Chapter I: The Anglo-Saxon Period, 449-1066 (5)

=Guy, Sir, Earl of Warwick.=--The hero of a famous English legend, which celebrates the wonderful achievements by which he obtained the hand of his ladylove, the fair Felice, as well as the adventures he subsequently met with in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He is reputed to have lived in the reign of the Saxon King Athelstan. The romance of Sir Guy, mentioned by Chaucer in the _Canterbury Tales_, cannot be traced further back than the earlier part of the fourteenth century. His existence at any period is very doubtful.

=H=

=Hadad.=--One of the six wise men led by the guiding star to Jesus.

=Hagen.=--The murderer of Siegfried, in the German epic, the _Nibelungenlied_. He is a pale-faced dwarf, who knows everything and whose sole desire is mischief. After the death of Siegfried he seized the “Nibelung hoard,” and buried it in the Rhine, intending to appropriate it. Kriemhild invited him to the court and had him slain.

=Haidee= (_hī-dē´_).--A beautiful young Greek girl in Byron’s poem, _Don Juan_. She is called the “beauty of the Cyclades.”

=Hakim.=--_The Talisman_, Scott. Saladin, in the disguise of a physician, visited Richard Cœur de Lion in sickness; gave him a medicine in which the “talisman” had been dipped, and the sick king recovered.

=Hamlet.=--A tragedy by Shakespeare. The chief character is Hamlet, prince of Denmark. The ghost of his father appears to him, and urges him to avenge his murder upon his uncle. But the prince feigns madness, and puts off his revenge from day to day by “thinking too precisely on the event.” Hamlet’s mother had married Claudius, king of Denmark, after the death of her former husband. Claudius prepared poisoned wine, which he intended for Hamlet; but the queen, not knowing it, drank it, was poisoned and died. Hamlet, seeing his mother fall dead, rushed on the king and killed him almost by accident, and is killed himself by a poisoned rapier in the hands of Laertes.

=Hanswurst= (_häns´vŏrst_).--A pantomimic character formerly introduced into German comedies. It corresponds to the Italian _Macaroni_, the French _Jean Potage_, and the English _Jack Pudding_.

=Hardcastle, Mr.=--A character in Goldsmith’s comedy of _She Stoops to Conquer_, represented as prosy and hospitable.

=Hardcastle, Mrs.=--A very “genteel” lady indeed. Tony Lumpkin is her son by a former husband.

=Hard Times.=--A novel by Dickens. Bounderby, a street Arab, raised himself to banker and cotton prince. When past fifty years of age he married Louisa, daughter of Thomas Gradgrind. The bank was robbed, and Bounderby believed Stephen Blackpool to be the thief, because he had dismissed him from his employ. The culprit was Tom Gradgrind, the banker’s brother-in-law, who escaped out of the country. In the dramatized version, the bank was not robbed, but Tom removed the money to another drawer for safety.

=Harlequin= (_här´le-kin_, or _-´kwin_).--The name of a well-known character in the popular extemporized Italian comedy.

=Harlowe, Clarissa.=--The heroine of Richardson’s novel entitled _The History of Clarissa Harlowe_. In order to avoid a marriage urged upon her by her parents, she casts herself on the protection of Lovelace, who grossly abuses the confidence thus reposed in him. He subsequently proposes to marry her, but Clarissa rejects the offer.

=Haroun-al-Raschid= (_hä-rŏn´äl-rash´id_).--Caliph of the Abbasside race, contemporary with Charlemagne, and, like him, a patron of literature and the arts. Many of the tales in the _Arabian Nights_ are placed in the caliphate of Haroun-al-Raschid.

=Harpagon= (_är-pä-gôn´_).--The hero of Molière’s comedy of _L’Avare_, represented as a wretched miser.

=Harpier=, or _Harper_.--Some mysterious personage referred to by the witches in Shakespeare’s tragedy _Macbeth_.

=Hassan= (_häs´sän_).--_The Giaour_, Byron. Caliph of the Ottoman empire, noted for his hospitality and splendor. In his seraglio was a beautiful young slave named Leila, who loved a Christian called the Giaour. Leila is put to death by an emir, and Hassan is slain by the Giaour. Caliph Hassan has become the subject of popular romance.

=Hassan, Al.=--The Arabian emir of Persia, father of Hinda, in Moore’s _Fire Worshipers_.

=Hatto= (_hät´tō_).--In German legend, an archbishop of Mentz in the tenth century, who, for his hardheartedness to the poor in time of famine, was eaten by mice in the “Mouse Tower” on an island in the Rhine near Bingen. Robert Browning has made this legend the subject of a poem.

=Havelock the Dane= (_hav´e-lok_).--A fisherman, known as Grim, rescued an infant named Havelock, whom he adopted. This infant was the son of the king of Denmark, and when the boy was restored to his royal sire Grim was laden with gifts. He built the town which he called after his own name. This is the foundation of the mediæval tales about _Havelock the Dane_.

=Hazlewood, Sir Robert.=--The old baronet of Hazlewood.

=Hazlewood, Charles.=--_Guy Mannering_, Scott. Son of Sir Robert. In love with Lucy Bertram, whom he marries.

=Heart of Midlothian, The.=--A novel by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1818. It has for heroines Jeanie and Effie Deans. Among the other characters are Dumbiedykes and Madge Wildfire. It has often been dramatized. “The Heart of Midlothian” was the popular name for the tollbooth at Edinburgh, the capital of the county of Midlothian.

=Heep, Uriah.=--_David Copperfield_, Dickens. A detestable character, who, under the garb of the most abject humility, conceals a diabolic malignity. Mrs. Heep, Uriah’s mother, was a character equally to be despised for her hypocritical assumption of humility.

=Helena.=--(1) A lady in Shakespeare’s _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, in love with Demetrius. (2) The heroine of Shakespeare’s _All’s Well That Ends Well_, in love with Bertram, who marries her against his will and leaves her, but is finally won by the strength of her affection. (3) A character in an old popular tale, reproduced in Germany by Tieck.

=Hermann and Dorothea.=--The hero and heroine of Goethe’s poem of the same name.

=Hermengyld= (_her´men-gild_).--_Canterbury Tales_, Chaucer. The wife of the lord-constable of Northumberland. She was converted by Constance, but was murdered by a knight. Hermengyld at the bidding of Constance restored sight to a blind Briton.

=Hermia= (_her´mi-ä_).--A lady in Shakespeare’s _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, in love with Lysander.

=Hermione.=--The heroine of the first three acts of Shakespeare’s _Winter’s Tale_.

=Hernani=, or =Ernani=.--The hero of Victor Hugo’s tragedy of the same name, and of Verdi’s opera, founded on the play. He was a Spanish noble in revolt against the Emperor Charles V. and killed himself from a high sense of honor.

