Chapter EDWARD to Egypt of E by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Two familiar lines are from this ballad—

Man wants but little here below,
Nor wants that little long.

Edwin and Emma. Emma was a rustic beauty of Stanemore, who loved Edwin “the pride of swains;” but Edwin’s sister, out of envy, induced his father, “a sordid man,” to forbid any intercourse between Edwin and the cottage. Edwin pined away, and being on the point of death, requested he might be allowed to see Emma. She came and said to him, “My Edwin, live for me;” but on her way home she heard the death-bell toll. She just contrived to reach her cottage door, cried to her mother, “He’s gone!” and fell down dead at her feet.—Mallet: Edwin and Emma (a ballad).

Edyrn, son of Nudd. He ousted the earl of Yniol from his earldom, and tried to win Enid the earl’s daughter; but failing in this, he became the evil genius of the gentle earl. Ultimately, being sent to the court of king Arthur, he became quite a changed man—from a malicious “sparrow-hawk” he was converted into a courteous gentleman.—Tennyson: Idylls of the King (“Enid”).

Eel. The best in the world are those of Ancum, a river in that division of Lincolnshire called Lindsey (the highest part). The best pike are from the Witham, in the division of Lincolnshire called Kesteven (in the west).

As Kesteven doth boast her Wytham, so have I
My Ancum…whose fame as far doth fly
For fat and dainty eels, as her’s doth for her pike.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, xxv. (1622).

Efeso (St.), a saint honoured in Pisa. He was a Roman officer [Ephesus] in the service of Diocletian, whose reign was marked by a great persecution of the Christians. This Efeso or Ephesus was appointed to see the decree of the emperor against the obnoxious sect carried out in the island of Sardinia; but being warned in a dream not to persecute the servants of the Lord, both he and his friend Potito embraced Christianity, and received a standard from Michael the archangel himself. On one occasion, being taken captive, St. Efeso was cast into a furnace of fire, but received no injury; whereas those who cast him in were consumed by the flames. Ultimately, both Efeso and Potito suffered martyrdom, and were buried in the island of Sardinia. When, however, that island was conquered by Pisa in the eleventh century, the relics of the two martyrs were carried off and interred in the duomo of Pisa, and the banner of St. Efeso was thenceforth adopted as the national ensign of Pisa.

Egalité (Philippe), the duc d’Orléans, father of Louis Philippe king of the French. He himself assumed this “title” when he joined the revolutionary party, whose motto was “Liberty, Fraternity, and Egalité” (born 1747, guillotined 1793).

Egerton (Audley), a statesman, the rival of Henry l’Estrange for the love of Nora Avenel.—Lord Lytton: My Novel (1853).

Egeus , father of Hermia. He summoned her before Theseus duke of Athens, because she refused to marry Demetrius, to whom he had promised her in marriage; and he requested that she might either be compelled to marry him or else be dealt with “according to the law,” i.e. “either to die the death,” or else to “endure the livery of a nun, and live a barren sister all her life.” Hermia refused to submit to an “unwished yoke,” and fled from Athens with Lysander. Demetrius, seeing that Hermia disliked him but that Helena doted on him, consented to abandon the one and wed the other. When Egeus was informed thereof, he withdrew his summons, and gave his consent to the union of his daughter with Lysander.—Shakespeare: Midsummer Night’s Dream (1592).

S. Knowles, in The Wife, makes the plot turn on a similar “law of marriage” (1833).

Egil, brother of Weland; a great archer. One day, king Nidung commanded him to shoot at an apple placed on the head of his own son. Egil selected two arrows, and being asked why he wanted two, replied, “One to shoot thee with, O tyrant, if I fail.”