Chapter T. to Tailors of T by Brewer's Readers Handbook

T. to Tailors

T. Tusser has a poem on Thriftiness, twelve lines in length, and in rhyme, every word of which begins with t (died 1580).

The thrifty that teacheth the thriving to thrive,
Teach timely to traverse, the thing that thou ’trive,
Transferring thy toiling, to timeliness taught,
This teacheth thee temp’rance, to temper thy thought,
Take Trusty (to trust to) that thinkest to thee,
That trustily thriftiness trowleth to thee.
Then temper thy travell, to tarry the tide;
This teacheth thee thriftiness, twenty times tryed,
Take thankfull thy talent, thank thankfully those
That thriftily teacheth [? teach thee] thy time to transpose.
Troth twice to be teached, teach twenty times ten,
This trade thou that takest, take thrift to thee then.
   —Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, xlix. (1557).

Leon Placentius, a dominican, wrote a poem in Latin hexameters, called Pugna Porcorum, 253 lines long, every word of which begins with p (died 1548).

(See P, p. 793, for other alliterative verses.)

Taau, the god of thunder. The natives of the Hervey Islands believe that thunder is produced by the shaking of Taau’s wings.—J. Williams: Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands, 109 (1837).

Tabakiera, a magic snuff-box, which, upon being opened, said, Que quieres! (“What do you want?”); and upon being told the wish, it was there and then accomplished. The snuff-box is the counterpart of Aladdin’s lamp, but appears in numerous legends slightly varied (see for example, Campbell’s Tales of the West Highlands, ii. 293–303, “The Widow’s Son”).—Rev. W. Webster: Basque Legends, 94 (1876).

Tabarin, a famous vendor of quack medicines, born at Milan, who went to Paris in the seventeenth century. By his antics and rude wit he collected great crowds together, and in ten years (1620–30) became rich enough to buy a handsome château in Dauphine. The French aristocracy, unable to bear the satire of a charlatan in a château, murdered him.

(The jests and witty sayings of this farceur were collected together in 1622, and published under the title of L’Inventaire Universel des Œuvres de Tabarin, contenant ses Fantaisies, Dialogues, Paradoxes, Farces, etc. In 1858 an edition of his works was published by G. Aventin.)

Tabbard (The), the inn in Southwark from which Chaucer supposes his Pilgrims start for Canterbury.

A “tabbard” is a herald’s coat.

Table Talk, a poem in ten-syllabic rhymes by Cowper, in the form of dialogue between A and B, published in 1782.

There are also the Table Talk of John Selden; the Table Talk of Coleridge (1835); the Table Talk of Samuel Rogers (1856); etc.

Tablets of Moses, a variety of Scotch granite, composed of felspar and quartz, so arranged as to present, when polished, the appearance of Hebrew characters on a white ground.

Tachebrune, the horse of Ogier le Dane. The word means “brown spot.”

Taciturnian, an inhabitant of L’Isle Taciturne or Taciturna, meaning London and the Londoners.

A thick and perpetual vapour covers this island, and fills the souls of the inhabitants with a certain sadness, misanthropy, and irksomeness of their own existence. Alaciel [the genius] was hardly at the first barriers of the metropolis when he fell in with a peasant bending under the weight of a bag of gold; … but his heart was sad and gloomy, … and he said to the genius, “Joy! I know it not; I never heard of it in this island.”—De la Dixmie: L’Isle Taciturne et l’Isle Enjouée (1759).