Drayton, Potyolbion, xii. (1612).

Alain, cousin of Eos, the artist's wife, in Desert Sands, by Harriet Prescott Spofford (1863).

Alar'con, king of Barca, who joined the armament of Egypt against the crusaders, but his men were only half armed.—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered (1575).

Alaric Cottin. Frederick the Great of Prussia was so called by Voltaire. "Alaric" because, like Alaric, he was a great warrior, and "Cottin" because, like Cottin, satirized by Boileau, he was a very indifferent poet.

Alas'co, alias DR. DEMETRIUS DOBOOBIE, an old astrologer, consulted by the earl of Leicester.—Sir W. Scott, Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).

Alas'nam (Prince Zeyn) possessed eight statues, each a single diamond on a gold pedestal, but had to go in search of a ninth, more valuable than them all. This ninth was a lady, the most beautiful and virtuous of women, "more precious than rubies," who became his wife.

One pure and perfect [woman] is ... like Alasnam's lady, worth them all.—Sir Walter Scott.

Alasnam's Mirror. When Alasnam was in search of his ninth statue, the king of the Genii gave him a test mirror, in which he was to look when he saw a beautiful girl; "if the glass remained pure and unsullied, the damsel would be the same, but if not, the damsel would not be wholly pure in body and in mind." This mirror was called "the touchstone of virtue."—Arabian Nights ("Prince Zeyn Alasnam").

Alas'tor, a surname of Zeus as "the Avenger." Or, in general, any deity or demon who avenges wrong done by man. Shelley wrote a poem, Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude.

Cicero says he meditated killing himself that he might become the Alastor of Augustus, whom he hated.—Plutarch, Cicero, etc. ("Parallel Lives.")

God Almighty mustered up an army of mice against the archbishop [Hatto], and sent them to persecute him as his furious Alastors.—Coryat, Crudities, 571.

Al'ban (St.) of Ver'ulam, hid his confessor, St. Am'phibal, and changing clothes with him, suffered death in his stead. This was during the frightful persecution of Maximia'nus Hercu'lius, general of Diocle'tian's army in Britain, when 1000 Christians fell at Lichfield.

Al'berick of Mortemar, the same as Theodorick the hermit of Engaddi, an exiled nobleman. He tells king Richard the history of his life, and tries to dissuade him from sending a letter of defiance to the archduke of Austria.—Sir W. Scott, The Talisman (time, Richard I.).

Al' berick, the squire of prince Richard, one of the sons of Henry II. of England.—Sir W. Scott, The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).

Albert, commander of the Britannia. Brave, liberal, and just, softened and refined by domestic ties and superior information. His ship was dashed against the projecting verge of Cape Colonna, the most southern point of Attica, and he perished in the sea because Rodmond (second in command) grasped one of his legs and could not be shaken off.

Falconer, The Shipwreck, i. 2 (1756).

Albert, father of Gertrude, patriarch and judge of Wyo'ming (called by Campbell Wy'oming). Both Albert and his daughter were shot by a mixed force of British and Indian troops, led by one Brandt, who made an attack on the settlement, put all the inhabitants to the sword, set fire to the fort, and destroyed all the houses.—Campbell, Gertrude of Wyoming (1809).

Albert, in Goethe's romance called The Sorrows of Werther, is meant for his friend Kestner. He is a young German farmer, who married Charlotte Buff (called "Lotte" in the novel), with whom Goethe was in love. Goethe represents himself under the name of Werther (q. v.).

Albert of Gei'erstein (Count), brother of Arnold Biederman, and president of the "Secret Tribunal." He sometimes appears as a "black priest of St. Paul's," and sometimes as the "monk of St. Victoire."—Sir W. Scott, Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).

Albertaz'zo married Alda, daughter of Otho, duke of Saxony. His sons were Ugo and Fulco. From this stem springs the Royal Family of England.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Albia'zar, an Arab chief, who joins the Egyptian armament against the crusaders.

A chief in rapine, not in knighthood bred. Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered, xvii. (1575).

Al'bion. In legendary history this word is variously accounted for. One derivation is from Albion, a giant, son of Neptune, its first discoverer, who ruled over the island for forty-four years.

