ABC
One of Chaucer's shorter poems (184 lines, in eight-line stanzas). It is a translation of a prayer to the Virgin (Seinte Marie) in the Pelerinaige de la vie humaine (1331 ...
Abigail
In 1 Samuel 25, the wife of Nabal and subsequently of David. The name came to signify a waiting‐woman, from the name of the ‘waiting‐gentlewoman’ in The Scornful Lady by ...
Absolon
In the Old Testament, the son of King David (2 Sam. 13–19:8), whose beauty and whose splendid head of hair (2 Sam. 14:26) were famous. In medieval literature he became ...
Absolon
The Oxford parish clerk in The Miller's Tale, the rival of the clerk Nicholas for the affections of Alison. We are given a formal portrait of him (I.3312–80). He has ...
Achademycis
‘the scoles of … Achademycis’ [L. Academicis studiis], the ‘Academy’, the school of philosophy founded by Plato (in a grove of olive trees near Athens sacred to the hero Academus), mentioned in Boece ...
Achātēs
Character in mythology, faithful lieutenant of Aeneas in the Aeneid; a late source ascribes to him the killing of Protesilaus (Eustathius Ad Iliadem 2. 701).T. Weber, Fidus Achates (1988).[...]
Achitofel
The wicked counsellor of King David, who incited Absolon (1) to rebel against his father (2 Sam. 15–17), cited as a famous traitor in The Book of the Duchess (1118).[...]
Adam
Chaucer's scribe (see book), the subject of the poem Adam (sometimes called ‘Adam Scriveyn’ or, from the rubric in the only surviving MS, 'Chaucers Wordes unto Adam, His Owne Scriveyn) ...
Adoon
The son of Myrrha (Mirra). His beauty captivated Venus. When, in spite of her warnings, he went hunting and was killed by a boar, she caused the anemone to spring ...
Adriane
Ariadne, daughter of King Minos of Crete, fell in love with Theseus, and gave him a thread so that he could find his way out of the Labyrinth (Laboryntus) after ...
