Part 201

=Hop-o’-my-Thumb.=--A character in the tales of the nursery. Tom Thumb and Hop-o’-my-Thumb are not the same, although they are often confounded. Tom Thumb was the son of peasants, knighted by King Arthur, and was killed by a spider. Hop-o’-my-Thumb was a nix, the same as the German “_daumling_,” the French “_le petit pouce_,” and the Scotch “Tom-a-lin” or “Tamlane.” He was not a human dwarf, but a fay.

=Horatio= (_hō-rā´shi-ō_).--_Hamlet_, Shakespeare. An intimate friend of Hamlet, a prince, a scholar, and a gentleman.

=Horatius Cocles.=--Captain of the bridge gate over the Tiber. He and two men to help him held the bridge against vast approaching armies. Subject and title of a poem by Lord Macauley.

=Horner, Jack.=--The name of a celebrated personage in the literature of the nursery. A Somersetshire tradition says that the plums which Jack Horner pulled out of the Christmas pie alluded to the title deeds of the abbey estates at Wells, which were sent to Henry VIII., in a pasty, and were abstracted on the way by the messenger, a certain Jack Horner.

=Hortense= (_hôr-ten´s_, or _or-tons´_).--_Bleak House_, Dickens. The vindictive French maid-servant of Lady Dedlock. In revenge for the partiality shown by Lady Dedlock to Rosa, Hortense murdered Mr. Tulkinghorn, and tried to throw the suspicion of the crime on Lady Dedlock.

=House of the Seven Gables, The.=--A romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1851. “In _The House of the Seven Gables_,” says R. H. Hutton, “we have a picture studied to impress on us that both personal character and the malign influences of evil action are transmitted, sometimes with accumulating force, even through centuries, blighting every generation through which they pass. The subject would apparently involve a series of sketches, but only two are introduced from the past, and the family characteristics are so anxiously preserved as to make even these seem like slight modifications of some of the living group. The only incident in the tale is the light thrown upon a crime--which had been committed thirty years before the story opens--by the sudden death of the principal representative of a family from the same disease, in the same chair, and under the same circumstances, as those of the old ancestor and founder of the family, whose picture hangs above the chair.”

=Hubbard, Old Mother.=--A well-known nursery rhyme. _Mother Hubbard’s Tale_, by Edmund Spenser, is a satirical fable in the style of Chaucer.

=Hubert de Burgh= (_börg_, or _berg_).--Justice of England, created Earl of Kent, introduced by Shakespeare into _King John_. He is the one to whom the young prince addresses his piteous plea for life. The lad was found dead soon afterward, either by accident or foul play.

=Hubert, Saint.=--The legend of Saint Hubert makes him a patron saint of huntsmen.

=Hudibras= (_hū´di-bras_).--The title and hero of a celebrated satirical poem by Samuel Butler. Hudibras is a Presbyterian justice of the time of the commonwealth.

=Hugh of Lincoln.=--A legendary personage who forms the subject of Chaucer’s _Prioress’ Tale_, and also of an ancient English ballad. Wordsworth has given a modernized version of this tale.

=Hugo Hugonet.=--_Castle Dangerous_, Scott. Minstrel of the earl of Douglas.

=Humphrey.=--The imaginary collector of the tales in _Master Humphrey’s Clock_, by Charles Dickens.

=Humpty Dumpty.=--The hero of a well-known nursery rhyme. The name signifies humped and dumpy, and is the riddle for an egg.

=Huon de Bordeaux= (_ü-ôn´de bor-dō´_).--A hero of one of the romances of chivalry bearing this name.

=Hural Oyun.=--In the fairy tales found in the Koran, these are the black-eyed daughters of paradise. They are created from muck, and are free from all physical weakness and are always young. It is held out to every male believer that he will have seventy-two of these girls as his household companions in paradise.

