HARACTER SKETCHES OF
ROMANCE, FICTION
AND THE DRAMA
A REVISED AMERICAN EDITION OF THE READER'S HANDBOOK
BY
THE REV. E. COBHAM BREWER, LL.D.
EDITED BY MARION HARLAND
VOLUME I
NEW YORK — SELMAR HESS — PUBLISHER
M D C C C X C I I
Copyright, 1892, by SELMAR HESS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
VOLUME I.
PHOTOGRAVURES AND ETCHINGS.
Illustration..................Artist
ICHABOD CRANE (colored).......E.A. ABBEY
CONSTANCE DE BEVERLEY................TOBY ROSENTHAL
LADY BOUNTIFUL.......................ROB. W. MACBETH
SYDNEY CARTON........................FREDERICK BARNARD
BERNHARDT AS CLEOPATRA...............From a Photograph from Life
ABBÉ CONSTANTIN......................MADELEINE LEMAIRE
CAPTAIN CUTTLE.......................FREDERICK BARNARD
THE TRUSTY ECKART....................JULIUS ADAM
ELAINE...............................TOBY ROSENTHAL
WOOD ENGRAVINGS AND TYPOGRAVURES.
ABELARD..............................A. GUILLEMINOT
ÆNEAS RELATING HIS STORY TO DIDO....P. GUÉRIN
ALBERICH'S PURSUIT OF THE NIBELUNGEN RING...HANS MAKART
ALETHE, PRIESTESS OF ISIS............EDWIN LONG
ALEXIS AND DORA......................W. VON KAULBACH
ALICE, THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER.........DAVIDSON KNOWLES
ANCIENT MARINER (THE)................GUSTAVE DORÉ
ANDROMEDA............................
ANGÉLIQUE AND MONSEIGNEUR DE HAUTECOEUR...JEANNIOT
ANGUS AND DONALD.....................W.B. DAVIS
ANTIGONE AND ISMENE..................EMIL TESCHENDORFF
ANTONY AND THE DEAD CÆSAR...........
ARCHIMEDES...........................NIC BARABINO
ARGAN AND DOCTOR DIAFOIRUS...........A. SOLOMON
ASHTON (LUCY) AND RAVENSWOOD.........SIR EVERETT MILLAIS
ATALA (BURIAL OF)....................GUSTAVE COURTOIS
AUGUSTA IN COURT.....................A. FORESTIER
AUTOMEDON............................HENRI REGNAULT
BALAUSTION...........................F.H. LUNGREN
BALDERSTONE (CALEB) AND MYSIE.......GEORGE HAY
BAREFOOT (LITTLE)....................F. VON THELEN-RÜDEN
BARKIS IS WILLIN'....................C.J. STANILAND
BAUDIN (THE DEATH OF)................J.-P. LAURENS
BAYARD (THE CHEVALIER)...............LARIVIÈRE
BEDREDEEN HASSAN (MARRIAGE OF) AND NOUREDEEN...F. CORMON
BELLENDEN (LADY) AND MAUSE HEADRIGG..WM. DOUGLAS
BENEDICK AND BEATRICE................HUGHES MERLE
BIRCH (HARVEY), THE PEDDLER-SPY.....
BLANCHELYS (QUEEN) AND THE PILGRIM...J. NOEL PATON
BOABDIL-EL-CHICO'S FAREWELL TO GRENADA...E. CORBOULD
BOADICEA.............................THOS. STOTHARD
BONNICASTLE (ARTHUR) AND MILLIE BRADFORD...
BOTTOM AND TITANIA...................SIR EDWIN LANDSEER
BRABANT (GENEVIÈVE DE)...............ERNST BOSCH
BRÄSIG, LINING AND MINING............CONRAD BECKMANN
BROOKING'S (JOHN) STUDIO.............A. FORESTIER
CÆSAR (THE DEATH OF).................J.L. GÉRÔME
CANTERBURY PILGRIMS (THE)............THOS. STOTHARD; WM. BLAKE
CAREW (FRANCIS) FINDING THE BODY OF DERRICK...HAL LUDLOW
CARMEN...............................J. KOPPAY
CATARINA.............................
CHARLES IX. ON THE EVE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW...P. GROTJOHANN
CHARLOTTE CORDAY AND MARAT..........JULES AVIAT
CHATTERTON'S HOLIDAY AFTERNOON.......W.B. MORRIS
CHILDREN (THE) IN THE WOOD...........J. SANT
CHILLON (THE PRISONER OF)............
CHRISTIAN ENTERING THE VALLEY OF HUMILIATION...F.R. PICKERSGILL
CINDERELLA AND THE FAIRY GOD-MOTHER..GUSTAVE DORÉ
CIRCE AND HER SWINE..................BRITON RIVIÈRE
CLARA (DONNA) AND ALMANZOR...........
