Chapter Irrefragable Doctor to Isinglass of I by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

charge of her. She is wrecked, and Odorico escapes with her to Rochelle. Here Odorico assails her virtue, but is alarmed by a vessel which he sees approaching, and flees. She is kept captive by the crew for nine months, but Orlando slays or hangs all the crew, and Isabella being free, accompanies her rescuer. Her lament at the death of Zerbino is one of the best parts of the poem (book xii.). She retires to a chapel to bury Zerbino, and is there slain by Rodomont.

Isabelle The colour so called is the yellow of soiled calico. A yellow-dun horse is called in France un cheval isabelle. The tale is attached to Isabel of Austria and Isabel of Castile. It is said that Isabel of Austria, daughter of Philip II., at the siege of Ostend vowed not to change her linen till the place was taken. As the siege lasted three years, we may well suppose that it was somewhat soiled by three years' wear.

"His colour was isabel, a name given in allusion to the whimsical vow of Isabella Clara Eugenia, Governess of the Netherlands, at the memorable siege of Ostend, which lasted from 1601 till 1604." - Dillon: Travels in Spain (1781).

   Isabel of Castile, we are told, made a vow to the Virgin not to change her linen till Granada fell into her hands; but this siege lasted longer than ladies are wont to wear their body-linen.

"Bright-Sun was mounted on a black horse, that of Felix was a grey, Chery's was white as milk, and the princess's an isabelle." - Countess d'Alnois: Fair-star and Prince Chery.

Isaf An Arabian idol in the form of a man, brought from Syria, and placed in Es-Safa, near the temple of Mecca. Some say Isaf was a man converted into stone for impiety, and that Mahomet suffered this one "idol" to remain as a warning to his disciples.

Isenbras or Sir Isumbras. A hero of mediæval romance, first proud and presumptuous, when he was visited by all sorts of punishments; afterwards penitent and humble, when his afflictions were turned into blessings. It was in this latter stage that he one day carried on his horse two children of a poor woodman across a ford. (See Ysambras.)

"I warne you first at the begynninge
That I will make no vain carpinge [talk]
Of deeds of armys ne of amours,
As dus mynstrellës and jestours,
That makys carpinge in many a place
Of Octoriane and Isembrase."
William of Nassington.

Isengrin or Sir Isgrim, the wolf, afterwards created Earl of Pitwood, in the beast-epic of Reynard the Fox. Isengrin typifies the barons, and Reynard the church; and the gist of the tale is to show how Reynard bamboozles his uncle Wolf. (German, Isegrimm, a wolf, a surly fellow.)

Iseult (See Ysonde .)

Ishban in the satire of Absalom and Achitophel, by Dryden and Tate, is Sir Robert Clayton, who'd "e'en turn loyal to be made a peer" (part ii.).

Ishbosheth in Dryden's satire of Absalom and Achitophel, is meant for Richard Cromwell. His father, Oliver, is called Saul. At the death of Saul, Ishbosheth was acknowledged king by a party, and reigned two years, when he was assassinated. (Part i. 57, 58.)

"They who, when Saul was dead, without a blow,
Made foolish Ishbosheth the crown forego."

Ishmonie The petrified city in Upper Egypt, full of men and women turned to stone. (Perry: View of the Levant.)
   Marryat has borrowed the idea in his Pacha of Many Tales.

Isiac Tablet A spurious Egyptian monument sold by a soldier to Cardinal Bembo in 1527, and preserved at Turin. It is of copper, and on it are represented most of the Egyptian deities in the mysteries of Isis. It was said to have been found at the siege of Rome in 1525. The word Isiac is an adjective formed from Isis.

Isidorian Decretals Also called Pseudo or False Decretals. A spurious compilation of fifty-nine decretals by Mentz, who lived in the ninth century, and fraudulently ascribed them to I'sidore of Seville, who died in the sixth century. Prior to the ninth century the only authentic collection of decretals or letters of the popes in reply to questions proposed to them by bishops, ecclesiastical judges, and others, was that of