Virgin Mary (The), is addressed by the following titles:--“Empress and Queen of Heaven;” “Empress and Queen of Angels;” “Empress and Queen of the Earth;” “Lady of the Universe or of the World;” “Mistress of the World;” “Patroness of all Men;” “Advocate for Sinners;” “Mediatrix;” “Gate of Paradise;” “Mother of Mercies and of Divine Grace;” “Goddess;” “The only Hope of Sinners,” etc., etc.
It is said that Peter Fullo, in 480, was the first to introduce invocations to the Virgin.
Virgin Modesty. John Wilmot, earl of Rochester, was so called by Charles II., because of his propensity to blushing (1647-1680).
Virgin Queen (The), Elizabeth (1533, 1558-1603).
Virgin Unmasked (The), a farce by H. Fielding. Goodwill had acquired by trade £10,000, and resolved to give his daughter Lucy to one of his relations, in order to keep the money in the family. He sent for her bachelor relations, and told them his intention; they were Blister (the apothecary), Coupee (the dancing-master), and Quaver (the singing-master). They all preferred their professions to the young lady, and while they were quarrelling about the superiority of their respective callings, Lucy married Thomas, the footman. Old Goodwill says, “I don’t know but that my daughter has made a better choice than if she had married one of these booby relations.”
Virginians (The), a sequel to Henry Esmond. It gives the story of Colonel Esmond’s twin grandsons, George and Harry Warrington, born and brought up in Virginia. George joins Braddock’s expedition, and is reported killed, Harry goes to England. George, escaping from Indian captivity, joins his brother, whom everybody had supposed the head of the family. Harry enters the army and George marries. One of the characters introduced in the book is George Washington, whom the twins believe to be in love with their widowed mother.--W. M. Thackeray, The Virginians.
Virgins (The Eleven Thousand). Ursul or Hörsel in Swabia, like Hulda in Scandinavia, means “the moon,” and her eleven thousand virgins are the stars. The bones shown in Cologne, as those of the eleven thousand virgins are those of males and females of all ages, and were taken from an old Roman cemetery across which the wall of Cologne ran (1106).
Virginia, a young Roman plebeian of great beauty, coveted by Appius Claudius, one of the decemvirs, and claimed as his slave. Her father, Virginius, being told of it, hastened to the forum, and arrived at the moment when Virginia was about to be delivered up to Appius. He seized a butcher’s knife, stabbed his daughter to the heart, rushed from the forum, and raised a revolt.
This has been the subject of a host of tragedies. In French, by Mairet (1628), by Leclerc (1645), by Campistron (1683), by La Beaumelle (1760), by Chabanon (1769), by Laharpe (1786), by Leblanc du Guillet (1786), by Guiraud (1827), by Latour St. Ybars (1845), etc. In Italian, by Alfieri (1783). In German, by Gotthold Lessing (eighteenth century). In English, by John Webster, entitled Appius and Virginia (1654); by Miss Brooke (1760); J. S. Knowles (1820), Virginius.
It is one of Lord Macaulay’s lays (1842), supposed to be sung in the forum on the day when Sextus and Licinius were elected tribunes for the fifth time.