⁂ The name occurs in the celebrated song called _La Carmagnole_, which was sung to a dance of the same name. =Vetus=, in the _Times_ newspaper, is the _nom de plume_ of Edward Sterling (1773-1847), “The Thunderer” (1812-13). =Vexhalia=, wife of Osmond, an old Varangian guard.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus). =Vholes= (1 _syl._), a lawyer who draws Richard Carstone into his toils. He is always closely buttoned up, and speaks in a lifeless manner, but is pre-eminently a “most respectable man.”--C. Dickens, _Bleak House_ (1852). =Vibrate= (_Lord_), a man who can never make up his mind to anything, and, “like a man on double business bent, he stands in pause, which he shall first begin, and both neglects.” Thus, he would say to his valet, “Order the coachman at eleven. No; order him at one. Come back! order him in ten minutes. Stay! don’t order him at all. Why don’t you go and do as I bid you?” or, “Tell Harry to admit the doctor. No, not just yet; in five minutes. I don’t know when. Was ever man so tormented?” So with everything. _Lady Vibrate_, wife of the above. Extravagant, contradictious, fond of gaiety, hurry, noise, embarrassment, confusion, disorder, uproar, and a whirl of excitement. She says to his lordship: I am all gaiety and good humor; you are all turmoil and lamentation. I sing, laugh, and welcome pleasure wherever I find it; you take your lantern to look for misery, which the sun itself cannot discover. You may think proper to be as miserable as Job; but don’t expect me to be a Job’s wife.--Act. ii. 1. _Lady Jane Vibrate_, daughter of Lord and Lady Vibrate. An amiable young lady, attached to Delaval, whom she marries.--Holcroft, _He’s Much to Blame_ (1790). =Vicar of Bray= (_The_). Mr. Brome says the noted vicar was Simon Alleyn, vicar of Bray, in Berkshire, for fifty years. In the reign of Henry VIII. he was _catholic_ till the Reformation; in the reign of Edward VI. he was =calvanist=; in the reign of Mary he was _papist_; in the reign of Elizabeth he was _protestant_. No matter who was king, he resolved to die the vicar of Bray.--D’Israeli, _Curiosities of Literature_. Another statement gives the name of Pendleton as the true vicar. He was afterwards rector of St. Stephen’s, Walbrook (Edward VI. to Elizabeth). Hadyn says the vicar referred to in the song was Simon Symonds, who lived in the Commonwealth, and continued vicar till the reign of William and Mary. He was _independent_ in the protectorate, _episcopalian_ under Charles II., _papist_ under James II., _moderate protestant_ under William and Mary.