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Index and Glossary of Allusions

British Isles Genealogy | Critical And Historical Essays, Volume I
 

Acbar, contemporary with Elizabeth, firmly established the Mogul rule in India; Aurungzebe (1659-1707) extended the Mogul Empire over South India.

Aislabie, Chancellor of the Exchequer; forfeited most of his huge profits.

Alexander VI., Pope, father of Lucretia and Caesar Borgia. He obtained his office by bribery and held it by a series of infamous crimes (d. 1503).

Alguazils, "a Spanish adaptation of the Arabic al-wazir, the minister and used in Spanish both for a justiciary and a bailiff." Here it implies cruel and extortionate treatment.

Allipore, a suburb of Calcutta.

Amadis, the model knight who is the hero of the famous mediaeval prose-romance of the same title. Of Portuguese origin, it was afterwards translated and expanded in Spanish and in French.

Aminta, a pastoral play composed by Tasso in 1581.

Antiochus and Tigranes, overthrown respectively by Pompey, B.C. 65, and Lucullus, B.C. 69.

Atahualpa, King of Peru, captured and put to death by Pizarro in 1532.

Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester and champion of the High Church and Tory party (1662-1732).

Aumils, district governors.

Aurungzebe, dethroned and succeeded Shah Jehan in 1658 (d. 1707).

Austrian Succession, War of (see the Essay on Frederic the Great, vol. v. of this edition).



Babington, Anthony, an English Catholic, executed in 1586 for plotting to assassinate Elizabeth. Everard Digby was concerned in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Babington, an English Catholic executed in 1586 for plotting to assassinate Elizabeth under the instruction of a Jesuit named Ballard.

Ballard. See Babington.

Barbariccia and Draghignazzo, the fiends who torment the lost with hooks in the lake of boiling pitch in Malebolge, the eighth circle in Dante's Inferno.

Baretti, Giuseppe, an Italian lexiographer who came to London, was patronized by Johnson and became Secretary of the Royal Academy.

Barillon, the French Ambassador in England.

Barnard, Sir John, an eminent London merchant, and Lord Mayor (1685-1764).

Barras, a member of the Jacobin (q. v.) club; he put an end to Robespierre's Reign of Terror and was a member of the Directory till Napoleon abolished it (d. 1829).

Batavian liberties, Batavia is an old name for Holland; the Celtic tribe known as Batavii once dwelt there.

Bath, Lord, William Pulteney, Sir R. Walpole's opponent, and author of a few magazine articles (1684-1764).

Belisarius, Justinian's great general, who successively repulsed the Persians, Vandals, Goths, and Huns, but who, tradition says, was left to become a beggar (d. 565).

Benevolences, royal demands from individuals not sanctioned by Parliament and supposed to be given willingly; declared illegal by the Bill of Rights, 1689.

Bentinck, Lord William, the Governor. General (1828-1835) under whom suttee was abolished, internal communications opened up, and education considerably furthered.

Bentivoglio, Cardinal, a disciple of Galileo, and one of the Inquisitors who signed his condemnation (1579-1641).

Berkeley and Pomfret, where Edward II. and Richard II. respectively met their deaths.

Bernier, a French traveler who wandered over India, 1656-1668.

Blues, The, Royal Horse Guards.

Board of Control, a body responsible to the Ministry with an authoritative parliamentary head established by Pitt's India Bill (1784).

Bobadil, the braggart hero in Johnson's Every Man in his Humor,

Bolingbroke, Viscount, Tory Minister under Anne; brought about the Peace of Utrecht, 1713. His genius and daring were undoubted, but as a party leader he failed utterly.

Bolivar, the Washington of South America, who freed Venezuela, Colombia, and Bolivia from Spain (1783-1830).

Bonner, Bishop of London, served "Bloody" Mary's anti-Protestant zeal, died in the Marshalsea Prison under Elizabeth.

Bonslas, a Maratha tribe not finally subdued till 1817.

Bradshaw, President of the Court that condemned Charles I.

Braganza, House of, the reigning family of Portugal; Charles II married Catherine of Braganza in 1662.

Breda, Peace of, July 21, 1667. Breda is in North Brabant, Holland.

Brissotines, those moderate republicans in the French Revolution who are often known as the Girondists.

Broghill, Lord, better known as Rope Boyle, author of Parthenissa, etc.

Brooks's, the great Whig Club in St. James's Street amongst whose members were Burke, Sheridan, Fox, and Garrick.

