(a modern innovation), supposed to be the private property of that
gentleman, and of the name of Toby--always Toby. This dog has been
stolen in youth from another gentleman, and fraudulently sold to the
confiding hero who, having no guile himself, has no suspicion that it
lurks in others; but Toby, entertaining a grateful recollection of his
old master, and scorning to attach himself to any new patron, not only
refuses to smoke a pipe at the bidding of Punch but (to mark his old
fidelity more strongly) seizes him by the nose, and wrings the same
with violence, at which instance of canine attachment the spectators
are always deeply affected.--C. Dickens.
_Toby_, in the periodical called _Punch_, is represented as a grave,
consequential, sullen, unsocial pug, perched on back volumes of the
national Menippus, which he guards so stolidly that it would need a
very bold heart to attempt to filch one. There is no reminiscence in
this Toby, like that of his peep-show namesake, of any previous
master, and no aversion to his present one. Punch himself is the very
beau-ideal of good-natured satire and far-sighted shrewdness, while
his dog (the very Diogĕnês of his tribe) would scorn his nature if he
could be made to smile at anything.
⁂ The first cover of immortal _Punch_ was designed by A. S. Henning;
the present one by Richard Doyle.
_Toby_ (_Uncle_), a captain, who was wounded at the siege of Namur,
and was obliged to retire from the service. He is the impersonation of
kindness, benevolence, and simple-heartedness; his courage is
undoubted, his gallantry delightful for its innocence and modesty.
Nothing can exceed the grace of Uncle Toby’s love-passages with the
Widow Wadman. It is said that Lieutenant Sterne (father of the
novelist), was the prototype of Uncle Toby.--Sterne, _Tristram Shandy_
(1759).
My Uncle Toby is one of the finest compliments ever paid to human
nature. He is the most unoffending of God’s creatures, or, as the
French would express it, _un tel petit bonhomme_. Of his
bowling-green, his sieges, and his amours, who would say or think
anything amiss?--Hazlitt.
=Toby Veck=, ticket-porter and jobman, nicknamed “Trotty” from his
trotting pace. He was “a weak, small, spare man,” who loved to earn
his money, and heard the chimes ring words in accordance with his
fancy, hopes, and fears. After a dinner of tripe, he lived for a time
in a sort of dream, and woke up on New Year’s day to dance at his
daughter’s wedding.--C. Dickens, _The Chimes_ (1844).
=Todd= (_Laurie_), a poor Scotch nailmaker, who emigrates to America,
and, after some reverses of fortune, begins life again as a
backwoodsman, and greatly prospers.--Galt, _Laurie Todd_.
=Tod´gers= (_Mrs._), proprietress of a “commercial boarding-house;”
weighed down with the overwhelming cares of sauces, gravy, and the
wherewithal of providing for her lodgers. Mrs. Todgers had a soft
heart for Mr. Pecksniff, widower, and being really kind-hearted,
befriended poor Mercy Pecksniff in her miserable married life with her
brutal husband, Jonas Chuzzlewit.--C. Dickens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_
(1844).
=Tofa´na=, of Palermo, a noted poisoner, who sold a tasteless,
colorless poison, called the _Manna of St. Nicola of Bara_, but better
known as _Aqua Tofana_. Above 600 persons fell victims to this fatal
drug. She was discovered in 1659, and died 1730.
La Spara or Hieronyma Spara, about a century previously, sold an
“elixir” equally fatal. The secret was ultimately revealed to her
father confessor.
=Tofts= (_Mistress_), a famous singer towards the close of the
eighteenth century. She was very fond of cats, and left a legacy to
twenty of the tabby tribe.
Not Niobê mourned more for fourteen brats,
Nor Mistress Tofts, to leave her twenty cats.
Peter Pindar [Dr. Wolcot], _Old Simon_ (1809).
=Toinette=, a confidential female servant of Argan, the _malade
imaginaire_. “Adroite, soigneuse, diligente, et surtout fidèle,” but
contractious, and always calling into action her master’s irritable
temper. In order to cure him, she pretends to be a travelling
physician of about 90 years of age, although she has not seen
twenty-six summers; and in the capacity of a Galen, declares M. Argan
is suffering from lungs, recommends that one arm should be cut off,
and one eye taken out to strengthen the remaining one. She enters into
a plot to open the eyes of Argan to the real affection of Angelique
(his daughter), the false love of her stepmother, and to marry the
former to Cléante, the man of her choice, in all which schemes she is
fully successful.--Molière, _Le Malade Imaginaire_ (1673).
