VOLUME I

NEW YORK — SELMAR HESS — PUBLISHER

M D C C C X C I I

Copyright, 1892, by SELMAR HESS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

VOLUME I.

PHOTOGRAVURES AND ETCHINGS.

Illustration..................Artist

ICHABOD CRANE (colored).......E.A. ABBEY

CONSTANCE DE BEVERLEY................TOBY ROSENTHAL

LADY BOUNTIFUL.......................ROB. W. MACBETH

SYDNEY CARTON........................FREDERICK BARNARD

BERNHARDT AS CLEOPATRA...............From a Photograph from Life

ABBÉ CONSTANTIN......................MADELEINE LEMAIRE

CAPTAIN CUTTLE.......................FREDERICK BARNARD

THE TRUSTY ECKART....................JULIUS ADAM

ELAINE...............................TOBY ROSENTHAL

WOOD ENGRAVINGS AND TYPOGRAVURES.

ABELARD..............................A. GUILLEMINOT

ÆNEAS RELATING HIS STORY TO DIDO....P. GUÉRIN

ALBERICH'S PURSUIT OF THE NIBELUNGEN RING...HANS MAKART

ALETHE, PRIESTESS OF ISIS............EDWIN LONG

ALEXIS AND DORA......................W. VON KAULBACH

ALICE, THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER.........DAVIDSON KNOWLES

ANCIENT MARINER (THE)................GUSTAVE DORÉ

ANDROMEDA............................

ANGÉLIQUE AND MONSEIGNEUR DE HAUTECOEUR...JEANNIOT

ANGUS AND DONALD.....................W.B. DAVIS

ANTIGONE AND ISMENE..................EMIL TESCHENDORFF

ANTONY AND THE DEAD CÆSAR...........

ARCHIMEDES...........................NIC BARABINO

ARGAN AND DOCTOR DIAFOIRUS...........A. SOLOMON

ASHTON (LUCY) AND RAVENSWOOD.........SIR EVERETT MILLAIS

ATALA (BURIAL OF)....................GUSTAVE COURTOIS

AUGUSTA IN COURT.....................A. FORESTIER

AUTOMEDON............................HENRI REGNAULT

BALAUSTION...........................F.H. LUNGREN

BALDERSTONE (CALEB) AND MYSIE.......GEORGE HAY

BAREFOOT (LITTLE)....................F. VON THELEN-RÜDEN

BARKIS IS WILLIN'....................C.J. STANILAND

BAUDIN (THE DEATH OF)................J.-P. LAURENS

BAYARD (THE CHEVALIER)...............LARIVIÈRE

BEDREDEEN HASSAN (MARRIAGE OF) AND NOUREDEEN...F. CORMON

BELLENDEN (LADY) AND MAUSE HEADRIGG..WM. DOUGLAS

BENEDICK AND BEATRICE................HUGHES MERLE

BIRCH (HARVEY), THE PEDDLER-SPY.....

BLANCHELYS (QUEEN) AND THE PILGRIM...J. NOEL PATON

BOABDIL-EL-CHICO'S FAREWELL TO GRENADA...E. CORBOULD

BOADICEA.............................THOS. STOTHARD

BONNICASTLE (ARTHUR) AND MILLIE BRADFORD...

BOTTOM AND TITANIA...................SIR EDWIN LANDSEER

BRABANT (GENEVIÈVE DE)...............ERNST BOSCH

BRÄSIG, LINING AND MINING............CONRAD BECKMANN

BROOKING'S (JOHN) STUDIO.............A. FORESTIER

CÆSAR (THE DEATH OF).................J.L. GÉRÔME

CANTERBURY PILGRIMS (THE)............THOS. STOTHARD; WM. BLAKE

CAREW (FRANCIS) FINDING THE BODY OF DERRICK...HAL LUDLOW

CARMEN...............................J. KOPPAY

CATARINA.............................

CHARLES IX. ON THE EVE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW...P. GROTJOHANN

CHARLOTTE CORDAY AND MARAT..........JULES AVIAT

CHATTERTON'S HOLIDAY AFTERNOON.......W.B. MORRIS

CHILDREN (THE) IN THE WOOD...........J. SANT

CHILLON (THE PRISONER OF)............

