Chapter 15

=Sena´nus= (_St._), the saint who fled to the island of Scattery, and resolved that no woman should ever step upon the isle. An angel led St. Can´ara to the isle, but Senanus refused to admit her.--T. Moore, _Irish Melodies_ (“St. Senanus and the Lady,” 1814).

=Sen´eca= (_The Christian_), Bishop Hall, of Norwich (1574-1656).

=Sene´na= (3 _syl._), a Welsh maiden, in love with Car´adoc. She dressed in boy’s clothes, and, under the assumed name of Mervyn, became the page of the Princess Goervyl, that she might follow her lover to America, when Madoc colonized Caer-Madoc. Senena was promised in marriage to another; but when the wedding day arrived and all was ready, the bride was nowhere to be found.

... she doffed Her bridal robes, and clipt her golden locks, And put on boy’s attire, thro’ wood and wild To seek her own true love; and over sea, Forsaking all for him, she followed him.

Southey, _Madoc_, ii. 23 (1805).

=Sennac´herib=, called by the Orientals King Moussal.--D’Herbelot, _Notes to the Korân_ (seventeenth century).

=Sennamar=, a very skilful architect, who built at Hirah, for Nôman-al-Aôuar, king of Hirah, a most magnificent palace. In order that he might not build another equal or superior to it, for some other monarch, Nôman cast him headlong from the highest tower of the building.--D’Herbelot, _Bibliothèque Orientale_ (1697).

⁂ A parallel tale is told of Neim´heid (2 _syl._), who employed four architects to build for him a palace in Ireland, and then, jealous lest they should build one like it, or superior to it, for another monarch, he had them all privately put to death.--O’Halloran, _History of Ireland_.

=Sensitive= (_Lord_), a young nobleman of amorous proclivities, who marries Sabīna Rosny, a French refugee, in Padua, but leaves her, more from recklessness than wickedness. He comes to England and pays court to Lady Ruby, a rich young widow; but Lady Ruby knows of his marriage to the young French girl, and so hints at it that his lordship, who is no libertine, and has a great regard for his honor, sees that his marriage is known, and tells Lady Ruby he will start without delay to Padua, and bring his young wife home. This, however, was not needful, as Sabina was at the time the guest of Lady Ruby. She is called forth, and Lord Sensitive openly avows her to be his wife.--Cumberland, _First Love_ (1796).

=Sentimental Journey= (_The_), by Laurence Sterne (1768). It was intended to be sentimental sketches of his tour through Italy in 1764, but he died soon after completing the first part. The tourist lands at Calais, and the first incident is his interview with a poor monk of St. Francis, who begged alms for his convent. Sterne refused to give anything, but his heart smote him for his churlishness to the meek old man. From Calais he goes to Montriul (Montreuil-sur-Mer) and thence to Nampont, near Cressy. Here occurred the incident, which is one of the most touching of all the sentimental sketches, that of “The Dead Ass.” His next stage was Amiens, and thence to Paris. While looking at the Bastille, he heard a voice crying, “I can’t get out! I can’t get out!” He thought it was a child, but it was only a caged starling. This led him to reflect on the delights of liberty and miseries of captivity. Giving reins to his fancy, he imaged to himself a prisoner who for thirty years had been confined in a dungeon, during all which time “he had seen no sun, no moon, nor had the voice of kinsman breathed through his lattice.” Carried away by his feelings, he burst into tears, for he “could not sustain the picture of confinement which his fancy had drawn.” While at Paris, our tourist visited Versailles, and introduces an incident which he had witnessed some years previously at Rennes, in Brittany. It was that of a marquis reclaiming his sword and “patent of nobility.” Any nobleman in France who engaged in trade, forfeited his rank; but there was a law in Brittany that a nobleman of reduced circumstances might deposit his sword temporarily with the local magistracy, and if better times dawned upon him, he might reclaim it. Sterne was present at one of these interesting ceremonies. A marquis had laid down his sword to mend his fortune by trade, and after a successful career at Martinico for twenty years, returned home, and reclaimed it. On receiving his deposit from the president, he drew it slowly from the scabbard, and, observing a spot of rust near the point, dropped a tear on it. As he wiped the blade lovingly, he remarked, “I shall find some other way to get it off.” Returning to Paris, our tourist starts for Italy; but the book ends with his arrival at Moulines (Moulins). Some half a league from this city he encountered Maria, whose pathetic story had been told him by Mr. Shandy. She had lost her goat when Sterne saw her, but had instead a little dog named Silvio, led by a string. She was sitting under a poplar, playing on a pipe her vespers to the Virgin. Poor Maria had been crossed in love, or, to speak more strictly, the curé of Moulines had forbidden her banns, and the maiden lost her reason. Her story is exquisitely told, and Sterne says, “Could the traces be ever worn out of her brain, and those of Eliza out of mine, she should not only eat of my bread and drink of my cup, but Maria should lie in my bosom, and be unto me as a daughter.”

=Sentinel and St. Paul’s Clock= (_The_). The sentinel condemned to death by court-martial for falling asleep on his watch, but pardoned because he affirmed that he heard St. Paul’s clock strike thirteen instead of twelve, was John Hatfield, who died at the age of 102, June, 1770.

=Sentry= (_Captain_), one of the members of the club under whose auspices the _Spectator_ was professedly issued.

=September Massacre= (_The_), the slaughter of loyalists confined in the Abbaye. This massacre took place in Paris between September 2 and 5, 1792, on receipt of the news of the capture of Verdun. The number of victims was not less than 1200, and some place it as high as 4000.

=September the Third= was Cromwell’s day. On September 3, 1650, he won the battle of Dunbar. On September 3, 1651, he won the battle of Worcester. On September 3, 1658, he died.

=Seraphic Doctor= (_The_), St. Bonaventura, placed by Dantê among the saints of his _Paradiso_ (1221-1274).

=Seraphic Saint= (_The_), St. Francis d’Assisi (1182-1226).

Of all the saints, St. Francis was the most blameless and gentle.--Dean Milman.

=Seraphina Arthuret= (_Miss_), a papist. Her sister is Miss Angelica Arthuret.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Sera´pis=, an Egyptian deity symbolizing the Nile, and fertility in general.

=Seraskier´= (3 _syl._), a name given by the Turks to a general of division, generally a pacha with two or three tails. (Persian, _seri asker_, “head of the army.”)

... three thousand Moslems perished here, And sixteen bayonets pierced the seraskier.

Byron, _Don Juan_, viii. 81 (1824).

=Serb=, a Servian or native of Servia.

=Sereme´nes= (4 _syl._), brother-in-law of King Sardanapālus, to whom he entrusts his signet-ring to put down the rebellion headed by Arbācês, the Mede, and Belĕsis, the Chaldēan soothsayer. Seremēnês was slain in a battle with the insurgents.--Byron, _Sardanapalus_ (1819).

=Sere´na=, allured by the mildness of the weather, went into the fields to gather wild flowers for a garland, when she was attacked by the Blatant Beast, who carried her off in its mouth. Her cries attracted to the spot Sir Calidore, who compelled the beast to drop its prey.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, vi. 3 (1596).

=Sergis= (_Sir_), the attendant on Irēna. He informs Sir Artegal that Irena is the captive of Grantorto, who has sworn to take her life within ten days, unless some knight will volunteer to be her champion, and in single combat prove her innocent of the crime laid to her charge.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, v. 11 (1596).

=Sergius=, a Nestorian monk, said to be the same as Boheira, who resided at Bosra, in Syria. This monk, we are told, helped Mahomet in writing the _Korân_. Some say it was Saïd or Felix Boheira.

Boheira’s name, in the books of Christians, is Sergius.--Masudi, _History_, 24 (A.D. 956).

=Serimner=, the wild boar whose lard fed the vast multitude in Einheriar, the hall of Odin. Though fed on daily, the boar never diminished in size. Odin himself gave his own portion of the lard to his two wolves, Geri and Freki.--_Scandinavian Mythology._ (See RUSTICUS’S PIG.)

=Seri´na=, daughter of Lord Acasto, plighted to Chamont (the brother of Monimia, “the orphan”).--Otway, _The Orphan_ (1680).

=Seriswattee=, the Janus of Hindû mythology.

=The Serpent and Satan.= There is an Arabian tradition that the devil begged all the animals, one after another, to carry him into the garden, that he might speak to Adam and Eve, but they all refused except the serpent, who took him between two of its teeth. It was then the most beautiful of all the animals, and walked upon legs and feet.--Masudi, _History_, 22 (A.D. 956).

_The Serpent’s Punishment._ The punishment of the serpent for tempting Eve was this: (1) Michael was commanded to cut off its legs; and (2) the serpent was doomed to feed on human excrements ever after.

=Serpent d’Isabit=, an enormous monster, whose head rested on the top of the Pic du Midi de Bigorre, its body filled the whole valley of Luz, St. Sauveur, and Gèdres, and its tail was coiled in the hollow below the cirque of Gavarnie. It fed once in three months, and supplied itself by making a very strong inspiration of its breath, whereupon every living thing around was drawn into its maw. It was ultimately killed by making a huge bonfire, and waking it from its torpor, when it became enraged, and drawing a deep breath, drew the bonfire into its maw, and died in agony.--Rev. W. Webster, _A Pyrenean Legend_ (1877).

=Served My God.= WOLSEY said, in his fall, “Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, He would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies.”--Shakespeare, _Henry VIII._ act iii. sc. 2 (1601).

SAMRAH, when he was deposed from the government of Basorah by the Caliph Moawiyah, said, “If I had served God so well as I have served the caliph, He would never have condemned me to all eternity.”

ANTONIO PEREZ, the favorite of Philip II. of Spain, said, “Mon zele etoit si grand vers ces benignes puissances [i.e. _Turin_] qui si j’en eusse eu autant pour Dieu, je ne doubte point qu’il ne m’eut deja recompensé de son paradis.”

The earl of GOWRIE, when, in 1854, he was led to execution, said, “If I had served God as faithfully as I have done the king [_James VI._], I should not have come to this end.”--Spotswood, _History of the Church of Scotland_, 332, 333 (1653).

=Sesostris= (_The Modern_), Napoleon Bonaparte (1769, 1804-1815, 1821).

But where is he, the modern, mightier far, Who, born no king, made monarchs draw his car; The new Sesostris, whose unharnessed kings, Freed from the bit, believe themselves with wings, And spurn the dust o’er which they crawled of late, Chained to the chariot of the chieftain’s state?

Byron, _Age of Bronze_ (1821).

⁂ “Sesostris,” in Fénelon’s _Télémaque_, is meant for Louis XIV.

=Set´ebos=, a deity of the Patagonians.

His art is of such power, It would control my dam’s god Setebos.

Shakespeare, _The Tempest_ (1609).

The giants, when they found themselves fettered, roared like bulls, and cried upon Setebos to help them.--Eden, _History of Travayle_.

=Seth=, a servant of the Jew at Ashby. Reuben is his fellow-servant.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

=Seth Fairchild.= Young countryman, who is almost persuaded to be in love with Isabel, the wife of his brother, Albert. Albert is killed--it is supposed, accidentally--and Isabel, assuming that Seth has murdered him, and for her sake, promises to keep the deed secret. The horror of the supposition and her readiness to believe him capable of the crime, dispels Seth’s unholy illusion and sends him back to his first love, who has always been his good angel.--Harold Frederic, _Seth’s Brother’s Wife_ (1887).

=Settle= (_Elkana_), the poet, introduced by Sir W. Scott in _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

=Seven Champions of Christendom= (_The_): St. George for England; St. Andrew for Scotland; St. Patrick for Ireland; St. David for Wales; St. Denis for France; St. James for Spain; and St. Anthony for Italy.

⁂ Richard Johnson wrote _The Famous History of the Seven Champions of Christendom_ (1617).

=Seven=, Rienzi’s Number.

October 7, Rienzi’s foes yielded to his power. 7 months Rienzi reigned as tribune. 7 years he was absent in exile. 7 weeks of return saw him without an enemy (Oct. 7). 7 was the number of the crowns the Roman convents and the Roman council awarded him.

=Seven Sleepers= (_The_). The tale of these sleepers is told in divers manners. The best accounts are those in the _Korân_ xviii., entitled, “The Cave, Revealed at Mecca;” _The Golden Legends_, by Jacques de Voragine; the _De Gloria Martyrum_, i. 9, by Gregory of Tours; and the _Oriental Tales_, by Comte de Caylus (1743).

_Names of the Seven Sleepers._ Gregory of Tours says their names were: Constantine, Dionysius, John, Maximian, Malchus, Martinian or Marcian, and Serapĭon. In the _Oriental Tales_ the names given are: Jemlikha, Mekchilinia, Mechlima, Merlima, Debermouch, Charnouch, and the shepherd Keschetiouch. Their names are not given in the _Korân_.

_Number of the Sleepers._ Al Seyid, a Jacobite Christian of Najrân, says the sleepers were only three, with their dog; others maintain that their number was five, besides the dog; but Al Beidâwi, who is followed by most authorities, says they were seven, besides the dog.

_Duration of the Sleep._ The _Korân_ says it was “300 years and nine years over;” the _Oriental Tales_ say the same; but if Gregory of Tours is followed, the duration of the sleep was barely 230 years.

_The Legend of the Seven Sleepers._ (1) According to Gregory of Tours. Gregory says they were seven noble youths of Ephesus, who fled in the Decian persecution to a cave in Mount Celion, the mouth of which was blocked up by stones. After 230 years they were discovered, and awoke, but died within a few days, and were taken in a large stone coffin to Marseilles. Visitors are still shown, in St. Victor’s Church, the stone coffin.

If there is any truth at all in the legend, it amounts to this: In A.D. 250, some youths (three or seven) suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Decius, “fell asleep in the Lord,” and were buried in a cave of Mount Celion. In 479 (the reign of Theodosius) their bodies were discovered, and, being consecrated as holy relics, were removed to Marseilles.

(2) According to the _Oriental Tales_. Six Grecian youths were slaves in the palace of Dakiānos (_Decianus_, _Decius_). This Dakianos had risen from low degrees to kingly honors, and gave himself out to be a god. Jemlikha was led to doubt the divinity of his master, because he was unable to keep off a fly which persistently tormented him, and being roused to reflection, came to the conclusion that there must be a god to whom both Dakianos and the fly were subject. He communicated his thoughts to his companions, and they all fled from the Ephesian court till they met the shepherd Keschetiouch, whom they converted, and who showed them a cave, which no one but himself knew of. Here they fell asleep, and Dakianos, having discovered them, commanded the mouth of the cave to be closed up. Here the sleepers remained 309 years, at the expiration of which time they all awoke, but died a few hours afterwards.

