Unformatted text preview: The Project Gutenberg EBook of Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and
the Drama, Vol 1, by The Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D.
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with this eBook or online at Title: Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook
Author: The Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D.
Release Date: March 4, 2004 [EBook #11431]
[Date last updated: January 22, 2006]
Language: English *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARACTER SKETCHES, VOL. I *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Bradley Norton and PG Distributed
Proofreaders c.jpg HARACTER SKETCHES OF ROMANCE, FICTION
AND THE DRAMA A REVISED AMERICAN EDITION
OF THE READER'S HANDBOOK
BY THE REV. E. COBHAM BREWER, LL.D.
EDITED BY MARION HARLAND
VOLUME I
NEW YORK — SELMAR HESS — PUBLISHER
M D C C C X C I I
Copyright, 1892, by SELMAR HESS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VOLUME I.
PHOTOGRAVURES AND ETCHINGS.
Illustration..................Artist
ICHABOD CRANE (colored).......E.A. ABBEY
CONSTANCE DE BEVERLEY................TOBY ROSENTHAL
LADY BOUNTIFUL.......................ROB. W. MACBETH
SYDNEY CARTON........................FREDERICK BARNARD
BERNHARDT AS CLEOPATRA...............From a Photograph from Life
ABBÉ CONSTANTIN......................MADELEINE LEMAIRE
CAPTAIN CUTTLE.......................FREDERICK BARNARD
THE TRUSTY ECKART....................JULIUS ADAM ELAINE...............................TOBY ROSENTHAL
WOOD ENGRAVINGS AND TYPOGRAVURES.
ABELARD..............................A. GUILLEMINOT
ÆNEAS RELATING HIS STORY TO DIDO....P. GUÉRIN
ALBERICH'S PURSUIT OF THE NIBELUNGEN RING...HANS MAKART
ALETHE, PRIESTESS OF ISIS............EDWIN LONG
ALEXIS AND DORA......................W. VON KAULBACH
ALICE, THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER.........DAVIDSON KNOWLES
ANCIENT MARINER (THE)................GUSTAVE DORÉ
ANDROMEDA............................
ANGÉLIQUE AND MONSEIGNEUR DE HAUTECOEUR...JEANNIOT
ANGUS AND DONALD.....................W.B. DAVIS
ANTIGONE AND ISMENE..................EMIL TESCHENDORFF
ANTONY AND THE DEAD CÆSAR...........
ARCHIMEDES...........................NIC BARABINO
ARGAN AND DOCTOR DIAFOIRUS...........A. SOLOMON
ASHTON (LUCY) AND RAVENSWOOD.........SIR EVERETT MILLAIS
ATALA (BURIAL OF)....................GUSTAVE COURTOIS
AUGUSTA IN COURT.....................A. FORESTIER
AUTOMEDON............................HENRI REGNAULT
BALAUSTION...........................F.H. LUNGREN
BALDERSTONE (CALEB) AND MYSIE.......GEORGE HAY
BAREFOOT (LITTLE)....................F. VON THELEN-RÜDEN BARKIS IS WILLIN'....................C.J. STANILAND
BAUDIN (THE DEATH OF)................J.-P. LAURENS
BAYARD (THE CHEVALIER)...............LARIVIÈRE
BEDREDEEN HASSAN (MARRIAGE OF) AND NOUREDEEN...F.
CORMON
BELLENDEN (LADY) AND MAUSE HEADRIGG..WM. DOUGLAS
BENEDICK AND BEATRICE................HUGHES MERLE
BIRCH (HARVEY), THE PEDDLER-SPY.....
BLANCHELYS (QUEEN) AND THE PILGRIM...J. NOEL PATON
BOABDIL-EL-CHICO'S FAREWELL TO GRENADA...E. CORBOULD
BOADICEA.............................THOS. STOTHARD
BONNICASTLE (ARTHUR) AND MILLIE BRADFORD...
BOTTOM AND TITANIA...................SIR EDWIN LANDSEER
BRABANT (GENEVIÈVE DE)...............ERNST BOSCH
BRÄSIG, LINING AND MINING............CONRAD BECKMANN
BROOKING'S (JOHN) STUDIO.............A. FORESTIER
CÆSAR (THE DEATH OF).................J.L. GÉRÔME
CANTERBURY PILGRIMS (THE)............THOS. STOTHARD; WM.
