Chapter Armida to Arsaces of A by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Arno, the river of Florence, the birth-place of both Dantê and Boccaccio.

At last the Muses rose … and scattered … as they flew,
Their blooming wreaths from fair Valclusa’s bowers [Petrarch]
To Arno’s myrtle border.
   —Akenside: Pleasures of Imagination, ii.

ARNOLD, the deformed son of Bertha, who hates him for his ugliness. Weary of life, he is about to make away with himself, when a stranger accosts him, and promises to transform him into any shape he likes best. He chooses that of Achillês, and then goes to Rome, where he joins the besieging army of Bourbon. During the siege, Arnold enters St. Peter’s of Rome just in time to rescue Olimpia; but the proud beauty, to prevent being taken captive by him, flings herself from the high altar on to the pavement, and is taken up apparently lifeless. As the drama was never completed, the sequel is not known.—Byron: The Deformed Transformed.

Arnold, the torch-bearer at Rotherwood.—Sir W. Scott: Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).

Arnold of Benthuysen, disguised as a beggar, and called “Ginks.”—Fletcher: The Beggar’s Bush (1622).

Arnold (Matthew). His creed for the regeneration of man is contained in the three words, “Light, Sweetness, and Culture.” Dante speaks of “Light, Grace, and Mercy;” but neither approaches St. Paul’s triplet, “Faith, Hope and Charity.”

Arnoldo, s on of Melchtal, patriot of the forest cantons of Switzerland. He was in love with Mathilde, sister of Gessler, the Austrian governor of the district. When the tyranny of Gessler drove the Swiss into rebellion, Arnoldo joined the insurgents; but after the death of Gessler he married Mathilde, whose life he had saved when it was imperilled by an avalanche.—Rossini: Guglielmo Tell (1829).

Arnoldo, a gentleman contracted to Zenocia, a chaste lady, dishonourably pursued by the governor, count Clodio.—Beaumont and Fletcher: The Custom of the Country (printed 1647).

Arnolphe, a man of wealth, who has a crotchet about the proper training of girls to make good wives, and tries his scheme on Agnes, whom he adopts from a peasant’s hut, and whom he intends in time to make his wife. She was brought up, from the age of four years, in a country convent, where difference of sex and the conventions of society were wholly ignored. But when removed from the convent, she treated men like school-girls, nodded to them familiarly, kissed them, and played with them. Being told by her guardian that married women have more freedom than maidens, she asked him to marry her; however, a young man named Horace fell in love with her, and made her his wife, so Arnolphe, after all, profited nothing by his pains.—Molière: L’École des Femmes (1662).

Dans un petit couvent loin de toute pratique
Je le fis élever selon ma politique
C’est-à-dire, ordonnant quels soins on emploeroit
Poure le rendre idiote autant qu’il se pourroit.
   —Act i. x.

Arnolpho, a German duke slain by Rodomont.—Ariosto: Orlando Furioso.

Arnot (Andrew), one of the yeomen of the Balafré [Ludovic Lesly].—Sir W. Scott: Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).

Arod, in the second part of Absalom and Achitophel, by Tate and Dryden, is meant for sir William Waller, who detected the “Meal-tub Plot.”

In the sacred annals of our plot,
Industrious Arod never be forgot.
The labours of this midnight magistrate
May vie with Corah’s [Titus Oates] to preserve the state.
   —Part ii. 533, etc. (1682).

Aronteus , an Asiatic king, who joined the Egyptian armament against the crusaders.—Tasso: Jerusalem Delivered (1575).

Aroundight, the sword of sir Lancelot of the Lake.