Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook — John Shaqi
Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's HandbookBrewer, Ebenezer Cobham
General
Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham
Allusions; Fiction -- Dictionaries; Literature -- Dictionaries
AE'OLUS, god of the winds, which he keeps imprisoned in a cave in
the Æolian Islands, and lets free as he wishes or as the over-gods
command.
Was I for this nigh wrecked upon the sea,
And twice by awkward wind from England's bank
Drove back again unto my native clime?...
Yet Aeolus would not be a murderer,
But left that hateful office unto thee.
Shakespeare, 2 _Henry VI_. act v, sc. 2 (1591).
AESCULA'PIUS, in Greek, ASKLE'PIOS, the god of healing.
What says my Æsculapius? my Galen?...
Ha! is he dead?
Shakespeare, _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act ii.
sc. 3 (1601).
AE'SON, the father of Jason. He was restored to youth by Medea, who
infused into his veins the juice of certain herbs.
In such a night,
Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs
That did renew old Aeson.
Shakespeare, _Merchant of Venice_, act v. sc. I
(before 1598).
ÆSOP, the fabulist, said to be humpbacked; hence, "an Æsop" means a
humpbacked man. The young son of Henry VI. calls his uncle Richard of
Gloster "Æsop."--3 _Henry VI_. act v. sc. 5.
_Aesop of Arabia_, Lokman; and Nasser (fifth century).
_Aesop of England_, John Gay (1688-1732).
_Aesop of France_, Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695).
_Aesop of Germany_, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781).
_Aesop of India_, Bidpay or Pilpay (third century B.C.).
AFER, the south-west wind; Notus, the full south.
Notus and Afer, black with thundrous clouds. Milton, _Paradise Lost_,
x. 702 (1665).
AFRICAN MAGICIAN (_The_), pretended to Aladdin to be his uncle, and
sent the lad to fetch the "wonderful lamp" from an underground cavern.
As Aladdin refused to hand it to the magician, he shut him in the
cavern and left him there. Aladdin contrived to get out by virtue of
a magic ring, and learning the secret of the lamp, became immensely
rich, built a superb palace, and married the sultan's daughter.
Several years after, the African resolved to make himself master of
the lamp, and accordingly walked up and down before the palace, crying
incessantly, "Who will change old lamps for new!" Aladdin being on a
hunting excursion, his wife sent a eunuch to exchange the "wonderful
lamp" for a new one; and forthwith the magician commanded "the slaves
of the lamp" to transport the palace and all it contained into Africa.
Aladdin caused him to be poisoned in a draught of wine.--_Arabian
Nights_ ("Aladdin or The Wonderful Lamp").
AF'RIT OR AFREET, a kind of Medusa or Lamia, the most terrible and
cruel of all the orders of the deevs.--_Herbelot_, 66.
From the hundred chimneys of the village,
Like the Afreet in the Arabian story [_Introduct.
Tale_],
Smoky columns tower aloft into the air of amber.
Longfellow, _The Golden Milestone_.
AGAG, in Dryden's satire of _Absalom and Achit'ophel_, is sir
Edmondbury Godfrey, the magistrate, who was found murdered in a ditch
near Primrose Hill. Dr. Oates, in the same satire, is called "Corah."
Corah might for Agag's murder call,
In terms as coarse as Samuel used to Saul.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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