Chapter Astræa to Athena of A by Brewer's Readers Handbook

starve to death, that it might serve its master on the day of resurrection.—Southey: Thalaba the Destroyer (1797).

Asylum Christi. So England was called by the Camisards during the scandalous religious persecutions of the “Grand Monarque” (Louis XIV.).

Atabalipa, the last emperor of Peru, subdued by Pizarro, the Spanish general. Milton refers to him in Paradise Lost, xi. 409 (1665).

Atala, the name of a novel by François René Châteaubriand. It was published in 1801, and created universal admiration. Like his novel called René, it was designed as an episode to his Génie du Christianisme. His wanderings through the primæval woods of North America are described in Atala and René also.

(This has nothing to do with Attila, king of the Huns (by Corneille); nor with Athalie, queen of Judah, the subject of Racine’s great tragedy.)

Atalanta, of A rcadia, wished to remain single, and therefore gave out that she would marry no one who could not out strip her in running; but if any challenged her and lost the race, he was to lose his life. Hippomenês won the race by throwing down golden apples, which Atalanta kept stopping to pick up. William Morris has chosen this for one of his tales in the Earthly Paradise (March).

In short, she thus appeared like another Atalanta.—Comtesse D’Aulnoy: Fairy Tales (“Fortunio,” 1682).

Atalanta in Calydon. A dramatic poem by Algernon C. Swinburne (1864).

Atalantis. “Secret Memoirs of Persons of Quality” in the court of 1688, by Mrs. de la Rivière Manley (1736). It is full of party scandal; not unfrequently new minting old lies.

As long as Atalantis shall be read.
   —Pope: Rape of the Lock.

Ataliba, the inca of Peru, most dearly beloved by his subjects, on whom Pizarro made war. An old man says of the inca—

The virtues of our monarch alike secure to him the affection of his people and the benign regard of Heaven.
   —Sheridan: Pizarro, ii. 4 (from Kotzebue), (1799).

Atbara or Black River, called the “dark mother of Egypt.” (See Black River.)

Ate, goddess of revenge.

With him along is come the mother-queen,
An Ate, stirring him to blood and strife.
   —Shakespeare: King John, act ii. sc. 1 (1596).

Ate, “mother of debate and all dissension,” the friend of Duessa. She squinted, lied with a false tongue, and maligned even the best of beings. Her abode, “far under ground hard by the gates of hell,” is described at length in bk. iv. 1. When sir Blandamour was challenged by Braggadoccio (canto 4), the terms of the contest were that the conqueror should have “Florimel,” and the other “the old hag Atê,” who was always to ride beside him till he could pass her off to another.—Spenser: Faërie Queene, iv. (1596).

Atellan Fables (The), in Latin Atellanæ Fabulæ, a species of farce performed by the ancient Romans, and so called from Atella, in Campania. They differed from comedy because no magistrates or persons of rank were introduced; they differed from the tabernariæ or genre drama, because domestic life was not represented in them; and they differed from the mimes, because there was neither buffoonery nor ribaldry. They were not performed by professional actors, but by Roman citizens of rank; were written in the Oscan language; and were distinguished for their refined humour.