Part 13

=Nerestan=, son of Gui Lusignan D’Outremer, king of Jerusalem, and brother of Zara. Nerestan was sent on his parole to France, to obtain ransom for certain Christians, who had fallen into the hands of the Saracens. When Osman, the sultan, was informed of his relationship to Zara, he ordered all Christian captives to be at once liberated “without money and without price.”--A. Hill, _Zara_ (adapted from Voltaire’s tragedy).

=Nereus= (2 _syl._), father of the water-nymphs. A very old prophetic god of great kindliness. The scalp, chin and breast of Nereus were covered with seaweed instead of hair.

By hoary Nêreus’ wrinkled look.

Milton, _Comus_, (1634).

=Neri´nê=, =Doto=, and =Nysê=, the three nereids who guarded the fleet of Vasco da Gama. When the treacherous pilot had run Vasco’s ship upon a sunken rock, these three sea-nymphs lifted up the prow and turned it round.

The lovely Nysê and Nerinê spring With all the vehemence and speed of wing.

Camoens, _Lusiad_, ii. (1569).

=Nerissa=, the clever confidential waiting-woman of _Portia_, the Venetian heiress. Nerissa is the counterfeit of her mistress, with a fair share of the lady’s elegance and wit. She marries _Gratiano_, a friend of the merchant _Antonio_.--Shakespeare, _The Merchant of Venice_ (1698).[TN-30]

=Nero of the North=, Christian II. of Denmark (1480, reigned 1534-1558, died 1559).

=Nesle= (_Blondel de_), the favorite minstrel of Richard Cœur de Lion [Nesle = _Neel_].--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=Nessus’s Shirt.= Nessos (in Latin _Nessus_), the centaur, carried the wife of Herculês over a river, and, attempting to run away with her, was shot by Herculês. As the centaur was dying, he told Deïani´ra (5 _syl._), that if she steeped in his blood her husband’s shirt, she would secure his love forever. This she did, but when Herculês put the shirt on, his body suffered such agony, that he rushed to Mount Œta, collected together a pile of wood, set it on fire, and rushing into the midst of the flames, was burnt to death.

When Creūsa (3 _syl._), the daughter of King Creon, was about to be married to Jason, Medēa sent her a splendid wedding robe; but when Creusa put it on, she was burnt to death by it in excruciating pain.

Morgan le Fay, hoping to kill King Arthur, sent him a superb royal robe. Arthur told the messenger to try it on, that he might see its effect; but no sooner had the messenger done so, than he dropped down dead, “burnt to mere coal.”--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 75 (1470).

=Nestor= (_A_), a wise old man. Nestor of Pylos,[TN-31] was the oldest and most experienced of all the Greek chieftains who went to the siege of Troy.--Homer, _Iliad_.

=Nestor of the Chemical Revolution.= Dr. Black is so called by Lavoisier (1728-1799).

=Nestor of Europe=, Leopold, king of Belgium (1790, 1831-1865).

=Neu´ha=, a native of Toobouai, one of the Society Islands. It was at Toobouai that the mutineers of the _Bounty_ landed, and Torquil married Neuha. When a vessel was sent to capture the mutineers, Neuha conducted Torquil to a secret cave, where they lay _perdu_ till all danger was over, when they returned to their island home.--Byron, _The Island_. (The character of Neuha is given in canto ii. 7.)

=Nevers= (_Comte de_), to whom Valenti´na (daughter of the governor of the Louvre) was affianced, and whom she married in a fit of jealousy. The count having been shot in the Bartholomew slaughter, Valentina married Raoul [_Rawl_] her first love, but both were killed by a party of musketeers commanded by the governor of the Louvre.--Meyerbeer, _Les Huguenots_ (opera, 1836).

⁂ The duke [not _count_] de Nevers, being asked by the governor of the Louvre to join in the Bartholomew Massacre, replied that his family contained a long list of warriors, but not one assassin.

