Red in thy birth, redder with household war,
Now reddest with the blood of holy men,
Redder to be, red rose of Lancaster--
= Wars of the Roses between the houses of York and Lancaster.
_Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham._
ROUND TABLE.
A Table made by Merlin the magician for Uther the pendragon. Uther gave
it to king Leodogran, and when king Arthur married Guinevere Leodogran
gave him the table with a hundred knights as a wedding present, which
tradition says is still preserved at Winchester. The Table would seat
150 knights and Arthur instituted an order of Knighthood called ‘the
Knights of the Round Table’ and each seat was appropriated. One of
the seats was called the ‘Siege Perilous’ and was reserved for sir
Galahad the Pure, the only knight who could occupy it with safety. Some
accounts say that the Round Table was made in token of the roundness of
the world, suggested by the movement of the Great Bear round the polar
star.
But now the whole +ROUND TABLE+ is dissolved
Which was an image of the mighty world;
and others, that it was constructed in imitation of the table used
by our Lord and His disciples at the Last Supper. Round Tables were
not unusual in the feudal age, for it is placed on record that one of
the kings of Ireland had his ‘Knights of the Round Table.’ Roger de
Mortimer established at Kenilworth a Round Table, and Edward III had
his Round Table at Windsor said to be 200 feet in diameter. Tradition
affirms that the earliest use of the Round Tower at Windsor Castle was
as a meeting-place for the knights of the Garter.
_Morte d’Arthur_;
_Pelleas and Ettarre_;
_Last Tournament_;
_Passing of Arthur_.
RUNNYMEDE.
A meadow on the banks of the river Thames where king John signed the
Magna Charta, June 15, 1215.
_Third of February._
RUSSIA.
_Locksley Hall Sixty Years After._
RUTH.
Fairer than Ruth among the fields of corn,
_See Ruth ii._
_Aylmer’s Field._
SAÄTAN (Satan).
Heer wur a fall fro’ a kiss to a kick like Saätan as fell
Down out o’ heaven i’ Hell-fire--thaw theer’s naw drinkin’ i’ Hell;
_Northern Cobbler._
SABÆAN.
Dripping with Sabæan spice
On thy pillow, lowly bent
With melodious airs lovelorn,
Breathing Light against thy face,
= the region of Saba in Arabia, celebrated for producing aromatic
plants.
_Adeline._
SABINE.
but she
That taught the Sabine how to rule,
Has reference to Egeria, a nymph of ancient Italy who taught Numa the
Sabine, king of Rome, the way to govern. He used to meet her in a
grove, in which was a well, afterwards dedicated by him to the Camenæ.
_The Princess._
SAGRAMORE.
A knight of the Round Table.
_Merlin and Vivien._
SAHIB.
An Indian term to a person of rank.
_Aylmer’s Field._
ST. ANDREW.
One of the Apostles, brother of St. Peter. Suffered martyrdom by
crucifixion at Patræ in Achaia.
_Queen Mary._
ST. JAMES.
they led
Processions, chanted litanies, clash’d their bells,
Shot off their lying cannon, and her priests
Have preach’d, the fools, of this fair prince to come;
Till, by St. James, I find myself the fool.
One of the Apostles, son of Zebedee and brother of John. Was the first
martyr among the Apostles, being put to death by Herod Agrippa. _Acts
xii. 2._
_Queen Mary._
ST. JOHN.
What saith St. John:--
‘Love of this world is hatred against God.’
One of the Apostles, son of Zebedee and brother of James. Was banished
to the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote the Gospel, the Epistles and the
Apocalypse.
_Queen Mary._
ST. LAWRENCE.
The patience of St. Lawrence in the fire.
A deacon of the Church at Rome who suffered martyrdom by being broiled
on a gridiron in the time of Valerian, 258 +A.D.+
_Queen Mary._
ST. MARY’S.
ST. MARY’S CHURCH.
A church in Oxford where archbishop Cranmer was taken to read his
recantation in public, but instead of complying denounced the errors of
the Church of Rome.
_Queen Mary._
ST. PAUL.
