(1564-1616).
=Swan of Cambray=, Fénelon, archbishop of Cambray (1651-1715).
=Swan of Lichfield=, Miss Anna Seward, poetess (1747-1809).
=Swan of Padua=, Count Francesco Algarotti (1712-1764).
=Swan of the Meander=, Homer, a native of Asia Minor, where the Meander
flows (fl. B.C. 950).
=Swan of the Thames=, John Taylor, “water-poet” (1580-1654).
Taylor, their better Charon, lends an oar,
Once Swan of Thames, tho’ now he sings no more.
Pope, _The Duncaid_, iii. 19 (1728).
=Swane= (1 _syl._) or =Swegen=, surnamed “Fork-Beard,” king of the
Danes, joined Alaff or Olaf [Tryggvesson] in an invasion: of England,
was acknowledged king, and kept his court at Gainsbury. He commanded the
monks of St. Edmund’s Bury, to furnish him a large sum of money, and as
it was not forthcoming, went on horseback at the head of his host to
destroy the minster, when he was stabbed to death by an unknown hand.
The legend is that the murdered St. Edmund rose from his grave and smote
him.
The Danes landed here again ...
With those disordered troops by Alaff hither led,
In seconding their Swane ... but an English yet there was ...
Who washed his secret knife in Swane’s relentless gore.
Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xii. (1613).
=Swanston=, a smuggler.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George
III.).
=Swaran=, king of Lochlin (_Denmark_), son and successor of Starno. He
invaded Ireland in the reign of Cormac II. (a minor), and defeated
Cuthullin, general of the Irish forces. When Fingal arrived the tide of
battle was reversed, and Swaran surrendered. Fingal, out of love to
Agandecca (Swaran’s sister), who once saved his life, dismissed the
vanquished king with honor, after having invited him to a feast. Swaran
is represented as fierce, proud and high-spirited; but Fingal as calm,
moderate and generous.--Ossian, _Fingal_.
=Swash-Buckler= (_A_), a riotous, quarrelsome person. Nash says to
Gabriel Harvey: “_Turpe senex miles_, ’tis time for such an olde fool to
leave playing the swash-buckler” (1598).
=Swedenborgians= (called by themselves “The New Jerusalem Church”). They
are believers in the doctrines taught by Dr. Emanuel Swedenborg
(1688-1772). Their views respecting salvation, the inspiration of the
Bible, future life and the Trinity, differ widely from those of other
Christians. In regard to the Trinity, they believe it to be centered in
the person of Jesus Christ.
=Swedish Nightingale= (_The_), Jenny Lind, the public singer. She
married Mr. Goldschmidt, and retired (1821-1887).
=Swee´dlepipe= (_Paul_), known as “Poll,” barber and bird-fancier; Mrs.
Gamp’s landlord. He is a little man, with a shrill voice but a kind
heart, in appearance “not unlike the birds he was so fond of.” Mr.
Sweedlepipe entertains a profound admiration of Bailey, senior, whom he
considers to be a cyclopædia “of all the stable-knowledge of the
time.”--C. Dickens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1844).
=Sweepclean= (_Saunders_), a king’s messenger at Knockwinnock
Castle.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).
=Sweet Singer of Israel= (_The_), King David.
=Sweet Singer of the Temple=, George Herbert, author of a poem called
_The Temple_ (1593-1633).
=Sweno=, son of the king of Denmark. While bringing succors to Godfrey,
he was attacked in the night by Solyman, at the head of an army of
Arabs, and himself and all his followers were left dead on the field.
Sweno was buried in a marble sepulchre, which appeared miraculously on
the field of battle, expressly for his interment (bk. viii.).--Tasso,
_Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).
This is a very parallel case to that of Rhesus. This Thracian prince was
on his march to Troy, bringing succors to Priam, but Ulysses and Diomed
attacked him at night, slew Rhesus and his army, and carried off all the
horses.--Homer, _Iliad_, x.
=Swertha=, housekeeper of the elder Mertoun (formerly a pirate).--Sir W.
