Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 26

Byron, _Don Juan_, xii. 86.

AT'IMUS, Baseness of Mind personified in _The Purple Island_ (1633), by Phineas Fletcher. "A careless, idle swain ... his work to eat, drink, sleep, and purge his reins." Fully described in canto viii.

(Greek, _atimos_, "one dishonored.")

A'TIN (_Strife_), the squire of Pyr'ochles.--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, ii. 4, 5, 6 (1590).

ATOS'SA. So Pope calls Sarah d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough, because she was the great friend of lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whom he calls Sappho.

But what are these to great Atossa's mind?

Pope.

(The great friend of Sappho was Atthis. By Atossa is generally understood Vashti, daughter of Cyrus and wife of Ahasuerus of the Old Testament.)

AT'ROPOS, one of the Fates, whose office is to cut the thread of life with a pair of scissors.

... nor shines the knife, Nor shears of Atropos before their vision.

Byron, _Don Juan_, ii. 64.

ATTIC BEE _(The)_, Soph'ocles (B.C. 495-405). Plato is called "The Athenian Bee."

ATTIC BOY _(The)_, referred to by Milton in his _Il Penseroso_, is Ceph'alos, who was beloved by Aurora or Morn, but was married to Procris. He was pa.s.sionately fond of hunting.

Till civil-suited Morn appear, Not tricked and flounced, as she was wont With the Attic boy to hunt, But kerchiefed in a comely cloud.

_II Penseroso_ (1638).

ATTIC MUSE _(The)_, a phrase signifying the whole body of Attic poetry.

ATTICUS. The surname of T. Pomponius, the intimate friend of Cicero, given to him on account of his long residence in Athens. His biography is found in Nepor.

_The English Atticus_. Joseph Addison.

Who but must laugh if such a man there be.

Who would not weep if Atticus were he?

Pope, _Prologue to the Satires_.

AT'TILA, one of the tragedies of Pierre Corneille (1667). This king of the Huns, usually called "The Scourge of G.o.d," must not be confounded with "Athalie," daughter of Jezebel and wife of Joram, the subject and t.i.tle of Racine's _ches-d'oeuvre_, and Mdlle. Rachel's chief character.

AUBERT _(Therese)_, the heroine of C. Nodier's romance of that name (1819). The story relates to the adventures of a young royalist in the French Revolutionary epoch, who had disguised himself in female apparel to escape detection.

AUBREY, a widower for eighteen years. At the death of his wife he committed his infant daughter to the care of Mr. Bridgemore, a merchant, and lived abroad. He returned to London after an absence of eighteen years, and found that Bridgemore had abused his trust, and his daughter had been obliged to quit the house and seek protection with Mr. Mortimer.

_Augusta Aubrey_, daughter of Mr. Aubrey, in love with Francis Tyrrel, the nephew of Mr. Mortimer. She is snubbed and persecuted by the vulgar Lucinda Bridgemore, and most wantonly persecuted by lord Abberville, but after pa.s.sing through many a most painful visitation, she is happily married to the man of her choice.--c.u.mberland, _The Fashionable Lover_ (1780).

AU'BRI'S DOG showed a most unaccountable hatred to Richard de Macaire, snarling and flying at him whenever he appeared in sight. Now Aubri had been murdered by some one in the forest of Bondy, and this animosity of the dog directed suspicion towards Richard de Macaire.

Richard was taken up, and condemned to single combat with the dog, by whom he was killed. In his dying moments he confessed himself to be the murderer of Aubri. (See DOG.)

Le combat entre Macaire et le chien eut lieu a Paris, dans l'ile Louviers. On place ce fait merveilleux en 1371, mais ... il est bien anterieur, car il est mentionne des le siecle precedent par Alberic des Trois-Fontaines.--Bouillet, _Dict. Universel, etc._

AUCH'TERMUCH'TY (_John_), the Kinross carrier.--Sir W. Scott, _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

AUDHUM'BLA, the cow created by Surt to nourish Ymir. She supplied him with four rivers of milk, and was herself nourished by licking dew from the rocks.--_Scandinavian Mythology_.

AU'DREY, a country wench, who jilted William for Touchstone. She is an excellent specimen of a wondering she-gawky. She thanks the G.o.ds that "she is foul," and if to be poetical is not to be honest, she thanks the G.o.ds also that "she is not poetical."--Shakespeare, _As You Like It_ (1598).

