Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 119

EL'OPS. There was a fish so-called, but Milton uses the word (_Paradise Lost_, x. 525) for the dumb serpent or serpent which gives no warning of its approach by hissing or otherwise. (Greek, _ellops_, "mute or dumb.")

ELOQUENCE (_The Four Monarchs of_): (1) Demonsthenes, the Greek orator (B.C. 385-322); (2) Cicero, the Roman orator (B.C. 106-43); (3) Burke, the English orator (1730-1797); (4) Webster, the American orator (1782-1852).

ELOQUENT (_That old Man_), Isoc'rates, the Greek orator. When he heard that the battle of Chaerone'a was lost, and that Greece was no longer free, he died of grief.

That dishonest victory At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty, Killed with report that Old Man Eloquent.

Milton, _Sonnet_ ix.

In the United States the term was freely applied to John Quincy Adams, in the latter years of his life.

ELOQUENT DOCTOR (_The_), Peter Aurelolus, archbishop of Aix (fourteenth century).

ELPI'NUS, Hope personified. He was "clad in sky-like blue" and the motto of his s.h.i.+eld was "I hold by being held." He went attended by Pollic'ita (_promise_). Fully described in canto ix. (Greek, _elpis_, "hope.")--Phineas Fletcher, _The Purple Island_ (1633).

ELSA. German maiden, accused of having killed her little brother.

At her trial a knight appears, drawn by a swan, champions her and vanquishes her accuser. Elsa weds him (Lohengrin) promising never to ask of his country or family. She breaks the vow; the swan appears and bears him away from her.--_Lohengrin_ Opera, by Richard Wagner.

ELSHENDER THE RECLUSE, called "the Canny Els.h.i.+e" or the "Wise Wight of Mucklestane Moor." This is "the black dwarf," or Sir Edward Mauley, the hero of the novel.--Sir W. Scott, _The Black Dwarf_ (time Anne).

ELSIE, the daughter of Gottlieb, a cottage farmer of Bavaria. Prince Henry of Hoheneck, being struck with leprosy, was told he would never be cured till a maiden chaste and spotless offered to give her life in sacrifice for him. Elsie volunteered to die for the prince, and he accompanied her to Salerno; but either the exercise, the excitement, or some charm, no matter what, had quite cured the prince, and when he entered the cathedral with Elsie, it was to make her Lady Alicia, his bride.--Hartmann von der Aue, _Poor Henry_ (twelfth century); Longfellow, _Golden Legend_.

[Ill.u.s.tration] Alcestis, daughter of Pelias and wife of Admetos died instead of her husband, but was brought back by Hercules from the shades below, and restored to her husband.

_Elsie (Venner)_, a girl marked before her birth as one apart from her kind. Her mother, treading upon a rattle-snake near her door, leaves the imprint of the loathsome thing upon the child. She is a "splendid scowling beauty" with glittering black eyes. When angry, they are narrowed and gleam like diamonds, and "charm" after an unhuman fas.h.i.+on. She bit her cousin when a child, and the wound had to be cauterized. She is wild almost to savagery and she falls in love with her tutor savagely for awhile, afterward loves him hopelessly. She dies of a strange decline, and the ugly mark about her throat that obliges her always to wear a necklace has faded out.--Oliver Wendell Holmes, _Elsie Venner_ (1861).

ELSMERE (_Robert_), hero of religious novel of same name, by Mrs.

Humphrey Ward.

ELSPETH (_Auld_), the old servant of Dandie Dinmont, the store-farmer of Charlie's Hope.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time George II.).

_Elspeth (Old)_ of the Craigburnfoot, the mother of Saunders Muckelbacket (the old fisherman at Musselcrag), and formerly servant to the countess of Glenallan.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time George III.).

ELVI'NO, a wealthy farmer in love with Ami'na the somnambulist.