=Neville= (_Major_), an assumed name of Lord Geraldin, son of the earl of Geraldin. He first appears as Mr. William Lovell.

_Mr. Geraldin Neville_, uncle to Lord Geraldin.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

_Neville_ (_Miss_), the friend and _confidante_ of Miss Hardcastle. A handsome, coquettish girl, destined by Mrs. Hardcastle for her son Tony Lumpkin, but Tony did not care for her, and she dearly loved Mr. Hastings; so Hastings and Tony plotted together to outwit madam, and of course won the day.--O. Goldsmith, _She Stoops to Conquer_ (1773).

_Neville_ (_Sir Henry_), chamberlain of Richard Cœur de Lion.--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=New Atlantis= (_The_), an imaginary island in the middle of the Atlantic. Bacon in his allegorical fiction so called, supposes himself wrecked on this island, where he finds an association for the cultivation of natural science, and the promotion of arts.--Lord Bacon, _The New Atlantis_ (1626).

⁂ Called the _New_ Atlantis to distinguish it from Plato’s Atlantis, an imaginary island of fabulous charms.

=New Inn= (_The_), or THE LIGHT HEART, a comedy by Ben Jonson (1628).

=New Way to Pay Old Debts=, a drama by Philip Massinger (1625). Wellborn, the nephew of Sir Giles Overreach, having run through his fortune and got into debt, induces Lady Allworth, out of respect and gratitude to his father, to give him countenance. This induces Sir Giles to suppose that his nephew is about to marry the wealthy dowager. Feeling convinced that he will then be able to swindle him out of all the dowager’s property, as he had ousted him out of his paternal estates, Sir Giles pays his nephew’s debts, and supplies him liberally with ready money, to bring about the marriage as soon as possible. Having paid Wellborn’s debts, the overreaching old man is compelled, through the treachery of his clerk, to restore the estates also, for the deeds of conveyance are found to be only blank sheets of parchment, the writing having been erased by some chemical acids.

=New Zealander=, It was Macaulay who said the time might come when some “New Zealand artist shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul’s.”

⁂ Shelley was before Macaulay in the same conceit.--See _Dedication of Peter Bell the Third_.

=Newcastle= (_The duchess of_), in the court of Charles II.).[TN-32]--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

_Newcastle_ (_The marquis of_), a royalist in the service of Charles I.--Sir W. Scott, _Legend of Montrose_ (time, Charles I.).

=Newcastle Apothecary= (_The_), Mr. Bolus, of Newcastle, used to write his prescriptions in rhyme. A bottle bearing the couplet, “When taken to be well shaken,” was sent to a patient, and when Bolus called next day to inquire about its effect, John told the apothecary his master was dead. The fact is, John had shaken the _sick man_ instead of the bottle, and had shaken the life out of him.--G. Colman, Jr.

=Newcome= (_Clemency_), about 30 years old, with a plump and cheerful face, but twisted into a tightness that made it comical. Her gait was very homely, her limbs seemed all odd ones; her shoes were so self-willed that they never wanted to go where her feet went. She wore blue stockings, a printed gown of hideous pattern and many colors, and a white apron. Her sleeves were short, her elbows always grazed, her cap anywhere but in the right place; but she was scrupulously clean, and “maintained a kind of dislocated tidiness.” She carried in her pocket “a handkerchief, a piece of wax-candle, an apple, an orange, a lucky penny, a cramp-bone, a padlock, a pair of scissors, a handful of loose beads, several balls of worsted and cotton, a needle-case, a collection of curl-papers, a biscuit, a thimble, a nutmeg-grater, and a few miscellaneous articles.” Clemency Newcome married Benjamin Britain, her fellow-servant at Dr. Jeddler’s, and opened a country inn called the Nutmeg-Grater, a cozy, well-to-do place as any one could wish to see, and there were few married people so well matched as Clemency and Ben Britain.--C. Dickens, _The Battle of Life_ (1846).

