Wycliffite. A Lollard (q. v.), a follower of John Wyclif (d. 1384), the religious reformer, called "The Morning Star of the Reformation." He denied transubstantiation, condemned monasticism, and taught that all ecclesiastical and secular authority is derived from God and is forfeited by one who is living in mortal sin. Wyclif's Bible. See Bible, the English. Wylie, Maggie. The heroine of Barrie's play, What Every Woman Knows (q. v.). Wynne, Hugh. See Hugh Wynne. Xan'adu. A city mentioned by Coleridge in his Kubla Khan (q. v.). Xan'thus (Gr. reddish yellow). Achilles' wonderful horse, brother of Balios, Achilles' other horse, and offspring of Zephyrus and the harpy, Podarge. Being chid by his master for leaving Patroclus on the field of battle, Xanthus turned his head reproachfully, and told Achilles that he also would soon be numbered with the dead, not from any fault of his horse, but by the decree of inexorable destiny (Iliad, xix). (Cp. Numb. xxii. 28-30.) Xanthus is also the ancient name of the Scamander and of a city on its banks. Xantip'pe. Wife of the philosopher Socrates. Her bad temper shown towards her husband has rendered her name proverbial for a conjugal scold. Be she as foul as was Florentius' love, Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew. i. 2. X Xenophon (B. C. 445–391). Greek historian, famous for his Anabasis (q.v.). Xerx'es. A Greek way of writing the Persian Ksathra or Kshatra. Xerxes I, the great Xerxes, is identical with the Ahasuerus of the Bible. When Xerxes invaded Greece he constructed a pontoon bridge across the Dardanelles, which was swept away by the force of the waves. This so enraged the Persian despot that he “inflicted three hundred lashes on the rebellious sea, and cast chains of iron across it." This story is probably a Greek myth, founded on the peculiar construction of Xerxes' second bridge, which consisted of three hundred boats, lashed by iron chains to two ships serving as supporters. Another story told of him is that when he reviewed his enormous army before starting for Greece, he wept at the thought of slaughter about to take place. "Of all this multitude, who shall say how many will return?" Y. M. C. A. The Young Men's Christian Association, an international organization with a social and religious program in the interests of men. Y. W. C. A. The Young Women's Christian Association, an international organization with purposes similar to that of the Y. M. C. A. Ya'hoo. Swift's name, in Gulliver's Travels, for brutes with human forms and vicious propensities. They are subject to the Houyhnhnms, the horses with human reason. Hence applied to coarse, brutish or degraded persons. Yahweh. See Jehovah. Yama. The god of the dead in Hindu mythology, the Hindu Pluto. The story is that he was the first mortal to die and so was made a god. He is of a green color, four-armed, with eyes inflamed, and sits on a buffalo. Yanetta. In Brieux's Red Robe (q. v.), the wife of Etchepars, the accused peasant. Yank. The " Hairy Ape" (q. v.) in Eugene O'Neill's drama of that title. Yankee. Properly a New Englander or one of New England stock; but extended to mean, first, an inhabitant of the Northern as apart from the Southern United States, and later to comprise all United States citizens. Y Yankee Doodle went to town A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. See under Connecticut. Yankees. In American baseball parlance, the nickname of the New York Americans. Cp. Baseball Teams. Yarico. See Inkle and Yarico. Yarrow. The Braes of Yarrow. An old Scotch ballad. Scott and Hogg have celebrated this stream and its legends; and Wordsworth wrote a poem called Yarrow Revisited in 1835. Yeats, William Butler (1865- ). Poet and dramatist of the modern Irish school. His best-known work is The Land of Heart's Desire. Yellow (A.S. geolo, connected with Gr. chloros, green, and with gall, the yellowish fluid secreted by the bile). Indicating in symbolism jealousy, inconstancy, and adultery. In France the doors of traitors used to be daubed with yellow. In some countries the law ordained that Jews must be clothed in yellow, because they betrayed our Lord, hence Judas, in medieval pictures, is arrayed in yellow. In Spain the vestments of the executioner are either red or yellow the former to denote bloodshedding, the latter treason. It is generally taken to be a North In heraldry and in ecclesiastical symboAmerican Indian corruption of English (or lism yellow is frequently used in place of Fr. Anglais). The story is that in 1713 one