the Bartholomew Massacre, replied that his family

contained a long list of warriors, but not one assassin.

=Neville= (_Major_), an assumed name of Lord Geraldin, son of the earl of

Geraldin. He first appears as Mr. William Lovell.

_Mr. Geraldin Neville_, uncle to Lord Geraldin.--Sir W. Scott, _The

Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

_Neville_ (_Miss_), the friend and _confidante_ of Miss Hardcastle. A

handsome, coquettish girl, destined by Mrs. Hardcastle for her son Tony

Lumpkin, but Tony did not care for her, and she dearly loved Mr.

Hastings; so Hastings and Tony plotted together to outwit madam, and of

course won the day.--O. Goldsmith, _She Stoops to Conquer_ (1773).

_Neville_ (_Sir Henry_), chamberlain of Richard Cœur de Lion.--Sir W.

Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=New Atlantis= (_The_), an imaginary island in the middle of the Atlantic.

Bacon in his allegorical fiction so called, supposes himself wrecked on

this island, where he finds an association for the cultivation of

natural science, and the promotion of arts.--Lord Bacon, _The New

Atlantis_ (1626).

⁂ Called the _New_ Atlantis to distinguish it from Plato’s Atlantis, an

imaginary island of fabulous charms.

=New Inn= (_The_), or THE LIGHT HEART, a comedy by Ben Jonson (1628).

=New Way to Pay Old Debts=, a drama by Philip Massinger (1625). Wellborn,

the nephew of Sir Giles Overreach, having run through his fortune and

got into debt, induces Lady Allworth, out of respect and gratitude to

his father, to give him countenance. This induces Sir Giles to suppose

that his nephew is about to marry the wealthy dowager. Feeling convinced

that he will then be able to swindle him out of all the dowager’s

property, as he had ousted him out of his paternal estates, Sir Giles

pays his nephew’s debts, and supplies him liberally with ready money, to

bring about the marriage as soon as possible. Having paid Wellborn’s

debts, the overreaching old man is compelled, through the treachery of

his clerk, to restore the estates also, for the deeds of conveyance are

found to be only blank sheets of parchment, the writing having been

erased by some chemical acids.

=New Zealander=, It was Macaulay who said the time might come when some

“New Zealand artist shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his

stand on a broken arch of London bridge to sketch the ruins of St.

Paul’s.”

⁂ Shelley was before Macaulay in the same conceit.--See _Dedication of

Peter Bell the Third_.

=Newcastle= (_The duchess of_), in the court of Charles II.).[TN-32]--Sir

W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

_Newcastle_ (_The marquis of_), a royalist in the service of Charles

I.--Sir W. Scott, _Legend of Montrose_ (time, Charles I.).

=Newcastle Apothecary= (_The_), Mr. Bolus, of Newcastle, used to write his

prescriptions in rhyme. A bottle bearing the couplet, “When taken to be

well shaken,” was sent to a patient, and when Bolus called next day to

inquire about its effect, John told the apothecary his master was dead.

The fact is, John had shaken the _sick man_ instead of the bottle, and

had shaken the life out of him.--G. Colman, Jr.

=Newcome= (_Clemency_), about 30 years old, with a plump and cheerful

face, but twisted into a tightness that made it comical. Her gait was

very homely, her limbs seemed all odd ones; her shoes were so

self-willed that they never wanted to go where her feet went. She wore

blue stockings, a printed gown of hideous pattern and many colors, and a

white apron. Her sleeves were short, her elbows always grazed, her cap

anywhere but in the right place; but she was scrupulously clean, and

“maintained a kind of dislocated tidiness.” She carried in her pocket “a

handkerchief, a piece of wax-candle, an apple, an orange, a lucky penny,

a cramp-bone, a padlock, a pair of scissors, a handful of loose beads,

several balls of worsted and cotton, a needle-case, a collection of

curl-papers, a biscuit, a thimble, a nutmeg-grater, and a few

miscellaneous articles.” Clemency Newcome married Benjamin Britain, her

fellow-servant at Dr. Jeddler’s, and opened a country inn called the

Nutmeg-Grater, a cozy, well-to-do place as any one could wish to see,

and there were few married people so well matched as Clemency and Ben

Britain.--C. Dickens, _The Battle of Life_ (1846).

_Newcome_ (_Colonel_), a widower, distinguished for the moral beauty of

his life. He loses his money and enters the Charter House.

_Clive Newcome_, his son. He is in love with Ethel Newcome, his cousin,

whom he marries as his second wife.--Thackeray, _The Newcomes_ (1855).

_Newcome_ (_Johnny_), any raw youth when he first enters the army or

navy.

=Newman Noggs.= Ralph Nickleby’s clerk, but Ralph’s nephew’s friend and

secret coadjutor.--Charles Dickens, _Nicholas Nickleby_.

=Newland= (_Abraham_), one of the governors of the Bank of England, to

whom, in the early part of the nineteenth century, all Bank of England

notes were made payable. A bank-note was called an “Abraham Newland;”

and hence the popular song, “I’ve often heard say, sham Ab’ram you may,

but must not sham Abraham Newland.”

Trees are notes issued from the bank of nature, and as current as

those payable to Abraham Newland.--G. Colman, _The Poor Gentleman_,

i. 2 (1802).

=Newman.= An intelligent American who has made a fortune as a

manufacturer, yet kept his head steady. He sees life with clear,

sometimes with amused eyes.

“In America,” Newman reflected, “lads of twenty-five and thirty

have old heads and young hearts, or at least, young morals; abroad

they have young heads and very aged hearts, morals the most

grizzled and wrinkled.”--Henry James Jr., _The Americans_ (1877).

=Newton.=

Newton ... declared, with all his grand discoveries recent,

That he himself felt only “like a youth

Picking up shells by the great ocean, truth.”

Byron, _Don Juan_, vii. 5 (1824).

Newton discovered the prismatic colors of light, and explained the

phenomenon by the emission theory.

Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night.

God said, “Let Newton be,” and all was light.

Pope, _Epitaph, intended for Newton’s Monument in Westminster Abbey_

(1727).

Newton is called by Campbell “The Priest of Nature.”--_Pleasures of

Hope_, i. (1799).

=Newton and the Apple.= It is said that Newton was standing in the garden

of Mrs. Conduitt, of Woolsthorpe, in the year 1665, when an apple fell

from a tree and set him thinking. From this incident he ultimately

developed his theory of gravitation.

=Nibelung=, a mythical king of Nibelungeland (_Norway_). He had twelve

paladins, all giants. Siegfried [_Sege.freed_], prince of the Netherlands,

slew the giants, and made Nibelungeland tributary.--_Nibelungen Lied_,

iii. (1210).

=Nibelungen Hoard=, a mythical mass of gold and precious stones which

Siegfried [_Sege.freed_], prince of the Netherlands, took from

Nibelungeland and gave to his wife as a dowry. The hoard filled

thirty-six wagons. After the murder of Siegfried, Hagan seized the

hoard, and, for concealment, sank it in the “Rhine at Lockham,”

intending to recover it at a future period, but Hagan was assassinated,

and the hoard was lost for ever.--_Nibelungen Lied_, xix.

=Nibelungen Lied= [_Ne.by-lung.’nleed_], the German _Iliad_ (1210). It is

divided into two parts, and thirty-two lieds or cantos. The first part

ends with the death of Siegfried, and the second part with the death of

Kriemhild.

Siegfried, the youngest of the kings of the Netherlands, went to Worms,

to crave the hand of Kriemhild in marriage. While he was staying with

Günther, king of Burgundy (the lady’s brother), he assisted him to

obtain in marriage Brunhild, queen of Issland, who announced publicly

that he only should be her husband who could beat her in hurling a

spear, throwing a huge stone, and in leaping. Siegfried, who possessed a

cloak of invisibility, aided Günther in these three contests, and

Brunhild became his wife. In return for these services, Günther gave

Siegfried his sister Kriemhild, in marriage. After a time, the bride and

bridegroom went to visit Günther, when the two ladies disputed about the

relative merits of their respective husbands, and Kriemhild, to exalt

Siegfried, boasted that Günther owed to him his victories and his wife.

Brunhild, in great anger, now employed Hagan to murder Siegfried, and

this he did by stabbing him in the back while he was drinking from a

brook.

