where he became a convert to the Manichæans, and taught rhetoric with
great reputation, and on his return to Rome was appointed its professor
at Milan. Here the sermons of St. Ambrose effected his conversion,
and renouncing his heretical opinions he was baptized, 387. Returning
to Africa he was ordained a priest, and subsequently became coadjutor
of Valerius, bishop of Hippo, and afterwards his successor. In the
church of All Saints, Trull, Somerset, there is a fifteenth century oak
pulpit, richly carved. On the pulpit are five figures, one of which
represents Augustine of Hippo (354-430).
_Columbus._
AURELIAN.
Lucius Domitius Aurelian, son of a peasant of Pannonia, was elected
emperor of Rome 270 +A.D.+, and rendered himself famous for his
military character; drove the barbarians out of Italy; defeated
Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, and carried her captive to Rome. After
a reign of six years, as he was on his way to crush a rebellion in
Persia, he was assassinated near Byzantium by his troops, +A.D.+ 275.
with the Palmyrene
That fought Aurelian, and the Roman brows
Of Agrippina.
_The Princess._
AURELIUS.
Elder brother of Uther the pendragon and reigned before him. In Latin
he is called Ambrosius. He was the uncle of king Arthur. In 457 he
defeated the Saxons who had been invited over by Vortigern, and
beheaded Hengist (_q.v._); and by the aid of his magician Merlin,
brought the great stones known as the ‘Giant’s Dance’ from Kildare to
Salisbury Plain where he erected them as a monument to the 460 British
chiefs who had been treacherously slain by Hengist. It is said that
upon his death there appeared in the sky a large comet which issued two
long and brilliant rays, together with a fairy form like a dragon.
For first Aurelius lived and fought and died,
And after him King Uther fought and died,
But either fail’d to make the kingdom one.
_Coming of Arthur_;
_Gareth and Lynette_.
AURICULA.
A species of primrose, called also, from the shape of its leaves,
bear’s ear.
_City Child._
AUSONIAN.
stay’d the Ausonian king to hear
Of wisdom and of law.
Ausonia was the name of Campania, a province of Italy, during its
occupation by the Oscans and Etruscans in the eleventh century.
_Palace of Art._
AUSTIN (Augustine).
Did not Great Gregory bid St. Austin here
Found two archbishopricks, London and York?
Prior of the Benedictine monastery of St. Andrew, Rome; sent by pope
Gregory I in 596 with forty other monks as a missionary to England.
Landing on the Isle of Thanet the missionaries were kindly received
by Ethelbert, king of Kent, who subsequently became a convert to
Christianity. Founded the See of Canterbury, and became its first
archbishop.
_Becket._
AVALON--AVILION.
Avalon or Avilion is supposed to have been an island in the
neighbourhood of Glastonbury in Somersetshire, where Joseph of
Arimathæa is said to have first landed with his boat with the Holy
Grail. It was to this island that king Arthur went to be healed of his
wounds, which he had received in the last weird battle in the west.
‘if indeed I go
(For all my mind is clouded with a doubt)--
To the island-valley of Avilion;
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow;
Nor ever wind blows loudly: but it lies
Deep-meadow’d, happy, fair with orchard lawns
And bowery hollows crown’d with summer sea,
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.’
The word means ‘Apple-green Island’ and it has been described as the
‘Island of the blest, upon which Glastonbury stood.’
O three times famous Isle, where is that place that might
Be with thy self compar’d for glory and delight,
Whilst _Glastonbury_ stood?
Drayton: _Polyolbion, Third Song._
_Palace of Art_;
_Morte d’Arthur_;
_Gareth and Lynette_;
_Passing of Arthur_.
AVE MARY.
_See_ =Mary=.
AVERILL.
The Rector of the parish in which Aylmer’s Hall, the residence of
sir Aylmer Aylmer (_q.v._) was situated. On the death of Edith, the
daughter of sir Aylmer, he was asked to preach the funeral sermon, and
taking for his text ‘Behold, your house is left unto you desolate’ he
denounced the pride and self-seeking of the Aylmer parents.
_Aylmer’s Field._
AVILION.