=Hiawatha= (_hi-a-wâ´tä_, or _hī-a-wâ´thä_), =The Song of.=--A poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written in the following peculiar measure:

Should you ask me, “Whence these stories?”
.....
I should answer, I should tell you,
.....
“I repeat them as I heard them
From the lips of Nawadaha,
The musician, the sweet singer.”

The poem is entirely devoted to a description of life among the aboriginal tribes of America. It was published in 1855. Hiawatha is a mythical person believed by some of the North American Indians to have been sent among them to clear their rivers, forests, and fishing-grounds, and to teach them the arts of peace. When the white man came, then Hiawatha knew that the time of his departure was at hand, when he must go

To the kingdom of Ponemah,
The land of the Hereafter.

=Highland Mary.=--A song by Robert Burns, which Burns himself thought was in his happiest manner, and which refers, he says, to one of the most interesting passages of his youthful days. By this he means his attachment to Mary, a servant in the family of Mr. Hamilton, “who will be remembered,” says Alexander Smith, “with Dante’s Beatrice and Petrarch’s Laura.” It was arranged that the lovers should become man and wife, and that Mary should go to her friends to prepare for the wedding. But before her departure came the farewell scene so touchingly described in the poem:

Our parting was fu’ tender;
And, pledging aft to meet again,
We tore oursels asunder:
But oh! fell death’s untimely frost
That nipt my flower sae early!
Now green’s the sod, and cauld’s the clay,
That wraps my Highland Mary!

=Hilda.=--A New England girl of the most sensitive delicacy and purity of mind, in Hawthorne’s romance, _The Marble Faun_. She is an artist, living in Rome, and typifies, perhaps, the conscience.

=Hildebrand= (_hil´de-brand_).--The Nestor of German romance, a magician and champion.

=Hildesheim= (_hil´des-hīm_).--In an old German legend, the monk of Hildesheim, doubting how a thousand years with God could be “only one day,” listened to the melody of a bird, as he supposed, for only three minutes, but found that he had been listening to it for a hundred years.

=Hobbididance.=--The name of one of the fiends mentioned by Shakespeare in _Lear_, and taken from the history of the Jesuits’ impostures.

=Hohenlinden= (_hō[´]en-lin´den_).--A poem by Thomas Campbell, published in 1802, celebrating the battle of Hohenlinden, gained by Moreau and the French over the Austrians. The poet visited the battle field on December 3, 1800.

=Holofernes= (_hol-ō-fer´nēz_).--(1) A pedant living in Paris, under whose care Gargantua is placed for instruction. (2) A pedantic schoolmaster in Shakespeare’s _Love’s Labor’s Lost_.

=Holt, Felix.=--The hero of George Eliot’s novel by the same name.

=Home, Sweet Home.=--A popular lyric contained in the drama of _Clari, the Maid of Milan_, by John Howard Payne. The beautiful melody to which it has been wedded is said to be of Italian or Sicilian origin, though by some it is attributed to Sir Henry Rowley Bishop. Perhaps the latter merely arranged and harmonized it.

=Homilies.=--The latter entries in the Peterborough _Chronicle_ and a few homilies are almost all that we have left of the literature of the twelfth century. Some of these homilies are copied or imitated from those of Ælfric.

=Honeycomb= (_hun´i-kōm_), =Will.=--One of the members of the imaginary club by whom the _Spectator_ was professedly edited. He is distinguished for his graceful affectation, courtly pretension, and knowledge of the gay world.

=Honeyman, Charles.=--A fashionable preacher in Thackeray’s novel, _The Newcomes_.

=Hopeful.=--A pilgrim in Bunyan’s _Pilgrim’s Progress_, who accompanies Christian to the end of his journey.

=Hop-o’-my-Thumb.=--A character in the tales of the nursery. Tom Thumb and Hop-o’-my-Thumb are not the same, although they are often confounded. Tom Thumb was the son of peasants, knighted by King Arthur, and was killed by a spider. Hop-o’-my-Thumb was a nix, the same as the German “_daumling_,” the French “_le petit pouce_,” and the Scotch “Tom-a-lin” or “Tamlane.” He was not a human dwarf, but a fay.

=Horatio= (_hō-rā´shi-ō_).--_Hamlet_, Shakespeare. An intimate friend of Hamlet, a prince, a scholar, and a gentleman.

=Horatius Cocles.=--Captain of the bridge gate over the Tiber. He and two men to help him held the bridge against vast approaching armies. Subject and title of a poem by Lord Macauley.

=Horner, Jack.=--The name of a celebrated personage in the literature of the nursery. A Somersetshire tradition says that the plums which Jack Horner pulled out of the Christmas pie alluded to the title deeds of the abbey estates at Wells, which were sent to Henry VIII., in a pasty, and were abstracted on the way by the messenger, a certain Jack Horner.

=Hortense= (_hôr-ten´s_, or _or-tons´_).--_Bleak House_, Dickens. The vindictive French maid-servant of Lady Dedlock. In revenge for the partiality shown by Lady Dedlock to Rosa, Hortense murdered Mr. Tulkinghorn, and tried to throw the suspicion of the crime on Lady Dedlock.

=House of the Seven Gables, The.=--A romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1851. “In _The House of the Seven Gables_,” says R. H. Hutton, “we have a picture studied to impress on us that both personal character and the malign influences of evil action are transmitted, sometimes with accumulating force, even through centuries, blighting every generation through which they pass. The subject would apparently involve a series of sketches, but only two are introduced from the past, and the family characteristics are so anxiously preserved as to make even these seem like slight modifications of some of the living group. The only incident in the tale is the light thrown upon a crime--which had been committed thirty years before the story opens--by the sudden death of the principal representative of a family from the same disease, in the same chair, and under the same circumstances, as those of the old ancestor and founder of the family, whose picture hangs above the chair.”

=Hubbard, Old Mother.=--A well-known nursery rhyme. _Mother Hubbard’s Tale_, by Edmund Spenser, is a satirical fable in the style of Chaucer.

=Hubert de Burgh= (_börg_, or _berg_).--Justice of England, created Earl of Kent, introduced by Shakespeare into _King John_. He is the one to whom the young prince addresses his piteous plea for life. The lad was found dead soon afterward, either by accident or foul play.

=Hubert, Saint.=--The legend of Saint Hubert makes him a patron saint of huntsmen.

=Hudibras= (_hū´di-bras_).--The title and hero of a celebrated satirical poem by Samuel Butler. Hudibras is a Presbyterian justice of the time of the commonwealth.

=Hugh of Lincoln.=--A legendary personage who forms the subject of Chaucer’s _Prioress’ Tale_, and also of an ancient English ballad. Wordsworth has given a modernized version of this tale.