BLAKE
CAREW (FRANCIS) FINDING THE BODY OF DERRICK...HAL
LUDLOW
CARMEN...............................J. KOPPAY
CATARINA.............................
CHARLES IX. ON THE EVE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW...P.
GROTJOHANN CHARLOTTE CORDAY AND MARAT..........JULES AVIAT
CHATTERTON'S HOLIDAY AFTERNOON.......W.B. MORRIS
CHILDREN (THE) IN THE WOOD...........J. SANT
CHILLON (THE PRISONER OF)............
CHRISTIAN ENTERING THE VALLEY OF HUMILIATION...F.R.
PICKERSGILL
CINDERELLA AND THE FAIRY GOD-MOTHER..GUSTAVE DORÉ
CIRCE AND HER SWINE..................BRITON RIVIÈRE
CLARA (DONNA) AND ALMANZOR...........
CLARA, JACQUES AND ARISTIDE..........ADRIEN MARIE
CLAUDIO AND ISABELLA.................HOLMAN HUNT
COLUMBUS AND HIS EGG.................LEO. REIFFENSTEIN
CONSUELO.............................
COSETTE..............................G. GUAY
COSTIGAN (CAPTAIN)...................F. BARNARD
COVERLEY (SIR ROGER DE) COMING FROM CHURCH...CHAS. R.
LESLIE
CYMON AND IPHIGENIA..................SIR FREDERICK LEIGHTON
DAPHNIS AND CHLOE....................GÉRARD
DARBY AND JOAN IN HIGH-LIFE..........C. DENDY SADLER
D'ARTAGNAN...........................
DEANS (EFFIE) AND HER SISTER IN THE PRISON...R. HERDMAN
DERBLAY (MADAME) STOPS THE DUEL......EMILE BAYARD
DIDO ON THE FUNERAL PYRE.............E. KELLER DOMBEY (PAUL AND FLORENCE)..........
EGMONT AND CLÄRCHEN..................C. HUEBERLIN
ELECTRA..............................E. TESCHENDORFF
ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART............W. VON KAULBACH
ELIZABETH, THE LANDGRAVINE...........THEODOR PIXIS
ELLEN, THE LADY OF THE LAKE..........J. ADAMS-ACTON
ELLIE (LITTLE).......................
ERMINIA AND THE SHEPHERDS............DOMENICHINO
ESMERALDA............................G. BRION
ESTE (LEONORA D') AND TASSO..........W. VON KAULBACH
EVANGELINE...........................EDWIN DOUGLAS
EVE'S FAREWELL TO PARADISE...........E. WESTALL border.jpg CHARACTER SKETCHES OF ROMANCE, FICTION, AND THE
DRAMA.
a.jpg A'RON, a Moor, beloved by Tam'ora, queen of the Goths, in the tragedy of
Titus Andron'icus, published among the plays of Shakespeare (1593).
(The classic name is Andronicus, but the character of this play is purely
fictitious.)
Aaron (St.), a British martyr of the City of Legions (Newport, in South Wales). He was torn limb from limb by order of Maximian'us Hercu'lius, general in
Britain, of the army of Diocle'tian. Two churches were founded in the City of
Legions, one in honor of St. Aaron and one in honor of his fellow-martyr, St.
Julius. Newport was called Caerleon by the British.
... two others ... sealed their doctrine with
their blood;
St. Julius, and with him St. Aaron, have their
room
At Carleon, suffering death by Diocletian's doom.
Drayton, Polyolbion, xxiv, (1622).
Aaz'iz (3 syl.), so the queen of Sheba or Saba is sometimes called; but in the
Koran she is called Balkis (ch. xxvii.).
Abad'don, an angel of the bottomless pit (Rev. ix. 11). The word is derived
from the Hebrew, abad, "lost," and means the lost one. There are two other
angels introduced by Klopstock in The Messiah with similar names, but must not
be confounded with the angel referred to in Rev.; one is Obaddon, the angel of
death, and the other Abbad'ona, the repentant devil.
