 AUTHOR       Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham, 1810-1897.
 TITLE        Dictionary of phrase and fable.
              Brewer's dictionary of phrase and fable.
 EDITION      14th ed. / by Ivor H. Evans.
 PUBLISHER    New York : Harper & Row, 1989.
 Leyburn-Reference      PN43 .B65 1989

Brewer's is the preeminent collection, very useful for brief summaries of the meaning and significaance of terms and phrases, and a good firsst stop for an allusion or phrase that looks portentious.

 TITLE        Dictionary of literary themes and motifs / Jean-Charles
                Seigneuret, editor ... [et al.]
 PUBLISHER    New York : Greenwood Press, c1988.
 Leyburn-Reference      PN43 .D48 1988 v. 1

(An alphabetical catalog [Adolescence, Afterlife, Alchemy, Alienation... La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Birth of the Hero... Dance, Dance of Death, Death and the Individual... Stupidity, Sublimity, Terror...]; for each entry, a discussion of occurrences and relations, differing treatments in specific time periods, and a short bibliography)


 AUTHOR       Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham, 1810-1897.
 TITLE        The reader's handbook of famous names in fiction, allusions,
                references, proverbs, plots, stories, and poems / by the Rev.
                E. Cobham Brewer.
 EDITION      New ed., rev.
 PUBLISHER    Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott, 1913.
 Leyburn-Reference      PN43 .B7 1902

Especially useful for 19th century characters and references

 AUTHOR       Wheeler, William Adolphus, 1833-1874.
 TITLE        Familiar allusions, a hand-book of miscellaneous information
                including the names of celebrated statues, paintings, palaces,
                country-seats, ruins, churches, ships, streets, clubs, natural
                curiosities, and the like begun (but left unfinished) by
                William A. Wheeler, completed and edited by Charles G. Wheeler.
 EDITION      7th ed.
 PUBLISHER    Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1894 [c1881]
 Leyburn-Reference      PN43 .W45

Dated in many respects, but particularly useful for 19th century material and covering subjects left out by others

 AUTHOR       Thompson, Stith, 1885-
 TITLE        Motif-index of folk-literature; a classification of narrative
                elements in folk-tales, ballads, myths, fables, mediaeval
                romances, exempla, fabliaux, jest-books, and local legends by
                Stith Thompson.
 PUBLISHER    Bloomington, Ind., 1932-36.
 Leyburn-Reference      PN921 .T476 v. 1-3

("...a comprehensive classification of the materials in all kinds of traditional narrative... (but not) superstitions, customs, religious beliefs, riddles or proverbs..." Origin tales, transformations, magical objects and powers, ghosts --the material of tales, some of which has made its way into literature. One might use Stith Thomson [as the compendium is called inn folklore circles] if the text under examination had folkloric content --fairies punishing, la belle dame sans merci, etc. An alphabetical index in the last volume provides cross references --e.g., all occurrences of 'mouse' or 'fairy'.)

 AUTHOR       Jones, Hugh Percy.
 TITLE        Dictionary of foreign phrases and classical quotations,
                comprising 14,000 idioms, proverbs, maxims, mottoes, technical
                words and terms, and press allusions from the works of the
                great writers in Latin, Greek, French, German, Portuguese,
                Italian, Spanish, alphabetically arranged, with English
                translations and equivalents.
 EDITION      New and rev. ed.
 PUBLISHER    Edinburgh, J. Grant, 1925.
 Leyburn-Reference      PN43 .J6

Brief translations of foreign phrases that turn up in literature, but no discussion of deeper significance. Examples:

Jacta est alea ('the die is cast')

Autres temps, autres moeurs ('other times, other customs')

Agua pasada no muele molino ('water that has flowed past will not turn the mill')