CLARA, JACQUES AND ARISTIDE..........ADRIEN MARIE
CLAUDIO AND ISABELLA.................HOLMAN HUNT
COLUMBUS AND HIS EGG.................LEO. REIFFENSTEIN
CONSUELO.............................
COSETTE..............................G. GUAY
COSTIGAN (CAPTAIN)...................F. BARNARD
COVERLEY (SIR ROGER DE) COMING FROM CHURCH...CHAS. R. LESLIE
CYMON AND IPHIGENIA..................SIR FREDERICK LEIGHTON
DAPHNIS AND CHLOE....................GÉRARD
DARBY AND JOAN IN HIGH-LIFE..........C. DENDY SADLER
D'ARTAGNAN...........................
DEANS (EFFIE) AND HER SISTER IN THE PRISON...R. HERDMAN
DERBLAY (MADAME) STOPS THE DUEL......EMILE BAYARD
DIDO ON THE FUNERAL PYRE.............E. KELLER
DOMBEY (PAUL AND FLORENCE)..........
EGMONT AND CLÄRCHEN..................C. HUEBERLIN
ELECTRA..............................E. TESCHENDORFF
ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART............W. VON KAULBACH
ELIZABETH, THE LANDGRAVINE...........THEODOR PIXIS
ELLEN, THE LADY OF THE LAKE..........J. ADAMS-ACTON
ELLIE (LITTLE).......................
ERMINIA AND THE SHEPHERDS............DOMENICHINO
ESMERALDA............................G. BRION
ESTE (LEONORA D') AND TASSO..........W. VON KAULBACH
EVANGELINE...........................EDWIN DOUGLAS
EVE'S FAREWELL TO PARADISE...........E. WESTALL
CHARACTER SKETCHES OF ROMANCE, FICTION, AND THE DRAMA.
A'RON, a Moor, beloved by Tam'ora, queen of the Goths, in the tragedy of Titus Andron'icus, published among the plays of Shakespeare (1593).
(The classic name is Andronicus, but the character of this play is purely fictitious.)
Aaron (St.), a British martyr of the City of Legions (Newport, in South Wales). He was torn limb from limb by order of Maximian'us Hercu'lius, general in Britain, of the army of Diocle'tian. Two churches were founded in the City of Legions, one in honor of St. Aaron and one in honor of his fellow-martyr, St. Julius. Newport was called Caerleon by the British.
... two others ... sealed their doctrine with
their blood;
St. Julius, and with him St. Aaron, have their
room
At Carleon, suffering death by Diocletian's doom.
Drayton,
Polyolbion
, xxiv, (1622).
Aaz'iz (3 syl.), so the queen of Sheba or Saba is sometimes called; but in the Koran she is called Balkis (ch. xxvii.).
Abad'don, an angel of the bottomless pit (Rev. ix. 11). The word is derived from the Hebrew, abad, "lost," and means the lost one. There are two other angels introduced by Klopstock in The Messiah with similar names, but must not be confounded with the angel referred to in Rev.; one is Obaddon, the angel of death, and the other Abbad'ona, the repentant devil.
Ab'aris, to whom Apollo gave a golden arrow, on which to ride through the air.—See Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
Abbad'ona, once the friend of Ab'diel, was drawn into the rebellion of Satan half unwillingly. In hell he constantly bewailed his fall, and reproved Satan for his pride and blasphemy. He openly declared to the internals that he would take no part or lot in Satan's scheme for the death of the Messiah, and during the crucifixion lingered about the cross with repentance, hope, and fear. His ultimate fate we are not told, but when Satan and Adramelech are driven back to hell, Obaddon, the angel of death, says—
"For thee, Abbadona, I have no orders. How long thou art permitted to remain on earth I know not, nor whether thou wilt be allowed to see the resurrection of the Lord of glory ... but be not deceived, thou canst not view Him with the joy of the redeemed." "Yet let me see Him, let me see him!"—Klopstock, The Messiah, xiii.
Abberville (Lord), a young nobleman, 23 years of age, who has for travelling tutor a Welshman of 65, called Dr. Druid, an antiquary, wholly ignorant of his real duties as a guide of youth. The young man runs wantonly wild, squanders his money, and gives loose to his passions almost to the verge of ruin, but he is arrested and reclaimed by his honest Scotch bailiff or financier, and the vigilance of his father's executor, Mr. Mortimer. This "fashionable lover" promises marriage to a vulgar, malicious city minx named Lucinda Bridgemore, but is saved from this pitfall also.—Cumberland, The Fashionable Lover (1780).