Another derivation is Al'bia, eldest of the fifty daughters of Diocle'sian king of Syria. These fifty ladies all married on the same day, and all murdered their husbands on the wedding night. By way of punishment, they were cast adrift in a ship, unmanned, but the wind drove the vessel to our coast, where these Syrian damsels disembarked. Here they lived the rest of their lives, and married with the aborigines, "a lawless crew of devils." Milton mentions this legend, and naïvely adds, "it is too absurd and unconscionably gross to be believed." Its resemblance to the fifty daughters of Dan'aos is palpable.

Drayton, in his Polyolbion, says that Albion came from Rome, was "the first martyr of the land," and dying for the faith's sake, left his name to the country, where Offa subsequently reared to him "a rich and sumptuous shrine, with a monastery attached."—Song xvi.

Albion, king of Briton, when O'beron held his court in what is now called "Kensington Gardens." T. Tickell has a poem upon this subject.

Albion wars with Jove's Son. Albion, son of Neptune, wars with Her'culês, son of Jove. Neptune, dissatisfied with the share of his father's kingdom, awarded to him by Jupiter, aspired to dethrone his brother, but Hercules took his father's part, and Albion was discomfited.

M. Drayton, Polyolbion, iv. (1612).

Albo'rak, the animal brought by Gabriel to convey Mahomet to the seventh heaven. It had the face of a man, the cheeks of a horse, the wings of an eagle, and spoke with a human voice.

Albuma'zar, Arabian astronomer (776-885).

Alcestis or Alcestes, daughter of Pelias and wife of Admetus (q. v.) On his wedding-day Admetus neglected to offer sacrifice to Diana and was condemned to die, but Apollo induced the Fates to spare his life if he could find a voluntary substitute. His wife offered to give her life for his, and went away with death; but Hercules fought with Death and restored Alcestes to her husband. This story is the subject of a tragedy Alcestes, by Euripides. Milton alludes to the incident in one of his sonnets:

John Milton, Sonnet On his deceased Wife.

William Morris has made Alcestes the subject of one of the tales in his Earthly Paradise.

A variation of the story is found in Longfellow's The Golden Legend, Henry of Hoheneck when dying was promised his life if a maiden could be found who would give up her life for his. Elsie, the daughter of Gottlieb, a tenant-farmer of the prince offered herself as a sacrifice, and followed her lord to Sorrento to give herself up to Lucifer; but Henry heard of it, and, moved by gratitude, saved Elsie and made her his wife.

Alceste, the hero of Molière's comedy Le Misanthrope. He has a pure and noble mind that has been soured and disgusted by intercourse with the world. Courtesy he holds to be the vice of fops, and the manners of society mere hypocrisy. He courts Célmène, a coquette and her treatment of his love confirms his bad opinion of mankind.

Al'chemist (The), the last of the three great comedies of Ben Jonson (1610). The other two are Vol'pone (2 syl.), (1605), and The Silent Woman (1609). The object of The Alchemist is to ridicule the belief in the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life. The alchemist is "Subtle," a mere quack; and "sir Epicure Mammon" is the chief dupe, who supplies money, etc., for the "transmutation of metal." "Abel Drugger" a tobacconist, and "Dapper" a lawyer's clerk, are two other dupes. "Captain Face," alias "Jeremy," the house-servant of "Lovewit," and "Dol Common" are his allies. The whole thing is blown up by the unexpected return of "Lovewit."

Alcib'ades (5 syl.), the Athenian general. Being banished by the senate, he marches against the city, and the senate, being unable to offer resistance, open the gates to him (B.C. 450-404). This incident is introduced by Shakespeare in Timon of Athens.

Alcibi'ades' Tables represented a god or goddess outwardly, and a Sile'nus, or deformed piper, within. Erasmus has a "curious dissertation on these tables" (Adage, 667, edit. R. Stephens); hence emblematic of falsehood and dissimulation.

Wm. Browne, Britannia's Pastorals, i. (1613).

Alci'des, a name sometimes given to Hercules as the descendent of the hero Alcoeus through his son Amphitryon (q. v.) The name is applied to any valiant hero.

