Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 | Page 2

are driven back to hell, Obaddon, the angel of death, says--
"For thee, Abbadona, I have no orders. How long thou art permitted to remain on earth I know not, nor whether thou wilt be allowed to see the resurrection of the Lord of glory ... but be not deceived, thou canst not view Him with the joy of the redeemed." "Yet let me see Him, let me see him!"--Klopstock, The Messiah, xiii.
ABBERVILLE (Lord), a young nobleman, 23 years of age, who has for travelling tutor a Welshman of 65, called Dr. Druid, an antiquary, wholly ignorant of his real duties as a guide of youth. The young man runs wantonly wild, squanders his money, and gives loose to his passions almost to the verge of ruin, but he is arrested and reclaimed by his honest Scotch bailiff or financier, and the vigilance of his father's executor, Mr. Mortimer. This "fashionable lover" promises marriage to a vulgar, malicious city minx named Lucinda Bridgemore, but is saved from this pitfall also.--Cumberland, _The Fashionable Lover_ (1780).
ABBOT (The), the complacent churchman in Aldrich's poem of _The Jew's Gift_, who hanged a Jew "just for no crime," and pondered and smiled and gave consent to the heretic's burial--
"Since he gave his beard to the birds." (1881.)
ABDAL-AZIS, the Moorish governor of Spain after the overthrow of king Roderick. When the Moor assumed regal state and affected Gothic sovereignty, his subjects were so offended that they revolted and murdered him. He married Egilona, formerly the wife of Roderick.-- Southey, Roderick, etc., xxii. (1814).
AB'DALAZ'IZ (Omar ben), a caliph raised to "Mahomet's bosom" in reward of his great abstinence and self-denial.--Herbelot, 690.
He was by no means scrupulous; nor did he think with the caliph Omar ben Abdalaziz that it was necessary to make a hell of this world to enjoy paradise in the next.--W. Beckford, Vathek (1786).
ABDAL'DAR, one of the magicians in the Domdaniel caverns, "under the roots of the ocean." These spirits were destined to be destroyed by one of the race of Hodei'rah (3 syl.), so they persecuted the race even to death. Only one survived, named Thal'aba, and Abdaldar was appointed by lot to find him out and kill him. He discovered the stripling in an Arab's tent, and while in prayer was about to stab him to the heart with a dagger, when the angel of death breathed on him, and he fell dead with the dagger in his hand. Thalaba drew from the magician's finger a ring which gave him command over the spirits. --Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer, ii. iii. (1797).
ABDALLA, one of sir Brian de Bois Guilbert's slaves.--Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).
Abdal'lah, brother and predecessor of Giaf'fer (2 syl.), pacha of Aby'dos. He was murdered by the pacha.--Byron, Bride of Abydos.
ABDALLAH EL HADGI, Saladin's envoy.--Sir W. Scott, The Talisman (time, Richard I.).
ABDALS or Santons, a class of religionists who pretend to be inspired with the most ravishing raptures of divine love. Regarded with great veneration by the vulgar.--Olearius, i. 971.
AB'DIEL, the faithful seraph who withstood Satan when he urged those under him to revolt.
... the seraph Abdiel, faithful found; Among the faithless faithful only he; Among innumerable false, unmoved. Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal.
Milton, Paradise Lost, v. 896, etc. (1665).
ABELARD and ELOISE, unhappy lovers, whose illicit love was succeeded by years of penitence and remorse. Abelard was the tutor of Heloise (or Eloise), and, although vowed to the church, won and returned her passion. They were violently separated by her uncle. Abelard entered a monastery and Eloise became a nun. Their love survived the passage of years, and they were buried together at _P��re la Chaise.--Eloise and Abelard_. By Alexander Pope (1688-1744).
ABENSBERG (Count), the father of thirty-two children. When Heinrich II. made his progress through Germany, and other courtiers presented their offerings, the count brought forward his thirty-two children, "as the most valuable offering he could make to his king and country."
ABES'SA, the impersonation of abbeys and convents in Spenser's _Fa?ry Queen_, i. 3. She is the paramour of Kirkrapine, who used to rob churches and poor-boxes, and bring his plunder to Abessa, daughter of Corceca (Blindness of Heart).
ABIGAIL, typical name of a maid.--See Beaumont and Fletcher, Swift, Fielding, and many modern writers.
ABNEY, called Young Abney, the friend of colonel Albert Lee, a royalist.--Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, the Commonwealth).
ABON HASSAN, a young merchant of Bag dad, and hero of the tale called "The Sleeper Awakened," in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. While Abon Hassan is asleep he is conveyed to the palace of Haroun-al-Raschid, and the attendants are ordered to do everything they can to make him fancy himself the caliph. He subsequently becomes the caliph's chief favorite.
Shakespeare, in the induction of Taming of the Shrew, befouls "Christopher Sly" in a similar way, but Sly