Act v. 2.

_Madame de Montespan_, wife of the marquis. She supplanted La Vallière in the base love of Louis XIV. La Vallière loved the _man_, Montespan the _king_. She had wit to warm but not to burn, energy which passed for feeling, a head to check her heart, and not too much principle for a French court. Mde. de Montespan was the _protégée_ of the Duke de Lauzun, who used her as a stepping-stone to wealth; but when in favor, she kicked down the ladder by which she had climbed to power. However, Lauzun had his revenge; and when La Vallière took the veil, Mde. de Montespan was banished from the court.--Lord E. L. B. Lytton, _The Duchess de la Vallière_ (1836).

=Montfauçon= (_The Lady Calista of_), attendant of Queen Berengaria.--Sir. W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=Mont-Fitchet= (_Sir Conrade_), a preceptor of the Knights Templar.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

=Montfort= (_De_), the hero and title of a tragedy, intended to depict the passion of hate, by Joanna Baillie (1798). The object of De Montfort’s hatred is Rezenvelt, and his passion drives him on to murder.

⁂ De Montfort was probably the suggestive inspiration of Byron’s _Manfred_ (1817).

=Montgomery= (_Mr._), Lord Godolphin, lord high treasurer of England in the reign of Queen Anne. The queen called herself “Mrs. Morley,” and Sarah Jennings, duchess of Marlborough, was “Mrs. Freeman.”

=Monthermer= (_Guy_), a nobleman, and the pursuivant of King Henry II.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

=Montjoie=, chief herald of France.--Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).

=Montorio=, the hero of a novel, who persuaded his “brother’s sons” to murder their father by working on their fears, and urging on them the doctrine of fatalism. When the deed was committed, Montorio discovered that the young murderers were not his nephews, but his own sons.--Rev. C. R. Maturin, _Fatal Revenge_ (1807).

=Montreal d’Albano=, called “Fra Moriale,” knight of St. John of Jerusalem, and captain of the Grand Company in the fourteenth century, when sentenced to death by Rienzi, summoned his judge to follow him within the month. Rienzi was killed by the fickle mob within the stated period. (See SUMMONS TO DEATH.)

=Montreville= (_Mde. Adela_), or the Begum Mootee Mahul, called “the queen of Sheba.”--Sir W. Scott, _The Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.).

=Montrose= (_The duke of_), commander-in-chief of the king’s army.--Sir W. Scott, _Rob Roy_, xxxii. (time, George I.).

_Montrose_ (_The Marquis of_).--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

_Montrose_ (_James Grahame, earl of_), the king’s lieutenant in Scotland. He appears first disguised as Anderson, servant of the earl of Menteith.--Sir W. Scott, _Legend of Montrose_ (time, Charles I.).

=Monuments= (_The_), Poor family in London.

_Father_, a convict who gets out of prison on a ticket-of-leave.

_Mother_, Hester, an honest washerwoman, afterwards in almshouse, and blind.

_Claude._ Bright young fellow, educated by Lady Mildred Eldredge.

_Melenda_, a work-girl, fierce and virtuous, starving, yet independent.

_Joe_, plumber and house-decorator, typical British workman.

_Polly_, adopted by Lady Mildred, called “Violet,” and brought up with her own daughter.

_Sam_, a red-hot socialist, ready with impracticable plans of leagues and reformation.--Walter Besant, _Children of Gibeon_ (1890).

=Montserrat= (_Conrade, marquis of_), a crusader.--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=Moody= (_John_), the guardian of Peggy Thrift, an heiress, whom he brings up in the country, wholly without society. John Moody is morose, suspicious, and unsocial. When 50 years of age, and Peggy 19, he wants to marry her, but is out-witted by “the country girl,” who prefers Belville, a young man of more suitable age.

_Alithea Moody_, sister of John. She jilts Sparkish, a conceited fop, and marries Harcourt.--_The Country Girl_ (time, Garrick, altered from Wycherly).

=Mooma=, youngest sister of Yerūti. Their father and mother were the only persons of the whole Guarāni race who escaped a small-pox plague which ravished that part of Paraguay. They left the fatal spot and lived in the Mondai woods, where both their children were born. Before the birth of Mooma, her father was eaten by a jagŭar, and the three survivors lived in the woods alone. When grown to a youthful age, a Jesuit priest persuaded them to come and live at St. Joăchin (3 _syl._); so they left the wild woods for a city life. Here the mother soon flagged and died. Mooma lost her spirits, was haunted with thick-coming fancies of good and bad angels, and died. Yerūti begged to be baptized, received the rite, cried, “Ye are come for me! I am ready;” and died also.--Southey, _A Tale of Paraguay_ (1814).

_Moon_ (_Man in the_), said to be Cain, with a bundle of thorns.

Now doth Cain with fork of thorns confine On either hemisphere, touching the wave Beneath the towers of Seville. Yesternight The moon was round.

Dantê, _Hell_, xx. (1300).

_Moon_ (_Minions of the_), thieves or highwaymen. (See MOON’S MEN.)

=Moon and Mahomet.= Mahomet made the moon perform seven circuits round Caaba or the holy shrine of Mecca, then enter the right sleeve of his mantle and go out at the left. At its exit, it split into two pieces, which re-united in the centre of the firmament. This miracle was performed for the conversion of Hahab, the Wise.

=Moon-Calf=, an inanimate, shapeless human mass, said by Pliny to be engendered of woman only.--_Nat. Hist._, x. 64.

=Moon’s Men=, thieves or highwaymen, who ply their vocation by night.

The fortune of us that are but moon’s men doth ebb and flow like the sea.--Shakespeare, 1 _Henry IV._ act i. sc. 2 (1597).

=Moonshine= (_Saunders_), a smuggler.--Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

=Moore= (_Mr. John_), of the Pestle and Mortar, Abchurch Lane, immortalized by his “worm-powder,” and called the “Worm Doctor.”

=Moors.= The Moors of Aragon are called Tangarins; those of Granāda are Mudajares; and those of Fez are called Elches. They are the best soldiers of the Spanish dominions. In the Middle Ages, all Mohammedans were called _Moors_; and hence Camoens, in the _Lusiad_, viii., called the Indians so.

=Mopes= (_Mr._), the hermit, who lived on Tom Tiddler’s Ground. He was dirty, vain, and nasty, “like all hermits,” but had landed property, and was said to be rich and learned. He dressed in a blanket and skewer, and, by steeping himself in soot and grease, soon acquired immense fame. Rumor said he murdered his beautiful young wife, and abandoned the world. Be this as it may, he certainly lived a nasty life. Mr. Traveller tried to bring him back into society, but a tinker said to him “Take my word for it, when iron is thoroughly rotten, you can never botch it, do what you may.”--C. Dickens, _A Christmas Number_ (1861).

=Mopsus=, a shepherd, who, with Menalcas, celebrates the funeral eulogy of Daphnis.--Virgil, _Eclogue_, v.

=Mora=, the betrothed of Oscar, who mysteriously disappears on his bridal eve, and is mourned for as dead. His younger brother, Allan, hoping to secure the lands and fortune of Mora, proposes marriage, and is accepted. At the wedding banquet, a stranger demands “a pledge to the lost Oscar,” and all accept it except Allan, who is there and then denounced as the murderer of his brother. Oscar then vanishes, and Allan dies.--Byron, _Oscar of Alva_.

=Moradbak=, daughter of Fitead, a widower. Hudjadge, king of Persia, could not sleep, and commanded Fitead, his porter and jailer, under pain of death, to find some one to tell him tales. Fitead’s daughter, who was only 11, undertook to amuse the king with tales, and was assisted in private by the sage Abou´melek. After a perfect success, Hudjadge married Moradbak, and at her recommendation, Aboumelek was appointed overseer of the whole empire.--Comte de Caylus, _Oriental Tales_ (1743).

=Morakan´abad=, grand vizier of the Caliph Vathek.--Beckford, _Vathek_ (1784).

=Moral Philosophy= (_The Father of_), Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274).

=Moran, Son of Fithil=, one of the scouts in the army of Swaran, king of Lochlin (_Denmark_).--Ossian, _Fingal_.

=Moran’s Collar=, a collar for magistrates, which had the supernatural power of pressing the neck of the wearer if his judgments deviated from strict justice, and even of causing strangulation if he persevered in wrong doing. Moran, surnamed “the Just,” was the wise counsellor of Feredach, an early king of Ireland.

=Morat=, in _Aurungzebe_, a drama by Dryden (1675).

Edward Kynaston [1619-1687] shone with uncommon lustre in “Morat” and “Muley Moloch.” In both these parts he had a fierce, lion-like majesty in his port and utterance, that gave the spectators a kind of trembling admiration.--Colley Cibber.

=Morbleu!= This French oath is a corrupt contraction of Mau´graby; thus, _maugre bleu_, _mau’bleu_. Maugraby was the great Arabian enchanter, and the word means “barbarous,” hence a barbarous man or barbarian. The oath is common in Provence, Languedoc, and Gascoigne. I have often heard it used by the medical students at Paris.

Probably it is a punning corruption of _Mort de Dieu_.

=Mordaunt=, the secretary, at Aix, of Queen Margaret, the widow of Henry VI. of England.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

=Mor´decai= (_Beau_), a rich Italian Jew, one of the suitors of Charlotte Goodchild, but, supposing the report to be true that she has lost her fortune, he calls off and retires.--C. Macklin, _Love à-la-Mode-_[TN-22] (1759).

_Mordecai._ Earnest young Jew, supporting himself by repairing watches, jewelry, etc. He is devoted to his race, proud of his lineage, and versed in all pertaining to Hebrew history. He dies of consumption.--George Eliot, _Daniel Deronda_.

=Mordent=, father of Joanna, by a former wife. In order to marry Lady Anne, he deserts Joanna and leaves her to be brought up by strangers. Joanna is placed under Mrs. Enfield, a crimp, and Mordent consents to a proposal of Lennox to run off with her. Mordent is a spirit embittered with the world--a bad man, with a goading conscience. He sins and suffers the anguish of remorse; does wrong, and blames Providence because when he “sows the wind he reaps the whirlwind.”

_Lady Anne_, the wife of Mordent, daughter of the earl of Oldcrest, sister of a viscount, niece of Lady Mary, and one of her uncles is a bishop. She is wholly neglected by her husband, but, like Griselda (_q.v._), bears it without complaint.--Holcroft, _The Deserted Daughter_ (1784, altered into _The Steward_).

=Mordred= (_Sir_), son of Margawse (sister of King Arthur), and Arthur, her brother, while she was the wife of Lot, king of Orkney (pt. i. 2, 35, 36). The sons of Lot himself and his wife were Gaw´ain, Agravain, Ga´heris, and Gareth, all knights of the Round Table. Out of hatred to Sir Launcelot, Mordred and Agravain accuse him to the king of too great familiarity with Queen Guenever, and induce the king to spend a day in hunting. During his absence, the queen sends for Sir Launcelot to her private chamber, and Mordred and Agravain, with twelve other knights, putting the worst construction on the interview, clamorously assail the chamber, and call on Sir Launcelot to come out. This he does, and kills Agravain with the twelve knights, but Mordred makes his escape and tells the king, who orders the queen to be burnt alive. She is brought to the stake, but is rescued by Sir Launcelot, who carries her off to Joyous Guard, near Carlisle, which the king besieges. While lying before the castle, King Arthur receives a bull from the pope, commanding him to take back his queen. This he does, but as he refuses to be reconciled to Sir Launcelot, the knight betakes himself to Benwick, in Brittany. The king lays siege to Benwick, and during his absence leaves Mordred regent. Mordred usurps the crown, and tries, but in vain, to induce the queen to marry him. When the king hears thereof, he raises the siege of Benwick, and returns to England. He defeats Mordred at Dover, and at Barondown, but at Salisbury (_Camlan_) Mordred is slain fighting with the king, and Arthur receives his death-wound. The queen then retires to a convent at Almesbury, is visited by Sir Launcelot, declines to marry him, and dies.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_ iii. 143-174 (1470).

⁂ The wife of Lot is called “Anne” by Geoffrey, of Monmouth (_British History_, viii. 20, 21); and “Bellicent” by Tennyson, in _Gareth and Lynette_.

This tale is so very different from those of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and Tennyson, that all three are given. (See MODRED.)

=Mor´dure= (2 _syl._), son of the emperor of Germany. He was guilty of illicit love with the mother of Sir Bevis, of Southampton, who murdered her husband and then married Sir Mordure. Sir Bevis, when a mere lad, reproved his mother for the murder of his father, and she employed Saber to kill him; but the murder was not committed, and young Bevis was brought up as a shepherd. One day, entering the hall where Mordure sat with his bride, Bevis struck at him with his axe. Mordure slipped aside, and the chair was “split to shivers.” Bevis was then sold to an Armenian, and was presented to the king, who knighted him and gave him his daughter Josian in marriage.--M. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, ii. (1612).

_Mordure_ (2 _syl._), Arthur’s sword, made by Merlin. No enchantment had power over it, no stone or steel was proof against it, and it would neither break nor bend. (The word means “hard biter.”)--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, ii. 8 (1590).

=More= (_Margareta_), the heroine and feigned authoress of _Household of Sir Thomas More_, by Miss Manning (1851).

=More of More Hall=, a legendary hero, who armed himself with armor full of spikes, and, concealing himself in the cave where the dragon of Wantley dwelt, slew the monster by kicking it in the mouth, where alone it was mortal.

⁂ In the burlesque of H. Carey, entitled _The Dragon of Wantley_, the hero is called “Moore of Moore Hall,” and he is made to be in love with Gubbins’s daughter, Margery, of Roth’ram Green (1696-1743).

=Morecraft=, at first a miser, but after losing most of his money he became a spendthrift.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Scornful Lady_ (1616).

⁂ “Luke,” in Massinger’s _City Madam_, is the exact opposite. He was at first a poor spendthrift, but coming into a fortune he turned miser.

=Morell= (_Sir Charles_), the pseudonym of the Rev. James Ridley, affixed to some of the early editions of _The Tales of the Genii_, from 1764.

=More´love= (_Lord_), in love with Lady Betty Modish, who torments him almost to madness by an assumed indifference, and rouses his jealousy by coquetting with Lord Foppington. By the advice of Sir Charles Easy, Lord Morelove pays the lady in her own coin, assumes an indifference to her, and flirts with Lady Grave´airs. This brings Lady Betty to her senses, and all ends happily.--Colley Cibber, _The Careless Husband_ (1704).

=Morë´no= (_Don Antonio_), a gentleman of Barcelona, who entertained Don Quixote with mock-heroic hospitality.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. iv. 10 (1615).

=Morfin= (_Mr._), a cheerful bachelor, in the office of Mr. Dombey, merchant. He calls himself “a creature of habit,” has a great respect for the head of the house, and befriends John Carker when he falls into disgrace by robbing his employer. Mr. Morfin is a musical amateur, and finds in his violoncello a solace for all cares and worries. He marries Harriet Carker, the sister of John and James.--C. Dickens, _Dombey and Son_ (1846).

=Morgan= (_le Fay_), one of the sisters of King Arthur (pt. i. 18); the others were Margawse, Elain, and Anne (Bellicent was his half-sister). Morgan calls herself “queen of the land of Gore” (pt. i. 103). She was the wife of King Vrience (pt. i. 63), the mother of Sir Ew´ain (pt. i. 73), and lived in the castle of La Belle Regard (pt. ii. 122).

On one occasion, Morgan le Fay stole her brother’s sword, “Excalibur,” with its scabbard, and sent them to Sir Accolon, of Gaul, her paramour, that he might kill her brother Arthur in mortal combat. If this villany had succeeded, Morgan intended to murder her husband, marry Sir Accolon, and “devise to make him king of Britain;” but Sir Accolon, during the combat, dropped the sword, and Arthur, snatching it up, would have slain him had he not craved mercy and confessed the treasonable design (pt. i. 70). After this, Morgan stole the scabbard and threw it into the lake (pt. i. 73). Lastly, she tried to murder her brother by means of a poisoned robe; but Arthur told the messenger to try it on, that he might see it, and when he did so he dropped down dead, “being burnt to a coal” (pt. i. 75).--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_ (1470).

W. Morris, in his _Earthly Paradise_ (“August”), makes Morgan la Fée the bride of Ogier, the Dane, after his earthly career was ended.

_Morgan_, a feigned name adopted by Belarius, a banished lord.--Shakespeare, _Cymbeline_ (1605).

_Morgan_, one of the soldiers of Prince Gwenwyn of Powys-land.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

=Morgane= (2 _syl._), a fay, to whose charge Zephyr committed young Passelyon and his cousin, Bennucq. Passelyon fell in love with the fay’s daughter, and the adventures of these young lovers are related in the romance of _Perceforest_, iii.

=Morgante= (3 _syl._), a ferocious giant, converted to Christianity by Orlando. After performing the most wonderful feats, he died at last from the bite of a crab.--Pulci, _Morgante Maggiore_ (1488).

He [_Don Quixote_] spoke favorably of Morgante, who, though of gigantic race, was most gentle in his manners.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. i. 1 (1605).

=Morgause= or MARGAWSE, wife of King Lot. Their four sons were Gaw´ain, Agravain, Ga´heris, and Gareth (ch. 36); but Morgause had another son by Prince Arthur, named Mordred. Her son Gaheris, having caught his mother in adultery with Sir Lamorake, cut off her head.

=Morgia´na=, the female slave, first of Cassim, and then of Ali Baba, “crafty, cunning, and fruitful in inventions.” When the thief marked the door of her master’s house with white chalk in order to recognize it, Morgiana marked several other doors in the same manner; next day she observed a red mark on the door, and made a similar one on others, as before. A few nights afterwards, a merchant with thirty-eight oil-jars begged a night’s lodging; and as Morgiana wanted oil for a lamp, she went to get some from one of the leather jars. “Is it time?” asked a voice. “Not yet,” replied Morgiana, and going to the others, she discovered that a man was concealed in thirty-seven of the jars. From the last jar she took oil, which she made boiling hot, and with it killed the thirty-seven thieves. When the captain discovered that all his men were dead, he decamped without a moment’s delay. Soon afterwards, he settled in the city as a merchant, and got invited by Ali Baba to supper, but refused to eat salt. This excited the suspicion of Morgiana, who detected in the pretended merchant the captain of the forty thieves. She danced awhile for his amusement, playfully sported with his dagger, and suddenly plunged it into his heart. When Ali Baba knew who it was that she had slain, he not only gave the damsel her liberty, but also married her to his own son.--_Arabian Nights_ (“Ali Baba, or the Forty Thieves”).

=Morglay=, the sword of Sir Bevis, of Hamptoun, _i.e._ Southampton, given to him by his wife, Josian, daughter of the king of Armenia.--Drayton, _Polyolboin_,[TN-23] ii. (1612).

You talk of Morglay, Excalibur [_Arthur’s sword_], and Durindana [_Orlando’s sword_], or so. Tut! I lend no credit to that is fabled of ’em.--Ben Jonson, _Every Man in His Humor_, iii. 1 (1598).

=Morgue la Faye=, a _fée_ who watched over the birth of Ogier, the Dane, and after he had finished his earthly career, restored him to perpetual youth, and took him to live with her in everlasting love in the isle and castle of Av´alon.--_Ogier, le Danois_ (a romance).

=Mor´ice= (_Gil_ or _Chĭld_), the natural son of Lady Barnard, “brought forth in her father’s house wi’ mickle sin and shame.” One day, Gil Morice sent Willie to the baron’s hall, with a request that Lady Barnard would go at once to Greenwood to see the chĭld. Lord Barnard, fancying the “chĭld” to be some paramour, forbade his wife to leave the hall, and went himself to Greenwood, where he slew Gil Morice, and sent his head to Lady Barnard. On his return, the lady told her lord he had slain her son, and added, “Wi’ the same spear, oh, pierce my heart, and put me out o’ pain!” But the baron repented of his hasty deed, and cried, “I’ll lament for Gil Morice, as gin he were mine ain.”--Percy, _Reliques, etc._, III. i.

⁂ This tale suggested to Home the plot of his tragedy called _Douglas_.

=Mor´land=, in _Lend Me Five Shillings_, by J. M. Morton (1838).

_Morland_ (_Henry_), “the heir-at-law” of Baron Duberly. It was generally supposed that he had perished at sea; but he was cast on Cape Breton, and afterwards returned to England, and married Caroline Dormer, an orphan.--G. Colman, _The Heir-at-Law_ (1797).

Mr. Beverley behaved like a father to me [_B. Webster_], and engaged me as a walking gentleman for his London theatre, where I made my first appearance as “Henry Morland,” in _The Heir-at-Law_, which, to avoid legal proceedings, he called _The Lord’s Warming-pan_.--Peter Paterson.

