Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 120

EMMA "the Saxon" or Emma Plantagenet, the beautiful, gentle, and loving wife of David, king of North Wales (twelfth century).--Southey, _Madoc_ (1805).

EMMONS (_David_), slow, gentle fellow who never "comes to the point"

in his courts.h.i.+p, but visits the "girl" for forty years, and gasps out in dying, "I allers--meant to--have--asked--you to marry me."--Mary E.

Wilkins, _Two Old Lovers_ (1887).

EMPED'OCLES, one of Pythagoras's scholars, who threw himself secretly into the crater at Etna, that people might suppose the G.o.ds had carried him to heaven; but alas! one of his iron pattens was cast out with the lava, and recognized.

He to be deemed A G.o.d, leaped fondly into Etna flames, Empedocles.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, iii. 469, etc. (1665).

EMPEROR OF BELIEVERS (_The_), Omar I., father-in-law of Mahomet (581-644).

EMPEROR OF THE MOUNTAINS, (_The_) Peter the Calabrian, a famous robber-chief (1812).

EMPEROR FOR MY PEOPLE. Hadrian used to say, "I am emperor not for myself but for my people" (76, 117-138).

EMPSON (_Master_), flageolot player to Charles II.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (1823).

Enan'the (_3 syl._), daughter of Seleucus, and mistress of Prince Deme'trius (son of King Antig'onus) She appears under the name of Celia.--Beaumont and Eletcher, _The Humorous Lieutenant_ (1647).

ENCEL'ADOS (Latin, _Enceladus_), the most powerful of all the giants who conspired against Jupiter. He was struck with a thunder-bolt, and covered with the heap of earth now called Mount Etna. The smoke of the volcano is the breath of the buried giant; and when he s.h.i.+fts his side it is an earthquake.

Fama est, Enceladi semiustum fulmine corpus Urgeri mole hac, ingentemque insuper Aetnam Impositam, ruptis flammam expirare caminis; Et, fessum quoties mutet latus, intremere omnem Murmure Trinacriam, et coelum subtexere fumo.

Virgil, _Aeneid_, iii. 578-582.

Where the burning cinders, blown From the lips of the overthrown Enceladus, fill the air.

Longfellow, _Enceladus_.

EN'CRATES (_3 syl_.), Temperance personified, the husband of Agnei'a (_wifely chast.i.ty_). When his wife's sister Parthen'ia _(maidenly chast.i.ty_) was wounded in the battle of Mansoul, by False Delight, he and his wife ran to her a.s.sistance, and soon routed the foes who were hounding her. Continence (her lover) went also, and poured a balm into her wounds, which healed them. Greek, _egkrates_, "continent, temperate."

So have I often seen a purple flower, Fainting thro' heat, hang down her drooping head; But, soon refreshed with a welcome shower, Begins again her lively beauties spread, And with new pride her silken leaves display.

Phineas Fletcher, _The Purple Island_, xi. (1633).

ENDELL (_Martha_), a poor fallen girl, to whom Emily goes when Steerforth deserts her. She emigrates with Dan'el Pegot'ty, and marries a young farmer in Australia.--C. d.i.c.kens, _David Copperfield_ (1849).

ENDIGA, in _Charles XII_., by J.R. Planche (1826).

ENDLESS, the rascally lawyer in _No Song No Supper_, by P. h.o.a.re (1754-1834).

ENDYM'ION, a noted astronomer who, from Mount Latmus, in Caria, discovered the course of the moon. Hence it is fabled that the moon sleeps with Endymion. Strictly speaking, Endymion is the setting sun.

So, Latmus by the wise Endymion is renowned; That hill on whose high top he was the first that found Pale Phoebe's wandering course; so skillful in her sphere, As some stick not to say that he enjoyed her there.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, vi. (1612).

_To sleep like Endymion_, to sleep long and soundly. Endymion requested of Jove permission to sleep as long as felt inclined. Hence the proverb, _Endymionis somnum dormire_. Jean Ogier de Gombaud wrote in French a romance or prose poem called _Endymion_ (1624), and one of the best paintings of A.L. Girodet is "Endymion." Cowley, referring to Gombaud's romance, says:

While there is a people or a sun, Endymion's story with the moon shall run.

