It was many and many a year ago,In a kingdom by the sea,That a maiden there lived whom you may knowBy the name of Annabel Lee.
It was many and many a year ago,In a kingdom by the sea,That a maiden there lived whom you may knowBy the name of Annabel Lee.
Anne.—Perrault’sLa Barbe Bleue, the sister of Fatima, the seventh and last wife of Bluebeard. Fatima, having disobeyed her lord by looking into the locked chamber, is allowed a short respite before execution. Sister Anne ascends the high tower of the castle, with the hope of seeing her brothers, who were expected to arrive every moment. Fatima, in her agony, keeps asking “sister Anne” if she can see them, and Bluebeard keeps crying out for Fatima to use greater dispatch. As the patience of both is exhausted the brothers arrive, and Fatima is rescued from death.
Annie Laurie, eldest of the three daughters of Sir Robert Laurie, of Maxwelton. In 1709 she married James Fergusson, of Craigdarroch, and was the mother of Alexander Fergusson, the hero of Burns’ songThe Whistle. The song ofAnnie Lauriewas written by William Douglas, of Fingland, in the stewardy of Kirkcudbright, hero of the songWillie Was a Wanton Wag.
Antipholus of Ephesus(an-tif´ō-lus ov ef´e-sus), andAntipholus of Syracuse(sir´a-kūs).—Twin brothers, sons to Ægeon and Æmilia, in Shakespeare’sComedy of Errors.
Antonio(än-tō´nē-ō).—(1) The merchant of Venice in Shakespeare’s play of that name, the friend of Bassanio, and the object of Shylock’s hatred. (2) The usurping Duke of Milan, and brother to Prospero, in Shakespeare’sTempest. (3) The father of Proteus, in Shakespeare’sTwo Gentlemen of Verona. (4) A minor character in Shakespeare’sMuch Ado About Nothing. (5) A sea captain, friend to Sebastian, in Shakespeare’sTwelfth Night.
Antony and Cleopatra.—Historical tragedy by Shakespeare which may be considered as a continuation ofJulius Cæsar. In the opening scene ofJulius Cæsarabsolute power is lodged in one man. In the conclusion ofAntony and Cleopatraa second Cæsar is again in possession of absolute power, and the entire Roman world is limited under one imperial ruler. There are four prominent characters in this play: Cleopatra, voluptuous, fascinating, gross in her faults, but great in the power of her affections; Octavius Cæsar, cool, prudent, calculating, avaricious; Antony, quick, brave, reckless, prodigal; Enobarbus, a friend of Antony, at first jocular and blunt, but transformed by penitence into a grief-stricken man who dies in the bitterness of despair.
Apocalypse.—The Greek name of the last book of the Testament, termed in EnglishRevelation. It has been generally attributed to the Apostle St. John, but some wholly reject it as spurious. In the first centuries many churches disowned it, and in the fourth century it was excluded from the sacred canon by the council of Laodicea, but was again received by other councils, and confirmed by that of Trent, held in the year 1545. Most commentators suppose it to have been written after the destruction of Jerusalem, about A. D. 96; while others assign it an earlier date. Its figures and symbols are impressive.
Apocrypha(a-pok´ri-fä).—The word originally meant secret or hidden, and it is said that books of theApocryphaare not found in either the Chaldean or the Hebrew language. These books were not in the Jewish canon, but they were received as canonical by the Catholic church, by the council of Trent. The apocryphal writings are ten in number:Baruch,Ecclesiasticus,Wisdom of Solomon,Tobit,Judith, two books of theMaccabees,Song of the Three Children,Susannah, andBell and the Dragon. Their style proves that they were a part of the Jewish-Greek literature of Alexandria, within three hundred years before Christ; and as the Septuagint Greek version of the Hebrew Bible came from the same quarter, it was often accompanied by these Greek writings, and they gained a general circulation. No trace of them is found in the Talmud; they are mostly of legendary character, but some of them are of value for their historical information, their moral and maxims, and for the illustrations they give of ancient life.
Apologia pro Vita Sua:“Being a History of His Religious Opinions,” published by John Henry Newman. TheApologiawill probably never be equaled as a specimen of acute self-analysis. The only subsequent work of a similar nature with which it can be compared or associated is Mr. Gladstone’sChapter of Autobiography, which was designed to defend the consistency of his action in reference to the Irish church.
Arabian Nights Entertainments, consisting of one thousand and one stories, told by the sultana of the Indies to divert the sultan from the execution of a bloody vow he made to marry a lady every day and have her head cut off next morning, to avenge himself for the disloyalty of the first sultana. The story on which all the others hang is familiar. Scheherezade, the generous, beautiful young daughter of the vizier, like another Esther, resolves to risk her life in order to save the poor maidens of her city, whom the sultan is marrying and beheading at the rate of one a day. She plans to tell an interesting story each night to the sultan, breaking off in a very exciting place in order that the sultan may be tempted to spare her life so that he may hear the sequel.
Aram(ā´ram),Eugene.—A romance by Lord Lytton, founded on the story of the Knaresborough schoolmaster who committed a murder under peculiar circumstances.
Archimage(är´ki-māj), orArchimago(är-ki-mā´gō).—A character in Spenser’sFaërie Queene, a hypocrite or deceiver. He is opposed to holiness embodied in the Red Cross Knight, wins the confidence of the knight in the disguise of a reverend hermit, and by the help of Duessa, or Deceit, separates him from Una, or Truth.
B
Barons’ Wars, The.—An historical poem, in six books, by Michael Drayton. “In some historic sketches,” says Campbell, “he reaches a manner beyond himself. The pictures of Mortimer and the queen, and of Edward’s entrance into the castle, are splendid and spirited.”
Bartholomew(bär-thol´ō-mū)Fair.—A comedy by Ben Jonson, valuable for its lively pictures of the manners of the times. It is chiefly remarkable for the exhibition of odd humors and tumblers’ tricks.
Basilisco(bas-i-lis´kō).—Soliman and Perseda, old play. A boasting knight who became so popular with his foolish bragging that his name grew into a proverb.
Bassanio(ba-sä´ni-ō).—Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare. The lover of Portia who won her when he chose a leaden casket in which her portrait was hidden.