_The Dog of the Seven Sleepers._ In the notes of the _Korân_, by Sale, the dog’s name is Kratim, Kratimer, or Katmir. In the _Oriental Tales_ it is Catnier, which looks like a clerical blunder for Catmer, only it occurs frequently. It is one of the ten animals admitted into Mahomet’s paradise. The _Korân_ tells us that the dog followed the seven young men into the cave, but they tried to drive him away, and even broke three of its legs with stones, when the dog said to them, “I love those who love God. Sleep, masters, and I will keep guard.” In the _Oriental Tales_ the dog is made to say, “You go to seek God, but am not I also a child of God?” Hearing this, the young men were so astounded, they went immediately, and carried the dog into the cave.

_The Place of Sepulture of the Seven Sleepers._ Gregory of Tours tells us that the bodies were removed from Mount Celion in a stone coffin to Marseilles. The _Korân_, with Sale’s notes, informs us they were buried in the cave, and a chapel was built there to mark the site. (See SLEEPER.)

_The Seven Sleepers turning on their sides._ William of Malmesbury says that Edward the Confessor, in his mind’s eye, saw the seven sleepers turn from their right sides to their left, and (he adds) whenever they turn on their sides, it indicates great disasters to Christendom.

Woe, woe to England! I have seen a vision: The seven sleepers in the cave of Ephesus Have turned from right to left.

Tennyson, _Harold_, i. 1.

=Seven Wise Masters.= Lucien, the son of Dolopathos, was placed under the charge of Virgil, and was tempted in manhood by his step-mother. He repelled her advances, and she accused him to the king of taking liberties with her. By consulting the stars it was discovered that if he could tide over seven days his life would be spared; so seven wise masters undertook to tell the king a tale each, in illustration of rash judgments. When they had all told their tales, the prince related, under the disguise of a tale, the story of the queen’s wantonness; whereupon Lucien was restored to favor, and the queen was put to death.--Sandabar, _Parables_ (contemporary with King Courou).

⁂ John Rolland, of Dalkeith, has rendered this legend into Scotch verse. There is an Arabic version by Nasr Allah (twelfth century), borrowed from the Indian by Sandabar. In the Hebrew version by Rabbi Joel (1270), the legend is called _Kalilah and Dimnah_.

=Seven Wise Men= (_The_).

One of Plutarch’s _brochures_ in the _Moralia_ is entitled “The Banquet of the Seven Wise Men,” in which Periander is made to give an account of a contest at Chalcis between Homer and Hesiod, in which the latter wins the prize, and receives a tripod, on which he caused to be engraved this inscription:

This Hesiod vows to the Heliconian nine, In Chalcis won from Homer the divine.

=Seven Wise Men of Greece= (_The_), seven Greeks of the sixth century B.C., noted for their maxims.

BIAS. His maxim was, “Most men are bad” (“There is none that doeth good, no, not one,” _Psalm_ xiv. 3): Οἱ πλέιους κακοὶ[TN-167] (fl. B.C. 550).

CHILO. “Consider the end:” Τέλος ὁρᾳν μακροῦ βίου (fl. B.C. 590).

CLEOBŪLOS. “Avoid extremes” (the golden mean): Ἄριστον μέτρον (fl. B.C. 580).

PERIANDER. “Nothing is impossible to industry” (patience and perseverance overcome mountains): Μελέτη τὸ πᾶν (B.C. 665-585).

PITTĂCOS. “Know thy opportunity” (seize time by the forelock): Καιρὸν γνῶθι (B.C. 652-569).

SOLON. “Know thyself:” Γνῶθι σεαυτὸν (B.C. 638-558).

THĀLES (2 _syl._). “Suretyship is the forerunner of ruin.” (“He that hateth suretyship is sure,” _Prov._ xi. 15): Εγγύα, πάρα δ᾽ ἄτη (B.C. 636-546).

First Solon, who made the Athenian laws, While Chilo, in Sparta, was famed for his saws; In Milētos did Thalês astronomy teach; Bias used in Priēnê his morals to preach; Cleobūlos of Lindos, was handsome and wise; Mitylēnê, gainst thraldom saw Pittăcos rise; Periander is said to have gained, thro’ his court, The title that Myson, the Chenian, ought.

⁂ It is Plato who says that Myson should take the place of Periander as one of the Seven Wise Men.

=Seven Years.=

Barbarossa changes his position in his sleep every seven years.

Charlemagne starts in his chair from sleep every seven years.

Ogier, the Dane, stamps his iron mace on the floor every seven years.

Olaf Redbeard of Sweden uncloses his eyes every seven years.

=Seven Year’s War= (_The_), the war maintained by Frederick II. of Prussia against Austria, Russia, and France (1756-1763).

=Seven Against Thebes= (_The_). At the death of Œdĭpus, his two sons, Eteŏclês and Polynīcês, agreed to reign alternate years, but at the expiration of the first year Eteoclês refused to resign the crown to his brother. Whereupon, Polynicês induced six others to join him in besieging Thebes, but the expedition was a failure. The names of the seven Grecian chiefs who marched against Thebes were: Adrastos, Amphiarāos, Kapaneus, Hippomedon (_Argives_), Parthenopæos (_an Arcadian_), Polynicês (_a Theban_), and Tydeus (_an Æolian_). (See EPIGONI.)

Æschylos has a tragedy on the subject.

=Severn=, a corruption of Averne, daughter of Astrild. The legend is this: King Locryn was engaged to Gwendolen, daughter of Corīneus, but seeing Astrild (daughter of the king of Germany), who came to this island with Homber, king of Hungary, fell in love with her. While Corineus lived he durst not offend him, so he married Gwendolen, but kept Astrild as his mistress, and had by her a daughter (Averne). When Corineus died, he divorced Gwendolen, and declared Astrild queen, but Gwendolen summoned her vassals, dethroned Locryn, and caused both Astrild and Averne to be cast into the river, ever since called Severn fron[TN-168] Averne “the kinges dohter.”

=Sevier= (_Dr._), New Orleans physician. “His inner heart was all of flesh, but his demands for the rectitude of mankind pointed out like the muzzles of cannon through the embrasures of his virtues.” He befriends the struggling Richlings, setting John upon his feet time and again, and in his last illness, never leaving him until he goes out and closes the door upon the dying man, reunited to his wife and child. Dr. Sevier finds work for the widow, and educates little Alice, named for his own dead wife.

“And oh! when they two, who have never joined hands on this earth, go to meet John and Alice,--which GOD grant may be at one and the same time,--what weeping there will be among GOD’S poor!”--George W. Cable, _Dr. Sevier_ (1883).

=Sewall= (_Judge_) Colonial judge in Massachusetts. He has left in his diary a circumstantial account of his courtship of Madam Winthrop, also a curious “confession” made by him in church of the “Guilt contracted upon the opening of the late Commission of Oyer and Terminer, at Salem.”--_Sewall Papers_ (1697).

_Sewall_ (_Rev. Mr._). Boston clergyman, liberal in opinion, and large of heart. He counsels the Lapham parents in their family perplexities, and becomes the not-too-willing sponsor of Lemuel Barker, a rustic aspirant after literary honors.--W. L. Howells, _The Rise of Silas Lapham_ and _The Minister’s Charge_.

=Sex.= Milton says that spirits can assume either sex at pleasure, and Michael Psellus asserts that demons can take what sex, shape, and color they please, and can also contract or dilate their forms at pleasure.

For spirits when they please, Can either sex assume, or both; so soft And uncompounded is their essence pure; Not tied or manacled with joint and limb, Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, Like cumbrous flesh.

_Paradise Lost_, i. 423, etc. (1665).

_Sex._ Cæneus and Tire´sias were at one part of their lives of the male sex, and at another part of their lives of the female sex. (See these names.)

Iphis was first a woman, and then a man.--Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, ix. 12; xiv 699.

=Sextus [Tarquinius].= There are several points of resemblance in the story of Sextus and that of Paris, son of Priam. (1) Paris was the guest of Menelāos, when he eloped with his wife, Helen; and Sextus was the guest of Lucretia when he defiled her. (2) The elopement of Helen was the cause of a national war between the Greek cities and the allied cities of Troy; and the defilement of Lucretia was the cause of a national war between Rome and the allied cities under Por´sena. (3) The contest between Greece and Troy terminated in the victory of Greece, the injured party; and the contest between Rome and the supporters of Tarquin terminated in favor of Rome, the injured party. (4) In the Trojan war, Paris, the aggressor, showed himself before the Trojan ranks, and defied the bravest of the Greeks to single combat, but when Menelaos appeared, he took to flight; and so Sextus rode vauntingly against the Roman host, but when Herminius appeared, fled to the rear like a coward. (5) In the Trojan contest, Priam and his sons fell in battle; and in the battle of Lake Regillus, Tarquin and his sons were slain.

⁂ Lord Macaulay has taken the “Battle of Lake Regillus” as the subject of one of his _Lays of Ancient Rome_. Another of his lays, called “Horatius,” is the attempt of Porsĕna to re-establish Tarquin on the throne.

=Seyd=, pacha of the Morea, assassinated by Gulnare (2 _syl._), his favorite concubine. Gulnare was rescued from the burning harem by Conrad, “the Corsair.” Conrad, in the disguise of a dervise, was detected and seized in the palace of Seyd, and Gulnare, to effect his liberation, murdered the pacha.--Byron, _The Corsair_ (1814).

=Seyton= (_Lord_), a supporter of Queen Mary’s cause.

_Catherine Seyton_, daughter of Lord Seyton, a maid of honor in the Court of Queen Mary. She appears at Kinross village in disguise.

_Henry Seyton_, son of Lord Seyton.--Sir W. Scott, _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

=Sforza=, of Lombardy. He with his two brothers (Achilles and Palamēdês) were in the squadron of adventurers in the allied Christian army.--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

⁂ The word Sforza means “force,” and, according to tradition, was derived thus: Giacomuzzo Attendolo, the son of a day laborer, being desirous of going to the wars, consulted his hatchet, resolving to enlist if it stuck fast in the tree at which he flung it. He threw it with such _force_ that the whole blade was completely buried in the trunk (fifteenth century).

_Sforza_ (_Ludov´ico_), duke of Milan, surnamed “the More,” from _mora_, “a mulberry” (because he had on his arm a birth-stain of a mulberry color). Ludovico was dotingly fond of his bride, Marcelia, and his love was amply returned; but during his absence in the camp, he left Francesco lord protector, and Francesco assailed the fidelity of the young duchess. Failing in his villainy, he accused her to the duke of playing the wanton with him, and the duke, in a fit of jealousy, slew her. Sforza was afterwards poisoned by Eugenia (sister of Francesco), whom he had seduced.

_Nina Sforza_, the duke’s daughter.--Massinger, _The Duke of Milan_ (1622).

⁂ This tragedy is obviously an imitation of Shakespeare’s _Othello_ (1611).

=Sganarelle=, the “cocu imaginaire,” of Molière’s comedy (1660). The plot runs thus: Célie was betrothed to Lélie, but her father, Gorgĭbus, insisted on her marrying Valère, because he was the richer man. Célie fainted on hearing this, and dropped her lover’s miniature, which was picked up by Sganarelle’s wife. Sganarelle, thinking it to be the portrait of a gallant, took possession of it, and Lélie asked him how he came by it. Sganarelle said he took it from his wife, and Lélie supposed that Célie had become the wife of Sganarelle. A series of misapprehensions arose thence: Célie supposed that Lélie had deserted her for Madame Sganarelle; Sganarelle supposed that his wife was unfaithful to him; madame supposed that her husband was an adorer of Célie; and Lélie supposed that Célie was the wife of Sganarelle. In time they met together, when Lélie charged Célie with being married to Sganarelle; both stared, an explanation followed, when a messenger arrived to say that Valère was married.--Molière, _Le Cocu Imaginaire_.

_Sganarelle_, younger brother of Ariste (2 _syl._); a surly, domineering, conceited fellow, the dupe of the play. His brother says to him, “Cette farouche humeur à tous vos procédés inspire un air bizarre, et, jusques à l’habit, rend tout chez vous barbare.” The father of Isabelle and Léonor, on his death-bed, committed them to the charge of Sganarelle and Ariste, who were either to marry them or dispose of them in marriage. Sganarelle chose Isabelle, but insisted on her dressing in serge, going to bed early, keeping at home, looking after the house, mending the linen, knitting socks, and never flirting with any one. The consequence was, she duped her guardian, and cajoled him into giving his signature to her marriage with Valère.--Molière, _L’Ecole des Maris_.

_Sganarelle_ (3 _syl._). At about 63 years of age, Sganarelle wished to marry Dorimène (3 _syl._), daughter of Alcantor, a girl fond of dances, parties of pleasure, and all the active enjoyments of young life. Feeling some doubts about the wisdom of this step, he first consults a friend, who dissuades him, but, seeing the advice is rejected, replies “Do as you like.” He next consults two philosophers, but they are so absorbed in their philosophy, that they pay no attention to him. He then asks the gypsies, who take his money and decamp with a dance. At length, he overhears Dorimène telling a young lover that she only marries the old dotard for his money, and that he cannot live above a few months; so he makes up his mind to decline the marriage. The father of the lady places the matter in his son’s hands, and the young fire-eater, armed with two swords, goes at once to the old _fiancé_, and begs him to choose one. When Sganarelle declines to fight, the young man beats him soundly, and again bids him choose a sword. After two or three good beatings, Sganarelle consents to the marriage “forcé.”--Molière, _Le Mariage Forcé_ (1664).

Molière wrote _Sganarelle ou Le Cocu Imaginaire_ (_q.v._) as a supplement to this comedy.

⁂ This joke about marrying is borrowed from Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, iii. 35, etc. Panurge asks Trouillogan whether he would advise him to marry. The sage says “No.” “But I wish to do so,” says the prince. “Then do so, by all means,” says the sage. “Which, then, would you advise?” asks Panurge. “Neither,” says Trouillogan. “But,” says Panurge, “that is not possible.” “Then both,” says the sage. After this, Panurge consults many others on the subject, and lastly the oracle of the Holy Bottle.

The plot of Molière’s comedy is founded on an adventure recorded of the count of Grammont (_q.v._). The count had promised marriage to la belle Hamilton, but deserted her, and tried to get to France. Being overtaken by the two brothers of the lady, they clapped their hands on their swords, and demanded if the count had not forgotten something or left something behind. “True,” said the count; “I have forgotten to marry your sister;” and returned with the two brothers to repair this oversight.