Thirteen years elapsed, and the widow married Etzel, king of the Huns.

After a time, she invited Brunhild and Hagan to a visit. Hagan, in this

visit, killed Etzel’s young son, and Kriemhild was like a fury. A battle

ensued, in which Günther and Hagan were made prisoners, and Kriemhild

cut off both their heads with her own hand. Hildebrand, horrified at

this act of blood, slew Kriemhild; and so the poem ends.--Authors

unknown (but the story pieced together by the minnesingers).

⁂ The _Völsunga Saga_ is the Icelandic version of the _Nibelungen Lied_.

This saga has been translated into English by William Morris.

The _Nibelungen Lied_ has been ascribed to Heinrich von Ofterdingen, a

minnesinger; but it certainly existed before that epoch, if not as a

complete whole, in separate lays, and all that Heinrich von Ofterdingen

could have done was to collect the floating lays, connect them, and form

them into a complete story.

F. A. Wolf, in 1795, wrote a learned book to prove that Homer did for

the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ what Ofterdingen did for the _Nibelungen

Lied_.

Richard Wagner composed a series of operas founded on the Nibelungen

Lied.

=Nibelungen Nôt=, the second part of the _Nibelungen Lied_, containing the

marriage of Kriemhild with Etzel, the visit of the Burgundians to the

court of the Hun, and the death of Günther, Hagan, Kriemhild, and

others. This part contains eighty-three four-line stanzas more than the

first part. The number of lines in the two parts is 9836; so that the

poem is almost as long as Milton’s _Paradise Lost_.

=Nibelungers=, whoever possessed the Nibelungen hoard. When it was in

Norway, the Norwegians were so called: when Siegfried [_Sege.freed_] got

the possession of it, the Netherlanders were so called; and when the

hoard was removed to Burgundy, the Burgundians were the Nibelungers.

=Nic. Frog=, the Dutch as a nation; as the English are called John

Bull.--Dr. Arbuthnot, _History of John Bull_ (1712).

=Nica´nor=, “the Protospathaire,” a Greek general.--Sir W. Scott, _Count

Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

=Nice= (_Sir Courtley_), the chief character and title of a drama by

Croune (1685).

=Nicholas=, a poor scholar, who boarded with John, a rich old miserly

carpenter. The poor scholar fell in love with Alison, his landlord’s

young wife, who joined him in duping the foolish old carpenter. Nicholas

told John that such a rain would fall on the ensuing Monday as would

drown every one in “less than an hour;” and he persuaded the old fool to

provide three large tubs, one for himself, one for his wife, and the

other for his lodger. In these tubs, said Nicholas, they would be saved;

and when the flood abated, they would then be lords and masters of the

whole earth. A few hours before the time of the “flood,” the old

carpenter went to the top chamber of his house to repeat his _pater

nosters_. He fell asleep over his prayers, and was roused by the cry of

“Water! water! Help! help!” Supposing the rain had come, he jumped into

his tub, and was let down by Nicholas and Alison into the street. A

crowd soon assembled, were delighted at the joke, and pronounced the old

man an idiot and fool.--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (“The Miller’s

Tale,” 1388).

_Nicholas_, the barber of the village in which Don Quixote

lived.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. (1605).

_Nicholas_ (_Brother_), a monk at St. Mary’s Convent.--Sir W. Scott,

_The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Nicholas_ (_St._), patron saint of boys, parish clerks, sailors,

thieves, and of Aberdeen, Russia, etc.

_Nicholas_ (_St._). The legend is, that an angel told him a father was

so poor he was about to raise money by the prostitution of his three

daughters. On hearing this St. Nicholas threw in at the cottage window

three bags of money, sufficient to portion each of the three damsels.

The gift

Of Nicholas, which on the maidens he

Bounteous bestowed, to save their youthful prime

Unblemished.

Dantê, _Purgatory_, xx. (1308).

=Nicholas of the Tower= (_The_), the duke of Exeter, constable of the

Tower.

=Nicholas’s Clerks=, highwaymen; so called by a pun on the phrase _Old

Nick_ and _St. Nicholas_ who presided over scholars.

_St. Nicholas’s Clerks_, scholars; so called because St. Nicholas was

the patron of scholars. The statutes of Paul’s School require the

scholars to attend divine service on St. Nicholas’s Day.--Knight, _Life

of Dean Colet_, 362 (1726).

=Nicholas Minturn=, hero of novel of that name, by Josiah Gilbert Holland

(1876).

=Nickleby= (_Nicholas_), the chief character and title of a novel by C.

Dickens (1838). He is the son of a poor country gentleman, and has to

make his own way in the world. He first goes as usher to Mr. Squeers,

schoolmaster at Dotheboys Hall, in Yorkshire; but leaves in disgust with

the tyranny of Squeers and his wife, especially to a poor boy named

Smike. Smike runs away from the school to follow Nicholas, and remains

his humble follower till death. At Portsmouth, Nicholas joins the

theatrical company of Mr. Crummles, but leaves the profession for other

adventures. He falls in with the brothers Cheeryble, who make him their

clerk; and in this post he rises to become a merchant, and ultimately

marries Madeline Bray.

_Mrs. Nickleby_, mother of Nicholas, and a widow. She is an enormous

talker, fond of telling long stories with no connection. Mrs. Nickleby

is a weak, vain woman, who imagines an idiot neighbor is in love with

her because he tosses cabbages and other articles over the garden wall.

In conversation, Mrs. Nickleby rides off from the main point at every

word suggestive of some new idea. As a specimen of her sequence of

ideas, take the following example: “The name began with ‘B’ and ended

with ‘g,’ I am sure. Perhaps it was Waters” (p. 198).

⁂ “The original of ‘Mrs. Nickleby,’” says John Foster, “was the mother

of Charles Dickens.”--_Life of Dickens_, iii. 8.

_Kate Nickleby_, sister of Nicholas; beautiful, pure-minded, and loving.

Kate works hard to assist in the expenses of housekeeping, but shuns

every attempt of Ralph and others to allure her from the path of virgin

innocence. She ultimately marries Frank, the nephew of the Cheeryble

brothers.

_Ralph Nickleby_, of Golden Square (London), uncle to Nicholas and Kate.

A hard, grasping money-broker, with no ambition but the love of saving,

no spirit beyond the thirst of gold, and no principle except that of

fleecing every one who comes into his power. This villain is the father

of Smike, and ultimately hangs himself, because he loses money, and sees

his schemes one after another burst into thin air.--C. Dickens,

_Nicholas Nickleby_, (1838).

=Nicneven=, a gigantic, malignant hag of Scotch superstition.

⁂ Dunbar, the Scotch poet, describes her in his _Flyting of Dunbar and

Kennedy_ (1508).

=Nicode´mus=, one of the servants of General Harrison.--Sir W. Scott,

_Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

=Nicole= (2 _syl._), a female servant of M. Jourdain, who sees the folly

of her master, and exposes it in a natural and amusing manner.--Molière,

_Le Bourgeois Gentlehomme_[TN-33] (1670).

=Night= or =Nox=. So Tennyson calls Sir Peread, the Black Knight of the

Black Lands, one of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle

Perilous.--Tennyson, _Idylls of the King_ (“Gareth and Lynette”); Sir T.

Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 126 (1470).

=Nightingale= (_The Italian_), Angelica Catala´ni; also called “The Queen

of Song” (1782-1849).

_Nightingale_ (_The Swedish_), Jenny Lind, afterwards Mde. Goldschmidt.

She appeared in London 1847, and retired from public life in 1851

(1821-1887).

=Nightingale and the Lutist.= The tale is, that a lute-master challenged a

nightingale in song. The bird, after sustaining the contest for some

time, feeling itself outdone, fell on the lute, and died broken-hearted.

⁂ This tale is from the Latin of Strada, translated by Richard Crashaw,

and called _Music’s Duel_ (1650). It is most beautifully told by John

Ford, in his drama entitled _The Lover’s Melancholy_, where Men´aphon is

supposed to tell it to Ame´thus (1628).

=Nightingale and the Thorn.=

As it fell upon a day

In the merry month of May,

Sitting in a pleasant shade

Which a grove of myrtles made--

Beasts did leap, and birds did sing,

Trees did grow, and plants did spring,

Everything did banish moan,

Save the nightingale alone;

She, poor bird, as all forlorn,

Leaned her breast up-till a thorn.

