Part 206

=Rivals, The.=--A comedy by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, produced at Covent Garden, London, in 1775, and described by Hazlitt as “a play of even more action and incident, but of less wit and satire, than _The School for Scandal_. It is as good as a novel in the reading, and has the broadest and most palpable effect upon the stage.”

=Roaring Camp, The Luck of.=--A prose sketch by Francis Bret Harte, an American poet, in which the softening effects of the presence of a little child in a camp of ruffians are very touchingly described. It has been dramatized.

=Rob Roy.=--A romance by Sir Walter Scott which is founded on some passages in the career of the famous Highlander, Robert MacGregor, who was popularly called Rob Roy. The nominal hero of _Rob Roy_ is Francis Osbaldistone; the heroine, Diana Vernon. Among the other characters are Baillie Nicol Jarvie, “The Dougal Cratur” Andrew Fairservice, Helen MacGregor, Sir Frederick Vernon, and Rashleigh Osbaldistone. The novel has been dramatized in a version which still holds the stage in Scotland. Scott speaks of Rob as “the Robin Hood of Scotland--the dread of the wealthy, but the friend of the poor, and possessed of many qualities, both of head and heart, which would have graced a less equivocal profession than that to which his fate condemned him.”

=Roderick=, or =Roderic= (_rod´er-ik_) =Dhu=.--_Lady of the Lake_, Scott. An outlaw and chief of a band of Scots who resolved to win back what had been lost to the Saxons. In connection with Red Murdock he sought the life of the Saxon Fitz-James.

=Roderigo= (_rod-e-rē´gō_).--In Shakespeare’s _Othello_, a Venetian in love with Desdemona, who, when the lady eloped with Othello, hated the “noble Moor.”

=Roland= (_rō´land_).--The hero of one of the most ancient and popular epics of early French or Frankish literature, and, according to tradition, the favorite nephew and captain of the Emperor Charlemagne. Roland is the hero of Théroulde’s _Chanson de Roland_; of Turpin’s _Chronique_; of Bojardo’s _Orlando Innamorato_; of Ariosto’s _Orlando Furioso_.

=Romance of the Rose.=--A poetical allegory, begun by Guillaume de Lorris in the latter part of the thirteenth century, and continued by Jean Meung in the first half of the fourteenth century. The poet dreams that Dame Idleness conducts him to the Palace of Pleasure, where he meets many adventures among the attendant maidens, Youth, Joy, Courtesy, and others, by whom he is conducted to a bed of roses. He singles out one, when an arrow from Love’s bow stretches him fainting on the ground. Fear, Slander, and Jealousy are afterward introduced.

=Romeo.=--In Shakespeare’s tragedy of _Romeo and Juliet_, a son of Montague, in love with Juliet, the daughter of Capulet, who was the head of a noble house of Verona, in feudal enmity with the house of Montague.

=Romeo and Juliet.=--A tragedy by William Shakespeare. Romeo, a son of Montague, in love with Juliet, the daughter of Capulet; but between the houses of Montague and Capulet there existed a deadly feud. As the families were irreconcilable, Juliet took a sleeping draught, that she might get away from her parents and elope with Romeo. Romeo, thinking her to be dead, killed himself; and when Juliet awoke and found her lover dead, she also killed herself.

=Romola= (_rom´ō-lä_).--A novel of Italian life and character by George Eliot. _Romola_ is a marvelously able story of the revival of the taste and beauty and freedom of Hellenic manners and letters, under Lorenzo de’ Medici and the scholars of his court, side by side with the revival of Roman virtue, and more than the ancient austerity and piety, under the great Dominican Savonarola. This period of history is one which of all others may well have engrossing interest for George Eliot. Treasures of learning and discipline, amassed for mankind ages before, for ages stored and hidden away, see again the sun, are recognized and put to use. What use they will be put to, with what new and fruitful effects on the state and the citizen, with what momentary and with what lasting consequences, this she strives to discover; this she follows through the public history of Italy during the modern invasion of Charles VIII., and the events which succeed his invasion, and through the private fortunes of her admirably chosen group of characters, some of them drawn from life, all of them true to nature.

=Rosetta= (_rō-zet´tä_) =Stone=.--Found at Rosetta in the delta of the Nile, contains equivalent inscriptions in hieroglyphics in demotic and in Greek letters. The meaning of the Greek text being known, the hieroglyphics could be translated.