=Hylas= (_hī´las_).--A beautiful boy, beloved by Hercules, who was drawn into a spring by the enamored nymphs. The story has been treated by Bayard Taylor, and by William Morris in his _Life and Death of Jason_.

=Hypatia= (_hī-ā´shiä_).--A novel by the Rev. Charles Kingsley, the scene of which is laid in Alexandria, at a time when Christianity was gaining ground against Paganism and the neo-Platonism of the schools. Hypatia herself was born about the year 370, and, after attracting to her lectures on philosophy a large and brilliant auditory, was torn to pieces by the rabble of her native city in 415. _Hypatia_ appeared in 1853.

=Hyperion= (_hī-pē´ri-on_, or _hī-per-ī´on_).--A romance in four books, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This work, which was the result of an extensive tour in Germany, was published in 1839, and with much that is purely fanciful and imaginative, contains much that came within the actual experience of the author who is represented, idealized, in the character of Paul Flemming. The episode with Mary Ashburton is supposed to have reference to a real occurrence. The book is full of description and of eloquent discussion, besides being interspersed with snatches of legend and of song.

=Hypocrites’ Isle.=--An island described by Rabelais in one of his satires. He pictures this island of _Hypocrites_ as wholly inhabited by people of low and defiled natures, as, by sham saints, spiritual comedians, seducers, and “such-like sorry rogues who live on the alms of passengers like the hermit of Lamont.”

=I=

=Iago= (_ē-ä´gō_).--_Othello_, Shakespeare. Othello’s ensign and the villain of the play. Iago is said to be a character next to a devil, yet not quite a devil, which Shakespeare alone could execute without scandal.

=Idleness, The Lake of.=--_Faërie Queene_, Spenser. Whoever drank thereof grew instantly “faint and weary.” The Red Cross Knight drank of it, and was readily made captive by Orgoglio.

=Idylls of the King.=--A series of poems by Tennyson. Taken together they form a parable of the life of man. Each idyll taken as a separate picture represents the war between sense and soul. In _Lancelot and Guinevere_ the lower nature leads them astray and there is intense struggle before the higher nature prevails. In _Vivien_, _Tristram_, and _Modred_, the base and sensual triumph. In _Arthur_, _Sir Galahad_ and _Percivale_, it is the victory of the spiritual.

=Ignaro.=--_Faërie Queene_, Spenser. Fosterfather of Orgoglio. Spenser says this old man walks one way and looks another, because ignorance is always “wrong-headed.”

=Iliad= (_il´ē-ad_).--A famous Greek epic poem by Homer. It is the tale of the siege of Troy, in twenty-four books. It is written in Greek hexameters, and commemorates the deeds of Achilles and other Greek heroes at the siege of Troy. Books one, two and three are introductory to the war. Paris proposes to decide the contest by a single combat, and Menelaus accepts the challenge. Paris, being overthrown, is carried off by Venus, and Agamemnon demands that the Trojans shall give up Troy in fulfillment of the compact, and the siege follows. The gods take part, and frightful slaughter ensues. At length Achilles slays Hector, and the battle is at an end. Old Priam, going to the tent of Achilles, craves the body of his son Hector; Achilles gives it up, and the poem concludes with the funeral rites of the Trojan hero. Vergil continues the tale from this point, shows how the city was taken and burnt, and then continues with the adventures of Æneas, who escapes from the burning city, and makes his way to Italy.

=Imogen= (_im´ō-jen_).--The wife of Posthumus, and the daughter of Cymbeline in the play of Shakespeare’s under title _Cymbeline_. “Of all Shakespeare’s women,” says Hazlitt, “she is, perhaps, the most tender and the most artless.”

=Incantation.=--Is derived from a Latin root meaning simply “to sing.” It is the term in use to denote one of the most powerful and awe-inspiring modes of magic, resting on a belief in the mysterious power of words solemnly conceived and passionately uttered.

