Chapter Tammany Ring to Tappertit of T by Brewer's Readers Handbook

soon as the tanner mounted the king’s horse, it threw him, and the tanner gladly paid down a sum of money to get his old cob back again. King Edward now blew his hunting-horn, and the courtiers gathered round him. “I hope [i.e. expect] I shall be hanged for this,” cried the tanner; but the king, in merry pin, gave him the manor of Plumpton Park, with 300 marks a year.—Percy: Reliques, etc.

Tannhäuser (Sir), called in German the Ritter Tannhäuser, a Teutonic knight, who wins the love of Lisaura, a Mantuan lady. Hilario the philosopher often converses with the Ritter on supernatural subjects, and promises that Venus herself shall be his mistress, if he will summon up his courage to enter Venusberg. Tannhäuser starts on the mysterious journey, and Lisaura, hearing thereof, kills herself. At Venusberg the Ritter gives full swing to his pleasures, but in time returns to Mantua, and makes his confession to pope Urban. His holiness says to him, “Man, you can no more hope for absolution than this staff which I hold in my hand can be expected to bud.” So Tannhäuser flees in despair from Rome, and returns to Venusberg. Meanwhile the pope’s staff actually does sprout, and Urban sends in all directions for the Ritter, but he is nowhere to be found.

(Tieck, in his Phantasus (1812) introduces the story. Wagner (in 1845) brought out an operatic spectacle, called Tannhäuser. The companion of Tannhäuser was Eckhardt.)

The tale of Tannhäuser is substantially the same as that of Thomas of Erceldoun, also called “Thomas the Rhymer,” who was so intimate with Faëry folk that he could foretell what events would come to pass. He was also a bard, and wrote the famous lay of Sir Tristrem. The general belief is that the seer is not dead, but has been simply removed from the land of the living to Faëry-land, whence occasionally he emerges, to busy himself with human affairs. Sir W. Scott has introduced the legend in Castle Dangerous, v. (See Erceldoun, p. 328.)

Taouism, the system of Taou, that invisible principle which pervades everything. Pope refers to this universal divine permeation in the well-known lines: it—

Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees,
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent.
   —Pope: Essay on Man, i. (1733).

Tapestried Chamber (The), a tale by sir W. Scott, laid in the reign of George II. There are but two characters introduced. General Browne goes on a visit to lord Woodville, and sleeps in the “tapestered chamber,” which is haunted. He sees the “lady in the Sacque,” describes her to lord Woodville next morning, and recognizes her picture in the portrait-gallery.

The back of this form was turned to me, and I could observe, from the shoulders and neck, it was that of an old woman, whose dress was an old-fashioned gown, which, I think, ladies call a sacque—that is, a sort of robe completely loose in the body, but gathered into broad plaits upon the neck and shoulders, which fall down to the ground, and terminate in a species of train.

Tapley (Mark), an honest, light-hearted young man, whose ambition was “to come out jolly” under the most unfavourable circumstances. Greatly attached to Martin Chuzzlewit, he leaves his comfortable situation at the Blue Dragon to accompany him to America, and in “Eden” has ample opportunities of “being jolly” so far as wretchedness could make him so. On his return to England, he marries Mrs. Lupin, and thus becomes landlord of the Blue Dragon.—Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit, xiii., xxi., etc. (1843).

Charles [VII. of France] was the Mark Tapley of kings, and bore himself with his usual “jollity” under this afflicting news. It was remarked of him that “no one could lose a kingdom with greater gaiety.”—White.

Tappertit (Sim, i.e. Simon), the apprentice of Gabriel Varden, locksmith. He was just 20 in years, but 200 in conceit. An old-fashioned, thin-faced, sleek-haired, sharp-nosed, small-eyed little fellow was Mr. Sim Tappertit, about five feet high, but thoroughly convinced in his own mind that he was both good- looking and above the middle size, in fact, rather tall than otherwise. His figure, which was slender, he was proud of; and with his legs, which in knee-breeches were perfect curiosities of littleness, he was