talke. I had rather have herd something sayd of gentle and meeke
women, for it is euill examples to let them understand of such studye
manlye women as those have been which erewhile thou hast tolde of.
They are quicke enow, I warrant you, noweadays, to take hart-a-grace,
and dare make warre with their husbandes. I would not vor the price o’
my coate, that Jone, my wife had herd this yeare; she would haue
carried away your tales of the nine worthy women a dele zoner than our
minister’s tales anent Sarah, Rebekah, Ruth, and the ministering
women, I warrant you.--John Ferne, _Dialogue on Heraldry_ (“Columel’s
reply to Torquatus”).
⁂ “Hart-a-grace,” a hart permitted by royal proclamation to run free
and unharmed for ever, because it has been hunted by a king or queen.
=Women of Abandoned Morals.=
BARBARA of Cilley, second wife of the Emperor Sigismund, called “The
Messalīna of Germany.”
BERRI (_Madame de_), wife of the Duc de Berri (youngest grandson of
Louis XIV.).
CATHERINE II. of Russia, called “The Modern Messalina” (1729-1796).
GIOVANNA or JEAN of Naples. Her first love was James, count of March,
who was beheaded. Her second was Camicioli, whom she put to death. Her
next was Alfonso of Aragon. Her fourth was Louis d’Anjou, who died.
Her fifth was René, the brother of Louis.
ISABELLE of Bavaria, wife of Charles VI., and mistress of the duke of
Burgundy.
ISABELLE of France, wife of Edward II., and mistress of Mortimer.
JULIA, daughter of the Emperor Augustus.
MAROZIA, the daughter of Theodora, and mother of Pope John XI. The
infamous daughter of an infamous mother (ninth century.)
MESSALI´NA, the wife of Claudius, the Roman emperor.
=Wonder= (_The_), a comedy by Mrs. Centlivre; the second title being
_A Woman Keeps a Secret_ (1714). The woman referred to is Violantê,
and the secret she keeps is that Donna Isabella, the sister of Don
Felix, has taken refuge under her roof. The danger she undergoes in
keeping the secret is this: Her lover, Felix, who knows that Colonel
Briton calls at the house, is jealous, and fancies that he calls to
see Violantê. The reason why Donna Isabella has sought refuge with
Violantê is to escape a marriage with a Dutch gentleman whom she
dislikes. After a great deal of trouble and distress, the secret is
unravelled, and the comedy ends with a double marriage, that of
Violantê with Don Felix, and that of Isabella with Colonel Briton.
=Wonder of the World= (_The_).
GERBERT, a man of prodigious learning. When he was made pope, he took
the name of Sylvester II. (930, 999-1003).
OTTO III. of Germany, a pupil of Gerbert. What he did deserving to be
called _Mirabilia Mundi_ nobody knows (980, 983-1002).
FREDERICK II. of Germany (1194, 1215-1250).
=Wonderful Doctor=, Roger Bacon (1214-1292).
=Wood= (_Babes in the_), a baby boy and girl left by a gentleman of
Norfolk on his death-bed to the care of his brother. The boy was to
have £300 a year on coming of age, and little Jane £500 as a wedding
portion. The uncle promised to take care of the children, but scarcely
had a year gone by when he hired two ruffians to make away with them.
The hirelings took the children on horseback to Wayland Wood, where
they were left to die of cold and hunger. The children would have been
killed, but one of the fellows relented, expostulated with his
companion, and finally slew him. The survivor compromised with his
conscience by leaving the babes alive in the wood. Everything went ill
with the uncle from that hour; his children died, his cattle died, his
barns were set on fire, and he himself died in jail.
⁂ The prettiest version of this story is one set to a Welsh tune; but
Percy has a version in his _Reliques of Ancient English Poetry_.
=Woodcock= (_Adam_), falconer of the Lady Mary at Avenel Castle. In
the revels he takes the character of the “abbot of Unreason.”--Sir W.
Scott, _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).
_Woodcock_ (_Justice_), a gouty, rheumatic, crusty, old country
gentleman, who invariably differed with his sister, Deb´orah, in
everything. He was a bit of a Lothario in his young days, and still
retained a somewhat licorous tooth. Justice Woodcock had one child,
named Lucinda, a merry girl, full of frolic and fun.
