Hence Time is sometimes figured as an alderman.
Nouns partitive, nouns of number, nouns comparative and superlative, and certain adjectives put partitively, require a genitive case, from which also they take their gender; as
Utrum horum mavis accipe:
Take which of those two things you had rather.
So Queen Eleanor gave Fair Rosamond her choice between the dagger and the bowl of poison. This, to our mind, would have been like choosing a tree to be hanged on.
Primus fidicinum fuit Orpheus:
Orpheus was the first of fiddlers.
He is said to have charmed the hearts of broomsticks.
Momus lepidissimus erat Deorum:
Momus was the funniest of the Gods.