character of Mrs. Lorraine is said to have been drawn, in part, from Lady Caroline Lamb, and Vivian Grey has usually been regarded, whether rightly or not, as a self-portrait.

Viv'ien. An enchantress of the Arthurian romances, called also Nimuë and, because she lived in a palace in the middle of a magic lake, usually identified with The Lady of the Lake. It was here that she brought up Launcelot, hence called Launcelot of the Lake. King Arthur's famous sword Excalibur was her gift. She was Merlin's mistress, and at last caused his downfall by entrapping him in a hawthorn bush from which it was impossible for her to release him or for him to free himself. The motive of this act varies in different versions of the legend, from curiosity to sheer malice. In Tennyson's Idylls she appears as a wily wanton who hated all the knights." She tried to seduce "the blameless king,' and did seduce Merlin, who, "overtalked and overworn, told her his secret charm ":

66

Having obtained this secret, the wantonput forth the charm," and in the hollow oak lay Merlin as one dead, "lost to life, and use and name, and fame."

Viviette Constantine. In Hardy's Two on a Tower (q.v.).

Vogler, Abt. See Abt Vogler.

Volapük. A language intended for universal use, invented about 1879 by Johann Schleyer, a German priest of Konstanz, Baden. So called from two of his manufactured words, vol, the world, pük, speech.

Vollar, Nettie. A leading character in Hergesheimer's Java Head (q.v.).

Vol'pone or The Fox. A comedy by Ben Jonson (1605). Volpone, a rich Venetian nobleman, without children, pretends to be dying, in order to draw gifts from those who pay court to him under the expectation of becoming his heirs. Mosca, his knavish confederate, persuades each in turn that he is named for the inheritance, and by this means exacts many a costly present. At the end, Volpone is betrayed, his property forfeited, and he is sentenced to lie in the worst hospital in all Venice.

Volscius, Prince. In the Duke of Buckingham's comedy The Rehearsal (1671), a military hero, who falls in love

with the fair Parthenope, and disputes with Prince Prettyman upon the superiority of his sweetheart to Cloris, whom Prince Prettyman sighs for.

Why, this is worse than Prince Volscius in love! Sir W. Scott.

Oh, be merry, by all means. Prince Volscius in love! Ha, ha, ha!-Congreve: The Double Dealer (1694).

Volstead Act. An act passed by the United States Congress on Oct. 28th, 1919, providing for enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment (national prohibition), through the Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

Volsunga Saga. The Scandinavian prose form of the German epic poem, the Nibelungenlied (q.v.). The general outlines of the two stories are the same, but names and details vary. The hero, Sigurd (cp. Siegfried) is brought up by Regin the Smith and at his instigation kills the dragon Fafiner. He rides through flames to the sleeping Valkyr maiden Brynhild (cp. Brunhild), marries her, leaves her in search of adventure, and under the influence of a love-potion given him in the hall of the Nibelungs, marries Gudrun (the Kriemhild of the Nibelungenlied) and aids her brother Gunnar (ep. Gunther) to secure Brynhild as his wife. In jealous fury Brynhild persuades Gudrun's brother Guttorm to kill Sigurd and then dies herself on his funeral pyre. Gudrun now marries Atli (the Attila of history and the Etzel of the Nibelungenlied), and when she has secured vengeance on her enemies, sets fire to the house and kills Atli.

William Morris retold the Volsunga Saga in his poetic Lay of the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblung (1877) and Wagner drew largely upon it for the four operas of his Nibelungen Ring (q.v.).

Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de (1694-1778). French author. His bestknown novels are Candide (q.v.) and Zadig. His Philosophy of History is one of his most significant prose works.

The name Voltaire is simply an anagram of Arouet L. I. (le jeune).

The German Voltaire. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1838).

Christoph Martin Wieland (1733–1813). The Polish Voltaire. Ignatius Krasicki (1774-1801).

Volund. A Scandinavian form of Wayland (q.v.).

Voodoo, or Voodooism. A degraded system of magic and witchcraft which includes snake-worship and, in its extreme forms, human sacrifices and cannibalism, said to be a relic of African barbarism

The name is thought to have been first given to it by missionaries from Fr. Vaudois, a Waldensian, as these were accused of sorcery; but Sir Richard Burton derived it from vodun, a dialect form of Ashanti obosum, a fetish or tutelary spirit.

Vox populi vox Dei (Lat. The voice of the people is the voice of God).

Vronski, Count. In Tolstoi's Anna Karénina (q.v.), the young officer who becomes Anna's lover.

