permit him to measure out three paces to build a hut upon. The kind
monarch smiled at the request, and bade the dwarf measure out what he
required. The first pace compassed the whole earth, the second the
whole heavens, and the third all pandalon or hell. Baly now saw that
the dwarf was no other than Vishnû, and he adored the present
deity.--_Hindû Mythology._
⁂ There is a Basque tale the exact counterpart of this.
=Vamp=, bookseller and publisher. His opinion of books was that the
get-up and binding were of more value than the matter. “Books are like
women; to strike, they must be well dressed. Fine feathers make fine
birds. A good paper, an elegant type, a handsome motto, and a catching
title, have driven many a dull treatise through three
editions.”--Foote, _The Author_ (1757).
=Van= (_The Spirit of the_), the fairy spirit of the Van Pools, in
Carmarthen. She married a young Welsh farmer, but told him that if he
struck her thrice, she would quit him forever. They went to a
christening, and she burst into tears, whereupon her husband struck
her as a marjoy; but she said, “I weep to see a child brought into
this vale of tears.” They next went to the child’s funeral, and she
laughed, whereupon her husband struck her again; but she said, “I
truly laugh to think what a joy it is to change this vale of tears for
that better land, where there is no more sorrow, but pleasures for
evermore.” Their next visit was to a wedding, where the bride was
young, and the man old, and she said aloud, “It is the devil’s
compact. The bride has sold herself for gold.” The farmer again struck
her, and bade her hold her peace; but she vanished away, and never
again returned.--_Welsh Mythology._
=Vanbeest Brown= (_Captain_) _alias_ Dawson, _alias_ Dudley, _alias_
Harry Bertram, son of Mr. Godfrey Bertram, laird of Ellangowan.
_Vanbeest Brown_, lieutenant of Dirk Hatteraick.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy
Mannering_ (time, George II.).
=Vanberg= (_Major_), in _Charles XII._, by J. R. Planché (1826).
=Vanda=, wife of Baldric. She is the spirit with the red hand, who
appears in the haunted chamber to the Lady Eveline Berenger, “the
betrothed.”--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).
=Van´dunke= (2 _syl._), burgomaster of Bruges, a drunken merchant,
friendly to Gerrard, king of the beggars, and falsely considered to be
the father of Bertha. His wife’s name is Margaret. (Bertha is in
reality the daughter of the duke of Brabant.)--Beaumont and Fletcher,
_The Beggars’ Bush_ (1622).
=Vandyck= (_The English_), William Dobson, painter (1610-1647).
=Vandyck in Little=, Samuel Cooper. In his epitaph in old St. Pancras
Church he is called “the Apellês of his age” (1609-1672).
=Vandyck of France=, Hyacinth Rigaud y Ros (1659-1743).
=Vandyck of Sculpture=, Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720).
=Vane= (_Ellery_), a coquettish girl, who has method in her coquetry,
beguiles Ellery Vane to the loss of his heart by tying on her hat in
his presence.
“Ah! Ellery Vane, you little thought,
An hour ago, when you besought
This country lass to walk with you,
After the sun had dried the dew,
What perilous danger you’d be in
As she tied her bonnet under her chin!”
Nora Perry, _After the Ball and Other Poems_ (1875).
_Vane_ (_Henry_), a man who begins life as a flippant young fellow
with a French education; settles down into an astute money-maker;
falls in love seriously when he meant to flirt, and, finding that the
girl with whom he is enamored has played a sharper game than he, and
is engaged to another man, blows out his own brains.--Frederic Jesup
Stimson, _The Crime of Henry Vane_.
=Vanessa=, Miss Esther Vanhomrigh, a young lady who proposed marriage
to Dean Swift. The dean declined the proposal in a poetical trifle
called _Cadēnus and Vanessa_.
Essa, _i.e._, Esther, and Van, the pet form of Vanhomrigh; hence
Van-essa.
=Vanity=, the usher of Queen Lucifĕra.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, i. 4
(1590).