=Rowena= (_rō-ē´nä_).--A Saxon princess, ward of Cedric of Rotherwood, in Sir Walter Scott’s romance of _Ivanhoe_.

=Rumpelstilzchen.=--_Old German Tales._ According to Grimm, this name is a compound, but the spirit represented is one familiar to all German children. The original story tells of him as a dwarf who spun straw into gold for a certain miller’s daughter.

=S=

=Sacripant= (_sak´ri-pant_), =King=.--(1) King of Circassia, and a lover of Angelica, in Bojordo and Ariosto. (2) A personage in Tassoni’s mock heroic poem, _Rape of the Bucket_, represented as false, brave, noisy and hectoring.

=Sagas= (_sä´gas_).--Title of the ancient traditions which form the substance of the history and mythology of the Scandinavian races. The language in which they are written is supposed to be the old Icelandic. In the _Edda_ there are numerous sagas. As our Bible contains the history of the Jews, religious songs, moral proverbs, and religious stories, so the _Edda_ contains the history of Norway, religious songs, a book of proverbs, and numerous stories. The original _Edda_ was compiled and edited by Sæmund Sigfusson, an Icelandic priest and scald, in the eleventh century. It contains twenty-eight parts or books, all of which are in verse. Two hundred years later Snorri Sturleson, of Iceland, abridged, rearranged, and reduced to prose the _Edda_, and his work was called _The Younger Edda_. In this we find the famous story called by the Germans the _Nibelungenlied_. Besides the sagas contained in the Eddas, there are numerous others, and the whole saga literature makes over two hundred volumes. Among them are the _Völsunga Saga_, which is a collection of lays about the early Teutonic heroes. The _Saga of St. Olaf_ is the history of this Norwegian king. _Frithjof’s Saga_ contains the life and adventures of Frithjof of Iceland. Snorri Sturleson, at the close of the twelfth century, made the second great collection of chronicles in verse, called the _Heimskringla Saga_. This is a most valuable record of the laws, customs and manners of the ancient Scandinavians.

=Sakuntala.=--A famous drama by Kâlidasa. The daughter of Viswamita and a water nymph, abandoned by her parents, and brought up by a hermit. One day, King Dushyanta came to the hermitage, and persuaded Sakuntala to marry him. In due time a son was born, but Dushyanta left his bride at the hermitage. When the boy was six years old, his mother took him to the king, and Dushyanta recognized his wife by a ring which he had given her. Sakuntala was now publicly proclaimed queen, and the boy (whose name was Bhârata) became the founder of the glorious race of the Bhâratas.

=Samson Agonistes= (_sam´son ag-o-nis´tēz_).--A sacred drama by Milton. Samson, blind and bound, triumphs over his enemies. As in the Bible story, he grasps two of the supporting pillars, and perishes in the general ruin.

=Sancho Panza= (_sang´kō pan´zä_).--The esquire and counterpart of Don Quixote in Cervantes’ famous novel. He has much shrewdness in practical matters, and a store of proverbial wisdom. He rode upon an ass and was noted for his proverbs.

=Sartor Resartus= (_sär´tor rē-sär´tus_), (_i. e._, _The Tailor Patched_).--The title of an old Scottish ballad, being _The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh, in Three Books_, by Thomas Carlyle. It may be described as a kind of philosophical romance, in which the author gives us, in the form of a review of a supposed German work on dress, and a notice of the writer, his opinions on things in general. The hero, it has been said, seems to be intended for a portraiture of human nature as affected by the moral influence to which a cultivated mind would be exposed by acquaintance with the transcendental philosophy of Fichte.

=Satyrane= (_sat´i-rān_), =Sir=.--_Faërie Queene_, Spenser. A noble knight who delivered Una from the fauns and satyrs. The meaning seems to be that Truth, driven from the towns and cities, took refuge in caves and dens where for a time it lay concealed. At length Sir Satyrane (Luther) rescues Una from bondage; but no sooner is this the case than she falls in with Archimago, to show how very difficult it was at the time of the Reformation to separate Truth from Error.

=Sawyer, Bob.=--_Pickwick Papers_, Dickens. A drinking young doctor who tries to establish a practice at Bristol, but without success. Sam Weller calls him “Mr. Sawbones.”

=Scalds=, or =Skalds=.--Court poets and chroniclers of the ancient Scandinavians. They resided at court, were attached to the royal suite, and attended the king in all his wars. These bards celebrated in song the gods, the kings of Norway, and national heroes. Few complete Skaldic poems have survived, but a multitude of fragments exist.

