Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 42

=Nosebag= (_Mrs._), wife of a lieutenant in the dragoons. She is the inquisitive travelling companion of Waverley when he travels by stage to London.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

=Nosey= (_Play up!_) This exclamation was common in our theatres in the days of Macklin, etc. M. Nozay was the leader of the orchestra in Covent Garden Theatre.

? Some persons affirm that "Old Nosey" was Cervetto, the violoncello player at Drury Lane (1753), and say that he was so called from his long nose.

Napoleon III., was nicknamed _Grosbec_ ("Nosey").

=Nosnot-Bocai= [_Bo'.ky_], prince of purgatory.

Sir, I last night received command To see you out of Fairy-land.

Into the realm of Nosnot-Bocai.

King, _Orpheus and Eurydice_.

=Nostrada'mus= (_Michael_), an astrologer of the sixteenth century, who published an annual _Almanac_ and a _Recueil of Prophecies_, in verse (1503-1566).

=Nostrada'mus of Portugal=, Goncalo Annes Bandarra, a poet-cobbler, whose career was stopped, in 1556, by the Inquisition.

=Nottingham= (_The countess of_), a quondam sweetheart of the earl of Ess.e.x, and his worst enemy, when she heard that he had married the countess of Rutland. The queen sent her to the Tower to ask Ess.e.x if he had no pet.i.tion to make, and the earl requested her to take back a ring, which the queen had given him as a pledge of mercy in time of need. As the countess out of jealousy forbore to deliver it, the earl was executed.--Henry Jones, _The Earl of Ess.e.x_ (1745).

=Nottingham Lambs=, (_The_), the Nottingham roughs.

=Nottingham Poet= (_The_), Philip James Bailey, the author of _Festus_, etc. (1816- ).

=No'tus=, the south wind; _Afer_ is the south-west wind.

Notus and Afer, black with thundrous clouds.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, (1665).

=Noukhail=, the angel of day and night.

The day and night are trusted to my care. I hold the day in my right hand and the night in my left; and I maintain the just equilibrium between them, for if either were to overbalance the other, the universe would either be consumed by the heat of the sun, or would perish with the cold of darkness.--Comte de Caylus, _Oriental Tales_ ("History of Abdal Motallab," 1743).

=Nouman= (_Sidi_), an Arab who married Amine, a very beautiful woman, who ate her rice with a bodkin. Sidi, wis.h.i.+ng to know how his wife could support life and health without more food than she partook of in his presence, watched her narrowly, and discovered that she was a ghoul, who went by stealth every night and feasted on the fresh-buried dead. When Sidi made this discovery, Amine changed him into a dog. After he was restored to his normal shape, he changed Amine into a mare, which every day he rode almost to death.--_Arabian Nights_ ("History of Sidi Nouman").

Your majesty knows that ghouls of either s.e.x are demons which wander about the fields. They commonly inhabit ruinous buildings, whence they issue suddenly on unwary travellers, whom they kill and devour. If they fail to meet with travellers, they go by night into burying grounds, and dig up dead bodies, on which they feed.--"History of Sidi Nouman."

=Nouredeen=, son of Khacan (vizier of Zinebi, king of Balsora). He got possession of the "beautiful Persian" purchased for the king. At his father's death he soon squandered away his patrimony in the wildest extravagance, and fled with his beautiful slave to Bagdad. Here he encountered Haroun-al-Raschid in disguise, and so pleased the caliph, that he was placed in the number of those courtiers most intimate with his majesty, who also bestowed on him so plentiful a fortune, that he lived with the "beautiful Persian" in affluence all the rest of his life.--_Arabian Nights_ ("Nouredeen and the Beautiful Persian").

