Chapter 5

AGAMEMNON, king of the Argives and commander-in-chief of the allied Greeks in the siege of Troy. Introduced by Shakespeare in his _Troilus and Cres'sida_.

_Vixere fortes ante Agamem'nona_, "There were brave men before Agamemnon;" we are not to suppose that there were no great and good men in former times. A similar proverb is, "There are hills beyond Pentland and fields beyond Forth."

AGANDECCA, daughter of Starno king of Lochlin [_Scandinavia_], promised in marriage to Fingal king of Morven [_north-west of Scotland_]. The maid told Fingal to beware of her father, who had set an ambush to kill him. Fingal, being thus forewarned, slew the men in ambush; and Starno, in rage, murdered his daughter, who was buried by Fingal in Ardven [_Argyll_].

The daughter of the snow overheard, and left the hall of her secret sigh. She came in all her beauty, like the moon from the cloud of the east. Loveliness was around her as light. Her step was like the music of songs. She saw the youth, and loved him. He was the stolen sigh of her soul. Her blue eyes rolled in secret on him, and she blessed the chief of Morven.--_Ossian_ ("Fingal," iii.)

AGANIP'PE (4 syl.), fountain of the Muses, at the foot of mount Helicon, in Boeo'tia.

From Helicon's harmonious springs A thousand rills their mazy progress take.

Gray, _Progress of Poetry_.

AG'APE (3 syl.) the fay. She had three sons at a birth, Primond, Diamond, and Triamond. Being anxious to know the future lot of her sons, she went to the abyss of Demogorgon, to consult the "Three Fatal Sisters." Clotho showed her the threads, which "were thin as those spun by a spider." She begged the fates to lengthen the life-threads, but they said this could not be; they consented, however, to this agreement--

When ye shred with fatal knife His line which is the eldest of the three, Eftsoon his life may pass into the next: And when the next shall likewise ended be, That both their lives may likewise be annext Unto the third, that his may so be trebly wext.

Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, iv. 2 (1590).

AGAPI'DA _(Fray Antonio_), the imaginary chronicler of _The Conquest of Granada_, written by Washington Irving (1829).

AGAST'YA (3 _syl._), a dwarf who drank the sea dry. As he was walking one day with Vishnoo, the insolent ocean asked the god who the pigmy was that strutted by his side. Vishnoo replied it was the patriarch Agastya, who was going to restore earth to its true balance. Ocean, in contempt, spat its spray in the pigmy's face, and the sage, in revenge of this affront, drank the waters of the ocean, leaving the bed quite dry.--Maurice.

AG'ATHA, daughter of Cuno, and the betrothed of Max, in Weber's opera of _Der Freischütz._--See _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable._

AGATH'OCLES (4 _syl_.) tyrant of Sicily. He was the son of a potter, and raised himself from the ranks to become general of the army. He reduced all Sicily under his power. When he attacked the Carthaginians, he burnt his ships that his soldiers might feel assured they must either conquer or die. Agathoclês died of poison administered by his grandson (B.C. 361-289).

Voltaire has a tragedy called _Agathocle_, and Caroline Pichler has an excellent German novel entitled _Agathoclés_.

AGATHON, the hero and title of a philosophic romance, by C. M. Wieland (1733-1813). This is considered the best of his novels, though some prefer his _Don Sylvia de Rosalva_.

AGDISTES, the name given by Spenser to our individual consciousness or self. Personified in the being who presided over the Acrasian "bowre of blis."

That is our selfe, whom though we do not see Yet each doth in himselfe it well perceive to bee.

Therefore a God him sage Antiquity Did wisely make, and good Agdistes call--

Spenser, _Faerie Queene_, ii. 12.

AGDISTIS, a genius of human form, uniting the two senses and born of an accidental union between Jupiter and Tellus. The story of Agdistis and Atys is apparently a myth of the generative powers of nature.

AGED (_The_), so Wemmick's father is called. He lived in "the castle at Walworth." Wemmick at "the castle" and Wemmick in business are two "different beings."

Wemmick's house was a little wooden cottage, in the midst of plots of garden, and the top of it was cut out and painted like a battery mounted with guns.... It was the smallest of houses, with queer Gothic windows (by far the greater part of them sham), and a Gothic door, almost too small to get in at.... On Sundays he ran up a real flag.... The bridge was a plank, and it crossed a chasm about four feet wide and two deep.... At nine o'clock every night "the gun fired," the gun being mounted in a separate fortress made of lattice-work. It was protected from the weather by a tarpaulin ... umbrella.-- C. Dickens, _Great Expectations_, xxv. (1860).

AG'ELASTES (_Michael_), the cynic philosopher.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

AGESILA'US (5 _syl_.). Plutarch tells us that Agesilaus, king of Sparta, was one day discovered riding cock-horse on a long stick, to please and amuse his children.

A'GIB (_King_), "The Third Calender" (_Arabian Nights' Entertainments_). He was wrecked on the loadstone mountain, which drew all the nails and iron bolts from his ship; but he overthrew the bronze statue on the mountain-top, which was the cause of the mischief. Agib visited the ten young men, each of whom had lost the right eye, and was carried by a roc to the palace of the forty princesses, with whom he tarried a year. The princesses were then obliged to leave for forty days, but entrusted him with the keys of the palace, with free permission to enter every room but one. On the fortieth day curiosity induced him to open this room, where he saw a horse, which he mounted, and was carried through the air to Bag dad. The horse then deposited him, and knocked out his right eye with a whisk of its tail, as it had done the ten "young men" above referred to.

AGITATOR (_The Irish_), Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847).

AGLAE, the unwedded sister in T. B. Aldrich's poem, _The Sisters' Tragedy_ (1891).

Two sisters loved one man. He being dead, Grief loosed the lips of her he had not wed, And all the passion that through heavy years, Had masked in smiles, unmasked itself in tears.

AGNEI'A (3 _syl_.), wifely chastity, sister of Parthen'ia or maiden chastity. Agneia is the spouse of Encra'tês or temperance. Fully described in canto x. of _The Purple Island_, by Phineas Fletcher (1633). (Greek, _agneia_, "chastity.")

AG'NES, daughter of Mr. Wickfield the solicitor, and David Copperfield's second wife (after the death of Dora, "his child wife"). Agnes is a very pure, self-sacrificing girl, accomplished, yet domestic.--C. Dickens, _David Copperfield_ (1849).

AGNES, in Molière's _L'École des Femmes_, the girl on whom Arnolphe tries his pet experiment of education, so as to turn out for himself a "model wife." She is brought up in a country convent, where she is kept in entire ignorance of the difference of sex, conventional proprieties, the difference between the love of men and women, and that of girls for girls, the mysteries of marriage, and so on. When grown to womanhood she quits the convent, and standing one evening on a balcony a young man passes and takes off his hat to her, she returns the salute; he bows a second and third time, she does the same; he passes and repasses several times, bowing each time, and she does as she has been taught to do by acknowledging the salute. Of course, the young man (_Horace_) becomes her lover, whom she marries, and M. Arnolphe loses his "model wife." (See PINCH-WIFE.)

_Elle fait l'Agnès._ She pretends to be wholly unsophisticated and verdantly ingenuous.--_French Proverb_ (from the "Agnes" of Molière, _L'École des Femmes_, 1662).

_Agnes_ (_Black_), the countess of March, noted for her defence of Dunbar against the English.

_Black Agnes_, the palfry of Mary queen of Scots, the gift of her brother Moray, and so called from the noted countess of March, who was countess of Moray (Murray) in her own right.

_Agnes_ (_St._), a young virgin of Palermo, who at the age of thirteen was martyred at Rome during the Diocletian persecution of A.D. 304. Prudence (Aurelius Prudentius Clemens), a Latin Christian poet of the fourth century, has a poem on the subject. Tintoret and Domenichi'no have both made her the subject of a painting.--_The Martyrdom of St. Agnes_.

_St. Agnes and the Devil_. St. Agnes, having escaped from the prison at Rome, took shipping and landed at St. Piran Arwothall. The devil dogged her, but she rebuked him, and the large moor-stones between St. Piran and St. Agnes, in Cornwall, mark the places where the devils were turned into stone by the looks of the indignant saint.--Polwhele, _History of Cornwall_.

_Agnes of Sorrento_, heroine of novel of same name, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The scene of the story is laid in Sorrento, Italy.

AGRAMAN'TE (4 _syl_.) or AG'RAMANT, king of the Moors, in _Orlando Innamorato_, by Bojardo, and _Orlando Furioso_, by Ariosto.

AGRAWAIN (_Sir_) or SIR AGRAVAIN, surnamed "The Desirous," and also "The Haughty." He was son of Lot (king of Orkney) and Margawse half-sister of king Arthur. His brothers were sir Gaw'ain, sir Ga'heris, and sir Gareth. Mordred was his half-brother, being the son of king Arthur and Margawse. Sir Agravain and sir Mordred hated sir Launcelot, and told the king he was too familiar with the queen; so they asked the king to spend the day in hunting, and kept watch. The queen sent for sir Launcelot to her private chamber, and sir Agravain, sir Mordred, and twelve others assailed the door, but sir Launcelot slew them all except sir Mordred, who escaped.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, iii. 142-145 (1470).

AGRICA'NE (4 _syl._), king of Tartary, in the _Orlando Innamorato_, of Bojardo. He besieges Angelica in the castle of Albracca, and is slain in single combat by Orlando. He brought into the field 2,200,000 troops.

Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp, When Agrican, with all his northern powers, Besieged Albracca.

Milton, _Paradise Regained_, iii. (338).

AGRICOLA FUSILIER, a pompous old creole, a conserver of family traditions, and patriot who figures in George W. Cable's _Grandissimes_ (1880).

He seemed to fancy himself haranguing a crowd; made another struggle for intelligence, tried once, twice to speak, and the third time succeeded: "Louis--_Louisian--a--for--ever!_" and lay still. They put those two words on his tomb.

AG'RIOS, Lumpishness personified; a "sullen swain, all mirth that in himself and others hated; dull, dead, and leaden." Described in canto viii. of _The Purple Island_, by Phineas Fletcher (1635). (Greek, _agrios_; "a savage.")

AGRIPPINA was granddaughter, wife, sister, and mother of an emperor. She was granddaughter of Augustus, wife of Claudius, sister of Caligula, and mother of Nero.

AIR'LIE (_The earl of_), a royalist in the service of king Charles I.--Sir W. Scott, _Legend of Montrose_.

AIRY (_Sir George_), a man of fortune, in love with Miran'da, the ward of sir Francis Gripe.--Mrs. Centlivre, _The Busylody_ (1709).

A'JAX, son of Oïleus [_O.i'.luce_], generally called "the less." In conseqnence of his insolence to Cassan'dra, the prophetic daughter of Priam, his ship was driven on a rock, and he perished at sea.--Homer, _Odyssey_, iv. 507; Virgil, _Æneid_, i. 41.

A'JAX TEL'AMON. Sophoclês has a tragedy called _Ajax_, in which "the madman" scourges a ram he mistakes for Ulysses. His encounter with a flock of sheep, which he fancied in his madness to be the sons of Atreus, has been mentioned at greater or less length by several Greek and Roman poets. Don Quixote had a similar adventure. This Ajax is introduced by Shakespeare in his drama called _Troilus and Cressida._ (See ALIFANFARON).

The Tuscan poet [_Ariosto_] doth advance The frantic paladin of France [_Orlando Furioso_]; And those more ancient [_Euripides_ and _Seneca_] do enhance Alcidês in his fury [_Herculês Furens_]; And others, Ajax Telamon;-- But to this time there hath been none So bedlam as our Oberon; Of whom I dare assure you.

M. Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (1536-1631).

AJUT AND ANNINGAIT, in _The Rambler_.

Part, like Ajut, never to return. Campbell, _Pleasures of Hope_, ii. (1799).

ALA'CIEL, the genius who went on a voyage to the two islands, Taciturnia and Merry land [_London_ and _Paris_].--De la Dixmerie _L'isle Taciturne et l'isle Enjouée, ou Voyage du Génie Alaciel dans les deux Iles_ (1759).

ALADDIN, son of Mustafa, a poor tailor, of China, "obstinate, disobedent, and mischievous," wholly abandoned "to indolence and licentiousness." One day an African magician accosted him, pretending to be his uncle, and sent him to bring up the "wonderful lamp," at the same time giving him a "ring of safety." Aladdin secured the lamp, but would not hand it to the magician till he was out of the cave, whereupon the magician shut him up in the cave, and departed for Africa. Aladdin, wringing his hands in despair, happened to rub the magic ring, when the genius of the ring appeared before him, and asked him his commands. Aladdin requested to be delivered from the cave, and he returned home. By means of his lamp, he obtained untold wealth, built a superb palace, and married Badroul'boudour, the sultan's daughter. After a time, the African magician got possession of the lamp, and caused the palace, with all its contents, to be transported into Africa. Aladdin was absent at the time, was arrested and ordered to execution, but was rescued by the populace, with whom he was an immense favorite, and started to discover what had become of his palace. Happening to slip, he rubbed his ring, and when the genius of the ring appeared and asked his orders, was instantly posted to the place where his palace was in Africa. He poisoned the magician, regained the lamp, and had his palace restored to its original place in China.

Yes, ready money is Aladdin's lamp.

Byron, _Don Juan_, xii. 12.

_Aladdin's Lamp_, a lamp brought from an underground cavern in "the middle of China." Being in want of food, the mother of Aladdin began to scrub it, intending to sell it, when the genius of the lamp appeared, and asked her what were her commands. Aladdin answered, "I am hungry; bring me food;" and immediately a banquet was set before him. Having thus become acquainted with the merits of the lamp, he became enormously rich, and married the sultan's daughter. By artifice the African magician got possession of the lamp, and transported the palace with its contents to Africa. Aladdin poisoned the magician, recovered the lamp, and retranslated the palace to its original site.

_Aladdin's Palace Windows_. At the top of the palace was a saloon, containing tweny-four windows (six on each side), and all but one enriched with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. One was left for the sultan to complete, but all the jewellers in the empire were unable to make one to match the others, so Aladdin commanded "the slaves of the lamp" to complete their work.

_Aladdin's Ring_, given him by the African magician, "a preservative against every evil."--_Arabian Nights_ ("Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp").

AL'ADINE, the sagacious but cruel king of Jerusalem, slain by Raymond.--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

_Al'adine_ (3 _syl_.), son of Aldus, "a lusty knight."--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, vi. 3 (1596).

ALAFF, ANLAF, or OLAF, son of Sihtric, Danish king of Northumberland (died 927). When Aethelstan [_Athelstan_] took possession of Northumberland, Alaff fled to Ireland, and his brother Guthfrith or Godfrey to Scotland.

Our English Athelstan, In the Northumbrian fields, with most victorious might, Put Alaff and his powers to more inglorious flight.

Drayton, _Potyolbion_, xii. (1612).

ALAIN, cousin of Eos, the artist's wife, in _Desert Sands_, by Harriet Prescott Spofford (1863).

ALAR'CON, king of Barca, who joined the armament of Egypt against the crusaders, but his men were only half armed.--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

ALARIC COTTIN. Frederick the Great of Prussia was so called by Voltaire. "Alaric" because, like Alaric, he was a great warrior, and "Cottin" because, like Cottin, satirized by Boileau, he was a very indifferent poet.

ALAS'CO, _alias_ DR. DEMETRIUS DOBOOBIE, an old astrologer, consulted by the earl of Leicester.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).

ALAS'NAM (_Prince Zeyn_) possessed eight statues, each a single diamond on a gold pedestal, but had to go in search of a ninth, more valuable than them all. This ninth was a lady, the most beautiful and virtuous of women, "more precious than rubies," who became his wife.

One pure and perfect _[woman]_ is ... like Alasnam's lady, worth them all.--Sir Walter Scott.

_Alasnam's Mirror_. When Alasnam was in search of his ninth statue, the king of the Genii gave him a test mirror, in which he was to look when he saw a beautiful girl; "if the glass remained pure and unsullied, the damsel would be the same, but if not, the damsel would not be wholly pure in body and in mind." This mirror was called "the touchstone of virtue."--_Arabian Nights_ ("Prince Zeyn Alasnam").

ALAS'TOR, a surname of Zeus as "the Avenger." Or, in general, any deity or demon who avenges wrong done by man. Shelley wrote a poem, _Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude_.

Cicero says he meditated killing himself that he might become the Alastor of Augustus, whom he hated.--Plutarch, _Cicero, etc._ ("Parallel Lives.")

God Almighty mustered up an army of mice against the archbishop [_Hatto_], and sent them to persecute him as his furious Alastors.--Coryat, _Crudities_, 571.

AL'BAN (_St._) of Ver'ulam, hid his confessor, St. Am'phibal, and changing clothes with him, suffered death in his stead. This was during the frightful persecution of Maximia'nus Hercu'lius, general of Diocle'tian's army in Britain, when 1000 Christians fell at Lichfield.

Alban--our proto-martyr called. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xxiv. [1622].

AL'BERICK OF MORTEMAR, the same as Theodorick the hermit of Engaddi, an exiled nobleman. He tells king Richard the history of his life, and tries to dissuade him from sending a letter of defiance to the archduke of Austria.--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

_Al' berick_, the squire of prince Richard, one of the sons of Henry II. of England.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

ALBERT, commander of the _Britannia_. Brave, liberal, and just, softened and refined by domestic ties and superior information. His ship was dashed against the projecting verge of Cape Colonna, the most southern point of Attica, and he perished in the sea because Rodmond (second in command) grasped one of his legs and could not be shaken off.

Though trained in boisterous elements, his mind Was yet by soft humanity refined; Each joy of wedded love at home he knew, Abroad, confessed the father of his crew....

His genius, ever for th' event prepared, Rose with the storm, and all its dangers shared.

Falconer, _The Shipwreck_, i. 2 (1756).

_Albert_, father of Gertrude, patriarch and judge of Wyo'ming (called by Campbell Wy'oming). Both Albert and his daughter were shot by a mixed force of British and Indian troops, led by one Brandt, who made an attack on the settlement, put all the inhabitants to the sword, set fire to the fort, and destroyed all the houses.--Campbell, _Gertrude of Wyoming_ (1809).

_Albert_, in Goethe's romance called _The Sorrows of Werther_, is meant for his friend Kestner. He is a young German farmer, who married Charlotte Buff (called "Lotte" in the novel), with whom Goethe was in love. Goethe represents himself under the name of Werther (_q. v._).

ALBERT OF GEI'ERSTEIN (_Count_), brother of Arnold Biederman, and president of the "Secret Tribunal." He sometimes appears as a "black priest of St. Paul's," and sometimes as the "monk of St. Victoire."--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

ALBERTAZ'ZO married Alda, daughter of Otho, duke of Saxony. His sons were Ugo and Fulco. From this stem springs the Royal Family of England.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

ALBIA'ZAR, an Arab chief, who joins the Egyptian armament against the crusaders.