=Hugo Hugonet.=--_Castle Dangerous_, Scott. Minstrel of the earl of Douglas.

=Humphrey.=--The imaginary collector of the tales in _Master Humphrey’s Clock_, by Charles Dickens.

=Humpty Dumpty.=--The hero of a well-known nursery rhyme. The name signifies humped and dumpy, and is the riddle for an egg.

=Huon de Bordeaux= (_ü-ôn´de bor-dō´_).--A hero of one of the romances of chivalry bearing this name.

=Hural Oyun.=--In the fairy tales found in the Koran, these are the black-eyed daughters of paradise. They are created from muck, and are free from all physical weakness and are always young. It is held out to every male believer that he will have seventy-two of these girls as his household companions in paradise.

=Hylas= (_hī´las_).--A beautiful boy, beloved by Hercules, who was drawn into a spring by the enamored nymphs. The story has been treated by Bayard Taylor, and by William Morris in his _Life and Death of Jason_.

=Hypatia= (_hī-ā´shiä_).--A novel by the Rev. Charles Kingsley, the scene of which is laid in Alexandria, at a time when Christianity was gaining ground against Paganism and the neo-Platonism of the schools. Hypatia herself was born about the year 370, and, after attracting to her lectures on philosophy a large and brilliant auditory, was torn to pieces by the rabble of her native city in 415. _Hypatia_ appeared in 1853.

=Hyperion= (_hī-pē´ri-on_, or _hī-per-ī´on_).--A romance in four books, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This work, which was the result of an extensive tour in Germany, was published in 1839, and with much that is purely fanciful and imaginative, contains much that came within the actual experience of the author who is represented, idealized, in the character of Paul Flemming. The episode with Mary Ashburton is supposed to have reference to a real occurrence. The book is full of description and of eloquent discussion, besides being interspersed with snatches of legend and of song.

=Hypocrites’ Isle.=--An island described by Rabelais in one of his satires. He pictures this island of _Hypocrites_ as wholly inhabited by people of low and defiled natures, as, by sham saints, spiritual comedians, seducers, and “such-like sorry rogues who live on the alms of passengers like the hermit of Lamont.”

=I=

=Iago= (_ē-ä´gō_).--_Othello_, Shakespeare. Othello’s ensign and the villain of the play. Iago is said to be a character next to a devil, yet not quite a devil, which Shakespeare alone could execute without scandal.

=Idleness, The Lake of.=--_Faërie Queene_, Spenser. Whoever drank thereof grew instantly “faint and weary.” The Red Cross Knight drank of it, and was readily made captive by Orgoglio.

=Idylls of the King.=--A series of poems by Tennyson. Taken together they form a parable of the life of man. Each idyll taken as a separate picture represents the war between sense and soul. In _Lancelot and Guinevere_ the lower nature leads them astray and there is intense struggle before the higher nature prevails. In _Vivien_, _Tristram_, and _Modred_, the base and sensual triumph. In _Arthur_, _Sir Galahad_ and _Percivale_, it is the victory of the spiritual.

=Ignaro.=--_Faërie Queene_, Spenser. Fosterfather of Orgoglio. Spenser says this old man walks one way and looks another, because ignorance is always “wrong-headed.”

=Iliad= (_il´ē-ad_).--A famous Greek epic poem by Homer. It is the tale of the siege of Troy, in twenty-four books. It is written in Greek hexameters, and commemorates the deeds of Achilles and other Greek heroes at the siege of Troy. Books one, two and three are introductory to the war. Paris proposes to decide the contest by a single combat, and Menelaus accepts the challenge. Paris, being overthrown, is carried off by Venus, and Agamemnon demands that the Trojans shall give up Troy in fulfillment of the compact, and the siege follows. The gods take part, and frightful slaughter ensues. At length Achilles slays Hector, and the battle is at an end. Old Priam, going to the tent of Achilles, craves the body of his son Hector; Achilles gives it up, and the poem concludes with the funeral rites of the Trojan hero. Vergil continues the tale from this point, shows how the city was taken and burnt, and then continues with the adventures of Æneas, who escapes from the burning city, and makes his way to Italy.

=Imogen= (_im´ō-jen_).--The wife of Posthumus, and the daughter of Cymbeline in the play of Shakespeare’s under title _Cymbeline_. “Of all Shakespeare’s women,” says Hazlitt, “she is, perhaps, the most tender and the most artless.”

=Incantation.=--Is derived from a Latin root meaning simply “to sing.” It is the term in use to denote one of the most powerful and awe-inspiring modes of magic, resting on a belief in the mysterious power of words solemnly conceived and passionately uttered.

=Inchcape Rock.=--It is dangerous for navigators, and therefore the abbot of Aberbrothock fixed a bell on a float, which gave notice to sailors. Southey says that Ralph the Rover, in a mischievous joke, cut the bell from the buoy, and it fell into the sea; but on his return voyage his boat ran on the rock, and Ralph was drowned. Precisely the same tale is told of St. Goven’s bell.

=Inferno, The.=--_Divine Comedy_, Dante. Epic poem in thirty-four cantos. Inferno is the place of the souls who are wholly given up to sin. The ascent is through Purgatory to Paradise.

=Ingoldsby Legends= (_ing´gōldz-bi lej´endz_, or _lē´jendz_).--A collection of legends in prose and verse, supposed to have been found in the family chest of the Ingoldsby family, and related by Thomas Ingoldsby. Of the poetical pieces it is not too much to say that, for originality of design and diction, for quaint illustration and musical verse, they are not surpassed in the English language. From the days of Hudibras to our time, the drollery invested in rhyme has never been so amply or so felicitously exemplified; and if derision has been unsparingly applied, it has been to lash knavery and imposture.

=In Memoriam.=--A poem by Alfred Tennyson, published in 1850, and consisting of one hundred and thirty “short swallow flights of song,” in a measure which Tennyson has made his own. It is well known that these “brief lays, of sorrow born,” were written in memory of the author’s friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, who died in 1833. They are characterized by George MacDonald as forming “the poem of the hoping doubters, the poem of our age--the grand minor organ fugue of _In Memoriam_. It is the cry of the bereaved Psyche into the dark infinite after the vanished love. His friend is nowhere in his sight, and God is silent. Death, God’s final compulsion to prayer, in its dread, its gloom, its utter stillness, its apparent nothingness, urges the cry. Moanings over the dead are mingled with the profoundest questionings of philosophy, the signs of nature, and the story of Jesus, while now and then the star of the morning, bright Phosphor, flashes a few rays through the shifting cloudy dark. And if the sun has not arisen on the close of the book, yet the aurora of the coming dawn gives light enough to make the onward journey possible and hopeful.”

