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

The Scotch Theocritus, Allan Ramsay, author of The Gentle Shepherd (1685–1758).

The Sicilian Theocritus, Giovanni Meli of Palermo, immortalized by his eclogues and idylls (1740–1815).

Theodofred, heir to the Span ish throne, but incapacitated from reigning because he had been blinded by Witiza. Theodofred was the son of Chindasuintho, and father of king Roderick. As Witiza, the usurper, had blinded Theodofred, so Roderick dethroned and blinded Witiza.—Southey: Roderick, etc. (1814).

N. B.—In mediæval times, no one with any personal defect was allowed to reign, and one of the most ordinary means of disqualifying a prince for succeeding to a throne was to put out his eyes. Of course, the reader will call to mind the case of our own prince Arthur, the nephew of king John; and scores of instances in Italian, French, Spanish, German, Russian, and Scandinavian history might be added. (See Kingship, p. 575.)

Theodomas, a famous trumpeter at the siege of Thebes.

At every court ther cam loud menstralcye
That never trompêd Joab for to heere,
Ne he Theodomas yit half so cleere
At Thebês, when the citê was in doute.

Chaucer: Canterbury Tales, 9592, etc. (1388).

Theodora, si ster of Constantine the Greek emperor. She entertained most bitter hatred against Rogero for slaying her son, and vowed vengeance. Rogero, being entrapped in sleep, was confined by her in a dungeon, and fed on the bread and water of affliction, but was ultimately released by prince Leon.—Ariosto: Orlando Furioso (1516).

Theodore , son of general Archas “the loyal subject” of the great-duke of Muscovia. A colonel, valorous but impatient.—Fletcher: The Loyal Subject (1618).

Theodore of Ravenna, brave, rich, hono ured, and chivalrous. He loved Honoria “to madness,” but “found small favour in the lady’s eyes.” At length, however, the lady relented and married him. (See Honoria, p. 500.)—Dryden: Theodore and Honoria (from Boccaccio).

Theodore, son of the lord of Clarinsal, and grandson of Alphonso. His father thought him dead, renounced the world, and became a monk of St. Nicholas, under the assumed name of Austin. By chance, Theodore was sent home in a Spanish bark, and found his way into some secret passage of the count’s castle, where he was seized and taken before the count. Here he met the monk Austin, and was made known to him. He informed his father of his love for Adelaide, the count’s daughter, and was then told that if he married her he must renounce his estates and title. The case stood thus: If he claimed his estates, he must challenge the count to mortal combat, and renounce the daughter; but if he married Adelaide, he must forego his rights, for he could not marry the daughter and slay his father-in-law. The perplexity is solved by the death of Adelaide, killed by her father by mistake, and the death of the count by his own hand.—Jephson: Count of Narbonne (1782).

Theodorick, king of the Goths, called by the German minnesingers Diderick of Bern (Verona).

Theodorick or “Alberick of Mortemar,” an exiled nobleman, hermit of Engaddi, and an enthusiast.—Sir W. Scott: The Talisman (time, Richard I.).

Theodorus (Master), a learned physician, employed by Ponocratês to cure Gargantua of his vicious habits. The doctor accordingly “purged him canonically with Anticyrian hellebore, cleansed from his brain all perverse habits, and made him forget everything he had learned of his other preceptors.”—Rabelais: Gargantua, i. 23 (1533).

Hellebore was made use of to purge the brain, in order to fit it the better for serious study.—Pliny: Natural History, xxv. 25; Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, xvii. 15.