_Vanity_, a town through which Christian and Faithful had to pass on
their way to the Celestial City.
Almost five thousand years agone, there were pilgrims walking to the
Celestial City,... and Beëlzebub, Apollyon, and Legion ... perceived,
by the path that the pilgrims made, that their way to the city lay
through this town of Vanity.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim’s Progress_, i. (1678).
=Vanity Fair=, a fair established by Beëlzebub, Apollyon and Legion,
for the sale of earthly “vanities,” creature comforts, honors,
decorations and carnal delights. It was held in Vanity town, and
lasted all the year round. Christian and Faithful had to pass through
the fair, which they denounced, and were consequently arrested, beaten
and put into a cage. Next day, being taken before Justice Hate-good,
Faithful was condemned to be burnt alive.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim’s
Progress_, i. (1678).
⁂ A looking-glass is called Vanity Fair.
_Vanity Fair_ is the name of a periodical noted for its caricatures
signed “Ape,” and set on foot by Signor Pellegrini.
_Vanity Fair_, a novel by W. M. Thackeray (1848). Becky (Rebecca)
Sharp, the daughter of a poor painter, dashing, selfish, unprincipled,
and very clever, contrives to marry Rawdon Crawley, afterwards his
excellency Colonel Crawley, C.B., governor of Coventry Island. Rawdon
expected to have a large fortune left him by his aunt, Miss Crawley,
but was disinherited on account of his marriage with Becky, then a
poor governess. Becky contrives to live in splendor on “nothing a
year,” gets introduced at court, and is patronized by Lord Steyne,
earl of Gaunt; but, this intimacy giving birth to a great scandal,
Becky breaks up her establishment, and is reduced to the lowest
Bohemian life. Afterwards she becomes the “female companion” of Joseph
Sedley, a wealthy “collector,” of Boggley Wollah, in India. Having
insured his life and lost his money, he dies suddenly under very
suspicions circumstances, and Becky lives for a time in splendor on
the Continent. Subsequently she retires to Bath, where she assumes the
character of a pious, charitable Lady Bountiful, given to all good
works. The other part of the story is connected with Amelia Sedley,
daughter of a wealthy London stock-broker, who fails, and is reduced
to indigence. Captain George Osborne, the son of a London merchant,
marries Amelia, and old Osborne disinherits him. The young people live
for a time together, when George is killed in the battle of Waterloo.
Amelia is reduced to great poverty, but is befriended by Captain
Dobbin, who loves her to idolatry, and after many years of patience
and great devotion, she consents to marry him. Becky Sharp rises from
nothing to splendor, and then falls; Amelia falls from wealth to
indigence, and then rises.
=Vanhorne= (_Miss_), “an old woman with black eyes, a black wig,
shining false teeth, a Roman nose and a high color,” who munches
aromatic seeds coated with sugar, and tries to make or mar the
fortunes of everybody she knows. Lonely, crabbed and rich.--Constance
Fenimore Woolson, _Anne_ (1882).
=Van Ness= (_Aunt_), sentimental, worldly old woman, who succeeds in
marrying her niece, Constance Varley, to the man she does not want to
accept.--Julia Constance Fletcher, _Mirage_ (1878).
=Vanoc=, son of Merlin, one of the knights of the Round Table.
Young Vanoc, of the beardless face
(Fame spoke the youth of Merlin’s race),
O’erpowered, at Gyneth’s footstool bled,
His heart’s blood dyed her sandals red.
Sir W. Scott, _Bridal of Triermain_, ii. 25 (1813).
=Vantom= (_Mr._). Sir John Sinclair tells us that Mr. Vantom drank in
twenty-three years 36,688 bottles (_i.e._, 59 pipes) of wine.--_Code
of Health and Longevity_ (1807).
⁂ Between four and five bottles a day.
=Vanwelt= (_Ian_), the supposed suitor of Rose Flammock.--Sir W.
Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).
=Vapians= (_The_), a people of Utopia, who passed the equinoctial of
Queūbus, “a torrid zone lying somewhere beyond three o’clock in the
morning.”
In sooth, thou wast in very gracious fooling last night, when thou
spokest ... of the Vapians passing the equinoctial of
Queubus.--Shakespeare, _Twelfth Night_, act ii. sc. 3 (1602).
=Vapid=, the chief character in _The Dramatist_, by F. Reynolds, and
said to be meant for the author himself. He goes to Bath “to pick up
characters.”
=Varbel=, “the lowly but faithful squire” of Floreski, a Polish count.
He is a quaint fellow, always hungry.--J. P. Kemble, _Lodoiska_
(1719).
=Varden= (_Gabriel_), locksmith, Clerkenwell; a round, red-faced,
sturdy yeoman, with a double chin, and a voice husky with good living,
good sleeping, good humor and good health. He was past the prime of
life, but his heart and spirits were in full vigor. During the Gordon
riots Gabriel refused to pick the lock of Newgate prison, though at
the imminent risk of his life.
_Mrs. Varden_ [_Martha_], the locksmith’s wife and mother of Dolly, a
woman of “uncertain temper” and a self-martyr. When too ill-disposed
to rise, especially from that domestic sickness, ill temper, Mrs.
Varden would order up “the little black teapot of strong mixed tea, a
couple of rounds of hot buttered toast, a dish of beef and ham cut
thin without skin, and the _Protestant Manual_ in two octavo volumes.
Whenever Mrs. Varden was most devout, she was always the most
ill-tempered.” When others were merry, Mrs. Varden was dull; and when
others were sad, Mrs. Varden was cheerful. She was, however, plump and
buxom, her handmaiden and “comforter” being Miss Miggs. Mrs. Varden
was cured of her folly by the Gordon riots, dismissed Miggs, and lived
more happily and cheerfully ever after.
_Dolly Varden_, the locksmith’s daughter; a pretty, laughing girl,
with a roguish face, lighted up by the loveliest pair of sparkling
eyes, the very impersonation of good humor and blooming beauty. She
married Joe Willet, and conducted with him the Maypole inn, as never
country inn was conducted before. They greatly prospered, and had a
large and happy family. Dolly dressed in the Watteau style; and modern
Watteau costume and hats were, in 1875-6, called “Dolly Vardens.”--C.
Dickens, _Barnaby Rudge_ (1841).
=Vari´na=, Miss Jane Waryng, to whom Dean Swift had a _penchant_ when
he was a young man. Varina is a Latinized form of “Waryng.”
=Varney= (_Richard_, afterwards _Sir Richard_), master of the horse to
the earl of Leicester.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).
=Varro= (_The British_). Thomas Tusser, of Essex, is so called by
Warton (1515-1580).
=Vasa= (_Gustavus_), a drama, by H. Brooke (1730). Gustavus, having
effected his escape from Denmark, worked for a time as a common
laborer in the copper mines of Dalecarlia [_Dah´.le.karl´.ya_]; but
the tyranny of Christian II. of Denmark having driven the Dalecarlians
into revolt, Gustavus was chosen their leader. The revolters made
themselves masters of Stockholm; Christian abdicated; and Sweden
became an independent kingdom (sixteenth century).
=Vashti.= When the heart of the king [Ahasuerus] was merry with wine,
he commanded his chamberlains to bring Vashti, the queen, into the
banquet hall, to show the guests her beauty; but she refused to obey
the insulting order, and the king, being wroth, divorced
her.--_Esther_ i. 10, 19.
O Vashti, noble Vashti! Summoned out
She kept her state, and left the drunken king
To brawl at Shushan underneath the palms.
Tennyson, _The Princess_, iii. (1830).
=Vatel=, the cook who killed himself, because the lobster for his
turbot sauce did not arrive in time to be served up at the banquet at
Chantilly, given by the Prince de Condé to the king.
