Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 90

CYN'THIA WARE. Auburn-haired girl living upon Lost Creek in Tennessee, in love with Evander Price, a young blacksmith. When he is sent to the penitentiary upon a false accusation, she labors unceasingly for a year to obtain his pardon. A year after it is granted, she learns that he is doing well in another State and has forgotten her. In time, he returns, married and prosperous, and calls upon his old friends upon Lost Creek.

"His recollections were all vague, although at some reminiscence of hers he laughed jovially, and "lowed that in them days, Cinthy, you an' me had a right smart notion of keepin' company tergether.' He did not notice how pale she was, and that there was often a slight spasmodic contraction of her features. She was busy with her spinning-wheel, as she placidly replied: 'Yes,--'though I always 'lowed ez I counted on livin' single.'"--Charles Egbert Craddock, _In the Tennessee Mountains_ (1885).

CYP'RIAN _(A)_, a woman of loose morals; so called from the island Cyprus, a chief seat of the wors.h.i.+p of Venus or Cyp'ria.

_Cyp'rian (Brother)_, a Dominican monk at the monastery of Holyrood.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

CYRENA'IC Sh.e.l.l _(The)_, the lyre or strain of Callini'achos, a Greek poet of Alexandria, in Egypt. Six of his hymns in hexameter verse are still extant.

For you the Cyrenaic sh.e.l.l Behold I touch revering.

Akenside, _Hymn to the Naiads_.

CYR'IC _(St.)_, the saint to whom sailors address themselves. The St.

Elmo of the Welsh.

The weary mariners Called on St. Cyric's aid.

Southey, _Madoc_, i. 4 (1805).

CYRUS AND TOM'YRIS. Cyrus, after subduing the eastern parts of Asia, was defeated by Tomyris queen of the Ma.s.sage'tae, in Scythia. Tomyris cut off his head, and threw it into a vessel filled with human blood, saying, as she did so, "There, drink thy fill." Dante refers to this incident in his _Purgatory_, xii.

Consyder Syrus ...

He whose huge power no man might overthrowe, Tom'yris Queen with great despite hath slowe, His head dismembered from his mangled corps Herself she cast into a vessel fraught With clotted bloud of them that felt her force.

And with these words a just reward she taught-- "Drynke now thy fyll of thy desired draught."

T. Sackville, _A Mirrour for Magistraytes_ ("The Complaynt," 1587).

CYTHERE'A, Venus; so called from Cythe'ra (now _Cerigo_), a mountainous island of Laco'nia, noted for the wors.h.i.+p of Aphrodite (or Venus). The tale is that Venus and Mars, having formed an illicit affection for each other, were caught in a delicate net made by Vulcan, and exposed to the ridicule of the court of Olympus.

He the fate [_May sing_]

Of naked Mars with Cytherea chained.

Akenside, _Hymn to the Naiads_.

CYZE'NIS, the infamous daughter of Diomed, who killed every one that fell into her clutches, and compelled fathers to eat their own children.

CZAR (_Casar_), a t.i.tle first a.s.sumed in Russia by Ivan III., who, in 1472, married a princess of the imperial Byzantine line. He also introduced the double-headed black eagle of Byzantium as the national symbol. The official style of the Russian autocrat is _Samoderjetz_.

D'ACUNHA (_Teresa_), waiting-woman to the countess of Glenallan.--Sir W. Scott, _Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

DAFFODIL. When Perseph'one, the daughter of Deme'ter, was a little maiden, she wandered about the meadows of Enna in Sicily, to gather _white_ daffodils to wreathe into her hair, and being tired she fell asleep. Pluto, the G.o.d of the infernal regions, carried her off to become his wife, and his touch turned the white flowers to a golden yellow. Some remained in her tresses till she reached the meadows of Acheron, and falling off there grew into the asphodel, with which the meadows thenceforth abounded.

She stepped upon Sicilian gra.s.s, Demeter's daughter, fresh and fair, A child of light, a radiant la.s.s, And gamesome as the morning air.

The daffodils were fair to see, They nodded lightly on the lea; Persephone! Persephone!

Jean Ingelow, _Persephone_.

DAGON, sixth in order of the hierarchy of h.e.l.l: (1) Satan, (2) Beelzebub, (3) Moloch, (4) Chemos, (5) Thammuz, (6) Dagon. Dagon was half man and half fish. He was wors.h.i.+pped in Ashdod, Gath, Ascalon, Ekron, and Gaza (the five chief cities of the Philistines). When the "ark" was placed in his temple, Dagon fell, and the palms of his hands were broken off.

Next came ...

Dagon ... sea-monster, upward man And downward fish.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, i. 457, etc. (1665).

DAG'ONET (_Sir_), King Arthur's fool. One day Sir Dagonet, with two squires, came to Cornwall, and as they drew near a well Sir Tristram soused them all three in, and dripping wet made them mount their horses and ride off, amid the jeers of the spectators (pt. ii. 60).