_Gardiner._ Word of God
In English! over this the brainless loons
That cannot spell Esaïas from St. Paul,
Make themselves drunk and mad, fly out and flare
Into rebellions.
Originally called Saul; the Apostle of the Gentiles.
_Queen Mary._
ST. PETER.
Has reference to St. Peter, the Apostle, originally called Simon.
_Queen Mary_;
_Becket_.
ST. VALERY.
St. V.-sur-Somme, mouth of the river Somme. The port from which
William duke of Normandy sailed for England.
_Harold._ Well then, we must fight.
How blows the wind?
_Gurth._ Against St. Valery
And William.
_Harold._
SAL.
A girl who drowned herself in a pond in Gigglesby Wood because she had
been disgraced.
_Spinster’s Sweet-Arts._
SALADDEEN.
Nay, ev’n the accursed heathen Saladdeen--
Refers to Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, the Saracen leader in the
third crusade.
_Becket._
SALAMANCA.
Were _you_ at Salamanca?
Has reference to the conference held in the Convent of St. Stephen at
Salamanca, in 1486, to consider the proposals of Columbus. Famous for
the victory won by the duke of Wellington over the French, July 22,
1812.
_Columbus._
SALEEM.
thou knowest how deep a well of love
My heart is for my son, Saleem, mine heir,--
Son of Akbar, the Mogul emperor.
_Akbar’s Dream._
SALIQUE.
till warming with her theme
She fulmined out her scorn of laws Salique
And little-footed China,
The _Laws Salique_ forbad the succession to pass through the female
line. The laws originated amongst the Salic or Salian Franks, a
German tribe in the fifth century. The accession of Philip the Long
to the throne of France in 1337 seems to be the first time on which
it received public sanction, Edward III claiming the crown of France
in right of his mother Isabella, daughter of the late king Philip V,
which claims resulted in the outbreak of the Hundred Years’ War between
England and France.
_The Princess._
SALISBURY (John of).
_See_ =John of Salisbury=.
SALISBURY (Bishop of).
_See_ =Jocelyn=.
SALLY.
The wife of a northern cobbler, who had turned to drink and ruined his
home. Sally was obliged to take in washing to ‘keep the wolf from the
door,’ and during her absence her husband found her earnings and spent
it in drink. Matters got worse, and when drunk one evening he kicked
his wife. Good seemed to come out of evil, for when the cobbler saw
Sally walking as if lame, he was ashamed and made a promise to touch
drink no more.
_Northern Cobbler._
SALLY.
The dead wife of a northern farmer, who must have exerted a great deal
of influence over him, for his own words are:
An’ I hallus coom’d to ’s church afoor moy Sally wur deäd,
_Northern Farmer, Old Style._
SALLY.
SALLY ALLEN.
A servant to farmer Dobson.
_Promise of May._
SALTWOOD.
SALTWOOD CASTLE.
A castle near Hythe, in Kent. When Henry II confiscated the property
of the See of Canterbury during the time Thomas Becket (_q.v._) was an
exile in France, the castle was granted by the king to Randulf de Broc.
Upon Becket’s return to England in 1170 he denounced and excommunicated
De Broc, and hurled a candle to the floor in Canterbury Cathedral as a
symbol of the extinction of the man whom he had cursed. This castle was
the destination of the four knights--murderers of Becket--upon their
arrival in England from Normandy in 1170, and the place where they laid
their plans for the murder of the archbishop, and having accomplished
their task, rode back to the castle where they remained during the
night of December 30, 1170.
They rode to Saltwood the night of the deed; the next day to South
Malling. On entering the house they threw off their arms and
trappings on the dining-table, which stood in the hall, and after
supper gathered round the blazing hearth. Suddenly the table started
back and threw its burthen to the ground. The attendants, roused
by the crash, rushed in with lights, and replaced the arms. But a
second and still louder crash was heard, and the various articles
were thrown still further off. Soldiers and servants with torches
scrambled in vain under the solid table to find the cause of its
convulsions, till one of the conscience-stricken knights suggested
that it was indignantly refusing to bear the sacrilegious burthen of
their arms--the earliest and most memorable instance of a rapping,
leaping, and moving table.
