Dr. Donne (1573-1631).

Thus imitated by Pope (1688-1744)—­

  Each man an Ascapart of strength to toss
  For quoits both Temple Bar and Charing Cross.

ASCRAE’AN SAGE, or Ascraean poet, Hesiod, who was born at Ascra, in Boeo’tia.  Virgil calls him “The Old Ascraean.”

  Hos tibi dant calamos, en accipe, Musae
  Ascraeo quos ante seni.

  Ecl. vii. 70.

AS’EBIE (3 syl.), Irreligion personified in The Purple Island (1633), by Phineas Fletcher (canto vii.).  He had four sons:  Idol’atros (idolatry), Phar’makeus (3 syl.) (witchcraft), Haeret’icus, and Hypocrisy; all fully described by the poet. (Greek, asebeia, “impiety.”)

ASEL’GES (3 syl.), Lasciviousness personified.  One of the four sons of Anag’nus (inchastity), his three brothers being Maechus (adultery), Pornei’us (fornication), and Acath’arus.  Seeing his brother Porneius fall by the spear of Parthen’ia (maidenly chastity), Aselges rushes forward to avenge his death, but the martial maid caught him with her spear, and tossed him so high i’ the air “that he hardly knew whither his course was bent.” (Greek, aselges, “intemperate, wanton.")—­Phineas Fletcher, The Purple Island, xi. (1633).

AS’EN, strictly speaking, are only the three gods next in rank to the twelve male Asir; but the word is not unfrequently used for the Scandinavian deities generally.

ASHBURTON (Mary), heroine of Hyperion, by H.W.  Longfellow (1839).

ASH’FIELD (Farmer), a truly John Bull farmer, tender-hearted, noble-minded but homely, generous but hot-tempered.  He loves his daughter Susan with the love of a woman.  His favorite expression is “Behave pratty,” and he himself always tries to do so.  His daughter Susan marries Robert Handy, the son of sir Abel Handy.

Dame Ashfield, the farmer’s wife, whose bete noire is a neighboring farmer named Grundy.  What Mrs. Grundy will say, or what Mrs. Grundy will think or do, is dame Ashfield’s decalogue and gospel too.

Susan Ashfield, daughter of farmer and dame Ashfield.—­Thom.  Morton, Speed the Plough (1764-1838).

ASH’FORD (Isaac), “a wise, good man, contented to be poor.”—­Crabbe, Parish Register (1807).

ASHPENAZ, chief of eunuchs, and majordomo to Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian monarch.  Wily, corpulent, and avaricious, a creature to be at once feared and despised.—­The Master of the Magicians, by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Herbert D. Ward (1890).

ASH’TAROTH, a general name for all Syrian goddesses. (See ASTORETH.)

  [They] had general names
  Of Baaelim and Ashtaroth:  those male,
  These feminine.

Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 422 (1665).

ASH’TON (Sir William), the lord keeper of Scotland, and father of
Lucy Ashton.