Disguise
Abigailenters nunnery as convert to retrieve money. [Br. Lit.: The Jew of Malta]
disguised as a woman to avoid conscription. [Gk. Legend: Brewer Handbook, 642 (Lycomedes)]
disguised as a man, engages a nobleman in a duel and dies of her wounds. [Br. Drama: Beaumont and Fletcher The Maid’s Tragedy in Sobel, 444]
assumes Mentor’s form to persuade Telemachus to search for his father. [Gk. Lit.: Odyssey]
a young lady of good blood runs about in the dress and manners of a gypsy. [Br. Lit.: Barrie The Little Minister in Magill I, 513]
millionaire Bruce Wayne dresses in his batlike cape and cowl. [Comics: Horn, 101]
to escape marriage, nobleman pretends to be a barber. [Am. Lit.: Monsieur Beaucaire]
masks self as Muscovite; woos wrong woman. [Br. Lit.: Love’s Labour’s Lost]
outwits his opponents by his ingenious disguises. [Br. Lit.: Scarlet Pimpernel]
impersonates Headless Horseman to scare off rival suitor. [Am. Lit.: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]
impersonates variety of characters in his trickery. [Br. Lit.: Every Man in His Humour]
baronet passes himself off as beggar. [Br. Lit.: The Vicar of Wakefield]
man with a thousand faces. [Am. Lit.: The Sot-Weed Factor]
man poses as a woman in order to get his pal out of a jam. [Br. Drama: Barnhart, 228]
masquerades as Grand Turk to win pretentious man’s daughter. [Fr. Lit.: Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme]
disguised as Ascanius, son of Aeneas. [Gk. Myth.: Aeneid]
“Great Impostor”; posed in professional roles. [Am. Hist.: Wallechinsky, 484]
disguised doctor who supposedly restores lovers to life. [Ger. Opera: Mozart, Cosi fan tutte, Westerman, 98]
disguises herself as Guinevere in order to seduce Lancelot. [Br. Lit.: Malory Le Mort d’Arthur]
dressed as male, becomes abbot of Egyptian monastery. [Christian Hagiog.: Attwater, 120]
after his supposed death, he dons a girl’s dress and goes into town to gain information. [Am. Lit.: Mark Twain Huckleberry Finn]
assumes pseudonym to uncover adulterer. [Br. Lit.: Merry Wives of Windsor]
queen requires him to disguise himself as a kitchen hand before he may seek knighthood. [Br. Poetry: Tennyson Idylls of the King]
he and his lover Amelia are in disguises when he is killed by her husband. [Ital. Opera: Un Ballo in Maschera in Osborne Opera]
wins her suitor by pretending to be a barmaid. [Br. Drama: Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer in Benét, 926]
disguised as Green Knight, challenges Gawain’s valor. [Br. Lit.: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]
disguises herself as a pilgrim in order to follow her husband from France to Italy. [Br. Drama: Shakespeare All’s Well That Ends Well]
returns in disguise after his supposed death to surprise his enemies. [Br. Lit.: Doyle The Return of Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes]
dresses in boy’s clothes to escape her husband’s murder plot. [Br. Drama: Shakespeare Cymbeline]
dressed as Esau to obtain father’s blessing. [O.T.: Genesis 27:15–16]
master of disguise confounds Batman. [Comics: “Batman” in Horn, 101]
masks self as page. [Br. Lit.: Two Gentlemen of Verona]
tailor disguised as a captain, takes over city. [Ger. Lit.: Captain from Köpenick, Espy, 173]
as Richard’s slave, saves king from assassination. [Br. Lit.: The Talisman]
dressed as a man, elopes with Alvaro and takes refuge in a hermit’s cave. [Ital. Opera: La Forza del Destino in Osborne Opera]
masks as Fidelio to save imprisoned husband. [Ger. Opera: Beethoven, Fidelio, Scholes, 352–353]
youth disguised as girl to be near Daphne; killed upon discovery. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmerman, 150]
masked crime fighter hides true identity. [Radio: Buxton, 143–144; Comics: Horn, 460; TV: Terrace, II, 34–35]
dresses and acts like a man in order to go among men and see them as they really are. [Fr. Lit.: Mademoiselle de Maupin in Magill I, 542]
Mr. Ford disguises himself in order to thwart Falstaff’s designs on Mrs. Ford. [Br. Drama: Shakespeare The Merry Wives of Windsor]
emperor’s son disguised as a minstrel. [Br. Opera: The Mikado, Magill I, 591–592]
to spare his mistress, dresses as a chambermaid; Baron Ochs flirts with “her”. [Ger. Opera: Strauss Der Rosenkavalier in Benét, 877]
changed by Athena into an old beggar to avoid his recognition by Penelope’s suitors. [Gk. Lit.: Odyssey]
political agitator dressed incognito as priest. [Ital. Lit.: Bread and Wine]
disguised as priest of Venus to free Helen. [Fr. Operetta: Offenbach, La Belle Hélène, Westerman, 272–273]
a French merchant; in reality, King Louis XI. [Br. Lit.: Quentin Durward, Magill I, 795–797]
heiress disguises herself as a lawyer and wins a case for her fiancé’s friend. [Br. Drama: Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice]
roams the streets in disguise, befriending the unfortunate. [Fr. Lit.: Sue The Mysteries of Paris in Magill I, 632]
disguises herself as a male. [Br. Lit.: As You Like It]
Saracen leader, in doctor’s garb, cures Richard’s illness. [Br. Lit.: The Talisman]
“young man” in reality Mademoiselle de Maupin. [Fr. Lit.: Mademoiselle de Maupin, Magill I, 542–543]
disguised as Gunther, steals gold ring from Brunhild. [Ger. Opera: Wagner, Götterdämmerung, Westerman, 244]
antifascist patriot disguises himself as a priest. [Ital. Lit.: Bread and Wine]
superhero under guise of Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter. [Comics: Horn, 642]
king’s daughter works anonymously, cloaked in manypelted coat. [Ger. Fairy Tale: Grimm, 245]
passes as washerwoman to escape from jail. [Children’s Lit.: The Wind in the Willows]
disguises herself as a doctor and prescribes radical treatment for a hypochondriac. [Fr. Drama: Moliére Le Malade Imaginaire in Sobel, 445]
masquerades as Friar Lodowick. [Br. Lit.: Measure for Measure]
masquerades as Cesario. [Br. Lit.: Twelfth Night]
disguises himself as: satyr to lie with Antiope, Amphitryon with Alcmena, Artemis with Callisto, shower of gold with Danaë, white bull with Europa, swan with Leda, flame of fire with Aegina, and cuckoo with Hera. [Gk. Myth.: Jobes, 1719; New Century, 1158; Zimmerman, 293]
masked swordsman, defender of weak and oppressed. [Am. Lit.: comic strip (1919); Am. Cinema: Halliwell, 794; TV: Terrace, II, 461–462]
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.