Chapter Hardouin to Harness of H by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Hardouin to Harness

Hardouin (2 syl.). E'en Hardouin would not object. Said in apology of an historical or chronological incident introduced into a treatise against which some captious persons take exception. Jean Hardouin, the learned Jesuit, was librarian to Louis le Grand. He was so fastidious that he doubted the truth of all received history, denied the authenticity of the Æneid of Virgil, the Odes of Horace, etc.; placed no faith in medals and coins, regarded all councils before that of Trent as chimerical, and looked on Descartes, Malebranche, Pascal, and all Jansenists as infidels. (1646-1729).

"Even Père Hardouin would not enter his protest against such a collection." - Dr. A. Clarke: Essay.

Hardy (Letitia). Heroine of the Belle's Stratagem, by Mrs. Cowley. She is a young lady of fortune destined to marry Doricourt. She first assumes the air of a raw country hoyden and disgusts the fastidious man of fashion; then she appears at a masquerade and wins him. The marriage is performed at midnight, and Doricourt does not know that the masquerader and hoyden are the same Miss Hardy till after the ceremony is over.
   HARDY (The), i.e. brave or daring, hence the phrase, "hardi comme un lion. '
   (1) William Douglas, defender of Berwick (died 1302).
   (2) Philippe III. of France, le Hardi (1245, 1270-1285).
   (3) Philippe II., Duc de Bourgogne, le Hardi (1342, 1363-1382).

Hare It is unlucky for a hare to cross your path, because witches were said to transform themselves into hares.

"Nor did we meet, with nimble feet,
One little fearful lepus;
That certain sign, as some divine,
Of fortune bad to keep us."
Ellison: Trip to Benwell, lx.

    In the Flamborough Village and Headland, we are told, "if a fisherman on his way to the boats happens to meet a woman, parson, or hare, he will turn back, being convinced that he will have no luck that day."
   Antipathy to hares. Tycho Brahe (2 syl.) would faint at the sight of a hare; the Duc d'Epernon at the sight of a leveret; Marshal de Brézé at sight of a rabbit; and Henri III., the Duke of Schomberg, and the chamberlain of the emperor Ferdinand, at the sight of a cat. (See Antipathy.)
   First catch your hare. (See Catch.)
   Hold with the hare and run with the hounds. To play a double and deceitful game, to be a traitor in the camp. To run with the hounds as if intent to catch the hare, but all the while being the secret friend of poor Wat. In the American war these double-dealers were called Copperheads (q.v.).
   Mad as a March hare. Hares are unusually shy and wild in March, which is their rutting season.
    Erasmus says "Mad as a marsh hare," and adds, "hares are wilder in marshes from the absence of hedges and cover." (Aphorisms, p. 266; 1542.)
   Melancholy as a hare (Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., i. 2). According to mediaeval quackery, the flesh of hare was supposed to generate melancholy; and all foods imparted their own speciality.
   The quaking hare, in Dryden's Hind and Panther, means the Quakers.

"Among the timorous kind, the quaking hare
Professed neutrality, but would not swear."
Part i. 37, 38.

Hare-brained or Hair-brained. Mad as a March hare, giddy, foolhardy.

"Let's leave this town; for they [the English] are hair-brained slaves,
And hunger will enforce them to be more eager." Shakespeare: 1 Henry VI., i. 2.

Harefoot Swift of foot as a hare. The surname given to Harold I., youngest son of Canute (1035-1040).
   To kiss the hare's foot. To be too late for anything, to be a day after the fair. The hare has gone by, and left its foot-print for you to salute. A similar phrase is To kiss the post.

Hare-lip A cleft lip; so called from its resemblance to the upper lip of a hare. It was said to be the mischievous act of an elf or malicious fairy.

"This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet. He begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock. He ... squints the eye and makes the hare-lip." - Shakespeare: King Lear, iii. 4.

Hare-stone = Hour-stone Boundary stone in the parish of Sancred (Cornwall), with a heap of stones round it. It is thought that these stones were set up for a similar purpose as the column set up by Laban (Genesis xxxi. 51, 52). "Behold this heap, and behold this pillar," said Laban to Jacob, "which I have cast betwixt me and thee. This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap unto me, for harm." (Anglo-Saxon, hora, or horu stan.) (See Harold's stones.)