_Sganarelle_, father of Lucinde. Anxious about his daughter because she has lost her vivacity and appetite, he sends for four physicians, who retire to consult upon the case, but talk only on indifferent topics. When Sganarelle asks the result of their deliberation, they all differ, both in regard to the disease, and the remedy to be applied. Lisette (the lady’s maid) sends for Clitandre, the lover, who comes disguised as a quack doctor, tells Sganarelle that the young lady’s disease must be acted on through the imagination, and prescribes a mock marriage. Sganarelle consents to the experiment, but Clitandre’s assistant being a notary, the mock marriage proves to be a real one.--Molière, _L’Amour Médecin_ (1665).

_Sganarelle_, husband of Martine. He is a faggot-maker, and has a quarrel with his wife, who vows to be even with him for striking her. Valère and Lucas (two domestics of Géronte) ask her to direct them to the house of a noted doctor. She sends them to her husband, and tells them he is so eccentric that he will deny being a doctor, but they must beat him well. So they find the faggot-maker, whom they beat soundly, till he consents to follow them. He is introduced to Lucinde, who pretends to be dumb, but, being a shrewd man, he soon finds out that the dumbness is only a pretence, and takes with him Léandre as an apothecary. The two lovers understand each other, and Lucinde is rapidly cured with “pills matrimoniac.”--Molière, _Le Médecin Malgré Lui_ (1666).

⁂ Sganarelle being asked by the father what he thinks is the matter with Lucinde, replies, “Entendez-vous le Latin?” “En aucune façon,” says Géronte. “Vous n’entendez point le Latin?” “Non, monsieur.” “That is a sad pity,” says Sganarelle, “for the case may be briefly stated thus:

Cabricias arci thuram, catalamus, singulariter, nominativo, hæc musa, _la muse_, bonus, bona, bonum. Deus sanctus, estne oratio Latinas? etiam, _oui_, quare? _pourquoi?_ quia substantivo et adjectivum concordat in generi, numerum, et casus.” “Wonderful man!” says the father.--Act iii.

_Sganarelle_ (3 _syl._), valet to Don Juan. He remonstrates with his master on his evil ways, but is forbidden sternly to repeat his impertinent admonitions. His praise of tobacco, or rather snuff, is somewhat amusing:

Tabac est la passion des honnêtes gens; et qui vit sans tabac n’est pas digne de vivre. Non seulement il réjouit et purge les cerveaux humains, mais encore il instruit les ames à la vertu, et l’on apprend avec lui à devenir honnête homme ... il inspire des sentiments d’honneur à tous ceux qui en prennent.--Molière, _Don Juan_, i. 1 (1665).

=Shaccabac=, in _Blue Beard_. (See SCHACABAC.)

I have seen strange sights. I have seen Wilkinson play “Macbeth;” Matthews, “Othello;” Wrench, “George Barnwell;” Buckstone, “Iago;” Rayner, “Penruddock;” Keeley, “Shylock;” Liston, “Romeo” and “Octavian;” G. F. Cooke, “Mercutio;” John Kemble, “Archer;” Edmund Kean, clown in a pantomine; and C. Young, “Shaccabac.”--_Record of a Stage Veteran._

“Macbeth,” “Othello,” “Iago” (in _Othello_), “Shylock” (_Merchant of Venice_), “Romeo” and “Mercutio” (in _Romeo and Juliet_), all by Shakespeare: “George Barnwell” (Lillo’s tragedy so called); “Penruddock” (in _The Wheel of Fortune_), by Cumberland);[TN-169] “Octavian” (in Colman’s drama so called); “Archer” (in _The Beaux’ Stratagem_, by Farquhar).

=Shackfords= (_The_). _Lemuel Shackford_, “a hard, avaricious, passionate man, holding his own way remorselessly.... A prominent character because of his wealth, endless lawsuits and eccentricity.”

_Richard Shackford_, nephew of _Lemuel_, a frank, whole-souled young fellow, intent upon his profession, but willing to make everybody else comfortable as he wins his way up. He is accused, upon circumstantial evidence, of the murder of his uncle, but is extricated by his own sagacity, which enables him to fix the crime upon the true assassin.--T. B. Aldrich, _The Stillwater Tragedy_ (1880).

=Shaddai= (_King_), who made war upon Diabolus for the regaining of Mansoul.--John Bunyan, _The Holy War_ (1682).

=Shade= (_To fight in the_). Dieneces [_Di.en´.e.seez_], the Spartan, being told that the army of the Persians was so numerous that their arrows would shut out the sun, replied, “Thank the gods! we shall then fight in the shade.”

=Shadow= (_Simon_), one of the recruits of the army of Sir John Falstaff. “A half-faced fellow,” so thin that Sir John said, “A foeman might as well level his gun at the edge of a penknife” as at such a starveling.--Shakespeare, 2 _Henry IV._ act iii. sc. 2 (1598).

=Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego= were cast, by the command of Nebuchadnezzar, into a fiery furnace, but received no injury, although the furnace was made so hot that the heat thereof “slew those men” that took them to the furnace.-_Dan._ iii. 22.

By Nimrod’s order, Abraham was bound and cast into a huge fire at Cûtha; but he was preserved from injury by the angel Gabriel, and only the cords which bound him were burnt. Yet so intense was the heat that above 2000 men were consumed thereby.--See _Gospel of Barnabas_, xxviii.; and Morgan, _Mahometanism Explained_, V. i. 4.

=Shadwell= (_Thomas_), the poet-laureate, was a great drunkard, and was said to be “round as a butt, and liquored every chink” (1640-1692).

Besides, his [_Shadwell’s_] goodly fabric fills the eye, And seems designed for thoughtless majesty.

Dryden, _MacFlecknoe_ (1682).

⁂ Shadwell took opium, and died from taking too large a dose. Hence Pope says:

Benlowes, propitious still to blockheads, bows; And Shadwell nods the poppy on his brows.

_The Dunciad_, iii. 21, 22 (1728).

Benlowes was a great patron of bad poets, and many have dedicated to him their lucubrations. Sometimes the name is shifted into “Benevolus.”

=Shaf´alus and Procrus.= So Bottom, the weaver, calls Cephălus and Procris. (See CEPHALUS.)

_Pyramus._ Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.

_Thisbe._ As Shafalus to Procrus; I to you.

Shakespeare, _Midsummer Night’s Dream_ (1592).

=Shaftesbury= (_Anthony Ashley Cooper, earl of_), introduced by Sir W. Scott in _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

=Shafton= (_Ned_), one of the prisoners in Newgate with old Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone.--Sir W. Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.).

_Shafton_ (_Sir Piercie_), called “The knight of Wolverton,” a fashionable cavaliero, grandson of old Overstitch, the tailor, of Holderness. Sir Piercie talks in the pedantic style of the Elizabethan courtiers.--Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).

=Shah= (_The_), a famous diamond, weighing 86 carats. It was given by Chosroës, of Persia, to the Czar of Russia. (See DIAMONDS.)

=Shakebag= (_Dick_), a highwayman with Captain Colepepper.--Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

=Shakespeare=, introduced by Sir W. Scott in the ante-rooms of Greenwich Palace.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).

⁂ In _Woodstock_ there is a conversation about Shakespeare.

_Shakespeare’s Home._ He left London before 1613, and established himself at Stratford-on-Avon, in Warwickshire, where he was born (1564), and where he died (1616). In the diary of Mr. Ward, the vicar of Stratford, is this entry: “Shakspeare, Drayton and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakspeare died of a fever then contracted.” (Drayton died 1631, and Ben Jonson, 1637.) Probably Shakespeare died on his birthday, April 23.

_Shakespeare’s Monument_, in Westminster Abbey, designed by Kent, and executed by Scheemakers, in 1742. The statue to Shakespeare in Drury Lane Theatre was by the same.

The statue of Shakespeare in the British Museum is by Roubiliac, and was bequeathed to the nation by Garrick. His best portrait is by Droeshout.

_Shakespeare’s Plays_, quarto editions:

ROMEO AND JULIET: 1597, John Danter; 1599, Thomas Creede for Cuthbert Burby; 1609, 1637. Supposed to have been written, 1595.

KING RICHARD II.: 1597, Valentine Simmes for Andrew Wise; 1598, 1608 (with an additional scene); 1615, 1634.

KING RICHARD III.: 1597, ditto; 1598, 1602, 1612, 1622.

LOVE’S LABOR’S LOST; 1598, W. W. for Cuthbert Burby. Supposed to have been written, 1594.

KING HENRY IV. (pt. I): 1598, P. S. for Andrew Wise; 1599, 1604, 1608, 1613. Supposed to have been written, 1597.

KING HENRY IV. (pt. 2): 1600, V. S. for Andrew Wise and William Aspley; 1600. Supposed to have been written, 1598.

KING HENRY V.: 1600, Thomas Creede for Thomas Millington and John Busby; 1602, 1608. Supposed to have been written, 1599.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM: 1600, Thomas Fisher; 1600, James Roberts. Mentioned by Meres, 1598. Supposed to have been written, 1592.

MERCHANT OF VENICE: 1600, I. R. for Thomas Heyes; 1600, James Roberts; 1637. Mentioned by Meres, 1598.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING: 1600, V. S. for Andrew Wise and William Aspley.

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR: 1602, T. C. for Arthur Johnson; 1619. Supposed to have been written, 1596.

HAMLET: 1603, I. R. for N. L.; 1605, 1611. Supposed to have been written, 1597.

KING LEAR: 1608, A. for Nathaniel Butter; 1608, B. for ditto. Acted at Whitehall, 1607. Supposed to have been written, 1605.

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA: 1609, G. Eld for R. Bonian and H. Whalley (with a preface). Acted at court, 1609. Supposed to have been written, 1602.

OTHELLO: 1622, N. O. for Thomas Walkely. Acted at Harefield, 1602.

The rest of the dramas are:

_All’s Well that Ends Well_, 1598. First title supposed to be _Love’s Labor’s Won_.

_Antony and Cleopatra_, 1608. No early mention made of this play.

_As You Like It._ Entered at Stationer’s Hall, 1600.

_Comedy of Errors_, 1593. Mentioned by Meres, 1598.

_Coriolanus_, 1610. No early mention made of this play.

_Cymbeline_, 1605. No early mention made of this play.

1 _Henry VI._ Alluded to by Nash in _Pierce Penniless_, 1592.

2 _Henry VI._ Original title, _First Part of the Contention_, 1594.

3 _Henry VI._ Original title, _True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York_, 1595.

_Henry VIII._, 1601. Acted at the Globe Theatre, 1613.

_John_ (_King_), 1596. Mentioned by Meres, 1598.

_Julius Cæsar_, 1607. No early mention made of this play.

_Lear_, 1605. Acted at Whitehall[TN-170] 1607. Printed 1608.

_Macbeth_, 1606. No early mention made of this play.

_Measure for Measure_, 1603. Acted at Whitehall[TN-171] 1604.

_Merry Wives of Windsor_, 1596. Printed 1602.

_Pericles Prince of Tyre._ Printed 1609.

_Taming of the Shrew._ (?) Acted at Henslow’s Theatre, 1593. Entered at Stationer’s Hall, 1607.

_Tempest_, 1609. Acted at Whitehall, 1611.

_Timon of Athens_, 1609. No early mention made of this play.

_Titus Andronicus_, 1593. Printed 1600.

_Twelfth Night._ Acted in the Middle Temple Hall, 1602.

_Two Gentlemen of Verona_, 1595. Mentioned by Meres[TN-172] 1598.

_Winter’s Tale_, 1604. Acted at Whitehall, 1611.

First complete collection in folio; 1623, Isaac Jaggard and Ed. Blount; 1632, 1664, 1685. The second folio is of very little value.

_Shakespeare’s Parents._ His father was John Shakespeare, a glover, who married Mary Arden, daughter of Robert Arden, Esq., of Bomich, a good country gentleman.

_Shakespeare’s Wife_, Anne Hathaway, of Shottery, some eight years older than himself; daughter of a substantial yeoman.

_Shakespeare’s Children._ One son, Hamnet, who died in his twelfth year (1585-1596). Two daughters, who survived him, Susanna and Judith, twin-born with Hamnet. Both his daughters married and had children, but the lines died out.

_Voltaire says of Shakespeare_: “Rimer had very good reason to say that Shakespeare _n’etait[TN-173] q’un vilain singe_.” Voltaire, in 1765, said, “Shakespeare is a savage with some imagination, whose plays can please only in London and Canada.” In 1735 he wrote to M. de Cideville, “Shakespeare is the Corneille of London, but everywhere else he is a great fool (_grand fou d’ailleur_).”

=Shakespeare of Divines= (_The_), Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667).

Taylor, the Shakespeare of divines.--Emerson.

=Shakespeare of Eloquence= (_The_). The comte de Mirabeau was so called by Barnave (1749-1791).

=Shakespeare of Germany= (_The_), Augustus Frederick Ferdinand von Kotzebue (1761-1819).

=Shakespeare of Prose Fiction= (_The_). Richardson, the novelist, is so called by D’Israeli (1689-1761).

=Shallow=, a weak-minded country justice, cousin to Slender. He is a great braggart, and especially fond of boasting of the mad pranks of his younger days. It is said that Justice Shallow is a satirical portrait of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, who prosecuted Shakespeare for deer-stealing.--Shakespeare, _The Merry Wives of Windsor_ (1596); and 2 _Henry IV._ (1598).

As wise as a justice of the quorum and custalorum in Shallow’s time.--Macaulay.

=Shallum=, lord of a manor consisting of a long chain of rocks and mountains called Tirzah. Shallum was “of gentle disposition, and beloved both by God and man.” He was the lover of Hilpa, a Chinese antediluvian princess, one of the 150 daughters of Zilpah, of the race of Cohu or Cain.--Addison, _Spectator_, viii. 584-5 (1712).

=Shalott= (_The lady of_), a poem by Tennyson, in four parts. Pt. i. tells us that the lady passed her life in the island of Shalott in great seclusion, and was known only by the peasantry. Pt. ii. tells us that she was weaving a magic web, and that a curse would fall on her if she looked down the river. Pt. iii. describes how Sir Lancelot rode to Camelot in all his bravery; and the lady gazed at him as he rode along. Pt. iv. tells us that the lady floated down the river in a boat called _The Lady of Shalott_, and died heart-broken on the way. Sir Lancelot came to gaze on the dead body, and exclaimed, “She has a lovely face, God in his mercy grant her grace!” This ballad was afterwards expanded into the _Idyll_ called “Elaine, the Lily Maid of Astolat” (_q.v._), the beautiful incident of Elaine and the barge being taken from the _History of Prince Arthur_, by Sir T. Malory.

