him. “I _hope_ [_i.e._, _expect_] I shall be hanged for this,” cried the
tanner; but the king, in merry pin, gave him the manor of Plumpton Park,
with 300 marks a year.--Percy, _Reliques, etc._
=Tannhäuser= (_Sir_), called in German the _Ritter Tannhäuser_, a
Teutonic knight, who wins the love of Lisaura, a Mantuan lady. Hilario,
the philosopher, often converses with the Ritter on supernatural
subjects, and promises that Venus herself shall be his mistress, if he
will summon up his courage to enter Venusberg. Tannhäuser starts on the
mysterious journey, and Lisaura, hearing thereof, kills herself. At
Venusberg, the Ritter gives full swing to his pleasures, but in time
returns to Mantua, and makes his confession to Pope Urban. His holiness
says to him, “Man, you can no more hope for absolution, than this staff
which I hold in my hand, can be expected to bud.” So Tannhäuser flees in
despair from Rome, and returns to Venusberg. Meanwhile, the pope’s staff
actually does sprout, and Urban sends in all directions for the Ritter,
but he is nowhere to be found.
Tieck, in his _Phantasus_ (1812), introduces the story. Wagner (in 1845)
brought out his great opera, called _Tannhäuser_. The companion of
Tannhäuser was Eckhardt.
⁂ The tale of Tannhäuser is substantially the same as that of Thomas of
Erceldoun, also called “Thomas the Rhymer,” who was so intimate with
Faëry folk, that he could foretell what events would come to pass. He
was also a bard, and wrote the famous lay of _Sir Tristrem_. The general
belief is, that the seer is not dead, but has been simply removed from
the land of the living to Faëry-land, whence occasionally he emerges, to
busy himself with human affairs. Sir W. Scott has introduced the legend
in _Castle Dangerous_, v. (See ERCELDOUN.)
=Tantalus=, for crimes the nature of which is uncertain, he was punished
in the Inferno with insatiable hunger and thirst, placed up to his chin
in water, which receded whenever he tried to drink, while tempting
fruits grew near by, that drew back if he attempted to touch them.
Hence, _tantalize_.--_Greek Mythology._
=Taouism=, the system of Taou, that invisible principle which pervades
everything. Pope refers to this universal divine permeation in the
well-known lines: it
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees,
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent.
_Essay on Man_, i. (1733).
=Tapestered Chamber= (_The_), a tale by Sir W. Scott, laid in the reign
of George III. There are but two characters introduced. General Browne
goes on a visit to Lord Woodville, and sleeps in the “tapestered
chamber,” which is haunted. He sees the “lady in the sacque,” describes
her to Lord Woodville next morning, and recognizes her picture in the
portrait gallery.
The back of this form was turned to me, and I could observe, from the
shoulders and neck, it was that of an old woman, whose dress was an
old-fashioned gown, which, I think, ladies call a sacque--that is, a
sort of robe completely loose in the body, but gathered into broad
plaits upon the neck and shoulders, which fall down to the ground, and
terminate in a species of train.
=Tap´ley= (_Mark_), an honest, light-hearted young man, whose ambition
was “to come out jolly” under the most unfavorable circumstances.
Greatly attached to Martin Chuzzlewit, he leaves his comfortable
situation at the Blue Dragon to accompany him to America, and in “Eden”
has ample opportunities of “being jolly,” so far as wretchedness could
make him so. On his return to England he marries Mrs. Lupin, and thus
becomes landlord of the Blue Dragon.--C. Dickens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_,
xiii., xxi., etc. (1843).
Charles [_VII. of France_] was the Mark Tapley of kings, and bore
himself with his usual “jollity” under this afflicting news. It was
remarked of him that “no one could lose a kingdom with greater
gaiety.”--Rev. J. White.
=Tappertit= (_Sim_, i.e., _Simon_), the apprentice of Gabriel Varden,
locksmith. He was just 20 in years, but 200 in conceit. An
old-fashioned, thin-faced, sleek-haired, sharp-nosed, small-eyed little
fellow was Mr. Sim Tappertit, about five feet high, but thoroughly
convinced in his own mind that he was both good looking and above the
middle size, in fact, rather tall than otherwise. His figure, which was
slender, he was proud of; and with his legs, which in knee-breeches were
perfect curiosities of littleness, he was enraptured. He had also a
secret notion that the power of his eye was irresistible, and he
believed that he could subdue the haughtiest beauty “by eyeing her.” Of
course Mr. Tappertit had an ambitious soul, and admired his master’s
daughter, Dolly. He was captain of the secret society of “’Prentice
Knights,” whose object was “vengeance against their tyrant masters.”
