refusing to marry him. The tears she shed became the fountain called
“St. Winifrid’s Well,” the waters of which not only cure all sorts of
diseases, but are so buoyant that nothing sinks to the bottom. St.
Winifrid’s blood stained the gravel in the neighborhood red, and her
hair became moss. Drayton has given this legend in verse in his
_Polyolbion_ x. (1612).
=Winkle= (_Nathaniel_), M.P.C., a young cockney sportsman, considered
by his companions to be a dead shot, a hunter, skater, etc. All these
acquirements are, however, wholly imaginary. He marries Arabella
Allen.--C. Dickens, _The Pickwick Papers_ (1836).
_Winkle_ (_Rip Van_), a Dutch colonist of New York, who met a strange
man in a ravine of the Catskill Mountains. Rip helped the stranger to
carry a keg to a wild retreat among rocks, where he saw a host of
strange personages playing skittles in mysterious silence. Rip took
the first opportunity of tasting the keg, fell into a stupor, and
slept for twenty years. On waking, he found that his wife was dead and
buried, his daughter married, his village remodelled, and America had
become independent.--Washington Irving, _Sketch-Book_ (1820).
The tales of Epimenidês, of Peter Klaus, of the Sleeping Beauty, the
Seven Sleepers, etc., are somewhat similar. (See SLEEPER.)
=Winklebred= or =Winklebrand= (_Louis_), lieutenant of Sir Maurice de
Bracy, a follower of Prince John.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time,
Richard I.).
=Winnie=, (_Annie_), an old sibyl, who makes her appearance at the
death of Alice Gray.--Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time,
William III.).
=Winter=, the head servant of General Witherington, _alias_ Richard
Tresham.--Sir W. Scott, _The Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.).
_Winter._ (See SEASONS.)
=Winterbourne=, travelling American who makes a “study” of Daisy
Miller.--Henry James, Jr., _Daisy Miller_ (1878).
=Winter King= (_The_), Frederick V., the rival of Ferdinand II. of
Germany. He married Elizabeth, daughter of James I. of England, and
was king of Bohemia for just one winter, the end of 1619 and the
beginning of 1620 (1596-1632). (See SNOW KING.)
=Winter Queen= (_The_), Elizabeth, daughter of James I. of England,
and wife of Frederick V. “The Winter King.” (See SNOW QUEEN.)
=Winter’s Tale= (_The_), by Shakespeare (1604). Leontês, king of
Sicily, invites his friend Polixenês to visit him. During this visit
the king becomes jealous of him, and commands Camillo to poison him;
but Camillo only warns Polixenês of the danger, and flees with him to
Bohemia. When Leontês hears thereof, his rage is unbounded; and he
casts his queen, Hermi´onê, into prison, where she gives birth to a
daughter, which Leontês gives direction shall be placed on a desert
shore to perish. In the mean time, he is told that Hermionê, the
queen, is dead. The vessel containing the infant daughter being
storm-driven to Bohemia, the child is left there, and is brought up by
a shepherd, who calls it Perdĭta. One day, in a hunt, Prince Florizel
sees Perdita and falls in love with her; but Polixenês, his father,
tells her that she and the shepherd shall be put to death if she
encourages the foolish suit. Florizel and Perdita now flee to Sicily,
and being introduced to Leontês, it is soon discovered that Perdita is
his lost daughter. Polixenês tracks his son to Sicily, and being told
of the discovery, gladly consents to the union he had before
forbidden. Pauli´na now invites the royal party to inspect a statue of
Hermionê in her house, and the statue turns out to be the living
queen.
The plot of this drama is borrowed from the tale of _Pandosto_, or
_The Triumph of Time_, by Robert Greene (1583).
We should have him back
Who told the _Winter’s Tale_ to do it for us.
Tennyson, Prologue of _The Princess_.
=Winterblossom= (_Mr. Philip_), “the man of taste,” on the managing
committee at the Spa.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan’s Well_ (time, George
III.).
=Wintersen= (_The count_), brother of Baron Steinfort, lord of the
place, and greatly beloved.