Scott, _The Pirate_ (time, William III.).
=Swidger= (_William_), custodian of a college. His wife was Milly, and
his father, Philip. Mr. Swidger was a great talker, and generally began
with, “That’s what I say,” _à propos_ of nothing.--C. Dickens, _The
Haunted Man_ (1848).
=Swimmers.= Leander used to swim across the Hellespont every night to
visit Hero.--Musæus, _De Amore Herois et Leandri_.
Lord Byron and Lieutenant Ekenhead accomplished the same feat in 1 hr.,
10 min., the distance (allowing for drifting) being four miles.
A young native of St. Croix, in 1817, swam over the Sound “from
Cronenburgh [? _Cronberg_] to Graves” in 2 hrs., 40 min., the distance
being six English miles.
Captain Boynton, in May, 1875, swam or floated across the channel from
Grisnez to Fan Bay (Kent) in 23 hrs.
Captain Webb, August 24, 1875, swam from Dover to Calais, a distance of
about thirty miles including drift, in 22 hrs., 40 min.
H. Gurr was one of the best swimmers ever known. J. B. Johnson, in 1871,
won the championship for swimming.
=Swing= (_Captain_), a name assumed by certain persons, who, between
1830 and 1833, used to send threatening letters to those who used
threshing-machines. The letters ran thus:
Sir, if you do not lay by your threshing-machine, you will hear from
Swing.
=Swiss Family Robinson.= This tale is an abridgment of a German tale, by
Joachim Heinrich Kampe.
=Switzers=, guards attendant on a king, irrespective of their
nationality. So called because at one time the Swiss were always ready
to fight for hire.
The king, in _Hamlet_, says, “Where are my Switzers?” _i.e._, my
attendants; and in Paris, to the present day, we may see written up,
_Parlez au Suisse_ (“speak to the porter”), be he Frenchman, German, or
any other nation.
Law, logicke, and the Switzers may be hired to fight for
anybody.--Nashe, _Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem_ (1594).
=Swiveller= (_Mr. Dick_), a dirty, smart, young man, living in
apartments near Drury Lane. His language was extremely flowery, and
interlarded with quotations: “What’s the odds,” said Mr. Swiveller, _à
propos_ of nothing, “so long as the fire of the soul is kindled at the
taper of conwiviality, and the wing of friendship never moults a
feather?” His dress was a brown body-coat, with a great many brass
buttons up the front, and only one behind, a bright check neckcloth, a
plaid waistcoat, soiled white trousers, and a very limp hat, worn the
wrong side foremost, to hide a hole in the brim. The breast of his
coat was ornamented with the cleanest end of a very large
pocket-handkerchief; his dirty wristbands were pulled down and folded
over his cuffs; he had no gloves, and carried a yellow cane, having a
bone handle, and a little ring. He was forever humming some dismal
air. He said _min_ for “man,” _forgit_, _jine_; called wine or spirits
“the rosy,” sleep “the balmy,” and generally shouted in conversation,
as if making a speech from the chair of the “Glorious Apollers” of
which he was perpetual “grand.” Mr. Swiveller looked amiably towards
Miss Sophy Wackles, of Chelsea. Quilp introduced him as clerk, to Mr.
Samson Brass, solicitor, Bevis Marks. By Quilp’s request, he was
afterwards turned away, fell sick of a fever, through which he was
nursed by “the marchioness” (a poor house-drab), whom he married, and
was left by his Aunt Rebecca an annuity of £125.
“Is that a reminder to go and pay?” said Trent, with a sneer. “Not
exactly, Fred,” replied Richard. “I enter in this little book the
names of the streets that I can’t go down while the shops are open.
This dinner to-day closes Long Acre. I bought a pair of boots in Great
Queen Street, last week, and made that ‘no thoroughfare’ too. There’s
only one avenue to the Strand left open now, and I shall have to stop
up that to-night with a pair of gloves. The roads are closing so fast
in every direction, that in about a month’s time, unless my aunt sends
me a remittance, I shall have to go three or four miles out of town to
get over the way.”--C. Dickens, _The Old Curiosity Shop_, viii (1840).
