_summum bonum_ of life is to get talked about. Like Queen Elizabeth,
he loved a “crash” in music, plenty of noise and fury. Olivia de
Zuniga disgusted him by maintaining the jew’s-harp to be the prince of
musical instruments.--Mrs. Cowley, _A Bold Stroke for a Husband_
(1782).
=Vi´ola=, sister of Sebastian; a young lady of Messaline. They were
twins, and so much alike that they could be distinguished only by
their dress. Viola and her brother were shipwrecked off the coast of
Illyria, Viola was brought to shore by the captain, but her brother
was left to shift for himself. Being a stranger in a strange land,
Viola dressed as a page, and, under the name of Cesario, entered the
service of Orsīno, duke of Illyria. The duke greatly liked his
beautiful page, and, when he discovered her true sex, married
her.--Skakespeare, _Twelfth Night_ (1602).
=Vi´ola and Hono´ra=, daughter of General Archas, “the loyal subject”
of the great-duke of Muscovia.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Loyal
Subject_ (1618).
=Violan´te= (4 _syl._), the supposed wife of Don Henrique (2 _syl._),
an uxorious Spanish nobleman.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Spanish
Curate_ (1622).
_Violante_, the betrothed of Don Alonzo, of Alcazar, but given in
marriage by King Sebastian to Henri´quez. This caused Alonzo to desert
and join the emperor of Barbary. As renegade, he took the name of
Dorax, and assumed the Moorish costume. In the war which followed, he
saved Sebastian’s life, was told that Henriquez had died in battle,
and that Violante, who never swerved from his love, being a young
widow, was free and willing to be his wife.--Dryden, _Don Sebastian_
(1690).
_Violante_, an attendant on the Princess Anna Comnēna, the
historian.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).
_Violante_, (4 _syl._), wife of Pietro (2 _syl._), and putative mother
of Pompilia. Violantê provided this suppositious child partly to
please old Pietro, and partly to cheat the rightful heirs.--R.
Browning, _The Ring and the Book_, ii.
_Violante_ (_Donna_), daughter of Don Pedro, a Portuguese nobleman,
who intends to make her a nun; but she falls in love with Don Felix,
the son of Don Lopez. Isabella (sister of Don Felix), in order to
escape a hateful marriage, takes refuge with Donna Violantê (4
_syl._), who “keeps the secret” close, even at the risk of losing her
sweetheart, for Felix discovers that a Colonel Briton calls at the
house, and supposes Violantê to be the object of his visits.
Ultimately the mystery is cleared up, and a double marriage takes
place.--Mrs. Centlivre, _The Wonder_ (1714).
Mrs. Yates (in the last act), with Garrick as “Don Felix,” was
admirable. Felix, thinking he has gone too far, applies himself to
soothe his Violantê. She turns from him and draws away her chair; he
follows, and she draws further away. At length, by his winning,
entreating, and cajoling, she is gradually induced to melt, and
finally makes it up with him. Her condescension ... was admirable; her
dignity was great and lofty, ... and when by degrees she laid aside
her frown, and her lips relaxed into a smile, ... nothing could be
more lovely and irresistible.... It laid the whole audience, as well
as the lover, at her feet.--William Goodwin.
=Violen´ta=, any young lady nonentity; one who contributes nothing to
the amusement or conversation of a party. Violenta is one of the
_dramatis personæ_ of Shakespeare’s _All’s Well that Ends Well_, but
she only enters once, and then she neither speaks nor is spoken to
(1598). (See ROGERO.)
_Violenta_, the fairy mother, who brought up the young princess, who
was metamorphosed into a white cat for refusing to marry Migonnet (a
hideously misshapen fairy).--Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“The
White Cat,” 1682).
=Violet=, the ward of Lady Arundel. She is in love with Norman, the
“sea-captain,” who turns out to be the son of Lady Arundel by her
first husband, and heir to the title and estates.--Lord Lytton, _The
Sea-Captain_ (1839).
_Violet_ (_Father_), a sobriquet of Napoleon I.; also called “Corporal
Violet” (1769, 1804-1815, died, 1821).