Abbot (The), the complacent churchman in Aldrich's poem of The Jew's Gift, who hanged a Jew "just for no crime," and pondered and smiled and gave consent to the heretic's burial—
"Since he gave his beard to the birds." (1881.)
Abdal-azis, the Moorish governor of Spain after the overthrow of king Roderick. When the Moor assumed regal state and affected Gothic sovereignty, his subjects were so offended that they revolted and murdered him. He married Egilona, formerly the wife of Roderick.— Southey, Roderick, etc., xxii. (1814).
Ab'dalaz'iz (Omar ben), a caliph raised to "Mahomet's bosom" in reward of his great abstinence and self-denial.—Herbelot, 690.
He was by no means scrupulous; nor did he think with the caliph Omar ben Abdalaziz that it was necessary to make a hell of this world to enjoy paradise in the next.—W. Beckford, Vathek (1786).
Abdal'dar, one of the magicians in the Domdaniel caverns, "under the roots of the ocean." These spirits were destined to be destroyed by one of the race of Hodei'rah (3 syl.), so they persecuted the race even to death. Only one survived, named Thal'aba, and Abdaldar was appointed by lot to find him out and kill him. He discovered the stripling in an Arab's tent, and while in prayer was about to stab him to the heart with a dagger, when the angel of death breathed on him, and he fell dead with the dagger in his hand. Thalaba drew from the magician's finger a ring which gave him command over the spirits. —Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer, ii. iii. (1797).
Abdalla, one of sir Brian de Bois Guilbert's slaves.—Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).
Abdal'lah, brother and predecessor of Giaf'fer (2 syl.), pacha of Aby'dos. He was murdered by the pacha.—Byron, Bride of Abydos.
Abdallah el Hadgi, Saladin's envoy.—Sir W. Scott, The Talisman (time, Richard I.).
Abdals or Santons, a class of religionists who pretend to be inspired with the most ravishing raptures of divine love. Regarded with great veneration by the vulgar.—Olearius, i. 971.
Ab'diel, the faithful seraph who withstood Satan when he urged those under him to revolt.
... the seraph Abdiel, faithful found;
Among the faithless faithful only he;
Among innumerable false, unmoved.
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal.
Milton, Paradise Lost, v. 896, etc. (1665).
Abelard and Eloise, unhappy lovers, whose illicit love was succeeded by years of penitence and remorse. Abelard was the tutor of Heloise (or Eloise), and, although vowed to the church, won and returned her passion. They were violently separated by her uncle. Abelard entered a monastery and Eloise became a nun. Their love survived the passage of years, and they were buried together at Père la Chaise.—Eloise and Abelard. By Alexander Pope (1688-1744).
Abensberg (Count), the father of thirty-two children. When Heinrich II. made his progress through Germany, and other courtiers presented their offerings, the count brought forward his thirty-two children, "as the most valuable offering he could make to his king and country."
Abes'sa, the impersonation of abbeys and convents in Spenser's Faëry Queen, i. 3. She is the paramour of Kirkrapine, who used to rob churches and poor-boxes, and bring his plunder to Abessa, daughter of Corceca (Blindness of Heart).
Abigail, typical name of a maid.—See Beaumont and Fletcher, Swift, Fielding, and many modern writers.
Abney, called Young Abney, the friend of colonel Albert Lee, a royalist.—Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, the Commonwealth).
Abon Hassan, a young merchant of Bag dad, and hero of the tale called "The Sleeper Awakened," in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. While Abon Hassan is asleep he is conveyed to the palace of Haroun-al-Raschid, and the attendants are ordered to do everything they can to make him fancy himself the caliph. He subsequently becomes the caliph's chief favorite.
Shakespeare, in the induction of Taming of the Shrew, befouls "Christopher Sly" in a similar way, but Sly thinks it was "nothing but a dream."
Philippe le Bon, duke of Burgundy, on his marriage with Eleonora, tried the same trick.—Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, ii. 2,4.
Abou Ben Adhem, "awakening one night from a deep dream of peace," sees an angel writing the names of those who love the Lord. Ben Adhem's name is registered as "one who loves his fellow-men." A second vision shows his name at the head of the list.
Abou Ben Adhem. By Leigh Hunt (1784-1859).
Abra, the most beloved of Solomon's concubines.
Fruits their odor lost and meats their taste,
If gentle Abra had not decked the feast;
Dishonored did the sparkling goblet stand,
Unless received from gentle Abra's hand; ...
Nor could my soul approve the music's tone
Till all was hushed, and Abra sang alone.
M. Prior, Solomon (1664-1721).
Ab'radas, the great Macedonian pirate.
Abradas, the great Macedonian pirate, thought every one had a letter of mart that bare sayles in the ocean.—Greene, Penelope's Web (1601).
