Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 eBook

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 804 pages of information about Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1.

Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 eBook

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 804 pages of information about Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1.

EDGAR (959-775), “king of all the English,” was not crowned till he had reigned thirteen years (A.D. 973).  Then the ceremony was performed at Bath.  After this he sailed to Chester, and eight of his vassal kings came with their fleets to pay him homage, and swear fealty to him by land and sea.  The eight are Kenneth (king of Scots), Malcolm (of Cumberland), Maccus (of the Isles), and five Welsh princes, whose names were Dufnal, Siferth, Huwal, Jacob, and Juchil.  The eight kings rowed Edgar in a boat (while he acted as steersman) from Chester to St. John’s, where they offered prayer and then returned.

  At Chester, while he, [Edgar] lived at more than kingly charge. 
  Eight tributary kings they rowed him in his barge.

  Drayton, Polyolbion, xii. (1613).

Edgar, son of Gloucester, and his lawful heir.  He was disinherited by Edmund, natural son of the earl.—­Shakespeare, King Lear (1605).

[Illustration] This was one of the characters of Robert Wilks (1670-1732), and also of Charles Kemble (1774-1854).

Edgar, master of Ravenswood, son of Allan of Ravenswood (a decayed Scotch nobleman).  Lucy Ashton, being attacked by a wild bull, is saved by Edgar, who shoots it; and the two falling in love with each other, plight their mutual troth, and exchange love-tokens at the “Mermaid’s Fountain.”  While Edgar is absent in France on State affairs, Sir William Ashton, being deprived of his office as lord keeper, is induced to promise his daughter Lucy in marriage to Frank Hayston, laird of Bucklaw, and they are married; but next morning, Bucklaw is found wounded and the bride hidden in the chimney-corner insane.  Lucy dies in convulsions, but Bucklaw recovers and goes abroad.  Edgar is lost in the quick-sands at Kelpies Flow, in accordance with an ancient prophecy.  Sir W. Scott, Bride of Lammermoor (time, William III.).

[Illustration] In the opera, Edgar is made to stab himself.

Edgar, an attendant on Prince Robert of Scotland.—­Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time Henry IV.).

EDGARDO, master of Ravenswood, in love with Lucia di Lammermoor [Lucy Ashton].  While absent in France on State affairs, the lady is led to believe him faithless, and consents to marry the laird of Bucklaw; but she stabs him on the bridal night, goes mad, and dies.  Edgardo also stabs himself.  Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor (1835).

[Illustration] In the novel called The Bride of Lammermoor, by Sir W. Scott, Edgar is lost in the quicksands at Kelpies Flow, in accordance with an ancient prophecy.

EDGEWOOD (L’Abbe), who attended Louis XVI. to the scaffold, was called “Mons. de Firmount,” a corruption of Fairymount, in Longford (Ireland), where the Edgeworths had extensive domains.

EDGING (Mistress), a prying, mischief making waiting-woman, in The Careless Husband, by Colly Cibber (1704.) EDITH (Leete).  Name of the two girls beloved and won by Julian West in his first and second lives.—­Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward (1888).

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Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.