“While my body is whole, let this letter be put into my right hand, and my hand bound fast with the letter until I be cold, and let me be put in a fair bed with all the richest clothes that I have about me, and so let my bed and all my rich clothes be laid with me in a chariot to the next place whereas the Thames is, and there let me be put in a barge, and but one man with me such as ye trust to steer me thither, and that my barge be covered with black samite over and over.” ... So when she was dead, the corpse and the bed and all was led the next way unto to the Thames, and there a man and the corpse and all were put in a barge on the Thames, and so the man steered the barge to Westminster, and there he rowed a great while to and fro, or any man espied.--Pt. iii. 123.

King Arthur saw the body and had it buried, and Sir Lancelot made an offering, etc. (ch. 124); much the same as Tennyson has reproduced it in verse.

_Shalott_ (_The lady of_). “It is not generally known that the lady of Shalott lived, last summer, in an attic at the east end of South Street.” Thus begins a story of an incurable invalid, whose only amusement is watching street scenes reflected in a small mirror hung opposite the one window of her garret-room. A stone flung by a boy shatters the mirror, and the fragile creature never recovers from the shock.--Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, _The Lady of Shalott_.

=Shamho´zai= (3 _syl._), the angel who debauched himself with women, repented, and hung himself up between earth and heaven.--Bereshit rabbi (in _Gen._ vi. 2).

⁂ Harût and Marût were two angels sent to be judges on earth. They judged righteously until Zohara appeared before them, when they fell in love with her, and were imprisoned in a cave near Babylon, where they are to abide till the day of judgment.

=Shandy= (_Tristram_), the nominal hero of Sterne’s novel called _The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman_ (1759). He is the son of Walter and Elizabeth Shandy.

_Captain Shandy_, better known as “Uncle Toby,” the real hero of Sterne’s novel. Captain Shandy was wounded at Namur, and retired on half-pay. He was benevolent and generous, brave as a lion but simple as a child, most gallant and most modest. Hazlitt says that “the character of Uncle Toby is the finest compliment ever paid to human nature.” His modest love-passages with Widow Wadman, his kindly sympathy for Lieutenant Lefevre, and his military discussions, are wholly unrivalled.

_Aunt Dinah_ [_Shandy_], Walter Shandy’s aunt. She bequeathed to him £1000, which Walter fancied would enable him to carry out all the wild schemes with which his head was crammed.

_Mrs. Elizabeth Shandy_, mother of Tristram Shandy. The ideal of nonentity, individual from its very absence of individuality.

_Walter Shandy_, Tristram’s father, a metaphysical Don Quixote, who believes in long noses and propitious names; but his son’s nose was crushed, and his name, which should have been Trismegistus (“the most propitious”), was changed in christening to Tristram (“the most unlucky”). If much learning can make man mad, Walter Shandy was certainly mad in all the affairs of ordinary life. His wife was a blank sheet, and he himself a sheet so written on and crossed and rewritten that no one could decipher the manuscript.--L. Sterne, _The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy_ (1759).

=Sharp=, the ordinary of Major Touchwood, who aids him in his transformation, but is himself puzzled to know which is the real and which the false colonel.--T. Dibdin, _What Next?_

_Sharp_ (_Rebecca_), the orphan daughter of an artist. “She was small and slight in person, pale, sandy-haired, and with green eyes, habitually cast down, but very large, odd, and attractive when they looked up.” Becky had the “dismal precocity of poverty,” and, being engaged as governess in the family of Sir Pitt Crawley, bart., contrived to marry, clandestinely, his son, Captain Rawdon Crawley, and taught him how to live in splendor “upon nothing a year.” Becky was an excellent singer and dancer, a capital talker and wheedler, and a most attractive, but unprincipled, selfish, and unscrupulous woman. Lord Steyne introduced her to court; but her conduct with this peer gave rise to a terrible scandal, which caused a separation between her and Rawdon, and made England too hot to hold her. She retired to the Continent, was reduced to a Bohemian life, but ultimately attached herself to Joseph Sedley, whom she contrived to strip of all his money, and who lived in dire terror of her, dying in six months under very suspicious circumstances.--Thackeray, _Vanity Fair_ (1848).

_Sharp_ (_Timothy_), the “lying valet” of Charles Gayless. His object is to make his master, who has not a sixpence in the world, pass for a man of wealth in the eyes of Melissa, to whom he is engaged.--Garrick, _The Lying Valet_ (1741).

=Sharp-Beak=, the crow’s wife, in the beast-epic called _Reynard the Fox_ (1498).

=Sharpe= (_The Right Rev. James_), archbishop of St. Andrew’s, murdered by John Balfour (a leader in the covenanters’ army) and his party.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

=Sharper= (_Master_), the cutler in the Strand.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

=Sharpitlaw= (_Gideon_), a police officer.--Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

=Shawonda´see=, son of Mudjekeewis, and king of the south wind. Fat and lazy, listless and easy. Shawondasee loved a prairie maiden (the Dandelion), but was too indolent to woo her.--Longfellow, _Hiawatha_ (1855).

=She Stoops to Conquer=, a comedy by Oliver Goldsmith (1773). Miss Hardcastle, knowing how bashful young Marlow is before ladies, _stoops_ to the manners and condition of a barmaid, with whom he feels quite at his ease, and by this artifice wins the man of her choice.

⁂ It is said that when Goldsmith was about 16 years old, he set out for Edgworthstown, and finding night coming on when at Ardagh, asked a man “which was the best house in town”--meaning the best inn. The man, who was Cornelius O’Kelly, the great fencing-master, pointed to that of Mr. Ralph Fetherstone, as being the best house in the vicinity. Oliver entered the parlor, found the master of the mansion sitting over a good fire, and said he intended to pass the night there, and should like to have supper. Mr. Fetherstone happened to know Goldsmith’s father, and, to humor the joke, pretended to be the landlord of “the public,” nor did he reveal himself till next morning at breakfast, when Oliver called for his bill. It was not Sir Ralph Fetherstone, as is generally said, but Mr. Ralph Fetherstone, whose grandson was Sir Thomas.

=Sheba.= The queen of Sheba, or Saba (_i.e._ the Sabeans) came to visit Solomon, and tested his wisdom by sundry questions, but affirmed that his wisdom and wealth exceeded even her expectations.--1 _Kings_ x.; 2 _Chron._ ix.

No, not to answer, madam, all those hard things That Sheba came to ask of Solomon.

Tennyson, _The Princess_, ii.

⁂ The Arabs call her name Balkis, or Belkis; the Abyssinians, Macqueda; and others, Aazis.

_Sheba_ (_The queen of_), a name given to Mde. Montreville (the Begum Mootee Mahul).--Sir W. Scott, _The Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.).

=Shebdiz=, the Persian Bucephalos, the favorite charger of Chosroës II., or Khosrou Parvis, of Persia (590-628).

=Shedad=, king of Ad, who built a most magnificent palace, and laid out a garden called “The Garden of Irem,” like “the bowers of Eden.” All men admired this palace and garden, except the prophet Houd, who told the king that the foundation of his palace was not secure. And so it was, that God, to punish his pride, first sent a drought of three years’ duration, and then the Sarsar, or icy wind, for seven days, in which the garden was destroyed, the palace ruined, and Shedad, with all his subjects, died.

It is said that the palace of Shedad, or Shuddaud, took 500 years in building, and when it was finished the angel of death would not allow him even to enter his garden, but struck him dead, and the rose garden of Irem was ever after invisible to the eye of man.--Southey, _Thalaba, the Destroyer_, 1. (1797).

=Sheep-Dog= (_A_), a lady-companion, who occupies the back seat of the barouche, carries wraps, etc., goes to church with the lady,and[TN-174] “guards her from the wolves,” as much as the lady wishes to be guarded, but no more.

“Rawdon,” said Becky, ... “I must have a sheep-dog ... I mean a _moral_ shepherd’s dog ... to keep the wolves off me.” ... “A sheep-dog, a companion! Becky Sharp with a sheep-dog! Isn’t that good fun!”--Thackeray, _Vanity Fair_, xxxvii. (1848).

=Sheep of the Prisons=, a cant term in the French Revolution for a spy under the jailers.--C. Dickens, _A Tale of Two Cities_, iii. 7 (1859).

=Sheep Tilted at.= Don Quixote saw the dust of two flocks of sheep coming in opposite directions, and told Sancho they were two armies--one commanded by the Emperor Alifanfaron, sovereign of the island of Trap´oban, and the other by the king of the Garaman´teans, called “Pentap´olin with the Naked Arm.” He said that Alifanfaron was in love with Pentapolin’s daughter, but Pentapolin refused to sanction the alliance, because Alifanfaron was a Mohammedan. The mad knight rushed on the flock “led by Alifanfaron,” and killed seven of the sheep, but was stunned by stones thrown at him by the shepherds. When Sancho told his master that the two armies were only two flocks of sheep, the knight replied that the enchanter Freston had “metamorphosed the two grand armies” in order to show his malice.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. iii. 4 (1605).

⁂ After the death of Achillês, Ajax and Ulysses both claimed the armor of Hector. The dispute was settled by the sons of Atreus (2 _syl._), who awarded the prize to Ulysses. This so enraged Ajax that it drove him mad, and he fell upon a flock of sheep driven at night into the camp, supposing it to be an army led by Ulysses and the sons of Atreus. When he found out his mistake, he stabbed himself. This is the subject of a tragedy by Soph´oclês called _Ajax Mad_.

⁂ Orlando in his madness also fell foul of a flock of sheep.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

=Sheffield= (_The Bard of_), James Montgomery, author of _The Wanderer of Switzerland_, etc. (1771-1854).

With broken lyre and cheek serenely pale, Lo! Sad Alcæns wanders down the vale ... O’er his lost works let classic Sheffield weep; May no rude hand disturb their early sleep!

Byron, _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_ (1809).

=Sheila=, pretty, simple-hearted girl, whose father is a magnate among his neighbors in the Orkney Islands. Sheila is won by a Londoner--Lavender by name--who visits her island home. He transplants the Northern wild flower into a London home, where she pines for a while, homesick and heart-sick. In time, her sound sense enables her to adjust herself to altered conditions, and her stronger nature raises and ennobles her husband’s.--William Black, _A Princess of Thulè_.

=Shelby= (_Mr._), Uncle Tom’s first master. Being in commercial difficulties, he was obliged to sell his faithful slave. His son afterwards endeavored to buy Uncle Tom back again, but found that he had been whipped to death by the villain Legree.--Harriet Beecher Stowe, _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ (1852).

=Shell= (_A_). Amongst the ancient Gaels a shell was emblematic of peace. Hence when Bosmi´na, Fingal’s daughter, was sent to propitiate King Erragon, who had invaded Morven, she carried with her a “sparkling shell as a symbol of peace, and a golden arrow as a symbol of war.”--Ossian, _The Battle of Lora_.

=Shells=, _i.e._, hospitality. “Semo, king of shells” (“hospitality”). When Cuthullin invites Swaran to a banquet, his messenger says, “Cuthullin gives the joy of shells; come and partake the feast of Erin’s blue-eyed chief.” The ancient Gaels drank from shells; and hence such phrases as “chief of shells,” “hall of shells,” “king of shells,” etc. (king of hospitality). “To rejoice in the shell” is to feast sumptuously and drink freely.

=Shemus-an-Snachad=, or “James of the Needle,” M’Ivor’s tailor at Edinburgh.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.)

=Shepheardes Calendar= (_The_), twelve eclogues in various metres, by Spenser, one for each month. _January_: Colin Clout (_Spenser_) bewails that Rosalind does not return his love, and compares his forlorn condition to the season itself. _February_: Cuddy, a lad, complains of the cold, and Thenot laments the degeneracy of pastoral life. _March_: Willie and Thomalin discourse of love (described as a person just aroused from sleep). _April_: Hobbinol sings a song on Eliza, queen of shepherds. _May_: Palinode (3 _syl._) exhorts Piers to join the festivities of May, but Piers replies that good shepherds who seek their own indulgence expose their flocks to the wolves. He then relates the fable of the kid and her dam. _June_: Hobbinol exhorts Colin to greater cheerfulness, but Colin replies there is no cheer for him while Rosalind remains unkind and loves Menalcas better than himself. _July_: Morrel, a goat-herd, invites Thomalin to come with him to the uplands, but Thomalin replies that humility better becomes a shepherd (_i.e._, a pastor or clergyman). _August_: Perigot and Willie contend in song, and Cuddy is appointed arbiter. _September_: Diggon Davie complains to Hobbinol of clerical abuses. _October_: On poetry, which Cuddy says has no encouragement, and laments that Colin neglects it, being crossed in love. _November_;[TN-175] Colin, being asked by Thenot to sing, excuses himself because of his grief for Dido, but finally he sings her elegy. _December_: Colin again complains that his heart is desolate because Rosalind loves him not (1579).

=Shepheards Hunting= (_The_), four “eglogues” by George Wither, while confined in the Marshalsea (1615). The shepherd, Roget, is the poet himself, and his “hunting” is a satire called _Abuses Stript and Whipt_, for which he was imprisoned. The first three eglogues are upon the subject of Roget’s imprisonment, and the fourth is on his love of poetry. “Willy” is the poet’s friend, William Browne, of the Inner Temple, author of _Britannia’s Pastorals_. He was two years the junior of Wither.

=Shepherd= (_The_), Moses, who for forty years fed the flocks of Jethro, his father-in-law.

Sing, heavenly Muse, that on the secret top Of Oreb or of Sinai, didst inspire That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed, “In the beginning,” how the heaven and earth Rose out of chaos.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, i. (1665).

_Shepherd_ (_The Gentle_), George Grenville, the statesman. One day, in addressing the House, George Grenville said, “Tell me where! tell me where!...” Pitt hummed the line of a song then very popular, beginning, “Gentle shepherd, tell me where!” and the whole House was convulsed with laughter (1712-1770).

⁂ Allan Ramsay has a beautiful Scotch pastoral called _The Gentle Shepherd_ (1725).

_Shepherd_ (_John Claridge_), the signature adopted by the author of _The Shepherd of Banbury’s Rules to Judge of the Changes of Weather, etc._ (1744). Supposed to be Dr. John Campbell, author of _A Political Survey of Britain_.

=Shepherd-Kings= (_The_), or _Hyksos_. These Hyksos were a tribe of Cuthites driven from Assyria by Aralius and the Shemites. Their names were: (1) SAĪTÊS or Salātês, called by the Arabs El-Weleed, and said to be a descendant of Esau (B.C. 1870-1851); (2) BEON, called by the Arabs Er-Reiyan, son of El-Weleed (B.C. 1851-1811); (3) APACHNAS (B.C. 1811-1750); (4) APŌPHIS, called by the Arabs Er-Reiyan II., in whose reign Joseph was sold into Egypt and was made viceroy (B.C. 1750-1700); (5) JANIAS (B.C. 1700-1651); (6) ASSETH (1651-1610).[TN-176] The Hyksos were driven out of Egypt by Amŏsis or Thetmosis, the founder of the eighteenth dynasty, and retired to Palestine, where they formed the chiefs or lords of the Philistines. (Hyksos is compounded of _hyk_, “king,” and _sos_, “shepherd.”)