Abroc'omas, the lover of An'thia in the Greek romance of Ephesi'aca, by Xenophon of Ephesus (not the historian).
Ab'salom, in Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, is meant for the duke of Monmouth, natural son of Charles II. (David). Like Absalom, the duke was handsome; like Absalom, he was beloved and rebellious; and like Absalom, his rebellion ended in his death (1649-1685).
Ab'solon, a priggish parish clerk in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. His hair was curled, his shoes slashed, his hose red. He could let blood, cut hair, and shave, could dance, and play either on the ribible or the gittern. This gay spark paid his addresses to Mistress Alison, the young wife of John, a rich but aged carpenter: but Alison herself loved a poor scholar named Nicholas, a lodger in the house.—The Miller's Tale (1388).
Absolute (Sir Anthony), a testy but warm-hearted old gentleman, who imagines that he possesses a most angelic temper, and when he quarrels with his son, the captain, fancies it is the son who is out of temper, and not himself. Smollett's "Matthew Bramble" evidently suggested this character. William Dowton (1764-1851) was the best actor of this part.
Captain Absolute, son of sir Anthony, in love with Lydia Languish, the heiress, to whom he is known only as ensign Beverley. Bob Acres, his neighbor, is his rival, and sends a challenge to the unknown ensign; but when he finds that ensign Beverley is captain Absolute, he declines to fight, and resigns all further claim to the lady's hand.—Sheridan, The Rivals (1775).
Absyrtus, brother of Medea and companion of her flight from Colchis. To elude or delay her pursuers, she cut him into pieces and strewed the fragments in the road, that her father might be detained by gathering up the remains of his son.
Abu'dah, in the drama called The Siege of Damascus, by John Hughes (1720), is the next in command to Caled in the Arabian army set down before Damascus. Though undoubtedly brave, he prefers peace to war; and when, at the death of Caled, he succeeds to the chief command, he makes peace with the Syrians on honorable terms.
Abu'dah, in the Tales of the Genii, by H. Ridley, is a wealthy merchant of Bag dad, who goes in quest of the talisman of Oroma'nes, which he is driven to seek by a little old hag, who haunts him every night and makes his life wretched. He finds at last that the talisman which is to free him of this hag [conscience] is to "fear God and keep his commandments."
Acade'mus, an Attic hero, whose garden was selected by Plato for the place of his lectures. Hence his disciples were called the "Academic sect."
The green retreats of Academus. Akenside, Pleasures of Imagination, i (1721-1770).
Acas'to (Lord), father of Seri'no, Casta'lio, and Polydore; and guardian of Monimia "the orphan." He lived to see the death of his sons and his ward. Polydore ran on his brother's sword, Castalio stabbed himself, and Monimia took poison.—Otway, The Orphan (1680).
Aces'tes (3 syl.). In a trial of skill, Acestes, the Sicilian, discharged his arrow with such force that it took fire from the friction of the air.—The Æneid, Bk. V.
Like Acestes' shaft of old,
The swift thought kindles as it flies.
Longfellow, To a Child.
Achates [A-ka'-teze], called by Virgil "fidus Achates." The name has become a synonym for a bosom friend, a crony, but is generally used laughingly.—The Æneid.
He, like Achates, faithful to the tomb.
Byron, Don Juan, i. 159.
Acher'ia, the fox, went partnership with a bear in a bowl of: milk. Before the bear arrived, the fox skimmed off the cream and drank the milk; then, filling the bowl with mud, replaced the cream atop. Says the fox, "Here is the bowl; one shall have the cream, and the other all the rest: choose, friend, which you like." The bear told the fox to take the cream, and thus bruin had only the mud.—A Basque Tale.
A similar tale occurs in Campbell's Popular Tales of the West Highlands (iii. 98), called "The Keg of Butter." The wolf chooses the bottom when "oats" were the object of choice, and the top when "potatoes" were the sowing.
Rabelais tells the same tale about a farmer and the devil. Each was to have on alternate years what grew under and over the soil. The farmer sowed turnips and carrots when the under-soil produce came to his lot, and barley or wheat when his turn was the over-soil produce.
Achille Grandissime, "A rather poor specimen of the Grandissime type, deficient in stature, but not in stage manner."—The Grandissimes, by George W. Cable (1880).
Achil'les (3 syl.), the hero of the allied Greek army in the siege of Troy, and king of the Myr'midons.—See Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
The English Achilles, John Talbot, first earl of Shrewsbury (1373-1453).
The duke of Wellington is so called sometimes, and is represented by a statue of Achilles of gigantic size in Hyde Park, London, close to Apsley House (1769-1852).
The Achilles of Germany, Albert, elector of Brandenburg (1414-1486).
