UBIUM
Assumed by May to be the name of the town to which Agrippina transferred the Ubii
A.D. 51. Their original home was on the E. bank of the Rhine, but they were brought
over to the W. bank to strengthen the Rhine frontier. They were settled at Colonia
Agrippina–now Koln, or Cologne. In May's Agrippina
i. 358, Agrippina says, "That German colony Which I of late deducted o'er the
Rhine To Ubium, for evermore the name Of Agrippina's colony shall bear."
ULSTER
One of the old 4 provinces of Ireland in the N.E. of the country. The O'Neils
had their seat in U.; but after the Anglo-Norman invasion John de Courcy was made
Earl of U., and on his death the title was transferred to Hugh de Lacy in 1243.
Through the Mortimers the earldom came to the Dukes of York, and thus at the accession
of Edward IV became merged in the English Crown. In 1611 James I planted U. with
numbers of English and Scottish settlers; Lond. receiving large grants in Co.
Derry, and imposing its name on London-Derry. Sidney, in Astrophel xxx. 9, asks,
"How U. likes of that same golden bit Wherewith my father once made it half tame?"
Sir Henry Sidney, the father of the poet, was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland from
the beginning of Elizabeth's reign until 1584. In Oldcastle
v. 9, the Irishman says, "Me be no servant of the Lord Cobham's; me be Mack Shane
of U." The name was suggested by that of Shane O'Neil, the leader of the rebellion
of 1597; he is one of the characters in Stucley,
and in line 992 of that play Gainsford says of the rebels: "They have gallant
horse; The best in Ireland are of U.'s breed." In Jonson's Irish, the Irish footmen
are said to be "of Connough, Leymster, U., Munster."
ULUBRAE
A small town in Latium, the exact site of which is uncertain. It was probably
abt. 35 m. S.E. Of Rome on the border of the Pontine Marshes. It was a wretched
place, though it still retained under the Empire its municipal rights and officers.
In Nero iv. 1, the Emperor says,
"Would I had rather in poor Gabii Or U. a ragged magistrate, Sat as a judge of
measures and of corn, Than the adored monarch of the world." The passage is imitated
from Juvenal, Sat. x. 99.
UNITED PROVINCES
The 17 Provinces of the Netherlands which federated in 1579 under William of Nassau. The list will be found under BELGIA.
UNITED STATES
Not used, as we use the U.S. of America, as a territorial name; it means always
the supreme assembly of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. See also STATES.
In Barnavelt v. 3, the Capt. asks,
"Do you hold the U. S. so tame to fear him?" Fynes Moryson, Itinerary iii. 2,
4, says, "The Hage... is now the seat of the u. S."
UNIVERSITY
(Us. = Universities). The two Universities in England were at Oxford and Cambridge
respectively. See for details under OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE, and the names of the various
COLLEGES. The Inns of Court in Lond. were sometimes spoken of as a U. There are
many references to the Us. on the continent of Europe, such as Paris, Padua, Florence,
Bologna, etc. Jonson dedicates Volpone
"To the most noble and most equal sisters, the 2 famous Us." On the title page
of the 1603 quarto of Hamlet it is
said to have been acted "in the 2 Us. of Cambridge and Oxford, and elsewhere."
In Greene's Friar vii., Ralph undertakes
to "make a ship that shall hold all your Colleges and so carry away the Niniversity
with a fair wind to the Bankside in Southwark "; Niniversity being an obvious
and intentional mis-spelling. In Shrew
v. 1, 72, Vincentio complains, "While I play the good husband at home, my son
and my servant spend all at the U.," sc. of Padua; though Vincentio's experience
would appeal to many English fathers. In Two
Gent. i. 3, 10, Panthino, enumerating the various employments of young men,
says, "Some [go] to the studious Us." The English Us. played an important part
in the history of the Drama, and plays, at first in Latin and later in English,
were performed in the various Colleges from the latter part of the 15th cent.
onwards. Details will be found under CAMBRIDGE and OXFORD. In Ham.
iii. 2, 104, Hamlet asks Polonius, "You played once i' the U., you say?" and Polonius
avers, "I did enact Julius Caesar; I was killed i' the Capitol; Brutus killed
me." A Latin Julius Caesar by Geddes was acted at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1582.