⁂ Apophis or Aphophis was not a shepherd-king, but a pharaoh or native ruler, who made Apachnas tributary, and succeeded him, but on the death of Aphophis the hyksos were restored.

=Shepherd Lord= (_The_), Lord Henry de Clifford, brought up by his mother as a shepherd to save him from the vengeance of the Yorkists. Henry VII. restored him to his birthright and estates (1455-1543).

The gracious fairy, Who loved the shepherd lord to meet In his wanderings solitary.

Wordsworth, _The White Doe of Rylstone_ (1815).

=Shepherd of Banbury.= (See SHEPHERD, JOHN CLARIDGE.)

=Shepherd of Filida.=

“Preserve him, Mr. Nicholas, as thou wouldst a diamond. He is not a shepherd, but an elegant courtier,” said the curé.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. i. 6 (1605).

=Shepherd of Salisbury Plain= (_The_), the hero and title of a religious tract by Hannah More. The shepherd is noted for his homely wisdom and simple piety. The academy figure of this shepherd was David Saunders, who, with his father, had kept sheep on the plain for a century.

=Shepherd of the Ocean.= So Colin Clout (_Spenser_) calls Sir Walter Raleigh in his _Colin Clout’s Come Home Again_ (1591).

=Shepherdess= (_The Faithful_), a pastoral drama by John Fletcher (1610). The “faithful shepherdess” is Corin, who remains faithful to her lover although dead. Milton has borrowed rather largely from this pastoral in his _Comus_.

=Sheppard= (_Jack_), immortalized for his burglaries and escapes from Newgate. He was the son of a carpenter in Spitalfields, and was an ardent, reckless and generous youth. Certainly the most popular criminal ever led to Tyburn for execution (1701-1724).

⁂ Daniel Defoe made _Jack Sheppard_ the hero of a romance in 1724, and W. H. Ainsworth, in 1839.

=Sherborne=, in Dorsetshire, always brings ill luck to the possessor. It belonged at one time to the see of Canterbury, and Osmond pronounced a curse on any laymen who wrested it from the Church.

The first laymen who held these lands was the Protector Somerset, who was beheaded by Edward VI.

The next laymen was Sir Walter Raleigh, who was also beheaded.

At the death of Raleigh, James I. seized on the lands, and conferred them on Car, earl of Somerset, who died prematurely. His younger son, Carew, was attainted, committed to the Tower, and lost his estates by forfeiture.

⁂ James I. was no exception. He lost his eldest son, the prince of Wales, Charles I. was beheaded, James II. was forced to abdicate, and the two Pretenders consummated the ill luck of the family.

Sherborne is now in the possession of Digby, earl of Bristol.

(For other possessions which carry with them ill luck, see GOLD OF TOLOSA, GOLD OF NIBELUNGEN, GRAYSTEEL, HARMONIA’S NECKLACE, etc.)

=Sheridan’s Ride=, the story of the brilliant dash of Sheridan upon Winchester, that turned the fortunes of the day in favor of the Federal forces. Early, in command of the Confederates, had driven the United States troops out of the town. When Sheridan met them, they were in full retreat.

“Hurrah! hurrah for horse and man, And when their statues are placed on high, Under the dome of the Union sky, The American soldier’s Temple of Fame, There, with the glorious General’s name Be it said, in letters both bold and bright:-- Here is the steed that saved the day By carrying Sheridan into the fight, From Winchester--twenty miles away!’”

Thomas Buchanan Read, _Sheridan’s Ride_.

=Sheva=, the philanthropic Jew, most modest, but most benevolent. He “stints his appetite to pamper his affections, and lives in poverty that the poor may live in plenty.” Sheva is “the widows’ friend, the orphans’ father, the poor man’s protector, and the universal dispenser of charity, but he ever shrank to let his left hand know what his right hand did.” Ratcliffe’s father rescued him at Cadiz, from an _auto da fe_, and Ratcliffe himself rescued him from a howling London mob. This noble heart settled £10,000 on Miss Ratcliffe at her marriage, and left Charles the heir of all his property.--Cumberland, _The Jew_ (1776).

⁂ The Jews of England made up a very handsome purse, which they presented to the dramatist for this championship of their race.

_Sheva_, in the satire of _Absalom and Achitophel_, by Dryden and Tate, is designed for Sir Roger Lestrange, censor of the press, in the reign of Charles II. Sheva was one of David’s scribes (2 _Sam._ xx. 25), and Sir Roger was editor of the _Observator_, in which he vindicated the court measures, for which he was knighted.

Than Sheva, none more loyal zeal have shown, Wakeful as Judah’s lion for the crown.

Tate, _Absalom and Achitophel_, ii. (1682).

=Shib´boleth=, the test pass-word of a secret society. When the Ephraimites tried to pass the Jordan, after their defeat by Jephthah, the guard tested whether they were Ephraimites or not, by asking them to say the word “Shibboleth,” which the Ephraimites pronounced “Sibboleth” (_Judges_ xii. 1-6).

In the Sicilian Vespers, a word was given as a test of nationality. Some dried peas (_ciceri_) were shown to a suspect: if he called them _cheecharee_, he was a Sicilian, and allowed to pass; but if _siseri_, he was a Frenchman, and was put to death.

In the great Danish slaughter on St. Bryce’s Day (November 13, 1002), according to tradition, a similar test was made with the words “Chichester Church,” which, being pronounced hard or soft, decided whether the speaker were Dane or Saxon.

=Shield of Rome= (_The_), Fabius “Cunctātor.” Marcellus was called “The Sword of Rome.” (See FABIUS.)

=Shift= (_Samuel_), a wonderful mimic, who, like Charles Mathews, the elder, could turn his face to anything. He is employed by Sir William Wealthy, to assist in saving his son, George, from ruin, and accordingly helps the young man in his money difficulties by becoming his agent. Ultimately, it is found that Sir George’s father is his creditor, the young man is saved from ruin, marries, and becomes a reformed and honorable member of society, who has “sown his wild oats.”--Foote, _The Minor_ (1760).

=Shilling= (_To cut one off with a_). A tale is told of Charles and John Banister. John, having irritated his father, the old man said, “Jack, I’ll cut you off with a shilling.” To which the son replied, “I wish, dad, you would give it to me now.”

⁂ The same identical anecdote is told of Sheridan and his son Tom.

=Shingle= (_Solon_), prominent personage in J. S. Jones’s farce, _The People’s Lawyer_.

=Ship= (_The Intelligent_). _Ellīda_ (Frithjof’s ship) understood what was said to it; hence in the _Frithjof Saga_ the son of Thornsten constantly addresses it, and the ship always obeys what is said to it.--Tegner, _Frithjof Saga_, x. (1825).

=Shipton= (_Mother_), the heroine of an ancient tale entitled _The Strange and Wonderful History and Prophecies of Mother Shipton_, etc.--T. Evan Preece.

=Shipwreck= (_The_), a poem in three cantos, by William Falconer (1762). Supposed to occupy six days. The ship was the _Britannia_, under the command of Albert, and bound for Venice. Being overtaken in a squall, she is driven out of her course from Candia, and four seamen are lost off the lee main-yardarm. A fearful storm greatly distresses the vessel and the captain gives command “to bear away.” As she passes the island of St. George, the helmsman is struck blind by lightning. Bowsprit, foremast, and main-topmast being carried away, the officers try to save themselves on the wreck of the foremast. The ship splits on the projecting verge of Cape Colonna. The captain and all his crew are lost except Arion (_Falconer_), who is washed ashore, and being befriended by the natives, returns to England to tell this mournful story.

=Shirley.= Bright, independent heiress of Yorkshire, beautiful and courted, who chooses her own way and her own husband.--Charlotte Brontè, _Shirley_.

=Shoo-King= (_The_), the history of the Chinese monarchs, by Confucius. It begins with Yoo, B.C. 2205.

=Shoolbred= (_Dame_), the foster-mother of Henry Smith.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

=Shore= (_Jane_), the heroine and title of a tragedy by N. Rowe (1312). Jane Shore was the wife of a London merchant, but left her husband to become the mistress of Edward IV. At the death of that monarch, Lord Hastings wished to obtain her, but she rejected his advances. This drew on her the jealous wrath of Alicia (Lord Hastings’s mistress), who induced her to accuse Lord Hastings of want of allegiance to the lord protector. The duke of Gloucester commanded the instant execution of Hastings; and, accusing Jane Shore of having bewitched him, condemned her to wander about in a sheet, holding a taper in her hand, and decreed that any one who offered her food or shelter should be put to death. Jane continued an outcast for three days, when her husband came to her succor, but he was seized by Gloucester’s myrmidons, and Jane Shore died.

=Shoreditch= (_Duke of_). Barlow, the favorite archer of Henry VIII., was so entitled by the Merry Monarch, in royal sport. Barlow’s two skillful companions were created at the same time, “marquis of Islington,” and “earl of Pancras.”

Good king, make not good lord of Lincoln “duke of Shoreditche.”--_The Poore Man’s Petition to the Kinge_ (art. xvi. 1603).

=Shorne= (_Sir John_) noted for his feat of conjuring the devil into a boot.

To Master John Shorne, That blessêd man borne, Which jugeleth with a bote; I beschrewe his herte rote That will trust him, and it be I.

_Fantassie of Idolatrie._

=Short-Lived Administration= (_The_). the[TN-177] administration formed February 12, 1746, by William Pulteney. It lasted only two days.

=Shortcake= (_Mrs._), the baker’s wife, one of Mrs. Mailsetter’s friends.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

=Shortell= (_Master_), the mercer at Liverpool.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

=Short´hose= (2 _syl._), a clown, servant to Lady Hartwell, the widow.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _Wit Without Money_ (1539).

=Shorthouse= (_Tom_), epitaph of.

_Hic Jacet_ Tom Shorthouse, _sine_ Tom, _sine_ Sheets, _sine_ Riches; _Qui Vixit sine_ Gown, _sine_ Cloak, _sine_ Shirt, _sine_ Breeches.

_Old London_ (taken from the _Magna Britannia_)

=Shovel-Boards= or _Edward Shovel-Boards_, broad shillings of Edward III. Taylor, the water-poet, tells us “they were used for the most part at shoave-board.”

... the unthrift every day, With my face downwards do at shoave-board play.

Taylor, the water-poet (1580-1754).

=Shewsberry= (_Lord_), the earl marshall in the court of Queen Elizabeth.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).

=Shufflebottom= (_Abel_), a name assumed by Robert Southey in some of his amatory productions (1774-1843).

=Shuffles= (_Robert_). One of the “bad boys,” whose misdemeanors and reformation are sketched in _Outward Bound_, by William T. Adams (Oliver Optic).

=Shuffleton= (_The Hon. Tom_), a man of very slender estate, who borrows of all who will lend, but always forgets to repay or return the loans. When spoken to about it, he interrupts the speaker before he comes to the point, and diverts the conversation to some other subject. He is one of the new school, always emotionless, looks on money as the _summum bonum_, and all as fair that puts money in his purse. The Hon. Tom Shuffleton marries Lady Caroline Braymore, who has £4000 a year. (See DIMANCHE.)--G. Colman, Jr., _John Bull_.

=Shylock=, the Jew, who lends Antonio (a Venetian merchant) 3000 ducats for three months, on these conditions: If repaid within the time, only the principal would be required; if not, the Jew should be at liberty to cut from Antonio’s body a pound of flesh. The ships of Antonio being delayed by contrary winds, the merchant was unable to meet his bill, and the Jew claimed the forfeiture. Portia, in the dress of a law doctor, conducted the trial, and when the Jew was about to take his bond, reminded him that he must shed no drop of blood, nor must he cut either more or less than an exact pound. If these conditions were infringed his life would be forfeit. The Jew, feeling it to be impossible to exact the bond under such conditions, gave up the claim, but was heavily fined for seeking the life of a Venetian citizen.--Shakespeare, _The Merchant of Venice_ (1598).

Among modern actors, _Henry Irving_, as Shylock, stands unsurpassed.

According to the kindred authority of Shylock, no man hates the thing he would not kill.--Sir W. Scott.

⁂ Paul Secchi tells us a similar tale: A merchant of Venice, having been informed by private letter that Drake had taken and plundered St. Domingo, sent word to Sampson Ceneda, a Jewish usurer. Ceneda would not believe it, and bet a pound of flesh it was not true. When the report was confirmed the pope told Secchi he might lawfully claim his bet if he chose, only he must draw no blood, nor take either more or less than an exact pound, on the penalty of being hanged.--Gregorio Leti, _Life of Sextus V._ (1666).

=Sibbald=, an attendant on the earl of Menteith.--Sir W. Scott, _Legend of Montrose_ (time, Charles I.).

=Sibylla=, the sibyl. (See SIBYLS.)

And thou, Alecto, feede me wyth thy foode ... And thou, Sibilla, when thou seest me faynte, Addres thyselfe the gyde of my complaynte.

Sackville, _Mirrour for Magistraytes_ (“Complaynte,” etc., (1557).[TN-178]

=Sibyls.= Plato speaks of only _one_ sibyl; Martian Capella says there were _two_ (the _Erythræan_ or _Cumæan_ sibyl, and the _Phrygian_); Pliny speaks of the _three_ sibyls; Jackson maintains, on the authority of Ælian, that there were _four_; Shakespeare speaks of the _nine_ sibyls of old Rome (1 _Henry VI._ act i. sc. 2); Varro says they were _ten_ (the sibyls of Libya, Samos, Cumæ (in Italy), Cumæ (in Asia Minor), Erythræ, Persia, Tiburtis, Delphi, Ancy´ra (in Phrygia), and Marpessa), in reference to which Rabelais says, “she may be the _eleventh_ sibyl” (_Pantagruel_, iii. 16); the mediæval monks made the number to be _twelve_, and gave to each a distinct prophecy respecting Christ. But whatever the number, there was but _one_ “sibyl of old Rome” (the Cumæan), who offered to Tarquin the nine Sibylline books.

=Sibyl’s Books= (_The_). We are told that the sibyl of Cumæ (in Æŏlis) offered Tarquin nine volumes of predictions for a certain sum of money, but the king, deeming the price exorbitant, refused to purchase them; whereupon she burnt three of the volumes, and next year offered Tarquin the remaining six at the same price. Again he refused, and the sibyl burnt three more. The following year she again returned, and asked the original price for the three which remained. At the advice of the augurs the king purchased the books, and they were preserved with great care under guardians specially appointed for the purpose.

