Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 5

AGESILA'US (5 _syl_.). Plutarch tells us that Agesilaus, king of Sparta, was one day discovered riding c.o.c.k-horse on a long stick, to please and amuse his children.

A'GIB (_King_), "The Third Calender" (_Arabian Nights'

Entertainments_). He was wrecked on the loadstone mountain, which drew all the nails and iron bolts from his ship; but he overthrew the bronze statue on the mountain-top, which was the cause of the mischief. Agib visited the ten young men, each of whom had lost the right eye, and was carried by a roc to the palace of the forty princesses, with whom he tarried a year. The princesses were then obliged to leave for forty days, but entrusted him with the keys of the palace, with free permission to enter every room but one. On the fortieth day curiosity induced him to open this room, where he saw a horse, which he mounted, and was carried through the air to Bag dad.

The horse then deposited him, and knocked out his right eye with a whisk of its tail, as it had done the ten "young men" above referred to.

AGITATOR (_The Irish_), Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847).

AGLAE, the unwedded sister in T. B. Aldrich's poem, _The Sisters'

Tragedy_ (1891).

Two sisters loved one man. He being dead, Grief loosed the lips of her he had not wed, And all the pa.s.sion that through heavy years, Had masked in smiles, unmasked itself in tears.

AGNEI'A (3 _syl_.), wifely chast.i.ty, sister of Parthen'ia or maiden chast.i.ty. Agneia is the spouse of Encra'tes or temperance. Fully described in canto x. of _The Purple Island_, by Phineas Fletcher (1633). (Greek, _agneia_, "chast.i.ty.")

AG'NES, daughter of Mr. Wickfield the solicitor, and David Copperfield's second wife (after the death of Dora, "his child wife").

Agnes is a very pure, self-sacrificing girl, accomplished, yet domestic.--C. d.i.c.kens, _David Copperfield_ (1849).

AGNES, in Moliere's _L'ecole des Femmes_, the girl on whom Arnolphe tries his pet experiment of education, so as to turn out for himself a "model wife." She is brought up in a country convent, where she is kept in entire ignorance of the difference of s.e.x, conventional proprieties, the difference between the love of men and women, and that of girls for girls, the mysteries of marriage, and so on. When grown to womanhood she quits the convent, and standing one evening on a balcony a young man pa.s.ses and takes off his hat to her, she returns the salute; he bows a second and third time, she does the same; he pa.s.ses and repa.s.ses several times, bowing each time, and she does as she has been taught to do by acknowledging the salute. Of course, the young man (_Horace_) becomes her lover, whom she marries, and M.

Arnolphe loses his "model wife." (See PINCH-WIFE.)

_Elle fait l'Agnes._ She pretends to be wholly unsophisticated and verdantly ingenuous.--_French Proverb_ (from the "Agnes" of Moliere, _L'ecole des Femmes_, 1662).

_Agnes_ (_Black_), the countess of March, noted for her defence of Dunbar against the English.

_Black Agnes_, the palfry of Mary queen of Scots, the gift of her brother Moray, and so called from the noted countess of March, who was countess of Moray (Murray) in her own right.

_Agnes_ (_St._), a young virgin of Palermo, who at the age of thirteen was martyred at Rome during the Diocletian persecution of A.D. 304.

Prudence (Aurelius Prudentius Clemens), a Latin Christian poet of the fourth century, has a poem on the subject. Tintoret and Domenichi'no have both made her the subject of a painting.--_The Martyrdom of St.

Agnes_.

_St. Agnes and the Devil_. St. Agnes, having escaped from the prison at Rome, took shipping and landed at St. Piran Arwothall. The devil dogged her, but she rebuked him, and the large moor-stones between St.

Piran and St. Agnes, in Cornwall, mark the places where the devils were turned into stone by the looks of the indignant saint.--Polwhele, _History of Cornwall_.

_Agnes of Sorrento_, heroine of novel of same name, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The scene of the story is laid in Sorrento, Italy.

