Character Sketches of Romance
Chapter 127 : Good Ethelbert of Kent, first christened English king.To preach the faith of Christ wa

Good Ethelbert of Kent, first christened English king.

To preach the faith of Christ was first did hither bring Wise Au'gustine the monk, from holy Gregory sent...

That mighty fane to Paul in London did erect.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xi. (1613).

ETH'ERINGTON (_The late earl of_) father of Tyrrel and Bulmer.

_The t.i.tular earl of Etherington_, his successor to the t.i.tle and estates.

_Marie de Martigny_ (_La comtesse_), wife of the t.i.tular earl of Etherington.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan's Well_ (time, George III.).

ETHIOPIANS, the same as Aba.s.sinians. The Arabians call these people El-habasen or Al-habasen, whence our Aba.s.sins, but they call themselves Ithiopians or Ethiopians.--Seldon, _t.i.tles of Honor_, vi.

64.

Where the Aba.s.sin kings their issue guard, Mount Amara.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, iv. 280 (1665).

ETHIOP'S QUEEN, referred to by Milton in his _Il Penseroso_, was Ca.s.siope'a, wife of Ce'pheus (_2 syl_.) king of Ethiopia. Boasting that she was fairer than the sea-nymphs, she offended the Nereids, who complained to Neptune. Old father Earth-Shaker sent a huge sea-monster to ravage her kingdom for her insolence. At death Ca.s.siopea was made a constellation of thirteen stars.

... that starred Ethiop queen that strove To set her beauty's praise above The sea-nymphs, and their powers offended.

Milton, _Il Penseroso_, 19 (1638).

ETHNIC PLOT. The "Popish Plot" is so called in Dryden's satire of _Absalom and Achitophel._ As Dryden calls the royalists "Jews,"

and calls Charles II. "David, king of the Jews," the papists were "Gentiles" (or _Ethnoi_), whence the "Ethnic Plot" means the plot of the Ethnoi against the people of G.o.d.--Pt. i. (1681).

ETIQUETTE (_Madame_), the d.u.c.h.esse de Noailles, grand mistress of the ceremonies in the court of Marie Antoinette; so called from her rigid enforcement of all the formalities and ceremonies of the _ancien regime._

ETNA. Zens buried under this mountain Enkel'ados, one of the hundred-handed giants.

The whole land weighed him down, as Etna does The giant of mythology.

Tennyson, _The Golden Supper_.

ETTEILLA, the pseudonym of Alliette (spelt backwards), a perruquier and diviner of the eighteenth century. He became a professed cabalist, and was visited in his studio in the Hotel de Crillon (Rue de la Verrerie) by all those who desired to unroll the Book of Fate. In 1783 he published _Maniere de se Recreer avec le Jeu de Cartes nommees Tarots_. In the British Museum are some divination cards published in Paris in the first half of the nineteenth century, called _Grand Etteilla_ and _Pet.i.t Etteilla_, each pack being accompanied with a book of explication and instruction.

ETTERCAP, an ill-tempered person, who mars sociability. The ettercap is the poison-spider, and should be spelt "Attercop." (The Anglo-Saxon, _atter-cop_, poison-spider.)

O sirs, was sic difference seen As 'twix wee Will and Tam, The ane's a perfect ettercap, The ither's just a lamb.

W. Miller, _Nursery Songs_.

ETTRICK SHEPHERD _(The)_, James Hogg, the Scotch Poet., who was born in the forest of Ettrick, in Selkirks.h.i.+re, and was in early life a shepherd (1772-1835).

ETTY'S NINE PICTURES, "the Combat," the three "Judith" pictures, "Benaiah," "Ulysses and the Syrens," and the three pictures of "Joan of Arc."

"My aim," says Etty, "in all my great pictures has been to paint some great moral on the heart. 'The Combat' represents _the beauty of mercy_; the three 'Judith' pictures, _patriotism_ [1, _self-devotion to G.o.d; 2, self-devotion to man_; 3, _self-devotion to country_;] 'Benaiah, David's chief captain,' represents _valor_; 'Ulysses and the Syrens,' _sensual delights_ or _the wages of sin is death_; and the three pictures of 'Joan of Arc'

depict _religion, loyalty_ and _patriotism_. In all, nine in number, as it was my desire to paint three."--William Etty, of York (1787-1849).

ET'ZEL or EZZEL _(i.e. Attila_), king of the Huns, in the songs of the German minnesingers. A ruler over three kingdoms and thirty princ.i.p.alities. His second wife was Kriemhild, the widow of Siegfried.

In pt ii. of the _Niebelungen Lied_, he sees his sons and liegemen struck down without making the least effort to save them, and is as unlike the Attila of history as a "hector" is to the n.o.ble Trojan "the protector of mankind."

