372 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



dan may be called its hero, inasmuch as he is the lovrr 

 of its heroine. Miss Linley, the famous singer, who I it- 

 came Sheridan's first wife. The whole remarkable fam- 

 ily to which she belonged give title to the book. (Jar- 

 rick Goldsmith, Sir Joshua, Mrs. Thrale, Dr. Johnson. 

 Thomas Sheridan, elocutionist and lexicographer, and 

 father of Richard, Burke, and others. 



\e-tor. The name dates to ancient Grecian 

 Homer makes him the great counselor of the Grecian 

 chiefs, and extols his eloquence as superior even to that 

 of I'lysses. His authority was even considered equal 

 to that of the immortal gods. Hence the name is often 

 found in literature as an appellation denoting wisdom. 

 Bryant has been called "The Nestor of Our Poets." 



New Atlantis, The. An imaginary island in the 

 middle of the Atlantic. Bacon, in his allegorical fiction 

 so called, supposes himself wrecked on this island, where 

 he finds an aociation for the cultivation of natural 

 science and the promotion of arts. Called the "New" 

 Athi: inguish it from Plato's Atlantis, an 



imaginary island of fabulous charms. 



.V'wroine, Colonel. A gallant, simple-hearted gen- 

 tleman, a retired East Indian officer, in Thackeray's 

 novel "The Newcomes." His unworldliness leads to 

 the loss of his fortune, and he finally dies, poor and 

 brokvti-hearted, in the Charter House hospital. 



New Kim land Primer. A book quoted as specimen 

 of literature for children in early American days. A 

 copy of the N<-w England Primer, published in Walpole, 

 N. 11., in 1M4. cwhtains an illustrated alphabet. The 

 letter "L" is illustrated by a lion with one of its paws 

 resting upon a lamb which is lying down, and the follow- 

 ing lines: 



"The Lion bold 

 The Lamb doth hold." 



New England Tragedies. Among the poems of 

 H. \\. Longfellow are the "New England Tragedies," 

 and the "Divine Tragedy." These, it is said, are to be 

 taken in connection with "The Golden Legend," the 

 whole forming one connected work of art, somewhat as 

 do the successive Arthurian legends of Tennyson. 



New Jerusalem. The name by which in the Chris- 

 tian faith, heaven, or the abode of the redeemed, is 

 symbolized. The allusion is to the description in the 

 twenty-first chapter of the Book of Revelation. 



New Pastoral. A poem by T. B. Read, truly Amer- 

 ican in character like its companion poem, "The Wag- 

 oner of the Alleghanies." The "New Pastoral" C9n- 

 sists of a series of sketches of rustic and domestic life, 

 mostly of primitive simplicity, and so truthful as to be 

 not less valuable as history than attractive as poetry. 



Nibolung, King. A king of the Nibelungen, a myth- 

 ical Burgundian tribe, who gives name to the great 

 mediaeval epic of Germany, the "Nibelungen Lied." He 

 bequeathed to his two sons a hoard or treasure beyond 

 all price and incapable of diminution, which was won 

 by Siegfried, who made war upon the Nibelungen and 

 conquered them. 



Nibelungen Lied. A historic poem generally called 

 the German "Iliad." It is the only great national epic 

 that European writers have produced since antiquity, 

 and belongs to every country that has been peopled by 

 < iermanic tribes, as it includes the hero traditions of the 

 Franks, the Burgundians and the Goths, with memor- 

 ials of the ancient myths carried with them from Asia. 

 The poem is divided into two parts, and thirty-two lieds 

 or cantos. The first part ends with the death of Sieg- 

 fried, and the second part with the death of Kriemhild. 

 The death of Siegfried and the revenge of Kriemhild 

 . have been celebrated in popular songs dating back to 

 the lyric chants now a thousand years old. These are 

 the foundation of the great poem. 



Nk-k'leby, Mrs. Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens. 

 The mother of the hero, Nicholas, a widow fond of talk- 

 ing and of telling long stories with no connection. She 

 imagined her neighbor, a mildly insane man, was in 

 love with her because he tossed cabbages and other 

 articles over the garden wall. She had a habit of intro- 

 ducing, in conversation, topics wholly irrelevant to the 

 subject under consideration, and of always declaring, 

 when anything unanticipated occurred, that she had 

 expected it all along, and had prophesied to that pn--i>e 

 effect on divers (unknown) occasions. Nicholas Nick- 

 leby has to make his own way in the world. He first 

 goes as usher to Mr. Squeers, schoolmaster at Dotheboys 

 ' Hall; but leaves in disgust with the tyranny of Squeers 

 and his wife, especially to a poor boy named Smike. 

 Smike runs away from the school to "follow Nicholas, 

 and remains his humble follower till death. At Ports- 

 mouth, Nicholas joins the theatrical company of Mr. 

 Crummies, but leaves the profession for other adven- 

 tures. He falls in with the brothers Cherryble, who 

 make him their clerk; and in this post he rises to be- 



come a merchant, and ultimately marries Madeline Bray. 

