Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 101

=Quaver=, a singing-master, who says "if it were not for singing-masters, men and women might as well have been born dumb." He courts Lucy by promising to give her singing lessons.--Fielding, _The Virgin Unmasked_.

=Queechy.= Farmstead to which the Rossiters retired after the ruin of their fortunes in New York. Old-fas.h.i.+oned house and not productive land.--Susan Warner, _Queechy_ (1852).

=Queen= (_The Starred Ethiop_), Ca.s.siopeia, wife of Cepheus (2 _syl._), king of Ethiopia. She boasted that she was fairer than the sea-nymphs, and the offended nereids complained of the insult to Neptune, who sent a sea-monster to ravage Ethiopia. At death, Ca.s.siopeia 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).

_Queen_ (_The White_), Mary queen of Scots, _La Reine Blanche_; so called by the French, because she dressed in white as mourning for her husband.

=Queen d.i.c.k=, Richard Cromwell (1626, 1658-1660, died 1712).

? _It happened in the reign of Queen d.i.c.k_, never, on the Greek kalends.

This does not refer to Richard Cromwell, but to Queen "Outis." There never was a Queen d.i.c.k, except by way of joke.

=Queen Sarah=, Sarah Jennings, d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough (1660-1744).

Queen Anne only reigned while Queen Sarah governed.--_Temple Bar_, 208.

=Queen Square Hermit=, Jeremy Bentham, 1 Queen Square, London (1748-1832).

=Queen of Hearts=, Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I., the unfortunate queen of Bohemia (1596-1662).

=Queen of Heaven=, Ashtoreth ("the moon"). Horace calls the moon "the two-horned queen of the stars."

Some speak of the Virgin Mary as "the queen of heaven."

=Queen of Queens.= Cleopatra was so called by Mark Antony (B.C. 69-30).

=Queen of Song=, Angelica Catala'ni; also called "the Italian Nightingale"

(1782-1849).

=Queen of Sorrow=, the marble tomb at Delhi called the Taj-Mahul, built by Shah Jehan for his wife, Moomtaz-i-Mahul.

=Queen of Tears=, Mary of Mo'dena, second wife of James II. of England (1658-1718).

Her eyes became eternal fountains of sorrow for that crown her own ill policy contributed to lose.--n.o.ble, _Memoirs, etc._ (1784).

=Queen of the East=, Zen.o.bia, queen of Palmy'ra (*, 266-273).

=Queen of the South=, Maqueda, or Balkis, queen of Sheba, or Saba.

The queen of the south ... came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.--_Matt._ xii. 42; see also 1 _Kings_ x. 1.

? According to tradition, the queen of the south had a son by Solomon, named Melech, who reigned in Ethiopia or Abyssinia, and added to his name the words Belul Gian ("precious stone"), alluding to a ring given to him by Solomon. Belul Gian translated into Latin, became _pretiosus Joannes_, which got corrupted into Prester John (_presbyter Johannes_), and has given rise to the fables of this "mythical king of Ethiopia."

=Queen of the Swords.= Minna Troil was so called, because the gentlemen, formed into two lines, held their swords so as to form an arch or roof under which Minna led the ladies of the party.--Sir W. Scott, _The Pirate_ (time, William III.).

? In 1877, W. Q. Orchardson, R. A., exhibited a picture in ill.u.s.tration of this incident.

=Queen= (_My_).

But thou thyself shall not come down From that pure region far above, But keep thy throne and wear thy crown, Queen of my heart and queen of love!

A monarch in thy realm complete, And I a monarch--at thy feet!

William Winter, _Wanderers_ (1889).

=Queens= (_Four Daughters_). Raymond Ber'enger, count of Provence, had four daughters, all of whom married kings; Margaret married Louis IX. of France; Eleanor married Henry III. of England; Sancha married Henry's brother, Richard, king of the Romans; and Beatrice married Charles I. of Naples and Sicily.

Four daughters were there born To Raymond Ber'enger, and every one Became a queen.

Dante, _Paradise_, vi. (1311).

=Quentin= (_Black_), groom of Sir John Ramorny.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

=Quentin Durward=, a novel by Sir W. Scott (1823). A story of French history. The delineations of Louis XI., and Charles the Bold, of Burgundy, will stand comparison with any in the whole range of fiction or history.

=Quern-Biter=, the sword of Haco I. of Norway.

Quern-biter of Hacon the Good Wherewith at a stroke he hewed The millstone thro' and thro'.

Longfellow.

=Querno= (_Camillo_), of Apulia, was introduced to Pope Leo X., as a buffoon, but was promoted to the laurel. This laureate was called the "Antichrist of Wit."

Rome in her capitol saw Querno sit, Throned on seven hills, the antichrist of wit.

Pope, _The Dunciad_, ii. (1728).