=Morley= (_Mrs._), the name under which Queen Anne corresponded with Mrs. Freeman (_The Duchess of Marlborough_).

=Morna=, daughter of Cormac, king of Ireland. She was in love with Câthba, youngest son of Torman. Duchômar, out of jealousy, slew his rival, and then asked Morna to be his bride. She replied, “Thou art dark to me, O, Duchômar, and cruel is thine arm to Morna.” She then begged him for his sword, and when “he gave it to her she thrust it into his heart.” Duchômar fell, and begged the maid to pull out the sword that he might die, but when she did so, he seized it from her and plunged it into her side. Whereupon Cuthullin said:

“Peace to the souls of the heroes! Their deeds were great in fight. Let them ride around me in clouds. Let them show their features in war. My soul shall then be firm in danger, mine arm like the thunder of heaven. But be thou on a moonbeam, O, Morna, near the window of my rest, when my thoughts are at peace, when the din of war is past.”--Ossian, _Fingal_, i.

_Morna_, wife of Compal, and mother of Fingal. Her father was Thaddu, and her brother Clessammor.--Ossian.

=Mornay=, the old seneschal, at Earl Herbert’s tower at Peronne.--Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).

=Morning Star of the Reformation=, John Wycliffe (1324-1384).

=Morocco= or MAROCCUS, the performing horse, generally called “Bankes’s Horse.” Among other exploits, we are told that “it went up to the top of St. Paul’s.” Both horse and man were burnt alive at Rome, by order of the pope, as magicians.--Don Zara del Fogo, 114 (1660).

⁂ Among the entries at Stationers’ Hall is the following:--_Nov. 14, 1595: A Ballad showing the Strange Qualities of a Young Nagg called Morocco._

In 1595 was published the pamphlet _Maroccus Extaticus_, or _Bankes’s Horse in a Trance_.

=Morocco Men=, agents of lottery assurances. In 1796, The great State lottery employed 7500 morocco men. Their business was to go from house to house among the customers of the assurances, or to attend in the back parlors of public-houses, where the customers came to meet them.

=Morolt= (_Dennis_), the old squire of Sir Raymond Berenger.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

=Morose= (2 _syl._), a miserly old hunks, who hates to hear any voice but his own. His nephew, Sir Dauphine, wants to wring out of him a third of his property, and proceeds thus: He gets a lad to personate “a silent woman,” and the phenomenon so delights the old man, that he consents to a marriage. No sooner is the ceremony over, than the boy-wife assumes the character of a virago of loud and ceaseless tongue. Morose, driven half-mad, promises to give his nephew a third of his income if he will take this intolerable plague off his hands. The trick being revealed, Morose retires into private life, and leaves his nephew master of the situation.--Ben Jonson, _The Silent Woman_ (1609).

(“Wasp” in _Bartholomew Fair_, “Corbaccio” in _The Fox_, and “Ananias” in _The Alchemist_.)

=Moroug=, the monkey mistaken for the devil. A woman of Cambalu died, and Moroug, wishing to personate her, slipped into her bed, and dressed himself in her night-clothes, while the body was carried to the cemetery. When the funeral party returned, and began the usual lamentations for the dead, pug stretched his night-capped head out of the bed, and began moaning and grimacing most hideously. All the mourners thought it was the devil, and scampered out as fast they could run. The priests assembled, and resolved to exorcise Satan; but pug, noting their terror, flew on the chief of the bonzes, and bit his nose and ears most viciously. All the others fled in disorder; and when pug had satisfied his humor, he escaped out of the window. After a while, the bonzes returned, with a goodly company well armed, when the chief bonze told them how he had fought with Satan, and prevailed against him. So he was canonized, and made a saint in the calendar for ever.--T. S. Gueulette, _Chinese Tales_ (“The Ape Moroug,” 1723).

=Morrel= or =Morell=, a goat-herd, who invites Thomalin, a shepherd, to come to the higher grounds, and leave the low-lying lands. He tells Thomalin that many hills have been canonized, as St. Michael’s Mount, St. Bridget’s Bower in Kent, and so on; then there was Mount Sinah and Mount Parnass, where the Muses dwelt. Thomalin replies, “The lowlands are safer, and hills are not for shepherds.” He then illustrates his remark by the tale of shepherd Algrind, who sat, like Morrel, on a hill, when an eagle, taking his white head for a stone, let a shell-fish fall on it, and cracked his skull.--Spenser, _Shepheardes Calendar_, vii.

[Æschylus was killed by a tortoise dropped on his head by an eagle].

(This is an allegory of the high and low church parties. Morel is an anagram of Elmer or Aylmer, bishop of London, who “sat on a hill,” and was the leader of the high-church party. Algrind is Grindal, archbishop of Canterbury, head of the low-church party, who in 1578 was sequestrated for writing a letter to the queen on the subject of puritanism. Thomalin represents the puritans. This could not have been written before 1578, unless the reference to Algrind was added in some later edition).

=Morris=, a domestic of the earl of Derby.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II).

_Morris_ (_Mr._), the timid fellow-traveller of Frank Osbaldistone, who carried the portmanteau. Osbaldistone says, concerning him, “Of all the propensities which teach mankind to torment themselves, that of causeless fear is the most irritating, busy, painful, pitiable.”--Sir W. Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.).

_Morris_ (_Peter_), the pseudonym of John G. Lockhart, in _Peter’s Letters to His Kinsfolk_ (1819).

_Morris_ (_Dinah_). Beautiful gospeller, who marries Adam Bede, after the latter recovers from his infatuation for pretty _Hetty Sorrel_. Hetty is seduced by the young squire, murders her baby, and is condemned to die for the crime. Dinah visits the doomed girl in prison, wins her to a confession and repentance, and accompanies her in the gallows-cart. They are at the scaffold when a reprieve arrives.--George Eliot, _Adam Bede_.

=Morris-Dance=, a comic representation of every grade of society. The characters were dressed partly in Spanish and partly in English costume. Thus, the huge sleeves were Spanish, but the laced stomacher English. Hobby-horse represented the king and all the knightly order; Maid Marian, the queen; the friar, the clergy generally; the fool, the court jester. The other characters represented a franklin or private gentleman, a churl or farmer, and the lower grades were represented by a clown. The Spanish costume is to show the origin of the dance.

A representation of a morris-dance may still be seen at Betley, in Staffordshire, in a window placed in the house of George Tollet, Esq., in about 1620.

=Morrison= (_Hugh_), a Lowland drover, the friend of Robin Oig.--Sir W. Scott, _The Two Drovers_ (time, George III.).

=Mortality= (_Old_), a religious itinerant who frequented country churchyards and the graves of covenanters. He was first discovered in the burial ground at Gandercleugh, clearing the moss from the gray[TN-24] tombstones, renewing with his chisel the half-defaced inscriptions, and repairing the decorations of the tombs.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

⁂ “Old Mortality” is said to be meant for Robert Patterson.

=Morta´ra=, the boy who died from being covered all over with gold-leaf by Leo XII., to adorn a pageant.

=Mortcloke= (_Mr._), the undertaker at the funeral of Mrs. Margaret Bertram of Singleside.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Morte d’Arthur=, a compilation of Arthurian tales, called on the title-page _The History of Prince Arthur_, compiled from the French by Sir Thomas Malory, and printed by William Caxton in 1470. It is divided into three parts. The first part contains the birth of King Arthur, the establishment of the Round Table, the romance of Balin and Balan, and the beautiful allegory of Gareth and Linet´. The second part is mainly the romance of Sir Tristram. The third part is the romance of Sir Launcelot, the quest of the Holy Graal, and the death of Arthur, Guenever, Tristram, Lamorake, and Launcelot.

⁂ The difference of style in the third part is very striking. The end of ch. 44, pt. i., is manifestly the close of a romance. The separate romances are not marked by any formal indication; but, in the modern editions, the whole is divided into chapters, and these are provided with brief abstracts of their contents.

This book was finished the ninth year of the reign of King Edward IV. by Sir Thomas Malory, knight. Thus endeth this noble and joyous book, entitled _La Morte d’Arthur_, notwithstanding it treateth of the birth, life and acts of the said King Arthur, and of his noble knights of the Round Table ... and the achieving of the Holy Sancgreall, and in the end the dolorous death and departing out of the world of them all.--Concluding paragraph.

_Morte d’Arthur_, by Tennyson. The poet follows closely the story of the death of Arthur, as told by Malory. The king is borne off the field by Sir Bedivere. Arthur orders the knight to throw his sword Excalibur into the mere. Twice the knight disobeyed the command, intending to save the sword; but the dying king detected the fraud, and insisted on being obeyed. Sir Bedivere then cast the sword into the mere, and an arm, clothed in white samite, caught it by the hilt, brandished it three times, and drew it into the mere. Sir Bedivere then carried the dying king to a barge, in which were three queens, who conveyed him to the island-valley of Avil´ion, “where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, nor ever wind blows loudly.” Here was he taken to be healed of his grievous wound; but whether he lived or died we are not told.

In his “Idylls of the King,” Tennyson has taken the stories as told by Malory, and has turned them into his own melodious verse; yet, while adhering to the substance of each tale, he has in minor matters taken such liberties as have been allowed to poets since the earliest times. Shakespeare, in his “Julius Cæsar,” makes a like use of Sir Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch; the speech of Mark Antony over the body of Cæsar, to cite the most striking instance among many, is almost a literal transcription of North’s version, but subjected to the laws of verse.

=Mortemar= (_Alberick of_), an exiled nobleman, _alias_ Theodorick, the hermit of Engaddi, the enthusiast.--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=Mor´timer= (_Mr._), executor of Lord Abberville, and uncle of Frances Tyrrell. “He sheathed a soft heart in a rough case.” Externally, Mr. Mortimer seemed unsympathetic, brusque and rugged; but in reality he was most benevolent, delicate and tender-hearted. “He did a thousand noble acts without the credit of a single one.” In fact, his tongue belied his heart, and his heart his tongue.--Cumberland, _The Fashionable Lover_ (1780).

_Mortimer_ (_Sir Edward_), a most benevolent man, oppressed with some secret sorrow. In fact, he knew himself to be a murderer. The case was this: Being in a county assembly, the uncle of Lady Helen insulted him, struck him down, and kicked him. Sir Edward rode home to send a challenge to the ruffian; but, meeting him on the road drunk, he murdered him, was tried for the crime, but was honorably acquitted. He wrote a statement of the case, and kept the papers connected with it in an iron chest. One day Wilford, his secretary, whose curiosity had been aroused, saw the chest unlocked, and was just about to take out the documents when Sir Edward entered, and threatened to shoot him; but he relented, made Wilford swear secrecy, and then told him the whole story. The young man, unable to live under the jealous eyes of Sir Edward, ran away; but Sir Edward dogged him, and at length arrested him on the charge of robbery. The charge broke down, Wilford was acquitted, Sir Edward confessed himself a murderer, and died.--G. Colman, _The Iron Chest_ (1796).

=Mortimer Lightwood=, solicitor employed in the “Harmon murder” case. He was the great friend of Eugene Wrayburn, barrister-at-law, and it was the ambition of his life to imitate the _nonchalance_ and other eccentricities of his friend. At one time he was a great admirer of Bella Wilfer. Mr. Veneering called him “one of his oldest friends;” but Mortimer was never in the merchant’s house but once in his life, and resolved never to enter it again.--C. Dickens, _Our Mutual Friend_ (1864).

=Morten= (_Sir_), a spectre who appears at King Olaf’s feast, in the guise of a one-eyed old man, and carouses with the guests until bed-time. When the morning breaks, he has departed, and no trace of him is to be found.

“King Olaf crossed himself and said-- ‘I know that Odin the Great is dead; Sure is the triumph of our Faith, This one-eyed stranger was his wraith.’ Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang.”

H. W. Longfellow, _The Wraith of Odin_.

=Morton=, a retainer of the earl of Northumberland.--Shakespeare, 2 _Henry IV._ (1508).[TN-25]

_Morton_ (_Henry_), a leader in the covenanters’ army with Balfour. While abroad, he is Major-general Melville. Henry Morton marries Miss Edith Bellenden.

_Old Ralph Morton of Milnwood_, uncle of Henry Morton.

_Colonel Silas Morton of Milnwood_, father of Henry Morton.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

_Morton_ (_The earl of_), in the service of Mary queen of Scots, and a member of the privy council of Scotland.--Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ and _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Morton_ (_The Rev. Mr._)[TN-26] the Presbyterian pastor of Cairnvreckan village.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

=Mortsheugh= (_Johnie_), the old sexton of Wolf’s Hope village.--Sir W. Scott, _The Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

=Morvi´dus=, son of Danius by his concubine, Tangustĕla. In his reign, there “came from the Irish coasts a most cruel monster, which devoured the people continually, but as soon as Morvidus heard thereof, he ventured to encounter it alone. When all his darts were spent, the monster rushed upon him, and swallowed him up like a small fish.”--Geoffrey of Monmouth, _British History_, iii. 15 (1142).

=Mosby=, an unmitigated villain. He seduced Alicia, the wife of Arden of Feversham. Thrice he tried to murder Arden, but was baffled, and then frightened Alicia into conniving at a most villainous scheme of murder. Pretending friendship, Mosby hired two ruffians to murder Arden while he was playing a game of draughts. The villains, who were concealed in an adjacent room, were to rush on their victim when Mosby said, “Now I take you.” The whole gang was apprehended and executed.--_Arden of Feversham_ (1592), altered by George Lillo (1739).

=Mosca=, the knavish confederate of Vol´pone (2 _syl._), the rich Venetian “fox.”--Ben Jonson, _Volpone_ or _The Fox_ (1605).

If your mother, in hopes to ruin me, should consent to marry my pretended uncle, he might, like “Mosca” in _The Fox_, stand upon terms.--W. Congreve, _The Way of the World_, ii. 1. (1700).

=Mo´ses=, the Jew money-lender in Sheridan’s comedy, _The School for Scandal_ (1777).

=Moses’ Clothes.= The _Korân_ says: “God cleared Moses from the scandal which was rumored against him” (ch. xxxiii.). The scandal was that his body was not properly formed, and therefore he would never bathe in the presence of others. One day, he went to bathe, and laid his clothes on a stone, but the stone ran away with them into the camp. Moses went after it as fast as he could run, but the Israelites saw his naked body, and perceived the untruthfulness of the common scandal.--Sale, _Al Korân_, xxxiii. notes.

=Moses’ Horns.= The Vulgate gives _quod cornuta esset facies sua_, for what our version has translated “he wist not _that the skin of his face shone_.” The Hebrew word used means both a “horn” and an “irradiation.” Michael Angelo followed the Vulgate.

=Moses’ Rod.=

While Moses was living with Re’uël [_Jethro_], the Midianite, he noticed a staff in the garden, and he took it to be his walking-stick. This staff was Joseph’s, and Re’uel carried it away when he fled from Egypt. This same staff Adam carried with him out of Eden. Noah inherited it, and gave it to Shem. It passed into the hands of Abraham, and Abraham left it to Isaac; and when Jacob fled from his brother’s anger into Mesopotamia, he carried it in his hand, and gave it at death to his son Joseph.--_The Talmud_, vi.

=Moses Slow of Speech.= The tradition is this: One day, Pharaoh was carrying Moses in his arms, when the child plucked the royal beard so roughly that the king, in a passion, ordered him to be put to death. Queen Asia said to her husband, the child was only a babe, and was so young he could not discern between a ruby and a live coal. Pharaoh put it to the test, and the child clapped into his mouth the burning coal, thinking it something good to eat. Pharaoh’s anger was appeased, but the child burnt its tongue so severely that ever after it was “slow of speech.”--Shalshel, _Hakkabala_, 11.

_Moses Slow of Speech._ The account given in the _Talmud_ is somewhat different. It is therein stated that Pharaoh was sitting one day with Moses on his lap, when the child took the crown from the king’s head and placed it on his own. The “wise men” of Egypt persuaded Pharaoh that this act was treasonable, and that the child should be put to death. Jithro [_sic_] the priest of Midian, said it was the act of a child who knew no better. “Let two plates,” said he, “be set before the child, one containing gold and the other live coals, and you will presently see that he will choose the coals in preference to the gold.” The advice of Jithro being followed, the boy Moses snatched at the coals, and putting one of them into his mouth, burnt his tongue so severely that ever after he was “heavy of speech.”--_The Talmud_, vi.

=Moses Pennell.= Waif rescued from a wrecked vessel, and adopted by old Captain Pennell and his wife. He is, in time, discovered to belong to a noble Cuban family.--Harriet Beecher Stowe, _The Pearl of Orr’s Island_.

=Most Christian King= (_Le Roy Tres-Christien_). The king of France is so called by others, either with or without his proper name; but he never styles himself so in any letter, grant, or rescript.

In St. Remigius or Remy’s Testament, King Clovis is called _Christianissimus Ludovicus_.--Flodoard, _Historia Remensis_, i. 18 (A.D. 940).

=Motallab= (_Abd al_), one of the four husbands of Zesbet, the mother of Mahomet. He was not to know her as a wife till he had seen Mahomet in his pre-existing state. Mahomet appeared to him as an old man, and told him he had chosen Zesbet, for her virtue and beauty, to be his mother.--Comte de Caylus, _Oriental Tales_ (“History of Abd al Motallab,” 1743).

=Mo´tar= (“_One doomed_ or _devoted to sacrifice_”). So Prince Assad was called, when he fell into the hands of the old fire-worshipper, and was destined by him to be sacrificed on the fiery mountain.--_Arabian Nights_ (“Amgiad and Assad”).

=Moth=, page to Don Adriano de Arma´do, the fantastic Spaniard. He is cunning and versatile, facetious and playful.--Shakespeare, _Love’s Labor’s Lost_ (1594).

_Moth_, one of the fairies.--Shakespeare, _Midsummer Night’s Dream_ (1592).

=Moths and Candles.= The moths fell in love with the night-fly; and the night-fly, to get rid of their importunity, maliciously bade them to go and fetch fire for her adornment. The blind lovers flew to the first flame to obtain the love-token, and few escaped injury or death.--Kæmpfer, _Account of Japan_, vii. (1727).

=Mother Ann=, Ann Lee, the “spiritual mother” of the Shakers (1731-1784).

⁂ Mother Ann is regarded by the Shakers as the female form, and Jesus as the male form, of the Messiah.

=Mother Bunch=, a celebrated ale-wife in Dekker’s _Satiromaster_ (1602).

⁂ In 1604 was published _Pasquil’s Jests, mixed with Mother Bunch’s Merriments_. In 1760 was published, in two parts, _Mother Bunch’s Closet Newly Broke Open, etc._, by a “Lover of Mirth and Hater of Treason.”

Mother Bunch’s _Fairy Tales_ are known in every nursery.

=Mother Carey’s Chickens.= The fish-fags of Paris in the first Great Revolution were so called, because, like the “stormy petrel,” whenever they appeared in force in the streets of Paris, they always foreboded a tumult or political storm.

=Mother Carey’s Goose=, the great black petrel or gigantic fulmar of the Pacific Ocean.

=Mother Douglas=, a noted crimp, who lived at the north-east corner of Covent Garden. Her house was superbly furnished. She died 1761.

⁂ Foote introduces her in _The Minor_, as “Mrs. Cole” (1760); and Hogarth in his picture called “The March to Finchley.”

=Mother Goose=, in French _Contes de Ma Mère l’Oye_, by Charles Perrault (1697).

⁂ There are ten stories in this book, seven of which are from the _Pentamerone_.

_Mother Goose_, according to a new exploded story, was a native of Boston, and the author of the nursery rhymes that bear her name. She used to sing her rhymes to her grandson, and Thomas Fleet, her brother-in-law, published the first edition of these rhymes, entitled _Songs for the Nursery_, or _Mother Goose’s Melodies_, in 1719.

⁂ Dibdin wrote a pantomime entitled _Mother Goose_.

=Mother Hubbard=, an old lady, whose whole time and attention were taken up by her dog, who was most willful; but the dame never lost her temper, or forgot her politeness. After running about all day to supply Master Doggie,

The dame made a curtsey, the dog made a bow; The dame said, “Your servant!” the dog said, “Bow, wow!”

_A Nursery Tale in Rhyme._

=Mother Hubberd=, the supposed narrator of a tale called _The Fox and the Ape_, related to the poet Spenser to beguile the weary hours of sickness. Several persons told him tales, but

Amongst the rest a good old woman was Hight Mother Hubberd, who did far surpass The rest in honest mirth that seemed her well; She, when her turn was come her tale to tell, Told of a strange adventure that betided Betwixt a fox and ape by him misguided; The which, for that my sense it greatly pleased ... I’ll write it as she the same did say.

Spenser.

