Worldly-Wiseman, Mr.—One of the characters in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, who converses with Christian by the way, and endeavors to deter him from proceeding on his journey.
Wrayburn (rā´bern) Eugene.—Our Mutual Friend, Dickens. Barrister-at-law; an indolent, moody, whimsical young man, who loves Lizzie Hexam. After he is nearly killed by Bradley Headstone, he reforms and marries Lizzie, who saved his life.
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Yahoo (yȧ-hö´).—A name given by Swift, in his satirical romance of Gulliver’s Travels, to one of a race of brutes having the form and all the vices of man. The Yahoos are represented as being subject to the Houyhnhnms, or horses endowed with reason.
Yorick (yor´ik).—(1) The King of Denmark’s jester, mentioned in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Hamlet picks up his skull in the churchyard and apostrophizes it. (2) A humorous and careless parson in Sterne’s Tristram Shandy.
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Zadig.—The title of a novel by Voltaire. Zadig is a wealthy young Babylonian, and the object of the novel is to show that the events of life are beyond human control.
Zanoni (za-nō´ni).—Hero of a novel, so-called, by Lord Lytton. Zanoni is supposed to possess the power of communicating with spirits, prolonging life, and producing gold, silver, and precious stones.
Zara (zä´rä; French, zaire), a tragedy by Voltaire. Zara is the daughter of Lusignan d’Outremer, king of Jerusalem and brother of Nerestan. For twenty years Lusignan and his two children were captives at the court of the sultan Osman. The latter loves Zara, and was jealous of Nerestan, of whose relationship he was ignorant, and stabbed her to the heart. Nerestan being brought before the sultan, told him he had slain his sister. Osman then stabbed himself out of remorse.
Zenobia (ze-nō´bi-ä).—Blithedale Romance, Hawthorne. A strong-minded woman, beautiful and intelligent, who was interested in playing out the pastoral of the life at Brook Farm. She is represented as disappointed in love, and at last she drowned herself.