Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 3: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's HandbookBrewer, Ebenezer Cobham
General
Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 3: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham
Allusions; Fiction -- Dictionaries; Literature -- Dictionaries
=Nama=, a daughter of man, beloved by the angel Zaraph. Her wish was to
love intensely and to love holily, but as she fixed her love on a
seraph, and not on God, she was doomed to abide on earth, “unchanged in
heart and frame,” so long as the earth endureth; but at the great
consummation both Nama and her seraph will be received into those courts
of love, where “love never dieth.”--Moore, _Loves of the Angels_, ii.
(1822).
=Namby= (_Major_), a retired officer, living in the suburbs of London. He
had been twice married; his first wife had four children, and his second
wife three. Major Namby, though he lived in a row, always transacted his
domestic affairs by bawling out his orders from the front garden, to the
annoyance of his neighbors. He used to stalk half-way down the garden
path, with his head high in the air, his chest stuck out, and
flourishing his military cane. Suddenly he would stop, stamp with one
foot, knock up the hinder brim of his hat, begin to scratch the nape of
his neck, wait a moment, then wheel round, look at the first-floor
window, and roar out, “Matilda!” (the name of his wife) “don’t do
so-and-so;” or “Matilda! do so-and-so.” Then he would bellow to the
servants to buy this, or not to let the children eat that, and so
on.--Wilkie Collins, _Pray Employ Major Namby_ (a sketch).
=Names of Terror.= The following amongst others, have been employed as
bogie-names to frighten children with:--
ATTILA was a bogie-name to the Romans.
BO or BOH, son of Odin, was a fierce Gothic captain. His name was used
by his soldiers when they would fight or surprise the enemy.--Sir
William Temple.
⁂ Warton tells us that the Dutch scared their children with the name of
Boh.
BONAPARTE, at the close of the eighteenth and beginning of the
nineteenth centuries, was a name of terror in Europe.
CORVI´NUS (_Mathias_), the Hungarian, was a scare-name to the Turks.
LILIS or LILITH was a bogie-name used by the ancient Jews to unruly
children. The rabbinical writers tell us that Lilith was Adam’s wife
before the creation of Eve. She refused to submit to him, and became a
horrible night-spectre, especially hostile to young children.
LUNSFORD, a name employed to frighten children in England. Sir Thomas
Lunsford, governor of the Tower, was a man of most vindictive temper,
and the dread of everyone.
Made children with your tones to run for’t,
As bad as Bloody-bones or Lunsford.
S. Butler, _Hudibras_, iii. 2, line 1112, (1678).
NARSES (2 _syl._) was the name used by Assyrian mothers to scare their
children with.
The name of Narses was the formidable sound with which the Assyrian
mothers were accustomed to terrify their infants.--Gibbon, _Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire_, viii. 219 (1776-88).
RAWHEAD and BLOODY-BONES were at one time bogie-names to children.
Servants awe children and keep them in subjection by telling them
of Rawhead and Bloody-bones.--Locke.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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