Richard Barnfield, _Address to the Nightingale_ (1594).

So Philomel, perched on an aspen sprig,

Weeps all the night her lost virginity,

And sings her sad tale to the merry twig,

That dances at such joyful mysery.

Never lets sweet rest invade her eye;

But leaning on a thorn her dainty chest,

For fear soft sleep should steal into her breast,

Expresses in her song grief not to be expressed.

Giles Fletcher, _Christ’s Triumph over Death_ (1610).

The nightingale that sings with the deep thorn,

Which fable places in her breast.

Byron, _Don Juan_, vi. 87 (1824).

=Nightmare of Europe= (_The_), Napoleon Bonaparte (1769, reigned

1804-1814, died 1821).

=Nightshade= (_Deadly_). We are told that the berries of this plant so

intoxicated the soldiers of Sweno, the Danish king, that they became an

easy prey to the Scotch, who cut them to pieces.

⁂ Called “deadly,” not from its poisonous qualities, but because it was

used at one time for blackening the eyes in mourning.

=Nimrod=, pseudonym of Charles James Apperley, author of _The Chase, The

Road, The Turf_ (1852), etc.[TN-34]

=Nim´ue=, a “damsel of the lake,” who cajoled Merlin in his dotage to tell

her the secret “whereby he could be rendered powerless;” and then, like

Delilah, she overpowered him, by “confining him under a stone.”

Then after these quests, Merlin fell in a dotage on ... one of the

damsels of the lake, hight Nimue, and Merlin would let her have no

rest, but always he would be with her in every place. And she made

him good cheer till she learned of him what she desired.... And

Merlin shewed to her in a rock, whereas was a great wonder ...

which went under a stone. So by her subtle craft, she made Merlin

go under that stone ... and he never came out, for all the craft

that he could do.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 60

(1470).

It is not unlikely that this name is a clerical error for Nineve or

Ninive. It occurs only once in the three volumes. (See NINIVE.)[TN-35]

⁂ Tennyson makes Vivien the seductive betrayer of Merlin, and says she

enclosed him “in the four walls of a hollow tower;” but the _History_

says “Nimue put him under the stone” (pt. i. 60).

=Nino-Thoma=,[TN-36] daughter of Tor-Thoma (chief of one of the

Scandinavian islands). She eloped with Uthal (son of Larthmor, a petty

king of Berrathon, a neighboring island); but Uthal soon tired of her,

and, having fixed his affections on another, confined her in a desert

island. Uthal, who had also dethroned his father, was slain in single

combat by Ossian, who had come to restore the deposed monarch to his

throne. When Nina-Thoma heard of her husband’s death, she languished and

died, “for though most cruelly entreated, her love for Uthal was not

abated.”--Ossian, _Berrathon_.

=Nine.= “It is by nines that Eastern presents are given, when they would

extend their magificence[TN-37] to the highest degree.” Thus, when

Dakiānos wished to ingratiate himself with the shah,

He caused himself to be preceded by nine superb camels. The first

was loaded with nine suits of gold adorned with jewels; the second

bore nine sabres, the hilts and scabbards of which were adorned

with diamonds; upon the third camel were nine suits of armor; the

fourth had nine suits of house furniture; the fifth had nine cases

full of sapphires; the sixth had nine cases full of rubies; the

seventh nine cases full of emeralds; the eighth had nine cases

full of amethysts; and the ninth had nine cases full of

diamonds.--Comte de Caylus, _Oriental Tales_ (“Dakianos and the

Seven Sleepers,” 1743).

=Nine Gods= (_The_) of the Etruscans: Juno, Minerva, and Tin´ia (_the

three chief_). The other six were Vulcan, Mars, Saturn, Herculês,

Summa´nus, and Vedius. (See NOVENSILES.)

Lars Por´sĕna of Clusium

By the nine gods he swore

That the great house of Tarquin

Should suffer wrong no more.

By the nine gods he swore it,

And named a trysting day ...

To summon his array.

Lord Macaulay, _Lays of Ancient Rome_ (“Horatius,” i., 1842).

=Nine Orders of Angels= (_The_): (1) Seraphim, (2) Cherubim (_in the first

circle_); (3) Thrones, (4) Dominions (_in the second circle_); (5)

Virtues, (6) Powers, (7) Principalities, (8) Archangels, (9) Angels (_in

the third circle_).

In heaven above

The effulgent bands in triple circles move.

Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_, xi. 13 (1575).

Novem vero angelorum ordines dicimus; ... scimus (1) Angelos, (2)

Archangelos, (3) Virtues, (4) Potestates, (5) Principatus, (6)

Dominationes, (7) Thronos, (8) Cherubim, (9) Seraphim.--Gregory,

_Homily_, 34 (A.D. 381).

=Nine Worthies= (_The_). Three were _pagans_: Hector, Alexander, and

Julius Cæsar. Three were _Jews_: Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabæus.

Three were _Christians_: Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon.

_Nine.[TN-38] Worthies_ (privy councillors to William III.). Four were

_Whigs_: Devonshire, Dorset, Monmouth, and Edward Russell. Five were

_Tories_: Caermarthen, Pembroke, Nottingham, Marlborough, and Lowther.

=Nine Worthies of London= (_The_): Sir William Walworth, Sir Henry

Pritchard, Sir William Sevenoke, Sir Thomas White, Sir John Bonham,

Christopher Croker, Sir John Hawkwood, Sir Hugh Caverley, and Sir Henry

Maleverer.

⁂ The chronicles of these nine worthies are written in prose and verse by

Richard Johnson (1592), author of _The Seven Champions of Christendom_.

=Nineve= (2 _syl._), the Lady of the Lake, in Arthurian romance.

Then the Lady of the Lake, that was always friendly unto King

Arthur, understood by her subtle craft that he was like to have

been destroyed; and so the Lady of the Lake, that hight Nineve,

came into the forest to seek Sir Launcelot du Lake.--Sir T. Malory,

_History of Prince Arthur_, ii. 57 (1470).

⁂ This name occurs three times in the _Morte d’Arthur_--once as “Nimue,”

once as “Nineve,” and once as “Ninive.” Probably “Nimue” (_q.v._) is a

clerical error.

=Ninon de Lenclos=, a beautiful Parisian, rich, _spirituelle_, and an

atheist, who abandoned herself to epicurean indulgence, and preserved

her charms to a very advanced age. Ninon de Lenclos renounced marriage,

and had numberless lovers. Her house was the rendezvous of all the most

illustrious persons of the period, as Molière, St. Evremont, Fontenelle,

Voltaire, and so on (1615-1705).

=Niobe= [_Ne´.oby_], the beau-ideal of grief. After losing her twelve

children, she was changed into a stone, which wept continually.

⁂ The group of “Niobe and her Children” in Florence, discovered at Rome

in 1583, is now arranged in the Uffizii[TN-39] Gallery.

She followed my poor father’s body,

Like Niobê, all tears.

Shakespeare, _Hamlet_, act i. sc. 2 (1596).

=Niobe of Nations= (_The_). Rome is so called by Byron.--_Childe Harold_,

iv. 79 (1817).

=Nipper= (_Susan_), generally called “Spitfire,” from her snappish

disposition. She was the nurse of Florence Dombey, to whom she was much

attached. Susan Nipper married Mr. Toots (after he had got over his

infatuation for Florence).

=Nippotate= (4 _syl._), “a live lion stuffed with straw,” exhibited in a

raree-show. This proved to be the body of a tame hedgehog exhibited by

Old Harry, a notorious character in London at the beginning of the

eighteenth century (died 1710).

Of monsters stranger than can be expressed,

There’s Nippotatê lies amongst the rest.

_Sutton Nicholls._

=Niquee= [_Ne´.kay_], the sister of Anasterax, with whom she lived in

incest. The fairy Zorphee was her godmother, and enchanted her, in order

to break off this connection.--Vasco de Lobeira, _Amadis de Gaul_

(thirteenth century).

