at one time
enjoyed unbounded popularity.

=Narses= (2 _syl._), a Roman general against the Goths; the terror of
children.

The name of Narses was the formidable sound with which the Assyrian
mothers were accustomed to terrify their infants.--Gibbon, _Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire_, viii. 219 (1776-88).

_Narses_, a domestic slave of Alexius Comn[=e]nus, emperor of
Greece.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

=Naso=, Ovid, the Roman poet, whose full name was Publius Ovidius Naso.
(_Naso_ means "nose.") Hence the pun of Holofernes:

And why Naso, but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of
fancy?--Shakespeare, _Love's Labor's Lost_, act iv. sc. 2 (1594).

=Nathan the Wise=, a prudent and wealthy old Jew who lives near Jerusalem
in the time of Saladin. The play is a species of argument for religious
toleration.--G. E. Lessing, _Nathan der Weise_ (1778).

=Nathaniel= (_Sir_), the grotesque curate of Holofern[^e]s.--Shakespeare,
_Love's Labor's Lost_ (1594).

=Nathos=, one of the three sons of Usnoth, lord of Etha (in Argyllshire),
made commander of the Irish army at the death of Cuthullin. For a time
he propped up the fortune of the youthful Cormac, but the rebel Cairbar
increased in strength and found means to murder the young king. The army
under Nathos then deserted to the usurper, and Nathos, with his two
brothers, was obliged to quit Ireland. Dar'-Thula, the daughter of
Colla, went with them to avoid Cairbar, who persisted in offering her
his love. The wind drove the vessel back to Ulster, where Cairbar lay
encamped, and the three young men, being overpowered, were slain. As for
Dar-Thula, she was pierced with an arrow, and died also.--Ossian,
_Dar-Thula_.

=Nation of Gentlemen.= The Scotch were so called by George IV., when he
visited Scotland in 1822.

=Nation of Shopkeepers.= The English were so called by Napoleon I.

=National Assembly.= (1) The French deputies which met in the year 1789.
The states-general was convened, but the clergy and nobles refused to
sit in the same chamber with the commons, so the commons or deputies of
the _tiers ['e]tat_ withdrew, constituted themselves into a deliberative
body, and assumed the name of the _Assembl['e]e Nationale_. (2) The
democratic French parliament of 1848, consisting of 900 members elected
by manhood suffrage, was so called also.

=National Convention=, the French parliament of 1792