AGRAWAIN (Sir) or SIR AGRAVAIN, surnamed “The Desirous,” and also “The Haughty.”  He was son of Lot (king of Orkney) and Margawse half-sister of king Arthur.  His brothers were sir Gaw’ain, sir Ga’heris, and sir Gareth.  Mordred was his half-brother, being the son of king Arthur and Margawse.  Sir Agravain and sir Mordred hated sir Launcelot, and told the king he was too familiar with the queen; so they asked the king to spend the day in hunting, and kept watch.  The queen sent for sir Launcelot to her private chamber, and sir Agravain, sir Mordred, and twelve others assailed the door, but sir Launcelot slew them all except sir Mordred, who escaped.—­Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, iii. 142-145 (1470).

AGRICA’NE (4 syl.), king of Tartary, in the Orlando Innamorato, of Bojardo.  He besieges Angelica in the castle of Albracca, and is slain in single combat by Orlando.  He brought into the field 2,200,000 troops.

  Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp,
  When Agrican, with all his northern powers,
  Besieged Albracca.

  Milton, Paradise Regained, iii. (338).

AGRICOLA FUSILIER, a pompous old creole, a conserver of family traditions, and patriot who figures in George W. Cable’s Grandissimes (1880).

He seemed to fancy himself haranguing a crowd; made another struggle for intelligence, tried once, twice to speak, and the third time succeeded:  “Louis—­Louisian—­a—­for—­ever!” and lay still.  They put those two words on his tomb.

AG’RIOS, Lumpishness personified; a “sullen swain, all mirth that in himself and others hated; dull, dead, and leaden.”  Described in canto viii. of The Purple Island, by Phineas Fletcher (1635). (Greek, agrios; “a savage.”)

AGRIPPINA was granddaughter, wife, sister, and mother of an emperor.  She was granddaughter of Augustus, wife of Claudius, sister of Caligula, and mother of Nero.

[Illustration] Lam’pedo of Lacedaemon was daughter, wife, sister, and mother of a king.

AGRIPY’NA or AG’RIPYNE (3 syl.), a princess beloved by the “king of Cyprus’son, and madly loved by Orleans.”—­Thomas Dekker, Old Fortunatus (a comedy, 1600).

AGUE-CHEEK (Sir Andrew), a silly old fop with “3000 ducats a year,” very fond of the table, but with a shrewd understanding that “beef had done harm to his wit.”  Sir Andrew thinks himself “old in nothing but in understanding,” and boasts that he can cut a caper, dance the coranto, walk a jig, and take delight in masques, like a young man.—­Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (1614).

Woodward (1737-1777) always sustained “sir Andrew Ague-cheek” with infinite drollery, assisted by that expression of “rueful dismay,” which gave so peculiar a zest to his Marplot.—­Boaden, Life of Siddons Charles Lamb says that “Jem White saw James Dodd one evening in Ague-cheek, and recognizing him next day in Fleet Street, took off his hat, and saluted him with ‘Save you, sir Andrew!’ Dodd simply waved his hand and exclaimed, ‘Away, fool!’”