Es’calus, Prince of Vero’na.—­Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1598).

ES’CANES (3 syl.), one of the lords of Tyre.—­Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1608).

ESCOBAR (Mons. L’) the French, name for a fox, so called from M. Escobar the probabilist, whence also the verb escobarder, “to play the fox,” “to play fast and loose.”

The French have a capital name for the fox, namely, M. L’Escobar, which may be translated the “shuffler,” or more freely, “sly boots.”—­The Daily News, March 25, 1878.

ESCOTILLO (i.e. little Michael Scott), considered by the common people as a magician, because he possessed more knowledge of natural and experimental philosophy than his contemporaries.

ES’DALE (Mr.), a surgeon at Madras.—­Sir W. Scott, The Surgeon’s Daughter (time, George II.).

ES’INGS, the king of Kent.  So called from Eisc, the father of Hengist, as the Tuscans receive their name from Tuscus, the Romans from Romulus, the Cecrop’idae from Cecrops, the Britons from Brutus, and so on.—­Ethelwerd, Chron., ii.

ESMERALDA, a beautiful gypsy-girl, who, with tambourine and goat, dances in the place before Notre Dame de Paris, and is looked on as a witch.  Quasimodo conceals her for a time in the church, but after various adventures she is gibbeted.—­Victor Hugo, Notre Dame de Paris.

Esmeralda; humbly-born heroine of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s work of same name.  The story has been dramatized and played with great effect.

ESMOND (Henry), a chivalrous cavalier in the reign of Queen Anne; the hero of Thackeray’s novel called Henry Esmond (1852).

ESPLAN’DIAN, son of Am’adis and Oria’na.  Montalvo has made him the subject of a fifth book to the four original books of Amadis of Gaul (1460).

The description of the most furious battles, carried on with all the bloody-mindedness of an Esplandian or a Bobadil [Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humor].—­Encyc.  Brit., Art.  “Romance.”

ESPRIEL’LA (Manuel Alvarez), the apocryphal name of Robert Southey.  The poet-laureate pretends that certain “letters from England,” written by this Spaniard, were translated by him from the original Spanish (three vols., 1807).

ESSEX (The earl of), a tragedy by Henry Jones (1745.) Lord Burleigh and Sir Walter Raleigh entertained a mortal hatred of the earl of Essex, and accused him to the queen of treason.  Elizabeth disbelieved the charge; but at this juncture the earl left Ireland, whither the queen had sent him, and presented himself before her.  She was very angry, and struck him, and Essex rushed into open rebellion, was taken, and condemned to death.  The queen had given him a ring before the trial, telling him whatever petition he asked should be granted, if he sent to her this ring.  When the time of execution drew nigh, the