=Mother Hubberd’s Tale.= A fox and an ape determined to travel about the world as _chevaliers de l’industrie_. First, Ape dressed as a broken-down soldier, and Fox as his servant. A farmer agreed to take them for his shepherds; but they devoured all his lambs and then decamped. They next “went in for holy orders.” Reynard contrived to get a living given him, and appointed the ape as his clerk; but they soon made the parish too hot to hold them, and again sheered off. They next tried their fortune at court; the ape set himself up as a foreigner of distinction with Fox for his groom. They played the part of rakes, but being found to be desperate rogues, had to flee with all despatch, and seek another field of action. As they journeyed on, they saw a lion sleeping, and Master Fox persuaded his companion to steal the crown, sceptre and royal robes. The ape, arrayed in these, assumed to be king, and Fox was his prime minister; but so ill did they govern, that Jupiter interfered, the lion was restored, and the ape was docked of his tail and had his ears cropt.

Since which, all apes but half their ears have left, And of their tails are utterly bereft. So Mother Hubberd her discourse did end.

Spenser, _Mother Hubberd’s Tale_.

=Mother Shipton=, T. Evan Preece, of South Wales, a prophetess, whose predictions (generally in rhymes) were at one time in everybody’s mouth in South Wales, especially in Glamorganshire.

⁂ She predicted the death of Wolsey, Lord Percy, and others. Her prophecies are still extant, and contain the announcement that “the end of the world shall come in eighteen hundred and eighty-one.”

=Mother of the People= (_The_), Marguerite of France, _La Mère des Peuples_, daughter of François I. (1523-1574).

=Mould= (_Mr._), undertaker. His face had a queer attempt at melancholy, sadly at variance with a smirk of satisfaction which might be read between the lines. Though his calling was not a lively one, it did not depress his spirits, as in the bosom of his family he was the most cheery of men, and to him the “tap, tap” of coffin-making was as sweet and exhilarating as the tapping of a woodpecker.--C. Dickens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1844).

=Mouldy= (_Ralph_), “a good-limbed fellow, young, strong, and of good friends.” Ralph was pricked for a recruit in Sir John Falstaff’s regiment. He promised Bardolph forty shillings “to stand his friend.” Sir John being told this, sent Mouldy home, and when Justice Shallow remonstrated, saying that Ralph “was the likeliest man of the lot,” Falstaff replied, “Will you tell me, Master Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the thews, the stature, bulk, and big assemblance of a man? Give me the spirit, Master Shallow.”--Shakespeare, 2 _Henry IV._ act iii. sc. 2 (1598).

=Moullahs=, Mohammedan lawyers, from which are selected the judges.

=Mountain= (_The_), a name given in the French revolution to a faction which sat on the benches most elevated in the Hall of Assembly. The Girondins sat in the centre or lowest part of the hall, and were nicknamed the “plain.” The “mountain” for a long time was the dominant part; it utterly overthrew the “plain” on August 31, 1793, but was in turn overthrown at the fall of Robespierre (9 Thermidor ii. or July 27, 1794).

_Mountain_ (_The Old Man of the_), the imaum Hassan ben Sabbah el Homari. The sheik Al Jebal was so called. He was the prince of the Assassins.

⁂ In Rymer’s _Fœdera_ (vol. i.), Dr. Clarke, the editor, has added two letters of this sheik; but the doctor must be responsible for their genuineness.

=Mountain Brutus= (_The_), William Tell (1282-1350).

=Mountain of Flowers=, the site of the palace of Violenta, the mother fairy who brought up the young princess afterwards metamorphosed into “The White Cat.”--Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“The White Cat,” 1682).

=Mountain of Miseries.= Jupiter gave permission for all men to bring their grievances to a certain plain, and to exchange them with any others that had been cast off. Fancy helped them; but though the heap was so enormous, not one single _vice_ was to be found amongst the rubbish. Old women threw away their wrinkles, and young ones their mole-spots; some cast on the heap poverty; many their red noses and bad teeth; but no one his crimes. Now came the choice. A galley-slave picked up gout, poverty picked up sickness, care picked up pain, snub noses picked up long ones, and so on. Soon all were bewailing the change they had made; and Jupiter sent Patience to tell them they might, if they liked, resume their old grievances again. Every one gladly accepted the permission, and Patience helped them to take up their own bundle and bear it without murmuring.--Addison, _The Spectator_ (1711, 1712, 1714).

=Mourning.= In Colman’s _Heir-at-Law_ (1796), every character is in mourning: the Dowlases as relatives of the deceased Lord Duberly; Henry Morland as heir of Lord Duberly; Steadfast as the chief friend of the family; Dr. Pangloss as a clergyman; Caroline Dormer for her father recently buried; Zekiel and Cicely Homespun for the same reason; Kenrick for his deceased master.--James Smith, _Memoirs_ (1840).

=Mourning Bride= (_The_), a drama by W. Congreve (1697). “The mourning bride” is Alme´ria, daughter of Manuel, king of Grana´da, and her husband was Alphonso, prince of Valentia. On the day of their espousals they were shipwrecked, and each thought the other had perished; but they met together in the court of Granada, where Alphonso was taken captive under the assumed name of Osmyn. Osmyn, having effected his escape, marched to Granada, at the head of an army, found the king dead, and “the mourning bride” became his joyful wife.

=Mouse-Tower= (_The_), on the Rhine. It was here that Bishop Hatto was devoured by mice. (See HATTO.)

⁂ _Mauth_ is a toll or custom house, and the mauth or toll-house for collecting duty on corn being very unpopular, gave rise to the tradition.

=Moussa=, Moses.

=Mowbray= (_Mr. John_), lord of the manor of St. Ronan’s.

_Clara Mowbray_, sister of John Mowbray. She was betrothed to Frank Tyrrel, but married Valentine Bulmer.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan’s Well_ (time, George III.).

_Mowbray_ (_Sir Miles_), a dogmatical, self-willed old man, who fancied he could read character, and had a natural instinct for doing the right thing; but he would have been much wiser if he had paid more heed to the proverb, “Mind your own business and not another’s.”

_Frederick Mowbray_, his eldest son, a young man of fine principle, and greatly liked. His “first love” was Clara Middleton, who, being poor, married the rich Lord Ruby. His lordship soon died, leaving all his substance to his widow, who bestowed it, with herself, on Frederick Mowbray, her first and only love.

_David Mowbray_, younger brother of Frederick. He was in the navy, and was a fine, open-hearted, frank and honest British tar.

_Lydia Mowbray_, sister of Frederick and David, and the wife of Mr. Wrangle.--R. Cumberland, _First Love_ (1796).

=Mow´cher= (_Miss_), a benevolent little dwarf, patronized by Steerforth. She is full of humor and comic vulgarity. Her chief occupation is that of hair-dressing.--C. Dickens, _David Copperfield_ (1849).

=Mowis=, the bridegroom of snow, who wooed and won a beautiful bride, but at dawn melted in the sun. The bride hunted for him night and day, but never saw him more.--_Indian Legend._

Mowis, the bridegroom of snow, who won and wedded a maiden, But, when the morning came, arose and passed from the wigwam, Fading and melting away, and dissolving into the sunshine, Till she beheld him no more, tho’ she followed far into the forest.

Longfellow, _Evangeline_, ii. 4 (1849).

=Moxon= (_Mr._), clergyman at Agawam (Mass.). Sincere in his bigotry, pitiable in the superstition that darkens his life, honestly persuaded that he and his are the victims of witchcraft, and that duty forces him to punish those who have afflicted the Lord’s saints.--Josiah Gilbert Holland, _The Bay Path_ (1857).

=Mozaide= (2 _syl._), the Moor who befriended Vasco de Gama when he first landed on the Indian continent.

The Moor attends Mozaide, whose zealous care To Gama’s eyes revealed each treacherous snare.

Camoens, _Lusiad_, ix. (1569).

=Mozart= (_The English_), Sir Henry Bishop (1780-1855).

_Mozart_ (_The Italian_), Cherubini, of Florence (1760-1842).

=Much=, the miller’s son, the bailiff or “acater” of Robin Hood. (See MIDGE.)

Robyn stode in Bernysdale, And lened hym to a tree; And by hym stode Lytell Johan, A good yeman was he; And also dyde good Scathelock, And Much, the miller’s sone.

Ritson, _Robin Hood Ballads_, i. 1 (1594).

_Much, the miller’s son_, in the morris-dance. His feat was to bang, with an inflated bladder, the heads of gaping spectators. He represented the fool or jester.

=Much Ado about Nothing=, a comedy by Shakespeare (1600). Hero, the daughter of Leonato, is engaged to be married to Claudio of Aragon; but Don John, out of hatred to his brother, Leonato, determines to mar the happiness of the lovers. Accordingly, he bribes the waiting-maid of Hero to dress in her mistress’s clothes, and to talk with his man by night from the chamber balcony. The villain tells Claudio that Hero has made an assignation with him, and invites him to witness it. Claudio is fully persuaded that the woman he sees is Hero, and when next day she presents herself at the altar, he rejects her with scorn. The priest feels assured there is some mistake, so he takes Hero apart, and gives out that she is dead. Then Don John takes to flight, the waiting-woman confesses, Claudio repents, and, by way of amendment (as Hero is dead) promises to marry her cousin, but this cousin turns out to be Hero herself.

⁂ A similar tale is told by Ariosto in his _Orlando Furioso_, v. (1516).

Another occurs in the _Faëry Queen_, by Spenser, bk. ii. 4, 38, etc. (1590).

George Turbervil’s _Geneura_ (1576) is still more like Shakespeare’s tale. Belleforest and Bandello have also similar tales (see _Hist._, xviii.).

=Mucklebacket= (_Saunders_), the old fisherman at Musselcrag.

_Old Elspeth Mucklebacket_, mother of Saunders, and formerly servant to Lady Glenallan.

_Maggie Mucklebacket_, wife of Saunders.

_Steenie Mucklebacket_, eldest son of Saunders. He is drowned.

_Little Jennie Mucklebacket_, Saunders’s child.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

=Mucklethrift= (_Bailie_), ironmonger and brazier of Kippletringan, in Scotland.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Mucklewrath= (_Habukkuk_), a fanatic preacher.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

_Mucklewrath_ (_John_), smith at Cairnvreckan village.

_Dame Mucklewrath_, wife of John. A terrible virago.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

=Muckworm= (_Sir Penurious_), the miserly old uncle and guardian of Arbella. He wants her to marry Squire Sapskull, a raw Yorkshire tike; but she loves Gaylove, a young barrister, and, of course, Muckworm is outwitted.--Carey, _The Honest Yorkshireman_ (1736).

=Mudarra=, son of Gonçolo Bustos de Salas de Lara, who murdered his uncle Rodri´go, while hunting, to avenge the death of his seven half-brothers. The tale is, that Rodrigo Velasquez invited his seven nephews to a feast, when a fray took place in which a Moor was slain; the aunt, who was a Moorish lady, demanded vengeance, whereupon the seven boys were allured into a ravine and cruelly murdered. Mudarra was the son of the same father as “the seven sons of Lara,” but not of the same mother.--_Romance of the Eleventh Century._

=Muddle=, the carpenter under Captain Savage and Lieutenant O’Brien.--Captain Marryat, _Peter Simple_ (1833).

=Muddlewick= (_Triptolemus_), in _Charles XII._, an historical drama by J. R. Planché (1826).

=Mudjekee´wis=, the father of Hiawatha, and subsequently potentate of the winds. He gave all the winds but one to his children to rule; the one he reserved was the west wind, which he himself ruled over. The dominion of the winds was given to Mudjekeewis, because he slew the great bear called the Mishê-Mokwa.

Thus was slain the Mishê-Mokwa ... “Honor be to Mudjekeewis! Henceforth he shall be the west wind. And hereafter, e’en for ever, Shall he hold supreme dominion, Over all the winds of heaven.”

Longfellow, _Hiawatha_, ii. (1855).

=Mug= (_Matthew_), a caricature of the duke of Newcastle.--S. Foote, _The Mayor of Garratt_ (1763).

=Mugello=, the giant slain by Averardo de Medici, a commander under Charlemagne. This giant wielded a mace from which hung three balls, which the Medici adopted as their device.

⁂ They have been adopted by pawnbrokers as a symbol of their trade.

=Muggins= (_Dr._), a sapient physician, who had the art “to suit his physic to his patients’ taste;” so when King Artaxaminous felt a little seedy after a night’s debauch, the doctor prescribed to his majesty “to take a morning whet.”--W. B. Rhodes, _Bombastes Furioso_ (1790).

=Muhldenau=, the minister of Mariendorpt, and father of Meeta and Adolpha. When Adolpha was an infant, she was lost in the siege of Magdeburg; and Muhldenau, having reason to suppose that the child was not killed went to Prague in search of her. Here Muhldenau was seized as a spy, and condemned to death. Meeta, hearing of his capture, walked to Prague to beg him off, and was introduced to the governor’s supposed daughter, who, in reality, was Meeta’s sister, Adolpha. Rupert Roselheim, who was betrothed to Meeta, stormed the prison and released Muhldenau.--S. Knowles, _The Maid of Mariendorpt_ (1838).

=Mulatto=, a half-caste. Strictly speaking, _Zambo_ is the issue of an Indian and a Negress; _Mulatto_, of a White man and a Negress; _Terzeron_, of a White man and a Mulatto woman; _Quadroon_, of a Terzeron and a White.

=Mul´ciber=, Vulcan, who was blacksmith, architect, and god of fire.

In Ausonian land Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell From heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove Sheer o’er the crystal battlements; from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A Summer’s day; and with the setting sun Dropt from the Zenith like a falling star, On Lemnos, the Ægean isle.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, 739, etc. (1665).

=Muley Bugentuf=, king of Morocco, a blood-and-thunder hero. He is the chief character of a tragedy of the same name, by Thomas de la Fuenta.

In the first act, the king of Morocco, by way of recreation, shot a hundred Moorish slaves with arrows; in the second, he beheaded thirty Portuguese officers, prisoners of war; and in the third and last act, Muley, mad with his wives, set fire with his own hand to a detached palace, in which they were shut up, and reduced them all to ashes.... This conflagration, accompanied with a thousand shrieks, closed the piece in a very diverting manner.--Lesage, _Gil Blas_, ii. 9 (1715).

=Mull Sack.= John Cottington, in the time of the Commonwealth, was so called, from his favorite beverage. John Cottington emptied the pockets of Oliver Cromwell when lord protector; stripped Charles II. of £1500; and stole a watch and chain from Lady Fairfax.

⁂ Mull sack is spiced sherry negus.

=Mulla’s Bard=, Spenser, author of the _Faëry Queen_. The Mulla, a tributary of the Blackwater, in Ireland, flowed close by the spot where the poet’s house stood. He was born and died in London (1553-1599).

... it irks me while I write, As erst the bard of Mulla’s silver stream, Oft as he told of deadly dolorous plight Sighed as he sung, and did in tears indite.

Shenstone, _The Schoolmistress_ (1758).

_Mulla._ Thomas Campbell, in his poem on the _Spanish Parrot_, calls the island of Mull, “Mulla’s Shore.”

=Mullet= (_Professor_), the “most remarkable man” of North America. He denounced his own father for voting on the wrong side at an election for president, and wrote thunderbolts in the form of pamphlets, under the signature of “Suturb” or Brutus reversed.--C. Dickens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1844).

=Mullins= (_Rev. Peter_). A minister of the gospel, who holds so hard to the belief that the laborer is worthy of his hire, that he can see nothing but the hire.

“How am I to know whether my services are acceptable unless every year there is some voluntary testimonial concerning them? It seems to me that I must have such a testimonial. I find myself looking forward to it.”--Josiah Gilbert Holland, _Arthur Bonnicastle_ (1873).

=Mul´mutine Laws=, the code of Dunvallo Mulmutius, sixteenth king of the Britons (about B.C. 400). This code was translated by Gildas from British into Latin, and by Alfred into English. The Mulmutine laws obtained in this country till the Conquest.--Holinshed, _History of England, etc._, iii. 1 (1577).

Mulmutius made our laws, Who was the first of Britain which did put His brows within a golden crown, and call’d Himself a king.

Shakespeare, _Cymbeline_, act iii. sc. 1 (1605).

=Mulmutius= (_Dunwallo_), son of Cloten, king of Cornwall. “He excelled all the kings of Britain in valor and gracefulness of person.” In a battle fought against the allied Welsh and Scotch armies, Mulmutius tried the very scheme which Virgil (_Æneid_, ii.) says was attempted by Æneas and his companions--that is, they dressed in the clothes and bore the arms of the enemy slain, and thus disguised, committed very great slaughter. Mulmutius, in his disguise, killed both the Cambrian and Albanian kings, and put the allied army to thorough rout.--Geoffrey, _British History_, ii. 17.

Mulmutius this land in such estate maintained As his great Belsire Brute.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, viii. (1612).

=Mulvaney= (_Terence_). Rollicking, epigrammatic, harum-scarum Irish trooper, in the Indian service, whose adventures and sayings are narrated in _Soldiers Three_, _The Courting of Dinah Shadd_, _etc._, by Rudyard Kipling.

=Multon= (_Sir Thomas de_), of Gilsland. He is Lord de Vaux, a crusader, and master of the horse to King Richard I.--Sir. W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=Mumblazen= (_Master Michael_), the old herald, a dependant of Sir Hugh Robsart.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).

=Mumbo Jumbo=, an African bogie, hideous and malignant, the terror of women and children.

=Mumps= (_Tib_), keeper of the “Mumps’ Ha’ ale-hous’,” on the road to Charlie’s Hope farm.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Munchau´sen= (_The Baron_), a hero of most marvellous adventures.--Rudolf Erich Raspe (a German, but storekeeper of the Dolcoath mines, in Cornwall, 1792).

⁂ The name is said to refer to Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Münchhausen, a German officer in the Russian army, noted for his marvellous stories (1720-1797). It is also supposed to be an implied satire on the traveller’s tales of Baron de Tott, in his _Mémoires sur les Turcs et Tartares_ (1784), and those of James Bruce, “The African Traveller,” in his _Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile_ (1790).

_Munchausen_ (_The Baron_). The French Baron Munchausen is represented by M. de Crac, the hero of a French operetta.

=Mu´nera=, daughter of Pollentê, the Saracen, to whom he gave all the spoils he could lay his hands on. Munera was beautiful and rich exceedingly; but Talus, having chopped off her golden hands and silver feet, tossed her into the moat.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, v. 2 (1596).

=Mungo=, a black slave of Don Diego.

Dear heart, what a terrible life am I led! A dog has a better dat’s sheltered and fed ... Mungo here, Mungo dere, Mungo everywhere ... Me wish to the Lord me was dead.

I. Bickerstaff, _The Padlock_ (1768).

=Münster= (_Baroness_). American woman married to a German prince, who wants to get rid of her. She comes to America with her brother to visit relatives, and is bored by everything, and forever threatening to write to the reigning prince to recall her to Germany.--Henry James, Jr., _The Europeans_ (1878).

=Murat= (_The Russian_), Michael Miloradowitch (1770-1820).

=Murdstone= (_Edward_), the second husband of Mrs. Copperfield. His character was “firmness,” that is, an unbending self-will, which rendered the young life of David intolerably wretched.

_Jane Murdstone_, sister of Edward, as hard and heartless as her brother. Jane Murdstone became the companion of Dora Spenlow, and told Mr. Spenlow of David’s love for Dora, hoping to annoy David. At the death of Mr. Spenlow, Jane returned to live with her brother.--Dickens, _David Copperfield_ (1849).

=Murray= or =Moray= (_The bonnie earl of_), James Stewart, the “Good Regent,” a natural son of James V. of Scotland, by Margaret, daughter of John, Lord Erskine. He joined the reform party in 1556, and went to France in 1561, to invite Mary queen of Scots to come and reside in her kingdom. He was an accomplice in the murder of Rizzio, and during the queen’s imprisonment was appointed regent. According to an ancient ballad, this bonny earl “was the queen’s love,” _i.e._ Queen Anne of Denmark, daughter of Frederick II., and wife of James I. of England. It is said that James, being jealous of the handsome earl, instigated the earl of Huntly to murder him (1531-1570).

Introduced by Sir W. Scott in _The Monastery_ and _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Murray_ (_John_), of Broughton, secretary to Charles Edward, the Young Pretender. He turned king’s evidence, and revealed to Government all the circumstances which gave rise to the rebellion, and the persons most active in its organization.

If crimes like these hereafter are forgiven, Judas and Murray both may go to heaven.

_Jacobite Relics_, ii. 374.

=Musæus=, the poet (B.C. 1410), author of the elegant tale of _Leander and Hero_. Virgil places him in the Elysian fields attended by a vast multitude of ghosts, Musæus being taller by a head than any of them (_Æneid_, vi. 677).