_The Countess Wintersen_, wife of the above. She is a kind friend to
Mrs. Haller, and confidante of her brother, the Baron
Steinfort.--Benjamin Thompson, _The Stranger_ (1797).
=Winterton= (_Adam_), the garrulous old steward of Sir Edward
Mortimer, in whose service he had been for forty-nine years. He was
fond of his little jokes, and not less so of his little nips, but he
loved his master and almost idolized him.--G. Colman, _The Iron Chest_
(1796).
=Win-the-Fight= (_Joachin_), the attorney employed by Major
Bridgenorth, the roundhead.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_
(time, Charles II.).
=Winthrop= (_Madam_). One of the oddest chapters in a bona fide
courtship is found in the diary of Judge Samuel Sewall, wherein he
sets down in order the several stages of his wooing of Madame
Winthrop. One extract must suffice.
“I think I repeated again that I would go home and bewail my rashness
in making more haste than good speed. I would endeavor to contain
myself and not go on to solicit her to do that which she could not
consent to. Took leave of her. As came down the steps, she bid me have
a care. Treated me courteously. Told her she had entered the fourth
year of her widowhood. I had given her the newsletter before. I did
not bid her draw off her glove as sometime I had done. Her dress was
not so clean as sometime it had been. Jehovah jireh!”--_Sewall Papers_
(173——).
=Wisdom= (_Honor paid to_).
ANACHARSIS went from Scythia to Athens to see Solon.--Ælian, _De Varia
Historia_, v.
APOLLONIOS TYANÆUS (Cappadocia) travelled through Scythia and into
India as far as the river Phison to see Hierarchus.--Philostrătos,
_Life of Apollonios_.
BEN JONSON, in 1619, travelled on foot from London to Scotland merely
to see W. Drummond, the Scotch poet, whose genius he admired.
LIVY went from the confines of Spain to Rome to hold converse with the
learned men of that city.--Pliny the Younger, _Epistle_, iii 2.
PLATO travelled from Athens to Egypt to see the wise men or magi, and
to visit Archytas of Tarentum, inventor of several automatons, as the
flying pigeon, and of numerous mechanical instruments, as the screw
and crane.
PYTHAGORAS went from Italy to Egypt to visit the vaticinators of
Memphis.--Porphyry, _Life of Pythagoras_.
SHEBA (_The queen of_) went from “the uttermost parts of the earth” to
hear and see Solomon, whose wisdom and greatness had reached her ear.
=Wisdom Persecuted.=
ANAXAGORAS of Clazomēnæ held opinions in natural science so far in
advance of his age that he was accused of impiety, cast into prison,
and condemned to death. It was with great difficulty that Perĭclês got
the sentence commuted to fine and banishment.
AVERROIS, the Arabian philosopher, was denounced as a heretic, and
degraded, in the twelfth Christian century (died 1226).
BACON (_Friar_) was excommunicated and imprisoned for diabolical
knowledge, chiefly on account of his chemical researches (1214-1294).
BRUNO (_Giordano_) was burnt alive for maintaining that matter is the
mother of all things (1550-1600).
CROSSE (_Andrew_), electrician, was shunned as a profane man, because
he asserted that certain minute animals of the genus _Acarus_ had been
developed by him out of inorganic elements (1784-1855).
DEE (_Dr. John_) had his house broken into by a mob, and all his
valuable library, museum, and mathematical instruments destroyed,
because he was so wise that “he must have been allied with the devil”
(1527-1608).
FEARGIL. (See “Virgilius.”)
GALILEO was imprisoned by the Inquisition for daring to believe that
the earth moved round the sun and not the sun round the earth. In
order to get his liberty, he was obliged to “abjure the heresy;” but
as the door closed he muttered, _E pur si muove_ (“But it does move,
though”), (1564-1642).
GERBERT, who introduced algebra into Christendom, was accused of
dealing in the black arts, and was shunned as a “son of Belial.”
GROSTED or GROSSETESTE, bishop of Lincoln, author of some two hundred
works, was accused of dealing in the black arts, and the pope wrote a
letter to Henry III., enjoining him to disinter the bones of the
too-wise bishop, as they polluted the very dust of God’s acre (died
1253).
