The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of Answers

Chapter I: The Anglo-Saxon Period, 449-1066 (2)

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PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY OF LITERARY ALLUSIONS

Concise, explanatory paragraphs concerning Famous Books, Poems and
Dramas; Literary Characters, Plots and Scenes; Pen Names of Famous
Writers; Soubriquets and Nicknames; Literary Geography, Shrines and
Haunts; and numerous other literary references.

KEY TO THE SOUNDS OF LETTERS

_ä_, as in farm, father; _ȧ_, as in ask, fast; _a_, as in at, fat;
_ā_, as in day, fate; _â_, as in care, fare; a, as in final; _e_, as
in met, set; _ē_, as in me, see; _ẽ_, as in her, ermine; _i_, as in
pin, sin; _ī_, as in pine, line; _o_, as in not, got; _ō_, as in
note, old; _ô_, as in for, fought; ö, as in sole, only; õ, as in
fog, orange; _ö_, sound cannot be exactly represented in English.
The English sound of _u_ in _burn_ is perhaps the nearest equivalent
to _ö_; _oo_, as in cook, look; _ōō_, as in coon, moon; _u_, as in
cup, duck; _ū_, as in use, amuse; _û_, as in fur, urge; _ü_ sound
cannot be exactly represented in English. The English sound of _u_
in _luke_ and _duke_ resembles the original sound of _ü_. The letter
N represents the nasal tone of the preceding vowel, as in _encore_
(_ä_N-_kōr´_).

=A=

=Aaron= (_ā´ron_ or _ar’on_).--A character in Shakespeare’s _Titus Andronicus_, a Moor of unnatural wickedness beloved by Tamora, queen of the Goths. The character shows originality of conception, but is otherwise repellant.

=Abaddon= (_a-bad´on_).--The Hebrew name of an evil spirit or destroying angel called Apollyon in Greek. In mediæval literature he is regarded as the chief of the demons of the seventh hierarchy and the one who causes wars and uproars. Klopstock introduced him in his _Messiah_ under the name of Abbadona. He represents him as a fallen angel still bearing traces of his former dignity and repenting of his part in the rebellion against God. In Bunyan’s _Pilgrim’s Progress_ he meets and fights with Pilgrim.

=Abdalla= (_ab-dal´ä_).--(1) The Mufti, a character in Dryden’s tragedy _Don Sebastian_. (2) One of Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert’s slaves, in Scott’s _Ivanhoe_. (3) Brother and predecessor of Giaffer, pasha of Abydos, by whom he was murdered, in Byron’s _Bride of Abydos_.

=Abdiel= (_ab´di-el_).--A seraph in Milton’s _Paradise Lost_, the only seraph who remained loyal when Satan stirred up the angels to revolt.

=Abonde= (_a-bön-de´_).--A character in French literature that corresponds to our Santa Claus, the good fairy who comes at night, especially New Year’s night, to bring toys to children while they sleep.

=Abu-Hassan= (_ā-bö-has´an_).--As related in the _Arabian Nights_, Abou Hassan is a merchant of Bagdad who is carried in his sleep to the bed of the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid and on awaking is made to believe himself the caliph. Twice in this way he was made to believe himself caliph and afterward became in reality the caliph’s favorite and companion.

=Absalom and Achitophel= (_ab´sa-lom_ and _a-kit´ō-fel_).--A poetical satire by John Dryden, directed against the political faction led by the Earl of Shaftesbury. The names in the title are given to the duke of Monmouth and the earl of Shaftesbury. Like Absalom, the son of David, Monmouth was remarkable for his personal beauty, his popularity, and his undutifulness to his father.

=Absolute, Captain.=--A character in Sheridan’s comedy, _The Rivals_. He is distinguished for his gallant, determined spirit, his quickness of speech, and dry humor.

=Absolute, Sir Anthony.=--An amusing character in Sheridan’s _Rivals_. He is represented as testy, positive, impatient, and overbearing, but yet of a warm and generous disposition.

