=Venetian Glass=, an antique goblet with a tragic history, bought in Venice of a _vertu_ dealer, by John Manning, to whose remote ancestor it had belonged. Manning goes into the army, is wounded at Gettysburg, and nursed back to life by a beautiful woman. He marries her, and falls into a lingering decline. One day the Venetian goblet arrives from Italy, and his wife, in a freak, pours his medicine into it. In passing it to her husband the glass drops, and is shivered, “as its fellow had been shivered three centuries ago,” and more. She still stared steadily before her; then her lips parted, and she said, “The glass broke! The glass broke! then the tale is true!” Then, with one hysterical shriek, she fell forward amid the fragments of the Venetian goblet, unconscious thereafter of all things.--Brander Matthews, _Venetian Glass_ (1884). =Venery.= Sir Tristram was the inventor of the laws and terms of venery. Hence a book of venery was called _A Book of Tristram_. Of Sir Tristram came all the good terms of venery and of hunting; and the sizes and measures of blowing of an horn. And of him we had first all the terms of hawking; and which were beasts of chase and beasts of venery, and which were vermin; and all the blasts that belong to all manner of games. First to the uncoupling, to the seeking, to the rechase, to the flight, to the death and to the strake; and many other blasts and terms shall all manner of gentlemen have cause to the world’s end to praise Sir Tristram, and to pray for his soul.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, ii. 138 (1470). =Venice Preserved=, a tragedy by T. Otway (1682). A conspiracy was formed by Renault, a Frenchman, Elliot, an Englishman, Bedamar, Pierre and others, to murder the Venetian senate. Jaffier was induced by his friend, Pierre, to join the conspirators, and give his wife as hostage of his good faith. As Renault most grossly insulted the lady, Jaffier took her away, when she persuaded her husband to reveal the plot to her father, Priuli, under the promise of a general amnesty. The senate violated the promise made by Priuli, and commanded all the conspirators except Jaffier to be broken on the wheel. Jaffier, to save his friend, Pierre, from the torture, stabbed him, and then himself. Belvidera went mad and died. =Venner= (_Dudley_), sad and studious father of _Elsie Venner_, in O. W. Holmes’s novel of that name (1863). =Ventid´ius=, an Athenian imprisoned for debt. Timon paid his debt, and set him free. Not long after, the father of Ventidius died, leaving a large fortune, and the young man offered to refund the loan, but Timon declined to take it, saying that the money was a free gift. When Timon got into difficulties he applied to Ventidius for aid; but Ventidius, like the rest, was “found base metal,” and “denied him.”--Shakespeare, _Timon of Athens_ (1609). _Ventidius_, the general of Marc Antony.