=Toison d’Or=, chief herald of Burgundy.--Sir W. Scott, _Quentin
Durward_, and _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).
=Toki=, the Danish William Tell. Saxo Grammaticus, a Danish writer of
the twelfth century, tells us that Toki once boasted, in the hearing
of Harald Bluetooth, that he could hit an apple with his arrow off a
pole; and the Danish Gessler set him to try his skill by placing an
apple on the head of the archer’s son (twelfth century).
=Tolande of Anjou=, a daughter of old King Réné of Provence, and
sister of Margaret of Anjou (wife of Henry VI. of England).--Sir W.
Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).
=Tolbooth= (_The_), the principal prison of Edinburgh.
The Tolbooth felt defrauded of his charms
If Jeffrey died, except within her arms.
Byron, _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_ (1809).
Lord Byron refers to the “duel” between Francis Jeffrey, editor of the
_Edinburgh Review_, and Thomas Moore, the poet, at Chalk Farm, in
1806. The duel was interrupted, and it was then found that neither of
the pistols contained a bullet.
Can none remember the eventful day,
That ever-glorious, almost fatal fray,
When Little’s [_Thomas Moore_] leadless pistol met his eye,
And Bow Street myrmidons stood laughing by?
Ditto.
=Tolme´tes= (3 _syl._), Foolhardiness personified in _The Purple
Island_, fully described in canto viii. His companions were Arrogance,
Brag, Carelessness, and Fear. (Greek, _tolmêtês_, “a foolhardy man.”)
Thus ran the rash Tolmetes, never viewing
The fearful fiends that duly him attended ...
Much would he boldly do, but much more boldly vaunt.
P. Fletcher, _The Purple Island_, viii. (1633).
=Tom=, “the Portugal dustman,” who joined the allied army against
France in the war of the Spanish Succession.--Dr. Arbuthnot, _History
of John Bull_ (1712).
_Tom_, one of the servants of Mr. Peregrine Lovel, “with a good deal
of surly honesty about him.” Tom is no sneak, and no tell-tale, but he
refuses to abet Philip, the butler, in sponging on his master, and
wasting his property in riotous living. When Lovel discovers the state
of affairs, and clears out his household, he retains Tom, to whom he
entrusts the cellar and the plate.--Rev. J. Townley, _High Life Below
Stairs_ (1750).
=Tom Folio=, Thomas Rawlinson, the bibliopolist (1681-1725).
=Tom Jones= (1 _syl._), a model of generosity, openness, and manly
spirit, mixed with dissipation. Lord Byron calls him “an accomplished
blackguard” (_Don Juan_, xiii. 110, 1824).--Fielding, _Tom Jones_
(1749).
A hero with a flawed reputation, a hero sponging for a guinea, a hero
who cannot pay his landlady, and is obliged to let his honor out to
hire, is absurd, and the claim of Tom Jones to heroic rank is quite
untenable.--Thackeray.
=Tom Long=, the hero of an old tale, entitled _The Merry Conceits of
Tom Long, the Carrier, being many Pleasant Passages and Mad Pranks
which he observed in his Travels_. This tale was at one time amazingly
popular.
=Tom Scott=, Daniel Quilp’s boy, Tower Hill. Although Quilp was a
demon incarnate, yet “between the boy and the dwarf there existed a
strange kind of mutual liking.” Tom was very fond of standing on his
head, and on one occasion Quilp said to him, “Stand on your head
again, and I’ll cut one of your feet off.”
The boy made no answer, but directly Quilp had shut himself in, stood
on his head before the door, then walked on his hands to the back, and
stood on his head there, then to the opposite side and repeated the
performance.... Quilp, knowing his disposition, was lying in wait at a
little distance, armed with a large piece of wood, which, being rough
and jagged, and studded with broken nails, might possibly have hurt
him, if it had been thrown at him.--C. Dickens, _The Old Curiosity
Shop_, v. (1840).