=Nisroch= [_Niz´.rok_], “of principalities the prince.” A god of the

Assyrians. In the book of _Kings_ the Septuagint calls him “Meserach,”

and in _Isaiah_ “Nasarach.” Josephus calls him “Araskês.” One of the

rebel angels in Milton’s _Paradise Lost_. He Says:[TN-40]

Sense of pleasure we may well

Spare out of life, perhaps, and not repine,

But live content, which is the calmest life;

But pain is perfect misery, the worst

Of evils, and, excessive, overturns

All patience.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, (1665).

=Nit=, one of the attendants of Queen Mab.

Hop, and Mop, and Drap so clear,

Pip, and Trip, and Skip, that were

To Mab their sovereign dear--

Her special maids of honor.

Fib, and Tib, and Pinck, and Pin,

Tick, and Quick, and Jil, and Jin,

Tit, and Nit, and Wap, and Win--

The train that wait upon her.

Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (1563-1631).

=Nitchs=, daughter of Amases, king of Egypt. She was sent to Persia to

become the wife of Cambyses.--Georg Ebers, _An Egyptian Princess_.

=Nixon= (_Christal_), agent to Mr. Edward Redgauntlet, the Jacobite.--Sir

W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

_Nixon_ (_Martha_), the old nurse of the earl of Oxford.--Sir W. Scott,

_Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

=No One= (_Cæsar or_). Julius Cæsar said, “Aut Cæsar aut nullus.” And

again, “I would sooner be first in a village than second at Rome.”

Milton makes Satan say, “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.”

Jonathan Wild used to say, “I’d rather stand on the top of a dunghill

than at the bottom of a hill in paradise.”

Tennyson says, “All in all or not at all.”--_Idylls_ (“Vivien”).

“Six thrice or three dice” (aces were called _dice_, and did not count).

=No Song no Supper=, a musical drama by Prince Hoare, F.S.A. (1790). Crop,

the farmer, has married a second wife called Dorothy, who has an amiable

weakness for a rascally lawyer named Endless. During the absence of her

husband, Dorothy provides a supper for Endless, consisting of roast

lamb and a cake; but just as the lawyer sits down to it, Crop, with

Margaretta, knocks at the door. Endless is concealed in a sack, and the

supper is carried away. Presently Robin, the sweetheart of Margaretta,

arrives, and Crop regrets there is nothing but bread and cheese to offer

him. Margaretta now volunteers a song, the first verse of which tells

Crop there is roast lamb in the house, which is accordingly produced;

the second verse tells him there is a cake, which is produced also; and

the third verse tells him that Endless is concealed in a sack. Had there

been no song there would have been no supper, but the song produced the

roast lamb and new cake.

=Noah’s Wife=, Wâïla (3 _syl._), who endeavored to persuade the people

that her husband was distraught.

The wife of Noah [_Wâïla_] and the wife of Lot [_Wâhela_] were both

unbelievers ... and deceived their husbands ... and it shall be

said to them at the last day, “Enter ye into hell fire.”--Sale, _Al

Korân_, lxvi.

=Nobbs=, the horse of “Dr. Dove of Doncaster.”--Southey, _The Doctor_

(1834).

=Noble= (_The_), Charles III. of Navarre (1361, 1387-1425).

Soliman, _Tchelibi_, the Turk (died 1410).

⁂ Khosrou or Chosroës I. was called “The Noble Soul” (*, 531-579).

=Nodel=, the lion, in the beast-epic called _Reynard the Fox_. Nodel, the

lion, represents the regal element of Germany; Isengrin, the wolf,

represents the baronial element; and Reynard, the fox, the Church

element (1498).

=Noel= (_Eusebe_), schoolmaster of Bout du Monde. “His clothes are old and

worn, and his manner vacant.”--E. Stirling, _The Gold Mine_, or _Miller

of Grenoble_, act i. sc. 2 (1854).

=Noggs= (_Newman_), Ralph Nickleby’s clerk. A tall man of middle age, with

two goggle eyes (one of which was fixed), a rubicund nose, a

cadavarous[TN-41] face, and a suit of clothes decidedly the worse for

wear. He had the gift of distorting and cracking his finger-joints. This

kind-hearted, dilapidated fellow “kept his hunter and hounds once,” but

ran through his fortune. He discovered a plot of old Ralph, which he

confided to the Cheeryble brothers, who frustrated it, and then provided

for Newman.--C. Dickens, _Nicholas Nickleby_ (1838).

=Noko´mis=, mother of Weno´nah, and grandmother of Hiawatha. Nokomis was

the daughter of the Moon. While she was swinging one day, some of her

companions, out of jealousy, cut the ropes, and she fell to earth in a

meadow. The same night her first child, a daughter, was born, and was

named Wenonah.

There among the ferns and mosses ...

Fair Nokomis bore a daughter,

And she called her name Wenonah.

Longfellow, _Hiawatha_, iii. (1855).

=Non Mi Ricordo=, the usual answer of the Italian courier and other

Italian witnesses when on examination at the trial of Queen Caroline

(the wife of George IV.), in 1820.

“Lord Flint,” in _Such Things Are_, by Mrs. Inchbald (1786), when asked

a question he wished to evade, used to reply, “My people know, no doubt,

but I cannot recollect.”

“Pierre Choppard,” in _The Courier of Lyons_, by Edward Stirling (1852),

when asked an ugly question, always answered “I’ll ask my wife, my

memory’s so slippery.”

The North American society called the “Know Nothings,” founded in 1853,

used to reply to every question about their order, “I know nothing about

it.”

=Nona´cris’ Stream=, the river Styx, in Arcadia. Cassander says he has in

a phial some of this “horrid spring,” one drop of which, mixed with

wine, would act as a deadly poison. To this Polyperchon replies:

I know its power, for I have seen it tried.

Pains of all sorts thro’ every nerve and artery

At once it scatters,--burns at once and freezes--

Till, by extremity of torture forced,

The soul consents to leave her joyless home.

N. Lee, _Alexander the Great_, iv. i (1678).

=Nonentity= (_Dr._), a metaphysician, and thought by most people to be a

profound scholar. He generally spreads himself before the fire, sucks

his pipe, talks little, drinks much, and is reckoned very good company.

You may know him by his long grey wig, and the blue handkerchief round

his neck.

Dr. Nonentity, I am told, writes indexes to perfection, makes

essays, and reviews any work with a single day’s

warning.--Goldsmith, _A Citizen of the World_, xxix. (1759).

=Norbert= (_Father_), Pierre Parisot Norbert, the French missionary

(1697-1769).

=Norland= (_Lord_), father of Lady Eleanor Irwin, and guardian of Lady

Ramble (Miss Maria Wooburn). He disinherited his daughter for marrying

against his will, and left her to starve, but subsequently relented, and

relieved her wants and those of her young husband.--Inchbald, _Every One

has His Fault_ (1794).

=Norma=, a vestal who had been seduced, and discovers her paramour trying

to seduce a sister vestal. In despair, she contemplates the murder of

her base-born children.--Bellini, _Norma_ (1831); libretto, by Romani.

=Norman=, forester of Sir William Ashton, lord-keeper of Scotland.--Sir W.

Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

_Norman_, a “sea-captain,” in love with Violet, the ward of Lady

Arundel. It turns out that this Norman is her ladyship’s son by her

first husband, and heir to the title and estates; but Lady Arundel,

having married a second husband, had a son named Percy, whom she wished

to make her heir. Norman’s father was murdered, and Norman, who was born

three days afterwards, was brought up by Onslow, a village priest. At

the age of 14 he went to sea, and became captain of a man-of-war. Ten

years later he returned to Arundel, and though at first his mother

ignored him, and Percy flouted him, his noble and generous conduct

disarmed hostility, and he not only reconciled his half-brother, but won

his mother’s affection, and married Violet, his heart’s “sweet

sweeting.”--Lord Lytton, _The Sea-Captain_ (1839).

=Norm-nan-Ord= or Norman of the Hammer, one of the eight sons of Torquil

of the Oak.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

=Normandy= (_The Gem of_), Emma, daughter of Richard I. (died 1052).

=Norna of the Fitful Head=, “The Reimkennar.” Her real name was, Ulla

Troil, but after her seduction by Basil Mertoun (Vaughan), and the birth

of a son named Clement Cleveland (the future pirate), she changed her

name. Towards the end of the novel, Norna gradually recovered her

senses. She was the aunt of Minna and Brenda Troil.--Sir W. Scott, _The

Pirate_ (time, William III.).

