=Iron Mask= (_The Man in the_). This mysterious man went by the name of Lestang, but who he was is as much in _nubibus_ as the author of the _Letters of Junius_. The most general opinion is that he was Count Er´colo Antonio Matthioli, a senator of Mantua and private agent of Ferdinand Charles, duke of Mantua; and that his long imprisonment of twenty-four years was for having deceived Louis XIV. in a secret treaty for the purchase of the fortress of Casale. M. Loiseleur utterly denies this solution of the mystery.—See _Temple Bar_, 182-4, May, 1872. ⁂ The tragedies of Zschokke in German (1795), and Fournier, in French, are based on the supposition that the man in the mask was Marechal Richelieu, a twin-brother of the _Grand Monarque_, and this is the solution given by the Abbé Soulavie. =Irons.= “A man over whom vulgar prosperity had, in forming him, left everywhere her finger-marks to be seen.... He had a general air of insisting upon his immense superiority to all the world.” His self-complacency does not prevent his meddling offensively in other people’s affairs, and his success gives him the opportunity to ruin the man he hates as his intellectual and moral superior.—Arlo Bates, _The Philistines_ (1888). =Ironside= (_Sir_), called “The Red Knight of the Red Lands.” Sir Gareth, after fighting with him from dawn to dewy eve, subdued him. Tennyson calls him Death, and says that Gareth won the victory with a single stroke. Sir Ironside was the knight who kept the Lady Lionês (called by Tennyson “Lyonors”) captive in Castle Perilous.—Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 134-137 (1470). _Ironside._ Edmund II., king of the Anglo-Saxons, was so called from his iron armor (989, 1016-1017). Sir Richard Steele signed himself “Nester Ironside” in the _Guardian_ (1671-1729). =Ironsides.= So were the soldiers of Cromwell called, especially after the battle of Marston Moor, where they displayed their iron resolution (1644). _Ironsides (Captain)_, uncle of Belfield (_Brothers_), and an old friend of Sir Benjamin Dove. He is captain of a privateer, and a fine specimen of an English naval officer. He’s true English oak to the heart of him, and a fine old seaman-like figure he is.—Cumberland, _The Brothers_, i. 1 (1769). =Iron Tooth=, Frederick II., elector of Bradenburg (_Dent de Fer_), (1657, 1688-1713). =Irrefragable Doctor= (_The_), Alexander Hales, founder of the Scholastic theology (*-1245). =I´rus=, the beggar of Ithâca, who ran errands for Penelopê’s suitors. When Ulyssês returned home dressed as a beggar, Irus withstood him, and Ulyssês broke his jaw with a blow. So poor was Irus that he gave birth to the proverbs, “As poor as Irus,” and “Poorer than Irus” (in French, _Plus pauvre qu’ Irus_).