=Sword.= (For the names of the most famous swords in history and
fiction, see _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_, 869.) Add the
following:--
Ali’s sword, Zulfagar.
Koll, the Thrall’s sword, named Greysteel.
Ogier, the Dane, had two swords, made by Munifican, viz., Sauvagine and
Courtain or Curtāna.
He [_Ogier_] drew Courtain his sword from out its sheath.
W. Morris, _Earthly Paradise_, 634.
Strong-o’-the-Arm had three swords, viz., Baptism, Florence, and Graban
made by Ansias.
_Sword_ (_The Marvel of the_). When King Arthur first appears on the
scene, he is brought into notice by the “Marvel of the Sword;” and Sir
Galahad, who was to achieve the Holy Graal, was introduced to knighthood
by a similar adventure. That of Arthur is thus described:
In the greatest church of London ... there was seen in the churchyard,
against the high altar, a great stone, foursquare, like to a marble
stone, and in the midst thereof, was an anvil of steel a foot in
height, and therein stuck a fair sword, naked by the point, and
letters of gold were written about the sword that said thus: _Whoso
pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born
of England._ [_Arthur was the only person who could draw it out, so he
was acknowledged to be the rightful king._]--Pt. i. 3, 4.
The sword adventure of Sir Galahad, at the age of 15, is thus given:
The king and his knights came to the river and they found there a
stone floating, as it had been of red marble, and therein stuck a fair
and rich sword, and in the pomell thereof were precious stones,
wrought with subtil letters of gold. Then the barons read the letters,
which said in this wise: _Never shall man take me hence, but only he
by whom I ought to hang, and he shall be the best knight of the
world._ [_Sir Galahad drew the sword easily, but no other knight was
able to pull it forth._]--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_,
iii. 30, 31 (1470).
A somewhat similar adventure occurs in the _Amădis de Gaul_. Whoever
succeeded in drawing from a rock an enchanted sword, was to gain access
to a subterranean treasure (ch. cxxx.; see also lxxii. xcix.).
_Sword_ (_The Irresistible_). The king of Araby and Ind sent Cambuscan´,
king of Tartary, a sword that would pierce any armor, and if the smiter
chose he could heal the wound again by striking it with the flat of the
blade.--Chaucer, _The Squire’s Tale_ (1388).
=Sword and the Maiden= (_The_). Soon after King Arthur succeeded to the
throne, a damsel came to Camelot girded with a sword which no man
defiled by “shame, treachery, or guile” could draw from its scabbard.
She had been to the court of King Ryence, but no knight there could draw
it. King Arthur tried to draw it, but with no better success; all his
knights tried also, but none could draw it. At last a poor ragged knight
named Balin, who had been held in prison for six months, made the
attempt, and drew the sword with the utmost ease, but the knights
insisted it had been done by witchcraft. The maiden asked Sir Balin to
give her the sword, but he refused to do so, and she then told him it
would bring death to himself and his dearest friend; and so it did; for
when he and his brother, Balan, jousted together, unknown to each other,
both were slain, and were buried in one tomb.--Sir T. Malory, _History
of Prince Arthur_, i. 27-44 (1470).
=Sword in the City Arms= (_London_). Stow asserts that the sword or
dagger in the City arms was not added in commemoration of Walworth’s
attack on Wat Tyler, but that it represents the sword of St. Paul, the
patron saint of London. This is not correct. Without doubt the
cognizance of the City, previous to 1381, was St. Paul’s sword, but
after the death of Tyler, it was changed into Walworth’s dagger.
Brave Walworth, knight, lord mayor, that slew
Rebellious Tyler in his alarmes;
The king, therefore, did give him in lieu
The dagger to the city armes.
_Fishmongers’ Hall_ (“Fourth Year of Richard II.,” 1381).
=Sword of God= (_The_). Khaled, the conqueror of Syria (632-8), was so
called by Mohammedans.
