Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 27

Even sicke of a flixe [_ill of the flux_] as he was, he caused himself to be carried forth on a litter; with whose presence the people were so encouraged, that encountering with the Saxons they wan the victorie.--Holinshed, _History of Scotland_, 99.

... once I read That stout Pendragon on his litter sick Came to the field, and vanquished his foes.

Shakespeare, 1 _Henry VI._, act iii. sc. 2 (1589).

AURORA LEIGH, daughter of an Englishman and an Italian woman. At her father's death Aurora comes to England to live with a severe, practical aunt. In time she becomes a poet, travels far, sees much, and thinks much of life's problems. She marries her cousin Romney, a philanthropist, blinded by an accident.--_Aurora_ _Leigh_, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1856).

AURORA NUNCANOU, beautiful Creole widow in _The Grandissimes_, by George W. Cable. In her thirty-fifth year, she "is the red, red, full-blown, faultless joy of the garden. With her it will be always morning. That woman is going to last forever; ha-a-a-a!--even longer!"

(1880).

AUSTIN, the a.s.sumed name of the lord of Clarinsal, when he renounced the world and became a monk of St. Nicholas. Theodore, the grandson of Alfonso, was his son, and rightful heir to the possessions and t.i.tle of the count of Narbonne.--Robert Jephson, _Count of Narbonne_ (1782).

AUSTINS (_The_). _Miss Susan_, old maid resident at Whiteladies, concerned in a conspiracy to introduce a false heir to the estate.

_Miss Augustine_, saintly sister, who tries to "turn the curse from _Whiteladies_, by her own prayers and those of her almsmen."--_Whiteladies_, by M.O.W. Oliphant.

AUS'TRIA AND THE LION'S HIDE. There is an old tale that the arch-duke of Austria killed Richard I., and wore as a spoil the lion's hide which belonged to our English monarch. Hence Faulconbridge (the natural son of Richard) says jeeringly to the arch-duke:

Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for shame, And hang a calf-skin on those recreant limbs.

Shakespeare, _King John_, act iii. sc. 1 (1596).

(The point is better understood when it is borne in mind that fools and jesters were dressed in calf-skins.)

AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE, a mythical personage who indites Oliver Wendell Holmes's breakfast-table conversations.

AUTOL'YCOS, the craftiest of thieves. He stole the flocks of his neighbors, and changed their marks. Sis'yphos outwitted him by marking his sheep under their feet.

AUTOL'YCUS, a peddler and witty rogue, in _The Winter's Tale_, by Shakespeare (1604).

AVARE (_L_'). The plot of this comedy is as follows: Harpagon the miser and his son Cleante (2 _syl._) both want to marry Mariane (3 _syl._), daughter of Anselme, _alias_ don Thomas d'Alburci, of Naples.

Cleante gets possession of a casket of gold belonging to the miser, and hidden in the garden. When Harpagon discovers his loss he raves like a madman, and Cleante gives him the choice of Mariane or the casket. The miser chooses the casket, and leaves the young lady to his son. The second plot is connected with Elise (2 _syl._), the miser's daughter, promised in marriage by the father to his friend Anselme (2 _syl._); but Elise is herself in love with Valere, who, however, turns out to be the son of Anselme. As soon as Anselme discovers that Valere is his son, who he thought had been lost at sea, he resigns to him Elise, and so in both instances the young folks marry together, and the old ones give up their unnatural rivalry.--Moliere, _L'Avare_ (1667).

AVE'NEL (2 _syl._), _Julian_, the usurper of Avenel Castle.

_Lady Alice_, widow of sir Walter.

_Mary_, daughter of Lady Alice. She marries Halbert Glendinning.--Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (date 1559).

_Ave'nel_ (_Sir Halbert Glendinning, knight of_), same as the bridegroom in _The Monastery_.

_The lady Mary of Avenel_, same as the bride in _The Monastery_.--Sir W. Scott, _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

_The White Lady of Avenel_, a spirit mysteriously connected with the Avenel family, as the Irish banshee is with true Mile'sian families.

She announces good or ill fortune, and manifests a general interest in the family to which she is attached, but to others she acts with considerable caprice; thus she shows unmitigated malignity to the sacristan and the robber. Any truly virtuous mortal has commanding power over her.

Noon gleams on the lake, Noon glows on the fell; Awake thee, awake, White maid of Avenel!

Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).

AVEN'GER OF BLOOD, the man who had the birthright, according to the Jewish, polity, of taking vengeance on him who had killed one of his relatives.