=Innocents Abroad.=--By Mark Twain. Travelers seeing Europe without any illusions. The fun consists in an irreverent application of modern common sense to historic associations, ridiculing sentimental humbug. An air of innocence and surprise adds to the drolleries of their adventures.

=Instauratio Magna= (_in-stâ-rā´shi-ō mag´nä_).--The title (_The Great Restoration_) which Bacon gave to his _Magnum Opus_, the design of which was for six divisions:--(1) _The Advancement of Learning_; (2) the _Novum Organum_; (3) the _Experimental History of Nature_; (4) the _Scala Intellectus_, which leads from experience to science; (5) the _Bodronic_, or anticipations of the second philosophy; and (6) _Active Science_, or experiment. Of these, only the first two, and a portion of the third (_Sylva Sylvarum_), were published. The idea that was to run through the _Instauratio_ was that invention must be based upon experience, and experience upon experiment.

=Interludes, The.=--Springing from the moralities and bearing some resemblance to them, though nearer the regular drama, are the interludes, a class of compositions in dialogue, much shorter and more merry and farcical. They were generally played in the intervals of a festival.

=Invocation.=--An address at the commencement of a poem, in which the author calls for the aid of some divinity, particularly of his muse.

=Iphigenia= (_if=´=i-jē-nī´ä_).--The heroine of Euripides’ tragedy _Iphigenia in Aulis_, and of Goethe’s tragedy _Iphigenia auf Tauris_. She was placed on the altar in a rash vow by her father. Artemis at the last moment snatched her from the altar and carried her to heaven, substituting a hind in her place. The similarity of this legend to the scripture stories of Jephthah’s vow and Abraham’s offering of his son Isaac is noticeable.

=Iras.=--A strongly delineated character in _Ben Hur, a Tale of The Christ_, by Lew Wallace.

=Iras.=--A female attendant on Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s play, _Antony and Cleopatra_.

=Isaac of York.=--A wealthy Jew, the father of Rebecca, in Sir Walter Scott’s novel, _Ivanhoe_.

=Isabella.=--The heroine in Shakespeare’s comedy, _Measure for Measure_.

=Island of Lanterns.=--In the celebrated satire of Rabelais, an imaginary country inhabited by false pretenders to knowledge. The name was probably suggested by the _City of Lanterns_, in the Greek romance of Lucian. Swift has copied this same idea in his _Island of Laputa_.

=Island of St. Brandan.=--A marvelous flying island, the subject of an old and widely spread legend of the middle ages. Though the island of St. Brandan has been a disappointment to voyagers, it has been a favorite theme with poets.

=Island of the Blest.=--Imaginary island in the west. Hither the favorites of the gods were conveyed without dying, and dwelt in never-ending joy. The name first occurs in Hesiod’s _Works and Days_. This phrase is often used in modern literature.

=Ithuriel= (_i-thö´ri-el_).--In Milton’s _Paradise Lost_, an angel commissioned by Gabriel to search through paradise, in company with Zephon, to find Satan, who had eluded the vigilance of the angelic guard, and effected an entrance into the garden. It is related that Ithuriel found Satan “squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve,” and transformed him by a touch of his spear into his proper shape.

=Ivanhoe.=--A novel by Sir Walter Scott. The hero, also Ivanhoe, figures as Cedric of Rotherwood’s disinherited son, the favorite of King Richard I., and the lover of the Lady Rowena, whom, in the end, he marries. The scene is laid in England in the reign of Richard I., and we are introduced to Robin Hood in Sherwood forest, banquets in Saxon halls, tournaments, and all the pomp of ancient chivalry. Rowena, the heroine, is quite thrown into the shade by the gentle, meek, yet high-souled Rebecca.

=Ivory Gate of Dreams.=--Dreams which delude pass through the ivory gate, but those which come true through the horn gate.

=J=

=Jack and the Bean-Stalk.=--A nursery legend said to be an allegory of the Teutonic _Al-fader_, the “red hen” representing the all-producing sun, the “money-bags” the fertilizing rain, and the “harp” the winds.

=Jack-in-the-Green.=--A prominent character in Maypole dances.

=Jack Robinson.=--A famous comic song by Hudson.

=Jack Sprat.=--The hero of a nursery rhyme. Jack and his wife form a fine combination in domestic economy.

=Jack the Giant-killer.=--The name of a famous hero in the literature of the nursery, the subject of one of the Teutonic or Indo-European legends, which have become nationalized in England and America.

=Jaquenetta= (_jak-e-net´ä_).--_Love’s Labor’s Lost_, Shakespeare. A country wench courted by Don Adriano de Armado.

=Jaques= (_zhä´kes_).--A lord attending upon the exiled duke, in Shakespeare’s _As You Like It_. A contemplative character who thinks and does--nothing. He is called the “melancholy Jaques,” and affects a cynical philosophy. He could “suck melancholy out of a song, as a weasel sucks eggs.”

=Jarley, Mrs.=--The proprietor of a waxwork show in Dickens’ _Old Curiosity Shop_. She has lent her name to a popular game of parlor tableaux.

=Jarndyce= (_järn´dis_), =John.=--A prominent figure in Dickens’ _Bleak House_, distinguished for his philanthropy, easy good-nature and good sense, and for always saying, “The wind is in the east,” when anything went wrong with him. The famous suit of Jarndyce _vs._ Jarndyce, in this novel, is a satire upon the court of chancery.

=Jarvie, Nicol.=--A prominent character in Sir Walter Scott’s novel _Rob Roy_. He is a bailie of Glasgow.

=Javert= (_zhä-var´_).--An officer of the police force in _Les Misérables_, by Victor Hugo. He is the incarnation of inexorable law.

=Jarvis.=--A faithful old servant, in Moore’s _The Gamester_, who tries to save his master, Beverley, from his fatal passion of gambling.

=Jaup.=--An old woman at Middlemas village, in Scott’s _The Surgeon’s Daughter_.

=Jekyll, Doctor, and Mr. Hyde.=--A singular romance by Robert Louis Stevenson. The hero is a duplex character--Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Doctor Jekyll is a benevolent and upright physician, who by means of a potion is able to transform himself for a time into a second personality, Mr. Hyde, of a brutal and animal nature.

=Jellyby= (_jel´i-bi_), =Mrs.=--A character in Dickens’ novel, Bleak House, a type of sham philanthropy. She spends her time and energy on foreign missions to the neglect of her family. Mrs. Jellyby is quite overwhelmed with business correspondence relative to the affairs of Borrioboola Gha.

=Jenkins, Winifred.=--The name of Miss Tabitha Bramble’s maid in Smollett’s _Expedition of Humphrey Clinker_. She makes ridiculous blunders in speaking and writing.

