Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 102

=Querpo= (_Shrill_), in Garth's _Dispensary_, is meant for Dr. Howe.

To this design shrill Querpo did agree, A zealous member of the faculty, His sire's pretended pious steps he treads, And where the doctor fails, the saint succeeds.

_Dispensary_, iv. (1699).

=Questing Beast= (_The_), a monster called Glatisaunt, that made a noise called questing, "like thirty couple of hounds giving quest" or cry.

King Pellinore (3 _syl._) followed the beast for twelve months (pt. i.

17), and after his death Sir Palomides gave it chase.

The questing beast had in shape and head like a serpent's head, and a body like a libard, b.u.t.tocks like a lion, and footed like a hart; and in his body there was such a noise as it had been the noise of thirty couple of hounds questing, and such a noise that beast made wheresoever he went; and this beast evermore Sir Palomides followed.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 17; ii. 53 (1470).

=Quiara and Mon'nema=, man and wife, the only persons who escaped the ravages of the small-pox plague which carried off all the rest of the Guara'ni race, in Paraguay. They left the fatal spot, settled in the Mondai woods, had one son, Yeruti, and one daughter, Mooma; but Quiara was killed by a jaguar before the latter was born.--Southey, _A Tale of Paraguay_ (1814). (See MONNEMA[TN-113] and MOOMA.)

=Quick= (_Abel_), clerk to Surplus, the lawyer.--J. M. Morton, _A Regular Fix_.

_Quick_ (_John_), called "The Retired Diocletian of Islington"

(1748-1831).

Little Quick, the retired Diocletian of Islington, with his squeak like a Bart'lemew fiddle.--Charles Mathews.

=Quickly= (_Mistress_), servant-of-all-work, to Dr. Caius, a French physician. She says, "I wash, wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink, make the beds, and do all myself." She is the go-between of three suitors for "sweet Anne Page," and with perfect disinterestedness wishes all three to succeed, and does her best to forward the suit of all three, "but speciously of Master Fenton."--Shakespeare, _Merry Wives of Windsor_ (1601).

_Quickly_ (_Mistress Nell_), a hostess of a tavern in East-cheap, frequented by Harry, prince of Wales, Sir John Falstaff, and all their disreputable crew. In _Henry V._ Mistress Quickly is represented as having married Pistol, the "lieutenant of Captain Sir John's army." All three die before the end of the play. Her description of Sir John Falstaff's death (_Henry V._ act ii. sc. 3) is very graphic and true to nature. In 2 _Henry IV._ Mistress Quickly arrests Sir John for debt, but immediately she hears of his commission is quite willing to dismiss the bailiffs, and trust "the honey sweet" old knight again to any amount.--Shakespeare, 1 and 2 _Henry IV._ and _Henry V._

=Quid= (_Mr._), the tobacconist, a relative of Mrs. Margaret Bertram.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Quid Rides=, the motto of Jacob Brandon, tobacco-broker, who lived at the close of the eighteenth century. It was suggested by Harry Calendon of Lloyd's coffee-house.

? _Quid Rides_ (Latin) means "Why do you laugh?" _Quid rides_, _i.e._ "the tobacconist rides."

=Quidnunc= (_Abraham_), of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, an upholsterer by trade, but bankrupt. His head "runs only on schemes for paying off the National Debt, the balance of power, the affairs of Europe, and the political news of the day."

? The prototype of this town politician was the father of Dr. Arne (see _The Tatler_, No. 155).

_Harriet Quidnunc_, his daughter, rescued by Belmour from the flames of a burning house, and adored by him.

_John Quidnunc_, under the a.s.sumed name of Rovewell, having married a rich planter's widow, returns to England, pays his father's debts, and gives his sister to Mr. Belmour for wife.--Murphy, _The Upholsterer_ (1758).

=Quidnuncs=, a name given to the ancient members of certain political clubs, who were constantly inquiring, "Quidnunc? What news?"

This the Great Mother dearer held than all The clubs of Quidnuncs, or her own Guildhall.