Vul'can. A son of Jupiter and Juno, god of fire and the working of metals, and patron of handicraftsmen in Roman mythology, identified with the Greek Hephæstus, and called also Mulciber, i.e. the softener.

His workshop was on Mount Etna, where the Cyclops assisted him in forging thunderbolts for Jove. It is said that he took the part of Juno against Jupiter, and Jupiter hurled him out of heaven. He was nine days in falling, and at last was picked up, half dead and with one leg broken, by the fishermen of the island of Lemnos. It was he who, with the stroke of an axe, delivered Minerva from the head of Jupiter. Venus was his wife, and in consequence of her amour with Mars he came to be regarded as the special patron of cuckolds.

Vulcan's Badge. The badge of cuckoldom.

Vulgate, The. The Latin translation of the Bible, made about 385-405 by St. Jerome (q.v.), still used, with some modifications, as the authorized version by Roman Catholics.

Vye, Eustacia. Heroine of Hardy's Return of the Native (q.v.).

W. C. T. U. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, an organization formed in the interests of universal prohibition of alcoholic beverages.

Wackles, Mrs. and the Misses. In Dickens' Old Curiosity Shop (1840), keepers of a "Ladies' Seminary at Chelsea. English grammar, composition, geography and the use of dumb-bells were taught by Miss Melissa Wackles; writing, arithmetic, dancing, music and general fascination by Miss Sophy Wackles; needlework, marking and samplery by Miss Jane Wackles; corporal punishment and domestic duties by Mrs. Wackles. Waddington, Mr. The hero of May Sinclair's novel Mr. Waddington of Wyck (q. v.).

Wade, Miss. In Dickens' Little Dorrit (1857), a handsome young woman who looked at every act of kindness, benevolence, and charity with a jaundiced eye and attributed it to a vile motive. Twice she loved in one case she jilted her lover, in the other she was herself jilted. The man in this latter case was Henry Gowan, who married Pet, the daughter of Mr. Meagles, and in consequence of this marriage Miss Wade hated Gowan, his wife, the Meagleses, and all their friends. She enticed Tattycoram away from Mr. Meagles, and the two young women lived together for a time, nursing their hatred of man to keep it warm.

Wadman, Widow. In Sterne's TrisIram Shandy (1759), a comely widow, who wishes to secure Uncle Toby for her second husband. Amongst other wiles, she pretends to have something in her eye, and gets Uncle Toby to look for it. As the kind-hearted hero of Namur does so, the gentle widow gradually places her face nearer and nearer the Captain's mouth, in the hope that he will kiss and propose. Wagg, Mr. A literary man in Thackeray's Pendennis, a professional humorist.

Wagner. The faithful servant and constant companion of Faust, in Marlowe's drama called The Life and Death of Dr Faustus (1589), in Goethe's Faust (Ger. 1798) and in Gounod's opera of Faust (1859).

Wagner is a type of the pedant. He sacrifices himself to books as Faust does to knowledge the dust of folios is his element, parchment the source of his inspiration. . . . He is one of those who, in the presence of Niagara, would vex you with questions about arrow-headed inscriptions. ... or the origin of the Pelasgi -Lewes.

Wagner, Richard (1813-1883). German composer. His operas are Rienzi, The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, the four operas of the Nibelungen Ring, Tristan and Isolde, Die Meislersinger and Parsifal. See those entries.

Wagon Boy, The. The American orator and politician, Thomas Corwin (17941865) was so called from his youthful experience of bringing a wagon-load of supplies to General W. H. Harrison during a war against the Indians.

Waha'bites. A Mohammedan sect, whose object is to bring back the doctrines and observances of Islam to the literal precepts of the Koran; so called from the founder, Ibn Abdul Wahab (d. 1787).

Wainamoinen. The hero of the Kalevala (q. v.), the Orpheus of Finnish mythology.

Wait, James. The "nigger" of Conrad's Nigger of the Narcissus (q. v.).

Wakefield, The Vicar of. See Vicar of Wakefield.

Wakem, Philip. In George Eliot's Mill on the Floss (q. v.), a brilliant but sensitive cripple, in love with Maggie Tulliver.

Waldegrave, Henry. The hero of Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming (q. v.). Waldemar Fitzurse. (In Scott's Ivanhoe.) See Fitzurse.

Walden, or Life in the Woods. The chief work of Henry Thoreau (Am. 1854), a volume telling of his simple, healthy, hermit-like life on the shores of Walden Pond, where he built himself a hut, cultivated a garden and lived for years on an annual outlay of eight dollars. The book is noted for its nature descriptions.

