Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 35

"No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace Wrap my cold limbs and shade my lifeless face; One would not, sure, be frightful when one's dead!

And, Betty, give this cheek a little red."

Pope, _Moral Essays_, i. (1731).

=Narcisse=, an airy young Creole. He has boundless faith in himself, and a Micawberish confidence in the future. He would like to be called "Papillon," the b.u.t.terfly; "'Cause tha.s.s my natu'e! I gatheth honey eve'y day fum eve'y opening floweh, as the bahd of Avon wemawked."--George W. Cable, _Dr. Sevier_ (1883).

=Narcissus=, a flower. According to Grecian fable, Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection in a fountain, and, having pined away because he could not kiss it, was changed into the flower which bears his name.--Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, iii. 346, etc.

Echo was in love with Narcissus, and died of grief because he would not return her love.

Narcissus fair, As o'er the fabled fountain hanging still.

Thomson, _Seasons_ ("Spring," 1728).

? Gluck, in 1779, produced an opera called _Echo et Narcisse_.

=Narren-Schiff= ("_The s.h.i.+p of fools_"), a satirical poem, in German, by Brandt (1491), las.h.i.+ng the follies and vices of the period. Brandt makes knowledge of one's self the beginning of wisdom; maintains the equality of man; and speaks of life as a brief pa.s.sage only. The book at one time enjoyed unbounded popularity.

=Na.r.s.es= (2 _syl._), a Roman general against the Goths; the terror of children.

The name of Na.r.s.es was the formidable sound with which the a.s.syrian mothers were accustomed to terrify their infants.--Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, viii. 219 (1776-88).

_Na.r.s.es_, a domestic slave of Alexius Comnenus, emperor of Greece.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

=Naso=, Ovid, the Roman poet, whose full name was Publius Ovidius Naso.

(_Naso_ means "nose.") Hence the pun of Holofernes:

And why Naso, but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy?--Shakespeare, _Love's Labor's Lost_, act iv. sc. 2 (1594).

=Nathan the Wise=, a prudent and wealthy old Jew who lives near Jerusalem in the time of Saladin. The play is a species of argument for religious toleration.--G. E. Lessing, _Nathan der Weise_ (1778).

=Nathaniel= (_Sir_), the grotesque curate of Holofernes.--Shakespeare, _Love's Labor's Lost_ (1594).

=Nathos=, one of the three sons of Usnoth, lord of Etha (in Argylls.h.i.+re), made commander of the Irish army at the death of Cuthullin. For a time he propped up the fortune of the youthful Cormac, but the rebel Cairbar increased in strength and found means to murder the young king. The army under Nathos then deserted to the usurper, and Nathos, with his two brothers, was obliged to quit Ireland. Dar'-Thula, the daughter of Colla, went with them to avoid Cairbar, who persisted in offering her his love. The wind drove the vessel back to Ulster, where Cairbar lay encamped, and the three young men, being overpowered, were slain. As for Dar-Thula, she was pierced with an arrow, and died also.--Ossian, _Dar-Thula_.

=Nation of Gentlemen.= The Scotch were so called by George IV., when he visited Scotland in 1822.

=Nation of Shopkeepers.= The English were so called by Napoleon I.

=National a.s.sembly.= (1) The French deputies which met in the year 1789.

The states-general was convened, but the clergy and n.o.bles refused to sit in the same chamber with the commons, so the commons or deputies of the _tiers etat_ withdrew, const.i.tuted themselves into a deliberative body, and a.s.sumed the name of the _a.s.semblee Nationale_. (2) The democratic French parliament of 1848, consisting of 900 members elected by manhood suffrage, was so called also.

=National Convention=, the French parliament of 1792. It consisted of 721 members, but was reduced, first to 500, then to 300. It succeeded the National a.s.sembly.

=Natty b.u.mpo=, called "Leather-stocking." He appears in five of F.

Cooper's novels: (1) _The Deerslayer_; (2) _The Pathfinder_; (3) "Hawkeye" in _The Last of the Mohicans_; (4) "Natty b.u.mpo," in _The Pioneer_; and (5) "The Trapper," in _The Prairie_, in which he dies.

=Nausic'aa= (4 _syl._), daughter of Alcinous, king of the Pha'cians, who conducted Ulysses to the court of her father when he was s.h.i.+pwrecked on the coast.

=Navigation= (_The Father of_), Don Henrique, duke of Viseo, the greatest man that Portugal has produced (1394-1460).

_Navigation_ (_The Father of British Inland_), Francis Egerton, duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803).

=Neaera=, a name used by Horace, Virgil, Tibullus, and Milton as a synonym of sweetheart.

To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, Or with the tangles of Neaera's hair.

Milton, _Lycidas_ (1638).

=Neal'liny= (4 _syl._), a suttee, the young widow of Ar'valan, son of Keha'ma.--Southey, _Curse of Kehama_, i. 11 (1809).

=Nebuchadnezzar= [_Ne-boch-ad-ne-Tzar_], in Russian, means "there is no G.o.d but the Czar."--M. D., _Notes and Queries_ (21st July, 1877).

=Neck.= Calig'ula, the Roman emperor used to say, "Oh that the Roman people had but one neck, that I might cut it off at a blow!"

I love the s.e.x, and sometimes would reverse The tyrant's wish, that, "mankind only had One neck, which he with one fell stroke might pierce."

Byron, _Don Juan_, vi. 27 (1824).

=Neck or Nothing=, a farce by Garrick (1766). Mr. Stockwell promises to give his daughter in marriage to the son of Sir Harry Harlowe, of Dorsets.h.i.+re, with a _dot_ of 10,000; but it so happens that the young man is privately married. The two servants of Mr. Belford and Sir Harry Harlowe try to get possession of the money, by pa.s.sing off Martin (Belford's servant) as Sir Harry's son; but it so happens that Belford is in love with Miss Stockwell, and hearing of the plot through Jenny, the young lady's-maid, arrests the two servants as vagabonds. Old Stockwell gladly consents to his marriage with Nancy, and thinks himself well out of the terrible sc.r.a.pe.

=Nectaba'nus=, the dwarf at the cell of the hermit of Engaddi. Sir W.

Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=Nectar=, the beverage of the G.o.ds. It was white as cream, for when Hebe spilt some of it, the white arch of heaven, called the Milky Way, was made. The food of the G.o.ds was _ambrosia_.