M. Drayton, Nymphidia (1563-1631).

Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI. act. iv. sc. 7 (1589).

Alci'na, Carnal Pleasure personified. In Bojardo's Orlando Innamorato she is a fairy, who carries off Astolfo. In Ariosto's Orlando Furioso she is a kind of Circê, whose garden is a scene of enchantment. Alcina enjoys her lovers for a season, and then converts them into trees, stones, wild beasts, and so on, as her fancy dictates.

Al'ciphron, or The Minute Philosopher, the title of a work by bishop Berkeley, so called from the name of the chief speaker, a freethinker. The object of this work is to expose the weakness of infidelity.

Al'ciphron, "the epicurean," the hero of T. Moore's romance entitled The Epicurean.

—Putnam's Magazine.

Alcme'na (in Molière, Alcmène), the wife of Amphitryon, general of the Theban army. While her husband is absent warring against the Telebo'ans, Jupiter assumes the form of Amphitryon; but Amphitryon himself returns home the next day, and great confusion arises between the false and true Amphitryon, which is augmented by Mercury, who personates Sos'ia, the slave of Amphitryon. By this amour of Jupiter, Alcmena becomes the mother of Her'culês. Plautus, Molière, and Dryden have all taken this plot for a comedy entitled Amphitryon.

Alcofri'bas, the name by which Rabelais was called, after he came out of the prince's mouth, where he resided for six months, taking toll of every morsel of food that the prince ate. Pantag'ruel gave "the merry fellow the lairdship of Salmigondin."—Rabelais, Pantagruel, ii. 32 (1533).

Al'colomb, "subduer of hearts," daughter of Abou Aibou of Damascus, and sister of Ganem. The caliph Haroun-al-Raschid, in a fit of jealousy, commanded Ganem to be put to death, and his mother and sister to do penance for three days in Damascus, and then to be banished from Syria. The two ladies came to Bag dad, and were taken in by the charitable syndic of the jewellers. When the jealous fit of the caliph was over he sent for the two exiles. Alcolomb he made his wife, and her mother he married to his vizier.—Arabian Nights ("Ganem, the Slave of Love ").

Alcy'on "the wofullest man alive," but once "the jolly shepherd swain that wont full merrily to pipe and dance," near where the Severn flows. One day he saw a lion's cub, and brought it up till it followed him about like a dog; but a cruel satyr shot it in mere wantonness. By the lion's cub he means Daphne, who died in her prime, and the cruel satyr is death. He said he hated everything—the heaven, the earth, fire, air, and sea, the day, the night; he hated to speak, to hear, to taste food, to see objects, to smell, to feel; he hated man and woman too, for his Daphne lived no longer. What became of this doleful shepherd the poet could never ween. Alcyon is sir Arthur Gorges.—Spencer, Daphnaida (in seven fyttes, 1590).

Spenser, Colin Clout's Come Home Again (1591).

Alcy'one or Halcyone (4 syl.), daughter of Aeolus, who, on hearing of her husband's death by shipwreck, threw herself into the sea, and was changed to a kingfisher. (See HALCYON DAYS.)

Aldabel'la, wife of Orlando, sister of Oliver, and daughter of Monodan'tês.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, etc. (1516).

Aldabella, a marchioness of Florence, very beautiful and fascinating, but arrogant and heartless. She used to give entertainments to the magnates of Florence, and Fazio was one who spent most of his time in her society. Bian'ca his wife, being jealous of the marchioness, accused him to the duke of being privy to the death of Bartoldo, and for this offence Fazio was executed. Bianca died broken-hearted, and Aldabella was condemned to spend the rest of her life in a nunnery.—Dean Milman, Fazio (a tragedy, 1815).

Alden (John), one of the sons of the Pilgrim fathers, in love with Priscilla, the beautiful puritan. Miles Standish, a bluff old soldier, wishing to marry Priscilla, asked John Alden to go and plead for him; but the maiden answered archly, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John!" Soon after this, Standish being reported killed by a poisoned arrow, John spoke for himself, and the maiden consented. Standish, however, was not killed, but only wounded; he made his reappearance at the wedding, where, seeing how matters stood, he accepted the situation with the good-natured remark:

Longfellow, Courtship of Miles Standish (1858).