⁂ Violets were the flowers of the empire, and when, in 1879, the
ex-empress Eugénie was visited at Chislehurst by those who sympathized
with her in the death of her son, “the prince imperial,” they were
worn as symbols of attachment to the imperial family of France. The
name was given to Napoleon on his banishment to Elba (1815), and
implied that “he would return to France with the violets”.
=Violet-Crowned City= (_The_). Athens is so called by Aristophănês,
(ιοστέφανος) (see _Equites_, 1323 and 1329; and _Acharnians_, 637).
Macaulay refers to Athens as “the violet-crowned city.” Ion (_a
violet_) was a representative king of Athens, whose four sons gave
names to the four Athenian classes; and Greece, in Asia Minor, was
called Ionia. Athens was the city of “Ion crowned its king,” and hence
was the “Ion crowned” or King Ion’s city. Translating the word Ion
into English, Athens was the “Violet-crowned” or King Violet’s city.
Of course, the pun is the chief point, and was quite legitimate in
comedy.
Similarly, Paris is called the “city of lillies,” by a pun between
Louis and lys (_the flower-de-luce_), and France is _l’empire des lys_
or _l’empire des Louis_.
By a similar pun, London might be called “the noisy town,” from
_hlúd_, “noisy.”
=Violetta=, a Portuguese, married to Belfield, the elder brother, but
deserted by him. The faithless husband gets betrothed to Sophia
(daughter of Sir Benjamin Dove), who loves the younger brother. Both
Violetta and the younger brother are shipwrecked and cast on the coast
of Cornwall, in the vicinity of Squire Belfield’s estate; and Sophia
is informed that her “betrothed” is a married man. She is therefore
free from her betrothal, and marries the younger brother, the man of
her choice; while the elder brother takes back his wife, to whom he
becomes reconciled.--R. Cumberland, _The Brothers_ (1769).
=Violin= (_The Angel with the_). Rubens’s “Harmony” is an angel of the
male sex playing a bass-viol.
The angel with the violin,
Painted by Raphael, (?) he seemed.
Longfellow, _The Wayside Inn_ (1863).
=Violin-Makers= (_The best_): Gasparo di Salo (1560-1610); Nicholas
Amati (1596-1684); Antonio Stradivari (1670-1728); Joseph A. Guarneri
(1683-1745).
⁂ Of these, Stradivari was the best, and Nicholas Amati the next best.
The following are eminent, but not equal to the names given
above:--Joseph Steiner (1620-1667); Matthias Klotz (1650-1696). (See
Otto, _On the Violin_.)
=Vipont= (_Sir Ralph de_) a knight of St. John. He is one of the
knights challengers.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).
=Virgil=, in the _Gesta Romanorum_, is represented as a mighty but
benevolent enchanter, and this is the character that Italian romances
give him.
Similarly, Sir Walter Scott is called “The Great Wizard of the North.”
_Virgil_, in Dantê, is the personification of human wisdom, Beatrice
of the wisdom which comes of faith, and St. Bernard of spiritual
wisdom. Virgil conducts Dantê through the Inferno and through
Purgatory too, till the seven P’s (_peccata_ “sins”) are obliterated
from his brow, when Beatrice becomes his guide. St. Bernard is his
guide through a part of Paradise. Virgil says to Dantê:
What _reason_ here discovers, _I_ have power
To show thee; that which lies beyond, expect
From Beatrice----_faith_ not reason’s task.
Dantê, _Purgatory_, xviii. (1308).
_Virgil._ The inscription on his tomb (said to have been written by
himself) was:
Mantua me genuit; Calabri rapuere; tenet nunc
Parthenope; cecini pascua, rura, duces.
In Mantua was I born; Calabria saw me die;
Of sheep, fields, wars I sung; and now in Naples lie.
_Virgil_ (_The Christian_), Giacomo Sannazaro (1458-1530).
Marco Girolamo Vida, author of _Christias_ (in six books), is also
called “The Christian Virgil” (1490-1566).
⁂ Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, of Spain, is called by Bentley “The
Virgil and Horace of Christians” (348-*).