=Acadia= (_a-kā´di-ä_), =Acadie= (_ä-kä´-dē´_).--The original, and now the poetic, name of Nova Scotia. In 1755, the French inhabitants were seized, forcibly removed and dispersed among the English colonists on the Atlantic coast. Longfellow has made this event the subject of his poem _Evangeline_.

=Acrasia= (_a-krā´zi-ä_).--In Spencer’s _Faërie Queene_, a witch represented as a lovely and charming woman, whose dwelling is the Bower of Bliss, which is situated on an island floating in a lake or gulf, and is adorned with everything in nature that can delight the senses. The word signifies intemperance. She is the personification of sensuous indulgence and intoxication. Sir Guyon, who illustrates the opposite virtue, is commissioned by the fairy queen to bring her into subjection, and to destroy her residence.

=Acres, Bob.=--A character in Sheridan’s _The Rivals_, celebrated for his cowardice and his peculiar method of allegorical swearing.

=Adam.=--(1) Adam is a character frequently alluded to in the _Talmud_. Many strange legends are related of him. He was buried, so Arabian tradition says, on Aboncais, a mountain of Arabia. (2) In _As You Like It_, Shakespeare, he is an aged servant to Orlando and offers to accompany Orlando in his flight and to share with him his carefully-hoarded savings of five hundred pounds. (3) In Shakespeare’s _Comedy of Errors_, Adam is an officer known by his dress, a skin-coat.

=Adamastor= (_ad-am-ȧs´tor_).--The phantom of the Cape of Good Hope in the _Lusiad_: a terrible spirit described by Camoens as appearing to Vasco da Gama and prophesying the misfortunes which should fall upon other expeditions to India.

=Adam Bede= (_bēd_).--A novel by George Eliot, the chief character of which is a young carpenter, a keen and clever workman, somewhat sharp-tempered and with a knowledge of some good books. He has an alert conscience, good common sense and “well-balanced shares of susceptibility and self-control.” He loves Hetty Sorrel, but finally marries Dinah Morris.

=Adams, Parson.=--A character in Fielding’s story of _Joseph Andrews_, distinguished for his goodness of heart, poverty, learning, and ignorance of the world, combined with courage, modesty, and a thousand oddities.

=Adonais= (_ad-ō-nā´is_).--An elegiac poem by Shelley, commemorating the death of Keats. The name was coined by Shelley probably to hint an analogy between Keats’ fate and that of Adonis.

=Advancement of Learning, The.=--A prose treatise by Francis, Lord Bacon, which contains not only the germ of his Latin work, _De Augmentis Scientiarum_, but really the pith and marrow of the Baconian philosophy, if taken in connection with the second book of the _Novum Scientiarum Organum_. An analysis of the work may be read in Hazlitt’s _Lectures on the Literature of the Age of Elizabeth_.

=Æneid= (_ē-nē´id_), or =Æneis= (_-is_).--An epic poem, in twelve books, by Vergil, recounting the adventures of Æneas after the fall of Troy, founded on the Roman tradition that Æneas settled in Latium and became the ancestral hero of the Roman people. The hero, driven by a storm on the coast of Africa, is hospitably received by Dido, queen of Carthage, to whom he relates the fall of Troy and his wanderings. An attachment between them is broken by the departure of Æneas, in obedience to the will of the gods, and the suicide of Dido follows. After a visit to Sicily, Æneas lands at Cumæ in Italy. In a descent to the infernal regions he sees his father, Anchises, and has a prophetic vision of the glorious destiny of his race as well as of the future heroes of Rome. He marries Lavinia, daughter of Latinus, king of the Latini, and a contest with Turnus, king of the Rutuli, the rejected suitor follows, in which Turnus is slain. The poem is a glorification of Rome and of the Emperor Augustus, who, as a member of the Julian gens, traced his descent from Julus (sometimes identified with Ascanius), the grandson of Æneas.