_See_ =Avalon=.
AYLMER.
Sir Aylmer Aylmer was a country squire, and was looked upon as the
supreme authority in the village in which he resided.
Sir Aylmer Aylmer, that almighty man,
The county God--in whose capacious hall,
Hung with a hundred shields, the family tree
Sprang from the midriff of a prostrate king--
His wife, lady Aylmer, had in her young days been a lady of superior
beauty and attraction, but with advancing years had lost some of her
good looks.
His wife, a faded beauty of the Baths,
Insipid as the Queen upon a card;
Her all of thought and bearing hardly more
Than his own shadow in a sickly sun.
They had one daughter, Edith, heiress of their wealth and name, and
a favourite in the parish, and sir Aylmer’s ambition was, that the
man who married her should adopt the name of Aylmer in order that the
family name may not become extinct.
His only child, his Edith, whom he loved
As heiress and not heir regretfully?
But ‘he that marries her marries her name.’
The Rector of the parish in which Aylmer hall was situated was named
Averill, whose family was on intimate terms with the Aylmers, three
generations of each family having followed one another at the rectory
and the hall respectively.
Where Aylmer followed Aylmer at the Hall
And Averill Averill at the Rectory
Thrice over: so that Rectory and Hall,
Bound in an immemorial intimacy,
Were open to each other:
Edith was in love with Leolin--a barrister--brother of the rector, who,
during the vacations, used to come and stay with his brother at the
rectory. On the other hand an Indian kinsman came to visit the Aylmers
and made presents to Edith, among them being a jewelled dagger; but as
Edith did not care neither for the dagger nor the donor she passed it
on to Leolin. Owing to the gossip in the village sir Aylmer’s eyes
were opened to the lovemaking between his daughter and Leolin, with the
result that Leolin was forbidden to enter his house, and Edith was kept
close at home.
‘Boy, should I find you by my doors again,
My men shall lash you from them like a dog;
Hence!’ with a sudden execration drove
The footstool from before him; and arose:
A clandestine correspondence was however carried on, and this being
discovered was stopped, and Edith was more closely confined, with the
result that she lost her health and eventually succumbed to an attack
of fever. When Leolin learned the news he stabbed himself with the
dagger that Edith had given him.
The second day
My lady’s Indian kinsman rushing in,
A breaker of the bitter news from home,
Found a dead man, a letter edged with death
Beside him; and the dagger which himself
Gave Edith, redden’d with no bandit’s blood:
‘From Edith’ was engraven on the blade.
On the Sunday following Edith’s death, the rector of the parish was
asked to preach her funeral sermon, and taking for his text ‘Behold
your house is left unto you desolate,’ he denounced the pride of the
Aylmer parents.
Long o’er his bent brows linger’d Averill,
His face magnetic to the hand from which
Livid he pluck’d it forth, and labour’d thro’
His brief prayer-prelude, gave the verse ‘Behold,
Your house is left unto you desolate!’
But lapsed into so long a pause again
As half amazed half frighted all his flock:
In a fainting condition lady Aylmer was carried out of church, followed
by her husband, amid the frowns of the congregation.
While thus he spoke, his hearers wept; but some,
Sons of the glebe, with other frowns than those
That knit themselves for summer shadow, scowl’d
At their great lord.
Neither of them entered the church again, for in the course of a month
lady Aylmer died.
But nevermore did either pass the gate
Save under pall with bearers. In one month,
Thro’ weary and yet ever wearier hours,
The childless mother went to seek her child;
Sir Aylmer became an imbecile and two years later was laid beside his
wife and daughter; the hall was demolished and its place became the
haunt of the mole and hedgehog, the slow-worm and the weasel.
his own head
Began to droop, to fall; the man became
Imbecile; his one word was ‘desolate;’
Dead for two years before his death was he;
But when the second Christmas came, escaped
His keepers, and the silence which he felt,
To find a deeper in the narrow gloom
By wife and child.
* * * * *
Then the great Hall was wholly broken down,
And the broad woodland parcell’d into farms:
And where the two contrived their daughter’s good,
Lies the hawk’s cast, the mole has made his run,
The hedgehog underneath the plantain bores,
The rabbit fondles his own harmless face,
The slow-worm creeps, and the thin weasel there
Follows the mouse, and all is open field.