Ab'aris, to whom Apollo gave a golden arrow, on which to ride through the
air.—See Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
Abbad'ona, once the friend of Ab'diel, was drawn into the rebellion of Satan
half unwillingly. In hell he constantly bewailed his fall, and reproved Satan for
his pride and blasphemy. He openly declared to the internals that he would take
no part or lot in Satan's scheme for the death of the Messiah, and during the
crucifixion lingered about the cross with repentance, hope, and fear. His ultimate
fate we are not told, but when Satan and Adramelech are driven back to hell,
Obaddon, the angel of death, says—
"For thee, Abbadona, I have no orders. How long thou art permitted to remain
on earth I know not, nor whether thou wilt be allowed to see the resurrection of
the Lord of glory ... but be not deceived, thou canst not view Him with the joy of
the redeemed." "Yet let me see Him, let me see him!"—Klopstock, The Messiah,
xiii.
Abberville (Lord), a young nobleman, 23 years of age, who has for travelling
tutor a Welshman of 65, called Dr. Druid, an antiquary, wholly ignorant of his
real duties as a guide of youth. The young man runs wantonly wild, squanders his money, and gives loose to his passions almost to the verge of ruin, but he is
arrested and reclaimed by his honest Scotch bailiff or financier, and the vigilance
of his father's executor, Mr. Mortimer. This "fashionable lover" promises
marriage to a vulgar, malicious city minx named Lucinda Bridgemore, but is
saved from this pitfall also.—Cumberland, The Fashionable Lover (1780).
Abbot (The), the complacent churchman in Aldrich's poem of The Jew's Gift,
who hanged a Jew "just for no crime," and pondered and smiled and gave
consent to the heretic's burial—
"Since he gave his beard to the birds." (1881.)
Abdal-azis, the Moorish governor of Spain after the overthrow of king
Roderick. When the Moor assumed regal state and affected Gothic sovereignty,
his subjects were so offended that they revolted and murdered him. He married
Egilona, formerly the wife of Roderick.— Southey, Roderick, etc., xxii. (1814).
Ab'dalaz'iz (Omar ben), a caliph raised to "Mahomet's bosom" in reward of
his great abstinence and self-denial.—Herbelot, 690.
He was by no means scrupulous; nor did he think with the caliph Omar ben
Abdalaziz that it was necessary to make a hell of this world to enjoy paradise in
the next.—W. Beckford, Vathek (1786).
Abdal'dar, one of the magicians in the Domdaniel caverns, "under the roots
of the ocean." These spirits were destined to be destroyed by one of the race of
Hodei'rah (3 syl.), so they persecuted the race even to death. Only one survived,
named Thal'aba, and Abdaldar was appointed by lot to find him out and kill him.
He discovered the stripling in an Arab's tent, and while in prayer was about to
stab him to the heart with a dagger, when the angel of death breathed on him,
and he fell dead with the dagger in his hand. Thalaba drew from the magician's
finger a ring which gave him command over the spirits. —Southey, Thalaba the
Destroyer, ii. iii. (1797).
Abdalla, one of sir Brian de Bois Guilbert's slaves.—Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe
(time, Richard I.).
Abdal'lah, brother and predecessor of Giaf'fer (2 syl.), pacha of Aby'dos. He
was murdered by the pacha.—Byron, Bride of Abydos.
Abdallah el Hadgi, Saladin's envoy.—Sir W. Scott, The Talisman (time,
Richard I.). Abdals or Santons, a class of religionists who pretend to be inspired with the
most ravishing raptures of divine love. Regarded with great veneration by the
vulgar.—Olearius, i. 971.
Ab'diel, the faithful seraph who withstood Satan when he urged those under
him to revolt.
... the seraph Abdiel, faithful found;
Among the faithless faithful only he;
Among innumerable false, unmoved.
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal.
Milton, Paradise Lost, v. 896, etc. (1665).
Abelard and Eloise, unhappy lovers, whose illicit love was succeeded by
years of penitence and remorse. Abelard was the tutor of Heloise (or Eloise),
and, although vowed to the church, won and returned her passion. They were
violently separated by her uncle. Abelard entered a monastery and Eloise
became a nun. Their love survived the passage of years, and they were buried
together at Père la Chaise.—Eloise and Abelard. By Alexander Pope (16881744).
Abensberg (Count), the father of thirty-two children. When Heinrich II. made
his progress through Germany, and other courtiers presented their offerings, the
count brought forward his thirty-two children, "as the most valuable offering he
could make to his king and country."