_Deborah Woodcock_, sister of the justice; a starch, prudish old maid,
who kept the house of her brother, and disagreed with him in
everything.--Isaac Bickerstaff, _Love in a Village_ (1762).
=Woodcocks= (_The_). _John Woodcock_, a rough, reckless colonist, who
seems harsh to his motherless girl while she is a child, but
subsequently betrays the depths of fatherly affection when she is
persecuted by others.
_Mary Woodcock_, wild, wayward, passionate girl, in trouble from her
youth up. She marries a gentle-hearted fellow, Hugh Parsons; is tried
for slandering a neighbor, and, driven insane by ill-treatment,
murders her baby, believing it to be a changeling. She is tried for
witchcraft, and acquitted; for child-murder, and sentenced to death,
but dies before the sentence is carried into execution. Her father
says over her lifeless body:
“If I didn’t think the Lord would see just how she’s been abused and
knocked round, and would allow for the way she was brung up, and would
strike out all He’s got agin her, excepting that that didn’t come from
bein’ meddled with and insulted and plagued, I should want to have her
an’ me an’ everybody else I care anything about, blown into a thousand
flinders, body and soul, and all the pieces lost.”--J. G. Holland,
_The Bay Path_ (1857).
=Woodcourt= (_Allan_), a medical man, who married Esther Summerson.
His mother was a Welsh woman, apt to prose on the subject of
Morgan-ap-Kerrig.--C. Dickens, _Bleak House_ (1852).
=Wooden Horse= (_The_). Virgil tells us that Ulysses had a monster
wooden horse, made by Epēos after the death of Hector, and gave out
that it was an offering to the gods to secure a prosperous voyage back
to Greece. By the advice of Sinon, the Trojans dragged the horse into
Troy for a palladium; but at night the Grecian soldiers concealed
therein were released by Sinon from their concealment, slew the Trojan
guards, opened the city gates, and set fire to Troy. Arctīnos of
Milētus, in his poem called _The Destruction of Troy_, furnished
Virgil with the tale of “the Wooden Horse” and “the burning of Troy”
(fl. B.C. 776).
A remarkable parallel occurred in Saracenic history. Arrestan, in
Syria, was taken in the seventh century by Abu Obeidah by a similar
stratagem. He obtained leave of the governor to deposit in the citadel
some old lumber which impeded his march. Twenty large boxes filled
with men were carried into the castle. Abu marched off; and, while the
Christians were returning thanks for the departure of the enemy, the
soldiers removed the sliding bottoms of the boxes and made their way
out, overpowered the sentries, surprised the great church, opened the
city gates, and Abu, entering with his army, took the city without
further opposition.--Ockley, _History of the Saracens_, i. 185 (1718).
The capture of Sark affords another parallel. Sark was in the hands of
the French. A Netherlander, with one ship, asked permission to bury
one of his crew in the chapel. The French consented, provided the crew
came on shore wholly unarmed. This was agreed to, but the coffin was
full of arms, and the crew soon equipped themselves, overpowered the
French, and took the island.--Percy, _Anecdotes_, 249.
Swoln with hate and ire, their huge, unwieldy force
Came clustering like the Greeks out of the wooden horse.
Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xii. (1613).
_Wooden Horse_ (_The_), Clavilēno, the wooden horse on which Don
Quixote and Sancho Panza got astride to disenchant Antonomas´ia and
her husband, who were shut up in the tomb of Queen Maguncia of
Candaya.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. iii. 4, 5 (1615).
Another _wooden horse_ was the one given by an Indian to the shah of
Persia as a New Year’s gift. It had two pegs; by turning one it rose
into the air, and by turning the other it descended wherever the rider
wished. Prince Firouz mounted the horse, and it carried him
instantaneously to Bengal.--_Arabian Nights_ (“The Enchanted Horse”).
Reynard says that King Crampart made for the daughter of King
Marcadigês a wooden horse which would go a hundred miles an hour. His
son, Clamadês, mounted it, and it flew out of the window of the king’s
hall, to the terror of the young prince.--Alkman, _Reynard the Fox_
(1498). (See CAMBUSCAN.)
