Chapter Holles Street to Homespun of H by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Holles Street to Homespun

Holles Street (London). So called from John Holles duke of Newcastle, father of Henrietta Cavendish countess of Oxford and Mortimer. (See Hen-Rietta Street, p. 483)

Holly-tree Inn (Boots at the). (See Cobb, p. 222.)

Holman (Lieutenant Fames), the blind traveller (1787–1857).

Holofernes (4syl), a pedantic school-master, who speaks like a dictionary The character is meant for John Florio, a teacher of Italian in London, who published, in 1598, a dictionary called A World of Words. He provoked the retort by condemning wholesale the English dramas, which, he said, were “neither right comedies, nor right tragedies, but perverted histories without decorum.” The following sentence is a specimen of the style in which he talked:—

The deer was… in sanguis (blood), ripe as a pomewater who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of cœlo (the sky, the welkin, the heaven); and anon falleth like a crab on the face of terra (the soil, the land, the earth).—Shakespeare: Love’s Labour’s Lost, act iv. sc. 2 (1594).

(Holofernes is an imperfect anagram of “Johnes Florio,” the first and last letters being omitted.)

Holofernes, lieutenant-general of the armies of Nabuchodonosor, king of Assyria. When he laid siege to Bethulia, he cut off the water supply, and the Jews promised to surrender if God did not succour them within five days. In this interim Judith killed Holofernes with a tent-nail.—Judith.

There was yet another Holofernes, fore-king mentioned in the Hungarian folk-tale of Magic Helen. (See the collection made by count Mailath.)

Holopherne (Thubal), the great sophister, who, in the course of five years and three months, taught Gargantua to say his A B C backwards.—Rabelais: Gargantua, i. 14(1533).

Holy Bottle (The Oracle of the), the object of Pantagruel’s search. He visited various lands with his friend Panurge (2syl), the last place being the island of Lantern-land, where the “bottle” was kept in an alabaster fount in a magnificent temple. When the party arrived at the sacred spot, the priestess threw something into the fount; whereupon the water began to bubble, and the word “Drink” issued from the “bottle.” So the whole party set to drinking Falernian wine, and, being inspired with drunkenness, raved with prophetic madness; and so the romance ends.—Rabelais: Pantagruel (1545).

Like Pantagruel and his companions in quest of the “Oracle of the Bottle.”—Sterne.

Holy Brotherhood (The), in Spain called Santa Hermandad, was an association for the suppression of high way robbery.

The thieves,… believing the Holy Brotherhood was coming,…got up in a hurry, and alarmed their companions.—Lesage: Gil Blas, i. (1715).

Holy Island, Lindisfarne, in the German Sea, about eight miles from Berwick-upon-Tweed. It was once the see of the famous St.Cuthbert, but now the bishopric is that of Durham. The ruins of the old cathedral are still visible.

Ireland used to be so called, on account of its numerous saints.

Guernsey was so called in the tenth century, on account of the great number of monks residing there.

Rügen was so called by the Slavonic Varini.

Holy Living and Dying, by bishop Jeremy Taylor (1650).