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
The man has something droll, something ridiculous in him. His
abominable Scotch accent, his grotesque visage almost buried in snuff,
the roll of his eyes and twist of his mouth, his strange inhuman
laugh, his tremendous periwig, and his manners altogether--why, one
might take him for a mountebank doctor at a Dutch fair.--C. Macklin,
_Love à-la-mode_, i. 1 (1779).
_Sir Archy's Great-grandmother._ Sir Archy M'Sarcasm insisted on
fighting Sir Callaghan O'Brallaghan on a point of ancestry. The
Scotchman said that the Irish are a colony from Scotland, "an ootcast,
a mere ootcast." The Irishman retorted by saying that "one Mac Fergus
O'Brallaghan went from Carrickfergus, and peopled all Scotland with
his own hands." Charlotte [Goodchild] interposed, and asked the cause
of the contention, whereupon Sir Callaghan replied, "Madam, it is
about sir Archy's great-grandmother."--C. Macklin, _Love à-la-mode_,
i. I (1779).
We shall not now stay to quarrel about sir Archy's
great-grandmother.--Maepherson, _Dissertation upon Ossian_.
ARCHY'TAS of Tarentum made a wooden pigeon that could fly; and
Regiomonta'nus, a German, made a wooden eagle that flew from
Koenigsberg to meet the emperor, and, having saluted him, returned
whence it set out (1436-1476).
This engine may be contrived from the same principles by which
Archytas made a wooden dove, and Regiomontanus a wooden eagle.--Dr.
John Wilkins (1614-1672).
AR'CITE (2 _syl_.) AND PAL'AMON, two Theban knights, captives of
duke Theseus, who used to see from their dungeon window the duke's
sister-in-law, Emily, taking her airing in the palace garden, and fell
in love with her. Both captives having gained their liberty, contended
for the lady by single combat. Arcite was victor, but being
thrown from his horse was killed, and Emily became the bride of
Palamon.--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ ("The Knight's Tale," 1388).
Richard Edwards in 1566 produced a drama entitled _Palamon and
Arcite_.
AR'DEN _(Enoch)_, the hero of a poetic tale by Tennyson. He is a
seaman wrecked on a desert island, who returns home after the absence
of several years, and finds his wife married to another. Seeing her
both happy and prosperous, Enoch resolves not to mar her domestic
peace, so leaves her undisturbed, and dies of a broken heart.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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