VICAR OF BRAY 
 
 
  Vexhalia, wife of Osmond, an old Va- 
rangian guard.-Sir W. Scott, Count Rob- 
ert of JParis (time, Rufus). 
 
  Vholes (1 syl.), a lawyer who draws 
Richard Carstone into his toils. He is 
always closely buttoned up, and speaks 
in a lifeless manner, but is pre-eminently 
a "mdst respectable man."-C. Dickens, 
Bleak House (1852). 
 
  Vibrate (Lord), a man who can never 
make up his mind to anything, and, "like 
a man on double business bent, he stands 
in pause, which he shall first begin, and 
both neglects." Thus, he would say to his 
valet, "Order the coachman at eleven. 
No; order him at one. Come back! or- 
der him in ten minutes. Stay! don't 
order him at all. Why don't you go and 
do as I bid you?" or, "Tell Harry to ad- 
mit the doctor. No, not just yet; in five 
minutes. I don't know when. Was ever 
man so tormented?"   So with everything. 
  Lady Vibrate, wife of the above. Ex- 
travagant, contradictious, fond of gaiety, 
hurry, noise, embarrassment, confusion, 
disorder, uproar, and a whirl of excite- 
ment. She says to his lordship: 
  I am all gaiety and good humor; you are all 
turmoil and lamentation. I sing, laugh, and wel- 
come pleasure wherever I find it; you take your 
lantern to look for misery, which the sun itself 
cannot discover. You may think proper to be 
as miserable as Job; but don't expect me to be 
a Job's wife.-Act, ii. 1. 
. Lady Jane Vibrate, daughter of Lord 
and Lady Vibrate. An amiable young 
lady, attached to Delaval, whom she mar- 
ries.-Holcroft, He's Much to Blame (1790). 
 
  Vicar of Bray (The). Mr. Brome says 
the noted vicar was Simon Alleyn, vicar 
of Bray, in Berkshire, for fifty years. In 
 
 
the reign of Henry VIII. he was catholic 
till the Reformation; in the reign of 
Edward VI. he was calvanist; in the reign 
of Mary he was papist; in the reign of 
Elizabeth he was protestant. No matter 
who was king, he resolved to die the vicar 
of Bray.-D'Israeli, Curiosities of Litera- 
ture. 
  Another statement gives the name of 
Pendleton as the true vicar. He was 
afterwards rector of St. Stephen's, Wal- 
brook (Edward VI. to Elizabeth). 
  Hadyn says the vicar referred to in the 
song was Simon Symonds, who lived in 
the Commonwealth, and continued vicar 
till the reign of William and Mary. He 
was independent in the protectorate, episco- 
palian under Charles II., papist under 
James II., moderate protestant under Wil- 
liam and Mary. 
  ** The song called The Vicar of Bray 
was written in the reign of George I., by 
Colonel Fuller, or an officer in Fuller's reg- 
iment, and does not refer to Alleyn, Pen- 
dleton, or Symonds, but to some real or 
imaginary person, who was vicar of Bray, 
from Charles II. to George I. The first 
verse begins: "In good King Charles's 
golden days" I was a zealous high-church- 
man. Ver. 2: "When royal James ob- 
tained the crown," I found the Church of 
Rome would fit my constitution. Ver. 3: 
"When William was our king declared," 
I swore to him allegiance. Ver. 4: "When 
gracious Anne became our queen," I be- 
came a tory. Ver. 5: "When: George, in 
pudding-time came o'er," I became a whig. 
And "George my lawful king shall be- 
until the times do alter." 
  I have had a long chase after the vicar of 
Bray, on whom the proverb . . . Mr. Fuller, in 
his Worthies . . . takes no notice of him.... 
I am informed it is Simon Alleyn or Allen who 
was vicar of Bray about 1540, and died, 1588.- 
Brome to Rawlins, June 14, 1735. (See Letters 
from the Bodleian, II. i. 100.) 
                                   IV 
 
 
VEXHALIA 
 
 
193