After the Gordon riots, in which Tappertit took a leading part, he was
found “burnt and bruised, with a gun-shot wound in his body and both his
legs crushed into shapeless ugliness.” The cripple, by the locksmith’s
aid, turned shoe-black under an archway near the Horse Guards, thrived
in his vocation, and married the widow of a rag-and-bone collector.
While an apprentice, Miss Miggs, the “protestant” shrewish servant of
Mrs. Varden, cast an eye of hope on “Simmun;” but the conceited puppy
pronounced her “decidedly scraggy,” and disregarded the soft
impeachment.--C. Dickens, _Barnaby Rudge_ (1841). (See SYLLI.)
=Tapwell= (_Timothy_), husband of Froth, put into business by Wellborn’s
father, whose butler he was. When Wellborn was reduced to beggary,
Timothy behaved most insolently to him; but as soon as he supposed he
was about to marry the rich dowager, Lady Allworth, the rascal fawned on
him like a whipped spaniel.--Massinger, _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_
(1625).
=Tara= (_The Hill of_), in Meath, Ireland. Here the kings, the clergy,
the princes and the bards used to assemble in a large hall, to consult
on matters of public importance.
The harp that once thro’ Tara’s halls
The soul of music shed,
Now hangs as mute on Tara’s walls
As if that soul were fled.
T. Moore, _Irish Melodies_ (“The Harp that Once ...” 1814).
_Tara_ (_The Fes of_), the triennial convention established by Ollam
Fodlah or Ollav Fola in B.C. 900, or 950. When business was over the
princes banqueted together, each under his shield suspended by the chief
herald on the wall, according to precedency. In the reign of Cormac, the
palace of Tara was 900 feet square, and contained 150 apartments, and
150 dormitories, each for sixty sleepers. As many as 1000 guests were
daily entertained in the hall.
=Tarpa= (_Spurius Metius_), a famous critic of the Augustan age. He sat
in the temple of Apollo, with four colleagues, to judge the merit of
theatrical pieces before they were produced in public.
He gives himself out for another Tarpa; decides boldly, and supports
his opinions with loudness and obstinacy.--Lesage, _Gil Blas_, xi. 10
(1735).
=Tarpe´ian Rock.= So called from Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius,
governor of the citadel on the Saturnian (_i.e._, Capitoline) Hill of
Rome. The story is that the Sabines bargained with the Roman maid to
open the gates to them, for the “ornaments on their arms.” As they
passed through the gates they threw on her their shields, saying, “These
are the ornaments we bear on our arms.” She was crushed to death, and
buried on the Tarpeian Hill. Ever after, traitors were put to death by
being hurled headlong from the hill-top.
Bear him to the rock Tarpeian, and from thence
Into destruction cast him.
Shakespeare, _Coriolanus_, act iii. sc. 1 (1610).
⁂ G. Gilfillan, in his introduction to Longfellow’s poems, makes an
erroneous allusion to the Roman traitress. He says Longfellow’s
“ornaments, unlike those of the Sabine [_sic_] maid, have not crushed
him.”
Louise Imogen Guiney has a poem entitled _Tarpeia_, beginning:
“Woe! lightly to part with one’s soul as the sea with its foam!
Woe to Tarpeia, Tarpeia, daughter of Rome!”
(1884).
=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).
_Tarquin_ (_The Fall of_). The well-known Roman story of Sextus
Tarquinius and Lucretia has been dramatized by various persons, as: N.
Lee (1679); John Howard Payne, _Brutus_, or _The Fall of Tarquin_
(1820)--this is the tragedy in which Edmund Kean appeared with his son,
Charles, at Glasgow, the father taking “Brutus” and the son “Titus.”
Arnault produced a tragedy in French, entitled _Lucrèce_, in 1792; and
Ponsard, in 1843. Alfieri has a tragedy called _Brutus_, on the same
subject. It also forms indirectly the subject of one of the lays of Lord
Macaulay, called _The Battle of the Lake Regillus_ (1842), a battle
undertaken by the Sabines for the restoration of Tarquin, but in which
the king and his two sons were left dead upon the field.
=Tarquinia=, wife of Titus, son of Brutus. Titus is one of the
conspirators whose object is to bring back the Tarquins to Rome, and the
sin against the state is palliated by his connection with the proscribed
family. The unhappy son is condemned to death by his own father, and
beheaded in his presence.--John Howard Payne, _Brutus_, a tragedy
(1818).