A chief in rapine, not in knighthood bred. Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_, xvii. (1575).

AL'BION. In legendary history this word is variously accounted for. One derivation is from Albion, a giant, son of Neptune, its first discoverer, who ruled over the island for forty-four years.

Another derivation is Al'bia, eldest of the fifty daughters of Diocle'sian king of Syria. These fifty ladies all married on the same day, and all murdered their husbands on the wedding night. By way of punishment, they were cast adrift in a ship, unmanned, but the wind drove the vessel to our coast, where these Syrian damsels disembarked. Here they lived the rest of their lives, and married with the aborigines, "a lawless crew of devils." Milton mentions this legend, and naïvely adds, "it is too absurd and unconscionably gross to be believed." Its resemblance to the fifty daughters of Dan'aos is palpable.

Drayton, in his _Polyolbion_, says that Albion came from Rome, was "the first martyr of the land," and dying for the faith's sake, left his name to the country, where Offa subsequently reared to him "a rich and sumptuous shrine, with a monastery attached."--Song xvi.

_Albion_, king of Briton, when O'beron held his court in what is now called "Kensington Gardens." T. Tickell has a poem upon this subject.

_Albion wars with Jove's Son_. Albion, son of Neptune, wars with Her'culês, son of Jove. Neptune, dissatisfied with the share of his father's kingdom, awarded to him by Jupiter, aspired to dethrone his brother, but Hercules took his father's part, and Albion was discomfited.

Since Albion wielded arms against the son of Jove.

M. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, iv. (1612).

ALBO'RAK, the animal brought by Gabriel to convey Mahomet to the seventh heaven. It had the face of a man, the cheeks of a horse, the wings of an eagle, and spoke with a human voice.

ALBUMA'ZAR, Arabian astronomer (776-885).

Chaunteclere, our cocke, must tell what is o'clocke, By the astrologye that he hath naturally Conceyued and caught; for he was never taught By Albumazar, the astronomer, Nor by Ptholomy, prince of astronomy. J. Skelton, _Philip Sparoiv_ (time, Henry VIII.).

Alcestis or Alcestes, daughter of Pelias and wife of Admetus (_q. v_.) On his wedding-day Admetus neglected to offer sacrifice to Diana and was condemned to die, but Apollo induced the Fates to spare his life if he could find a voluntary substitute. His wife offered to give her life for his, and went away with death; but Hercules fought with Death and restored Alcestes to her husband. This story is the subject of a tragedy _Alcestes_, by Euripides. Milton alludes to the incident in one of his sonnets:

Methought I saw my late espoused saint Brought to me like Alcestes from the grave.

John Milton, Sonnet _On his deceased Wife_.

William Morris has made Alcestes the subject of one of the tales in his _Earthly Paradise._

A variation of the story is found in Longfellow's _The Golden Legend_, Henry of Hoheneck when dying was promised his life if a maiden could be found who would give up her life for his. Elsie, the daughter of Gottlieb, a tenant-farmer of the prince offered herself as a sacrifice, and followed her lord to Sorrento to give herself up to Lucifer; but Henry heard of it, and, moved by gratitude, saved Elsie and made her his wife.

_Alceste_, the hero of Molière's comedy _Le Misanthrope_. He has a pure and noble mind that has been soured and disgusted by intercourse with the world. Courtesy he holds to be the vice of fops, and the manners of society mere hypocrisy. He courts Célmène, a coquette and her treatment of his love confirms his bad opinion of mankind.

AL'CHEMIST (_The_), the last of the three great comedies of Ben Jonson (1610). The other two are _Vol'pone_ (2 _syl_.), (1605), and _The Silent Woman_ (1609). The object of _The Alchemist_ is to ridicule the belief in the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life. The alchemist is "Subtle," a mere quack; and "sir Epicure Mammon" is the chief dupe, who supplies money, etc., for the "transmutation of metal." "Abel Drugger" a tobacconist, and "Dapper" a lawyer's clerk, are two other dupes. "Captain Face," _alias_ "Jeremy," the house-servant of "Lovewit," and "Dol Common" are his allies. The whole thing is blown up by the unexpected return of "Lovewit."

ALCIB'ADES (5 _syl._), the Athenian general. Being banished by the senate, he marches against the city, and the senate, being unable to offer resistance, open the gates to him (B.C. 450-404). This incident is introduced by Shakespeare in _Timon of Athens_.

ALCIBI'ADES' TABLES represented a god or goddess outwardly, and a Sile'nus, or deformed piper, within. Erasmus has a "curious dissertation on these tables" (_Adage_, 667, edit. R. Stephens); hence emblematic of falsehood and dissimulation.

Whose wants virtue is compared to these False tables wrought by Alcibiades; Which noted well of all were found t've bin Most fair without, but most deformed within.

Wm. Browne, _Britannia's Pastorals_, i. (1613).

ALCI'DES, a name sometimes given to Hercules as the descendent of the hero Alcoeus through his son Amphitryon (_q. v._) The name is applied to any valiant hero.

The Tuscan poet [_Ariosto_] doth advance The frantic paladin of France [_Orlando Furioso_]; And those more ancient do enhance Alcidês in his fury.

M. Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (1563-1631).

Where is the great Alcidês of the field, Valiant lord Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury?

Shakespeare, 1 _Henry VI_. act. iv. sc. 7 (1589).

ALCI'NA, Carnal Pleasure personified. In Bojardo's _Orlando Innamorato_ she is a fairy, who carries off Astolfo. In Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_ she is a kind of Circê, whose garden is a scene of enchantment. Alcina enjoys her lovers for a season, and then converts them into trees, stones, wild beasts, and so on, as her fancy dictates.

AL'CIPHRON, or _The Minute Philosopher_, the title of a work by bishop Berkeley, so called from the name of the chief speaker, a freethinker. The object of this work is to expose the weakness of infidelity.

_Al'ciphron_, "the epicurean," the hero of T. Moore's romance entitled _The Epicurean_.

Like Aleiphron, we swing in air and darkness, and know not whither the wind blows us.

--_Putnam's Magazine._

ALCME'NA (in Molière, _Alcmène_), the wife of Amphitryon, general of the Theban army. While her husband is absent warring against the Telebo'ans, Jupiter assumes the form of Amphitryon; but Amphitryon himself returns home the next day, and great confusion arises between the false and true Amphitryon, which is augmented by Mercury, who personates Sos'ia, the slave of Amphitryon. By this amour of Jupiter, Alcmena becomes the mother of Her'culês. Plautus, Molière, and Dryden have all taken this plot for a comedy entitled _Amphitryon_.

ALCOFRI'BAS, the name by which Rabelais was called, after he came out of the prince's mouth, where he resided for six months, taking toll of every morsel of food that the prince ate. Pantag'ruel gave "the merry fellow the lairdship of Salmigondin."--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, ii. 32 (1533).

AL'COLOMB, "subduer of hearts," daughter of Abou Aibou of Damascus, and sister of Ganem. The caliph Haroun-al-Raschid, in a fit of jealousy, commanded Ganem to be put to death, and his mother and sister to do penance for three days in Damascus, and then to be banished from Syria. The two ladies came to Bag dad, and were taken in by the charitable syndic of the jewellers. When the jealous fit of the caliph was over he sent for the two exiles. Alcolomb he made his wife, and her mother he married to his vizier.--_Arabian Nights_ ("Ganem, the Slave of Love ").

ALCY'ON "the wofullest man alive," but once "the jolly shepherd swain that wont full merrily to pipe and dance," near where the Severn flows. One day he saw a lion's cub, and brought it up till it followed him about like a dog; but a cruel satyr shot it in mere wantonness. By the lion's cub he means Daphne, who died in her prime, and the cruel satyr is death. He said he hated everything--the heaven, the earth, fire, air, and sea, the day, the night; he hated to speak, to hear, to taste food, to see objects, to smell, to feel; he hated man and woman too, for his Daphne lived no longer. What became of this doleful shepherd the poet could never ween. Alcyon is sir Arthur Gorges.--Spencer, _Daphnaida_ (in seven fyttes, 1590).

And there is that Alcyon bent to mourn, Though fit to frame an everlasting ditty. Whose gentle sprite for Daphne's death doth turn Sweet lays of love to endless plaints of pity.

Spenser, _Colin Clout's Come Home Again_ (1591).

ALCY'ONE or HALCYONE (4 _syl_.), daughter of Aeolus, who, on hearing of her husband's death by shipwreck, threw herself into the sea, and was changed to a kingfisher. (See HALCYON DAYS.)

ALDABEL'LA, wife of Orlando, sister of Oliver, and daughter of Monodan'tês.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso, etc_. (1516).

_Aldabella_, a marchioness of Florence, very beautiful and fascinating, but arrogant and heartless. She used to give entertainments to the magnates of Florence, and Fazio was one who spent most of his time in her society. Bian'ca his wife, being jealous of the marchioness, accused him to the duke of being privy to the death of Bartoldo, and for this offence Fazio was executed. Bianca died broken-hearted, and Aldabella was condemned to spend the rest of her life in a nunnery.--Dean Milman, _Fazio_ (a tragedy, 1815).