=Vath´ek=, the ninth caliph of the race of the Abassides, son of
Motassem, and grandson of Haroun-al-Raschid. When angry, “one of his
eyes became so terrible that whoever looked at it either swooned or
died.” Vathek was induced by a malignant genius to commit all sorts of
crimes. He abjured his faith, and bound himself to Eblis, under the
hope of obtaining the throne of the pre-Adamite sultans. This throne
eventually turned out to be a vast chamber in the abyss of Eblis,
where Vathek found himself a prisoner without hope. His wife was
Nouron´ihar, daughter of the Emir Fakreddin, and his mother’s name was
Catharis.--W. Beckford, _Vathek_ (1784).
=Vathek’s Draught=, a red-and-yellow mixture given him by an emissary
of Eblis, which instantaneously restored the exhausted body, and
filled it with unspeakable delight.--W. Beckford, _Vathek_ (1784).
=Vato=, the wind-spirit.
Even Zoroaster imagined there was an evil spirit called Vato, that
could excite violent storms of wind.--T. Rowe [_i.e._, Dr. Pegge],
_Gentleman’s Magazine_, January, 1763.
=Vaudeville= (_Father of The_), Oliver Basselin (fifteenth century).
=Vaughan=, the bogie of Bromyard exorcised by nine priests. Nine
candles were lighted in the ceremony, and all but one burnt out. The
priests consigned Nicholas Vaughan to the Red Sea; and casting the
remaining candle into the river Frome, threw a huge stone over it, and
forbade the bogie to leave the Red Sea till that candle re-appeared to
human sight. The stone is still called “Vaughan’s Stone.”
=Vaugirard= (_The deputies of_). The usher announced to Charles VIII.
of France, “The deputies of Vaugirard.” “How many?” asked the king.
“Only one, may it please your highness.”
=V. D. M. I. Æ.=, _Verbum Dei manet in æternum_ (“the Word of God
endureth for ever”). This was the inscription of the Lutheran bishops,
in the diet of Spires. Philip of Hessen said the initials stood for
_Verbum diaboli manet in episcopis_ (“the word of the devil abideth in
the [_Lutheran_] bishops”).
=Veal= (_Mrs._), an imaginary person, whom Defoe feigned to have
appeared, the day after her death, to Mrs. Bargrave, of Canterbury, on
September 8, 1705.
Defoe’s conduct in regard to the well-known imposture, Mrs. Veal’s
ghost, would justify us in believing him to be, like Gil Bias, “tant
soi peu fripon.”--_Encyc. Brit._, Art. “Romance.”
=Veal’s Apparition= (_Mrs._). It is said that Mrs. Veal, the day after
her death, appeared to Mrs. Bargrave, at Canterbury, September 8,
1705. This cock-and-bull story was affixed by Daniel Defoe to
Drelincourt’s book of _Consolations against the Fears of Death_, and
such is the matter-of-fact style of the narrative that most readers
thought the fiction was a fact.
=Vec´chio= (_Peter_), a teacher of music and Latin; reputed to be a
wizard.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Chances_ (1620).
=Veck= (_Toby_), nicknamed “Trotty;” a ticket-porter, who ran on
errands. One New Year’s Eve he ate tripe for dinner, and had a
nightmare, in which he fancied he had mounted up to the steeple of a
neighboring church, and that goblins issued out of the bells, giving
reality to his hopes and fears. He was roused from his sleep by the
sound of the bells ringing in the new year. (See MEG.)--C. Dickens,
_The Chimes_ (1844).
=Vedder= (_Jan_), a fisherman whose mistaken marriage leads to every
evil he does or suffers. One who would become a good man but for his
perverse, wrong-headed wife. He is desperately wounded in a quarrel,
and his condition, working upon all that is best in his wife, changes
her temper and behavior to him.--Amelia E. Barr, _Jan Vedder’s Wife_
(1885).
