Chapter Alexandrine Age to All cannot do all of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Algebra is the Arabic al gebr (the equalisation), "the supplementing and equalising (process);" so called because the problems are solved by equations, and the equations are made by supplementary terms. Fancifully identified with the Arabian chemist Gebir.

Algrind of Spenser, is meant for Grindal, Bishop of London in the beginning of Elizabeth's reign. He was a Marian exile, and not a very cordial co-operator with Bishop Parker.

"The hills where dwelled holy saints
I reverence and adore;
Not for themselves, but for the saints.
Which had been dead of yore.
And now they been to heaven for went.
Their good is with them go;
Their sample to us only lent,
That als we mought do so.

"Shepherds they weren of the best,
And lived in lowly leas,
And sith their souls be now at rest.
Why done we them disease?
Such one he was (as I have heard)
Old Algrind often saine,
That whilome was the first shepherd,
And lived with little gain."
Eclogue vii.

Alhambra The palace of the ancient Moors in Granada. The word is the Arabic al-hamra (the red castle).

Ali Cousin and son-in-law of Mahomet, the beauty of whose eyes is with the Persians proverbial; insomuch that the highest term they employ to express beauty is Ayn Hali (eyes of Ali). - Chardin.

Alias "You have as many aliases as Robin of Bagshot," one of Macheath's gang: he was Robin of Bagshot, alias Gordon, alias Bluff Bob, alias Carbuncle, alias Bob Booty. - Gay: The Beggar's Opera.

Alibi (elsewhere). A plea of having been at another place at the time that an offence is alleged to have been committed.

"Never mind the character, and stick to the alley bi. Nothing like an alley bi, Sammy, nothing." - Dickens Pickwick Papers.

Alibi Clock (An), 1887. A clock which strikes one hour, while the hands point to a different time, the real time being neither one nor the other.

Aliboron Maitre Aliboron Mr. Jackass. Aliboron is the name of a jackass in La Fontaine's Fables. (See Gonin.)

Alice The foster-sister of Robert le Diable, and bride of Rambaldo, the Norman troubadour. She came to Palermo to place in the duke's hand her mother's will, which he was enjoined not to read till he was a virtuous man. When Bertram, his fiend-father, tempted his son to evil, Alice proved his good genius; and when, at last, Bertram claimed his soul as the price of his ill deeds, Alice read the "will," and won him from the evil one. - Meyerbeer's Opera, Roberto il Diavolo.

Alice Brand Wife of Lord Richard, cursed with the "sleepless eye." Alice signed Urgan the dwarf thrice with the sign of the cross, and he became "the fairest knight in all Scotland;" when Alice recognised in him her own brother. - Sir Walter Scott: The Lady of the Lake , iv. 12.

Alichino (wing-drooped) A devil, in The Inferno of Dante.

Alick and Sandie. Contractions of Alexander; the one being Alex' and the other 'xander.

Alicon The seventh heaven, to which Azrael conveys the spirits of the just. (Mohometan mythology.)

Alien Priory (An). A priory which owes allegiance to another priory. A sub-priory, like Rufford Abbey, Notts, which was under the prior of Rievaux in Yorkshire.