=Tom Thumb=, the name of a very diminutive little man in the court of
King Arthur, killed by the poisonous breath of a spider, in the reign
of King Thunstone, the successor of Arthur. In the Bodleian Library
there is a ballad about Tom Thumb, which was printed in 1630. Richard
Johnson wrote in prose, _The History of Tom Thumbe_, which was printed
in 1621. In 1630, Charles Perrault published his tale called _Le Petit
Poucet_. Tom Thumb is introduced by Drayton in his _Nymphidia_
(1563-1631).
“Tom” in this connection is the Swedish _tomt_ (“a nix or dwarf”), as
in _Tomptgubbe_ (“a brownie or kobold”); the final t is silent, and
the tale is of Scandinavian origin.
_Tom Thumb_, a burlesque opera, altered by Kane O’Hara (author of
_Midas_), in 1778, from a dramatic piece by Fielding, the novelist
(1730). Tom Thumb, having killed the giants, falls in love with
Huncamunca, daughter of King Arthur. Lord Grizzle wishes to marry the
princess, and when he hears that the “pygmy giant-queller” is
preferred before him, his lordship turns traitor, invests the palace
“at the head of his rebellious rout,” and is slain by Tom. Then
follows the bitter end: A red cow swallows Tom, the queen,
Dollallolla, kills Noodle, Frizaletta kills the queen, Huncamunca
kills Frizaletta, Doodle kills Huncamunca, Plumantê kills Doodle, and
the king, being left alone, stabs himself. Merlin now enters, commands
the red cow to “return our England’s Hannibal,” after which the wise
wizard restores all the slain ones to life again, and thus “jar
ending,” each resolves to go home “and make a night on’t.”
=Tom Tiddler’s Ground=, a nook in a rustic by-road, where Mr. Mopes,
the hermit, lived, and had succeeded in laying it waste. In the middle
of the plot was a ruined hovel, without one patch of glass in the
windows, and with no plank or beam that had not rotted or fallen away.
There was a slough of water, a leafless tree or two, and plenty of
filth. Rumor said that Tom Mopes had murdered his beautiful wife from
jealousy, and had abandoned the world. Mr. Traveller tried to reason
with him, and bring him back to social life, but the tinker replied,
“When iron is thoroughly rotten you cannot botch it, do what you
may.”--C. Dickens, _A Christmas Number_ (1861).
=Tom Tiler and His Wife=, a transition play between a morality and a
tragedy (1578).
=Tom Tipple=, a highwayman in Captain Macheath’s gang. Peachum calls
him “a guzzling, soaking sot, always too drunk to stand himself or to
make others stand. A cart,” he says, “is absolutely necessary for
him.”--Gray, _The Beggar’s Opera_, i. (1727).
=Tom Tram=, the hero of a novel entitled _The Mad Pranks of Tom Tram,
Son-in-Law to Mother Winter, whereunto is added His Merry Jests, Odd
Conceits and Pleasant Tales_ (seventeenth century).
All your wits that fleer and sham,
Down from Don Quixote to Tom Tram.
Prior.
=Tom-a-Thrum=, a sprite which figures in the fairy tales of the Middle
Ages; a “queer-looking little auld man,” whose chief exploits were in
the vaults and cellars of old castles. John Skelton, speaking of the
clergy, says:
Alas! for very shame, some cannot declyne their name;
Some cannot scarsly rede, And yet will not drede
For to kepe a cure.... As wyse as Tom-a-Thrum.
_Colyn Clout_ (time, Henry VIII.).
=Tom o’ Bedlam=, a ticket-of-leave madman from Bethlehem Hospital, or
one discharged as incurable.
=Tom of Ten Thousand=, Thomas Thynne; so called from his great wealth.
He was buried in Westminster Abbey, but why, the then dean has not
thought fit to leave on record.
=Tom the Piper=, one of the characters in the ancient morris-dance,
represented with a tabor, tabor-stick and pipe. He carried a sword and
shield, to denote his rank as a “squire minstrel.” His shoes were
brown; his hose red and “gimp-thighed;” his hat or cap, red, turned up
with yellow, and adorned with a feather; his doublet blue, the sleeves
being turned up with yellow; and he wore a yellow cape over his
shoulders. (See MORRIS-DANCE.)