CHRISTIAN ENTERING THE VALLEY OF HUMILIATION...F.R. PICKERSGILL

CINDERELLA AND THE FAIRY GOD-MOTHER..GUSTAVE DORÉ

CIRCE AND HER SWINE..................BRITON RIVIÈRE

CLARA (DONNA) AND ALMANZOR...........

CLARA, JACQUES AND ARISTIDE..........ADRIEN MARIE

CLAUDIO AND ISABELLA.................HOLMAN HUNT

COLUMBUS AND HIS EGG.................LEO. REIFFENSTEIN

CONSUELO.............................

COSETTE..............................G. GUAY

COSTIGAN (CAPTAIN)...................F. BARNARD

COVERLEY (SIR ROGER DE) COMING FROM CHURCH...CHAS. R. LESLIE

CYMON AND IPHIGENIA..................SIR FREDERICK LEIGHTON

DAPHNIS AND CHLOE....................GÉRARD

DARBY AND JOAN IN HIGH-LIFE..........C. DENDY SADLER

D'ARTAGNAN...........................

DEANS (EFFIE) AND HER SISTER IN THE PRISON...R. HERDMAN

DERBLAY (MADAME) STOPS THE DUEL......EMILE BAYARD

DIDO ON THE FUNERAL PYRE.............E. KELLER

DOMBEY (PAUL AND FLORENCE)..........

EGMONT AND CLÄRCHEN..................C. HUEBERLIN

ELECTRA..............................E. TESCHENDORFF

ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART............W. VON KAULBACH

ELIZABETH, THE LANDGRAVINE...........THEODOR PIXIS

ELLEN, THE LADY OF THE LAKE..........J. ADAMS-ACTON

ELLIE (LITTLE).......................

ERMINIA AND THE SHEPHERDS............DOMENICHINO

ESMERALDA............................G. BRION

ESTE (LEONORA D') AND TASSO..........W. VON KAULBACH

EVANGELINE...........................EDWIN DOUGLAS

EVE'S FAREWELL TO PARADISE...........E. WESTALL

CHARACTER SKETCHES OF ROMANCE, FICTION, AND THE DRAMA.

A'RON, a Moor, beloved by Tam'ora, queen of the Goths, in the tragedy of Titus Andron'icus, published among the plays of Shakespeare (1593).

(The classic name is Andronicus, but the character of this play is purely fictitious.)

Aaron (St.), a British martyr of the City of Legions (Newport, in South Wales). He was torn limb from limb by order of Maximian'us Hercu'lius, general in Britain, of the army of Diocle'tian. Two churches were founded in the City of Legions, one in honor of St. Aaron and one in honor of his fellow-martyr, St. Julius. Newport was called Caerleon by the British.

Aaz'iz (3 syl.), so the queen of Sheba or Saba is sometimes called; but in the Koran she is called Balkis (ch. xxvii.).

Abad'don, an angel of the bottomless pit (Rev. ix. 11). The word is derived from the Hebrew, abad, "lost," and means the lost one. There are two other angels introduced by Klopstock in The Messiah with similar names, but must not be confounded with the angel referred to in Rev.; one is Obaddon, the angel of death, and the other Abbad'ona, the repentant devil.

Ab'aris, to whom Apollo gave a golden arrow, on which to ride through the air.—See Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

Abbad'ona, once the friend of Ab'diel, was drawn into the rebellion of Satan half unwillingly. In hell he constantly bewailed his fall, and reproved Satan for his pride and blasphemy. He openly declared to the internals that he would take no part or lot in Satan's scheme for the death of the Messiah, and during the crucifixion lingered about the cross with repentance, hope, and fear. His ultimate fate we are not told, but when Satan and Adramelech are driven back to hell, Obaddon, the angel of death, says—

"For thee, Abbadona, I have no orders. How long thou art permitted to remain on earth I know not, nor whether thou wilt be allowed to see the resurrection of the Lord of glory ... but be not deceived, thou canst not view Him with the joy of the redeemed." "Yet let me see Him, let me see him!"—Klopstock, The Messiah, xiii.