In Jonson's Volpone i. 2, Nano sings,
"Now room for fresh gamesters, who do will you to know They do bring you neither
Play nor U. show."
UNTHRIFT'S RENT
A nickname for some quarter where debtors found lodging. Rent, or Rents, is often
used to mean a tenement rented from someone; as in Ely Rents, Nasynges Rents,
etc. In John Evangel. 361, Evil Counsel
says, "I have been in U. R."
UR OF CHALDAEA
The original home of Abraham (Gen. xi. 27–32). It is usually identified with Mugheir, formerly Uru, in S. C., lying on the Euphrates, 125 m. N.W. of the head of the Persian Gulf; though it was formerly at the head of the Gulf itself, and an important maritime city. The silting up of the mouth of the Euphrates has removed it inland. The ruins cover something over half a square mile, and include the lower part of the temple of Sin, the Moon-God, the tutelary deity of the place.... The inscriptions show that from about 3000 B.C. U. was the leading city of C. for upwards of 1000 years. Milton, P.L. xii. 130, says of Abraham: "He leaves his gods, his friends, and native soil, U. of C., passing now the ford To Haran. "
URBINO, or URBIN
A city in Italy which grew up round the castle of the Montefeltro family in the
14th cent. It stands on a hill amongst the Apennines, 45 m. N.W. of Ancona. The
1st D., who was granted the title by the Pope in 1474, was Federigo de Montefeltro.
His son, Guidobaldo, kept up a magnificent court, which was celebrated in Castiglione's
Cortegiano, a book well known in England in the 16th cent. He was expelled for
a time by Caesar Borgia, but regained his Dukedom in 1503. At his death in 1508
the Dukedom passed to the Della Rovere family, who held it till 1626, when the
last D., Francesco, bequeathed it to the Papal States. The Ducal Palace built
in the 15th cent. was then the finest in Italy. The Theatre was one of the earliest
in Italy, and Bibiena's Calandria, the first Italian comedy, was played there.
Its chief distinction is that it was the birthplace of Raphael Sanzio, the great
painter. In Marston's Parasitaster
i. 1, Hercules says, "See, yonder's U.! Those far-appearing spires Rise from the
city." In Cockayne's Trapolin ii.
3, Horatio calls it "true U.," probably on account of its fidelity to its expelled
D., Guidobaldo. In Massinger's Great
Duke, the daughter and heir of "the deceased D. of U." is one of the characters,
and in his Maid Hon., Ferdinand,
D. of U., appears. Neither is historical. Killigrew wrote a play, The Siege of
Urbin, and the scenes of Marston's Fawn
and Shirley's Opportunity are laid
there.
URCAS
Possibly Arcos de la Frontera is meant, a city in Spain, 30 m. E. of Cadiz on
the Guadelete. In T. Heywood's I. K.
M. B. 335, Ricaldus mentions that "the ships of Urcas" will take part in the
Spanish Armada.
URCHINFIELD
Or, as it is spelt in Talbot's epitaph, Vrchengfield. A dist. in S.E. Herefordsh.
which gave one of his titles to Lord Talbot. In H6
A. iv. 7, 6q., Talbot is styled "Lord Talbot of Goodrig and U."
USIPITES, or USIPETES
A German tribe, living N. of the Lippe, who were conquered by Germanicus in A.D.
16. In Tiberius 1092, Germanicus
says, "The U. kept the plain Impalled in a wilderness of wood." In line 1115,
he calls them Usipetes.
