Chapter XIV: Part 14

BUNYAN wrote his _Pilgrim’s Progress_ while confined in Bedford jail
(1628-1688).

BURRITT (_Elihu_) made himself acquainted with ten languages while
plying his trade as a village blacksmith (Hebrew, Greek, Syriac,
Spanish, Bohemian, Polish, Danish, Persian, Turkish, and Ethiopic).
His father was a village cobbler, and Elihu had only six months’
education, and that at the school of his brother (1811-1879).

CAREY, the missionary and Oriental translator, learnt the rudiments of
Eastern languages while employed in making and mending shoes
(1761-1834).

CLEMENT (_Joseph_), son of a poor weaver, was brought up as a
thatcher, but, by utilizing his waste moments in self-education and
works of skill, raised himself to a position of great note, giving
employment to thirty workmen (1779-1844).

COBBETT learnt grammar in the waste time of his service as a common
soldier (1762-1835).

D’AGUESSEAU, the great French chancellor, observing that Mde.
D’Aguesseau always delayed ten or twelve minutes before she came down
to dinner, began and completed a learned book of three volumes (large
quarto), solely during these “waste minutes.” This work went through
several editions (1668-1751).

ETTY utilized indefatigably every spare moment he could pick up when a
journeyman printer (1787-1849).

FERGUSON taught himself astronomy while tending sheep in the service
of a Scotch farmer (1710-1776).

FRANKLIN, while working as a journeyman printer, produced his
_Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain_
(1706-1790).

MILLER (_Hugh_) taught himself geology while working as a mason
(1802-1856).

PAUL worked as a tentmaker in intervals of travel and preaching.

⁂ This brief list must be considered only as a hint and heading for
enlargement. Henry Cort, William Fairbairn, Fox of Derby, H. Maudslay,
David Mushet, Murray of Leeds, J. Nasmyth, J. B. Neilson, Roberts of
Manchester, Whitworth, and scores of others will occur to every
reader. Indeed, genius for the most part owes its success to the
utilization of waste time.

=Wastle= (_William_), pseudonym of John Gibson Lockhart, in
_Blackwood’s Magazine_ (1794-1854).

=Wat Dreary=, _alias_ BROWN WILL, a highwayman, in Captain Macheath’s
gang. Peachum says, “he has an underhand way of disposing of the goods
he stole,” and therefore he should allow him to remain a little longer
“upon his good behavior.”--Gay, _The Beggar’s Opera_, i. (1727).

=Water-Poet= (_The_), John Taylor, a Thames waterman (1580-1654).

=Water-Wraith=, the evil spirit of the waters.

By this the storm grew loud apace,
The water-wraith was shrieking.
Campbell, _Lord Ullin’s Daughter_.

=Waterman= (_The_), Tom Tug. It is the title of a ballad opera by
Charles Dibdin (1774). (For the plot, see WILELMINA BUNDLE.)

=Watkins= (_William_), the English attendant on the prince of
Scotland.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

=Watts= (_Dr. Isaac_). It is said that Isaac Watts, being beaten by
his father for wasting his time in writing verses, exclaimed:

O, father, pity on me take,
And I will no more verses make.

A similar anecdote is told of Ovid, the Latin poet:

Parce, precor, genitor, posthac non versificabo.

=Wauch= (_Mansie_), fictitious name of D. M. Moir, author of _The Life
of Mansie Wauch, Tailor in Dalkeith, written by himself_ (1828).

=Waverley=, the first of Scott’s historical novels, published in 1814.
The materials are Highland feudalism, military bravery, and
description of natural scenery. There is a fine vein of humor, and a
union of fiction with history. The chief characters are Charles
Edward, the Chevalier, the noble old baron of Bradwardine, the simple,
faithful clansman, Evan Dhu, and the poor fool, Davie Gellatley, with
his fragments of song and scattered gleams of fancy.

Scott did not prefix his name to _Waverley_, being afraid that it
might compromise his poetical reputation.--Chambers, _English
Literature_, ii. 586.

_Waverley_ (_Captain Edward_), of Waverley Honor, and hero of the
novel called by his name. Being gored by a stag, he resigned his
commission, and proposed marriage to Flora M’Ivor, but was not
accepted. Fergus M’Ivor (Flora’s brother) introduced him to Prince
Charles Edward. He entered the service of the Young Chevalier, and in
the battle of Preston Pans saved the life of Colonel Talbot. The
colonel, out of gratitude, obtained the pardon of young Waverley, who
then married Rose Bradwardine, and settled down quietly in Waverley
Honor.

_Mr. Richard Waverley_, the captain’s father, of Waverley Honor.

_Sir Everard Waverley_, the captain’s uncle.

_Mistress Rachel Waverley_, sister of Sir Everard.--Sir W. Scott,
_Waverley_ (time, George II.).

=Wax= (_A lad o’_), a spruce young man, like a model in wax. Lucretius
speaks of _persona cerea_, and Horace of the waxen arms of Telĕphus,
meaning beautiful in shape and color.

A man, young lady! Lady, such a man
As all the world----Why, he’s a man o’ wax!
Shakespeare, _Romeo and Juliet_ (1595).

=Way of the World= (_The_), a comedy by W. Congreve (1700). The “way
of the world” is to tie up settlements to wives, to prevent their
husbands squandering their wives’ fortunes. Thus, Fainall wanted to
get into his power the fortune of his wife, whom he hated, but found
it was “in trust to Edward Mirabell,” and consequently could not be
tampered with.

=Way to Keep Him= (_The_), a comedy by A. Murphy (1760). The object of
this drama is to show that women, after marriage, should not wholly
neglect their husbands, but should try to please them, and make home
agreeable and attractive. The chief persons are Mr. and Mrs. Lovemore.
Mr. Lovemore has a virtuous and excellent wife, whom he esteems and
loves; but, finding his home insufferably dull, he seeks amusement
abroad; and those passions which have no play at home lead him to
intrigue and card-playing, routes and dubious society. The under-plot
is this: Sir Bashful Constant is a mere imitator of Mr. Lovemore, and
Lady Constant suffers neglect from her husband and insult from his
friends, because he foolishly thinks it is not _comme il faut_ to love
after he has married the woman of his choice.

=Ways and Means=, a comedy by Colman, the younger (1788). Random and
Scruple meet at Calais two young ladies, Harriet and Kitty, daughters
of Sir David Dunder, and fall in love with them. They come to Dover,
and accidentally meet Sir David, who invites them over to Dunder Hall,
where they are introduced to the two young ladies. Harriet is to be
married next day, against her will, to Lord Snolts, a stumpy, “gummy”
nobleman of five and forty; and, to avoid this hateful match, she and
her sister agree to elope at night with the two young guests. It so
happens that a series of blunders in the dark occur, and Sir David
himself becomes privy to the whole plot, but, to prevent scandal, he
agrees to the two marriages, and discovers that the young men, both in
family and fortune, are quite suitable to be his sons-in-law.

