Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 · Chapter 38Copyright, 1892, by SELMAR HESS (38)
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Duncan (Captain), of Knockdunder, agent at Roseneath to the Duke of Buckingham.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.). Duncan (Duroch), a follower of Donald Beau Lean.—Sir W. Scott, Waverley (time, George II.).
Dunce, wittily or willfully derived from Duns, surnamed "Scotus."
In the Gaelic, donas [means] "bad luck" or in contempt, "a poor ignorant creature." The Lowland Scotch has donsie, "unfortunate, stupid."—Notes and Queries, 225, September 21, 1878.
Dun'ciad ("the dunce epic"), a satire by Alexander Pope—written to revenge himself upon his literary enemies. The plot is this: Eusden the poet-laureate being dead, the goddess of Dulness elects Colley Cibber as his successor. The installation is celebrated by games, the most important being the "reading of two voluminous works, one in verse and the other in prose, without nodding." King Cibber is then taken to the temple of Dulness, and lulled to sleep on the lap of the goddess. In his dream he sees the triumphs of the empire. Finally the goddess having established the kingdom on a firm basis, Night and Chaos are restored, and the poem ends (1728-42).
Dundas, (Starvation), Henry Dundas, first Lord Melville. So called because he introduced into the language the word starvation, in a speech on American affairs (1775).
Dunder (Sir David), of Dunder Hall, near Dover. An hospitable, conceited, whimsical old gentleman, who forever interrupts a speaker with "Yes, yes, I know it," or "Be quiet, I know it." He rarely finishes a sentence, but runs on in this style: "Dover is an odd sort of a—eh?" "It is a dingy kind of a—humph!" "The ladies will be happy to—eh?" He is the father of two daughters, Harriet and Kitty, whom he accidentally detects in the act of eloping with two guests. To prevent a scandal, he sanctions the marriages, and discovers that the two lovers, both in family and fortune, are suitable sons-in-law.
Lady Dunder, fat, fair, and forty if not more. A country lady, more fond of making jams and pastry than doing the fine lady. She prefers cooking to croquet, and making the kettle sing to singing herself. (See HARRIET and KITTY.)—G. Colman, Ways and Means (1788).
William Dowton [1764-1851] played "Sir Anthony Absolute," "Sir Peter Teazle," "Sir David Dunder," and "Sir John Falstaff," and looked the very characters he represented.—W. Donaldson, Recollections.
"Sir Anthony Absolute," in The Rivals (Sheridan); "Sir Peter Teazle," in The School for Scandal (Sheridan).
Dundrear'y (Lord), a good natured, indolent, blundering, empty-headed swell; the chief character in Tom Taylor's dramatic piece entitled Our American Cousin. He is greatly characterized by his admiration of "Brother Sam," for his incapacity to follow out the sequence of any train of thought, and for supposing all are insane who differ from him.
(Mr. Sothern of the Haymarket created this character by his power of conception and the genius of his acting.)
Dunios (The count de), in Sir W. Scott's novel of Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).
Dunois the Brave, hero of the famous French song, set to music by Queen Hortense, mother of Napoleon III., and called Partant pour Syrie. His prayer to the Virgin, when he left for Syria, was:
Que j'aime la plus belle,
Et sois le plus vaillant!
He behaved with great valor, and the count whom he followed gave him his daughter to wife. The guests, on the bridal day, all cried aloud:
Amour à la plus belle!
Honneur an plus vaillant!
Words by M. de Laborde (1809).
Dun'over, a poor gentleman introduced by Sir W. Scott in the introduction of The Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).
Dunrommath, lord of Uthal, one of the Orkneys. He carried off Oith'ona, daughter of Nuath (who was engaged to be married to Gaul, son of Morni), and was slain by Gaul in fight.
Gaul advanced in his arms. Dunrommath shrunk behind his people. But the spear of Gaul pierced the gloomy chief; his sword lopped off his head as it bended in death.—Ossian, Oithoha.
Duns Scotus, called "The Subtle Doctor," said to have been born at Dunse, in Berwickshire, or Dunstance, in Northumberland (1265-1308).
John Scotus, called Erigena ("Erin-born"), is quite another person (_-886). Erigena is sometimes called "Scotus the Wise," and lived four centuries before "The Subtle Doctor."