FAUST (_Dr._), the German philosopher, was accused of diabolism for
his wisdom so far in advance of the age.
PEYRERE was imprisoned in Brussels for attempting to prove that man
existed before Adam (seventeenth century).
PROTAGORAS, the philosopher, was banished from Athens, for his book
_On the Gods_.
SOCRATÉS was condemned to death as an atheist, because his wisdom was
not in accordance with that of the age.
VIRGILIUS, bishop of Saltzburg, was compelled by Pope Zachary to
retract his assertion that there are other “worlds” besides our earth,
and other suns and moons besides those which belong to our system
(died 784).
Geologists had the same battle to fight, and so had Colenso, bishop of
Natal.
=Wise= (_The_).
Albert II., duke of Austria, “The Lame and Wise” (1289, 1330-1358).
Alfonso X. of Leon and Castile (1203, 1252-1284).
Charles V. of France, _Le Sage_ (1337, 1364-1380).
Che-Tsou of China (*, 1278-1295).
Comte de las Casas, _Le Sage_ (1766-1842).
Frederick, elector of Saxony (1463, 1544-1554).
James I., the “Solomon” of England (1566, 1603-1625).
John V., duke of Brittany, “The Good and Wise” (1389, 1399-1442).
=Wise Men= (_The Seven_): (1) Solon of Athens, (2) Chilo of Sparta,
(3) Thalês of Milētos, (4) Bias of Priēnê, (5) Cleobūlos of Lindos,
(6) Pittăcos of Mitylēnê, (7) Periander of Corinth, or, according to
Plato, Myson of Chenæ. All flourished in the sixth century B.C.
First SOLON, who made the Athenian laws;
While CHILO, in Sparta, was famed for his saws;
In Milētos did THALES astronomy teach;
BIAS used in Priēnê his morals to preach;
CLEOBULOS, of Lindos, was handsome and wise;
Mitylenê ’gainst thraldom saw PITTACOS rise;
PERIANDER is said to have gained, thro’ his court,
The title that MYSON, the Chenian, ought.
One of the chapters in Plutarch’s _Moralia_ is entitled, “The Banquet
of the Seven Wise Men,” in which Periander is made to give an account
of a contest at Chalcis between Homer and Hesiod. The latter won the
prize, and caused this inscription to be engraved on the tripod
presented to him:
This Hesiod vows to the Heliconian nine,
In Chalcis won from Homer the divine.
=Wise Men of the East.= Klopstock, in _The Messiah_, v., says there
were six “Wise Men of the East,” who, guided by the star, brought
their gifts to Jesus, “the heavenly babe,” viz., Ha´dad, Selima,
Zimri, Mirja, Be´led and Sun´ith. (See COLOGNE, THREE KINGS OF.)
=Wisest Man.= So the Delphic oracle pronounced Soc´ratês to be.
Socratês modestly made answer, ’Twas because he alone had learnt this
first element of truth, that he knew nothing.
Not those seven sages might him parallel;
For he whom Pythian maid did whilome tell
To be the wisest man that then on earth did dwell.
Phin. Fletcher, _The Purple Island_, vi. (1633).
=Wisheart= (_The Rev. Dr._), chaplain to the earl of Montrose.--Sir W.
Scott, _Legend of Montrose_ (time, Charles I.).
=Wishfort= (_Lady_), widow of Sir Jonathan Wishfort; an irritable,
impatient, decayed beauty, who painted and enamelled her face to make
herself look blooming, and was afraid to frown lest the enamel might
crack. She pretended to be coy, and assumed, at the age of 60, the
airs of a girl of 16. A trick was played upon her by Edward Mirabell,
who induced his lackey, Waitwell, to personate Sir Rowland, and make
love to her; but the deceit was discovered before much mischief was
done. Her pet expression was, “As I’m a person.”--W. Congreve, _The
Way of the World_ (1700).
=Wishing-Cap= (_The_), a cap given to Fortunatus. He had only to put
the cap on and wish, and whatever he wished he instantly
obtained.--Straparola, _Fortunatus_.
=Wishing-Rod= (_The_), a rod of pure gold, belonging to the Nibelungs.
