nd now began
the troubles of her life. She wandered from place to place to find her
betrothed. Basil had settled at Louisiana, but when Evangeline reached
the place, Gabriel had just left; she then went to the prairies, to
Michigan, and so on, but at every place she was just too late to
meet him. At length, grown old in this hopeless search, she went to
Philadelphia and became a sister of mercy. The plague broke out in the
city, and as she visited the almshouse she saw an old man smitten down
with the pestilence. It was Gabriel. He tried to whisper her name, but
death closed his lips. He was buried, and Evangeline lies beside him
in the grave.
(Longfellow's _Evangeline_ (1849) has many points of close similitude
with Campbell's tale of _Gertrude of Wyoming_, 1809).
EVANS (_Sir Hugh_), a pedantic Welsh parson and schoolmaster of
extraordinary simplicity and native shrewdness.--Shakespeare, _The
Merry Wives of Windsor_ (1601).
The reader may cry out with honest Sir Hugh Evans, "I like not when a
'ooman has a great peard."--Macaulay.
Henderson says: "I have seen John Edwin, in 'Sir Hugh Evans,' when
preparing for the duel, keep the house in an ecstasy of merriment for
many minutes together without speaking a word" (1750-1790).
_Evans_ (_William_), the giant porter of Charles I. He carried Sir
Geoffrey Hudson about in his pocket. Evans was eight feet in height,
and Hudson only eighteen inches. Fuller mentions this giant amongst
his _Worthies_.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles
II.).
EVAN'THE (3 _syl_.), sister of Sora'no, the wicked instrument of
Frederick, duke of Naples, and the chaste wife of Valerio.
The duke tried to seduce her, but failing in this scandalous attempt,
offered to give her to any one for a month, at the end of which time
the libertine was to suffer death. No one would accept the offer,
and ultimately Evanthe was restored to her husband.--Beaumont and
Fletcher, _A Wife for a Month_ (1624).
EVE (_1 syl_), or Havah, the "mother of all living" (_Gen_. iii. 20).
Before the expulsion from paradise her name was Ishah, because she was
taken out of _ish, i.e._ "man" (_Gen_. ii. 23).
Eve was of such gigantic stature that when she laid her head on one
hill near Mecca, her knees rested on two other hills in the
plain, about two gun-shots asunder. Adam was as tall as a palm
tree.--Moncony, _Voyage_, i. 372, etc.
EV'ELI'NA (_4 syl_.), the heroine of a novel so called by Miss Bu
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