en soured and disgusted by intercourse
with the world. Courtesy he holds to be the vice of fops, and the
manners of society mere hypocrisy. He courts Celmene, a coquette and
her treatment of his love confirms his bad opinion of mankind.

AL'CHEMIST (_The_), the last of the three great comedies of Ben Jonson
(1610). The other two are _Vol'pone_ (2 _syl_.), (1605), and _The
Silent Woman_ (1609). The object of _The Alchemist_ is to ridicule
the belief in the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life. The
alchemist is "Subtle," a mere quack; and "sir Epicure Mammon" is
the chief dupe, who supplies money, etc., for the "transmutation of
metal." "Abel Drugger" a tobacconist, and "Dapper" a lawyer's
clerk, are two other dupes. "Captain Face," _alias_ "Jeremy," the
house-servant of "Lovewit," and "Dol Common" are his allies. The whole
thing is blown up by the unexpected return of "Lovewit."

ALCIB'ADES (5 _syl._), the Athenian general. Being banished by the
senate, he marches against the city, and the senate, being unable to
offer resistance, open the gates to him (B.C. 450-404). This incident
is introduced by Shakespeare in _Timon of Athens_.

ALCIBI'ADES' TABLES represented a god or goddess outwardly, and
a Sile'nus, or deformed piper, within. Erasmus has a "curious
dissertation on these tables" (_Adage_, 667, edit. R. Stephens); hence
emblematic of falsehood and dissimulation.

Whose wants virtue is compared to these
False tables wrought by Alcibiades;
Which noted well of all were found t've bin
Most fair without, but most deformed within.

Wm. Browne, _Britannia's Pastorals_, i. (1613).

ALCI'DES, a name sometimes given to Hercules as the descendent of the
hero Alcoeus through his son Amphitryon (_q. v._) The name is applied
to any valiant hero.

The Tuscan poet [_Ariosto_] doth advance
The frantic paladin of France [_Orlando Furioso_];
And those more ancient do enhance
Alcides in his fury.

M. Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (1563-1631).

Where is the great Alcides of the field,
Valiant lord Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury?

Shakespeare, 1 _Henry VI_. act. iv. sc. 7 (1589).

ALCI'NA, Carnal Pleasure personified. In Bojardo's _Orlando
Innamorato_ she is a fairy, who carries off Astolfo. In Ariosto's
_Orlando Furioso_ she is a kind of Circe, whose garden is a scene of
enchantment. Alcina enjoys her lovers for a season, and then converts
them into trees, stones, wild beasts, and so on, as her fancy
dicta