UTICA
An ancient Phoenician colony in N. Africa, near the mouth of the Bagradas, 20
m. N.W. of Carthage. It was said to be 3 cents. older than Carthage. After the
3rd Punic War it made a separate peace with Rome, and reaped much advantage from
the destruction of Carthage by the Romans. In the Civil War Of 46 B.C. U. was
the last city in Africa to submit to Caesar. The younger Cato, who was at U.,
tried to persuade the people to resist to the last; but failing to induce them
to oppose Caesar, he committed suicide rather than betray what seemed to him the
cause of republican liberty. In later times his death afforded the theme for many
discussions on the lawfulness of suicide. In Marston's Sophonisba
i. 2, Carthalo says, "We make amain For Carthage some, and some for U." In his
What you v. 1, Quadrants says, "I'll
present The honoured end of Cato Utican." In Chapman's Caesar
ii. 4, 70, Cato says, "My chief pass still resolves for U."; and iv. 5 and v.
2 take place there. The scene of Act iii. of Nabbes' Hannibal
is laid at U.
UTOPIA
The Land of Nowhere, a name adopted by Sir Thomas More for his imaginary commonwealth.
Hence Utopian is used in the sense of extravagantly hopeful, absurdly optimistic,
impossible. The scene of Lyly's Woman
in Moon is laid "in the bounds of fair U." In Brome's M.
Beggars iv. 2, the poet says, "I would present a Commonwealth: U., With all
her branches and consistencies "; and Rachel volunteers to act the part: "I'll
be U." In Brewer's Lingua ii. 6,
Memory says, "I remember, in the country of U., they use no other kind of artillery"
than cannons of hollow canes, with rape seed for powder, and turnips for shot.
Jonson, in Case ii. 4, uses U. as
a pseudonym for England. Milton, in Areopagitica, p. 25 (Hales), says, "To sequester
out of the world into Atlantick and Eutopian politics . . . will not mend our
condition." In W. Rowley's Match Mid.
v. 1, Alexander says that Moll has "2 chests of silver and 2 Utopian trunks full
of gold and jewels"; where doubtless the suggestion is that these trunks are "nowhere."
UTRECHT
A town in Holland at the junction of the Old Rhine and the Vecht, 21 m. S. of
Amsterdam. It was here that the first confederacy of the United Provinces was
agreed upon in 1579. In Barnavelt
i. 2, Barnavelt says, "Enroll new companies against the insolence of the old soldiers
garrisoned at U." In v. 2, the executioners of Harlem, Leyden, and U. throw dice
to decide which of them shall behead Barnavelt. Dekker, in Seven Sins, speaking
of eccentric English fashions, says, "The short waist hangs over a Dutch butcher's
stall in Utrich."
UXBRIDGE
A town in Middlesex on the Coln, 15 m. W. of Lond. In Jonson's Ev.
Man O. iii. 1, Shift professes in his bill to teach the art of taking tobacco;
"as also the rare corollary and practice of the Cuban ebullition, Euripus, and
Whiff; which he shall receive or take in here at Lond., and evaporate at U., or
farther, if it please him." In Jonson's Barthol.
v. 4., Waspe has been to see a bull with five legs: "he was a calf at U. Fair,
two years agone." Fairs were held there on March 25th and Sept. 29th.
UZ
A dist. of indeterminate boundaries lying on the edge of the Arabian desert E.
of Palestine. The most probable position is in the neighbourhood of Palmyra, stretching
S. towards Edom. It was the home of the patriarch Job. In Marlowe's Jew
i. 1, Barabas talks of "those Sabans and the men of Uz, That bought my Spanish
oils and wines of Greece." The mention of the Sabans in conjunction with the men
of Uz was doubtless suggested by Job i. 14, where the Sabeans are represented
as attacking Job's oxen and asses. In Milton, P.R. i. 369, Satan says, "I came
among the Sons of God, when He Gave up into my hands Uzzean Job."