Achilles of Rome, Sicin'ius Denta'tus (put to death B.C. 450).
Achit'ophel, "Him who drew Achitophel," Dryden, author of the famous political satire of Absalom and Achitophel. "David" is Charles II.; his rebellious son "Absalom" is the king's natural son, the handsome but rebellious James duke of Monmouth; and "Achitophel," the traitorous counsellor, is the earl of Shaftesbury, "for close designs and crooked counsels fit."
Can sneer at him who drew Achitophel.
Byron, Don Juan, iii. 100.
There is a portrait of the first earl of Shaftesbury (Dryden's "Achitophel") as lord chancellor of England, clad in ash-colored robes, because he had never been called to the bar.—E. Yates, Celebrities, xviii.
A'cis, a Sicilian shepherd, loved by the nymph Galate'a. The monster Polypheme (3 syl.), a Cyclops, was his rival, and crushed him under a huge rock. The blood of Acis was changed into a river of the same name at the foot of mount Etna.
Not such a pipe, good reader, as that which Acis did sweetly tune in praise of his Galatea, but one of true Delft manufacture.—W. Irving (1783-1859).
Ack'land (Sir Thomas), a royalist.—Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, the Commonwealth).
Ac'oe (3 syl.), "hearing," in the New Testament sense (Rom. x. 17), "Faith cometh by hearing." The nurse of Fido [faith]. Her daughter is Meditation. (Greek,, "hearing.")
With him [
Faith
] his nurse went, careful Acoë,
Whose hands first from his mother's womb
did take him,
And ever since have fostered tenderly.
Phin. Fletcher, The Purple Island, ix. (1633).
Acras'ia, Intemperance personified. Spenser says she is an enchantress living in the "Bower of Bliss," in "Wandering Island." She had the power of transforming her lovers into monstrous shapes; but sir Guyon (temperance), having caught her in a net and bound her, broke down her bower and burnt it to ashes.—Faëry Queen, ii. 12 (1590).
Acra'tes (3 syl.), Incontinence personified in The Purple Island, by Phineas Fletcher. He had two sons (twins) by Caro, viz., Methos (drunkenness) and Gluttony, both fully described in canto vii. (Greek, akrates, "incontinent.")
Acra'tes (3 syl.), Incontinence personified in The Faëry Queen, by Spenser. He is the father of Cymoch'lês and Pyroch'lês.—Bk. ii. 4 (1590).
Acres (Bob), a country gentleman, the rival of ensign Beverley, alias captain Absolute, for the hand and heart of Lydia Languish, the heiress. He tries to ape the man of fashion, gets himself up as a loud swell, and uses "sentimental oaths," i.e. oaths bearing on the subject. Thus if duels are spoken of he says, ods triggers and flints; if clothes, ods frogs and tambours; if music, ods minnums [minims] and crotchets; if ladies, ods blushes and blooms. This he learnt from a militia officer, who told him the ancients swore by Jove, Bacchus, Mars, Venus, Minerva, etc., according to the sentiment. Bob Acres is a great blusterer, and talks big of his daring, but when put to the push "his courage always oozed out of his fingers' ends." J. Quick was the original Bob Acres.—Sheridan, The Rivals (1775).
As thro' his palms
Bob Acres
' valor oozed,
So Juan's virtue ebbed, I know not how.
Byron, Don Juan.
Joseph Jefferson's impersonation of Bob Acres is inimitable for fidelity to the spirit of the original, and informed throughout with exquisite humor that never degenerates into coarseness.
Acris'ius, father of Dan'aê. An oracle declared that Danaê would give birth to a son who would kill him, so Acrisius kept his daughter shut up in an apartment under ground, or (as some say) in a brazen tower. Here she became the mother of Per'seus (2 syl.), by Jupiter in the form of a shower of gold. The king of Argos now ordered his daughter and her infant to be put into a chest, and cast adrift on the sea, but they were rescued by Dictys, a fisherman. When grown to manhood, Perseus accidentally struck the foot of Acrisius with a quoit, and the blow caused his death. This tale is told by Mr. Morris in The Earthly Paradise (April).
Actae'on, a hunter, changed by Diana into a stag. A synonym for a cuckold.
Divulge Page himself for a secure and wilful
Actæon [cuckold].
Shakespeare, Merry Wives, etc., act iii. sc. 2 (1596).
Acte'a, a female slave faithful to Nero in his fall. It was this hetæra who wrapped the dead body in cerements, and saw it decently interred.
This Actea was beautiful. She was seated on
the ground; the head of Nero was on her lap,
his naked body was stretched on those winding-sheets
in which she was about to fold him, to lay
him in his grave upon the garden hill.—Ouida,
Ariadnê
, i. 7.