Swarm ... as the infernal spirits On sweet Musæus when he came to hell.

C. Marlowe, _Dr. Faustus_ (1590).

=Muscadins of Paris=, Paris exquisites, who aped the London cockneys in the first French Revolution. Their dress was top-boots with thick soles, knee-breeches, a dress-coat with long tails and high stiff collar, and a thick cudgel called a _constitution_. It was thought John Bull-like to assume a huskiness of voice, a discourtesy of manners, and a swaggering vulgarity of speech and behavior.

Cockneys of London! Muscadins of Paris!

Byron, _Don Juan_, viii. 124 (1824).

=Mus´carol=, king of flies, and father of Clarion, the most beautiful of the race.--Spenser, _Muiopotmos, or The Butterfly’s Fate_ (1590).

=Muse= (_The Tenth_), Marie Lejars de Gournay, a French writer (1566-1645).

Antoinette Deshoulieres; also called “The French Callĭŏpê.” Her best work is an allegory called _Les Moutons_ (1633-1694).

Mdlle. Scudéri was preposterously so called (1607-1701).

Also Delphine Gray, afterwards Mde. Emile de Girardin. Her _nom de plume_ was “viconte de Launay.” Béranger sang of “the beauty of her shoulders,” and Châteaubriand, of “the charms of her smile” (1804-1855).

=Muse-Mother=, Mnemos´ynê, goddess of memory, and mother of the Muses.

Memory, That sweet Muse-mother.

E. B. Browning, _Prometheus Bound_ (1850).

=Muses= (_Symbols of the_).

CAL´LIOPE [_Kăl´.ly.ŏ.py_], the epic Muse: a tablet and stylus, sometimes a scroll.

CLIO, Muse of history: a scroll or open chest of books.

ER´ATO, Muse of love ditties: a lyre.

EUTER´PÊ, Muse of lyric poetry: a flute.

MELPOM´ENÊ, Muse of tragedy: a tragic mask, the club of Hercules, or a sword. She wears the cothurnus, and her head is wreathed with vine leaves.

POL´YHYM´NIA, Muse of sacred poetry: sits pensive, but has no attribute, because deity is not to be represented by any visible symbol.

TERPSIC´HORÊ [_Terp.sick´.o.ry_], Muse of choral song and dance: a lyre and the plectrum.

THALI´A, Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry: a comic mask, a shepherd’s staff, or a wreath of ivy.

URAN´IA, Muse of astronomy: carries a staff pointing to a globe.

=Museum= (_A Walking_), Longīnus, author of a work on _The Sublime_ (213-273).

=Musgrave= (_Sir Richard_), the English champion who fought with Sir William Deloraine, the Scotch champion, to decide by combat whether young Scott, the heir of Branksome Hall, should become the page of King Edward, or be delivered up to his mother. In the combat, Sir Richard was slain, and the boy was delivered over to his mother.--Sir W. Scott, _Lay of the Last Minstrel_ (1805).

_Musgrave_ (_Sir Miles_), an officer in the king’s service under the earl of Montrose.--Sir W. Scott, _Legend of Montrose_ (time, Charles I.).

=Music.= Amphion is said to have built the walls of Thebes by the music of his lyre. Ilium and the capital of Arthur’s kingdom were also built to divine music. The city of Jericho was destroyed by music (_Joshua_ vi. 20).

They were building still, seeing the city was built To music.

Tennyson.

_Music and Men of Genius._ Hume, Dr. Johnson, Sir W. Scott, Robert Peel and Lord Byron had no ear for music, and neither vocal nor instrumental music gave them the slightest pleasure. To the poet Rogers it gave actual discomfort. Even the harmonious Pope preferred the harsh dissonance of a street organ to Handel’s oratorios.

_Music_ (_Father of_), Giovanni Battista Pietro Aloisio da Palestri´na (1529-1594).

_Music_ (_Father of Greek_), Terpander (fl. B.C. 676).

=Music’s First Martyr.= Menaphon says that when he was in Thessaly he saw a youth challenge the birds in music; and a nightingale took up the challenge. For a time the contest was uncertain; but then the youth, “in a rapture,” played so cunningly that the bird, despairing, “down dropped upon his lute, and brake her heart.”

⁂ This beautiful tale, by Strada (in Latin) has been translated in rhyme by R. Crashaw. Versions have been given by Ambrose Philips, and others; but none can compare with the exquisite relation of John Ford, in his drama entitled _The Lover’s Melancholy_ (1628).

=Musical Small-Coal Man=, Thos. Britton, who used to sell small coals and keep a musical club (1654-1714).

=Musicians= (_Prince of_), Giovanni Battista Pietro Aloisio da Palestri´na (1529-1594).

=Musidora=, the _dame du cœur_ of Damon. Damon thought her coyness was scorn; but one day he caught her bathing, and his delicacy on the occasion so enchanted her that she at once accepted his proffered love.--Thomson, _Seasons_ (“Summer,” 1727).

=Musido´rus=, a hero, whose exploits are told by Sir Philip Sidney, in his _Arcadia_ (1581).

=Musketeer=, a soldier armed with a musket, but specially applied to a company of gentlemen who were a mounted guard in the service of the king of France from 1661.

They formed two companies, the _grey_ and the _black_; so called from the color of their hair. Both were clad in scarlet, and hence their quarters were called the _Maison rouge_. In peace they followed the king in the chase, to protect him; in war they fought either on foot or horseback. They were suppressed in 1791; restored in 1814, but only for a few months; and after the restoration of Louis XVIII. we hear no more of them. Many Scotch gentlemen enrolled themselves among these dandy soldiers, who went to war with curled hair, white gloves, and perfumed like milliners.

⁂ A. Dumas has a novel called _The Three Musketeers_ (1844), the first of a series; the second is _Twenty Years Afterwards_; and the third, _Viconte de Bragelonne_.

=Muslin=, the talkative, impertinent, intriguing _suivante_ of Mrs. Lovemore. Mistress Muslin is sweet upon William, the footman, and loves cards.--A. Murphy, _The Way to Keep Him_ (1760).

=Mus´tafa=, a poor tailor of China, father of Aladdin, killed by illness brought on by the idle vagabondism of his son.--_Arabian Nights_ (“Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp”).

=Mutton=, a courtezan, sometimes called a “laced mutton.” “Mutton Lane,” in Clerkenwell, was so called because it was a suburra or quarter for harlots. The courtezan was called a “Mutton” even in the reign of Henry III., for Bracton speaks of them as _oves_.--_De Legibus_, etc., ii. (1569).

=Mutton-Eating King= (_The_), Charles II. of England (1630, 1659-1685).

Here lies our mutton-eating king, Whose word no man relies on; He never _said_ a foolish thing, And never _did_ a wise on’.

Earl of Rochester.

=Mutual Friend= (_Our_), a novel by Charles Dickens (1864). The “mutual friend” is Mr. Boffin, “the golden dustman,” who was the mutual friend of John Harmon and of Bella Wilfer. The tale is this: John Harmon was supposed to have been murdered by Julius Handford; but it was Ratford, who was murdered by Rogue Riderhood, and the mistake arose from a resemblance between the two persons. By his father’s will, John Harmon was to marry Bella Wilfer; but John Harmon knew not the person destined by his father for his wife, and made up his mind to dislike her. After his supposed murder, he assumed the name of John Rokesmith, and became the secretary of Mr. Boffin, “the golden dustman,” residuary legatee of old John Harmon, by which he became possessor of £100,000. Boffin knew Rokesmith, but concealed his knowledge for a time. At Boffin’s house, John Harmon (as Rokesmith) met Bella Wilfer, and fell in love with her. Mr. Boffin, in order to test Bella’s love, pretended to be angry with Rokesmith for presuming to love Bella; and, as Bella married him, he cast them both off “for a time,” to live on John’s earnings. A baby was born, and then the husband took the young mother to a beautiful house, and told her he was John Harmon, that the house was their house, that he was the possessor of £100,000 through the disinterested conduct of their “mutual friend,” Mr. Boffin; and the young couple lived happily with Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, in wealth and luxury.

=Mutusa-ili=, Babylonian sage and unsuspected Jew, high in repute for wisdom and prophetic powers.--Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Herbert D. Ward, _The Master of the Magicians_ (1890).

=My Book= (_Dr._). Dr. John Aberne´thy (1765-1830) was so called because he used to say to his patients, “Read my book” (_On Surgical Observations_).

=My Little All.=

I was twice burnt out, and lost my little all both times.--Sheridan, _The Critic_, i. 1 (1779).

=Myrebeau= (_Le sieure de_), one of the committee of the states of Burgundy.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

=Myro=, a statuary of Eleu´thĕræ, who carved a cow so true to nature that even bulls mistook it for a living animal. (See HORSE PAINTED.)

E’en Myro’s statues, which for art surpass All others, once were but a shapeless mass.

Ovid, _Art of Love_, iii.

=Myrra=, an Ionian slave, and the beloved concubine of Sardanapa´lus, the Assyrian king. She roused him from his indolence to resist Arba´cês, the Mede, who aspired to his throne, and when she found his cause hopeless, induced him to mount a funeral pile, which she fired with her own hand, and then, springing into the flames, she perished with the tyrant.--Byron, _Sardanapalus_ (1819).

=Myrtle= (_Mrs. Lerviah_), sentimental Christian, who finds Magdalens and poor, ill-clad, homeless girls “so depressing,” but begs Nixy Trent, the only one who ever entered her house, “to consider that there is hope for us all in the way of salvation which our Lord has marked out for sinners.” After which crumb of ghostly consolation she proceeds to turn Nixy out of the house.--Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, _Hedged In_ (1870).

=Mysie=, the female attendant of Lady Margaret Bellenden, of the Tower of Tillietudlem.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

_Mysie_, the old housekeeper at Wolf’s Crag Tower.--Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

=Mysis=, the scolding wife of Sile´no, and mother of Daph´nê and Nysa. It is to Mysis that Apollo sings that popular song, “Pray, Goody, please to moderate the rancour of your tongue” (act i. 3).--Kane O’Hara, _Midas_ (1764).

=Mysterious Husband= (_The_), a tragedy by Cumberland (1783). Lord Davenant was a bigamist. His first wife was Marianne Dormer, whom he forsook in three months to marry Louisa Travers. Marianne, supposing her husband to be dead, married Lord Davenant’s son. Miss Dormer’s brother was the betrothed of the second Lady Davenant before her marriage with his lordship. She was told that he had proved faithless and had married another. The report of Lord Davenant’s death and the marriage of Captain Dormer were both false. When the villainy of Lord Davenant could be concealed no longer, he destroyed himself.

=Nat=, the fairy that addressed Orpheus, in the infernal regions, and offered him for food a roasted ant, a flea’s thigh, butterflies’ brains, some sucking mites, a rainbow tart etc., to be washed down with dew-drops and beer made from seven barleycorns--a very heady liquor.--King, _Orpheus and Eurydice_ (1730-1805).

=Nab-man= (_The_), a sheriff’s officer.

Old Dornton has sent the nab-man after him at last.--_Guy Mannering_, ii. 3.

⁂ This is the dramatized version of Sir W. Scott’s novel, by Terry (1816).

=Nacien=, the holy hermit who introduced Galahad to the “Siege Perilous,” the only vacant seat in the Round Table. This seat was reserved for the knight who was destined to achieve the quest of the Holy Graal. Nacien told the king and his knights that no one but a virgin knight could achieve that quest.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, iii. (1470).

=Nadab=, in Dryden’s satire of _Absalom and Achitophel_, is meant for Lord Howard, a profligate, who laid claim to great piety. As Nadab offered incense with strange fire and was slain, so Lord Howard, it is said, mixed the consecrated wafer with some roast apples and sugar.--Pt. i. (1681).

=Nadgett=, a man employed by Montague Tigg (manager of the “Anglo-Bengalee Company”) to make private inquiries. He was a dried-up, shrivelled old man. Where he lived and how he lived, nobody knew; but he was always to be seen waiting for some one who never appeared; and he would glide along apparently taking no notice of any one.--C. Dickens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1844).

=Nag’s Head Consecration=, a scandal perpetuated by Pennant, on the dogma of “apostolic succession.” The “high-church clergy” assert that the ceremony called holy orders has been transmitted without interruption from the apostles. Thus, the apostles laid hands on certain persons, who (say they) became ministers of the gospel; these persons “ordained” others in the same manner; and the succession has never been broken. Pennant says, at the Reformation the bishops came to a fix. There was only one bishop, viz., Anthony Kitchen, of Llandaff, and Bonner would not allow him to perform the ceremony. In this predicament, the fourteen candidates for episcopal ordination rummaged up Story, a deposed bishop, and got him to “lay hands” on Parker, as archbishop of Canterbury. As it would have been profanation for Story to do this in a cathedral or church, the ceremony was performed in a tavern called the Nag’s Head, corner of Friday Street, Cheapside. Strype refutes this scandalous tale in his _Life of Archbishop Parker_, and so does Dr. Hook; but it will never be stamped out.

=Naggleton= (_Mr._ and _Mrs._), types of a nagging husband and wife. They are for ever jangling at trifles and willful misunderstandings.--_Punch_ (1864-5).

=Naked Bear= (_The_). _Hush! the naked bear will hear you!_ a threat and reproof to unruly children in North America. The naked bear, says the legend, was larger and more ferocious than any of the species. It was quite naked, save and except one spot on its back, where was a tuft of white hair.--Heckewelder, _Transactions of the American Phil. Soc._, iv. 260.

Thus the wrinkled old Nokomis Nursed the little Hiawatha, Rocked him in his linden cradle, Stilled his fretful wail by saying “Hush! the naked bear will get thee!”

Longfellow, _Hiawatha_, iii. (1855).

=Nakir´=, =Nekir=, or =Nakeer=. (See MONKER AND NAKIR.)

=Nala=, a legendary king of India, noted for his love of Damayanti, and his subsequent misfortunes. This legendary king has been the subject of numerous poems.

⁂ Dean Milman has translated into English the episode from the _Mahâbhârata_, and W. Yates has translated the Nalodaya of the great Sanskrit poem.

=Nama=, a daughter of man, beloved by the angel Zaraph. Her wish was to love intensely and to love holily, but as she fixed her love on a seraph, and not on God, she was doomed to abide on earth, “unchanged in heart and frame,” so long as the earth endureth; but at the great consummation both Nama and her seraph will be received into those courts of love, where “love never dieth.”--Moore, _Loves of the Angels_, ii. (1822).

=Namby= (_Major_), a retired officer, living in the suburbs of London. He had been twice married; his first wife had four children, and his second wife three. Major Namby, though he lived in a row, always transacted his domestic affairs by bawling out his orders from the front garden, to the annoyance of his neighbors. He used to stalk half-way down the garden path, with his head high in the air, his chest stuck out, and flourishing his military cane. Suddenly he would stop, stamp with one foot, knock up the hinder brim of his hat, begin to scratch the nape of his neck, wait a moment, then wheel round, look at the first-floor window, and roar out, “Matilda!” (the name of his wife) “don’t do so-and-so;” or “Matilda! do so-and-so.” Then he would bellow to the servants to buy this, or not to let the children eat that, and so on.--Wilkie Collins, _Pray Employ Major Namby_ (a sketch).

=Names of Terror.= The following amongst others, have been employed as bogie-names to frighten children with:--

ATTILA was a bogie-name to the Romans.

BO or BOH, son of Odin, was a fierce Gothic captain. His name was used by his soldiers when they would fight or surprise the enemy.--Sir William Temple.

⁂ Warton tells us that the Dutch scared their children with the name of Boh.

BONAPARTE, at the close of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, was a name of terror in Europe.

CORVI´NUS (_Mathias_), the Hungarian, was a scare-name to the Turks.

LILIS or LILITH was a bogie-name used by the ancient Jews to unruly children. The rabbinical writers tell us that Lilith was Adam’s wife before the creation of Eve. She refused to submit to him, and became a horrible night-spectre, especially hostile to young children.

LUNSFORD, a name employed to frighten children in England. Sir Thomas Lunsford, governor of the Tower, was a man of most vindictive temper, and the dread of everyone.

Made children with your tones to run for’t, As bad as Bloody-bones or Lunsford.

S. Butler, _Hudibras_, iii. 2, line 1112, (1678).

NARSES (2 _syl._) was the name used by Assyrian mothers to scare their children with.

The name of Narses was the formidable sound with which the Assyrian mothers were accustomed to terrify their infants.--Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, viii. 219 (1776-88).

RAWHEAD and BLOODY-BONES were at one time bogie-names to children.

Servants awe children and keep them in subjection by telling them of Rawhead and Bloody-bones.--Locke.

RICHARD I., “Cœur de Lion.” This name, says Camden (_Remains_), was employed by the Saracens as a “name of dread and terror.”

His tremendous name was employed by the Syrian mothers to silence their infants; and if a horse suddenly started from the way, his rider was wont to exclaim, “Dost thou think King Richard is in the bush?”--Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, xi. 146 (1776-88).

SEBASTIAN (_Don_), a name of terror once used by the Moors.

Nor shall Sebastian’s formidable name Be longer used to still the crying babe.

Dryden, _Don Sebastian_ (1690).

TALBOT (_John_), a name used in France _in terrorem_ to unruly children.

They in France to feare their young children crye, “The Talbot commeth!”--Hall, _Chronicles_ (1545).

Here (said they) is the terror of the French, The scarecrow that affrights our children so.

Shakespeare, 1 _Henry VI._ act.[TN-27] i. sc. 4 (1589).

Is this the Talbot so much feared abroad, That with his name the mothers still their babes?

Shakespeare, 1 _Henry VI._ act iv. sc. 5 (1589).

TAMERLANE, a name used by the Persians _in terrorem_.

TARQUIN, a name of terror in Roman nurseries.

The nurse to still her child, will tell my story, And fright her crying babe with Tarquin’s name.

Shakespeare, _Rape of Lucrece_ (1594).

(See also NAKED BEAR.)

=Namo=, duke of Bavaria, and one of Charlemagne’s twelve paladins.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

=Namou´na=, an enchantress. Though first of created beings, she is still as young and beautiful as ever.--_Persian Mythology._

=Namous=, the envoy of Mahomet in paradise.

=Nancy=, eldest daughter of an English country family, in straitened circumstances. Nancy is a romp and untamed, but sound-hearted, and loves her brothers and sister tenderly. To advance their interests she marries Sir Roger Tempest, who is much her senior. In time, and after many misunderstandings, she learns to love him, and “they live happily together ever after.”--Rhoda Broughton, _Nancy_.

_Nancy_, servant to Mrs. Pattypan. A pretty little flirt, who coquets with Tim Tartlet and young Whimsey, and helps Charlotte Whimsey in her “love affairs.”--James Cobb, _The First Floor_ (1756-1818).

_Nancy_, a poor misguided girl, who really loves the villain Bill Sykes (1 _syl._). In spite of her surroundings, she has still some good feelings, and tries to prevent a burglary planned by Fagin and his associates. Bill Sykes, in a fit of passion, strikes her twice upon the face with the butt-end of a pistol, and she falls dead at his feet.--C. Dickens, _Oliver Twist_ (1837).

_Nancy_, the sailor’s fancy. At half-past four he parted from her; at eight next morn he bade her adieu. Next day a storm arose, and when it lulled the enemy appeared; but when the fight was hottest, the jolly tar “put up a prayer for Nancy.” Dibdin, _Sea Songs_ (“’Twas post meridian half-past four,” 1790).

_Nancy_ (_Miss_), Mrs. Anna Oldfield, a celebrated actress, buried in Westminster Abbey. She died in 1730, and lay in state, attended by two noblemen. Mrs. Oldfield was buried in a “very fine Brussels lace head-dress, a new pair of kid gloves, and a robe with lace ruffles and a lace collar.” (See NARCISSA.)

=Nancy Dawson=, a famous actress, who took London by storm. Her father was a poster in Clare Market (1728-1767).

Her easy mien, her shape so neat, She foots, she trips, she looks so sweet; I die for Nancy Dawson.

=Nancy of the Vale=, a village maiden, who preferred Strephon to the gay lordlings who sought her hand in marriage.--Shenstone, _A Ballad_ (1554).

=Nannic=, deformed brother of Guenn, and her darling. He is versed in all manner of auguries and much feared and consulted by the peasants on this account.--Blanche Willis Howard, _Guenn_.

=Nannie=, Miss Fleming, daughter of a farmer in the parish of Tarbolton, in Ayrshire. Immortalized by R. Burns.

_Nannie (Little)._

“This world, whose brightest day Seems to us so dreary, Nannie found all bright and gay, Love-alight and cheery, Stayed a little while to play And went home unweary.”

Elizabeth Akers Allen, _Poems_ (1866).