John Keats, in 1818, published his _Endymion_ (a poetic romance), and the criticism of the _Quarterly Review_ was falsely said to have caused his death.

_Endym'ion._ So Wm. Browne calls Sir Walter Raleigh, who was for a time in disgrace with Queen Elizabeth, whom he calls "Cyn'thia."

The first note that I heard I soon was wonne To think the sighes of fair Endymion, The subject of whose mournful heavy lay, Was his declining with faire Cynthia.

_Brittannia's Pastorals_, iv. (1613).

ENFANTS DE DIEU, the Camisards.

The royal troops outnumbered the _Enfants de Dieu_, and a not inglorious flight took place.--Ed. Gilliat, _Asylum Christi_, iii.

ENFIELD (_Mrs._), the keeper of a house of intrigue, or "gentleman's magazine" of frail beauties.--Holcroft, _The Deserted Daughter_ (1785).

ENGADDI (_Theodorick, hermit of_), an enthusiast. He was Aberick of Mortemar, an exiled n.o.ble.--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

_Engaddi_, one of the towns of Judah, forty miles from Jerusalem, famous for its palm trees.

Anchorites beneath Engaddi's palms, Pacing the Dead Sea beach.

Longfellow, _Sand of the Desert_

ENGEL'BRECHT, one of the Varangian guards.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

EN'GELRED, 'squire of Sir Reginald Front de Boeuf (follower of Prince John of Anjou, the brother of Richard I.).--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

EN'GUERRAUD, brother of the Marquis of Montserrat, a crusader.--Sir W.

Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard L).

E'NID, the personification of spotless purity. She was the daughter of Yn'iol, and wife of Geraint. The tale of Geraint and Enid allegorizes the contagion of distrust and jealousy, commencing with Guinevere's infidelity, and spreading downward among the Arthurian knights. In order to save Enid from this taint, Sir Geraint removed from the court to Devon; but overhearing part of a sentence uttered by Enid, he fancied that she was unfaithful, and treated her for a time with great harshness. In an illness, Enid nursed Geraint with such wifely devotion that he felt convinced of his error. A perfect reconciliation took place, and they "crowned a happy life with a fair death".--Tennyson, _Idylls of the King_ ("Geraint and Enid.").

ENNIUS (_The English_), Lay'amon, who wrote a translation in Saxon of _The Brut_ of Wace (thirteenth century).

_Ennius (The French_), Jehan de Meung, who wrote a continuation of Layamon's romance (1260-1320).

[Ill.u.s.tration] Guillaume de Lorris, author of the _Romance of the Rose_, is also called "The French Ennius," and with better t.i.tle (1235-1265).

_Ennius_ (_The Spanish_), Juan de Mena of Cordova (1412-1456).

ENRIQUE' (_2 syl._), brother-in-law of Chrysalde (_2 syl._). He married secretly Chrysalde's sister Angelique, by whom he had a daughter, Agnes, who was left in charge of a peasant while Enrique was absent in America. Having made his fortune in the New World, Enrique returned and found Agnes in love with Horace, the son of his friend Oronte (_2 syl._). Their union, after the usual quota of misunderstanding and cross purposes, was accomplished to the delight of all parties.--Moliere, _L'Ecole des Femmes_ (1662).

ENTEL'ECHY, the kingdom of Queen Quintessence. Pantag'ruel' and his companions went to this kingdom in search of the "holy bottle."--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, v. 19 (1545).

[Ill.u.s.tration] This kingdom of "speculative science" gave the hint to Swift for his island of Lapu'ta.

EPHE'SIAN, a toper, a dissolute sot, a jovial companion. When Page (2 _Henry_ IV. act ii. sc. 2) tells Prince Henry that a company of men were about to sup with Falstaff, in Eastcheap, and calls them "Ephesians," he probably meant soldiers called _fethas_ ("foot-soldiers"), and hence topers. Malone suggests that the word is a pun on _pheese_ ("to chastise or pay one t.i.t for tat"), and means "quarrelsome fellows."