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).
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. (Nasomeans “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).
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 thetiers étatwithdrew, constituted themselves into a deliberative body, and assumed the name of theAssemblée 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” inThe Last of the Mohicans; (4) “Natty Bumpo,” inThe Pioneer; and (5) “The Trapper,” inThe Prairie, in which he dies.
Nausic´aa(4syl.), 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(4syl.), 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 reverseThe tyrant’s wish, that, “mankind only hadOne 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 adotof £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 wasambrosia.
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(2syl.) 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,BibliothèqueOriental(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), orNelly 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, theVictory.
Now from the fleet of the foemen pastAhead of theVictory,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 gladTo pay our respects to theTrinidad.”So, full on the bow of the giant foe,Our gallantVictoryruns;Thro’ the dark’ning smoke the thunder brokeO’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 iseshort: “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 NemesisBreak 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(3syl.) orNepenthes, 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 hisOdyssey, 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 assuageHeart’s grief, and bitter gall away to chaseWhich stirs up anger and contentious rage;Instead thereof sweet peace and quietageIt doth establish in the troubled mind ...And such as drink, eternal happiness do find.Spencer,Faëry Queen, iv. 2 (1596).
Nep´omukorNep´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).
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(2syl.), 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, andNysê, 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 springWith all the vehemence and speed of wing.Camoens,Lusiad, ii. (1569).
Nerissa, the clever confidential waiting-woman ofPortia, the Venetian heiress. Nerissa is the counterfeit of her mistress, with a fair share of the lady’s elegance and wit. She marriesGratiano, a friend of the merchantAntonio.—Shakespeare,The Merchant of Venice(1698).
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 LatinNessus), 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 (5syl.), 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 (3syl.), 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 ofPylos,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 theBountylanded, and Torquil married Neuha. When a vessel was sent to capture the mutineers, Neuha conducted Torquil to a secret cave,where they layperdutill 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 [notcount] 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 andconfidanteof 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 theNewAtlantis to distinguish it from Plato’s Atlantis, an imaginary island of fabulous charms.
New Inn(The), orThe 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.—SeeDedication of Peter Bell the Third.
Newcastle(The duchess of), in the court of CharlesII.).—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 thesick maninstead 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).
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).
“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 youthPicking 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 GermanIliad(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).
***TheVölsunga Sagais the Icelandic version of theNibelungen Lied. This saga has been translated into English by William Morris.
TheNibelungen Liedhas 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 theIliadandOdysseywhat Ofterdingen did for theNibelungen Lied.
Richard Wagner composed a series of operas founded on the Nibelungen Lied.
Nibelungen Nôt, the second part of theNibelungen 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’sParadise 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 hispater 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 cottagewindow three bags of money, sufficient to portion each of the three damsels.
The giftOf Nicholas, which on the maidens heBounteous bestowed, to save their youthful primeUnblemished.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 phraseOld NickandSt. Nicholaswho 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 hisFlyting of Dunbar and Kennedy(1508).
Nicode´mus, one of the servants of General Harrison.—Sir W. Scott,Woodstock(time, Commonwealth).
Nicole(2syl.), a female servant of M. Jourdain, who sees the folly of her master, and exposes it in a natural and amusing manner.—Molière,Le BourgeoisGentlehomme(1670).
NightorNox. 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 calledMusic’s Duel(1650). It is most beautifully told by John Ford, in his drama entitledThe Lover’s Melancholy, where Men´aphon is supposed to tell it to Ame´thus (1628).
Nightingale and the Thorn.
As it fell upon a dayIn the merry month of May,Sitting in a pleasant shadeWhich 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 ofThe Chase, The Road, The Turf(1852), etc.
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 shewedto 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).
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 shewedto 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. (SeeNinive.)
***Tennyson makes Vivien the seductive betrayer of Merlin, and says she enclosed him “in the four walls of a hollow tower;” but theHistorysays “Nimue put him under the stone” (pt. i. 60).
Nino-Thoma,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 theirmagificenceto 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).
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. (SeeNovensiles.)
Lars Por´sĕna of ClusiumBy the nine gods he sworeThat the great house of TarquinShould 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 aboveThe 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).
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 werepagans: Hector, Alexander, and Julius Cæsar. Three wereJews: Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabæus. Three wereChristians: Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon.
Nine.Worthies(privy councillors to William III.). Four wereWhigs: Devonshire, Dorset, Monmouth, and Edward Russell. Five wereTories: 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 ofThe Seven Champions of Christendom.
Nineve(2syl.), the Lady of the Lake, in Arthurian romance.