Edward.—Count Robert of Paris, Scott. Brother of Hereward, the Varangian guard. He was slain in battle.
Edwin.—(1) The hero of Goldsmith’s ballad entitled The Hermit. (2) The hero of Mallet’s ballad Edwin and Emma. (3) The hero of Beattie’s Minstrel.
Edyrn.—Idylls of the King (Enid), Tennyson. Son of Nudd. A suitor for the hand of Enid and an evil genius of her father, who opposed him. Later, Edyrn went to the court of King Arthur and became quite a changed man—from a malicious “sparrow-hawk” he was converted into a courteous gentleman.
Egeus (ējē´us).—Father of Hermia in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Eglamour.—A character, in Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona, who is an agent of Silvia in her escape.
Eglamour (eg´la-mör), Sir.—A valiant knight of the Round Table, celebrated in the romances of chivalry, and in an old ballad.
Eglantine (eg´lan-tīn), Madame.—The prioress in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, who was “full pleasant and amiable of port.” She was distinguished for the ladylike delicacy of her manners at table, and for her partiality to “small hounds,” and a peculiar mixture in her manner and dress of feminine vanity and slight worldliness, together with an ignorance of the world.
Egyptian Thief.—A personage alluded to by the Duke in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The reference is to the story of Thyamis, a robber-chief and native of Memphis.
Elvir.—Harold the Dauntless, Scott. A Danish maid, who assumes boy’s clothing, and waits on Harold “the Dauntless,” as his page.
Elaine.—A mythical lady in the romances of King Arthur’s court. She is called “the lily maid of Astolat” in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. She died for love of Sir Launcelot, and then at her request was borne on a barge to the castle of King Arthur, holding a lily in one hand, and a letter to Launcelot in the other.