=Jenkinson, Ephraim.=--A green old swindler, whom Dr. Primrose met in a public tavern. Dr. Primrose sold the swindler his horse, Old Blackberry, for a draft upon Farmer Flamborough.

=Jeroboam= (_jer-ō-bō´am_) =Sermon.=--One of Dr. Emmons’ sermons, which made a great noise at the time. It was known as his Jeroboam Sermon. It was written on the occasion of Jefferson’s inauguration as president, and, although Jefferson is not named, the delineation of the character of Jeroboam is such that no one can doubt the personal application intended.

=Jerusalem Delivered.=--An epic in twenty books, by Torquato Tasso. The crusaders, encamped on the plains of Tortosa, chose Godfrey for their chief, and Alandine, king of Jerusalem, made preparations for defense. The Christian army having reached Jerusalem, the king of Damascus sent Armida to beguile the Christians. It was found that Jerusalem could never be taken without the aid of Rinaldo. Godfrey, being informed that the hero was dallying with Armida in the enchanted island, sent to invite him back to the army; he returned, and Jerusalem was taken. Armida fled into Egypt, and offered to marry any knight who slew Rinaldo. The love of Rinaldo returned, he pursued her and she relented. The poem concludes with the triumphant entry of the Christian army into the Holy City, and their devotions at the tomb of the Redeemer. The two chief episodes are the loves of Olindo and Sofronia, and of Tancred and Clorinda.

=Jessica= (_jes´i-kä_).--The beautiful daughter of Shylock, in Shakespeare’s _Merchant of Venice_.

=Jones, Tom.=--The hero of Fielding’s novel entitled _The History of a Foundling_, represented as a model of generosity, openness, and manly spirit, though thoughtless and dissipated.

=Joyeuse= (_zhwä-yez´_).--The sword of Charlemagne as mentioned in romances of chivalry.

=Joyeuse Garde= (_zhwä-yez´ gärd_).--The residence of the famous Lancelot du Lac.

=Judith.=--The heroine in the book by the same name in the Apocrypha. She was a beautiful Jewess of Bethulia, who, when her town was besieged by Holofernes, the general of Nebuchadnezzar, attended him in his tent, and, when he was drunk, killed him, whereupon her townsmen fell upon the Assyrians and defeated them with great slaughter. The tale is not mentioned by Josephus, and has, from an early period, been held to be an allegory. It has frequently furnished poets and painters with subjects.

=Julius Cæsar.=--An historical tragedy by William Shakespeare. The poet was in this, as in other plays, materially assisted by North’s translation of Plutarch. “Shakespeare’s _Julius Cæsar_,” says Hazlitt, “is not equal, as a whole, to either of his other plays taken from the Roman history. It is inferior in interest to _Coriolanus_, and both in interest and power to _Antony and Cleopatra_. It, however, abounds in admirable and affecting passages, and is remarkable for the profound knowledge of character, in which Shakespeare could hardly fail.”

=K=

=Kadir, Al.=--The night on which the _Koran_ was sent down to Mohammed. Al Kadir is supposed to be the seventh of the last ten nights of Ramadan, or the night between the twenty-third and twenty-fourth days of the month.

=Kay.=--A foster brother of King Arthur, and a rude and boastful knight of the Round Table. He was the butt of King Arthur’s court. Called also Sir Queux. He appears in the _Boy and the Mantle_, in Percy’s _Reliques_. Sir Kay is represented as the type of rude boastfulness, Sir Gawain of courtesy, Sir Launcelot of chivalry, Sir Mordred of treachery, Sir Galahad of chastity, Sir Mark of cowardice.

=Kehama= (_kē-hä´mä_).--A Hindu rajah who obtains and sports with supernatural power. His adventures are related in Southey’s poem entitled _The Curse of Kehama_.

=Kenilworth.=--A novel by Sir Walter Scott. This is very superior to _The Abbot_ and _The Monastery_. For interest it comes next to _Ivanhoe_, and the portrait of Queen Elizabeth is lifelike and correct. That of Queen Mary is given in _The Abbot_. Full of courtly gayeties and splendor, the novel contains the unhappy tale of the beautiful Amy Robsart, which cannot fail to excite our sympathy and pity.

=Kent, Earl of.=--A rough, plain-spoken, but faithful nobleman in Shakespeare’s _King Lear_, who follows the fallen fortunes of the king, disguised as a servant, under the assumed name of Caius.

=Kenwigs= (_ken´wigz_).--A family in Dickens’ novel _Nicholas Nickleby_, including a number of little girls who differed from one another only in the length of their frilled pantalets and of their flaxen pigtails tied with bows of blue ribbon.

=Kilkenny Cats.=--Two cats, in an Irish story, which fought till nothing was left but their tails. It is probably a parable of a local contest between Kilkenny and Irishtown, which impoverished both boroughs.

=Kilmansegg, Miss.=--An heiress with great expectations and an artificial leg of solid gold, in Hood’s poem, _A Golden Legend_.

=King Horn.=--A metrical romance which was very popular in the thirteenth century. King Horn is a beautiful young prince who is carried away by pirates; but his life is spared, and after many wonderful adventures he weds a princess, and regains his father’s kingdom.

=King Lear.=--A tragedy by Shakespeare whose hero is a fabulous or legendary king of Britain. He had three daughters, and when four score years old, wishing to retire from the active duties of sovereignty, resolved to divide his kingdom between them, but was persuaded to disinherit Cordelia. The beauty of the play is the exquisite character of Cordelia, who is a “perfect woman.”

=King Log and King Stork.=--Characters in a celebrated fable of Æsop, which relates that the frogs, grown weary of living without a government, petitioned Jupiter for a king. Jupiter accordingly threw down a log among them, which made a satisfactory ruler till the frogs recovered from their fright and discovered his real nature. They, therefore, entreated Jupiter for another king, whereupon he sent them a stork, who immediately began to devour them.

=Klaus, Peter.=--The hero of an old popular tradition of Germany--the prototype of Rip Van Winkle--represented as a goatherd.

=Knickerbocker, Diedrich.=--The imaginary author of a humorous fictitious _History of New York_, written by Washington Irving.

=Knight of the Swan.=--Lohengrin, son of Parsival, because his boat was drawn by a swan.

=Knights of the Round Table.=--King Arthur’s knights were so called because they sat with him at a round table made by Merlin for King Leodogran. This king gave it to Arthur on his marriage with Guinevere, his daughter.

=Koppenberg.=--The mountain of Westphalia to which the pied piper (Bunting) led the children, when the people of Hamelin refused to pay him for killing their rats. Browning’s poem, _The Pied Piper_, tells the tale.