ALDEN (_John_), one of the sons of the Pilgrim fathers, in love with Priscilla, the beautiful puritan. Miles Standish, a bluff old soldier, wishing to marry Priscilla, asked John Alden to go and plead for him; but the maiden answered archly, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John!" Soon after this, Standish being reported killed by a poisoned arrow, John spoke for himself, and the maiden consented. Standish, however, was not killed, but only wounded; he made his reappearance at the wedding, where, seeing how matters stood, he accepted the situation with the good-natured remark:

If you would be served you must serve yourself; and moreover No man can gather cherries in Kent at the season of Christmas.

Longfellow, _Courtship of Miles Standish_ (1858).

ALDIBORONTEPHOSCOPHORNIO _[Al'diboron'te-fos'co-for'nio]_, a character in _Chrononhotonthologos_, by H. Carey.

(Sir Walter Scott used to call James Ballantyne, the printer, this nickname, from his pomposity and formality of speech.)

AL'DIGER, son of Buo'vo, of the house of Clarmont, brother of Malagi'gi and Vivian.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

AL'DINE (2 _syl_.), leader of the second squadron of Arabs which joined the Egyptian armament against the crusaders. Tasso says of the Arabs, "Their accents were female and their stature diminutive" (xvii.).--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

AL'DINGAR _(Sir)_, steward of queen Eleanor, wife of Henry II. He impeached the queen's fidelity, and agreed to prove his charge by single combat; but an angel (in the shape of a little child) established the queen's innocence. This is probably a blundering version of the story of Gunhilda and the emperor Henry.--Percy, _Reliques_, ii. 9.

ALDO, a Caledonian, was not invited by Fingal to his banquet on his return to Morven, after the overthrow of Swaran. To resent this affront, he went over to Fingal's avowed enemy, Erragon king of Sora (in Scandinavia), and here Lorma, the king's wife, fell in love with him. The guilty pair fled to Morven, which Erragon immediately invaded. Aldo fell in single combat with Erragon, Lorma died of grief, and Erragon was slain in battle by Graul, son of Morni.--_Ossian_ ("The Battle of Lora").

ALDRICK the Jesuit, confessor of Charlotte countess of Derby.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

ALDROVAND _(Father)_, chaplain of sir Raymond Berenger, the old Norman warrior.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

ALDUS, father of Al'adine (3 _syl_), the "lusty knight."--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, vi. 3 (1596).

ALEA, a warrior who invented dice at the siege of Troy; at least so Isidore of Seville says. Suidas ascribes the invention to Palamëdês.

Alea est ludus tabulae inventa a Graecis, in otio Trojani belli, a quodam milite, nomine ALEA, a quo et ars nomen accepit.--Isidorus, _Orig_. xviii. 57.

ALEC'TRYON, a youth set by Mars to guard against surprises, but he fell asleep, and Apollo thus surprised Mars and Venus in each others' embrace. Mars in anger changed the boy into a cock.

And from out the neighboring farmyard Loud the cock Alectryon crowed. Longfellow, _Pegasus in Pound_.

ALEC YEATON, the Gloucester skipper in T. B. Aldrich's ballad, _Alec Yeaton's Son_.

The wind it wailed, the wind it moaned, And the white caps flecked the sea; "An' I would to God," the skipper groaned, "I had not my boy with me!"

* * * * *

Long did they marvel in the town At God His strange decree; That let the stalwart skipper drown, And the little child go free. (1890.)

ALE'RIA, one of the Amazons, and the best beloved of the ten wives of Guido the Savage.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

ALESSANDRO, husband of the Indian girl Ramona, in Helen Hunt Jackson's novel _Ramona_. The story of the young couple is a series of oppressions and deceits practised by U. S. officials (1884). ALESSIO, the young man with whom Lisa was living in concubinage, when Elvi'no promised to marry her. Elvino made the promise out of pique, because he thought Ami'na was not faithful to him, but when he discovered his error he returned to his first love, and left Lisa to marry Alessio, with whom she had been previously cohabiting.--Bellini's opera, _La Sonnamlula_ (1831).

ALE'THES (3 _syl_.), an ambassador from Egypt to king Al'adine (3 _syl_.); subtle, false, deceitful, and full of wiles.--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

ALEXANDER PATOFF, brother of the young Russian who figures most prominently in F. Marion Crawford's novel _Paul Patoff_. Alexander's mysterious disappearance in a mosque leads to suspicions involving his brother, even the mother of the two brothers accusing Paul of fratricide (1887).

ALEX. WALTON, physician and suitor of Margaret Kent in _The Story of Margaret Kent_, by Henry Hayes (Ellen Olney Kirke) (1886).

ALEXANDER THE GREAT, a tragedy by Nathaniel Lee (1678). In French we have a novel called _Roman d'Alexandre_, by Lambert-li-cors (twelfth century), and a tragedy by Racine (1665).

_Alexander an Athlete_. Alexander, being asked if he would run a course at the Olympic games, replied, "Yes, if my competitors are all kings."

_The Albanian Alexander_, George Castriot _(Scanderbeg_ or _Iscander beg_, 1404-1467).

_The Persian Alexander_, Sandjar (1117-1158).

_Alexander of the North_, Charles XII. of Sweden (1682-1718).

_Alexander deformed_.

Ammon's great son one shoulder had too high.

Pope, _Prologue to the Satires_, 117.

_Alexander and Homer_. When Alexander invaded Asia Minor, he offered up sacrifice to Priam, and then went to visit the tomb of Achilles. Here he exclaimed, "O most enviable of men, who had Homer to sing thy deeds!"

Which made the Eastern conqueror to cry,

"O fortunate young man! whose virtue found So brave a trump thy noble deeds to sound."

Spenser, _The Ruins of Time_ (1591).

_Alexander and Parme'nio._ When Darius, king of Persia, offered Alexander his daughter Stati'ra in marriage, with a dowry of 10,000 talents of gold, Parmenio said, "I would accept the offer, if I were Alexander." To this Alexander rejoined, "So would I, if I were Parmenio."

On another occasion the general thought the king somewhat too lavish in his gifts, whereupon Alexander made answer, "I consider not what Parmenio ought to receive, but what Alexander ought to give."

_Alexander and Perdiccas_. When Alexander started for Asia he divided his possessions among his friends. Perdiccas asked what he had left for himself. "Hope," said Alexander. "If hope is enough for Alexander," replied the friend, "it is enough for Perdiccas also;" and declined to accept anything.

_Alexander and Raphael_. Alexander encountered Raphael in a cave in the mountain of Kaf, and being asked what he was in search of, replied, "The water of immortality." Whereupon Raphael gave him a stone, and told him when he found another of the same weight he would gain his wish. "And how long," said Alexander, "have I to live?" The angel replied, "Till the heaven above thee and the earth beneath thee are of iron." Alexander now went forth and found a stone almost of the weight required, and in order to complete the balance, added a little earth; falling from his horse at Ghur he was laid in his armor on the ground, and his shield was set up over him to ward off the sun. Then understood he that he would gain immortality when, like the stone, he was buried in the earth, and that his hour was come, for the earth beneath him was iron, and his iron buckler was his vault of heaven above. So he died.

_Alexander and the Robber_. When Dion'idês, a pirate, was brought before Alexander, he exclaimed, "Vile brigand! How dare you infest the seas with your misdeeds?" "And you," replied the pirate, "by what right do you ravage the world? Because I have only one ship, I am called a brigand, but you who have a whole fleet are termed a conqueror." Alexander admired the man's boldness, and commanded him to be set at liberty.

_Alexander's Beard_, a smooth chin, or a very small beard. It is said that Alexander the Great had scarcely any beard at all.

Disgracèd yet with Alexander's bearde.

G. Gascoigne, _The Steele Glas_ (died 1577).

_Alexander's Runner_, Ladas.

ALEXAN'DRA, daughter of Oronthea, queen of the Am'azons, and one of the ten wives of Elba'nio. It is from this person that the land of the Amazons was called Alexandra.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

ALEX'IS, the wanton shepherd in _The Faithful Shepherdess_, a pastoral drama by John Fletcher (1610).

ALFA'DER, the father of all the Asen _(deities)_ of Scandinavia, creator and governor of the universe, patron of arts and magic, etc.

ALFONSO, father of Leono'ra d'Este, and duke of Ferrara, Tasso the poet fell in love with Leonora. The duke confined him as a lunatic for seven years in the asylum of Santa Anna, but at the expiration of that period he was released through the intercession of Vincenzo Gonzago, duke of Mantua. Byron refers to this in his _Childe Harold_, iv. 36.

_Alfonso XI_ of Castile, whose "favorite" was Leonora de Guzman.--Donizetti, _La Favorita_ (an opera, 1842).

_Alfon'so (Don)_, of Seville, a man of fifty and husband of donna Julia (twenty-seven years his junior), of whom he was jealous without cause.--Byron, _Don Juan_, i.

_Alfon'so_, in Walpole's tale called _The Castle of Otranto_, appears as an apparition in the moonlight, dilated to a gigantic form (1769).

ALFRED AS A GLEEMAN. Alfred, wishing to know the strength of the Danish camp, assumed the disguise of a minstrel, and stayed in the Danish camp for several days, amusing the soldiers with his harping and singing. After he had made himself master of all he required, he returned back to his own place.--William of Malmesbury (twelfth century).

William of Malmesbury tells a similar story of Anlaf, a Danish king, who, he says, just before the battle of Brunanburh, in Northumberland, entered the camp of king Athelstan as a gleeman, harp in hand; and so pleased was the English king that he gave him gold. Anlaf would not keep the gold, but buried it in the earth.

