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
ABAD'DON, an angel of the bottomless pit (_Rev_. ix. 11). The word is
derived from the Hebrew, _abad_, "lost," and means _the lost one_.
There are two other angels introduced by Klopstock in _The Messiah_
with similar names, but must not be confounded with the angel referred
to in _Rev_.; one is Obaddon, the angel of death, and the other
Abbad'ona, the repentant devil.
AB'ARIS, to whom Apollo gave a golden arrow, on which to ride through
the air.--See _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_.
ABBAD'ONA, once the friend of Ab'diel, was drawn into the rebellion of
Satan half unwillingly. In hell he constantly bewailed his fall, and
reproved Satan for his pride and blasphemy. He openly declared to the
internals that he would take no part or lot in Satan's scheme for the
death of the Messiah, and during the crucifixion lingered about the
cross with repentance, hope, and fear. His ultimate fate we are not
told, but when Satan and Adramelech are driven back to hell, Obaddon,
the angel of death, says--
"For thee, Abbadona, I have no orders. How long thou art permitted to
remain on earth I know not, nor whether thou wilt be allowed to see
the resurrection of the Lord of glory ... but be not deceived, thou
canst not view Him with the joy of the redeemed." "Yet let me see Him,
let me see him!"--Klopstock, _The Messiah_, xiii.
ABBERVILLE (_Lord_), a young nobleman, 23 years of age, who has for
travelling tutor a Welshman of 65, called Dr. Druid, an antiquary,
wholly ignorant of his real duties as a guide of youth. The young
man runs wantonly wild, squanders his money, and gives loose to his
passions almost to the verge of ruin, but he is arrested and reclaimed
by his honest Scotch bailiff or financier, and the vigilance of his
father's executor, Mr. Mortimer. This "fashionable lover" promises
marriage to a vulgar, malicious city minx named Lucinda Bridgemore,
but is saved from this pitfall also.--Cumberland, _The Fashionable
Lover_ (1780).
ABBOT (_The_), the complacent churchman in Aldrich's poem of _The
Jew's Gift_, who hanged a Jew "just for no crime," and pondered and
smiled and gave consent to the heretic's burial--
"Since he gave his beard to the birds." (1881.)
ABDAL-AZIS, the Moorish governor of Spain after the overthrow of
king Roderick. When the Moor assumed regal state and affected Gothic
sovereignty, his subjects were so offended that they revolted and
murdered him. He married Egilona, formerly the wife of Roderick.--
Southey, _Roderick, etc_., xxii. (1814).
AB'DALAZ'IZ (_Omar ben_), a caliph raised to "Mahomet's bosom" in
reward of his great abstinence and self-denial.--_Herbelot_, 690.
He was by no means scrupulous; nor did he think with the caliph Omar
ben Abdalaziz that it was necessary to make a hell of this world to
enjoy paradise in the next.--W. Beckford, _Vathek_ (1786).
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