=Agamemnon= (_ag-ȧ-mem´non)_.--The greatest of the tragedies of Æschylus. The scene is laid in Argos, in the palace of Agamemnon, at the time of the king’s return from the capture of Troy; the catastrophe is the murder (behind the scenes) of Agamemnon and Cassandra (whom he has brought captive with him) by the queen Clytemnestra, urged on by her paramour Ægisthus.

=Agnes.=--(1) A young girl in Molière’s _L’Ecole des Femmes_, who affects to be remarkably simple and ingenuous. The name has passed into popular use, and is applied to any young woman unsophisticated in affairs. (2) A strong womanly character in _David Copperfield_ who proves a true friend to David’s “child-wife,” Dora, and to David himself. Later Dora dies and David marries Agnes.

=Agnes, The Eve of St.=--(1) A poem by John Keats. It is characterized by Leigh Hunt as “the most delightful and complete specimen of his genius; ... exquisitely loving; ... young but full-grown poetry of the rarest description; graceful as the beardless Apollo; glowing and gorgeous with the colors of romance.” St. Agnes was a Roman virgin who suffered martyrdom in the reign of Diocletian. (2) A poem by Tennyson, published in 1842.

=Agapida= (_ä-gä-pē´thä_), =Fray Antonio=.--The fictitious writer to whom Washington Irving originally attributed the authorship of the _Conquest of Granada_.

=Agib= (_ā´gib_).--(1) The third Calendar in the story of “The Three Calendars” in the _Arabian Nights’ Entertainments_. (2) In the story of Noureddin Ali and Bedredden Hassan in _The Arabian Nights_, a son of Bedredden Hassan and the Queen of Beauty.

=Agramant= (_ä´grä-mänt_).--In Boiardo’s _Orlando Innamorato_ and Ariosto’s _Orlando Furioso_, the young king of Africa.

=Ague-Cheek= (_ā´gū-chēk_), =Sir Andrew=. A character in Shakespeare’s comedy _Twelfth Night_, a timid, silly but amusing country squire, to whom life consists only of eating and drinking. He is stupid even to silliness, but so devoid of self-love or self-conceit that he is delightful in his simplicity.

=Ahasuerus= (_a-haz-ū-ē´rus_).--Chief character in Sue’s _A Wandering Jew_, the cobbler who pushed away Jesus when, on the way to execution, He rested a moment or two at his door. “Get off! Away with you!” cried the cobbler. “Truly, I go away,” returned Jesus, “and that quickly; but tarry thou till I come.” And from that time Ahasuerus became the “wandering Jew,” who still roams the earth, and will continue so to do till the “second coming of the Lord.”

=Ahmed= (_äh´med_), or =Achmet= (_äch´met_).--In the _Arabian Nights_, noted for a magic tent he possessed which would cover a whole army but might be carried in the pocket. He also possessed a magic apple which would cure all diseases.

=Aladdin= (_a-lad´in_).--In the story of “Aladdin or the Wonderful Lamp,” in the _Arabian Nights’ Entertainments_, the son of a poor widow in China, who becomes possessed of a magic lamp and ring which command the services of two terrific jinns. Learning the magic power of the lamp, by accidentally rubbing it, Aladdin becomes rich and marries the Princess of Cathay through the agency of the “slave of the lamp” who also builds in a night a palace for her reception. One window of this palace was left unfinished, and no one could complete it to match the others. Aladdin therefore directs the jinns to finish it, which is done in the twinkling of an eye (hence the phrase “to finish Aladdin’s window”; that is, to attempt to finish something begun by a greater man). After many years the original owner of the lamp, a magician, in order to recover it, goes through the city offering new lamps for old. The wife of Aladdin, tempted by this idea, exchanges the old rusty magic lamp for a brand new useless one (hence the phrase “to exchange old lamps for new”), and the magician transports both palace and princess to Africa, but the ring helps Aladdin to find them. He kills the magician, and, possessing himself of the lamp, transports the palace to Cathay, and at the sultan’s death succeeds to the throne.

