Dictionary of English literature, being a comprehensive guide to English authors and their works / [William Davenport Adams].

  • William Davenport Adams
Date:
[1879?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dictionary of English literature, being a comprehensive guide to English authors and their works / [William Davenport Adams]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Villiers, George. See Buckingham, Duke op. Vincentio. Duke of Vienna, in Measure for Measure (q.v.). Also the name of an old gentleman of Pisa in The Taming of the Shrew (q.v.). “ Vindicate the ways of God to man. But.” A line in Pope’s poem, An Essay on Man, which may he compared with Milton’s line in Earadise Lost, hook 1:— “ And justify the ways of God to man.” Vindicise Gallic®: “A Defence of the French Devolution and its English Admirers against the Accusations of the Eight Hon. Edmund Burke,” by Sir James Mackintosh (1765—1832); published in 1791. Several passages were suppressed in later editions. Vinegar Bible, The. An edition published by the Oxford Clarendon Press in 1717, and so called because, in the twentieth chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel, “ The Parable of the Vinegar” is printed instead of “ The Parable of the Vine- yard.” Vinesauf, Geoffrey de. See Nova PoETRIA. Viola. Sister to Sebastian, and the heroine in Twelfth Night (q.v.); in love with Orsino, the Duke of Illyria. “ That she should be touched by a passion made up of pity, admiration, gratitude, tenderness, does not, I think,” says Mrs. Jameson, “in any way detract from the genuine sweetness of her character, for she never told her love. Violante. One of theheroines of Lord Lytton’s story of My Novel (q.v.), of whom it has been said that “ to the unconscious grace, and innate nobility, which, rightly or wrongly, we associate with high birth and a long line of ancestors, she adds something of the energy and modest boldness of the Viola [q.v.] in Twelfth Night, and possibly Lord Lytton may, with the name, have borrowed from Shakespeare the hint of her relations with L’Estrange.” Violante. The high-spirited heroine of Fletcher’s Spanish Curate (q.v.). Violante, Donna. The heroine of Mrs. Centlivre’s comedy of The Wonder (q.v.); be- loved by Don Felix (q.v.). Violenta. See Acheley, Thomas. Violente. A character in All's Well that Ends Well (q.v.). Violet, On a Dead. A lyric by Percy Bysshe Shelley. “Violets plucked, the sweetest rain,” —John Fletcher, The Queen of Corinth— “ Makes not fresh nor grow again.” These lines reappear, slightly altered, in Percy’s composite ballad of The Friar of Orders Orey. Virgidemiarum. See Satires in Six Books. I Virgil. The leading English versions of the JEneid of this famous poet are those of Gawin Douglas, finished in 1513; of Lord Surrey pub- lished in 1553 ; Thomas Phaer and Thomas Twyne (1558—1573); Richard Stanihurst (1583) * John Dryden (1697); Christopher Pitt (1740) ’ John Conington (1870); and William Morns (1876). See the Ancient Classics for English Readers. Virgil Travestie. See Scarronides. Virgil’s Gnat. A poem by Edmund Spenser. Virgin Martyr, The. A tragedy by Philip Massinger (q.v.), written in 1622. In this fine play he was assisted by Dekker. Virgin Unmasked, The: “or, Female Dialogues,” by Bernard de Mandeville (about 1670—1733) ; published in 1709, and consisting of coarse discussions on an indecent subject. Virgin Widow, The. A comedy, by Francis Quarles (1592—1644), wdiich appeared in 1649. This was the only dramatic production of the author of Eivine Emblems. Virginia. The subject of one of Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome (q.v.). Virginians, The: “ A Tale of the Last Century,” by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811—1863) ; published in 1857. “ The Vir- ginians,” says Hannay, “ shows many of Thack- eray’s best qualities, but does not add to the resources at our disposal for understanding or measuring his powers.” Virginitatis, De Laude. A prose treatise by Aldhelm (656—709). Virginius. A tragedy by James Sheridan Knowles (1^84—1862), produced originally at Covent Garden Theatre, with Macready in the title-role. Virolet. The hero of Fletcher’s play of The Rouble Marriage ; married to Juliana (q.v.) and to Martia (q.v.). “Virtue alone is happiness below.” Line 310, epistle iv., of Pope’s Essay on Man (q.v.). “Virtue alone out-builds the pyra- mids.” Line 312, night vi., of Young’s poem of Night Thoughts. “Virtue is her own reward.” A line which occurs in Dryden’s play of Tyrannic Love (act iii., scene 1). A very similar thought is found in Prior’s Imitation of Horace (book iii., ode 3), Gray’s Epistle to Methuen, and Home’s play of Douglas (act iii., scene 1). Henry More, in his Cupid's Conflict, says, “Virtue is to herself the best reward.” “ Virtue of necessity, Make a.”—Ttco Gentlemen of Verona, act iv., scene 1. The expres-