Chapter Tithonus to Toboso of T by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Tithonus to Toboso

Tithonus, a son of Laomedon kin g of Troy. He was so handsome that Aurora became enamoured of him, and persuaded Jupiter to make him immortal. But as she forgot to ask for eternal youth also, he became decrepit and ugly, and Aurora changed him into a cicada or grasshopper. His name is a synonym for a very old man.

Weary of aged Tithon’s saffron bed.
Spenser: Faërie Queene, I. ii. 7 (1590).
…thinner than Tithonus was
Before he faded into air.
Lord Lytton: Tales of Miletus, ii.

Tithonus (The Consort of), the moon.

Now the fair consort of Tithonus old,
Arisen from her mate’s beloved arms,
Looked palely o’er the eastern cliff.
   —Dante: Purgatory, ix. (1308).

Tithorea, one of the two chief summits of Parnassus. It was dedicated to Bacchus, the other (Lycorea) being dedicated to the Muses and Apollo.

Titian (Tiziano Vecellio), an Italian landscape painter, especially famous for his clouds (1477–1576).

The French Titian, Jacques Blanchard (1600–1638).

The Portuguese Titian, Alonzo Sanchez Coello (1515–1590).

Titles of Honour (A Treatise on), by Selden (1614).

Titmarsh (Michael Angelo), a pseudonym of Thackeray Called “Michael Angelo” from his massive body, broad shoulders, and large head (1811–1863).

Titmarsh (Samuel), The Great Hoggarty Diamond, a story by Thackeray (1841).

Titmouse (Mr. Tittlebat), a vulgar, ignorant coxcomb, suddenly raised from the degree of a linen-draper’s shopman to a man of fortune, with an income of £10,000 a year.—Warren: Ten Thousand a Year.

Tito Melema, a Greek, who marries Romola.—George Eliot (Mrs. J. W. Cross): Romola (1863).

Titurel, the first king of Graal-burg. He has bought into subjection all his passions, has resisted all the seductions of the world and is modest, chaste, pious, and devout. His daughter Sigunê is in love with Tschionatulander, who is slain.—Wolfram von Eschenbach: Titurel (thirteenth century).

N.B.—Wolfram’s Titurel is a tedious expansion of a lay already in existence, and Albert of Scharfenberg produced a Young Titurel, at one time thought the best romance of chivalry in existence; but it is pompous, stilted, erudite, and wearisome.

Titus, the son of Lucius Junius Brutus. He joined the faction of Tarquin, and was condemned to death by his father, who, having been the chief instrument in banishing the king and all his race, was created the first consul.

(The subject has been often dramatized. In English, by N. Lee (1679) and John Howard Payne (1820). In French, by Arnault, in 1792; and by Ponsard, in 1843. In Italian, by Alfieri, Bruto; etc. It was in Payne’s tragedy that Charles Kean made his début in Glasgow as “Titus,” his father playing “Brutus.’)

The house was filled to overflowing…the stirring interest of the play, combined with the natural acting of the father and son, completely subdued the audience. They sat suffused in tears during the last pathetic interview, until Brutus, overwhelmed by his emotions, falls on the neck of Titus, exclaiming, in a burst of agony, “Embrace thy wretched father!” when the whole theatre broke forth in long peals of applause. Edmund Kean then whispered in his son’s ear, “Charlie, my boy, we are doing the trick.”—Cole: Life of Charles Kean.