Stanley: _Memorials of Canterbury._
In the reign of John the castle reverted once more to the possessions
of the Church, and during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was
in the occupation of various knights as tenants of the archbishop of
Canterbury. At the dissolution of the monasteries it was voluntarily
presented to Henry VIII by archbishop Cranmer.
_Becket._
SAM.
SAMMY.
Foolish son of a modern northern farmer, who, giving him advice as to
marriage, says:
‘Doänt thou marry for munny, but goä wheer munny is!’
His father also promised him that if he married ‘a good ’un’ he would
leave the land to him.
_Northern Farmer, New Style._
SAMIAN.
whene’er she moves
The Samian Herè rises and she speaks
A Memnon smitten with the morning Sun.’
Refers to Samos an island off Asia Minor, where a large temple in
honour of Herè the queen of Heaven was erected, of which remains still
exist.
_The Princess._
SANDERS.
A man in a crowd who was rebuked by Stephen Gardiner, bishop of
Winchester, for wearing his cap before the queen Mary. He offered an
explanation that he was so ‘squeezed among the crowd’ he could not
lift his hands to his head. He refused at first to give his name to
Gardiner, but afterwards said his name was Sanders, and he lived in
Cornhill at the Sign of the Talbot.
_Queen Mary._
SANGUELAC.
= A bloody fountain.
According to tradition a Sanguelac, or a bloody fountain, is said to
have sprung up on the hill of Senlac after the battle, which prompted
William the Conqueror to found Battle Abbey as an atonement for the
blood that had been shed, as well as for a commemoration of his victory.
_Harold._
SAN PHILIP.
The flagship of the Spanish fleet in the battle with sir Richard
Grenville (_q.v._) off the Azores in 1591.
_The Revenge._
SAN SALVADOR.
An island in the West Indies on which Columbus landed on October 12,
1492. The native name was Guanahani, but Columbus changed it to San
Salvador.
and last the light, the light
On Guanahani! but I changed the name;
San Salvador I call’d it;
_Columbus._
SAPPHO.
arts of grace
Sappho and others vied with any man:
A poetess of ancient Greece of the seventh century +B.C.+ She was
a native of Mitylene in Lebos and a contemporary of Alcæus and of
Pittacus, who banished her from Lebos. Of her poetry only a few
fragments remain.
_The Princess._
SARACEN.
Whatever wealth I brought from that new world
Should, in this old, be consecrate to lead
A new crusade against the Saracen,
And free the Holy Sepulchre from thrall.
A name given by the Crusaders to the Mohammedans in the Holy Land.
_Columbus_;
_Queen Mary_;
_Becket_.
SASSENACH WHATE.
‘Ochone are ye goin’ away?
‘Goin’ to cut the Sassenach-whate’ he says ‘over the say’--
= English Wheat.
_Tomorrow._
SATRAP.
when her Satrap bled
At Issus by the Syrian gates,
A governor of a province in ancient Persia.
_Alexander._
SATURN.
Still as, while Saturn whirls, his stedfast shade
Sleeps on his luminous ring.’
The planet of the solar system which revolves on its own axis in about
10½ hours. It is surrounded by a bright ring which, when the shadow
Saturn is cast upon it, appears motionless, though the body of the
planet revolves.
_Palace of Art._
SAUL.
They say the gloom of Saul
Was lighten’d by young David’s harp.
The first king of Israel, son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin.
_Queen Mary._
SAUL.
_See_ =Paul=.
SAVOY.
A duchy to the north-east of France.
_Queen Mary._
SCARBORO’ CASTLE.
The Castle, now a ruin, was built in the reign of Stephen, and has
been the scene of many stirring events. Piers Gaveston, the favourite
of Edward II, sought refuge here from the barons in 1312, but the earl
of Pembroke compelled him to surrender and he was beheaded. In the
Pilgrimage of Grace it was unsuccessfully besieged by sir Robert Aske.
During Wyatt’s rebellion in the reign of Mary, sir Thomas Stafford,
grandson of the duke of Buckingham who was an exile in France, sailed
from Dieppe with two vessels manned by thirty Englishmen and landing in
Yorkshire, surprised and captured the castle, but three days afterwards
it was retaken by the earl of Westmorland, and Stafford and all his men
were executed.
