Elbow.—A constable, in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, modest and well-meaning, though of simple mind and the object of wit among those who are wiser but not better.
El Dorado.—A name given by the Spaniards to an imaginary country, supposed, in the sixteenth century, to be situated in the interior of South America, and abounding in gold and all manner of precious stones.
Electra.—The daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and the heroine of a tragedy by Sophocles and of another by Euripides.
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.—By Thomas Gray. Dr. Johnson gives 1750 as the date of publication; and declares that the piece “abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo.” The churchyard was that of Stoke Poges, near Eton.
Elim.—The Messiah, Klopstock. The guardian angel of Libbeus the Apostle. Libbeus, the tenderest and most gentle of the apostles, at the death of Jesus also died from grief.
Elissa.—Step-sister of Medina and Perissa, in Spenser’s Faërie Queene. They could never agree upon any subject.
Elliott, Hobbie.—There are seven by this name in the Black Dwarf, by Sir Walter Scott. The farmer Elliott himself and his bride-elect, Grace Armstrong; Mrs. Elliott, Hobbie’s grandmother; John and Harry, Hobbie’s brothers; Lilias, Jean, and Arnot, Hobbie’s sisters.
Elops.—Milton gives this name to the dumb serpent which gives no warning of its approach.
Elsie.—The daughter of Gottlieb, a farm tenant of Prince Henry of Hohenneck, who offered her life as a substitute for the prince. She was rescued as she was about to make the sacrifice. Longfellow has told this story in The Golden Legend.
Elspeth (el´speth).—(1) A character in Sir Walter Scott’s Antiquary. (2) An old servant to Dandie Dinmont in Scott’s Guy Mannering.