ALGARSIFE (3 _syl_.), and Cam'ballo, sons of Cambuscan' king of Tartary, and Elfêta his wife. Algarsife married Theodora.

I speak of Algarsife, How that he won Theodora to his wife.

Chaucer, _The Squire's Tale_ AL'GEBAR' ("_the giant_"). So the Arabians call the constellation Orion.

Begirt with many a blazing star, Stood the great giant Algebar-- Orion, hunter of the beast. Longfellow, _The Occultation of Orion_.

AL'I, cousin and son-in-law of Mahomet. The beauty of his eyes is proverbial in Persia. _Ayn Hali_ ("eyes of Ali") is the highest compliment a Persian can pay to beauty.--Chardin.

ALI BABA, a poor Persian wood-carrier, who accidentally learns the magic words, "Open Sesamê!" "Shut Sesamê!" by which he gains entrance into a vast cavern, the repository of stolen wealth and the lair of forty thieves. He makes himself rich by plundering from these stores; and by the shrewd cunning of Morgiana, his female slave, the captain and his whole band of thieves are extirpated. In reward of these services, Ali Baba gives Morgiana her freedom, and marries her to his own son.--_Arabian Nights_ ("Ali Baba or the Forty Thieves").

AL'ICE (2 _syl_.), sister of Valentine, in _Mons. Thomas_, a comedy by Beaumont and Fletcher (1619).

_Al'ice_ (2 _syl_.), foster-sister of Robert le Diable, and bride of Rambaldo, the Norman troubadour, in Meyerbeer's opera of _Roberto il Diavolo_. She comes to Palermo to place in the duke's hand his mother's "will," which he is enjoined not to read till he is a virtuous man. She is Robert's good genius, and when Bertram, the fiend, claims his soul as the price of his ill deeds, Alice, by reading the will, reclaims him.

_Al'ice_ (2 _syl_.), the servant-girl of dame Whitecraft, wife of the innkeeper at Altringham.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

_Al'ice_, the miller's daughter, a story of happy first love told in later years by an old man who had married the rustic beauty. He was a dreamy lad when he first loved Alice, and the passion roused him into manhood. (See ROSE.)--Tennyson, _The Miller's Daughter_.

_Al'ice (The Lady_), widow of Walter, knight of Avenel (2 _syl_).--Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Al'ice_ [GRAY], called "Old Alice Gray," a quondam tenant of the lord of Ravenswood. Lucy Ashton visits her after the funeral of the old lord.--Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

_Alice Munro_, one of the sisters taken captive by Indians in Cooper's _Last of the Mohicans_ (1821).

ALICHI'NO. a devil in Dante's _Inferno_.

ALICIA gave her heart to Mosby, but married Arden for his position. As a wife, she played falsely with her husband, and even joined Mosby in a plot to murder him. Vacillating between love for Mosby and respect for Arden, she repents, and goes on sinning; wishes to get disentangled, but is overmastered by Mosby's stronger will. Alicia's passions impel her to evil, but her judgment accuses her and prompts her to the right course. She halts, and parleys with sin, like Balaam, and of course is lost.--Anon., _Arden of Feversham_ (1592).

_Alic'ia_, "a laughing, toying, wheedling, whimpering she," who once held lord Hastings under her distaff, but her annoying jealousy, "vexatious days, and jarring, joyless nights," drove him away from her. Being jealous of Jane Shore, she accused her to the duke of Gloster of alluring lord Hastings from his allegiance, and the lord protector soon trumped up a charge against both; the lord chamberlain he ordered to execution for treason, and Jane Shore he persecuted for witchcraft. Alicia goes raving mad.--Rowe, _Jane Shore_ (1713).

_Alic'ia_ (_The lady_), daughter of lord Waldemar Fitzurse.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

ALICK [POLWORTH], one of the servants of Waverley.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

ALIFAN'FARON, emperor of the island Trap'oban, a Mahometan, the suitor of Pentap'olin's daughter, a Christian. Pentapolin refused to sanction this alliance, and the emperor raised a vast army to enforce his suit. This is don Quixote's solution of two flocks of sheep coming in opposite directions, which he told Sancho were the armies of Alifanfaron and Pentapolin.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. iii. 4 (1605).

Ajax the Greater had a similar encounter. (See AJAX.)

ALIN'DA, daughter of Alphonso, an irascible old lord of Sego'via.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Pilgrim_ (1621).

(_Alinda_ is the name assumed by young Archas when he dresses in woman's attire. This young man is the son of general Archas, "the loyal subject" of the great duke of Moscovia, in the drama by Beaumont and Fletcher, called _The Loyal Subject_, 1618.)

ALIPRANDO, a Christian knight, who discovered the armor of Rinaldo, and took it to Godfrey. Both inferred that Rinaldo had been slain, but were mistaken.--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

AL'IRIS, sultan of Lower Buchar'ia, who, under the assumed name of Fer'amorz, accompanies Lalla Rookh from Delhi, on her way to be married to the sultan. He wins her love, and amuses the tedium of the journey by telling her tales. When introduced to the sultan, her joy is unbounded on discovering that Feramorz the poet, who has won her heart, is the sultan to whom she is betrothed.--T. Moore, _Lalla Rookh_.

ALISAUNDER (_Sir_), surnamed LORFELIN, son of the good prince Boudwine and his wife An'glides (3 _syl_.). Sir Mark, king of Cornwall, murdered sir Boudwine, who was his brother, while Alisaunder was a mere child. When Alisaunder was knighted, his mother gave him his father's doublet, "bebled with old blood," and charged him to revenge his father's death. Alisaunder married Alis la Beale Pilgrim, and had one son called Bellen'gerus le Beuse. Instead of fulfilling his mother's charge, he was himself "falsely and feloniously slain" by king Mark.--Sir T. Malory, _History of King Arthur_, ii. 119-125 (1470).

AL'ISON, the young wife of John, a rich old miserly carpenter. Absolon, a priggish parish clerk, paid her attention, but she herself loved a poor scholar named Nicholas, lodging in her husband's house. Fair she was, and her body lithe as a weasel. She had a rouguish eye, small eyebrows, was "long as a mast and upright as a bolt," more "pleasant to look on than a flowering pear tree," and her skin "was softer than the wool of a wether."--Chaucer, "The Miller's Tale," _Canterbury Tales_, (1388).

_Al'ison_, in sir W. Scott's _Kenilworth_, is an old domestic in the service of the earl of Leicester at Cumnor Place.

AL'KEN, an old shepherd, who instructs Robin Hood's men how to find a witch, and how she is to be hunted.--Ben Jonson, _The Sad Shepherd_ (1637).

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, a comedy by Shakespeare (1598). The hero and heroine are Bertram of Rousillon, and Hel'ena a physician's daughter, who are married by the command of the king of France, but part because Bertram thought the lady not sufficiently well-born for him. Ultimately, however, all ends well.--(See HELENA.)

The story of this play is from Painter's _Gilletta of Narbon_.

ALL THE TALENTS Administration, formed by lord Grenville, in 1806, on the death of William Pitt. The members were lord Grenville, the earl Fitzwilliam, viscount Sidmouth, Charles James Fox, earl Spencer, William Windham, lord Erskine, sir Charles Grey, lord Minto, lord Auckland, lord Moira, Sheridan, Richard Fitzpatrick, and lord Ellenborough. It was dissolved in 1807.

On "all the talents" vent your venal spleen.

Byron, _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_.

ALLAN, lord of Ravenswood, a decayed Scotch nobleman.--Sir W. Scott, _The Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

_Al'lan (Mrs.)_, colonel Mannering's housekeeper at Woodburne.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

_Al'lan_ [Breck Cameron], the sergeant sent to arrest Hamish Bean McTavish, by whom he is shot. Sir W. Scott, _The Highland Widow_ (time, George II.).

ALLAN-A-DALE, one of Robin Hood's men, introduced by sir W. Scott in _Ivanhoe_. (See ALLIN-A-DALE.)

ALLAN QUARTERMAIN, hunter and traveller whose adventures are recorded in _She, King Solomon's Mines_, and _Allan Quartermain_, by W. Rider Haggard (1886-1891).

ALLE'GRE (3 _syl_.), the faithful servant of Philip Chabot. When Chabot was accused of treason, Allegre was put to the rack to make him confess something to his master's damage, but the brave fellow was true as steel, and it was afterwards shown that the accusation had no foundation but jealousy.--G. Chapman and J. Shirley, _The Tragedy of Philip Chabot_.

ALLEN (_Ralph_), the friend of Pope, and benefactor of Fielding.

Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame, Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.

Pope.

_Allen (Long)_, a soldier in the "guards" of king Richard I.--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_.

_Allen (Major)_, an officer in the duke of Monmouth's army.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

ALL-FAIR, a princess, who was saved from the two lions (which guarded the Desert Fairy) by the Yellow Dwarf, on condition that she would become his wife. On her return home she hoped to evade this promise by marrying the brave king of the Gold Mines, but on the wedding day Yellow Dwarf carried her off on a Spanish cat, and confined her in Steel Castle. Here Gold Mine came to her rescue with a magic sword, but in his joy at finding her, he dropped his sword, and was stabbed to the heart with it by Yellow Dwarf. All-Fair, falling on the body of her lover, died of a broken heart. The syren changed the dead lovers into two palm trees.--Comtesse D'Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ ("The Yellow Dwarf," 1682). ALLIN-A-DALE or ALLEN-A-DALE, of Nottinghamshire, was to be married to a lady who returned his love, but her parents compelled her to forego young Allin for an old knight of wealth. Allin told his tale to Robin Hood, and the bold forester, in the disguise of a harper, went to the church where the wedding ceremony was to take place. When the wedding party stepped in, Robin Hood exclaimed, "This is no fit match; the bride shall be married only to the man of her choice." Then, sounding his horn, Allin-a-Dale with four and twenty bowmen entered the church. The bishop refused to marry the woman to Allin till the banns had been asked three times, whereupon Robin pulled off the bishop's gown, and invested Little John in it, who asked the banns seven times, and performed the ceremony.--_Robin Hood and Allin-a-Dale_ (a ballad).