=Inchcape Rock.=--It is dangerous for navigators, and therefore the abbot of Aberbrothock fixed a bell on a float, which gave notice to sailors. Southey says that Ralph the Rover, in a mischievous joke, cut the bell from the buoy, and it fell into the sea; but on his return voyage his boat ran on the rock, and Ralph was drowned. Precisely the same tale is told of St. Goven’s bell.

=Inferno, The.=--_Divine Comedy_, Dante. Epic poem in thirty-four cantos. Inferno is the place of the souls who are wholly given up to sin. The ascent is through Purgatory to Paradise.

=Ingoldsby Legends= (_ing´gōldz-bi lej´endz_, or _lē´jendz_).--A collection of legends in prose and verse, supposed to have been found in the family chest of the Ingoldsby family, and related by Thomas Ingoldsby. Of the poetical pieces it is not too much to say that, for originality of design and diction, for quaint illustration and musical verse, they are not surpassed in the English language. From the days of Hudibras to our time, the drollery invested in rhyme has never been so amply or so felicitously exemplified; and if derision has been unsparingly applied, it has been to lash knavery and imposture.

=In Memoriam.=--A poem by Alfred Tennyson, published in 1850, and consisting of one hundred and thirty “short swallow flights of song,” in a measure which Tennyson has made his own. It is well known that these “brief lays, of sorrow born,” were written in memory of the author’s friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, who died in 1833. They are characterized by George MacDonald as forming “the poem of the hoping doubters, the poem of our age--the grand minor organ fugue of _In Memoriam_. It is the cry of the bereaved Psyche into the dark infinite after the vanished love. His friend is nowhere in his sight, and God is silent. Death, God’s final compulsion to prayer, in its dread, its gloom, its utter stillness, its apparent nothingness, urges the cry. Moanings over the dead are mingled with the profoundest questionings of philosophy, the signs of nature, and the story of Jesus, while now and then the star of the morning, bright Phosphor, flashes a few rays through the shifting cloudy dark. And if the sun has not arisen on the close of the book, yet the aurora of the coming dawn gives light enough to make the onward journey possible and hopeful.”

=Innocents Abroad.=--By Mark Twain. Travelers seeing Europe without any illusions. The fun consists in an irreverent application of modern common sense to historic associations, ridiculing sentimental humbug. An air of innocence and surprise adds to the drolleries of their adventures.

=Instauratio Magna= (_in-stâ-rā´shi-ō mag´nä_).--The title (_The Great Restoration_) which Bacon gave to his _Magnum Opus_, the design of which was for six divisions:--(1) _The Advancement of Learning_; (2) the _Novum Organum_; (3) the _Experimental History of Nature_; (4) the _Scala Intellectus_, which leads from experience to science; (5) the _Bodronic_, or anticipations of the second philosophy; and (6) _Active Science_, or experiment. Of these, only the first two, and a portion of the third (_Sylva Sylvarum_), were published. The idea that was to run through the _Instauratio_ was that invention must be based upon experience, and experience upon experiment.

=Interludes, The.=--Springing from the moralities and bearing some resemblance to them, though nearer the regular drama, are the interludes, a class of compositions in dialogue, much shorter and more merry and farcical. They were generally played in the intervals of a festival.

=Invocation.=--An address at the commencement of a poem, in which the author calls for the aid of some divinity, particularly of his muse.

=Iphigenia= (_if=´=i-jē-nī´ä_).--The heroine of Euripides’ tragedy _Iphigenia in Aulis_, and of Goethe’s tragedy _Iphigenia auf Tauris_. She was placed on the altar in a rash vow by her father. Artemis at the last moment snatched her from the altar and carried her to heaven, substituting a hind in her place. The similarity of this legend to the scripture stories of Jephthah’s vow and Abraham’s offering of his son Isaac is noticeable.

=Iras.=--A strongly delineated character in _Ben Hur, a Tale of The Christ_, by Lew Wallace.