=L=

=Lady of Lyons, The.=--A drama, by Lord Lytton, in which Pauline Deschappelles, daughter of a Lyonese merchant, rejects the suits of Beauseant, Glavis, and Claude Melnotte, who therefore combined. Claude, who was a gardener’s son, aided by the other two, passed himself off as Prince Como, married Pauline, and brought her home to his mother’s cottage. The proud beauty was very indignant, and Claude left her to join the French army. He became a colonel, and returned to Lyons. He found his father-in-law on the eve of bankruptcy, and that Beauseant had promised to satisfy the creditors if Pauline would consent to marry him. Pauline was heartbroken; Claude revealed himself, paid the money required, and carried home the bride.

=Lady of Shalott, The.=--A poem by Alfred Tennyson, founded on an incident in _King Arthur_. It is descriptive of “a being whose existence passes without emotion, without changes, without intelligible motive for living on, without hope or fear, here or hereafter.”

=Lady of the Lake, The.=--A poem in six cantos by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1810. “Measured even by the standard of the _Minstrel_ and _Marmion_, the _Lady of the Lake_ possessed,” says Palgrave, “merits of its own, which raised his reputation still higher. Jeffrey’s prediction has been perfectly fulfilled, that the _Lady of the Lake_ would be ‘oftener read than either of the former,’ and it is generally acknowledged to be, in Lockhart’s words, ‘the most interesting, romantic, picturesque, and graceful of his great poems.’” The descriptions of scenery, which form one of the chief charms of the poem, render it, even now, one of the most minute and faithful handbooks to the region in which the drama of Ellen and the Knight of Snowdon is laid.

=Lake Poets, The.=--Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge, who lived about the lakes of Cumberland.

=Lalla Rookh= (_lal´ä rök_).--An oriental romance by Thomas Moore, consisting of four tales in verse, entitled _The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan_, _Paradise and the Peri_, _The Fire-Worshipers_, and _The Light of the Harem_, and connected by a short prose narrative, in which it is described how Lalla Rookh, daughter of the Emperor Aurungzebe, journeys toward Bucharia to meet her engaged husband, and how the prince gains her love on the way, in the guise of a Cashmerian minstrel. _Lalla Rookh_ was published in 1817.

=L’Allegro= (_läl-lā´grō_).--A descriptive poem by John Milton, probably written during his college life.

=L’Amour Médecin= (_la-mōōr´ mād-sa_N´) (or, _The Love Doctor_).--A comedy by Molière, written about the year 1665. Lucinde, the daughter of Sganarelle, is in love, and the father calls in four doctors to consult upon the nature of her malady. They see the patient, and retire to consult together, but talk about Paris, about their visits, about the topics of the day; and when the father enters to know what opinion they have formed, they all prescribe different remedies, and pronounce different opinions. Lisette then calls in a “quack” doctor (Clitandre, the lover), who says he must act on the imagination, and proposes a seeming marriage, to which Sganarelle assents. The assistant being a notary, Clitandre and Lucinde are married.

=Lampoon.=--A personal satire, often bitter and malignant. These libels, carried to excess in the reign of Charles II., acquired the name of lampoons from the burden sung to them: “_Lampone, lampone, camerada lampone_.”

=Land of Beulah.=--The paradise in which souls wait before the resurrection. In _Pilgrim’s Progress_ the land from which the pilgrims enter the Celestial City. The name is found in Isaiah lxii., 4.

=Land of Bondage.=--Name given to Egypt in the Bible.

=Land of Cakes.=--A name sometimes given to Scotland, because oatmeal cakes are a common national article of food, particularly among the poorer classes.

=Land of Nod.=--In common speech sleepy-land or land of dreams.

=Land of Promise.=--The land promised to Abraham--Canaan.

=Land of Shadows.=--A place of unreality, sometimes meaning land of ghosts.

=Land o’ the Leal.=--An unknown land of happiness, loyalty, and virtue. Caroline Oliphant, baroness Nairne, meant heaven in her song and this is now its accepted meaning.

=Land of Wisdom.=--A name given to Normandy, in France, because of the wise customs which have prevailed there, and also because of the skill and judgment of the people in making laws.

=Land of Veda= (_vē´dä_).--Name often given to India.

=Landlady’s Daughter.=--She rowed Flemming “over the Rhine-stream, rapid and roaring wide,” and told to him the story of the _Liebenstein_.

=Last Days of Pompeii= (_pom-pā´yē_), =The.=--A novel by Bulwer Lytton, Edward George, Baron Lytton, which was published in 1834. The interest of the book is one of situation and of action rather than of character. The scenes which linger on our memories longest are the noonday excursion on the Campanian seas, the temple of Isis, with its hidden machinery; the funeral pomp and dirge of the murdered Apæcides, Lydon perishing in the unequal struggle; the price which was to have been paid for a father’s liberty; and lastly, the grand catastrophe, a subject which called forth all Lord Lytton’s brilliant powers.

=Last of the Mohicans.=--The Indian chief Uncas is so called by Cooper in his novel of that title.

=Launfal= (_län´fal_), =Sir.=--Steward of King Arthur. James Russell Lowell has a poem entitled _The Vision of Sir Launfal_.

=Lavaine.=--Son of the lord of Astolat, who accompanied Sir Lancelot when he went to tilt for the ninth diamond. Lavaine is described as young, brave, and a true knight. He was brother to Elaine.

=Lavinia= (_la-vin´i-ä_) =and Palemon.=--Lavinia was the daughter of Acasto, patron of Palemon. Through Acasto Palemon gained a fortune and wandered away from his friend. Acasto lost his property, and dying, left a widow and daughter in poverty. Palemon often sought them, but could never find them. One day, a lovely modest maiden came to glean in Palemon’s fields. The young squire was greatly struck with her exceeding beauty and modesty, but she was known as a pauper and he dared not give her more than a passing glance. Upon inquiry he found that the beautiful gleaner was the daughter of Acasto; he proposed marriage, and Lavinia was restored to her rightful place.

=Leonato= (_lē-ō-nä´tō_).--Governor of Missina in Shakespeare’s _Much Ado About Nothing_. He prematurely accredited the accusations against his daughter, Hero.

=Leonine= (_lē´ō-nīn_).--In Shakespeare’s _Pericles_. Servant to Dionyza. The latter conspired with him to murder Marina, and was saved from the crime only by the intervention of pirates.

=Léonore= (_lā-ō-nōr´_).--In Molière’s _L’ecole des Maris_, sister of Isabelle, an orphan; brought up by Ariste according to his notions of training a girl to make him a good wife. He put her on her honor, tried to win her confidence and love, gave her all the liberty consistent with propriety and social etiquette, and found that she loved him, and made a fond and faithful wife.

