Voland (Squire), the devil. (German, Junker Voland.)
Volan´te (3 syl.), one of the three daughters of Balthazar. Lively, witty, sharp as a needle and high-spirited. She loves the Count Montalban; but when the count disguises himself as a father confessor, in order to sound her love for him, she sees the trick in a moment, and says to him, “Come, count, pull off your lion’s hide, and confess yourself an ass.” Subsequently, all ends happily and well.--J. Tobin, The Honeymoon (1804).
Volet´ta, Free-will personified.
Voletta,
Whom neither man, nor fiend, nor God constrains.
Phineas Fletcher, The Purple Island, vi. (1633).
Volksmährchen (“popular tales”), in German, the best exponents being Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853), Musäus (1735-1787), De la Motte Fouqué (see Undine), Chamisso (see Schlemihl, Peter), Wilhelm Hauff (1802-1827), Achim von Arnim (1781-1831), Clemens Brentano (1777-1842), Zschokke (1771-1848), Hoffmann (1776-1822), Gustav Freytag, “The German Dickens” (1816-1878), and the brothers Grimm.
Vol´pone (2 syl.), or The Fox, a comedy by Ben Jonson (1605). Volpone, a rich Venetian nobleman, without children, feigns to be dying, in order to draw gifts from those who pay court to him under the expectation of becoming his heirs. Mosca, his knavish confederate, persuades each in turn that he is named for the inheritance, and by this means exacts many a costly present. At the end, Volpone is betrayed, his property forfeited, and he is sentenced to lie in the worst hospital in all Venice.
Jonson has three great comedies: Volpone, or The Fox, Epicene, or The Silent Woman, and The Alchemist.--R. Chambers, English Literature, i. 192.
Volscius (Prince), a military hero, who falls in love with the fair Parthenŏpê, and disputes with Prince Prettyman upon the superiority of his sweetheart to Cloris, whom Prince Prettyman sighs for.--Duke of Buckingham, The Rehearsal (1671).