ALL'IT. Captain of Nebuchadrezzar's guards in _The Master of the Magicians_, by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Herbert D. Ward. He is flattered and content to be the queen's favorite until he meets Lalitha, a Jewish damsel. He braves death to save her from runaway horses attached to a chariot, is captivated by her beauty, and forgets his royal mistress in an honorable love (1890).

ALLNUT (_Noll_), landlord of the Swan, Lambythe Ferry (1625).

_Grace Allnut_, his wife.

_Oliver Allnut_, the landlord's son.--Sterling, _John Felton_ (1852).

ALLWORTH (_Lady_), stepmother to Tom Allworth. Sir Giles Overreach thought she would marry his nephew Wellborn, but she married lord Lovel.

_Tom Allworth_, stepson of lady Allworth, in love with Margaret Overreach, whom he marries.--Massinger, _A New Way to pay Old Debts_ (1625).

ALL'WORTHY, in Fielding's _Tom Jones_, a man of sturdy rectitude, large charity, infinite modesty, independent spirit, and untiring philanthropy, with an utter disregard of money or fame. Fielding's friend, Ralph Allen, was the academy figure of this character.

ALMA (_the human soul_) queen of a Castle, which for seven years was beset by a rabble rout. Arthur and sir Guyon were conducted by Alma over this castle, which though not named is intended to represent the human body.--Spenser, _The Faërie Queene_, ii. 9 (1590).

ALMANSOR ("_the invincible_"), a title assumed by several Mussulman princes, as by the second caliph of the Abbasside dynasty, named Abou Giafar Abdallah (_the invincible_, or _al mansor_). Also by the famous captain of the Moors in Spain, named Mohammed. In Africa, Yacoubal-Modjahed was entitled "_al mansor_," a royal name of dignity given to the kings of Fez, Morocco, and Algiers.

The kingdoms of Almansor, Fez, and Sus, Marocco and Algiers. Milton, _Paradise Lost_, xi. 403 (1665).

ALMANZOR, the caliph, wishing to found a city in a certain spot, was told by a hermit named Bag dad that a man called Moclas was destined to be its founder. "I am that man," said the caliph, and he then told the hermit how in his boyhood he once stole a bracelet and pawned it, whereupon his nurse ever after called him "Moclas" (_thief_). Almanzor founded the city, and called it Bag dad, the name of the hermit.--Marigny.

_Alman'zor_, in Dryden's tragedy of _The Conquest of Grana'da_.

_Alman'zor_, lackey of Madelon and her cousin Cathos, the affected fine ladies in Molière's comedy of _Les Précieuses Ridicules_ (1659).

ALMAVI'VA, (_Count_), in _The Marriage of Figaro_ and _The Barber of Seville_ by Beaumarchais. _The Follies of a Day_ by T. Holcroft (1745-1809) is borrowed from Beaumarchais.

ALME'RIA, daughter of Manuel king of Grana'da. While captive of Valentia, prince Alphonso fell in love with her, and being compelled to fight, married her; but on the very day of espousal the ship in which they were sailing was wrecked, and each thought the other had perished. Both, however, were saved, and met unexpectedly on the coast of Granada, to which Alphonso was brought as a captive. Here Alphonso, under the assumed name of Osmyn, was imprisoned, but made his escape, and at the head of an army invaded Granada, found Manuel dead, and "the mournful bride" became converted into the joyful wife.--W. Congreve, _The Mourning Bride_ (1697).

ALMES'BURY (3 _syl_.). It was in a sanctuary of Almesbury that queen Guenever took refuge, after her adulterous passion for sir Lancelot was made known to the king. Here she died, but her body was buried at Glastonbury.

ALMEY'DA, the Portuguese governor of India. In his engagement with the united fleets of Cambaya and Egypt, he had his legs and thighs shattered by chain-shot, but instead of retreating to the back, he had himself bound to the shipmast, where he "waved his sword to cheer on the combatants," till he died from loss of blood.

Similar stories are told of admiral Benbow, Cynaegeros brother of the poet Æschylos, Jaafer who carried the sacred banner of "the prophet" in the battle of Muta, and of some others.

Whirled by the cannons' rage, in shivers torn, His thighs far scattered o'er the waves are borne; Bound to the mast the godlike hero stands, Waves his proud sword and cheers his woeful hands: Tho' winds and seas their wonted aid deny, To yield he knows not; but he knows to die. Camoens, _Lusiad_, x. (1569).

ALMIRODS (_The_), a rebellions people, who refused to submit to prince Pantag'ruel after his subjugation of Anarchus king of the Dipsodes (2 _syl_). It was while Pantagruel was marching against these rebels that a tremendous shower of rain fell, and the prince, putting out his tongue "halfway," sheltered his whole army.--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, ii. 32 (1533).

ALNAS'CHAR, the dreamer, the "barber's fifth brother." He invested all his money in a basket of glassware, on which he was to gain so much, and then to invest again and again, till he grew so rich that he would marry the vizier's daughter and live in grandeur; but being angry with his supposed wife, he gave a kick with his foot and smashed all the ware which had given birth to his dream of wealth.--_The Arabian Nights' Entertainments_.

_The Alnaschar of Modern Literature_, S.T. Coleridge, so called because he was constantly planning magnificent literary enterprises which he never carried out (1772-1834).

ALOA'DIN (4 _syl_.), a sorcerer, who made for himself a palace and garden in Arabia called "The Earthly Paradise." Thalaba slew him with a club, and the scene of enchantment disappeared.--Southey, _Thalaba the Destroyer_, vii. (1797).

ALON'SO, king of Naples, father of Ferdinand and brother of Sebastian, in _The Tempest_, by Shakespeare (1609).

ALONZO _the brave_, the name of a ballad by M.G. Lewis. The fair Imogene was betrothed to Alonzo, but during his absence in the wars became the bride of another. At the wedding-feast Alonzo's ghost sat beside the bride, and, after rebuking her for her infidelity, carried her off to the grave.

Alonzo the brave was the name of the knight; The maid was the fair Imogene. M.G. Lewis.

_Alon'zo_, a Portuguese gentleman, the sworn enemy of the vainglorious Duarte (3 _syl_.), in the drama called _The Custom of the Country_, by Beaumont and Fletcher (1647).

_Alonzo_, the husband of Cora. He is a brave Peruvian knight, the friend of Rolla, and beloved by king Atali'ba. Alonzo, being taken prisoner of war, is set at liberty by Rolla, who changes clothes with him. At the end he fights with Pizarro and kills him.--Sheridan, _Pizarro_ (altered from Kotzebue).

_Alonzo (Don)_, "the conqueror of Afric," friend of don Carlos, and husband of Leonora. Don Carlos had been betrothed to Leonora, but out of friendship resigned her to the conqueror. Zanga, the Moor, out of revenge, persuaded Alonzo that his wife and don Carlos still entertained for each other their former love, and out of jealousy Alonzo has his friend put to death, while Leonora makes away with herself. Zanga now informs Alonzo that his jealousy was groundless, and mad with grief he kills himself.--Edw. Young, _The Revenge_ (1721).

ALONZO FERNANDEZ DE AVELLANEDA, author of a spurious _Don Quixote_, who makes a third sally. This was published during the lifetime of Cervantes, and caused him great annoyance.

ALP, a Venetian renegade, who was commander of the Turkish army in the siege of Corinth. He loved Francesca, daughter of old Minotti, governor of Corinth, but she refused to marry a renegade and apostate. Alp was shot in the siege, and Francesca died of a broken heart.--Byron, _Siege of Corinth_.

ALPHE'US (3 _syl_.), a magician and prophet in the army of Charlemagne, slain in sleep by Clorida'no.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

_Alphe'us_ (3 _syl_.), of classic story, being passionately in love with Arethu'sa, pursued her, but she fled from him in a fright, and was changed by Diana into a fountain, which bears her name.

ALPHON'SO, an irascible old lord in _The Pilgrim_, a comedy by Beaumont and Fletcher (1621).

_Alphon'so_, king of Naples, deposed by his brother Frederick. Sora'no tried to poison him, but did not succeed. Ultimately he recovered his crown, and Frederick and Sorano were sent to a monastery for the rest of their lives.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _A Wife for a Month_ (1624).

_Alphonso_, son of count Pedro of Cantabria, afterwards king of Spain. He was plighted to Hermesind, daughter of lord Pelayo.

The young Alphonso was in truth an heir Of nature's largest patrimony; rich In form and feature, growing strength of limb, A gentle heart, a soul affectionate, A joyous spirit, filled with generous thoughts, And genius heightening and ennobling all. Southey, _Roderick, etc._, viii. (1814).

ALQUI'FE (3 _syl_.), a famous enchanter in _Amadis of Gaul_, by Vasco de Lobeira, of Oporto, who died 1403.

