=Vanessa=, Miss Esther Vanhomrigh, a young lady who proposed marriage to Dean Swift. The dean declined the proposal in a poetical trifle called _Cadēnus and Vanessa_. Essa, _i.e._, Esther, and Van, the pet form of Vanhomrigh; hence Van-essa. =Vanity=, the usher of Queen Lucifĕra.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, i. 4 (1590). _Vanity_, a town through which Christian and Faithful had to pass on their way to the Celestial City. Almost five thousand years agone, there were pilgrims walking to the Celestial City,... and Beëlzebub, Apollyon, and Legion ... perceived, by the path that the pilgrims made, that their way to the city lay through this town of Vanity.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim’s Progress_, i. (1678). =Vanity Fair=, a fair established by Beëlzebub, Apollyon and Legion, for the sale of earthly “vanities,” creature comforts, honors, decorations and carnal delights. It was held in Vanity town, and lasted all the year round. Christian and Faithful had to pass through the fair, which they denounced, and were consequently arrested, beaten and put into a cage. Next day, being taken before Justice Hate-good, Faithful was condemned to be burnt alive.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim’s Progress_, i. (1678). ⁂ A looking-glass is called Vanity Fair. _Vanity Fair_ is the name of a periodical noted for its caricatures signed “Ape,” and set on foot by Signor Pellegrini. _Vanity Fair_, a novel by W. M. Thackeray (1848). Becky (Rebecca) Sharp, the daughter of a poor painter, dashing, selfish, unprincipled, and very clever, contrives to marry Rawdon Crawley, afterwards his excellency Colonel Crawley, C.B., governor of Coventry Island. Rawdon expected to have a large fortune left him by his aunt, Miss Crawley, but was disinherited on account of his marriage with Becky, then a poor governess. Becky contrives to live in splendor on “nothing a year,” gets introduced at court, and is patronized by Lord Steyne, earl of Gaunt; but, this intimacy giving birth to a great scandal, Becky breaks up her establishment, and is reduced to the lowest Bohemian life. Afterwards she becomes the “female companion” of Joseph Sedley, a wealthy “collector,” of Boggley Wollah, in India. Having insured his life and lost his money, he dies suddenly under very suspicions circumstances, and Becky lives for a time in splendor on the Continent. Subsequently she retires to Bath, where she assumes the character of a pious, charitable Lady Bountiful, given to all good works. The other part of the story is connected with Amelia Sedley, daughter of a wealthy London stock-broker, who fails, and is reduced to indigence. Captain George Osborne, the son of a London merchant, marries Amelia, and old Osborne disinherits him. The young people live for a time together, when George is killed in the battle of Waterloo. Amelia is reduced to great poverty, but is befriended by Captain