ELSIE 
 
 
Eloi was bishop of Noyon in the reign of 
Dagobert, and a noted craftsman in gold 
and silver.  (Query, "Seint Eloy" for 
Seinte Loy?) 
  Ther was also a nonne, a prioresse, 
  That of hire smiling was full simp' and coy, 
  Hire greatest othe was but by Seint Eloy! 
            Chaucer, Canterbury Tales )1388). 
 
  El'ops. There was a fish so-called, but 
Milton uses the word (Paradise Lost, x. 
525) for the dumb serpent or serpent 
which gives no warning of its approach 
by hissing or otherwise.  (Greek, ellops, 
"mute or dumb.") 
 
  Eloquence (The Four Monarchs of): 
(1) Demonsthen@s, the Greek orator (B.C. 
385-322); (2) Cicero, the Roman orator 
(B.C. 106-43) ; (3) Saadi, the Persian (1184- 
1263); (4) Zoroaster (B.C. 589-513). 
 
  Eloquent (That old Man), Isoc'rat~s, 
the Greek orator. When he heard that the 
battle of Chmrone'a was lost, and that 
Greece was no longer free, he died of grief. 
          That dishonest victory 
   At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty, 
   Killed with report that Old Man Eloquent. 
                        Milton, Sonnet ix. 
   In the United States the term was freely 
applied to John Quincy Adams, in the 
latter years of his life. 
 
   Eloquent Doctor (The), Peter Aurel6- 
lus, archbishop of Aix (fourteenth cen- 
tury). 
 
   Elpi'nus, Hope personified. He was 
 "clad in sky-like blue" and the motto of 
 his shield was "I hold by being held." He 
 went attended by Pollic'ita (promise). 
 Fully described in canto ix. (Greek, elpis, 
 "hope.")-Phineas Fletcher, The Purple 
 Island (1633). 
 
 
  Elsa. German maiden, accused of hav- 
ing killed her little brother. At her trial 
a knight appears, drawn by a swan, 
champions her and vanquishes her accuser. 
Elsa weds him (Lohengrin) promising 
never to ask of his country or family. 
She breaks the vow; the swan appears and 
bears him   away from   her.-Lohengrin 
Opera. 
 
  Elshender the Recluse, called "the 
Canny Elshie" or the "Wise Wight of 
Mucklestane Moor." This is "the black 
dwarf," or Sir Edward Manley, the hero 
of the noveL.-Sir W. Scott, The Black 
DIwarf (time Anne). 
 
  Elsie, the daughter of Gottlieb, a cot- 
tage farmer of Bavaria. Prince Henry of 
Hoheneck, being struck with leprosy, was 
told he would never be cured till a maiden 
chaste and spotless offered to give her life 
in sacrifice for him. Elsie volunteered to 
die for the prince, and he accompanied her 
to Salerno; but either the exercise, the ex- 
citement, or some charm, no matter what, 
had quite cured the prince, and when he 
entered the cathedral with Elsie, it was to 
make her Lady Alicia, his bride.-Hart- 
mann von der Aue, Poor Henry (twelfth cen- 
tury); Longfellow, Golden Legend. 
  *** Alcestis, daughter of Pelias and 
wife of Adm~tos died instead of her hus- 
band, but was brought back by Herculks 
from the shades below, and restored to her 
husband. 
 
   .Elsie (Venner), a girl marked before her 
 birth as one apart from her kind. Her 
 mother, treading upon a rattle-snake near 
 her door, leaves the imprint of the loath- 
 some thing upon the child. She is a 
 " splendid scowling beauty" with glitter- 
 ing black eyes. When angry, they are 
 narrowed and gleam like diamonds, and 
 
 
ELOI 
 
 
369