Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction, and the Drama, Vol. 4: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's HandbookBrewer, Ebenezer Cobham
General
Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction, and the Drama, Vol. 4: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham
Allusions; Fiction -- Dictionaries; Literature -- Dictionaries
=Tlal´ala=, surnamed “The Tiger,” one of the Aztĕcas. On one occasion,
being taken captive, Madoc released him, but he continued the
unrelenting foe of Madoc and his new colony, and was always foremost
in working them evil. When at length the Aztecas, being overcome,
migrated to Mexico, Tlalala refused to quit the spot of his father’s
tomb, and threw himself on his own javelin.--Southey, _Madoc_ (1805).
=Toad-Eater= (_Pulteney’s_). Henry Vane was so called in 1742, by Sir
Robert Walpole. Two years later, Sarah Fielding, in _David Simple_,
speaks of “toad-eater” as “quite a new word,” and she suggests that it
is “a metaphor taken from a mountebank’s boy eating toads in order to
show his master’s skill in expelling poison,” and “built on a
supposition that people who are in a state of dependence are forced to
do the most nauseous things to please and humor their patrons.”
=Tobo´so= (_Dulcinĕa del_), the lady chosen by Don Quixote for his
particular paragon. Sancho Panza says she was “a stout-built, sturdy
wench, who could pitch the bar as well as any young fellow in the
parish.” The knight had been in love with her before he took to
errantry. She was Aldonza Lorenzo, the daughter of Lorenzo Corchuelo
and Aldonza Nogalês; but when Signior Quixāda assumed the dignity of
knighthood, he changed the name and style of his lady into Dulcinea
del Tobōso, which was more befitting his rank.--Cervantes, _Don
Quixote_, I. i. 1 (1605).
=Toby=, waiter of the Spa hotel, St. Ronan’s, kept by Sandie
Lawson.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan’s Well_ (time, George III.).
_Toby_, a brown Rockingham-ware beer jug, with the likeness of Toby
Filpot embossed on its sides, “a goodly jug of well-browned clay,
fashioned into the form of an old gentleman, atop of whose bald head
was a fine froth answering to his wig” (ch. iv.).
Gabriel lifted Toby to his mouth, and took a hearty draught.--C.
Dickens, _Master Humphrey’s Clock_ (“Barnaby Rudge,” xli., 1841).
_Toby_, Punch’s dog, in the puppet-show exhibition of _Punch and
Judy_.
In some versions of the great drama of _Punch_, there is a small dog
(a modern innovation), supposed to be the private property of that
gentleman, and of the name of Toby--always Toby. This dog has been
stolen in youth from another gentleman, and fraudulently sold to the
confiding hero who, having no guile himself, has no suspicion that it
lurks in others; but Toby, entertaining a grateful recollection of his
old master, and scorning to attach himself to any new patron, not only
refuses to smoke a pipe at the bidding of Punch but (to mark his old
fidelity more strongly) seizes him by the nose, and wrings the same
with violence, at which instance of canine attachment the spectators
are always deeply affected.--C. Dickens.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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