La Noue denounces such beneficent enchanters as Alquife and Urganda, because they serve "as a vindication of those who traffic with the powers of darkness."--Francis de la Noue, _Discourses_, 87 (1587).

ALRINACH, the demon who causes shipwrecks, and presides over storms and earthquakes. When visible it is always in the form and dress of a woman.--_Eastern Mythology_.

ALSCRIP (_Miss_), "the heiress," a vulgar _parvenue_, affected, conceited, ill-natured, and ignorant. Having had a fortune left her, she assumes the airs of a woman of fashion, and exhibits the follies without possessing the merits of the upper ten.

_Mr. Alscrip_, the vulgar father of "the heiress," who finds the grandeur of sudden wealth a great bore, and in his new mansion, Berkeley Square, sighs for the snug comforts he once enjoyed as scrivener in Furnival's Inn.--General Burgoyne, _The Heiress_ (1781).

AL'TAMONT, a young Genoese lord, who marries Calista, daughter of lord Sciol'to (3 _syl_). On his wedding day he discovers that his bride has been seduced by Lotha'rio, and a duel ensues, in which Lothario is killed, whereupon Calista stabs herself.--N. Rowe, _The Fair Penitent_ (1703). (Rowe makes Sciolto three syllables always.)

ALTAMO'RUS, king of Samarcand', who joined the Egyptian armament against the crusaders. He surrendered himself to Godfrey (bk. xx.).--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

ALTASCAR (_Señor_). A courtly old Spaniard in Bret Harte's Notes by _Flood and Field_. He is dispossessed of his corral in the Sacramento Valley by a party of government surveyors, who have come to correct boundaries (1878).

ALTEMERA. Typical far-southern girl, with a lovely face, creamy skin, and a "lazy sweet voice," who takes the leading part in Annie Eliot's _An Hour's Promise_ (1888).

ALTHAEA'S BRAND. The Fates told Althaea that her son Melea'ger would live just as long as a log of wood then on the fire remained unconsumed. Althaea contrived to keep the log unconsumed for many years, but when her son killed her two brothers, she threw it angrily into the fire, where it was quickly consumed, and Meleager expired at the same time.--Ovid, _Metaph_. viii. 4.

The fatal brand Althaea burned. Shakespeare, 2 _Henry VI_. act i. sc. 1 (1591).

ALTHE'A (_The divine_), of Richard Lovelace, was Lucy Saeheverell, also called by the poet, _Lucasta_.

When love with unconfinèd wings Hovers within my gates, And my divine Althea brings To whisper at my grates.

(The "grates" here referred to were those of a prison in which Lovelace was confined by the Long Parliament, for his petition from Kent in favor of the king.)

ALTHEETAR, one of the seven bridegrooms of Lopluël, condemned to die successively, by a malignant spirit. He is young, beautiful, and endowed with rare gifts of soul and mind. While singing to her, his lyre falls from his hand and he dies in her arms, her loosened hair falling about him as a shroud.

"So calm, so fair, He rested on the purple, tapestried floor, It seemed an angel lay reposing there."

_Lopluel, or the Bride of Seven_, by Maria del Occidente (Maria Gowen Brooks) (1833).

ALTISIDO'RA, one of the duchess's servants, who pretends to be in love with don Quixote, and serenades him. The don sings his response that he has no other love than what he gives to his Dulcin'ea, and while he is still singing he is assailed by a string of cats, let into the room by a rope. As the knight is leaving the mansion, Altisidora accuses him of having stolen her garters, but when the knight denies the charge, the damsel protests that she said so in her distraction, for her garters were not stolen. "I am like the man looking for his mule at the time he was astride its back."--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. iii. 9, etc.; iv. 5 (1615).

AL'TON (_Miss_), _alias_ Miss CLIFFORD, a sweet, modest young lady, the companion of Miss Alscrip, "the heiress," a vulgar, conceited _parvenue_. Lord Gayville is expected to marry "the heiress," but detests her, and loves Miss Alton, her humble companion. It turns out that £2000 a year of "the heiress's" fortune belongs to Mr. Clifford (Miss Alton's brother), and is by him settled on his sister. Sir Clement Flint destroys this bond, whereby the money returns to Clifford, who marries lady Emily Gayville, and sir Clement settles the same on his nephew, lord Gayville, who marries Miss Alton.--General Burgoyne, _The Heiress_ (1781).

AL'TON LOCKE, tailor and poet, a novel by the Rev. Charles Kingsley (1850). This novel won for the author the title of "The Chartist Clergyman."

ALVIRA ROBERTS, hired "girl" and faithful retainer of the Fairchild family. For many years she and Milton Squires, the hired man, have "kept company." In his prosperity he deserts her. When he is convicted of murder, she kisses him. "Ef 'twas the last thing I ever done in my life, I'd dew it. We was--engaged--once't on a time!"--_Seth's Brother's Wife_, by Harold Frederic (1886).

ALZIR'DO, king of Trem'izen, in Africa, overthrown by Orlando in his march to join the allied army of Ag'ramant.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

AM'ADIS OF GAUL, a love-child of king Per'ion and the princess Elize'na. He is the hero of a famous prose romance of chivalry, the first four books of which are attributed to Lobeira, of Portugal (died 1403). These books were translated into Spanish in 1460 by Montal'vo, who added the fifth book. The five were rendered into French by Herberay, who increased the series to twenty-four books. Lastly, Gilbert Saunier added seven more volumes, and called the entire series _Le Roman des Romans_.

Whether Amadis was French or British is disputed. Some maintain that "Gaul" means _Wales_, not France; that Elizena was princess of _Brittany_ (Bretagne), and that Perion was king of Gaul (_Wales_), not Gaul _(France)._

Amadis de Gaul was a tall man, of a fair complexion, his aspect something between mild and austere, and had a handsome black beard. He was a person of very few words, was not easily provoked, and was soon appeased.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. i. 1 (1615).

As Arthur is the central figure of British romance, Charlemagne of French, and Diderick of German, so Amadis is the central figure of Spanish and Portuguese romance; but there is this difference--the tale of Amadis is a connected whole, terminating with his marriage with Oria'na, the intervening parts being only the obstacles he encountered and overcame in obtaining this consummation. In the Arthurian romances, and those of the Charlemagne series, we have a number of adventures of different heroes, but there is no unity of purpose; each set of adventures is complete in itself.

AMA'DIS OF GREECE, a supplemental part of _Amadis of Gaul_, by Felicia'no de Silva. There are also several other Amadises--as Amadis of Colchis, Amadis of Trebisond, Amadis of Cathay, but all these are very inferior to the original _Amadis of Gaul_.

The ancient fables, whose relickes doe yet remain, namely, _Lancelot of the Lake, Pierceforest, Tristram, Giron the Courteous_, etc., doe beare witnesse of this odde vanitie. Herewith were men fed for the space of 500 yeeres, untill our language growing more polished, and our minds more ticklish, they were driven to invent some novelties wherewith to delight us. Thus came ye bookes of Amadis into light among us in this last age.--Francis de la Noue, _Discourses_, 87 (1587).

AMAI'MON (3 _syl_.), one of the principal devils. Asmode'us is one of his lieutenants. Shakespeare twice refers to him, in 1 _Henry IV._ act ii. sc. 4, and in _The Merry Wives of Windsor_, act ii. sc. 2.

AMAL'AHTA, son of Erill'yab the deposed queen of the Hoamen (2 _syl_.), an Indian tribe settled on the south of the Missouri. He is described as a brutal savage, wily, deceitful, and cruel. Amalahta wished to marry the princess Goer'vyl, Madoc's sister, and even seized her by force, but was killed in his flight.--Southey, _Madoc_, ii. 16 (1805).

AMALTHAE'A, the sibyl who offered to sell to Tarquin nine books of prophetic oracles. When the king refused to give her the price demanded, she went away, burnt three of them, and returning to the king, demanded the same price for the remaining six. Again the king declined the purchase. The sibyl, after burning three more of the volumes, demanded the original sum for the remaining three. Tarquin paid the money, and Amalthaea was never more seen. Aulus Gellius says that Amalthaea burnt the books in the king's presence. Pliny affirms that the original number of volumes was only three, two of which the sibyl burnt, and the third was purchased by king Tarquin.

AMALTHE'A, a mistress of Ammon and mother of Bacchus. Ammon hid his mistress in the island Nysa (in Africa), in order to elude the vigilance and jealousy of his wife Rhea. This account (given by Diodorus Sic'ulus, bk. iii., and by sir Walter Raleigh in his _History of the World_, I. vi. 5) differs from the ordinary story, which makes Sem'elê the mother of Bacchus, and Rhea his nurse. (Ammon is Ham or Cham, the son of Noah, founder of the African race.)

... that Nyseian ile, Girt with the river Triton, where old Cham (Whom Gentiles Ammon call, and Libyan Jove) Hid Amalthea and her florid son, Young Bacchus, from his stepdame Rhea's eye.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, iv. 275 (1665).

AMANDA, wife of Loveless. Lord Foppington pays her amorous attentions, but she utterly despises the conceited coxcomb, and treats him with contumely. Colonel Townly, in order to pique his lady-love, also pays attention to Loveless's wife, but she repels his advances with indignation, and Loveless, who overhears her, conscious of his own shortcomings, resolves to reform his ways, and, "forsaking all other," to remain true to Amanda, "so long as they both should live."--Sheridan, _A Trip to Scarborough_.

