Part 19
_Oswald_ (_Prince_), being jealous of Gondibert, his rival for the love of Rhodalind (the heiress of Aribert, king of Lombardy), headed a faction against him. A battle was imminent, but it was determined to decide the quarrel by four combatants on each side. In this combat Oswald was slain by Grondibert.[TN-54]--Sir W. Davenant, _Gondibert_, i. (died 1668).
=Othel´lo=, the Moor, commander of the Venetian army. Iago was his ensign or ancient. Desdemona, the daughter of Brabantio, the senator, fell in love with the Moor, and he married her; but Iago, by his artful villainy, insinuated to him such a tissue of circumstantial evidence of Desdemona’s love for Cassio, that Othello’s jealousy being aroused, he smothered her with a pillow, and then killed himself.--Shakespeare, _Othello_ (1611).
⁂ The story of this tragedy is taken from the novelletti of Giovanni Giraldi Cinthio (died 1573).
Addison says of Thomas Betterton (1635-1710): “The wonderful agony which he appeared in when he examined the circumstance of the handkerchief in the part of ‘Othello,’ and the mixture of love that intruded on his mind at the innocent answers of ‘Desdemona,’ ... were the perfection of
## acting.” Donaldson, in his _Recollections_, says that Spranger Barry
(1719-1777) was the beau-ideal of an “Othello;” and C. Leslie, in his _Autobiography_, says the same of Edmund Kean (1787-1833).
=Otho=, the lord at whose board Count Lara was recognized by Sir Ezzelin. A duel was arranged for the next day, and the contending parties were to meet in Lord Otho’s hall. When the time of meeting arrived, Lara presented himself, but no Sir Ezzelin put in his appearance; whereupon Otho, vouching for the knight’s honor, fought with the count, and was wounded. On recovering from his wound, Lord Otho became the inveterate enemy of Lara, and accused him openly of having made away with Sir Ezzelin. Lara made himself very popular, and headed a rebellion; but Lord Otho opposed the rebels, and shot him.--Byron, _Lara_ (1814).
=Otnit=, a legendary emperor of Lombardy, who gains the daughter of the soldan for wife, by the help of Elberich, the dwarf.--_The Heldenbuch_ (twelfth century).
=Otranto= (_Tancred, prince of_), a crusader.
_Ernest of Otranto_, page of the prince of Otranto.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).
_Otranto_ (_The Castle of_), a romance by Horace Walpole (1769).
=O’Trigger= (_Sir Lucius_), a fortune-hunting Irishman, ready to fight every one, on any matter, at any time.--Sheridan, _The Rivals_ (1775).
=Otta´vio= (_Don_), the lover of Donna Anna, whom he was about to make his wife, when Don Giovanni seduced her and killed her father (the commandant of the city) in a duel.--Mozart, _Don Giovanni_ (opera, 1787).
=Otto=, duke of Normandy, the victim of Rollo, called “The Bloody Brother.”--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Bloody Brother_ (1639).
=Ot´uel= (_Sir_), a haughty and presumptuous Saracen, miraculously converted. He was a nephew of Ferragus or Ferracute, and married a daughter of Charlemagne.
=Ouida=, an infantile corruption of Louisa. The full name is Louise de la Ramée, authoress of _Under Two Flags_ (1867), and many other novels.
=Outalissi=, eagle of the Indian tribe of Onei´da, the death-enemies of the Hurons. When the Hurons attacked the fort under the command of Waldegrave (2 _syl._), a general massacre was made, in which Waldegrave and his wife was[TN-55] slain. But Mrs. Waldegrave, before she died, committed her boy, Henry, to the charge of Outalissi, and told him to place the child in the hands of Albert of Wy´oming, her friend. This Outalissi did. After a lapse of fifteen years, one Brandt, at the head of a mixed army of British and Indians, attacked Oneida, and a general massacre was made; but Outalissi, wounded, escaped to Wyoming, just in time to give warning of the approach of Brandt. Scarcely was this done, when Brandt arrived. Albert and his daughter, Gertrude, were both shot, and the whole settlement was extirpated.--Campbell, _Gertrude of Wyoming_ (1809).
