Eloquence (The Four Monarchs of): (1) Demonsthenês, the Greek orator (B.C. 385-322); (2) Cicero, the Roman orator (B.C. 106-43); (3) Burke, the English orator (1730-1797); (4) Webster, the American orator (1782-1852).
Eloquent (That old Man), Isoc´ratês, the Greek orator. When he heard that the battle of Chaerone´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 Aurelolus, archbishop of Aix (fourteenth century).
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 having 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, by Richard Wagner.