Dun-Shunner (Augustus), a nom de plnme of Professor William Edmonstoune Aytoun, in Blackwood's Magazine (1813-1865).
Duns'tan (St.), patron saint of goldsmiths and jewellers. He was a smith, and worked up all sorts of metals in his cell near Glastonbury Church. It was in this cell that, according to legend, Satan had a gossip with the saint, and Dunstan caught his sable majesty by the nose with a pair of red-hot forceps.
Dunthal'mo, lord of Teutha (the Tweed). He went "in his pride against Rathmor," chief of Clutha (the Clyde), but being overcome, "his rage arose," and he went "by night with his warriors" and slew Rathmor in his banquet hall. Touched with pity for his two young sons (Calthon and Colmar), he took them to his own house and brought them up. "They bent the bow in his presence, and went forth to his wars." But observing that their countenances fell, Dunthalmo began to be suspicious of the young men, and shut them up in two separate caves on the banks of the Tweed, where neither "the sun penetrated by day nor the moon by night." Colmal (the daughter of Dunthalmo), disguised as a young warrior, loosed Calthon from his bonds, and fled with him to the court of Fingal, to crave aid for the liberation of Colmar. Fingal sent his son Ossian with 300 men to effect this object, but Dunthalmo, hearing of their approach, gathered together his strength and slew Colmar. He also seized Calthon, mourning for his brother, and bound him to an oak. At daybreak Ossian moved to the fight, slew Dunthalmo, and having released Calthon, "gave him to the white-bosomed Colmal."—Ossian, Calthon and Colmal.
Dupeley (Sir Charles), a man who prided himself on his discernment of character, and defied any woman to entangle him in matrimony; but he mistook Lady Bab Lardoon, a votary of fashion, for an unsophisticated country maiden, and proposed marriage to her.
"I should like to see the woman," he says,
"that could entangle me ... Shew me a woman
...and at the first glance I will discover the
whole extent of her artifice."—Burgoyne,
The Maid of the Oaks
, i. I.
Duprè [Du.Pray'], a servant of Mr. Darlemont, who assists his master in abandoning Julio, count of Harancour (his ward) in the streets of Paris, for the sake of becoming possessor of his ward's property. Duprè repents and confesses the crime.—Th. Holcroft, The Deaf and Dumb (1785).
Duran'dal, the sword of Orlando, the workmanship of fairies. So admirable was its temper that it would "cleave the Pyrenees at a blow."—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516)
Durandar'te (4 syl.), a knight who fell at Roncesvallês (4 syl.). Durandartê loved Belerma whom he served for seven years, and was then slain; but in dying he requested his cousin Montesi'nos to take his heart to Belerma.
Sweet in manners, fair in favor,
Mild in temper, fierce in fight.
Lewis.
Dur'den (Dame), a notable country gentlewoman, who kept five men-servants "to use the spade and flail," and five women-servants "to carry the milken-pail." The five men loved the five maids. Their names were:
Moll and Bet, and Doll and Kate, and Dorothy Draggletail;
John and Dick, and Joe and Jack, and Humphrey with his flail.
A Well-known Glee.
(In Bleak House, by C. Dickens, Esther Summerson is playfully called "Dame Durden.")
Duretete (Captain), a rather heavy gentleman who takes lessons in gallantry from his friend, young Mirabel. Very bashful with ladies, and for ever sparring with Bisarre, who teazes him unmercifully [Dure-tait, Be-zar'].—G. Farquhar, The Inconstant (1702).
Durinda'na, Orlando's sword, given him by his cousin Malagi'gi. This sword and the horn Olifant were buried at the feet of the hero.
Charlemagne's sword "Joyeuse" was also buried with him, and "Tizo'na" was buried with the Cid.
Duroti'ges (4. syl.). Below the Hedui (those of Somersetshire) came the Durotigês, sometimes called Mor'ini. Their capital was Du'rinum (Dorchester), and their territory extended to Vindel'ia (Portland Isle).—Richard of Cireneestre, Ancient State of Britain, vi. 15.
The Durotigês on the Dorsetian sand.
Drayton, Polyolbion, xvi. (1613).