=Nan´tolet=, father of Rosalura and Lillia-Bianca.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Wild-Goose Chase_ (1652).

=Napoleon I.=, called by the Germans “Kaiser Kläs” (_q.v._).

“M” is curiously coupled with the history of Napoleon I. and III. (See M.)

The following is a curious play on the word Napoleon.

Napoleôn apoleôn poleôn oleôn leôn eôn ôn _Napoleon_ _Apollyon_ _cities_ _destroying_ _a lion_ _going_} _being._ _about_}

That is:

Napoleon Apollyon is [_being_] a lion going about destroying cities.

_Chauvinism_, Napoleon idolatry. Chauvvin[TN-28] is a blind idolater of Napoleon I., in Scribe’s drama entitled _Soldat Laboureur_.

=Napoleon III.= _His nicknames._

ARENENBERG (_Comte d’_). So he called himself after his escape from the fortress of Ham.

BADINGUET, the name of the man he shot in his Boulogne escapade.

BOUSTRAPA, a compound of Bou[logne], Stra[sbourg] and Pa[ris], the places of his noted escapades.

GROSBEC. So called from the rather unusual size of his nose.

MAN OF DECEMBER. So called because December was his month of glory. Thus, he was elected president December 11, 1848; made his _coup d’état_ December 2, 1851; and was created emperor December 2, 1852.

MAN OF SEDAN. So called because at Sedan he surrendered his sword to the king of Prussia (September, 1870).

RATIPOLE, same as the west of England RANTIPOLE, a harum-scarum, half idiot, half madcap.

THE LITTLE. Victor Hugo gave him this title; but the hatred of Hugo to Napoleon was monomania.

VERHUEL, the name of his supposed father.

_Number 2._ The second of the month was Louis Napoleon’s day. It was also one of the days of his uncle, the other being the fifteenth.

The _coup d’état_ was December 2; he was made emperor December 2, 1852; the Franco-Prussian war opened at Saarbrück, August 2, 1870; he surrendered his sword to William of Prussia, September 2, 1870.

Napoleon I. was crowned December 2, 1804; and the victory of Austerlitz was December 2, 1805.

_Numerical Curiosities._ 1. 1869, the last year of Napoleon’s glory; the next year was that of his downfall. As a matter of curiosity, it may be observed that if the day of his birth, or the day of the empress’s birth, or the date of the capitulation of Paris, be added to that of the coronation of Napoleon III., the result always points to 1869. Thus, he was crowned 1852; he was born 1808; the Empress Eugénie was born 1826: the capitulation of Paris was 1871. Whence:

1852 1852 1852 coronation 1 } 1 } 1 } 8 } birth of 8 } birth of 8 } capitulation 0 } Napoleon. 2 } Eugénie. 7 } of 8 } 6 } 1 } Paris. ____ ____ ____ 1869 1869 1869

2. 1870, the year of his downfall. By adding the numerical values of the birth date either of Napoleon or Eugénie to the date of the marriage, we get their fatal year of 1870. Thus, Napoleon was born 1808; Eugénie, 1826; married, 1853.

1853 1853 year of marriage. 1 } 1 } 8 } birth of 8 } birth of Eugénie. 0 } Napoleon. 2 } 8 } 6 } ____ ____ 1870 1870

2. _Empereur._ The votes for the president to be emperor were 7,119,791; those against him were 1,119,000. If now the numbers 711979r/[1][1][1][6] be written on a piece of paper, and held up to the light, the reverse side will show the word _empereur_. (The dash is the dividing mark, and forms the long stroke of the “p.”)

=Napoleon and Talleyrand.= Napoleon I. one day entered a roadside inn, and called for breakfast. There was nothing in the house but eggs and cider (which Napoleon detested). “What shall we do?” said the emperor to Talleyrand. In answer to this, the _grand chambellan_ improvised the rhymes following:--

Le bon roi Dagobert Aimait le bon vin au dessert. Le grand St. Eloi Lui dit, “O mon roi, Le droit réuni L’a bien renchéri.” “Eh bien!” lui dit le roi ...

But he could get no further. Whereupon Napoleon himself instantly capped the line thus:

“Je boirai du cidre avec toi.”

Chapus, _Dieppe, etc._ (1853).

Our royal master, Dagobert, Good wine loved at his dessert. But St. Eloi Once said, “Mon roi, We here prepare No dainty fare.” “Well,” cried the king, “so let it be, Cider to-day we’ll drink with thee.”

=Napoleon of the Drama.= Alfred Bunn, lessee of Drury Lane Theatre (1819-1826) was so called; and so was Robert William Elliston, his predecessor (1774-1826, died 1831).

=Napoleon of Mexico=, the emperor Augusto Iturbidê (1784-1824).

=Napoleon of Oratory=, W. E. Gladstone (1809- ).

=Napoleon of Peace=, Louis Philippe of France (1773, reigned 1830-1848, died 1850).

=Narcissa=, meant for Elizabeth Lee, the step-daughter of Dr. Young. In Night ii. the poet says she was clandestinely buried at Montpelier, because she was a Protestant.--Dr. Young, _Night Thoughts_ (1742-6).

_Narcissa_, Mrs. Oldfield, the actress, who insisted on being rouged and dressed in Brussels lace when she was “laid out.” (See NANCY.)

“Odious! In woolen? ’Twould a saint provoke!” Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke. “No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace Wrap my cold limbs and shade my lifeless face; One would not, sure, be frightful when one’s dead! And, Betty, give this cheek a little red.”

Pope, _Moral Essays_, i. (1731).

=Narcisse=, an airy young Creole. He has boundless faith in himself, and a Micawberish confidence in the future. He would like to be called “Papillon,” the butterfly; “’Cause thass my natu’e! I gatheth honey eve’y day fum eve’y opening floweh, as the bahd of Avon wemawked.”--George W. Cable, _Dr. Sevier_ (1883).

=Narcissus=, a flower. According to Grecian fable, Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection in a fountain, and, having pined away because he could not kiss it, was changed into the flower which bears his name.--Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, iii. 346, etc.

Echo was in love with Narcissus, and died of grief because he would not return her love.

Narcissus fair, As o’er the fabled fountain hanging still.

Thomson, _Seasons_ (“Spring,” 1728).

⁂ Glück, in 1779, produced an opera called _Echo et Narcisse_.

=Narren-Schiff= (“_The ship of fools_”), a satirical poem, in German, by Brandt (1491), lashing the follies and vices of the period. Brandt makes knowledge of one’s self the beginning of wisdom; maintains the equality of man; and speaks of life as a brief passage only. The book at one time enjoyed unbounded popularity.

=Narses= (2 _syl._), a Roman general against the Goths; the terror of children.

The name of Narses was the formidable sound with which the Assyrian mothers were accustomed to terrify their infants.--Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, viii. 219 (1776-88).

_Narses_, a domestic slave of Alexius Comnēnus, emperor of Greece.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

=Naso=, Ovid, the Roman poet, whose full name was Publius Ovidius Naso. (_Naso_ means “nose.”) Hence the pun of Holofernes:

And why Naso, but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy?--Shakespeare, _Love’s Labor’s Lost_, act iv. sc. 2 (1594).

=Nathan the Wise=, a prudent and wealthy old Jew who lives near Jerusalem in the time of Saladin. The play is a species of argument for religious toleration.--G. E. Lessing, _Nathan der Weise_ (1778).

=Nathaniel= (_Sir_), the grotesque curate of Holofernês.--Shakespeare, _Love’s Labor’s Lost_ (1594).

=Nathos=, one of the three sons of Usnoth, lord of Etha (in Argyllshire), made commander of the Irish army at the death of Cuthullin. For a time he propped up the fortune of the youthful Cormac, but the rebel Cairbar increased in strength and found means to murder the young king. The army under Nathos then deserted to the usurper, and Nathos, with his two brothers, was obliged to quit Ireland. Dar´-Thula, the daughter of Colla, went with them to avoid Cairbar, who persisted in offering her his love. The wind drove the vessel back to Ulster, where Cairbar lay encamped, and the three young men, being overpowered, were slain. As for Dar-Thula, she was pierced with an arrow, and died also.--Ossian, _Dar-Thula_.

=Nation of Gentlemen.= The Scotch were so called by George IV., when he visited Scotland in 1822.

=Nation of Shopkeepers.= The English were so called by Napoleon I.

=National Assembly.= (1) The French deputies which met in the year 1789. The states-general was convened, but the clergy and nobles refused to sit in the same chamber with the commons, so the commons or deputies of the _tiers état_ withdrew, constituted themselves into a deliberative body, and assumed the name of the _Assemblée Nationale_. (2) The democratic French parliament of 1848, consisting of 900 members elected by manhood suffrage, was so called also.

=National Convention=, the French parliament of 1792. It consisted of 721 members, but was reduced, first to 500, then to 300. It succeeded the National Assembly.

=Natty Bumpo=, called “Leather-stocking.” He appears in five of F. Cooper’s novels: (1) _The Deerslayer_; (2) _The Pathfinder_; (3) “Hawkeye” in _The Last of the Mohicans_; (4) “Natty Bumpo,” in _The Pioneer_; and (5) “The Trapper,” in _The Prairie_, in which he dies.

=Nausic´aa= (4 _syl._), daughter of Alcinous, king of the Phœa´cians, who conducted Ulysses to the court of her father when he was shipwrecked on the coast.

=Navigation= (_The Father of_), Don Henrique, duke of Viseo, the greatest man that Portugal has produced (1394-1460).

_Navigation_ (_The Father of British Inland_), Francis Egerton, duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803).

=Neæra=, a name used by Horace, Virgil, Tibullus, and Milton as a synonym of sweetheart.

To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, Or with the tangles of Neæra’s hair.

Milton, _Lycidas_ (1638).

=Neal´liny= (4 _syl._), a suttee, the young widow of Ar´valan, son of Keha´ma.--Southey, _Curse of Kehama_, i. 11 (1809).

=Nebuchadnezzar= [_Ne-boch-ad-ne-Tzar_], in Russian, means “there is no God but the Czar.”--M. D., _Notes and Queries_ (21st July, 1877).

=Neck.= Calig´ula, the Roman emperor used to say, “Oh that the Roman people had but one neck, that I might cut it off at a blow!”

I love the sex, and sometimes would reverse The tyrant’s wish, that, “mankind only had One neck, which he with one fell stroke might pierce.”

Byron, _Don Juan_, vi. 27 (1824).

=Neck or Nothing=, a farce by Garrick (1766). Mr. Stockwell promises to give his daughter in marriage to the son of Sir Harry Harlowe, of Dorsetshire, with a _dot_ of £10,000; but it so happens that the young man is privately married. The two servants of Mr. Belford and Sir Harry Harlowe try to get possession of the money, by passing off Martin (Belford’s servant) as Sir Harry’s son; but it so happens that Belford is in love with Miss Stockwell, and hearing of the plot through Jenny, the young lady’s-maid, arrests the two servants as vagabonds. Old Stockwell gladly consents to his marriage with Nancy, and thinks himself well out of the terrible scrape.

=Nectaba´nus=, the dwarf at the cell of the hermit of Engaddi. Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=Nectar=, the beverage of the gods. It was white as cream, for when Hebê spilt some of it, the white arch of heaven, called the Milky Way, was made. The food of the gods was _ambrosia_.

=Ned= (_Lying_), “the chimney-sweeper of Savoy,” that is, the duke of Savoy, who joined the allied army against France in the war of the Spanish Succession.--Dr. Arbuthnot, _History of John Bull_ (1712).

=Negro´ni=, a princess, the friend of Lucrezia di Borgia. She invited the notables who had insulted the Borgia to a banquet, and killed them with poisoned wine.--Donizetti, _Lucrezia di Borgia_ (an opera, 1834).

=Ne´gus=, sovereign of Abyssinia. Erco´co, or Erquico, on the Red Sea, marks the north-east boundary of this empire.

The empire of Negus to his utmost port, Ercoco.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, xi. 397 (1665).

=Nehemiah Holdenough=, a Presbyterian preacher.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, commonwealth).

=Neilson= (_Mr. Christopher_), a surgeon at Glasgow.--Sir W. Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.).

=Neim´heid= (2 _syl._) employed four architects to build him a palace in Ireland; and, that they might not build another like it or superior to it for some other monarch, had them all secretly murdered.--O’Halloran, _History of Ireland_.

⁂ A similar story is told of Nômanal-Aôuar, king of Hirah, who employed Senna´mar to build him a palace. When finished, he cast the architect headlong from the highest tower, to prevent his building another to rival it.--D’Herbelot, _Bibliothèque Oriental_[TN-29] (1697).

=Nekayah=, sister of Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia. She escapes with her brother from the “happy valley,” and wanders about with him to find what condition or rank of life is the most happy. After roaming for a time, and finding no condition of life free from its drawbacks, the brother and sister resolved to return to the “happy valley.”--Dr. Johnson, _Rasselas_ (1759).

=Nell=, the meek and obedient wife of Jobson; taught by the strap to know who was lord and master. Lady Loverule was the imperious, headstrong bride of Sir John Loverule. The two women by a magical hocus-pocus, were changed for a time, without any of the four knowing it. Lady Loverule was placed with Jobson, who soon brought down her turbulent temper with the strap, and when she was reduced to submission, the two women were restored again to their respective husbands.--C. Coffey, _The Devil to Pay_ (1731).

_Nell_ (_Little_), or NELLY TRENT, a sweet, innocent, loving child of 14 summers, brought up by her old miserly grandfather, who gambled away all his money. Her days were monotonous and without youthful companionship, her evenings gloomy and solitary; there were no child-sympathies in her dreary home, but dejection, despondence akin to madness, watchfulness, suspicion, and imbecility. The grandfather being wholly ruined by gaming, the two went forth as beggars, and ultimately settled down in a cottage adjoining a country churchyard. Here Nell died, and the old grandfather soon afterwards was found dead upon her grave.--C. Dickens, _The Old Curiosity Shop_ (1840).

=Nelly=, the servant-girl of Mrs. Dinmont.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Nelson’s Ship=, the _Victory_.

Now from the fleet of the foemen past Ahead of the _Victory_, A four-decked ship, with a flagless mast, An Anak of the sea. His gaze on the ship Lord Nelson cast: “Oh, oh! my old friend!” quoth he. “Since again we have met, we must all be glad To pay our respects to the _Trinidad_.” So, full on the bow of the giant foe, Our gallant _Victory_ runs; Thro’ the dark’ning smoke the thunder broke O’er her deck from a hundred guns.

Lord Lytton, _Ode_, iii. 9 (1839).

=Nem´ean Lion=, a lion of Argŏlis, slain by Herculês.

In this word Shakespeare has preserved the correct accent: “As hardy as the Nem´ean lion’s nerve” (_Hamlet_, act i. sc. 5); but Spenser incorrectly throws the accent on the second syllable, which is _e_ short: “Into the great Neme´an’s lion’s grove” (_Faëry Queen_, v. 1).

Ere Nemĕa’s beast resigned his shaggy spoils.

Statius, _The Thebaid_, i.

=Nem´esis=, the Greek personification of retribution, or that punishment for sin which sooner or later overtakes the offender.

... and some great Nemesis Break from a darkened future.

Tennyson, _The Princess_, (1847).

=Ne´mo=, the name by which Captain Hawdon was known at Krook’s. He had once won the love of the future Lady Dedlock, by whom he had a child called Esther Summerson; but he was compelled to copy law-writings for daily bread, and died a miserable death from an overdose of opium.--C. Dickens, _Bleak House_ (1852).

=Nepen´the= (3 _syl._) or NEPENTHES, a care-dispelling drug, which Polydamna, wife of Tho´nis, king of Egypt, gave to Helen (daughter of Jove and Leda). A drink containing this drug “changed grief to mirth, melancholy to joyfulness, and hatred to love.” The water of Ardenne had the opposite effects. Homer mentions the drug nepenthê in his _Odyssey_, iv. 228.

That nepenthês which the wife of Thone, In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena.

Milton, _Comus_, (1634).

Nepenthê is a drink of sovereign grace. Devisèd by the gods for to assuage Heart’s grief, and bitter gall away to chase Which stirs up anger and contentious rage; Instead thereof sweet peace and quietage It doth establish in the troubled mind ... And such as drink, eternal happiness do find.

Spencer, _Faëry Queen_, iv. 2 (1596).

=Nep´omuk= or =Nep´omuck= (_St. John_), canon of Prague. He was thrown from a bridge in 1381, and drowned by order of King Wenceslaus, because he refused to betray the secrets confided to him by the queen in the holy rite of confession. The spot whence he was cast into the Moldau is still marked by a cross with five stars on the parapet, indicative of the miraculous flames seen flickering over the dead body for three days. Nepomuk was canonized in 1729, and became the patron saint of bridges. His statue in stone usually occupies such a position on bridges as it does in Prague.

Like St. John Nep´omuck in stone, Looking down into the stream. Longfellow, _The Golden Legend_ (1851).

⁂ The word is often accented on the second syllable.

=Neptune= (_Old Father_), the ocean or sea-god.

=Nerestan=, son of Gui Lusignan D’Outremer, king of Jerusalem, and brother of Zara. Nerestan was sent on his parole to France, to obtain ransom for certain Christians, who had fallen into the hands of the Saracens. When Osman, the sultan, was informed of his relationship to Zara, he ordered all Christian captives to be at once liberated “without money and without price.”--A. Hill, _Zara_ (adapted from Voltaire’s tragedy).

=Nereus= (2 _syl._), father of the water-nymphs. A very old prophetic god of great kindliness. The scalp, chin and breast of Nereus were covered with seaweed instead of hair.

By hoary Nêreus’ wrinkled look.

Milton, _Comus_, (1634).

=Neri´nê=, =Doto=, and =Nysê=, the three nereids who guarded the fleet of Vasco da Gama. When the treacherous pilot had run Vasco’s ship upon a sunken rock, these three sea-nymphs lifted up the prow and turned it round.

The lovely Nysê and Nerinê spring With all the vehemence and speed of wing.

Camoens, _Lusiad_, ii. (1569).

=Nerissa=, the clever confidential waiting-woman of _Portia_, the Venetian heiress. Nerissa is the counterfeit of her mistress, with a fair share of the lady’s elegance and wit. She marries _Gratiano_, a friend of the merchant _Antonio_.--Shakespeare, _The Merchant of Venice_ (1698).[TN-30]

=Nero of the North=, Christian II. of Denmark (1480, reigned 1534-1558, died 1559).

=Nesle= (_Blondel de_), the favorite minstrel of Richard Cœur de Lion [Nesle = _Neel_].--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=Nessus’s Shirt.= Nessos (in Latin _Nessus_), the centaur, carried the wife of Herculês over a river, and, attempting to run away with her, was shot by Herculês. As the centaur was dying, he told Deïani´ra (5 _syl._), that if she steeped in his blood her husband’s shirt, she would secure his love forever. This she did, but when Herculês put the shirt on, his body suffered such agony, that he rushed to Mount Œta, collected together a pile of wood, set it on fire, and rushing into the midst of the flames, was burnt to death.

When Creūsa (3 _syl._), the daughter of King Creon, was about to be married to Jason, Medēa sent her a splendid wedding robe; but when Creusa put it on, she was burnt to death by it in excruciating pain.

Morgan le Fay, hoping to kill King Arthur, sent him a superb royal robe. Arthur told the messenger to try it on, that he might see its effect; but no sooner had the messenger done so, than he dropped down dead, “burnt to mere coal.”--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 75 (1470).

=Nestor= (_A_), a wise old man. Nestor of Pylos,[TN-31] was the oldest and most experienced of all the Greek chieftains who went to the siege of Troy.--Homer, _Iliad_.

=Nestor of the Chemical Revolution.= Dr. Black is so called by Lavoisier (1728-1799).

=Nestor of Europe=, Leopold, king of Belgium (1790, 1831-1865).

=Neu´ha=, a native of Toobouai, one of the Society Islands. It was at Toobouai that the mutineers of the _Bounty_ landed, and Torquil married Neuha. When a vessel was sent to capture the mutineers, Neuha conducted Torquil to a secret cave, where they lay _perdu_ till all danger was over, when they returned to their island home.--Byron, _The Island_. (The character of Neuha is given in canto ii. 7.)

=Nevers= (_Comte de_), to whom Valenti´na (daughter of the governor of the Louvre) was affianced, and whom she married in a fit of jealousy. The count having been shot in the Bartholomew slaughter, Valentina married Raoul [_Rawl_] her first love, but both were killed by a party of musketeers commanded by the governor of the Louvre.--Meyerbeer, _Les Huguenots_ (opera, 1836).

⁂ The duke [not _count_] de Nevers, being asked by the governor of the Louvre to join in the Bartholomew Massacre, replied that his family contained a long list of warriors, but not one assassin.

