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
=Vivian=, brother of Maugis d’Agremont, and son of Duke Bevis of
Agremont. He was stolen in infancy by Tapinel, and sold to the wife of
Sorgalant.--_Roman de Maugis d’Agremont et de Vivian son Frère._
_Vivian_, son of Buovo (2 _syl._), of the house of Clarmont, and
brother of Aldiger and Malagigi.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).
=Viviane= (3 _syl._), daughter of Dyonas, a vavasour of high lineage,
and generally called the “Lady of the Lake.” Merlin, in his dotage,
fell in love with her, and she imprisoned him in the forest of
Brécéliande, in Brittany. Viviane induced Merlin to show her how a
person could be imprisoned by enchantment without walls, towers, or
chains, and after he had done so, she fondled him into a sleep under a
whitethorn laden with flowers. While thus he slept, she made a ring
with her wimple round the bush, and performed the other needful
ceremonies, whereupon he found himself enclosed in a prison stronger
than the strongest tower, and from that imprisonment was never again
released.--_Merlin_ (a romance).
⁂ See the next article.
=Viv´ien= or =Vivian=, the personification of shameless harlotry, or
the crowning result to be expected from the infidelity of Queen
Guin´evere. This wily wanton in Arthur’s court hated all the knights,
and tried without success to seduce “the blameless king.” With Merlin,
she succeeded better, for, being pestered with her importunity, he
told her the secret of his power, as Samson told Delilah the secret of
his strength. Having learnt this, Vivien enclosed the magician in a
hollow oak, where he was confined as one dead, “lost to life, and use,
and name, and fame.”--Tennyson, _Idylls of the King_ (“Vivien,”
1858-9). (See VIVIANE.)
⁂ In Malory’s _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 60, Nimue (? _Ninive_) is
the fée who inveigled Merlin out of his secret:
And so upon a time it happened that Merlin shewed to her [_Nimue_] in
a rock, whereas was a great wonder, and wrought by enchantment, which
went under a stone. So by her subtle craft and working, she made
Merlin to go under that stone, to let her wit of the marvels there;
but she wrought so there for him that he came never out, for all his
craft. And so she departed and left him there.
=Voadic´ia= or =Boadice´a=, queen of the British Icēni. Enraged
against the Romans, who had defiled her two daughters, she excited an
insurrection against them, and while Suetonius Paulīnus, the Roman
governor, was in Mona (_Anglesea_), she took Colchester and London,
and slew 70,000 Romans. Being at length defeated by Suetonius
Paulinus, she put an end to her life by poison (A.D. 61).
Cowper has an ode on _Boadicea_ (1790).
Brave Voadicĭa made with her resolvedest men
To Virolam [_St. Alban’s_], whose siege with fire and sword she plyed
Till levelled with the earth ... etc.
Drayton, _Polyolbion_, viii. (1612).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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