Actors and Actresses. The last male actor that took a woman's character on the stage was Edward Kynaston, noted for his beauty (1619-1687). The first female actor for hire was Mrs. Saunderson, afterwards Mrs. Betterton, who died in 1712.
Ad, Ad'ites (2 syl.). Ad is a tribe descended from Ad, son of Uz, son of Irem, son of Shem, son of Noah. The tribe, at the Confusion of Babel, went and settled on Al-Ahkâf [the Winding Sands], in the province of Hadramant. Shedâd was their first king, but in consequence of his pride, both he and all the tribe perished, either from drought or the Sarsar (an icy wind).—Sale's Koran, 1.
Woe, woe, to Irem! Woe to Ad!
Death, has gone up into her palaces!....
They fell around me. Thousands fell around.
The king and all his people fell;
All, all, they perished all.
Southey,
Thalaba the Destroyer
, i. 41, 45 (1797).
A'dah, wife of Cain. After Cain had been conducted by Lucifer through the realms of space, he is restored to the home of his wife and child, where all is beauty, gentleness, and love. Full of faith and fervent in gratitude, Adah loves her infant with a sublime maternal affection. She sees him sleeping, and says to Cain—
How lovely he appears! His little cheeks
In their pure incarnation, vying with
The rose leaves strewn beneath them.
And his lips, too,
How beautifully parted! No; you shall not
Kiss him; at least not now. He will awake soon—
His hour of midday rest is nearly over.
Byron,
Cain
.
Adam. In Greek this word is compounded of the four initial letters of the cardinal quarters:
Arktos, [Greek:
arktos
]. north.
Dusis, [Greek:
dusis
]. west.
Anatolê, [Greek:
anatolae
]. east.
Mesembria, [Greek:
mesaembria
]. south.
The Hebrew word ADM forms the anagram of A [dam], D [avid], M [essiah].
Adam, how made. God created the body of Adam of Salzal, i.e. dry, unbaked clay, and left it forty nights without a soul. The clay was collected by Azrael from the four quarters of the earth, and God, to show His approval of Azrael's choice, constituted him the angel of death.—Rabadan.
Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. After the fall Adam was placed on mount Vassem in the east; Eve was banished to Djidda (now Gedda, on the Arabian coast); and the Serpent was exiled to the coast of Eblehh.
After the lapse of 100 years Adam rejoined Eve on mount Arafaith [place of Remembrance], near Mecca.—D'Ohsson.
Death of Adam. Adam died on Friday, April 7, at the age of 930 years. Michael swathed his body, and Gabriel discharged the funeral rites. The body was buried at Ghar'ul-Kenz [the grotto of treasure], which overlooks Mecca.
His descendants at death amounted to 40,000 souls.—D'Ohsson.
When Noah, entered the ark (the same writer says) he took the body of Adam in a coffin with him, and when he left the ark restored it to the place he had taken it from.
Adam, a bailiff, a jailer.
Not that Adam that kept the paradise, but that Adam that keeps the prison.—Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, act iv. sc. 3 (1593).
Adam, a faithful retainer in the family of sir Eowland de Boys. At the age of fourscore, he voluntarily accompanied his young master Orlando into exile, and offered to give him his little savings. He has given birth to the phrase, "A Faithful Adam" [or man-servant].—Shakespeare, As You Like It (1598).
Adam Bell, a northern outlaw, noted for his archery. The name, like those of Clym of the Clough, William of Cloudesly, Robin Hood, and Little John, is synonymous with a good archer.
Adamastor, the Spirit of the Cape, a hideous phantom, of unearthly pallor; "erect his hair uprose of withered red, his lips were black, his teeth blue and disjointed, his beard haggard, his face scarred by lightning, his eyes shot livid fire, his voice roared." The sailors trembled at sight of him, and the fiend demanded how they dared to trespass "where never hero braved his rage before?" He then told them "that every year the shipwrecked should be made to deplore their foolhardiness."—Camöens, The Lusiad, v. (1569).
Adam'ida, a planet on which reside the unborn spirits of saints, martyrs, and believers. U'riel, the angel of the sun, was ordered at the crucifixion to interpose this planet between the sun and the earth, so as to produce a total eclipse.
Adamida, in obedience to the divine command, flew amidst overwhelming storms, rushing clouds, falling mountains, and swelling seas. Uriel stood on the pole of the star, but so lost in deep contemplation on Golgotha, that he heard not the wild uproar. On coming to the region of the sun, Adamida slackened her course, and advancing before the sun, covered its face and intercepted all its rays.—Klopstock, The Messiah, viii. (1771).