=Iras.=--A female attendant on Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s play, _Antony and Cleopatra_.

=Isaac of York.=--A wealthy Jew, the father of Rebecca, in Sir Walter Scott’s novel, _Ivanhoe_.

=Isabella.=--The heroine in Shakespeare’s comedy, _Measure for Measure_.

=Island of Lanterns.=--In the celebrated satire of Rabelais, an imaginary country inhabited by false pretenders to knowledge. The name was probably suggested by the _City of Lanterns_, in the Greek romance of Lucian. Swift has copied this same idea in his _Island of Laputa_.

=Island of St. Brandan.=--A marvelous flying island, the subject of an old and widely spread legend of the middle ages. Though the island of St. Brandan has been a disappointment to voyagers, it has been a favorite theme with poets.

=Island of the Blest.=--Imaginary island in the west. Hither the favorites of the gods were conveyed without dying, and dwelt in never-ending joy. The name first occurs in Hesiod’s _Works and Days_. This phrase is often used in modern literature.

=Ithuriel= (_i-thö´ri-el_).--In Milton’s _Paradise Lost_, an angel commissioned by Gabriel to search through paradise, in company with Zephon, to find Satan, who had eluded the vigilance of the angelic guard, and effected an entrance into the garden. It is related that Ithuriel found Satan “squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve,” and transformed him by a touch of his spear into his proper shape.

=Ivanhoe.=--A novel by Sir Walter Scott. The hero, also Ivanhoe, figures as Cedric of Rotherwood’s disinherited son, the favorite of King Richard I., and the lover of the Lady Rowena, whom, in the end, he marries. The scene is laid in England in the reign of Richard I., and we are introduced to Robin Hood in Sherwood forest, banquets in Saxon halls, tournaments, and all the pomp of ancient chivalry. Rowena, the heroine, is quite thrown into the shade by the gentle, meek, yet high-souled Rebecca.

=Ivory Gate of Dreams.=--Dreams which delude pass through the ivory gate, but those which come true through the horn gate.

=J=

=Jack and the Bean-Stalk.=--A nursery legend said to be an allegory of the Teutonic _Al-fader_, the “red hen” representing the all-producing sun, the “money-bags” the fertilizing rain, and the “harp” the winds.

=Jack-in-the-Green.=--A prominent character in Maypole dances.

=Jack Robinson.=--A famous comic song by Hudson.

=Jack Sprat.=--The hero of a nursery rhyme. Jack and his wife form a fine combination in domestic economy.

=Jack the Giant-killer.=--The name of a famous hero in the literature of the nursery, the subject of one of the Teutonic or Indo-European legends, which have become nationalized in England and America.

=Jaquenetta= (_jak-e-net´ä_).--_Love’s Labor’s Lost_, Shakespeare. A country wench courted by Don Adriano de Armado.

=Jaques= (_zhä´kes_).--A lord attending upon the exiled duke, in Shakespeare’s _As You Like It_. A contemplative character who thinks and does--nothing. He is called the “melancholy Jaques,” and affects a cynical philosophy. He could “suck melancholy out of a song, as a weasel sucks eggs.”

=Jarley, Mrs.=--The proprietor of a waxwork show in Dickens’ _Old Curiosity Shop_. She has lent her name to a popular game of parlor tableaux.

=Jarndyce= (_järn´dis_), =John.=--A prominent figure in Dickens’ _Bleak House_, distinguished for his philanthropy, easy good-nature and good sense, and for always saying, “The wind is in the east,” when anything went wrong with him. The famous suit of Jarndyce _vs._ Jarndyce, in this novel, is a satire upon the court of chancery.

=Jarvie, Nicol.=--A prominent character in Sir Walter Scott’s novel _Rob Roy_. He is a bailie of Glasgow.

=Javert= (_zhä-var´_).--An officer of the police force in _Les Misérables_, by Victor Hugo. He is the incarnation of inexorable law.