[_One_] cannot fail to trace in Norna--the victim of remorse and

insanity, and the dupe of her own imposture, her mind too flooded

with all the wild literature and extravagant superstitions of the

north--something distinct from the Dumfriesshire gypsy, whose

pretensions to supernatural powers are not beyond those of a

Norwood prophetess.--_The Pirate_ (introduction, 1821).

=Norris=, a family to whom Martin Chuzzlewit was introduced while he was

in America. They were friends of Mr. Bevan, rabid abolitionists, and yet

hankering after titles as the gilt of the gingerbread of life.--C.

Dickens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1844).

_Norris_ (_Black_), a dark, surly man, and a wrecker. He wanted to marry

Marian, “the daughter” of Robert (also a wrecker); but Marian was

betrothed to Edward, a young sailor. Robert, being taken up for murder,

was condemned to death; but Norris told Marian he would save his life if

she would promise to marry him. Marian consented, but was saved by the

arrest of Black Norris for murder.--S. Knowles, _The Daughter_ (1836).

=North= (_Christopher_), pseudonym of John Wilson, professor of moral

philosophy, Edinburgh, editor of _Blackwood’s Magazine_, in which

appeared the “Noctes Ambrosianæ” (1805-1861).

_North_ (_Lord_), one of the judges in the State trial of Geoffrey

Peveril, Julian, and the dwarf, for being concerned in the popish

plot.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II).[TN-42]

=North Britain= (_The_), a radical periodical, conducted by John Wilkes.

The celebrated number of this serial was No. 45, in which the ministers

are charged “with putting a lie in the king’s mouth.”

=Northamptonshire Poet= (_The_), John Clare (1793-1864).

=Northern Harlot= (_The_), Elizabeth Petrowna, empress of Russia; also

called “The Infamous” (1709-1761).

=Northern Wagoner=, a group of seven stars called variously Charles’s

Wain, or Wagon, _i.e._ churl’s wain; Ursa Major, The Great Bear, and The

Dipper. Four make the wagon, or the dipper, three form the shaft, or the

handle. Two are called Pointers because they point to the Pole-star.

By this the northern wagoner has set

His sevenfold team behind the steadfast star

That was in ocean waves yet never wet,

But firm is fixed, and sendeth light from far

To all that on the wide deep wandering are.

Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, I. ii. 1 (1590).

=Norval= (_Old_), a shepherd, who brings up Lady Randolph’s son (Douglas)

as his own. He was hidden at birth in a basket, because Sir Malcolm (her

father) hated Douglas, whom she had privately married. The child being

found by old Norval, was brought up as his own, but the old man

discovered that the foundling was “Sir Malcolm’s heir and Douglas’s

son.” When 18 years old, the foster-son saved the life of Lord Randolph.

Lady Randolph took great interest in the young man, and when old Norval

told her his tale, she instantly perceived that the young hero was in

fact her own son.

_Young Norval_, the infant exposed and brought up by the old shepherd as

his own son. He turned out to be Sir Malcolm’s heir. His mother was Lady

Randolph, and his father Lord Douglas, her first husband. Young Norval,

having saved the life of Lord Randolph, was given by him a commission in

the army. Glenalvon, the heir-presumptive of Lord Randolph, hated the

new favorite, and persuaded his lordship that the young man was too

familiar with Lady Randolph. Being waylaid, Norval was attacked, slew

Glenalvon, but was in turn slain by Lord Randolph. After the death of

Norval, Lord Randolph discovered that he had killed the son of his wife

by a former marriage. The mother, in her distraction, threw herself

headlong from a lofty precipice, and Lord Randolph went to the war then

raging between Denmark and Scotland.--J[TN-43] Home, _Douglas_ (1757).

(This was a favorite character with John Kemble, 1757-1823.)

=Norway= (_The Fair Maid of_), Margaret, granddaughter of Alexander III.

of Scotland. She died (1290) of sea-sickness on her passage from Norway

to Scotland. Her father was Eric II., king of Norway, and her mother was

Margaret, only daughter of Alexander III.

=Nose= (_Golden_), Tycho Brahê, the Danish astronomer. Having lost his

nose in a duel with one Passberg, he adopted a golden one, and attached

it to his face by a cement which he carried about with him.

=Nosebag= (_Mrs._), wife of a lieutenant in the dragoons. She is the

inquisitive travelling companion of Waverley when he travels by stage to

London.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

=Nosey= (_Play up!_) This exclamation was common in our theatres in the

days of Macklin, etc. M. Nozay was the leader of the orchestra in Covent

Garden Theatre.

⁂ Some persons affirm that “Old Nosey” was Cervetto, the violoncello

player at Drury Lane (1753), and say that he was so called from his long

nose.

Napoleon III., was nicknamed _Grosbec_ (“Nosey”).

=Nosnot-Bocai= [_Bo´.ky_], prince of purgatory.

Sir, I last night received command

To see you out of Fairy-land.

Into the realm of Nosnot-Bocai.

King, _Orpheus and Eurydice_.

=Nostrada´mus= (_Michael_), an astrologer of the sixteenth century, who

published an annual _Almanac_ and a _Recueil of Prophecies_, in verse

(1503-1566).

=Nostrada´mus of Portugal=, Gonçalo Annês Bandarra, a poet-cobbler, whose

career was stopped, in 1556, by the Inquisition.

=Nottingham= (_The countess of_), a quondam sweetheart of the earl of

Essex, and his worst enemy, when she heard that he had married the

countess of Rutland. The queen sent her to the Tower to ask Essex if he

had no petition to make, and the earl requested her to take back a ring,

which the queen had given him as a pledge of mercy in time of need. As

the countess out of jealousy forbore to deliver it, the earl was

executed.--Henry Jones, _The Earl of Essex_ (1745).

=Nottingham Lambs=, (_The_), the Nottingham roughs.

=Nottingham Poet= (_The_), Philip James Bailey, the author of _Festus_,

etc. (1816- ).

=No´tus=, the south wind; _Afer_ is the south-west wind.

Notus and Afer, black with thundrous clouds.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, (1665).

=Noukhail=, the angel of day and night.

The day and night are trusted to my care. I hold the day in my

right hand and the night in my left; and I maintain the just

equilibrium between them, for if either were to overbalance the

other, the universe would either be consumed by the heat of the

sun, or would perish with the cold of darkness.--Comte de Caylus,

_Oriental Tales_ (“History of Abdal Motallab,” 1743).

=Nouman= (_Sidi_), an Arab who married Amīnê, a very beautiful woman, who

ate her rice with a bodkin. Sidi, wishing to know how his wife could

support life and health without more food than she partook of in his

presence, watched her narrowly, and discovered that she was a ghoul, who

went by stealth every night and feasted on the fresh-buried dead. When

Sidi made this discovery, Aminê changed him into a dog. After he was

restored to his normal shape, he changed Aminê into a mare, which every

day he rode almost to death.--_Arabian Nights_ (“History of Sidi

Nouman”).

Your majesty knows that ghouls of either sex are demons which

wander about the fields. They commonly inhabit ruinous buildings,

whence they issue suddenly on unwary travellers, whom they kill and

devour. If they fail to meet with travellers, they go by night into

burying grounds, and dig up dead bodies, on which they

feed.--“History of Sidi Nouman.”

=Nouredeen=, son of Khacan (vizier of Zinebi, king of Balsora). He got

possession of the “beautiful Persian” purchased for the king. At his

father’s death he soon squandered away his patrimony in the wildest

extravagance, and fled with his beautiful slave to Bagdad. Here he

encountered Haroun-al-Raschid in disguise, and so pleased the caliph,

that he was placed in the number of those courtiers most intimate with

his majesty, who also bestowed on him so plentiful a fortune, that he

lived with the “beautiful Persian” in affluence all the rest of his

life.--_Arabian Nights_ (“Nouredeen and the Beautiful Persian”).

=Nour´eddin´ Ali=, younger son of the vizier of Egypt. “He was possessed

of as much merit as can fall to the lot of man.” Having quarrelled with

his elder brother, he travelled to Baso´ra, where he married the

vizier’s daughter, and succeeded his father-in-law in office. A son was

born to him in due time, and on the very same day the wife of his elder

brother had a daughter. Noureddin died when his son was barely twenty,

and unmarried.--_Arabian Nights_ (“Noureddin Ali,” etc.).