Jonathan Hastings, a farmer of Cambridge, Massachusetts, used the word as a puffing epithet, meaning genuine, what cannot be surpassed, etc.; as, a "Yankee horse,' Yankee cider," and so on. The students at Harvard, catching up the term, called Hastings, "Yankee Jonathan." It soon spread, and became the jocose pet name of the New Englander. Yankee Doodle. The quasi national air of the United States, the doggerel words of which are said to have been written by Dr. Shuckburgh, a surgeon in Lord Amherst's army during the French and Indian war of 1755. The origin of the tune is disputed. Some say that it comes from a medieval church service, others that it was composed in England in Cromwell's time, others that it was played by the Hessian troops during the American Revolution and adopted by the revolutionaries in mockery. A Dutch origin has also been suggested. of gold. Yellow Book. A magazine which attracted great attention in London during the last years of the 19th century as the organ of a literary group who were labelled by their critics as decadents and esthetes. Official documents, government reports, etc., in France are known as Yellow Books, from the color of their cover. Cp. Blue Book. Yellow Dwarf. An ugly and ferocious dwarf prominent in an old fairy tale that appeared first in a French version by Countess d'Aulnoy (1650-1705). Yellow hose. A sign of jealousy. To wear yellow or wear yellow hose is to be jealous. Yellow Jack. Yellow fever, also a flag indicative of contagious disease on shipboard. Yellow Jacket. The title of a play by George C. Hazelton and J. H. Benrimo (Am. 1912), presenting a Chinese story. In Yellowley, Mr. Triptolemus. Scott's Pirate, an experimental agriculturist of Stourburgh or Harfra who follows his calling with the utmost enthusiasm. Yellowplush, Mr. C. J. (Memoirs of). A satire by Thackeray (1838) in which. Yellowplush narrates the adventures and opinions of his various masters. Yemassee, The. A historical novel by William Gilmore Simms (Am. 1835) dealing with the insurrection of the Yemassee Indians in 1715. The hero is Charles Craven, governor of Carolina, depicted under the name of Gabriel Harrison. The young Indian Occonestoga becomes a victim of drink and betrays his people to the whites, whereupon his father, Sanutee accuses him, and his mother, Matiwan, kills her son to save him from disgrace. Enforced she was to wed him in her tears, Tennyson: Coming of Arthur. Yggdrasil'. The world tree of Scandinavian mythology that, with its roots and branches, binds together heaven, earth, and hell. It is an ash, and at the root is a fountain of wonderful virtues. In the tree, which drops honey, sit an eagle, a squirrel, and four stags. At the root lies the serpent Nithhoggr gnawing it, while the squirrel Ratatoskr runs up and down to sow strife between the eagle at the top and the wise serpent. When the tree quakes the monsters that are confined in the lower regions will be released for the final conflict at Ragnarok. The tree is a late addition to Scandinavian myth, and the name was probably originally that of one of the winds ( Yggr, a name of Odin, and dressill a horse). Yiddish. A Middle German dialect developed under Hebrew and Slavic influence, written in Hebrew characters and used as a language by German and other Jews (Ger. jüdisch, Jewish). Hence a Jew is sometimes called in contempt a Yiddisher or Yid. Ymir. The primeval being of Scandinavian mythology, the giant from whose body the world was created. He was nourished by the four milky streams which flowed from the cow Audhum'la. One account has it that while he slept a man and woman grew out of his left arm, and sons from his feet. Thus was generated the race of the frost-giants. Another legend relates that when Odin and his two brothers slew Ymir, and threw his carcass into the Ginnun'gagap (Abyss of abysses), his blood formed the waters and the ocean, his bones the mountains, his teeth the rocks, his skull the heavens, his brains the clouds, his hair plants of Yeobright, Clym. Hero of Hardy's every kind, and his eyebrows the wall Return of the Native (q. v.). Yeoman's Tale. (In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales). See Canon Yeoman's Tale. Ygerne or Igerne. In Arthurian romance, the mother of Arthur, wife of Gorlois, lord of Tintag'el Castle, in Cornwall. King Uther tried to seduce her, but Ygerne resented the insult; whereupon Uther and Gorlois fought, and the latter was slain. Uther then besieged Tintagel Castle, took it, and compelled Ygerne to