Pope, _The Dunciad_, i. 269 (1728).

=Quidnunkis=, a monkey which climbed higher than its neighbors, and fell into a river. For a few moments the monkey-race stood panic-struck, but the stream flowed on, and in a minute or two the monkeys continued their gambols as if nothing had happened.--Gay, _The Quidnunkis_ (a fable, 1726).

=Quildrive= (2 _syl._), clerk to old Philpot "the citizen."--Murphy, _The Citizen_ (1761).

=Quilp= (_Daniel_), a hideous dwarf, cunning, malicious, and a perfect master in tormenting. Of hard, forbidding features, with head and face large enough for a giant. His black eyes were restless, sly, and cunning; his mouth and chin bristly with a coa.r.s.e, hard beard; his face never clean, but always distorted with a ghastly grin, which showed the few discolored fangs that supplied the place of teeth. His dress consisted of a large high-crowned hat, a worn-out dark suit, a pair of most capacious shoes, and a huge crumpled dirty white neck-cloth. Such hair as he had was a grizzled black, cut short but hanging about his ears in fringes. His hands were coa.r.s.e and dirty; his fingernails crooked, long, and yellow. He lived on Tower Hill, collected rents, advanced money to seamen, and kept a sort of wharf, containing rusty anchors, huge iron rings, piles of rotten wood, and sheets of old copper, calling himself a s.h.i.+p-breaker. He was on the point of being arrested for felony, when he drowned himself.

He ate hard eggs, sh.e.l.l and all, for his breakfast, devoured gigantic prawns with their heads and tails on, chewed tobacco and water-cresses at the same time, drank scalding hot tea without winking, bit his fork and spoon till they bent again, and performed so many horrifying acts, that one might doubt if he were indeed human.--Ch. v.

_Mrs. Quilp_ (_Betsy_), wife of the dwarf, a loving, young, timid, obedient, and pretty blue-eyed little woman, treated like a dog by her diabolical husband, whom she really loved but more greatly feared.--C.

d.i.c.kens, _The Old Curiosity Shop_ (1840).

=Quinnailon= (_Father_). Benevolent priest in Xerxes, a Western town. He succors the suffering of whatever creed and conditions, and shares his little all with the needy. When appointed bishop, he goes to Rome to beg for permission to decline the honor.

"I will fall at the feet of the Holy Father, and beseech him not to make a bishop out of a poor, simple old man who cannot bear so great a burden; but to let me come back and die among my dear people!"--Octave Thanet, _Quilters in the Sun_ (1877).

=Quinap'alus=, the Mrs. Harris of "authorities in citations." If any one quotes from an hypothetical author, he gives Quinapalus as his authority.

What says Quinapalus: "Better a witty fool than a foolish wit."--Shakespeare, _Twelfth Night_, act.[TN-114] i. sc. 5 (1614).

=Quinbus Flestrin= (_the "man-mountain"_). So the Lilliputians called Gulliver (ch. ii.).--Swift, _Gulliver's Travels_ ("Voyage to Lilliput,"

1726).

=Quince= (_Peter_), a carpenter, who undertakes the management of the play called "Pyramus and Thisbe," in _Midsummer Night's Dream_. He speaks of "laughable tragedy," "lamentable comedy," "tragical mirth," and so on.--Shakespeare, _Midsummer Night's Dream_ (1592).

=Quino'nes= (_Suero de_), in the reign of Juan II. He, with nine other cavaliers, held the bridge of Orbigo against all comers for thirty-six days, and in that time they overthrew seventy-eight knights of Spain and France.

=Quintano'na=, the duenna of Queen Guinever or Ginebra.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. ii. 6 (1615).

=Quintessence= (_Queen_), sovereign of Entelechie, the country of speculative science visited by Pantag'ruel and his companions in their search for "the oracle of the Holy Bottle."--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, v.

19 (1545).

=Quin'tiquinies'tra= (_Queen_), a much-dreaded, fighting giantess. It was one of the romances of Don Quixote's library condemned by the priest and barber of the village to be burnt.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. (1605).