Amina being found in the bedroom of Conte Rodolfo the day before her wedding, induces Elvino to break off the match and promise marriage to Lisa; but as the truth of the matter breaks upon him, and he is convinced of Amina's innocence, he turns over Lisa to Alessio, her paramour, and marries Amina, his first and only love.--Bellini's opera, _La Sonnambula_ (1831).

ELVI'RA, sister of Don Duart, and niece of the governor of Lisbon.

She marries Coldio, the c.o.xcomb son of Don Antonio.--C. Cibber, _Love Makes a Man_.

_Elvi'ra_, the young wife of Gomez, a rich old banker. She carries on a liaison with Colonel Lorenzo, by the aid of her father-confessor Dominick, but is always checkmated, and it turns out that Lorenzo is her brother.--Dryden, _The Spanish Fryar_ (1680).

_Elvi'ra_, a n.o.ble lady who gives up everything to become the mistress of Pizarro. She tries to soften his rude and cruel nature, and to lead him into more generous ways. Her love being changed to hate, she engages Rollo to slay Pizarro in his tent; but the n.o.ble Peruvian spares his enemy, and makes him a friend. Ultimately, Pizarro is slain in fight with Alonzo, and Elvira retires to a convent.--Sheridan, _Pizarro_ (altered from Kotzebue, 1799).

_Elvi'ra (Donna)_, a lady deceived by Don Giovanni, who basely deluded her into an amour with his valet Leporello.--Mozart's opera, _Don Giovanni_ (1787).

_Elvi'ra_ "the puritan," daughter of Lord Walton, betrothed to Arturo (_Lord Arthur Talbot_), a calvalier. On the day of espousals the young man aids Enrichetta (_Henrietta, widow of Charles I._) to escape, and Elvira, thinking he had eloped with a rival, temporarily loses her reason. Cromwell's soldiers arrest Arturo for treason, but he is subsequently pardoned, and marries Elvira.--Bellini's opera, _I Puritani_ (1834).

_Elvi'ra_, a lady in love with Erna'ni the robber-captain and head of a league against Don Carlos (afterwards Charles V. of Spain). Ernani was just on the point of marrying Elvira, when he was summoned to death by Gomez de Silva, and stabbed himself.--Verdi, _Ernani_ (an opera, 1841).

_Elvi'ra_, betrothed to Alfonso (son of the Duke d'Arcos). No sooner is the marriage completed than she learns that Alfonso has seduced Fenella, a dumb girl, sister of Masaniello the fisherman. Masaniello, to revenge his wrongs, heads an insurrection, and Alfonso with Elvira run for safety to the fisherman's hut, where they find Fenella, who promises to protect them. Masaniello, being made chief magistrate of Por'tici, is killed by the mob; Fenella throws herself into the crater of Vesuvius; and Alfonso is left to live in peace with Elvira.--Auber, _Masaniello_ (1831).

ELVIRE (_2 syl._), the wife of Don Juan, whom he abandons. She enters a convent, and tries to reclaim her profligate husband, but without success.--Moliere, _Don Juan_ (1665).

ELY (_Bishop of_), introduced by Sir W. Scott in the _Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

EMATH'IAN CONQUEROR (_The Great_), Alexander the Great. Emathia is Macedonia and Thessaly. Emathion, a son of t.i.tan and Aurora, reigned in Macedonia. Pliny tells us that Alexander, when he besieged Thebes, spared the house in which Pindar the poet was born, out of reverence to his great abilities.

EMBLA, the woman Eve of Scandinavian mythology. Eve or Embla was made of elm, but Ask or Adam was made of ash.

EM'ELIE or EMELYE, sister-in-law of Duke Theseus (_2 syl._), beloved by both Pal'amon and Ar'cite (_2 syl._), but the former had her to wife.

Emelie that fairer was to scene Than is the lilie on hire stalke grene, And fresscher than the May with floures newe.

Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ ("The Knight's Tale," 1388).

EMERAL'DER, an Irishman, one of the Emerald Isle.

