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
=Tom of Ten Thousand=, Thomas Thynne; so called from his great wealth.
He was buried in Westminster Abbey, but why, the then dean has not
thought fit to leave on record.
=Tom the Piper=, one of the characters in the ancient morris-dance,
represented with a tabor, tabor-stick and pipe. He carried a sword and
shield, to denote his rank as a “squire minstrel.” His shoes were
brown; his hose red and “gimp-thighed;” his hat or cap, red, turned up
with yellow, and adorned with a feather; his doublet blue, the sleeves
being turned up with yellow; and he wore a yellow cape over his
shoulders. (See MORRIS-DANCE.)
=Tom Turner= (_Mrs._), unsophisticated country dame, whose head is
turned by the feigned devotion of a man to whom “flirting is a part of
daily existence.” “Mrs. Tom” dresses flashily, in imitation of the
butterflies of fashion whom she meets in her new career as a woman of
the world, affects airs and graces foreign to her nature, and plays
the fool generally until shocked into her senses by a letter from her
quiet, commonplace husband, telling her that he “has gone away and
that she will not see him again.” She follows him, entreats
forgiveness, returns to home and plain living, and, as a
characteristic penance, wears her gaudy costumes out as everyday
gowns. There were thirty of them at first. “I’ve worn them all almost
out. When I get to the end of them I’ll have my own things again.”--H.
C. Bunner, _Mrs. Tom’s Spree_ (1891).
=Tomahourich= (_Muhme Janet of_), an old sibyl, aunt of Robin Oig
M’Combich, the Highland drover.--Sir W. Scott, _The Two Drovers_
(time, George III.).
=Tom´alin=, a valiant fairy knight, kinsman of King Obĕron. Tomălin is
not the same as “Tom Thumb,” as we are generally but erroneously told,
for in the “mighty combat” Tomalin backed Pigwiggen, while Tom Thum or
Thumb, seconded King Oberon. This fairy battle was brought about by
the jealousy of Oberon, who considered the attentions of Pigwiggen to
Queen Mab were “far too nice.”--M. Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (1563-1631).
=Tomb= (_Knight of the_), James, earl of Douglas in disguise.
His armor was ingeniously painted so as to represent a skeleton; the
ribs being constituted by the corselet and its back-piece. The shield
represented an owl with its wings spread--a device which was repeated
upon the helmet, which appeared to be completely covered by an image
of the same bird of ill omen. But that which was particularly
calculated to excite surprise in the spectator was the great height
and thinness of the figure.--Sir W. Scott, _Castle Dangerous_, xiv.
(time, Henry I.).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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