Chapter Trafford to Trapper of T by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Tramp (Gaffer), a peasant at the execution of old Meg Murdochson.—Sir W. Scott: Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).

Tramtrist (Sir), the name assumed by sir Tristram when he went to Ireland to be cured of his wounds after his combat with sir Marhaus. Here La Belle Isold (or Isold “the Fair”) was his leech, and the young knight fell in love with her. When the queen discovered that sir Tramtrist was sir Tristram, who had killed her brother, sir Marhaus, in combat, she plotted to take his life, and he was obliged to leave the island. La Belle Isold subsequently married king Mark of Cornwall, but her heart was ever fixed on her brave young patient.—Sir T. Malory: History of Prince Arthur, ii. 9–12 (1470).

Tranchera, Agricane’s sword, which afterwards belonged to Brandimart.—Ariosto: Orlando Furioso (1516).

Tranio, one of the servants of Lucentio the gentleman who marries Bianca (the sister of Katharina “the Paduan shrew”).—Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew (1594).

Transfer, a usurer, who is willing to advance sir George Wealthy a sum of money on these easy terms: (1) 5 per cent. interest; (2) 10 per cent. premium; (3) 5 per cent. for insuring the young man’s life; (4) a handsome present to himself as broker; (5) the borrower to pay all expenses; and (6) the loan not to be in cash but goods, which are to be taken at a valuation and sold at auction at the borrower’s sole hazard. These terms are accepted, and sir George promises besides a handsome douceur to Loader for having found a usurer so reasonable.—Foote: The Minor (1760).

Transfiguration (The Mount of). Conder, in his Tentwork in Palestine (1850), says there can be little doubt that it was some part of Mount Hermon, and not Mount Tabor (see Ps. xlii. 8).

Transformations. In the art of transformation, one of the most important things was a ready wit to adopt in an instant some form which would give you an advantage over your adversary: thus, if your adversary appeared as a mouse, you must change into an owl; then your adversary would become an arrow to shoot the owl, and you would assume the form of fire to burn the arrow; whereupon your adversary would become water to quench the fire; and he who could outwit the other would come off victorious. The two best examples I know of this sort of contest are to be found, one in the Arabian Nights, and the other in the Mabinogion.

(1) The former is the contest between the Queen of Beauty and the son of the daughter of Eblis. He appeared as a scorpion, she in a moment became a serpent; whereupon he changed into an eagle, she into a more powerful black eagle; he became a cat, she a wolf; she instantly changed into a worm and crept into a pomegranate, which in time burst, whereupon he assumed the form of a cock to devour the seed, but it became a fish; the cock then became a pike, but the princess became a blazing fire, and consumed her adversary before he had time to change.—“The Second Calender.”

(2) The other is the contest between Caridwen and Gwion Bach. Bach fled as a hare, she changed into a greyhound; whereupon he became a fish, she an otter-bitch; he instantly became a bird, she a hawk; but he became as quick as thought a grain of wheat. Caridwen now became a hen, and made for the wheatcorn and devoured him.—Taliesin.

Translator-General. Philemon Holland is so called by Fuller, in his Worthies of England. Mr. Holland translated Livy, Pliny, Plutarch, Suetonius, Xenophon, and several other classic authors (1551–1636).

Transome (Mrs.), secretly married to Matthew Jermyn, the lawyer. Their son is Harold [Transome], who proposes to Esther Lyon, and is refused.—George Eliot (Mrs. J. W. Cross): Felix Holt (1860).

Trap to Catch a Sunbeam, by Matilda Anne Planché (afterwards Mrs. Mackarness).

Trapbois (Old), a miser in Alsatia. Even in his extreme age, “he was believed to understand the plucking of a pigeon better than any man in Alsatia.”