_Aylmer’s Field._
AYLMER-AVERILL.
A combination of the names of Aylmer and Averill; Aylmer being the
family name of the pompous squire, and Averill the name of the rector
of the parish in which Aylmer hall was situated.
Where Aylmer followed Aylmer at the Hall
And Averill Averill at the Rectory
Thrice over; so that Rectory and Hall,
Bound in an immemorial intimacy,
Were open to each other;
In years gone by an Aylmer had married an Averill.
There was an Aylmer-Averill marriage once,
When the red rose was redder than itself.
_Aylmer’s Field._
AZORES.
A group of nine volcanic islands in the Atlantic of which Flores is
one. It was near these islands that sir Richard Grenville (_q.v._) in
the reign of queen Elizabeth was attacked by the Spanish Fleet.
_The Revenge._
AZRAEL.
I saw thee fall before me, and then
Me too the black-wing’d Azrael overcame,
But Death had ears and eyes;
The Angel of Death. According to Mahomet the angel appointed to inflict
the death penalty on all unbelievers.
_Akbar’s Dream._
BAAL.
The principal god of the Canaanites and Phœnicians. In Biblical times
the priests, in honour of their god, cut themselves with knives. _1
Kings xviii. 28._
_Aylmer’s Field_;
_Becket_.
BABEL.
till a clamour grew
As of a new-world Babel, woman-built
And worse-confounded:
Signifies confusion. Has reference to the building of the tower of
Babel. _Genesis xi. 1-9._
_The Princess._
BABYLON.
_Sea Dreams_;
_Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham_;
_The Dawn_.
BABYLONIAN WALL.
and she
The foundress of the Babylonian wall,
Semiramis, wife of Ninus, king of Assyria and the founder of Nineveh.
She was the daughter of Derceto, the Syrian fish-goddess, and married
Onnes one of Ninus’ generals; but after her heroic capture of Bactra,
the king married her, and Onnes committed suicide. After Ninus’ death
she ruled and founded many cities, including the city of Babylon.
After reigning forty-two years she abdicated in favour of her son and
ascended to heaven in the form of a dove.
_The Princess._
BACCHANAL.
Then those who led the van, and those in rear,
Rush’d into dance, and like wild Bacchanals
Fled onward to the steeple in the woods:
= A noisy or riotous person.
_Lover’s Tale._
BACCHANTE.
Cassandra, Hebe, Joan,
Or spinning at your wheel beside the vine--
Bacchante, what you will;
= A female disciple of Bacchus.
_Romney’s Remorse._
BACCHUS.
In Roman mythology the god of wine, son of Zeus and Semele.
_Dream of Fair Women._
BACON (Lord).
_See_ =Verulam=.
BADGER.
A burrowing nocturnal animal.
_Holy Grail_;
_The Foresters_.
BADON.
The twelfth great battle of king Arthur with the Saxons was fought near
Badon Hill, 520 +A.D.+ It was the greatest of all his victories, it
being computed that ‘nine hundred and sixty men fell before Arthur’s
single onset.’
‘and on the mount
Of Badon I myself beheld the King
Charge at the head of all his Table Round,
And all his legions crying Christ and him,
And break them; and I saw him, after, stand
High on a heap of slain, from spur to plume
Red as the rising sun with heathen blood,’
The locality of Badon has been a matter of dispute. It has been
identified with Badon Hill, in Linlithgow, but is now generally thought
to be Bradbury Hill, in Dorset.
_Lancelot and Elaine._
BAGDAT.
or Bagdad, on the river Tigris, was founded in 762 to be the capital
of the Caliphate. Under Haroun Alraschid (_q.v._) it became famous
as a seat of learning, and contained over 100 mosques, the domes and
minarets of which were ornamented with glazed tiles in green and white.
By Bagdat’s shrines of fretted gold,
High-walled gardens green and old;
True Mussulman was I and sworn.
For it was in the golden prime
Of good Haroun Alraschid.
_Recollections of the Arabian Nights._
BAGENHALL.
