Quale (Mr.), a philanthropist, noted for his bald, shining forehead. Mrs. Jellyby hopes her daughter, Caddy, will become Quale’s wife.—Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1853).
Quarl (Philip), a sort of Robinson Crusoe, who had a chimpanzee for his “man Friday.” The story consists of the adventures and sufferings of an English hermit named Philip Quarl (1727).
Quasimo´do, a foundling, hideously deformed, but of enormous muscular strength, adopted by Archdeacon Frollo. He is brought up in the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. One day, he sees Esmeralda, who had been dancing in the cathedral close, set upon by a mob as a witch, and he conceals her for a time in the church. When, at length, the beautiful gypsy girl is gibbeted, Quasimodo disappears mysteriously, but a skeleton corresponding to the deformed figure is found after a time in a hole under the gibbet.—Victor Hugo, Notre Dame de Paris (1831).
Quatre Filz Aymon (Les), the four sons of the duke of Dordona (Dordogne). Their names are Rinaldo, Guicciardo, Alardo, and Ricciardetto (i.e. Renaud, Guiscard, Alard, and Richard), and their adventures form the subject of an old French romance by Huon de Villeneuve (twelfth century).
Quaver, a singing-master, who says “if it were not for singing-masters, men and women might as well have been born dumb.” He courts Lucy by promising to give her singing lessons.—Fielding, The Virgin Unmasked.
Queechy. Farmstead to which the Rossiters retired after the ruin of their fortunes in New York. Old-fashioned house and not productive land.—Susan Warner, Queechy (1852).
Queen (The Starred Ethiop), Cassiopēia, wife of Cepheus (2 syl.), king of Ethiopia. She boasted that she was fairer than the sea-nymphs, and the offended nereids complained of the insult to Neptune, who sent a sea-monster to ravage Ethiopia. At death, Cassiopeia was made a constellation of thirteen stars.
... that starred Ethiop queen that strove
To set her beauty’s praise above
The sea-nymphs, and their powers offended.
Milton, Il Penseroso, 19 (1638).
Queen (The White), Mary queen of Scots, La Reine Blanche; so called by the French, because she dressed in white as mourning for her husband.
Queen Dick, Richard Cromwell (1626, 1658-1660, died 1712).