Character Sketches of Romance
Chapter 129 : Mr. Bently, May 6, 1796, took leave of the stage in the character of "Evander.&qu

Mr. Bently, May 6, 1796, took leave of the stage in the character of "Evander."--W.C. Russell, _Representative Actors_, 426.

EVANGELIC DOCTOR _(The)_, John Wycliffe, "the Morning Star of the Reformation" (1324-1384).

EVANGELINE, the heroine and t.i.tle of a tale in hexameter verse by Longfellow, in two parts. Evangeline was the daughter of Benedict Bellefontaine, the richest farmer of Acadia (now _Nova Scotia_).

At the age of 17 she was legally betrothed by the notary-public to Gabriel, son of Basil the blacksmith, but next day all the colony was exiled by the order of George II., and their houses, cattle, and lands were confiscated. Gabriel and Evangeline were parted, and now began the troubles of her life. She wandered from place to place to find her betrothed. Basil had settled at Louisiana, but when Evangeline reached the place, Gabriel had just left; she then went to the prairies, to Michigan, and so on, but at every place she was just too late to meet him. At length, grown old in this hopeless search, she went to Philadelphia and became a sister of mercy. The plague broke out in the city, and as she visited the almshouse she saw an old man smitten down with the pestilence. It was Gabriel. He tried to whisper her name, but death closed his lips. He was buried, and Evangeline lies beside him in the grave.

(Longfellow's _Evangeline_ (1849) has many points of close similitude with Campbell's tale of _Gertrude of Wyoming_, 1809).

EVANS (_Sir Hugh_), a pedantic Welsh parson and schoolmaster of extraordinary simplicity and native shrewdness.--Shakespeare, _The Merry Wives of Windsor_ (1601).

The reader may cry out with honest Sir Hugh Evans, "I like not when a 'ooman has a great peard."--Macaulay.

Henderson says: "I have seen John Edwin, in 'Sir Hugh Evans,' when preparing for the duel, keep the house in an ecstasy of merriment for many minutes together without speaking a word" (1750-1790).

_Evans_ (_William_), the giant porter of Charles I. He carried Sir Geoffrey Hudson about in his pocket. Evans was eight feet in height, and Hudson only eighteen inches. Fuller mentions this giant amongst his _Worthies_.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

EVAN'THE (3 _syl_.), sister of Sora'no, the wicked instrument of Frederick, duke of Naples, and the chaste wife of Valerio.

The duke tried to seduce her, but failing in this scandalous attempt, offered to give her to any one for a month, at the end of which time the libertine was to suffer death. No one would accept the offer, and ultimately Evanthe was restored to her husband.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _A Wife for a Month_ (1624).

EVE (_1 syl_), or Havah, the "mother of all living" (_Gen_. iii. 20).

Before the expulsion from paradise her name was Ishah, because she was taken out of _ish, i.e._ "man" (_Gen_. ii. 23).

Eve was of such gigantic stature that when she laid her head on one hill near Mecca, her knees rested on two other hills in the plain, about two gun-shots asunder. Adam was as tall as a palm tree.--Moncony, _Voyage_, i. 372, etc.

EV'ELI'NA (_4 syl_.), the heroine of a novel so called by Miss Burney (afterwards Mme. D'Arblay). Evelina marries Lord Orville (1778).

EVELYN (_Alfred_), the secretary and relative of Sir John Vesey. He made Sir John's speeches, wrote his pamphlets, got together his facts, mended his pens, and received no salary. Evelyn loved Clara Douglas, a dependent of Lady Franklin, but she was poor also, and declined to marry him. Scarcely had she refused him, when he was left an immense fortune and proposed to Georgina Vesey. What little heart Georgina had was given to Sir Frederick Blount, but the great fortune of Evelyn made her waver; however, being told that Evelyn's property was insecure, she married Frederick, and left Evelyn free to marry Clara.--Lord E. Bulwer Lytton, _Money_ (1840).

_Evelyn_ (_Sir George_) a man of fortune, family, and character, in love with Dorrillon, whom he marries.--Mrs. Inchbald, _Wives as they Were and Maids as they Are_ (1795).

EVERARD (_Colonel Markham_), of the Commonwealth party.

_Master Everard_, the colonel's father.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, commonwealth).

EV'ERETT (_Master_), a hired witness of the "Popish Plot."--Sir W.

Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOR, a comedy by Ben Jonson (1598). The original play was altered by David Garrick. The persons to whom the t.i.tle of the drama apply are: "Captain Bobadil," whose humor is bragging of his brave deeds and military courage--he is thrashed as a coward by Downright; "Kitely," whose humor is jealousy of his wife--he is befooled and cured by a trick played on him by Brain-worm; "Stephen,"

whose humor is verdant stupidity--he is played on by every one; "Kno'well," whose humor is suspicion of his son Edward, which turns out to be all moons.h.i.+ne; "Dame Kitely," whose humor is jealousy of her husband, but she (like her husband) is cured by a trick devised by Brain worm. Every man in his humor is liable to be duped thereby, for his humor is the "Achilles' heel" of his character.

EVERY MAN OUT OF HIS HUMOR, a comedy by Ben Jonson (1599).

EVERY ONE HAS HIS FAULT, a comedy by Mrs. Inchbald (1794). By the fault of rigid pride, Lord Norland discarded his daughter, Lady Eleanor, because she married against his consent. By the fault of gallantry and defect of due courtesy to his wife, Sir Robert Ramble drove Lady Ramble into a divorce. By the fault of irresolution, "Shall I marry or shall I not!" Solus remained a miserable bachelor, pining for a wife and domestic joys. By the fault of deficient spirit and manliness, Mr. Placid was a hen-pecked husband. By the fault of marrying without the consent of his wife's friends, Mr. Irwin was reduced to poverty and even crime. Harmony healed these faults; Lord Norland received his daughter into favor; Sir Robert Ramble took back his wife; Solus married Miss Spinster; Mr. Placid a.s.sumed the rights of the head of the family; and Mr. Irwin, being accepted as the son-in-law of Lord Norland, was raised from indigence to domestic comfort.