Sir Thomas Stafford, a bull-headed ass,
Sailing from France, with thirty Englishmen,
Hath taken Scarboro’ Castle, north of York;
It was in this castle that George Fox, the first of the people called
Quakers, was imprisoned for his religious opinions, in the reign of
Charles I.
_Queen Mary._
SCARLET.
Will Scarlet, one of the companions of Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest.
_The Foresters._
SCARLETT.
Sir James Yorke Scarlett, son of James Scarlett, first baron Abinger.
Appointed General and Leader of the Heavy Brigade in the Crimea, and
on October 25 led the famous charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava.
In 1855 he was appointed to command the entire British Cavalry in the
Crimea.
_Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava._
SCARLETT’S BRIGADE.
The brigade commanded by sir James Yorke Scarlett (_q.v._) at
Balaclava, October 25, 1854.
_Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava._
SCIZZARS.
Name of a horse.
Scizzars an’ Pumpy was good uns to goä
Thruf slush an’ squad
When roäds was bad,
But hallus ud stop at the Vine-an’-the-Hop,
Fur boäth on ’em knawed as well as mysen
That beer be as good fur ’erses as men.
_Promise of May._
SCORY (John).
A Dominican Friar born at Acle in Norfolk. On the dissolution of the
monasteries he became Chaplain to archbishop Cranmer. Created bishop
of Rochester in 1551, and translated to Chichester in the following
year. On the accession of Mary he was deprived of his living on account
of being married; was compelled by Gardiner to renounce his wife; did
penance, and received absolution; and soon afterwards fled to Germany;
but returned in the reign of Elizabeth (1558), and was created bishop
of Hereford.
_Queen Mary._
SCOTLAND.
_Queen Mary_;
_Harold_;
_The Foresters_.
SCOTS, MARY, QUEEN OF.
Only daughter of James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise; became queen
when only a week old. The more important years of her early life were
spent in France, and in 1558 she was married to the Dauphin. On the
death of Mary she formally claimed the English crown on the ground that
Elizabeth was illegitimate, and in 1560 on the death of her husband
returned to Scotland, having escaped the English ships of war sent out
by Elizabeth to intercept her. Some years later, in spite of protest,
she married her cousin lord Darnley, a man with lack of character and
ability, who found himself superseded in the Queen’s counsels by David
Rizzio, an Italian and court favourite, who was subsequently murdered
in the presence of the queen on March 9, 1566. Three months later her
only son (afterwards James VI of Scotland and I of England), was born
in Edinburgh Castle. In February 1567, as Darnley was lying ill in a
small mansion in Edinburgh it was blown up by the earl of Bothwell;
and the queen’s subsequent marriage with the earl lent suspicion that
she herself was not wholly ignorant of the plot. The nobles rose in
rebellion and the queen escaped to Dunbar, but surrendering at Carberry
was conveyed to Loch Leven, where she was compelled to abdicate in
favour of her son who was--a few days later--crowned at Stirling.
Escaping from Loch Leven castle, she found herself at the head of an
army of 6,000 men, which was defeated near Glasgow, and a few days
later fled to England, only to find herself a prisoner. Catholic plots
were formed to liberate her and place her on the English throne, the
chief of which was the Babington plot, which had for its object the
assassination of Elizabeth. Letters in Mary’s handwriting approving of
the assassination were found, and in September 1586 she was brought to
trial. Sentence of death was passed on October 25 of the same year,
but it was not until February 1, 1587, that Elizabeth signed the death
warrant. The execution took place on the 8th of the same month and her
body was buried at Peterborough. In 1612 it was removed to Henry VIII’s
chapel at Westminster, where it now lies in a tomb erected by her son
James.
_Queen Mary._
SCOTT.
Sir Walter Scott, the Scottish novelist, to whom the poem _The Bandit’s
Death_ is dedicated.
_Bandit’s Death._
SCRATBY.
He’ll niver swap Owlby an’ Scratby fur owt but the Kingdom o’
Heaven;
_Church-warden and the Curate._
SCRITCH-OWL.
