brother, whom he dearly loved, because he tried to make himself
absolute in Corinth. “Timophănês he loved, but freedom more.”
The fair Corinthian boast
Timoleon, happy temper, mild and firm,
Who wept the brother while the tyrant bled.
Thomson, _The Seasons_ (“Winter,” 1726).
=Timon=, the Man-hater, an Athenian, who lived in the time of the
Peloponnesian war. Shakespeare has a drama so called (1609). The drama
begins with the joyous life of Timon, and his hospitable extravagance;
then launches into his pecuniary embarrassment, and the discovery that
his “professed friends” will not help him; and ends with his flight
into the woods, his misanthropy, and his death.
When he [_Horace Walpole_] talked misanthropy, he out-Timoned
Timon.--Macaulay.
⁂ On one occasion, Timon said, “I have a fig tree in my garden, which
I once intended to cut down; but I shall let it stand, that any one
who likes may go and hang himself on it.”
=Timon’s Banquet=, nothing but cover and warm water. Being shunned by
his friends in adversity, he pretended to have recovered his money,
and invited his false friends to a banquet. The table was laden with
covers, but when the contents were exposed, nothing was provided but
lukewarm water. (See SCHACABAC.)--Shakespeare, _Timon of Athens_, act
iii. sc. 6 (1609).
=Timoth´eos=, a musician, who charged double fees to all pupils who
had learned music before.--Quintilian, _De Institutione Oratoria_, ii.
3.
Ponocrates made him forget all that he [_Gargantua_] had learned under
other masters, as Timŏthĕus did to his disciples who had been taught
music by others.--Rabelais, _Gargantua_, i. 23 (1533).
Timotheus placed on high
Amid the tuneful quire,
With flying fingers touched the lyre.
Dryden, _Alexander’s Feast_ (1697).
=Timothy= (_Old_), ostler at John Menge’s inn, at Kirchoff.--Sir W.
Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).
=Timothy Quaint=, the whimsical, but faithful steward of Governor
Heartall; blunt, self-willed, but loving his master above all things,
and true to his interests.--Cherry, _The Soldier’s Daughter_ (1804).
=Ti´murkan=, the Tartar, and conqueror of China. After a usurpation of
twenty years, he was slain in a rising of the people, by Zaphimri,
“the orphan of China.”
My mind’s employed on other arts:
To sling the well-stored quiver
Over this arm, and wing the darts
At the first reindeer sweeping down the vale,
Or up the mountain, straining every nerve;
To vault the neighing steed, and urge his course,
Swifter than whirlwinds, through the ranks of war;--
These are my passions, this my only science.
Raised from a soldier to imperial sway,
I still will reign in terror.
Murphy, _The Orphan of China_, iv. 1.
=Tinacrio=, “the Sage,” father of Micomico´na, queen of Micom´icon,
and husband of Queen Zaramilla. He foretold that after his death his
daughter would be dethroned by the giant, Pandafilando, but that in
Spain, she would find a champion in Don Quixote, who would restore her
to the throne. This adventure comes to nothing, as Don Quixote is
taken home in a cage, without entering upon it.--Cervantes, _Don
Quixote_, I. iv. 3 (1605).
=Tinclarian Doctor= (_The Great_), William Mitchell, a whitesmith and
tin-plate worker, of Edinburgh, who published _Tinkler’s Testament_,
dedicated to Queen Anne, and other similar works.
The reason why I call myself the Tinclarian doctor, is because I am a
tinklar, and cures old pans and lantruns.--_Introduction to Tinkler’s
Testament._
⁂ Uniformity of spelling must not be looked for in the “doctor’s”
book. We have “Tinklar,” “Tinkler,” and “Tinclarian.”
=Tinderbox= (_Miss Jenny_), a lady with a moderate fortune, who once
had some pretensions to beauty. Her elder sister happened to marry a
man of quality, and Jenny ever after resolved not to disgrace herself
by marrying a tradesman. Having rejected many of her equals, she
became at last the governess of her sister’s children, and had to
undergo the drudgery of three servants, without receiving the wages of
one.--Goldsmith, _A Citizen of the World_, xxviii. (1759).