_See_ =Ralph, Ralph Bagenhall=.
BAILEY-GATE.
Storm at the Water-gate! storm at the Bailey-gate! storm.
_Defence of Lucknow._
BALA.
A Welsh lake, out of which flows the river Dee. The south-west wind
blows from end to end of the lake, and as it drives the water to
north-east it fills the river.
As the south-west that blowing Bala lake
Fills all the sacred Dee.
_Geraint and Enid._
BALAN.
A Knight of the Round Table; brother of Balin (_q.v._).
_Balin and Balan._
BALE (John).
Bishop of Ossory. Born in Suffolk, and educated at a Carmelite
monastery, Norwich, and Jesus College, Cambridge, he became a convert
from popery. In 1540, on the fall of Cromwell, he fled to Germany, but
in 1547 was recalled by Edward VI, made rector of Swaffam in 1551,
and two years later bishop of Ossory. On the accession of Mary he
fled to Basle, where he lived until 1559, but returned in the reign
of Elizabeth, and was made a prebendary of Canterbury. He wrote the
first literary history of England, and in 1849 his select works were
published by the Parker Society (1495-1563).
_Queen Mary._
BALIN.
A knight of the Round Table called ‘The Savage.’ He was a
Northumberland knight and being taken captive by king Arthur, was
imprisoned for six months. When he was released, a damsel came to
Camelot girded with a sword, and told the king that no one tainted with
‘treachery’ could draw it. King Arthur and all his knights tried and
failed, but sir Balin drew it easily. The damsel begged for the sword
but Balin refused, whereupon she said that it would be a plague to him,
for with it he would slay his best friend, and would also prove his
own death. The Lady of the Lake next demanded the sword, but Balin cut
off her head with it and he was banished from court. Going one day to
a castle to joust, he met a knight in red, accompanied with a shield,
and rode forth to meet him. So fierce was the encounter that both the
combatants were wounded, each living long enough to learn that his
antagonist was none other than his brother.
‘O brother,’ answered Balin, ‘woe is me!
My madness all thy life has been thy doom,
Thy curse, and darken’d all thy day; and now
The night has come. I scarce can see thee now.
Goodnight! for we shall never bid again goodmorrow--
* * * * *
Goodnight, true brother.
Balan answer’d low,
‘Goodnight, true brother here! goodmorrow there!
We two were born together, and we die
Together by one doom:’ and while he spoke,
Closed his death-drowsing eyes, and slept the sleep
With Balin, either lock’d in either’s arm.
Thus was fulfilled the damsel’s prophecy. Merlin buried the two
brothers in one tomb, and
‘the scabbard of Balin’s sword Merlin left it on this side the island
that Galahad should find it,’ also he put ‘Balin’s sword in a marble
stone standing upright as great as a millstone, and the stone hoved
always above the water, and did many years, and so by adventure it
swam down the stream to the city of Camelot, that is in English
Winchester.’
Malory: _Morte d’Arthur, Book II. chap. xix._
_Balin and Balan._
BALLIOL.
A college at Oxford founded in 1263 by John de Baliol father of John de
Baliol king of Scotland.
_To the Master of Balliol._
BALM-CRICKET.
A cicada.
_A Dirge._
BALTIC.
O shaker of the Baltic and the Nile,
Has reference to Lord Nelson’s victory at the battle of Copenhagen,
April 2, 1801.
_Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington._
BALTIC (Sea).
_Maud._
BAMBOO.
A gigantic Indian reed or grass, with hollow jointed stem, which are
used for poles, walking sticks, etc.
_To Ulysses._
BARA.
A Welsh word meaning ‘bread.’
_Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham._
BARABBAS.
Why should this Rome, this Rome,
Still choose Barabbas rather than the Christ.
_Becket._
BARBARIAN.
Till that o’ergrown Barbarian in the East
Transgress his ample bound to some new crown:--
= Russia.
_Poland._
BARBAROSSA.
Surname of Frederick I, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Succeeded his
father duke Frederick II of Swabia in 1147, and his uncle Conrad III as
emperor in 1152. The great struggle of his reign was with Lombardy.