Aldiborontephoscophornio [Al'diboron'te-fos'co-for'nio], a character in Chrononhotonthologos, by H. Carey.

(Sir Walter Scott used to call James Ballantyne, the printer, this nickname, from his pomposity and formality of speech.)

Al'diger, son of Buo'vo, of the house of Clarmont, brother of Malagi'gi and Vivian.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Al'dine (2 syl.), leader of the second squadron of Arabs which joined the Egyptian armament against the crusaders. Tasso says of the Arabs, "Their accents were female and their stature diminutive" (xvii.).—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered (1575).

Al'dingar (Sir), steward of queen Eleanor, wife of Henry II. He impeached the queen's fidelity, and agreed to prove his charge by single combat; but an angel (in the shape of a little child) established the queen's innocence. This is probably a blundering version of the story of Gunhilda and the emperor Henry.—Percy, Reliques, ii. 9.

Aldo, a Caledonian, was not invited by Fingal to his banquet on his return to Morven, after the overthrow of Swaran. To resent this affront, he went over to Fingal's avowed enemy, Erragon king of Sora (in Scandinavia), and here Lorma, the king's wife, fell in love with him. The guilty pair fled to Morven, which Erragon immediately invaded. Aldo fell in single combat with Erragon, Lorma died of grief, and Erragon was slain in battle by Graul, son of Morni.—Ossian ("The Battle of Lora").

Aldrick the Jesuit, confessor of Charlotte countess of Derby.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Aldrovand (Father), chaplain of sir Raymond Berenger, the old Norman warrior.—Sir W. Scott, The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).

Aldus, father of Al'adine (3 syl), the "lusty knight."—Spenser, Faëry Queen, vi. 3 (1596).

Alea, a warrior who invented dice at the siege of Troy; at least so Isidore of Seville says. Suidas ascribes the invention to Palamëdês.

Alea est ludus tabulae inventa a Graecis, in otio Trojani belli, a quodam milite, nomine ALEA, a quo et ars nomen accepit.—Isidorus, Orig. xviii. 57.

Alec'tryon, a youth set by Mars to guard against surprises, but he fell asleep, and Apollo thus surprised Mars and Venus in each others' embrace. Mars in anger changed the boy into a cock.

Alec Yeaton, the Gloucester skipper in T. B. Aldrich's ballad, Alec Yeaton's Son.

Ale'ria, one of the Amazons, and the best beloved of the ten wives of Guido the Savage.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Alessandro, husband of the Indian girl Ramona, in Helen Hunt Jackson's novel Ramona. The story of the young couple is a series of oppressions and deceits practised by U. S. officials (1884). Alessio, the young man with whom Lisa was living in concubinage, when Elvi'no promised to marry her. Elvino made the promise out of pique, because he thought Ami'na was not faithful to him, but when he discovered his error he returned to his first love, and left Lisa to marry Alessio, with whom she had been previously cohabiting.—Bellini's opera, La Sonnamlula (1831).

Ale'thes (3 syl.), an ambassador from Egypt to king Al'adine (3 syl.); subtle, false, deceitful, and full of wiles.—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered (1575).

Alexander Patoff, brother of the young Russian who figures most prominently in F. Marion Crawford's novel Paul Patoff. Alexander's mysterious disappearance in a mosque leads to suspicions involving his brother, even the mother of the two brothers accusing Paul of fratricide (1887).

Alex. Walton, physician and suitor of Margaret Kent in The Story of Margaret Kent, by Henry Hayes (Ellen Olney Kirke) (1886).

Alexander the Great, a tragedy by Nathaniel Lee (1678). In French we have a novel called Roman d'Alexandre, by Lambert-li-cors (twelfth century), and a tragedy by Racine (1665).

Alexander an Athlete. Alexander, being asked if he would run a course at the Olympic games, replied, "Yes, if my competitors are all kings."

The Albanian Alexander, George Castriot (Scanderbeg or Iscander beg, 1404-1467).

The Persian Alexander, Sandjar (1117-1158).

Alexander of the North, Charles XII. of Sweden (1682-1718).

Alexander deformed.