=Tinker= (_The Immortal_ or _The Inspired_), John Bunyan (1638-1688).
=Tinsel= (_Lord_), a type of that worst specimen of aristocracy, which
ignores all merit but blue blood, and would rather patronize a
horse-jockey than a curate, scholar, or poor gentleman. He would
subscribe six guineas to the concerts of Signor Cantata, because Lady
Dangle patronized him, but not one penny to “languages, arts, and
sciences,” as such.--S. Knowles, _The Hunchback_ (1831).
=Tintag´el= or TINTAGIL, a strong and magnificent castle on the coast
of Cornwall, said to have been the work of two giants. It was the
birthplace of King Arthur, and subsequently the royal residence of
King Mark. Dunlop asserts that vestiges of the castle still exist.
They found a naked child upon the sands
Of dark Tintagil, by the Cornish sea,
And that was Arthur.
Tennyson, _Guinevere_ (1858).
=Tinto= (_Dick_), a poor artist, son of a tailor in the village of
Langdirdum. He is introduced as a lad in the _Bride of Lammermoor_, i.
This was in the reign of William III. He is again introduced in _St.
Ronan’s Well_, i., as touching up the sign-board of Meg Dods, in the
reign of George III. As William III. died in 1702, and George III.
began to reign in 1760, Master Dick must have been a patriarch when he
worked for Mrs. Dods.--Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (1819);
_St. Ronan’s Well_ (1823).
Meg Dods agreed with the celebrated Dick Tinto to repaint her father’s
sign, which had become rather undecipherable. Dick accordingly gilded
the bishop’s crook, and augmented the horrors of the devil’s aspect,
until it became a terror to all the younger fry of the
school-house.--_St. Ronan’s Well_, i.
=Tintoretto=, the historical painter, whose real name was Jacopo
Robusti. He was called _Il Furioso_ from the extreme rapidity with
which he painted (1512-1594).
=Tintoretto of England= (_The_), W. Dobson was called “The Tintoret of
England” by Charles I. (1610-1646).
=Tintoretto of Switzerland= (_The_), John Huber (eighteenth century).
=Tiphany=, the mother of the three kings of Cologne. The word is
manifestly a corruption of St. Epiphany, as Tibs is of St. Ubes,
Taudry of St. Audry, Tooley [Street] of St. Olaf, Telder of St.
Ethelred, and so on.
Scores of the saints have similarly manufactured names.
=Ti´phys=, pilot of the Argonauts; hence any pilot.
Many a Tiphys ocean’s depths explore,
To open wondrous ways, untried before.
Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_, viii. (Hoole).
⁂ Another name for a pilot or guiding power is Palinūrus; so called
from the steersman of Ænēas.
E’en Palinurus nodded at the helm.
Pope, _The Dunciad_, iv. 614 (1742).
=Tippins= (_Lady_), an old lady “with an immense, obtuse, drab, oblong
face, like a face in a tablespoon; and a dyed ’long walk’ up the top
of her head, as a convenient public approach to the bunch of false
hair behind.” She delights “to patronize Mrs. Veneering,” and Mrs.
Veneering is delighted to be patronized by her ladyship.
Lady Tippins is always attended by a lover or two, and she keeps a
little list of her lovers, and is always booking a new lover, or
striking out an old lover, or putting a lover in her black list, or
promoting a lover to her blue list, or adding up her lovers, or
otherwise posting her book, which she calls her Cupĭdon.--C. Dickens,
_Our Mutual Friend_, ii. (1864).
=Tipple=, in Dudley’s _Flitch of Bacon_, first introduced John Edwin
into notice (1750-1790).
Edwin’s “Tipple,” in the _Flitch of Bacon_, was an exquisite
treat.--Boaden.
=Tippoo Saib= (_Prince_), son of Hyder Ali, nawaub of Mysore.--Sir W.
Scott, _The Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.).
