Chapter Narren-Schiff to Negus of N by Brewer's Readers Handbook

He refers to—

Si figit adamantinos
Summis verticibus dira Necessitas
Clavos.
   —Horace: Odes, 3. 24.

Neck. Caligula the Roman emperor used to say, “Oh that the Roman people had but one neck, that I might cut it off at a blow!”

I love the sex, and sometimes would reverse
The tyrant’s wish, that “mankind only had
One neck, which he with one fell stroke might pierce.
   —Byron: Don Juan, vi. 27 (1824).

Neck or Nothing, a farce by Garrick (1766). Mr. Stockwell promises to give his daughter in marriage to the son of sir Harry Harlowe of Dorsetshire, with a dot of L10,000; but it so happens that the young man is privately married. The two servants of Mr. Belford and sir Harry Harlowe try to get possession of the money, by passing off Martin (Belford’s servant) as sir Harry’s son; but it so happens that Belford is in love with Miss Stockwell, and, hearing of the plot through Jenny, the young lady’s-maid, he arrests the two servants as vagabonds. Old Stockwell gladly consents to his marriage with Nancy, and thinks himself well out of a terrible scrape.

Neckan (The), a water-spirit who married a human bride whom he carried to his deep-sea home. She soon regretted that Neckan was not a Christian knight, so he came to earth to be baptized into the Christian faith. A priest said to him, “Sooner shall my staff bud than Neckan go to heaven.” The words were scarcely uttered when the staff budded. “Ah!” said Neckan, “there is mercy everywhere except in the heart of a monk.”—Matthew Arnold: The Neckan (a ballad).

Nectabanus, the dwarf at the cell of the hermit of Engaddi.—Sir W. Scott: The Talisman (time, Richard I.).

Nectar, the beverage of the gods. It was white as cream, for when Hebê spilt some of it, the white arch of heaven, called the Milky Way, was made. The food of the gods was ambrosia.

Ned (Lying), “the chimney-sweeper of Savoy,” that is, the duke of Savoy, who joined the allied army against France in the war of the Spanish Succession.—Dr. Arbuthnot: History of John Bull (1712).

Negroni, a princess, the friend of Lucrezia di Borgia. She invited the notables who had insulted the Borgia to a banquet, and killed them with poisoned wine.—Donizetti: Lucrezia di Borgia (an opera, 1834).

Negus, sovereign of Abyssinia, Ercoco or Erquico on the Red Sea marks the north-east boundary of this empire.

The empire of Negus to his utmost port,
Ercoco.
   —Milton: Paradise Lost, xi. 397 (1665).