... the Christless code That must have life for a blow.

Tennyson, _Maud_, II. i. 1.

AVERY (_Parson_), a missionary "to the souls of fishers starving on the rocks of Marblehead." He is wrecked with his crew, one wintry midnight, and dies praying aloud.--J.G. Whittier, _The Swan Song of Parson Avery_ (1850).

AV'ICEN or _Abou-ibn-Sina_, an Arabian physician and philosopher, born at Shiraz, in Persia (980-1037). He composed a treatise on logic, and another on metaphysics. Avicen is called both the Hippo'crates and the Aristotle of the Arabs.

Of physicke speake for me, king Avicen ...

Yet was his glory never set on shelfe, Nor never shall, whyles any worlde may stande Where men have minde to take good bookes in hande.

G. Gascoigne, _The Fruits of Warre_, lvii. (died 1577).

AVIS, a New England girl, heroine of _The Story of Avis_, by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps-Ward. She is forced by genius to be an artist, and through her art loses hope of domestic happiness (1877).

AYL'MER (_Mrs._), a neighbor of sir Henry Lee.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

AY'MER (_Prior_), a jovial Benedictine monk, prior of Jorvaulx Abbey.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

AY'MON, duke of Dordona (_Dordogne_). He had four sons, Rinaldo, Guicciardo, Alardo, and Ricciardetto (_i.e._ Renaud, Guiscard, Alard, and Richard), whose adventures are the subject of a French romance, ent.i.tled _Les Quatre fils Aymon_, by H. de Alleneuve (1165-1223).

AZA'ZEL, one of the ginn or jinn, all of whom were made of "smokeless fire," that is, the fire of the Simoom. These jinn inhabited the earth before man was created, but on account of their persistent disobedience were driven from it by an army of angels. When Adam was created, and G.o.d commanded all to worship him, Azazel insolently made answer, "Me hast Thou created of fire, and him of earth; why should I worship him?" Whereupon G.o.d changed the jinnee into a devil, and called him Iblis or Despair. In h.e.l.l he was made the standard-bearer of Satan's host.

Upreared His mighty standard; that proud honor claimed Azazel as his right.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, i. 534 (1665).

AZ'LA, a suttee, the young widow of Ar'valan, son of Keha'ma.--Southey, _Curse of Kehama_, i. 10 (1809).

AZ'O, husband of Parisi'na. He was marquis d'Este, of Ferrara, and had already a natural son, Hugo, by Bianca, who, "never made his bride,"

died of a broken heart. Hugo was betrothed to Parisina before she married the marqnis, and after she became his mother-in-law, they loved on still. One night Azo heard Parisina in sleep express her love for Hugo, and the angry marquis condemned his son to death. Although he spared his bride, no one ever knew what became of her.--Byron, _Parisina_.

AZ'RAEL (_3 syl._), the angel of death (called Raphael in the _Gospel of Barnabas_).--_Al Koran_.

AZ'TECAS, an Indian tribe, which conquered the Hoamen (2 _syl._), seized their territory, and established themselves on a southern branch of the Missouri, having Az'tlan as their imperial city. When Madoc conquered the Aztecas in the twelfth century, he restored the Hoamen, and the Aztecas migrated to Mexico.--Southey, _Madoc_ (1805).

AZUCE'NA, a gipsy. Manri'co is supposed to be her son, but is in reality the son of Garzia (brother of the conte di Luna).--Verdi, _Il Trovato're_ (1853).

AZYORU'CA (4 _syl._), queen of the snakes and dragons. She resides in Patala, or the infernal regions.--_Hindu Mythology_.

There Azyoruca veiled her awful form In those eternal shadows. There she sat, And as the trembling souls who crowd around The judgment-seat received the doom of fate, Her giant arms, extending from the cloud, Drew them within the darkness.

Southey, _Curse of Kehama_, xxiii 15 (1809).

BAAL, plu. BAALIM, a general name for all the Syrian G.o.ds, as Ash'taroth was for the G.o.ddesses. The general version of the legend of Baal is the same as that of Adonis, Thammuz, Osiris, and the Arabian myth of El Khouder. All allegorize the Sun, six months above and six months below the equator. As a t.i.tle of honor, the word Baal, Bal, Bel, etc., enters into a large number of Phoenician and Carthaginian proper names, as Hanni-bal, Hasdrubal, Bel-shazzar, etc.

... [the] general names Of Baalim and Ashtaroth: those male; These female.