PREFACE.
An American reprint of “The Reader’s Handbook of allusions, references, plots and stories, by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D., of Trinity Hall, Cambridge,” has been for several years in the hands of cis-Atlantic students.
Too much praise cannot be awarded to the erudition and patient diligence displayed in the compilation of this volume of nearly twelve hundred pages. The breadth of range contemplated by the learned editor is best indicated in his own words:
“The object of this Handbook is to supply readers and speakers with a lucid, but very brief account of such names as are used in allusions and references, whether by poets or prose writers;—to furnish those who consult it with the plot of popular dramas, the story of epic poems, and the outline of well-known tales. The number of dramatic plots sketched out is many hundreds. Another striking and interesting feature of the book is the revelation of the source from which dramatists and romancers have derived their stories, and the strange repetitions of historic incidents. It has been borne in mind throughout that it is not enough to state a fact. It must be stated attractively, and the character described must be drawn characteristically if the reader is to appreciate it, and feel an interest in what he reads.”
All that Dr. Brewer claims for his book is sustained by examination of it. It is nevertheless true that there is in it a mass of matter comparatively unattractive to the American student and to the general reader. Many of his “allusions” are to localities and neighborhood traditions that, however interesting to English people, seem to us trivial, verbose and inopportune, while he, whose chief object in the purchase of the work is to possess a popular encyclopædia of literature, is rather annoyed than edified by even an erudite author when his “talk is of oxen,” fish, flesh and fowl.
Furthermore, the Handbook was prepared so long ago that the popular literature of the last dozen years is unrecorded; writers who now occupy the foremost places in the public eye not being so much as named.
In view of these and other drawbacks to the extended usefulness of the manual, the publishing-house whose imprint is upon the title-page of the present work, taking the stanch foundation laid by Dr. Brewer, have caused to be constructed upon it a work that, while retaining all of the original material that can interest and aid the English-speaking student, gives also “characters and sketches found in American novels, poetry and drama.”
It goes without saying that in the attempt to do this, it was necessary to leave out a greater bulk of entertaining matter than could be wrought in upon the original design. The imagination of the compiler, to whose reverent hands the task was entrusted, recurred continually, while it was in progress, to the magnificent hyperbole of the sacred narrator—“The which, if they should be written, every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” Appreciation of the honor put upon her by the commission deepened into delight as the work went on—prideful delight in the richness and variety of our national literature. To do ample justice to every writer and book would have been impossible, but the leading works of every author of note have the honorable place. It is hoped that the company of “characters” introduced among dramatis personæ of English and foreign classics, ancient and modern, will enliven pages that are already fascinating. Many names of English authors omitted from the Handbook for the reason stated awhile ago, will also be found in their proper positions.
The compiler and editor of this volume would be ungrateful did she not express her sense of obligation for assistance received in the work of collecting lists of writers and books from “The Library of American Literature,” prepared by Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman and Miss Ellen Hutchinson.
Besides this, and a tolerable degree of personal familiarity with the leading literature of her own land, her resort has been to the public libraries in New York City—notably, to The Astor and The Mercantile. For the uniform courtesy she has received from those in charge of these institutions she herewith makes acknowledgement in the publisher’s name and in her own.
MARION HARLAND.
CHARACTER SKETCHES OF ROMANCE, FICTION, AND THE DRAMA.
=Falkland=, an aristocratic gentleman, of a noble, loving nature, but the victim of false honor and morbid refinement of feeling. Under great provocation, he was goaded on to commit murder, but being tried was honorably acquitted, and another person was executed for the crime. Caleb Williams, a lad in Falkland’s service, accidently became acquainted with these secret facts, but, unable to live in the house under the suspicious eyes of Falkland, he ran away. Falkland tracked him from place to place, like a blood-hound, and at length arrested him for robbery. The true statement now came out, and Falkland died of shame and broken spirit. —W. Godwin, Caleb Williams (1794).