Whoever possessed it could have anything he desired to have, and hold
the whole world in subjection.--_The Nibelungen Lied_, 1160 (1210).
=Wishing-Sack= (_The_), a sack given by our Lord to a man named
“Fourteen,” because he was as strong as fourteen men. Whatever he
wished to have he had only to say, “Come into my sack,” and it came
in.
⁂ This is a Basque legend. In Gascoigne it is called _Le Sac de la
Ramée_ (“Ramée’s Sack”).
=Wit--Simplicity.= It was said of John Gay that he was
In wit a man, simplicity a child.
⁂ The line is often flung at Oliver Goldsmith, to whom, indeed, it
equally applies.
=Witch.= The last person prosecuted before the lords or justiciary (in
Scotland) for witchcraft was Elspeth Rule. She was tried May 3, 1709,
before Lord Anstruther, and condemned to be burned on the cheek, and
banished from Scotland for life.--Arnot, _History of Edinburgh_, 366,
367.
=Witch-Finder=, Matthew Hopkins (seventeenth century). In 1645 he
hanged sixty witches in his own county (Essex) alone, and received
20s. a head for every witch he could discover.
Has not the present parliament
Mat Hopkins to the devil sent,
Fully empowered to treat about,
Finding revolted witches out?
And has not he within a year
Hanged three score of them in one shire?
S. Butler, _Hudibras_, ii. 3 (1664).
=Witch of Atlas=, the title and heroine of one of Shelley’s poems.
=Witch of Balwer´y=, Margaret Aikens, a Scotchwoman (sixteenth
century).
=Witch of Edmonton= (_The_), called “Mother Sawyer.” This is the true
traditional witch; no mystic hag, no weird sister, but only a poor,
deformed old woman, the terror of villagers, and amenable to justice.
Why should the envious world
Throw all their scandalous malice upon me?
Because I’m poor, deformed, and ignorant,
And, like a bow, buckled and bent together
By some more strong in mischiefs than myself.
_The Witch of Edmonton_, (by Rowley, Dekker and Ford,
1658).
=Witch’s Blood.= Whoever was successful in drawing blood from a witch,
was free from her malignant power. Hence Talbot, when he sees La
Pucelle, exclaims, “Blood will I draw from thee; thou art a
witch!”--Shakespeare, _1 Henry VI._ act i. sc. 5 (1592).
=Witherington= (_General_), _alias_ Richard Tresham, who first appears
as Mr. Matthew Middlemas.
_Mrs. Witherington_, wife of the general, alias Mrs. Middlemas (born
Zelia de Monçada). She appears first as Mrs. Middlemas.--Sir W. Scott,
_The Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.).
=Wititterly= (_Mr. Henry_), an important gentleman, 38 years of age;
of rather plebeian countenance, and with very light hair. He boasts
everlastingly of his grand friends. To shake hands with a lord was a
thing to talk of, but to entertain one was to be in the seventh
heaven.
_Mrs. Wititterly_ [_Julia_], wife of Mr. Wititterly, of Cadŏgan Place,
Sloane Street, London; a faded lady living in a faded house. She calls
her page Alphonse (2 _syl._), “although he has the face and figure of
Bill.” Mrs. Wititterly toadies the aristocracy, and, like her husband,
boasts of her grand connections and friends.--C. Dickens, _Nicholas
Nickleby_ (1838). (See TIBBS).
=Witling of Terror=, Bertrand Barère; also called “The Anacreon of the
Guillotine” (1755-1841).
=Wittenbold=, a Dutch commandant in the service of Charles II.--Sir W.
Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).
=Witterington= (_Roger_). (See WIDDRINGTON.)
=Wittol= (_Sir Joseph_), an ignorant, foolish simpleton, who says that
Bully Buff “is as brave a fellow as Cannibal.”--Congreve, _The Old
Bachelor_ (1693).
=Witwould= (_Sir Wilful_), of Shropshire, half-brother of Anthony
Witwould, and nephew of Lady Wishfort. A mixture of bashfulness and
obstinacy, but when in his cups as loving as the monster in the
_Tempest_. He is “a superannuated old bachelor,” who is willing to
marry Millamant; but as the young lady prefers Edward Mirabell, he is
equally willing to resign her to him. His favorite phrase is, “Wilful
will do it.”