=Scarlet Letter, The.=--A romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. The heroine, Hester Prynne, was condemned to wear conspicuously the letter “A” in scarlet, token of her sin as mother of her child, Pearl, whose father was not known. She was first exposed in disgrace on a raised scaffold, then served a term in prison, and afterward gained a moderate support for herself and child by embroidering. She refused to reveal the name of the father, although she might then be allowed to lay aside the letter. He was always near, held an important position, and lived a life of wearing remorse. After his death Hester Prynne took her child to another country, but returned to spend her old age in seclusion and comfort in the same place that had witnessed her punishment. She always bore herself proudly, but not defiantly, and brought to herself such love and respect that the scarlet letter became a badge of honor. Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, appeared as a learned foreign physician, visited her in prison, but promised not to reveal his relation to her, and devoted his life to learning her secret. The characters in the story are intense, and the analysis of motives subtle.

=Scheherazade=, or =Sheherazade= (_she-hē´rä-zād_).--_Arabian Nights._ The fabled relater of the stories in these “Entertainments.”

=Scaramouche= (_skar´a-mouch_).--An Italian character whose traits are cowardice and boastfulness. He is of Spanish creation, copied into Italian comedy.

=Schlemihl= (_shlem´el_), =Peter=.--The name of the hero of a little work by Chamisso, a man who sells his shadow to the devil. The name has become a byword for any poor, silly, and unfortunate fellow.

=Schneider= (_shnī´der_).--Rip Van Winkle’s dog, in Boucicault’s dramatization of Irving’s _Rip Van Winkle_. The name of the dog in the story is “Wolf.”

=School for Scandal, The.=--A comedy by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, produced at Covent Garden, London, in 1777, and characterized by Hazlitt as, “if not the most original, perhaps the most finished and faultless comedy which we have. The scene in which Charles Surface sells all the old family pictures but his uncle’s, who is the purchaser in disguise, and that of the discovery of Lady Teazle when the screen falls, are among the happiest and most highly wrought that comedy, in its wide and brilliant range, can boast. Besides the art and ingenuity of this play, there is a genial spirit of frankness and generosity that relieves the heart as well as clears the lungs. While it strips off the mask of hypocrisy, it inspires a confidence between man and man.”

=School for Wives= [_L’Ecole des Femmes_ (_lä-kol´ dā fam´_)].--A comedy by Molière. Arnolph has a crotchet about the proper training of girls to make good wives, and tries his scheme upon Agnes, whom he adopts from a peasant’s cottage, and designs in due time to make his wife. He sends her from early childhood to a convent, where difference of sex and the conventions of society are wholly ignored. When removed from the convent, she treats men as if they were schoolgirls, kisses them, plays with them, and treats them with girlish familiarity. The consequence is, a young man name Horace falls in love with her, and makes her his wife, and Arnolph loses his painstaking.

=School of Husbands= [_L’Ecole des Maris_ (_lä-kol´ da mä-re´_)] A comedy by Molière. Ariste and Sganarelle, two brothers, bring up Léonor and Isabelle, two orphan sisters, according to their systems for making them in time their model wives. Sganarelle’s system was to make the woman dress plainly, live retired, attend to domestic duties, and have few indulgences. Ariste’s system was to give the woman great liberty, and trust to her honor. Isabelle, brought up by Sganarelle, deceived him and married another; but Léonor, brought up by Ariste, made him a fond and faithful wife.

=Scottish Chiefs, The.=--A romantic story by Jane Porter, published in 1810, and counting among its heroes Robert Bruce and Sir William Wallace.

=Scourge of God.=--Attila, king of the Huns. A. P. Stanley says the term was first applied to Attila in the Hungarian _Chronicles_. It is found in a legend belonging to the eighth or ninth century.

=Scrooge= (_skröj_), =Ebenezer=.--_Christmas Carol_, Dickens. The prominent character, made partner, executor, and heir of old Jacob Marley, stockbroker.

=Seasons, The.=--A series of poems by James Thomson, which appeared in the following order: _Winter_; _Summer_; _Spring_; and _Autumn_; the whole being republished, with the famous _Hymn_. Horace Walpole said that he would rather have written the most absurd lines by Lee than _The Seasons_; but Wordsworth, on the other hand, speaks of it as “a work of inspiration. Much of it,” he says, “is written from himself, and nobly from himself.”

