Chapter Alderman to Alexandrian School of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Ale-draper a tapster. Ale-drapery, the selling of ale, etc.

"No other occupation have I but to be an ale-draper." - H.Chettle: Kind-harts' Dreame , 1592.

Ale Knight (An) A knight of the ale-tub, a tippler, a sot.

Ale-silver A yearly tribute paid to the corporation of London, as a licence for selling ale.

Ale-stake The pole set up before ale-houses by way of "sign." A bush was very often fixed to its top. A tavern.

"A garland had he set upon his head
As great as it werein for an ale-stake."
Chaucer.

"I know many an ale-stake."
Hawkins: English Drama, i.100.

Ale-wife The landlady of an alehouse or ale-stand.

Alecto One of the Furies, whose head was covered with snakes.

"Then like Alecto, terrible to view,
Or like Medusa, the Circassian grew."
Hoole: Jerusalem Delivered, b. vi.

Alectorian Stone (An). A stone said to be of talismanic power, found in the stomach of cocks. Those who possess it are strong, brave, and wealthy. Milo of Crotona owed his strength to this talisman. As a philtre it has the power of preventing thirst or of assuaging it. (Greek, alector, a cock.)

Alectromancy Divination by a cock. Draw a circle, and write in succession round it the letters of the alphabet, on each of which lay a grain of corn. Then put a cock in the centre of the circle, and watch what grains he eats. The letters will prognosticate the answer. Libanius and Jamblicus thus discovered who was to succeed the emperor Valens. The cock ate the grains over the letters t, h, e, o, d = Theod [orus]. Greek alector, cock; marteia , divination.

Aleria (in Orlando Furioso). One of the Amazons, and the best beloved of the ten wives of Guido the Savage.

Alert To be on the watch. From the Latin erectus, part. of erigere, to set upright; Italian, erto, French, erte, a watch-tower. Hence the Italian starë allerta, the Spanish estar alerta , and the French être à l'erte, to be on the watch.

Alessio The lover of Liza, in Bellni's opera of La Sonnambula (Scribe's libretto).

Alethes (3 syl.) An ambassador from Egypt to King Aladine. He is represented as a man of low birth raised to the highest rank, subtle, false, deceitful, and wily. - Tasso: Jerusalem Delivered.

Alexander and the Robber The robber's name was Diomedes. - Gesta Romanorum, cxlvi.

You are thinking of Parmenio, and I of Alexander - i.e. , you are thinking what you ought to receive, and I what I ought to give; you are thinking of those castigated, rewarded, or gifted; but I of my own position, and what punishment, reward, or gift is consistent with my rank. The allusion is to the tale about Parmenio and Alexander, when the king said, "I consider not what Parmenio should receive, but what Alexander should give."

Only two Alexanders. Alexander said, "There are but two Alexanders - the invincible son of Philip, and the inimitable painting of the hero by Apelles."

The continence of Alexander. Having gained the battle of Issus (B.C. 333) the family of King Darius fell into his hand; but he treated the ladies as queens, and observed the greatest decorum towards them.