Bath, Major.—Amelia, Henry Fielding. A noble-minded gentleman, pompous in spite of poverty, and striving to live according to the “dignity and honor of man.” He tries to hide his poverty under bold speech even when found doing menial service.
Battle, Sarah.—Essays of Elia, Lamb. Sarah considered whist the business of life and literature one of the relaxations. When a young gentleman, of a literary turn, said to her he had no objection to unbend his mind for a little time by taking a hand with her, Sarah declared, “Whist was her life business; her duty; the thing she came into the world to do. She unbent her mind afterward over a book.”
Beatrice(bē´a-tris, or-trēs).—Divine Comedy, Dante. Daughter of an illustrious family of Florence for whom Dante had a great love. In his poem she is represented as being his guide through paradise. Beatrice is also the name of the heroine of Shakespeare’sMuch Ado About Nothing.
Beauty and the Beast.—Fairy tale by Mme. Villeneuve. Oft repeated in stories for children,Beauty and the Beastare known in many forms. In the original tale young and lovely Beauty saved the life of her father by putting herself in the power of a frightful but kind-hearted monster, whose respectful affection and deep melancholy finally overcame her aversion to his hideousness, and induced her to consent to marry him. By her love Beast was set free from enchantment and allowed to assume his own form, a handsome and graceful young prince.
Bede, Adam.—Adam Bede, George Eliot. An ideal workman, hero of the novel.
Bedivere(bed´i-vēr).—Tales of the Round Table. Bedivere was the last knight of King Arthur’s Round Table.
Beggar’s Opera, The, by John Gay, first acted at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, in 1727, is the first, and perhaps the best, specimen of English ballad opera. It was acted in London amid unprecedented applause, and obtained scarcely less popularity through the provinces. It was said that it made Rich, the manager, gay; and Gay, the poet, rich. Hazlitt says of theOpera, that “it is indeed a masterpiece of wit and genius, not to say of morality.”
Belarius(be-lā´ri-us).—A nobleman and soldier in the army of Cymbeline, king of Britain.
Belch(belch),Sir Toby.—Twelfth Night, Shakespeare. Uncle to Olivia, a jolly, carefree fellow, type of the roysterers of Queen Elizabeth’s days.
Belinda(be-lin´dä).—Rape of the Lock, Pope. Poetical name of the heroine, whose real name was said to be Arabella Fermor. In a frolic Lord Petre cut a lock from the lady’s hair. This was so much resented that it broke the great friendship between the two families. The poem,Rape of the Lock, was written to bring the people into a better temper and lead to reconciliation. Belinda is also the name of the heroine in a novel written by Maria Edgeworth.
Bell, Adam.—Old Ballad.A famous wild outlaw belonging to the north country and celebrated for his skill as an archer.
Bell, Laura.—Pendennis, Thackeray. One of the sweetest heroines in English literature.
Bellman.—L’Allegro, Milton. The watchman who patrolled the streets and called out the hour of night. Sometimes he repeated scraps of pious poetry in order to charm away danger.
Bell-the-Cat.—Name given to a nobleman at Lauder, Scotland, early in the sixteenth century. King James II. called an assembly of Scottish barons to resist a threatened invasion of his realm by Edward IV. of England. After long discussion one of the barons related the nursery tale of a convention of mice in which it was proposed to hang a bell on the cat’s neck, to give warning of her presence. No one would serve on the mouse committee. To the story Archibald Douglas responded by saying, “I will bell the cat,” and was afterward known by the name, Bell-the-Cat.
Belphœbe(bel-fē´bē).—Faërie Queene, Spenser. A delicate and graceful flattery offered to Queen Elizabeth through the huntress, Belphœbe, intended as a likeness of the queen. The name taken from belle, meaning beautiful, and Phœbe, a name sometimes bestowed on Diana.
Belvawney, Miss.—Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens. She belonged to the wonderful Portsmouth theater, always took the part of a page and gloried in silk stockings.
Belvidera(bel-vē-dā´rä).—Venice Preserved, Otway. The beautiful heroine of the almost forgotten tragedy. Sir Walter Scott said “more tears have been shed, probably, for the sorrows of Belvidera and Monimia than for those of Juliet and Desdemona.”
Benedick(ben´ē-dik).—Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare. A young lord of Padua who is gentleman, wit, and soldier. He was a pronounced bachelor, but after a courtship full of witty sayings and coquetry he marries the lovely Beatrice. From this gentleman comes the name Benedick or Benedict, applied to married men who were not going to marry.
Benengeli(ben-en-gē´lē),Cid Hamet.—Don Quixote, Cervantes. Supposed to be a writer of chronicles among the Moors and claimed as authority for the tales of adventure recorded by Cervantes. The name, Cid Hamet, has been often quoted by writers.
Ben Hur.—A novel by General Lew Wallace. Messala, the Roman playmate and young friend of Ben Hur, afterward became his remorseless enemy. Ambitious, hard, and cruel, when he came into power he made Ben Hur a galley slave, confiscated his property and imprisoned the mother and sister. Ben Hur escaped, returned later as a wealthy Roman, and entered in the famous chariot race against Messala, who had put up enormous sums in wagers. Messala recognized Ben Hur, and hoped to win the race and bring him to final ruin; but Messala himself was thrown and seriously injured. His cruelties were made known, and he was at last slain by his wife, Isas, the daughter of Balthasar.
Bennet, Mrs.—Amelie, Fielding. An improper character.
Benvolio(ben-vō´li-ō).—Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare. One of Romeo’s friends who would “quarrel with a man that had a hair more or a hair less in his beard than he had.” Mercutio says to him, “Thou hast quarreled with a man for coughing in the street.”
Beowulf(bā´ō-wulf).—The name of an Anglo-Saxon epic poem of the sixth century. It received its name from Beowulf, who delivered Hrothgar, King of Denmark, from the monster Grendel. This Grendel was half monster and half man, and night after night stole into the king’s palace, called Heorot, and slew sometimes as many as thirty of the sleepers at a time. Beowulf put himself at the head of a mixed band of warriors, went against the monster and slew it. This epic is very Ossianic in style, full of beauties, and most interesting.
