ELVIRA 
 
 
  Elvi'ra, betrothed to Alfonso (son of the 
  Duke d'Arcos). No sooner is the mar- 
riage completed than she learns that 
Alfonso has seduced Fenella, a dumb girl, 
sister of Masaniello the fisherman. Mas- 
aniello, to revenge his wrongs, heads an 
insurrection, and Alfonso with Elvira run 
for safety to the fisherman's hut, where 
they find Fenella, who promises to protect 
them.    Masaniello, being   made chief 
magistrate of Por'tici, is killed by the 
mob; Fenella throws herself into the 
crater of Vesuvius; and Alfonso is left to 
live in peace with Elvira.-Auber, Masan- 
iello (1831). 
 
  Elvire (2 syl.), the wife of Don Juan, 
whom he abandons.      She enters a con- 
vent, and tries to reclaim her profligate 
husband, but without success.-Moli~re, 
Don Juan (1665). 
 
  Ely (Bishop of), introduced by Sir W. 
Scott in the Talisman (time, Richard I.). 
 
  Emath'ian Conqueror (The Great), 
Alexander the Great. Emathia is Mace- 
donia and Thessaly. Emathion, a son of 
Titan and Aurora, reigned in Macedonia. 
Pliny tells us that Alexander, when he 
besieged Thebes, spared the house in 
which Pindar the poet was born, out of 
reverence to his great abilities. 
 
  Embla, the woman Eve of Scandina- 
vian mythology. Eve or Embla was made 
-of elm, but Ask or Adam was made of 
ash. 
 
  Em'elie or EMELYE, sister-in-law of 
Duke Theseus (2 syl.), beloved by both 
Pal'amon and Ar'cite (2 syl.), but the 
former had her to wife. 
 
 
Emelie that fairer was to scene 
Than is the lilie on hire stalk6 grene, 
And fresscher than the May with fiour~s newe. 
             Chaucer, Canterbury Tales 
                (" The Knight's Tale," 1388). 
 
  Emeral'der, an Irishman, one of the 
Emerald Isle. 
 
  Emer'ita (St)., sister of King Lucius, 
who, when her brother abdicated the Brit- 
ish crown, accompanied him to Switzer- 
land, -and shared with him there a martyr's 
death. 
Emerita the next, King Lucius' sister dear, 
Who in Helvetia with her martyr brother died. 
            Drayton, Polyolbion, xxiv. (1622). 
 
  Emile (2 syl.), the chief character of 
a philosophical romance on education by 
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1762).   Emile is 
the author's ideal of a young man perfectly 
educated, every bias but that of nature 
having been carefully withheld. 
  N.B.-Emile is the French form of 
Emilius. 
  His body is inured to fatigue, as Rousseau 
advises in his Emilius.-Continuation of The 
Arabian Nights, iv. 69. 
 
  Emil'ia, wife of Iago, the ancient of 
Othello in the Venetian army. She is in- 
duced by Jago to purloin a certain hand- 
kerchief given by Othello to Desdemona. 
Jago then prevails on Othello to ask his 
wife to show him the handkerchief, but 
she cannot find it, and lago tells the Moor 
she has given it to Cassio as a love-token. 
At the death of Desdemona, Emilia (who 
till then never suspected the real state of 
the case) reveals the truth of the matter, 
and Iago rushes on her and kills her.- 
Shakespeare, Othello (1611). 
  The virtue of Emilia is such as we often find, 
worn loosely, but not cast off ; easy to commit 
small crimes, but quickened and alarmed at 
atrocious villainies.-Dr. Johnson. 
 
 
371 
 
 
EMILIA