=Tarquinius= (_Sextus_), having violated Lucretia, wife of Tarquinius
Collatīnus, caused an insurrection in Rome, whereby the magistracy of
kings was changed for that of consuls.
⁂ A parallel case is given in Spanish history: Roderick, the Goth, king
of Spain, having violated Florinda, daughter of Count Julian, was the
cause of Julian’s inviting over the Moors, who invaded Spain, drove
Roderick from the throne, and the Gothic dynasty was set aside for ever.
=Tartaro=, the Basque Cyclops; of giant stature and cannibal habits, but
not without a rough _bonhommie_. Intellectually very low in the scale,
and invariably beaten in all contests with men. Galled in spirit by his
ill success, the giant commits suicide. Tartaro, the son of a king, was
made a monster out of punishment, and was never to lose his deformity
till he married. One day he asked a girl to be his bride, and on being
refused, sent her “a talking ring,” which talked without ceasing
immediately she put it on; so she cut off her finger and threw it into a
large pond, and there the Tartaro drowned himself.--Rev. W. Webster,
_Basque Legends_, 1-4 (1876).
In one of the Basque legends, Tartaro is represented as a Polyphēmos,
whose one eye is bored out with spits made red hot by some seamen who
had wandered inadvertently into his dwelling. Like Ulysses, the leader
of these seamen made his escape by the aid of a ram, but with this
difference--he did not, like Ulysses, cling to the ram’s belly, but
fastened the ram’s bell round his neck and threw a sheep-skin over his
shoulders. When Tartaro laid hold of the fugitive, the man escaped,
leaving the sheep-skin in the giant’s hand.
=Tartar=, handsome, “eminently well-dressed” and vivacious cousin of the
Crittendens, into whose family Phœbe has married. The country-bred
bride conceives the fancy that the dashing belle is beloved of her
(Phœbe’s) husband, and leaves him in consequence. Tartar, meanwhile,
has long loved--as she believes--hopelessly, Peyton Edwards, a
quietly-reserved young lawyer, whom she finally marries.--Mariam Coles
Harris, _Phœbe_ (1884).
=Tartarin=, a Quixotic Frenchman whose life at home and whose adventures
while travelling are related by Alphonse Daudet in _Tartarin of
Tarascon_, _Tartarin on the Alps_, and _Port Tarascon_.
=Tartlet= (_Tim_), servant of Mrs. Pattypan, to whom also he is engaged
to be married. He says, “I loves to see life, because vy, ’tis so
agreeable.”--James Cobb, _The First Floor_, i. 2 (1756-1818).
=Tartuffe= (2 _syl._), the chief character and title of a comedy by
Molière (1664). Tartuffe is a religious hypocrite and impostor who uses
“religion” as the means of gaining money, covering deceit, and promoting
self-indulgence. He is taken up by one Orgon, a man of property, who
promises him his daughter in marriage, but his true character being
exposed, he is not only turned out of the house, but is lodged in jail
for felony.
Isaac Bickerstaff has adapted Molière’s comedy to the English stage,
under the title of _The Hypocrite_ (1768). Tartuffe he calls “Dr.
Cantwell,” and Orgon “Sir John Lambert.” It is thought that “Tartuffe”
is a caricature of Père la Chaise, the confessor of Louis XIV., who was
very fond of truffles (French, _tartuffes_), and that this suggested the
name to the dramatist.
=Tartuffe of the Revolution.= N. J. Pache is so called by Carlyle
(1740-1823).
Swiss Pache sits sleek-headed, frugal, the wonder of his own ally for
humility of mind.... Sit there Tartuffe, till wanted.--Carlyle.
=Tasnar=, an enchanter, who aided the rebel army arrayed against Misnar,
sultan of Delhi. A female slave undertook to kill the enchanter, and
went with the sultan’s sanction to carry out her promise. She presented
herself to Tasnar and Ahu´bal, and presented papers which she said she
had stolen. Tasnar, suspecting a trick, ordered her to be bow-strung,
and then detected a dagger concealed about her person. Tasnar now put on
the slave’s dress, and, transformed into her likeness, went to the
sultan’s tent. The vizier commanded the supposed slave to prostrate
“herself” before she approached the throne, and while prostrate he cut
off “her” head. The sultan was angry, but the vizier replied, “This is
not the slave, but the enchanter. Fearing this might occur, I gave the
slave a pass-word, which this deceiver did not give, and was thus
betrayed. So perish all the enemies of Mahomet and Misnar, his
vicegerent upon earth!”--Sir C. Morell [J. Ridley], _Tales of the
Genii_, vi. (1751).