Pope, Prologue to the Satires, 117.

Alexander and Homer. When Alexander invaded Asia Minor, he offered up sacrifice to Priam, and then went to visit the tomb of Achilles. Here he exclaimed, "O most enviable of men, who had Homer to sing thy deeds!"

Which made the Eastern conqueror to cry,

Spenser, The Ruins of Time (1591).

Alexander and Parme'nio. When Darius, king of Persia, offered Alexander his daughter Stati'ra in marriage, with a dowry of 10,000 talents of gold, Parmenio said, "I would accept the offer, if I were Alexander." To this Alexander rejoined, "So would I, if I were Parmenio."

On another occasion the general thought the king somewhat too lavish in his gifts, whereupon Alexander made answer, "I consider not what Parmenio ought to receive, but what Alexander ought to give."

Alexander and Perdiccas. When Alexander started for Asia he divided his possessions among his friends. Perdiccas asked what he had left for himself. "Hope," said Alexander. "If hope is enough for Alexander," replied the friend, "it is enough for Perdiccas also;" and declined to accept anything.

Alexander and Raphael. Alexander encountered Raphael in a cave in the mountain of Kaf, and being asked what he was in search of, replied, "The water of immortality." Whereupon Raphael gave him a stone, and told him when he found another of the same weight he would gain his wish. "And how long," said Alexander, "have I to live?" The angel replied, "Till the heaven above thee and the earth beneath thee are of iron." Alexander now went forth and found a stone almost of the weight required, and in order to complete the balance, added a little earth; falling from his horse at Ghur he was laid in his armor on the ground, and his shield was set up over him to ward off the sun. Then understood he that he would gain immortality when, like the stone, he was buried in the earth, and that his hour was come, for the earth beneath him was iron, and his iron buckler was his vault of heaven above. So he died.

Alexander and the Robber. When Dion'idês, a pirate, was brought before Alexander, he exclaimed, "Vile brigand! How dare you infest the seas with your misdeeds?" "And you," replied the pirate, "by what right do you ravage the world? Because I have only one ship, I am called a brigand, but you who have a whole fleet are termed a conqueror." Alexander admired the man's boldness, and commanded him to be set at liberty.

Alexander's Beard, a smooth chin, or a very small beard. It is said that Alexander the Great had scarcely any beard at all.

G. Gascoigne, The Steele Glas (died 1577).

Alexander's Runner, Ladas.

Alexan'dra, daughter of Oronthea, queen of the Am'azons, and one of the ten wives of Elba'nio. It is from this person that the land of the Amazons was called Alexandra.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Alex'is, the wanton shepherd in The Faithful Shepherdess, a pastoral drama by John Fletcher (1610).

Alfa'der, the father of all the Asen (deities) of Scandinavia, creator and governor of the universe, patron of arts and magic, etc.

Alfonso, father of Leono'ra d'Este, and duke of Ferrara, Tasso the poet fell in love with Leonora. The duke confined him as a lunatic for seven years in the asylum of Santa Anna, but at the expiration of that period he was released through the intercession of Vincenzo Gonzago, duke of Mantua. Byron refers to this in his Childe Harold, iv. 36.

Alfonso XI of Castile, whose "favorite" was Leonora de Guzman.—Donizetti, La Favorita (an opera, 1842).

Alfon'so (Don), of Seville, a man of fifty and husband of donna Julia (twenty-seven years his junior), of whom he was jealous without cause.—Byron, Don Juan, i.

Alfon'so, in Walpole's tale called The Castle of Otranto, appears as an apparition in the moonlight, dilated to a gigantic form (1769).

Alfred as a Gleeman. Alfred, wishing to know the strength of the Danish camp, assumed the disguise of a minstrel, and stayed in the Danish camp for several days, amusing the soldiers with his harping and singing. After he had made himself master of all he required, he returned back to his own place.—William of Malmesbury (twelfth century).

William of Malmesbury tells a similar story of Anlaf, a Danish king, who, he says, just before the battle of Brunanburh, in Northumberland, entered the camp of king Athelstan as a gleeman, harp in hand; and so pleased was the English king that he gave him gold. Anlaf would not keep the gold, but buried it in the earth.