EVIOT, page to Sir John Ramorny (master of the horse to Prince Robert of Scotland).--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

EVIR-ALLEN, the white-armed daughter of Branno, an Irishman. "A thousand heroes sought the maid; she refused her love to a thousand.

The sons of the sword were despised, for graceful in her eyes was Ossian." This Evir-Allen was the mother of Oscar, Fingal's grandson, but she was not alive when Fingal went to Ireland to a.s.sist Cormac against the invading Nors.e.m.e.n, which forms the subject of the poem called _Fingal_, in six books.--Ossian, _Fingal_, iv.

EW'AIN _(Sir)_, son of King Vrience and Morgan le Fay (Arthur's half-sister).--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 72 (1470).

EWAN OF BRIGGLANDS, a horse soldier in the army of Montrose.--Sir W.

Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.).

EWART (_Nanty i.e._ Anthony), captain of the smuggler's brig. Sir W.

Scott _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

EXCAL'IBUR, King Arthur's famous swords. There seems to have been two of his swords so called. One was the sword sheathed in stone, which no one could draw thence, save he who was to be king of the land. Above 200 knights tried to release it, but failed; Arthur alone could draw it with ease, and thus proved his right of succession (pt. i. 3). In ch. 7 this sword is called Excalibur, and is said to have been so bright "that it gave light like thirty torches." After his fight with Pellinore, the king said to Merlin he had no sword, and Merlin took him to a lake, and Arthur saw an arm "clothed in white samite, that held a fair sword in the hand." Presently the Lady of the Lake appeared, and Arthur begged that he might have the sword, and the lady told him to go and fetch it. When he came to it he took it, "and the arm and hand went under the water again." This is the sword generally called Excalibur. When about to die, King Arthur sent an attendant to cast the sword back again into the lake, and again the hand "clothed in white samite" appeared, caught it, and disappeared (ch. 23).--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 3, 23 (1470).

King Arthur's sword, Excalibur, Wrought by the lonely maiden of the lake; Nine years she wrought it, sitting in the deeps, Upon the hidden bases of the hills.

Tennyson, _Morte d'Arthur_.

_Excalibur's Sheath_. "Sir," said Merlin, "look that ye keep well the scabbard of Excalibur, for ye shall lose no blood as long as ye have the scabbard upon you, though ye have never so many wounds."--Sir T.

Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 36 (1470).

EXECUTIONER (_No_). When Francis, viscount d'Aspremont, governor of Bayonne, was commanded by Charles IX. of France to ma.s.sacre the Huguenots, he replied, "Sire, there are many under my government devoted to your majesty, but not a single executioner."

EXHAUSTED WORLDS ... Dr. Johnson, in the prologue spoken by Garrick at the opening of Drury Lane, in 1747, says of Shakespeare:

Each change of many-colored life he drew?

Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new.

EXTERMINATOR (_The_), Montbars, chief of a set of filibusters in the seventeenth century. He was a native of Languedoc, and conceived an intense hatred against the Spaniards on reading of their cruelties in the New World. Embarking at Havre, in 1667, Montbars attacked the Spaniards in the Antilles and in Honduras, took from them Vera Cruz and Carthagena, and slew them most mercilessly wherever he encountered them (1645-1707).

EYE. _Terrible as the eye of Vathek_. One of the eyes of this caliph was so terrible in anger that those died who ventured to look thereon, and had he given way to his wrath, he would have depopulated his whole dominion.--W. Beckford, _Vathek_ (1784).

EYED _(One-)_ people. The Arimaspians of Scythia were a one-eyed people.

The Cyclops were giants with only one eye, and that in the middle of the forehead.

Tartaro, in Basque legends, was a one-eyed giant. Sindbad the sailor, in his third voyage, was cast on an island inhabited by one-eyed giants.

EYRE _(Jane)_, a governess, who stoutly copes with adverse circ.u.mstances, and ultimately marries a used-up man of fortune, in whom the germs of good feeling and sound sense were only exhausted, and not destroyed.--Charlotte Bronte, _Jane Eyre_ (1847).

EZ'ZELIN _(Sir)_, the gentleman who recognizes Lara at the table of Lord Otho, and charges him with being Conrad the Corsair. A duel ensues, and Ezzelin is never heard of more. A serf used to say that he saw a huntsman one evening cast a dead body into the river which divided the lands of Otho and Lara, and that there was a star of knighthood on the breast of the corpse.--Byron, _Lara_ (1814).

FAA _(Gabriel)_, nephew of Meg Merrilees. One of the huntsman at Liddesdale.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

FAB'ILA, a king devoted to the chase. One day he encountered a wild boar, and commanded those who rode with him not to interfere, but the boar overthrew him and gored him to death.--_Chronica Antiqua de Espana_, 121.

FA'BIUS _(The American)_, George Was.h.i.+ngton (1732-1799).

_Fa'bius (The French)_, Anne, duc de Montmorency, grand-constable of France (1493-1567).

FABRICIUS [_Fa.brish'.e.us_], an old Roman, like Cincinnatus and Curius Dentatus, a type of the rigid purity, frugality, and honesty of the "good old times." Pyrrhus used every effort to corrupt him by bribes, or to terrify him, but in vain. "Excellent Fabricius," cried the Greek, "one might hope to turn the sun from its course as soon as turn Fabricius from the path of duty."