Waldensians or Waldenses (also called the Vaudois). Followers of Peter Waldo of Lyons, who began a reform movement in the Church about 1170. They threw off the authority of the Pope, bishops, and all clergy, appointed lay-preachers (women among them), rejected infant baptism and many other rites, and made themselves so obnoxious to the ecclesias

tical powers that they met with considerable persecution. This they survived, and their descendants in doctrine still exist, principally in the Alpine valleys of Dauphiné, Provence, and Piedmont.

Waldo. The hero of Olive Schreiner's Story of an African Farm (q. v.). Wales. The Prince of Wales. popular story is that the title arose thus:

The

When Edward I subdued Wales, he promised the Welsh, if they would lay down their arms, that he would give them a native prince who could not speak a word of English. His queen (Eleanor) having given birth to a son in Wales, the new-born child was entitled Edward, Prince of Wales; and ever since then the eldest son of the British sovereign has retained the title. The facts, however, are that Edward I obtained the submission of the Welsh in 1276; his eldest son, afterwards Edward II, was born at Carnarvon in 1284, and it was not till 1301 that he was created Prince of Wales. Walhalla. See Valhalla.

Walker. Hookey Walker! A derisive exclamation meaning Nonsense! Incredible! used when hearing a "tall story" or some statement that cannot be trusted. The legend is that John Walker was an outdoor clerk at Longman, Clementi and Co.'s, Cheapside, and was noted for his eagle nose, which gained him the nickname of Old Hookey. His office was to keep the workmen to their work, or report them to the principals. Of course it was the interest of the employees to throw discredit on Walker's reports, and the poor old man was so badgered and ridiculed that the firm found it politic to abolish the office.

To go by Walker's bus. To walk. Similar expressions are, "To go by the Marrowbone stage," ""To ride Shank's pony."

Walking Stewart. The nickname of John Stewart (d. 1822), an English traveller, who travelled on foot through Hindustan, Persia, Nubia, Abyssinia, the Arabian Desert, Europe, and the United States (died 1822).

A most interesting man, ... eloquent in conversation, contemplative and crazy beyond all reach of helebore, yet sublime and divinely benignant in his visionariness. This man, as a pedestrian traveller, had seen more of the earth's surface . . . than any man before or since. De Quincey.

Walküre, Die (The Valkyrie). One of the four operas of Wagner's Nibelungen Ring (q.v.).

Wall Street. A term for American business and moneyed interests from the street in New York City where the financial operations of the country are centered.

Wallace, Lew (1827-1905). American novelist, author of The Fair God, Ben Hur, The Prince of India. See those entries.

Wallace, Sir William. One of the national heroes of Scotland, associated with Robert Bruce. He is a prominent

character in Jane Porter's Scottish Chiefs (1809).

Wallenstein. A historic drama by Schiller (Ger. 1799-1800), in three divisions: Wallenstein's Camp, the prologue; The Piccolomini in five acts and Wallenstein's Death in five acts. The hero is Count Albrecht von Wallenstein, commander of the forces of the German emperor during the Thirty Years' War.

Wallflowers. At a dance or party, girls who have no partners, and who sit or stand near the walls.

Wallingford. Get Rich Quick Wallingford. An engaging schemer and promoter who is the hero of many stories by George Randolph Chester; hence any clever, unscrupulous schemer.

Walpole, Horace (1717-1797). English author famous for his Letters and his novel, The Castle of Otranto (q.v.).

Walpole, Hugh (1884– ). English novelist, author of Fortitude, The Dark Forest, Jeremy, etc.

Walstan, St. See under Saint.

Walter or Walther von Stolzing. In Wagner's opera, Die Meistersinger (q.v.). Walters or Waters, Childe. See Childe Waters.

Walton. An Izaak Walton. One devoted to "the gentle craft of angling. Izaak Walton wrote a book called The Complete Angler, or Contemplative Man's Recreation (1655).

Walton, Katherine. Heroine of W. G. Simms' novel Katherine Walton (q.v.) and a leading character in his Revolutionary trilogy. Colonel Walton is a prominent figure in the same books.

Wamba. In Scott's Ivanhoe "the son of Witless," the jester of Cedric the Saxon of Rotherwood.

Wandering Jew, The. The central figure of a very widespread medieval legend which tells how a Jew who refused to allow Christ to rest at his door while He was bearing His cross to Calvary, was condemned to wander over the face of the earth till the end of the world. The usual form of the legend says that he was Ahasuerus, a cobbler. The craftsman pushed him away, saying, "Get off! Away with you, away! Our Lord replied, "Truly I go away, and that quickly, but tarry thou till I come."

