Chapter Zemia to Zobeide of Z by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Zimri, in Dryden’s satire of Absalom and Achitophel, is the second duke of Buckingham. As Zimri conspired against Asa king of Judah, so the duke of Buckingham “formed parties and joined factions.”—1 Kings xvi. 9.

Some of the chiefs were princes in the land:
In the first rank of these did Zimri stand,—
A man so various that he seemed to be
Not one, but all mankind’s epitomê;
Stiff in opinion, always in the wrong,
Was everything by turns, and nothing long.
   —Pt. i. 545–550 (1681).

Zinebi (Mohammed), king of Syria, tributary to the caliph Haroun-al-Raschid; of very humane disposition.—Arabian Nights (“Ganem, the Slave of Love”).

Zineura, in Boccaccio’s Decameron (day 11, Nov. 9), is the “Imogen” of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. She assumed male attire with the name of Sicurano da Finalê (Imogen assumed male at tire and the name Fidelê); Zineura’s husband was Bernard Lomellin, and the villain was Ambrose (Imogen’s husband was Posthumus Leonatus, and the villain Iachimo). In Shakespeare, the British king Cymbeline takes the place assigned by Boccaccio to the sultan.

Ziska or Zizka, John of Trocznov, a Bohemian nobleman, leader of the Hussites. He fought under Henry V. at Agincourt. His sister had been seduced by a monk; and whenever he heard the shriek of a catholic at the stake, he called it “his sister’s bridal song.” The story goes that he ordered his skin at death to be made into drum-heads (1360–1424).

Some say that John of Trocznov was called “Ziska” because he was “oneeyed;” but that is a mistake—Ziska was a family name, and does not mean “oneeyed,” either in the Polish or the Bohemian language.

For every page of paper shall a hide
Of yours be stretched as parchment on a drum,
Like Ziska’s skin, to beat alarm to all
Refractory vassals.
   —Byron: Werner, i. (1822).

But be it as it is, the time may come
His name [Napoleon’s] shall beat th’ alarm like Ziska’s
drum.
   —Byron: Age of Bronze, iv. (1819).

Zobeide [Zo-bay-de], half-sister of Aminê. She had two sisters, who were turned into little black dogs by way of punishment for casting Zobeidê and “the prince” from the petrified city into the sea. Zobeidê was rescued by the “fairy serpent,” who had metamorphosed the two sisters, and Zobeidê was enjoined to give the two dogs a hundred lashes every day. Ultimately, the two dogs were restored to their proper forms, and married two calenders, “sons of kings;” Zobeidê married the caliph Haroun-al-Raschid; and Aminê was restored to Amin, the caliph’s son, to whom she was already married.—Arabian Nights (“History of Zobeidê”). N.B.—While the caliph was absent from Bagdad, Zobeidê caused his favourite (named Fetnab) to be buried alive, for which she was divorced. — Arabian Nights (“Ganem, the Slave of Love”).