Chapter Tulkinghorn to Turpin of T by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Turcaret, a comedy by Lesage (1708), in which the farmers-general of France are gibbeted unmercifully. He is a coarse, illiterate man, who has grown rich by his trade. Any one who has risen from nothing to great wealth, and has no merit beyond money-making, is called a Turcaret.

Turcos, native Algerian infantry officered by Frenchmen. The cavalry are called Spahis.

Turenn. (See Touran, p. 1124.)

Turk Gregory, Gregory VII. (Hildebrand); so called for his furious raid upon royal prerogatives, especially his contest with the emperor [of Germany] on the subject of investiture. In 1075 he summoned the emperor Heinrich IV. to Rome; the emperor refused to obey the summons, the pope excommunicated him, and absolved all his subjects from their allegiance; he next dethroned him and elected a new kaiser, and Heinrich, finding resistance in vain, begged to be reconciled to the pope. He was now commanded, in the midst of a severe winter, to present himself, with Bertha his wife, and their infant son, at the castle of Canossa, in Lombardy; and here they had to stand three days in the piercing cold before the pope would condescend to see him. At last, however, the proud prelate removed the excommunication, and Heinrich was restored to his throne.

Turkish Spy (The), M ahmut, who lived forty-five years undiscovered in Paris, unfolding the intrigues of the Christian courts, between 1637 and 1682. The author of this romance is Giovanni Paolo Marana, and he makes it the medium of an historical novel of the period (1684).

(Ned Ward (1698–1700) wrote an imitation called The London Spy. See Old and New London, vol. i. p. 423.)

Turkomans, a corruption of Turkimâms (“Turks of the true faith”). The first chief of the Turks who embraced Islam called his people so to distinguish them from the Turks who had not embraced that faith.

Turn the Tables, to rebut a charge by a counter-charge, so that the accused becomes in turn the accuser, and the blamed charges the blamer. (See Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, p. 1201.)

It enables
A matron, who her husband’s foible knows,
By a few timely words to turn the tables.
   —Byron: Don Juan, i. 75 (1819).

Turnbull (Michael), the Douglas’s dark huntsman.—Sir W. Scott: Castle Dangerous (time, Henry I.).

Turnbull (Mr. Thomas), also called “Tom Turnpenny,” a canting smuggler and schoolmaster.—Sir W. Scott: Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Turnip-Hoer, George I. So called because, when he first came over to England, he proposed planting St. James’s Park with turnips (1660, 1714–1727).

Turnpenny (Mr.), banker at Marchthorn. —Sir W. Scott: St. Ronan’s Well (time, George III.).

Turnpenny (Tom), also called “Thomas Turnbull,” a canting smuggler and schoolmaster.—Sir W. Scott: Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Turntippit (Old lord), one of the privy council in the reign of William III. —Sir W. Scott: Bride of Lammermoor (1819).

Turon, the son of Brute’s sister, who slew 600 Aquitanians with his own hand in one single fight.

Where Turon,…Brute’s sister’s valiant son,…
Six hundred slew outright thro’ his peculiar strength;
By multitudes of men, yet overpressed at length,
His noble uncle there, to his immortal name
The city Turon [Tours] built, and well endowed the same
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, i. (1612).