Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction, and the Drama, Vol. 2: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's HandbookBrewer, Ebenezer Cobham
General
Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction, and the Drama, Vol. 2: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham
Allusions; Fiction -- Dictionaries; Literature -- Dictionaries
=Heinrich= (_Poor_), or “Poor Henry,” the hero and title of a poem by
Hartmann von der Aue [_Our_]. Heinrich was a rich nobleman, struck with
leprosy, and was told he would never recover till some virgin of
spotless purity volunteered to die on his behalf. As Heinrich neither
hoped nor even wished for such a sacrifice, he gave the main part of his
possessions to the poor, and went to live with a poor tenant farmer, who
was one of his vassals. The daughter of this farmer heard by accident on
what the cure of the leper depended, and went to Salerno to offer
herself as the victim. No sooner was the offer made than the lord was
cured, and the damsel became his wife (twelfth century).
⁂ This tale forms the subject of Longfellow’s _Golden Legend_ (1851).
=Heir-at-Law.= Baron Dubeley being dead, his “heir-at-law” was Henry
Morland, supposed to be drowned at sea, and the next heir was Daniel
Dowlas, a chandler of Gosport. Scarcely had Daniel been raised to his
new dignity, when Henry Morland, who had been cast on Cape Breton, made
his appearance, and the whole aspect of affairs was changed. That Dowlas
might still live in comfort, suitable to his limited ambition, the heir
of the barony settled on him a small life annuity.—G. Colman,
_Heir-at-law_, (1797).
=Hel´a=, queen of the dead. She is daughter of Loki and Angurbo´da (a
giantess). Her abode, called Helheim, was a vast castle in Niflheim, in
the midst of eternal snow and darkness.
Down the yawning steep he rode,
That leads to Hela’s drear abode.
Gray, _Descent of Odin_ (1757).
=Helen=, wife of Menelāos of Sparta. She eloped with Paris, a Trojan
prince, while he was the guest of the Spartan king. Menelaos, to avenge
this wrong, induced the allied armies of Greece to invest Troy; and
after a siege of ten years, the city was taken and burnt to the ground.
⁂ A parallel incident occurred in Ireland. Dervorghal, wife of Tiernan
O’Ruark, an Irish chief who held the county of Leitrim, eloped with
Dermod M’Murchad, prince of Leinster. Tiernan induced O’Connor, king of
Connaught, to avenge this wrong. So O’Connor drove Dermod from his
throne. Dermod applied to Henry II. of England, and this was the
incident which brought about the conquest of Ireland (1172).—Leland,
_History of Ireland_ (1773).
_Helen_, the heroine of Miss Edgeworth’s novel of the same name. This
was her last and most popular tale (1834).
_Helen_, cousin of Modus, the bookworm. She loved her cousin, and taught
him there was a better “art of love” than that written by Ovid.—S.
Knowles, _The Hunchback_ (1831).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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