=Outis= (Greek for “nobody”), a name assumed by Odysseus (_Ulysses_) in the cave of Polypheme (3 _syl._). When the monster roared with pain from the loss of his eye, his brother giants demanded who was hurting him. “Outis” (_Nobody_), thundered out Polypheme, and his companions left him.--Homer, _Odyssey_.
=Outram= (_Lance_), park-keeper to Sir Geoffrey Peveril.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).
=Overdees= (_Rowley_), a highwayman.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).
=O´verdo= (_Justice_), in Ben Jonson’s _Bartholomew Fair_ (1614).
=Overdone= (_Mistress_), a bawd.--Shakespeare, _Measure for Measure_ (1603).
=Overreach= (_Sir Giles_), Wellborn’s uncle. An unscrupulous, hard-hearted rascal, grasping and proud. He ruined the estates both of Wellborn and Allworth, and by overreaching grew enormously rich. His ambition was to see his daughter Margaret marry a peer; but the overreacher was overreached. Thinking Wellborn was about to marry the rich dowager Allworth, he not only paid all his debts, but supplied his present wants most liberally, under the delusion “if she prove his, all that is her’s is mine.” Having thus done, he finds that Lady Allworth does not marry Wellborn, but Lord Lovell. In regard to Margaret, fancying she was sure to marry Lord Lovell, he gives his full consent to her marriage; but finds she returns from church not Lady Lovell, but Mrs. Allworth.--Massinger, _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_ (1628).
⁂ The prototype of “Sir Giles Overreach” was Sir Giles Mompesson, a usurer outlawed for his misdeeds.
=Overs= (_John_), a ferryman who used to ferry passengers from Southwark to the City, and accumulated a considerable hoard of money by his savings. On one occasion, to save the expenses of board, he simulated death, expecting his servants would fast till he was buried; but they broke into his larder and cellar and held riot. When the old miser could bear it no longer he started up and belabored his servants right and left; but one of them struck the old man with an oar and killed him.
_Mary Overs_, the beautiful daughter of the ferryman. Her lover, hastening to town, was thrown from his horse, and died. She then became a nun, and founded the church of St. Mary Overs on the site of her father’s house.
=Overton= (_Colonel_), one of Cromwell’s officers.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).
=Ovid= (_The French_), Du Bellay; also called “The Father of Grace and Elegance” (1524-1560).
=Ovid and Corinna.= Ovid disguises, under the name of Corinna, the daughter of Augustus, named Julia, noted for her beauty, talent and licentiousness. Some say that Corinna was Livia, the wife of Augustus.--_Amor._, i. 5.
So was her heavenly body comely raised On two faire columnes; those that Ovid praised In Julia’s borrowed name.
=O´wain= (_Sir_), the Irish knight of King Stephen’s court, who passed through St. Patrick’s purgatory by way of penance.--Henry of Saltrey, _The Descent of Owain_ (1153).
=O´weenee=, the youngest of ten sisters, all of surpassing beauty. She married Osseo, who was “old, poor, and ugly,” but “most beautiful within.” (See OSSEO.)--Longfellow, _Hiawatha_, xii. (1855).
=Owen= (_Sam_), groom of Darsie Latimer, _i.e._ Sir Arthur Darsie Redgauntlet.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).
_Owen_, confidential clerk of Mr. Osbaldistone, senior.--Sir W. Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.).
_Owen_ (_Sir_), passed in dream through St. Patrick’s purgatory. He passed the convent gate, and the warden placed him in a coffin. When the priests had sung over him the service of the dead, they placed the coffin in a cave, and Sir Owen made his descent. He came first to an ice desert, and received three warnings to retreat, but the warnings were not heeded, and a mountain of ice fell on him. “Lord, Thou canst save!” he cried, as the ice fell, and the solid mountain became like dust, and did Sir Owen no harm. He next came to a lake of fire, and a demon pushed him in. “Lord, Thou canst save!” he cried, and angels carried him to paradise. He woke with ecstacy, and found himself lying before the cavern’s mouth.--R. Southey, _St. Patrick’s Purgatory_ (from the _Fabliaux_ of M. le Grand.[TN-56]
=Owen Meredith=, Robert Bulwer Lytton, afterwards Lord Lytton, son of the poet and novelist (1831-1892).
