Part 39 (1/2)

_Ralph Nickleby_, of Golden Square (London), uncle to Nicholas and Kate.

A hard, grasping money-broker, with no ambition but the love of saving, no spirit beyond the thirst of gold, and no principle except that of fleecing every one who comes into his power. This villain is the father of Smike, and ultimately hangs himself, because he loses money, and sees his schemes one after another burst into thin air.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Nicholas Nickleby_, (1838).

=Nicneven=, a gigantic, malignant hag of Scotch superst.i.tion.

? Dunbar, the Scotch poet, describes her in his _Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy_ (1508).

=Nicode'mus=, one of the servants of General Harrison.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

=Nicole= (2 _syl._), a female servant of M. Jourdain, who sees the folly of her master, and exposes it in a natural and amusing manner.--Moliere, _Le Bourgeois Gentlehomme_[TN-33] (1670).

=Night= or =Nox=. So Tennyson calls Sir Peread, the Black Knight of the Black Lands, one of the four brothers who kept the pa.s.sages to Castle Perilous.--Tennyson, _Idylls of the King_ (”Gareth and Lynette”); Sir T.

Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 126 (1470).

=Nightingale= (_The Italian_), Angelica Catala'ni; also called ”The Queen of Song” (1782-1849).

_Nightingale_ (_The Swedish_), Jenny Lind, afterwards Mde. Goldschmidt.

She appeared in London 1847, and retired from public life in 1851 (1821-1887).

=Nightingale and the Lutist.= The tale is, that a lute-master challenged a nightingale in song. The bird, after sustaining the contest for some time, feeling itself outdone, fell on the lute, and died broken-hearted.

? This tale is from the Latin of Strada, translated by Richard Crashaw, and called _Music's Duel_ (1650). It is most beautifully told by John Ford, in his drama ent.i.tled _The Lover's Melancholy_, where Men'aphon is supposed to tell it to Ame'thus (1628).

=Nightingale and the Thorn.=

As it fell upon a day In the merry month of May, Sitting in a pleasant shade Which a grove of myrtles made-- Beasts did leap, and birds did sing, Trees did grow, and plants did spring, Everything did banish moan, Save the nightingale alone; She, poor bird, as all forlorn, Leaned her breast up-till a thorn.

Richard Barnfield, _Address to the Nightingale_ (1594).

So Philomel, perched on an aspen sprig, Weeps all the night her lost virginity, And sings her sad tale to the merry twig, That dances at such joyful mysery.

Never lets sweet rest invade her eye; But leaning on a thorn her dainty chest, For fear soft sleep should steal into her breast, Expresses in her song grief not to be expressed.

Giles Fletcher, _Christ's Triumph over Death_ (1610).

The nightingale that sings with the deep thorn, Which fable places in her breast.

Byron, _Don Juan_, vi. 87 (1824).

=Nightmare of Europe= (_The_), Napoleon Bonaparte (1769, reigned 1804-1814, died 1821).

=Nightshade= (_Deadly_). We are told that the berries of this plant so intoxicated the soldiers of Sweno, the Danish king, that they became an easy prey to the Scotch, who cut them to pieces.

? Called ”deadly,” not from its poisonous qualities, but because it was used at one time for blackening the eyes in mourning.