The black oxe had not trode on his or her foote;
But ere his branch of blesse could reach any roote,
The flowers so faded that in fifteen weekes
A man might copy the change in the cheekes
Both of the poore wretch and his wife.
Heywood (1646).
Oxford (John, earl of), an exiled Lancastrian. He appears with his son Arthur as a travelling merchant, under the name of Philipson.
*** The son of the merchant Philipson is Sir Arthur de Vere.
The countess of Oxford, wife of the earl.—Sir W. Scott, Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).
Oxford (The young earl of), in the court of Queen Elizabeth.—Sir W. Scott, Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).
Ozair (2 syl.), a prophet. One day, riding on an ass by the ruins of Jerusalem, after its destruction by the Chaldeans, he doubted in his mind whether God could raise the city up again. Whereupon God caused him to die, and he remained dead a hundred years, but was then restored to life. He found the basket of figs and cruse of wine as fresh as when he died, but his ass was a mass of bones. While he still looked, the dry bones came together, received life, and the resuscitated ass began to bray. The prophet no longer doubted the power of God to raise up Jerusalem from its ruins.—Al Korân, ii. (Sale’s notes).
*** This legend is based on Neh. ii. 12-20.
P Placenticus, the Dominican, wrote a poem of 253 Latin hexameters, called Pugna Porcorum, every word of which begins with the letter p (died 1548). It begins thus:
Plaudite, Porcelli, porcorum pigra propago
Progreditur ... etc.
There was one composed in honor of Charles le Chauve, every word of which began with c.