Bertram(ber´tram).—Guy Mannering, Scott. The character was suggested by James Annesley, Esq., rightful heir of the earldom of Anglesey, of which he was dispossessed by his uncle Richard. He died in 1743. Bertram was also the name of the haughty and dissolute count, husband of Helena in Shakespeare’s comedyAll’s Well That Ends Well.
Bianca(bi-an´kä).—(1) The youngest daughter of Baptista of Padua, as gentle and meek as her sister Katherine was violent and irritable. (2) The sweetheart, “almost” wife of Cassio, in Shakespeare’sOthello.
Biglow Papers, The.—A series of satirical poems, in the quaint Yankee dialect, ascribed to a certain Hosea Biglow, but really written by the American poet, James Russell Lowell.
Birch, Harvey.—The Spy, Cooper. The chief character of the novel.
Biron(bē-rôn´).—Love’s Labor’s Lost, Shakespeare. A merry madcap young lord, in attendance on Ferdinand, king of Navarre.
Black-Eyed Susan.—Ballad, John Gay. The heroine of the popular sea song.
Black Knight of the Black Lands.—Sir Peread. Called by TennysonNightorNox. He was one of the four brothers who kept the passages of Castle Dangerous, and was overthrown by Sir Gareth.Idylls(Gareth and Lynette).
Blatant Beast.—Faërie Queene, Spenser. A bellowing monster typical of slander; or, an impersonation of what we now callVox Populi, or theVoice of the People.
Bleak House.—A novel by Charles Dickens, the title of which was suggested, it is said, by the situation of a certain tall brick house at Broadstairs, which stands high above and far away from the remainder of the town, and in which the author resided for several seasons.
Blimber(blim´er),Miss Cornelia.—Dombey and Son, Dickens. The daughter of Dr. Blimber, the head of a first-class educational establishment conducted on the forcing, or cramming, principle. She is a very learned, grave, and precise young lady, “no light nonsense about her,” who has become “dry and sandy with working in the graves of deceased languages.”
Blithedale(blīth´dāl)Romance, The.—A story by[786]Nathaniel Hawthorne, founded on the author’s experience as a member of the Brook Farm community. “Its predominant idea,” says R. H. Hutton, “is to delineate the deranging effect of an absorbing philanthropic idea on a powerful mind; the unscrupulous sacrifices of personal claims which it induces, and the misery in which it ends. There is scarcely oneincidentin the tale properly so called except the catastrophe.”
Blowzelinda(blou-ze-lin´dä), orBlowsalinda(blou-za-lin´dä).—Shepherd’s Week, John Gay. The country girl, heroine of this pastoral poem, written more than one hundred and fifty years ago, but quoted as a picture of the poverty and rudeness of rural life at that time.
Bobadil(bob´a-dil),Captain.—Every Man in His Humor, Jonson. A boasting coward, who passes himself off with young and simple people for a Hector.
Bœuf, Front de(beuf, fron du).—Ivanhoe, Scott. One of King John’s followers. A ferocious scoundrel.
Bois-Guilbert(bwa´gel-bär´),Brian de.—Ivanhoe, Scott. A brave but cruel, crafty, and dissolute commander of the Knights Templar.
Boniface(bon´i-fās).—The Beaux’s Stratagem, Farquhar. A fine representation of an English landlord. Hence applied to landlords generally.
Bontemps(bôn-ton´),Roger.—Song, Beranger. Known in France as the personification of care-free leisure. The equivalent, among the French peasantry, for the English proverb, “There’s a good time coming,” isRoger Bontemps. This one of Beranger’s most celebrated songs was written in 1814.
Bottom, Nick.—A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare. A man who fancies he can do everything, and do it better than anyone else. Shakespeare has drawn him as profoundly ignorant and with an overflow of self-conceit. Oberon, the fairy king, desiring to punish Titania, his queen, commissioned Puck to watch her till she fell asleep, and then to anoint her eyelids with the juice of a plant called “love-in-idleness,” the effect of which, when she awoke, was to make her dote upon Bottom, upon whom Puck had fixed an ass’s head.
Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Le(bōōr-zhwä´zhon-tē-yōm´lû).—A comedy by Molière, with music by Lulli, produced in 1670. The hero is a tradesman, M. Jourdain, who is ambitious to marry his daughter to a titled husband.
Bowling, Tom.—Roderick Random, Smollett. A name made almost famous as hero of the novel. Critics have said, “The character of Tom Bowling, inRoderick Randomwill be regarded in all ages as a happy exhibition of those naval heroes to whom Britain is indebted for so much of her happiness and glory.” The Tom Bowling referred to in Dibdin’s famous sea song was Captain Thomas Dibdin, brother of Charles Dibdin, who wrote the song.
Boz(boz),Sketches by.—By Charles Dickens. They were the first of their class. Dickens was the first to unite the delicately playful thread of Charles Lamb’s street musings—half experiences, half bookish fantasies—with the vigorous wit and humor and observation of Goldsmith’sCitizen of the World, hisIndigent Philosopher, andMan in Black, and twine them together in the golden cord of essay, which combines literature with philosophy, humor with morality, amusement with instruction. The most powerful and popular of the sketches are probably those entitled,A Visit to Newgate,The Drunkard’s Death,Election for Beadle,Greenwich Fair, andMiss Evans at the Eagle.
Bracebridge Hall, orThe Humorists.—Miscellaneous sketches, in fiction and essay, by Washington Irving, published in 1822.
Brag, Jack.—Jack Brag, Theodore Hook. Hero of the novel and a spirited embodiment of the arts employed by a vulgar pretender to creep into aristocratic society, and of his ultimate discomfiture. General Burgoyne figures in an old ballad known asSir Jack Brag.
Bramble, Matthew.—Humphrey Clinker, Smollett. Noted character in the novel described as “an odd kind of humorist,” afflicted with the gout, and “always on the fret,” but full of generosity and benevolence.
Brass, Sally, and Sampson.—Old Curiosity Shop, Dickens. Brother and sister, well mated, he a shystering lawyer and she getting ahead of him in villainy. Sampson was dishonest, sentimental, and affected in manner, and both are interesting characters to read about.
