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

The Prose Homer, Henry Fielding the novelist. Byron calls him “The Prose Homer of Human Nature” (1707–1764).

The Scottish Homer, William Wilkie, author of The Epigoniad (1721–1772).

The Homer of our Dramatic Poets. Shakespeare is so called by Dryden (1564–1616).

Shakespeare was the Homer or father of our dramatic poets; Jonson was the Virgil. I admire rare Ben, but I love Shakespeare.—Dryden.

The Homer of Ferrara. Ariosto was called by Tasso, Omero Ferraresêe (1474–1533).

The Homer of the Franks. Angilbert was so called by Charlemagne. He died 814.

The Homer of the French Drama. Pierre Corneille was so called by sir Walter Scott (1606–1684).

The Homer of Philosophers, Plato (B.C. 429–347).

Homer the Younger, Philiscos, one of the seven Pleiad poets of Alexandria, in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphos.

Homer a Cure for the Ague. It is an old superstition that if the fourth book of the Iliad is laid under the head of a patient suffering from quartan ague, it will cure him at once. Serenus Sammonicus, preceptor of Gordian, a noted physician, says—

Mæoniæ Iliados quartum suppone timenti.
   —Prec. 50.

Homeric Characters.

Agamemnon, haughty and imperious; Achilles, brave, impatient of command, and relentless; Diomed, brave as Achilles, but obedient to authority; Ajax the Greater, a giant in stature, foolhardy, arrogant, and conceited; Nestor, a sage old man, garrulous on the glories of his youthful days; Ulyssês, wise, crafty, and arrogant; Patroclos, a gentle friend; Thersitês, a scurrilous demagogue.

Hector, the protector and father of his country, a brave soldier, an affectionate husband, a wise counsellor, and a model prince; Sarpedon, the favourite of the gods, gallant and generous; Paris, a gallant and a fop; Troilus, “the prince of chivalry;” Priam, a broken-spirited old monarch.

Helen, a heartless beauty, faithless, and fo nd of pleasure; Andromacheê, a fond young mother and affectionate wife; Cassandra, a querulous, croaking prophetess; Hecuba, an old she-bear robbed of her whelps.

Homespun (Zekiel), a farmer of Castleton. Being turned out of his farm, he goes to London to seek his fortune. Though quite illiterate, he has warm affections, noble principles, and a most ingenuous mind. Zekiel wins £20,000 by a lottery ticket, bought by his deceased father.

Cicely Homespun, sister of Zekiel, betrothed to Dick Dowlas (for a short time the Hon. Dick Dowlas). When Cicely went to London with her brother, she took a situation with Caroline Dormer. Miss Dormer married “the heir-at-law” of baron Duberly, and Cicely married Dick Dowlas.—Colman: The Heir-at-Low (1797).