=Sicilian Bull= (_The_), the brazen bull invented by Perillos for the tyrant Phalăris, as an engine of torture. Perillos himself was the first victim enclosed in the bull.

As the Sicilian bull that rightfully His cries echoed who had shaped the mould, Did so rebellow with the voice of him Tormented, that the brazen monster seemed Pierced through with pain.

Dantê, _Hell_, xxvii. (1300).

=Sicilian Vespers= (_The_), the massacre of the French in Sicily, which began at Palermo, March 30, 1282, at the hour of vespers, on Easter Monday. This wholesale slaughter was provoked by the brutal conduct of Charles d’Anjou (the governor) and his soldiers towards the islanders.

A similar massacre of the Danes was made in England, on St. Bryce’s Day (November 13), 1002.

Another similar slaughter took place at Bruges, March 24, 1302.

⁂ The Bartholomew Massacre (Aug. 24, 1572) was a religious not a political movement.

=Sicilien= (_Le_) or L’AMOUR PEINTRE, a comedy by Molière (1667). The Sicilian is Don Pèdre, who has a Greek slave named Is´idore. This slave is loved by Adraste (2 _syl._), a French gentleman, and the plot of the comedy, turns on the way that the Frenchman allures the Greek slave away from her master. Hearing that his friend Damon is going to make a portrait of Isidore, he gets him to write to Don Pèdre a letter of introduction, requesting that the bearer may be allowed to take the likeness. By this ruse, Adraste reveals his love to Isidore, and persuades her to elope. The next step is this: Zaïde (2 _syl._), a young slave, pretends to have been ill-treated by Adraste, and runs to Don Pèdre to crave protection. The don bids her go in, while he intercedes with Adraste on her behalf. The Frenchman seems to relent, and Pèdre calls for Zaïde to come forth, but Isidore comes instead, wearing Zaïde’s veil. Don Pèdre says to Adraste, “There, take her home, and use her well!” “I will,” says Adraste, and leads off the Greek slave.

=Siddartha=, born at Gaya, in India, and known in Indian history as Buddha (_i.e._ “The Wise”).

=Sidney=, the tutor and friend of Charles Egerton McSycophant. He loves Constantia, but conceals his passion for fear of paining Egerton, her accepted lover.--C. Macklin, _The Man of the World_ (1764).

_Sidney_ (_Sir Philip_). Sir Philip Sidney, though suffering extreme thirst from the agony of wounds, received in the battle of Zutphen, gave his own draught of water to a wounded private, lying at his side, saying, “Poor fellow, thy necessity is greater than mine.”

A similar instance is recorded of Alexander “the Great,” in the desert of Gedrosia.

David, fighting against the Philistines, became so parched with thirst, that he cried out, “Oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!” And the three mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines, and brought him water; nevertheless, he would not drink it, but poured it out unto the Lord.--2 _Sam._ xxiii. 15-17.

=Sidney’s Sister, Pembroke’s Mother.= Mary Herbert (born Sidney), countess of Pembroke, who died 1621.

Underneath this sable hearse Lies the subject of all verse-- Sidney’s sister, Pembroke’s mother. Death, ere thou hast slain another Fair, and good, and learned as she, Time shall throw his dart at thee.

Ben Jonson (1574-1637).

=Sid´rophel=, William Lily, the astrologer.

Quoth Ralph, “Not far from hence doth dwell A cunning man, hight Sidrophel, That deals in destiny’s dark counsels, And sage opinions of the moon sells; To whom all people, far and near, On deep importances repair.”

S. Butler, _Hudibras_, ii. 3 (1664).

=Siebel=, Margheri´ta’s rejected lover, in the opera of _Faust e Margherita_, by Gounod (1859).

=Siége.= _Mon siége est fait_, my opinion is fixed, and I cannot change it. This proverb rose thus: The abbé de Vertot wrote the history of a certain siege, and applied to a friend for some geographical particulars. These particulars did not arrive till the matter had passed the press; so the abbé remarked with a shrug, “Bah! mon siége est fait.”

=Siege Perilous= (_The_). The Round Table contained sieges for 150 knights, but three of them were “reserved.” Of these, two were posts of honor, but the third was reserved for him who was destined to achieve the quest of the Holy Graal. This seat was called “perilous,” because if any one sat therein, except he for whom it was reserved, it would be his death. Every seat of the table bore the name of its rightful occupant, in letters of gold, and the name on the “Siege Perilous” was Sir Galahad (son of Sir Launcelot and Elaine).

Said Merlin, “There shall no man sit in the two void places but they that shall be of most worship. But in the _Siege Perilous_ there shall no man sit but one, and if any other be so hardy as to do it, he shall be destroyed.”--Pt. i. 48.

Then the old man made Sir Galahad unarm; and he put on him a coat of red sandel, with a mantel upon his shoulder furred with fine ermines ... and he brought him unto the Siege Perilous, when he sat beside Sir Launcelot. And the good old man lifted up the cloth, and found there these words written: THE SIEGE OF SIR GALAHAD.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, iii. 32 (1470).

=Siege of Calais=, a novel by Mde. de Tencin (1681-1749). George Colman has a drama with the same title.

=Siege of Damascus.= Damascus was besieged by the Arabs while Eu´menês was governor. The general of the Syrians was Pho´cyas, and of the Arabs, Caled. Phocyas asked Eumenês’s permission to marry his daughter, Eudo´cia, but was sternly refused. After gaining several victories he fell into the hands of the Arabs, and then joined them in their siege in order to revenge himself on Eumenês. Eudocia fell into his power, but she refused to marry a traitor. Caled requested Phocyas to point out to him the governor’s tent; on being refused, they fought, and Caled fell. Abudah, being now in chief command, made an honorable peace with the Syrians, Phocyas died, and Eudocia retired to a convent.--J. Hughes, _Siege of Damascus_ (1720).

=Siege of Rhodes=, by Sir W. Davenant (1656).

=Sieg´fried= [_Seeg.freed_], hero of pt. i. of the _Nibelungen Lied_, the old German epic. Siegfried was a young warrior of peerless strength and beauty, invulnerable except in one spot between his shoulders. He vanquished the Nibelungs, and carried away their immense hoards of gold and precious stones. He wooed and won Kriemhild, the sister of Günther, king of Burgundy, but was treacherously killed by Hagan while stooping for a draught of water after a hunting expedition.

Siegfried had a cape, or cloak, which rendered him invisible, the gift of the dwarf, Alberich; and his sword, called Balmung, was forged by Wieland, blacksmith of the Teutonic gods.

This epic consists of a number of different lays by the old minnesingers, pieced together into a connected story as early as 1210. It is of Scandinavian origin, and is in the _Younger Edda_, amongst the “Völsunga Sagas” (compiled by Snorro, in the thirteenth century).

_Siegfried’s Birthplace._ He was born in Phinecastle, then called Xanton.

_Siegfried’s Father and Mother._ Siegfried was the youngest son of Siegmund and Sieglind, king and queen of the Netherlands.

_Siegfried called Horny._ He was called horny because, when he slew the dragon, he bathed in its blood, and became covered with a horny hide which was invulnerable. A linden leaf happened to fall on his back between his shoulder-blades, and, as the blood did not touch this spot, it remained vulnerable.--The minnesingers, _The Nibelungen Lied_ (1210).

=Sieg´fried von Lindenberg=, the hero of a comic German romance by Müller (1779). Still popular and very amusing.

=Sieglind= [_Seeg.lind_], the mother of Siegfried, and wife of Siegmund, king of the Netherlands.--The minnesingers, _The Nibelungen Lied_ (1210).

=Siegmund= [_Seeg.mund_], king of the Netherlands. His wife was Sieglind, and his son, Siegfried [_Seeg.freed_].--The minnesingers, _The Nibelungen Lied_ (1210).

=Sige´ro=, “the Good,” slain by Argantês. Argantês hurled his spear at Godfrey, but it struck Sigēro, who “rejoiced to suffer in his sovereign’s place.”--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_, xi. (1575).

=Sightly= (_Captain_), a dashing young officer, who runs away with Priscilla Tomboy, but subsequently obtains her guardian’s consent to marry her.--_The Romp_ (altered from Bickerstaff’s _Love in the City_).

=Sigismonda=, daughter of Tancred, king of Salerno. She fell in love with Guiscardo, her father’s squire, revealed to him her love, and married him in a cavern attached to the palace. Tancred discovered them in each other’s embrace, and gave secret orders to waylay the bridegroom and strangle him. He then went to Sigismonda, and reproved her for her degrading choice, which she boldly justified. Next day, she received a human heart in a gold casket, knew instinctively that it was Guiscardo’s, and poisoned herself. Her father being sent for, she survived just long enough to request that she might be buried in the same grave as her young husband, and Tancred:

Too late repenting of his cruel deed, One common sepulchre for both decreed; Intombed the wretched pair in royal state, And on their monument inscribed their fate.

Dryden, _Sigismonda and Guiscardo_ (from Boccaccio).

=Sigismund=, emperor of Austria.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

=Sigismunda=, daughter of Siffrēdi, lord high chancellor of Sicily, and betrothed to Count Tancred. When King Roger died, he left the crown of Sicily to Tancred, on condition that he married Constantia, by which means the rival lines would be united, and the country saved from civil war. Tancred gave a tacit consent, intending to obtain a dispensation; but Sigismunda, in a moment of wounded pride, consented to marry Earl Osmond. When King Tancred obtained an interview with Sigismunda, to explain his conduct, Osmond challenged him, and they fought. Osmond fell, and when his wife ran to him, he thrust his sword into her and killed her.--J. Thomson, _Tancred and Sigismunda_ (1745).

⁂ This tragedy is based on “The Baneful Marriage,” an episode in _Gil Blas_, founded on fact.

_Sigismunda_, the heroine of Cervantes’s last work of fiction. This tale is a tissue of episodes, full of most incredible adventures, astounding prodigies, impossible characters, and extravagant sentiments. It is said that Cervantes himself preferred it to his _Don Quixote_, just as Corneille preferred _Nicomede_ to his _Cid_, and Milton _Paradise Regained_ to his _Paradise Lost_.--_Encyc. Brit._, Art. “Romance.”

=Sigurd=, the hero of an old Scandinavian legend. Sigurd discovered Brynhild, encased in a complete armor, lying in a death-like sleep, to which she had been condemned by Odin. Sigurd woke her by opening her corselet, fell in love with her, promised to marry her, but deserted her for Gudrun. This ill-starred union was the cause of an _Iliad_ of woes.

An analysis of this romance was published by Weber in his _Illustrations of Northern Antiquities_ (1810).

=Sijil= (_Al_), the recording angel.

On that day we will roll up the heavens as the angel Al Sijil rolleth up the scroll wherein every man’s actions are recorded.--_Al Korân_, xxi.

=Sikes= (_Bill_), a burglar, and one of Fagin’s associates. Bill Sikes was a hardened, irreclaimable villian,[TN-179] but had a conscience which almost drove him mad after the murder of Nancy, who really loved him (ch. xlviii.) Bill Sikes (1 _syl._) had an ill-conditioned savage dog, the beast-image of his master, which he kicked and loved, ill-treated and fondled.--C. Dickens, _Oliver Twist_ (1837).

The French “Bill Sikes” is “Jean Hiroux,” a creation of Henry Monnier.

=Sikundra= (_The_), a mausoleum about six miles from Agra, raised by Akhbah “the Great.”

=Silence=, a country justice of asinine dullness when sober, but when in his cups of most uproarious mirth. He was in the commission of the peace with his cousin Robert Shallow.

_Falstaff._ I did not think Master Silence had been a man of this mettle.

_Silence._ Who, I? I have been merry twice and once, ere now.--Shakespeare, 2 _Henry IV._, act vi. sc. 3 (1598).

=Sile´no=, husband of Mysis; a kind-hearted man, who takes pity on Apollo when cast to earth by Jupiter, and gives him a home.--Kane O’Hara, _Midas_ (1764).

=Silent= (_The_), William I., prince of Orange (1533-1584). It was the principle of Napoleon III., emperor of the French, to “hear, see, and say nothing.”

=Silent Man= (_The_), the barber of Bagdad, the greatest chatterbox that ever lived. Being sent for to shave the head and beard of a young man who was to visit the cadi’s daughter at noon, he kept him from daybreak to midday, prating, to the unspeakable annoyance of the customer. Being subsequently taken before the caliph, he ran on telling story after story about his six brothers. He was called the “Silent Man,” because on one occasion, being accidentally taken up with ten robbers, he never said he was not one of the gang. His six brothers were Bacbouc, the hunchback, Bakbarah, the toothless, Bakac, the one-eyed, Alcouz, the blind, Alnaschar, the earless, and Schacabac, the hare-lipped.--_Arabian Nights_ (“The Barber,” and “The Barber’s Six Brothers”).

=Silent Woman= (_The_), a comedy by Ben Jonson (1609). Morose, a miserly old fellow, who hates to hear any voice but his own, has a young nephew, Sir Dauphine, who wants to wring from him a third of his property; and the way he gains his point is this: He induces a lad to pretend to be a “silent woman.” Morose is so delighted with the phenomenon that he consents to marry the prodigy; but the moment the ceremony is over, the boy-wife assumes the character of a virago, whose tongue is a ceaseless clack. Morose is in despair, and signs away a third of his property to his nephew, on condition of being rid of this intolerable pest. The trick is now revealed, Morose retires into private life, and Sir Dauphine remains master of the situation.

=Sile´nus=, son of Pan, chief of the sile´ni or older satyrs. Silēnus was the foster-father of Bacchus, the wine-god, and is described as a jovial old toper, with bald head, pug nose, and pimply face.

Old Silenus, bloated, drunken, Led by his inebriate satyrs.

Longfellow, _Drinking Song._

=Silky=, a Jew money-lender, swindler, and miser. (See SULKY.)

Yon cheat all day, tremble at night, and act the hypocrite the first thing in the morning.--T. Holcroft, _The Road to Ruin_, ii. 3 (1792).

=Silly Billy=, William IV. (1765, 1830-1837).

=Silva= (_Don Ruy Gomez de_), an old Spanish grandee, to whom Elvīra was betrothed; but she detested him, and loved Ernani, a bandit-captain. Charles V. tried to seduce her, and Silva, in his wrath, joined Ernani to depose the king. The plot being discovered, the conspirators were arrested, but, at the intercession of Elvira, were pardoned. The marriage of Ernani and Elvira was just about to be consummated, when a horn sounded. Ernani had bound himself, when Silva joined the bandit, to put an end to his life whenever summoned so to do by Silva; and the summons was to be given by the blast of a horn. Silva being relentless, Ernani kept his vow, and stabbed himself.--Verdi, _Ernani_ (1841).