=Virgil of our Dramatic Poets= (_The_). Ben Jonson is so called by
Dryden (1574-1637).
Shakespeare was the Homer or father of our dramatic poets; Jonson was
the Virgil, and pattern of elaborate writing. I admire rare Ben, but I
love Shakespeare.--Dryden.
=Virgil of the French Drama= (_The_). Jean Racine is so called by Sir
Walter Scott (1639-1699).
=Virgil’s Courtship.= Godfrey Gobilyve told Graunde Amoure that
Virgil, the poet, once made proposals to a lady of high rank in the
Roman court, who resolved to punish him for his presumption. She told
him that if he would appear on a given night before her window, he
should be drawn up in a basket. Accordingly he kept his appointment,
got into the basket, and, being drawn some twenty feet from the
ground, was left there dangling till noon the next day, the laugh and
butt of the court and city.--Stephen Hawes, _The Passe-tyme of
Plesure_, xxix. (1515).
=Virgil’s Gnat= (the _Culex_, ascribed to Virgil). A shepherd, having
fallen asleep in the open air, was on the point of becoming the prey
of a serpent, when a gnat stung him on the eyelid. The shepherd
crushed the gnat, but at the same time alarmed the serpent, which the
shepherd saw and beat to death. Next night the gnat appeared to the
shepherd in a dream, and reproached him for ingratitude, whereupon he
raised a monument in honor of his deliverer. Spenser has a free
translation of this story, which he calls _Virgil’s Gnat_ (1580). (See
USE OF PESTS.)
=Virgile du Rabut= (_Le_), “The Virgil of the Plane,” Adam Bellaut,
the joiner-poet, who died, 1662. He was pensioned by Richelieu,
patronized by the “Great Condé,” and praised by Pierre Corneille.
=Virgil´ia= is made by Shakespeare the _wife_ of Coriolanus, and
Volumnia his _mother_; but historically Volumnia was his wife, and
Vetu´ria his mother.--_Coriolanus_ (1610).
The old man’s merriment in Menenius; the lofty lady’s dignity in
Volumnia; the bridal modesty in Virgilia; the patrician and military
haughtiness in Coriolanus; the plebeian malignity and tribunitian
insolence in Brutus and Sicinius, make a very pleasing and interesting
variety.--Dr. Johnson, _On Coriolanus_.
=Virgil´ius=, Feargil, bishop of Saltzburg, an Irishman. He was
denounced as a heretic for asserting the existence of antipodês
(*-784). (See HERESY.)
⁂ Metz, in France, was so called in the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1).
=Virgin Martyr= (_The_), a tragedy by Philip Massinger (1622).
”
=Virgin Mary= (_The_), is addressed by the following titles:--“Empress
and Queen of Heaven;” “Empress and Queen of Angels;” “Empress and
Queen of the Earth;” “Lady of the Universe or of the World;” “Mistress
of the World;” “Patroness of all Men;” “Advocate for Sinners;”
“Mediatrix;” “Gate of Paradise;” “Mother of Mercies and of Divine
Grace;” “Goddess;” “The only Hope of Sinners,” etc., etc.
It is said that Peter Fullo, in 480, was the first to introduce
invocations to the Virgin.
=Virgin Modesty.= John Wilmot, earl of Rochester, was so called by
Charles II., because of his propensity to blushing (1647-1680).
=Virgin Queen= (_The_), Elizabeth (1533, 1558-1603).
=Virgin Unmasked= (_The_), a farce by H. Fielding. Goodwill had
acquired by trade £10,000, and resolved to give his daughter Lucy to
one of his relations, in order to keep the money in the family. He
sent for her bachelor relations, and told them his intention; they
were Blister (the apothecary), Coupee (the dancing-master), and Quaver
(the singing-master). They all preferred their professions to the
young lady, and while they were quarrelling about the superiority of
their respective callings, Lucy married Thomas, the footman. Old
Goodwill says, “I don’t know but that my daughter has made a better
choice than if she had married one of these booby relations.”
