s it was Waters" (p. 198).

[Asterism] "The original of 'Mrs. Nickleby,'" says John Foster, "was the
mother of Charles Dickens."--_Life of Dickens_, iii. 8.

_Kate Nickleby_, sister of Nicholas; beautiful, pure-minded, and loving.
Kate works hard to assist in the expenses of housekeeping, but shuns
every attempt of Ralph and others to allure her from the path of virgin
innocence. She ultimately marries Frank, the nephew of the Cheeryble
brothers.

_Ralph Nickleby_, of Golden Square (London), uncle to Nicholas and Kate.
A hard, grasping money-broker, with no ambition but the love of saving,
no spirit beyond the thirst of gold, and no principle except that of
fleecing every one who comes into his power. This villain is the father
of Smike, and ultimately hangs himself, because he loses money, and sees
his schemes one after another burst into thin air.--C. Dickens,
_Nicholas Nickleby_, (1838).

=Nicneven=, a gigantic, malignant hag of Scotch superstition.

[Asterism] Dunbar, the Scotch poet, describes her in his _Flyting of
Dunbar and Kennedy_ (1508).

=Nicode'mus=, one of the servants of General Harrison.--Sir W. Scott,
_Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

=Nicole= (2 _syl._), a female servant of M. Jourdain, who sees the
folly of her master, and exposes it in a natural and amusing
manner.--Moli[`e]re, _Le Bourgeois Gentlehomme_[TN-33] (1670).

=Night= or =Nox=. So Tennyson calls Sir Peread, the Black Knight of the
Black Lands, one of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle
Perilous.--Tennyson, _Idylls of the King_ ("Gareth and Lynette"); Sir T.
Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 126 (1470).

=Nightingale= (_The Italian_), Angelica Catala'ni; also called "The Queen
of Song" (1782-1849).

_Nightingale_ (_The Swedish_), Jenny Lind, afterwards Mde. Goldschmidt.
She appeared in London 1847, and retired from public life in 1851
(1821-1887).

=Nightingale and the Lutist.= The tale is, that a lute-master challenged a
nightingale in song. The bird, after sustaining the contest for some
time, feeling itself outdone, fell on the lute, and died broken-hearted.

[Asterism] This tale is from the Latin of Strada, translated by Richard
Crashaw, and called _Music's Duel_ (1650). It is most beautifully told
by John Ford, in his drama entitled _The Lover's Melancholy_, where
Men'aphon is supposed to tell it to Ame'thus (1628).

=Nightingale and the Thorn.=

As it fell upon a day
In the me