=Wayland= (_Launcelot_), or WAYLAND SMITH, farrier in the vale of
Whitehorse. Afterwards disguised as a pedlar at Cumnor Place.--Sir W.
Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).

=Wealtheow= (2 _syl._), wife of Hrothgar, king of Denmark.

Wealtheow went forth; mindful of their races, she ... greeted the men
in the hall. The freeborn lady first handed the cup to the prince of
the East Danes.... The lady of the Helmings then went about every part
... she gave treasure-vessels, until the opportunity occurred that she
(a queen hung round with rings) ... bore forth the mead-cup to Beowolf
... and thanked God that her will was accomplished, that an earl of
Denmark was a guarantee against crime.--_Beowulf_ (Anglo-Saxon epic,
sixth century).

=Wealthy Hoogs.= Yankee housewife, “hungry for books, full of keen
thought, energetic to preëminence even among Yankee notables”--“she
lived here, simply where she had been put, made and packed her butter,
wove her homespun, and loved faithfully--and forbearingly, for the
most part--(were it praise worth a woman’s having to say more?) the
man whose name and home she shared.”--A. D. T. Whitney, _The
Gayworthys_ (1865).

=Wealthy= (_Sir William_), a retired City merchant, with one son of
prodigal propensities. In order to save the young man from ruin, the
father pretends to be dead, disguises himself as a German baron, and,
with the aid of coadjutors, becomes the chief creditor of the young
scapegrace.

_Sir George Wealthy_, the son of Sir William. After having run out his
money, Lucy is brought to him as a courtezan; but the young man is so
moved with her manifest innocence and tale of sorrow that he places
her in an asylum where here distresses would be sacred, “and her
indigent beauty would be guarded from temptation.” Afterwards she
becomes his wife.

_Mr. Richard Wealthy_, merchant, the brother of Sir William; choleric,
straightforward, and tyrannical. He thinks obedience is both law and
gospel.

_Lucy Wealthy_, daughter of Richard. Her father wants her to marry a
rich tradesman, and, as she refuses to do so turns her out of doors.
She is brought to Sir George Wealthy as a _fille de joie_; but the
young man, discerning her innocence and modesty, places her in
safe-keeping. He ultimately finds out that she is his cousin, and the
two parents rejoice in consummating a union so entirely in accordance
with both their wishes.--Foote, _The Minor_ (1760).

=Weary-all Hill=, above Glastonbury, to the left of Tor Hill. This
spot is the traditional landing-place of Joseph of Arimathea; and here
is the site (marked by a stone bearing the letters A. I. A.D. xxxi.)
of the holy thorn.

When the saint arrived at Glastonbury, _weary_ with his long journey,
he struck his staff into the ground, and the staff became the famous
thorn, the site being called “Weary-all Hill.”

=Weatherport= (_Captain_), a naval officer.--Sir W. Scott, _The
Pirate_ (time, William III.).

=Weaver-Poet of Inverary= (_The_), William Thom (1799-1850).

=Wea´zel= (_Timothy_), attorney-at-law at Lestwithiel, employed as the
agent of Penruddock.--Cumberland, _The Wheel of Fortune_ (1778).

=Wedding Day= (_The_), a comedy by Mrs. Inchbald (1790). The plot is
this: Sir Adam Contest lost his first wife by shipwreck, and “twelve
or fourteen years” afterwards he led to the altar a young girl of 18,
to whom he was always singing the praises of his first wife--a
phœnix, a paragon, the _ne plus ultra_ of wives and women. She did
everything to make him happy. She loved him, obeyed him; ah! “he would
never look upon her like again.” On the wedding day this pink of wives
and women made her appearance, and told how she had been rescued, and
Sir Adam was dumfounded. “He was happy to bewail her loss,” but to
rejoice in her restoration was quite another matter.

=Weeping Philosopher= (_The_), Heraclītos, who looked at the folly of
man with grief (fl. B.C. 500). (See JEDDLER).

=Wegg= (_Silas_), wooden-legged ballad-monger and humbug, who “reads”
for the confiding Boffins, and does his best to ruin them.--Charles
Dickens, _Our Mutual Friend_.

=Weir= (_Major_), the favorite baboon of Sir Robert Redgauntlet. In
the tale of “Wandering Willie,” Sir Robert’s piper went to the
infernal regions to obtain the knight’s receipt of rent, which had
been paid; but no receipt could be found, because the monkey had
carried it to the castle turret.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time,
George III.).

=Weird Sisters.= The three witches in Shakespeare’s play _Macbeth_.

=Weissnichtwo= [_Vice-neckt-vo_], nowhere. The word is German for “I
know not where,” and was coined by Carlyle (_Sartor Resartus_, 1833).
Sir W. Scott has a similar Scotch compound, “Kennaquhair” (“I know not
where”). Cervantes has the “island of Trapoban” (_i.e._, of
“dish-clouts,” from _trapos_, the Spanish for “a dish-clout”). Sir
Thomas More has “Utopia” (Greek, _ou topos_, “no place”). We might add
the “island of Medăma” (Greek, “nowhere”), “the peninsular of
Udamogês” (Greek, “nowhere on earth”), the country of “Kennahtwhar,”
etc., and place them in the great “Nullibian” ocean (“nowhere”), in
any degree beyond 180º long. and 90º lat.

=Wel´ford=, one of the suitors of “the Scornful Lady” (no name is
given to the lady).--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Scornful Lady_
(1616).

=Well.= Three of the most prominent Bible characters met their wives
for the first time by wells of water, viz., Isaac, Jacob, and Moses.

Eliezer met Rebekah by a well, and arranged with Bethuel for her to
become Isaac’s wife.--_Gen._ xxiv.

Jacob met Rachel by the well of Haran.--_Gen._ xxix.

When Moses fled from Egypt into the land of Midian, he “sat down by a
well,” and the seven daughters of Jethro came there to draw water, one
of whom, named Zipporah, became his wife.--_Exod._ ii. 15-21.

The Princess Nausicăa, daughter of Alcinŏos, king of the Phæacians,
was with her maidens washing the household linen on the seashore when
she first encountered Ulysses.--Homer, _Odyssey_, vi.

=Well of English Undefiled.= So Spenser calls Chaucer.

Dan Chaucer, well of English undefiled,
On Fame’s eternal bead-roll worthy to be filed.
Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, iv. 2 (1596).

=Well-Beloved= (_The_), Charles IV. of France, Le Bien-Aimé (1368,
1380-1422).

Louis XV. of France, _Le Bien-Aimé_ (1710, 1715-1774).