Brentford(brent´fōrd),The Two Kings of.—The Rehearsal, Villiers. Much question has been raised as to who was to be ridiculed under these characters. The royal brothers, Charles II. and James II., have been suggested; others say the fighting kings of Granada. In the farce the two kings are represented as walking hand in hand, as dancing together and singing in concert.
Briana(brī-ā´nä).—Spenser’sFaërie Queene. The lady of a castle who demanded for toll the locks of every lady and the beard of every knight that passed. This toll was established because Sir Crudor, with whom she was in love, refused to marry her till she had provided him with human hair sufficient to purfle a mantle with. Sir Crudor, having been overthrown in knightly combat by Sir Calidore, who refused to give the passage pay, is made to release Briana from the condition imposed on her, and Briana swears to discontinue the discourteous toll.
Brick, Jefferson.—In Dickens’Martin Chuzzlewit. A very weak, pale young man, the war correspondent of theNew York Rowdy Journal, of which Colonel Diver was editor.
Bride of Abydos, The.—A Turkish tale, told in octosyllabic verse by Lord Byron, and published in 1813. It is in two cantos, and opens with the well-known song imitated from Goethe, beginning: “Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle.” The name of the “bride” is Zuleika, and that of her lover, Selim.
Bride of Lammermoor, The.—A romance of Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819, and characterized as a tragedy of the highest order, uniting excellence of plot with Scott’s usual merits of character and description.
Brook Farm.—The full name was “Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education,” a stock company of nearly seventy members, located on a farm of two hundred acres at West Roxbury, Mass. Among the members were George Ripley, Charles A. Dana, George William Curtis, Margaret Fuller and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Among their frequent visitors were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker, Bronson Alcott. This idyllic life lasted about five years, from 1841 to 1846. Brook Farm was a financial failure but it was important in intellectual results. Hawthorne has written the story of the experiment inBlithedale Romance.
Brown, Tom.—Tom Brown’s School DaysandTom Brown at Oxford, Thomas Hughes. The hero of these stories of school days, a typical English schoolboy and undergraduate.
Brunhild(brön´hild).—Nibelungenlied.The story of Brunhild holds large place in ancient German romance. She was, herself, a warrior, proud and skillful, and she promised to be the bride of the man who could conquer her in three trials, in hurling the lance, in throwing the stone, and in leaping after the stone when thrown. By the arts and bravery of Siegfried, she was deluded into marrying Gunther, king of Burgundy; but, discovering the trick, she planned and accomplished the destruction of Siegfried, and the humiliation of Chriemhild, his wife.
Bumble, Mr.—Oliver Twist, Dickens. A pompous, disagreeable beadle, who figures largely in the beginning of the story. The name Bumble has since attached itself to the office.
Bunsby(bunz´bi),Jack.—Dombey and Son, Dickens. A commander of a ship looked up to as an oracle by his friend Captain Cuttle. He is described as wearing a “rapt and imperturbable manner,” and seeming to be “always on the lookout for something in the extremest distance.”
Bunthorne(bun´thôrn).—Patience, Sullivan. A gloomy poet showing most distinctly in his gloom surrounded by the characters of a comic opera. He was inserted as a satire on the æsthetic craze, turning into ridicule the imitators of Rossetti.
Burchell(ber´chel),Mr.—Vicar of Wakefield, Goldsmith. A prominent character who passes himself off as a poor man, but is really a baronet in disguise. He is noted for his habit of crying out “Fudge!” by way of expressing his strong contempt for the opinions of others.
Burd Helen.—Scotch Ballad.A traditional name standing for constancy. She was carried to England by fairies and imprisoned in a castle. The youngest brother of the fair Burd Helen was guided by the enchanter Merlin and accomplished the perilous task of rescuing his sister. This is recited in the line “Childe Rowland to the dark tower came,” quoted by Shakespeare. Only a fragment of the old ballad has been preserved.
Buskin.—Tragedy. The Greek tragic actors used to wear a sandal some two or three inches thick, to elevate their stature. To this sole was attached a very elegant buskin.
Buzfuz, (buz´fuz)Serjeant.—Pickwick Papers, Dickens. A pompous, chaffing lawyer, who bullies Mr. Pickwick and the witnesses in the famous breach of promise suit, Bardell vs. Pickwick.
Byfield.—A New England parish, the scene of an historical novel by John Lewis Ewell. Here lived the ancestor of Longfellow to whom the poet dedicatedThe Village Blacksmith, himself a blacksmith, keeping his accounts in peculiar orthography. According to the deed of sale in 1681, the Byfield Indians got a larger price from the first English settlers than was paid for Manhattan Island.
C
Caius(kā´yus),Doctor.—Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare. A physician in the comedy who adds a touch of humor. He is most conspicuous as the lover of Anne Page.
Calandrino(kä-län-drē´nō).—A simpleton frequently introduced in Boccaccio’sDecameron; expressly made to be befooled and played upon. His mishaps, as Macaulay states, “have made all Europe merry for more than four centuries.”
Caleb.—(1) The enchantress who carried off St. George in infancy. (2) A character in Dryden’s satire ofAbsalom and Achitophel, meant for Lord Grey, one of the adherents of the Duke of Monmouth.
Caleb Quotem.—A parish clerk or jack-of-all-trades, in Coleman’s playThe Review, or Ways of Windsor. Coleman borrowed the character fromThrow Physic to the Dogs, an old farce.
Caliban(kal´i-ban).—A savage and deformed slave of Prospero in Shakespeare’sTempest. He is represented as being the “freckled whelp” of Sycorax, a foul hag, who was banished from Argier (or Algiers) to the desert island afterward inhabited by Prospero. From his rude, uncouth language we get the phrase “Caliban style,” “Caliban speech,” meaning the coarsest possible use of words.
Calidore(kal´i-dōr).—A knight in Spenser’s Faërie Queene, typical of courtesy, and said to be intended for a portrait of Sir Philip Sidney.
Calista.—The name of a celebrated character in Rowe’sFair Penitent.
Callipolis(ka-lip´o-lis).—Battle of Alcazar, George Peele. A character in theBattle of Alcazar, used by Sir Walter Scott and others as a synonym for lady-love, sweetheart, charmer. Sir Walter always spells the word Callipolis, but Peele calls it Calipolis.