=Owl= (_The_), sacred to Minerva, was the emblem of Athens.
Owls hoot in B♭ and G♭, or in F♯ and A♭.--Rev. G. White, _Natural History of Selborne_, xlv. (1789).
=Owl a Baker’s Daughter= (_The_). Our Lord once went into a baker’s shop to ask for bread. The mistress instantly put a cake in the oven for Him, but the daughter, thinking it to be too large, reduced it to half the size. The dough, howover,[TN-57] swelled to an enormous bulk, and the daughter cried out, “Heugh! heugh! heugh!” and was transformed into an owl.
Well, God ’ield you! They say the owl was a baker’s daughter.--Shakespeare, _Hamlet_ (1596).
=Ox= (_The Dumb_), St. Thomas Aqui´nas; so named by his fellow-students on account of his taciturnity (1224-1274).
An ox once spoke as learned men deliver.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _Rule a Wife and Have a Wife_, iii. 1 (1640).
_Ox._ _The black ox hath trod on his foot_, he has married and is hen-pecked; calamity has befallen him. The black ox was sacrificed to the infernals, and was consequently held accursed. When Tusser says the best way to thrive is to get married, the objector says:
Why, then, do folk this proverb put, “The black ox near trod on thy foot,” If that way were to thrive?
_Wiving and Thriving_, lvii. (1557).
The black oxe had not trode on his or her foote; But ere his branch of blesse could reach any roote, The flowers so faded that in fifteen weekes A man might copy the change in the cheekes Both of the poore wretch and his wife.
Heywood (1646).
=Oxford= (_John, earl of_), an exiled Lancastrian. He appears with his son Arthur as a travelling merchant, under the name of Philipson.
⁂ _The son of the merchant Philipson_ is Sir Arthur de Vere.
_The countess of Oxford_, wife of the earl.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).
_Oxford_ (_The young earl of_), in the court of Queen Elizabeth.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).
=Ozair= (2 _syl._), a prophet. One day, riding on an ass by the ruins of Jerusalem, after its destruction by the Chaldeans, he doubted in his mind whether God could raise the city up again. Whereupon God caused him to die, and he remained dead a hundred years, but was then restored to life. He found the basket of figs and cruse of wine as fresh as when he died, but his ass was a mass of bones. While he still looked, the dry bones came together, received life, and the resuscitated ass began to bray. The prophet no longer doubted the power of God to raise up Jerusalem from its ruins.--_Al Korân_, ii. (Sale’s notes).
⁂ This legend is based on _Neh._ ii. 12-20.
=P= Placenticus, the Dominican, wrote a poem of 253 Latin hexameters, called _Pugna Porcorum_, every word of which begins with the letter _p_ (died 1548). It begins thus:
Plaudite, Porcelli, porcorum pigra propago Progreditur ... etc.
There was one composed in honor of Charles le Chauve, every word of which began with _c_.
The best known alliterative poem in English is the following:--
An Austrian army, awfully arrayed, Boldly by battery besieged Belgrade. Cossack commanders, cannonading, come, Dealing destruction’s devastating doom; Every endeavor engineers essay For fame, for fortune, forming furious fray. Gaunt gunners grapple, giving gashes good; Heaves high his head heroic hardihood. Ibraham, Islam, Ismael, imps in ill, Jostle John, Jarovlitz, Jem, Joe, Jack, Jill; Kick kindling Kutusoff, kings’ kinsmen kill; Labor low levels loftiest, longest lines; Men march ’mid moles, ’mid mounds, ’mid murderous mines. Now nightfall’s nigh, now needful nature nods, Opposed, opposing, overcoming odds. Poor peasants, partly purchased, partly pressed, Quite quaking, “Quarter! Quarter!” quickly quest. Reason returns, recalls redundant rage, Saves sinking soldiers, softens signiors sage. Truce, Turkey, truce! truce, treacherous Tartar train! Unwise, unjust, unmerciful Ukraine! Vanish, vile vengeance! vanish, victory vain! Wisdom walls war--wails warring words. What were Xerxes, Xantippê, Ximenês, Xavier? Yet Yassy’s youth, ye yield your youthful yest Zealously, zanies, zealously, zeal’s zest.