=Tasso and Leonora.= When Tasso, the poet, lived in the court of Alfonso
II., the reigning duke of Ferrara, he fell in love with Leonora d’Este
(2 _syl._), the duke’s sister, but “she saw it not or viewed with
disdain” his passion, and the poet, moneyless, fled half mad to Naples.
After an absence of two years, in which the poet was almost starved to
death by extreme poverty, his friends, together with Leonora, induced
the duke to receive him back, but no sooner did he reach Ferrara than
Alfonso sent him to an asylum, and there he was kept for seven years,
when he was liberated by the instigation of the pope, but died soon
afterwards (1544-1595).
=Taste=, a farce by Foote (1753), to expose the imposition of
picture-dealers and sellers of virtu generally.
=Tati´nus=, a Greek who joined the crusaders with a force of 200 men
armed with “crooked sabres” and bows. These Greeks, like the Parthians,
were famous in retreat, but when a drought came they all sneaked off
home.--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_, xiii. (1575).
=Tatius= (_Achilles_), the acolyte, an officer in the Varangian
guard.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).
=Tatlanthe= (3 _syl._) the favorite of Fadladinida (queen of
Queerummania and wife of Chrononhotonthologos). She extols the warlike
deeds of the king, supposing the queen will feel flattered by her
praises; and Fadladinida exclaims, “Art mad, Tatlonthe? Your talk’s
distasteful.... You are too pertly lavish in his praise?” She then
guesses that the queen loves another, and says to herself, “I see that I
must tack about,” and happening to mention “the captive king,”
Fadladinida exclaims, “That’s he! that’s he! that’s he! I’d die ten
thousand deaths to set him free.” Ultimately, the queen promises
marriage to both the captive king and Rigdum-Funnidos “to make matters
easy.” Then, turning to her favorite, she says:
And now, Tatlanthe, thou art all my care;
Where shall I find thee such another pair?
Pity that you, who’ve served so long and well,
Should die a virgin and lead apes in hell.
Choose for yourself, dear girl, our empire round;
Your portion is twelve hundred thousand pound.
H. Carey, _Chrononhotonthologos_ (1734).
=Tattle=, a man who ruins characters by innuendo, and so denies a
scandal as to confirm it. He is a mixture of “lying, foppery, vanity,
cowardice, bragging, licentiousness, and ugliness, but a professed beau”
(act i.). Tattle is entrapped into marriage with Mrs. Frail.--Congreve,
_Love for Love_ (1695).
⁂ “Mrs. Candour,” in Sheridan’s _School for Scandal_ (1777), is a Tattle
in petticoats.
=Tattycoram=, a handsome girl, with lustrous dark hair and eyes, who
dressed very neatly. She was taken from the Foundling Asylum (London) by
Mr. Meagles to wait upon his daughter. She was called in the hospital
Harriet Beadle. Harriet was first changed to Hatty, then to Tatty, and
Coram was added because the Foundling stands in Coram street. She was
most impulsively passionate, and when excited had no control over
herself. Miss Wade enticed her away for a time, but afterwards she
returned to her first friends.--C. Dickens, _Little Dorrit_ (1857)
=Tawny= (_The_). Alexandre Bonvici´no, the historian, was called _Il
Moretto_ (1514-1564).
=Taylor=, “the water-poet.” He wrote four score books, but never learnt
“so much as the accidences” (1580-1654).
Taylor, their better Charon, lends an oar,
Once Swan of Thames, tho’ now he sings no more.
Pope, _The Dunciad_, iii. 19 (1728).
_Taylor_ (_Dr. Chevalier John_). He called himself “Opthalminator,
Pontificial, Imperial and Royal.” He died, 1767. Hogarth has introduced
him in his famous picture, “The Undertaker’s Arms.” He is one of the
three figures atop, to the left hand of the spectator; the other two are
Mrs. Mapp and Dr. Ward.
=Teacher of Germany= (_The_), Philip Melancthon, the reformer
(1497-1560).
=Teachwell= (_Mrs._), a pseudonym of Lady Ellinor Fenn, wife of Sir John
Fenn, of East Dereham, Norfolk.
=Teague= (_1 syl._), an Irish lad, taken into the service of Colonel
Careless, a royalist, whom he serves with exemplary fidelity. He is
always blundering, and always brewing mischief, with the most innocent
intentions. His bulls and blunders are amusing and characteristic.--Sir
Robert Howard, _The Committee_ (1670), altered by T. Knight into _The
Honest Thieves._
Who...has not a recollection of the incomparable Johnstone [_Irish
Johnstone_] in “Teague,” picturesquely draped in his blanket, and
pouring forth his exquisite humor and mellifluous brogue in equal
measure.--Mrs. C. Mathews, _Tea Table Talk._
=Tearless Battle= (_The_), a battle fought B. C. 367, between the
Lacedæmonians and the combined armies of the Arcadians and Argives (_2
syl._). Not one of the Spartans fell, so that, as Plutarch says, they
called it “The Tearless Battle.”
