Chapter All Fools' Day to Alliteration of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Alla Akbar Allah is most mighty. The cry of the Arabs. - Ockley.

Allan-a-Dale The minstrel of Robin Hood's yeomen. He was assisted by Robin Hood in carrying off his bride, when on the point of being married against her will to a rich old knight.

Allemand "Une querelle d'Allemand," a quarrel about nothing. We call pot valour "Dutch courage."

Allen (See Allworthy .)

Allestree Richard Allestree, of Derby, was a noted almanac maker in Ben Jonson's time.

"A little more
Would fetch all his astronomy from Allestree." Ben Jonson: Magnetic Lady, iv. 2 (1632).

Alley (The) The Stock Exchange Alley.

"John Rive, after many active years in the Alley, retired to the Continent, and died at the age of 118." - Old and New London, p. 476.

Alliensis (Dies) (June 16th, B.C. 390), when the Romans were cut to pieces by the Gauls near the banks of the river Allia; and ever after held to be a dies nefastus , or unlucky day.

Alligator When the Spaniards first saw this reptile in the New World, they called it el lagarto (the lizard). Sir Walter Raleigh called these creatures lagartos, and Ben Jonson alligartas.

"To the present day the Europeans in Ceylon apply the term alligator to what are in reality crocodiles." - J. E. Tennent: Ceylon (vol. I. part 2, chap. iii. p. 186.

Alligator Pears (the fruit of Persea gratissima) is a curious corruption. The aboriginal Carib word for the tree is "aouacate," which the Spanish discoverers pronounced "avocado," and English sailors called "alligator," as the nearest approach which occurred to them.

Alliteration DR. BETHEL OF ETON.

"Didactic, dry, declamatory, dull,
Big, burly Bethel bellows like a bull."
Eton College.

CARDINAL WOLSEY.

"Begot by butchers, but by bishops bred,
How high his Honour holds his haughty head."

Hucbald composed an alliterative poem on Charles the Bald, every word of which begins with c.

Henry Harder composed a poem of 100 lines, in Latin hexameters, on cats, every word of which begins with c. The title is Canum cum Catis certamen carmine compositum currents calamo C Catulli Caninii. The first line is -

"Cattorum canimus certamina clara canumqua."

Hamonicus wrote the Certamen catholicum cum Calvinistis, every word of which begins with c.

It is a curious coincidence that the names of these three men all begin with H.

In the Materia more Magistralis every word begins with m.

Placentius, the Dominican, who died 1548, wrote a poem of 258 Latin hexameters, called Pugna Porcorum, every word of which begins with p. It begins thus: -

"Plaudite, Porcelli, porcorum pigra propago."