=Sebastian= (_se-bas´tian_).--(1) Brother of Viola, in _Twelfth Night_. They were twins, and so much alike that they could not be distinguished except by their dress. Sebastian and his sister being shipwrecked, escaped to Illyria. Here Sebastian was mistaken for his sister (who had assumed man’s apparel), and was invited by the Countess Olivia to take shelter in her house from a street broil. Olivia was in love with Viola, and thinking Sebastian to be the object of her love, married him. (2) Brother of Alfonso, king of Naples, in _The Tempest_. (3) Father of Valentine and Alice, in Beaumont and Fletcher’s _Mons. Thomas_.

=Sedley, Mr.=--_Vanity Fair_, Thackeray. A wealthy London stockbroker, brought to ruin in the money market just prior to the battle of Waterloo.

=Selith.=--One of the two guardian angels of the Virgin Mary and St. John the divine, in Klopstock’s _Messiah_.

=Sempronius= (_sem-prō´ni-us_).--In Shakespeare’s _Timon of Athens_, a flatterer of Timon, who excuses himself from lending Timon money on the ground that others had been asked first.

=Senena.=--_Madoc_, Southey. A Welsh maiden in love with Caradoc. Under the assumed name of Mervyn she became the page of the Princess Goervyl, that she might follow her lover to America, where Madoc colonized Caer-Madoc. Senena was promised in marriage to another; but when the wedding day arrived the bride was nowhere to be found.

=Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy.=--By Laurence Sterne, published in 1768. Sterne describes this work as follows: “It is a subject which works well, and suits the frame of mind in which I have been for some time past. I told you my design in it was to teach us to love the world and our fellow creatures better than we do--so it runs most upon these gentler passions and affections which add so much to it.”

=Serena= (_sā-rā´nä_).--_Faërie Queene_, Spenser. Allured into the fields by the mildness of the weather, to gather wild flowers for a garland, she was attacked by the Blatant Beast, which carried her off in its mouth. Her cries attracted to the spot Sir Calidore, who compelled the beast to drop its prey.

=Sesame.=--In Arabian tales given as the talismanic word which would open or shut the door leading into the cave of the forty thieves. In order to open it, the words to be uttered were, “Open, Sesame!” and in order to close it, “Shut, Sesame!” Sesame is a plant yielding grain which is sometimes used for food, and from which an oil is expressed. When Cassim forgot the word, he substituted “Barley,” but without effect. Sesame has come into general use in connection with any word or act which will open the way for accomplishment of the thing desired.

=Seven Lamps of Architecture, The.=--A treatise on architecture by Ruskin, published in 1849. The “seven lamps” are those of Sacrifice, Truth, Power, Beauty, Life, Memory, and Obedience. They are symbolic rules for the guidance of the student.

=Sganarelle= (_sgä-nä-rel´_).--The hero of Molière’s comedy _La Mariage Force_. He is represented as a humorist of about fifty-three, who, having a mind to marry a fashionable young woman, but feeling a doubt, consults his friends upon this momentous question. Receiving no satisfactory counsel, and not much pleased with the proceedings of his bride elect, he at last determines to give up his engagement, but is cudgeled into compliance by the brother of his intended.

=Shallow.=--A braggart and absurd country justice in Shakespeare’s _Merry Wives of Windsor_, and in the second part of _King Henry IV._

=Shandy, Mrs.=--The mother of Tristram Shandy in Sterne’s novel of this name. She is the ideal of nonentity, a character individual from its very absence of individuality.

=Shandy, Tristram.=--The nominal hero of Sterne’s _The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent._

=Shandy, Walter.=--The name of Tristram Shandy’s father in Sterne’s novel of this name, a man of an active and metaphysical, but at the same time a whimsical, cast of mind, whom too much and too miscellaneous learning had brought within a step or two of madness.

=Sharp, Becky.=--A leading character in Thackeray’s _Vanity Fair_, the daughter of a poor painter, dashing, selfish, unprincipled, and very clever.

=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.