Durward (Quentin), hero and title of a novel by Sir W. Scott. Quentin Durward is the nephew of Ludovic Lesly (surnamed LeBalafré). He enrolls himself in the Scottish guard, a company of archers in the pay of Louis XI., at Plessis les Tours, and saves the king in a boar-hunt. When Lèigeis is assaulted by insurgents, Quentin Durward and the Countess Isabelle de Croye escape on horseback. The countess publicly refuses to marry the duc d'Orlèans, and ultimately marries the young Scotchman.
Dusronnal, one of the two steeds of Cuthullin, general of the Irish tribes. The other was "Sulin-Sifadda" (q. v.).
Before the left side of the car is seen the
snorting horse. The thin-maned, high-headed,
strong-hoofed, fleet, bounding son of the hill.
His name Dusronnal, among the stormy sons of
the sword ... the [
two
] steeds like wreaths of
mist fly over the vales. The wildness of deer is
in their course, the strength of eagles descending
on the prey.—Ossian,
Fingal
i.
Dutch School of painting, noted for its exactness of detail and truthfullness to life:—For Portraits: Rembrandt, Bol, Flinck, Hals, and Vanderhelst.
For Conversation pieces: Gerhard Douw, Terburg, Metzu, Mieris, and Netscher.
For low life: Ostade Brower and Jan Steen.
For landscapes: Ruysdael, Hobbema, Cuyp, Vanderneer (moonlight scenes), Berchem and A. Both.
For battle scenes: Wouvermans and Huchtenburg.
For marine pieces: Vandevelde and Bakhuizen.
For still life and flowers: Kalf, A. van Utrecht, Van Huysum, and De Heem.
Dutch Housewifery. In his papers upon Old New York (1846), John Fanning Watson pays a just tribute to Knickerbocker housekeepers.
"The cleanliness of Dutch housewifery was
always extreme. Everything had to submit to
scrubbing and scouring; dirt in no form could
be endured by them, and dear as water was in
the city, where it was generally sold, still it was
in perpetual requisition. It was their honest
pride to see a well-furnished dresser, showing
copper and pewter in shining splendor as if for
ornament rather than for use. In all this they
differed widely from the Germans, a people with
whom they have been erroneously and often
confounded. Roost fowls and ducks are not
more different. As water draws one it repels
the other."
Dutton (Mrs. Dolly), dairy-maid to the Duke of Argyll.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time George II.).
Dwarf. The following are celebrated dwarfs of real life:—
ANDROMEDA, 2 feet 4 inches. One of Julia's free maids.
ARISTRATOS, the poet. "So small," says Athenaeos, "that no one could see him."
BEBE (2 syl), 2 feet 9 inches. The dwarf of Stanislas, king of Poland (died 1764). BORUWLASKI (Count Joseph), 2 feet 4 inches. Died aged 98 (1739-1837). He had a brother and a sister both dwarfs.
BUCHINGER (Matthew), who had no arms or legs, but fins from the shoulders. He could draw, write, thread needles, and play the hautboy. Fac-similes of his writing are preserved among the Harleian MSS. (born 1674-_).
CHUNG, recently exhibited with Chang the giant.
COLO'BRI (Prince), of Sleswig, 25 inches; weight, 25 lbs. (1851).
CONOPAS, 2 feet 4 inches. One of the dwarfs of Julia, niece of Augustus.
COPPERNIN, the dwarf of the princess of Wales, mother of George III. The last court-dwarf in England.
CRACHAMI (Caroline), a Sicilian, born at Palermo, 20 inches. Her skeleton is preserved in Hunter's Museum (1814-1824).
DECKER or DUCKER (John), 2 feet 6 inches. An Englishman (1610).
FARREL (Owen), 3 feet 9 inches. Born at Cavan. He was of enormous strength (died 1742).
FERRY (Nicholas), usually called Bébé, contemporary with Boruwlaski. He was a native of France. Height at death, 2 feet 9 inches (died 1737).
GIBSON (Richard) and his wife Anne Shepherd. Neither of them 4 feet. Gibson was a noted portrait painter, and a page of the back-stairs in the court of Charles I. The king honored the wedding with his presence; and they had nine children (1615-1690).
Design or chance makes others wive,
But Nature did this match contrive.
Waller (1642).
HUDSON (Sir Jeffrey), 18 inches. He was born at Oakham, in Rutlandshire (1619—1678).