Another tradition has it that the Wandering Jew was Kartaph'ilos (Cartaphilus), the door-keeper of the judgment. hall in the service of Pontius Pilate. He struck our Lord as he led Him forth, saying, "Go on faster, Jesus"; where

upon the Man of Sorrows replied, "I am going, but thou shalt tarry till I come again" (Chronicle of St. Albans Abbey; 1228). The same Chronicle, continued by Matthew Paris, tells us that Kartaphilos was baptized by Ananias, and received. the name of Joseph. At the end of every hundred years he falls into a trance, and wakes up a young man about thirty.

In German legend he is associated with John Buttadæus, seen at Antwerp in the 13th century, again in the 15th, and a third time in the 16th. His last appearance was in 1774 at Brussels. In the French version he is named Isaac Laquedem, or Lakedion. Another story has it that he was Salathiel ben Sadi, who appeared and disappeared towards the close of the 16th century, at Venice, in so sudden a manner as to attract the notice of all Europe; and another connects him with the Wild Huntsman (q.v.).

There is a ballad in Percy's Reliques called The Wandering Jew; and poems by Beranger and Quintet entitled Ahasuerus and by Caroline Norton entitled The Undying One deal with the legend. Shelley introduces Ahasuerus into Queen Mab, The Revolt of Islam and his prose tale The Assassin.

In prose fiction the Jew is the subject of Croly's Salathiel (1827) reprinted in 1900 as Tarry Thou till I Come, of Lew Wallace's Prince of India (q.v.) and of the more famous romance by Eugene Sue entitled The Wandering Jew (Le Juif Errant, Fr. 1845). In the latter, Ahasuerus and his half-sister Herodias, both eternal wanderers, find their chief interest in guiding the affairs of their descendants. The romance is episodic, but the principal events take place in the Paris of 1832 and the plot centers about the struggle between the Protestants and Catholics to control a large sum of money invested for seven heirs of Count Rennepont, a descendant of Herodias. The Jesuits, led by a shrewd and energetic little priest named Rodin, succeed in bringing six of the seven heirs to disaster and presenting the seventh, Gabriel Rennepont, a young Jesuit priest, as the only claimant for the inheritance, but their schemes are finally thwarted.

Wandering Willie. In Scott's Redgauntlet, the blind fiddler, who tells the tale about Sir Robert Redgauntlet and his son Sir John.

Wandering Wood. The wood in Bk. i of Spenser's Faerie Queene, in which the Red Cross Knight and Una stray. Una

tries to persuade him to leave the wood, but he is self-willed. Error, in the form of a serpent, attacks him, but the knight severs her head from her body. The idea is that when Piety will not listen to Una or Truth, it is sure to get into Wandering Wood, where Error will attack it; but if if then listens to Truth it will slay Error.

Wangel, Hilda. Heroine of Ibsen's Master Builder (q. v.).

Wantley, The Dragon of. An old story, preserved in Percy's Reliques, tells of this monster, which was slain by More, of More Hall. He procured a suit of armor studded with spikes, and kicked the Dragon in the mouth, where alone it was vulnerable. Percy says the Dragon was an overgrown, rascally attorney, who cheated some children of their estate, and was made to disgorge by one named More, who went against him, armed with the spikes of the law," after which the attorney died of vexation. Wantley is Wharncliffe in Yorkshire.

War. War baby. The child of a war bride (see below), particularly an illegitimate child.

War bride. A woman who marries a soldier in time of war or threatening war; also a woman who becomes the mother of a soldier's child without the formality of marriage.

War and Peace. A novel by Tolstoi (Rus. 1864-1869). Its scope is tremendous; beginning several years before Austerlitz, it treats in general of the Russia of Kontonzov and the France of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Ward, Artemus. The nom de plume of the popular American humorist, Charles Farrar Browne (1834-1867). Artemus Ward was a wandering showman whom Browne created and whose story he retailed in the first person in the Cleveland Plain Dealer until his amusing adventures, his vagaries in spelling and his shrewd observations on human nature made him a household character.

Ward, Gilbert. The hero of Crawford's historical romance Via Crucis (q. v.).

Ward, John. See John Ward, Preacher. Ward, Mrs. Humphry (1851-1920). English novelist. Her best-known books are Robert Elsmere, Marcella, The Marriage of William Ashe, Sir George Tressady. See those entries.

Warden, The. A novel by Anthony Trollope, one of his Chronicles of Barsetshire. See Barsetshire.

Warder, Becky. The heroine of Clyde Fitch's drama The Truth (q. v.) Her