Calydon(kal´i-don).—A forest celebrated in the romances relating to King Arthur and Merlin.
Camaralzaman, Prince.—Arabian Nights.—One of the stories of theArabian Nightsand the name of a prince who fell in love with Badoura, princess of China, the moment he saw her.
Camancho(kä-mä´chō).—Don Quixote, Cervantes. A character in an episode inDon Quixote, who gets cheated out of his bride after having made great preparations for their wedding.
Camballo(kam-bal´o), orCambel.—Faërie Queene, Spenser. A brother of Candace. He challenged every suitor to his sister’s hand, and overthrew all except Triamond, who married the lady.
Cambalu.—In theVoyages of Marco Polothe chief city of the province of Cathay.
Cambuscan(kam-bus-kan´, orkam-bus´kan).—A Tartar king identical with Genghis Khan. The king of the Far East sent Cambuscan a “steed of brass, which, between sunrise and sunset, would carry its rider to any spot on the earth.” All that was required was to whisper the name of the place in the horse’s ear, mount upon his back, and turn a pin set in his ear. When the rider had arrived at the place required, he had to turn another pin, and the horse instantly descended, and, with another screw of the pin, vanished till it was again required. This story is begun by Chaucer in theSquire’s Tale, but was never finished.
Camelot(kam´e-lot).—A parish in Somersetshire, England (now called Queen’s Camel), where King Arthur is said to have held his court. In this place there are still to be seen vast intrenchments of an ancient town or station—called by the inhabitants “King Arthur’s Palace.”
Camilla(ka-mil´ä).—(1) The virgin queen of the Volscians, famous for her fleetness of foot. She aided Turnus against Æneas. (2) Wife of Anselmo of Florence inDon Quixote. Anselmo, in order to rejoice in her incorruptible fidelity, induced his friend Lothario to try to corrupt her. This he did, and Camilla was not trial-proof, but fell. Anselmo for a time was kept in the dark, but at the end Camilla eloped with Lothario. Anselmo died of grief, Lothario was slain in battle, and Camilla died in a convent.
Camille(kä-mēl´).—(1) In Corneille’s tragedy ofLes Horaces. When her brother meets her and bids her congratulate him for his victory over the three curiatii, she gives utterance to her grief for the death of her lover. Horace says, “What! can you prefer a man to the interests of Rome?” Whereupon Camille denounces Rome, and concludes with these words: “Oh, that it were my lot!” (2) Whitehead dramatized the subject and called itThe Roman Father.
Canace(kan´a-se).—Faërie Queene, Spenser. A paragon among women, the daughter of King Cambuscan, to whom the king of the East sent as a present a mirror and a ring. The mirror would tell the lady if any man on whom she set her heart would prove true or false, and the ring (which was to be worn on her thumb) would enable her to understand the language of birds and to converse with them. Canace was courted by a crowd of suitors, but her brother gave out that anyone who pretended to her hand must encounter him in single combat and overthrow him. She ultimately married Triamond, son of the fairy, Agapë.
Candide(käN-dēd´),ou l’Optimisme(ōō lop-tē-mēzm´).—A philosophical novel by Voltaire, published in 1759. It is named from its hero, who bears all the worst ills of life with a cool, philosophical indifference, laughing at its miseries. Written ostensibly to ridicule philosophical optimism, and on the spur given to pessimist theories by the Lisbon earthquake,Candideis really as comprehensive as it is desultory. Religion, political government, national peculiarities, human weakness, ambition, love, loyalty—all come in for the unfailing sneer. The moral, wherever there is a moral, is, “Be tolerant, andcultivez vôtre jardin”; that is to say, Do whatsoever work you have to do diligently.
Candor, Mrs.—A most energetic slanderer in Sheridan’sSchool for Scandal.
Canterbury Tales, The, by Geoffrey Chaucer, consist of aPrologueand twenty-four narratives of which only two,Chaucer’s Tales of MelibœusandThe Parson’s Tale, are in prose, the remainder being written in couplets of ten syllables, which have laid the foundation for the most popular form of English verse.
The plan of the poem is as follows: The author supposes that, on the evening before he starts on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas-à-Becket, at Canterbury, he stops at the Tabard Inn, in Southwark, where he finds himself in the midst of a company of twenty-one, of all ranks and ages and both sexes, who are also bound for the same destination. After supper, the host of Tabard, Harry Baillie by name, proposes that, to beguile the journey there and back, the pilgrims shall each of them tell two tales as they come and go; and that he who by the general voice shall have told his story best, shall, on their return to the hostelry, be treated to a supper at the common cost. This is agreed to with acclamation; and, accordingly, the pilgrims start next morning on their way, listening, as they ride, to the heroic tale of the brave and gentle knight who has been chosen to narrate the first tale.
It will be understood that Chaucer does not profess to give to the world all the stories told. As a matter of fact, he gives only twenty-four, of which two have been already named, the remainder being those told by the Knight, the Miller, the Reeve, the Cook, the Man of Law, the Wife of Bath, the Friar, the Sompnour, the Clerk, the Squire, the Franklin, the Doctor, the Pardoner, the Shipman, the Prioress, the Monk, the Nun’s Priest, the second Nun, the Canon’s Yeoman, the Manciple, and Chaucer himself (Sir Topas). Unfinished, as it is, however, the poem was immensely popular, even in the author’s time; and it was one of the first books that was issued from the press of Caxton, probably in 1475.
Caora(kä´ō-rä).—Description of Guiana, Raleigh. A river on the banks of which are a people whose heads grow beneath their shoulders. Their eyes are in their shoulders, and mouths in the middle of their breasts. The original picture is found in Hakluyt’sVoyages, 1598.
Capulet(kap´ū-let).—The head of a noble Veronese house in Shakespeare’s tragedy ofRomeo and Juliet, hostile to the house of Montague. He is at times self-willed and tyrannical, but a jovial and testy old man.
Capulet, Lady.—The proud and stately wife of Capulet, and mother of Juliet.
Caradoc(kar´a-dok).—A knight of the Round Table. Also, in history, the British chief whom the Romans called Caractacus. Caradoc is the hero of an old ballad entitledThe Boy and the Mantle.
Carker(kär´ker).—A scoundrelly clerk in Dickens’Dombey and Son.