Brothers, Richard, a fanatic who held that the English were the lost ten tribes of Israel(1757-1824).

Browne's Estimate (of the Manners and Principles of the Times), the author was a clergyman noted also for his defense of utilitarianism in answer to Shaftesbury (Lecky, Hist. Eng. in 18th Cent., ii, 89 f.).

Brutus, i. The reputed expeller of the last King of Rome; ii. One of Caesar's murderers.

Bulicame, the seventh circle in the Inferno, the place of all the violent.

Buller, Sir Francis, English judge, author of Introduction to the Law of Trials at Nisi Prius (1745-1800).

Burger, Gottfried, German poet (1748-1794), author of the fine ballad "The Wild Huntsman."

Burgoyne, afterwards the General in command of the British troops whose surrender at Saratoga practically settled the American War of Independence.

Burlington, Lord, Richard Boyle, an enthusiastic architect of the Italian school (1695-1Z53).

Button, Henry, a Puritan divine, pilloried, mutilated, and imprisoned by the Star Chamber (1578-1648).

Busiris, a mythological King of Egypt who used to sacrifice one foreigner yearly in the hope of ending a prolonged famine.

Buxar, between Patna and Benares, where Major Munro defeated Sujah Dowlah and Meer Cossim in 1765.



Calas, Jean, a tradesman of Toulouse, done to death on the wheel in 1762 on the false charge of murdering his son to prevent his becoming a Romanist. Voltaire took his case up and vindicated his memory.

Camden, Lord, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas who declared general warrants illegal and released Wilkes in 1763.

Capel, Lord Arthur, at first sided with the Parliament, but afterwards joined the King; executed for attempting to escape from Colchester in 1649.

Caracci, Annibal, an Italian painter of the Elizabethan age.

Carlton House, the residence of George IV. when Prince of Wales.

Cartoons, the, the famous designs by Raphael, originally intended for tapestry.

Cato, Addison's play, produced in 1713.

Cavendish, Lord, first Duke of Devonshire (d. 1707). He gave evidence in favor of Russell and tried to secure his escape.

Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI. and brother of Lucrezia, whose infamous ability, cruelty, and treachery he even surpassed.

Chandernagora, on the Hooghly twenty miles from Calcutta. Pondicherry, in the Carnatic (i.e. the S.E. coast of India) is still a French possession.

Chemnitius, a seventeenth-century German historian who wrote a History of the Swedish War in Germany.

Chicksands, in Bedfordshire.

Childeric or Chilperic, the former was King of the Franks (c460-480), the latter King of Neustria (c. 560-580); both were puppets in the hands of their subjects.

Chorasan, a Persian province.

Chowringhee, still the fashionable quarter of Calcutta.

Chudleigh, Miss, maid of honor to the Princess of Wales (mother of George III.); the original of Beatrix in Thackeray's Esmond.

Churchill, John, the famous Duke of Marlborough.

Clootz, a French Revolutionary and one of the founders of the Worship of Reason; guillotined 1794.

Cocytus, one of the five rivers of Hades (see Milton's Paradise Lost, ii. 577ff).

Coleroon, the lower branch of the river Kaveri: it rises in Mysore and flows to the Bay of Bengal.

Colman, the Duke of York's confessor, in whose rooms were found papers held to support Oates's story.

Conde, a French general who, fighting for Spain, besieged Arras but had to abandon it after a defeat by Turenne.

Conjeveram, south-west from Madras and east from Arcot.

Conway, Marshal, cousin to Walpole; fought at Fontenoy and Culloden; moved the repeal of the Stamp Act (1766).

Corah, one hundred miles north-west from Allahabad, formerly a town of great importance, now much decayed.

Cornelia, a noble and virtuous Roman matron, daughter of Scipio Africanus and wife of Sempronius Graccus.

Cortes, conqueror of Mexico (1485-1547).

Cosmo di Medici, a great Florentine ruler, who, however, understood the use of assassination,

Cossimbuzar (see the description in the Essay on Hastings).

Court of Requests, instituted under Henry VII. for the recovery of small debts and superseded by the County Courts in 1847.

Covelong and Chingleput, between Madras and Pondicherry.

Craggs. Secretary of State: a man of ability and character, probably innocent in the South Sea affair.

Crevelt, near Cleves, in West Prussia; Minden is in Westphalia.

Cumberland . . . single victory, at Culloden, over the young Pretender's forces, in 1745.