=Neville= (_Major_), an assumed name of Lord Geraldin, son of the earl of Geraldin. He first appears as Mr. William Lovell.

_Mr. Geraldin Neville_, uncle to Lord Geraldin.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

_Neville_ (_Miss_), the friend and _confidante_ of Miss Hardcastle. A handsome, coquettish girl, destined by Mrs. Hardcastle for her son Tony Lumpkin, but Tony did not care for her, and she dearly loved Mr. Hastings; so Hastings and Tony plotted together to outwit madam, and of course won the day.--O. Goldsmith, _She Stoops to Conquer_ (1773).

_Neville_ (_Sir Henry_), chamberlain of Richard Cœur de Lion.--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=New Atlantis= (_The_), an imaginary island in the middle of the Atlantic. Bacon in his allegorical fiction so called, supposes himself wrecked on this island, where he finds an association for the cultivation of natural science, and the promotion of arts.--Lord Bacon, _The New Atlantis_ (1626).

⁂ Called the _New_ Atlantis to distinguish it from Plato’s Atlantis, an imaginary island of fabulous charms.

=New Inn= (_The_), or THE LIGHT HEART, a comedy by Ben Jonson (1628).

=New Way to Pay Old Debts=, a drama by Philip Massinger (1625). Wellborn, the nephew of Sir Giles Overreach, having run through his fortune and got into debt, induces Lady Allworth, out of respect and gratitude to his father, to give him countenance. This induces Sir Giles to suppose that his nephew is about to marry the wealthy dowager. Feeling convinced that he will then be able to swindle him out of all the dowager’s property, as he had ousted him out of his paternal estates, Sir Giles pays his nephew’s debts, and supplies him liberally with ready money, to bring about the marriage as soon as possible. Having paid Wellborn’s debts, the overreaching old man is compelled, through the treachery of his clerk, to restore the estates also, for the deeds of conveyance are found to be only blank sheets of parchment, the writing having been erased by some chemical acids.

=New Zealander=, It was Macaulay who said the time might come when some “New Zealand artist shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul’s.”

⁂ Shelley was before Macaulay in the same conceit.--See _Dedication of Peter Bell the Third_.

=Newcastle= (_The duchess of_), in the court of Charles II.).[TN-32]--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

_Newcastle_ (_The marquis of_), a royalist in the service of Charles I.--Sir W. Scott, _Legend of Montrose_ (time, Charles I.).

=Newcastle Apothecary= (_The_), Mr. Bolus, of Newcastle, used to write his prescriptions in rhyme. A bottle bearing the couplet, “When taken to be well shaken,” was sent to a patient, and when Bolus called next day to inquire about its effect, John told the apothecary his master was dead. The fact is, John had shaken the _sick man_ instead of the bottle, and had shaken the life out of him.--G. Colman, Jr.

=Newcome= (_Clemency_), about 30 years old, with a plump and cheerful face, but twisted into a tightness that made it comical. Her gait was very homely, her limbs seemed all odd ones; her shoes were so self-willed that they never wanted to go where her feet went. She wore blue stockings, a printed gown of hideous pattern and many colors, and a white apron. Her sleeves were short, her elbows always grazed, her cap anywhere but in the right place; but she was scrupulously clean, and “maintained a kind of dislocated tidiness.” She carried in her pocket “a handkerchief, a piece of wax-candle, an apple, an orange, a lucky penny, a cramp-bone, a padlock, a pair of scissors, a handful of loose beads, several balls of worsted and cotton, a needle-case, a collection of curl-papers, a biscuit, a thimble, a nutmeg-grater, and a few miscellaneous articles.” Clemency Newcome married Benjamin Britain, her fellow-servant at Dr. Jeddler’s, and opened a country inn called the Nutmeg-Grater, a cozy, well-to-do place as any one could wish to see, and there were few married people so well matched as Clemency and Ben Britain.--C. Dickens, _The Battle of Life_ (1846).

_Newcome_ (_Colonel_), a widower, distinguished for the moral beauty of his life. He loses his money and enters the Charter House.

_Clive Newcome_, his son. He is in love with Ethel Newcome, his cousin, whom he marries as his second wife.--Thackeray, _The Newcomes_ (1855).

_Newcome_ (_Johnny_), any raw youth when he first enters the army or navy.

=Newman Noggs.= Ralph Nickleby’s clerk, but Ralph’s nephew’s friend and secret coadjutor.--Charles Dickens, _Nicholas Nickleby_.

=Newland= (_Abraham_), one of the governors of the Bank of England, to whom, in the early part of the nineteenth century, all Bank of England notes were made payable. A bank-note was called an “Abraham Newland;” and hence the popular song, “I’ve often heard say, sham Ab’ram you may, but must not sham Abraham Newland.”

Trees are notes issued from the bank of nature, and as current as those payable to Abraham Newland.--G. Colman, _The Poor Gentleman_, i. 2 (1802).

=Newman.= An intelligent American who has made a fortune as a manufacturer, yet kept his head steady. He sees life with clear, sometimes with amused eyes.

“In America,” Newman reflected, “lads of twenty-five and thirty have old heads and young hearts, or at least, young morals; abroad they have young heads and very aged hearts, morals the most grizzled and wrinkled.”--Henry James Jr., _The Americans_ (1877).

=Newton.=

Newton ... declared, with all his grand discoveries recent, That he himself felt only “like a youth Picking up shells by the great ocean, truth.”

Byron, _Don Juan_, vii. 5 (1824).

Newton discovered the prismatic colors of light, and explained the phenomenon by the emission theory.

Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night. God said, “Let Newton be,” and all was light.

Pope, _Epitaph, intended for Newton’s Monument in Westminster Abbey_ (1727).

Newton is called by Campbell “The Priest of Nature.”--_Pleasures of Hope_, i. (1799).

=Newton and the Apple.= It is said that Newton was standing in the garden of Mrs. Conduitt, of Woolsthorpe, in the year 1665, when an apple fell from a tree and set him thinking. From this incident he ultimately developed his theory of gravitation.

=Nibelung=, a mythical king of Nibelungeland (_Norway_). He had twelve paladins, all giants. Siegfried [_Sege.freed_], prince of the Netherlands, slew the giants, and made Nibelungeland tributary.--_Nibelungen Lied_, iii. (1210).

=Nibelungen Hoard=, a mythical mass of gold and precious stones which Siegfried [_Sege.freed_], prince of the Netherlands, took from Nibelungeland and gave to his wife as a dowry. The hoard filled thirty-six wagons. After the murder of Siegfried, Hagan seized the hoard, and, for concealment, sank it in the “Rhine at Lockham,” intending to recover it at a future period, but Hagan was assassinated, and the hoard was lost for ever.--_Nibelungen Lied_, xix.

=Nibelungen Lied= [_Ne.by-lung.’nleed_], the German _Iliad_ (1210). It is divided into two parts, and thirty-two lieds or cantos. The first part ends with the death of Siegfried, and the second part with the death of Kriemhild.

Siegfried, the youngest of the kings of the Netherlands, went to Worms, to crave the hand of Kriemhild in marriage. While he was staying with Günther, king of Burgundy (the lady’s brother), he assisted him to obtain in marriage Brunhild, queen of Issland, who announced publicly that he only should be her husband who could beat her in hurling a spear, throwing a huge stone, and in leaping. Siegfried, who possessed a cloak of invisibility, aided Günther in these three contests, and Brunhild became his wife. In return for these services, Günther gave Siegfried his sister Kriemhild, in marriage. After a time, the bride and bridegroom went to visit Günther, when the two ladies disputed about the relative merits of their respective husbands, and Kriemhild, to exalt Siegfried, boasted that Günther owed to him his victories and his wife. Brunhild, in great anger, now employed Hagan to murder Siegfried, and this he did by stabbing him in the back while he was drinking from a brook.

Thirteen years elapsed, and the widow married Etzel, king of the Huns. After a time, she invited Brunhild and Hagan to a visit. Hagan, in this visit, killed Etzel’s young son, and Kriemhild was like a fury. A battle ensued, in which Günther and Hagan were made prisoners, and Kriemhild cut off both their heads with her own hand. Hildebrand, horrified at this act of blood, slew Kriemhild; and so the poem ends.--Authors unknown (but the story pieced together by the minnesingers).

⁂ The _Völsunga Saga_ is the Icelandic version of the _Nibelungen Lied_. This saga has been translated into English by William Morris.

The _Nibelungen Lied_ has been ascribed to Heinrich von Ofterdingen, a minnesinger; but it certainly existed before that epoch, if not as a complete whole, in separate lays, and all that Heinrich von Ofterdingen could have done was to collect the floating lays, connect them, and form them into a complete story.

F. A. Wolf, in 1795, wrote a learned book to prove that Homer did for the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ what Ofterdingen did for the _Nibelungen Lied_.

Richard Wagner composed a series of operas founded on the Nibelungen Lied.

=Nibelungen Nôt=, the second part of the _Nibelungen Lied_, containing the marriage of Kriemhild with Etzel, the visit of the Burgundians to the court of the Hun, and the death of Günther, Hagan, Kriemhild, and others. This part contains eighty-three four-line stanzas more than the first part. The number of lines in the two parts is 9836; so that the poem is almost as long as Milton’s _Paradise Lost_.

=Nibelungers=, whoever possessed the Nibelungen hoard. When it was in Norway, the Norwegians were so called: when Siegfried [_Sege.freed_] got the possession of it, the Netherlanders were so called; and when the hoard was removed to Burgundy, the Burgundians were the Nibelungers.

=Nic. Frog=, the Dutch as a nation; as the English are called John Bull.--Dr. Arbuthnot, _History of John Bull_ (1712).

=Nica´nor=, “the Protospathaire,” a Greek general.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

=Nice= (_Sir Courtley_), the chief character and title of a drama by Croune (1685).

=Nicholas=, a poor scholar, who boarded with John, a rich old miserly carpenter. The poor scholar fell in love with Alison, his landlord’s young wife, who joined him in duping the foolish old carpenter. Nicholas told John that such a rain would fall on the ensuing Monday as would drown every one in “less than an hour;” and he persuaded the old fool to provide three large tubs, one for himself, one for his wife, and the other for his lodger. In these tubs, said Nicholas, they would be saved; and when the flood abated, they would then be lords and masters of the whole earth. A few hours before the time of the “flood,” the old carpenter went to the top chamber of his house to repeat his _pater nosters_. He fell asleep over his prayers, and was roused by the cry of “Water! water! Help! help!” Supposing the rain had come, he jumped into his tub, and was let down by Nicholas and Alison into the street. A crowd soon assembled, were delighted at the joke, and pronounced the old man an idiot and fool.--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (“The Miller’s Tale,” 1388).

_Nicholas_, the barber of the village in which Don Quixote lived.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. (1605).

_Nicholas_ (_Brother_), a monk at St. Mary’s Convent.--Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Nicholas_ (_St._), patron saint of boys, parish clerks, sailors, thieves, and of Aberdeen, Russia, etc.

_Nicholas_ (_St._). The legend is, that an angel told him a father was so poor he was about to raise money by the prostitution of his three daughters. On hearing this St. Nicholas threw in at the cottage window three bags of money, sufficient to portion each of the three damsels.

The gift Of Nicholas, which on the maidens he Bounteous bestowed, to save their youthful prime Unblemished.

Dantê, _Purgatory_, xx. (1308).

=Nicholas of the Tower= (_The_), the duke of Exeter, constable of the Tower.

=Nicholas’s Clerks=, highwaymen; so called by a pun on the phrase _Old Nick_ and _St. Nicholas_ who presided over scholars.

_St. Nicholas’s Clerks_, scholars; so called because St. Nicholas was the patron of scholars. The statutes of Paul’s School require the scholars to attend divine service on St. Nicholas’s Day.--Knight, _Life of Dean Colet_, 362 (1726).

=Nicholas Minturn=, hero of novel of that name, by Josiah Gilbert Holland (1876).

=Nickleby= (_Nicholas_), the chief character and title of a novel by C. Dickens (1838). He is the son of a poor country gentleman, and has to make his own way in the world. He first goes as usher to Mr. Squeers, schoolmaster at Dotheboys Hall, in Yorkshire; but leaves in disgust with the tyranny of Squeers and his wife, especially to a poor boy named Smike. Smike runs away from the school to follow Nicholas, and remains his humble follower till death. At Portsmouth, Nicholas joins the theatrical company of Mr. Crummles, but leaves the profession for other adventures. He falls in with the brothers Cheeryble, who make him their clerk; and in this post he rises to become a merchant, and ultimately marries Madeline Bray.

_Mrs. Nickleby_, mother of Nicholas, and a widow. She is an enormous talker, fond of telling long stories with no connection. Mrs. Nickleby is a weak, vain woman, who imagines an idiot neighbor is in love with her because he tosses cabbages and other articles over the garden wall. In conversation, Mrs. Nickleby rides off from the main point at every word suggestive of some new idea. As a specimen of her sequence of ideas, take the following example: “The name began with ‘B’ and ended with ‘g,’ I am sure. Perhaps it was Waters” (p. 198).

⁂ “The original of ‘Mrs. Nickleby,’” says John Foster, “was the mother of Charles Dickens.”--_Life of Dickens_, iii. 8.

_Kate Nickleby_, sister of Nicholas; beautiful, pure-minded, and loving. Kate works hard to assist in the expenses of housekeeping, but shuns every attempt of Ralph and others to allure her from the path of virgin innocence. She ultimately marries Frank, the nephew of the Cheeryble brothers.

_Ralph Nickleby_, of Golden Square (London), uncle to Nicholas and Kate. A hard, grasping money-broker, with no ambition but the love of saving, no spirit beyond the thirst of gold, and no principle except that of fleecing every one who comes into his power. This villain is the father of Smike, and ultimately hangs himself, because he loses money, and sees his schemes one after another burst into thin air.--C. Dickens, _Nicholas Nickleby_, (1838).

=Nicneven=, a gigantic, malignant hag of Scotch superstition.

⁂ Dunbar, the Scotch poet, describes her in his _Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy_ (1508).

=Nicode´mus=, one of the servants of General Harrison.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

=Nicole= (2 _syl._), a female servant of M. Jourdain, who sees the folly of her master, and exposes it in a natural and amusing manner.--Molière, _Le Bourgeois Gentlehomme_[TN-33] (1670).

=Night= or =Nox=. So Tennyson calls Sir Peread, the Black Knight of the Black Lands, one of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle Perilous.--Tennyson, _Idylls of the King_ (“Gareth and Lynette”); Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 126 (1470).

=Nightingale= (_The Italian_), Angelica Catala´ni; also called “The Queen of Song” (1782-1849).

_Nightingale_ (_The Swedish_), Jenny Lind, afterwards Mde. Goldschmidt. She appeared in London 1847, and retired from public life in 1851 (1821-1887).

=Nightingale and the Lutist.= The tale is, that a lute-master challenged a nightingale in song. The bird, after sustaining the contest for some time, feeling itself outdone, fell on the lute, and died broken-hearted.

⁂ This tale is from the Latin of Strada, translated by Richard Crashaw, and called _Music’s Duel_ (1650). It is most beautifully told by John Ford, in his drama entitled _The Lover’s Melancholy_, where Men´aphon is supposed to tell it to Ame´thus (1628).

=Nightingale and the Thorn.=

As it fell upon a day In the merry month of May, Sitting in a pleasant shade Which a grove of myrtles made-- Beasts did leap, and birds did sing, Trees did grow, and plants did spring, Everything did banish moan, Save the nightingale alone; She, poor bird, as all forlorn, Leaned her breast up-till a thorn.

Richard Barnfield, _Address to the Nightingale_ (1594).

So Philomel, perched on an aspen sprig, Weeps all the night her lost virginity, And sings her sad tale to the merry twig, That dances at such joyful mysery. Never lets sweet rest invade her eye; But leaning on a thorn her dainty chest, For fear soft sleep should steal into her breast, Expresses in her song grief not to be expressed.

Giles Fletcher, _Christ’s Triumph over Death_ (1610).

The nightingale that sings with the deep thorn, Which fable places in her breast.

Byron, _Don Juan_, vi. 87 (1824).

=Nightmare of Europe= (_The_), Napoleon Bonaparte (1769, reigned 1804-1814, died 1821).

=Nightshade= (_Deadly_). We are told that the berries of this plant so intoxicated the soldiers of Sweno, the Danish king, that they became an easy prey to the Scotch, who cut them to pieces.

⁂ Called “deadly,” not from its poisonous qualities, but because it was used at one time for blackening the eyes in mourning.

=Nimrod=, pseudonym of Charles James Apperley, author of _The Chase, The Road, The Turf_ (1852), etc.[TN-34]

=Nim´ue=, a “damsel of the lake,” who cajoled Merlin in his dotage to tell her the secret “whereby he could be rendered powerless;” and then, like Delilah, she overpowered him, by “confining him under a stone.”

Then after these quests, Merlin fell in a dotage on ... one of the damsels of the lake, hight Nimue, and Merlin would let her have no rest, but always he would be with her in every place. And she made him good cheer till she learned of him what she desired.... And Merlin shewed to her in a rock, whereas was a great wonder ... which went under a stone. So by her subtle craft, she made Merlin go under that stone ... and he never came out, for all the craft that he could do.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 60 (1470).

It is not unlikely that this name is a clerical error for Nineve or Ninive. It occurs only once in the three volumes. (See NINIVE.)[TN-35]

⁂ Tennyson makes Vivien the seductive betrayer of Merlin, and says she enclosed him “in the four walls of a hollow tower;” but the _History_ says “Nimue put him under the stone” (pt. i. 60).

=Nino-Thoma=,[TN-36] daughter of Tor-Thoma (chief of one of the Scandinavian islands). She eloped with Uthal (son of Larthmor, a petty king of Berrathon, a neighboring island); but Uthal soon tired of her, and, having fixed his affections on another, confined her in a desert island. Uthal, who had also dethroned his father, was slain in single combat by Ossian, who had come to restore the deposed monarch to his throne. When Nina-Thoma heard of her husband’s death, she languished and died, “for though most cruelly entreated, her love for Uthal was not abated.”--Ossian, _Berrathon_.

=Nine.= “It is by nines that Eastern presents are given, when they would extend their magificence[TN-37] to the highest degree.” Thus, when Dakiānos wished to ingratiate himself with the shah,

He caused himself to be preceded by nine superb camels. The first was loaded with nine suits of gold adorned with jewels; the second bore nine sabres, the hilts and scabbards of which were adorned with diamonds; upon the third camel were nine suits of armor; the fourth had nine suits of house furniture; the fifth had nine cases full of sapphires; the sixth had nine cases full of rubies; the seventh nine cases full of emeralds; the eighth had nine cases full of amethysts; and the ninth had nine cases full of diamonds.--Comte de Caylus, _Oriental Tales_ (“Dakianos and the Seven Sleepers,” 1743).

=Nine Gods= (_The_) of the Etruscans: Juno, Minerva, and Tin´ia (_the three chief_). The other six were Vulcan, Mars, Saturn, Herculês, Summa´nus, and Vedius. (See NOVENSILES.)

Lars Por´sĕna of Clusium By the nine gods he swore That the great house of Tarquin Should suffer wrong no more. By the nine gods he swore it, And named a trysting day ... To summon his array.

Lord Macaulay, _Lays of Ancient Rome_ (“Horatius,” i., 1842).

=Nine Orders of Angels= (_The_): (1) Seraphim, (2) Cherubim (_in the first circle_); (3) Thrones, (4) Dominions (_in the second circle_); (5) Virtues, (6) Powers, (7) Principalities, (8) Archangels, (9) Angels (_in the third circle_).

In heaven above The effulgent bands in triple circles move.

Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_, xi. 13 (1575).

Novem vero angelorum ordines dicimus; ... scimus (1) Angelos, (2) Archangelos, (3) Virtues, (4) Potestates, (5) Principatus, (6) Dominationes, (7) Thronos, (8) Cherubim, (9) Seraphim.--Gregory, _Homily_, 34 (A.D. 381).

=Nine Worthies= (_The_). Three were _pagans_: Hector, Alexander, and Julius Cæsar. Three were _Jews_: Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabæus. Three were _Christians_: Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon.

_Nine.[TN-38] Worthies_ (privy councillors to William III.). Four were _Whigs_: Devonshire, Dorset, Monmouth, and Edward Russell. Five were _Tories_: Caermarthen, Pembroke, Nottingham, Marlborough, and Lowther.

=Nine Worthies of London= (_The_): Sir William Walworth, Sir Henry Pritchard, Sir William Sevenoke, Sir Thomas White, Sir John Bonham, Christopher Croker, Sir John Hawkwood, Sir Hugh Caverley, and Sir Henry Maleverer.

