Worthy (Lord), the suitor of Lady Reveller, who was fond of play. She became weary of gambling, and was united in marriage to Lord Worthy.--Mrs. Centlivre, The Basset Table (1706).
Wouvermans (The English), Abraham Cooper. One of his best pieces is “The Battle of Bosworth Field.”
Richard Cooper is called “The British Poussin.”
Wrangle (Mr. Caleb), a hen-pecked young husband, of oily tongue and plausible manners, but smarting under the nagging tongue and willful ways of his fashionable wife.
Mrs. Wrangle, his wife, the daughter of Sir Miles Mowbray. She was for ever snubbing her young husband, wrangling with him, morning, noon, and night, and telling him most provokingly “to keep his temper.” This couple lead a cat-and-dog life: he was sullen, she quick tempered; he jealous, she open and incautious.--Cumberland, First Love (1796).
Wrath’s Hole (The), Cornwall. Bolster, a gigantic wrath, wanted St. Agnes to be his mistress. She told him she would comply when he filled a small hole, which she pointed out to him, with his blood. The wrath agreed, not knowing that the hole opened into the sea; and thus the saint cunningly bled the wrath to death, and then pushed him over the cliff. The hole is called “The Wrath’s hole” to this day, and the stones about it are colored with blood-red streaks all over.--Polwhele, History of Cornwall, i. 176 (1813).
Wray (Enoch), “the village patriarch,” blind, poor, and 100 years old; but reverenced for his meekness, resignation, wisdom, piety, and experience.--Crabbe, The Village Patriarch (1783).
Wrayburn (Eugene), barrister-at-law; an indolent, idle, moody, whimsical young man, who loves Lizzie Hexam. After he is nearly killed by Bradley Headstone, he reforms, and marries Lizzie, who saved his life.--C. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (1864).
Wren (Jenny), whose real name was Fanny Cleaver, a doll’s dressmaker, and the friend of Lizzie Hexam, who at one time lodged with her. Jenny was a little, deformed girl, with a sharp, shrewd face, and beautiful golden hair. She supported herself and her drunken father, whom she reproved as a mother might reprove a child. “Oh,” she cried to him, pointing her little finger, “you bad, old boy! Oh, you naughty, wicked creature! What do you mean by it?”--C. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (1864).
Wrong (All in the), a comedy by A. Murphy (1761). The principal characters are Sir John and Lady Restless, Sir William Bellmont and his son, George, Beverley and his sister, Clarissa, Blandford and his daughter, Belinda. Sir John and Lady Restless were wrong in suspecting each other of infidelity, but this misunderstanding made their lives wretched. Beverley was deeply in love with Belinda, and was wrong in his jealousy of her, but Belinda was also wrong in not vindicating herself. She knew that she was innocent, and felt that Beverley ought to trust her, but she gave herself and him needless torment by permitting a misconception to remain which she might have most easily removed. The old men were also wrong: Blandford in promising his daughter in marriage to Sir William Bellmont’s son, seeing she loved Beverley; and Sir William, in accepting the promise, seeing his son was plighted to Clarissa. A still further complication of wrong occurs. Sir John wrongs Beverley in believing him to be intriguing with his wife; and Lady Restless wrongs Belinda in supposing that she coquets with her husband; both were pure mistakes, all were in the wrong, but all in the end were set right.