_Aman'da_, in Thomson's _Seasons_, is meant for Miss Young, who married admiral Campbell.

And thou, Amanda, come, pride of my song! Formed by the Graces, loveliness itself.

"Spring," 480, 481 (1728).

_Amanda_, the victim of Peregrine Pickle's seduction, in Smollett's novel of _Peregrine Pickle_ (1751).

_Amanda_, worldly woman in Julia Ward Howe's poem, _Amanda's Inventory_, who sums up her wealth and honors, and is forced to conclude the list with death (1866).

AMARAN'TA, wife of Bar'tolus, the covetous lawyer. She was wantonly loved by Leandro, a Spanish gentleman.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Spanish Curate_ (1622).

AM'ARANTH (_Lady_), in _Wild Oats_, by John O'Keefe, a famous part of Mrs. Pope (1740-1797).

AMARIL'LIS, a shepherdess in love with Per'igot (_t_ sounded), but Perigot loved Am'oret. In order to break off this affection, Amarillis induced "the sullen shepherd" to dip her in "the magic well," whereby she became transformed into the perfect resemblance of her rival, and soon effectually disgusted Perigot with her bold and wanton conduct. When afterwards he met the true Amoret, he repulsed her, and even wounded her with intent to kill. Ultimately, the trick was discovered by Cor'in, "the faithful shepherdess," and Perigot was married to his true love.--John Fletcher, _The Faithful Shepherd_ (1610).

AMARYLLIS, in Spenser's pastoral _Colin Clout's Come Home Again_, was the countess of Derby. Her name was Alice, and she was the youngest of the six daughters of sir John Spenser, of Althorpe, ancestor of the noble houses of Spenser and Marlborough. After the death of the earl, the widow married sir Thomas Egerton, keeper of the Great Seal (afterwards baron of Ellesmere and viscount Brackley). It was for this very lady, during her widowhood, that Milton wrote his _Ar'cades_ (3 _syl_.).

No less praiseworthy are the sisters three, The honour of the noble family Of which I meanest boast myself to be ... Phyllis, Charyllis, and sweet Amaryllis: Phyllis the fair is eldest of the three, The next to her is bountiful Charyllis, But th' youngest is the highest in degree.

Spenser, _Colin Clout's Come Home Again_ (1594).

AM'ASISI, _Amosis_, or _Aah'mes_ (3 _syl_.), founder of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty (B.C. 1610). Lord Brooke attributes to him one of the pyramids. The three chief pyramids are usually ascribed to Suphis (or Cheops), Sen-Suphis (or Cephrenês), and Mencherês, all of the fourth dynasty.

Amasis and Cheops how can time forgive. Who in their useless pyramids would live?

Lord Brooke, _Peace_.

AMATEUR (_An_), Pierce Egan the younger published under this pseudonym his _Real Life in London_, or _The Rambles and Adventures of Rob Tally-ho, Esq., and his Cousin, the Hon. Tom Dashall, through the Metropolis_ (1821-2).

AMAUROTS (_The_), a people whose kingdom was invaded by the Dipsodes (2 _syl_.), but Pantag'ruel, coming to their defence, utterly routed the invaders.--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, ii. (1533).

AMA'VIA, the personification of Intemperance in grief. Hearing that her husband, sir Mordant, had been enticed to the Bower of Bliss by the enchantress Acra'sia, she went in quest of him, and found him so changed in mind and body she could scarcely recognize him; however, she managed by tact to bring him away, but he died on the road, and Amavia stabbed herself from excessive grief.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, ii. 1 (1590).

AMAZO'NA, a fairy, who freed a certain country from the Ogri and the Blue Centaur. When she sounded her trumpet, the sick were recovered and became both young and strong. She gave the princess Carpil'lona a bunch of gilly-flowers, which enabled her to pass unrecognized before those who knew her well.--Comtesse D'Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ ("The Princess Carpillona," 1682).

AMAZONS, a fabled race of women-warriors. It was said that in order to use the bow, they cut off one of their breasts.

AMBER, said to be a concretion of birds' tears, but the birds were the sisters of Melea'ger, called Meleag'ridês, who never ceased weeping for their dead brother.--Pliny, _Natural History_, xxxvii. 2, 11.

Around thee shall glisten the loveliest amber. That ever the sorrowing sea-birds have wept.

T. Moore, _Fire-Worshippers_.

AM'BROSE (2 _syl_.), a sharper, who assumed in the presence of Gil Blas the character of a devotee. He was in league with a fellow who assumed the name of don Raphael, and a young woman who called herself Camilla, cousin of donna Mencia. These three sharpers allure Gil Blas to a house which Camilla says is hers, fleece him of his ring, his portmanteau, and his money, decamp, and leave him to find out that the house is only a hired lodging.--Lesage, _Gil Blas_, i. 15, 16 (1715).

(This incident is borrowed from Espinel's romance entitled _Vida de Escudero, marcos de Obregon_, 1618.)

_Am'brose_ (2 _syl_.), a male domestic servant waiting on Miss Seraphine and Miss Angelica Arthuret.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George II.).

_Ambrose (Brother)_, a monk who attended the prior Aymer, of Jorvaulx Abbey.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

_Am'brosius (Father)_, abbot of Kennaquhair, is Edward Glendinning, brother of sir Halbert Glendinning (the knight of Avenel). He appears at Kinross, disguised as a nobleman's retainer.--Sir W. Scott, _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

AME'LIA, heroine of novel of same name. Young daughter of a German inn-keeper, who rises to a high position in society, through native merit, graces of mind and person.--Eliza Leslie (1843).

_Ame'lia_, a model of conjugal affection, in Fielding's novel so called. It is said that the character was modelled from his own wife. Dr. Johnson read this novel from beginning to end without once stopping.

_Amelia_ is perhaps the only book of which, being printed off betimes one morning, a new edition was called for before night. The character of Amelia is the most pleasing heroine of all the romances.--Dr. Johnson.

_Ame'lia_, in Thomson's _Seasons_, a beautiful, innocent young woman, overtaken by a storm while walking with her troth-plight lover, Cel'adon, "with equal virtue formed, and equal grace. Hers the mild lustre of the blooming morn, and his the radiance of the risen day." Amelia grew frightened, but Celadon said, "'Tis safety to be near thee, sure;" when a flash of lightning struck her dead in his arms.--"Summer" (1727).

_Amelia_, in Schiller's tragedy of _The Robbers_.

Or they will learn how generous worth sublimes The robber Moor, and pleads for all his crimes; How poor Amelia kissed with many a tear His hand, blood-stained, but ever, ever dear.

Campbell, _Pleasures of Hope_, ii. (1799).

_Amelia Bailey_, ambitious woman with "literary tastes," who in pursuit of a suitable sphere, marries a rich Californian, and "shines with the diamonds her husband has bought, and makes a noise, but it is the blare of vulgar ostentation,"--William Henry Rideing, _A Little Upstart_ (1885).

AMELOT (2 _syl_.), the page of sir Damian de Lacy.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

AM'GIAD, son of Camaralzaman and Badoura, and half-brother of Assad (son of Camaralzaman and Haiatal'nefous). Each of the two mothers conceived a base passion for the other's son, and when the young princes revolted at their advances, accused them to their father of designs upon their honor. Camaralzaman ordered his emir Giondar to put them both to death, but as the young men had saved him from a lion he laid no hand on them, but told them not to return to their father's dominions. They wandered on for a time, and then parted, but both reached the same place, which was a city of the Magi. Here, by a strange adventure Amgiad was made vizier, while Assad was thrown into a dungeon, where he was designed as a sacrifice to the fire-god. Bosta'na, a daughter of the old man who imprisoned Assad, released him, and Amgiad out of gratitude made her his wife. After which, the king, who was greatly advanced in years, appointed him his successor, and Amgiad used his best efforts to abolish the worship of fire and establish "the true faith."--_Arabian Nights_ ("Amgiad and Assad").

AM'YAS, a squire of low degree, beloved by Aemylia. They agreed to meet at a given spot, but on their way thither both were taken captives--Amyas by Corflambo, and Aemylia by a man monster. Aemylia was released by Belphoebê (3 _syl_.), who slew "the caitiff;" and Amyas by prince Arthur, who slew Corflambo. The two lovers were then brought together by the prince "in peace and joyous blis."--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, iv. 7, 9 (1596).

AMI'DAS, the younger brother of Brac'idas, sons of Mile'sio; the former in love with the dowerless Lucy, and the latter with the wealthy Philtra. The two brothers had each an island of equal size and value left them by their father, but the sea daily added to the island of the younger brother, and encroached on that belonging to Bracidas. When Philtra saw that the property of Amidas was daily increasing, she forsook the elder brother and married the wealthier; while Lucy, seeing herself jilted, threw herself into the sea. A floating chest attracted her attention, she clung to it, and was drifted to the wasted island. It was found to contain great riches, and Lucy gave its contents and herself to Bracidas. Amidas claimed the chest as his own by right, and the question in dispute was submitted to sir Ar'tegal. The wise arbiter decided, that whereas Armidas claimed as his own all the additions given to his island by the sea, Lucy might claim as her own the chest, because the sea had given it to her.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, v. 4 (1596).

AM'IEL, in Dryden's _Absalom and Achitophel_, is meant for sir Edward Seymour, Speaker of the House of Commons.

Who can Amiel's praise refuse? Of ancient race by birth, but nobler yet In his own worth, and without title great. The sanhedrim long time as chief he ruled, Their reason guided, and their passion cooled.