=Al Araf= (_äl ä rȧf_).--The Mohammedan limbo, between paradise and jehennam, for those who die without sufficient merit to deserve the former, and without sufficient demerit to deserve the latter. Here lunatics, idiots, and infants go at death, according to the Koran. The subject of an uncompleted poem by Edgar A. Poe.

=Alasnam= (_a-las´nam_).--The hero of a story in the _Arabian Nights_ entitled “The History of Prince Zeyn Alasnam and the Sultan of the Genii,” Alasnam has eight diamond statues, but had to go in quest of a ninth more precious still, to fill the vacant pedestal. The prize was found in the lady who became his wife, at once the most beautiful and the most perfect of her race.

=Albracca= (_äl-bräk´kä_).--In Bojardo’s _Orlando Innamorato_, a castle of Cathay to which Angelica retires in grief at being scorned and shunned by Rinaldo, with whom she is deeply in love. Here she is besieged by Agricane, King of Tartary, who resolves to win her, notwithstanding her indifference to his suit.

=Alceste= (_äl-sest´_).--The principal character in Molière’s comedy _The Misanthrope_: a disagreeable but upright man who scorns the civilities of life and the shams of society.

=Alcina= (_äl-che´na_).--A fairy, the embodiment of carnal delights, in Boiardo’s _Orlando Innamorato_ and Ariosoto’s _Orlando Furioso_ the sister of Logistalla (reason) and Morgana (lasciviousness). When tired of her lovers she changed them into trees, beasts, etc., and was finally, by means of a magic ring, displayed in her real senility and ugliness. Compare _Acrasia_, _Armida_, and _Circe_.

=Aldine= (_al´din_) =Press=.--The press established at Venice by Aldus Manutius. See _Manutius_.

=Aldingar= (_al´ding-gär_), =Sir=.--A character in Percy’s _Reliques_. This ballad relates how the honor of Queen Elianor, wife of Henry Plantagenet, impeached by Sir Aldingar, her steward, was submitted to the chance of a duel, and how an angel, in the form of a little child, appeared as her champion, and established her innocence.

=Alhambra= (_al-ham´brä_).--A volume of legends and descriptive sketches by Washington Irving. “The account of my midnight rambles about the old place,” says the author, “literally true, yet gives but a feeble idea of my feelings and impressions, and of the singular haunts I was exploring. Everything in the work relating to myself and to the actual inhabitants of the Alhambra is unexaggerated fact; it was only in the legends that I indulged in _romancing_, and these were founded on material picked up about the place.”

=Ali Baba= (_ä´lē bä´bä_).--A character in _The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments_, in the story “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” a poor wood-cutter who, concealed in a tree, sees a band of robbers enter a secret cavern, and overhears the magic words “open sesame” which opens its door. After their departure he repeats the spell and the door opens, disclosing a room full of treasures with which he loads his asses and returns home. His brother Cassim, who discovers his secret, enters the cave alone, forgets the word “sesame,” and is found and cut to pieces by the robbers. The thieves, discovering that Ali Baba knows their secret, resolve to kill him, but are outwitted by Morgiana, a slave.

=Alice in Wonderland.=--A little girl through whose dream pass the scenes of _Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland_ and _Behind the Looking-glass_, two popular stories for children by Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson). They have been translated into several European languages.

=Alice Brand.=--In Scott’s _Lady of the Lake_, Alice signed Urgan the dwarf thrice with the sign of the cross, and he became “the fairest knight in all Scotland”; when Alice recognized in him her own brother.

=Allan-a-Dale.=--A friend of Robin Hood’s in the ballad. He is introduced into Sir Walter Scott’s _Ivanhoe_ as Robin Hood’s minstrel.

=All’s Well That Ends Well.=--A comedy by Shakespeare. The hero and heroine are Bertram, Count of Roussillon, and Helena, a physician’s daughter, who are married by the command of the king of France, but part because Bertram thought the lady not sufficiently well-born for him. Bertram flees to Florence, but, ultimately, Helena wins his love and all ends well.

