Chapter Huniades to Hythloday of H by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Hushai rendered abortive that of Achitophel, and caused the plot of Absalom to miscarry, so the counsel of Hyde rendered abortive that of lord Shaftesbury, and caused the plot of Monmouth to miscarry.

Hushai, the friend of David in distress;
In public storms of manly stedfastness;
By foreign treaties he informed his youth,
And joined experience to his native truth.
   —Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel, i. 825–828 (1681).

Hutcheon, the auld domestic in Wandering Willie’s tale.—Sir W. Scott: Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Hutcheon, one of Julian Avenel’s retainers.—Sir W. Scott: The Monastery (time, Elizabeth).

Hutin (Le), Louis X. of France; so called from his expedition against the Hutins, a seditious people of Navarre and Lyons (1289, 1314–1316).

Hyacinth, son of Amyclas the Spartan king. He was playing quoits with Apollo, when the wind drove the quoit of the sun-god against the boy’s head, and killed him on the spot. From the blood grew the flower called hyacinth, which bears on its petals the words, “Ai! Ai!” (“Alas! alas!”).—Grecian Fable.

Hyacinthe , the daughter of seigneur Géronte , who passed in Tarentum under the assumed name of Pandolphe . When he quitted Tarentum, he left behind him his wife and daughter Hyacinthe. Octave son of Argante fell in love with Hyacinthe (supposing her surname to be Pandolphe), and Octave’s father wanted him to marry the daughter of his friend seigneur Géronte. The young man would not listen to his father, and declared that Hyacinthe, and Hyacinthe alone, should be his wife. It was then explained to him that Hyacinthe Pandolphe was the same person as Hyacinthe Géronte, and that the choice of father and son were in exact accord.—Molière: Les Fourberies de Sapin (1671).

(In The Cheats of Scapin, Otway’s version of this play, Hyacinthe is called “Clara,” her father Géronte “Gripe,” and Octave is Anglicized into “Octavian.”)

Hyde. (See Jekyll And Hyde.)

Hyder Ali Khan Behauder, the nawaub of Mysore , disguised as the sheik Hali.—Sir W. Scott: The Surgeon’s Daughter (time, George II.).

Hydra or Dragon of the Hesperian grove. The golden apples of the Hesperian field were guarded by women called the Hesperidês, assisted by the hydra or dragon named Ladon.

Her flowery store
To thee nor Tempê shall refuse, nor watch
Of wingéd hydra guard Hesperian fruits
From thy free spoil.
   —Akenside: Pleasures of Imagination, i. (1744).

Hydromel properly means a mixture of honey and water; but Mrs. Browning, in her Drama of Exile, speaks of a “mystic hydromel,” which corresponds to the classic nectar or drink of the immortals. This “mystic hydromel” was given to Adam and Eve, and held them “immortal” as long as they lived in Eden, but when they fell it was poured out upon the earth.

[And] now our right hand hath no cup remaining…
[For] the mystic hydromel is spilt.
   —Mrs. Browning: A Drama of Exile (1850).

Hydropsy, personified by Thomson—

On limbs enormous, but withal unsound,
Soft-swoln and wan, here lay pale Hydropsy,—
Unwieldy man; with belly monstrous round,
For ever fed with watery supply,
For still he drank, and yet was ever dry.
   —Castle of Indolence, i. 75 (1748)

Hymbercourt (Baron d), one of the duke of Burgundy’s officers.—Sir W. Scott: Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).