=Wooden Walls=, ships made of wood. When Xerxes invaded Greece, the
Greeks sent to ask the Delphic oracle for advice, and received the
following answer (B.C. 480):--
Pallas hath urged, and Zeus, the sire of all,
Hath safety promised in a wooden wall;
Seed-time and harvest, sires shall, weeping, tell
How thousands fought at Salamis, and fell.
=Woodman= (_The_), an opera by Sir H. Bate Dudley (1771). Emily was
the companion of Miss Wilford, and made with Miss Wilford’s brother “a
mutual vow of inviolable affection;” but Wilford’s uncle and guardian,
greatly disapproving of such an alliance, sent the young man to the
Continent, and dismissed the young lady from his service. Emily went
to live with Goodman Fairlop, the woodman, and there Wilford
discovered her in an archery match. The engagement was renewed, and
terminated in marriage. The woodman’s daughter, Dolly, married Matthew
Medley, the factotum of Sir Walter Waring.
=Woodstal= (_Henry_), in the guard of Richard Cœur de Lion.--Sir W.
Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).
=Woodstock=, a novel by Sir W. Scott (1826). It was hastily put
together, but is not unworthy of the name it bears.
=Woodville= (_Harry_), the treacherous friend of Penruddock, who
ousted him of the wife to whom he was betrothed. He was wealthy, but
reduced himself to destitution by gambling.
_Mrs. Woodville_ (whose Christian name was Arabella), wife of Harry
Woodville, but previously betrothed to Roderick Penruddock. When
reduced to destitution Penruddock restored to her the settlement which
her husband had lost in play.
_Captain Henry Woodville_, son of the above; a noble soldier, brave
and high-minded, in love with Emily Tempest, but, in the ruined
condition of the family, unable to marry her. Penruddock makes over to
him all the deeds, bonds and obligations which his father had lost in
gambling.--Cumberland, _The Wheel of Fortune_ (1779).
_Woodville_ (_Lord_), a friend of General Brown. It was Lord
Woodville’s house that was haunted by the “lady in the Sacque.”--Sir
W. Scott, _The Tapestered Chamber_ (time, George III.).
=Woolen.= It was Mrs. Oldfield, the actress, who revolted at the idea
of being shrouded in woolen. She insisted on being arrayed in chintz
trimmed with Brussels lace, and on being well rouged to hide the
pallor of death. Pope calls her “Narcissa.”
“Odious! In woolen! ’Twould a saint provoke!”
Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke.
“No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs and shade my lifeless face;
One would not, sure, be frightful when one’s dead!
And, Betty, give this cheek a little red.”
Pope, _Moral Essays_, i. (1731).
=Wopsle= (_Mr._), parish clerk. He had a Roman nose, a large, shining,
bald forehead, and a deep voice, of which he was very proud. “If the
Church had been thrown open,” _i.e._, free to competition, Mr. Wopsle
would have chosen the pulpit. As it was, he only punished the “Amens”
and gave out the psalms; but his face always indicated the inward
thought of “Look at this and look at that,” meaning the gent in the
reading-desk. He turned actor in a small metropolitan theatre.--C.
Dickens, _Great Expectations_ (1860).
=Work= (_Endless_), Penelopê’s web; Vortigern’s Tower; washing the
blackamoor white; etc.
=Work-room= (_My_).
“Yet the world is thy field, thy garden,
On earth art Thou still at home.
When thou bendest hither thy hallowing eye,
My narrow work-room seems vast and high,
Its dingy ceiling, a rainbow dome--
Stand ever thus at my wide swung door,
And toil will be toil no more.”
Lucy Larcom, _Poetical Works_ (1885).
=World= (_End of the_). This ought to have occurred, according to
Cardinal Nicolas de Cusa, in 1704. He demonstrates it thus: The Deluge
happened in the thirty-fourth jubilee of fifty years from the Creation
(A.M. 1700), and therefore the end of the world should properly occur
on the thirty-fourth jubilee of the Christian era, or A.D. 1704. The
four grace years are added to compensate for the blunder of
chronologists respecting the first year of grace.