Abes'sa, the impersonation of abbeys and convents in Spenser's Faëry Queen,
i. 3. She is the paramour of Kirkrapine, who used to rob churches and poorboxes, and bring his plunder to Abessa, daughter of Corceca (Blindness of
Heart).
Abigail, typical name of a maid.—See Beaumont and Fletcher, Swift,
Fielding, and many modern writers.
Abney, called Young Abney, the friend of colonel Albert Lee, a royalist.—Sir
W. Scott, Woodstock (time, the Commonwealth).
Abon Hassan, a young merchant of Bag dad, and hero of the tale called "The
Sleeper Awakened," in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. While Abon Hassan
is asleep he is conveyed to the palace of Haroun-al-Raschid, and the attendants are ordered to do everything they can to make him fancy himself the caliph. He
subsequently becomes the caliph's chief favorite.
Shakespeare, in the induction of Taming of the Shrew, befouls "Christopher
Sly" in a similar way, but Sly thinks it was "nothing but a dream."
Philippe le Bon, duke of Burgundy, on his marriage with Eleonora, tried the
same trick.—Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, ii. 2,4.
Abou Ben Adhem, "awakening one night from a deep dream of peace," sees
an angel writing the names of those who love the Lord. Ben Adhem's name is
registered as "one who loves his fellow-men." A second vision shows his name
at the head of the list.
Abou Ben Adhem. By Leigh Hunt (1784-1859).
Abra, the most beloved of Solomon's concubines.
Fruits their odor lost and meats their taste,
If gentle Abra had not decked the feast;
Dishonored did the sparkling goblet stand,
Unless received from gentle Abra's hand; ...
Nor could my soul approve the music's tone
Till all was hushed, and Abra sang alone.
M. Prior, Solomon (1664-1721).
Ab'radas, the great Macedonian pirate.
Abradas, the great Macedonian pirate, thought every one had a letter of mart
that bare sayles in the ocean.—Greene, Penelope's Web (1601).
Abroc'omas, the lover of An'thia in the Greek romance of Ephesi'aca, by
Xenophon of Ephesus (not the historian).
Ab'salom, in Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, is meant for the duke of
Monmouth, natural son of Charles II. (David). Like Absalom, the duke was
handsome; like Absalom, he was beloved and rebellious; and like Absalom, his
rebellion ended in his death (1649-1685).
Ab'solon, a priggish parish clerk in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. His hair was
curled, his shoes slashed, his hose red. He could let blood, cut hair, and shave,
could dance, and play either on the ribible or the gittern. This gay spark paid his
addresses to Mistress Alison, the young wife of John, a rich but aged carpenter: but Alison herself loved a poor scholar named Nicholas, a lodger in the house.
—The Miller's Tale (1388).
Absolute (Sir Anthony), a testy but warm-hearted old gentleman, who
imagines that he possesses a most angelic temper, and when he quarrels with his
son, the captain, fancies it is the son who is out of temper, and not himself.
Smollett's "Matthew Bramble" evidently suggested this character. William
Dowton (1764-1851) was the best actor of this part.
Captain Absolute, son of sir Anthony, in love with Lydia Languish, the
heiress, to whom he is known only as ensign Beverley. Bob Acres, his neighbor,
is his rival, and sends a challenge to the unknown ensign; but when he finds that
ensign Beverley is captain Absolute, he declines to fight, and resigns all further
claim to the lady's hand.—Sheridan, The Rivals (1775).
Absyrtus, brother of Medea and companion of her flight from Colchis. To
elude or delay her pursuers, she cut him into pieces and strewed the fragments in
the road, that her father might be detained by gathering up the remains of his
son.
Abu'dah, in the drama called The Siege of Damascus, by John Hughes (1720),
is the next in command to Caled in the Arabian army set down before Damascus.
Though undoubtedly brave, he prefers peace to war; and when, at the death of
Caled, he succeeds to the chief command, he makes peace with the Syrians on
honorable terms.
Abu'dah, in the Tales of the Genii, by H. Ridley, is a wealthy merchant of
Bag dad, who goes in quest of the talisman of Oroma'nes, which he is driven to
seek by a little old hag, who haunts him every night and makes his life wretched.
He finds at last that the talisman which is to free him of this hag [conscience] is
to "fear God and keep his commandments."
Acade'mus, an Attic hero, whose garden was selected by Plato for the place
of his lectures. Hence his disciples were called the "Academic sect."