Abberville (Lord), a young nobleman, 23 years of age, who has for travelling tutor a Welshman of 65, called Dr. Druid, an antiquary, wholly ignorant of his real duties as a guide of youth. The young man runs wantonly wild, squanders his money, and gives loose to his passions almost to the verge of ruin, but he is arrested and reclaimed by his honest Scotch bailiff or financier, and the vigilance of his father's executor, Mr. Mortimer. This "fashionable lover" promises marriage to a vulgar, malicious city minx named Lucinda Bridgemore, but is saved from this pitfall also.—Cumberland, The Fashionable Lover (1780).

Abbot (The), the complacent churchman in Aldrich's poem of The Jew's Gift, who hanged a Jew "just for no crime," and pondered and smiled and gave consent to the heretic's burial—

"Since he gave his beard to the birds." (1881.)

Abdal-azis, the Moorish governor of Spain after the overthrow of king Roderick. When the Moor assumed regal state and affected Gothic sovereignty, his subjects were so offended that they revolted and murdered him. He married Egilona, formerly the wife of Roderick.— Southey, Roderick, etc., xxii. (1814).

Ab'dalaz'iz (Omar ben), a caliph raised to "Mahomet's bosom" in reward of his great abstinence and self-denial.—Herbelot, 690.

He was by no means scrupulous; nor did he think with the caliph Omar ben Abdalaziz that it was necessary to make a hell of this world to enjoy paradise in the next.—W. Beckford, Vathek (1786).

Abdal'dar, one of the magicians in the Domdaniel caverns, "under the roots of the ocean." These spirits were destined to be destroyed by one of the race of Hodei'rah (3 syl.), so they persecuted the race even to death. Only one survived, named Thal'aba, and Abdaldar was appointed by lot to find him out and kill him. He discovered the stripling in an Arab's tent, and while in prayer was about to stab him to the heart with a dagger, when the angel of death breathed on him, and he fell dead with the dagger in his hand. Thalaba drew from the magician's finger a ring which gave him command over the spirits. —Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer, ii. iii. (1797).

Abdalla, one of sir Brian de Bois Guilbert's slaves.—Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).

Abdal'lah, brother and predecessor of Giaf'fer (2 syl.), pacha of Aby'dos. He was murdered by the pacha.—Byron, Bride of Abydos.

Abdallah el Hadgi, Saladin's envoy.—Sir W. Scott, The Talisman (time, Richard I.).

Abdals or Santons, a class of religionists who pretend to be inspired with the most ravishing raptures of divine love. Regarded with great veneration by the vulgar.—Olearius, i. 971.

Ab'diel, the faithful seraph who withstood Satan when he urged those under him to revolt.

Abelard and Eloise, unhappy lovers, whose illicit love was succeeded by years of penitence and remorse. Abelard was the tutor of Heloise (or Eloise), and, although vowed to the church, won and returned her passion. They were violently separated by her uncle. Abelard entered a monastery and Eloise became a nun. Their love survived the passage of years, and they were buried together at Père la Chaise.—Eloise and Abelard. By Alexander Pope (1688-1744).

Abensberg (Count), the father of thirty-two children. When Heinrich II. made his progress through Germany, and other courtiers presented their offerings, the count brought forward his thirty-two children, "as the most valuable offering he could make to his king and country."

Abes'sa, the impersonation of abbeys and convents in Spenser's Faëry Queen, i. 3. She is the paramour of Kirkrapine, who used to rob churches and poor-boxes, and bring his plunder to Abessa, daughter of Corceca (Blindness of Heart).

Abigail, typical name of a maid.—See Beaumont and Fletcher, Swift, Fielding, and many modern writers.

Abney, called Young Abney, the friend of colonel Albert Lee, a royalist.—Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, the Commonwealth).

Abon Hassan, a young merchant of Bag dad, and hero of the tale called "The Sleeper Awakened," in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. While Abon Hassan is asleep he is conveyed to the palace of Haroun-al-Raschid, and the attendants are ordered to do everything they can to make him fancy himself the caliph. He subsequently becomes the caliph's chief favorite.

Shakespeare, in the induction of Taming of the Shrew, befouls "Christopher Sly" in a similar way, but Sly thinks it was "nothing but a dream."

Philippe le Bon, duke of Burgundy, on his marriage with Eleonora, tried the same trick.—Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, ii. 2,4.