=Jarvis.=--A faithful old servant, in Moore’s _The Gamester_, who tries to save his master, Beverley, from his fatal passion of gambling.

=Jaup.=--An old woman at Middlemas village, in Scott’s _The Surgeon’s Daughter_.

=Jekyll, Doctor, and Mr. Hyde.=--A singular romance by Robert Louis Stevenson. The hero is a duplex character--Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Doctor Jekyll is a benevolent and upright physician, who by means of a potion is able to transform himself for a time into a second personality, Mr. Hyde, of a brutal and animal nature.

=Jellyby= (_jel´i-bi_), =Mrs.=--A character in Dickens’ novel, Bleak House, a type of sham philanthropy. She spends her time and energy on foreign missions to the neglect of her family. Mrs. Jellyby is quite overwhelmed with business correspondence relative to the affairs of Borrioboola Gha.

=Jenkins, Winifred.=--The name of Miss Tabitha Bramble’s maid in Smollett’s _Expedition of Humphrey Clinker_. She makes ridiculous blunders in speaking and writing.

=Jenkinson, Ephraim.=--A green old swindler, whom Dr. Primrose met in a public tavern. Dr. Primrose sold the swindler his horse, Old Blackberry, for a draft upon Farmer Flamborough.

=Jeroboam= (_jer-ō-bō´am_) =Sermon.=--One of Dr. Emmons’ sermons, which made a great noise at the time. It was known as his Jeroboam Sermon. It was written on the occasion of Jefferson’s inauguration as president, and, although Jefferson is not named, the delineation of the character of Jeroboam is such that no one can doubt the personal application intended.

=Jerusalem Delivered.=--An epic in twenty books, by Torquato Tasso. The crusaders, encamped on the plains of Tortosa, chose Godfrey for their chief, and Alandine, king of Jerusalem, made preparations for defense. The Christian army having reached Jerusalem, the king of Damascus sent Armida to beguile the Christians. It was found that Jerusalem could never be taken without the aid of Rinaldo. Godfrey, being informed that the hero was dallying with Armida in the enchanted island, sent to invite him back to the army; he returned, and Jerusalem was taken. Armida fled into Egypt, and offered to marry any knight who slew Rinaldo. The love of Rinaldo returned, he pursued her and she relented. The poem concludes with the triumphant entry of the Christian army into the Holy City, and their devotions at the tomb of the Redeemer. The two chief episodes are the loves of Olindo and Sofronia, and of Tancred and Clorinda.

=Jessica= (_jes´i-kä_).--The beautiful daughter of Shylock, in Shakespeare’s _Merchant of Venice_.

=Jones, Tom.=--The hero of Fielding’s novel entitled _The History of a Foundling_, represented as a model of generosity, openness, and manly spirit, though thoughtless and dissipated.

=Joyeuse= (_zhwä-yez´_).--The sword of Charlemagne as mentioned in romances of chivalry.

=Joyeuse Garde= (_zhwä-yez´ gärd_).--The residence of the famous Lancelot du Lac.

=Judith.=--The heroine in the book by the same name in the Apocrypha. She was a beautiful Jewess of Bethulia, who, when her town was besieged by Holofernes, the general of Nebuchadnezzar, attended him in his tent, and, when he was drunk, killed him, whereupon her townsmen fell upon the Assyrians and defeated them with great slaughter. The tale is not mentioned by Josephus, and has, from an early period, been held to be an allegory. It has frequently furnished poets and painters with subjects.

=Julius Cæsar.=--An historical tragedy by William Shakespeare. The poet was in this, as in other plays, materially assisted by North’s translation of Plutarch. “Shakespeare’s _Julius Cæsar_,” says Hazlitt, “is not equal, as a whole, to either of his other plays taken from the Roman history. It is inferior in interest to _Coriolanus_, and both in interest and power to _Antony and Cleopatra_. It, however, abounds in admirable and affecting passages, and is remarkable for the profound knowledge of character, in which Shakespeare could hardly fail.”