=Well-Founded Doctor= (_The_), Ægidius de Colonna; also called “The
Most Profound Doctor” (Doctor _Fundatissimus et Theologorum
Princeps_); sometimes surnamed “Romānus,” because he was born in the
Campagna di Roma, but more generally “Colonna,” from a town in the
Campagna (1247-1316).

=Wellborn= (_Francis_, usually called _Frank_), nephew of Sir Giles
Overreach, and son of Sir John Wellborn, who “bore the whole sway” of
Northamptonshire, kept a large estate, and was highly honored. Frank
squandered away the property, and got greatly into debt, but induced
Lady Allworth to give him her countenance out of gratitude and respect
to his father. Sir Giles fancies that the rich dowager is about to
marry his nephew, and, in order to bring about this desirable
consummation, not only pays all his debts, but supplies him liberally
with ready money. Being thus freed from debt, and having sown his wild
oats, young Wellborn reforms, and Lord Lovell gives him a
“company.”--Massinger, _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_ (1625).

=Weller= (_Samuel_), boots at the White Hart, and afterwards servant
to Mr. Pickwick, to whom he becomes devotedly attached. Rather than
leave his master when he is sent to the Fleet, Sam Weller gets his
father to arrest him for debt. His fun, his shrewdness, his
comparisons, his archness, and his cunning on behalf of his master are
unparalleled.

_Tony Weller_, father of Sam; a coachman of the old school, who drives
a coach between London and Dorking. Naturally portly in size, he
becomes far more so in his great-coat of many capes. Tony wears
top-boots, and his hat has a low crown and broad brim. On the
stage-box he is a king, elsewhere he is a mere greenhorn. He marries a
widow, landlady of the “Marquis of Granby inn,” and his constant
advice to his son is, “Sam, beware of the vidders.”--C. Dickens, _The
Pickwick Papers_ (1836).

=Wellington of Gamblers= (_The_). Lord Rivers was called in Paris _Le
Wellington des Joueurs_.

=Wellington’s Horse=, Copenhagen. It died at the age of 27.

=Wellon= (_Mr._), rector of English church at Conception Bay, and Mrs.
Barre’s (Debrée’s) firm friend. He performs the service over her
husband’s grave.--Robert Lowell, _The New Priest of Conception Bay_
(1858).

=Wemmick=, clerk of Mr. Jaggers, the lawyer. He lived at Walworth.
Wemmick was a dry man, rather short in stature, with square, wooden
face. “There were some marks in the face which might have been dimples
if the material had been softer.” His linen was frayed; he wore four
mourning rings, and a brooch representing a lady, a weeping willow and
a cinerary urn. His eyes were small and glittering; his lips small,
thin and mottled; his age was between 40 and 50 years. Mr. Wemmick
wore his hat on the back of his head, and looked straight before him,
as if nothing was worth looking at. Mr. Wemmick at home and Mr.
Wemmick in his office were two distinct beings. At home he was his
“own engineer, his own carpenter, his own plumber, his own gardener,
his own Jack-of-all-trades,” and had fortified his little wooden house
like Commodore Trunnion (_q.v._) His father lived with him, and he
called him “The Aged.” The old man was very deaf, but heated the poker
with delight to fire off the nine o’clock signal, and chuckled with
joy because he could hear the bang. The house had a “real flag-staff,”
and a plank which crossed the ditch some four feet wide and two feet
deep was the drawbridge. At nine o’clock P.M., Greenwich time, the gun
(called “The Stinger”) was fired.

The piece of ordnance was mounted in a separate fortress, constructed
of lattice-work. It was protected from the weather by an ingenious
little tarpaulin contrivance in the nature of an umbrella.--C.
Dickens, _Great Expectations_, xxv. (1860).

=Wenlock= (_Wild Wenlock_), kinsman of Sir Hugo de Lacy, constable of
Chester. His head is cut off by the insurgents.--Sir W. Scott, _The
Betrothed_ (time Henry II).

=Weno´nah=, mother of Hiawatha and daughter of Noko´mis. Nokomis was
swinging in the moon, when some of her companions, out of jealousy,
cut the ropes, and she fell to the earth “like a falling star.” That
night was born her first child, a daughter, whom she named Wenonah. In
due time, this lovely daughter was wooed and won by Mudjekee´wis (the
west wind), and became the mother of Hiawatha. The false West Wind
deserted her, and the young mother died.

Fair Nokomis bore a daughter,
And she called her name Wenonah.
Longfellow, _Hiawatha_, iii. (1855).

=Wentworth= (_Eva_), the beau-ideal of female purity. She was educated
in strict seclusion. De Courcy fell in love with her, but deceived
her; whereupon she died calmly and tranquilly, elevated by religious
hope. (See ZAIRA).--Rev. C. R. Maturin, _Women_ (a romance, 1822).

=Werburg= (_St._), born a princess. By her prayer, she drove the wild
geese from Weedon.

She falleth in her way with Weedon, where, ’tis said,
St. Werburg, princely born--a most religious maid--
From those peculiar fields, by prayer the wild geese drove.
Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xxiii. (1622).

=Were-wolf= (2 _syl._), a man-wolf, a man transformed into a wolf
temporarily or otherwise.

Oft through the forest dark,
Followed the weir-wolf’s bark.
Longfellow, _The Skeleton in Armor_.

=Werner=, the boy said to have been crucified at Bacharach, on the
Rhine, by the Jews. (See HUGH OF LINCOLN.)

The innocent boy who, some years back,
Was taken and crucified by the Jews
In that ancient town of Bacharach.
Longfellow, _The Golden Legend_ (1851).

=Werner= or =Kruitzner= (_Count of Siegendorf_), father of Ulric.
Being driven from the dominions of his father, he wandered about for
twelve years as a beggar, hunted from place to place by Count
Stral´enheim. At length, Stralenheim, travelling through Silesia, was
rescued from the Oder by Gabor (_alias_ Ulric), and was lodged in an
old tumble-down palace, where Werner had been lodging for some few
days. Here Werner robbed the count of a rouleau of gold, the next day
the count was murdered by Ulric (without the connivance or even
knowledge of Werner). When Werner succeeded to the rank and wealth of
Count Siegendorf, he became aware that his son, Ulric, was the
murderer, and denounced him. Ulric departed, and Werner said, “The
race of Siegendorf is past.”--Byron, _Werner_ (1821).

(This drama is borrowed from “Kruitzner, or The German’s Tale,” in
Miss H. Lee’s _Canterbury Tales_, 1797-1805).

=Werner.= (See TRUMPETER OF SACKINGEN.)

=Werther=, a young German student, of poetic fancy and very sensitive
disposition, who falls in love with Lotte (2 _syl._), the betrothed
and afterwards the wife of Albert. Werther becomes acquainted with
Lotte’s husband, who invites him to stay with him as a guest. In this
visit his love blazes out into a terrible passion, and after vainly
striving to fight it down, he puts an end to his misery by shooting
himself.--Goethe, _The Sorrows of Young Werther_ (1774).