_Newcome_ (_Colonel_), a widower, distinguished for the moral beauty of his life. He loses his money and enters the Charter House.

_Clive Newcome_, his son. He is in love with Ethel Newcome, his cousin, whom he marries as his second wife.--Thackeray, _The Newcomes_ (1855).

_Newcome_ (_Johnny_), any raw youth when he first enters the army or navy.

=Newman Noggs.= Ralph Nickleby’s clerk, but Ralph’s nephew’s friend and secret coadjutor.--Charles Dickens, _Nicholas Nickleby_.

=Newland= (_Abraham_), one of the governors of the Bank of England, to whom, in the early part of the nineteenth century, all Bank of England notes were made payable. A bank-note was called an “Abraham Newland;” and hence the popular song, “I’ve often heard say, sham Ab’ram you may, but must not sham Abraham Newland.”

Trees are notes issued from the bank of nature, and as current as those payable to Abraham Newland.--G. Colman, _The Poor Gentleman_, i. 2 (1802).

=Newman.= An intelligent American who has made a fortune as a manufacturer, yet kept his head steady. He sees life with clear, sometimes with amused eyes.

“In America,” Newman reflected, “lads of twenty-five and thirty have old heads and young hearts, or at least, young morals; abroad they have young heads and very aged hearts, morals the most grizzled and wrinkled.”--Henry James Jr., _The Americans_ (1877).

=Newton.=

Newton ... declared, with all his grand discoveries recent, That he himself felt only “like a youth Picking up shells by the great ocean, truth.”

Byron, _Don Juan_, vii. 5 (1824).

Newton discovered the prismatic colors of light, and explained the phenomenon by the emission theory.

Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night. God said, “Let Newton be,” and all was light.

Pope, _Epitaph, intended for Newton’s Monument in Westminster Abbey_ (1727).

Newton is called by Campbell “The Priest of Nature.”--_Pleasures of Hope_, i. (1799).

=Newton and the Apple.= It is said that Newton was standing in the garden of Mrs. Conduitt, of Woolsthorpe, in the year 1665, when an apple fell from a tree and set him thinking. From this incident he ultimately developed his theory of gravitation.

=Nibelung=, a mythical king of Nibelungeland (_Norway_). He had twelve paladins, all giants. Siegfried [_Sege.freed_], prince of the Netherlands, slew the giants, and made Nibelungeland tributary.--_Nibelungen Lied_, iii. (1210).

=Nibelungen Hoard=, a mythical mass of gold and precious stones which Siegfried [_Sege.freed_], prince of the Netherlands, took from Nibelungeland and gave to his wife as a dowry. The hoard filled thirty-six wagons. After the murder of Siegfried, Hagan seized the hoard, and, for concealment, sank it in the “Rhine at Lockham,” intending to recover it at a future period, but Hagan was assassinated, and the hoard was lost for ever.--_Nibelungen Lied_, xix.

=Nibelungen Lied= [_Ne.by-lung.’nleed_], the German _Iliad_ (1210). It is divided into two parts, and thirty-two lieds or cantos. The first part ends with the death of Siegfried, and the second part with the death of Kriemhild.

Siegfried, the youngest of the kings of the Netherlands, went to Worms, to crave the hand of Kriemhild in marriage. While he was staying with Günther, king of Burgundy (the lady’s brother), he assisted him to obtain in marriage Brunhild, queen of Issland, who announced publicly that he only should be her husband who could beat her in hurling a spear, throwing a huge stone, and in leaping. Siegfried, who possessed a cloak of invisibility, aided Günther in these three contests, and Brunhild became his wife. In return for these services, Günther gave Siegfried his sister Kriemhild, in marriage. After a time, the bride and bridegroom went to visit Günther, when the two ladies disputed about the relative merits of their respective husbands, and Kriemhild, to exalt Siegfried, boasted that Günther owed to him his victories and his wife. Brunhild, in great anger, now employed Hagan to murder Siegfried, and this he did by stabbing him in the back while he was drinking from a brook.

