Shakespeare, Henry VIII. act ii. sc. 1 (1601).
Hop-o’-my-Thumb, a character in several nursery tales. Tom Thumb and Hop-o’-my-thumb are not the same, although they are often confounded with each other. Tom Thumb was the son of peasants, knighted by King Arthur, and was killed by a spider; but Hop-’o-my-thumb was a nix, the same as the German daumling, the French le petit pouce, and the Scotch Tom-a-lin or Tamlane. He was not a human dwarf, but a fay of usual fairy proportions.
Yon Stump-o’-the-gutter, yon Hop-o’-my-thumb,
Your husband must from Lilliput come.
Kane O’Hara, Midas (1778).
Horace, son of Oronte (2 syl.) and lover of Agnes. He first sees Agnes in a balcony, and takes off his hat in passing. Agnes returns his salute, “pour ne point manquer à la civilité.” He again takes off his hat, and she again returns the compliment. He bows a third time, and she returns his “politeness” a third time. “Il passe, vient, repasse, et toujours me fait a chaque fois révérence, et moi nouvelle révérence aussi je lui rendois.” An intimacy is soon established, which ripens into love. Oronte tells his son he intends him to marry the daughter of Enrique (2 syl.), which he refuses to do; but it turns out that Agnes is in fact Enrique’s daughter, so that love and obedience are easily reconciled.—Molière, L’école des Femmes (1662).
Horace (The English). Ben Jonson is so called by Dekker the dramatist (1574-1637).
Cowley was preposterously called by George, duke of Buckingham “The Pindar, Horace, and Virgil of England” (1618-1667).
Horace (The French), Jean Macrinus or Salmon (1490-1557).
Pierre Jean de Béranger is called “The Horace of France,” and “The French Burns” (1780-1857).