AR'DEN OF FEV'ERSLIAM, a noble character, honorable, forgiving, affectionate, and modest. His wife Alicia in her sleep reveals to him her guilty love for Mosby, but he pardons her on condition that she will never see the seducer again. Scarcely has she made the promise when she plots with Mosby her husband's murder. In a planned street-scuffle, Mosby pretends to take Arden's part, and thus throws him off his guard. Arden thinks he has wronged him, and invites him to his house, but Mosby conspires with two hired ruffians to fall on his host during a game of draughts, the right moment being signified by Mosby's saying, "Now I take you." Arden is murdered; but the whole gang is apprehended and brought to justice. (This drama is based on a murder which took place in 1551. Ludwig Tieck has translated the play into German, as a genuine production of Shakespeare. Some ascribe the play to George Lillo, but Charles Lamb gives 1592 as the date of its production, and says the author is unknown.) AREOUS'KI, the Indian war-god, war, tumult. A cry of Areouski broke our sleep. Campbell, _Gertrude of Wyoming_, i, 16 (1809). ARETHU'SA, daughter of the king Messi'na, in the drama called _Philaster_ or _Love Lies a-bleeding_, by Beaumont and Fletcher (1638). _Arethusa_, a nymph pursued by Alpheos the river-god, and changed into a fountain in the island of Ortygia; but the river-god still pursued her, and mingled his stream with the fountain, and now, "like friends once parted grown single-hearted," they leap and flow and slumber together, "like spirits that love but live no more." [Illustration] This fable has been exquisitely turned into poetry by Percy B. Shelley (_Arethusa_, 1820). ARGALI'A, brother of Angel'ica, in Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_ (1516). AR'GAN, the _malade imaginaire_ and father of Angelique. He is introduced taxing his apothecary's bills, under the conviction that he cannot afford to be sick at the prices charged, but then he notices that he has already reduced his bills during the current month, and is not so well. He first hits upon the plan of marrying Angelique to a young doctor, but to this the lady objects. His brother suggests that Argan himself should be his own doctor, and when the invalid replies he has not studied either diseases, drugs, or Latin, the objection is overruled by investing the "malade" in a doctor's cap and robe. The piece concludes with the ceremonial in macaronic Latin. [Illustration] When Argan asks his doctor how many grains of salt he ought to eat with an egg, the doctor answers, "Six, huit, dix, etc., par les nombres pairs, comme dans les médicaments par les nombres impairs."--Molière, _Le Malade Imaginaire_, ii. 9 (1673).