362 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY ol FACTS 



manhood, and loathed his fellow-bacchanals and the 

 "laughing dames in whom he did delight." To banish 

 his disgust and melancholy, he determines to travel: 

 but, though he traverses some of the faire>t port inns 

 of the earth, the feelings of bitterness and desolation 

 still prey upon him. 



Harmin -al-Kaschld. Caliph of the Abbasside 

 race, contemporary with Charlemagne, and, like him, 

 a patron of literature and the arts. Many of the tal-- 

 in the "Arabian Nights" are placed in the caliphate of 

 Haroun-al-Raschid . 



Har-pa'gon'. The hero of Moliere's comedy of 

 "L'Avare." represented as a wretched miser. 



ll.tr pi-rr or Har'per. Some mysterious person- 

 age referred to by the witches in Shakespere's tragedy, 

 "Macbeth." 



M.I -.-.an. The Giaour, Byron. Caliph of the 

 Ottoman Empire, noted for his hospitality and splendor. 

 In his seraglio was a beautiful young slave named Leila, 

 who loved a Christian called the Giao'ur. Leila is put 

 to death by an emir, and Hassan is slain by the Giaour. 

 Caliph Hassan has become the subject of popular 

 romance. 



Hassan. Al. The Arabian emir' of Persia, father of 

 Hinda, in Moore's " Fire-worshippers." 



Hat to. In German legend, an Archbishop of Mentz 

 in the Tenth Century, who, for his hard-heartedness to 

 the poor in time of famine, was eaten by mice in the 

 "Mouse Tower" on an island in the Rhine near Bingen. 

 Robert Browning has made this legend the subject of a 

 poem. 



Have'lock the Dane. A fisherman, known as Grim, 

 rescued an infant named Havelock, whom he adopted. 

 This infant was the son of the King of Denmark, and 

 when the boy was restored to his royal sire Grim was 

 laden with gifts. He built the town which he called 

 after his own name. This is the foundation of the 

 mediaeval tales about "Havelock the Dane." 



Hazlewood, Sir Robert. The old baronet of 

 Hazlewood. 



Hazlewood, Charles. Guv Mannering, Scott. 

 Son of Sir Robert. In love with Lucy Bertram, whom 

 he marries. 



Heart of Mid-lo'thi-an. Thetolbooth.orold jail of 

 of Edinburgh, Midlothian being the old name of Edinburgh 

 County. It is the title of one of Sir Walter Scott's novels. 



Heep, I ri ah. David Copperfield, Dickens. A 

 'detestable character who, under the garb of the most 

 abject humility, conceals a diabolic malignity. Mrs. 

 Heep, Uriah's mother, was a character equally to be 

 despised for her hypocritical assumption of humility. 

 ^ Hel's or Hela's Kingdom. Frequent allusions in 

 Norse poetry to the kingdom of the lower world. Many 

 of its descriptions are said to be a source from which our 

 Puritan ancestors derived images of the region of the 

 unhappy dead. 



Hel'e-na. (1) A lady in Shakespere's "Midsummer 

 Night's Dream," in love with Demetrius. (2) The hero- 

 ine of Shakespere's "All's Well that Ends Well," in love 

 with Bertram, who marries her against his will and 

 leaves her, but is finally won by the strength of her 

 affection. (3) A character in an old popular tale, repro- 

 duced in Germany by Tieck. 



Her'mann and Dor'o-the'a. The hero and heroine 

 of Goethe's poem of the same name. 



Her'megild. Canterbury Tales, Chaucer. The 

 wife of the lord-constable of Northumberland. She was 

 converted by Constance, but was murdered by a knight. 

 Hermegild at the bidding of Constance restored sight 

 to a blind Briton. 



Her'mi-a. A lady in Shakespere's "Midsummer 

 Night's Dream," in love with Lysander. 



Her-mi'o-ne. The heroine of the first three acts of 

 Shakespere's " Winter's Tale." 



Her-na'ni or Er-na'ni. The hero of Victor Hugo's 

 tragedy of the same name, and of Verdi's opera, founded 

 on the play. He was a Spanish noble in revolt against 

 the Emperor Charles V. and killed himself from a high 

 sense of honor. 



He'ro and Le-an'dcr. A pair of lovers in a late 

 Greek poem. Hero dwelt on the Hellespont and Lean- 

 der, who lived opposite, swam the strait to visit her. He 

 was drowned, and Hero, in grief, cast herself into the sea. 



Hex'am, Lizzie. The heroine of Dickens's novel, 

 "Our Mutual Friend." 



Hiawa'tha. A mythical person believed by the 

 North American Indians to have been sent among them 

 to clear their rivers, forests, and fishing-grounds, and to 

 teach them the arts of peace. When the white man 

 came then Hiawatha knew that the time of his depar- 

 ture was at hand, when he must go "to the kingdom of 

 Ponemah, the land of the Hereafter." Longfellow 

 gathered these myths from the Algonquin legends 



II il de-brand. The nestor of German romance, a 



rnamcian and champion. 



