Chapter Vitruvius to Vorst of V by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Voices of the Night, a poem by Longfellow, including A Hymn to Night A Psalm of Life, Flowers, etc. (1841).

Voiture, a French poet, idolized by his contemporaries in the reign of Louis XIV., but now only known by name (1598–1648).

E’en rival wits did Voiture’s death deplore,
And the gay mourned, who never mourned before;
The truest hearts for Voiture heaved with sighs;
Voiture was wept by all the brightest eyes.
   —Pope: Epistle to Miss Blount (1715).

Voland (Squire), the devil. (German, Junker Voland.)

Volante, one of the three daughters of Balthazar. Lively, witty, sharp as a needle, and high-spirited. She loves the count Montalban; but when the count disguises himself as a father confessor, in order to sound her love for him, she sees the trick in a moment, and says to him, “Come, count, pull off your lion’s hide, and confess yourself an ass.” Subsequently, all ends happily and well. —Tobin: The Honeymoon (1804).

Voletta, Free-will personified.

Voletta,
Whom neither man, nor fiend, nor God constrains.
   —P. Fletcher: The Purple Island, vi. (1633).

Volksmährchen [“popular tales”], in German, the best exponents being Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853), Musäus (1735–1787), De la Motte Fouqué (see Undine, p. 1158), Chamisso (see Schlemihl, Peter, p. 968), Heinrich Steffens (1773–1845), Achim von Arnim (1781–1831), Clemens Bentano (   ), Zschokke (1771–1848), Hoffmann (1776–1822), Gustav Freytag “The German Dickens” (1816- ), and the brothers Grimm.

Volpone, or The Fox, a comedy by Ben Jonson (1605). Volpone, a rich Venetian nobleman, without children, feigns to be dying, in order to draw gifts from those who pay court to him under the expectation of becoming his heirs. Mosca, his knavish confederate, persuades each in turn that he is named for the inheritance, and by this means exacts many a costly present. At the end, Volpone is betrayed, his property forfeited, and he is sentenced to lie in the worst hospital in all Venice.

Jonson has three great comedies: Volpone or the Fox, Epicene or the Silent Woman, and The Alchemist.—R. Chambers: English Literature, i. 192.

Volscius (Prince), a military hero, who falls in love with the fair Parthenopê, and disputes with prince Prettyman upon the superiority of his sweetheart to Cloris, whom prince Prettyman sighs for.—Duke of Buckingham: The Rehearsal (1671).

Why, this is worse than prince Volscius in love!—Sir W. Scott.

Oh, be merry, by all means. Prince Volscius in love! Ha, ha, ha!—Congreve: The Double Dealer (1694).

Volsunga Saga (The), a collection of tales in verse about the early Teutonic heroes, compiled by Sæmund Sigfusson in the eleventh century. A prose version was made some 200 years later by Snorro Sturleson. This saga forms a part of the Rhythmical or Elder Edda and of the Prose or Younger Edda.

Voltaire, French poet, philosopher, and litterateur (1694–1778).

The German Voltaire, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1838).

Christoph Martin Wieland is also called “The German Voltaire” (1733–1813).

The Polish Voltaire, Ignatius Krasicki (1774–1801).

The Russian Voltaire, Alex. P. Sumorokof (1727–1777).