Algarsife (3 syl.), and Cam'ballo, sons of Cambuscan' king of Tartary, and Elfêta his wife. Algarsife married Theodora.

Chaucer, The Squire's Tale Al'gebar' ("the giant"). So the Arabians call the constellation Orion.

Al'i, cousin and son-in-law of Mahomet. The beauty of his eyes is proverbial in Persia. Ayn Hali ("eyes of Ali") is the highest compliment a Persian can pay to beauty.—Chardin.

Ali Baba, a poor Persian wood-carrier, who accidentally learns the magic words, "Open Sesamê!" "Shut Sesamê!" by which he gains entrance into a vast cavern, the repository of stolen wealth and the lair of forty thieves. He makes himself rich by plundering from these stores; and by the shrewd cunning of Morgiana, his female slave, the captain and his whole band of thieves are extirpated. In reward of these services, Ali Baba gives Morgiana her freedom, and marries her to his own son.—Arabian Nights ("Ali Baba or the Forty Thieves").

Al'ice (2 syl.), sister of Valentine, in Mons. Thomas, a comedy by Beaumont and Fletcher (1619).

Al'ice (2 syl.), foster-sister of Robert le Diable, and bride of Rambaldo, the Norman troubadour, in Meyerbeer's opera of Roberto il Diavolo. She comes to Palermo to place in the duke's hand his mother's "will," which he is enjoined not to read till he is a virtuous man. She is Robert's good genius, and when Bertram, the fiend, claims his soul as the price of his ill deeds, Alice, by reading the will, reclaims him.

Al'ice (2 syl.), the servant-girl of dame Whitecraft, wife of the innkeeper at Altringham.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Al'ice, the miller's daughter, a story of happy first love told in later years by an old man who had married the rustic beauty. He was a dreamy lad when he first loved Alice, and the passion roused him into manhood. (See ROSE.)—Tennyson, The Miller's Daughter.

Al'ice (The Lady), widow of Walter, knight of Avenel (2 syl).—Sir W. Scott, The Monastery (time, Elizabeth).

Al'ice [GRAY], called "Old Alice Gray," a quondam tenant of the lord of Ravenswood. Lucy Ashton visits her after the funeral of the old lord.—Sir W. Scott, Bride of Lammermoor (time, William III.).

Alice Munro, one of the sisters taken captive by Indians in Cooper's Last of the Mohicans (1821).

Alichi'no. a devil in Dante's Inferno.

Alicia gave her heart to Mosby, but married Arden for his position. As a wife, she played falsely with her husband, and even joined Mosby in a plot to murder him. Vacillating between love for Mosby and respect for Arden, she repents, and goes on sinning; wishes to get disentangled, but is overmastered by Mosby's stronger will. Alicia's passions impel her to evil, but her judgment accuses her and prompts her to the right course. She halts, and parleys with sin, like Balaam, and of course is lost. —Anon., Arden of Feversham (1592).

Alic'ia, "a laughing, toying, wheedling, whimpering she," who once held lord Hastings under her distaff, but her annoying jealousy, "vexatious days, and jarring, joyless nights," drove him away from her. Being jealous of Jane Shore, she accused her to the duke of Gloster of alluring lord Hastings from his allegiance, and the lord protector soon trumped up a charge against both; the lord chamberlain he ordered to execution for treason, and Jane Shore he persecuted for witchcraft. Alicia goes raving mad.—Rowe, Jane Shore (1713).

Alic'ia (The lady), daughter of lord Waldemar Fitzurse.—Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).

Alick [POLWORTH], one of the servants of Waverley.—Sir W. Scott, Waverley (time, George II.).

Alifan'faron, emperor of the island Trap'oban, a Mahometan, the suitor of Pentap'olin's daughter, a Christian. Pentapolin refused to sanction this alliance, and the emperor raised a vast army to enforce his suit. This is don Quixote's solution of two flocks of sheep coming in opposite directions, which he told Sancho were the armies of Alifanfaron and Pentapolin.—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. iii. 4 (1605).

Ajax the Greater had a similar encounter. (See AJAX.)