=Nourgehan’s Bracelet.= Nourgehan, emperor of the Moguls, had a bracelet

which had the property of discovering poison, even at a considerable

distance. When poison was anywhere near the wearer, the stones of the

bracelet seemed agitated, and the agitation increased as the poison

approached them.--Comte de Caylus, _Oriental Tales_ (“The Four

Talismans,” 1743).

=Nour´jahad=, a sleeper, like Rip Van Winkle, Epimen´idês, etc. (See

SLEEPERS.)

=Nourjeham= (“_light of the world_”). So the Sultana Nourmahal was

subsequently called.--T. Moore, _Lalla Rookh_ (“The Light of the Haram,”

1817).

=Nourmahal´= (_The sultana_), _i.e._ “Light of the Haram,” afterwards

called _Nourjeham_ (“light of the world”). She was for a season

estranged from the sultan, till he gave a grand banquet, at which she

appeared in disguise as a lute-player and singer. The sultan was so

enchanted with her performance, that he exclaimed, “If Nourmahal had so

played and sung, I could forgive her all;” whereupon the sultana threw

off her mask, and Selim “caught her to his heart.”--T. Moore, _Lalla

Rookh_ (“The Light of the Haram,” 1817).

=Nouron´ihar=, daughter of the Emir Fakreddin; a laughing, beautiful girl,

full of fun and pretty mischief, dotingly fond of Gulchenrouz, her

cousin, a boy of 13. She married the Caliph Vathek, with whom she

descended into the abyss of Eblis, whence she never after returned to

the light of day.

The trick she played Bababalouk was this: Vathek, the caliph, was on a

visit to Fakreddin, the emir´, and Bababalouk, his chief eunuch,

intruded into the bathroom, where Nouronihar and her damsels were

bathing. Nouronihar induced the old eunuch to rest himself on the swing,

when the girls set it going with all their might. The cords broke, the

eunuch fell into the bath, and the girls made off with their lamps, and

left the meddlesome old fool to flounder about till morning, when

assistance came, but not before he was half dead.--W. Beckford, _Vathek_

(1784).

=Nouroun´nihar=, niece of a sultan of India, who had three sons, all in

love with her. The sultan said he would give her to him who, in twelve

months, gave him the most valuable present. The three princes met in a

certain inn at the expiration of the time, when one prince looked

through a tube, which showed Nourounnihar at the point of death; another

of the brothers transported all three instantaneously on a magic carpet

to the princess’s chamber; and the third brother gave her an apple to

smell of which effected an instant cure. It was impossible to decide

which of these presents was the most valuable; so the sultan said he

should have her who shot an arrow to the greatest distance. The eldest

(Houssian) shot first; Ali overshot the arrow of his eldest brother; but

that of the youngest brother (Ahmed) could nowhere be found. So the

award was given to Ahmed.--_Arabian Nights_ (“Ahmed and Pari-Banou”).

=Novel= (_Father of the English_). Henry Fielding is so called by Sir W.

Scott (1707-1754).

=Noven´siles= (4 _syl._), the nine Sabine gods, viz.: Herculês, Romulus,

Esculapius, Bacchus, Ænēas, Vesta, Santa, Fortuna and Fidês or Faith.

(See NINE GODS of the Etruscans.)

=Novit= (_Mr. Nichil_), the lawyer of the old laird of Dumbiedikes.--Sir

W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

=Novius=, the usurer, famous for the loudness of his voice.

... at hic si plaustra ducenta

Concurrantque foro tria funera magna sonabit

Cornua quod vincatque tubas.

Horace, _Satires_, i. 6.

These people seem to be of the race of Novius, that Roman banker,

whose voice exceeded the noise of carmen.--Lesage, _Gil Blas_, vii.

13 (1735).

=Now-now= (_Old Anthony_), an itinerant fiddler. The character is a skit

on Anthony Munday, the dramatist.--Chettle, _Kindheart’s Dream_ (1592).

=Nuath= (2 _syl._), father of Lathmon and Oith´ona (_q.v._).--Ossian,

_Oithona_.

=Nubbles= (_Mrs._), a poor widow woman, who was much given to going to

Little Bethel.

_Christopher_ or _Kit Nubbles_, her son, the servant in attendance on

little Nell, whom he adored. After the death of little Nell, Kit married

Barbara, a fellow-servant.--C. Dickens, _The Old Curiosity Shop_ (1840).

=Nugent Dubourg=, twin brother of Oscar Dubourg, somewhat conceited, who

patronizes his brother, and would like to marry his brother’s betrothed,

Lucilla Finch, blind and an heiress. Her sight is restored by an

operation, and Nugent places himself where her eyes will first fall upon

him, instead of on his disfigured brother. Beginning with this, he

personates Oscar until Lucilla again loses her sight. He then yields her

to his brother, joins an Arctic exploring expedition, and perishes in

the Polar regions.--Wilkie Collins, _Poor Miss Finch_.

=Numa Roumestan=, French deputy from the South of France. Audacious, gay

and unprincipled, he possesses all the qualities that render him “the

joy of the street, the sorrow of the home.”--Alphonse Daudet, _Numa

Roumestan_.

=Number Nip=, the name of the gnome king of the Giant Mountains.--Musæus,

_Popular Tales_ (1782).

⁂ Musæus was a German, uncle of Kotzebue (died 1788).

=Nuncanou= (_Aurore and Clotilde_). Beautiful Creoles, mother and

daughter, in George W. Cable’s novel, _The Grandissimes_.

=Nun’s Tale= (_The_), the tale of the cock and the fox. One day, dan

Russell, the fox, came into the poultry-yard, and told Master

Chanticlere, he could not resist the pleasure of hearing him sing, for

his voice was so divinely ravishing. The cock, pleased with this

flattery, shut his eyes, and began to crow most lustily; whereupon dan

Russell seized him by the throat, and ran off with him. When they got to

the wood, the cock said to the fox, “I would recommend you to eat me at

once, I think I can hear your pursuers.” “I am going to do so,” said the

fox; but when he opened his mouth to reply, off flew the cock into a

tree, and while the fox was deliberating how he might regain his prey,

up came the farmer and his men with scythes, flails, and pitchforks,

with which they despatched the fox without mercy.--Chaucer, _Canterbury

Tales_ (1388).

⁂ This fable is one of those by Marie, of France, called _Don Coc and

Don Werpil_.

_Nun’s Tale_ (_The Second_). This is the tale about Maxime and the

martyrs, Valerian and Tiburcê. The prefect ordered Maxime (2 _syl._) to

put Valerian and Tiburcê to death, because they refused to worship the

image of Jupiter; but Maxime showed kindness to the two Christians, took

them home, became converted, and was baptized. When Valerian and Tiburcê

were put to death, Maxime declared that he saw angels come and carry

them up to heaven, whereupon the prefect caused him to be beaten to

death with whips of lead.--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (1388).

⁂ This tale is very similar to that of St. Cecilia, in the _Legenda

Aurea_. See also _Acts_ xvi. 25-34.

=Nupkins=, mayor of Ipswich, a man who has a most excellent opinion of

himself, but who, in all magisterial matters, really depends almost

entirely on Jinks, his half-starved clerk.--C. Dickens, _The Pickwick

Papers_ (1836).

=Nurse= (_Rebecca_). Accused of witchcraft and acquitted by the court.

“And suddenly, after all the afflicted out of court made a hideous

outcry ... one of the judges expressed himself not satisfied, another,

as he was going off the bench, said they would have her indicted anew.”

At the second trial she was condemned, and she was executed with the

rest.

“The testimonials of her Christian behavior, both in the course of

her life and at her death, and her extraordinary care in educating

her children, and setting them a good example, etc., under the

hands of so many, are so numerous that for brevity they are here

omitted.”--Robert Calef, _More Wonders of the Invisible World_

(1700).

=Nut-Brown Maid= (_The_), the maid wooed by the “banished man.” The

“banished man” describes to her the hardships she would have to undergo

if she married him; but finding that she accounted these hardships as

nothing compared with his love, he revealed himself to be an earl’s son,

with large hereditary estates in Westmoreland, and married her.--Percy,

_Reliques_, II.