Ilil'da. A New Kn<rland Jjirl of the most sensitive 

 delicacy and purity of mind, in Hawthorne's romance, 

 "The Marble Faun." She is an artist, living in Kome. 

 and typifies perhaps the conscience. 



II il tlohciiii. In an old German legend, the monk 

 of Hildesheim, doubting how a thousand years with 

 God could be "only one day," listened to the melody 

 of a bird, as he supposed, for only three minutes, but 

 found that he had been listening to it for a hundred 

 years. 



Hob'bi-did'anre. The name of one of the fiends 

 mentioned by Shakespere in "Lear," and taken from 

 the history of the Jesuits' impostures. 



Hod'e-kin. A famous German kobold, or domestic 

 fair v servant: so called because he always wore a little 

 felt hat pulled down over his face. 



Hol'o-fer'nes. (1) .A pedant living in Paris, under 

 whose care Gargantua is placed for instruction. > 

 1 pedantic schoolmaster in Shakespere's " Love's Labor's 



Lost." 



Holt, Felix. The hero of George Eliot's novel by 

 I the same name. 



Hom/ilies. The later entries in the Peterborough 



"Chronicle" and a few homilies are almost all that we 



have left of the literature of the Twelfth Century. Some 



of these homilies are copied or imitated from those of 



; ^Elfric. 



Hon'ey-comb', Will. One of the members of the 



imaginary club by whom the "Spectator" was pro- 



I fessedly edited.- He is distinguished for his graceful 



affectation, courtly pretension, and knowledge of the 



gay world. 



Honeyman, Charles. A fashionable preacher in 

 Thackeray's novel, "The Newcomes." 



Hope'ful. A pilgrim in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Prog- 

 ress," who accompanies Christian to the end of his 

 journey. 



Hop'-o'-my-Thumb'. A character in the tales of 

 the nursery. Tom Thumb and Hop-o'-my-Thumb are 

 not the same, although they are often confounded. 

 Tom Thumb was the son of peasants, knighted by Kins 

 Arthur, and was killed by a spider. Hop-o'-my-Thumb 

 , was a nix, the same as the German "daumlmg," the 

 French " le petit pouce," and the Scotch "Tom-a-lin" 

 or "Tamlane." He was not a human dwarf, but a fay. 



Hora'tio. Hamlet, Shakespere. An intimate 

 friend of Hamlet, a prince, a scholar, and a gentleman. 



Hora'tius, Codes. Captain of the bridge-gate over 

 the Tiber. He and two men to help him held the bridge 

 against vast approaching armies. Subject and title of 

 a poem by Lord Macaulay. 



Hornbook. The primer or apparatus for learning 

 the elements of reading, used in England before the 

 j days of printing, and common down to the time of 

 George II. It consisted of a single leaf, containing on 

 one side the alphabet, large and small, in black letter 

 or in Roman, with perhaps a small regiment of mono- 

 syllables. Then followed a form of exorcism and the 

 Lord's Prayer, and, as a finale, the Roman numerals. 

 The leaf was usually set in a frame of wood, with a slice 

 of transparent horn in front hence the name of "horn- 

 book." Copies of the hornbook are now exceedingly rare. 



Hpr'ner, Jack. The name of a celebrated person- 

 age in the literature of the nursery. A Somersetshire 

 tradition says that the plums which Jack Hor'ner pulled 

 out of the Christmas pie alluded to the title deeds of the 

 abbey estates at Wells, which were sent to Henry VIII. 

 in a pasty, and abstracted on the way by the messenger, 

 a certain Jack Homer. 



Hortense'. Bleak House, Dickens. The vindic- 

 tive French maid-servant of Lady Dedlock. In revenge 

 for the partiality shown by Lady Dedlock to Rosa, Hor- 

 tense murdered Mr. Tulkinghorn, and tried to throw 

 the suspicion of the crime on Lady Dedlock. 



House of Fame. Of this poem it has been said 

 that of itself it might have given fame to Chaucer. 

 Under the form of a dream, it gives a picture of the 

 "Temple of Glory," crowded with aspirants for immortal 

 renown, and adorned with statues of great poets and 

 historians. 



Iloiis'sain. A prince in the "Arabian Nights" who 

 had a flying carpet which would carry him whitherso- 

 ever he wished. 



Hubbard, Old Mother. A well-known nursery 

 rhyme. "Mother Hubbard's Tale," by Edmund Spen- 

 | ser, is a satirical fable in the style of Chaucer. 



Hu'bert de Burgh. Justice of England, created 

 | Earl of Kent, introduced by Shakespere into " King 

 John." He is the one to whom the young prince ad- 

 dresses his piteous plea for life. The lad was found dead 

 , soon afterwards, either by accident or foul play. 



