Chapter Q to Queen of Song of Q by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Quadroon Zambo is the issue of an Indian and a Negro; Mulatto, of a Whiteman and a Negress; Terzeron, of a Whiteman and a Mulatto woman; Quadroon, of a Terzeron and a White.

Quaint (Timothy), servant of governor Heartall. Timothy is “an odd fish, that loves to swim in troubled waters.” He says, “I never laugh at the governor’s good humours, nor frown at his infirmities. I always keep a sober, steady phiz, fixed as the gentleman’s on horseback at Charing Cross; and, in his worst of humours, when all is fire and faggots with him, if I turn round and coolly say, ’Lord, sir, has anything ruffled you?’ he’ll burst out into an immoderate fit of laughter, and exclaim, ‘Curse that inflexible face of thine! Though you never suffer a smile to mantle on it, it is a figure of fun to the rest of the world.”’—Cherry: The Soldier’s Daughter (1804).

Quaker Poet (The), Bernard Barton (1784–1849); and J. G. Whittier, an American (1808–1892).

Quale (Mr.), a philanthropist, noted for his bald, shining forehead. Mrs. Jellyby hopes her daughter Caddy will become Quale’s wife.—Dickens: Bleak House (1852).

Quarll (Philip), a sort of Robinson Crusoe, who had a chimpanzee for his “man Friday.” The story consists of the adventures and sufferings of an English hermit named Philip Quarll (1727).

Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Quasimodo, the ringer of Notre Dame, hunchbacked, bowlegged, and one-eyed. He was found, when a baby, by Claude Frollo, the archdeacon of Joas, on Quasimodo Sunday. Frollo adopted the miserable, misshapen child, and baptized it by the name of Quasimodo. One day Esmeralda, the beautiful gipsy dancing-girl, crossed the hunchback’s path, and he loved her as she spoke kindly to him. He saved her when she was about to be executed for witchcraft, and hid her in Notre Dame, where she lived till Claude Frollo, who entertained a base passion for her, enticed her away. She did not return his love; he left her to the mercy of the people, and she was hanged for a witch. Quasimodo threw Frollo over the battlements of Notre Dame, and disappeared. Two years after, the skeleton of his body was found in the cave of Montfauçon, clasping the skeleton of Esmeralda, and it was inferred that he crept into the cave where the body was thrown, and lay down by her to die. The tale takes place about the year 1482.—Victor Hugo: Notre Dame de Paris (1831).

Quatre Filz Aymon (Les), the four sons of the duke of Dordona (Dordogne. Their names are Rinaldo, Guicciardo, Alardo, and Ricciardetto (i.e. Renaud, Guiscard, Alard, and Richard), and their adventures form the subject of an old French romance by Huon de Villeneuve (twelfth century).

Quaver, a singing-master, who says, “If it were not for singing-masters, men and women might as well have been born dumb.” He courts Lucy by promising to give her singing lessons.—Fielding: The Virgin Unmasked (about 1740).

Queen (The Starred Ethiop), Cassiopea, wife of Cepheus king of Ethiopia. (See Cassiopea, p. 184.)—Milton: Il Penseroso, 19 (1638).

The White Queen, Mary queen of Scots, La Reine Blanche; so called by the French, because she dressed in white as mourning for her husband.

Queen Dick, Richard Cromwell (1626, 1658–1660, died 1712).

It happened in the reign of queen Dick, i.e. never, on the Greek kalends. This does not refer to Richard Cromwell, but to queen “Outis.” There never was a queen Dick, except by way of joke.

Queen Mary, an historic drama by lord Tennyson (1875). It introduces her love for Philip of Spain, her marriage, and her hopeless yearning for a son who might inherit the crown of Great Britain and of Spain.

(Victor Hugo wrote a tragedy called Mary Tudor, in 1833; Aubrey de Vere, in 1847; and Miss Dickenson, in 1876.)