13 (1575).

Novem vero angelorum ordines dicimus; ... scimus (1) Angelos, (2)
Archangelos, (3) Virtues, (4) Potestates, (5) Principatus, (6)
Dominationes, (7) Thronos, (8) Cherubim, (9) Seraphim.--Gregory,
_Homily_, 34 (A.D. 381).

=Nine Worthies= (_The_). Three were _pagans_: Hector, Alexander, and
Julius Caesar. Three were _Jews_: Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabaeus.
Three were _Christians_: Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon.

_Nine.[TN-38] Worthies_ (privy councillors to William III.). Four were
_Whigs_: Devonshire, Dorset, Monmouth, and Edward Russell. Five were
_Tories_: Caermarthen, Pembroke, Nottingham, Marlborough, and Lowther.

=Nine Worthies of London= (_The_): Sir William Walworth, Sir Henry
Pritchard, Sir William Sevenoke, Sir Thomas White, Sir John Bonham,
Christopher Croker, Sir John Hawkwood, Sir Hugh Caverley, and Sir Henry
Maleverer.

[Asterism] The chronicles of these nine worthies are written in prose
and verse by Richard Johnson (1592), author of _The Seven Champions of
Christendom_.

=Nineve= (2 _syl._), the Lady of the Lake, in Arthurian romance.

Then the Lady of the Lake, that was always friendly unto King
Arthur, understood by her subtle craft that he was like to have
been destroyed; and so the Lady of the Lake, that hight Nineve,
came into the forest to seek Sir Launcelot du Lake.--Sir T. Malory,
_History of Prince Arthur_, ii. 57 (1470).

[Asterism] This name occurs three times in the _Morte d'Arthur_--once as
"Nimue," once as "Nineve," and once as "Ninive." Probably "Nimue"
(_q.v._) is a clerical error.

=Ninon de Lenclos=, a beautiful Parisian, rich, _spirituelle_, and an
atheist, who abandoned herself to epicurean indulgence, and preserved
her charms to a very advanced age. Ninon de Lenclos renounced marriage,
and had numberless lovers. Her house was the rendezvous of all the most
illustrious persons of the period, as Moli[`e]re, St. Evremont,
Fontenelle, Voltaire, and so on (1615-1705).

=Niobe= [_Ne'.oby_], the beau-ideal of grief. After losing her twelve
children, she was changed into a stone, which wept continually.

[Asterism] The group of "Niobe and her Children" in Florence, discovered
at Rome in 1583, is now arranged in the Uffizii[TN-39] Gallery.

She followed my poor father's body,
Like Niob[^e], all tears.

Shakespeare, _Hamlet_, act i. sc. 2 (1596).

=Niobe of Nations= (_The_). R