Chapter Jericho to Jew of J by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Jericho to Jew

Jericho, the manor of Blackmore, near Chelmsford. Here Henry VIII. had a house of pleasure, and when he was absent on some affair of gallantry, the expression in vogue was, “He’s gone to Jericho.”

Jermyn (Matthew) the lawyer, husband of Mrs. Transome, and father of Harold.—George Eliot (Mrs. J.W. Cross): Felix Holt, the Radical (a novel, 1866).

Jerningham (Master Thomas), the duke of Buckingham’s gentleman.—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Jerome (Don), father of don Ferdinand and Louisa; pig-headed, passionate, and mercenary, but very fond of his daughter. He insists on her marrying Isaac Mendoza, a rich Portuguese Jew; but Louisa, being in love with don Antonio, positively refuses to do so. She is turned out of the house by mistake, and her duenna is locked up, under the belief that she is Louisa. Isaac, being introduced to the duenna, elopes with her, supposing her to be don Jerome’s daughter; and Louisa, taking refuge in a convent, gets married to don Antonio. Ferdinand, at the same time, marries Clara the daughter of don Guzman. The old man is well content, and promises to be the friend of his children, who, he acknowledges, have chosen better for themselves than he had done for them.—Sheridan: The Duenna (1775).

Jerome (Father), abbot at St. Bride’s Convent.—Sir W. Scott: Castle Dangerous (time, Henry I.).

Jeronimo, the principal character in The Spanish Tragedy, by Thomas Kyd (1597). On finding his application to the king ill-timed, he says to himself, “Go by! Jeronimo;” which so tickled the fancy of the audience that it became a common street jest.

Jerry, manager of a troupe of dancing dogs. He was a tall, black-whiskered man, in a velveteen coat.—Dickens: The Old Curiosity Shop, xviii. (1840).

Jerry Cruncher. (See Cruncher, p. 249.)

Jerry Hawthorn, the rustic in Pierce Egan’s Life in London (1824). (See Corinthian Tom, p. 235.)

Jerry Sneak, a hen-pecked husband.—Foote: Mayor of Garratt (1763).

Jerrymandering, so dividing a state or local district as to give one part of it a political advantage over the other. The word is a corruption of “Gerrymandering;” so called from Elbridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts, member of Congress from 1776 to 1784, and vicepresident of the United States in 1812. Elbridge Gerry died in 1814.

Jerusalem, in Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, means London; “David” is Charles II., and “Absalom” the duke of Monmouth, etc.

The inhabitants of old Jerusalem
Were Jebusites [Catholics].
   —Pt. i. 87, 88.

Jerusalem. 1. Henry IV. was told “he should not die but in Jerusalem.” Being in Westminster Abbey, he inquired what the chapter-house was called, and when he was told it was called the “Jerusalem Chamber,” he felt sure that he would die there “according to the prophecy,” and so he did.

2. Pope Sylvester II. was told the same thing, and died as he was saying mass in a church so called at Rome.—Brown: Fasciculus.

3. Cambyses, son of Cyrus, was to ld that he should die in Ecbatana, which he supposed meant the capital of Media; but he died of his wounds in a place so called in Syria.

Jerusalem (The Fall of), a dramatic poem by dean Milman (1820).