_Anthony Witwould_, half-brother to Sir Wilful. “He has good nature
and does not want wit.” Having a good memory, he has a store of other
folks’ wit, which he brings out in conversation with good effect.--W.
Congreve, _The Way of the World_ (1700).
=Wives as they Were and Maids as they Are=, a comedy by Mrs. Inchbald
(1797). Lady Priory is the type of the former, and Miss Dorrillon of
the latter. Lady Priory is discreet, domestic, and submissive to her
husband; but Miss Dorrillon is gay, flighty, and fond of pleasure.
Lady Priory, under false pretences, is allured from home by a Mr.
Bronzely, a man of no principle and a rake; but her quiet, innocent
conduct quite disarms him, and he takes her back to her husband,
ashamed of himself, and resolves to amend. Miss Dorrillon is so
involved in debt that she is arrested, but her father from the Indies
pays her debts. She also repents, and becomes the wife of Sir George
Evelyn.
=Wives of Literary Men.= According to popular rumor the following were
_unhappy_ in their wives:--Addison, Byron, Dickens, Dryden, Albert
Dürer, Hooker, Ben Jonson, W. Lilly, Milton (first wife), Molière,
More, Saadi, Scaliger, Shakespeare, Shelley, Socratês, Wycherly, etc.
The following were _happy_ in their choice:--Thomas Moore, Sir W.
Scott, Wordsworth, William Howitt, Robert Browning, S. C. Hall,
Disraeli, Gladstone, etc., in England, and in America a great majority
of literary men:--Longfellow, Lowell, Emerson, Hawthorne, to name only
a few.
=Wizard of the North=, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832).
=Wobbler= (_Mr._), of the Circumlocution Office. When Mr. Clennam, by
the direction of Mr. Barnacle, in another department of the office,
called on this gentleman, he was telling a brother clerk about a
rat-hunt, and kept Clennam waiting a considerable time. When at length
Mr. Wobbler chose to attend, he politely said, “Hallo, there! What’s
the matter?” Mr. Clennam briefly stated his question; and Mr. Wobbler
replied, “Can’t inform you. Never heard of it. Nothing at all to do
with it. Try Mr. Clive.” When Clennam left, Mr. Wobbler called out,
“Mister! Hallo, there! Shut the door after you. There’s a devil of a
draught!”--Charles Dickens, _Little Dorrit_, x. (1857).
=Woeful Countenance= (_Knight of the_). Don Quixote was so called by
Sancho Panza, but after his adventure with the lions he called himself
“The Knight of the Lions.”--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. iii. 5; II.
i. 17 (1605-15).
=Wolf.= The NEURI, according to Herodŏtus, had the power of assuming
the shape of wolves once a year.
One of the family of ANTÆUS, according to Pliny, was chosen annually,
by lot, to be transformed into a wolf, in which shape he continued for
nine years.
LYCA´ON, king of Arcādia, was turned into a wolf because he attempted
to test the divinity of Jupiter by serving up to him “human flesh at
table.”--Ovid.
VERET´ICUS, king of Wales, was turned by St. Patrick into a wolf.
_Wolf._ When Dantê, in the first Canto of the _Divina Commedia_,
describes the ascent of the hill (of fame?) he is met, first by a
panther (_pleasure?_) then by a lion (_ambition?_) then by a she-wolf
(_avarice?_)
A she-wolf, ... who in her leanness seemed
Full of all wants, ... with such fear
O’erwhelmed me ... that of the height all hope I lost.
Dantê, _Inferno_, i. (1300).
_Wolf_ (_To cry_), to give a false alarm.
YÖW-WÂNG, emperor of China, was greatly enamoured of a courtezan named
Pao-tse, whom he tried, by sundry expedients, to make laugh. At length
he hit upon the following plan:--He caused the tocsins to be rung, the
drums to be beaten, and the signal-fires to be lighted, as if some
invader was at the gates. Pao-tse was delighted, and laughed
immoderately to see the vassals and feudatory princes pouring into the
city, and all the people in consternation. The emperor, pleased with
the success of his trick, amused his favorite over and over again by
repeating it. At length an enemy really did come, but when the alarm
was given no one heeded it, and the emperor was slain (B.C. 770).
