Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 21

The first that ever told Christ crucified to us, By Paul and Peter sent, just Aristob'ulus ...

By the Britons murdered was.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xxiv. (1622).

ARISTOM'ENES (5 _syl_.), a young Messenian of the royal line, the "Cid" of ancient Messe'nia. On one occasion he entered Sparta by night to suspend a s.h.i.+eld from the temple of Pallas. On the s.h.i.+eld were inscribed these words: "Aristomenes from the Spartan spoils dedicates this to the G.o.ddess."

[Ill.u.s.tration] A similar tale is told of Fernando Perez del Pulgar, when serving under Ferdinand of Castile at the siege of Grana'da. With fifteen companions he entered Granada, then in the power of the Moors, and nailed to the door of the princ.i.p.al mosque with his dagger a tablet inscribed "Ave Maria!" then galloped back, before the guards recovered from their amazement.--Was.h.i.+ngton Irving, _Conquest of Granada_, 91.

ARISTOPH'ANES (5 _syl_.), a Greek who wrote fifty-four comedies, eleven of which have survived to the present day (B.C. 444-380). He is called "The Prince of Ancient Comedy," and Menander "The Prince of New Comedy" (B.C. 342-291).

_The English_ or _Modern Aristophanes_, Samuel Foote (1722-1777).

_The French Aristophanes_, J. Baptiste Poquelin de Moliere (1622-1673).

ARISTOTLE. The mistress of this philosopher was Hepyllis; of Plato, Archiona.s.sa; and of Epicurus, Leontium.

_Aristotle of China_, Tehuhe, who died A.D. 1200, called "The Prince of Science."

_Aristotle of Christianity_, Thomas Aqui'nas, who tried to reduce the doctrines of faith to syllogistic formulae (1224-1274).

_Aristotle of the Nineteenth Century_, George Cuvier, the naturalist (1769-1832).

AR'ISTOTLE IN LOVE. G.o.dfrey Gobilyve told sir Graunde Amoure that Aristotle the philosopher was once in love, and the lady promised to listen to his prayer if he would grant her request. The terms being readily accepted, she commanded him to go on all fours, and then, putting a bridle into his mouth, mounted on his back, and drove him about the room till he was so angry, weary, and disgusted, that he was quite cured of his foolish attachment.--Stephen Hawes, _The Pastime of Plesure_, xxix. (1555).

ARMADALE (_Allan_), bluff young Englishman, devoted to the sea and s.h.i.+p-building, and p.r.o.ne to fall in love. He is betrothed, first to Miss Milroy, a winning la.s.s of sixteen, then to Miss Gwilt, her governess, again and lastly to Miss Milroy, whom he marries.--Wilkie Collins, _Armadale_.

ARMADO (_Don Adriano de_), a pompous, affected Spaniard, called "a refined traveller, in all the world's new fas.h.i.+on planted, that had a mint of phrases in his brain. One whom the music of his own vain tongue did ravish." This man was chosen by Ferdinand, the king of Navarre, when he resolved to spend three years in study with three companions, to relate in the interim of his studies "in high-born words the worth of many a knight from tawny Spain lost in the world's debate."

His humor is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behavior vain, ridiculous, and thrasonical.... He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.--Shakespeare, _Love's Labor's Lost_, act v. sc. 1 (1594).

ARMANDE (2 _syl_.), daughter of Chrysale (2 _syl_.), and sister of Henriette. Armande is a _femme savante_, and Henriette a "thorough woman." Both love c.l.i.tandre, but Armande loves him platonically, while Henriette loves him with womanly affection. c.l.i.tandre prefers the younger sister, and after surmounting the usual obstacles, marries her.--Moliere, _Les Femmes Savantes_ (1672).

ARMI'DA, a sorceress, who seduces Rinaldo and other crusaders from the siege of Jerusalem. Rinaldo is conducted by her to her splendid palace, where he forgets his vows, and abandons himself to sensual joys. Carlo and Ubaldo are sent to bring him back, and he escapes from Armida; but she follows him, and not being able to allure him back again, sets fire to her palace, rushes into the midst of the fight, and is slain.

[Julia's] small hand Withdrew itself from his, but left behind A little pressure ... but ne'er magician's wand Wrought change with, all Armida's fairy art, Like what this light touch left on Juan's heart.

Byron, _Don Juan_, i. 71.

When the young queen of Frederick William of Prussia rode about in military costume to incite the Prussians to arms against Napoleon, the latter wittily said, "She is Armida in her distraction setting fire to her own palace."

(Both Gluck and Rossini have taken the story of Armida as the subject of an opera.)

_Armida's Girdle_. Armida had an enchanted girdle, which, "in price and beauty," surpa.s.sed all her other ornaments; even the cestus of Venus was less costly. It told her everything; "and when she would be loved, she wore the same."--Ta.s.so, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

ARM'STRONG (_John_), called "The Laird's Jock." He is the laird of Mangerton. This old warrior witnesses a national combat in the valley of Liddesdale, between his son (the Scotch chieftain) and Foster (the English champion), in which young Armstrong is overthrown.--Sir W.

