Chapter Woodville to Wozenham of W by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Woodville to Wozenham

Woodville (Harry), the treacherous friend of Penruddock, who ousted him of the wife to whom he was betrothed. He was wealthy, but reduced himself to destitution by gambling.

Mrs. Woodville (whose Christian name was Arabella), wife of Harry Woodville, but previously betrothed to Roderick Penruddock. When reduced to destitution, Penruddock restored to her the settlement which her husband had lost in play.

Captain Henry Woodville, son of the above; a noble soldier, brave and high-minded, in love with Emily Tempest, but, in the ruined condition of the family, unable to marry her. penruddock makes over to him all the deeds, bonds, and obligations which his father had lost in gambling.—Cumberland: The Wheel of Fortune (1779).

Woodville (Lord), a friend of general Brown. It was lord Woodville’s house that was haunted by the “lady in the Sacque.”—Sir W. Scott: The Tapestried Chamber (time, George III.).

Woollen. It was Mrs. Oldfield, the actress, who revolted at the idea of being shrouded in woolen. She insisted on being arrayed in chintz trimmed with Brussels lace, and on being well rouged to hide the pallor of death. Pope calls her “Narcissa.”

“Odious! In woollen? ‘Twould a saint provoke!”
Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke.
“No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs and shade my lifeless face;
One would not, sure, be frightful when one’s dead!
And Betty, give this cheek a little red.”
   —Pope: Moral Essays, i. (1731).

Wopsle (Mr.), parish clerk, He had a Roman nose, a large, shining, bald forehead, and a deep voice, of which he was very proud. “If the Church had been thrown open,” i.e. free to competition, Mr. Wopsle would have chosen the pulpit. As it was, he only punished the “Ames” and gave out the psalms; but his face always indicated the inward thought of “Look at this and look at that,” meaning the gent at the reading-desk. He turned actor in a small metropolitan theatre.— Dickens: Great Expectations (1860).

Work (Endless), Penelopê’s web (p. 822); Vortigern’s Tower (p. 1183); washing the blackamoor white; etc.

World (The End of the). This ought to have occurred, according to cardinal Nicolas de Cusa, in 1704. He demonstrates it thus: The Deluge happened in the thirty-fourth jubilee of fifty years from the Creation (A. M. 1700), and therefore the end of the world should properly occur on the thirty-fourth jubilee of the Christian era, or A. D. 1704. The four grace years are added to compensate for the blunder of chronologists respecting the first year of grace.

The most popular dates of modern times for the end of the world, or what is practically the same thing, the Millennium, are the following: 1757, Swedenborg; 1836, Johann Albrecht Bengel, Erklärte Offenbarung; 1843, William Miller, of America; 1866, Dr. John Cumming; 1881, Mother Shipton.

It was very generally believed in France, Germany, etc., that the end of the world would happen in the thousandth year after Christ; and therefore much of the land was left uncultivated, and a general famine ensued. Luckily, it was not agreed whether the thousand years should date from the birth or the death of Christ, or the desolation would have been much greater. Many charters begin with these words, As the world is now drawing to its close. Kings and nobles gave up their state: Robert of France, son of Hugh Capet, entered the monastery of St. Denis; and at Limoges, princes, nobles, and knights proclaimed “God’s Truce,” and solemnly bound themselves to abstain from feuds, to keep the peace towards each other, and to help the oppressed.—Hallam: The Middle Ages (1818).

Another hypothesis is this: As one day with God equals a thousand years (Ps. xc. 4), and God laboured in creation six days, therefore the world is to labour 6000 years, and then to rest. According to this theory, the end of the world ought to occur A. M. 6000, or A.D. 1996 (supposing the world to have been created 4004 years before the birth of Christ). This hypothesis, which is widely accepted, is quite safe for close on to another century.