Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 17

AN'THONY, an English archer in the cottage of farmer d.i.c.kson, of Douglasdale.--Sir W. Scott, _Castle Dangerous_ (time, Henry I.).

_An'thony_, the old postillion at Meg Dods's, the landlady of the inn at St. Ronan's Well.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan's Well_ (time, George III.).

ANTID'IUS, bishop of Jaen, martyred by the Vandals in 411. One day, seeing the devil writing in his pocket-book some sin committed by the pope, he jumped upon his back and commanded his Satanic majesty to carry him to Rome. The devil tried to make the bishop p.r.o.nounce the name of Jesus, which would break the spell, and then the devil would have tossed his unwelcome burden into the sea, but the bishop only cried, "Gee up, devil!" and when he reached Rome he was covered with Alpine snow. The chronicler navely adds, "the hat is still shown at Rome in confirmation of this miracle."--_General Chronicle of King Alphonso the Wise_.

ANTIG'ONE (4 _syl._), daughter of Oe'dipos and Jocas'te, a n.o.ble maiden, with a truly heroic attachment to her father and brothers.

When Oedipos had blinded himself, and was obliged to quit Thebes, Antigone accompanied him, and remained with him till his death, when she returned to Thebes. Creon, the king, had forbidden any one to bury Polyni'ces, her brother, who had been slain by his elder brother in battle; but Antigone, in defiance of this prohibition, buried the dead body, and Creon shut her up in a vault under ground, where she killed herself. Haemon, her lover, killed himself also by her side. Sophocles has a Greek tragedy on the subject, and it has been dramatized for the English stage.

_The Modern Antigone_, Marie Therese Charlotte d.u.c.h.esse d'Angouleme, daughter of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette (1778-1851).

ANTIG'ONUS, a Sicilian lord, commanded by king Leontes to take his infant daughter to a desert sh.o.r.e and leave her to perish. Antigonus was driven by a storm to the coast of Bohemia, where he left the babe; but on his way back to the ship, he was torn to pieces by a bear.--Shakespeare, _The Winter's Tale_ (1604).

_Antig'onus (King)_, an old man with a young man's amorous pa.s.sions.

He is one of the four kings who succeeded to the divided empire of Alexander the Great.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Humorous Lieutenant_ (1647).

ANTIN'OUS (4 _syl_.), a page of Hadrian, the Roman emperor, noted for his beauty.

_Antin'ous_ (4 _syl_.), son of Cas'silane (3 _syl_.) general of Candy, and brother of An'no-phel, in _The Laws of Candy_ a drama by Beaumont and Fletcher (1647).

ANTI'OCHUS, emperor of Greece, who sought the life of Per'icles prince of Tyre, but died without effecting his desire.--Shakespeare, _Pericles Prince of Tyre_ (1608).

ANTI'OPE (4 _syl_.), daughter of Idom'e-neus (4 _syl_.), for whom Telem'achus had a _tendresse_. Mentor approved his choice, and a.s.sured Telemachus that the lady was designed for him by the G.o.ds. Her charms were "the glowing modesty of her countenance, her silent diffidence, and her sweet reserve; her constant attention to tapestry or to some other useful and elegant employment; her diligence in household affairs, her contempt of finery in dress, and her ignorance of her own beauty," Telemachus says, "She encourages to industry by her example, sweetens labor by the melody of her voice, and excels the best of painters in the elegance of her embroidery."--Fenelon, _Telemaque_, xxii. (1700).

He [_Paul_] fancied he had found in Virginia the wisdom of Antiope with the misfortunes and the tenderness of Eucharis.--Bernardin de St.

Pierre, _Paul and Virginia_ (1788).

ANTIPH'OLUS, the name of two brothers, twins, the sons of Aege'on, a merchant of Syracuse. The two brothers were shipwrecked in infancy, and, being picked up by different cruisers, one was carried to Syracuse, and the other to Ephesus. The Ephesian entered the service of the duke, and, being fortunate enough to save the duke's life, became a great man and married well. The Syracusian Antipholus, going in search of his brother, came to Ephesus, where a series of blunders occurs from the wonderful likeness of the two brothers and their two servants called Dromio. The confusion becomes so great that the Ephesian is taken up as a madman. It so happened that both brothers appeared before the duke at the same time; and the extraordinary likeness being seen by all, the cause of the blunders was evident, and everything was satisfactorily explained.--Shakespeare, _Comedy of Errors_ (1593).

ANTON (_Sir_). Tennyson says that Merlin gave Arthur, when an infant, to sir Anton and his lady to bring up, and they brought him up as their own son. This does not correspond with the _History of Prince Arthur_, which states that he was committed to the care of sir Ector and his lady, whose son, sir Key, is over and over again called the prince's foster-brother. The _History_ furthermore states that Arthur made sir Key his seneschal _because_ he was his foster-brother.

So the child was delivered unto Merlin, and he bare him forth unto sir Ector, and made a holy man christen him, and named him "Arthur."

And so sir Ector's wife nourished him with her own breast.--Part i. 3.

So sir Ector rode to the justs, and with him rode sir Key, his son, and young Arthur that was his nourished brother.--Ditto.

"Sir," said sir Ector, "I will ask no more of you but that you will make my son, sir Key, your foster-brother, seneschal of all your lands."

"That shall be done," said Arthur (ch. 4).--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_ (1470).

_Anton_, one of Henry Smith's men in _The Fair Maid of Perth_, by sir W. Scott (time, Henry IV.).

ANTO'NIO, a sea captain who saved Sebastian, the brother of Vi'ola, when wrecked off the coast of Illyria.--Shakespeare, _Twelfth Night_ (1614).