King Arthur loved Sir Dagonet pa.s.sing well, and made him knight; with his own hands; and at every tournament he made King Arthur laugh.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_.

ii. 97 (1470).

Justice Shallow brags that he once personated Sir Dagonet, while he was a student at Clement's Inn.--Shakespeare, 2 _Henry IV_. act ii.

sc. 2 (1598).

[Ill.u.s.tration] Tennyson deviates in this, as he does in so many other instances, from the old romance. The _History_ says that King Arthur made Dagonet knight "with his own hands," because he "loved him pa.s.sing well;" but Tennyson says that Sir Gawain made him "a mock-knight of the Round Table."--_The Last Tournament_, 1.

DAISY MILLER. Mrs. Miller, _nouvelle riche_ and in true American subjection to her children, is travelling abroad. Her only daughter is pretty, unconventional, and so bent upon having "a good time" that she falls under the most degrading suspicions. The climax of flirtation and escapade is a midnight expedition to the Colosseum, where she contracts Roman fever and dies.--Henry James, Jr., _Daisy Miller_ (1878).

DAL'DAH, Mahomet's favorite white mule.

DALES (_The_), a family in Ashurst, where is laid the scene of _John Ward, Preacher_: By Margaret Deland. The wife is prim and dictatorial, a pattern housewife, with decided views upon all subjects, including religion and matrimony. The husband wears a cashmere dressing-gown, and spreads a red handkerchief over his white hair to protect his white head from draughts; reads "A Sentimental Journey;" looks at his wife before expressing an opinion, and makes an excellent fourth at whist (1888).

DALGA, a Lombard harlot, who tries to seduce young Goltho, but Goltho is saved by his friend Ulfinore.--Sir W. Davenant, _Gondibert_ (died 1668).

DALGARNO (_Lord Malcolm of_), a profligate young n.o.bleman, son of the earl of Huntinglen (an old Scotch n.o.ble family). Nigel strikes Dalgarno with his sword, and is obliged to seek refuge in "Alsatia."

Lord Dalgarno's villainy to the Lady Hermone excites the displeasure of King James, and he would have been banished if he had not married her. After this, Lord Dalgarno carries off the wife of John Christie, the s.h.i.+p-owner, and is shot by Captain Colepepper, the Alsatian bully.--Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

DALGETTY (_Dugald_,) of Drumthwacket, the union of the soldado with the pedantic student of Mareschal College. As a soldier of fortune, he is retained in the service of the Earl of Monteith. The Marquis of Argyll (leader of the parliamentary army) tried to tamper with him in prison, but Dugald siezed him, threw him down, and then made his escape, locking the marquis in the dungeon. After the battle, Captain Dalgetty was knighted. This "Ritt-master" is a pedant, very conceited, full of vulgar a.s.surance, with a good stock of worldly knowledge, a student of divinity, and a soldier who lets his sword out to the highest bidder. The character is original and well drawn.--Sir W.

Scott, _Legend of Montrose_ (time, Charles I.).

The original of this character was Munro, who wrote an account of the campaigns of that band of Scotch and English auxiliaries in the island of Swinemunde, in 1630. Munro was himself one of the band. Dugald Dalgetty is one of the best of Scott's characters.

DALTON (_Mrs._), housekeeper to the Rev. Mr. Staunton, of Willingham Rectory.--Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

_Dalton (Beginald)_, the hero of a novel so called, by J. C. Lockhart (1832).

DALZELL (_General Thomas_), in the royal army of Charles II.--Sir W.

Scott, _Old Mortality_ (1816).

DAME DU LAC, Vivienne le Fay. The lake was "en la marche de la pet.i.te Bretaigne;" "en ce lieu ... avoit la dame moult de belles maisons et moult riches."

_Dame du Lac_, Sebille (2 _syl_.). Her castle was surrounded by a river on which rested so thick a fog that no eye could see across it.

Alexander the Great abode a fortnight with this fay, to be cured of his wounds, and King Arthur was the result of their amour. (This is not in accordance with the general legends of this noted hero. See ARTHUR.)--_Perceforest_, i. 42.

DAM'IAN, a squire attending on the Grand-Master of the Knights Templars.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

DAMIOT'TI (_Dr. Baptisti_), a Paduan quack, who exhibits "the enchanted mirror" to Lady Forester and Lady Bothwell. They see therein the clandestine marriage and infidelity of Sir Philip Forester.--Sir W. Scott, _Aunt Margaret's Mirror_ (time, William III.). DAMIS _[Dah.me]_, son of Orgon and Elmire (2 _syl_.), impetuous and self-willed.--Moliere, _Tartuffe_ (1664).

d.a.m.n WITH FAINT PRAISE.

d.a.m.n with faint praise, a.s.sent with evil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer.

Pope, _Prologue to the Satires_, 201 (1734).