A plot in the reign of Charles II. to massacre the Protestants, burn London, and assassinate the king. Titus Oates invented this “wise” scheme, and obtained great wealth by revealing it;…
To put oneself in the attitude of boxing, to quarrel. (Welsh, cwer' —i.e. cweryl, cwerylu, to quarrel.) Are you such fools To square for this? Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus, ii. 1.…
(2 syl.) means in “Grotto style.” Classical ornaments so called were found in the 13th century in grottoes, that is, excavations made in the baths of Titus and in other Roman buildings.…
A raised crust, like the lid of a basket. Hence Shakespeare speaks of a “custard coffin” (Taming of the Shrew, iv. 3. Mahomet's Coffin) “Of the paste a coffin will I rear.'” Shakespeare…
(3 syl.) made men of clay, and stole fire from heaven to animate them. For this he was chained by Zeus to Mount Caucasus, where an eagle preyed on his liver daily. The word means…
Take him, Topham. Catch him if you can; lay hold of him, tipstaff. Topham was the Black Rod of the House of Commons in the reign of Charles II., very active in apprehending “suspects”…
Shakespeare calls it “the baleful mistletoe” (Titus Andronicus, ii. 3), in allusion to the Scandinavian story that it was with an arrow made of mistletoe that Balder was slain. (See…
Flemish steel. So called because it is wrought in gads, or small bars. (Anglo-Saxon, gad, a small bar or goad; Icelandic, gaddr, a spike or goad.) I will go get a leaf of brass, And with a…
in Dryden's satire of Absalom and Achitophel, is meant for Dr. Titus Oates (Numbers xvi.). North describes him as a short man, extremely ugly: if his mouth is taken for the centre, his…
is “to make light.” Hence Shakespeare speaks of the disembodied soul as “the delighted spirit ... blown with restless violence round about the pendant world” (Measure for Measure, iii. 1…
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