The most popular dates of modern times for the end of the world, or
what is practically the same thing, the Millennium, are the
following:--1757, Swedenborg; 1836, Johann Albrecht Bengel, _Erklärte
Offenbarung_; 1843, William Miller, of America; 1866, Dr. John
Cumming; 1881, Mother Shipton.
It was very generally believed in France, Germany, etc., that the end
of the world would happen in the thousandth year after Christ; and
therefore much of the land was left uncultivated, and a general famine
ensued. Luckily, it was not agreed whether the thousand years should
date from the birth or the death of Christ, or the desolation would
have been much greater. Many charters begin with these words, _As the
world is now drawing to its close_. Kings and nobles gave up their
state: Robert of France, son of Hugh Capet, entered the monastery of
St. Denis; and at Limoges, princes, nobles, and knights proclaimed
“God’s Truce,” and solemnly bound themselves to abstain from feuds, to
keep the peace towards each other, and to help the oppressed.--Hallam,
_The Middle Ages_ (1818).
Another hypothesis is this: As one day with God equals a thousand
years (_Psalm_ xc. 4), and God labored in creation six days, therefore
the world is to labor 6000 years, and then to rest. According to this
theory, the end of the world ought to occur A.M. 6000, or A.D. 1996
(supposing the world to have been created 4004 years before the birth
of Christ). This hypothesis, which is widely accepted, is quite safe
for another century at least.
=Worldly Wiseman= (_Mr._), one who tries to persuade Christian that it
is very bad policy to continue his journey towards the Celestial City.
Bunyan, _Pilgrim’s Progress_, i. (1678).
=Worms= (_Language of_). Melampos the prophet was acquainted with the
language of worms, and when thrown into a dungeon, heard the worms
communicating to each other that the roof overhead would fall in, for
the beams were eaten through. He imparted this intelligence to his
jailers, and was removed to another dungeon. At night the roof did
fall, and the king, amazed at this foreknowledge, released Melampos,
and gave him the oxen of Iphiklos.
=Worse than a Crime.= Talleyrand said of the murder of the Duc
d’Enghien by Napoleon I. “It was worse than a crime, it was a
blunder.”
=Worthies= (_The Nine_). Three _Gentiles_: Hector, Alexander, Julius
Cæsar; three _Jews_: Joshua, David, Judas Maccabæus; three
_Christians_: Arthur, Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bouillon.
=Worthies of London.= (_The Nine_).
1. SIR WILLIAM WALWORTH, fishmonger, who stabbed Wat Tyler, the rebel.
For this service King Richard II. gave him the “cap of maintenance”
and a “dagger” for the arms of London (_Lord Mayor_, 1374, 1380).
2. SIR HENRY PRITCHARD or PICARD, vintner, who feasted Edward III.,
the Black Prince, John, king of Austria, the king of Cyprus, and David
of Scotland, with 5000 guests, in 1356, the year of his mayoralty.
3. SIR WILLIAM SEVENOKE, grocer. “A foundling, found under seven
oaks.” He fought with the dauphin, and built twenty almshouses, etc.
(_Lord Mayor_, 1418).
4. SIR THOMAS WHITE, merchant tailor, who, during the mayoralty in
1553, kept London faithful to Queen Mary during Wyatt’s rebellion. Sir
Thomas White was the son of a poor clothier, and began trade as a
tailor with £100. He was the founder of St. John’s College, Oxford, on
the spot where two elms grew from one root.
5. SIR JOHN BONHAM, mercer, commander of the army which overcame
Solyman the Great, who knighted him on the field after the victory,
and gave him chains of gold, etc.
6. SIR CHRISTOPHER CROKER, vintner, the first to enter Bordeaux, when
it was besieged. Companion and friend of Edward the Black Prince.
7. SIR JOHN HAWKWOOD, tailor, knighted by the Black Prince. He is
immortalized in Italian history as _Giovanni Acuti Cavaliero_. He died
in Padua.
8. SIR HUGH CAVERLEY, silk-weaver, famous for ridding Poland of a
monstrous bear. He died in France.