=Silver-Fork School= (_The_), a name given to a class of English novelists who gave undue importance to etiquette and the externals of social intercourse. The most distinguished are: Lady Blessington (1789-1849), Theodore Hook (1716-1796), Lord Lytton (1804-1873), and Mrs. Trollope (1790-1863).

=Silver Pen.= Eliza Meteyard was so called by Douglas Jerold, and she adopted the pseudonym (1816-1879).

=Silver Star of Love= (_The_), the star which appeared to Vasco da Gama, when his ships were tempest-tossed, through the malice of Bacchus. Immediately the star appeared, the tempest ceased, and there was a great calm.

The sky and ocean blending, each on fire, Seemed as all Nature struggled to expire; When now the Silver Star of Love appeared, Bright in the east her radiant front she reared.

Camoens, _Lusiad_, vi. (1572).

=Silver Tongued= (_The_), Joshua Sylvester, translator of Du Bartas’s _Divine Weeks and Works_ (1563-1618).

William Bates, a puritan divine (1625-1699).

Henry Smith, preacher (1550-1600).

Anthony Hammond, the poet, called “Silver Tongue” (1668-1738).

Spranger Barry, the “Irish Roscius” (1719-1777).

=Silverquill= (_Sam_), one of the prisoners at Portanferry.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Silves de la Selva= (_The Exploits and Adventures of_), part of the series called _Le Roman des Romans_, pertaining to “Am´adis of Gaul.” This part was added by Feliciano de Silva.

=Silvester= (_Anne_), woman betrayed under promise of marriage, by _Geoffrey Delamayne_, a famous athlete. By a series of _contretemps_, Anne is made out to be the wife (according to Scotch law) of her dearest friend’s betrothed, who visits her as Delamayne’s emissary. She is released from the embarrassing position, by the exhibition of a letter from Delamayne, promising to marry her, written before _Arnold’s_ visit. Infuriated by the _exposé_, Delamayne tries to murder his wife, and is prevented by a crazy woman. Her sudden attack brings on apoplexy. Anne, as his widow, marries her old friend and defender, Sir Patrick Lundie.--Wilkie Collins, _Man and Wife_ (1874).

=Silvestre= (2 _syl._), valet of Octave (son of Argante, and brother of Zerbinette).--Molière, _Les Fourberies de Scapin_ (1671).

=Sil´via=, daughter of the duke of Milan, and the lady-love of Valentine, one of the heroes of the play.--Shakespeare, _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_ (1594).

=Simmons= (_Widow_), the seamstress; a neighbor of the Ramsays.--Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

=Simon= (_Martin_), proprietor of the village Bout du Monde, and miller of Grenoble. He is called “The king of Pelvoux,” and in reality is the Baron de Peyras, who has given up all his estates to his nephew, the young chevalier, Marcellin de Peyras, and retired to Grenoble, where he lived as a villager. Martin Simon is in secret possession of a gold-mine, left him by his father, with the stipulation that he should place it beyond the reach of any private man, on the day it becomes a “source of woe and crime.” Rabisson, a travelling tinker, the only person who knows about it, being murdered, Simon is suspected; but Eusebe Noel confesses the crime. Simon then makes the mine over to the king of France, as it had proved the source both “of woe and crime.”--E. Stirling, _The Gold Mine_, or _Miller of Grenoble_ (1854).

=Simonides=, benevolent Jew, father of Esther, and friend of Ben Hur.--Lew Wallace, _Ben Hur: a Tale of the Christ_ (1880).

=Simon Pure=, a young quaker from Pennsylvania, on a visit to Obadiah Prim (a Bristol Quaker, and one of the guardians of Anne Lovely, the heiress). Colonel Feignwell personated Simon Pure, and obtained Obadiah’s consent to marry his ward. When the real Simon Pure presented himself, the colonel denounced him as an impostor; but after he had obtained the guardian’s signature, he confessed the trick, and showed how he had obtained the consent of the other three guardians.--Mrs. Centlivre, _A Bold Stroke for a Wife_ (1717).

⁂ This name has become a household word for “the real man,” the _ipsissimus ego_.

=Si´monie= or SI´MONY, the friar, in the beast-epic of _Reynard the Fox_ (1498). So called from Simon Magus (_Acts._ viii. 9-24.)

=Simony= (_Dr._), in Foote’s farce, called _The Cozeners_, was meant for Dr. Dodd.

=Sim´org=, a bird “which hath seen the world thrice destroyed.” It is found in Kâf, but as Hafiz says, “searching for the simorg is like searching for the philosopher’s stone.” This does not agree with Beckford’s account. (See SIMURGH.)

In Kâf the simorg hath its dwelling-place, The all-knowing bird of ages, who hath seen The world with all its children thrice destroyed.

Southey, _Thalaba, the Destroyer_, viii. 19 (1797).

=Simpcox= (_Saunder_), a lame man, who asserted he was born blind, and to whom St. Alban said, “Come, offer at my shrine, and I will help thee.” Being brought before Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, the lord protector, he was asked how he became lame; and Simpcox replied he fell from a tree which he had climbed to gather plums for his wife. The duke then asked if his sight had been restored? “Yes,” said the man; and, being shown divers colors, could readily distinguish between red, blue, brown, and so on. The duke told the rascal that a _blind_ man does not climb trees to gather their fruits; and one born blind might, if his sight were restored, know that one color differed from another, but could not possibly know which was which. He then placed a stool before him and ordered the constables to whip him till he jumped over it; whereupon the lame man jumped over it, and ran off as fast as his legs could carry him. Sir Thomas More tells this story, and Shakespeare introduces it in 2 _Henry VI_. act ii. sc. 1 (1591).

=Simple=, the servant of Slender (cousin of Justice Shallow).--Shakespeare, _The Merry Wives of Windsor_ (1596).

_Simple_ (_The_), Charles III. of France (879, 893-929).

_Simple_ (_Peter_), the hero and title of a novel by Captain Marryat (1833).

=Simple Simon=, a man more sinned against than sinning, whose misfortunes arose from his wife Margery’s cruelty, which began the very morning of their marriage.

We do not know whether it is necessary to seek for a Teutonic or Northern original for this once popular book.--_Quarterly Review._

=Simpson= (_Tam_), the drunken barber.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan’s Well_ (time, George III.).

=Simson= (_Jean_), an old woman at Middlemas village.--Sir W. Scott, _The Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.).

=Simurgh=, a fabulous Eastern bird, endowed with reason and knowing all languages. It had seen the great cycle of 7000 years twelve times, and, during that period, it declared it had seen the earth wholly without inhabitant seven times.--W. Beckford, _Vathek_ (notes, 1784). This does not agree with Southey’s account. (See SIMORG.)

=Sin=, twin-keeper, with Death, of Hellgate. She sprang, full-grown, from the head of Satan.

Woman to the waist, and fair, But ending foul in many a scaly fold Voluminous and vast, a serpent armed With mortal sting.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, ii. (1665).

=Sin´adone= (_The lady of_), metamorphosed by enchantment into a serpent. Sir Lybius (one of Arthur’s knights) slew the enchantress, and the serpent, coiling about his neck, kissed him; whereupon the spell was broken, the serpent became a lovely princess, and Sir Lybius made her his wife.--_Libeaux_ (a romance).

=Sindbad=, a merchant of Bagdad, who acquired great wealth by merchandise. He went seven voyages, which he related to a poor, discontented porter named Hindbad, to show him that wealth must be obtained by enterprise and personal exertion.

_First Voyage._ Being becalmed in the Indian Ocean, he and some others of the crew visited what they supposed to be an island, but which was in reality a huge whale asleep. They lighted a fire on the whale, and the heat woke the creature, which instantly dived under water. Sindbad was picked up by some merchants, and in due time returned home.

_Second Voyage._ Sindbad was left, during sleep, on a desert island, and discovered a roc’s egg, “fifty paces in circumference.” He fastened himself to the claw of the bird, and was deposited in the valley of diamonds. Next day some merchants came to the top of the crags, and threw into the valley huge joints of raw meat, to which the diamonds stuck, and when the eagles picked up the meat, the merchants scared them from their nests, and carried off the diamonds. Sindbad fastened himself to a piece of meat, was carried by an eagle to its nest, and, being rescued by the merchants, returned home laden with diamonds.

_Third Voyage_ is the encounter with the Cyclops. (See ULYSSES AND POLYPHEMOS, where the account is given in detail.)

_Fourth Voyage._ Sindbad married a lady of rank in a strange island on which he was cast; and when his wife died he was buried alive with the dead body, according to the custom of the land. He made his way out of the catacomb, and returned to Bagdad greatly enriched by valuables rifled from the dead bodies.

_Fifth Voyage._ The ship in which he sailed was dashed to pieces by huge stones let down from the talons of two angry rocs. Sindbad swam to a desert inland,[TN-180] where he threw stones at the monkeys, and the monkeys threw back cocoa-nuts. On this island Sindbad encountered and killed the Old Man of the Sea.

_Sixth Voyage._ Sindbad visited the island of Serendib (or Ceylon), and climbed to the top of the mountain “where Adam was placed on his expulsion from paradise.”

_Seventh Voyage._ He was attacked by corsairs, sold to slavery, and employed in shooting elephants from a tree. He discovered a tract of hill country completely covered with elephants’ tusks, communicated his discovery to his master, obtained his liberty, and returned home.--_Arabian Nights_ (“Sindbad the Sailor”).

=Sindbad, Ulysses, and the Cyclops.= (See ULYSSES AND POLYPHEMOS.)

=Sin´el=, thane of Glamis, and father of Macbeth. He married the younger daughter of Malcolm II. of Scotland.

=Sinfire=, brilliant, seductive, and wicked heroine of Julian Hawthorne’s novel of the same name.

=Sing= (_Sadha_), the mourner of the desert.--Sir W. Scott, _The Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.).

=Sing de Racine= (_Le_), Campistron, the French dramatic poet (1656-1723).

=Singing Apple= (_The_), in the deserts of Libya. This apple resembled a ruby crowned with a huge diamond, and had the gift of imparting wit to those who only smelt of it. Prince Cherry obtained it for Fairstar. (See SINGING TREE.)

The singing apple is as great an embellisher of wit as the dancing water is of beauty. Would you appear in public as a poet or prose writer, a wit or a philosopher, you only need smell it, and you are possessed at once of these rare gifts of genius.--Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“Princess Fairstar,” 1682).

=Singing Tree= (_The_), a tree, every leaf of which was a mouth, and all the leaves sang together in harmonious concert.--_Arabian Nights_ (“The Two Sisters,” the last story).

⁂ In the tale of _Cherry and Fairstar_, “the singing tree” is called “the singing apple” (_q.v._).

=Single-Speech Hamilton=, William Gerard Hamilton, statesman (1729-1796). His first speech was delivered November 13, 1775, and his eloquence threw into the shade every orator except Pitt himself.

It was supposed that he had exhausted himself in that one speech, and had become physically incapable of making a second; so that afterwards, when he really did make a second, everybody was naturally disgusted, and most people dropped his acquaintance.--De Quincey (1786-1859).

=Singleton= (_Captain_), the hero of a novel by D. Defoe, called _The Adventures of Captain Singleton_.

=Singular Doctor= (_The_), William Occam, _Doctor Singularis et Invincibilis_ (1276-1347).

⁂ The “Occam razor” was _entia non sunt multiplicanda_, “entities are not to be unnecessarily multiplied.” In other words, elements, genera, and first principles are very few in number.

=Sinner Saved= (_A_). Cyra, daughter of Proterĭus of Cappadōcia, was on the point of taking the veil among Emmelia’s sisterhood, and just before the day of renunciation, Elĕēmon, her father’s freed slave, who loved her, sold himself to the devil, on condition of obtaining her for his wife. He signed the bond with a drop of his heart’s blood, and carried about with him a little red spot on his bresst,[TN-181] as a perpetual reminder of the compact. The devil now sent a dream to Cyra, and another to her father, which caused them to change their plans; and on the very day that Cyra was to have taken the veil, she was given by St. Basil in marriage to Eleemon, with whom she lived happily for many years, and had a large family. One night, while her husband was asleep, Cyra saw the blood-red spot; she knew what it meant, and next day Eleemon told her the whole story. Cyra now bestirred herself to annul the compact, and went with her husband to St. Basil, to whom a free and full confession was made. Eleemon was shut up for a night in a cell, and Satan would have carried him off, but he clung to the foot of a crucifix. Next day Satan met St. Basil in the cathedral, and demanded his bond. St. Basil assured him the bond was illegal and invalid. The devil was foiled, the red mark vanished from the skin of Eleemon, a sinner was saved, and St. Basil came off victorious.--Amphilochius, _Life of St. Basil_. (See Rosweyde, _Vitæ Patrum_, 156-8.)

⁂ Southey has converted this legend into a ballad of nine lays (1829).

=Sinon=, the crafty Greek, who persuaded the Trojans to drag the Wooden Horse into their city.--Virgil, _Æneid_, ii.

Dantê, in his _Inferno_, places Sinon, with Potiphar’s wife, Nimrod, and the rebellious giants, in the tenth pit of Malêbolgê.

=Sin Saxon.= Sprightly, sparkling personage, who appears, first as a saucy girl, then, as a vivacious young matron, in several of A. D. T. Whitney’s books. She marries Frank Sherman.--A. D. T. Whitney, _Leslie Goldthwaite_ and _The Other Girls_.

=Sintram=, the Greek hero of the German romance, _Sintram and His Companions_, by Baron Lamotte Fouqué.

_Sintram’s Sword_, Welsung.

=Sio´na=, a seraph, to whom was committed the charge of Bartholomew, the apostle.--Klopstock, _The Messiah_, iii. (1748).

=Siph´a=, the guardian angel of Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter.--Klopstock, _The Messiah_, iii. (1748).

=Si´phax=, a soldier, in love with Princess Calis, sister of Astorax, king of Paphos. The princess is in love with Polydore, the brother of General Memnon, (“the mad brother”).--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Mad Lover_ (1617).

=Sir Oracle=, a dictatorial prig; a dogmatic pedant.

I am Sir Oracle, And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark.

Shakespeare, _Merchant of Venice_, act i. sc. 1 (1598).

=Sirens=, three sea-nymphs, whose usual abode was a small island near Cape Pelōrus, in Sicily. They enticed sailors ashore by their melodious singing, and then killed them. Their names are Parthenŏpê, Ligeia, and Leucothĕa.--_Greek Fable._

=Sirloin of Beef.= James I., on his return from a hunting excursion, so much enjoyed his dinner, consisting of a loin of roast beef, that he laid his sword across it, and dubbed it Sir Loin. At Chingford, in Essex, is a place called “Friday Hill House,” in one of the rooms of which is an oak table with a brass plate let into it, inscribed with the following words:--“ALL LOVERS OF ROAST BEEF WILL LIKE TO KNOW THAT ON THIS TABLE A LOIN WAS KNIGHTED BY KING JAMES THE FIRST ON HIS RETURN FROM HUNTING IN EPPING FOREST.”