Cutler, St. John, a wealthy London merchant (1608?-1693) whose permanent avarice outshone his occasional benefactions (see Pope, Moral Essays, iii. 315).



Dagoberts . . . Charles Martel, nominal and real rulers of France in the seventh and eighth centuries.

D'Aguesseau, a famous French jurist, law reformer, and magistrate (1668-1751).

D'Alembert, a mathematician and philosopher who helped to sow the seeds of the French Revolution. Macaulay quite misrepresents Walpole's attitude to him (see letter of 6th Nov. 1768).

Damien, the attempted assassinator of Louis XV. in 1757.

Danby, Thomas Osborne, Esq. of, one of Charles II.'s courtiers, impeached for his share in the negotiations by which France was to pension Charles on condition of his refusal to assist the Dutch.

Danes, only had a few trading stations in India, which they sold to the British in 1845.

Demosthenes and Hyperides, the two great orators of Athens who were also contemporaries and friends.

De Pauw, Cornelius, a Dutch canon (1739-99), esteemed by Frederic the Great among others, as one of the freest speculators of his day.

Derby, James Stanley, Earl of, one of Charles I's supporters, captured at Worcester and beheaded in 1651.

Derwentwater . . . Cameron, Stuart adherents who suffered for their share in the attempts of 1715 and 1745.

Dido, Queen of Carthage, who after years of mourning for her first husband, vainly sought the love of Aeneas.

Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse (367-343 B.C.) who gathered to his court the foremost men of the time in literature and philosophy.

Dodd, Dr., a royal chaplain and fashion able preacher whose extravagance led him to forge a bond of Lord Chesterfield's, for which he was sentenced to death and duly executed (1729-77).

Dodington, George Bubb, a time-serving and unprincipled politician in the time of George II., afterwards Baron Melcombe.

Dubois, Cardinal, Prime Minister of France. An able statesman and a notorious debauchee (1656-1723).

Duke of Lancaster, Henry IV., the deposer and successor of Richard II.

Dumont, Pierre, a French writer who settled in England and became the translator and exponent of Bentham's works to Europe (1759-1829).

Dundee, the persecutor of the Scottish Covenanters under Charles II

Dyer, John, author of some descriptive poems, e.g. Grongar Hill (1700-58).



Eldon, John Scott, Earl of, was in turn Solicitor-General, Attorney-General, Lord Chief Justice of Common Pleas and Lord Chancellor, and throughout a staunch Tory (1751-1838).

Empson and Dudley, ministers and tax-raisers under Henry VII, executed by Henry VIII.

Ensign Northerton (see Fielding's Tom Jones, VII. xii.-xv.).

Escobar, a Spanish Jesuit preacher and writer (1589-1669).

Escurial, the palace and monastery built by Philip II.

Essex, One of the Rye House Conspirators; he was found in the Tower with his throat cut, whether as the result of suicide or murder is not known.

Euston, a late Jacobean house (and park) 10 miles from Bury St. Edmunds.



Faithful Shepherdess, a pastoral by Fletcher which may have suggested the general plan and some of the details of Comus.

Farinata (see Dante's Inferno, canto 10).

Farmer-general, the tax-gatherers of France, prior to the Revolution: they contracted with the Government for the right to collect or "farm" the taxes.

Ferdinand the Catholic, King of Aragon, who, by marrying Isabella of Castile and taking Granada from the Moors, united Spain under one crown.

Filicaja, a Florentine poet (1642-1707); according to Macaulay ("Essay on Addison") "the greatest lyric poet of modern times,".

Filmer, Sir Robert, advocated the doctrine of absolute regal power in his Patriarcha, 1680.

Foigard, Father, a French refugee priest in Farquhar's Beaux Stratagem.

Fouche, Joseph, duke of Otranto. A member of the National Convention, who voted for the death of Louis XVI., and afterwards served under Napoleon (as Minister of Police) and Louis XVIII.

Fox, Henry F., father of Charles James Fox, and later Lord Holland.

Franche-Comte, that part of France which lies south of Lorraine and west of Switzerland.

French Memoirs, those of Margaret of Valois, daughter of Henry II. Of and wife of Henry (IV.) of Navarre.

Friar Dominic, a character in Dryden's Spanish Friar designed to ridicule priestly vices.

Fronde, a French party who opposed the power Of Mazarin and the Parliament of Paris during the minority of Louis XIV.

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Critical And Historical Essays, Volume I, Thomas Babbington Macaulay, 1843

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