Chapter Unique to Ursel of U by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Unique to Ursel

Unique (The), Jean Paul Richter, whose romances are quite unique and belong to no school (1763–1825).

Universal Doctor, Alain de Lille (1114–1203).

Sometimes Thomas Aquinas is also called Doctor Universalis (1224–1274).

Universal Passion (The), or “The Love of Fame,” by Young, 1725 (1827-8). It brought the author £3000 (worth above £5000 at the present time).

Universal Prayer (The), a paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer, by Pope (1738).

Unknown (The Great), sir Walter Scott, who published the Waverley novels anonymously (1771–1832).

Unlearned Parliament (The). The parliament convened by Henry IV. at Coventry, in Warwickshire (1404), was so called because lawyers were excluded from it.

Unlicked Bear, a lout, a cub. It used to be thought that the bear brought forth only a shapeless mass of flesh, which she licked into shape and life after birth.

Like to a chaos, or an unlicked bear-whelp,
That carries no impression like the dam..
   —Shakespeare:3 Henry VI, act iii. sc. 2 (1595).

Unlucky. (See M, p. 644; Thirteen, p. 1097; Thursday, p. 1106; etc.)

Unlucky Possessions, the gold of Nibelungen and the gold of Tolosa (p. 434), Graysteel (p. 445), Harmonia’s necklace (p. 470), Sherborne, in Dorsetshire (p. 997), etc.

The Koh-i-noor diamond, called in India “The Accursed Stone,” was supposed by the Hindus to bring ill luck to its possessor. Every owner after the sixteenth experienced misfortune. The sixteenth was assassinated; then the East India Company (after the war in the Punjaub) carried it off, but soon afterwards ceased to exist. It was then presented to the queen, and immediately afterwards lord Dalhousie (governorgeneral of India) died; then followed the duke of Wellington, who gave the first cutting of it; then the prince consort; and then followed the Indian Mutiny. (See p. 582.)

Unready (The), Ethelred II. (*, 978-1016).

“Unready” does not mean “never ready or prepared,” but lacking rede, i.e. “wisdom, judgment, or kingcraft.”

Unreason (The abbot of), of Father Howleglas, one of the masquers at Kennaquhair.—Sir W. Scott: The Abbot (time, Elizabeth).

Upholsterer (The Great), the common people. It was Burke who first applied this term to the artisan class.

Upholsterer (The), a farce by Murphy (1758). Abraham Quidnunc, upholsterer, in St. Martin’s-in-the- Fields, being crazed with politics, so neglects his business for the affairs of Europe, that he becomes a bankrupt; but at this crisis his son John, who had married the widow of a rich planter, returns from the West Indies, pays off his father’s debts, and places him in a position where he may indulge his love for politics without hampering himself with business.

Urania, sister of Astrophel (sir Philip Sidney), is the countess of Pembroke.

Urania, sister unto Astrophel,
In whose brave mind, as in a golden coffer,
All heavenly gifts and riches locked are,
More rich than pearls of Ind.
   —Spenser: Colin Clout’s Come Home Again (1595).