EU'CHARIS, one of the nymphs of Calypso, with whom Telemachos was deeply smitten. Mentor, knowing his love was sensual love, hurried him away from the island. He afterwards fell in love with Anti'ope, and Mentor approved his choice.--Fenelon, _Telemaque_, vii. (1700).

Eucharis is meant for Mdlle. de Fontange, maid of honor to Mde. de Montespan. For a few months she was a favorite with Louis XIV., but losing her good looks she was discarded, and died at the age of 20.

She used to dress her hair with streaming ribbons, and hence this style of head-gear was called _a la Fontange_.

EU'CLIO, a penurious old hunks.--Plautus, _Aulularia_.

Now you must explain all this to me, unless you would have me use you as ill as Euclio does Staphy'la--Sir W. Scott.

EU'CRATES (3 _syl_.), the miller, and one of the archons of Athens. A shuffling fellow, always evading his duty and breaking his promise; hence the Latin proverb:

Vias novit quibus effugiat Eucrates ("He has more s.h.i.+fts than Eucrates").

EUDO'CIA (_4 syl_.), daughter of Eu'menes, governor of Damascus.

Pho'cyas, general of the Syrian forces, being in love with her, asks the consent of Eumenes, and is refused. In revenge, he goes over to the Arabs, who are beseiging Damascus. Eudocia is taken captive, but refuses to wed a traitor. At the end, Pho'cyas dies, and Eudocia retires into a nunnery.--John Hughes, _The Siege of Damascus_ (1720).

EUDON (_Count_) of Catabria. A baron favorable to the Moors, "too weak-minded to be independent." When the Spaniards rose up against the Moors, the first order of the Moorish chief was this: "Strike off Count Eudon's head: the fear which brought him to our camp will bring him else in arms against us now" (ch. xxv.). Southey, _Roderick, etc_., xiii. (1814).

EUDOX'IA, wife of the Emperor Valentin'ian. Petro'nius Max'imus "poisoned" the emperor, and the empress killed Maximus.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _Valentinian_ (1617).

EUGENE _(Aram)._ Scholarly man of high ideals, who has committed a murder, and hides the knowledge of it from all. He is finally hunted down.--Lord Lytton, _Eugene Aram_.

EUGE'NIA, called "Silence" and the "Unknown." She was the wife of Count de Valmont, and mother of Florian, "the foundling of the forest." In order to come into the property, Baron Longueville used every endeavor to kill Eugenia and Florian, but all his attemps were abortive, and his villainy at length was brought to light.--W. Dimond, _The Foundling of the Forest._

EUGeNIE _(Lalande)._ The marvellously well-preserved great-grandmother of a near-sighted youth who addresses and marries her. She reveals the trick that has been played on him by presenting him with a pair of eye-gla.s.ses.--Edgar Allan Poe, _The Spectacles_.

EUGENIO, a young gentleman who turned goat-herd, because Leandra jilted him and eloped with a heartless adventurer named Vincent de la Rosa.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote, I_. iv. 20 ("The Goatherd's Story,"

1605).

EUGENIUS, the friend and wise counsellor of Yorick. John Hall Stevenson was the original of this character.--Sterne, _Tristram Shandy_ (1759).

EUHE'MEROS a Sicilian Greek, who wrote a _Sacred History_ to explain the historical or allegorical character of the Greek and Latin mythologies.

One could wish Euhemeros had never been born. It was he that spoilt [_the old myths_] first.--Ouida, _Ariadne_, i.1.

EULENSPIEGEL _(Tyll), i.e._ "Tyll Owl-gla.s.s," of Brunswick. A man who runs through the world as charlatan, fool, lansquenet, domestic servant, artist, and Jack-of-all-trades. He undertakes anything, but rejoices in cheating those who employ him; he parodies proverbs, rejoices in mischief, and is brimful of pranks and drolleries. Whether Uulenspiegel was a real character or not is a matter of dispute, but by many the authors.h.i.+p of the book recording his jokes is attributed to the famous German satirist, Thomas Murner.

In the English versions of the story he is called _Howle-gla.s.s._

To few mortals has it been granted to earn such a place in universal history as Tyll Eulenspiegel. Now, after five centuries, his native village is pointed out with pride to the traveller.--Carlyle.

EUMaeOS (in Latin, _Eumoes_), the slave and swine-herd of Ulysses, hence any swine-herd.

EU'MENES (_3 syl._), Governor of Damascus, and father of Eudo'cia.--John Hughes, _Siege of Damascus_ (1720).

EUMNES'TES, Memory personified. Spenser says he is an old man, decrepit and half blind. He was waited on by a boy named Anamnestes.