=Tips= or “Examination Crams.” Recognized stock pieces of what is
called “book work” in university examinations are: Fermat’s theorem,
the “Ludus Trojanus” in Virgil’s _Æneid_ (bk. vi.), Agnesi’s “Witch,”
the “Cissoid” of Diocles and the famous fragment of Solon, generally
said to be by Euripidês.
In law examinations the stock pieces are the _Justinian_ of Sandars;
the _Digest of Evidence_ of Sir James Stephen; and the _Ancient Law_
of Sir Henry Maine.
The following are recognized primers:--Hill’s Logic; Spencer’s _First
Principles_; Maine’s _Ancient Law_; Lessing’s _Laocoon_; Ritter and
Preller’s _Fragmenta_; Wheaton’s _International Law_.
=Tip-tilted.= Tennyson says that Lynette had “her slender nose
tip-tilted like the petal of a flower.”--Tennyson, _Gareth and
Lynette_ (1858).
=Tiptoe=, footman to Random and Scruple. He had seen better days, but,
being found out in certain dishonest transactions, had lost grade, and
“Tiptoe, who once stood above the world,” came into a position in
which “all the world stood on Tiptoe.” He was a shrewd, lazy, knowing
rascal, better adapted to dubious adventure, but always sighing for a
snug berth in some wealthy, sober, old-fashioned, homely, county
family, with good wages, liberal diet, and little work to do.--G.
Colman, _Ways and Means_ (1788).
=Tiran´te the White=, the hero and title of a romance of chivalry.
“Let me see that book,” said the curé; “we shall find in it a fund of
amusement. Here we shall find that famous knight, Don Kyrie Elyson, of
Montalban, and Thomas, his brother, with the Knight Fonseca, the
battle which Detriantê fought with Alano, the stratagems of the Widow
Tranquil, the amour of the empress with her squire, and the witticisms
of Lady Brillianta. This is one of the most amusing books ever
written.”--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. i. 6 (1605).
=Tiresias=, a Theban soothsayer, blind from boyhood. It is said that
Athêna deprived him of sight, but gave him the power of understanding
the language of birds, and a staff as good as eyesight to direct his
way. Ovid says that Tiresias met two huge serpents in the wood and
struck them with his staff, when he found himself turned into a woman,
in which shape he remained for seven years. In the eighth year,
meeting them again, he again struck them, and was changed back to a
man. Dante places Tiresias in the Eighth Chasm of the Fourth Circle of
the Lower Hell among the sorcerers, and other dealers in magic arts.
Behold Tiresias, who changed his aspect
When of male he was made female,
Altogether transforming his members.
And afterward he had again to strike
The two involved serpents with his rod
Before he could resume his manly plumes.
Dante, _Inferno_, xx. 40.
Meeting two mighty serpents in the green wood he struck their
intertwined bodies with his staff, and, oh, wonderful! he found
himself changed into a woman, and so remained for seven years. Again
he sees them, in the eighth year. “And if,” he cried, “so powerful was
the effect of my former blow, once more will I strike you!” And, the
serpents struck with the same blows, his former shape returned, and
his original nature.--Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, iii.
⁂ Milton, regretting his own blindness, compares himself to Tiresias,
among others.
Blind Thamyris and blind Mæonidês [_Homer_],
And Tiresias and Phineus prophets old.
_Paradise Lost_, iii. 36 (1665).
=Tirlsneck= (_Jonnie_), beadle of old St. Ronan’s.--Sir W. Scott, _St.
Ronan’s Well_ (time, George III.).
=Tirso de Moli´na=, the pseudonym of Gabriel Tellez, a Spanish monk
and dramatist. His comedy called _Convivando de Piedra_ (1626) was
imitated by Molière in his _Festin de Pierre_ (1665), and has given
birth to the whole host of comedies and operas on the subject of “Don
Juan” (1570-1648).
=Tiryn´thian Swain= (_The_), Her´culês, called in Latin _Tirynthius
Heros_, because he generally resided at Tiryns, a town of Ar´golis, in
Greece.
Upon his shield lay that Tirynthian swain
Swelt’ring in fiery gore and poisonous flame,
His wife’s sad gift venomed with bloody stain. [See NESSUS.]
Phineas Fletcher, _The Purple Island_, vii. (1633).