Carton, Sidney.—A hero transformed by unselfish love in Dickens’Tale of Two Cities. He voluntarily goes to the guillotine to save his successful rival in love.
Casca(kas´kä).—Julius Cæsar, Shakespeare. A blunt-witted Roman, one of the conspirators against Julius Cæsar.
Cassandra(ka-san´drä).—A daughter of Priam, king of Troy, gifted with the power of prophecy; but Apollo, whom she had offended, brought it to pass that no one believed her predictions. Shakespeare makes use of this character inTroilus and Cressida.
Cassibelan.—Great uncle to Cymbeline, in Shakespeare’s play by that name.
Cassio(kash´iō).—A Florentine, and lieutenant of Othello, and a tool of Iago, in Shakespeare’s tragedy ofOthello. Iago made Cassio drunk, and then set on Roderigo to quarrel with him. Cassio wounded Roderigo. Othello suspended Cassio, but Iago induced Desdemona to plead for his restoration. This interest in Cassio confirmed the jealous rage of Othello to murder Desdemona and kill himself. After the death of Othello, Cassio was appointed governor of Cyprus.
Castle Dangerous.—A keep belonging to the Douglas family, which gives its name to one of Sir Walter Scott’sTales of My Landlord. It was so called by the English because it was always retaken from them by the Douglas.
Castle of Indolence.—The title of a poem by Thomson, and the name of a castle, described in it as situated in a pleasing land of drowsiness, where every sense was steeped in the most luxurious and enervating delights.
Castlewood, Beatrix.—The heroine of Thackeray’s novelHenry Esmond, a picture of splendid, lustrous, physical beauty.
Caudle, Mrs. Margaret.—The feigned author of a series of curtain lectures by Douglas Jerrold, published inPunch, purporting to be the lectures delivered by Mrs. Margaret Caudle to her patient husband, Job Caudle, between the hours of ten at night and seven in the morning.
Cauline, Sir.—A knight in Percy’sReliques, who served the wine to the king of Ireland. He fell in love with Christabelle, the king’s daughter, and she became his troth-plight wife, without her father’s knowledge. When the king knew of it, he banished Sir Cauline. After a time the soldain asked the lady in marriage, but Sir Cauline challenged his rival and slew him. He himself, however, died of the wounds he had received, and the Lady Christabelle, out of grief, “burst her gentle hearte in twayne.”
Cecilia, St.—A patron saint of the blind, also patroness of musicians, and “inventor of the organ.” According to tradition, an angel fell in love with her for her musical skill, and used nightly to visit her.
Celadon(sel´a-don)and Amelia.—Lovers of matchless beauty and most devoted to each other. Being overtaken by a thunderstorm, Amelia became alarmed, but Celadon, folding his arm about her, said, “’Tis safety to be near thee, sure”; but while he spoke Amelia was struck by lightning and fell dead in his arms.
Celia.—Faërie Queene, Spenser. (1) Mother of Faith, Hope and Charity. She was herself known as Heavenliness and lived in the hospices Holiness. (2) Celia, cousin to Rosalind in Shakespeare’s comedyAs You Like It. Celia is a common poetical name for a lady or a lady-love.
Chadband(chad´band),The Rev.—A clerical character in Dickens’Bleak House. He will always stand as a type of hypocritical piety.
Chanticleer(chan´ti-klēr).—The cock in the tale ofReynard the Fox, and in Chaucer’sNonne Prestes Tale.
Charlemagne(chär´le-män).—The romance of Charlemagne and his paladins is of French origin, as the romances of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is of Celtic or Welsh origin. According to one tradition Charlemagne is not dead, but waits, crowned and armed, in Odenberg, near Saltzburg, till the time of the antichrist, when he will wake up and deliver Christendom. According to another tradition, Charlemagne appears in seasons of plenty. He crosses the Rhine on a golden bridge, and blesses both cornfields and vineyards.
Charmian(chär´mi-an).—A kind-hearted but simple-minded female attendant on Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s play ofAntony and Cleopatra.
Cheeryble(chēr´i-bl)Brothers, The.—A firm of benevolent London merchants in Dickens’Nicholas Nickleby.
Chery and Fair-Star.—Countess d’Aulnoy’s Fairy Tales.Two children of royal birth, whom their father’s brothers and their mother’s sisters cast out to sea; they are found and brought up by a corsair and his wife. Ultimately they are told of their birth by a green bird and marry each other. A similar tale is found inThe Arabian Nights.
Chibiabos.—The musician in Longfellow’sHiawatha, personifying harmony in nature.
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.—A poem, in the Spenserian stanza, by Lord Byron. It consists of four cantos, of which the first and second were published in 1812, the third in 1816, and the fourth in 1818; and the preface to the first two cantos contained the following explanation of the origin and purpose of the poem.
“It was written,” says Lord Byron, “for the most part, amid the scenes which it attempts to describe. It was begun in Albania; and the parts relative to Spain and Portugal were composed from the author’s observations in those countries.... the scenes attempted to be sketched are in Spain, Portugal, Epirus, Acarnania, and Greece (the third canto describes scenes in Belgium, Switzerland, and the Valley of the Rhine; and canto four is chiefly occupied with Rome).... A fictitious character is introduced for the sake of giving some connection to the piece, which, however, makes no pretensions to regularity. It has been suggested to me by friends, on whose opinion I set a high value, that in this fictitious character, Childe Harold, I may incur the suspicion of having intended some real personage; this I beg leave, once for all, to disclaim. Harold is the creation of imagination, for the purpose I have stated. In some trivial particulars, and those merely local, there might be grounds for such a notion; but in the main points, I should hope, none whatever. It is almost superfluous to mention that the appellation ‘Childe’ is used as more consonant with the old structure of versification which I have adopted.”
Children in the Wood.—Two characters in an ancient and well-known ballad entitledThe Children in the Wood, orThe Norfolk Gent’s Last Will and Testament. This is said to be a disguised recital of the alleged murder of his nephews by Richard III.
Chillingly, Kenelm.—The hero in a novel by this name by Bulwer.