⁂ Goethe represents himself, or rather one of the moods of his mind,
in the character of Werther. The catastrophe, however, is borrowed
from the fate of a schoolfellow of his named Jerusalem, who shot
himself on account of a hopeless passion for a married woman. “Albert”
and “Lotte” were sketched from his friends Albert and Charlotte
Kestner, a young couple with whom he had relations not unlike those of
Werther in the early part of the story with the fictitious characters.

=Werther of Politics.= The marquis of Londonderry is so called by Lord
Byron. Werther, the personification of maudlin sentimentality, is the
hero of Goethe’s romance entitled _The Sorrows of Young Werther_
(1774).

It is the first time since the Normans that England has been insulted
by a _minister_ who could not speak English, and that parliament
permitted itself to be dictated to in the language of Mrs.
Malaprop.... Let us hear no more of this man, and let Ireland remove
the ashes of her Grattan from the sanctuary of Westminster. Shall the
Patriot of Humanity repose by the Werther of Politics?--Byron, _Don
Juan_ (preface to canto vi., etc., 1824).

=Wessel= (_Peder_), a tailor’s apprentice, who rose to the rank of
vice-admiral of Denmark, in the reign of Christian V. He was called
Tor´denskiold (3 _syl._), corrupted into Tordenskiol (the “Thunder
Shield”), and was killed in a duel.

North Sea! a glimpse of Wessel rent
Thy murky sky ...
From Denmark thunders Tordenskiol;
Let each to heaven commend his soul,
And fly.
Longfellow, _King Christian_ [_V._].

=West Indian= (_The_), a comedy by R. Cumberland (1771). Mr. Belcour,
the adopted son of a wealthy Jamaica merchant, on the death of his
adopted father came to London, to the house of Mr. Stockwell, once the
clerk of Mr. Belcour, senior. This clerk had secretly married
Belcour’s daughter, and when her boy was born it was “laid as a
foundling at her father’s door.” Old Belcour brought the child up as
his own son, and at death “bequeathed to him his whole estate.” The
young man then came to London as the guest of Mr. Stockwell, the rich
merchant, and accidentally encountered in the street Miss Louisa
Dudley, with whom he fell in love. Louisa, with her father, Captain
Dudley, and her brother, Charles, all in the greatest poverty, were
lodging with a Mr. Fulmer, a small bookseller. Belcour gets
introduced, and, after the usual mistakes and hairbreadth escapes,
makes her his wife.

=Western= (_Squire_), a jovial, fox-hunting country gentleman,
supremely ignorant of book-learning, very prejudiced, selfish,
irascible and countrified; but shrewd, good-natured, and very fond of
his daughter, Sophia.

Philip, earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, was in character a Squire
Western, choleric, boisterous, illiterate, selfish, absurd and
cowardly.--Osborne, _Secret History_, i. 218.

Squire Western stands alone; imitated from no prototype, and in
himself an inimitable picture of ignorance, prejudice, irascibility
and rusticity, united with natural shrewdness, constitutional good
humor, and an instinctive affection for his daughter.--_Encyc. Brit._,
Art. “Fielding.”

_Sophia Western_, daughter of Squire Western. She becomes engaged to
Tom Jones, the foundling.--Fielding, _Tom Jones_ (1749).

There now are no Squire Westerns, as of old;
And our Sophias are not so emphatic,
But fair as them or fairer to behold.
Byron, _Don Juan_, xiii. 110 (1824).

=Westlock= (_John_), a quondam pupil of Mr. Pecksniff (“architect and
land surveyor”). John Westlock marries Ruth, the sister of Tom
Pinch.--C. Dickens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1843).

=Westmoreland=, according to fable, is West-Mar-land. Mar or Marius,
son of Arvirăgus, was king of the British, and overthrew Rodric, the
Scythian, in the north-west of England, where he set up a stone with
an inscription of this victory, “both of which remain to this
day.”--Geoffrey, _British History_, iv. 17 (1142).

=Westward Hoe=, a comedy by Thomas Dekker (1607). The Rev. Charles
Kingsley published a novel in 1854, entitled _Westward Ho!_ or _The
Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh in the Reign of Queen
Elizabeth_. (See EASTWARD HOE.)

=Wetheral= (_Stephen_), surnamed “Stephen Steelheart,” in the troop of
Lord Waldemar Fitzurse (a baron following Prince John).--Sir W. Scott,
_Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

=Wetherell= (_Elizabeth_), Miss Susan Warner, authoress of _The Wide,
Wide World_ (1852), _Queechy_ (1853), etc.

=Wetzweiler= (_Tid_), or _Le Glorieux_, the court jester of Charles,
“The Bold,” duke of Burgundy.--Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time,
Edward IV.).

=Whachum=, journeyman to Sidrophel. He was Richard Green, who
published a pamphlet of base ribaldry, called _Hudibras in a Snare_
(1667).

A paltry wretch he had, half-starved,
That him in place of zany served,
Hight Whachum.
S. Butler, _Hudibras_, ii. 3 (1664).

=Whang=, an avaricious Chinese miller, who, by great thrift, was
pretty well off, but, one day, being told that a neighbor had found a
pot of money which he had dreamt of, began to be dissatisfied with his
slow gains, and longed for a dream also. At length the dream came. He
dreamt there was a huge pot of gold concealed under his mill, and set
to work to find it. The first omen of success was a broken mug, then a
house-tile, and at length, after much digging, he came to a stone so
large that he could not lift it. He ran to tell his luck to his wife,
and the two tugged at the stone, but, as they removed it, down fell
the mill in utter ruins.--Goldsmith, _A Citizen of the World_, lxx.
(1759).

=Wharton= (_Eliza_), heroine of one of the first novels published in
the United States, under the title of _The Coquette_, or _The History
of Eliza Wharton_, by Hannah Webster Foster (1797).

=Whartons= (_The_). _Henry Wharton_, young royalist captain, arrested
as a spy while visiting his father’s house, which is within the
American lines. He is assisted to escape by Harvey Birch.

_Sarah Wharton_, the elder daughter, has royalist proclivities;
_Frances_ is loyal to the colonial cause, and betrothed to Major
Dunwoodie.

_Mr. Wharton_ (_père_), fine specimen of the old English
gentleman.--James Fenimore Cooper, _The Spy_ (1821).

=What Next?= A farce by T. Dibdin. Colonel Clifford meets at Brighton
two cousins, Sophia and Clarissa Touchwood, and falls in love with the
latter, who is the sister of Major Touchwood, but thinks her Christian
name is Sophia, and so is accepted by Sophia’s father, who is Colonel
Touchwood. Now, it so happens that Major Touchwood is in love with his
cousin, Sophia, and looks on Colonel Clifford as his rival. The major
tries to outwit his supposed rival, but finds they are both in error,
that it is Clarissa whom the colonel wishes to marry, and that Sophia
is quite free to follow the bent of her own and the major’s choice.