Honorius III prepared to support the Lombardy cities, and Gregory IX
began the struggle between the papacy and the emperor.
I, true son
Of Holy Church--no croucher to the Gregories
That tread the kings their children underheel--
Must curb her, and the Holy Father, while
This Barbarossa butts him from his chair.
Died in 1190 in the crusade against Saladin (1123-1190).
_Becket._
BARCELONA.
At Barcelona--tho’ you were not then
So bearded. Yes. The city deck’d herself
To meet me, roar’d my name; the king, the queen
Bad me be seated, speak, and tell them all
The story of my voyage,
A seaport and capital of the province of Barcelona. On his return
from his first voyage Columbus arrived at Barcelona, where every
preparation had been made to give him an enthusiastic reception, and
where Ferdinand and Isabella, seated under a rich canopy, awaited his
arrival. As Columbus approached the king and queen rose from their
seats, and Columbus falling on his knees requested to kiss their hands.
The sovereigns however ordered him to seat himself in their presence,
and at their request Columbus gave an account of the voyage and a
description of the land he had discovered.
_Columbus._
BARLOW (William).
A native of Essex, canon of St. Osith monastery Essex, and afterwards
prior of the canons at Bisham. Appointed bishop of London, 1509,
and bishop of St. Asaph, 1535, being transferred to St. David’s in
the following year. In 1547 he was translated to Bath and Wells, and
became a zealous preacher of the reformed faith. On the accession of
Mary he was deprived of his bishopric, and committed to the Tower, but
escaping, fled to Germany.
our Bishops from their sees
Or fled, they say, or flying--Poinet, Barlow,
Bale, Scory, Coverdale;
Elizabeth having succeeded, he returned, was created bishop of
Chichester, 1559, and in 1560 prebendary of Westminster, and died the
same year.
_Queen Mary._
BARTON (Elizabeth).
_See_ =Joan of Kent=.
BASILISK.
A fabulous creature, resembling a dragon.
_Holy Grail._
BASLE.
A city in the north-west of Switzerland. Was a centre of influence in
Reformation times, and for several years the home of Erasmus.
To Strasburg, Antwerp, Frankfort, Zurich, Worms,
Geneva, Basle--our Bishops from their sees
Or fled, they say, or flying--
_Queen Mary._
BASSA.
Supposed to mean Bashall Brook, which joins the river Ribble near
Clitheroe, in Lancashire. It was the scene of king Arthur’s sixth
victory over the Saxons.
_Lancelot and Elaine._
BAT.
An animal with a body like a mouse, but which flies on wings attached
mainly to its fore-feet.
_Mariana_;
_The Princess_;
_In Memoriam_;
_Maud_;
_Balin and Balan_;
_Despair_;
_The Foresters_.
BATHS.
His wife a faded beauty of the Baths,
= Lady Aylmer. Had formerly been a belle at the fashionable
watering-places, but had now lost her good looks.
_Aylmer’s Field._
BATHS, THE.
The Baths, the Forum gabbled of his death,
In great cities of the Roman Empire the Baths were popular lounges
where amusements were provided for the people; consequently centre of
gossip.
_St. Telemachus._
BATTLE-TWIG.
= an earwig.
_Spinster’s Sweet-Arts._
BAY.
= the laurel-tree.
_Gareth and Lynette_;
_Poets and their Bibliographies_.
BAYEUX.
An ancient city of Normandy. The ancient cathedral in Gothic said
to be the oldest in Normandy, was rebuilt, after a fire, by William
the Conqueror in 1077, but the present structure dates mainly from
1106 to the thirteenth century. Bayeux is noted for its celebrated
tapestry, preserved in the Bayeux public library. It is 230 feet
long, by 20 inches wide, worked in coloured worsted, and divided into
seventy-two scenes connected with the life of William the Conqueror.
It is considered to have been the work of queen Matilda. William’s
half-brother, Odo, was appointed bishop of Bayeux in 1048, a see which
he held for fifty years.
_Harold._
BEAR.
= an animal of many varieties.
_The Princess_;
_Coming of Arthur_;
_Pelleas and Ettarre_;
_Harold_;
_Becket_.