⁂ Not one was killed in the Abyssinian expedition under Sir R. Napier
(1867-8).
=Tears--Amber.= The tears shed by the sisters of Pha´ëton were converted
into amber.--_Greek Fable._
According to Pliny (_Natural History_, xxxvii. 2, 11), amber is a
concretion of birds’ tears, but the birds were the sisters of Meleāger,
who never ceased weeping for his untimely death.
=Tearsheet= (_Doll_), a common courtezan.--Shakespeare, 2 _Henry IV._
(1598).
=Teazle= (_Sir Peter_), a man who, in old age, married a country girl
who proved extravagant, fond of pleasure, selfish and vain. Sir Peter
was for ever nagging at her for her inferior birth and rustic ways, but
secretly loving her and admiring her _naïveté_. He says to Rowley, “I am
the sweetest-tempered man alive, and hate a teasing temper, and so I
tell her ladyship a hundred times a day.”
_Lady Teazle_, a lively, innocent, country maiden, who married Sir
Peter, old enough to be her grandfather. Planted in London in the whirl
of the season, she formed a liaison with Joseph Surface, but, being
saved from disgrace, repented and reformed.--R. B. Sheridan, _School for
Scandal_ (1777).
=Teeth.= Rigord, an historian of the thirteenth century, tells that when
Chosroës, the Persian, carried away the true cross discovered by St.
Helĕna, the number of teeth in the human race was reduced. Before that
time, Christians were furnished with thirty, and in some cases with
thirty-two teeth, but since then no human being has had more than
twenty-three teeth.--See _Historiens de France_, xviii.
⁂ The normal number of teeth is thirty-two still. This “historic fact”
is of a piece with that which ascribes to woman one more rib than to
man.
=Teetotal.= The origin of this word is ascribed to Richard (_Dicky_)
Turner, who, in addressing a temperance meeting in September, 1833,
reduplicated the word _total_ to give it emphasis: “We not only want
_total_ abstinence, we want more, we want t-total abstinence.” The
novelty and force of the expression took the meeting by storm.
It is not correct to ascribe the word to Mr. Swindlehurst, of Preston,
who is erroneously said to have stuttered.
=Te´ian Muse=, Anacreon, born at Teïos, in Ionia, and called by Ovid
(_Tristia_, ii. 364) Teïa Musa (B.C. 563-478).
The Scian and the Teian Muse ... [_Simonidês and Anacreon_]
Have found the fame your shores refuse.
Byron, _Don Juan_, iii. 86 (“The Isles of Greece,” 1820).
⁂ Probably Byron meant Simonidês of Ceos. Horace (_Carmĭna_, ii. 1, 38)
speaks of “Ceæ munera neniæ,” meaning Simonidês; but Scios, or Scio,
properly means Chios, one of the seven places which laid claim to Homer.
Both Ceos and Chios, are isles of Greece.
=Tei´lo= (_St._), a Welsh saint, who took an active part against the
Pelagian heresy. When he died, three cities contended for his body, but
happily the strife was ended by the multiplication of the dead body into
three St. Teilos. Capgrave insists that the _ipsissime_ body was
possessed by Llandaff.--_English Martyrology._
=Teirtu’s Harp=, which played of itself, merely by being asked to do so,
and when desired to cease playing, did so.--_The Mabinogion_ (“Kilhwch
and Olwen,” twelfth century).
St. Dunstan’s harp discoursed most enchanting music without being struck
by any player.
The harp of the giant, in the tale of _Jack and the Bean-Stalk_, played
of itself. In one of the old Welsh tales, the dwarf named Dewryn Fychan,
stole from a giant a similar harp.
=Telamachus,= the only son of Ulysses and Penelŏpê. When Ulysses had
been absent from home nearly twenty years, Telemachus went to Pylos and
Sparta, to gain information about him. Nestor received him hospitably at
Pylos, and sent him to Sparta, where Menelāus told him the prophecy of
Proteus (2 _syl._), concerning Ulysses. He then returned home, where he
found his father, and assisted him in slaying the suitors. Telemachus
was accompanied in his voyage by the goddess of wisdom, under the form
of Mentor, one of his father’s friends. (See TELEMAQUE.)--_Greek Fable._