At Thebês, when the citê was in doute.
Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, 9592, etc. (1338).
Theodo´ra, sister of Constantine, the Greek emperor. She entertained most bitter hatred against Rogēro for slaying her son, and vowed vengeance. Rogero, being entrapped in sleep, was confined by her in a dungeon, and fed on the bread and water of affliction, but was ultimately released by Prince Leon.--Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).
The´odore (3 syl.), son of General Archas, “the loyal subject” of the great-duke of Muscovia. A colonel, valorous, but impatient.--Beaumont and Fletcher, The Loyal Subject (1618).
Theodore (3 syl.), of Ravenna, brave, rich, honored, and chivalrous. He loved Honōria “to madness,” but “found small favor in the lady’s eyes.” At length, however, the lady relented and married him. (See Honoria.)--Dryden, Theodore and Honoria (from Boccaccio).
Theodore, son of the lord of Clarinsal, and grandson of Alphonso. His father thought him dead, renounced the world, and became a monk of St. Nicholas, assuming the name of Austin. By chance Theodore was sent home in a Spanish bark, and found his way into some secret passage of the count’s castle, where he was seized and taken before the count. Here he met the monk, Austin, and was made known to him. He informed his father of his love for Adelaide, the count’s daughter, and was then told that if he married her, he must renounce his estates and title. The case stood thus: If he claimed his estates, he must challenge the count to mortal combat, and renounce the daughter; but if he married Adelaide, he must forego his rights, for he could not marry the daughter and slay his father-in-law. The perplexity is solved by the death of Adelaide, killed by her father by mistake, and the death of the count by his own hand.--Robert Jephson, Count of Narbonne (1782).
Theod´orick, king of the Goths, called by the German minnesingers, Diderick of Bern (Verōna).
Theodorick, or “Alberick of Mortemar,” an exiled nobleman, hermit of Engaddi, and an enthusiast.--Sir W. Scott, The Talisman (time, Richard I.).
Theodorus (Master), a learned physician, employed by Ponocratês to cure Gargantua of his vicious habits. The doctor accordingly “purged him canonically with Anticyrian hellebore, cleansed from his brain all perverse habits, and made him forget everything he had learned of his other preceptors.”--Rabelais, Gargantua, i. 23.
Hellebore was made use of to purge the brain, in order to fit it the better for serious study.--Pliny, Natural History, xxv. 25; Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, xvii. 15.