=Vegliantino= [_Val.yan.tee´no_], Orlando’s horse.--Ariosto, _Orlando
Furioso_ (1516). Also called Veillantif.
=Vehmgericht=, or THE HOLY VEHME, a secret tribunal of Westphalia, the
principal seat of which was in Dortmund. The members were called “Free
Judges.” It took cognizance of all crimes in the lawless period of the
Middle Ages, and those condemned by the tribunal were made away with
by some secret means, but no one knew by what hand. Being despatched,
the dead body was hung on a tree to advertise the fact and deter
others. The tribunal existed at the time of Charlemagne, but was at
its zenith of power in the twelfth century. Sir W. Scott has
introduced it in his _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).
Was Rebecca guilty or not? The Vehmgericht of the servant’s hall
pronounced against her.--Thackeray, _Vanity Fair_, xliv. (1848).
=Vehmique Tribunal= (_The_), or the Secret Tribunal, or the court of
the Holy Vehme, said to have been founded by Charlemagne.--Sir W.
Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).
=Veil of St. Agatha=, a miraculous veil belonging to St. Agatha, and
deposited in the church of the city of Catania, in Sicily, where the
saint suffered martyrdom. “It is a sure defence against the eruptions
of Mount Etna.” It is very true that the church itself was overwhelmed
with lava in 1693, and some 20,000 of the inhabitants perished; but
that was no fault of the veil, which would have prevented it if it
could. Happily, the veil was recovered, and is still believed in by
the people.
=Veilchen= (_Annette_), attendant of Anne of Geierstein.--Sir W.
Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).
=Veiled Prophet of Khorassan= (_The_), Hakim ben Allah, surnamed
Mokanna, or “The Veiled,” founder of an Arabic sect, in the eighth
century. He wore a veil to conceal his face, which had been greatly
disfigured in battle. He gave out that he had been Adam, Noah,
Abraham, and Moses. When the Sultan Mahadi marched against him, he
poisoned all his followers at a banquet, and then threw himself into a
cask containing a burning acid, which entirely destroyed his body.
⁂Thomas Moore has made this the subject of a poetical tale, in his
_Lalla Rookh_ (“The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan,” 1817).
There, on that throne, ... sat the prophet-chief,
The great Mokanna. O’er his features hung
The veil, the silver veil, which he had flung
In mercy there, to hide from mortal sight
His dazzling brow, till man could bear its light.
* * * * * * * * *
“’Tis time these features were uncurtained,
This brow whose light--oh, rare celestial light!--
Hath been reserved to bless thy favored sight ...
Turn now and look; then wonder, if thou wilt,
That I should hate, should take revenge by guilt,
Upon the hand whose mischief or whose mirth
Sent me thus maimed and monstrous upon earth ...
Here--judge if hell, with all its power to damn,
Can add one curse to the foul thing I am!”
He raised the veil; the maid turned slowly round,
Looked at him, shrieked, and sunk upon the ground.
_The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan._
=Velasquez=, the Spanish governor of Portugal in 1640, when the
people, led by Don Juan, duke of Braganza, rose in rebellion, shook
off the Spanish yoke, and established the duke on the throne, under
the name and title of Juan or John IV. The same dynasty still
continues. Velasquez was torn to pieces by the mob. The duchess calls
him a
Discerning villain,
Subtle, insidious, false, and plausible;
He can with ease assume all outward forms ...
While with the lynx’s beam he penetrates
The deep reserve of every other breast.
R. Jephson, _Braganza_, ii. 2 (1785).
=Velinspeck=, a country manager, to whom Matthew Stuffy makes
application for the post of prompter.--Charles Mathews, _At Home_
(1818).
=Vellum=, in Addison’s comedy, _The Drummer_ (1715).
=Velvet= (_The Rev. Morphine_), a popular preacher, who feeds his
flock on _eau sucrée_ and wild honey. He assures his hearers that the
way to heaven might once be thorny and steep, but now “every hill is
brought low, every valley is filled up, the crooked ways are made
straight, and even in the valley of the shadow of death, they need
fear no evil, for One will be with them to support and comfort them.”