=Sword of Rome= (_The_), Marcellus. Fabius was called “The Shield of
Rome” (time of Hannibal’s invasion).
=Swordsman= (_The Handsome_). Joachim Murat was called _Le Beau Sabreur_
(1767-1815).
=Syb´arite= (3 _syl._), an effeminate man, a man of pampered
self-indulgence. Seneca tells us of a sybarite who could not endure the
nubble of a folded rose leaf in his bed.
[_Her bed_] softer than the soft sybarite’s, who cried
Aloud because his feelings were too tender
To brook a ruffled rose leaf by his side.
Byron, _Don Juan_, vi. 89 (1824).
=Sybrandt=, cousin and lover of Catalina, in _The Dutchman’s Fireside_,
by James Kirke Paulding. The girl, half-spoiled by city life, is now
ashamed of her rustic lover in his snuff-colored suit; anon, believes
all the slanderous tales she hears of him, and, when she witnesses his
terrible struggle with the Indian who sought her life, knows that she
loves him truly and entirely (1831).
=Syc´orax=, a foul witch, the mistress of Ariel, the fairy spirit, by
whom for some offence he was imprisoned in the rift of a cloven pine
tree. After he had been kept there for twelve years, he was liberated by
Prospero, the rightful duke of Milan, and father of Miranda. Sycorax was
the mother of Caliban.--Shakespeare, _The Tempest_ (1609).
If you had told Sycorax that her son, Caliban, was as handsome as
Apollo, she would have been pleased, witch as she was.--Thackeray.
Those foul and impure mists which their pens, like the raven wings of
Sycorax, had brushed from fern and bog.--Sir W. Scott, _The Drama_.
=Syddall= (_Anthony_), house-steward at Osbaldistone Hall.--Sir W.
Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.).
=Sydenham= (_Charles_), the frank, open-hearted, trusty friend of the
Woodvilles.--Cumberland, _The Wheel of Fortune_ (1779).
=Syl=, a monster like a basilisk, with human face, but so terrible that
no one could look on it and live.
=Sylla= (_Cornelius_), the rival of Ma´rius. Being consul, he had,
_ex-officio_, a right to lead in the Mithridatic war (B.C. 88), but
Marius got the appointment of Sylla set aside in favor of himself.
Sylla, in dudgeon, hastened back to Rome, and insisted that the “recall”
should be reversed. Marius fled. Sylla pursued the war with success,
returned to Rome in triumph, and made a wholesale slaughter of the
Romans who had opposed him. As many as 7000 soldiers and 5000 private
citizens fell in this massacre, and all their goods were distributed
among his own partisans. Sylla was now called “Perpetual Dictator,” but
in two years retired into private life, and died the year following
(B.C. 78).
Jouy has a good tragedy in French called _Sylla_ (1822), and the
character of “Sylla” was a favorite one with Talma, the French actor. In
1594, Thomas Lodge produced his historical play called _Wounds of Civil
War, lively set forth in the True Tragedies of Marius and Sylla_.
=Sylli= (_Signor_), an Italian exquisite, who walks fantastically, talks
affectedly, and thinks himself irresistible. He makes love to Cami´ola,
“the maid of honor,” and fancies, by posturing, grimaces, and
affectation, to “make her dote on him.” He says to her, “In singing, I
am a Siren,” in dancing, a Terpsichŏrê. “He could tune a ditty lovely
well,” and prided himself “on his pretty spider fingers, and the
twinkling of his two eyes.” Of course, Camiŏla sees no charms in these
effeminacies; but the conceited puppy says he “is not so sorry for
himself as he is for her” that she rejects him. Signor Sylli is the
silliest of all the Syllis.--Massinger, _The Maid of Honor_ (1637). (See
TAPPERTIT.)