=Tom Turner= (_Mrs._), unsophisticated country dame, whose head is
turned by the feigned devotion of a man to whom “flirting is a part of
daily existence.” “Mrs. Tom” dresses flashily, in imitation of the
butterflies of fashion whom she meets in her new career as a woman of
the world, affects airs and graces foreign to her nature, and plays
the fool generally until shocked into her senses by a letter from her
quiet, commonplace husband, telling her that he “has gone away and
that she will not see him again.” She follows him, entreats
forgiveness, returns to home and plain living, and, as a
characteristic penance, wears her gaudy costumes out as everyday
gowns. There were thirty of them at first. “I’ve worn them all almost
out. When I get to the end of them I’ll have my own things again.”--H.
C. Bunner, _Mrs. Tom’s Spree_ (1891).
=Tomahourich= (_Muhme Janet of_), an old sibyl, aunt of Robin Oig
M’Combich, the Highland drover.--Sir W. Scott, _The Two Drovers_
(time, George III.).
=Tom´alin=, a valiant fairy knight, kinsman of King Obĕron. Tomălin is
not the same as “Tom Thumb,” as we are generally but erroneously told,
for in the “mighty combat” Tomalin backed Pigwiggen, while Tom Thum or
Thumb, seconded King Oberon. This fairy battle was brought about by
the jealousy of Oberon, who considered the attentions of Pigwiggen to
Queen Mab were “far too nice.”--M. Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (1563-1631).
=Tomb= (_Knight of the_), James, earl of Douglas in disguise.
His armor was ingeniously painted so as to represent a skeleton; the
ribs being constituted by the corselet and its back-piece. The shield
represented an owl with its wings spread--a device which was repeated
upon the helmet, which appeared to be completely covered by an image
of the same bird of ill omen. But that which was particularly
calculated to excite surprise in the spectator was the great height
and thinness of the figure.--Sir W. Scott, _Castle Dangerous_, xiv.
(time, Henry I.).
=Tomboy= (_Priscilla_), a self-willed, hoydenish, ill-educated romp,
of strong animal spirits, and wholly unconventional. She is a West
Indian, left under the guardianship of Barnacle, and sent to London
for her education. Miss Priscilla Tomboy lives with Barnacle’s
brother, old [Nicholas] Cockney, a grocer, where she plays
boy-and-girl love with young Walter Cockney, which consists chiefly in
pettish quarrels and personal insolence. Subsequently she runs off
with Captain Sightly, but the captain behaves well by presenting
himself next day to the guardian, and obtaining his consent to
marriage.--_The Romp_ (altered from Bickerstaff’s _Love in the City_).
=Tomès= [_Tō-may_], one of the five physicians called in by Sganarelle
to consult on the malady of his daughter, Lucinde (2 _syl._). Being
told that a coachman he was attending was dead and buried, the doctor
asserted it to be quite impossible, as the coachman had been ill only
six days, and Hippocrătês had positively stated that the disorder
would not come to its height till the fourteenth day. The five doctors
meet in consultation, talk of the town gossip, their medical
experience, their visits, anything, in short, except the patient. At
length the father enters to inquire what decision they had come to.
One says Lucinde must have an emetic, M. Tomès says she must be
blooded; one says an emetic will be her death, the other that bleeding
will infallibly kill her.
_M. Tomès_, Si vous ne faites saigner tout à l’heure votre fille,
c’est une personne morte.
_M. Desfonandrès_, Si vous la faites saigner, elle ne sera pas en vie
dans un quart-d’-heure.
And they quit the house in great anger (act. ii. 4).--Molière,
_L’Amour Médecin_ (1665).
=Tomkins= (_Joseph_), secret emissary of Cromwell. He was formerly
Philip Hazeldine, _alias_ Master Fibbet, secretary to Colonel
Desborough (one of the parliamentary commissioners).--Sir W. Scott,
_Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).
=Tom´yris=, queen of the Massagētæ. She defeated Cyrus, who had
invaded her kingdom, and, having slain him, threw his head into a
vessel filled with human blood, saying, “It was blood you thirsted
for; now take your fill!”
Great bronze valves embossed with Tomyris.