=Allworthy, Mr.=--In Fielding’s novel of _Tom Jones_, a man of amiable and benevolent character; intended for Mr. Ralph Allen, who was also celebrated by Pope.

=Almighty Dollar.=--A personification of American worship. Washington Irving originated the phrase in _The Creole Village_.

=Alp.=--_Siege of Corinth_, Byron. The hero of this poem.

=Amadis de Gaul.=--The hero of an ancient and celebrated Portuguese romance.

=Amanda= (_a-man´dä_).--A young woman who impersonates Spring in Thomson’s _Seasons_.

=Amaryllis=, =Amarillis= (_am-a-ril´is_).--In Spenser’s pastoral _Colin Clout’s Come Home Again_, is the countess of Derby. Her name was Alice, and she was the youngest of the six daughters of Sir John Spenser, of Althorpe, ancestor of the noble houses of Spenser and Marlborough. After the death of the earl, the widow married Sir Thomas Egerton, keeper of the great seal (afterward baron of Ellesmere and viscount Brackley). It was for this very lady, during her widowhood, that Milton wrote his _Arcades_.

=Ambrose.=--A sharper in Lesage’s _Gil Blas_, who assumed in the presence of Gil Blas the character of a devotee. He was in league with a fellow who assumed the name of Don Raphael, and a young woman who called herself Camilla, cousin of Donna Mencia. These three sharpers allure Gil Blas to a house which Camilla says is hers, fleece him of his ring, his portmanteau, and his money, decamp, and leave him to find out that the house is only a hired lodging.

=Amelia= (_a-mē´liä_).--The title of one of Fielding’s novels, and the name of its heroine, who is distinguished for her tenderness and affection. The character of Amelia is said to have been drawn from Fielding’s wife.

=Amine= (_ä-mēn´_).--In _Arabian Nights_ a female character who leads her three sisters by her side as a leash of hounds.

=Aminte= (_ä-mant´_).--_Les Précieuses Ridicules_, Molière. A contradictory character in this comedy. She dismisses her admirers for proposing to marry her, scolds her uncle for not carrying himself as a gentleman, and marries a valet whom she believes to be a nobleman.

=Amlet= (_am´let_).--The name of a gamester in Vanbrugh’s _Confederacy_. =Amoret= (_am´ō-ret_).--(1) The name of a lady married to Sir Scudamore, in Spenser’s _Faërie Queene_. She is the type of a devoted, loving wife. (2) The heroine of Fletcher’s pastoral drama, _The Faithful Shepherdess_.

=Amys and Amylion.=--Two faithful friends. The Pylades and Orestes of the feudal ages. Their adventures are the subjects of ancient romances.

=Ancient Man.=--In Tennyson’s _Idylls of the King_, means Merlin, the old magician, King Arthur’s protector and teacher.

=Ancient Mariner, The.=--A poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The hero, an ancient mariner “with a long gray beard and glittering eye,” suffers terrible evils, and likewise inflicts them on his companions, from having shot an albatross, a bird of good omen. All his comrades perish of hunger, but, as he repents, he is permitted to regain the land. At intervals his agony returns, and he is driven from place to place to ease his soul by confessing his crime and sufferings to his fellows, and enforcing upon them a lesson of love for “all things, both great and small.”

“_The Ancient Mariner_,” says Swinburne, “is perhaps the most wonderful of all poems. In reading it we seem rapt into that paradise revealed by Swedenborg, where music and color and perfume were one, where you could see the hues and hear the harmonies of heaven. For absolute melody and splendor it were hardly rash to call it the first poem in the language.”

=Andrews, Joseph.=--The hero in Fielding’s novel by the same name, written to ridicule Richardson’s _Pamela_. Fielding presents Joseph Andrews as a brother to the modest and prudish Pamela, and pictures him as a model young man.