=Wolf duke of Gascony=, one of Charlemagne’s paladins. He was the
originator of the plan of tying wetted ropes round the temples of his
prisoners, to make their eye-balls start from their sockets. It was he
also who had men sewn up in freshly stripped bulls’ hides, and exposed
to the sun till the hides, in shrinking, crushed their
bones.--L’Epine, _Croquemitaine_, iii.
=Wolf of France= (_She-_), Isabella _la Belle_, wife of Edward II. She
murdered her royal husband “by tearing out his bowels with her own
hands.”
She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs,
Thou tear’st the bowels of thy mangled mate.
Gray, _The Bard_ (1757).
=Wol´fort=, usurper of the earldom of Flanders.--Beaumont and
Fletcher, _The Beggars’ Bush_ (1622).
=Wolfort Webber=, Old Knickerbocker, searcher for treasure buried by
buccaneers.--Washington Irving, _Tales of a Traveller_.
=Wolsey= (_Cardinal_), introduced by Shakespeare in his historic play
of _Henry VIII._ (1601).
=Woman Changed to a Man.= Iphis, daughter of Lygdus and Telethusa, of
Crete. The story is that the father gave orders if the child about to
be born proved to be a girl, it was to be put to death; and that the
mother, unwilling to lose her infant, brought it up as a boy. In due
time the father betrothed his child to Ianthê, and the mother, in
terror, prayed for help, when Isis, on the day of marriage, changed
Iphis to a man.--Ovid, _Metaph._ ix. 12; xiv, 699.
CÆNEUS [_Se.nuce_], was born of the female sex, but Neptune changed
her into a man. Ænēas, however, found her in the infernal regions
restored to her original sex.
TIRE´SIAS, was converted into a woman for killing one of two serpents
he met in a wood and was restored to his original sex by killing the
other serpent met again after seven years.
D’EON DE BEAUMONT, the Chevalier, was believed to be a woman.
HERMAPHRODITOS was of both sexes.
=Woman killed with Kindness= (_A_), a tragedy by Thos. Heywood (1600).
The “woman” was Mrs. Frankford, who was unfaithful to her marriage
vow. Her husband sent her to live on one of his estates, and made her
a liberal allowance; she died, but on her death-bed her husband came
to see her, and forgave her.
=Woman made of Flowers.= Gwydion, son of Don, “formed a woman out of
flowers,” according to the Bard Taliesin. Arianrod had said that Llew
Llaw Gyffes (_i.e._, “The Lion with the Steady Hand”), should never
have a wife of the human race. So Math and Gwydion, two enchanters,
Took blossoms of oak, and blossoms of broom, and blossoms of
meadow-sweet, and produced therefrom a maiden, the fairest and most
graceful ever seen, and baptized her Blodeuwedd, and she became his
bride.--_The Mabinogion_ (“Math,” etc., twelfth century).
=Woman’s Wit=, or =Love’s Disguises=, a drama by S. Knowles (1838).
Hero Sutton loved Sir Valentine de Grey, but offended him by waltzing
with Lord Athunree. To win him back she assumed the disguise of a
Quakeress, called herself Ruth, and pretended to be Hero’s cousin. Sir
Valentine fell in love with Ruth, and then found out that Ruth and
Hero were one and the same person. The secondary plot is that of Helen
and Walsingham, lovers. Walsingham thought Helen had played the wanton
with Lord Athunree, and he abandoned her. Whereupon Helen assumed the
garb of a young man named Eustace, became friends with Walsingham,
said she was Helen’s brother; but in the brother he discovers Helen
herself, and learnt that he had been wholly misled by appearances.
=Women= (_The Nine Worthy_): (1) Minerva, (2) Semiramis, (3) Tomyris,
(4) Jael, (5) Debŏrah, (6) Judith, (7) Britomart, (8) Elizabeth or
Isabella of Aragon, (9) Johanna of Naples.