Tennyson, _The Princess_, v.
[_I_] was shown the seath and cruel mangling made
By Tomyris on Cyrus, when she cried,
“Blood thou didst thirst for; take thy fill of blood!”
Dantê, _Purgatory_, xii (1308).
=Ton-Iosal= was so heavy and unwieldy that when he sat down it took
the whole force of a hundred men to set him upright on his feet
again.--_The Fiona_.
If Fion was remarkable for his stature, ... in weight all yielded to
the celebrated Ton-Iosal.--J. Macpherson, _Dissertation on Ossian_.
=Ton-Thena= (“_fire of the wave_”), a remarkable star which guided
Larthon to Ireland, as mentioned in Ossian’s _Tem´ora_, vii., and
called in _Cathlin of Clutha_, “the red traveller of the clouds.”
=Tonio=, a young Tyrolese, who saved Maria, the sutler-girl, when on
the point of falling down a precipice. The two, of course, fall in
love with each other, and the regiment, which had adopted the
sutler-girl, consents to their marriage, provided Tonio will enlist
under its flag. No sooner is this done than the marchioness of
Berkenfield lays claim to Maria as her daughter, and removes her to
the castle. In time, the castle is besieged and taken by the very
regiment into which Tonio had enlisted, and, as Tonio had risen to the
rank of a French officer, the marchioness consents to his marriage
with her daughter.--Donizetti, _La Figlia del Reggimento_ (1840).
=Tonna= (_Mrs._), Charlotte Elizabeth (1792-1846).
=Tonto= (_Don Cherubin_), canon of Tole´do, the weakest mortal in the
world, though, by his smirking air, you would fancy him a wit. When he
hears a delicate performance read, he listens with such attention as
seems full of intelligence, but all the while he understands nothing
of the matter.--Lesage, _Gil Blas_, v. 12 (1724).
=Tonton=, the smallest dog that ever existed. When the three princes
of a certain king were sent to procure the tiniest dog they could
find, as a present to their aged father, the White Cat gave the
youngest of them a dog, so small that it was packed in wadding in a
common acorn shell.
As soon as the acorn was opened, they all saw a little dog laid in
cotton, and so small it might jump through a finger-ring without
touching it.... It was a mixture of several colors; its ears and long
hair reached to the ground. The prince set it on the ground, and
forthwith the tiny creature began to dance a saraband with
castanets.--Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“The White Cat,” 1682)
=Tony Lumpkin=, a young booby, fond of practical jokes, and low
company. He was the son of Mrs. Hardcastle by her first
husband.--Goldsmith, _She Stoops to Conquer_ (1773).
=Tony Tyler=, on the editorial staff of the _Tecumseh Chronicle_. “He
knows about eighteen hundred times as much as Samboye (managing
editor) does, only somehow, he hasn’t the faculty of putting it on
paper. Too much whiskey!”--Harold Frederic, Seth’s Brother’s Wife
(1886).
=Toodle=, engine-fireman, an honest fellow, very proud of his wife,
Polly, and her family.
_Polly Toodle_, known by the name of Richards, wife of the stoker.
Polly was an apple-faced woman, and was mother of a large, apple-faced
family. This jolly, homely, kind-hearted matron was selected as the
nurse of Paul Dombey, and soon became devotedly attached to Paul and
his sister, Florence.
_Robin Toodle_, known as “The Biler,” or “Rob the Grinder,” eldest son
of Mrs. Toodle, wet-nurse of Paul Dombey. Mr. Dombey gets Robin into
an institution called “The Charitable Grinders,” where the worst part
of the boy’s character is freely developed. Robin becomes a sneak, and
enters the service of James Carker, manager of the firm of Dombey and
Son. On the death of Carker, Robin enters the service of Miss Lucretia
Tox.--C. Dickens, _Dombey and Son_ (1846).
=Toom Tabard= (“_empty jacket_”), a nickname given to John Balliol,
because his appointment to the sovereignty of Scotland was an empty
name. He had the royal robe or jacket, but nothing else (1259,
1292-1314).
=Tooth Worshipped= (_A_). The people of Ceylon worship the tooth of an
elephant; those of Malabar, the tooth of a monkey. The Siamese once
offered a Portuguese 700,000 ducats for the redemption of a monkey’s
tooth.
