Chapter Alyface to Ambi-dexter of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

of life...
With these, that never fade, the spirits elect
Bind their resplendent locks." Milton: Paradise Lost iii. 353--61.

In 1653 Christina, Queen of Sweden, instituted the Order of the "Knights of the Amaranth," but it ceased to exist at the death of the Queen. Among the ancients it was the symbol of immortality.

The best known species are "Love lies bleeding" (amarantus caudatus), and "Prince's feather" (amarantus hypochondriacus). "Cock's comb" is now ranked under the genus Celosia.

Amaryllis A pastoral sweetheart. The name is borrowed from the pastorals of Theocritos and Virgil.

"To sport with Amaryllis in the shade." Milton: Lycidas, 68.

Amasis (Ring of) same as Polycrates' Ring. Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, was so fortunate in everything that Amasis, King of Egypt, advised him to part with something which he highly prized. Polycrates accordingly threw into the sea an engraved ring of extraordinary value. A few days afterwards, a fish was presented to the tyrant, in which the ring was found. Amasis now renounced all friendship with Polycrates, as a man doomed by the gods; and not long afterwards, a satrap, having entrapped the too fortunate despot, put him to death by crucifixion. - Herodotus, iii. 40.

Amati A first-rate violin; properly, one made by Amati of Cremona (c. 1600). (See Cremona.)

Amaurot (Greek, the shadowy or unknown place), the chief city in Utopia (no-place), a political novel by Sir Thomas More. Rabelais, in his Pantagruel, had previously introduced the word, and tells us that the Amaurots conquered the Dipsodes (or Duplicians).

Amaurote a bridge in Utopia. Sir Thomas More says he could not recollect whether Raphael Hyghloday told him it was 500 paces or 300 paces long; and he requested his friend Peter Giles, of Antwerp, to put the question to the adventurer.

"I cannot recollect whether the reception room of the Spaniard's Castle in the Air is 200 or 300 feet long. I will get the next aeronaut who journeys to the moon to take the exact dimensions for me, and will memorialise the learned society of Laputa." - Dean Swift: Gulliver's Travels.

Amazement Not afraid with any amazement (1 Peter iii. 6), introduced at the close of the marriage service in the Book of Common Prayer. The meaning is, you will be God's children so long as you do his bidding, and are not drawn aside by any distraction. No doubt St. Peter meant "by any terror of persecution." Cranmer, being so afraid, was drawn aside from the path of duty.

Amazia meant for Charles II, in Pordage's poem of Azaria and Hushai. We are told by the poet, "his father's murtherers he destroyed;" and then he preposterously adds -

"Beloved of all for merciful was he,
Like God, in the superlative degree."

To say that such a selfish, promise-breaking, impious libertine was "like God, in the superlative degree," is an outrage against even poetical licence and court flattery.

Amazon A horsewoman, a fighting or masculine woman. The word means without breast, or rather, "deprived of a pap." According to Grecian story, there was a nation of women in Africa of a very warlike character. There were no men in the nation; and if a boy was born, it was either killed or sent to his father, who lived in some neighbouring state. The girls had their right breasts burnt off, that they might the better draw the bow.

"These dreadful Amazons, gallant viragoes who ... carried victorious arms ... into Syria and Asia Minor." - J. E. Chambliss: David Livingstone (Introduction, p. 24).