=Tisapher´nes= (4 _syl._), “the thunderbolt of war.” He was in the
army of Egypt, and was slain by Rinaldo.--Tasso, _Jerusalem
Delivered_, xx. (1575).
⁂ This son of Mars must not be mistaken for Tissaphernês, the Persian
satrap, who sided with the Spartans, in the Peloponnesian war, and who
treacherously volunteered to guide “the ten thousand” back to Greece.
=Tisbi´na=, wife of Iroldo. Prasildo, a Babylonish nobleman, fell in
love with her, and threatened to kill himself. Tisbina, to divert him,
tells him if he will perform certain exploits which she deemed
impossible, she will return his love. These exploits he accomplishes,
and Tisbina, with Iroldo, takes poison to avoid dishonor. Prasildo
discovers that the draught they have taken is harmless, and tells them
so; whereupon Iroldo quits the country, and Tisbina marries Prasildo.
Bojardo, _Orlando Innamorato_ (1495). (See DIANORA, and DORIGEN.)
=Tisellin=, the raven, in the beast-epic of _Reynard the Fox_ (1498).
=Tisiph´one= (4 _syl._), one of the three Furies. Covered with a
bloody robe, she sits day and night at hell-gate, armed with a whip.
Tibullus says her head was coifed with serpents in lieu of hair.
The Desert Fairy, with her head covered with snakes, like Tisiphonê,
mounted on a winged griffin.--Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“The
Yellow Dwarf,” 1682).
=Ti´tan=, the son of Hēlĭos, the child of Hyperi´on and Basil´ea, and
grandson of Cœlum, or heaven. Virgil calls the sun “Titan,” and so
does Ovid.
... primos crastĭnus ortus
Extulerit Titan, radiisque retexerit orbem.
_Æneid_, iv. 118, 119.
A maiden queen that shone at Titan’s ray.
Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, i. 4 (1590).
=Titans=, giants, sons of Heaven and Earth. Their names were Ocēănos,
Kœos, Krios, Hyperīon, Iapĕtos, and Kronos.
The _Titanĭdês_ were Theia [_Thi-a_], Rhea, Themis, Mnemosynê,
Phœbê, and Tethys.
=Titan´ia=, queen of the fairies, and wife of Obĕron. Oberon wanted
her to give him for a page a little changeling, but Titania refused to
part with him, and this led to a fairy quarrel. Oberon, in revenge,
anointed the eyes of Titania, during sleep, with an extract of “Love
in Idleness,” the effect of which was to make her fall in love with
the first object she saw on waking. The first object Titania set eyes
on happened to be a country bumpkin, whom Puck had dressed up with an
ass’s head. While Titania was fondling this unamiable creature, Oberon
came upon her, sprinkled on her an antidote, and Titania, thoroughly
ashamed of herself, gave up the boy to her spouse; after which a
reconciliation took place between the willful fairies.--Shakespeare,
_Midsummer Night’s Dream_ (1592).
=Tite Barnacle= (_Mr._), head of the Circumlocution Office, and a very
great man in his own opinion. The family had intermarried with the
Stiltstalkings, and the Barnacles and Stiltstalkings found berths
pretty readily in the national workshop, where brains and conceit were
in inverse ratio. The young gents in the office usually spoke with an
eye-glass in the eye, in this sort of style: “Oh, I say; look here!
Can’t attend to you to-day, you know. But look here! I say; can’t you
call to-morrow?” “No.” “Well, but I say; look here! Is this public
business?--anything about--tonnage--or that sort of thing?” Having
made his case understood, Mr. Clennam received the following
instructions in these words;--
You must find out all about it. Then you’ll memorialize the
department, according to the regular forms for leave to memorialize.
If you get it, the memorial must be entered in that department, sent
to be registered in this department, then sent back to that
department, then sent to this department to be countersigned, and then
it will be brought regularly before that department. You’ll find out
when the business passes through each of these stages by inquiring at
both departments till they tell you.--C. Dickens, _Little Dorrit_, x
(1857).