The character of "Audrey," that of a female fool, should not have been a.s.sumed [_i.e._ by Miss Pope, in her last appearance in public]; the last line of the farewell address was, "And now poor Audrey bids you all farewell" (May 26, 1808).-- James Smith, _Memoirs, etc._ (1840).

AUGUS'TA, mother of Gustavus Vasa. She is a prisoner of Christian II.

king of Denmark, but the king promises to set her free if she will induce her son to submission. Augusta refuses, but in the war which follows, Gustavus defeats Christian, and becomes king of Sweden.--H.

Brooke, _Gustavus Vasa_ (1730).

_Augusta_, a t.i.tle conferred by the Roman emperors on their wives, sisters, daughters, mothers, and even concubines. It had to be conferred; for even the wife of an Augustus was not an Augusta until after her coronation.

1. EMPRESSES. Livia and Julia were both _Augusta_; so were Julia (wife of Tiberius), Messalina, Agrippina, Octavia, Poppaea, Statilia, Sabina, Domitilla, Domitia, and Faustina. In imperials the wife of an emperor is spoken of as _Augusta: Serenissima Augusta conjux nostra; Divina Augusta_, etc. But the t.i.tle had to be conferred; hence we read, "Domitian uxorem suam _Augustam_ jussit nuncupari;" and "Flavia t.i.tiana, eadem die, uxor ejus [_i.e._ Pertinax] _Augusta_ est appellata."

2. MOTHERS or GRANDMOTHERS. Antonia, grandmother of Caligula, was created _Augusta_. Claudius made his mother Antonia _Augusta_ after her death. Heliogab'alus had coins inscribed with "Julia Maesa _Augusta_," in honor of his grandmother;

Mammaea, mother of Alexander Severus, is styled _Augusta_ on coins; and so is Helena, mother of Constantine.

3. SISTERS. Honorius speaks of his sister as "venerabilis _Augusta_ germananostra." Trajan has coins inscribed with "Diva Marciana _Augusta_."

4. DAUGHTERS. Mallia Scantilla the wife, and Didia the daughter of Didius Julia.n.u.s, were both _Augusta_. t.i.tus inscribed on coins his daughter as "Julia Sabina _Augusta_;" there are coins of the emperor Decius inscribed with "Herennia Etruscilla _Augusta_," and "Sall.u.s.tia _Augusta_," sisters of the emperor Decius.

5. OTHERS. Matidia, niece of Trajan, is called _Augusta_ on coins; Constantine Monomachus called his concubine _Augusta_.

AUGUSTA HARE, a woman with a native genius for popularity, in Mrs.

A.D.T. Whitney's novel _Hitherto_.

AUGUSTI'NA, _the Maid of Saragossa_. She was only twenty-two when, her lover being shot, she mounted the battery in his place. The French, after a siege of two months, were obliged to retreat, August 15, 1808.

Such were the exploits of the Maid of Saragossa, who by her valor elevated herself to the highest rank of heroines. When the author was at Seville, she walked daily on the Prado, decorated with medals and orders, by order of the Junta.--Lord Byron.

AULD ROBIN GRAY was written (1772) by Lady Anne Barnard, to raise a little money for an old nurse. Lady Anne's maiden name was Lindsay, and her father was earl of Balcarras.

AULLAY, a monster horse with an elephant's trunk. The creature is as much bigger than an elephant as an elephant is larger than a sheep.

King Baly of India rode on an aullay.

The aullay, hugest of four-footed kind, The aullay-horse, that in his force, With elephantine trunk, could bind And lift the elephant, and on the wind Whirl him away, with sway and swing, E'en like a pebble from a practised sling.

Southey, _Curse of Kehama_, xvi. 2 (1809).

AURE'LIUS, a young n.o.bleman who tried to win to himself Do'rigen, the wife of Arvir'agus, but Dorigen told him she would never yield to his suit till all the rocks of the British coast were removed, "and there n'is no stone y-seen." Aurelius by magic made all the rocks disappear, but when Dorigen went, at her husband's bidding, to keep her promise, Aurelius, seeing how sad she was, made answer, he would rather die than injure so true a wife and n.o.ble a gentleman.--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ ("The Franklin's Tale," 1388).

(This is substantially the same as Boccaccio's tale of _Dimora and Gilberto_, x. 5. See DIANORA.)

_Aurelius_, elder brother of Uther the pendragon, and uncle of Arthur, but he died before the hero was born.