 Nicknames by States. Name- gi\cn to the inhab- 

 itants of the different States by popular use: Alabama, 

 li/ards; Arkan'sas tooth-picks; California, gold-hunt- 

 er.-; Colora'do, rovers; Connec't icut , wooden nutmegs; 

 Delaware, musk-rats; Flor'ida, fly-up-the-creek-; Geor'- 



fia, buzzards; Illinois, suckers; Indiana, hoosiers; 

 owa, hawk-eyee; Kansas, jay-hawkers; Kentucky, 

 corn-crackers; 1 .oiiisiana. Creoles; Maine, foxes; Mary- 

 land, craw-thumpers; Mich'igan. wolverines; Minne- 

 ;>hei>; Mi. :ip'pi. tadpoles; Mi.-sou'ri. pukes; 

 Nebras'ka. bug-eaters; Xcva'da, sage-hens; New 

 Hampshire, granite boys; New Jersey, blues or clam- 

 catchers; New York, Knickerbockers; .North Caroli'na, 

 tar-boilers and tuekoes; Ohio, buck-eyes; Or'egon, 

 web-feet and bard-cases; Pennaylva'ma, Pennanitei 

 and leather-heads; Rhode Island, gun-flints; South 

 Caroli'na, weasels; Tennessee', whelps; Texas, beef- 

 heads; Vermont, Green Mountain boys; Virgin'ia, 

 beadies; Wisconsin, badgers. 



Nine Worthies, The. Famous personages often 

 alluded to, and classed together, rather in an arbitrary 

 manner, like the Seven Wonders of the Woild, the 

 Seven \Vise Men of Greece, etc. They have been counted 

 up in the following manner: 



( 1. Hector, son of Priam. 



Three Gentiles. ] 2. Alexander the Great. 

 / 3. Julius Ca sar. 

 ( 4. Joshua, Conqueror of Canaan. 



Three Jews. < 5. David, King of Israel. 



( 6. Judas Maccabseus. 

 ( 7. Arthur, King of Britain. 



Three Christians. < 8. Charlemagne. 



( ( J. Godfrey of Bouillon. 



Noctes Ambrosla'nse. A series of convivial fable 

 talk, full of humor, although local in subject. They 

 hold a high place in genial or recreative literature. They 

 were mostly written by "Christopher North," the real 

 John Wilson, and it is said that while Lockhart was 

 writing "Vale'rius," he was in the habit of taking walks 

 with Professor Wilson every morning, and of supping 

 with Blackwood at Ambrose's, a small tavern in Edin- 

 burgh. One night Lockhart said, "What a pity tin-re. 

 has not been a short-hand writer here to take down all 

 the good things that have been said"! and next day he 

 produced a paper from memory, and called it " Noctes 

 Ambrosiana?." That was the first of the series. 



North Americans of Yesterday. Name given to 

 the Indians of North America by recent writers, among 

 them F. S. Dellenbaugh in a work under same title. 

 This work, a comparative study of North American 

 Indian life and customs, is written on the theory that 

 i the races are of ethnic unity. 



Nourmahal'. Kail a Rookh, Moore. "Light of 

 i the Haram," She was for a season estranged from the 

 j sultan, till he gave a grand banquet, at which she ap- 

 peared in disguise as a lute-player and singer. The 

 i sultan was so enchanted with her performance, that he 

 exclaimed, "If Nourmahal had so played and sung. 1 

 could forgive her all"; whereupon the sultana threw 

 j off her mask. 



Novum Organum. The n9ted work of Roger 

 Bacon, showing his system of philosophy. It was pub- 

 lished in the year 1620. 



Nuc'ta. Paradise and the Perl, Moore. The 

 name given to the miraculous drop which falls from 

 heaven, in Egypt, on St. John's Day, and is supposed 

 to stop the plague. 



Nun of Nidaros. Tales of a Wayside Inn, Long- 

 fellow. The abbess of the Drontheim convent, who 

 heard the voice of St. John while she was kneeling at 

 her midnight devotions. 



Nut-Brown Maid. Rcliques, Percy. The maid 

 who was wooed by the "banished man.' The "ban- 

 ished man " describes to her the hardships she would 

 have to undergo if she married him; but finding that 

 she accounted these hardships as nothing compared with 

 his love, he revealed himself to be an earl's son, with 

 large hereditary estates in Westmoreland, and married 

 her. 



O'bermann. The impersonation of high moral worth 

 without talent, and the tortures endured by the con- 

 sciousness of this defect. This name was given to the 

 hero and imaginary author of a work of the same name 

 by Etienne Pivert de Senancourt, a French writer. 



O'beron. King of the Fairies, whose wife was 

 Titania. Shakespere introduces both Oberon and 

 Titania in his "Midsummer Night's Dream." He and 

 Titania, his queen, are fabled to have lived in India, 

 and to have crossed the seas to Northern Europe to 

 dance by the light of the moon. 



O'beron the Fay. A humpty dwarf only three feet 

 high, but of angelic face, lord and king of Mommur. 