=Nour'eddin' Ali=, younger son of the vizier of Egypt. "He was possessed of as much merit as can fall to the lot of man." Having quarrelled with his elder brother, he travelled to Baso'ra, where he married the vizier's daughter, and succeeded his father-in-law in office. A son was born to him in due time, and on the very same day the wife of his elder brother had a daughter. Noureddin died when his son was barely twenty, and unmarried.--_Arabian Nights_ ("Noureddin Ali," etc.).

=Nourgehan's Bracelet.= Nourgehan, emperor of the Moguls, had a bracelet which had the property of discovering poison, even at a considerable distance. When poison was anywhere near the wearer, the stones of the bracelet seemed agitated, and the agitation increased as the poison approached them.--Comte de Caylus, _Oriental Tales_ ("The Four Talismans," 1743).

=Nour'jahad=, a sleeper, like Rip Van Winkle, Epimen'ides, etc. (See SLEEPERS.)

=Nourjeham= ("_light of the world_"). So the Sultana Nourmahal was subsequently called.--T. Moore, _Lalla Rookh_ ("The Light of the Haram,"

1817).

=Nourmahal'= (_The sultana_), _i.e._ "Light of the Haram," afterwards called _Nourjeham_ ("light of the world"). She was for a season estranged from the sultan, till he gave a grand banquet, at which she appeared in disguise as a lute-player and singer. The sultan was so enchanted with her performance, that he exclaimed, "If Nourmahal had so played and sung, I could forgive her all;" whereupon the sultana threw off her mask, and Selim "caught her to his heart."--T. Moore, _Lalla Rookh_ ("The Light of the Haram," 1817).

=Nouron'ihar=, daughter of the Emir Fakreddin; a laughing, beautiful girl, full of fun and pretty mischief, dotingly fond of Gulchenrouz, her cousin, a boy of 13. She married the Caliph Vathek, with whom she descended into the abyss of Eblis, whence she never after returned to the light of day.

The trick she played Bababalouk was this: Vathek, the caliph, was on a visit to Fakreddin, the emir', and Bababalouk, his chief eunuch, intruded into the bathroom, where Nouronihar and her damsels were bathing. Nouronihar induced the old eunuch to rest himself on the swing, when the girls set it going with all their might. The cords broke, the eunuch fell into the bath, and the girls made off with their lamps, and left the meddlesome old fool to flounder about till morning, when a.s.sistance came, but not before he was half dead.--W. Beckford, _Vathek_ (1784).

=Nouroun'nihar=, niece of a sultan of India, who had three sons, all in love with her. The sultan said he would give her to him who, in twelve months, gave him the most valuable present. The three princes met in a certain inn at the expiration of the time, when one prince looked through a tube, which showed Nourounnihar at the point of death; another of the brothers transported all three instantaneously on a magic carpet to the princess's chamber; and the third brother gave her an apple to smell of which effected an instant cure. It was impossible to decide which of these presents was the most valuable; so the sultan said he should have her who shot an arrow to the greatest distance. The eldest (Houssian) shot first; Ali overshot the arrow of his eldest brother; but that of the youngest brother (Ahmed) could nowhere be found. So the award was given to Ahmed.--_Arabian Nights_ ("Ahmed and Pari-Banou").

=Novel= (_Father of the English_). Henry Fielding is so called by Sir W.

Scott (1707-1754).

=Noven'siles= (4 _syl._), the nine Sabine G.o.ds, viz.: Hercules, Romulus, Esculapius, Bacchus, aeneas, Vesta, Santa, Fortuna and Fides or Faith.

(See NINE G.o.dS of the Etruscans.)

=Novit= (_Mr. Nichil_), the lawyer of the old laird of Dumbiedikes.--Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

=Novius=, the usurer, famous for the loudness of his voice.

... at hic si plaustra ducenta Concurrantque foro tria funera magna sonabit Cornua quod vincatque tubas.

Horace, _Satires_, i. 6.

These people seem to be of the race of Novius, that Roman banker, whose voice exceeded the noise of carmen.--Lesage, _Gil Blas_, vii.

13 (1735).