=Virginians= (_The_), a sequel to Henry Esmond. It gives the story of
Colonel Esmond’s twin grandsons, George and Harry Warrington, born and
brought up in Virginia. George joins Braddock’s expedition, and is
reported killed, Harry goes to England. George, escaping from Indian
captivity, joins his brother, whom everybody had supposed the head of
the family. Harry enters the army and George marries. One of the
characters introduced in the book is George Washington, whom the twins
believe to be in love with their widowed mother.--W. M. Thackeray,
_The Virginians_.
=Virgins= (_The Eleven Thousand_). Ursul or Hörsel in Swabia, like
Hulda in Scandinavia, means “the moon,” and her eleven thousand
virgins are the stars. The bones shown in Cologne, as those of the
eleven thousand virgins are those of males and females of all ages,
and were taken from an old Roman cemetery across which the wall of
Cologne ran (1106).
=Virginia=, a young Roman plebeian of great beauty, coveted by Appius
Claudius, one of the decemvirs, and claimed as his slave. Her father,
Virginius, being told of it, hastened to the forum, and arrived at the
moment when Virginia was about to be delivered up to Appius. He seized
a butcher’s knife, stabbed his daughter to the heart, rushed from the
forum, and raised a revolt.
This has been the subject of a host of tragedies. In _French_, by
Mairet (1628), by Leclerc (1645), by Campistron (1683), by La
Beaumelle (1760), by Chabanon (1769), by Laharpe (1786), by Leblanc du
Guillet (1786), by Guiraud (1827), by Latour St. Ybars (1845), etc. In
_Italian_, by Alfieri (1783). In _German_, by Gotthold Lessing
(eighteenth century). In _English_, by John Webster, entitled _Appius
and Virginia_ (1654); by Miss Brooke (1760); J. S. Knowles (1820),
_Virginius_.
It is one of Lord Macaulay’s lays (1842), supposed to be sung in the
forum on the day when Sextus and Licinius were elected tribunes for
the fifth time.
_Virginia_, the daughter of Mde. de la Tour. Madame was of a good
family in Normandy, but, having married beneath her social position,
was tabooed by her family. Her husband died before the birth of his
first child, and the widow went to live at Port Louis, in the
Mauritius, where Virginia was born. Their only neighbor was Margaret,
with her love-child, Paul, an infant. The two children grew up
together, and became strongly attached; but when Virginia was 15 years
old, her wealthy great-aunt adopted her and requested that she might
be sent immediately to France to finish her education. The aunt wanted
her to marry a French count, and as Virginia refused to do so,
disinherited her and sent her back to the Mauritius. When within a
cable’s length of the island, a hurricane dashed the ship to pieces,
and the corpse of Virginia was cast on the shore. Paul drooped, and
died within two months.--Bernardin de St. Pierre, _Paul and Virginia_
(1788).
⁂ In Cobb’s dramatic version of this story, Virginia’s mother is of
Spanish origin, and dies committing Virginia to the charge of
Dominique, a faithful old negro servant. The aunt is Donna Leonora de
Guzman, who sends Don Antonio de Guardes to bring Virginia to Spain,
and there to make her his bride. She is carried to the ship by force;
but scarcely is she set on board when a hurricane dashes the vessel to
pieces. Antonio is drowned, but Virginia is rescued by Alhambra, a
runaway slave, whom she has befriended. The drama ends with the
marriage between Virginia and Paul (1756-1818).
=Virginius=, father of the Roman Virginia, the title of a tragedy by
S. Knowles (1820). (For the tale, see VIRGINIA.)
Macready (1793-1873) made the part of “Virginius” in Knowles’s drama
so called, but the first to act it was John Cooper, in Glasgow (1820).
=Visin=, a Russian who had the power of blunting weapons by a look.
Starchat´erus, the Swede, when he went against him, covered his sword
with thin leather, and by this means obtained an easy victory.