Adams (John), one of the mutineers of the Bounty (1790), who settled in Tahiti. In 1814 he was discovered as the patriarch of a colony, brought up with a high sense of religion and strict regard to morals. In 1839 the colony was voluntarily placed under the protection of the British Government.
Adams (Parson), the beau-ideal of a simple-minded, benevolent, but eccentric country clergyman, of unswerving integrity, solid learning, and genuine piety; bold as a lion in the cause of truth, but modest as a girl in all personal matters; wholly ignorant of the world, being "in it but not of of it."—Fielding, Joseph Andrews (1742).
His learning, his simplicity, his evangelical purity of mind are so admirably mingled with pedantry, absence of mind, and the habit of athletic ... exercise ... that he may be safely termed one of the richest productions of the muse of fiction. Like Don Quixote, parson Adams is beaten a little too much and too often, but the cudgel lights upon his shoulders ... without the slightest stain to his reputation.—Sir W. Scott.
Ad'dison of the North, Henry Mackenzie, author of The Man of Feeling (1745-1831).
Adelaide, daughter of the count of Narbonne, in love with Theodore. She is killed by her father in mistake for another.—Robt. Jephson, Count of Narbonne (1782).
Adelaide Fisher, daughter-in-law of Grandpa and Grandma Fisher in Sallie Pratt McLean Greene's Cape Cod Folks. She has a sweet voice and an edged temper, and it would seem from certain cynical remarks of her own, and Grandma's "Thar, daughter, I wouldn't mind!" has a history she does not care to reveal (1881).
Adelaide Yates, the wife of Steve Yates and mother of Little Moses in Charles Egbert Craddock's In the "Stranger People's" Country. Her husband has been seized and detained by the "moonshiners" in the mountains, and the impression is that he has wilfully deserted her. She cannot discredit it, but "She's goin' ter stay thar in her cabin an' wait fur him," said Mrs. Pettengill. "Sorter seems de-stressin', I do declar'. A purty, young, good, r'ligious 'oman a-settin' herself ter spen' a empty life a-waitin' fur Steve Yates ter kum back!" (1890.)
Adeline (Lady), the wife of lord Henry Amun'deville (4 syl.), a highly educated aristocratic lady, with all the virtues and weaknesses of the upper ten. After the parliamentary sessions this noble pair filled their house with guests, amongst which were the duchess of Fitz-Fulke, the duke of D----, Aurora Raby, and don Juan, "the Russian envoy." The tale not being finished, no key to these names is given. (For the lady's character, see xiv. 54-56.)—Byron, Don Juan, xiii. to the end.
Ad'emar or Adema'ro, archbishop of Poggio, an ecclesiastical warrior in Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered.—See Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
Adic'ia, wife of the soldan, who incites him to distress the kingdom of Mercilla. When Mercilla sends her ambassador, Samient, to negotiate peace, Adicia, in violation of international law, thrusts her Samient out of doors like a dog, and sets two knights upon her. Sir Artegal comes to her rescue, attacks the two knights, and knocks one of them from his saddle with such force that he breaks his neck. After the discomfiture of the soldan, Adicia rushes forth with a knife to stab Samient, but, being intercepted by sir Artegal, is changed into a tigress.—Spenser, Faery Queen, v. 8 (1596).
The "soldan" is king Philip II. of Spain; "Mercilla" is queen Elizabeth; "Adicia" is Injustice personified, or the bigotry of popery; and "Samient" the ambassadors of Holland, who went to Philip for redress of grievances, and were most iniquitously detained by him as prisoners.
Ad'icus, Unrighteousness personified in canto vii. of The Purple Island (1633), by Phineas Fletcher. He has eight sons and daughters, viz., Ec'thros (hatred), Eris (variance), a daughter, Zelos (emulation), Thumos (wrath), Erith'ius (strife), Dichos'tasis (sedition), Envy, and Phon'os (murder); all fully described by the poet. (Greek, adikos, "an unjust man.")
Adie of Aikenshaw, a neighbor of the Glendinnings.—Sir W. Scott, The Monastery (time, Elizabeth).
Adme'tus, a king of Thessaly, husband of Alcestis. Apollo, being condemned by Jupiter to serve a mortal for twelve months for slaying a Cyclops, entered the service of Admetus. James R. Lowell has a poem on the subject, called The Shepherd of King Admetus (1819-1891).
Ad'mirable (The): (1) Aben-Ezra, a Spanish rabbin, born at Tole'do (1119-1174). (2) James Crichton (Kry-ton), the Scotchman (1551-1573). (3) Roger Bacon, called "The Admirable Doctor" (1214-1292).
Adolf, bishop of Cologne, was devoured by mice or rats in 1112. (See HATTO.)
Ad'ona, a seraph, the tutelar spirit of James, the "first martyr of the twelve."—Klopstock, The Messiah, iii. (1748).