AGRAMAN'TE (4 _syl_.) or AG'RAMANT, king of the Moors, in _Orlando Innamorato_, by Bojardo, and _Orlando Furioso_, by Ariosto.

AGRAWAIN (_Sir_) or SIR AGRAVAIN, surnamed "The Desirous," and also "The Haughty." He was son of Lot (king of Orkney) and Margawse half-sister of king Arthur. His brothers were sir Gaw'ain, sir Ga'heris, and sir Gareth. Mordred was his half-brother, being the son of king Arthur and Margawse. Sir Agravain and sir Mordred hated sir Launcelot, and told the king he was too familiar with the queen; so they asked the king to spend the day in hunting, and kept watch. The queen sent for sir Launcelot to her private chamber, and sir Agravain, sir Mordred, and twelve others a.s.sailed the door, but sir Launcelot slew them all except sir Mordred, who escaped.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, iii. 142-145 (1470).

AGRICA'NE (4 _syl._), king of Tartary, in the _Orlando Innamorato_, of Bojardo. He besieges Angelica in the castle of Albracca, and is slain in single combat by Orlando. He brought into the field 2,200,000 troops.

Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp, When Agrican, with all his northern powers, Besieged Albracca.

Milton, _Paradise Regained_, iii. (338).

AGRICOLA FUSILIER, a pompous old creole, a conserver of family traditions, and patriot who figures in George W. Cable's _Grandissimes_ (1880).

He seemed to fancy himself haranguing a crowd; made another struggle for intelligence, tried once, twice to speak, and the third time succeeded: "Louis--_Louisian--a--for--ever!_"

and lay still. They put those two words on his tomb.

AG'RIOS, Lumpishness personified; a "sullen swain, all mirth that in himself and others hated; dull, dead, and leaden." Described in canto viii. of _The Purple Island_, by Phineas Fletcher (1635). (Greek, _agrios_; "a savage.")

AGRIPPINA was granddaughter, wife, sister, and mother of an emperor.

She was granddaughter of Augustus, wife of Claudius, sister of Caligula, and mother of Nero.

[Ill.u.s.tration] Lam'pedo of Lacedaemon was daughter, wife, sister, and mother of a king.

AGRIPY'NA or AG'RIPYNE (3 _syl._), a princess beloved by the "king of Cyprus'son, and madly loved by Orleans."--Thomas Dekker, _Old Fortunatus_ (a comedy, 1600).

AGUE-CHEEK _(Sir Andrew_), a silly old fop with "3000 ducats a year,"

very fond of the table, but with a shrewd understanding that "beef had done harm to his wit." Sir Andrew thinks himself "old in nothing but in understanding," and boasts that he can cut a caper, dance the coranto, walk a jig, and take delight in masques, like a young man.--Shakespeare, _Twelfth Night_ (1614).

Woodward (1737-1777) always sustained "sir Andrew Ague-cheek" with infinite drollery, a.s.sisted by that expression of "rueful dismay,"

which gave so peculiar a zest to his _Marplot_.--Boaden, _Life of Siddons_ Charles Lamb says that "Jem White saw James Dodd one evening in _Ague-cheek_, and recognizing him next day in Fleet Street, took off his hat, and saluted him with 'Save you, sir Andrew!' Dodd simply waved his hand and exclaimed, 'Away, fool!'"

A'HABACK AND DES'RA, two enchanters, who aided Ahu'bal in his rebellion against his brother Misnar, sultan of Delhi. Ahu'bal had a magnificent tent built, and Horam the vizier had one built for the sultan still more magnificent. When the rebels made their attack, the sultan and the best of the troops were drawn off, and the sultan's tent was taken. The enchanters, delighted with their prize, slept therein, but at night the vizier led the sultan to a cave, and asked him to cut a rope. Next morning he heard that a huge stone had fallen on the enchanters and crushed them to a mummy. In fact, this stone formed the head of the bed, where it was suspended by the rope which the sultan had severed in the night.--James Ridley, _Tales of the Genii_ ("The Enchanters' Tale," vi.).

