Chapter ADAM to Adolpha of A by Brewer's Readers Handbook

ADAMS (John), one of the mutineers of the Bounty (1790), who settled in Tahiti. In 1814 he was discovered as the patriarch of a colony, brought up with a high sense of religion and strict regard to morals. In 1839 the colony was voluntarily placed under the protection of the British Government.

Adams (Parson), the beau-ideal of a simple-minded, benevolent, but eccentric country clergyman, of unswerving integrity, solid learning, and genuine piety; bold as a lion in the cause of truth, but modest as a girl in all personal matters; wholly ignorant of the world, being “in it but not of it.”—Fielding: Joseph Andrews (1742).

His learning, his simplicity, his evangelical purity of mind, are so admirably mingled with pedantry, absence of mind, and the habit of athletic … exercise … that he may be safely termed one of the richest productions of the muse of fiction. Like don Quixote, parson Adams is beaten a little too much and too often, but the cudgel lights upon his shoulders … without the slightest stain to his reputation.—Sir W. Scott.

The Rey, W. Young, editor of “Ainsworth’s Latin Dictionary,” is said to have been the original of Fielding’s “Parson Adams.”

Adams (The Narrative of Robert), who was wrecked in 1810 on the west coast of Africa, and kept in slavery for 3 years. This “marvellous but authentic” narrative was published in 1816.

Adder (Deaf). It is said in fable that the adder, to prevent hearing the voice of a charmer, lays one ear on the ground and sticks his tail into the other.

… when man wolde him enchante,
He leyeth downe one eare all flat
Unto the grounde, and halt it fast;
And eke that other eare als faste
He stoppeth with his taille so sore
That he the wordes, lasse or more,
Of his echantëment ne hereth.
   —Gower: De Confessione Amantis, i. x. (1482).

Adder’s Tongue, that is, ophioglossum.

For them that are with [by] newts, or snakes, or adders stung.
He seeketh out an herb that’s callèd adder’s tongue.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, xiii. (1613).

Addison (Joseph), poet and satirist (1672–1719), editor of the Spectator, and author of Cato, a tragedy, which preserves the French Unities. His style has been greatly lauded, but it is too artificial and too Latinized to be a model of English composition.

Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the study of Addison.—Dr. Johnson.

Dr. Johnson himself was far too artificial and Latinized to be an authority on such a matter.

Never, not even by Dryden, not even by Temple, had the English language been written with such sweetness, grace, and facility.—Macaulay.

This certainly is not modern opinion.

Addison of the North, Henry Mackenzie, author of The Man of Feeling(1745–1831).

The Spanish Addison, Benedict Jerome Feyjoo (1701–1764).

Adelaide, daughter of the count of Narbonne, in love with Theodore. She is killed by her father in mistake for another.—Robert Jephson: Count of Narbonne (1782).

Adeline (Lady), the wife of lord Henry Amundeville , a highly educated aristocratic lady, with all the virtues and weaknesses of the upper ten. After the parliamentary sessions this noble pair filled their house with guests, amongst which were the duchess of FitzFulke, the duke of D—, Aurora Raby, and