LUCIUS, 2 feet; weight 17 lbs. The dwarf of the Emperor Augustus. PHILE'TAS, a poet, so small that "he wore leaden shoes to prevent being blown away by the wind" (died B.C. 280).
PHILIPS (Calvin) weighed less than 2 lbs. His thighs were not thicker than a man's thumb. He was born at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in 1791.
RITCHIE (David), 3 feet 6 inches. Native of Tweeddale.
SOUVRAY (Therese).
STOBEUIN (C.H.) of Nuremberg was less than 3 feet at the age of 20. His father, mother, brothers, and sisters were all under the medium height.
THUMB (General Tom). His real name was Charles S. Stratton; 25 inches; weight, 25 lbs. at the age of 25. Born at Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1832.
THUMB (Tom), 2 feet 4 inches. A Dutch dwarf.
XIT, the royal dwarf of Edward VI.
Nicephorus Calistus tells us of an Egyptian dwarf "not bigger than a partridge."
Dwarf of Lady Clerimond was named Pac'olet. She had a winged horse, which carried off Valentine, Orson, and Clerimond from the dungeon of of Ferragus to the palace of King Pepin; and subsequently carried Valentine to the palace of Alexander, his father, emperor of Constantinople. Valentine and Orson (fifteenth century).
Dwarf (The Black), a fairy of malignant propensities, and considered the author of all the mischief of the neighborhood. In Sir W. Scott's novel so called, this imp is introduced under various aliases, as Sir Edward Mauley, Elshander the recluse, cannie Elshie, and the Wise Wight of Micklestane Moor.
Dwarf Alberich, the guardian of the Niebelungen hoard. He is twice vanquished by Siegfried, who gets possession of his cloak of invisibility, and makes himself master of the hoard.—The Niebelungen Lied (1210).
Dwarf Peter, an allegorical romance by Ludwick Tieck. The dwarf is a castle spectre, who advises and aids the family, but all his advice turns out evil, and all his aid is productive of trouble. The dwarf is meant for "the law in our members, which wars against the law of our minds, and brings us into captivity to the law of sin."
Dwining (Henbane), a pottingar or apothecary.—Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).
Dying Sayings (real or traditional):
ADDISON. See how a Christian dies! or See in what peace a Christian can die!
ANAXAGORAS. Give the boys a holiday.
[||]AERIA. My Paetus, it is not painful.
[ç] AUGUSTUS. Vos plaudite. (After asking how he had acted his part in life.)—Cicero.
BEAUFORT (Cardinal Henry). I pray you all, pray for me.
BERRY (Mde. de). Is not this dying with courage and true greatness?
BRONTE (the brother of the authoresses). While there is life there is will. (He died standing.)
BYRON. I must sleep now.
[§] CÆSAR (Julius). Et tu, Brute! (To Brutus, when he stabbed him.)
[*] CHARLEMAGNE. Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!
CHARLES I. (of England). Remember! (To William Juxon, archbishop of Canterbury).
CHARLES II. (of England). Don't let poor Nellie starve! (Nell Gwynne).
CHARLES V. Ah! Jesus!
CHARLES IX. (of France). Nurse, nurse, what murder! what blood! Oh! I have done wrong. God pardon me! CHARLOTTE (The Princess). You make me drink. Pray, leave me quiet. I find it affects my head.
CHESTERFIELD. Give Day Rolles a chair.
COLUMBUS. Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit!
CROME (John), O Hobbima, Hobbima, how I do love thee!
CROMWELL. My desire is to make what haste I may to be gone.
[**]DEMONAX (the philosopher). You may go home, the show is over.—Lucian.
ELDEN (Lord). It matters not where I am going, whether the weather be cold or hot.
FONTENELLE. I suffer nothing, but feel a sort of difficulty in living longer.
FRANKLIN. A dying man can do nothing easy.
GAINSBOROUGH. We are all going to heaven, and Vandyke is of the company.
GEORGE IV. Whatty, what is this? It is death, my boy. They have deceived me. (Said to his page, Sir Wathen Waller).
GIBBON. Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!
[¶] GOETHE. More light!
GREGORY VII. I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile.
[*] GREY (Lady Jane). Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!
GROTIUS. Be serious.
HADYN. God preserve the emperor!
HALLER. The artery ceases to beat.
HAZLITT. I have led a happy life.