EMER'ITA (_St_.), who, when her brother abdicated the British crown, accompanied him to Switzerland, and shared with him there a martyr's death.

Emerita the next, King Lucius' sister dear, Who in Helvetia with her martyr brother died.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xxiv. (1622).

EMILE (_2 syl._), the chief character of a philosophical romance on education by Jean Jacques Rousseau (1762). Emile is the author's ideal of a young man perfectly educated, every bias but that of nature having been carefully withheld.

N.B.--Emile is the French form of Emilius.

His body is inured to fatigue, as Rousseau advises in his _Emilius_.--_Continuation of The Arabian Nights_, iv. 69.

EMIL'IA, wife of Iago, the ancient of Oth.e.l.lo in the Venetian army.

She is induced by Iago to purloin a certain handkerchief given by Oth.e.l.lo to Desdemona. Iago then prevails on Oth.e.l.lo to ask his wife to show him the handkerchief, but she cannot find it, and Iago tells the Moor she has given it to Ca.s.sio as a love-token. At the death of Desdemona, Emilia (who till then never suspected the real state of the case) reveals the truth of the matter, and Iago rushes on her and kills her.--Shakespeare, _Oth.e.l.lo_ (1611).

The virtue of Emilia is such as we often find, worn loosely, but not cast off; easy to commit small crimes, but quickened and alarmed at atrocious villainies.--Dr. Johnson.

_Emil'ia_, the lady who attended on Queen Hermi'one in prison.--Shakespeare, _The Winter's Tale_ (1604).

_Emilia_, the lady-love of Peregrine Pickle, in Smollett's novel called _The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle_ (1751).

_Emilia_ Galotti. Beautiful daughter of Odoardo, an Italian n.o.ble. She is affianced to Count Appiani, and beloved by the Prince Guastalla, who causes her lover's death on their wedding-day. To save her from the prince, Odoardo stabs Emilia.--G.E. Lessing, _Emilia Galotti_.

EMILY, the _fiancee_ of Colonel Tamper. Duty called away the colonel to Havana, and on his return he pretended to have lost one eye and one leg in the war, in order to see if Emily would love him still. Emily was greatly shocked, and Mr. Prattle the medical pract.i.tioner was sent for. Amongst other gossip, Mr. Prattle told his patient he had seen the colonel who looked remarkably well, and most certainly was maimed neither in his legs nor in his eyes. Emily now saw through the trick, and resolved to turn the tables on the colonel. For this end she induced Mdlle. Florival to appear _en militaire_, under the a.s.sumed name of Captain Johnson, and to make desperate love to her. When the colonel had been thoroughly roasted and was about to quit the house forever, his friend Major Belford entered and recognized Mdlle. as his _fiancee_; the trick was discovered, and all ended happily.--G.

Colman, sen., _The Deuce is in Him_ (1762).

EMIR OR AMEER, a t.i.tle given to lieutenants of provinces and other officers of the sultan, and occasionally a.s.sumed by the sultan himself. The sultan is not unfrequently call "The Great Ameer," and the Ottoman empire is sometimes spoken of as "the country of the Great Ameer." What Matthew Paris and other monks call "ammirals" is the same word. Milton speaks of the "mast of some tall ammiral" (_Paradise Lost_, i. 294).

The difference between _xariff_ or _sariff_ and _amir_ is this: the former is given to the _blood_ successors of Mahomet, and the latter to those who maintain his religious faith.--Selden, _t.i.tles of Honor_, vi. 73-4 (1672).

EM'LY _(Little)_, daughter of Tom, the brother-in-law of Dan'el Peggotty, a Yarmouth fisherman, by whom the orphan child was brought up. While engaged to Ham Peggotty (Dan'el's nephew) little Em'ly runs away with Steerforth, a handsome but unprincipled gentleman. Being subsequently reclaimed, she emigrates to Australia with Dan'el Peggotty and old Mrs. Gummidge.--C. d.i.c.kens, _David Copperfield_ (1849).