This ballad is based on the legendary history of Lord Henry Clifford,

called “The Shepherd Lord.” It was modernized by Prior, who called his

version of the story _Henry and Emma_. The oldest form of the ballad

extant is contained in Arnolde’s _Chronicle_ (1502).

=Nydia.= Greek flower-girl, blind and friendless. Glaucus is kind to, and

protects her, finally purchases her of her brutal master. She loves him

passionately and hopelessly, saves his life and that of his betrothed at

the destruction of Pompeii; embarks with them in a skiff bound for a

safer harbor, and while all are asleep, springs overboard and drowns

herself.--E. L. Bulwer, _Last Days of Pompeii_ (1834).

=Nym=, corporal in the army under Captain Sir John Falstaff, introduced in

_The Merry Wives of Windsor_ and in _Henry V._, but not in _Henry IV._

It seems that Lieutenant Peto had died, and given a step to the officers

under him. Thus, Ensign Pistol becomes lieutenant, Corporal Bardolph

becomes ensign, and Nym takes the place of Bardolph. He is an arrant

rogue, and both he and Bardolph are hanged_ (Henry V._). The word means

to “pilfer.”

It would be difficult to give any other reply save that of Corporal

Nym--it was the author’s humor or caprice.--Sir W. Scott.

=Nymphid´ia=, a mock-heroic by Drayton. The fairy Pigwiggen is so gallant

to Queen Mab as to arouse the jealousy of King Oberon. One day, coming

home and finding his queen absent, Oberon vows vengeance on the gallant,

and sends Puck to ascertain the whereabouts of Mab and Pigwiggen. In the

mean time, Nymphidia gives the queen warning, and the queen, with all

her maids of honor, creep into a hollow nut for concealment. Puck,

coming up, sets foot in the enchanted circle which Nymphidia had

charmed, and, after stumbling about for a time, tumbles into a ditch.

Pigwiggen, seconded by Tomalin, encounters Oberon, seconded by Tom Thum,

and the fight is “both fast and furious.” Queen Mab, in alarm, craves

the interference of Proserpine, who first envelopes the combatants in a

thick smoke, which compels them to desist, and then gives them a draught

“to assuage their thirst.” The draught was from the river Lethê; and

immediately the combatants had tasted it, they forgot not only the cause

of the quarrel, but even that they had quarrelled at all.--M. Drayton,

_Nymphidia_ (1593).

=Nysa=, daughter of Silēno and Mys´is, and sister of Daphnê. Justice

Mi´das is in love with her; but she loves Apollo, her father’s

guest.--Kane O’Hara, _Midas_ (1764).

=Nysê, Doto, and Neri´nê=, the three nereids who went before the fleet of

Vasco da Gama. When the treacherous pilot steered the ship of Vasco

towards a sunken rock, these three sea-nymphs lifted up the prow and

turned it round.--Camoens, _Lusiad_, ii. (1569).

=O= (_Our Lady of_). The Virgin Mary is so called in some old Roman

rituals, from the ejaculation at the beginning of the seven anthems

preceding the _Magnificat_, as: “O, when will the day arrive...?” “O,

when shall I see...?” “O, when...?” and so on.

=Oakly= (_Major_), brother to Mr. Oakly, and uncle to Charles. He assists

his brother in curing his “jealous wife.”

_Mr. Oakly_, husband of the “jealous wife.” A very amiable man, but

deficient in that strength of mind which is needed to cure the

idiosyncrasy of his wife; so he obtains the assistance of his brother,

the major.

_Mrs. Oakly_, “the jealous wife” of Mr. Oakly. A woman of such

suspicious temper, that every remark of her husband is distorted into a

proof of his infidelity. She watches him like a tiger, and makes both

her own and her husband’s life utterly wretched.

_Charles Oakly_, nephew of the major. A fine, noble-spirited young

fellow, who would never stand by and see a woman insulted; but a

desperate debauchee and drunkard. He aspires to the love of Harriot

Russet, whose influence over him is sufficiently powerful to reclaim

him.--George Colman, _The Jealous Wife_ (1761).

=Oates= (_Dr. Titus_), the champion of the popish plot.

Forth came the notorious Dr. Oates, rustling in the full silken

canonicals of priesthood, for ... he affected no small dignity of

exterior decoration and deportment.... His exterior was portentous.

A fleece of white periwig showed a most uncouth visage, of great

length, having the mouth ... placed in the very centre of the

countenance, and exhibiting to the astonished spectator as much

chin below as there was nose and brow above it. His pronunciation

was after a conceited fashion of his own, in which he accented the

vowels in a manner altogether peculiar to himself.--Sir W. Scott,

_Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

=Oaths.=

JOHN PERROT, a natural son of Henry VIII., was the first to employ the

profane oath of _God’s Wounds_, which Queen ELIZABETH adopted, but the

ladies of her court minced and softened it into _zounds_ and

_zouterkins_.

WILLIAM the CONQUEROR swore by _the Splendor of God_.

WILLIAM RUFUS, by _St. Luke’s face_.

King JOHN, by _God’s Tooth_.

HENRY VIII., by _God’s Wounds_.

CHARLES II., by _Ods fish_ [God’s Flesh].

LOUIS XI. of France, by _God’s Easter_.

CHARLES VIII. of France, by _God’s Light_.

LOUIS XII., by _The Devil take me (Diable m’emporte)_.

The Chevalier BAYARD by _God’s Holyday_.

FRANCOIS I. used for asseveration, _On the word of a gentleman_.

HENRY III. of England, when he confirmed “Magna Charta,” used the

expression, _On the word of a gentleman, a king and a knight_.

Earl of ANGUS (reign of Queen Mary), when incensed, used to say, _By the

might of God_, but at other times his oath was _By St. Bride of

Douglas_.--Godscroft, 275.

ST. WINFRED or BONI´FACE used to swear by _St. Peter’s tomb_.

In the reign of Charles II. fancy oaths were the fashion. (For

specimens, see FOPPINGTON.)

The most common oath of the ancient Romans was _By Herculês_! for men;

and _By Castor_! for women; _By Pollux_! for both.

Viri per _Herculem_, mulieres per _Castorem_, utrique per

_Pollucem_ jurare soliti.--Gellius, _Noctes Atticœ_,[TN-44] ii. 6.

=Obad´don=, the angel of death. This is not the same angel as Abbad´ona,

one of the fallen angels, and once the friend of Ab´diel (bk. vi.).

My name is Ephod Obaddon or Sevenfold Revenge. I am an angel of

destruction. It was I who destroyed the first-born of Egypt. It was

I who slew the army of Sennacherib.--Klopstock, _The Messiah_,

xiii. (1771).

=Obadi´ah=, “the foolish fat scullion” in Sterne’s novel of _Tristram

Shandy_ (1759).

_Obadiah_, clerk to Justice Day. A nincompoop, fond of drinking, but

with just a shade more brains than Abel Day, who is “a thorough ass”

(act i. 1).--T. Knight, _The Honest Thieves_ (died 1820).

This farce is a mere _réchauffé_ of _The Committee_ (1670), a comedy by

the Hon. Sir R. Howard, the names and much of the conversation being

identical. Colonel Blunt is called in the farce “Captain Manly.”

=Obadiah Prim=, a canting, knavish hypocrite; one of the four guardians

of Anne Lovely, the heiress. Colonel Feignwell personates Simon Pure,

and obtains the Quaker’s consent to his marriage with Anne Lovely.--Mrs.

Centlivre, _A Bold Stroke for a Wife_ (1717).

=Obermann=, the impersonation of high moral worth without talent, and the

tortures endured by the consciousness of this defect.--Etienne Pivert de

Sen´ancour, _Obermann_ (1804).

=Oberon=, king of the fairies, quarrelled with his wife, Titania, about a

“changeling” which Obĕron wanted for a page, but Titania refused to give

up. Oberon, in revenge, anointed her eyes in sleep with the extract of

“Love in Idleness,” the effect of which was to make the sleeper in love

with the first object beheld on waking. Titania happened to see a

country bumpkin, whom Puck had dressed up with an ass’s head. Oberon

came upon her while she was fondling the clown, sprinkled on her an

antidote, and she was so ashamed of her folly that she readily consented

to give up the boy to her spouse for his page.--Shakespeare, _Midsummer

Night’s Dream_ (1592).