=Vision of Judgment= (_The_), a poem in twelve parts, by Southey,
written in hexameter verse (1820). The laureate supposes that he has a
vision of George III., just dead, tried at the bar of heaven. Wilkes
is his chief accuser, and Washington his chief defender. Judgment is
given by acclamation in favor of the king, and in heaven he is
welcomed by Alfred, Richard Cœur de Lion, Edward III., Queen
Elizabeth, Charles I. and William III., Bede, Friar Bacon, Chaucer,
Spenser, the duke of Marlborough and Berkeley the sceptic, Hogarth,
Burke the infidel, Chatterton, who made away with himself, Canning,
Nelson and all the royal family who were then dead.
⁂ Of all the literary productions ever issued from the press, never
was one printed of worse taste than this. Byron wrote a quiz on it
called _The Vision of Judgment_, in 106 stanzas of eight lines each
(1820).
=Visines, De= (_The_). The uncle, an emigrant abbé who teaches French
in Philadelphia, to private pupils. One of these is Marguerite Howard,
with whom the nephew, Henri De Visines, speedily falls in love. The
girl, in skating, finds herself upon a floating cake of ice from which
she is rescued by Henri De Visines. A series of revelations brings
about the truth that Marguerite is of the De Visine blood, and in due
time she marries her newly-found cousin.--S. Weir Mitchell, _Hephzibah
Guinness_ (1880).
=Vita´lis=, the pseudonym of Eric Sjöberg, a Swedish poet. (Latin,
_vita lis_, “life is a strife.”)
=Viti´za= or =Witi´za=, king of the Visigoths, who put out the eyes of
Cordŏva, the father of Roderick. He was himself dethroned and blinded
by Roderick.--Southey, _Roderick, the Last of the Goths_ (1814).
=Vitruvius= (_The English_), Inigo Jones (1572-1652).
=Vivian=, brother of Maugis d’Agremont, and son of Duke Bevis of
Agremont. He was stolen in infancy by Tapinel, and sold to the wife of
Sorgalant.--_Roman de Maugis d’Agremont et de Vivian son Frère._
_Vivian_, son of Buovo (2 _syl._), of the house of Clarmont, and
brother of Aldiger and Malagigi.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).
=Viviane= (3 _syl._), daughter of Dyonas, a vavasour of high lineage,
and generally called the “Lady of the Lake.” Merlin, in his dotage,
fell in love with her, and she imprisoned him in the forest of
Brécéliande, in Brittany. Viviane induced Merlin to show her how a
person could be imprisoned by enchantment without walls, towers, or
chains, and after he had done so, she fondled him into a sleep under a
whitethorn laden with flowers. While thus he slept, she made a ring
with her wimple round the bush, and performed the other needful
ceremonies, whereupon he found himself enclosed in a prison stronger
than the strongest tower, and from that imprisonment was never again
released.--_Merlin_ (a romance).
⁂ See the next article.
=Viv´ien= or =Vivian=, the personification of shameless harlotry, or
the crowning result to be expected from the infidelity of Queen
Guin´evere. This wily wanton in Arthur’s court hated all the knights,
and tried without success to seduce “the blameless king.” With Merlin,
she succeeded better, for, being pestered with her importunity, he
told her the secret of his power, as Samson told Delilah the secret of
his strength. Having learnt this, Vivien enclosed the magician in a
hollow oak, where he was confined as one dead, “lost to life, and use,
and name, and fame.”--Tennyson, _Idylls of the King_ (“Vivien,”
1858-9). (See VIVIANE.)
⁂ In Malory’s _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 60, Nimue (? _Ninive_) is
the fée who inveigled Merlin out of his secret:
And so upon a time it happened that Merlin shewed to her [_Nimue_] in
a rock, whereas was a great wonder, and wrought by enchantment, which
went under a stone. So by her subtle craft and working, she made
Merlin to go under that stone, to let her wit of the marvels there;
but she wrought so there for him that he came never out, for all his
craft. And so she departed and left him there.
=Voadic´ia= or =Boadice´a=, queen of the British Icēni. Enraged
against the Romans, who had defiled her two daughters, she excited an
insurrection against them, and while Suetonius Paulīnus, the Roman
governor, was in Mona (_Anglesea_), she took Colchester and London,
and slew 70,000 Romans. Being at length defeated by Suetonius
Paulinus, she put an end to her life by poison (A.D. 61).
