Iron Chest (The), a drama by G. Colman, based on W. Godwin’s novel of Caleb Williams. Sir Edward Mortimer kept in an iron chest certain documents relating to a murder for which he had been tried and honorably acquitted. His secretary, Wilford, out of curiosity, was prying into this box, when Sir Edward entered and threatened to shoot him; but on reflection, spared the young man’s life, and told him all about the murder, and swore him to secrecy. Wilford, unable to endure the watchful and suspicious eye of his master, ran away; but Sir Edward dogged him like a bloodhound, and at length accused him of robbery. The charge could not be substantiated, so Wilford was acquitted. Sir Edward confessed himself a murderer, and died (1796).
Iron Duke (The), the duke of Wellington (1769-1852).
Iron Emperor (The), Nicholas of Russia (1796, 1826-1855).
Iron Hand, Goetz von Berlichingen, who replaced his right hand, which he lost at the siege of Landshut, by an iron one (sixteenth century).
⁂ Goethe has made this the subject of an historical drama.
Iron Mask (The Man in the). This mysterious man went by the name of Lestang, but who he was is as much in nubibus as the author of the Letters of Junius. The most general opinion is that he was Count Er´colo Antonio Matthioli, a senator of Mantua and private agent of Ferdinand Charles, duke of Mantua; and that his long imprisonment of twenty-four years was for having deceived Louis XIV. in a secret treaty for the purchase of the fortress of Casale. M. Loiseleur utterly denies this solution of the mystery.—See Temple Bar, 182-4, May, 1872.
⁂ The tragedies of Zschokke in German (1795), and Fournier, in French, are based on the supposition that the man in the mask was Marechal Richelieu, a twin-brother of the Grand Monarque, and this is the solution given by the Abbé Soulavie.
Irons. “A man over whom vulgar prosperity had, in forming him, left everywhere her finger-marks to be seen.... He had a general air of insisting upon his immense superiority to all the world.” His self-complacency does not prevent his meddling offensively in other people’s affairs, and his success gives him the opportunity to ruin the man he hates as his intellectual and moral superior.—Arlo Bates, The Philistines (1888).
Ironside (Sir), called “The Red Knight of the Red Lands.” Sir Gareth, after fighting with him from dawn to dewy eve, subdued him. Tennyson calls him Death, and says that Gareth won the victory with a single stroke. Sir Ironside was the knight who kept the Lady Lionês (called by Tennyson “Lyonors”) captive in Castle Perilous.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 134-137 (1470).
Ironside. Edmund II., king of the Anglo-Saxons, was so called from his iron armor (989, 1016-1017).