=Veneering= (_Mr._), a new man, “forty, wavy-haired, dark, tending to
corpulence, sly, mysterious, filmy; a kind of well-looking veiled
prophet, not prophesying.” He was a drug merchant of the firm of
Chicksey, Stobbles and Veneering. The two former were his quondam
masters, but their names had “become absorbed in Veneering, once their
traveller or commission agent.”
_Mrs. Veneering_, a new woman, “fair, aquiline-nosed and fingered, not
so much light hair as she might have, gorgeous in raiment and jewels,
enthusiastic, propitiatory, conscious that a corner of her husband’s
veil is over herself.”
Mr. and Mrs. Veneering were bran-new people, in a bran-new house, in a
bran-new quarter of London. Everything about the Veneerings was spick
and span new. All their furniture was new, all their friends were new,
all their servants were new, their plate was new, their carriage was
new, their harness was new, their horses were new, their pictures were
new, they themselves were new, they were as newly married as was
lawfully compatible with their having a bran-new baby.
In the Veneering establishment, from the hall chairs, with the new
coat of arms, to the grand pianoforte with the new action, and
upstairs again to the new fire-escape, all things were in a state of
high varnish and polish.--C. Dickens, _Our Mutual Friend_, ii. (1864).
=Veneerings of Society= (_The_), flashy, rich merchants, who delight
to overpower their guests with the splendor of their furniture, the
provisions of their tables and the jewels of their wives and
daughters.
=Venerable Bede= (_The_). Two accounts are given respecting the word
_venerable_ attached to the name of this “wise Saxon.” One is this:
When blind, he preached once to a heap of stones, thinking himself in
a church, and the stones were so affected by his eloquence that they
exclaimed, “Amen, venerable Bede!” This, of course, is based on the
verse, _Luke_ xix. 40.
The other is that his scholars, wishing to honor his name, wrote for
epitaph:
Hæc sunt in fossa,
Bedæ presbyteri ossa;
but an angel changed the second line into “Bedæ venerabilis ossa”
(672-735).
⁂The chair in which he sat is still preserved at Jarrow. Some years
ago a sailor used to show it, and always called it the chair of the
“Great Admiral Bede.”
=Venerable Doctor= (_The_), William de Champeaux (*-1121).
=Venerable Initiator= (_The_), William of Occam (1276-1347).
=Venetian Glass=, an antique goblet with a tragic history, bought in
Venice of a _vertu_ dealer, by John Manning, to whose remote ancestor
it had belonged. Manning goes into the army, is wounded at Gettysburg,
and nursed back to life by a beautiful woman. He marries her, and
falls into a lingering decline. One day the Venetian goblet arrives
from Italy, and his wife, in a freak, pours his medicine into it. In
passing it to her husband the glass drops, and is shivered, “as its
fellow had been shivered three centuries ago,” and more. She still
stared steadily before her; then her lips parted, and she said, “The
glass broke! The glass broke! then the tale is true!” Then, with one
hysterical shriek, she fell forward amid the fragments of the Venetian
goblet, unconscious thereafter of all things.--Brander Matthews,
_Venetian Glass_ (1884).
=Venery.= Sir Tristram was the inventor of the laws and terms of
venery. Hence a book of venery was called _A Book of Tristram_.
Of Sir Tristram came all the good terms of venery and of hunting; and
the sizes and measures of blowing of an horn. And of him we had first
all the terms of hawking; and which were beasts of chase and beasts of
venery, and which were vermin; and all the blasts that belong to all
manner of games. First to the uncoupling, to the seeking, to the
rechase, to the flight, to the death and to the strake; and many other
blasts and terms shall all manner of gentlemen have cause to the
world’s end to praise Sir Tristram, and to pray for his soul.--Sir T.
Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, ii. 138 (1470).