=Wheel of Fortune= (_The_), a comedy by R. Cumberland (1779).

⁂ For the plot and tale, see PENRUDDOCK.

=Whetstone Cut by a Razor.= Accius Navius, the augur, cut a whetstone
with a razor in the presence of Tarquin, the elder.

In short, ’twas his fate, unemployed or in place, sir,
To eat mutton cold, and cut blocks with a razor.
Goldsmith, _Retaliation_ (“Burke” is referred to, 1774).

=Whims= (_Queen_), the monarch of Whimdom, or country of whims,
fancies, and literary speculations. Her subjects were alchemists,
astrologers, fortune-tellers, rhymers, projectors, schoolmen, and so
forth. The best way of reaching this empire is “to trust to the
whirlwind and the current.” When Pantagruel’s ship ran aground, it was
towed off by 7,000,000 drums quite easily. These drums are the vain
imaginings of whimsyists. Whenever a person is perplexed at any knotty
point of science or doctrine, some drum will serve for a nostrum to
pull him through.--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, v. 18, etc. (1545).

=Whim´sey=, a whimsical, kind-hearted old man, father to Charlotte and
“young” Whimsey.

As suspicious of everybody above him, as if he had been bred a rogue
himself.--Act i. 1.

_Charlotte Whimsey_, the pretty daughter of old Whimsey; in love with
Monford.--James Cobb, _The First Floor_.

=Whip with Six Lashes=, the “Six Articles” of Henry VIII. (1539).

=Whipping Boy.= A boy kept to be whipped when a prince deserved
chastisement.

BARNABY FITZPATRICK stood for Edward VI.

D’OSSAT and DUPERRON, afterwards cardinals, were whipped by Clement
VIII. for Henry IV. of France.--Fuller, _Church History_, ii. 342
(1655).

MUNGO MURRAY stood for Charles I.

RAPHAEL was flogged for the son of the marquis de Leganez, but, not
seeing the justice of this arrangement, he ran away.--Lesage, _Gil
Blas_, v. 1 (1724).

=Whisker=, the pony of Mr. Garland, Abel Cottage, Finchley.

/# There approached towards him a little, clattering, jingling,
four-wheeled chaise, drawn by a little obstinate-looking, rough-coated
pony, and driven by a little, fat, placid-faced old gentleman. Beside
the little old gentleman sat a little old lady, plump and placid like
himself, and the pony was coming along at his own pace, and doing
exactly as he pleased with the whole concern. If the old gentleman
remonstrated by shaking the reins, the pony replied by shaking his
head. It was plain that the utmost the pony would consent to do was to
go in his own way ... after his own fashion, or not at all.--C.
Dickens, _The Old Curiosity Shop_, xiv. (1840).

=Whiskerandos= (_Don Fero´lo_), the sentimental lover of
Tilburina.--Sheridan, _The Critic_, ii. 1 (1779).

=Whist= (_Father of the game of_), Edmond Hoyle (1672-1769).

=Whistle= (_The_). In the train of Anne of Denmark, when she went to
Scotland with James VI., was a gigantic Dane of matchless drinking
capacity. He had an ebony whistle, which, at the beginning of a
drinking bout, he would lay on the table, and whoever was last able to
blow it, was to be considered the “Champion of the Whistle.” In
Scotland the Dane was defeated by Sir Robert Laurie, of Maxwelton,
who, after three days’ and three nights’ hard drinking, left the Dane
under the table, and “blew on the whistle his requiem shrill.” The
whistle remained in the family several years, when it was won by Sir
Walter Laurie, son of Sir Robert; and then by Walter Riddel, of
Glenriddel, brother-in-law of Sir Walter Laurie. The last person who
carried it off was Alexander Ferguson of Craigdarroch, son of “Annie
Laurie” so well known.

⁂ Burns has a ballad on the subject, called _The Whistle_.

_Whistle._ The blackbird, says Drayton, is the only bird that
whistles.

Upon his dulcet pipe the merle doth only play.
_Polyolbion_, xiii. (1613).

=Whistler= (_The_), a young thief, natural son of Sir G. Staunton,
whom he shot after his marriage with Effie Deans.--Sir W. Scott,
_Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

=Whistling.= Mr. Townley, of Hull, says, in _Notes and Queries_,
August 2, 1879, that a Roman Catholic checked his wife, who was
whistling for a dog: “If you please, ma’am, don’t whistle. Every time
a woman whistles, the heart of the blessed Virgin bleeds.”

Une poule qui chante, le coq et une fille qui siffle, portent malheur
dans la maison.
La poule ne doit point chanter devant le coq.

A whistling woman and a crowing hen
Are neither good for God or men.

=Whitaker= (_Richard_), the old steward of Sir Geoffrey Peveril.--Sir
W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

=Whitchurch=, in Middlesex (or Little Stanmore), is the parish, and
William Powell was the blacksmith, made celebrated by Händel’s
_Harmonious Blacksmith_. Powell died in 1780.

=White Cat= (_The_). A certain queen, desirous of obtaining some fairy
fruit, was told she might gather as much as she would if she would
give to them the child about to be born. The queen agreed, and the
new-born child was carried to the fairies. When of marriageable age,
the fairies wanted her to marry Migonnet, a fairy-dwarf, and, as she
refused to do so, changed her into a white cat. Now comes the second
part. An old king had three sons, and promised to resign the kingdom
to that son who brought him the smallest dog. The youngest son
wandered to a palace, where he saw a white cat endowed with human
speech, who gave him a dog so tiny that the prince carried it in an
acorn shell. The father then said he would resign his crown to that
son who brought him home a web, 400 yards long, which would pass
through the eye of a needle. The White Cat gave the prince a web 400
yards long packed in the shale of a millet grain. The king then told
his sons he would resign his throne to that son who brought home the
handsomest bride. The White Cat told the prince to cut off its head
and tail. On doing so, the creature resumed her human form, and was
acknowledged to be the most beautiful woman on earth.

Her eyes committed theft upon all hearts, and her sweetness kept them
captive. Her shape was majestic, her air noble and modest, her wit
flowing, her manners engaging. In a word, she was beyond everything
that was lovely.--Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“The White Cat,”
1682).

=White Clergy= (_The_), the parish priests, in contradistinction to
_The Black Clergy_ or monks, in Russia.

=White Cross Knights=, the Knights Hospitallers. The Knights Templar
wore a _red_ cross.

The White Cross Knights of the adjacent isle.
Robert Browning, _The Return of the Druses_, i.