=Tite Poulette=, daughter (supposed) of a quadroon mother. “She lives
a lonely, innocent life, in the midst of corruption, like the lilies
in the marshes.... If she were in Holland to-day, not one of a hundred
suitors would detect the hidden blemish of mixed blood.” When the
young man, who thus describes her loves her, Lalli, her putative
mother confesses: “I have robbed GOD long enough. Here are the sworn
papers. Take her--she is as white as snow--so!... I never had a child.
She is the Spaniard’s daughter.”--G. W. Cable, _Old Creole Days_
(1879).
=Titho´nus=, a son of Laomedon, king of Troy. He was so handsome that
Auro´ra became enamored of him, and persuaded Jupiter to make him
immortal; but as she forgot to ask for eternal youth also, he became
decrepit and ugly, and Aurora changed him into a cicada, or
grasshopper. His name is a synonym for a very old man.
Weary of aged Tithon’s saffron-bed.
Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, I. ii. 7 (1500).
... thinner than Tithōnus was
Before he faded into air.
Lord Lytton, _Tales of Milētus_, ii.
_Tithonus_ (_The Consort of_), the dawn.
Now the fair consort of Tithonus old,
Arisen from her mate’s beloved arms,
Looked palely o’er the eastern cliff.
Dantê, _Purgatory_, ix. (1308).
=Tithor´ea=, one of the two chief summits of Parnassus. It was
dedicated to Bacchus, the other (_Lycorēa_), being dedicated to the
Muses and Apollo.
=Titian= (_Tiziano Vecellio_), an Italian landscape painter,
especially famous for his flesh-tints and female figures (1477-1576).
_Titian_ (_The French_), Jacques Blanchard (1600-1638).
_Titian_ (_The Portuguese_), Alonzo Sanchez Coello (1515-1590).
=Titmarsh= (_Michael Angelo_), a pseudonym used by Thackeray, in a
number of his earlier writings. Like Michael Angelo, Thackeray had a
broken nose.
=Titmouse= (_Mr. Tittlebat_), a vulgar, ignorant coxcomb, suddenly
raised from the degree of a linen-draper’s shopman, to a man of
fortune, with an income of £10,000 a year.--Warren, _Ten Thousand a
Year_.
=Tito Mele´ma=, a Greek, who marries Romola.--George Eliot, _Romola_.
=Titurel=, the first king of Graal-burg. He has brought into
subjection all his passions, has resisted all the seductions of the
world, and is modest, chaste, pious, and devout. His daughter, Sigunê,
is in love with Tschionatulander, who is slain.--Wolfram von
Eschenbach, _Titurel_ (thirteenth century).
⁂ Wolfram’s _Titurel_ is a tedious expansion of a lay already in
existence, and Albert of Scharfenberg produced a _Young Titurel_, at
one time thought the best romance of chivalry in existence, but it is
pompous, stilted, erudite, and wearisome.
=Titus=, the son of Lucius Junius Brutus. He joined the faction of
Tarquin, and was condemned to death by his father, who, having been
the chief instrument in banishing the king and all his race, was
created the first consul. The subject has been often dramatized. In
English, by N. Lee (1678) and John Howard Payne (1820). In French, by
Arnault, in 1792; and by Ponsard, in 1843. In Italian, by Alfieri,
_Bruto_, etc. It was in Payne’s tragedy that Charles Kean made his
_début_ in Glasgow, as “Titus,” his father playing “Brutus.”
_Titus_, “the delight of man,” the Roman emperor, son of Vespasian
(40, 79-81).
_Titus_, the penitent thief, according to the legend. Dumăchus and
Titus were two of a band of robbers, who attacked Joseph in his flight
into Egypt. Titus said, “Let these good people go in peace;” but
Dumachus replied, “First let them pay their ransom.” Whereupon Titus
handed to his companion forty groats; and the infant Jesus said to
him:
When thirty years shall have gone by
I at Jerusalem shall die ...
On the accursêd tree.
Then on My right and My left side,
These thieves shall both be crucified,
And Titus thenceforth shall abide
In paradise with Me.
Longfellow, _The Golden Legend_ (1851).