From H. Southgate, _Many Thoughts on Many Things_.
Tusser has a poem of twelve lines, in rhyme, every word of which begins with _t_. The subject is on _Thriftiness_ (died 1580).
=P’s= (_The Five_), William Oxberry, printer, poet, publisher, publican and player (1784-1824).
=Pache= (_J. Nicolas_), a Swiss by birth. He was minister of war in 1792, and maire de Paris 1793. Pache hated the Girondists, and at the fall of Danton, was imprisoned. After his liberation, he retired to Thym-le-Moutiers (in the Ardennes), and died in obscurity (1740-1823).
Swiss Pache sits sleek-headed, frugal, the wonder of his own ally for humility of mind.... Sit there, Tartuffe, till wanted.--Carlyle.
=Pacific= (_The_), Amadeus VIII., count of Savoy (1383, 1391-1439, abdicated, and died 1451).
Frederick III., emperor of Germany (1415, 1440-1493).
Olaus III. of Norway (*, 1030-1093).
=Pac´olet=, a dwarf, “full of great sense and subtle ingenuity.” He had an enchanted horse, made of wood, with which he carried off Valentine, Orson and Clerimond from the dungeon of Ferrăgus. This horse is often alluded to. “To ride Pacolet’s horse” is a phrase for _going very fast_.--_Valentine and Orson_, [TN-58]fifteenth century).
_Pacolet_, a familiar spirit.--Steele, _The Tatler_ (1709).
_Pacolet_, or NICK STRUMPFER, the dwarf servant of Norna “of the Fitful Head.”--Sir W. Scott, _The Pirate_ (time William III.).
=Pacomo= (_St._), an Egyptian, who lived in the fourth century. It is said that he could walk among serpents unhurt; and when he had occasion to cross the Nile, he was carried on the back of a crocodile.
The hermit fell on his knees before an image of St. Pacomo, which was glued to the wall.--Lesage, _Gil Blas_, iv. 9 (1724).
=Paddington= (_Harry_), one of Macheath’s gang of thieves. Peachum describes him as a “poor, petty-larceny rascal, without the least genius. That fellow,” he says, “though he were to live for six months, would never come to the gallows with credit” (act i. 1).--Gay, _The Beggar’s Opera_ (1727).
=Paddy=, an Irishman. A corruption of _Padhrig_, Irish for Patrick.
=Padlock= (_The_), a comic opera by Bickerstaff. Don Diego (2 _syl._), a wealthy lord of 60, saw a country maiden named Leonora, to whom he took a fancy, and arranged with the parents to take her home with him and place her under the charge of a duenna for three months, to see if her temper was as sweet as her face was pretty; and then either “to return her to them spotless, or make her his lawful wife.” At the expiration of the time, the don went to arrange with the parents for the wedding, and locked up his house, giving the keys to Ursula, the duenna. To make assurance doubly sure, he put a padlock on the outer door, and took the key with him. Leander, a young student, smitten with the damsel, laughed at locksmiths and duennas, and, having gained admission into the house, was detected by Don Diego, who returned unexpectedly. The old don, being a man of sense, perceived that Leander was a more suitable bridegroom than himself, so he not only sanctioned the alliance, but gave Leonora a handsome wedding dowry (1768).
=Pæan=, the physician of the immortals.
=Pæa´na=, daughter of Corflambo, “fair as ever yet saw living eye,” but “too loose of life and eke too light.” Pæana fell in love with Amĭas, a captive in her father’s dungeon; but Amias had no heart to give away. When Placĭdae was brought captive before Pæana, she mistook him for Amias, and married him. The poet adds, that she thenceforth so reformed her ways “that all men much admired the change, and spake her praise.”--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, iv. 9 (1596).
=Pagan=, a fay who loved the Princess Imis; but Imis rejected his suit, as she loved her cousin, Philax. Pagan, out of revenge, shut them up in a superb crystal palace, which contained every delight except that of leaving it. In the course of a few years, Imis and Philax longed as much for a separation as, at one time, they wished to be united.--Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“Palace of Revenge,” 1682).
