Chapter Wild Boar of Ardennes to Wilfer of W by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Wild Wenlock, kinsman of sir Hugo de Lacy, besieged by insurgents, who cut off his head.—Sir W. Scott: The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).

Wildair (Sir Harry), the hero of a comedy so called by Farquhar (1701). The same character had been introduced in the Constant Couple (1700), by the same authol. Sir Harry is a gay profligate, not altogether selfish and abandoned, but very free and of easy morals. This was Wilks’s and Peg Woffington’s great part.

Their Wildairs, sir John Brutes, lady Touchwoods, and Mrs. Frails are conventional reproductions of those wild gallants and demireps which figure in the licentious dramas of Dryden and Shadwell.—Sir W. Scott.

(“Sir John Brute,” in The Provoked Wife (Vanbrugh); “lady Touchwood,” in The Belle’s Stratagem (Mrs. Cowley); “Mrs. Frail,” in Congreve’s Love for Love.)

Wildblood of the Vale (Young Dick), a friend of sir Geoffrey Peveril.—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Wilde (Johnny), a small farmer of Rodenkirchen, in the isle of Rügen. One day, he found a little glass slipper belonging to one of the hill-folk. Next day, a little brownie, in the character of a merchant, came to redeem it, and Johnny Wilde demanded as the price “that he should find a gold ducat in every furrow he ploughed.” The bargain was concluded, but before the year was over he had worked himself to death, looking for ducats in the furrows which he ploughed. —Rügen Tradition.

Wildenhaim (Baron), father of Amelia. In his youth he seduced Agatha Friburg, whom he deserted. Agatha bore a son, Frederick, who in due time became a soldier. Coming home on furlough, he found his mother on the point of starvation, and, going to beg alms, met the baron with his gun, asked alms of him, and received a shilling. He demanded more money, and, being refused, collared the baron, but was soon seized by the keepers, and shut up in the castle dungeon. Here he was visited by the chaplain, and it came out that the baron was his father. As the baron was a widower, he married Agatha, and Frederick became his heir.

Amelia Wildenhaim, daughter of the baron. A proposal was made to marry her to count Cassel, but as the count was a conceited puppy, without “brains in his head or a heart in his bosom,” she would have nothing to say to him; but she showed her love to Anhalt, a young clergyman, and her father consented to the match.—Mrs. Inchbald: Lovers’ Vows (altered from Kotzebue, 1800).

Wildfire (Madge), the insane daughter of old Meg Murdochson the gipsy thief. Madge had been seduced when a girl, and this, with the murder of her infant, had turned her brain.—Sir W. Scott: Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).

Wilding (Jack), a young gentleman fresh from Oxford, who fabricates the most ridiculous tales, which he tries to pass off for facts; speaks of his adventures in America, which he has never seen, and of being entrapped into marriage with a Miss Sibthorpe, a pure invention. Accidentally meeting a Miss Grantam, he sends his man to learn her name, and is told it is Miss Godfrey, an heiress. On this blunder the “fun” of the drama hinges. When Miss Godfrey is presented to him, he does not know her, and a person rushes in who declares she is his wife, and that her maiden name was Sibthorpe. It is now Wilding’s turn to be dumfounded, and, wholly unable to unravel the mystery, he rushes forth, believing the world is a Bedlam let loose. —Foote: The Liar (1761).

Wilding (Sir Jasper), an ignorant but wealthy country gentleman, fond of fox-hunting. He dresses in London like a fox-hunter, and speaks with a “Hoic! tally-ho!”

Young Wilding, son of sir Jasper, about to marry the daughter of old Philpot for the dot she will bring him.