Chapter Enfield to Epigoniad of E by Brewer's Readers Handbook

(This kingdom of “speculative science” gave the hint to Swift for his island of Laputa.)

Envelope (The Mulready Envelope, 1840) was designed for the Penny Envelopes. It was an allegorical picture of the British Empire and its colonies, wholly unsuitable for the purpose intended, and very soon withdrawn from circulation. I well remember using and “abusing” them.

The design of the lord mayor of London’s card of invitation to his dinner on November 9, 1896, was a somewhat similar allegorical picture. Both these were in bad taste.

Eothen, by A. W. Kinglake (1844). Sketches, etc., of the East, through which the author travelled.

Ephesian, a toper, a dissolute sot, a jovial companion. When Page (2 Henry II. act ii. sc. 2) tells prince Henry that a company of men were about to sup with Falstaff, in Eastcheap, and calls them “Ephesians,” he probably meant soldiers called féthas (“foot-soldiers”), and hence topers. Malone suggests that the word is a pun on pheese (“to chastise or pay one tit for tat”), and means “quarrelsome fellows.”

Ephesian Poet (The), Hipponax, born at Ephesus (sixth century B.C.).

Ephesus (Letters of), bribes. “Ephesiæ literæ” were magical notes or writings, which ensured those who employed them success in any undertaking they chose to adventure on.

Silver keys were used in old Rome, where every petty officer who knew no other spelling could decipher a “letter of Ephesus.” Oh for the purity of honest John Bull! No “letters of Ephesus” will tempt the integrity of our British bumbledom.—Cassell’s Magazine, February, 1877.

Epic (The Great Puritan), Paradise Lost, by Milton (1665).

Epic of Hades , by sir Lewis Morris (1876, 1877).

Epic Poetry (The Father of), Homer (about 950 B.C.).

Epic Poets. The most famous are—

Greece: Homer, who wrote the Iliad and Odyssey.

Latin: Virgil, who wrote the Æneid.

Portuguese: Camoëns, who wrote The Lusiad.

English: Milton, who wrote Paradise Lost.

There are a host of Historical Poems of an epic character, like the Henriade of Voltaire, the Pharsalia of Lucan, etc., and a number of poetic romances like Orlando Furioso, Southey’s Thalaba, and so on; but these are not epic poems. Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered stands well.

Epicene or The Silent Woman, one of the three great comedies of Ben Jonson (1609).

The other two are Volpone (1605), and The Alchemist (1610).

Epicurean (The), a prose romance by Thomas Moore. The hero is Alciphron (1827).

Epicurus. The aimée de cœur of this philosopher was Leontium. (See Lovers.)

Epicurus of China, Tao-tse, who commenced the search for “the elixir of perpetual youth and health” (B.C. 540).

(Lucretius the Roman poet, in his De Rerum Natura, is an exponent of the Epicurean doctrines.)