⁂ The chronicles of these nine worthies are written in prose and verse by Richard Johnson (1592), author of _The Seven Champions of Christendom_.

=Nineve= (2 _syl._), the Lady of the Lake, in Arthurian romance.

Then the Lady of the Lake, that was always friendly unto King Arthur, understood by her subtle craft that he was like to have been destroyed; and so the Lady of the Lake, that hight Nineve, came into the forest to seek Sir Launcelot du Lake.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, ii. 57 (1470).

⁂ This name occurs three times in the _Morte d’Arthur_--once as “Nimue,” once as “Nineve,” and once as “Ninive.” Probably “Nimue” (_q.v._) is a clerical error.

=Ninon de Lenclos=, a beautiful Parisian, rich, _spirituelle_, and an atheist, who abandoned herself to epicurean indulgence, and preserved her charms to a very advanced age. Ninon de Lenclos renounced marriage, and had numberless lovers. Her house was the rendezvous of all the most illustrious persons of the period, as Molière, St. Evremont, Fontenelle, Voltaire, and so on (1615-1705).

=Niobe= [_Ne´.oby_], the beau-ideal of grief. After losing her twelve children, she was changed into a stone, which wept continually.

⁂ The group of “Niobe and her Children” in Florence, discovered at Rome in 1583, is now arranged in the Uffizii[TN-39] Gallery.

She followed my poor father’s body, Like Niobê, all tears.

Shakespeare, _Hamlet_, act i. sc. 2 (1596).

=Niobe of Nations= (_The_). Rome is so called by Byron.--_Childe Harold_, iv. 79 (1817).

=Nipper= (_Susan_), generally called “Spitfire,” from her snappish disposition. She was the nurse of Florence Dombey, to whom she was much attached. Susan Nipper married Mr. Toots (after he had got over his infatuation for Florence).

=Nippotate= (4 _syl._), “a live lion stuffed with straw,” exhibited in a raree-show. This proved to be the body of a tame hedgehog exhibited by Old Harry, a notorious character in London at the beginning of the eighteenth century (died 1710).

Of monsters stranger than can be expressed, There’s Nippotatê lies amongst the rest.

_Sutton Nicholls._

=Niquee= [_Ne´.kay_], the sister of Anasterax, with whom she lived in incest. The fairy Zorphee was her godmother, and enchanted her, in order to break off this connection.--Vasco de Lobeira, _Amadis de Gaul_ (thirteenth century).

=Nisroch= [_Niz´.rok_], “of principalities the prince.” A god of the Assyrians. In the book of _Kings_ the Septuagint calls him “Meserach,” and in _Isaiah_ “Nasarach.” Josephus calls him “Araskês.” One of the rebel angels in Milton’s _Paradise Lost_. He Says:[TN-40]

Sense of pleasure we may well Spare out of life, perhaps, and not repine, But live content, which is the calmest life; But pain is perfect misery, the worst Of evils, and, excessive, overturns All patience.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, (1665).

=Nit=, one of the attendants of Queen Mab.

Hop, and Mop, and Drap so clear, Pip, and Trip, and Skip, that were To Mab their sovereign dear-- Her special maids of honor. Fib, and Tib, and Pinck, and Pin, Tick, and Quick, and Jil, and Jin, Tit, and Nit, and Wap, and Win-- The train that wait upon her.

Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (1563-1631).

=Nitchs=, daughter of Amases, king of Egypt. She was sent to Persia to become the wife of Cambyses.--Georg Ebers, _An Egyptian Princess_.

=Nixon= (_Christal_), agent to Mr. Edward Redgauntlet, the Jacobite.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

_Nixon_ (_Martha_), the old nurse of the earl of Oxford.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

=No One= (_Cæsar or_). Julius Cæsar said, “Aut Cæsar aut nullus.” And again, “I would sooner be first in a village than second at Rome.”

Milton makes Satan say, “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.”

Jonathan Wild used to say, “I’d rather stand on the top of a dunghill than at the bottom of a hill in paradise.”

Tennyson says, “All in all or not at all.”--_Idylls_ (“Vivien”).

“Six thrice or three dice” (aces were called _dice_, and did not count).

=No Song no Supper=, a musical drama by Prince Hoare, F.S.A. (1790). Crop, the farmer, has married a second wife called Dorothy, who has an amiable weakness for a rascally lawyer named Endless. During the absence of her husband, Dorothy provides a supper for Endless, consisting of roast lamb and a cake; but just as the lawyer sits down to it, Crop, with Margaretta, knocks at the door. Endless is concealed in a sack, and the supper is carried away. Presently Robin, the sweetheart of Margaretta, arrives, and Crop regrets there is nothing but bread and cheese to offer him. Margaretta now volunteers a song, the first verse of which tells Crop there is roast lamb in the house, which is accordingly produced; the second verse tells him there is a cake, which is produced also; and the third verse tells him that Endless is concealed in a sack. Had there been no song there would have been no supper, but the song produced the roast lamb and new cake.

=Noah’s Wife=, Wâïla (3 _syl._), who endeavored to persuade the people that her husband was distraught.

The wife of Noah [_Wâïla_] and the wife of Lot [_Wâhela_] were both unbelievers ... and deceived their husbands ... and it shall be said to them at the last day, “Enter ye into hell fire.”--Sale, _Al Korân_, lxvi.

=Nobbs=, the horse of “Dr. Dove of Doncaster.”--Southey, _The Doctor_ (1834).

=Noble= (_The_), Charles III. of Navarre (1361, 1387-1425).

Soliman, _Tchelibi_, the Turk (died 1410).

⁂ Khosrou or Chosroës I. was called “The Noble Soul” (*, 531-579).

=Nodel=, the lion, in the beast-epic called _Reynard the Fox_. Nodel, the lion, represents the regal element of Germany; Isengrin, the wolf, represents the baronial element; and Reynard, the fox, the Church element (1498).

=Noel= (_Eusebe_), schoolmaster of Bout du Monde. “His clothes are old and worn, and his manner vacant.”--E. Stirling, _The Gold Mine_, or _Miller of Grenoble_, act i. sc. 2 (1854).

=Noggs= (_Newman_), Ralph Nickleby’s clerk. A tall man of middle age, with two goggle eyes (one of which was fixed), a rubicund nose, a cadavarous[TN-41] face, and a suit of clothes decidedly the worse for wear. He had the gift of distorting and cracking his finger-joints. This kind-hearted, dilapidated fellow “kept his hunter and hounds once,” but ran through his fortune. He discovered a plot of old Ralph, which he confided to the Cheeryble brothers, who frustrated it, and then provided for Newman.--C. Dickens, _Nicholas Nickleby_ (1838).

=Noko´mis=, mother of Weno´nah, and grandmother of Hiawatha. Nokomis was the daughter of the Moon. While she was swinging one day, some of her companions, out of jealousy, cut the ropes, and she fell to earth in a meadow. The same night her first child, a daughter, was born, and was named Wenonah.

There among the ferns and mosses ... Fair Nokomis bore a daughter, And she called her name Wenonah.

Longfellow, _Hiawatha_, iii. (1855).

=Non Mi Ricordo=, the usual answer of the Italian courier and other Italian witnesses when on examination at the trial of Queen Caroline (the wife of George IV.), in 1820.

“Lord Flint,” in _Such Things Are_, by Mrs. Inchbald (1786), when asked a question he wished to evade, used to reply, “My people know, no doubt, but I cannot recollect.”

“Pierre Choppard,” in _The Courier of Lyons_, by Edward Stirling (1852), when asked an ugly question, always answered “I’ll ask my wife, my memory’s so slippery.”

The North American society called the “Know Nothings,” founded in 1853, used to reply to every question about their order, “I know nothing about it.”

=Nona´cris’ Stream=, the river Styx, in Arcadia. Cassander says he has in a phial some of this “horrid spring,” one drop of which, mixed with wine, would act as a deadly poison. To this Polyperchon replies:

I know its power, for I have seen it tried. Pains of all sorts thro’ every nerve and artery At once it scatters,--burns at once and freezes-- Till, by extremity of torture forced, The soul consents to leave her joyless home.

N. Lee, _Alexander the Great_, iv. i (1678).

=Nonentity= (_Dr._), a metaphysician, and thought by most people to be a profound scholar. He generally spreads himself before the fire, sucks his pipe, talks little, drinks much, and is reckoned very good company. You may know him by his long grey wig, and the blue handkerchief round his neck.

Dr. Nonentity, I am told, writes indexes to perfection, makes essays, and reviews any work with a single day’s warning.--Goldsmith, _A Citizen of the World_, xxix. (1759).

=Norbert= (_Father_), Pierre Parisot Norbert, the French missionary (1697-1769).

=Norland= (_Lord_), father of Lady Eleanor Irwin, and guardian of Lady Ramble (Miss Maria Wooburn). He disinherited his daughter for marrying against his will, and left her to starve, but subsequently relented, and relieved her wants and those of her young husband.--Inchbald, _Every One has His Fault_ (1794).

=Norma=, a vestal who had been seduced, and discovers her paramour trying to seduce a sister vestal. In despair, she contemplates the murder of her base-born children.--Bellini, _Norma_ (1831); libretto, by Romani.

=Norman=, forester of Sir William Ashton, lord-keeper of Scotland.--Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

_Norman_, a “sea-captain,” in love with Violet, the ward of Lady Arundel. It turns out that this Norman is her ladyship’s son by her first husband, and heir to the title and estates; but Lady Arundel, having married a second husband, had a son named Percy, whom she wished to make her heir. Norman’s father was murdered, and Norman, who was born three days afterwards, was brought up by Onslow, a village priest. At the age of 14 he went to sea, and became captain of a man-of-war. Ten years later he returned to Arundel, and though at first his mother ignored him, and Percy flouted him, his noble and generous conduct disarmed hostility, and he not only reconciled his half-brother, but won his mother’s affection, and married Violet, his heart’s “sweet sweeting.”--Lord Lytton, _The Sea-Captain_ (1839).

=Norm-nan-Ord= or Norman of the Hammer, one of the eight sons of Torquil of the Oak.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

=Normandy= (_The Gem of_), Emma, daughter of Richard I. (died 1052).

=Norna of the Fitful Head=, “The Reimkennar.” Her real name was, Ulla Troil, but after her seduction by Basil Mertoun (Vaughan), and the birth of a son named Clement Cleveland (the future pirate), she changed her name. Towards the end of the novel, Norna gradually recovered her senses. She was the aunt of Minna and Brenda Troil.--Sir W. Scott, _The Pirate_ (time, William III.).

[_One_] cannot fail to trace in Norna--the victim of remorse and insanity, and the dupe of her own imposture, her mind too flooded with all the wild literature and extravagant superstitions of the north--something distinct from the Dumfriesshire gypsy, whose pretensions to supernatural powers are not beyond those of a Norwood prophetess.--_The Pirate_ (introduction, 1821).

=Norris=, a family to whom Martin Chuzzlewit was introduced while he was in America. They were friends of Mr. Bevan, rabid abolitionists, and yet hankering after titles as the gilt of the gingerbread of life.--C. Dickens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1844).

_Norris_ (_Black_), a dark, surly man, and a wrecker. He wanted to marry Marian, “the daughter” of Robert (also a wrecker); but Marian was betrothed to Edward, a young sailor. Robert, being taken up for murder, was condemned to death; but Norris told Marian he would save his life if she would promise to marry him. Marian consented, but was saved by the arrest of Black Norris for murder.--S. Knowles, _The Daughter_ (1836).

=North= (_Christopher_), pseudonym of John Wilson, professor of moral philosophy, Edinburgh, editor of _Blackwood’s Magazine_, in which appeared the “Noctes Ambrosianæ” (1805-1861).

_North_ (_Lord_), one of the judges in the State trial of Geoffrey Peveril, Julian, and the dwarf, for being concerned in the popish plot.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II).[TN-42]

=North Britain= (_The_), a radical periodical, conducted by John Wilkes. The celebrated number of this serial was No. 45, in which the ministers are charged “with putting a lie in the king’s mouth.”

=Northamptonshire Poet= (_The_), John Clare (1793-1864).

=Northern Harlot= (_The_), Elizabeth Petrowna, empress of Russia; also called “The Infamous” (1709-1761).

=Northern Wagoner=, a group of seven stars called variously Charles’s Wain, or Wagon, _i.e._ churl’s wain; Ursa Major, The Great Bear, and The Dipper. Four make the wagon, or the dipper, three form the shaft, or the handle. Two are called Pointers because they point to the Pole-star.

By this the northern wagoner has set His sevenfold team behind the steadfast star That was in ocean waves yet never wet, But firm is fixed, and sendeth light from far To all that on the wide deep wandering are.

Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, I. ii. 1 (1590).

=Norval= (_Old_), a shepherd, who brings up Lady Randolph’s son (Douglas) as his own. He was hidden at birth in a basket, because Sir Malcolm (her father) hated Douglas, whom she had privately married. The child being found by old Norval, was brought up as his own, but the old man discovered that the foundling was “Sir Malcolm’s heir and Douglas’s son.” When 18 years old, the foster-son saved the life of Lord Randolph. Lady Randolph took great interest in the young man, and when old Norval told her his tale, she instantly perceived that the young hero was in fact her own son.

_Young Norval_, the infant exposed and brought up by the old shepherd as his own son. He turned out to be Sir Malcolm’s heir. His mother was Lady Randolph, and his father Lord Douglas, her first husband. Young Norval, having saved the life of Lord Randolph, was given by him a commission in the army. Glenalvon, the heir-presumptive of Lord Randolph, hated the new favorite, and persuaded his lordship that the young man was too familiar with Lady Randolph. Being waylaid, Norval was attacked, slew Glenalvon, but was in turn slain by Lord Randolph. After the death of Norval, Lord Randolph discovered that he had killed the son of his wife by a former marriage. The mother, in her distraction, threw herself headlong from a lofty precipice, and Lord Randolph went to the war then raging between Denmark and Scotland.--J[TN-43] Home, _Douglas_ (1757).

(This was a favorite character with John Kemble, 1757-1823.)

=Norway= (_The Fair Maid of_), Margaret, granddaughter of Alexander III. of Scotland. She died (1290) of sea-sickness on her passage from Norway to Scotland. Her father was Eric II., king of Norway, and her mother was Margaret, only daughter of Alexander III.

=Nose= (_Golden_), Tycho Brahê, the Danish astronomer. Having lost his nose in a duel with one Passberg, he adopted a golden one, and attached it to his face by a cement which he carried about with him.

=Nosebag= (_Mrs._), wife of a lieutenant in the dragoons. She is the inquisitive travelling companion of Waverley when he travels by stage to London.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

=Nosey= (_Play up!_) This exclamation was common in our theatres in the days of Macklin, etc. M. Nozay was the leader of the orchestra in Covent Garden Theatre.

⁂ Some persons affirm that “Old Nosey” was Cervetto, the violoncello player at Drury Lane (1753), and say that he was so called from his long nose.

Napoleon III., was nicknamed _Grosbec_ (“Nosey”).

=Nosnot-Bocai= [_Bo´.ky_], prince of purgatory.

Sir, I last night received command To see you out of Fairy-land. Into the realm of Nosnot-Bocai.

King, _Orpheus and Eurydice_.

=Nostrada´mus= (_Michael_), an astrologer of the sixteenth century, who published an annual _Almanac_ and a _Recueil of Prophecies_, in verse (1503-1566).

=Nostrada´mus of Portugal=, Gonçalo Annês Bandarra, a poet-cobbler, whose career was stopped, in 1556, by the Inquisition.

=Nottingham= (_The countess of_), a quondam sweetheart of the earl of Essex, and his worst enemy, when she heard that he had married the countess of Rutland. The queen sent her to the Tower to ask Essex if he had no petition to make, and the earl requested her to take back a ring, which the queen had given him as a pledge of mercy in time of need. As the countess out of jealousy forbore to deliver it, the earl was executed.--Henry Jones, _The Earl of Essex_ (1745).

=Nottingham Lambs=, (_The_), the Nottingham roughs.

=Nottingham Poet= (_The_), Philip James Bailey, the author of _Festus_, etc. (1816- ).

=No´tus=, the south wind; _Afer_ is the south-west wind.

Notus and Afer, black with thundrous clouds.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, (1665).

=Noukhail=, the angel of day and night.

The day and night are trusted to my care. I hold the day in my right hand and the night in my left; and I maintain the just equilibrium between them, for if either were to overbalance the other, the universe would either be consumed by the heat of the sun, or would perish with the cold of darkness.--Comte de Caylus, _Oriental Tales_ (“History of Abdal Motallab,” 1743).

=Nouman= (_Sidi_), an Arab who married Amīnê, a very beautiful woman, who ate her rice with a bodkin. Sidi, wishing to know how his wife could support life and health without more food than she partook of in his presence, watched her narrowly, and discovered that she was a ghoul, who went by stealth every night and feasted on the fresh-buried dead. When Sidi made this discovery, Aminê changed him into a dog. After he was restored to his normal shape, he changed Aminê into a mare, which every day he rode almost to death.--_Arabian Nights_ (“History of Sidi Nouman”).

Your majesty knows that ghouls of either sex are demons which wander about the fields. They commonly inhabit ruinous buildings, whence they issue suddenly on unwary travellers, whom they kill and devour. If they fail to meet with travellers, they go by night into burying grounds, and dig up dead bodies, on which they feed.--“History of Sidi Nouman.”

=Nouredeen=, son of Khacan (vizier of Zinebi, king of Balsora). He got possession of the “beautiful Persian” purchased for the king. At his father’s death he soon squandered away his patrimony in the wildest extravagance, and fled with his beautiful slave to Bagdad. Here he encountered Haroun-al-Raschid in disguise, and so pleased the caliph, that he was placed in the number of those courtiers most intimate with his majesty, who also bestowed on him so plentiful a fortune, that he lived with the “beautiful Persian” in affluence all the rest of his life.--_Arabian Nights_ (“Nouredeen and the Beautiful Persian”).

=Nour´eddin´ Ali=, younger son of the vizier of Egypt. “He was possessed of as much merit as can fall to the lot of man.” Having quarrelled with his elder brother, he travelled to Baso´ra, where he married the vizier’s daughter, and succeeded his father-in-law in office. A son was born to him in due time, and on the very same day the wife of his elder brother had a daughter. Noureddin died when his son was barely twenty, and unmarried.--_Arabian Nights_ (“Noureddin Ali,” etc.).

=Nourgehan’s Bracelet.= Nourgehan, emperor of the Moguls, had a bracelet which had the property of discovering poison, even at a considerable distance. When poison was anywhere near the wearer, the stones of the bracelet seemed agitated, and the agitation increased as the poison approached them.--Comte de Caylus, _Oriental Tales_ (“The Four Talismans,” 1743).

=Nour´jahad=, a sleeper, like Rip Van Winkle, Epimen´idês, etc. (See SLEEPERS.)

=Nourjeham= (“_light of the world_”). So the Sultana Nourmahal was subsequently called.--T. Moore, _Lalla Rookh_ (“The Light of the Haram,” 1817).

=Nourmahal´= (_The sultana_), _i.e._ “Light of the Haram,” afterwards called _Nourjeham_ (“light of the world”). She was for a season estranged from the sultan, till he gave a grand banquet, at which she appeared in disguise as a lute-player and singer. The sultan was so enchanted with her performance, that he exclaimed, “If Nourmahal had so played and sung, I could forgive her all;” whereupon the sultana threw off her mask, and Selim “caught her to his heart.”--T. Moore, _Lalla Rookh_ (“The Light of the Haram,” 1817).

=Nouron´ihar=, daughter of the Emir Fakreddin; a laughing, beautiful girl, full of fun and pretty mischief, dotingly fond of Gulchenrouz, her cousin, a boy of 13. She married the Caliph Vathek, with whom she descended into the abyss of Eblis, whence she never after returned to the light of day.

The trick she played Bababalouk was this: Vathek, the caliph, was on a visit to Fakreddin, the emir´, and Bababalouk, his chief eunuch, intruded into the bathroom, where Nouronihar and her damsels were bathing. Nouronihar induced the old eunuch to rest himself on the swing, when the girls set it going with all their might. The cords broke, the eunuch fell into the bath, and the girls made off with their lamps, and left the meddlesome old fool to flounder about till morning, when assistance came, but not before he was half dead.--W. Beckford, _Vathek_ (1784).

=Nouroun´nihar=, niece of a sultan of India, who had three sons, all in love with her. The sultan said he would give her to him who, in twelve months, gave him the most valuable present. The three princes met in a certain inn at the expiration of the time, when one prince looked through a tube, which showed Nourounnihar at the point of death; another of the brothers transported all three instantaneously on a magic carpet to the princess’s chamber; and the third brother gave her an apple to smell of which effected an instant cure. It was impossible to decide which of these presents was the most valuable; so the sultan said he should have her who shot an arrow to the greatest distance. The eldest (Houssian) shot first; Ali overshot the arrow of his eldest brother; but that of the youngest brother (Ahmed) could nowhere be found. So the award was given to Ahmed.--_Arabian Nights_ (“Ahmed and Pari-Banou”).