Abou Ben Adhem, "awakening one night from a deep dream of peace," sees an angel writing the names of those who love the Lord. Ben Adhem's name is registered as "one who loves his fellow-men." A second vision shows his name at the head of the list.

Abou Ben Adhem. By Leigh Hunt (1784-1859).

Abra, the most beloved of Solomon's concubines. Fruits their odor lost and meats their taste, If gentle Abra had not decked the feast; Dishonored did the sparkling goblet stand, Unless received from gentle Abra's hand; ... Nor could my soul approve the music's tone Till all was hushed, and Abra sang alone. M. Prior, Solomon (1664-1721).

Ab'radas, the great Macedonian pirate.

Abradas, the great Macedonian pirate, thought every one had a letter of mart that bare sayles in the ocean.—Greene, Penelope's Web (1601).

Abroc'omas, the lover of An'thia in the Greek romance of Ephesi'aca, by Xenophon of Ephesus (not the historian).

Ab'salom, in Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, is meant for the duke of Monmouth, natural son of Charles II. (David). Like Absalom, the duke was handsome; like Absalom, he was beloved and rebellious; and like Absalom, his rebellion ended in his death (1649-1685).

Ab'solon, a priggish parish clerk in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. His hair was curled, his shoes slashed, his hose red. He could let blood, cut hair, and shave, could dance, and play either on the ribible or the gittern. This gay spark paid his addresses to Mistress Alison, the young wife of John, a rich but aged carpenter: but Alison herself loved a poor scholar named Nicholas, a lodger in the house.—The Miller's Tale (1388).

Absolute (Sir Anthony), a testy but warm-hearted old gentleman, who imagines that he possesses a most angelic temper, and when he quarrels with his son, the captain, fancies it is the son who is out of temper, and not himself. Smollett's "Matthew Bramble" evidently suggested this character. William Dowton (1764-1851) was the best actor of this part.

Captain Absolute, son of sir Anthony, in love with Lydia Languish, the heiress, to whom he is known only as ensign Beverley. Bob Acres, his neighbor, is his rival, and sends a challenge to the unknown ensign; but when he finds that ensign Beverley is captain Absolute, he declines to fight, and resigns all further claim to the lady's hand.—Sheridan, The Rivals (1775).

Absyrtus, brother of Medea and companion of her flight from Colchis. To elude or delay her pursuers, she cut him into pieces and strewed the fragments in the road, that her father might be detained by gathering up the remains of his son.

Abu'dah, in the drama called The Siege of Damascus, by John Hughes (1720), is the next in command to Caled in the Arabian army set down before Damascus. Though undoubtedly brave, he prefers peace to war; and when, at the death of Caled, he succeeds to the chief command, he makes peace with the Syrians on honorable terms.

Abu'dah, in the Tales of the Genii, by H. Ridley, is a wealthy merchant of Bag dad, who goes in quest of the talisman of Oroma'nes, which he is driven to seek by a little old hag, who haunts him every night and makes his life wretched. He finds at last that the talisman which is to free him of this hag [conscience] is to "fear God and keep his commandments."

Acade'mus, an Attic hero, whose garden was selected by Plato for the place of his lectures. Hence his disciples were called the "Academic sect."

The green retreats of Academus. Akenside, Pleasures of Imagination, i (1721-1770).

Acas'to (Lord), father of Seri'no, Casta'lio, and Polydore; and guardian of Monimia "the orphan." He lived to see the death of his sons and his ward. Polydore ran on his brother's sword, Castalio stabbed himself, and Monimia took poison.—Otway, The Orphan (1680).

Aces'tes (3 syl.). In a trial of skill, Acestes, the Sicilian, discharged his arrow with such force that it took fire from the friction of the air.—The Æneid, Bk. V.

Longfellow, To a Child.

Achates [A-ka'-teze], called by Virgil "fidus Achates." The name has become a synonym for a bosom friend, a crony, but is generally used laughingly.—The Æneid.

Byron, Don Juan, i. 159.

Acher'ia, the fox, went partnership with a bear in a bowl of: milk. Before the bear arrived, the fox skimmed off the cream and drank the milk; then, filling the bowl with mud, replaced the cream atop. Says the fox, "Here is the bowl; one shall have the cream, and the other all the rest: choose, friend, which you like." The bear told the fox to take the cream, and thus bruin had only the mud.—A Basque Tale.