HOBBES. Now am I about to take my last voyage—a great leap in the dark.
[||] HUNTER (Dr. William). If I had strength to hold a pen, I would write down how easy and pleasant a thing it is to die.
IRVING. If I die, I die unto the Lord. Amen.
JAMES V. (of Scotland). It came with a lass, and will go with a lass (i.e. the Scotch crown).
JEFFERSON (of America). I resign my spirit to God, my daughter to my country.
JOHNSON (Dr.). God bless you, my dear! (To Miss Morris).
KNOX. Now it is come.
LOUIS I. Huz! huz! Bouquet says: "He turned his face to the wall; and twice cried, 'Huz! huz!' (out, out), and then died."
LOUIS IX. I will enter now into the house of the Lord.
[||] Louis XIV. Why weep ye! Did you think I should live for ever? (Then after a pause) I thought dying had been harder.
[**] Louis XVII. A king should die standing.
MAHOMET. O, Allah, be it so! Henceforth among the glorious host of paradise.
MARGARET (of Scotland, wife of Louis XI. of France). Fi de la vie! qu'on ne m'en parle plus.
MARIE ANTOINETTE. Farewell, my children, for ever. I go to your father.
[§] MASANIELLO. Ungratetul traitors! (Said to the assassins.)
MATHEWS (Charles). I am ready.
MIRABEAU. Let me die to the sounds of delicious music.
MOODY (the actor):
Reason thus with life,
If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
That none but fools would keep.
Shakespeare.
MOORE (Sir John). I hope my country will do me justice.
NAPOLEON I. Mon Dieu! La nation Francaise! Tête d'armée!
NAPOLEON III. Were you at Sedan? (To Dr. Conneau.)
NELSON. I thank God I have done my duty.
NERO. Qualis artifex pereo!
PALMER (the actor). There is another and a better country. (This he said on the stage, it being a line in the part he was acting. From The Stranger.)
PITT (William). O, my country, how I love thee!
PIZARRO. Jesu!
POPE. Friendship itself is but a part of virtue.
[**] RABELAIS. Let down the curtain, the farce is over.
SAND (George). Laisez la verdure. (Meaning, "Leave the tomb green, do not cover it over with bricks or stone." George Sand was Mde. Dudevant.)
SCHILLER. Many things are growing plain and clear to my understanding.
SCOTT (Sir Walter). God bless you all! (To his family.) SIDNEY (Algernon). I know that my Redeemer liveth. I die for the good old cause.
SOCRATES. Crito, we owe a cock to Æsculapius.
STAEL (Mde. de). I have loved God, my father, and liberty.
[¶] TALMA. The worst is, I cannot see.
[*] TASSO. Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!
THURLOW (Lord). I'll be shot if I don't believe I'm dying.
[**] VESPASIAN. A king should die standing.
WEBSTER. I still live!
WILLIAM III. (of England). Can this last long? (To his physician).
WILLIAM OF NASSAU. O God, have mercy upon me, and upon this poor nation! (This was said as he was shot by Balthasar Gerard, 1584).
WOLFE (General). What! do they run already? Then I die happy.
WYATT (Thomas) That which I then said I unsay. That which I now say is true. (This to the priest who reminded him that he had accused the Princess Elizabeth of treason to the council, and that he now alleged her to be innocent.)
Those names preceded by similar pilcrows indicate that the "dying words" ascribed to them are identical or nearly so. Thus the [*] before Charlemagne, Columbus, Lady Jane Grey, and Tasso, show that their words were alike. So with the before Augustus, Demonax, and Rabelais; the [**] before Louis XVIII. and Vespasian; the [§] before Cæsar and Masaniello; the [||] before Arria, Hunter, and Louis XIV.; and the [¶] before Goethe and Talma.
Dys'colus, Moroseness personified in The Purple Island, by Phineas Fletcher (1633). "He nothing liked or praised." Fully described in canto viii. (Greek, duskolos, "fretful.")
Dysmas, Dismas, or Demas, the penitent thief crucified with our Lord. The impenitent thief is called Gesmas or Gestas.
Alta petit Dismas, infelix innma Gesmas.
Part of a Charm
.
To paradise thief Dismas went,
But Gesmas died impenitent.
