Chapter ALMANZOR to Alquife of A by Brewer's Readers Handbook

ALMANZOR to Alquife

ALMANZOR, the caliph, wishing to found a city in a certain spot, was told by a hermit named Bagdad that a man called Moclas was destined to be its founder. “I am that man,” said the caliph, and he then told the hermit how in his boyhood he once stole a bracelet and pawned it, whereupon his nurse ever after called him “Moclas” (thief). Almanzor founded the city, and called it Bagdad, the name of the hermit.—Marigny.

Almanzor, in Dryden’s tragedy of The Conquest of Granada (1672).

Almanzor, lackey of Madelon and her cousin Cathos, the affected fine ladies in Molière’s comedy of Les Précieuses Ridicules (1659).

Almanzor and Almanzaida, a novel said to be by Sir Philip Sidney, and published in 1678, which, however, being ninety-two years after his death, renders the attributed authorship extremely suspicious.

Almaviva (Count and countess), in the Barber of Seville and in the Mariage de Figaro. Holcroft has a wretched adaptation called The Follies of a Day. The count is a libertine, and the countess is his wife.—Hollies (1745–1809).

Almeria, daughter of Manuel king of Granada. Prince Alphonso fell in love with her, and married her; but on the very day of espousal the ship in which they were sailing was wrecked, and each thought the other had perished. Both, however, were saved, and met unexpectedly on the coast of Granada, to which Alphonso was brought as a captive. Here (under the assumed name of Osmyn) he was imprisoned, but made his escape, and invaded Granada. He found king Manuel dead; succeeded to the crown; and “the mourning bride” became converted into the joyful wife.—W. Congreve: The Mourning Bride (1697).

Almesbury . It was in a sanctuary of Almesbury that queen Guenever took refuge, after her adulterous passion for sir Lancelot was made known to the king. Here she died, but her body was buried at Glastonbury, in Somersetshire.

(Almesbury, i.e. Almondsbury, in Gloucestershire.)

Almeyda, the Portuguese governor of India. In his engagement with the united fleets of Cambaya and Egypt, he had his legs and thighs shattered by chain-shot, but, instead of retreating to the rear, he had himself bound to the ship-mast, where he “waved his sword to cheer on the combatants,” till he died from loss of blood.

Whirled by the cannons’ rage, in shivers torn,
His thighs far scattered o’er the waves are borne;
Bound to the mast the godlike hero stands,
Waves his proud sword and cheers his woeful bands:
Tho’ winds and seas their wonted aid deny,
To yield he knows not; but he knows to die.
   —Camoens: Lusiad, x. (1569).

Similar stories are told of admiral Benbow, Cynægeros brother of the poet Æschylos, Jaafer who carried the sacred banner of “the prophet” in the battle of Muta, and of some others.

Almirods (The), a rebellious people, who refused to submit to prince Pantagruel after his subjugation of Anarchus king of the Dipsodes . It was while Pantagruel was marching against these rebels that a tremendous shower of rain fell, and the prince, putting out his tongue “half-way,” sheltered his whole army.—Rabelais: Pantagruel, ii. 32 (1533).

Alnaschar, the dreamer, the “barber’s fifth brother.” He invested all his money in a basket of glassware, on which he was to gain so much, and then to invest again and again, till he grew so rich that he would marry the vizier’s daughter and live in grandeur; but, being angry with his supposed wife, he gave a kick with his foot and smashed all the ware which had given birth to his dream of wealth.—The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.