=Leviathan= (_lē-vi´a-than_) (or, the _Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil_).--A work by Thomas Hobbes, published in 1651. In _Leviathan_, Hobbes’ peculiar theories in politics received their fullest and ablest expression. They found an illustrious opponent in Lord Clarendon, who, in 1676, published _A Brief View and Survey of the Dangerous and Pernicious Errors to Church and State in Mr. Hobbes’ book Entitled Leviathan_.

=Little Dorrit.=--The heroine and title of a novel by Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit was born and brought up in the Marshalsea prison, Bermondsey, where her father was confined for debt; and when about fourteen years of age she used to do needlework, to earn a subsistence for herself and her father. The child had a pale, transparent face; was quick in expression, though not beautiful in feature. Her eyes were a soft hazel, and her figure slight. The little dove of the prison was idolized by the prisoners, and when she walked out, every man in Bermondsey who passed her, touched or took off his hat out of respect to her good works and active benevolence. Her father, coming into a property, was set free at length, and Little Dorrit married Arthur Clennam, the marriage service being celebrated in the Marshalsea, by the prison chaplain.

=Little John.=--A big, stalwart fellow, named John Little, who encountered Robin Hood, and gave him a sound thrashing, after which he was rechristened, and Robin stood godfather. Little John is introduced by Sir Walter Scott in _The Talisman_.

=Little Nell.=--_Old Curiosity Shop_, Dickens. The prominent character of the story, pure and true, though living in the midst of selfishness and crime. She was brought up by her grandfather, who was in his dotage, and who tried to eke out a narrow living by selling curiosities. At length, through terror of Quilp, the old man and his grandchild stole away, and led a vagrant life.

=Lochinvar= (_lock´in-var_).--A young highlander, in the poem of _Marmion_, was much in love with a lady whose fate was decreed that she should marry a “laggard.” Young Lochinvar persuaded the too-willing lassie to be his partner in a dance; and, while the guests were intent on their amusements, swung her into his saddle and made off with her before the bridegroom could recover from his amazement.

=Locksley.=--So Robin Hood is sometimes called, from the village in which he was born.

=Locksley Hall.=--A poem by Tennyson, in which the hero, the lord of Locksley Hall, having been jilted by his cousin Amy for a rich boor, pours forth his feelings in a flood of scorn and indignation. The poem is understood to have been occasioned by a similar incident in the poet’s own life, but this has been questioned.

=Lohengrin= (_lō´hen-grin_).--The Knight of the Swan; the hero of a romance by Wolfram von Eschenbach, a German minnesinger of the thirteenth century, and also of a modern musical drama by Richard Wagner. He was the son of Parsival, and came to Brabant in a ship drawn by a white swan, which took him away again when his bride, disobeying his injunction, pressed him to discover his name and parentage.

=Lorelei=, or =Loreley= (_lō´re-li_).--In German poetry and romance, a siren supposed to haunt the Lurlenberg rock on the Rhine, and lure sailors and fisherman to destruction. She is the subject of a beautiful ballad by Heine.

=Lorna Doone.=--A novel by R. D. Blackmore, published in 1869, the scene of which is laid in Exmoor. The Doones are a family of robbers and freebooters from which Lorna, otherwise Lady Lorna Dugal, is rescued by John Ridd, a young man. Ridd finally broke up the band, drove them from Doone valley, and married Lorna.

=Love’s Labor’s Lost.=--A comedy by Shakespeare. Ferdinand, king of Navarre, with three lords named Biron, Dumain, and Longaville, agree to spend three years in study, during which time no woman was to approach the court. The compact signed, all went well until the princess of France, attended by Rosaline, Maria, and Katharine, besought an interview respecting certain debts said to be due from the king of France to the king of Navarre. The four gentleman fell in love with the four ladies. The love of the king sought the princess, by right, Biron loved Rosaline, Longaville admired Maria, and Dumain adored Katharine. In order to carry their suits, the four gentlemen, disguised as Muscovites, presented themselves before the ladies; but the ladies, being warned of the masquerade, disguised themselves also, so that the gentlemen in every case addressed the wrong lady. A mutual arrangement was made that the suits should be deferred for twelve months and a day; and if, at the expiration of that time, they remained of the same mind, the matter should be taken into serious consideration.

=Lusiad= (_lū´si-ad_), =The.=--A Portuguese poem by Luiz Camoëns, in 1572. _The Lusiad_ celebrates the chief events in the history of Portugal, and is remarkable as the only modern epic poem which is pervaded by anything approaching the national and popular spirit of ancient epic poems. Bacchus was the guardian power of the Mohammedans, and Venus, or Divine Love, of the Lusians. The fleet first sailed to Mozambique, then to Melinda (in Africa), where the adventurers were hospitably received and provided with a pilot to conduct them to India. In the Indian Ocean, Bacchus tried to destroy the fleet; Venus, however, calmed the sea, and Gama arrived in India in safety. Having accomplished his object, he returned to Lisbon. Among the most famous passages are the tragical story of Inez de Castro, and the apparition of the giant Adamastor, who appears as the spirit of the storm to Vasco da Gama, when crossing the cape. The versification of _The Lusiad_ is extremely charming.

=M=

=Mab.=--The queen of the fairies, famous in English literature if only on account of the exquisite description of her put into the mouth of Mercutio, in _Romeo and Juliet_, beginning “O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.”

=Macbeth.=--One of Shakespeare’s most celebrated tragedies, whose chief characters are Macbeth, king of Scotland, and Lady Macbeth, his murderously ambitious wife. Urged by the latter he kills Duncan, the rightful king, and in turn is himself slain by Macduff. The tale of Macbeth and Banquo was borrowed from the legendary history of Scotland, but the interest of the play is not historical. It is a tragedy of human life, intensely real, the soul, with all its powers for good or evil, deliberately choosing evil. The three witches in the desert place, in thunder, lightning, storm, strike the keynote of evil suggestion. The awfulness of soul destruction is felt in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as in no other of Shakespeare’s dramas.

=Macheath, Captain.=--A highwayman who is the hero of Gay’s _Beggar’s Opera_.

=Mac-Ivor= (_mak-ē´vor_), =Fergus.=--_Waverley_, Scott, Fergus Mac-Ivor is a prominent character in the novel, and his sister, Flora Mac-Ivor, the heroine. They are of the family of a Scottish chieftain.

=Macreons, The Island of.=--_Pantagruel_, Rabelais. The title is given to Great Britain, derived from a Greek word meaning long-lived, “because no one is put to death there for his religious opinions.” Rabelais says the island “is full of antique ruins and relics of popery and ancient superstitions.”

=Madasima, Queen.=--An important character in the old romance called _Amadis de Gaul_; her constant attendant was Elisabat, a famous surgeon with whom she roamed in solitary retreats.