ADBURGH, daughter of Edward the Elder, king of England, and Eadgifu, his wife. When three years old, her father placed on the child some rings and bracelets, and showed her a chalice and a book of the Gospels, asking which she would have. The child chose the chalice and book, and Edward was pleased that "the child would be a daughter of God." She became a nun, and lived and died in Winchester.
Eagle (The), ensign of the Roman legion. Before the Cimbrian war, the wolf, the horse, and the boar were also borne as ensigns, but Marius abolished these, and retained the eagle only, hence called emphatically "The Roman Bird."
Eagle (The Theban), Pindar, a native of Thebes (B.C. 518-442).
Eagle of Brittany, Bertrand Duguesclin, constable of France (1320-1380).
Eagle of Divines, Thomas Aqui'nas (1224-1274).
Eagle of Meaux [Mo], Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, bishop of Meaux (1627-1704).
Eagle of the Doctors of France, Pierre d'Ailly, a great astrologer, who maintained that the stars foretold the great flood (1350-1425).
Earnscliffe (Patrick), the young laird of Earnscliffe.—Sir W. Scott, Black Dwarf (time, Anne).
Eastward Ho! a comedy by Chapman, Marston, and Ben Jonson. For this drama the three authors were imprisoned "for disrespect to their sovereign lord, King James I." (1605). (See WESTWARD Ho!).
Easty (Mary), a woman of Salem (Mass), convicted of witchcraft, sends before her death a petition to the court, asserting her innocence. Of her accusers she says: "I know, and the Lord, He knows (as will shortly appear), that they belie me, and so I question not but they do others. The Lord alone, who is the searcher of all hearts knows, as I shall answer it at the tribunal seat, that I know not the least thing of witchcraft. Therefore I cannot, I durst not, belie my own soul."—Robert Caleb, More Wonders of the Invisible World (1700).
Easy (Midshipman), hero of Marryatt's sea-story of same name.
Easy (Sir Charles), a man who hates trouble; "so lazy, even in his pleasures, that he would rather lose the woman of his pursuit, than go through any trouble in securing or keeping her." He says he is resolved in future to "follow no pleasure that rises above the degree of amusement." "When once a woman comes to reproach me with vows, and usage, and such stuff, I would as soon hear her talk of bills, bonds, and ejectments; her passion becomes as troublesome as a law-suit, and I would as soon converse with my solicitor." (act iii.).
Lady Easy, wife of Sir Charles, who dearly loves him, and knows all his "naughty ways," but never shows the slightest indication of ill-temper or jealousy. At last she wholly reclaims him.—Colley Cibber, The Careless Husband (1704).
Eaton Theophilus (Governor). In his eulogy upon Governor Eaton, Dr. Cotton Mather lays stress upon the distinction drawn by that eminent Christian man between stoicism and resignation.
"There is a difference between a sullen silence or a stupid senselessness under the hand of GOD, and a childlike submission thereunto."
"In his daily life", we are told, "he was affable, courteous, and generally pleasant, but grave perpetually, and so courteous and circumspect in his discourses, and so modest in his expressions, that it became a proverb for incontestable truth,"—"Governor Eaton said it."—Cotton Mather, Magnolia Christi Americana (1702).
Eberson (Ear), the young son of William de la Marck, "The Wild Boar of Ardennes."—Sir W. Scott, Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).
Eblis, monarch of the spirits of evil. Once an angel of light, but, refusing to worship Adam, he lost his high estate. Before his fall he was called Aza'zel. The Korân says: "When We [God] said unto the angels, 'Worship Adam,' they all worshipped except Eblis, who refused ... and became of the number of unbelievers" (ch. ii.).
Ebon Spear (Knight of the), Britomart, daughter of King Ryence of Wales.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, iii. (1590).
Ebrauc, son of Mempric (son of Guendolen and Madden) mythical king of England. He built Kaer-brauc [York], about the time that David reigned in Judea.—Geoffrey, British History, ii. 7 (1142).
By Ebrauk's powerful hand
York lifts her towers aloft.
Drayton,
Polyolbion
, viii. (1612).
Ecclesiastical History (The Father of), Eusebius of Cæsarea (264-340).
His Historia Fcclesiastica, in ten books, begins with the birth of Christ and concludes with the defeat of Licinius by Constantine, A.D. 324.