= the Barn or screech-owl, so called from its screeching cry, and
superstitiously regarded as a bird of evil men.
_The Foresters._
’SDEATH.
= An exclamation of anger. Corrupted from _God’s death_.
_The Princess._
SEAL.
I cannot cease to follow you, as they say
The seal does music;
An aquatic carnivorous mammal of the family _Phocidæ_. Like other
animals, the seal is said to be strongly attracted by musical sounds.
_The Princess._
SEAMEW--SEA-MEW.
= The sea-gull.
_In Memoriam_;
_Harold_.
SEA-SNAKE.
= A sea-serpent.
_The Mermaid._
SEELING.
Yet while they rode together down the plain
Their talk was all of training, terms of art,
Diet and seeling, jesses, leash and lure.
Has reference to the custom of closing the eyes of a hawk by sewing the
eyelids together. This custom was in time superseded by hoods.
_Merlin and Vivien._
SEINE.
Proclaiming social truth shall spread,
And justice, ev’n tho’ thrice again
The red fool-fury of the Seine
Should pile her barricades with dead.
= The Red Republicanism of France.
_In Memoriam._
SENESCHAL.
= A steward. An officer in the house of a prince in the Mediæval ages
who had the superintendence of functions, etc.
_The Falcon_;
_Gareth and Lynette_;
_Marriage of Geraint_;
_Last Tournament_.
SENLAC.
SENLAC HILL.
A hill near Hastings where the battle of Senlac--between Harold and
William of Normandy--was fought on October 14, 1066. Battle Abbey,
which stands upon the spot where Harold fell, was founded by William to
commemorate this battle.
_Harold._
SENS.
A French town. Its original building is the Gothic cathedral of St.
Stephen, where are preserved the vestments of Thomas Becket.
_Becket._
SERPENT.
A general term for any reptile of the order _Ophidia_.
_Alexander_;
_In Memoriam_;
_Geraint and Enid_;
_Holy Grail_;
_Locksley Hall Sixty Years After_;
_Demeter and Persephone_.
SEVERN.
The Danube to the Severn gave
The darken’d heart that beat no more:
They laid him by the pleasant shore,
And in the hearing of the wave.
Arthur Henry Hallam died at Vienna on the Danube, and was buried at
Clevedon on the Severn.
_In Memoriam._
SEVERN.
but, last,
Allowing it, the Prince and Enid rode,
And fifty knights rode with them, to the shores
Of Severn, and they past to their own land:
King Arthur’s Court being held at Caerleon-upon-Usk, it was necessary
for the knights who attended to cross the Severn when returning to
their homes.
_Marriage of Geraint_;
_Geraint and Enid_.
SEVILLE.
Let us bang these dogs of Seville, the children of the devil,
A city of Spain and the port from which the squadron which fought sir
Richard Grenville off the Azores in 1591 was fitted out.
_The Revenge._
SHAKESPEARE.
A famous English poet, and the greatest of dramatists.
_Palace of Art_;
_You might have won_;
_In Memoriam_;
_To E. Fitzgerald_;
_To W. C. Macready_.
SHALOTT, ISLAND OF.
The enchanted island on which was situated the castle in which dwelt
the lady of Shalott (_q.v._).
_Lady of Shalott._
SHALOTT, LADY OF.
_See_ =Lady of Shalott=.
SHAMUS.
SHAMUS O’SHEA.
Friend of Danny O’Roon, both of whom were frequent visitors to Katty’s
shebeen. Shamus loved Molly Magee and
’Ud ’a shot his own sowl dead for a kiss of ye, Molly Magee.
_Tomorrow._
SHEBA.
No, not to answer, Madam, all those hard things
That Sheba came to ask of Solomon.’
Refers to the queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon at Jerusalem. _1 Kings
x. 1-13._
_The Princess._
SHEBEEN.
= A grog-shop.
_Tomorrow._
SHE-GOAT.
= A female goat.
_Becket._
SHELLEY.
My Shelley would fall from my hands when he cast a contemptuous
glance
From where he was poring over his Tables of Trade and Finance;
= The poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley.