Thirteen years elapsed, and the widow married Etzel, king of the Huns. After a time, she invited Brunhild and Hagan to a visit. Hagan, in this visit, killed Etzel’s young son, and Kriemhild was like a fury. A battle ensued, in which Günther and Hagan were made prisoners, and Kriemhild cut off both their heads with her own hand. Hildebrand, horrified at this act of blood, slew Kriemhild; and so the poem ends.--Authors unknown (but the story pieced together by the minnesingers).

⁂ The _Völsunga Saga_ is the Icelandic version of the _Nibelungen Lied_. This saga has been translated into English by William Morris.

The _Nibelungen Lied_ has been ascribed to Heinrich von Ofterdingen, a minnesinger; but it certainly existed before that epoch, if not as a complete whole, in separate lays, and all that Heinrich von Ofterdingen could have done was to collect the floating lays, connect them, and form them into a complete story.

F. A. Wolf, in 1795, wrote a learned book to prove that Homer did for the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ what Ofterdingen did for the _Nibelungen Lied_.

Richard Wagner composed a series of operas founded on the Nibelungen Lied.

=Nibelungen Nôt=, the second part of the _Nibelungen Lied_, containing the marriage of Kriemhild with Etzel, the visit of the Burgundians to the court of the Hun, and the death of Günther, Hagan, Kriemhild, and others. This part contains eighty-three four-line stanzas more than the first part. The number of lines in the two parts is 9836; so that the poem is almost as long as Milton’s _Paradise Lost_.

=Nibelungers=, whoever possessed the Nibelungen hoard. When it was in Norway, the Norwegians were so called: when Siegfried [_Sege.freed_] got the possession of it, the Netherlanders were so called; and when the hoard was removed to Burgundy, the Burgundians were the Nibelungers.

=Nic. Frog=, the Dutch as a nation; as the English are called John Bull.--Dr. Arbuthnot, _History of John Bull_ (1712).

=Nica´nor=, “the Protospathaire,” a Greek general.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

=Nice= (_Sir Courtley_), the chief character and title of a drama by Croune (1685).

=Nicholas=, a poor scholar, who boarded with John, a rich old miserly carpenter. The poor scholar fell in love with Alison, his landlord’s young wife, who joined him in duping the foolish old carpenter. Nicholas told John that such a rain would fall on the ensuing Monday as would drown every one in “less than an hour;” and he persuaded the old fool to provide three large tubs, one for himself, one for his wife, and the other for his lodger. In these tubs, said Nicholas, they would be saved; and when the flood abated, they would then be lords and masters of the whole earth. A few hours before the time of the “flood,” the old carpenter went to the top chamber of his house to repeat his _pater nosters_. He fell asleep over his prayers, and was roused by the cry of “Water! water! Help! help!” Supposing the rain had come, he jumped into his tub, and was let down by Nicholas and Alison into the street. A crowd soon assembled, were delighted at the joke, and pronounced the old man an idiot and fool.--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (“The Miller’s Tale,” 1388).

_Nicholas_, the barber of the village in which Don Quixote lived.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. (1605).

_Nicholas_ (_Brother_), a monk at St. Mary’s Convent.--Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Nicholas_ (_St._), patron saint of boys, parish clerks, sailors, thieves, and of Aberdeen, Russia, etc.

_Nicholas_ (_St._). The legend is, that an angel told him a father was so poor he was about to raise money by the prostitution of his three daughters. On hearing this St. Nicholas threw in at the cottage window three bags of money, sufficient to portion each of the three damsels.

The gift Of Nicholas, which on the maidens he Bounteous bestowed, to save their youthful prime Unblemished.

Dantê, _Purgatory_, xx. (1308).