⁂ This tale has been dramatized by G. Colman, under the title of The Iron Chest, in which Falkland is called “Sir Edward Mortimer,” and Caleb Williams is called “Wilford.”
=False One= (The), a tragedy by Beaumont and Fletcher (1619). The subject is the amours of Julius Caesar and Cleopat´ra.
=Falsetto= (Signor), a man who fawns on Fazio in prosperity, and turns his back on him when fallen into disgrace.—Dean Milman, Fazio (1815).
=Falstaff= (Sir John), in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and in the two parts of Henry IV., by Shakespeare. In Henry V., his death is described by Mrs. Quickly, hostess of an inn in Eastcheap. In the comedy, Sir John is represented as making love to Mrs. Page, who “fools him to the top of his bent.” In the historic plays, he is represented as a soldier and a wit, the boon companion of “Mad-cap Hal” (the prince of Wales). In both cases, he is a mountain of fat, sensual, mendacious, boastful, and fond of practical jokes.
In the king’s army, “Sir John” was Captain, “Peto” Lieutenant, “Pistol” ancient [ensign], and “Bardolph” Corporal.
C.R. Leslie says: “Quin’s ‘Falstaff’ must have been glorious. Since Garrick’s time there have been more than one ‘Richard,’ ‘Hamlet,’ ‘Romeo,’ ‘Macbeth,’ and ‘Lear;’ but since Quin [1693-1766] only one 'Falstaff,' John Henderson [1747-1786].”
Falstaff, unimitated, inimitable, Falstaff, how shall I describe thee? Thou compound of sense and vice: of sense which may be admired, but not esteemed; of vice which may be despised, but hardly detested. “Falstaff ” is a character loaded with faults, and with those faults which naturally produce contempt. He is a thief and a glutton, a coward and a boaster, always ready to cheat the weak and prey upon the poor, to terrify the timorous and insult the defenceless. At once obsequious and malignant—yet the man thus corrupt, thus despicable, makes himself necessary to the prince by perpetual gaiety, and by unfailing power of exciting laughter.—Dr. Johnson.
=Fanciful= (Lady), a vain, conceited beauty, who calls herself “nice, strangely nice,” and says she was formed “to make the whole creation uneasy.” She loves Heartfree, a railer against women, and when he proposes marriage to Belinda, a rival beauty, spreads a most impudent scandal, which, however, reflects only on herself. Heartfree, who at one time was partly in love with her, says to her:
“Nature made you handsome, gave you beauty to a miracle, a shape without a fault, wit enough to make them relish ... but art has made you become the pity of our sex, and the jest of your own. There’s not a feature in your face but you have found the way to teach it some affected convulsion. Your feet, your hands, your very finger-ends, are directed never to move without some ridiculous air, and your language is a suitable trumpet to draw people’s eyes upon the raree-show” (act ii. 1).—Vanbrugh, The Provoked Wife (1697).
=Fan-Fan=, alias =Phelin O’Tug=, “a lolly-pop maker, and manufacturer of maids of honor to the court.” This merry, shy, and blundering elf, concealed in a bear-skin, makes love to Christine, the faithful attendant on the Countess Marie. Phelin O’Tug says his mother was too bashful ever to let him know her, and his father always kept in the back-ground.—E. Stirling, The Prisoner of State (1847).
=Fang=, a bullying, insolent magistrate, who would have sent Oliver Twist to prison, on suspicion of theft, if Mr. Brownlow had not interposed on the boy’s behalf.—C. Dickens, Oliver Twist (1837).
The original of this ill-tempered, bullying magistrate was Mr. Laing, of Hatton Garden, removed from the bench by the home secretary.—John Foster, Life of Dickens, iii. 4.
=Fang and Snare=, two sheriff’s officers.—Shakespeare, 2 Henry IV (1598).
=Fanny= (Robin). Country girl seduced under promise of marriage by Sergeant Troy. She dies with her child and is buried by Troy’s betrothed, who learns after her marriage the tale of Fanny’s wrongs.—T. Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd (1874).