Chapter Think to Thomas and Fair Ellinor of T by Brewer's Readers Handbook

(12) The Mantle of king Arthur, which could be worn or used as a carpet, and whoever wore it or stood on it was invisible. This mantle or carpet was called Gwen.

N.B.—The ring of Luned rendered the wearer invisible so long as the stone of it was concealed.

(13) The Chessboard of Gwendolen. When the men were placed upon it they played of themselves. The board was of gold, and the men silver.—Welsh Romance.

Thirteen Unlucky. It is said that it is unlucky for thirteen persons to sit down to dinner at the same table, because one of the number will die before the year is out. This silly superstition is very ancient, but in Christian countries has been confirmed by the “Last Supper,” when Christ and His twelve disciples sat at meat together. Jesus, of course, was crucified; and Judas Iscariot hanged himself.

At a banquet in the Valhalla, Loki once intruded, making up thirteen, and Baldur was slain. (This is a mere allegory.)

Any odd number of mixed guests at a dinner-table must be awkward to seat; but certainly there would be a greater likelihood of one dying before the close of the year with fourteen than with thirteen guests.

Thirty (The). So the Spartan senate established by Lycurgos was called.

Similarly, the Venetian senate was called “The Forty.”

Thirty Tyrants (The). So the governors appointed b y Lysander the Spartan over Athens were called (B.C. 404). They continued in power only eight months, when Thrasybulos deposed them and restored the republic.

“The Thirty” put more people to death in eight months of peace than the enemy had done in a war of thirty years.—Xenophon.

Thirty Tyrants of Rome (The), a fanciful name, applied by Trebellius Pollio to a set of adventurers who tried to make themselves masters of Rome at sundry times between A.D. 260 and 267.

The number was not thirty, and the analogy between them and “The Thirty Tyrants of Athens” is scarcely perceptible.

Thirty Years’ War (The), a series of wars between the protestants and catholics of Germany, terminated by the “Peace of Westphalia.” The war arose thus: The emperor of Austria interfered in the struggle between the protestants and catholics, by depriving the protestants of Bohemia of their religious privileges; in consequence of which the protestants flew to arms. After the contest had been going on for some years, Richelieu joined the protestants (1635), not from any love to their cause, but solely to humiliate Austria and Spain (1618–1648).

The Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta is called “The Thirty Years’ War” (B.C. 404–431).

Thisbe , a beautiful Babylonian maid, beloved by Pyramus, her next-door neighbour. As their parents forbade their marriage, they contrived to hold intercourse with each other through a chink in the garden wall. Once they agreed to meet at the tomb of Ninus. Thisbê was the first at the trysting-place, but, being scared by a lion, took to flight, and accidentally dropped her robe, which the lion tore and stained with blood. Pyramus, seeing the blood-stained robe, thought that the lion had eaten Thisbê, and so killed himself. When Thisbê returned and saw her lover dead, she killed herself also. Shakespeare has burlesqued this pretty tale in his Midsummer Night’s Dream (1592).

Thomalin, a shepherd who laughed to scorn the notion of love, but was ultimately entangled in its wiles. He tells Willy that one day, hearing a rustling in a bush, he discharged an arrow, when up flew Cupid into a tree. A battle ensued between them, and when the shepherd, having spent all his arrows, ran