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

Alpheus , a magician and prophet in the army of Charlemagne, slain in sleep by Cloridano.—Ariosto: Orlando Furioso (1516).

Alpheus , of classic story, being passionately in love with Arethusa, pursued her; but she fled from him in a fright, and was changed by Diana into a fountain, which bears her name.

Alphonso, an irascible old lord in The Pilgrim, a comedy by John Fletcher (1621).

Alphonso, king of Naples, deposed by his bro ther Frederick. Sorano tried to poison him, but did not succeed. Ultimately, he recovered his crown, and Frederick and Sorano were sent to a monastery for the rest of their lives.—John Fletcher: A Wife for a Month (1624). Beaumont died 1616.

Alphonso, son of count Pedro of Cantabria, afterwards king of Spain. He was plighted to Hermesind, daughter of lord Pelayo.

The young Alphonso was in truth an heir
Of nature’s largest patrimony; rich
In form and feature, growing strength of limb,
A gentle heart, a soul affectionate,
A joyous spirit, filled with generous thoughts,
And genius heightening and ennobling all.
   —Southey: Roderick, etc., viii. (1814).

Alpleich or Elfenreigen, the weird spirit-song, or that music which some hear before death. Faber refers to it in his “Pilgrims of the Night”—

Hark, hark, my soul! Angelic songs are swelling.

And Pope, in The Dying Christian to his Soul, when he says—

Hark! they whisper, angels say,
Sister spirit, come away!

Alps-Vinegar. It is Livy who says that Hannibal poured hot vinegar on the Alps to facilitate his passage over the mountains. Where did he get the vinegar from? And as for the fire, Polybius says there was no means of heating the vinegar, not a tree for fire-wood.

Alquife , a famous enchanter in Amadis of Gaul, by Vasco de Lobeira, of Oporto, who died 1403.

La Noue denounces such beneficent enchanters as Alquife and Urganda, because they serve “as a vindication of those who traffic with the powers of darkness.”—Francis de la Noue: Discourses, 87 (1587).