The green retreats of Academus. Akenside, Pleasures of Imagination, i (17211770).
Acas'to (Lord), father of Seri'no, Casta'lio, and Polydore; and guardian of
Monimia "the orphan." He lived to see the death of his sons and his ward.
Polydore ran on his brother's sword, Castalio stabbed himself, and Monimia took poison.—Otway, The Orphan (1680).
Aces'tes (3 syl.). In a trial of skill, Acestes, the Sicilian, discharged his arrow
with such force that it took fire from the friction of the air.—The Æneid, Bk. V.
Like Acestes' shaft of old,
The swift thought kindles as it flies.
Longfellow, To a Child.
Achates [A-ka'-teze], called by Virgil "fidus Achates." The name has become
a synonym for a bosom friend, a crony, but is generally used laughingly.—The
Æneid.
He, like Achates, faithful to the tomb.
Byron, Don Juan, i. 159.
Acher'ia, the fox, went partnership with a bear in a bowl of: milk. Before the
bear arrived, the fox skimmed off the cream and drank the milk; then, filling the
bowl with mud, replaced the cream atop. Says the fox, "Here is the bowl; one
shall have the cream, and the other all the rest: choose, friend, which you like."
The bear told the fox to take the cream, and thus bruin had only the mud.—A
Basque Tale.
A similar tale occurs in Campbell's Popular Tales of the West Highlands (iii.
98), called "The Keg of Butter." The wolf chooses the bottom when "oats" were
the object of choice, and the top when "potatoes" were the sowing.
Rabelais tells the same tale about a farmer and the devil. Each was to have on
alternate years what grew under and over the soil. The farmer sowed turnips and
carrots when the under-soil produce came to his lot, and barley or wheat when
his turn was the over-soil produce.
Achille Grandissime, "A rather poor specimen of the Grandissime type,
deficient in stature, but not in stage manner."—The Grandissimes, by George W.
Cable (1880).
Achil'les (3 syl.), the hero of the allied Greek army in the siege of Troy, and
king of the Myr'midons.—See Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
The English Achilles, John Talbot, first earl of Shrewsbury (1373-1453). The duke of Wellington is so called sometimes, and is represented by a statue
of Achilles of gigantic size in Hyde Park, London, close to Apsley House (17691852).
The Achilles of Germany, Albert, elector of Brandenburg (1414-1486).
Achilles of Rome, Sicin'ius Denta'tus (put to death B.C. 450).
Achit'ophel, "Him who drew Achitophel," Dryden, author of the famous
political satire of Absalom and Achitophel. "David" is Charles II.; his rebellious
son "Absalom" is the king's natural son, the handsome but rebellious James duke
of Monmouth; and "Achitophel," the traitorous counsellor, is the earl of
Shaftesbury, "for close designs and crooked counsels fit."
Can sneer at him who drew Achitophel.
Byron, Don Juan, iii. 100.
There is a portrait of the first earl of Shaftesbury (Dryden's "Achitophel") as
lord chancellor of England, clad in ash-colored robes, because he had never been
called to the bar.—E. Yates, Celebrities, xviii.
A'cis, a Sicilian shepherd, loved by the nymph Galate'a. The monster
Polypheme (3 syl.), a Cyclops, was his rival, and crushed him under a huge rock.
The blood of Acis was changed into a river of the same name at the foot of
mount Etna.
Not such a pipe, good reader, as that which Acis did sweetly tune in praise of
his Galatea, but one of true Delft manufacture.—W. Irving (1783-1859).
Ack'land (Sir Thomas), a royalist.—Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, the
Commonwealth).
Ac'oe (3 syl.), "hearing," in the New Testament sense (Rom. x. 17), "Faith
cometh by hearing." The nurse of Fido [faith]. Her daughter is Meditation.
(Greek,, "hearing.")
With him [Faith] his nurse went, careful Acoë,
Whose hands first from his mother's womb
did take him,
And ever since have fostered tenderly.
Phin. Fletcher, The Purple Island, ix. (1633). Acras'ia, Intemperance personified. Spenser says she is an enchantress living
in the "Bower of Bliss," in "Wandering Island." She had the power of
transforming her lovers into monstrous shapes; but sir Guyon (temperance),
having caught her in a net an...
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