Chapter Tonna to Torquato of T by Brewer's Readers Handbook

“I assure you,” said Mr. Toots, “really I am dreadfully sorry, but it’s of no consequence.”—Dickens: Dombey and Son, xxviii. (1846).

Topas (Sir), a native of Poperyng, in Flanders; a capital sportsman, archer, wrestler, and runner. Chaucer calls him “sir Thopas” (q.v.).

Topas (Sir). Sir Charles Dilke was so called by the Army and Navy Gazette, November 25, 1871 (1810–1869).

Topham (Master Charles), usher of the black rod.—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Tophas (Sir), an affected, blustering, talkative, cowardly pretender.—Lyly: Edymion (1591).

Tophet, “the place of drums,” from toph (“a drum”). So called in allusion to the drums and timbrels sounded in the valley of Hinnom to drown the cries of children sacrificed to this idol. Solomon introduced the worship, and built a temple to Moloch on the Mount of Olives, “that opprobrious hill” (1 Kings xi. 7). The valley of Hinnom is called Gehenna, and is made in the New Testament a “type of hell.”

…the wisest heart
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
His temple right against the temple of God
On that opprobrious hill; and made his grove
The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna called, the type of hell.
   —Milton: Paradise Lost, i. 400, etc. (1665).

Topsy, a young slave-girl, who never knew whether she had either father or mother: and being asked by Miss Ophelia St. Clair how she supposed she came into the world, replied, “I’spects I growed.”—Mrs. B. Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852).

Tor (Sir), the natural son of king Pellinore and the wife of Aries the cow-herd. He was the first of the knights of the Round Table.—Sir T. Malory: History of Prince Arthur, i. 24 (1470).

Toralva (The licentiate), mounted on a cane, was conveyed through the air with his eyes shut; in twelve hours he arrived at Rome, and the following morning returned to Madrid. During his flight he opened his eyes once, and found himself so near the moon that he could have touched it with his finger.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, II. iii. 5 (1615). (See Torralba.)

Torch-Race. On the eve of the Panathenæa, there was a torch-race in ancient Greece, in which the runners were expected in succession to carry a lighted torch without allowing the flame to become extinguished. Each passed it in turn, and each received it. Plato (Leg., vi.) compares the transmission of life to a torch-race, and Lucretius has the same idea: “Et quasi cursores vitaï lampada trudunt” (De Rerum Natura, ii. 77). Thomas Moore says the nations of Europe caught up the love of liberty from England, as the runners in a torch-race handed the lighted brand from one to another. (See Lemprière, art. “Prometheus.”)

As at old games a runner snatched the torch
From runner.
R. Browning: Paracelsus, ii.
‘T was like a torch- race, such as they
Of Greece performed in ages gone,
When the fleet youths, in long array,
Passed the bright torch triumphant on.
I aw the expectant nations stand
To catch the coming flame in turn,
I saw from ready hand to hand,
The clear but struggling glory burn.
   —Moore: The Torch of Liberty (1814).

Tordenskiol [Tor-den-skole] or the “Thunder-shield.” So Peder Wessel vice-admiral of Denmark (in the reign of Christian V.) was called. He was brought up as a tailor, and died in a duel.

From Denmark thunders Tordenskiol:
Let each to heaven commend his soul,
And fly.
   —Longfellow: King Christian [V.].

Torfe (Mr. George), provost of Orkney.—Sir W. Scott: The Pirate (time, William III.).

Tormes (Lazarillo de), by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (sixteenth century); a kind of Gil Blas, whose adventures and roguish tricks are the first of a very popular sort of novel called the Gusto Picaresco. Lesage has imitated it in his Gil Blas, and we have numberless imitations in our own language. (See Tyll Owlyglass.)