Chapter Harness Cask to Harvest Goose of H by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

and Aëllo (storm). (Greek harpuiai, verb harpazo, to seize; Latin harpyia. See Virgil: Æneid, iii. 219, etc.).
   He is a regular harpy. One who wants to appropriate everything; one who sponges on another without mercy.

"I will ... do you any embassage ... rather than hold three words conference with this harpy." - Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing, ii. 1.

Harpocrates (4 syl.). The Greek form of the Egyptian god Har-pi-kruti (Horus the Child), made by the Greeks and Romans the god of silence. This arose from a pure misapprehension. It is an Egyptian god, and was represented with its "finger on its mouth," to indicate youth, but the Greeks thought it was a symbol of silence.

"I assured my mistress she might make herself perfectly easy on that score [his mentioning a certain matter to anyone], for I was the Harpocrates of trusty valets." - Gil Blas, iv. 2 (1715).

Harridan A haggard old beldame. So called from the French haridelle, a worn-out jade of a horse.

Harrier (3 syl.). A dog for hare-hunting, whence the name.

Harrington A farthing. So called from Lord Harrington, to whom James I. granted a patent for making them of brass. Drunken Barnaby says -

"Thence to Harrington be it spoken,
For name-sake I gave a token
To a beggar that did crave it."
Drunken Barnaby's Journal.'

"I will not bate a Harrington of the sum."
Ben Jonson: The Devil is an Ass, ii. 1.

Harris Mrs. Harris. An hypothetical lady, to whom Sarah Gamp referred for the corroboration of all her statements, and the bank on which she might draw to any extent for self-praise. (Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit.) (See Brooks Of Sheffield.)

"Not Mrs. Harris in the immortal narrative was more quoted and more mythical." - Lord Lytton.

Harry (To) = to harass. Facetiously said to be derived from Harry VIII. of England, who no doubt played up old Harry with church property. Of course, the real derivation is the Anglo-Saxon herian, to plunder, from hare (2 syl.), an army.

Harry Old Harry. Old Scratch. To harry (Saxon) is to tear in pieces, whence our harrow. There is an ancient pamphlet entitled The Harrowing of Hell. I do not think it is a corruption of "Old Hairy," although the Hebrew Seirim (hairy ones) is translated devils in Lev. xvii. 7, and no doubt alludes to the he-goat, an object of worship with the Egyptians. Moses says the children of Israel are no longer to sacrifice to devils (seirim), as they did in Egypt. There is a Scandinavian Hari = Baal or Bel.

Harry Soph A student at Cambridge who has "declared" for Law or Physic, and wears a full-sleeve gown. The word is a corruption of the Greek Heri-sophos (more than a Soph or common second-year student). (Cambridge Calendar.)
   The tale goes that at the destruction of the monasteries, in the reign of Henry VIII., certain students waited to see how matters would turn out before they committed themselves by taking a clerical degree, and that these men were thence called Sophistæ Henriciani, or "Henry Sophisters."

Hart In Christian art, the emblem of solitude and purity of life. It was the attribute of St. Hubert, St. Julian, and St. Eustace. It was also the type of piety and religious aspiration. (Psalm xlii. 1.) (See Hind.)
   The White Hart, or hind, with a golden chain, in public-house signs, is the badge of Richard II., which was worn by all his courtiers and adherents. It was adopted from his mother, whose cognisance was a white hind.

Hart Royal A male red deer, when the crown of the antler has made its appearance, and the creature has been hunted by a king.