9. SIR HENRY MALEVERER, grocer, generally called “Henry of Cornhill,”
a crusader in the reign of Henry IV., and guardian of “Jacob’s
Well.”--R. Johnson, _The Nine Worthies of London_ (1592).
=Worthington= (_Lieutenant_), “the poor gentleman;” a disabled officer
and a widower, very poor, “but more proud than poor, and more honest
than proud.” He was for thirty years in the king’s army, but was
discharged on half-pay, being disabled at Gibraltar by a shell which
crushed his arm. His wife was shot in his arms when his daughter was
but three years old. The lieutenant put his name to a bill for £500;
but his friend dying before he had effected his insurance Worthington
became responsible for the entire sum, and if Sir Robert Bramble had
not most generously paid the bill the poor lieutenant would have been
thrown into jail.
_Emily Worthington_, the lieutenant’s daughter; a lovely, artless,
affectionate girl, with sympathy for every one, and a most amiable
disposition. Sir Charles Cropland tried to buy her, but she rejected
his proposals with scorn, and fell in love with Frederick Bramble, to
whom she was given in marriage.--C. Colman, _The Poor Gentleman_
(1802).
=Worthy=, in love with Melinda, who coquets with him for twelve
months, and then marries him.--G. Farquhar, _The Recruiting Officer_
(1705).
_Worthy_ (_Lord_), the suitor of Lady Reveller, who was fond of play.
She became weary of gambling, and was united in marriage to Lord
Worthy.--Mrs. Centlivre, _The Basset Table_ (1706).
=Wouvermans= (_The English_), Abraham Cooper. One of his best pieces
is “The Battle of Bosworth Field.”
Richard Cooper is called “The British Poussin.”
=Wrangle= (_Mr. Caleb_), a hen-pecked young husband, of oily tongue
and plausible manners, but smarting under the nagging tongue and
willful ways of his fashionable wife.
_Mrs. Wrangle_, his wife, the daughter of Sir Miles Mowbray. She was
for ever snubbing her young husband, wrangling with him, morning,
noon, and night, and telling him most provokingly “to keep his
temper.” This couple lead a cat-and-dog life: he was sullen, she quick
tempered; he jealous, she open and incautious.--Cumberland, _First
Love_ (1796).
=Wrath’s Hole= (_The_), Cornwall. Bolster, a gigantic wrath, wanted
St. Agnes to be his mistress. She told him she would comply when he
filled a small hole, which she pointed out to him, with his blood. The
wrath agreed, not knowing that the hole opened into the sea; and thus
the saint cunningly bled the wrath to death, and then pushed him over
the cliff. The hole is called “The Wrath’s hole” to this day, and the
stones about it are colored with blood-red streaks all
over.--Polwhele, _History of Cornwall_, i. 176 (1813).
=Wray= (_Enoch_), “the village patriarch,” blind, poor, and 100 years
old; but reverenced for his meekness, resignation, wisdom, piety, and
experience.--Crabbe, _The Village Patriarch_ (1783).
=Wrayburn= (_Eugene_), barrister-at-law; an indolent, idle, moody,
whimsical young man, who loves Lizzie Hexam. After he is nearly killed
by Bradley Headstone, he reforms, and marries Lizzie, who saved his
life.--C. Dickens, _Our Mutual Friend_ (1864).
=Wren= (_Jenny_), whose real name was Fanny Cleaver, a doll’s
dressmaker, and the friend of Lizzie Hexam, who at one time lodged
with her. Jenny was a little, deformed girl, with a sharp, shrewd
face, and beautiful golden hair. She supported herself and her drunken
father, whom she reproved as a mother might reprove a child. “Oh,” she
cried to him, pointing her little finger, “you bad, old boy! Oh, you
naughty, wicked creature! What do you mean by it?”--C. Dickens, _Our
Mutual Friend_ (1864).