=Angelica= (_an-jel´i-kä_).--(1) In Bojardo’s _Orlando Innamorato_, is daughter of Galaphron, king of Cathay. She goes to Paris, and Orlando falls in love with her, forgetful of wife, sovereign, country and glory. Angelica, on the other hand, disregards Orlando, but passionately loves Rinaldo, who positively dislikes her. Angelica and Rinaldo drink of certain fountains, when opposite effects are produced in their hearts, for then Rinaldo loves Angelica, while Angelica loses all love for Rinaldo. (2) The heroine of Congreve’s comedy of _Love for Love_; in love with Valentine, but the ward of Sir Sampson Legend, who seeks to marry her. She jilts the old man, however, and marries the younger lover. Angelica is supposed to represent Mrs. Bracegirdle; Valentine the author himself who was enamoured of the actress, and was the rival of the dramatist, Rowe, in her affections. (3) The heroine of Ariosto’s _Orlando Furioso_. She was beloved by Orlando, but married Medoro. Also the name of the heroine of Farquhar’s plays of the _Constant Couple_, and _Sir Harry Wildair_.

=Angelic Doctor.=--A name bestowed upon Thomas Aquinas, because he discussed the knotty point of “how many angels can dance on the point of a needle.”

=Angelo= (_an´je-lō_).--A character in Shakespeare’s _Measure for Measure_; also the name of a goldsmith in _the Comedy of Errors_.

=Angiolina.=--The wife of the doge of Venice, in Byron’s _Marino Faliero_.

=Anna Karénina= (_än´nä kä-rā´nē-nä_).--A novel of Tolstoy, perhaps the most representative of his works. It first appeared serially, but with long intervals, in a Moscow review, and was published in 1877.

=Annabel Lee.=--The title and subject of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, which begins--

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee.

=Anne.=--Perrault’s _La 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’ song _The Whistle_. The song of _Annie Laurie_ was written by William Douglas, of Fingland, in the stewardy of Kirkcudbright, hero of the song _Willie Was a Wanton Wag_.

=Antipholus of Ephesus= (_an-tif´ō-lus ov ef´e-sus_), and =Antipholus of Syracuse= (_sir´a-kūs_).--Twin brothers, sons to Ægeon and Æmilia, in Shakespeare’s _Comedy 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’s _Tempest_. (3) The father of Proteus, in Shakespeare’s _Two Gentlemen of Verona_. (4) A minor character in Shakespeare’s _Much Ado About Nothing_. (5) A sea captain, friend to Sebastian, in Shakespeare’s _Twelfth Night_.

=Antony and Cleopatra.=--Historical tragedy by Shakespeare which may be considered as a continuation of _Julius Cæsar_. In the opening scene of _Julius Cæsar_ absolute power is lodged in one man. In the conclusion of _Antony and Cleopatra_ a 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 English _Revelation_. 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 the _Apocrypha_ are 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 the _Maccabees_, _Song of the Three Children_, _Susannah_, and _Bell 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. The _Apologia_ will 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’s _Chapter 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_), or =Archimago= (_är-ki-mā´gō_).--A character in Spenser’s _Faërie 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’s _Much Ado About Nothing_.

=Beauty and the Beast.=--Fairy tale by Mme. Villeneuve. Oft repeated in stories for children, _Beauty and the Beast_ are 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 the _Opera_, 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 comedy _All’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’s _Othello_.

=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 Tennyson _Night_ or _Nox_. 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 call _Vox Populi_, or the _Voice 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 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 one _incident_ in the tale properly so called except the catastrophe.”

=Blowzelinda= (_blou-ze-lin´dä_), or =Blowsalinda= (_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,” is _Roger 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, in _Roderick Random_ will 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’s _Citizen of the World_, his _Indigent Philosopher_, and _Man 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_, and _Miss Evans at the Eagle_.

=Bracebridge Hall=, or _The 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 as _Sir 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’s _Faërie 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 the _New York Rowdy Journal_, of which Colonel Diver was editor.

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The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of AnswersChapter I: The Anglo-Saxon Period, 449-1066 (2)

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