=Nicholas of the Tower= (_The_), the duke of Exeter, constable of the Tower.

=Nicholas’s Clerks=, highwaymen; so called by a pun on the phrase _Old Nick_ and _St. Nicholas_ who presided over scholars.

_St. Nicholas’s Clerks_, scholars; so called because St. Nicholas was the patron of scholars. The statutes of Paul’s School require the scholars to attend divine service on St. Nicholas’s Day.--Knight, _Life of Dean Colet_, 362 (1726).

=Nicholas Minturn=, hero of novel of that name, by Josiah Gilbert Holland (1876).

=Nickleby= (_Nicholas_), the chief character and title of a novel by C. Dickens (1838). He is the son of a poor country gentleman, and has to make his own way in the world. He first goes as usher to Mr. Squeers, schoolmaster at Dotheboys Hall, in Yorkshire; but leaves in disgust with the tyranny of Squeers and his wife, especially to a poor boy named Smike. Smike runs away from the school to follow Nicholas, and remains his humble follower till death. At Portsmouth, Nicholas joins the theatrical company of Mr. Crummles, but leaves the profession for other adventures. He falls in with the brothers Cheeryble, who make him their clerk; and in this post he rises to become a merchant, and ultimately marries Madeline Bray.

_Mrs. Nickleby_, mother of Nicholas, and a widow. She is an enormous talker, fond of telling long stories with no connection. Mrs. Nickleby is a weak, vain woman, who imagines an idiot neighbor is in love with her because he tosses cabbages and other articles over the garden wall. In conversation, Mrs. Nickleby rides off from the main point at every word suggestive of some new idea. As a specimen of her sequence of ideas, take the following example: “The name began with ‘B’ and ended with ‘g,’ I am sure. Perhaps it was Waters” (p. 198).

⁂ “The original of ‘Mrs. Nickleby,’” says John Foster, “was the mother of Charles Dickens.”--_Life of Dickens_, iii. 8.

_Kate Nickleby_, sister of Nicholas; beautiful, pure-minded, and loving. Kate works hard to assist in the expenses of housekeeping, but shuns every attempt of Ralph and others to allure her from the path of virgin innocence. She ultimately marries Frank, the nephew of the Cheeryble brothers.

_Ralph Nickleby_, of Golden Square (London), uncle to Nicholas and Kate. A hard, grasping money-broker, with no ambition but the love of saving, no spirit beyond the thirst of gold, and no principle except that of fleecing every one who comes into his power. This villain is the father of Smike, and ultimately hangs himself, because he loses money, and sees his schemes one after another burst into thin air.--C. Dickens, _Nicholas Nickleby_, (1838).

=Nicneven=, a gigantic, malignant hag of Scotch superstition.

⁂ Dunbar, the Scotch poet, describes her in his _Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy_ (1508).

=Nicode´mus=, one of the servants of General Harrison.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

=Nicole= (2 _syl._), a female servant of M. Jourdain, who sees the folly of her master, and exposes it in a natural and amusing manner.--Molière, _Le Bourgeois Gentlehomme_[TN-33] (1670).

=Night= or =Nox=. So Tennyson calls Sir Peread, the Black Knight of the Black Lands, one of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle Perilous.--Tennyson, _Idylls of the King_ (“Gareth and Lynette”); Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 126 (1470).

=Nightingale= (_The Italian_), Angelica Catala´ni; also called “The Queen of Song” (1782-1849).

_Nightingale_ (_The Swedish_), Jenny Lind, afterwards Mde. Goldschmidt. She appeared in London 1847, and retired from public life in 1851 (1821-1887).

=Nightingale and the Lutist.= The tale is, that a lute-master challenged a nightingale in song. The bird, after sustaining the contest for some time, feeling itself outdone, fell on the lute, and died broken-hearted.

