ALP, a Venetian renegade, who was commander of the Turkish army in the siege of Corinth.  He loved Francesca, daughter of old Minotti, governor of Corinth, but she refused to marry a renegade and apostate.  Alp was shot in the siege, and Francesca died of a broken heart.—­Byron, Siege of Corinth.

ALPHE’US (3 syl.), a magician and prophet in the army of Charlemagne, slain in sleep by Clorida’no.—­Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Alphe’us (3 syl.), of classic story, being passionately in love with Arethu’sa, pursued her, but she fled from him in a fright, and was changed by Diana into a fountain, which bears her name.

ALPHON’SO, an irascible old lord in The Pilgrim, a comedy by Beaumont and Fletcher (1621).

Alphon’so, king of Naples, deposed by his brother Frederick.  Sora’no tried to poison him, but did not succeed.  Ultimately he recovered his crown, and Frederick and Sorano were sent to a monastery for the rest of their lives.—­Beaumont and Fletcher, A Wife for a Month (1624).

Alphonso, son of count Pedro of Cantabria, afterwards king of Spain.  He was plighted to Hermesind, daughter of lord Pelayo.

  The young Alphonso was in truth an heir
  Of nature’s largest patrimony; rich
  In form and feature, growing strength of limb,
  A gentle heart, a soul affectionate,
  A joyous spirit, filled with generous thoughts,
  And genius heightening and ennobling all. 
  Southey, Roderick, etc., viii. (1814).

ALQUI’FE (3 syl.), a famous enchanter in Amadis of Gaul, by Vasco de Lobeira, of Oporto, who died 1403.

La Noue denounces such beneficent enchanters as Alquife and Urganda, because they serve “as a vindication of those who traffic with the powers of darkness.”—­Francis de la Noue, Discourses, 87 (1587).

ALRINACH, the demon who causes shipwrecks, and presides over storms and earthquakes.  When visible it is always in the form and dress of a woman.—­Eastern Mythology.

ALSCRIP (Miss), “the heiress,” a vulgar parvenue, affected, conceited, ill-natured, and ignorant.  Having had a fortune left her, she assumes the airs of a woman of fashion, and exhibits the follies without possessing the merits of the upper ten.

Mr. Alscrip, the vulgar father of “the heiress,” who finds the grandeur of sudden wealth a great bore, and in his new mansion, Berkeley Square, sighs for the snug comforts he once enjoyed as scrivener in Furnival’s Inn.—­General Burgoyne, The Heiress (1781).

AL’TAMONT, a young Genoese lord, who marries Calista, daughter of lord Sciol’to (3 syl).  On his wedding day he discovers that his bride has been seduced by Lotha’rio, and a duel ensues, in which Lothario is killed, whereupon Calista stabs herself.—­N.  Rowe, The Fair Penitent (1703). (Rowe makes Sciolto three syllables always.)