BEAR.
A constellation of seven stars in the northern hemisphere, called also
the Plough, the Wagon, and Charles’s Wain. In Welsh it is called the
Chariot of Arthur, as the name Arthur originally denoted a Bear; while
the Round Table was suggested by the movement of the constellation
round the pole star.
Now poring on the glow-worm, now the star,
I paced the terrace, till the Bear had wheel’d
Thro’ a great arc his seven slow suns.
_The Princess, iv._
and thro’ the gap
The seven clear stars of Arthur’s Table Round--
_Holy Grail._
_The Princess._
BECKET (Gilbert).
_See_ =Gilbert Becket=.
BECKET (Thomas).
_See_ =Thomas, Thomas Becket=.
BEDINGFIELD (Henry).
_See_ =Henry Bedingfield=.
BEDIVERE.
The first made and the latest left of all the Knights of the Round
Table. He is described as the ‘bold sir Bedivere,’ being always ready
to defend king Arthur’s right to the throne.
For bold in heart and act and word was he,
Whenever slander breathed against the King--
He was one of the three knights sent by king Arthur to king Leodogran,
to ask for the hand of his daughter Guinevere; and in the last weird
battle in the west the only knight of Arthur’s who escaped alive.
When Arthur lay dying he commanded sir Bedivere to return his sword
Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake.
‘But now delay not: take Excalibur,
And fling him far into the middle mere:
Watch what thou seëst, and lightly bring me word.’
Twice did sir Bedivere go to the pool and twice did his heart fail him,
for thinking it a pity to throw away so valuable a weapon he hid it
among the waterflags about the marge. Returning to the dying king and
being questioned as to what he had seen he replied:
‘I heard the ripple washing in the reeds,
And the wild water lapping on the crag.’
but the dying monarch detecting the knight’s deception, threateningly
commanded him to fulfil his wishes.
‘Unknightly, traitor-hearted! Woe is me!
Authority forgets a dying king,
* * * * *
get thee hence:
But, if thou spare to fling Excalibur,
I will arise and slay thee with my hands.’
whereupon the knight rose, and going down to the mere, clutch’d the
sword and threw it in the water.
But ere it dipt the surface, rose an arm
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
And caught him by the hilt, and brandish’d him
Three times, and drew him under in the mere.
Returning to the king sir Bedivere told him what he had seen, and
taking the king upon his back went to the waterside and placed him in
a barge in which were three queens, all of whom wept. Rowing from the
land sir Bedivere cried:
‘Ah, my lord Arthur, what shall become of me now ye go from me,
and leave me here alone among thine enemies. Comfort thyself, said
the king, and do as well as thou mayest, for in me is no trust for
to trust in. For I will into the vale of Avilion, to heal me of my
grievous wound. And if thou hear never more of me, pray for my soul.’
Malory: _Morte d’Arthur, Book XXI. chap. v._
And as soon as the bold sir Bedivere lost sight of the barge he wept,
and taking to the forest became a hermit.
_Morte d’Arthur_;
_Coming of Arthur_;
_Passing of Arthur_.
BEE.
A four-winged insect that makes honey.
_Claribel_;
_A Dirge_;
_Eleänore_;
_Two Voices_;
_Œnone_;
_Amphion_;
_A Farewell_;
_Enoch Arden_;
_The Princess_;
_Northern Farmer, New Style_;
_The Window_;
_Lancelot and Elaine_;
_Holy Grail_;
_Ancient Sage_;
_Vastness_;
_Progress of Spring_;
_Romney’s Remorse_.
BEEÄ.
= Bee.
_Northern Cobbler._
BEECH.
A tree with smooth silvery-looking bark.
_On a Mourner_;
_Talking Oak_;
_In Memoriam_;
_Progress of Spring_;
_Edwin Morris_;
_Amphion_;
_The Brook_;
_Prologue to General Hamley_;
_The Cup_.
BEELZEBUB.
_The Foresters._
BEETLE.
An insect, having four wings, the outer pair being stiff cases for
covering the others when they are folded up.
_Claribel._
BEL.
The British god of the underworld.
_Boädicea._