Aristotle of the Nineteenth Century, George Cuvier, the naturalist (1769-1832).

AR’ISTOTLE IN LOVE.  Godfrey Gobilyve told sir Graunde Amoure that Aristotle the philosopher was once in love, and the lady promised to listen to his prayer if he would grant her request.  The terms being readily accepted, she commanded him to go on all fours, and then, putting a bridle into his mouth, mounted on his back, and drove him about the room till he was so angry, weary, and disgusted, that he was quite cured of his foolish attachment.—­Stephen Hawes, The Pastime of Plesure, xxix. (1555).

ARMADALE (Allan), bluff young Englishman, devoted to the sea and ship-building, and prone to fall in love.  He is betrothed, first to Miss Milroy, a winning lass of sixteen, then to Miss Gwilt, her governess, again and lastly to Miss Milroy, whom he marries.—­Wilkie Collins, Armadale.

ARMADO (Don Adriano de), a pompous, affected Spaniard, called “a refined traveller, in all the world’s new fashion planted, that had a mint of phrases in his brain.  One whom the music of his own vain tongue did ravish.”  This man was chosen by Ferdinand, the king of Navarre, when he resolved to spend three years in study with three companions, to relate in the interim of his studies “in high-born words the worth of many a knight from tawny Spain lost in the world’s debate.”

His humor is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behavior vain, ridiculous, and thrasonical....  He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.—­Shakespeare, Love’s Labor’s Lost, act v. sc. 1 (1594).

ARMANDE (2 syl.), daughter of Chrysale (2 syl.), and sister of Henriette.  Armande is a femme savante, and Henriette a “thorough woman.”  Both love Clitandre, but Armande loves him platonically, while Henriette loves him with womanly affection.  Clitandre prefers the younger sister, and after surmounting the usual obstacles, marries her.—­Moliere, Les Femmes Savantes (1672).

ARMI’DA, a sorceress, who seduces Rinaldo and other crusaders from the siege of Jerusalem.  Rinaldo is conducted by her to her splendid palace, where he forgets his vows, and abandons himself to sensual joys.  Carlo and Ubaldo are sent to bring him back, and he escapes from Armida; but she follows him, and not being able to allure him back again, sets fire to her palace, rushes into the midst of the fight, and is slain.

[Julia’s] small hand Withdrew itself from his, but left behind A little pressure ... but ne’er magician’s wand Wrought change with, all Armida’s fairy art, Like what this light touch left on Juan’s heart.  Byron, Don Juan, i. 71.

When the young queen of Frederick William of Prussia rode about in military costume to incite the Prussians to arms against Napoleon, the latter wittily said, “She is Armida in her distraction setting fire to her own palace.”