Chillon(shē-yôn),The Prisoner of.—A poem by Lord Byron, founded on the story of Francois de Bonnivard, the hero of Genevan independence, and published in 1816. Bonnivard was born in 1496, and died in 1571. An account of his life, in France, is prefixed to the poem.
Chingachgook.—A sagamore of the Mohicans and father of Uncas, in Cooper’sLeather-Stocking Tales.
Chloe(klō´ē).—Daphnis and Chloe, Longus. (1) The shepherdess loved by Daphne. (2)Paul and Virginiaby St. Pierre is founded on this romance. (3) Chloe is also a shepherdess in Shakespeare’sAs You Like It.
Chœreas.—The lover of Callirrhoë, in Chariton’s Greek romance.
Chriemhild, orKriemhild(krēm´hild).—The heroine of the German epic poem, theNibelungenlied. She is represented as a woman of the rarest grace and beauty, and rich beyond conception. By the treacherous murder of her husband she is transformed into a furious creature of revenge. For plot of this epic cycle, see “Kriemhild.”
Christabel(kris´ta-bel).—(1) The subject and heroine of an old romance by Sir Eglamour of Artois. (2) The heroine of an ancient balladSir Cauline. (3) The lady in Coleridge’s poemChristabel.
Christian(kris´tian).—The hero of John Bunyan’s allegoryPilgrim’s Progress. He flees from the “City of Destruction,” and journeys to the “Celestial City.” He starts with a heavy burden on his back, but it falls off when he stands at the foot of the cross. All his trials on the way are depicted.
Christiana(kris-tē-ä´nä).—The wife of Christian, who, starting with her children and Mercy from the “City of Destruction,” forms the subject of Bunyan’sPilgrim’s Progress, part II. She was placed under the guidance of Mr. Great-Heart, and met her husband at the Celestial City.
Christmas Carol, A.—A ghost story of Christmas, by Charles Dickens, published in 1843, with illustrations by John Leech. “We are all charmed,” wrote Lord Jeffrey to the author, “with yourCarol, chiefly, I think, for the genuine goodness which breathes all through it, and is the true inspiring angel by which its genius has been awakened. The whole scene of the Cratchits is like the dream of a benevolent angel, in spite of its broad reality, and little Tiny Tim in life and death almost as sweet and touching as Nelly.”
Christmas Eve.—A poem by Robert Browning, in which, “after following through a long course of reflection the successive phases of religious belief, he arrives at the certainty that, however confused be the vision of Christ, where His love is, there is the Life; and that, the more direct the revelation of that Love, the deeper and more vital is its power.”
Christopher, St.—The giant that carried a child over a brook, and said, “Chylde, thou has put me in grete peryll. I might bere no greater burden.” The Chylde was the Christ and the burden was the “Sin of the World.” This has been a favorite theme for painters.
Chrysalde(krē-zäld´).—A character in Molière’sL’Ecole des Femmes; a friend of Arnolphe.
Chrysale(krē-zäl´).—An honest, simple-minded, henpecked tradesman, in the same comedy by Molière.
Chuzzlewit, Martin.—The hero of Dickens’ novel of the same name. The story is remarkable for the attention it directed to the system of ship hospitals and to the workhouse nurses whose prototype in Sarah Gamp has become famous all over the world.
Chuzzlewit, Jonas.—A miser and a murderer, the opposite type of character from Martin.
Cimmerians(si-mē´ri-anz).—A people described by Homer dwelling “beyond the ocean stream,” in a land where the sun never shines.
Cinderella.—Heroine of a fairy tale. She is the drudge of the house, while her elder sisters go to fine balls. At length a fairy enables her to go to the prince’s ball; the prince falls in love with her, and she is discovered by means of a glass slipper which she drops, and which will fit no foot but her own. She is represented as returning good for evil and heaping upon her half-sisters every kindness a princess can show.
Cipango(si-pang´gō).—A marvelous island, described in theVoyagesof Marco Polo, the Venetian traveler. It is represented as lying in the Eastern seas, some one thousand five hundred miles from land, and of its beauty and wealth many stories are related. Columbus made a diligent search for this island.
Clärchen(klār´chen).—A female character in Goethe’sEgmont, noted for her constancy and devotion.
Clare, Ada.—The wife of Carstone, and one of the most important characters in Dickens’Bleak House.
Clavileño(klä-vē-lān´yō),El Alígero.—The wooden horse on which Don Quixote got astride in order to disenchant the Infanta Antonomasia, her husband, and the Countess Trifaldi. It was “the very horse on which Peter of Provence carried off the fair Magalona, and was constructed by Merlin.” This horse was called Clavileño, or Wooden Peg, because it was governed by a wooden pin in the forehead.
Cléante(klā-ont´).—Brother-in-law of Orgon in Molière’sTartuffe. He is distinguished for his genuine piety, and is both high-minded and compassionate. The same name occurs in two other plays by Molière.
Cleishbotham(klēsh´boTH-am),Jedediah.—Schoolmaster and parish clerk of Gandercleuch, who employed his assistant teacher to arrange and edit the tales told by the landlord of the Wallace inn of the same parish. These tales the editor disposed in three series, called by the general title ofThe Tales of My Landlord. Of course the real author is Sir Walter Scott.
Clementina, Lady.—A beautiful and accomplished woman, deeply in love with Sir Charles Grandison, in Richardson’s novel of this name.
Cleon(klē´on).—(1) In Shakespeare’sPericles, governor of Tarsus, burned to death with his wife Dionysia by the enraged citizens, to revenge the supposed murder of Marina, daughter of Pericles, prince of Tyre. (2) The personification of glory in Spenser’sFaërie Queene.
Clifford, Paul.—An attractive highwayman and an interesting hero in Bulwer’s novel by the same name. He is familiar with the haunts of low vice and dissipation, but afterward is reformed and elevated by the power of love.
Clinker, Humphrey.—A novel by Smollett. The hero, by the same name, a philosophic youth, meets many adventures. Brought up in the workhouse, put out by the parish as apprentice to a blacksmith, he was afterward employed as a hostler’s assistant. Having been dismissed from the stable, and reduced to great want, he at length attracts the notice of Mr. Bramble who takes him into his family as a servant. He becomes the accepted lover of Winifred Jenkins, and at length turns out to be a natural son of Mr. Bramble.
