Chapter Wallenrode to War-Cries of W by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Walter the Penniless. (See Penniless, p. 823.)

Waltham’s Calf (As wise as), a thorough fool. This calf, it is said, ran nine miles when it was hungry to get suckled by a bull.

Doctor Daupatus, Bachler bacheleratus,
Dronken as a mouse At the ale-house
Under a notaries signe Was made a diuine;
As wise as Waltom’s calf.
   —Skelton: Colyn Clout (time, Henry VIII.).

Waltheof (The abbot), abbot of St. Withold’s Priory.—Sir W. Scott: Ivanho. (time, Richard I.).

Waltheof (Father), a grey friar, confessor to the duchess of Rothesay.—Sir W. Scott: Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

Walton (Lord), father of Elvira, who promised his daughter in marriage to sir Richard Forth, a puritan officer. But Elvira had already plighted her love to lord Arthur Talbot, a cavalier. The betrothal was set aside, and Elvira married Arthur Talbot at last.—Bellini: Il Puritani (opera, 1834).

Walton (Sir John de), governor of Douglas Castle.—Sir W. Scott: Castle Dangerous (time, Henry I.).

Wamba, “the son of Witless,” the jester of Cedric the Saxon of Rotherwood.—Sir W. Scott: Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).

Wampum, a string or belt of whelk-shells, current with the North American Indians as a medium of exchange, and always sent as a present to those with whom an alliance or treaty is made.

Peace to thee! my words this belt approve.
Campbell: Gertrude of Wyoming, i. 14 (1809).
Our wampum league thy brethren did embrace.
   —Ditto, i. 15.

Wanderer of Switzerland (The), a poem by Montgomery (1806).

Wanderers. It is said that gipsies are doomed to be wanderers on the face of the earth, because they refused hospitality to the Virgin and Child when the holy family fled into Egypt. (See Wild Huntsman.)—Aventinus: Annalium Boiorum, libri septem (1554).

Wandering Jew (The), El (See Jew, p. 546.)

Wandering Knight (The). El Donzel del Febo (“the Knight of the Sun”) is so called in the Spanish romance entitled The Mirror of Knighthood.

(Eumenedês is so called in Peele’s Old Wives’ Tale, 1590.)

Wandering Willie, the blind fiddler, who tells the tale about sir Robert Redgauntlet and his son sir John.—Sir W. Scott: Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Wandering Wood, which contained the den of Error. Error was a monster, like a woman upwards, but ending in a huge dragon’s tail with a venomous sting. The first encounter of the Red Cross Knight was with this monster, whom he slew.—Spenser: Faërie Queene, I (1590).

When piety (the Red Cross Knight) once forsakes the oneness of truth (Una), it is sure to get into “Wandering Wood,” where it will be attacked by “Error.”

Wang means “king.” Common in China and the Corea.

Wantley (Dragon of), a monster slain by More of More Hall, who procured a suit of armour studded with spikes; and, proceeding to the lair, kicked the dragon it its mouth, where alone it was vulnerable.—Percy: Reliques.