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
AR'ISTOTLE IN LOVE. Godfrey Gobilyve told sir Graunde Amoure that
Aristotle the philosopher was once in love, and the lady promised to
listen to his prayer if he would grant her request. The terms being
readily accepted, she commanded him to go on all fours, and then,
putting a bridle into his mouth, mounted on his back, and drove him
about the room till he was so angry, weary, and disgusted, that he was
quite cured of his foolish attachment.--Stephen Hawes, _The Pastime of
Plesure_, xxix. (1555).
ARMADALE (_Allan_), bluff young Englishman, devoted to the sea and
ship-building, and prone to fall in love. He is betrothed, first
to Miss Milroy, a winning lass of sixteen, then to Miss Gwilt, her
governess, again and lastly to Miss Milroy, whom he marries.--Wilkie
Collins, _Armadale_.
ARMADO (_Don Adriano de_), a pompous, affected Spaniard, called "a
refined traveller, in all the world's new fashion planted, that had
a mint of phrases in his brain. One whom the music of his own vain
tongue did ravish." This man was chosen by Ferdinand, the king of
Navarre, when he resolved to spend three years in study with three
companions, to relate in the interim of his studies "in high-born
words the worth of many a knight from tawny Spain lost in the world's
debate."
His humor is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his
eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behavior vain,
ridiculous, and thrasonical.... He draweth out the thread of his
verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.--Shakespeare, _Love's
Labor's Lost_, act v. sc. 1 (1594).
ARMANDE (2 _syl_.), daughter of Chrysale (2 _syl_.), and sister of
Henriette. Armande is a _femme savante_, and Henriette a "thorough
woman." Both love Clitandre, but Armande loves him platonically, while
Henriette loves him with womanly affection. Clitandre prefers the
younger sister, and after surmounting the usual obstacles, marries
her.--Molière, _Les Femmes Savantes_ (1672).
ARMI'DA, a sorceress, who seduces Rinaldo and other crusaders from
the siege of Jerusalem. Rinaldo is conducted by her to her splendid
palace, where he forgets his vows, and abandons himself to sensual
joys. Carlo and Ubaldo are sent to bring him back, and he escapes from
Armida; but she follows him, and not being able to allure him back
again, sets fire to her palace, rushes into the midst of the fight,
and is slain.
[Julia's] small hand
Withdrew itself from his, but left behind
A little pressure ... but ne'er magician's wand
Wrought change with, all Armida's fairy art,
Like what this light touch left on Juan's heart.
Byron, _Don Juan_, i. 71.
When the young queen of Frederick William of Prussia rode about in
military costume to incite the Prussians to arms against Napoleon, the
latter wittily said, "She is Armida in her distraction setting fire to
her own palace."
(Both Glück and Rossini have taken the story of Armida as the subject
of an opera.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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