=Page= (_Mr._), a gentleman living at Windsor. When Sir John Falstaff made love to Mrs. Page, Page himself assumed the name of Brooke, to outwit the knight. Sir John told the supposed Brooke his whole “course of wooing,” and how nicely he was bamboozling the husband. On one occasion, he says, “I was carried out in a buck-basket of dirty linen before the very eyes of Page, and the deluded husband did not know it.” Of course, Sir John is thoroughly outwitted and played upon, being made the butt of the whole village.
_Mrs. Page_, wife of Mr. Page of Windsor. When Sir John Falstaff made love to her, she joined with Mrs. Ford to dupe him and punish him.
_Anne Page_, daughter of the above, in love with Fenton. Slender calls her “the sweet Anne Page.”
_William Page_, Anne’s brother, a schoolboy.--Shakespeare, _Merry Wives of Windsor_ (1595).
_Page_ (_Sir Francis_), called “The Hanging Judge” (1661-1741).
Slander and poison dread from Delia’s rage; Hard words or hanging if your judge be Page.
Pope.
_Page_ (_Ruth_). A dainty little miss, bright, happy and imaginative, called sometimes “Teenty-Taunty.” Her head is full of fairy-lore, and when she tumbles into the water one day, she dreams in her swoon of Fairy-Land and the wonders thereof, of a bunch of forget-me-nots she was to keep alive if she would have her mother live, and so many other marvellous things, that her distressed father opines that “the poor child would be rational enough, if she had not read so many fairy-books.”--John Neal, _Goody Gracious and the Forget-me-not_ (183-).
=Paget= (_The Lady_), one of the ladies of the bedchamber in Queen Elizabeth’s court.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).
_Paine_[TN-59] (_Squire_). “Hard-headed, hard fe’tured Yankee,” whose conversion to humanity and Christianity is effected by Roxanna Keep.
She “drilled the hole, an’ put in the powder of the Word, an’ tamped it down with some pretty stiff facts ... but _the Lord fired the blast Himself_.”--Rose Terry Cooke, _Somebody’s Neighbors_ (1881).
=Painter of Nature.= Remi Belleau, one of the Pleiad poets, is so called (1528-1577).
_The Shepheardes Calendar_, by Spenser, is largely borrowed from Belleau’s _Song of April_.
=Painter of the Graces.= Andrea Appiani (1754-1817).
=Painters.=
_A Bee._ Quentin Matsys, the Dutch painter, painted a bee so well that the artist Mandyn thought it a real bee, and proceeded to brush it away with his handkerchief (1450-1529).
_A Cow._ Myro carved a cow so true to nature that bulls mistook it for a living animal (B.C. 431).
_A Curtain._ Parrhasios painted a curtain so admirably that even Zeuxis, the artist, mistook it for real drapery (B.C. 400).
_A Fly._ George Alexander Stevens says, in his _Lectures on Heads_:
I have heard of a connoisseur who was one day in an auction-room where there was an inimitable piece of painting of fruits and flowers. The connoisseur would not give his opinion of the picture till he had first examined the catalogue; and, finding it was done by an Englishman, he pulled out his eye-glass. “Oh, sir,” says he, “those English fellows have no more idea of genius than a Dutch skipper has of dancing a cotillion. The dog has spoiled a fine piece of canvas; he is worse than a Harp Alley signpost dauber. There’s no keeping, no perspective, no foreground. Why, there now, the fellow has actually attempted to paint a fly upon that rosebud. Why, it is no more like a fly than I am like--;” but, as he approached his finger to the picture, the fly flew away (1772)[TN-60]
_Grapes._ Zeuxis (2 _syl._) a Grecian painter, painted some grapes so well that birds came and pecked at them, thinking them real grapes (B.C. 400).
_A Horse._ Apellês painted Alexander’s horse Bucephalos so true to life that some mares came up to the canvas neighing, under the supposition that it was a real animal (about B.C. 334).