=Sylvia=, daughter of Justice Balance, and an heiress. She is in love
with Captain Plume, but promised her father not to “dispose of herself
to any man without his consent.” As her father feared Plume was too much
a libertine to make a steady husband, he sent Sylvia into the country to
withdraw her from his society; but she dressed in her brother’s military
suit, assumed the name of Jack Wilful, _alias_ Pinch, and enlisted. When
the names were called over by the justices, and that of “Pinch” was
brought forward, Justice Balance “gave his consent for the recruit to
dispose of [_himself_] to Captain Plume,” and the permission was kept to
the letter, though not in its intent. However, the matter had gone too
far to be revoked, and the father made up his mind to bear with grace
what without disgrace he could not prevent.--G. Farquhar, _The
Recruiting Officer_ (1705).
I am troubled neither with spleen, colic, nor vapors, I need no salts
for my stomach, no harts-horn for my head, nor any wash for my
complexion. I can gallop all the morning after the hunting-horn, and
all the evening after a fiddle.--Act i. 2.
=Sylvio de Rosalva= (_Don_), the hero and title of a novel by C. M.
Wieland (1733-1813). Don Sylvio, a quixotic believer in fairyism, is
gradually converted to common sense by the extravagant demands which are
made on his belief, assisted by the charms of a mortal beauty. The
object of this romance is a crusade against the sentimentalism and
religious foolery of the period.
=Symkyn= (_Symond_), nicknamed “Disdainful,” a miller, living at
Trompington, near Cambridge. His face was round, his nose flat, and his
skull “pilled as an ape’s.” He was a thief of corn and meal, but stole
craftily. His wife was the village parson’s daughter, very proud and
arrogant. He tried to outwit Aleyn and John, two Cambridge scholars, but
was himself outwitted, and most roughly handled also.--Chaucer,
_Canterbury Tales_ “The Reeve’s Tale,” (1388).
=Symmes’s Hole.= Captain John Cleve Symmes maintained that there was, at
82° N. lat., an enormous opening through the crust of the earth into the
globe. The place to which it led he asserted to be well stocked with
animals and plants, and to be lighted by two under-ground planets named
Pluto and Proserpine. Captain Symmes asked Sir Humphrey Davy to
accompany him in the exploration of this enormous “hole” (*-1829).
Halley, the astronomer (1656-1742), and Holberg, of Norway (1684-1754),
believed in the existence of this hole.
=Symon´ides the Good=, king of Pentap´olis.--Shakespeare, _Pericles,
Prince of Tyre_ (1608).
=Symphony= (_The Father of_) Francis Joseph Haydn (1732-1809).
=Synia=, the portress of Valhalla.--_Scandinavian Mythology._
=Syntax= (_Dr._), a simple-minded, pious, hen-pecked clergyman, green as
grass, but of excellent taste and scholarship, who left home in search
of the picturesque. His adventures are told by William Coombe in
eight-syllable verse, called _The Tour of Dr. Syntax in Search of the
Picturesque_ (1812.)
_Dr. Syntax’s Horse_ was called Grizzle, all skin and bone.
=Synter´esis=, Conscience personified.
On her a royal damsel still attends,
And faithful counsellor, Synter´esis.
Phineas Fletcher, _The Purple Island_, vi. (1633).
=Syphax=, chief of the Arabs who joined the Egyptian armament against
the crusaders. “The voices of these allies were feminine, and their
stature small.”--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_, xvii. (1575).
_Syphax_, an old Numidian soldier in the suite of Prince Juba, in Utĭca.
He tried to win the prince from Cato to the side of Cæsar; but Juba was
too much in love with Marcia (Cato’s daughter) to listen to him. Syphax,
with his “Numidian horse,” deserted in the battle to Cæsar, but the
“hoary traitor” was slain by Marcus, the son of Cato.--Addison, _Cato_
(1713).
=Syrinx=, a nymph beloved by Pan, and changed at her own request into a
reed, of which Pan made his pipe.--_Greek Fable._
_Syrinx_, in Spenser’s _Eclogue_, iv., is Anne Boleyn, and “Pan” is
Henry VIII. (1579).
Tusser has a poem on _Thriftiness_, twelve lines in length, and in
rhyme, every word of which begins with _t_ (died 1580). Leon Placentius,
a Dominican, wrote a poem in Latin hexameters, called _Pugna Porcorum_,
253 lines long, every word of which begins with _p_ (died 1548).
