Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 | Page 9

narrative continued. The perils he met with on the way, and the death of his father.
IV. Dido falls in love with ?neas; but he steals away from Carthage, and Dido, on a funeral pyre, puts an end to her life.
V. ?neas reaches Sicily, and celebrates there the games in honor of Anchises. This book corresponds to the Iliad, xxiii.
VI. ?neas visits the infernal regions. This book corresponds to Odyssey, xi.
VII. Latinus king of Italy entertains ?neas, and promises to him Lavinia (his daughter) in marriage, but prince Turnus had been already betrothed to her by the mother, and raises an army to resist ?neas.
VIII. Preparations on both sides for a general war.
IX. Turnus, during the absence of ?neas, fires the ships and assaults the camp. The episode of Nisus and Eury'alus.
X. The war between Turnus and ?neas. Episode of Mezentius and Lausus.
XI. The battle continued.
XII. Turnus challenges ?neas to single combat, and is killed.
N.B.--1. The story of Sinon and taking of Troy is borrowed from Pisander, as Macrobius informs us.
2. The loves of Dido and ?neas are copied from those of Medea and Jason, in Apollonius.
3. The story of the wooden horse and the burning of Troy are from Arcti'nus of Miletus.
AE'OLUS, god of the winds, which he keeps imprisoned in a cave in the ?olian Islands, and lets free as he wishes or as the over-gods command.
Was I for this nigh wrecked upon the sea, And twice by awkward wind from England's bank Drove back again unto my native clime?... Yet Aeolus would not be a murderer, But left that hateful office unto thee.
Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI. act v, sc. 2 (1591).
AESCULA'PIUS, in Greek, ASKLE'PIOS, the god of healing.
What says my ?sculapius? my Galen?... Ha! is he dead?
Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, act ii. sc. 3 (1601).
AE'SON, the father of Jason. He was restored to youth by Medea, who infused into his veins the juice of certain herbs.
In such a night, Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs That did renew old Aeson. Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, act v. sc. I (before 1598).
?SOP, the fabulist, said to be humpbacked; hence, "an ?sop" means a humpbacked man. The young son of Henry VI. calls his uncle Richard of Gloster "?sop."--3 Henry VI. act v. sc. 5.
Aesop of Arabia, Lokman; and Nasser (fifth century).
Aesop of England, John Gay (1688-1732).
Aesop of France, Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695).
Aesop of Germany, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781).
Aesop of India, Bidpay or Pilpay (third century B.C.).
AFER, the south-west wind; Notus, the full south.
Notus and Afer, black with thundrous clouds. Milton, Paradise Lost, x. 702 (1665).
AFRICAN MAGICIAN (The), pretended to Aladdin to be his uncle, and sent the lad to fetch the "wonderful lamp" from an underground cavern. As Aladdin refused to hand it to the magician, he shut him in the cavern and left him there. Aladdin contrived to get out by virtue of a magic ring, and learning the secret of the lamp, became immensely rich, built a superb palace, and married the sultan's daughter. Several years after, the African resolved to make himself master of the lamp, and accordingly walked up and down before the palace, crying incessantly, "Who will change old lamps for new!" Aladdin being on a hunting excursion, his wife sent a eunuch to exchange the "wonderful lamp" for a new one; and forthwith the magician commanded "the slaves of the lamp" to transport the palace and all it contained into Africa. Aladdin caused him to be poisoned in a draught of wine.--_Arabian Nights_ ("Aladdin or The Wonderful Lamp").
AF'RIT OR AFREET, a kind of Medusa or Lamia, the most terrible and cruel of all the orders of the deevs.--Herbelot, 66.
From the hundred chimneys of the village, Like the Afreet in the Arabian story [_Introduct. Tale_],
Smoky columns tower aloft into the air of amber.
Longfellow, The Golden Milestone.
AGAG, in Dryden's satire of Absalom and Achit'ophel, is sir Edmondbury Godfrey, the magistrate, who was found murdered in a ditch near Primrose Hill. Dr. Oates, in the same satire, is called "Corah."
Corah might for Agag's murder call, In terms as coarse as Samuel used to Saul.
Part i.
AGAMEMNON, king of the Argives and commander-in-chief of the allied Greeks in the siege of Troy. Introduced by Shakespeare in his _Troilus and Cres'sida_.
Vixere fortes ante Agamem'nona, "There were brave men before Agamemnon;" we are not to suppose that there were no great and good men in former times. A similar proverb is, "There are hills beyond Pentland and fields beyond Forth."
AGANDECCA, daughter of Starno king of Lochlin [Scandinavia], promised in marriage to Fingal king of Morven [_north-west of Scotland_]. The maid told Fingal to beware of her father, who had set an ambush to kill him. Fingal, being thus forewarned, slew the men in ambush; and Starno, in rage, murdered his daughter, who was buried by Fingal in Ardven [Argyll].
The daughter