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
ANSELME (2 _syl_.), father of Valère (2 _syl_.) and Mariane (3
_syl_.). In reality he is don Thomas d'Alburci, of Naples. The family
were exiled from Naples for political reasons, and being shipwrecked
were all parted. Valère was picked up by a Spanish captain, who
adopted him; Mariane fell into the hands of a corsair, who kept her
a captive for ten years, when she effected her escape; and Anselme
wandered from place to place for ten years, when he settled in Paris,
and intended to marry. At the expiration of sixteen years they all met
in Paris at the house of Har'pagon, the miser. Valère was in love
with Elise (2 _syl_.), the miser's daughter, promised by Harpagon in
marriage to Anselme; and Mariane, affianced to the miser's son Cléante
(2 _syl_.), was sought in marriage by Harpagon, the old father. As
soon as Anselme discovered that Valère and Mariane were his own
children, matters were soon amicably arranged, the young people
married, and the old ones retired from the unequal contest.--Molière,
_L'Avare_ (1667).
ANSELMO, a noble cavalier of Florence, the friend of Lothario. Anselmo
married Camilla, and induced his friend to try to corrupt her, that
he might rejoice in her incorruptible fidelity. Lothario unwillingly
undertook the task, and succeeded but too well. For a time Anselmo
was deceived, but at length Camilla eloped, and the end of the silly
affair was that Anselmo died of grief, Lothario was slain in battle,
and Camilla died in a convent.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. iv. 5, 6;
_Fatal Curiosity_ (1605).
AN'STER (_Hob_), a constable at Kinross village.--Sir W. Scott, _The
Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).
ANSTISS DOLBEARE, heroine of Mrs. A.D.T. Whitney's novel, _Hitherto_,
a sensitive, imaginative, morbid, motherless girl who is "all the time
holding up her soul ... with a thorn in it" (1872).
ANTAE'OS, a gigantic wrestler of Libya (or _Irassa_). His strength was
inexhaustible so long as he touched the earth, and was renewed every
time he did touch it. Her'culés killed him by lifting him up from the
earth and squeezing him to death. (See MALEGER.)
As when earth's son Antaeus ... in Irassa strove
With Jove's Alcidês, and oft foiled, still rose,
Receiving from his mother earth new strength,
Fresh from his fall, and fiercer grapple joined,
Throttled at length in the air, expired and fell.
Milton, _Paradise Regained_, iv. (563).
[Illustration] Similarly, when Bernardo del Carpio assailed Orlando or
Rolando at Roncesvallês, as he found his body was not to be pierced by
any instrument of war, he took him up in his arms and squeezed him to
death.
N.B.--The only vulnerable part of Orlando was the sole of his foot.
ANTE'NOR, a traitorous Trojan prince, related to Priam. He advised
Ulyssês to carry away the palladium from Troy, and when the wooden
horse was built it was Antenor who urged the Trojans to make a breach
in the wall and drag the horse into the city.--Shakespeare has
introduced him in _Troilus and Cressida_ (1602).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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