Valentine and Violet, two girls who are made the subject of the curious social experiment described in The Children of Gibeon, by Walter Besant (1890).
Valentine de Grey (Sir), an Englishman and knight of France. He had “an ample span of forehead, full and liquid eyes, free nostrils, crimson lips, well-bearded chin, and yet his wishes were innocent as thought of babes.” Sir Valentine loved Hero, niece of Sir William Sutton, and in the end married her.--S. Knowles, Woman’s Wit, etc. (1838).
Valentin´ian [III.], emperor of Rome (419, 425-455). During his reign the empire was exposed to the invasions of the barbarians, and was saved from ruin only by the military talents of Aët´ius, whom the faithless emperor murdered. In the year following Valentinian was himself “poisoned” by [Petrōnius] Maxĭmus, whose wife he had violated. He was a feeble and contemptible prince, without even the merit of brute courage. His wife’s name was Eudoxia.--Beaumont and Fletcher, Valentinian (1617).
Valenti´no, Margheri´ta’s brother, in the opera of Faust e Margherita, by Gounod (1859).
Valentino, familiar name of Duke Cæsar Borgia. Daring, unscrupulous noble, whose amours are as audacious as the measures he devises for ridding himself of his rivals and enemies. His relationship to Pope Alexander VI. gives him peculiar advantages for prosecuting his evil designs. He is poisoned at a banquet, together with his father, who dies. Valentino procures an antidote in time to save his life, but remains an invalid for long. Recovering partially, he sets sail for France, is seized by the Spaniards and imprisoned for two years in Seville. Escaping, he takes service under the king of Navarre and is killed in a skirmish with the soldiers of the constable of Lerina, at the early age of thirty-one.--William Waldorf Astor, Valentino, An Historical Romance (1885).
Valère (2 syl.), son of Anselme (2 syl.), who turns out to be Don Thomas d’Alburci, a nobleman of Naples. During an insurrection the family was exiled and suffered shipwreck. Valère, being at the time only seven years old, was picked up by a Spanish captain, who adopted him, and with whom he lived for sixteen years, when he went to Paris and fell in love with Elise, the daughter of Har´pagon, the miser. Here also Anselme, after wandering about the world for ten years, had settled down, and Harpagon wished him to marry Elise; but the truth being made clear to him that Valère was his own son, and Elise in love with him, matters were soon adjusted.--Molière, L’Avare (1667).
Valère (2 syl.), the “gamester.” Angelica gives him a picture, and enjoins him not to lose it on pain of forfeiting her hand. He loses the picture in play, and Angelica, in disguise, is the winner of it. After a time Valère is cured of his vice and happily united to Angelica.--Mrs. Centlivre, The Gamester (1709).
Vale´ria, sister of Valerius, and friend of Horatia.--Whitehead, The Roman Father (1741).
Valeria, a blue-stocking, who delights in vivisection, entomology, women’s rights, and natural philosophy.--Mrs. Centlivre, The Basset Table (1706).
Valerian, husband of St. Cecilia. Cecilia told him she was beloved by an angel, who constantly visited her; and Valerian requested to see this visitant. Cecilia replied that he should do so, if he went to Pope Urban to be baptized. This he did, and on returning home, the angel gave him a crown of lilies, and to Cecilia, a crown of roses, both from the garden of paradise. Valerian, being brought before the Prefect Almachius for heresy, was executed.--Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (“The Second Nun’s Tale,” 1388).