Knighting the loin of beef is also ascribed to Charles II.

Our second Charles, of fame facete, On loin of beef did dine; He held his sword, pleased, o’er the meat. “Arise, thou famed Sir Loin.”

_Ballad of the New Sir John Barleycorn._

=Sister Anne=, sister of Fatĭma (the seventh and last wife of Bluebeard). Fatima, being condemned to death by her tyrannical husband, requested sister Anne to ascend to the highest tower of the castle to watch for her brothers, who were momentarily expected. Bluebeard kept roaring below stairs for Fatima to be quick; Fatima was constantly calling out from her chamber, “Sister Anne, do you see them coming?” and sister Anne was on the watch-tower, mistaking every cloud of dust for the mounted brothers. They arrived at last, rescued Fatima, and put Bluebeard to death.--Charles Perrault, _Contes_ (“La Barbe Bleue,” 1697).

This is a Scandinavian tale taken from the _Folks Sagas_.

=Sis´yphos=, in Latin =Sisyphus=, a king of Corinth, noted for his avarice and fraud. He was punished in the infernal regions by having to roll uphill a huge stone, which always rolled down again as soon as it reached the top. Sisyphos is a type of avarice, never satisfied. The avaricious man reaches the summit of his ambition, and no sooner does he so than he finds the object of his desire as far off as ever.

With many a weary step, and many a groan, Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone; The huge round stone, returning with a bound, Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground.

Homer, _Odyssey_, xi. [Pope’s trans.].

=Sisyphus=, in the Milesian tales, was doomed to die, but when Death came to him, the wily fellow contrived to fasten the unwelcome messenger in a chair, and then feasted him till old Spare-ribs grew as fat as a prize pig. In time, Pluto released Death, and Sisyphus was caught, but prayed that he might speak to his wife before he went to Hadês. The prayer was granted, and Sisyphus told his wife not to bury him, for though she might think him dead, he would not be really so. When he got to the infernal regions, he made the ghosts so merry with his jokes, that Pluto reproved him, and Sisyphus pleaded that, as he had not been buried, Pluto had no jurisdiction over him, nor could he even be ferried across the Styx. He then obtained leave to return to earth, that he might persuade his wife to bury him. Now, the wily old king had previously bribed Hermês, when he took him to Hadês, to induce Zeus to grant him life, provided he returned to earth again in the body; when, therefore, he did return, he demanded of Hermês the fulfillment of his promise, and Hermês induced Zeus to bestow on him life. Sisyphus was now allowed to return to earth, with a promise that he should never die again, till he himself implored for death. So he lived, and lived till he was weary of living, and when he went to Hadês the second time, he was allotted, by way of punishment, the task of rolling a huge stone to the top of a mountain. Orpheus (2 _syl._), asked him how he could endure so ceaseless and vain an employment, and Sisyphus replied that he hoped ultimately to accomplish the task. “Never,” exclaimed Orpheus; “it can never be done!” “Well, then,” said Sisyphus, “mine is at worst but everlasting hope.”--Lord Lytton, _Tales of Miletus_, ii.

=Sitoph´agus= (“_the wheat-eater_”), one of the mouse princes, who being wounded in the battle, crept into a ditch to avoid further injury or danger.

The lame Sitophagus, oppressed with pain, Creeps from the desperate dangers of the plain; And where the ditches rising weeds supply ... There lurks the silent mouse relieved of heat, And, safe embowered, avoids the chance of fate.

Parnell, _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_. iii. (about 1712).

The last two lines might be amended thus:

There lurks the trembling mouse with bated breath, And, hid from sight, avoids his instant death.

=Siward= [_Se.´ward_], the earl of Northumberland, and general of the English forces, acting against Macbeth.--Shakespeare, _Macbeth_ (1606).

=Six Chronicles= (_The_). Dr. Giles compiled and edited six Old English Chronicles for Bohn’s series in 1848. They are: Ethelwerd’s _Chronicle_, Asser’s _Life of Alfred_, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s _British History, Gildas the Wise_, Nennius’s _History of the Britons_, and Richard of Cirencester _On the Ancient State of Britain_. The last three were edited in 1757, by Professor Bertram, in his _Scriptores Tres_, but great doubt exists as to the genuineness of the chronicles contained in Dr. Bertram’s compilation. (See THREE WRITERS.)

=Sixteen-String-Jack=, John Rann, a highwayman. He was a great fop, and wore sixteen tags to his breeches, eight at each knee (hanged 1774).

Dr. Johnson said that Gray’s poetry towered above the ordinary run of verse, as Sixteen-String-Jack above the ordinary foot-pad.--Boswell, _Life of Johnson_ (1791).

=Skeffington=, author of _Sleeping Beauty_, _Maids and Bachelors_, etc.

And sure _great_ Skeffington must claim our praise For skirtless coats, and skeletons of plays.

Byron, _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_ (1809).

Transcriber’s Note

The following typographical errors and inconsistencies have been maintained in this version of the book.

Typographical errors:

TN-1 1 Perrose should read Penrose TN-2 4 tranlation should read translation TN-3 4 A. D. should read A.D. TN-4 5 sword.’” should read sword.’ TN-5 9 France. See should read France. (See TN-6 13 outstretehed should read outstretched TN-7 14 the the sword should read the sword TN-8 17 incalcuable should read incalculable TN-9 19 waistcoat--Mrs. should read waistcoat.--Mrs. TN-10 34 The vail should read The veil TN-11 38 “about the Mikado’s” should read “about by the Mikado’s” TN-12 42 mutiplied should read multiplied TN-13 46 Merlin’s magic mirror (_q.v._). This entry does not exist. TN-14 47 “He should read He TN-15 52 succeeeded should read succeeded TN-16 53 also; should read also, TN-17 54 rent is paid. should read rent is paid). TN-18 56 shows.” should read shows. TN-19 56 preformed should read performed TN-20 57 (time, Commonwealth. should read (time, Commonwealth). TN-21 57 Passe-Tyme should read Passe-tyme TN-22 63 Love à-la-Mode- should read Love à-la-Mode. TN-23 66 Polyolboin should read Polyolbion TN-24 69 gray should read grey TN-25 71 (1508) should read (1598) TN-26 71 Rev. Mr.) should have a comma following TN-27 87 act. i. should read act i. TN-28 88 Chauvvin should read Chauvin TN-29 92 Bibliothèque Oriental should read Bibliothèque Orientale TN-30 94 (1698) should read (1598) TN-31 94 Pylos, was has an extra, following Pylos TN-32 96 Charles II.). should read Charles II. TN-33 100 Gentlehomme should read Gentilehomme TN-34 100 “The Chase, The Road, The Turf” should read “The Chase, the Turf, and the Road” TN-35 101 Ninive should read Nineve TN-36 101 Nino-Thoma should read Nina-Thoma TN-37 101 magificence should read magnificence TN-38 101 Nine. Worthies should read Nine Worthies TN-39 102 Uffizii should read Uffizi TN-40 102 He Says should read He says TN-41 104 cadavarous should read cadaverous TN-42 105 Charles II) should read Charles II.) TN-43 106 J Home should read J. Home TN-44 112 Atticœ should read Atticæ TN-45 116 Sopho´oclês should read Soph´oclês TN-46 121 imagintion should read imagination TN-47 125 v.), should read v.). TN-48 126 Alhague) has extra ) TN-49 127 dog bark!” should read dog bark! TN-50 135 Furlough should read Turlough TN-51 135 Coimba should read Coimbra TN-52 135 eightteenth should read eighteenth TN-53 136 horse-jockey:” should read horse-jockey;” TN-54 139 Grondibert should read Gondibert TN-55 140 was slain should read were slain TN-56 142 le Grand. is missing ) TN-57 142 howover should read however TN-58 144 fifteenth century) should read (fifteenth century) TN-59 145 _Paine_ should be =Paine= TN-60 146 (1772) should have a following. TN-61 151 Mosart should read Mozart TN-62 152 ignorantifiè should read ignorantifié TN-63 161 Darton and Co, should read Darton and Co., TN-64 162 villifies should read vilifies TN-65 162 Polinices. This entry does not exist. TN-66 165 Hawes (1506) should end with a. TN-67 166 “The Deerslayer” should read “The Deerslayer,” TN-68 167 Rocky Mountains. has an extra . at the end TN-69 167 of Dorchester, should read of Dorchester. TN-70 168 St Patrick should read St. Patrick TN-71 168 etc.. should read etc., TN-72 169 Bonarparte should read Bonaparte TN-73 171 St Remi should read St. Remi (2 times) TN-74 174 d’ane should read d’âne TN-75 175 Zaïda should read Zaïde TN-76 175 Pedrè should read Pèdre (3 times) TN-77 178 [=Thrift=) should read (_Thrift_) TN-78 178 Boundderby should read Bounderby TN-79 181 pcn should read pen TN-80 181 sc. 2 (1589) should read sc. 2 (1589). TN-81 184 Dr Parker should read Dr. Parker TN-82 185 101, 102. should read 101, 102). TN-83 186 --See Notes should read (See Notes TN-84 189 “excess.”). should read “excess.”) TN-85 190 Po tau should read Pot au TN-86 192 (1768-1848. should read (1768-1848). TN-87 195 Fennimore should read Fenimore TN-88 199 _syl._) should read _syl._). TN-89 201 him thirty should read him “thirty TN-90 202 (1214-1292; should read (1214-1292); TN-91 202 (1627-1691; should read (1627-1691); TN-92 202 (B.C.) 106 should read (B.C. 106 TN-93 207 breathe-therein. should read breathe-therein.” TN-94 209 Elfenseigen. should read Elfenseigen.) TN-95 214 “(The incident of” either should not have a ( or a ) is missing at the end of the sentence. TN-96 214 notas, should read notas. TN-97 227 garralous should read garrulous TN-98 228 “Antinöus, should read “Antinöus,” TN-99 229 “songs,” should read “songs.” TN-100 229 Enggland should read England TN-101 232 Friesingen should read Freisingen TN-102 232 conscrated should read consecrated TN-103 232 Lequien should read Le Quien TN-104 234 who stabbed should read who “stabbed TN-105 240 Quarakhata. should read Quarakhata.” TN-106 246 Docter should read Doctor TN-107 248 reions should read regions TN-108 250 protegé should read protégé TN-109 250 forgiven should read forgiven. TN-110 251 caligraphist should read calligraphist TN-111 254 i.e, should read i.e., TN-112 257 (Pwyll should read (“Pwyll TN-113 265 Monnema should read Monema TN-114 267 act. i. should read act i. TN-115 268 Pyrnne should read Prynne TN-116 275 rantipolish, should read rantipolish. TN-117 277 met should read meet TN-118 278 refered should read referred TN-119 282 king- should read kingdom TN-120 282 Cathaginians should read Carthaginians TN-121 286 VerborumSignificatione should read Verborum Significatione TN-122 286 entititled should read entitled TN-123 287 Resolute Doctor should read Resolute Doctor” TN-124 287 “The “saint” should read The “saint” TN-125 289 thierepos should read Thierepos TN-126 295 (bk. vii.) should read (bk. vii.). TN-127 296 Perveril should read Peveril TN-128 298 See ORMANDINE. This entry does not exist TN-129 299 Mortham, was should read Mortham was TN-130 301 Henry IV.) should read Henry IV.). TN-131 305 (_q.v._) should read (_q.v._). TN-132 307 The marquis should read “The marquis TN-133 310 npon should read upon TN-134 311 R.C. should read B.C. TN-135 313 (St) should read (St.) TN-136 318 Shakepeare should read Shakespeare TN-137 322 Edward II. and Edward I. should read EDWARD II. and EDWARD I. TN-138 325 Innamarato should read Innamorato TN-139 326 Inis-Thorna should read Inis-Thona TN-140 326 to part!” should read to part!’ TN-141 326 a friar should read “a friar TN-142 330 exqusite should read exquisite TN-143 330 into a river. should end with ) TN-144 332 and and should read and TN-145 336 heirarchy should read hierarchy TN-146 338 (1474-1566): should read (1474-1566); TN-147 339 (died 251. should read (died 251). TN-148 339 inkeeper should read innkeeper TN-149 340 ARNOLD should read Arnold TN-150 340 martydom should read martyrdom TN-151 341 satire (1704) should read satire (1704). TN-152 342 Bibliothèques Orientale should read Bibliothèque Orientale TN-153 342 folly should read folly. TN-154 343 English) should read English), TN-155 343 for Uncle should read for “Uncle TN-156 343 (1741-1779 should end with a ) TN-157 344 serpant should read serpent TN-158 344 (_The_) Pythagoras should read (_The_), Pythagoras TN-159 346 (1605-15) should read (1605-15). TN-160 356 father of “Lucia.” should end with ) TN-161 360 plasir should read plaisir TN-162 365 instalment should read installment TN-163 367 hemlet should read helmet TN-164 368 corse should read corpse TN-165 368 accidently should read accidentally TN-166 369 reconcilation should read reconciliation TN-167 379 πλέιους should read πλείους TN-168 380 fron should read from TN-169 384 Cumberland) has extra ) TN-170 386 Whitehall 1607 should read Whitehall, 1607 TN-171 386 Whitehall 1604 should read Whitehall, 1604 TN-172 386 Meres 1598 should read Meres, 1598 TN-173 387 n’etait should read n’était TN-174 390 lady,and should read lady, and TN-175 391 November; should read November: TN-176 392 (1651-1610) should read (B.C. 1651-1610) TN-177 395 the administration should read The administration TN-178 396 etc., (1557) has extra ( TN-179 400 villian should read villain TN-180 405 inland should read island TN-181 406 bresst should read breast

Inconsistent spelling

Aboulhassan / Aboulhassen François / Francois Khrosrou-schah / Khrosru-schar Sulla / Sylla

Inconsistent hyphenation

brick-dust / brickdust day-break / daybreak East-cheap / Eastcheap grand-son / grandson Hawk-eye / Hawkeye heart-sick / heartsick May-pole / Maypole moon-light / moonlight Nôman-al-Aôuar / Nômanal-Aôuar out-witted /outwitted Pullicenella / Pullicinella re-united / reunited Ros-crana / Roscrana step-mother / stepmother Un-born / Unborn

Other inconsistencies

i.e. / i. e. The inclusion of the "or" in the italics for two-part titles connected by ", or"