Cloten(klō´ten).—A rejected lover of Imogen, in Shakespeare’s play ofCymbeline.
Clorinda(klō-rin´dä).—Jerusalem Delivered, Tasso. Clorinda, the heroine of this poem, is represented as an Amazon inspiring the most tender affection in others, especially in the Christian chief Tancred; yet she is herself susceptible of no passion but the love of military fame.
Clouds, The.—A famous comedy by Aristophanes. Strepsiades (“Turncoat”) sends his spendthrift son Phidippides to the phrontistery (“thinking shop”) of Socrates, who appears as a sophist, to be reformed by training in rhetoric. Phidippides refuses to go; so Strepsiades goes himself, and finds Socrates swinging in a basket, observing the sun and ether. Socrates summons the Clouds, his new deities, and undertakes to make a sophist of him and free him from the religion of his fathers. Unfortunate results of his new knowledge show Strepsiades his error, and he abandons Socrates and sets the phrontistery on fire.
Cock, The.—A famous tavern in Fleet street, London, opposite the Temple. Tennyson has immortalized it in hisWill Waterproof’s Lyrical Monologue.
Cœlebs(sē´lebz).—The hero of a novel by Hannah More,Cœlebs in Search of a Wife.
Colada.(kō-lä´THä).—The sword taken by the Cid from Ramon Berenger, count of Barcelona. This sword had two hilts of solid gold.
Colin Clout(kol´in klout).—A name that Spenser applies to himself in theFaërie QueeneandShepherd’s Calendar. Colin Clout also is introduced into Gay’s pastorals.
Cologne(kō-lōn´),The Three Kings of.—The three magi who visited the Infant Savior, and whose bodies are said to have been brought by the Empress Helena from the East to Constantinople, whence they were transferred to Milan. Afterward they were removed to Cologne and placed in the principal church of the city. Their names are commonly said to be Jaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar.
Comedy of Errors.—A comedy by Shakespeare. Twin brothers of exact likeness named Antipholus are served by attendant slaves named Dromio also of striking resemblance. The humor of the play lies in the complications that arise. The two brothers are lost at sea with their servants and are picked up by different vessels. After long separation they all reappear in Ephesus. There is great entanglement of plot until both brothers face each other in a trial before the duke and all is explained.
Complete Angler, The(or,The Contemplative Man’s Recreation. “A discourse, of Fish and Fishing, not unworthy the Perusal of most Anglers”).—A famous treatise by Izaak Walton, published in 1653. “Whether,” says Sir John Hawkins, “we consider the elegant simplicity of the style, the ease and unaffected humor of the dialogue, the lovely scenes which it delineates, the enchanting pastoral poetry which it contains, or the fine morality it so sweetly inculcates, it has hardly its fellow in any of the modern languages.”
Comus.—A masque, or dramatic poem, by John Milton, published in 1637. It was written for the earl of Bridgewater, and acted at his residence, Castle Ludlow, in Shropshire, on Michaelmas night, 1634. The music is by Henry Lawes. Comus (a revel) was the Roman god of banqueting and festive amusements; but in Milton’s poems he appears as a lewd enchanter, whose pleasure it is to deceive and ruin the chaste and innocent.
Coningsby(kon´ingz-bi).—A novel by B. Disraeli. The characters are meant for portraits: thus, “Rigby” represents Croker; “Monmouth,” Lord Hertford; “Eskdale,” Lowther; “Ormsby,” Irving; “Lucretia,” Mme. Zichy; “Countess Colonna,” Lady Strachan; “Sidonia,” Baron A. de Rothschild; “Henry Sidney,” Lord John Manners; “Belvoir,” duke of Rutland, second son of Beaumanoir.
Consuelo(kôN-sü-ā-lō´).—A noted novel by George Sand. The heroine has the same name, and is an impersonation of noble purity sustained amidst great temptations.
Cophetua(kō-fet´ū-ä).—An imaginary African king, of whom a legendary ballad told that he fell in love with a beggar maid and married her. This ballad is found in Percy’sReliques. Tennyson has given us a modern version inThe Beggar Maid.
Copperfield, David.—A novel by Charles Dickens. David is Dickens himself, and Micawber is Dickens’ father. According to the tale, David’s mother was nursery governess in a family where Mr. Copperfield visited. At the death of Mr. Copperfield, the widow married Edward Murdstone, a hard, tyrannical man, who made the home of David a dread and terror to the boy. When his mother died, Murdstone sent David to lodge with the Micawbers, and bound him apprentice to Messrs. Murdstone and Grinby, by whom he was put into the warehouse, and set to paste labels upon wine and spirit bottles. David soon became tired of this dreary work, and ran away to Dover, where he was kindly received by his [great-]aunt Betsy Trotwood, who clothed him, and sent him as day-boy to Dr. Strong, but placed him to board with Mr. Wickfield, a lawyer, father of Agnes, between whom and David a mutual attachment sprang up. David’s first wife was Dora Spenlow, but at the death of this pretty little “child-wife,” he married Agnes Wickfield.
Cordelia(kôr-dē´liä).—King Lear, Shakespeare. The youngest of Lear’s three daughters, and the one that truly loved him.
Corinne(ko-rēn´).—The heroine of a novel, of the same name, by Madame de Staël.
Coriolanus(kō´ri-ō-lā´nus).—An historical play by William Shakespeare. In the plot, and in many of the speeches, Shakespeare has followed Sir Thomas North’sLife of Coriolanus, included in his translation of Amyot’sPlutarch. “The subject ofCoriolanus,”[790]says Prof. Dowden, “is the ruin of a noble life through the sin of pride. If duty be the dominant ideal with Brutus, and pleasure of a magnificent kind be the ideal of Antony and Cleopatra, that which gives tone and color to Coriolanus is an ideal of self-centered power. The greatness of Brutus is altogether that of the moral conscience; his external figure does not dilate upon the world through a golden haze like that of Antony, nor bulk massively and tower like that of Coriolanus. A haughty and passionate personal feeling, a superb egoism, are with Coriolanus the sources of weakness and of strength.”
Corsair, The.—A poem, in three cantos, by Lord Byron, published in 1814. The hero is called Conrad, and is described, in a well-known passage, as leaving