=Novel= (_Father of the English_). Henry Fielding is so called by Sir W. Scott (1707-1754).

=Noven´siles= (4 _syl._), the nine Sabine gods, viz.: Herculês, Romulus, Esculapius, Bacchus, Ænēas, Vesta, Santa, Fortuna and Fidês or Faith. (See NINE GODS of the Etruscans.)

=Novit= (_Mr. Nichil_), the lawyer of the old laird of Dumbiedikes.--Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

=Novius=, the usurer, famous for the loudness of his voice.

... at hic si plaustra ducenta Concurrantque foro tria funera magna sonabit Cornua quod vincatque tubas.

Horace, _Satires_, i. 6.

These people seem to be of the race of Novius, that Roman banker, whose voice exceeded the noise of carmen.--Lesage, _Gil Blas_, vii. 13 (1735).

=Now-now= (_Old Anthony_), an itinerant fiddler. The character is a skit on Anthony Munday, the dramatist.--Chettle, _Kindheart’s Dream_ (1592).

=Nuath= (2 _syl._), father of Lathmon and Oith´ona (_q.v._).--Ossian, _Oithona_.

=Nubbles= (_Mrs._), a poor widow woman, who was much given to going to Little Bethel.

_Christopher_ or _Kit Nubbles_, her son, the servant in attendance on little Nell, whom he adored. After the death of little Nell, Kit married Barbara, a fellow-servant.--C. Dickens, _The Old Curiosity Shop_ (1840).

=Nugent Dubourg=, twin brother of Oscar Dubourg, somewhat conceited, who patronizes his brother, and would like to marry his brother’s betrothed, Lucilla Finch, blind and an heiress. Her sight is restored by an operation, and Nugent places himself where her eyes will first fall upon him, instead of on his disfigured brother. Beginning with this, he personates Oscar until Lucilla again loses her sight. He then yields her to his brother, joins an Arctic exploring expedition, and perishes in the Polar regions.--Wilkie Collins, _Poor Miss Finch_.

=Numa Roumestan=, French deputy from the South of France. Audacious, gay and unprincipled, he possesses all the qualities that render him “the joy of the street, the sorrow of the home.”--Alphonse Daudet, _Numa Roumestan_.

=Number Nip=, the name of the gnome king of the Giant Mountains.--Musæus, _Popular Tales_ (1782).

⁂ Musæus was a German, uncle of Kotzebue (died 1788).

=Nuncanou= (_Aurore and Clotilde_). Beautiful Creoles, mother and daughter, in George W. Cable’s novel, _The Grandissimes_.

=Nun’s Tale= (_The_), the tale of the cock and the fox. One day, dan Russell, the fox, came into the poultry-yard, and told Master Chanticlere, he could not resist the pleasure of hearing him sing, for his voice was so divinely ravishing. The cock, pleased with this flattery, shut his eyes, and began to crow most lustily; whereupon dan Russell seized him by the throat, and ran off with him. When they got to the wood, the cock said to the fox, “I would recommend you to eat me at once, I think I can hear your pursuers.” “I am going to do so,” said the fox; but when he opened his mouth to reply, off flew the cock into a tree, and while the fox was deliberating how he might regain his prey, up came the farmer and his men with scythes, flails, and pitchforks, with which they despatched the fox without mercy.--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (1388).

⁂ This fable is one of those by Marie, of France, called _Don Coc and Don Werpil_.

_Nun’s Tale_ (_The Second_). This is the tale about Maxime and the martyrs, Valerian and Tiburcê. The prefect ordered Maxime (2 _syl._) to put Valerian and Tiburcê to death, because they refused to worship the image of Jupiter; but Maxime showed kindness to the two Christians, took them home, became converted, and was baptized. When Valerian and Tiburcê were put to death, Maxime declared that he saw angels come and carry them up to heaven, whereupon the prefect caused him to be beaten to death with whips of lead.--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (1388).

⁂ This tale is very similar to that of St. Cecilia, in the _Legenda Aurea_. See also _Acts_ xvi. 25-34.

=Nupkins=, mayor of Ipswich, a man who has a most excellent opinion of himself, but who, in all magisterial matters, really depends almost entirely on Jinks, his half-starved clerk.--C. Dickens, _The Pickwick Papers_ (1836).

=Nurse= (_Rebecca_). Accused of witchcraft and acquitted by the court. “And suddenly, after all the afflicted out of court made a hideous outcry ... one of the judges expressed himself not satisfied, another, as he was going off the bench, said they would have her indicted anew.”

At the second trial she was condemned, and she was executed with the rest.

“The testimonials of her Christian behavior, both in the course of her life and at her death, and her extraordinary care in educating her children, and setting them a good example, etc., under the hands of so many, are so numerous that for brevity they are here omitted.”--Robert Calef, _More Wonders of the Invisible World_ (1700).

=Nut-Brown Maid= (_The_), the maid wooed by the “banished man.” The “banished man” describes to her the hardships she would have to undergo if she married him; but finding that she accounted these hardships as nothing compared with his love, he revealed himself to be an earl’s son, with large hereditary estates in Westmoreland, and married her.--Percy, _Reliques_, II.

This ballad is based on the legendary history of Lord Henry Clifford, called “The Shepherd Lord.” It was modernized by Prior, who called his version of the story _Henry and Emma_. The oldest form of the ballad extant is contained in Arnolde’s _Chronicle_ (1502).

=Nydia.= Greek flower-girl, blind and friendless. Glaucus is kind to, and protects her, finally purchases her of her brutal master. She loves him passionately and hopelessly, saves his life and that of his betrothed at the destruction of Pompeii; embarks with them in a skiff bound for a safer harbor, and while all are asleep, springs overboard and drowns herself.--E. L. Bulwer, _Last Days of Pompeii_ (1834).

=Nym=, corporal in the army under Captain Sir John Falstaff, introduced in _The Merry Wives of Windsor_ and in _Henry V._, but not in _Henry IV._ It seems that Lieutenant Peto had died, and given a step to the officers under him. Thus, Ensign Pistol becomes lieutenant, Corporal Bardolph becomes ensign, and Nym takes the place of Bardolph. He is an arrant rogue, and both he and Bardolph are hanged_ (Henry V._). The word means to “pilfer.”

It would be difficult to give any other reply save that of Corporal Nym--it was the author’s humor or caprice.--Sir W. Scott.

=Nymphid´ia=, a mock-heroic by Drayton. The fairy Pigwiggen is so gallant to Queen Mab as to arouse the jealousy of King Oberon. One day, coming home and finding his queen absent, Oberon vows vengeance on the gallant, and sends Puck to ascertain the whereabouts of Mab and Pigwiggen. In the mean time, Nymphidia gives the queen warning, and the queen, with all her maids of honor, creep into a hollow nut for concealment. Puck, coming up, sets foot in the enchanted circle which Nymphidia had charmed, and, after stumbling about for a time, tumbles into a ditch. Pigwiggen, seconded by Tomalin, encounters Oberon, seconded by Tom Thum, and the fight is “both fast and furious.” Queen Mab, in alarm, craves the interference of Proserpine, who first envelopes the combatants in a thick smoke, which compels them to desist, and then gives them a draught “to assuage their thirst.” The draught was from the river Lethê; and immediately the combatants had tasted it, they forgot not only the cause of the quarrel, but even that they had quarrelled at all.--M. Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (1593).

=Nysa=, daughter of Silēno and Mys´is, and sister of Daphnê. Justice Mi´das is in love with her; but she loves Apollo, her father’s guest.--Kane O’Hara, _Midas_ (1764).

=Nysê, Doto, and Neri´nê=, the three nereids who went before the fleet of Vasco da Gama. When the treacherous pilot steered the ship of Vasco towards a sunken rock, these three sea-nymphs lifted up the prow and turned it round.--Camoens, _Lusiad_, ii. (1569).

=O= (_Our Lady of_). The Virgin Mary is so called in some old Roman rituals, from the ejaculation at the beginning of the seven anthems preceding the _Magnificat_, as: “O, when will the day arrive...?” “O, when shall I see...?” “O, when...?” and so on.

=Oakly= (_Major_), brother to Mr. Oakly, and uncle to Charles. He assists his brother in curing his “jealous wife.”

_Mr. Oakly_, husband of the “jealous wife.” A very amiable man, but deficient in that strength of mind which is needed to cure the idiosyncrasy of his wife; so he obtains the assistance of his brother, the major.

_Mrs. Oakly_, “the jealous wife” of Mr. Oakly. A woman of such suspicious temper, that every remark of her husband is distorted into a proof of his infidelity. She watches him like a tiger, and makes both her own and her husband’s life utterly wretched.

_Charles Oakly_, nephew of the major. A fine, noble-spirited young fellow, who would never stand by and see a woman insulted; but a desperate debauchee and drunkard. He aspires to the love of Harriot Russet, whose influence over him is sufficiently powerful to reclaim him.--George Colman, _The Jealous Wife_ (1761).

=Oates= (_Dr. Titus_), the champion of the popish plot.

Forth came the notorious Dr. Oates, rustling in the full silken canonicals of priesthood, for ... he affected no small dignity of exterior decoration and deportment.... His exterior was portentous. A fleece of white periwig showed a most uncouth visage, of great length, having the mouth ... placed in the very centre of the countenance, and exhibiting to the astonished spectator as much chin below as there was nose and brow above it. His pronunciation was after a conceited fashion of his own, in which he accented the vowels in a manner altogether peculiar to himself.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

=Oaths.=

JOHN PERROT, a natural son of Henry VIII., was the first to employ the profane oath of _God’s Wounds_, which Queen ELIZABETH adopted, but the ladies of her court minced and softened it into _zounds_ and _zouterkins_.

WILLIAM the CONQUEROR swore by _the Splendor of God_.

WILLIAM RUFUS, by _St. Luke’s face_.

King JOHN, by _God’s Tooth_.

HENRY VIII., by _God’s Wounds_.

CHARLES II., by _Ods fish_ [God’s Flesh].

LOUIS XI. of France, by _God’s Easter_.

CHARLES VIII. of France, by _God’s Light_.

LOUIS XII., by _The Devil take me (Diable m’emporte)_.

The Chevalier BAYARD by _God’s Holyday_.

FRANCOIS I. used for asseveration, _On the word of a gentleman_.

HENRY III. of England, when he confirmed “Magna Charta,” used the expression, _On the word of a gentleman, a king and a knight_.

Earl of ANGUS (reign of Queen Mary), when incensed, used to say, _By the might of God_, but at other times his oath was _By St. Bride of Douglas_.--Godscroft, 275.

ST. WINFRED or BONI´FACE used to swear by _St. Peter’s tomb_.

In the reign of Charles II. fancy oaths were the fashion. (For specimens, see FOPPINGTON.)

The most common oath of the ancient Romans was _By Herculês_! for men; and _By Castor_! for women; _By Pollux_! for both.

Viri per _Herculem_, mulieres per _Castorem_, utrique per _Pollucem_ jurare soliti.--Gellius, _Noctes Atticœ_,[TN-44] ii. 6.

=Obad´don=, the angel of death. This is not the same angel as Abbad´ona, one of the fallen angels, and once the friend of Ab´diel (bk. vi.).

My name is Ephod Obaddon or Sevenfold Revenge. I am an angel of destruction. It was I who destroyed the first-born of Egypt. It was I who slew the army of Sennacherib.--Klopstock, _The Messiah_, xiii. (1771).

=Obadi´ah=, “the foolish fat scullion” in Sterne’s novel of _Tristram Shandy_ (1759).

_Obadiah_, clerk to Justice Day. A nincompoop, fond of drinking, but with just a shade more brains than Abel Day, who is “a thorough ass” (act i. 1).--T. Knight, _The Honest Thieves_ (died 1820).

This farce is a mere _réchauffé_ of _The Committee_ (1670), a comedy by the Hon. Sir R. Howard, the names and much of the conversation being identical. Colonel Blunt is called in the farce “Captain Manly.”

=Obadiah Prim=, a canting, knavish hypocrite; one of the four guardians of Anne Lovely, the heiress. Colonel Feignwell personates Simon Pure, and obtains the Quaker’s consent to his marriage with Anne Lovely.--Mrs. Centlivre, _A Bold Stroke for a Wife_ (1717).

=Obermann=, the impersonation of high moral worth without talent, and the tortures endured by the consciousness of this defect.--Etienne Pivert de Sen´ancour, _Obermann_ (1804).

=Oberon=, king of the fairies, quarrelled with his wife, Titania, about a “changeling” which Obĕron wanted for a page, but Titania refused to give up. Oberon, in revenge, anointed her eyes in sleep with the extract of “Love in Idleness,” the effect of which was to make the sleeper in love with the first object beheld on waking. Titania happened to see a country bumpkin, whom Puck had dressed up with an ass’s head. Oberon came upon her while she was fondling the clown, sprinkled on her an antidote, and she was so ashamed of her folly that she readily consented to give up the boy to her spouse for his page.--Shakespeare, _Midsummer Night’s Dream_ (1592).

=Oberon, the Fay=, king of Mommur, a humpty dwarf, three feet high, of angelic face. He told Sir Huon that the lady of the Hidden Isle (_Cephalonia_) married Neptanēbus, king of Egypt, by whom she had a son named Alexander “the Great.” Seven hundred years later she had another son, Oberon, by Julius Cæsar, who stopped in Cephalonia on his way to Thessaly. At the birth of Oberon the fairies bestowed their gifts on him. One was insight into men’s thoughts, and another was the power of transporting himself instantaneously to any place. At death he made Huon his successor, and was borne to paradise.--_Huon de Bordeaux_ (a romance).

=Oberthal= (_Count_), lord of Dordrecht, near the Meuse. When Bertha, one of his vassals, asked permission to marry John of Leyden, the count withheld his consent, as he designed to make Bertha his mistress. This drove John into rebellion, and he joined the anabaptists. The count was taken prisoner by Gio´na, a discarded servant, but was liberated by John. When John was crowned prophet-king the count entered the banquet-hall to arrest him, and perished with him in the flames of the burning palace.--Meyerbeer, _Le Prophète_ (opera, 1849).

=Obi.= Among the negroes of the West Indies “Obi” is the name of a magical power, supposed to affect men with all the curses of an “evil eye.”

=Obi-Woman= (_An_), an African sorceress, a worshipper of Mumbo Jumbo.

=Obi´dah=, a young man who meets with various adventures and misfortunes allegorical of human life.--Dr. Johnson, _The Rambler_ (1750-2).

=Obid´icut=, the fiend of lust, and one of the five which possessed “poor Tom.”--Shakespeare, _King Lear_, act iv. sc. 1 (1605).

=O’Brallaghan= (_Sir Callaghan_), “a wild Irish soldier in the Prussian army. His military humor makes one fancy he was not only born in a siege, but that Bellōna had been his nurse, Mars his schoolmaster and the Furies his playfellows.” He is the successful suitor of Charlotte Goodchild.--Macklin, _Love-à-la-mode_ (1759).

=O’Brien=, the Irish lieutenant under Captain Savage.--Captain Marryat, _Peter Simple_ (1833).

=Observant Friars=, those friars who observe the rule of St. Francis; to abjure books, land, house and chapel, to live on alms, dress in rags, feed on scraps and sleep anywhere.

=Obstinate=, an inhabitant of the City of Destruction, who advised Christian to return to his family, and not run on a wild-goose chase.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim’s Progress_, i. (1678).

=Occasion=, the mother of Furor; an ugly, wrinkled old hag, lame of one foot. Her head was bald behind, but in front she had a few hoary locks. Sir Guyon seized her, gagged her and bound her.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, ii. 4 (1590).

=Ochiltree= (_Old Edie_), a king’s bedesman or blue-gown. Edie is a garrulous, kind-hearted, wandering beggar, who assures Mr. Lovel that the supposed ruin of a Roman camp is no such thing. The old bedesman delighted “to daunder down the burnsides and green shaws.” He is a well-drawn character.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

=Ocnus= (_The Rope of_), profitless labor. Ocnus is represented as twisting with unwearied diligence a rope, which an ass eats as fast as it is made. The allegory signifies that Ocnus worked hard to earn money, which his wife spent by her extravagance.

=Octave= (2 _syl._), the son of Argante (2 _syl._). During the absence of his father, Octave fell in love with Hyacinthe, daughter of Géronte, and married her, supposing her to be the daughter of Signor Pandolphe, of Tarentum. His father wanted him to marry the daughter of his friend Géronte, but Octave would not listen to it. It turned out, however, that the daughter of Pandolphe and the daughter of Géronte were one and the same person, for Géronte had assumed the name of Pandolphe while he lived in Tarentum, and his wife and daughter stayed behind after the father went to live at Naples.--Molière, _Les Fourberies de Scapin_ (1671).

⁂ In the English version, called _The Cheats of Scapin_, by Thomas Otway, Octave is called “Octavian,” Argante is called “Thrifty,” Hyacinthe is called “Clara,” and Géronte is “Gripe.”

=Octavian=, the lover of Floranthê. He goes mad because he imagines Floranthê loves another; but Roque, a blunt, kind-hearted old man, assures him that Doña Floranthê is true to him, and induces him to return home.--Colman, the younger, _The Mountaineers_ (1793).

_Octavian_, the English form of “Octave” (2 _syl._), in Otway’s _Cheats of Scapin_. (See OCTAVE.)

=Octa´vio=, the supposed husband of Jacintha. This Jacintha was at one time contracted to Don Henrique, but Violante (4 _syl._), passed for Don Henrique’s wife.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Spanish Curate_ (1622).

_Octavio_, the betrothed of Donna Clara.--Jephson, _Two Strings to your Bow_ (1792).

=Octer=, a sea-captain in the reign of King Alfred, who traversed the Norwegian mountains, and sailed to the Dwina in the north of Russia.

The Saxon swaying all, in Alfred’s powerful reign, Our English Octer put a fleet to sea again.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xix. (1622).

=O’Cutter= (_Captain_), a ridiculous Irish captain, befriended by Lady Freelove and Lord Trinket. He speaks with a great brogue, and interlards his speech with sea terms.--George Colman, _The Jealous Wife_ (1761).

=Oc´ypus=, son of Podalirius and Astasia, noted for his strength, agility and beauty. Ocypus used to jeer at the gout, and the goddess of that disease caused him to suffer from it for ever.--Lucian.

=Odalisque=, in Turkey, one of the female slaves in the sultan’s harem (_odalik_, Arabic, “a chamber companion,” _oda_, “a chamber”).

He went forth with the lovely odalisques.

Byron, _Don Juan_, vi. 29 (1824).

=Ode= (_Prince of the_), Pierre de Ronsard (1534-1585).

=Odoar=, the venerable abbot of St. Felix, who sheltered King Roderick after his dethronement.--Southey, _Roderick, Last of the Goths_, iv. (1814).

⁂ Southey sometimes makes the word Odoar´ [_O´.dor_], and sometimes O´doar (3 _syl._), _e.g._:

Odoar´, the venerable abbot sat (2 _syl._).... Odoar´ and Urban eyed him while he spake.... The Lady Adosinda O´doar cried (3 _syl._).... Tell him in O´doar’s name the hour has come!

=O’Doh´erty= (_Sir Morgan_), a pseudonym of W. Maginn, LL.D., in _Blackwood’s Magazine_ (1819-1842).

=O’Donohue’s White Horses.= The boatmen of Killarney, so call those waves which, on a windy day, come crested with foam. The spirit of O’Donohue is supposed to glide over the lake of Killarney every May-day on his favorite white horse, to the sound of unearthly music.

=Odori´co=, a Biscayan, to whom Zerbi´no commits Isabella. He proves a traitor, and tries to defile her, but is interrupted in his base endeavor. Almonio defies him to single combat, and he is delivered bound to Zerbino, who condemns him, in punishment, to attend on Gabrina for twelve months, as her squire. He accepts the charge, but hangs Gabrina on an elm, and is himself hung by Almonio to the same tree.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

=Odors for Food.= Plutarch, Pliny, and divers other ancients tell us of a nation in India that lived only upon pleasing odors. Democ´ritos lived for several days together on the mere effluvia of hot bread.--Dr. John Wilkins (1614-1672).

=O’Dowd= (_Cornelius_), the pseudonym of Charles James Lever, in _Blackwood’s Magazine_ (1809-1872).

=Odyssey.= Homer’s epic, recording the adventures of Odysseus (_Ulysses_) in his voyage home from Troy.