Chapter Appetiser to Aranza of A by Brewer's Readers Handbook

till the day following, and then discovered that the young priest was his own son. When he opened a cake given him by the publican, he found in it three scudi.—Nerucci: Sessanta Novelle Populari.

Every one will remember Solomon’s choice. He chose wisdom, and found riches were given in to boot.

Appuldurcombe , the Isle of Wight. The word is a compound of apuldre-combe (“valley of apple trees”), and not y pul dur y cum (“the lake in the valley”).

April Fool. One of the most favourite London jokes was to send greenhorns to the Tower, “to see the lions washed.” (See Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, p. 58.)

When asked the origin of this custom, send the inquirer to look out Matt. xxviii. 22.

Apuleius, an African by birth, noted for his allegorical romance, in eleven books, of The Golden Ass (q.v.). Books iv., v., vi. contain the exquisite episode of Cupid and Psyche (q.v.). Apuleius lived about A.D. 114–190.

Aquarius, Sagittarius. Mrs. Browning says that “Aquarius” is a symbol of man suffering, and “Sagittarius” of man combatting—the passive and active forms of human labour.

Eve. Two phantasms of two men.
Adam. One that sustains,
And one that strives, so the ends
Of manhood’s curse of labour.
   —Mrs. Browning: A Drama of Exile (1851).

Aquilant, son of Olivero and Sigismunda; a knight in Charlemagne’s army. He was called “black,” and his brother Gryphon “white,” from the colour of their armour—Ariosto: Orlando Furioso (1516).

Aquiline, Raymond’s steed, whose sire was the wind.—Tasso: Jerusalem Delivered, vii. (1575).

(Solinus, Columella, and Varro relate how the Lusitanian mares “with open mouth against the breezes held, receive the gale, with warmth prolific filled, and thus inspired, their swelling wombs produce the wondrous offspring.” See also Virgil: Georgics, iii. 266–283.)

Aquinian Sage (The). Juvenal is so called, because he was born at Aquinum, in Latium. (He flourished A.D. 100.)

Arabella, an heiress left under the charge of justice Day, whose son, Abel, aspired to her hand and fortune; but Arabella conferred both on captain Manly instead.—T. Knight: The Honest Thieves.

Arabia Felix [Araby the Blest]. The name is a blunder made by British merchants, who supposed that the precious commodities of India, bought of Arabian merchants, were the produce of Arabia.

Arabian Bird (The), the phœnix. Metaphorically, a marvellous person; one quite sui generis.

O Anthony! O thou Arabian bird !
   —Shakespeare: Anthony and Cleopatra, iii. 2.

Arabian Nights’ Entertainments (The). (See Thousand-and-one Nights.)

Arachne [A-rak-ny], a spider. Metaphorically, a weaver. “Arachne’s labours,” spinning and weaving. Arachne was a Lydian maiden, who challenged Minerva to compete with her in needle tapestry, and Minerva metamorphosed her into a spider.

No orifice for a point
As subtle as Arachne’s broken woof
To enter.
   —Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida, v. 2 (1602).