_A Man._ Velasquez painted a Spanish admiral so true to life that when King Felipe IV. entered the studio he mistook the painting for the man, and began reproving the supposed officer for neglecting his duty in wasting his time in the studio, when he ought to have been with his fleet (1590-1660).
_Accidental effects in painting._
Apellês, being at a loss to paint the foam of Alexander’s horse, dashed his brush at the picture in a fit of annoyance, and did by accident what his skill had failed to do (about B.C. 334).
The same tale is told of Protog´enês, who dashed his brush at a picture, and thus produced “the foam of a dog’s mouth,” which he had long been trying in vain to represent (about B.C. 332).
_Painters_ (_Prince of_). Parrhasios and Apellês are both so called (fourth century B.C.).
=Painters’ Characteristics.=
ANGELO (_Michael_): an iron frame, strongly developed muscles, and an anatomical display of the human figure. The Æschylos of painters (1474-1564).
CARRACCI: eclectic artists, who picked out and pieced together parts taken from Correggio, Raphael, Titian and other great artists. If Michael Angelo is the Æschylos of artists, and Raphael the Sophoclês, the Carracci may be called the Euripidês of painters. I know not why in England the name is spelt with only one _r_.
CORREGGIO: known by his wonderful foreshortenings, his magnificent light and shade. He is, however, very monotonous (1494-1534).
CROME (_John_): an old woman in a red cloak walking up an avenue of trees (1769-1821).
DAVID: noted for his stiff, dry, pedantic, “highly classic” style, according to the interpretation of the phrase by the French in the first Revolution (1748-1825).
DOLCE (_Cario_): famous for his Madonnas, which were all finished with most extraordinary delicacy (1616-1686).
DOMENICHI´NO: famed for his frescoes, correct in design and fresh in coloring (1581-1614).
GUIDO: his specialty is a pallid or bluish-complexioned saint, with saucer or uplifted eyes (1574-1642).
HOLBEIN: characterized by bold relief, exquisite finish, force of conception, delicacy of tone, and dark background (1498-1554).
LORRAINE (_Claude_): a Greek temple on a hill, with sunny and highly finished classic scenery. Aerial perspective (1600-1682).
MURILLO: a brown-faced Madonna (1618-1682).
OMMEGANCK: sheep (1775-1826).
PERUGINO (_Pietro_): known by his narrow, contracted figures and scrimpy drapery (1446-1524).
POUSSIN: famous for his classic style. Reynolds says: “No works of any modern have so much the air of antique painting as those of Poussin” (1593-1665).
POUSSIN (_Gaspar_): a landscape painter, the very opposite of Claude Lorraine. He seems to have drawn his inspiration from Hervey’s _Meditations Among the Tombs_, Blair’s _Grave_, Young’s _Night Thoughts_, and Burton’s _Anatomy of Melancholy_ (1613-1675).
RAPHAEL: the Sophoclês of painters. Angelo’s figures are all gigantesque and ideal, like those of Æschylos. Raphael’s are perfect human beings (1483-1520).
REYNOLDS: a portrait-painter. He presents his portraits in _bal masqué_, not always suggestive either of the rank or character of the person represented. There is about the same analogy between Watteau and Reynolds as between Claude Lorraine and Gaspar Poussin (1723-1792).
ROSA (_Salvator_): dark, inscrutable pictures, relieved by dabs of palette-knife. He is fond of savage scenery, broken rocks, wild caverns, blasted heaths, and so on (1615-1673).
RUBENS: patches of vermillion dabbed about the human figure, wholly out of harmony with the rest of the coloring (1577-1640).
STEEN (_Jan_): an old woman peeling vegetables, with another old woman looking at her (1636-1679).
TINTORETTI: full of wild fantastical inventions. He is called “The Lightning of the Pencil” (1512-1594).
TITIAN: noted for his broad shades of divers gradations (1477-1576).
VERONESE (_Paul_): noted for his great want of historical correctness and elegance of design; but he abounds in spirited banquets, sumptuous edifices, brilliant aerial spectres, magnificent robes, gaud, and jewelry (1530-1588).
WATTEAU: noted for his _fêtes galantes_, fancy-ball costumes, and generally gala-day figures (1684-1721).