A similar tale occurs in Campbell's Popular Tales of the West Highlands (iii. 98), called "The Keg of Butter." The wolf chooses the bottom when "oats" were the object of choice, and the top when "potatoes" were the sowing.

Rabelais tells the same tale about a farmer and the devil. Each was to have on alternate years what grew under and over the soil. The farmer sowed turnips and carrots when the under-soil produce came to his lot, and barley or wheat when his turn was the over-soil produce.

Achille Grandissime, "A rather poor specimen of the Grandissime type, deficient in stature, but not in stage manner."—The Grandissimes, by George W. Cable (1880).

Achil'les (3 syl.), the hero of the allied Greek army in the siege of Troy, and king of the Myr'midons.—See Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

The English Achilles, John Talbot, first earl of Shrewsbury (1373-1453).

The duke of Wellington is so called sometimes, and is represented by a statue of Achilles of gigantic size in Hyde Park, London, close to Apsley House (1769-1852).

The Achilles of Germany, Albert, elector of Brandenburg (1414-1486).

Achilles of Rome, Sicin'ius Denta'tus (put to death B.C. 450).

Achit'ophel, "Him who drew Achitophel," Dryden, author of the famous political satire of Absalom and Achitophel. "David" is Charles II.; his rebellious son "Absalom" is the king's natural son, the handsome but rebellious James duke of Monmouth; and "Achitophel," the traitorous counsellor, is the earl of Shaftesbury, "for close designs and crooked counsels fit."

There is a portrait of the first earl of Shaftesbury (Dryden's "Achitophel") as lord chancellor of England, clad in ash-colored robes, because he had never been called to the bar.—E. Yates, Celebrities, xviii.

A'cis, a Sicilian shepherd, loved by the nymph Galate'a. The monster Polypheme (3 syl.), a Cyclops, was his rival, and crushed him under a huge rock. The blood of Acis was changed into a river of the same name at the foot of mount Etna.

Not such a pipe, good reader, as that which Acis did sweetly tune in praise of his Galatea, but one of true Delft manufacture.—W. Irving (1783-1859).

Ack'land (Sir Thomas), a royalist.—Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, the Commonwealth).

Ac'oe (3 syl.), "hearing," in the New Testament sense (Rom. x. 17), "Faith cometh by hearing." The nurse of Fido [faith]. Her daughter is Meditation. (Greek,, "hearing.")

Acras'ia, Intemperance personified. Spenser says she is an enchantress living in the "Bower of Bliss," in "Wandering Island." She had the power of transforming her lovers into monstrous shapes; but sir Guyon (temperance), having caught her in a net and bound her, broke down her bower and burnt it to ashes.—Faëry Queen, ii. 12 (1590).

Acra'tes (3 syl.), Incontinence personified in The Purple Island, by Phineas Fletcher. He had two sons (twins) by Caro, viz., Methos (drunkenness) and Gluttony, both fully described in canto vii. (Greek, akrates, "incontinent.")

Acra'tes (3 syl.), Incontinence personified in The Faëry Queen, by Spenser. He is the father of Cymoch'lês and Pyroch'lês.—Bk. ii. 4 (1590).

Acres (Bob), a country gentleman, the rival of ensign Beverley, alias captain Absolute, for the hand and heart of Lydia Languish, the heiress. He tries to ape the man of fashion, gets himself up as a loud swell, and uses "sentimental oaths," i.e. oaths bearing on the subject. Thus if duels are spoken of he says, ods triggers and flints; if clothes, ods frogs and tambours; if music, ods minnums [minims] and crotchets; if ladies, ods blushes and blooms. This he learnt from a militia officer, who told him the ancients swore by Jove, Bacchus, Mars, Venus, Minerva, etc., according to the sentiment. Bob Acres is a great blusterer, and talks big of his daring, but when put to the push "his courage always oozed out of his fingers' ends." J. Quick was the original Bob Acres.—Sheridan, The Rivals (1775).

Byron, Don Juan.

Joseph Jefferson's impersonation of Bob Acres is inimitable for fidelity to the spirit of the original, and informed throughout with exquisite humor that never degenerates into coarseness.