Alin'da, daughter of Alphonso, an irascible old lord of Sego'via.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Pilgrim (1621).

(Alinda is the name assumed by young Archas when he dresses in woman's attire. This young man is the son of general Archas, "the loyal subject" of the great duke of Moscovia, in the drama by Beaumont and Fletcher, called The Loyal Subject, 1618.)

Aliprando, a Christian knight, who discovered the armor of Rinaldo, and took it to Godfrey. Both inferred that Rinaldo had been slain, but were mistaken.—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered (1575).

Al'iris, sultan of Lower Buchar'ia, who, under the assumed name of Fer'amorz, accompanies Lalla Rookh from Delhi, on her way to be married to the sultan. He wins her love, and amuses the tedium of the journey by telling her tales. When introduced to the sultan, her joy is unbounded on discovering that Feramorz the poet, who has won her heart, is the sultan to whom she is betrothed.—T. Moore, Lalla Rookh.

Alisaunder (Sir), surnamed LORFELIN, son of the good prince Boudwine and his wife An'glides (3 syl.). Sir Mark, king of Cornwall, murdered sir Boudwine, who was his brother, while Alisaunder was a mere child. When Alisaunder was knighted, his mother gave him his father's doublet, "bebled with old blood," and charged him to revenge his father's death. Alisaunder married Alis la Beale Pilgrim, and had one son called Bellen'gerus le Beuse. Instead of fulfilling his mother's charge, he was himself "falsely and feloniously slain" by king Mark.—Sir T. Malory, History of King Arthur, ii. 119-125 (1470).

Al'ison, the young wife of John, a rich old miserly carpenter. Absolon, a priggish parish clerk, paid her attention, but she herself loved a poor scholar named Nicholas, lodging in her husband's house. Fair she was, and her body lithe as a weasel. She had a rouguish eye, small eyebrows, was "long as a mast and upright as a bolt," more "pleasant to look on than a flowering pear tree," and her skin "was softer than the wool of a wether."—Chaucer, "The Miller's Tale," Canterbury Tales, (1388).

Al'ison, in sir W. Scott's Kenilworth, is an old domestic in the service of the earl of Leicester at Cumnor Place.

Al'ken, an old shepherd, who instructs Robin Hood's men how to find a witch, and how she is to be hunted.—Ben Jonson, The Sad Shepherd (1637).

All's Well that Ends Well, a comedy by Shakespeare (1598). The hero and heroine are Bertram of Rousillon, and Hel'ena a physician's daughter, who are married by the command of the king of France, but part because Bertram thought the lady not sufficiently well-born for him. Ultimately, however, all ends well.—(See HELENA.)

The story of this play is from Painter's Gilletta of Narbon.

All the Talents Administration, formed by lord Grenville, in 1806, on the death of William Pitt. The members were lord Grenville, the earl Fitzwilliam, viscount Sidmouth, Charles James Fox, earl Spencer, William Windham, lord Erskine, sir Charles Grey, lord Minto, lord Auckland, lord Moira, Sheridan, Richard Fitzpatrick, and lord Ellenborough. It was dissolved in 1807.

Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.

Allan, lord of Ravenswood, a decayed Scotch nobleman.—Sir W. Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor (time, William III.).

Al'lan (Mrs.), colonel Mannering's housekeeper at Woodburne.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Al'lan [Breck Cameron], the sergeant sent to arrest Hamish Bean McTavish, by whom he is shot. Sir W. Scott, The Highland Widow (time, George II.).

Allan-a-Dale, one of Robin Hood's men, introduced by sir W. Scott in Ivanhoe. (See ALLIN-A-DALE.)

Allan Quartermain, hunter and traveller whose adventures are recorded in She, King Solomon's Mines, and Allan Quartermain, by W. Rider Haggard (1886-1891).

Alle'gre (3 syl.), the faithful servant of Philip Chabot. When Chabot was accused of treason, Allegre was put to the rack to make him confess something to his master's damage, but the brave fellow was true as steel, and it was afterwards shown that the accusation had no foundation but jealousy.—G. Chapman and J. Shirley, The Tragedy of Philip Chabot.

Allen (Ralph), the friend of Pope, and benefactor of Fielding.