Heep, Uriah.—David Copperfield, Dickens. A detestable character, who, under the garb of the most abject humility, conceals a diabolic malignity. Mrs. Heep, Uriah’s mother, was a character equally to be despised for her hypocritical assumption of humility.
Helena.—(1) A lady in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, in love with Demetrius. (2) The heroine of Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, in love with Bertram, who marries her against his will and leaves her, but is finally won by the strength of her affection. (3) A character in an old popular tale, reproduced in Germany by Tieck.
Hermann and Dorothea.—The hero and heroine of Goethe’s poem of the same name.
Hermengyld (her´men-gild).—Canterbury Tales, Chaucer. The wife of the lord-constable of Northumberland. She was converted by Constance, but was murdered by a knight. Hermengyld at the bidding of Constance restored sight to a blind Briton.
Hermia (her´mi-ä).—A lady in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, in love with Lysander.
Hermione.—The heroine of the first three acts of Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale.
Hernani, or Ernani.—The hero of Victor Hugo’s tragedy of the same name, and of Verdi’s opera, founded on the play. He was a Spanish noble in revolt against the Emperor Charles V. and killed himself from a high sense of honor.
Hiawatha (hi-a-wâ´tä, or hī-a-wâ´thä), The Song of.—A poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written in the following peculiar measure:
Should you ask me, “Whence these stories?”
. . . . .
I should answer, I should tell you,
. . . . .
“I repeat them as I heard them
From the lips of Nawadaha,
The musician, the sweet singer.”
The poem is entirely devoted to a description of life among the aboriginal tribes of America. It was published in 1855. Hiawatha is a mythical person believed by some of the North American Indians to have been sent among them to clear their rivers, forests, and fishing-grounds, and to teach them the arts of peace. When the white man came, then Hiawatha knew that the time of his departure was at hand, when he must go