Scott, _The Laird's Jock_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Armstrong (Grace)_, the bride-elect of Hobbie Elliot of the heugh-foot, a young farmer.--Sir W. Scott, _The Black Dwarf_ (time, Anne).

_Armstrong (Archie)_, court jester to James I., introduced in _The Fortunes of Nigel_, by Sir Walter Scott (1822).

AR'NAUT, an Albanian mountaineer. The word means "a brave man."

Stained with the best of Arnaut blood. Byron, _The Giaour_, 526.

ARNHEIM (2 _syl.). The baron Herman von Arnheim_, Anne of Geierstein's grandfather.

_Sibilla of Arnheim_, Anne's mother.

_The baroness of Arnheim_, Anne of Geierstein.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

ARNOLD, the deformed son of Bertha, who hates him for his ugliness.

Weary of life, he is about to make away with himself, when a stranger accosts him, and promises to transform him into any shape he likes best. He chooses that of Achilles, and then goes to Rome, where he joins the besieging army of Bourbon. During the siege, Arnold enters St. Peter's of Rome just in time to rescue Olimpia, but the proud beauty, to prevent being taken captive by him, flings herself from the high altar on the pavement, and is taken up apparently lifeless. As the drama was never completed, the sequel is not known.--Byron, _The Deformed Transformed_.

_Ar'nold_, the torch-bearer at Rotherwood.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

_Ar'nold_ of Benthuysen, disguised as a beggar, and called "Ginks."--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Beggar's Bush_ (1622).

ARNOLD BRINKWORTH, frank, whole-souled sailor, in love with and betrothed to Blanche Lundie. Through his friends.h.i.+p for the man who has betrayed Anne Silvestre, and desire to serve the hapless woman, he is the bearer of a message to her from _Geoffrey Delamayne_, and is mistaken for her husband. Through this blunder he finds himself married by Scotch law to Anne, while he is engaged to Blanche.--Wilkie Collins, _Man and Wife_.

ARNOL'DO, son of Melchtal, patriot of the forest cantons of Switzerland. He was in love with Mathilde (3 _syl._), sister of Gessler, the Austrian governor of the district. When the tyranny of Gessler drove the Swiss into rebellion, Arnoldo joined the insurgents, but after the death of Gessler he married Mathilde, whose life he had saved when it was imperilled by an avalanche.--Rossini, _Guglielmo Tell_ (1829).

_Arnol'do_, a gentleman contracted to Zeno'cia, a chaste lady, dishonorably pursued by the governor, count Clodio.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Custom of the Country_ (1647).

AR'NOLPHE (2 _syl._), a man of wealth, who has a crotchet about the proper training of girls to make good wives, and tries his scheme on Agnes, whom he adopts from a peasant's hut, and intends in time to make his wife. She is brought up, from the age of four years, in a country convent, where difference of s.e.x and the conventions of society are wholly ignored; but when removed from the convent Agnes treats men like school-girls, nods to them familiarly, kisses them, and plays with them. Being told by her guardian that married women have more freedom than maidens, she asks him to marry her; however, a young man named Horace falls in love with her, and makes her his wife, so Arnolphe, after all, profits nothing by his pains.--Moliere, _L'ecole des Femmes_ (1662).

Dans un pet.i.t couvent loin de toute pratique Je le fis elever selon ma politique C'est-a-dire, ordonnant quels soins on emploieroit Pour le rendre idiote autant qu'il se pourroit.

Act i. I.

AR'NOT (_Andrew_), one of the yeomen of the Balafre [Ludovic Lesly].--Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).

ARON'TEUS (4 _syl._), an Asiatic king, who joined the Egyptian armament against the crusaders.--Ta.s.so, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

ARPA'SIA, the betrothed of Mone'ses, a Greek, but made by constraint the bride of Baj'azet sultan of Turkey. Bajazet commanded Moneses to be bow-strung in the presence of Arpasia, to frighten her into subjection, but she died at the sight.--N. Eowe, _Tamerlane_ (1702).

AR'ROT, the weasel in the beast-epic of _Reynard the Fox_ (1498).

ARROW-HEAD, Indian warrior in Cooper's _Pathfinder_, the husband of Dew-in-June (1840).

ARROW-MAKER, father of Minnehaha, in Longfellow's _Hiawatha_ (1855).

AR'SACES (3 _syl._), the patronymic name of the Persian kings, from Arsaces, their great monarch. It was generally added to some distinctive name or appellation, as the Roman emperors added the name of Caesar to their own.

Cujus memoriae hunc honorem Parthi tribuerunt ut omnes exinde reges suos Arsacis nomine nuncupent.--Justin, _Historiarae Philippicae_, xli.

a.r.s.e'TES (3 _syl._), the aged eunuch who brought up Clorinda, and attended on her.--Ta.s.so, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

ARSINOe, prude in Moliere's comedy _Le Misanthrope_.