Cowper has an ode on _Boadicea_ (1790).
Brave Voadicĭa made with her resolvedest men
To Virolam [_St. Alban’s_], whose siege with fire and sword she plyed
Till levelled with the earth ... etc.
Drayton, _Polyolbion_, viii. (1612).
=Voadine= (2 _syl._), bishop of London, who reproved Vortiger[n] for
loving another man’s wife and neglecting his own queen, for which
reproof the good bishop was murdered.
... good Voadine, who reproved
Proud Vortiger, his king, unlawfully that loved
Another’s wanton wife, and wronged his nuptial bed,
For which by that stern prince unjustly murdered.
Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xxiv. (1622).
⁂ This is very like the story of John the Baptist and Herod.
=Voice= (_Human_). The following animals possessed both human voice
and articulate speech, speaking in the language of their masters:--
AL BORAK, the animal which conveyed Mahomet to the seventh heaven. He
not only spoke good Arabic, but had also a human face.
ARION, the wonderful horse which Herculés gave to Adrastos. It not
only spoke good Greek, but both his near feet were those of a man.
BALAAM’S ASS spoke Hebrew to Balaam on one occasion.--_Numb._ xxii.
THE BLACK PIGEONS, one of which gave the responses in the temple of
Ammon, and the other in Dodōna.--_Classic Story_.
The BULBUL-HEZAR, which had not only human speech, but was oracular
also.--_Arabian Nights_ (“The Two Sisters”).
COMRADE, Fortunio’s horse, spoke with the voice of a man.--Comtesse
D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“Fortunio”).
The little GREEN BIRD which Fairstar obtained possession of, not only
answered in words any questions asked it, but was also prophetic and
oracular.--Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“Cherry and Fairstar”).
KATMÎR, the dog of the Seven Sleepers, spoke Greek.--_Al Korân_,
xviii.
SÄLEH’S CAMEL used to go about crying, in good Arabic, “Ho! every one
that wanteth milk, let him come, and I will give it him.”--Sale, _Al
Korân_, vii. (notes).
The SERPENT which tempted Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit.--_Gen._
iii.
TEMLIHA, the king of serpents, had the gift of human speech.--Comte de
Caylus, _Oriental Tales_ (“History of Aboutaleb”).
XANTHOS, one of the horses of Achillês, announced to the hero, in good
Greek, his approaching death.--_Classic Fable._
=Voiture= (2 _syl._), a French poet, idolized by his contemporaries in
the reign of Louis XIV., but now only known by name (1598-1648).
E’en rival wits did Voiture’s death deplore,
And the gay mourned, who never mourned before;
The truest hearts for Voiture heaved with sighs,
Voiture was wept by all the brightest eyes.
Pope, _Epistle to Miss Blount_ (1715).
=Voland= (_Squire_), the devil. (German, _Junker Voland_.)
=Volan´te= (3 _syl._), one of the three daughters of Balthazar.
Lively, witty, sharp as a needle and high-spirited. She loves the
Count Montalban; but when the count disguises himself as a father
confessor, in order to sound her love for him, she sees the trick in a
moment, and says to him, “Come, count, pull off your lion’s hide, and
confess yourself an ass.” Subsequently, all ends happily and well.--J.
Tobin, _The Honeymoon_ (1804).
=Volet´ta=, Free-will personified.
Voletta,
Whom neither man, nor fiend, nor God constrains.
Phineas Fletcher, _The Purple Island_, vi. (1633).
=Volksmährchen= (“_popular tales_”), in German, the best exponents
being Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853), Musäus (1735-1787), De la Motte Fouqué
(see UNDINE), Chamisso (see SCHLEMIHL, PETER), Wilhelm Hauff
(1802-1827), Achim von Arnim (1781-1831), Clemens Brentano
(1777-1842), Zschokke (1771-1848), Hoffmann (1776-1822), Gustav
Freytag, “The German Dickens” (1816-1878), and the brothers Grimm.