=K=

=Kadir, Al.=--The night on which the _Koran_ was sent down to Mohammed. Al Kadir is supposed to be the seventh of the last ten nights of Ramadan, or the night between the twenty-third and twenty-fourth days of the month.

=Kay.=--A foster brother of King Arthur, and a rude and boastful knight of the Round Table. He was the butt of King Arthur’s court. Called also Sir Queux. He appears in the _Boy and the Mantle_, in Percy’s _Reliques_. Sir Kay is represented as the type of rude boastfulness, Sir Gawain of courtesy, Sir Launcelot of chivalry, Sir Mordred of treachery, Sir Galahad of chastity, Sir Mark of cowardice.

=Kehama= (_kē-hä´mä_).--A Hindu rajah who obtains and sports with supernatural power. His adventures are related in Southey’s poem entitled _The Curse of Kehama_.

=Kenilworth.=--A novel by Sir Walter Scott. This is very superior to _The Abbot_ and _The Monastery_. For interest it comes next to _Ivanhoe_, and the portrait of Queen Elizabeth is lifelike and correct. That of Queen Mary is given in _The Abbot_. Full of courtly gayeties and splendor, the novel contains the unhappy tale of the beautiful Amy Robsart, which cannot fail to excite our sympathy and pity.

=Kent, Earl of.=--A rough, plain-spoken, but faithful nobleman in Shakespeare’s _King Lear_, who follows the fallen fortunes of the king, disguised as a servant, under the assumed name of Caius.

=Kenwigs= (_ken´wigz_).--A family in Dickens’ novel _Nicholas Nickleby_, including a number of little girls who differed from one another only in the length of their frilled pantalets and of their flaxen pigtails tied with bows of blue ribbon.

=Kilkenny Cats.=--Two cats, in an Irish story, which fought till nothing was left but their tails. It is probably a parable of a local contest between Kilkenny and Irishtown, which impoverished both boroughs.

=Kilmansegg, Miss.=--An heiress with great expectations and an artificial leg of solid gold, in Hood’s poem, _A Golden Legend_.

=King Horn.=--A metrical romance which was very popular in the thirteenth century. King Horn is a beautiful young prince who is carried away by pirates; but his life is spared, and after many wonderful adventures he weds a princess, and regains his father’s kingdom.

=King Lear.=--A tragedy by Shakespeare whose hero is a fabulous or legendary king of Britain. He had three daughters, and when four score years old, wishing to retire from the active duties of sovereignty, resolved to divide his kingdom between them, but was persuaded to disinherit Cordelia. The beauty of the play is the exquisite character of Cordelia, who is a “perfect woman.”

=King Log and King Stork.=--Characters in a celebrated fable of Æsop, which relates that the frogs, grown weary of living without a government, petitioned Jupiter for a king. Jupiter accordingly threw down a log among them, which made a satisfactory ruler till the frogs recovered from their fright and discovered his real nature. They, therefore, entreated Jupiter for another king, whereupon he sent them a stork, who immediately began to devour them.

=Klaus, Peter.=--The hero of an old popular tradition of Germany--the prototype of Rip Van Winkle--represented as a goatherd.

=Knickerbocker, Diedrich.=--The imaginary author of a humorous fictitious _History of New York_, written by Washington Irving.

=Knight of the Swan.=--Lohengrin, son of Parsival, because his boat was drawn by a swan.

=Knights of the Round Table.=--King Arthur’s knights were so called because they sat with him at a round table made by Merlin for King Leodogran. This king gave it to Arthur on his marriage with Guinevere, his daughter.

=Koppenberg.=--The mountain of Westphalia to which the pied piper (Bunting) led the children, when the people of Hamelin refused to pay him for killing their rats. Browning’s poem, _The Pied Piper_, tells the tale.

=L=