=Madoc= (_mad´ok_).--A poem by Southey, founded on one of the legends connected with the early history of America. Madoc, a Welsh prince of the twelfth century, is represented as making the discovery of the western world. His contests with the Mexicans form the subject.

=Maidens’ Castle.=--An allegorical castle mentioned in Malory’s _History of Prince Arthur_. It was taken from a duke by seven knights, and held by them till Sir Galahad expelled them. It was called The Maidens’ Castle because these knights made a vow that every maiden who passed it should be made a captive.

=Maid Marian.=--A half mythical character, but the name is said to have been assumed by Matilda, daughter of Robert, Lord Fitzwalter, while Robin Hood remained in a state of outlawry. The name is considered the foundation of the word marionettes, from Maid Marian’s connection with the morris dance, or May-day dance, at which she was said to appear.

=Maid of Athens.=--Made famous by Lord Byron’s song of this title. Twenty-four years after this song was written an Englishman sought out “the Athenian maid,” and found a beggar without a vestige of beauty.

=Maid of Saragossa.=--_Childe Harold_, Byron. A young Spanish woman distinguished for her heroism during the defense of Saragossa in 1808-1809. She first attracted notice by mounting a battery where her lover had fallen, and working a gun in his place.

=Malade Imaginaire, Le= (or, _The Imaginary Invalid_).--A comedy by Molière. Mons. Argan, who took seven mixtures and twelve lavements in one month instead of twelve mixtures with twenty lavements, as he had hitherto done. “No wonder,” he says, “I am not so well.” He fancies his wife loves him dearly, and that his daughter is undutiful, because she declines to marry a young medical prig instead of Cleante, whom she loves. His brother persuades “the malade” to counterfeit death, in order to test the sincerity of his wife and daughter. The wife rejoices greatly at his death, and proceeds to filch his property, when Argan starts up and puts an end to her pillage. Next comes the daughter’s turn. When she hears of her father’s death, she bewails him with great grief, says she has lost her best friend, and that she will devote her whole life in prayer for the repose of his soul. Argan is delighted, starts up in a frenzy of joy, declares she is a darling, and shall marry the man of her choice freely, and receive a father’s blessing.

=Malaprop= (_mal´a-prop_), =Mrs.=--A character in Sheridan’s _Rivals_, noted for her blundering use of words.

=Malbecco.=--_Faërie Queene_, Spenser. The husband of a young wife, Helinore, and himself a crabbed, jealous old fellow.

=Malengrin.=--A character in Spenser’s _Faërie Queene_, who carried a net on his back “to catch fools with.” The name has grown to mean the personification of guile or flattery.

=Malepardus.=--The castle of Master Reynard, the Fox, in the beast epic of _Reynard the Fox_.

=Malvoisin.=--_Ivanhoe_, Scott. One of the challenging knights at the tournament (Sir Philip de Malvoisin). Sir Albert de Malvoisin was a preceptor of the Knights Templar.

=Mambrino= (_mäm-brē´nō_).--_Poems_, Ariosto, etc. A king of the Moors, who was the possessor of an enchanted golden helmet, which rendered the wearer invulnerable and which was the object of eager quest to the paladins of Charlemagne. This helmet was borne away by the knight Rinaldo. In _Don Quixote_ we are told of a barber who was caught in a shower of rain, and who, to protect his hat, clapped his brazen basin on his head. Don Quixote insisted that this basin was the helmet of the Moorish king; and, taking possession of it, wore it as such.

=Managarm.=--_Prose Edda._ The largest and most formidable of the race of giants. He dwells in the Iron-wood, Jamvid. Managarm will first fill himself with the blood of man, and then he will swallow up the moon. This giant symbolizes war, and the iron wood in which he dwells is the wood of spears.

=Manfred.=--A poem by Byron. Manfred sold himself to the prince of darkness, and received from him seven spirits to do his bidding. They were the spirits of “earth, ocean, air, night, mountains, winds, and the star of his own destiny.” Wholly without human sympathies, the count dwelt in splendid solitude among the Alpine mountains. He loved Astarte, and was visited by her spirit after her death. In spirit form she told Manfred that he would die the following day; and, when asked if she loved him, she signed “Manfred,” and vanished.

=Manon l’Escaut= (_mä-non´ les-kō_).--A French novel by A. F. Prévost. Manon is the “fair mischief” of the story. Her charms seduce and ruin the chevalier des Grieux, who marries her. After marriage, the selfish mistress becomes converted into the faithful wife, who follows her husband into disgrace and banishment, and dies by his side in the wilds of America. The object of this novel, like that of _La Dame aux Camélias_, by Dumas _fils_, is to show how true hearted, how self-sacrificing, how attractive, a _fille de joie_ may be.

=Mantalini= (_man-ta-lē´nē_).--_Nicholas Nickleby_, Dickens. The husband of madame; he is a man doll, noted for his white teeth, his oaths, and his gorgeous morning gown. This “exquisite” lives on his wife’s earnings, and thinks he confers a favor on her by spending. Madame Mantalini is represented as a fashionable dressmaker near Cavendish Square, London.

=Marble Faun, The.=--A romance by Hawthorne, published in 1860. The English edition, published in the same year, is called _Transformation, or the Romance of Monte Beni_. See _Donatello_. The sole idea of the _Marble Faun_ is to illustrate the intellectually and morally awakening power of a sudden impulsive sin, committed by a simple, joyous, instinctive, “natural” man. The whole group of characters is imagined solely with a view to the development of this idea.

=Marcellus= (_mär-sel´us_).--_Hamlet_, Shakespeare. An officer of Denmark, to whom the ghost of the murdered king appeared before it presented itself to Prince Hamlet.

=Marchioness, The.=--_Old Curiosity Shop_, Dickens. A half-starved maid-of-all-work, in the service of Sampson Brass and his sister Sally. She was so lonesome and dull that it afforded her relief to peep at Mr. Swiveller even through the keyhole of his door. Mr. Swiveller called her the “marchioness,” when she played cards with him, “because it seemed more real and pleasant” to play with a marchioness than with a domestic. While enjoying these games they made the well known “orange peel wine.”

=Mariana= (_mä-rē-ä´nä_).--In Tennyson’s poem _The Moated Grange_, a young damsel, who sits in the moated grange, looking out for her lover, who never comes. (2) In Shakespeare’s _Measure for Measure_ Mariana is a lovely and lovable lady, betrothed to Angelo, who, during the absence of Vincentio, the duke of Vienna, acted as his lord deputy. Her pleadings to the duke for Angelo are wholly unrivaled.

=Martin’s Summer, St.=--Halcyon days; a time of prosperity; fine weather. Mentioned by Shakespeare in _Henry VI._, etc.