⁂ This tale is from the Latin of Strada, translated by Richard Crashaw, and called _Music’s Duel_ (1650). It is most beautifully told by John Ford, in his drama entitled _The Lover’s Melancholy_, where Men´aphon is supposed to tell it to Ame´thus (1628).

=Nightingale and the Thorn.=

As it fell upon a day In the merry month of May, Sitting in a pleasant shade Which a grove of myrtles made-- Beasts did leap, and birds did sing, Trees did grow, and plants did spring, Everything did banish moan, Save the nightingale alone; She, poor bird, as all forlorn, Leaned her breast up-till a thorn.

Richard Barnfield, _Address to the Nightingale_ (1594).

So Philomel, perched on an aspen sprig, Weeps all the night her lost virginity, And sings her sad tale to the merry twig, That dances at such joyful mysery. Never lets sweet rest invade her eye; But leaning on a thorn her dainty chest, For fear soft sleep should steal into her breast, Expresses in her song grief not to be expressed.

Giles Fletcher, _Christ’s Triumph over Death_ (1610).

The nightingale that sings with the deep thorn, Which fable places in her breast.

Byron, _Don Juan_, vi. 87 (1824).

=Nightmare of Europe= (_The_), Napoleon Bonaparte (1769, reigned 1804-1814, died 1821).

=Nightshade= (_Deadly_). We are told that the berries of this plant so intoxicated the soldiers of Sweno, the Danish king, that they became an easy prey to the Scotch, who cut them to pieces.

⁂ Called “deadly,” not from its poisonous qualities, but because it was used at one time for blackening the eyes in mourning.

=Nimrod=, pseudonym of Charles James Apperley, author of _The Chase, The Road, The Turf_ (1852), etc.[TN-34]

=Nim´ue=, a “damsel of the lake,” who cajoled Merlin in his dotage to tell her the secret “whereby he could be rendered powerless;” and then, like Delilah, she overpowered him, by “confining him under a stone.”

Then after these quests, Merlin fell in a dotage on ... one of the damsels of the lake, hight Nimue, and Merlin would let her have no rest, but always he would be with her in every place. And she made him good cheer till she learned of him what she desired.... And Merlin shewed to her in a rock, whereas was a great wonder ... which went under a stone. So by her subtle craft, she made Merlin go under that stone ... and he never came out, for all the craft that he could do.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 60 (1470).

It is not unlikely that this name is a clerical error for Nineve or Ninive. It occurs only once in the three volumes. (See NINIVE.)[TN-35]

⁂ Tennyson makes Vivien the seductive betrayer of Merlin, and says she enclosed him “in the four walls of a hollow tower;” but the _History_ says “Nimue put him under the stone” (pt. i. 60).

=Nino-Thoma=,[TN-36] daughter of Tor-Thoma (chief of one of the Scandinavian islands). She eloped with Uthal (son of Larthmor, a petty king of Berrathon, a neighboring island); but Uthal soon tired of her, and, having fixed his affections on another, confined her in a desert island. Uthal, who had also dethroned his father, was slain in single combat by Ossian, who had come to restore the deposed monarch to his throne. When Nina-Thoma heard of her husband’s death, she languished and died, “for though most cruelly entreated, her love for Uthal was not abated.”--Ossian, _Berrathon_.

=Nine.= “It is by nines that Eastern presents are given, when they would extend their magificence[TN-37] to the highest degree.” Thus, when Dakiānos wished to ingratiate himself with the shah,

He caused himself to be preceded by nine superb camels. The first was loaded with nine suits of gold adorned with jewels; the second bore nine sabres, the hilts and scabbards of which were adorned with diamonds; upon the third camel were nine suits of armor; the fourth had nine suits of house furniture; the fifth had nine cases full of sapphires; the sixth had nine cases full of rubies; the seventh nine cases full of emeralds; the eighth had nine cases full of amethysts; and the ninth had nine cases full of diamonds.--Comte de Caylus, _Oriental Tales_ (“Dakianos and the Seven Sleepers,” 1743).