=White Devil of Wallachia.= George Castriota, known as “Scanderbeg,”
was called by the Turks “The White Devil of Wallachia” (1404-1467).

=White Elephant= (_King of the_) a title of the kings of Ava and Siam.

=White Friars= (_The_), the Carmelites, who dress in white.

⁂ There is a novel by Miss Robinson called _White Friars_.

=White Heron.= Maurice Thompson thus describes the shooting of a white
heron:

“Like twenty serpents bound together,
Hissed the flying arrow’s feather.
A thud, a puff, a feathery ring,
A quick collapse, a quivering--
A whirl, a headlong downward dash,
A heavy fall, a sullen plash,
And, like white foam, or giant flake
Of snow, he lay upon the lake!”
Maurice Thompson, _The Death of the White Heron, Songs of
Fair Weather_ (1883).

=White Hoods= (or _Chaperons Blancs_); the insurgents of Ghent, led by
Jean Lyons, noted for their fight at Minnewater to prevent the digging
of a canal which they fancied would be injurious to trade.

Saw the fight at Minnewater, saw the “White Hoods” moving west.
Longfellow, _The Belfry of Bruges_.

=White Horse= (_Lords of The_), the old Saxon chiefs, whose standard
was a white horse.

And tampered with the lords of the White Horse.
Tennyson, _Guinevere_.

=White Horse of the Peppers=, a sprat to catch a mackerel. After the
battle of the Boyne, the estates of many of the Jacobites were
confiscated, and given to the adherents of William III. Amongst
others, the estate of the Peppers was forfeited, and the Orangeman to
whom it was awarded went to take possession. “Where was it, and what
was its extent?” These were all-important questions; and the Orangeman
was led up and down, hither and thither, for several days, under
pretence of showing him the land. He had to join the army by a certain
day, but was led so far afield that he agreed to forego his claim if
supplied with means of reaching his regiment within the given time.
Accordingly, the “white horse,” the pride of the family, and the
fastest animal in the land, was placed at his disposal, the king’s
grant was revoked, and the estate remained in the possession of the
original owner.--S. Lover, _Stories and Legends of Ireland_ (1832-34).

=White Horse of Wantage= (Berkshire), cut in the chalk hills. The
horse is 374 feet long, and may be seen at the distance of fifteen
miles. It commemorates a great victory obtained by Alfred, over the
Danes, called the battle of Æscesdun (_Ashdown_), during the reign of
his brother Ethelred in 871. (See RED HORSE.)

In this battle all the flower of the barbarian youth was there slain,
so that neither before nor since was ever such a destruction known
since the Saxons first gained Britain by their arms.--Ethelwerd,
_Chronicle_, ii. A. 871. (See also Asser, _Life of Alfred_, year 871.)

=White King=, the title of the emperor of Muscovy, from the white
robes which these kings were accustomed to use.

Sunt qui principem Moscoviæ _Album Regem_ noncupant. Ego quidem causam
diligenter quærebam, cur _regis albi_ nomine appellaretur cum nemo
principum Moscoviæ eo titulo antea [_Basilius Ivanwich_] esset
usus.... Credo autem ut Persam nunc propter _rubea_ tegumenta capitis
“Kissilpassa” (_i.e._, rubeum caput) vocant; ita reges Moscoviæ
propter _alba_ tegumenta “Albos Reges” appellari.--Sigismund.

⁂ Perhaps it may be explained thus: Muscovy is always called “Russia
Alba,” as Poland is called “Black Russia.”

_White King._ So Charles I. is called by Herbert. His robe of state
was white instead of purple. At his funeral the snow fell so thick
upon the pall that it was quite white.--Herbert, _Memoirs_ (1764).

=White Lady= (_The_), “La Dame d’Aprigny,” a Norman fée, who used to
occupy the site of the present Rue de St. Quentin, at Bayeux.

La Dame Abonde, also a Norman fée.

Vocant dominam Abundiam pro eo quod domibus quas frequentant,
abundantiam bonorum temporalium præstare, putantur non aliter tibi
sentiendum est neque aliter quam quemadmodum de illis
audivisti.--William of Auvergne (1248).

_White Lady_ (_The_), a ghost seen in different castles and palaces
belonging to the royal family of Prussia, and supposed to forebode the
death of some of the royal family, especially one of the children. The
last appearance was in 1879, just prior to the death of Prince
Waldemar. Twice she has been heard to speak, _e.g._: In December,
1628, she appeared in the palace at Berlin, and said in Latin, “I wait
for judgment;” and once at the castle of Neuhaus, in Bohemia, when she
said to the princess, in German, “It is ten o’clock;” and the lady
addressed died in a few weeks.

There are two white ladies, in fact--one the Countess Agnes, of
Orlamunde, and the other the Princess Bertha von Rosenberg, who lived
in the fifteenth century. The former was buried alive in a vault in
the palace. She was the mistress of a margrave of Brandenburgh, by
whom she had two sons. When the prince became a widower, Agnes thought
he would marry her, but he made the sons an objection, and she
poisoned them, for which crime she was buried alive. Another version
is that she fell in love with the prince of Parma, and made away with
her two daughters, who were an obstacle to her marriage, for which
crime she was doomed to “walk the earth” as an apparition.

The Princess Bertha is troubled because an annual gift, which she left
to the poor, has been discontinued. She appears dressed in white, and
carrying at her side a bunch of keys.

It may interest those who happen to be learned in Berlin legends, to
know that the White Lady, whose visits always precede the death of
some member of the royal family, was seen on the eve of Prince
Waldemar’s death. A soldier on guard at the old castle was the witness
of the apparition, and in his fright fled to the guard-room, where he
was at once arrested for deserting his post.--_Brief_, April 4, 1879.

=White Lady of Avenel= (2 _syl._), a tutelary spirit.--Sir W. Scott,
_The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).

=White Lady of Ireland= (_The_), the banshee or domestic spirit of a
family, who takes an interest in its condition, and intimates
approaching death by wailing or shrieks.

=White Moon= (_Knight of the_), Samson Carrasco. He assumed this
cognizance when he went as a knight-errant to encounter Don Quixote.
His object was to overthrow the don in combat, and then impose on him
the condition of returning home, and abandoning the profession of
chivalry for twelve months. By this means he hoped to cure the don of
his craze. It all happened as the barber expected; the don was
overthrown, and returned to his home, but soon died.--Cervantes, _Don
Quixote_, II. iv. 12, etc. (1615).

=White Queen= (_The_), Mary Queen of Scots (_La Reine Blanche_); so
called by the French, because she dressed in white, in mourning for
her husband.

=White Rose= (_The_), the house of York, whose badge it was. The badge
of the house of Lancaster was the Red Rose.

Richard de la Pole is often called “The White Rose.”

=White Rose of England= (_The_). Perkin Warbeck was so called by
Margaret of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV. (*-1499).