become his wife. Nine months afterwards, Uther died, and on the same day was Arthur born. Then Uther, in his wrath and heat, besieged of defence against the giants. Yor'ick. The King of Denmark's deceased jester, "a fellow of infinite jest and most excellent fancy," whose skull is apostrophized by Hamlet (Act. v. 1). In Tristram Shandy Sterne introduces a clergyman of that name, said to be meant for himself. York Mysteries or Plays. One of the important series of English Mystery Plays (q. v.), so called because they were acted at York. Young. Used as an epithet in the names of political parties who strive to sweep away abuses and introduce reforms. Thus, we have, or have had, Young England, Young Italy, the Young Turks, etc. Young England. A group of young aristocrats of the Conservative party (1833-1846) headed by Disraeli and Lord John Manners. They wore white waistcoats, gave largely to the poor and attempted to revive the courtly manners of the past. They are vividly portrayed in Disraeli's novels, notably Coningsby or the New Generation. Young Germany. A school headed by Heine in the mid 19th century, whose aim was to liberate politics, religion, and manners from the old conventional trammels. Young Hickory. See Hickory. Young Ireland. The Irish politicians and agitators (at first led by O'Connell) who effected the rising of 1848. Young Italy. A league of Italian refugees, who associated themselves with the French republican party, called the Charbonnerie Démocratique. It was organized at Marseilles by Mazzini about 1834, and its chief object was to diffuse republican principles. Young Turks. The reform party in Turkey which gained control through the Revolution of 1909. The Young Adventurer. See under Pretender. The Young Pretender. See Pretender. Young, Felix. A character in Henry James' novel, The Europeans (q. v.). Young, Francis Brett (1884– ). English novelist, author of The Black Diamond, etc. Youwarkee. In Patlock's romance Peter Wilkins (1750), the name of the gawrey, or flying woman, that Peter Wilkins married. She introduced the seaman to Nosmnbdsgrsutt, the land of fying men and women. Ysaie le Triste. In medieval romance, the son of Tristram and Ysolde, born after Tristram's death. He is the hero of a French romance called by his name. The fairies give him, among many other gifts of great value, the ugly, witty, resourceful dwarf Tronc, who accompanies him on numerous adventures. On one eventful day that brings the tale to a climax, his son Mark marries a Saracen princess Orimonda, Ysaie at last marries Mark's mother, Martha, his true love, and Tronc becomes as handsome as he had been ugly and King of Fairyland | under the name Aubrun (cp. Alberich; Oberon). Ysolde (Yseult, Isolde, etc.). The name of two heroines of Arthurian romance, the more important. Ysolde the Fair, King Mark's wife, being the lover of Tristram (q. v.), the other, Ysolde of the White Hands, or Ysolde of Brittany, being his wife, whom he married after he had been discovered by King Mark and had been obliged to flee. It was through the treachery of Ysolde of the White Hands that Sir Tristram died, and that Ysolde the Fair died in consequence. The story has it that King Mark buried the two in one grave, and planted over it a rose-bush and vine, which so intermingled their branches as they grew up that no man could separate them. Yudhishthira. One of the five Pandavas, a hero of the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata (q. v.). Yum-Yum. The heroine of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera, The Mikado (q. v.). Yvetôt, King of. The lord of a town in Normandy. The tale is that Clotaire, son of Clovis, having slain the lord of Yvetôt before the high altar of Soissons, made atonement to the heirs by conferring on them the title of king. Béranger in his famous song Le Roi d' Yvetôt, which popularized the name, says this potentate is little known in history but his character and habits were not peculiar. "He rose late, went to bed early, slept without caring for glory, made four meals a day, lived in a thatched house, wore a cotton night-cap instead of a crown, rode on an ass, and his only law was charity begins at home.'' Il était un roi d'Yvetot Peu connu dans l'histoire;, Ywain. One of the knights of the Round Table; identical with the Owain (or Owen) ap Urien of the Welsh bards and the Mabinogion. He is the hero of Chrestien de Troyes' Le Chevalier au Lyon (12th century), which appears as a 14th century English metrical romance - Ywain and Gawain. |