Henriette (3 syl.), daughter of Chrysale (2 syl.) and Philaminte (3 syl.). She is in love with Clitandre, and ultimately becomes his wife. Philaminte, who is a blue-stocking, wants Henriette to marry Trissotin, a bel esprit; and Armande the sister, also a bas bleu, thinks that Henriette ought to devote her life to science and philosophy; but Henriette loves woman’s work far better, and thinks that her natural province is domestic life, with wifely and motherly duties. Her father Chrysale takes the same views of woman’s life as his daughter Henriette, but he is quite under the thumb of his strong-minded wife. However love at last prevails, and Henriette is given in marriage to the man of her choice. The French call Henriette “the type of a perfect woman,” i.e., a thorough woman.—Molière, Les Femmes Savantes (1672).
Henrique (Don), an uxorious lord, cruel to his younger brother Don Jamie. Don Henrique is the father of Asca´nio, and the supposed husband of Violan´te (4 syl.).—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Spanish Curate (1622).
Henri, boy, four years old, who, finding his friend “the doctor” bound naked to a trestle to which he was strapped by pirates, follows his directions and gnaws asunder the strips of raw hide tying the victim down, and frees him.—Henry Augustus Wise, U.S.N., Captain Brand of the Schooner Centipede (1864).
Henry, a soldier engaged to Louisa. Some rumors of gallantry to Henry’s disadvantage having reached the village, he is told that Louisa is about to be married to another. In his despair he gives himself up as a deserter, and is condemned to death. Louisa now goes to the king, explains to him the whole matter, obtains her sweetheart’s pardon, and reaches the jail just as the muffled drum begins to beat the death march.—Dibdin, The Deserter (1770).
Henry, son of Sir Philip Blandford’s brother. Both the brothers loved the same lady, but the younger marrying her, Sir Philip, in his rage, stabbed him, as it was thought, mortally. In due time, the young “widow” had a son (Henry) a very high-minded, chivalrous young man, greatly beloved by every one. After twenty years, his father re-appeared under the name of Morrington, and Henry married his cousin Emma Blandford.—Thom. Morton, Speed the Plough (1798).
Henry (Poor), prince of Hoheneck, in Bavaria. Being struck with leprosy, he quitted his lordly castle, gave largely to the poor, and retired to live with a small cottage farmer named Gottlieb [Got.leeb], one of his vassals. He was told that he would never be cured till a virgin, chaste and spotless, offered to die on his behalf. Elsie, the farmer’s daughter, offered herself, and after great resistance, the prince accompanied her to Salerno to complete the sacrifice. When he arrived at the city, either the exercise, the excitement, or the charm of some relic, no matter what, had effected an entire cure, and when he took Elsie into the cathedral, the only sacrifice she had to make was that of her maiden name for Lady Alicia, wife of Prince Henry of Hoheneck.—Hartmann von der Aue (minnesinger), Poor Henry (twelfth century).
⁂ This tale is the subject of Longfellow’s Golden Legend (1851).
Henry (Patrick), Virginian orator, who, in the House of Burgesses, first raised the cry of “Liberty or Death” in the struggle of the American Colonies for Independence.
Patrick Henry’s first legal triumph was in November, 1763, in the since famous Parson’s Cause.
“In the language of those who heard him on this occasion, ‘he made their blood run cold, and their hair to rise on end ...’”