to cure Orlando of his
madness by bringing back his lost wits in a phial.--Ariosto, _Orlando
Furioso_ (1516).

AS'TON _(Sir Jacob)_, a cavalier during the Commonwealth; one of
the partisans of the late king.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (period,
Commonwealth).

_As'ton (Enrico)._ So Henry Ashton is called in Donizetti's opera of
_Lucia di Lammermoor_ (1835). (See ASHTON.)

AS'TORAX, king of Paphos and brother of the princess Calis.--Beaumont
and Fletcher, _The Mad Lover_ (before 1618).

AS'TORETH, the goddess-moon of Syrian mythology; called by Jeremiah,
"The Queen of Heaven," and by the Phoenicians, "Astar'te."

With these [_the host of heaven_] in troop
Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called
Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, i. 438 (1665).

(Milton does not always preserve the difference between Ashtaroth and
Ashtoreth; for he speaks of the "mooned Ashtaroth, heaven's queen and
mother.")

AS'TRAGON, the philosopher and great physician, by whom Gondibert and
his friends were cured of the wounds received in the faction fight
stirred up by prince Oswald. Astragon had a splendid library and
museum. One room was called "Great Nature's Office," another "Nature's
Nursery," and the library was called "The Monument of Vanished Mind."
Astragon (the poet says) discovered the loadstone and its use in
navigation. He had one child, Bertha, who loved duke Gondibert, and
to whom she was promised in marriage. The tale being unfinished, the
sequel is not known.--Sir W. Davenant, _Gondibert_ (died 1668).

ASTRE'A _(Mrs. Alphra Behn_), an authoress. She published the story of
_Prince Oroonoka_ (died 1689).

The stage now loosely does Astrea tread. Pope.

ASTRINGER, a falconer. Shakespeare introduces an astringer in _All's
Well that Ends Well_, act v. sc. 1. (From the French _austour_,
Latin _austercus_, "a goshawk.") A "gentle astringer" is a gentleman
falconer.

We usually call a falconer who keeps that kind of hawk [the goshawk]
an austringer.--Cowell, _Law Dictionary_.

AS'TRO-FIAMMAN'TE (5 _syl_.), queen of the night. The word means
"flaming star."--Mozart, _Die Zauberfloete_ (1791).

ASTRONOMER (_The_), in _Rasselas_, an old enthusiast, who believed
himself to have the control and direction of the weather. He leaves
Imlac his successor, but implores him not to interfere with the
constituted order.

"I have possessed," said he to Imlac, "for five years the regulat