=Wrong= (_All in the_), a comedy by A. Murphy (1761). The principal
characters are Sir John and Lady Restless, Sir William Bellmont and
his son, George, Beverley and his sister, Clarissa, Blandford and his
daughter, Belinda. Sir John and Lady Restless were wrong in suspecting
each other of infidelity, but this misunderstanding made their lives
wretched. Beverley was deeply in love with Belinda, and was wrong in
his jealousy of her, but Belinda was also wrong in not vindicating
herself. She knew that she was innocent, and felt that Beverley ought
to trust her, but she gave herself and him needless torment by
permitting a misconception to remain which she might have most easily
removed. The old men were also wrong: Blandford in promising his
daughter in marriage to Sir William Bellmont’s son, seeing she loved
Beverley; and Sir William, in accepting the promise, seeing his son
was plighted to Clarissa. A still further complication of wrong
occurs. Sir John wrongs Beverley in believing him to be intriguing
with his wife; and Lady Restless wrongs Belinda in supposing that she
coquets with her husband; both were pure mistakes, all were in the
wrong, but all in the end were set right.
=Wronghead= (_Sir Francis_), of Bumper Hall, and M.P. for Guzzledown;
a country squire, who comes to town for the season, with his wife,
son, and eldest daughter. Sir Francis attends the House, but gives his
vote on the wrong side; and he spends his money on the hope of
obtaining a place under Government. His wife spends about £100 a day
on objects of no use. His son is on the point of marrying the “cast
mistress” of a swindler, and his daughter of marrying a forger; but
Manly interferes to prevent these fatal steps, and Sir Francis returns
home to prevent utter ruin.
_Lady Wronghead_, wife of Sir Francis; a country dame, who comes to
London, where she squanders money on worthless objects, and expects to
get into “society.” Happily, she is persuaded by Manly to return home
before the affairs of her husband are wholly desperate.
_Squire Richard_ [_Wronghead_], eldest son of Sir Francis, a country
bumpkin.
_Miss Jenny_ [_Wronghead_], eldest daughter of Sir Francis; a silly
girl, who thinks it would be a fine thing to be called a “countess,”
and therefore becomes the dupe of one Basset, a swindler, who calls
himself a “count.”--Vanbrugh and Cibber, _The Provoked Husband_
(1726).
=Wyat.= Henry Wyat was imprisoned by Richard III., and when almost
starved a cat appeared at the window-grating and dropped a dove into
his hand. This occurred day after day, and Wyat induced the warder to
cook for him the doves thus wonderfully obtained.
Elijah, the Tishbite, while he lay hidden at the brook Cherith, was
fed by ravens, who brought “bread and flesh” every morning and
evening.--_1 Kings_ xvii. 6.
=Wylie= (_Andrew_), ex-clerk of bailie Nicol Jarvie.--Sir W. Scott,
_Rob Roy_ (time, George I.).
_Wylie_ (_Joe_), mate of the _Proserpine_, hired by Arthur Wardlaw to
scuttle that vessel, that the insurance-money may be used to conceal
the fact of Wardlaw’s defalcations.--Charles Reade, _Foul Play_.
=Wynebgwrthucher=, the shield of King Arthur.--_The Mabinogion_
(“Kilhwch and Olwen,” twelfth century).
=Wynkyn de Worde=, the second printer in London (from 1491-1534). The
first was Caxton (from 1476-1491). Wynkyn de Worde assisted Caxton in
the new art of printing.
=Wynken.=
Wynken, Blynken and Nod one night,
Sailed off in a wooden shoe--
Sailed on a river of misty light
Into a sea of dew.
“Where are you going, and what do you wish?”
The old moon asked the three.
“We have come to fish for the herring-fish
That live in this beautiful sea,
Nets of silver and gold have we,”
Said Wynken, Blynken and Nod.
Eugene Field, _A Little Book of Western Verse_, (1889).
=Wyo´ming=, in Pennsylvania, purchased by an American company from the
Delaware Indians. It was settled by an American colony, but being
subject to constant attacks from the savages the colony armed in
self-defence. In 1778 most of the able-bodied men were called to join
the army of Washington, and in the summer of that year an army of
British and Indian allies, led by Colonel Butler, attacked the
settlement, massacred the inhabitants, and burnt their houses to the
ground.
⁂ Campbell has made this the subject of a poem entitled _Gertrude of
Wyoming_, but he pronounces the name Wy´oming, and makes Brant,
instead of Butler, the leader of the attack.