=White Rose of Raby= (_The_), Cecily, wife of Richard, duke of York,
and mother of Edward IV. and Richard III. She was the youngest of
twenty-one children.

⁂ A novel entitled _The White Rose of Raby_ was published in 1794.

=White Rose of Scotland= (_The_), Lady Katherine Gordon, the [? fifth]
daughter of George, second earl of Huntly, by his second wife,
Princess Annabella Stuart, youngest daughter of James I. of Scotland.
She married Perkin Warbeck, the pretender, self-styled Richard, duke
of York. (See WARBECK.) She had three husbands after the death of
Warbeck.

As Margaret of York, duchess of Burgundy, who out of jealousy of the
Lancastrian Henry VII., adopted the cause of Perkin Warbeck, always
called him “The White Rose of York;” his wife, Lady Katharine Gordon,
was called The White Rose of Scotland.

=White Rose of York= (_The_), Edward Courtney, earl of Devon, son of
the marquis of Exeter. He died at Padua, in Queen Mary’s reign (1553).

=White Surrey=, the favorite charger of Richard III.

Saddle White Surrey for the field to-morrow.
Shakespeare, _Richard III._ act v. sc. 3 (1597).

=White Tsar of His People.= The emperor of Russia is so called, and
claims the empire of seventeen crowns.

=White Widow= (_The_), the duchess of Tyrconnel, wife of Richard
Talbot, lord deputy of Ireland under James II. After the death of her
husband she supported herself by her needle. She wore a white mask,
and dressed in white.--Pennant, _Account of London_, 147 (1790).

=White Witch= (_A_), a “witch” who employs her power and skill for the
benefit and not the harm of her fellow-mortals.

=Whites= (_The_), an Italian faction of the fourteenth century. The
Guelphs of Florence were divided into the _Blacks_, who wished to open
their gates to Charles de Valois, and the _Whites_, who opposed him.
The poet Dantê, was a “White,” and when the “Blacks,” in 1302, got the
upper hand, he was exiled. During his exile he composed his immortal
epic, the _Divina Commedia_.

=Whitecraft= (_John_), innkeeper and miller at Altringham.

_Dame Whitecraft_, the pretty wife of the above.--Sir W. Scott,
_Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

=Whitfield of the Stage= (_The_). Quin was so called by Garrick
(1716-1779). Garrick himself is sometimes so denominated also.

=Whitney= (_James_), the Claude Duval of English highwaymen. He prided
himself on being “the glass of fashion and the mould of form.”
Executed at Porter’s Block, near Smithfield (1660-1694).

=Whittington= (_Dick_), a poor orphan country lad, who heard that
London was “paved with gold,” and went there to get a living. When
reduced to starving point a kind merchant gave him employment in his
family to help the cook, but the cook so ill treated him that he ran
away. Sitting to rest himself on the roadside, he heard Bow bells, and
they seemed to him to say, “Turn again, Whittington, thrice lord mayor
of London;” so he returned to his master. By-and-by the master allowed
him, with the other servants, to put in an adventure in a ship bound
for Morocco. Richard had nothing but a cat, which, however, he sent.
Now it happened that the king of Morocco was troubled by mice, which
Whittington’s cat destroyed; and this so pleased his highness that he
bought the mouser at a fabulous price. Dick commenced business with
this money, soon rose to great wealth, married his master’s daughter,
was knighted, and thrice elected lord mayor of London--in 1398, 1406
and 1419.

⁂ A cat is a brig built on the Norwegian model, with narrow stern,
projecting quarters and deep waist.

Another solution is the word _achat_, “barter.”

KEIS, the son of a poor widow of Siraf, embarked for India with his
sole property, a cat. He arrived at a time when the palace was so
infested by mice and rats that they actually seized the king’s food.
This cat cleared the palace of its vermin, and was purchased for a
large sum of money, which enriched the widow’s son.--Sir William
Ouseley (a Persian story).

ALPHONSO, a Portuguese, being wrecked on the coast of Guinea, had
a cat, which the king bought for its weight in gold. With this
money Alphonso traded, and in five years made £6000, returned to
Portugal, and became in fifteen years the third magnate of the
kingdom.--_Description of Guinea._

⁂ See Keightley, _Tales and Popular Fictions_, 241-266.

=Whittle= (_Thomas_), an old man of 63, who wants to cajole his nephew
out of his lady-love, the Widow Brady, only 23 years of age. To this
end he assumes the airs, the dress, the manners, and the walk of a
beau. For his thick flannels he puts on a cambric shirt, open
waist-coat, and ruffles; for his Welsh wig he wears a pigtail and
chapeau bras; for his thick cork soles he trips like a dandy in pumps.
He smirks, he titters, he tries to be quite killing. He discards
history and solid reading for the _Amorous Repository_, _Cupid’s
Revels_, _Hymen’s Delight_, and Ovid’s _Art of Love_. In order to get
rid of him, the gay young widow assumes to be a boisterous,
rollicking, extravagant, low Irishwoman, deeply in debt, and utterly
reckless. Old Whittle is thoroughly alarmed, induces his nephew to
take the widow off his hands, and gives him £5000 for doing
so.--Garrick, _The Irish Widow_ (1757).

=Who’s The Dupe?= Abraham Doiley is a retired slop-seller, with
£80,000 or more. Being himself wholly uneducated, he is a great
admirer of “larning,” and resolves that his daughter Elizabeth shall
marry a great scholar. Elizabeth is in love with Captain Granger, but
the old slop-seller has fixed his heart on a Mr. Gradus, an Oxford
pedant. The question is how to bring the old man round. Gradus is
persuaded to change his style of dress to please the lady, and Granger
is introduced as a learned pundit. The old man resolves to pit
together the two aspirants, and give Elizabeth to the best scholar.
Gradus quotes two lines of Greek, in which the word panta occurs four
times; Granger gives some three or four lines of English fustian.
Gradus tells the old man that what Granger said was mere English; but
Doiley, in the utmost indignation, replies, “Do you think I don’t know
my own mother tongue? Off with your _pantry_, which you call Greek!
t’other is the man for my money;” and he gives his daughter to the
captain.--Mrs. Cowley, _Who’s the Dupe?_

=Whole Duty of Man= (_The_). Sir James Wellwood Moncrieff, bart., was
so called by Jeffrey (1776-1851).

=Wickfield= (_Mr._), a lawyer, father of Agnes. The “’umble” Uriah
Heep was his clerk.

_Agnes Wickfield_, daughter of Mr. Wickfield; a young lady of sound
sense and domestic habits, lady-like and affectionate. She is the
second wife of David Copperfield.--C. Dickens, _David Copperfield_
(1849).