Adonai, the mysterious spirit of pure mind, love, and beauty that inspires Zanoni, in Bulwer's novel of that name.
Adonais, title of Percy Bysshe Shelley's elegy upon John Keats, written in 1821.
A'donbec el Hakim, the physician, a disguise assumed by Saladin, who visits sir Kenneth's sick squire, and cures him of a fever.—Sir W. Scott, The Talisman (time, Richard I.).
Ado'nis, a beautiful youth, beloved by Venus and Proser'pina, who quarrelled about the possession of him. Jupiter, to settle the dispute, decided that the boy should spend six months with Venus in the upper world and six with Proserpina in the lower. Adonis was gored to death by a wild boar in a hunt.
Shakespeare has a poem called Venus and Adonis. Shelley calls his elegy on the poet Keats Adona'is, under the idea that the untimely death of Keats resembled that of Adonis.
(Adonis is an allegory of the sun, which is six months north of the horizon, and six months south. Thammuz is the same as Adonis, and so is Osiris).
Adoniram Penn, the obstinate and well-to-do farmer in Mary E. Wilkins's Revolt of "Mother". He persists in building a new barn which the cattle do not need instead of the much-needed dwelling for his family. In his absence, "Mother," who was wont to "stand before her husband in the humble fashion of a Scripture woman," moves household and furniture into the commodious barn.
"Adoniram was like a fortress whose walls had no active resistance, and went down the instant the right besieging tools were used" (1890).
Ad'oram, a seraph, who had charge of James the son of Alphe'us.—Klopstock, The Messiah, iii. (1748).
Adosinda, daughter of the Gothic governor of Auria, in Spain. The Moors having slaughtered her parents, husband, and child, preserved her alive for the captain of Alcahman's regiment. She went to his tent without the least resistance, but implored the captain to give her one night to mourn the death of those so near and dear to her. To this he complied, but during sleep she murdered him with his own scymitar. Roderick, disguised as a monk, helped her to bury the dead bodies of her house, and then she vowed to live for only one object, vengeance. In the great battle, when the Moors were overthrown, she it was who gave the word of attack, "Victory and Vengeance!"—Southey, Roderick, etc., iii. (1814).
Adram'elech (ch=k), one of the fallen angels. Milton makes him overthrown by U'riel and Raphael (Paradise Lost, vi. 365). According to Scripture, he was one of the idols of Sepharvaim, and Shalmane'ser introduced his worship into Samaria. [The word means "the mighty magnificent king.">[
The Sepharvites burnt their children in the fire to Adramelech.—2 Kings xvii. 31.
Klopstock introduces him into The Messiah, and represents him as surpassing Satan in malice and guile, ambition and mischief. He is made to hate every one, even Satan, of whose rank he is jealous, and whom he hoped to overthrow, that by putting an end to his servitude he might become the supreme god of all the created worlds. At the crucifixion he and Satan are both driven back to hell by Obad'don, the angel of death.
Adraste' (2 syl.), a French gentleman, who inveigles a Greek slave named Isidore from don Pèdre. His plan is this: He gets introduced as a portrait-painter, and thus imparts to Isidore his love, and obtains her consent to elope with him. He then sends his slave Zaïde (2 syl.) to don Pèdre, to crave protection for ill treatment, and Pèdre promises to befriend her. At this moment Adraste appears, and demands that Zaïde be given up to him to punish as he thinks proper. Pèdre intercedes; Adraste seems to relent; and Pèdre calls for Zaïde. Out comes Isidore instead, with Zaïde's veil. "There," says Pèdre, "take her and use her well." "I will do so," says the Frenchman, and leads off the Greek slave.—Molière, Le Sicilien, ou L'Amour Peintre (1667).
Adrian'a, a wealthy Ephesian lady, who marries Antiph'olus, twin-brother of Antipholus of Syracuse. The abbess Aemilia is her mother-in-law, but she knows it not; and one day when she accuses her husband of infidelity, she says to the abbess, if he is unfaithful it is not from want of remonstrance, "for it is the one subject of our conversation. In bed I will not let him sleep for speaking of it; at table I will not let him eat for speaking of it; when alone with him I talk of nothing else, and in company I give him frequent hints of it. In a word, all my talk is how vile and bad it is in him to love another better than he loves his wife" (act v. sc. 1).—Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors (1593).
Adria'no de Arma'do (Don), a pompous, fantastical Spaniard, a military braggart in a state of peace, as Parolles (3 syl.) was in war. Boastful but poor; a coiner of words, but very ignorant; solemnly grave, but ridiculously awkward; majestical in gait, but of very low propensities.—Shakespeare, Love's Labour Lost (1594).