AHASUE'RUS, 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." This is the legend given by Paul von Eitzen, bishop of Schleswig (1547).--Greve, _Memoir of Paul von Eitzen_ (1744).

AHER'MAN AND AR'GEN, the former a fortress, and the latter a suite of immense halls, in the realm of Eblis, where are lodged all creatures of human intelligence before the creation of Adam, and all the animals that inhabited the earth before the present races existed.--W.

Beckford, _Vathek_ (1786).

AH'MED _(Prince)_, noted for the tent given him by the fairy Pari-banou, which would cover a whole army, and yet would fold up so small that it might be carried in one's pocket. The same good fairy also gave him the apple of Samarcand', a panacea for all diseases.--_Arabian Nights' Entertainments_ ("Prince Ahmed, etc.").

AHOLIBA'MAH, granddaughter of Cain, and sister of Anah. She was loved by the seraph Samias'a, and like her sister was carried off to another planet when the Flood came.--Byron, _Heaven and Earth_.

Proud, imperious, and aspiring, she denies that she worships the seraph, and declares that his immortality can bestow no love more pure and warm than her own, and she expresses a conviction that there is a ray within her "which, though forbidden yet to shine," is nevertheless lighted at the same ethereal fire as his own.--Finden, _Byron Beauties_.

AH'RIMAN OR AHRIMA'NES (4 _syl_.), the angel of darkness and of evil in the Magian system, slain by Mithra.

AIKWOOD (_Ringan_), the forester of sir Arthur Wardour, of Knockwinnock Castle.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_.

AIMEE, the prudent sister, familiarly known as "the wise one" in the Bohemian household described by Francis Hodgson Burnett in _Vagabondia_ (1889).

AIM'WELL _(Thomas, viscount_), a gentleman of broken fortune, who pays his addresses to Dorin'da, daughter of Lady Bountiful. He is very handsome and fascinating, but quite "a man of the world." He and Archer are the two beaux of _The Beaux' Stratagem_, a comedy by George Farquhar (1705).

I thought it rather odd that Holland should be the only "mister" of the party, and I said to myself, as Gibbet said when he heard that "Aimwell" had gone to church, "That looks suspicions" (act ii. sc.

2).--James Smith, _Memoirs, Letters, etc_. (1840).

AIRCASTLE, in the _Cozeners_, by S. Foote. The original of this rambling talker was Gahagan, whose method of conversation is thus burlesqued:

_Aircastle_: "Did I not tell you what parson Prunello said? I remember, Mrs. Lightfoot was by. She had-been brought to bed that day was a month of a very fine boy--a bad birth; for Dr. Seeton, who served his time with Luke Lancet, of Guise's.--There was also a talk about him and Nancy the daughter. She afterwards married Will Whitlow, another apprentice, who had great expectations from an old uncle in the Grenadiers; but he left all to a distant relation, Kit Cable, a midshipman aboard the _Torbay_. She was lost coming home in the channel. The captain was taken up by a coaster from Eye, loaded with cheese--" [Now, pray, what did parson Prunello say? This is a pattern of Mrs. Nickleby's rambling gossip.]

AIR'LIE (_The earl of_), a royalist in the service of king Charles I.--Sir W. Scott, _Legend of Montrose_.

AIRY (_Sir George_), a man of fortune, in love with Miran'da, the ward of sir Francis Gripe.--Mrs. Centlivre, _The Busylody_ (1709).

A'JAX, son of Oleus [_O.i'.luce_], generally called "the less." In conseqnence of his insolence to Ca.s.san'dra, the prophetic daughter of Priam, his ship was driven on a rock, and he perished at sea.--Homer, _Odyssey_, iv. 507; Virgil, _aeneid_, i. 41.