The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

horse, wooden
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in complaint against some minor annoyance.
Unfortunately the lad entered the room just as his grandmother
was removing her dress to change into something
cooler—oh, the horror, the horror!
horse, wooden See trojan horse.
horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!, A An
impassioned plea for help, at any price. <strong>The</strong> line is
a quotation from William Shakespeare’s play Richard
III (c. 1592), spoken by the unhorsed king as
he seeks the means to escape his enemies in the
climactic Battle of Bosworth in which the historical
Richard III was killed on August 23, 1485.
<strong>The</strong>re is evidence that in the real battle the king
was brought a horse to carry him away from what
was turning into a bloody defeat, though no suggestion
that he actually delivered the line that features
in Shakespeare’s play. We need to get to the
Capitol at once—A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a
horse!
Hotspur A fi ery- tempered person. <strong>The</strong> allusion
is to Sir Henry “Harry” Percy (1364–1403), son of
the fi rst earl of Northumberland, who was so
nicknamed. He is depicted in William Shakespeare’s
play Henry IV, Part I (1596) as a hotheaded,
reckless knight, given to taking offense,
who rebels against the Crown but is killed by Prince
Hal during the Battle of Shrewsbury. It’s no good wading
in like a Hotspur—the situation requires diplomacy.
Hottentot (hotbntot) An uncivilized barbarian.
<strong>The</strong> term was fi rst bestowed upon the indigenous
inhabitants of what was formerly known as Cape
Colony or Cape Province in South Africa by
Dutch colonists in the 17th century. <strong>The</strong> original
meaning of the word itself is unknown. “He then
took me into a saloon, and while I drank made me
note that the fl oor was covered with coins sunk in
cement. A Hottentot would not have been guilty
of this sort of barbarism” (Rudyard Kipling, American
Notes, 1891).
Houdini (hoodeenee) A person who has the
reputation of being able to escape from diffi cult
situations. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the Hungarian- born
U.S. escapologist and magician Harry Houdini
(Ehrich Weiss; 1874–1926), who was well known
for stage acts that involved escaping from an array
of chains and padlocks, sometimes underwater or
suspended from a rope and often at apparent risk
of death. That bird is a real Houdini when it comes to
getting out of its pen.
houri (hooree) A beautiful dark- eyed woman. In
Muslim mythology, the houris are the perpetually
young and beautiful maidens who tend the faithful
in paradise, renewing their virginity at will. “That
houri, appearing, shakes him up in the usual manner
and is charged by the old gentleman to remain near
him” (Charles Dickens, Bleak House, 1852–53).
house divided against itself, a Those who cannot
agree among themselves cannot expect to
succeed. <strong>The</strong> expression comes from Matthew
12:25, in which Christ responds to the accusations
of the Pharisees that he had drawn on the powers
of the Dev il to achieve the miraculous healing of a
deaf and mute man, pointing out that evil would
hardly seek to destroy evil: “Every kingdom
divided against itself is brought to desolation; and
every city or house divided against itself shall not
stand.” Similar sentiments are expressed in Mark
3:25: “If a house be divided against itself, that
house cannot stand.” <strong>The</strong> board of the company is at
loggerheads over the issue, and you know what they say, a
house divided against itself cannot stand.