Chapter Agnes to Aidenn of A by Brewer's Readers Handbook

the field 2,200,000 men.

Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp,
When Agrican, with all his northern powers,
Besieged Albracca.
   —Milton: Paradise Regained, iii. (1671).

Agrios, Lumpishness personified; a “sullen swain, all mirth that in himself and others hated; dull, dead, and leaden.” Described in canto viii. of The Purple Island, by Phineas Fletcher (1635). (Greek, agrios, “a savage.”)

Agrippina was granddaughter, wife, sister, and mother of an emperor. She was granddaughter of Augustus, wife of Claudius, sister of Caligula, and mother of Nero.

Lampedo of Lacedæmon was daughter, wife, sister, and mother of a king.

Agripyna or Agripyne , a princess beloved by the “king of Cyprus’son, and madly loved by Orleans.”—Dekker: Old Fortunatus (1600).

A’gue . It was an old superstition that if the fourth book of the Iliad was laid open unde r the head of a person suffering from quartan ague, it would cure him at once. Serenus Sammonicus (preceptor of Gordian), a noted physician, has amongst his medical precepts the following:—

Mœoniæ Illados quartum suppone timenti.
   —Prœcpta, 50.

Ague-cheek (Sir Andrew), a silly old fop with “3000 ducats a year,” very fond of the table, but with a shrewd understanding that “beef had done harm to his wit.” Sir Andrew thinks himself “old in nothing but in understanding,” and boasts that he can “cut a caper, dance the coranto, walk a jig, and take delight in masques,” like a young man.—Shakespeare: Twelfth Night (1614).

Woodward (1737–1777) always sustained “sir Andrew Ague-cheek” with infinite drollery, assisted by that expression of “rueful dismay” which gave so peculiar a zest to his Marplot.—Boadend: Life of Siddons.

Charles Lamb says that “Jem White saw James Dodd one evening in Ague-cheek, and recognizing him next day in Fleet Street, took off his hat, and saluted him with “Save you, sir Andrew!” Dodd simply waved his hand and exclaimed. “Away, fool!”

Ahaback and Desra, two enchanters, who aided Ahubal in his rebellion against his brother Misnar, sultan of Delhi. Ahubal had a magnificent tent built, and Horam the vizier had one built for the sultan still more magnificent. When the rebels made their attack, the sultan and the best of the troops were drawn off, and the sultan’s tent was taken. The enchanters, delighted with their prize, slept therein, but at night the vizier led the sultan to a cave, and asked him to cut a rope. Next morning he heard that a huge stone had fallen on the enchanters and crushed them to mummies. In fact, this stone formed the head of the bed, where it was suspended by the rope which the sultan had severed in the night.—James Ridley: Tales of the Genii (“The Enchanters’ Tale,” vi.).

Ahasuerus, the cobbler who pushed away Jesus when, on the way to execution, He rested a moment or two at his door. “Get off! Away with you!” cried the cobbler. “Truly, I go away,” returned Jesus, “and that quickly; but tarry thou till I come.” And from that time Ahasuerus became the “wandering Jew,” who still roams the earth, and will continue so to do until the “second coming of the Lord.” This is the legend given by Paul von Eitzen. bishop of Schleswig (1547).—Greve: Memoir of Paul von Eitzen (1744). (See WANDERING JEW.)

Ahasuerus is introduced in Shelley’s Queen Mab (section vii.), and a note is added (vol. i. p. 234, Rossetti’s edition), showing the wretchedness of “never dying.” He also appears in Shelley’s Revolt of Islam, in Hellas, and in the prose tale of The Assassin.