=Oberon, the Fay=, king of Mommur, a humpty dwarf, three feet high, of

angelic face. He told Sir Huon that the lady of the Hidden Isle

(_Cephalonia_) married Neptanēbus, king of Egypt, by whom she had a son

named Alexander “the Great.” Seven hundred years later she had another

son, Oberon, by Julius Cæsar, who stopped in Cephalonia on his way to

Thessaly. At the birth of Oberon the fairies bestowed their gifts on

him. One was insight into men’s thoughts, and another was the power of

transporting himself instantaneously to any place. At death he made Huon

his successor, and was borne to paradise.--_Huon de Bordeaux_ (a

romance).

=Oberthal= (_Count_), lord of Dordrecht, near the Meuse. When Bertha, one

of his vassals, asked permission to marry John of Leyden, the count

withheld his consent, as he designed to make Bertha his mistress. This

drove John into rebellion, and he joined the anabaptists. The count was

taken prisoner by Gio´na, a discarded servant, but was liberated by

John. When John was crowned prophet-king the count entered the

banquet-hall to arrest him, and perished with him in the flames of the

burning palace.--Meyerbeer, _Le Prophète_ (opera, 1849).

=Obi.= Among the negroes of the West Indies “Obi” is the name of a magical

power, supposed to affect men with all the curses of an “evil eye.”

=Obi-Woman= (_An_), an African sorceress, a worshipper of Mumbo Jumbo.

=Obi´dah=, a young man who meets with various adventures and misfortunes

allegorical of human life.--Dr. Johnson, _The Rambler_ (1750-2).

=Obid´icut=, the fiend of lust, and one of the five which possessed “poor

Tom.”--Shakespeare, _King Lear_, act iv. sc. 1 (1605).

=O’Brallaghan= (_Sir Callaghan_), “a wild Irish soldier in the Prussian

army. His military humor makes one fancy he was not only born in a

siege, but that Bellōna had been his nurse, Mars his schoolmaster and

the Furies his playfellows.” He is the successful suitor of Charlotte

Goodchild.--Macklin, _Love-à-la-mode_ (1759).

=O’Brien=, the Irish lieutenant under Captain Savage.--Captain Marryat,

_Peter Simple_ (1833).

=Observant Friars=, those friars who observe the rule of St. Francis; to

abjure books, land, house and chapel, to live on alms, dress in rags,

feed on scraps and sleep anywhere.

=Obstinate=, an inhabitant of the City of Destruction, who advised

Christian to return to his family, and not run on a wild-goose

chase.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim’s Progress_, i. (1678).

=Occasion=, the mother of Furor; an ugly, wrinkled old hag, lame of one

foot. Her head was bald behind, but in front she had a few hoary locks.

Sir Guyon seized her, gagged her and bound her.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_,

ii. 4 (1590).

=Ochiltree= (_Old Edie_), a king’s bedesman or blue-gown. Edie is a

garrulous, kind-hearted, wandering beggar, who assures Mr. Lovel that

the supposed ruin of a Roman camp is no such thing. The old bedesman

delighted “to daunder down the burnsides and green shaws.” He is a

well-drawn character.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George

III.).

=Ocnus= (_The Rope of_), profitless labor. Ocnus is represented as

twisting with unwearied diligence a rope, which an ass eats as fast as

it is made. The allegory signifies that Ocnus worked hard to earn money,

which his wife spent by her extravagance.

=Octave= (2 _syl._), the son of Argante (2 _syl._). During the absence of

his father, Octave fell in love with Hyacinthe, daughter of Géronte, and

married her, supposing her to be the daughter of Signor Pandolphe, of

Tarentum. His father wanted him to marry the daughter of his friend

Géronte, but Octave would not listen to it. It turned out, however, that

the daughter of Pandolphe and the daughter of Géronte were one and the

same person, for Géronte had assumed the name of Pandolphe while he

lived in Tarentum, and his wife and daughter stayed behind after the

father went to live at Naples.--Molière, _Les Fourberies de Scapin_

(1671).

⁂ In the English version, called _The Cheats of Scapin_, by Thomas

Otway, Octave is called “Octavian,” Argante is called “Thrifty,”

Hyacinthe is called “Clara,” and Géronte is “Gripe.”

=Octavian=, the lover of Floranthê. He goes mad because he imagines

Floranthê loves another; but Roque, a blunt, kind-hearted old man,

assures him that Doña Floranthê is true to him, and induces him to

return home.--Colman, the younger, _The Mountaineers_ (1793).

_Octavian_, the English form of “Octave” (2 _syl._), in Otway’s _Cheats

of Scapin_. (See OCTAVE.)

=Octa´vio=, the supposed husband of Jacintha. This Jacintha was at one

time contracted to Don Henrique, but Violante (4 _syl._), passed for Don

Henrique’s wife.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Spanish Curate_ (1622).

_Octavio_, the betrothed of Donna Clara.--Jephson, _Two Strings to your

Bow_ (1792).

=Octer=, a sea-captain in the reign of King Alfred, who traversed the

Norwegian mountains, and sailed to the Dwina in the north of Russia.

The Saxon swaying all, in Alfred’s powerful reign,

Our English Octer put a fleet to sea again.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xix. (1622).

=O’Cutter= (_Captain_), a ridiculous Irish captain, befriended by Lady

Freelove and Lord Trinket. He speaks with a great brogue, and interlards

his speech with sea terms.--George Colman, _The Jealous Wife_ (1761).

=Oc´ypus=, son of Podalirius and Astasia, noted for his strength, agility

and beauty. Ocypus used to jeer at the gout, and the goddess of that

disease caused him to suffer from it for ever.--Lucian.

=Odalisque=, in Turkey, one of the female slaves in the sultan’s harem

(_odalik_, Arabic, “a chamber companion,” _oda_, “a chamber”).

He went forth with the lovely odalisques.

Byron, _Don Juan_, vi. 29 (1824).

=Ode= (_Prince of the_), Pierre de Ronsard (1534-1585).

=Odoar=, the venerable abbot of St. Felix, who sheltered King Roderick

after his dethronement.--Southey, _Roderick, Last of the Goths_, iv.

(1814).

⁂ Southey sometimes makes the word Odoar´ [_O´.dor_], and sometimes

O´doar (3 _syl._), _e.g._:

Odoar´, the venerable abbot sat (2 _syl._)....

Odoar´ and Urban eyed him while he spake....

The Lady Adosinda O´doar cried (3 _syl._)....

Tell him in O´doar’s name the hour has come!

=O’Doh´erty= (_Sir Morgan_), a pseudonym of W. Maginn, LL.D., in

_Blackwood’s Magazine_ (1819-1842).

=O’Donohue’s White Horses.= The boatmen of Killarney, so call those waves

which, on a windy day, come crested with foam. The spirit of O’Donohue

is supposed to glide over the lake of Killarney every May-day on his

favorite white horse, to the sound of unearthly music.

=Odori´co=, a Biscayan, to whom Zerbi´no commits Isabella. He proves a

traitor, and tries to defile her, but is interrupted in his base

endeavor. Almonio defies him to single combat, and he is delivered bound

to Zerbino, who condemns him, in punishment, to attend on Gabrina for

twelve months, as her squire. He accepts the charge, but hangs Gabrina

on an elm, and is himself hung by Almonio to the same tree.--Ariosto,

_Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

=Odors for Food.= Plutarch, Pliny, and divers other ancients tell us of a

nation in India that lived only upon pleasing odors. Democ´ritos lived

for several days together on the mere effluvia of hot bread.--Dr. John

Wilkins (1614-1672).

=O’Dowd= (_Cornelius_), the pseudonym of Charles James Lever, in

_Blackwood’s Magazine_ (1809-1872).

=Odyssey.= Homer’s epic, recording the adventures of Odysseus (_Ulysses_)

in his voyage home from Troy.

Book I. The poem opens in the island of Calypso, with a complaint

against Neptune and Calypso for preventing the return of Odysseus (3

_syl._) to Ithaca.

II. Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, starts in search of his father,

accompanied by Pallas, in the guise of Mentor.