=Shepherd’s Calendar, The.=--Twelve eclogues in various meters, by Spenser, one for each month. January: Colin Clout (Spenser) bewails that Rosalind does not return his love. February: Cuddy, a lad, complains of the cold, and Thenot laments the degeneracy of pastoral life. March: Willie and Thomalin discourse of love. April: Hobbinol sings a song on Eliza. May: Palinode 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. June: Hobbinol exhorts Colin to greater cheerfulness. July: Morrel, a goatherd, invites Thomalin to come with him to the uplands. August: Perigot and Willie contend in song, and Cuddy is appointed arbiter. September: Diggon Davie complains to Hobbinol of clerical abuses. October: On poetry. November: Colin being asked by Thenot to sing, excuses himself because of his grief for Dido, but finally sings her elegy. December: Colin again complains that his heart is desolate. Thenot is an old shepherd bent with age, who tells Cuddy, the herdsman’s boy, the fable of the oak and the brier, one of the best-known fables included in the calendar.

=Shepherd’s Pipe.=--Pan, in Greek mythology, was the god of forests, pastures, and flocks, and the reputed inventor of the shepherd’s flute or pipe.

=Sheridan’s Ride.=--A lyric by T. B. Read, one of the few things written during the heat of the Civil war that is likely to survive.

=She Stoops to Conquer.=--A comedy by Oliver Goldsmith, said to have been founded on an incident which actually occurred to its author. When Goldsmith was sixteen years of age, a wag residing at Ardagh directed him, when passing through that village, to Squire Fetherstone’s house as the village inn. The mistake was not discovered for some time, but all concerned enjoyed the joke. _She Stoops to Conquer_ is one of the gayest, pleasantest, and most amusing pieces of English comedy.

=Shingebis.=--In Longfellow’s _Hiawatha_, the diver who challenged the North Wind and put him to flight in combat.

=Shocky.=--_The Hoosier Schoolmaster_, Edw. Eggleston. The little lad from the poorhouse who adores the schoolmaster and early warns him of plans for upsetting his authority. He is also a small poet, not in rhyming, but in comprehension of things about him and in his way of looking at life, and he grows to be a helper in the _Church of the Best Licks_, founded by the schoolmaster.

=Shylock.=--A sordid, avaricious, revengeful Jew, in Shakespeare’s _Merchant of Venice_.

=Siege Perilous, The.=--The Round Table contained sieges, or seats, in the names of different knights. One was reserved for him who was destined to attainment in the quest of the Holy Grail. This seat was called “perilous” because if anyone sat therein except he for whom it was reserved, he would “lose himself.” It finally bore the name of Sir Galahad.

=Siegfried= (_sēg´frēd_).--The hero of various Scandinavian and Teutonic legends, particularly of the old German epic poem, the _Nibelungenlied_. He is represented as a young warrior of physical strength and beauty, and in valor superior to all men of his time. He cannot easily be identified with any historical personage.

=Sikes, Bill.=--A brutal thief and housebreaker in Dickens’ novel _Oliver Twist_. He murders his mistress, Nancy, and, in trying to lower himself by a rope from the roof of a building where he had taken refuge from the crowd, he falls, and is choked in a noose of his own making. Sikes had an ill-conditioned, savage dog, the beast-image of his master, which he kicked and loved, ill-treated and fondled.

=Silas Marner= (_mär´ner_).--A novel by George Eliot, published in 1861. This novel is one of the authoress’ most beautiful stories, the most poetical of them all--the tale of Silas Marner, who deems himself deserted and rejected utterly of God and man, and to whom, in his deepest misery, in place of lost gold, a little foundling girl is sent. This tale is the most hopeful of all her books. The contemplation of the renewal of enterprise and energy, which comes with little children, and of the promise with which each new generation gilds the crown of honor for its sires, is pleasant and grateful to her. She writes upon her title page the lines of Wordsworth:

A child, more than all other gifts That earth can offer to declining man, Brings hope with it and forward-looking thoughts.

The weaver of Raveloe and Eppie are creations after Wordsworth’s own heart.

=Silken Thread.=--_Gulliver’s Travels._ In the kingdom of Lilliput, the three great prizes of honor are “fine silk threads six inches long, one blue, another red, and a third green.” The thread is girt about the loins, and no ribbon of the Legion of Honor, or of the Knight of the Garter, is worn more worthily or more proudly.

=Sindbad= (_sind´bad_) =the Sailor.=--A character in the _Arabian Nights_, in which is related the story of his strange voyages and wonderful adventures.

=Sinon.=--In Vergil’s _Æneid_ the cunning Greek who, by a false tale, induced the Trojans to drag the wooden horse into Troy.

=Sir Roger de Coverley= (_kuv´er-li_).--In Addison’s _The Spectator_. The prototype of this famous character was Sir John Pakington, a hypothetical baronet of Coverley or Cowley, near Oxford.