queen sent the countess of Nottingham to the Tower, to ask Essex if he had any plea to make.  The earl entreated her to present the ring to her majesty, and petition her to spare the life of his friend Southampton.  The countess purposely neglected this charge, and Essex was executed.  The queen, it is true, sent a reprieve, but Lord Burleigh took care it should arrive too late.  The poet says that Essex had recently married the countess of Rutland, that both the queen and the countess of Nottingham were jealous, and that this jealousy was the chief cause of the earl’s death.

The Abbe Boyer, La Calprenede, and Th.  Corneille have tragedies on the some subject.

Essex (The earl of), lord high constable of England, introduced by Sir W. Scott in his novel called Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).

ESTEL’LA, a haughty beauty, adopted by Miss Havisham.  She was affianced by her wish to Pip, but married Bentley Drummle.—­C.  Dickens, Great Expectations (1860).

ESTHER, housekeeper to Muhldenau, minister of Mariendorpt.  She loves Hans, a servant to the minister, but Hans is shy, and Esther has to teach him how to woo and win her.  Esther and Hans are similar to Helen and Modus, only in lower social grade.—­S.  Knowles, The Maid of Mariendorpt (1838).

ESTHER HAWDON, better known through the tale as Esther Summerson, natural daughter of Captain Hawdon and Lady Dedlock (before her marriage with Sir Leicester Dedlock).  Esther is a most lovable, gentle creature, called by those who know and love her, “Dame Durden” or “Dame Trot.”  She is the heroine of the tale, and a ward in Chancery.  Eventually she marries Allan Woodcourt, a surgeon.—­C.  Dickens, Bleak House (1852).

ESTHER Bush:  Wife of the squatter Ishmael Bush.  Loud-voiced, sharp of temper and hard of hand, yet loyal in her way to husband and children.—­James Fennimore Cooper, The Prairie, (1827).

Esther (Queen), Indian monarch who, during the Wyoming massacre, dashes out the brains of sixteen prisoners with her own hands, as a sacrifice to the manes of her son.  Queen Esther’s Rock is still shown to travelers.—­Ann Sophia Stevens, Mary Derwent (1845).

ESTIFA’NIA, an intriguing woman, servant of donna Margaritta, the Spanish heiress.  She palms herself off on Don Michael Perez (the copper captain) as an heiress, and the mistress of Margaritta’s mansion.  The captain marries her, and finds out that all her swans are only geese.—­Beaumont and Fletcher, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife (1640).

EST-IL-POSSSIBLE?  A nickname given to George of Denmark (Queen Anne’s husband), because his general remark to the most startling announcement was, Est-il possible? With this exclamation he exhausted the vials of his wrath.  It was James II. who gave him the sobriquet.