_Anto'nio_, the Swiss lad who acts as the guide from Lucern, in sir W.

Scott's _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

_Anto'nio_, a stout old gentleman, kinsman of Petruccio, governor of Bologna.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Chances_ (a comedy, before 1621).

_Antonio (Don)_, father of Carlos, a bookworm, and Clodio, a c.o.xcomb; a testy, headstrong old man. He wants Carlos to sign away his birthright in favor of his younger brother, to whom he intends Angelina to be married; but Carlos declines to give his signature, and elopes with Angelina, whom he marries, while Clodio engages his troth to Elvira of Lisbon.--C. Cibber, _Love Makes a Man_.

_Antonio (Don)_, in love with Louisa, the daughter of don Jerome of Seville. A poor n.o.bleman of ancient family.--Sheridan, _The Duenna_ (1778).

ANTONOMAS'IA _(The princess_), daughter of Archipiela, king of Candaya, and his wife Maguncia. She married don Clavijo, but the giant Malambru'no, by enchantment, changed the bride into a bra.s.s monkey, and her spouse into a crocodile of some unknown metal. Don Quixote mounted the wooden horse Clavileno the Winged, to disenchant the lady and her husband, and this he effected "simply by making the attempt."--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II iii. 4, 5 (1615).

ANTONY _(Saint)_ lived in a cavern on the summit of Cavadonga, in Spain, and was perpetually annoyed by devils.

Old St. Antonius from the h.e.l.l Of his bewildered phantasy saw fiends In actual vision, a foul throng grotesque Of all horrific shapes and forms obscene, Crowd in broad day before his open eyes.

Southey, _Roderick, etc_., xvi. (1814).

AN'TONY AND CaeSAR. Macbeth says that "under Banquo his own genius was rebuked [or snubbed], as it is said Mark Antony's was by Caesar" (act iii. sc. 1), and in _Antony and Cleopatra_ this pa.s.sage is elucidated thus--

Thy daemon, that's thy spirit which keeps thee, is n.o.ble, courageous, high, unmatchable, Where Caesar's is not; but near him thy angel Becomes a fear, as being overpowered.

Act ii. sc. 3.

ANVIL (_The Literary_). Dr. Mayo was so called, because he bore the hardest blows of Dr. Johnson without flinching.

AODH, last of the Culdees, or primitive clergy of Io'na, an island south of Staffa. His wife was Reullu'ra. Ulvfa'gre the Dane, having landed on the island and put many to the sword, bound Aodh in chains of iron, then dragging him to the church, demanded where the "treasures were concealed." A mysterious figure now appeared, which not only released the priest, but took the Dane by the arm to the statue of St. Columb, which fell on him and crushed him to death.

After this the "saint" gathered the remnant of the islanders together, and went to Ireland.--Campbell, _Reullura_.

APE (1 _syl._), the pseudonym of M. Pellegrini, the caricaturist of _Vanity Fair_. Dr. Johnson says "_to ape_ is to imitate ludicrously;"

whence the adoption of the name.

APEL'LES AND THE COBBLER. A cobbler found fault with the shoe-latchet of one of Apelles' paintings, and the artist rectified the fault. The cobbler, thinking himself very wise, next ventured to criticise the legs; but Apelles said, _Ne sutor ultra crepidam_ ("Let not the cobbler go beyond his last").

Within that range of criticism where all are equally judges, and where Crispin is ent.i.tled to dictate to Apelles.--_Encyc. Brit._, Art.

"Romance."

_Apelles_. When his famous painting of Venus rising out of the sea (hung by Augustus in the temple of Julius Caesar) was greatly injured by time, Nero replaced it by a copy done by Dorotheus. This Venus by Apelles is called "Venus Anadyom'-ene," his model (according to tradition) being Campaspe (afterwards his wife).

APEMAN'TUS, a churlish Athenian philosopher, who snarled at men systematically, but showed his cynicism to be mere affectation, when Timon attacked him with his own weapons.--Shakespeare, _Timon of Athens_ (1600).

Their affected melancholy showed like the cynicism of Apemantus, contrasted with the real misanthropy of Timon.--Sir W. Scott.

APIC'IUS, an epicure in the time of Tiberius. He wrote a book on the ways of provoking an appet.i.te. Having spent 800,000 in supplying the delicacies of the table, and having only 80,000 left, he hanged himself, not thinking it possible to exist on such a wretched pittance. _Apicia_, however, became a stock name for certain cakes and sauces, and his name is still proverbial in all matters of gastronomy.

There was another of the name in the reign of Trajan, who wrote a cooking book and manual of sauces.

No Brahmin could abominate your meal more than I do. Hirtius and Apicius would have blushed for it. Mark Antony, who roasted eight whole boars for supper, never ma.s.sacred more at a meal than you have done.--c.u.mberland, _The Fashionable Lover_, i. 1 (1780).

APOLLO, son of Jupiter and Latona, and model of masculine beauty. He is the sun, in Homeric mythology, the embodiment of practical wisdom and foresight, of swift and far-reaching intelligence, and hence of poetry, music, etc.

_The Apollo Belvidere_, that is, the Apollo preserved in the Belvidere gallery of the Vatican, discovered in 1503 amid the ruins of An'tium, and purchased by pope Julius II. It is supposed to be the work of Cal'amis, a Greek sculptor of the fifth century B.C.

_The Apollo of Actium_ was a gigantic statue, which served for a beacon.

_The Apollo of Rhodes_, usually called the colossus, was a gigantic bronze statue, 150 feet high, made by Chares, a pupil of Lysippus, and set up B.C. 300.

_Animals consecrated to Apollo_, the c.o.c.k, the crow, the gra.s.shopper, the hawk, the raven, the swan, and the wolf.