The thrifty that teacheth the thriving to thrive,
Teach timely to traverse, the thing that thou ’trive,
Transferring thy toiling, to timeliness taught,
This teacheth thee temp’rance, to temper thy thought.
Take Trusty (to trust to) that thinkest to thee,
That trustily thriftiness trowleth to thee.
Then temper thy traveil, to tarry the tide;
This teacheth thee thriftiness, twenty times tryed.
Take thankfull thy talent, thank thankfully those
That thriftily teacheth [_? teach thee_] thy time to transpose.
Troth twice to be teached, teach twenty times ten,
This trade thou that takest, take thrift to thee then.
_Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_, xlix. (1557).
=Taau=, the god of thunder. The natives of the Hervey Islands believe
that thunder is produced by the shaking of Taau’s wings.--John Williams,
_Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands_, 109 (1837).
=Tabakiera=, a magic snuff-box which, upon being opened, said, _Que
quieres?_ (“What do you want?”); and, upon being told the wish, it was
there and then accomplished. The snuff-box is the counterpart of
Aladdin’s lamp, but appears in numerous legends slightly varied (see for
example Campbell’s _Tales of the West Highlands_, ii. 293-303, “The
Widow’s Son”).--Rev. W. Webster, _Basque Legends_, 94 (1876).
=Tabarin=, a famous vender of quack medicines, born at Milan, who went
to Paris in the seventeenth century. By his antics and rude wit he
collected great crowds together, and in ten years (1620-30) became rich
enough to buy a handsome château in Dauphine. The French aristocracy,
unable to bear the satire of a charlatan in a château, murdered him.
The jests and witty sayings of this _farceur_ were collected together in
1622, and published under the title of _L’inventaire Universel des
Œuvres de Tabarin, contenant ses Fantaisies, Dialogues, Paradoxes,
Farces, etc._
In 1858 an edition of his works was published by G. Aventin.
=Tachebrune= (2 _syl._), the horse of Ogier le Dane. The word means
“brown spot.”
=Taciturnian=, an inhabitant of _L’Isle Taciturne_, or Taciturna,
meaning London and the Londoners.
A thick and perpetual vapor covers this island, and fills the souls of
the inhabitants with a certain sadness, misanthropy, and irksomeness
of their own existence. Alaciel [_the genius_] was hardly at the first
barriers of the metropolis when he fell in with a peasant bending
under the weight of a bag of gold ... but his heart was sad and gloomy
... and he said to the genius, “Joy! I know it not; I never heard of
it in this island.”--De la Dixmie, _L’Isle Taciturne et l’Isle
Enjouée_ (1759).
=Tacket= (_Tibb_), the wife of old Martin, the shepherd of Julian
Avenel, of Avenel Castle.--Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (time,
Elizabeth).
=Tackleton=, a toy merchant, called Gruff and Tackleton, because at one
time Gruff had been his partner; he had, however, been bought out long
ago. Tackleton was a stern, sordid, grinding man; ugly in looks, and
uglier in his nature; cold and callous, selfish and unfeeling; his look
was sarcastic and malicious; one eye was always wide open, and one
nearly shut. He ought to have been a money-lender, a sheriff’s officer,
or a broker, for he hated children and hated playthings. It was his
greatest delight to make toys which scared children, and you could not
please him better than to say that a toy from his warehouse had made a
child miserable the whole Christmas holidays, and had been a nightmare
to it for half its child-life. This amiable creature was about to marry
May Fielding, when her old sweetheart, Edward Plummer, thought to be
dead, returned from South America, and married her. Tackleton was
reformed by Peerybingle, the carrier, bore his disappointment manfully,
sent the bride and bridegroom his own wedding-cake, and joined the
festivities of the marriage banquet.--C. Dickens, _The Cricket on the
Hearth_ (1845).
=Taffril= (_Lieutenant_), of H. M. gunbrig _Search_. He is in love with
Jenny Caxton, the milliner.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George
III.).