Enid.—A mythical lady mentioned in a Welsh triad as one of the three celebrated ladies of Arthur’s court—a beautiful picture of conjugal patience and affection. Her story is told in the Mabinogion and in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. In the midst of an impure court she is the personification of purity.
Eolian Harp.—Baruch. There is a rabbinical story of the aërial harmony of the harp of David, which, when hung up at night, was played upon by the north wind.
Epigram.—A short, pointed or antithetical poem; or any short composition happily or antithetically expressed.
Epithalamium (ep´i-thā-lā´mi-um).—Was a species of poem which it was the custom among the Greeks and Romans to sing in chorus near the bridal-chamber of a newly married couple. Anacreon, Stesichorus, and Pindar composed poems of this kind, but only scanty fragments have been preserved. Spenser’s Epithalamium, written on the occasion of his marriage, is one of the finest specimens of this kind of verse.
Eppie.—(1) St. Ronan’s Well, Scott. One of the servants of the Rev. Josiah Cargill. In the same novel is Eppie Anderson, one of the servants at the Mowbray Arms, Old St. Ronan’s, held by Meg Dods. (2) In George Eliot’s Silas Marner the child of Godfrey Cass, brought up and adopted by Silas Marner, whose love transformed him from a miser into a tender, loving father.
Ermangarde of Baldringham, Lady.—The Betrothed, Scott. Aunt of the Lady Eveline Berenger, “the Betrothed.”
Ermeline.—The wife of Reynard, in the tale of Reynard the Fox.
Ermina.—The heroine of Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, who fell in love with Tancred. When the Christian army besieged Jerusalem, she dressed herself in Clorinda’s armor to go to Tancred, but, being discovered, fled, and lived awhile with some shepherds on the banks of the Jordan. Meeting with Vafrino, sent as a secret spy by the crusaders, she revealed to him the design against the life of Godfrey, and, returning with him to the Christian camp, found Tancred wounded. She cured his wounds, so that he was able to take part in the last great day of the siege.
Ernest, Duke.—A poetical romance by Henry of Veldig (Waldeck), contemporary with Frederick Barbarossa. It is a mixture of Greek and oriental myths and hero adventures of the crusader.