Echeph'ron, an old soldier, who rebuked the advisers of King Picrochole (3 syl.), by relating to them the fable of The Man and his Ha'p'orth of Milk. The fable is as follows:—
A shoemaker brought a ha'poth of milk: with this he was going to make butter; the butter was to buy a cow; the cow was to have a calf; the calf was to be changed for a colt; and the man was to become a nabob; only he cracked his jug, spilt his milk, and went supperless to bed.—Rabelais, Pantagruel, i. 33 (1533.)
This fable is told in the Arabian Nights ("The Barber's Fifth Brother, Alnas-char.") Lafontaine has put it into verse, Perrette et le Pot au Lait. Dodsley has the same, The Milk-maid and her Pail of Milk.
Echo, in classic poetry, is a female, and in English also; but in Ossian echo is called "the son of the rock."—Songs of Selma.
Eck'hart (The Trusty), a good servant, who perishes to save his master's children from the mountain fiends.—Louis Tieck.
(Carlyle has translated this tale into English.)
Eclecta, the "Elect" personified in The Purple Island, by Phineas Fletcher. She is the daughter of Intellect and Voleta (free-will), and ultimately becomes the bride of Jesus Christ, "the bridegroom" (canto xii., 1633).
But let the Kentish lad [Phineas Fletcher] ... that sung and crowned Eclecta's hymen with ten thousand flowers Of choicest praise ... be the sweet pipe.
Giles Fletcher, Christ's Triumph, etc, (1610).
École des Femmes, a comedy of Molière, the plot of which is borrowed from the novelletti of Ser Giovanni (1378.)
Ector (Sir), lord of many parts of England and Wales, and foster-father of Prince Arthur. His son Sir Key or Kay, was seneschal or steward of Arthur when he became king.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 3 (1470.)
Sir Ector and Sir Ector de Maris were two distinct persons.
Ector de Maris (Sir), brother "of Sir Launcelot" of Benwick, i.e. Brittany.
Then Sir Ector threw his shield, his sword, and his helm from him, and ... he fell down in a swoon; and when he awaked, it were hard for any tongue to tell the doleful complaints [lamentations] that he made for his brother. "Ah, Sir Launcelot" said he "head of all Christian knights." ... etc.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, iii. 176 (1470.)
Eden (A Journey to the land of), Col. William Evelyn Byrd of Westover Virginia gives this name to a tract of Southern Virginia surveyed under his direction and visited by him in one of his numerous expeditions for the good of the young colony.
(Colonel Byrd laid out upon his own ground the cities of Richmond and Petersburgh, Va.)—William Evelyn Byrd, Westover MSS. (1728-39).
Eden, in America. A dismal swamp, the climate of which generally proved fatal to the poor dupes who were induced to settle there through the swindling transactions of General Scadder and General Choke. So dismal and dangerous was the place, that even Mark Tapley was satisfied to have found at last a place where he could "come out jolly with credit."—C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).
Edenhall (The Luck of) an old painted goblet, left by the fairies on St. Cuthbert's Well in the garden of Edenhall. The superstition is that if ever this goblet is lost or broken, there will be no more luck in the family. The goblet is in possession of Sir Christopher Musgrave, bart. Edenhall, Cumberland.
Longfellow has a poem on The Luck of Edenhall, translated from Uhland.
Edgar (959-775), "king of all the English," was not crowned till he had reigned thirteen years (A.D. 973). Then the ceremony was performed at Bath. After this he sailed to Chester, and eight of his vassal kings came with their fleets to pay him homage, and swear fealty to him by land and sea. The eight are Kenneth (king of Scots), Malcolm (of Cumberland), Maccus (of the Isles), and five Welsh princes, whose names were Dufnal, Siferth, Huwal, Jacob, and Juchil. The eight kings rowed Edgar in a boat (while he acted as steersman) from Chester to St. John's, where they offered prayer and then returned.
At Chester, while he, [
Edgar
] lived at more than kingly charge.
Eight tributary kings they rowed him in his barge.
Drayton,
Polyolbion
, xii. (1613).
Edgar, son of Gloucester, and his lawful heir. He was disinherited by Edmund, natural son of the earl.—Shakespeare, King Lear (1605).
This was one of the characters of Robert Wilks (1670-1732), and also of Charles Kemble (1774-1854).