_The Wreck._
SHEPHERD-DOG.
A dog specially trained to help in tending sheep.
_Leonine Elegiacs._
SHERWOOD.
SHERWOOD FOREST.
Originally a royal forest situated in the west of the county of
Nottingham, but is now almost disafforested, being occupied by
gentlemen’s residences, the town of Mansfield, and several villages. It
was the scene of the exploits of the famous outlaw Robin Hood and his
merry men, and of several conflicts during the Wars of the Roses.
_The Foresters._
SHIAH.
And warms the blood of Shiah and Sunnee,
Symbol the Eternal!
On the death of Mahomet the Church which he had founded was divided
into two sections, the Shiahs and the Sunnees. The former are the
champions of Ali, the fourth Califf, Mahomet’s nephew, and recognized
the right of succession to the prophet to rest with him and his
descendants. The Persians belong to this sect. The Sunnees, or
Sunnites, accept the teaching of the Prophet as of the same authority
as the _Koran_, as their rule of faith and manners, and accept the four
Califs--Abu Beker, Omar, Othman and Ali--as the true successors of
Mahomet. To this sect the Turks belong.
_Akbar’s Dream._
SHREW.
A small animal resembling a mouse, but having a longer and more pointed
nose.
_Gareth and Lynette._
SHRIKE.
A bird of the family _Laniidæ_ having a strong hooked bill. It impales
its prey on thorns, hence it is called also the _butcher bird_.
_Maud._
SHUSHAN.
O Vashti, noble Vashti! Summon’d out
She kept her state, and left the drunken king
To brawl at Shushan underneath the palms.
_See Esther iii. 15._
_The Princess._
SICILIAN.
Poet-like, as the great Sicilian called
Calliope to grace his golden verse--
Theocritus, the bucolic poet of Greece, born at Syracuse, in the third
century, +B.C.+ His poems, some thirty in number, are pictures of
Sicilian life, and are much admired for their beauty and elegance. The
date of his death is not known, but it is supposed that for having
written some satire of Hiero, king of Syracuse, he was by this king
ordered to be strangled in 300 +B.C.+
_Lucretius._
SICILY.
_Queen Mary._
SIEGE PERILOUS.
The Round Table made by Merlin contained 150 sieges. One of these
was called the ‘Siege Perilous’ and was reserved for the knight who
achieved the quest of the Holy Grail. The Round Table is supposed to
have been an imitation of the Table of the Holy Grail made by Joseph
of Arimathæa, but whether the vacant seat represented the one in which
Christ Himself sat, or the traitor Judas, opinions differ. Every seat
at the table was inscribed with the name of its occupant, and the name
on the ‘Siege Perilous’ was ‘Galahad the Pure.’
_Holy Grail._
SIGN OF THE TALBOT.
An Inn sign.
_Queen Mary._
SILENT ISLE.
_See_ =Maeldune=.
_Voyage of Maeldune._
SIMEON.
SIMEON STYLITES.
A famous monk--founder of a class of recluses, called
‘Pillar-saints’--who lived in extreme seclusion in a Syrian monastery
for nine years. At the end of that time he retired to the Syrian
desert, where he lived for thirty years on the top of a pillar
seventy-two feet high, engaged in prayer and preaching. He died on his
pillar at the age of seventy-two and was buried at Antioch. Gibbon’s
_Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ gives an account of this monk.
_St. Simeon Stylites._
SIMOIS.
A river of Troy which has its origin in mount Ida. It joins the
Scamander, which also has its source in the same mountain, in the plain
of Troas, and flowing north-east falls into the Hellespont.
_Œnone._
SIMON.
SIMON RENARD.
Spanish ambassador to the English court, time of queen Mary.
_Queen Mary._
SINAÏ.
But in the darkness and the cloud,
As over Sinaï’s peaks of old,
While Israel made their gods of gold,
Altho’ the trumpet blew so loud.
= True Faith is enveloped with perplexity, as God was hidden in the
cloud of fire and smoke on Mount Sinai. _Exodus xix. 16._
_In Memoriam._
SINNATUS.