=Tooth-picks.= The Romans used tooth-picks made of mastic wood, in
preference to quills; hence, Rabelais says that Prince Gargantua
“picked his teeth with mastic tooth-pickers” (s’escuroit les dents
avecques ung trou de lentisce), bk. i. 23.
Lentiscum melius; sed si tibi frondea cuspis
Defuerit, dentes, penna, levare potes.
Martial, _Epigrams_, xx. 24.
=Toots= (_Mr._), an innocent, warm-hearted young man, just burst from
the bonds of Dr. Blimber’s school, and deeply in love with Florence
Dombey. He is famous for blushing, refusing what he longs to accept,
and for saying, “Oh, it is of no consequence.” Being very nervous, he
never appears to advantage, but in the main, “there were few better
fellows in the world.”
“I assure you,” said Mr. Toots, “really I am dreadfully sorry, but
it’s of no consequence.”--C. Dickens, _Dombey and Son_, xxviii.
(1846).
=Topas= (_Sir_), a native of Poperyng, in Flanders; a capital
sportsman, archer, wrestler, and runner. Chaucer calls him “Sir
Thopas” (_q.v._).
_Topas_ (_Sir_). Sir Charles Dilke was so called by the _Army and Navy
Gazette_, November 25, 1871 (1810-1869).
=Topham= (_Master Charles_), usher of the black rod.--Sir W. Scott,
_Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).
=Topsy=, a young slave-girl, who never knew whether she had either
father or mother, and being asked by Miss Ophelia St. Clare, how she
supposed she came into the world, replied, “I ’spects I
growed.”--Harriet Beecher Stowe, _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ (1852).
=Tor= (_Sir_), the natural son of King Pellinore, and the wife of
Aries, the cowherd. He was the first of the knights of the Round
Table.--Sir. T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 24 (1470).
=Toralva= (_The licentiate_), mounted on a cane, was conveyed through
the air with his eyes shut; in twelve hours he arrived at Rome, and
the following morning returned to Madrid. During his flight he opened
his eyes once, and found himself so near the moon that he could have
touched it with his finger.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. iii. 5
(1615). (See TORRALBA.)
=Tordenskiol= [_Tor´.den.skole_], or the “Thunder-Shield.” So Peder
Wessel, vice-admiral of Denmark (in the reign of Christian V.), was
called. He was brought up as a tailor, and died in a duel.
From Denmark thunders Tordenskiol;
Let each to heaven commend his soul,
And fly.
Longfellow, _King Christian_ [_V._].
=Torfe= (_Mr. George_), provost of Orkney.--Sir W. Scott, _The Pirate_
(time, William III.).
=Tormes= (_Lazarillo de_), by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (sixteenth
century); a kind of Gil Blas, whose adventures and roguish tricks are
the first of a very popular sort of novel called the _Gusto
Picaresco_. Lesage has imitated it in his _Gil Blas_, and we have
numberless imitations in our own language. (See TYLL OWLYGLASS.)
The ideal Yankee, in whom European prejudice has combined the
attractive traits of a Gines de Passamonte, a Joseph Surface, a
Lazarillo de Tormes, a Scapin, a Thersitês, and an Autolycus.--W. H.
Hurlburt.
⁂ “Gines de Passamonte,” in _Don Quixote_, by Cervantes; “Joseph
Surface,” in _The School for Scandal_, by Sheridan; “Scapin,” in _Les
Fourberies de Scapin_, by Molière; “Thersitês,” in Homer’s Iliad, i.;
“Autolycus,” in the _Winter’s Tale_, by Shakespeare.
=Tormot=, youngest son of Torquil, of the Oak (foster-father of Eachin
M’Ian).--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).
=Torquato=, that is, Torquato Tasso, the Italian poet, author of
_Jerusalem Delivered_ (1544-1595). After the publication of his great
epic, Tasso lived in the court of Ferrara, and conceived a violent
passion for Leonora, one of the duke’s sisters, but fled, in 1577, to
Naples.
Torquato’s tongue
Was tuned for slavish pæans at the throne
Of tinsel pomp.
Akenside, _Pleasures of Imagination_, ii. (1744).