Hicks, short, slight young man ... with an air at once amiable and baddish, whose father sends him on a sea-voyage to cure him of drunkenness.—William Dean Howells, The Lady of the Aroostook (1879).
Hi´erocles (4 syl.), the first person who compiled jokes and bon mots. After a life-long labor, he got together twenty-one, which he left to the world as his legacy. Hence arose the phrase, An Hieroc´lean legacy, no legacy at all, or a legacy of empty promises, or a legacy of no worth.
One of his anecdotes is that of a man who wanted to sell his house, and carried about a brick to show as a specimen of it.
Hieron´imo, the chief character of Thomas Kyd’s drama in two parts, pt. i. being called Hieronimo, and pt. ii. The Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad Again. In the latter play, Horatio, only son of Hieronimo, sitting with Belimpe´ria in an alcove, is murdered by his rival, Balthazar, and the lady’s brother, Lorenzo. The murderers hang the dead body on a tree in the garden, and Hieronimo, aroused by the screams of Belimperia, rushing into the garden, sees the dead body of his son, and goes raving mad (1588).
Higden (Mrs. Betty), an old woman nearly four score, very poor, but hating the union-house more than she feared death. Betty Higden kept a mangle, and “minded young children” at four-pence a week. A poor workhouse lad named Sloppy helped her to turn the mangle. Mrs. Boffin wished to adopt Johnny, Betty’s infant grandchild, but he died in the Children’s Hospital.
She was one of those old women, was Mrs. Betty Higden, who, by dint of an indomitable purpose and a strong constitution, fight out many years; an active old woman, with a bright dark eye and a resolute face, yet quite a tender creature, too.—C. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, i. 16 (1864).
Higg, “the son of Snell,” the lame witness at the trial of Rebecca.—Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).
Higgen, Prigg, Snapp, and Ferret, knavish beggars in The Beggar’s Bush, a drama by Beaumont and Fletcher (1622).
High and Low Heels, two factions in Lilliput. So called from the high and low heels of their shoes, badges of the two factions. The high heels (tories and the high-church party) were friendly to the ancient constitution of the empire, but the emperor employed the Low-heels (whigs and low-churchmen) as his ministers of state.—Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (“Lilliput,” 1726).
High Life Below Stairs, a farce by the Rev. James Townley. Mr. Lovel, a wealthy commoner, suspects his servants of “wasting his substance in riotous living;” so, pretending to go to his country seat in Devonshire, he assumes the character of a country bumpkin from Essex, and places himself under the charge of his own butler, to learn the duties of a gentleman servant. As the master is away, Philip (the butler) invites a large party to supper, and supplies them with the choicest wines. The servants all assume their masters’ titles, and address each other as “My lord duke,” “Sir Harry,” “My Lady Charlotte,” “My Lady Bab,” etc., and mimic the airs of their employers. In the midst of the banquet, Lovel appears in his true character, breaks up the party, and dismisses his household, retaining only one of the lot, named Tom, to whom he entrusts the charge of the silver and plate (1759).