=Wickam= (_Mrs._), a waiter’s wife. Mrs. Wickam was a meek, drooping
woman, always ready to pity herself or to be pitied, and with a
depressing habit of prognosticating evil. She succeeded Polly Toodles
as nurse to Paul Dombey.--C. Dickens, _Dombey and Son_ (1846).

=Wicliffe=, called “The Morning Star of the Reformation” (1324-1384).

=Widdrington= (_Roger_), a gallant squire, mentioned in the ballad of
Chevy Chase. He fought “upon his stumps,” after he lost his legs. (See
BENBOW.)

=Widenostrils= (in French _Bringuenarilles_), a huge giant, who had
swallowed every pan, skillet, kettle, frying-pan, dripping-pan,
saucepan and caldron in the land, for want of windmills, his usual
food. He was ultimately killed by eating a lump of fresh butter at the
mouth of a hot oven, by the advice of his physician.--Rabelais,
_Pantagruel_, iv. 17 (1545).

=Widerolf=, bishop of Strasbourg (997), was devoured by mice in the
seventeenth year of his episcopate, because he suppressed the convent
of Seltzen on the Rhine. (See HATTO.)

=Widow=, in the _Deserted Village_ (_Goldsmith_). “All the bloomy
flush of life is fled” from Auburn:

All but yon widowed, solitary thing,
That feebly bends beside the plashy spring;
She, wretched matron, forced in age, for bread,
To strip the brook, with mantling cresses spread,
To pick her wintry faggot from the thorn,
To seek her nightly shed, and weep till morn;
She only left of all the harmless train,
The sad historian of the pensive plain.

Her name was Catherine Geraghty.

_Widow_ (_The_), courted by Sir Hudibras, was the relict of Amminadab
Wilmer or Willmot, an independent, slain at Edgehill. She was left
with a fortune of £200 a year. The knight’s “Epistle to the Lady” and
the “Lady’s Reply,” in which she declines his offer, are usually ap
pended to the poem entitled _Hudibras_.

=Widow Bedott=, relict of Hezekiah, and willing to be consoled.
Garrulous, silly and full of sentimental affectations.--Francis M.
Whitcher (1856).

=Widow Blackacre=, a perverse, bustling, masculine, pettifogging,
litigious woman.--Wycherly, _The Plain Dealer_ (1677).

=Widow Flockhart=, landlady at Waverley’s lodgings in the
Canongate.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

=Wieland’s Sword=, Balmung. It was so sharp that it cleft Amilias in
twain without his knowing it; when, however, he attempted to stir, he
fell into two pieces.--_Scandinavian Mythology._

=Wiever= (_Old_), a preacher and old conspirator.--Sir W. Scott,
_Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

=Wife= (_The_), a drama by S. Knowles (1833). Mariana, daughter of a
Swiss burgher, nursed Leonardo in a dangerous sickness--an avalanche
had fallen on him, and his life was despaired of, but he recovered,
and fell in love with his young and beautiful nurse. Leonardo intended
to return to Mantua, but was kept a prisoner by a gang of thieves, and
Mariana followed him, for she found life intolerable without him. Here
Count Florio fell in love with her, and obtained her guardian’s
consent to marry her; but Mariana refused to do so, and was arraigned
before the duke (Ferrardo), who gave judgment against her. Leonardo
was at the trial disguised, but, throwing off his mask, was found to
be the real duke supposed to be dead. He assumed his rank, and married
Mariana; but, being called to the wars, left Ferrardo regent.
Ferrardo, being a villain, hatched up a plot against the bride, of
infidelity to her lord, but Leonardo would give no credit to it, and
the whole scheme of villainy was fully exposed.

⁂ Shakespeare’s _Measure for Measure_ probably gave Knowles some hints
for his plot.

=Wife for a Month= (_A_), a drama by Beaumont and Fletcher (1624). The
“wife” is Evanthê (3 _syl._), the chaste wife of Valerio, pursued by
Frederick, the licentious brother of Alphonso, king of Naples. She
repels his base advances, and, to punish her, he offers to give her to
any one for one month, at the end of which time whoever accepts her is
to die. No one appears, and the lady is restored to her husband.

=Wife of Bath=, one of the pilgrims to the shrine of Thomas à
Becket.--Chaucer. _Canterbury Tales_ (1388).

=Wife of Bath’s Tale.= One of King Arthur’s knights was condemned to
death for ill-using a lady, but Guinever interceded for him, and the
king gave him over to her to do what she liked. The queen said she
would spare his life, if, by that day twelve months, he would tell her
“What is that which woman loves best?” The knight seeks far and wide
for a solution, but in his despair he meets a hideous old woman who
promises to give him the answer if he will grant her one request,
which is, to marry her. The knight could not bring himself to embrace
so gruesome a bride, but she persuaded him that it was better to have
a faithful wife even if she were old and ugly, than one young and
beautiful, but untrue. The knight yields, and in the morning he wakes
to find a lovely woman by his side, who tells him that what a woman
likes best is to have her own way.--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (“The
Wife of Bath’s Tale,” 1388).

⁂ This tale is a very old one, and appears in various languages;
European and Oriental. It is one of those told by Gower in his
_Confessio Amantis_, where Florent promises to marry a deformed old
hag, who in reward for his complaisance helps him to the solution of a
riddle.

=Wigged Prince= (_The Best_). The guardian, uncle-in-law and first
cousin of the duke of Brunswick was called “The Best Wigged Prince in
Christendom.”

=Wild= (_Jonathan_), a cool, calculating, heartless villain, with the
voice of a Stentor. He was born at Wolverhampton, in Staffordshire,
and, like Jack Sheppard, was the son of a carpenter.

He had ten maxims: (1) Never do more mischief than is absolutely
necessary for success; (2) Know no distinction, but let self-interest
be the one principle of action; (3) Let not your shirt know the
thoughts of your heart; (4) Never forgive an enemy; (5) Shun poverty
and distress; (6) Foment jealousies in your gang; (7) A good name,
like money, must be risked in speculation; (8) Counterfeit virtues are
as good as real ones, for few know paste from diamonds; (9) Be your
own trumpeter, and don’t be afraid of blowing loud; (10) Keep hatred
concealed in the heart, but wear the face of a friend.

Jonathan Wild married six wives. Being employed for a time as a
detective, he brought to the gallows thirty-five highwaymen,
twenty-two burglars and ten returned convicts. He was himself executed
at last at Tyburn for house-breaking (1682-1725).

Daniel Defoe has made _Jonathan Wild_ the hero of a romance (1725).
Fielding did the same in 1743. The hero in these romances is a coward,
traitor, hypocrite and tyrant, unrelieved by human feeling, and never
betrayed into a kind or good action. The character is historic, but
the adventures are in a measure fictitious.

=Wild Boar of Ardennes=, William de la Marck.--Sir W. Scott, _Quentin
Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).