=Tityre Tus= (long _u_), the name assumed in the seventeenth century
by a clique of young blades of the better class, whose delight was to
break windows, upset sedan-chairs, molest quiet citizens, and rudely
caress pretty women in the streets at night-time. These brawlers took
successively many titular names, as Muns, Hectors, Scourers,
afterwards Nickers, later still Hawcubites, and lastly Mohawks or
Mohocks.
“Tityre tu-s” is meant for the plural of “Tityre tu,” in the first
line of Virgil’s first _Eclogue_: “Tityre, tu patulæ recubans sub
tegmine fagi,” and meant to imply that these blades were men of
leisure and fortune, who “lay at ease under their patrimonial beech
trees.”
=Tit´yrus=, in the _Shepheardes Calendar_, by Spenser (ecl. ii. and
vi.), is meant for Chaucer.
The gentle shepherd sate beside a spring ...
That Colin hight, which well could pipe and sing,
For he of Tityrus his song did learn.
Spenser, _The Shepheardes Calendar_, xii. (1579).
=Tityus=, a giant, whose body covered nine acres of ground. In
Tartărus, two vultures or serpents feed forever on his liver, which
grows as fast as it is gnawed away.
Promētheus (3 _syl._) is said to have been fastened to Mount Caucasus,
where two eagles fed on his liver, which never wasted.
Nor unobserved lay stretched upon the marle
Tityus, earth-born, whose body, long and large,
Covered nine acres. There two vultures sat,
Of appetite insatiate, and with beaks
For ravine bent, unintermitting gored
His liver. Powerless he to put to flight
The fierce devourers. To this penance judged
For rape intended on Latona fair.
Fenton’s _Homer’s Odyssey_, xi. (1716).
=Tizo´na=, the Cid’s sword. It was buried with him, as Joyeuse
(Charlemagne’s sword) was buried with Charlemagne, and Durindāna with
Orlando.
=Tlal´ala=, surnamed “The Tiger,” one of the Aztĕcas. On one occasion,
being taken captive, Madoc released him, but he continued the
unrelenting foe of Madoc and his new colony, and was always foremost
in working them evil. When at length the Aztecas, being overcome,
migrated to Mexico, Tlalala refused to quit the spot of his father’s
tomb, and threw himself on his own javelin.--Southey, _Madoc_ (1805).
=Toad-Eater= (_Pulteney’s_). Henry Vane was so called in 1742, by Sir
Robert Walpole. Two years later, Sarah Fielding, in _David Simple_,
speaks of “toad-eater” as “quite a new word,” and she suggests that it
is “a metaphor taken from a mountebank’s boy eating toads in order to
show his master’s skill in expelling poison,” and “built on a
supposition that people who are in a state of dependence are forced to
do the most nauseous things to please and humor their patrons.”
=Tobo´so= (_Dulcinĕa del_), the lady chosen by Don Quixote for his
particular paragon. Sancho Panza says she was “a stout-built, sturdy
wench, who could pitch the bar as well as any young fellow in the
parish.” The knight had been in love with her before he took to
errantry. She was Aldonza Lorenzo, the daughter of Lorenzo Corchuelo
and Aldonza Nogalês; but when Signior Quixāda assumed the dignity of
knighthood, he changed the name and style of his lady into Dulcinea
del Tobōso, which was more befitting his rank.--Cervantes, _Don
Quixote_, I. i. 1 (1605).
=Toby=, waiter of the Spa hotel, St. Ronan’s, kept by Sandie
Lawson.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan’s Well_ (time, George III.).
_Toby_, a brown Rockingham-ware beer jug, with the likeness of Toby
Filpot embossed on its sides, “a goodly jug of well-browned clay,
fashioned into the form of an old gentleman, atop of whose bald head
was a fine froth answering to his wig” (ch. iv.).
Gabriel lifted Toby to his mouth, and took a hearty draught.--C.
Dickens, _Master Humphrey’s Clock_ (“Barnaby Rudge,” xli., 1841).
_Toby_, Punch’s dog, in the puppet-show exhibition of _Punch and
Judy_.