Chapter Theban Bard to Theodorus of T by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Theban Bard to Theodorus

Theban Bard (The), Theban Eagle, or Theban Lyre, Pindar, born at Thebes (B. C. 522–442).

Ye that in fancied vision can admire
The sword of Brutus and the Theban lyre.
   —Campbell: Pleasures of Hope, i. (1799).

Thecla (St.), said to be of noble family, in Iconium, and to have been converted by the apostle Paul. She is styled in Greek martyrologies the protomartyress, but the book called The Acts of Paul and Thecla is considered to be apocryphal.

On the selfsame shelf
With the writings of St. Thecla herself.
   —Longfellow: The Golden Legend (1851).

Thekla, daughter of Wallenstein.—Schiller, Wallenstein (1799).

Thélème (Abbey of), the abbey given by Grangousier to friar John for the aid he rendered in the battle against Picrochole king of Lerné. The abbey was stored with everything that could contribute to sensual indulgence and enjoyment. It was the very reverse of a convent or monastery. No religious hypocrites, no pettifogging attorneys, no usurers were admitted within it; but it was filled with gallant ladies and gentlemen, faithful expounders of the Scriptures, and every one who could contribute to its elegant recreations and general festivity. Their only law was: “Fay ce que Vouldras.”—Rabelais: Gargantua, i. 52–57 (1533).

Thélème, the Will personified.—Voltaire: Thélème and Macare.

Thelu, the female or woman.

And divers coloured trees and fresh array [hair]
Much grace the town [head], but most the Thelu gay;
But all in winter [old age] turn to snow, and soon decay.
   —P. Fletcher: The Purple Island, v. (1633).

Themistocles’ Infant Ruler of the World. (See Rulers, p. 940.)

Thenot, an old shepherd bent with age, who tells Cuddy, the herdsman’s boy, the fable of the oak and the briar. An aged oak, once a most royal tree, was wasted by age of its foliage, and stood with bare head and sear branches. A pert bramble grew hard by, and snubbed the oak, calling it a cumberer of the ground. It even complained to the lord of the field, and prayed him to cut it down. The request was obeyed, and the oak was felled; but now the bramble suffered from the storm and cold, for it had no shelter, and the snow bent it to the ground, where it was draggled and defiled. The application is very personal. Cuddy is the pert, flippant bramble, and Thenot the hoary oak; but Cuddy told the old man his tale was long and trashy, and bade him hie home, for the sun was set.—Spenser: Shepheardes Calendar, ii. (1579).

(Thenot is introduced also in ecl. iv., and again in ecl. xi., where he begs Colin to sing something; but Colin declines because his mind is sorrowing for the death of the shepherdess Dido.)

Thenot, a shepherd who loved Corin chiefly for her “fidelity” to her deceased lover. When “the faithful shepherdess” knew this, in order to cure him of his passion, she pretended to return his love. Thenot was so shocked to see his charm broken that he lost even his respect for Corin, and forsook her.—John Fletcher: The Faithful Shepherdess (1610).

Theocritos (of Siracus), in Latin Theocritus, a Greek bucolic poet. His poems (thirty in number) are called Idylls, or pictures of Sicilian life, and not like Virgil’s, which are highly imaginative “Arcadian shepherds.” About three centuries B. C.

English translations by J. Banks (1853); Dr. M. J. Chapman (the best); C. S. Calverley (1869); F. Fawkes (1761).

The Portuguese Theocritus, Saadi di Miranda (1495–1551).