485 



SHAW, THOMAS. 



SHEE, SIR MARTIN ARCHER. 





nnd in the course of the same year removed to London, where he 

 nettled as a physician. On the formation of the Liunieau Society, in 

 1788, Dr. Shaw was appointed one of the vice-presidents, and he after- 

 wards enriched ita transactions with many valuable papers. He now 

 began to deliver public lectures at the Leverian Museum, which were 

 always attended by a numerous audience. Nor was ho less popular as 

 a writer than as a lecturer, and a periodical entitled the ' Naturalist's 

 Miscellany,' which he now set on foot, was continued till his death. 

 In 1789 he was chosen a Fellow of the Royal Society, and it was not 

 long before he gave up the practice of his profession and devoted 

 himself exclusively to scientific pursuits. In 1791 the occurrence of a 

 vacancy at the British Museum induced Dr. Shaw to become a candidate 

 for the office of a librarian ; and on his receiving the appointment of 

 assistant-keeper of natural history in that institution, he entirely gave 

 up medical practice. His time during the last twenty years of his life 

 was occupied with lecturing on natural history, publishing works on 

 scientific subjects, and editing conjointly with Dr. Button and Dr. R. 

 Pearson ' An Abridgment of the Philosophical Transactions.' On the 

 death of Dr. Gray he was appointed keeper of the natural history in 

 the British Museum, which office he held during the remaining six 

 years of his life. In the midst of hia useful labours however he was 

 attacked by an illness which terminated fatally in the course of a 

 few days, on July 22, 1813. 



Dr. Shaw was as much beloved for his moral qualities, as respected 

 for his intellectual acquirements, which were of a very high order. 

 His principal works are : ' The Naturalist's Miscellany,' which had 

 reached its 286th number when he died ; ' A Catalogue of the Leverian 

 Museum, illustrated with Coloured Plates,' which appeared between 

 1792 and 1796; and his well known systematic work on 'Zoology.' 

 He furnished the letter-press to a very handsome work, containing 

 sixty beautiful prints of plants and animals, which Miller, the editor 

 of the ' Gardener's Dictionary,' had published, but which, from the 

 want of an accurate description of the plates, had not met with a ready 

 sale. The most useful of his works however was his ' General Zoology, 

 or Natural History.' This appeared in parts, and eight volumes were 

 published during the lifetime of the author, who left a ninth volume 

 prepared for the press. After Dr. Shaw's death the work was continued 

 by Mr. Stevens, and now forms fourteen 8vo volumes. 



SHAW, THOMAS, was bom at Kendal, in Westmorland, about the 

 year 1692. He entered at Queen's College, Oxford, where he took the 

 degree of Master- of Arts in 1719; and, after receiving holy orders, 

 was appointed chaplain to the English factory at Algiers. He held 

 this post for twelve years, and did not return to England until 1734. 

 During his absence he was chosen a Fellow of his college. In 1734 

 he took the degree of D.D., and was elected a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society. In 1738 he published the first edition of his travels, and 

 presented his collection of natural curiosities and ancient medals and 

 busts, which he had formed when abroad, to the University of Oxford. 

 On the death of Dr. Felton, his college nominated him principal of St. 

 Edmund's Hall, and at the same time he was presented to the living of 

 Bramley, in Hants. He likewise held the chair of the regius professor- 

 ship of Greek in the University until his death, which took place in 1751. 



The travels of Shaw extended through countries, some of which 

 were previously little known. He traversed the whole of ancient 

 Numidia, and visited Syria, Palestine, and the north, of Egypt. His 

 geographical details are exact and very valuable, since they furnish us 

 with information concerning the ancient and modern condition of 

 Numidia, and Mauritania Csesariensis. His descriptions of manners 

 and customs are very interesting, and like all his descriptions they are 

 marked by extreme accuracy and strict adherence to truth ; he appears 

 indeed to have neglected nothing which could enhance the value of his 

 work. In a supplement to his travels he published an account of 600 

 plants which he had collected ; 140 of which were previously unknown 

 to botanists. 



The best edition of his travels was published in 1757, six years after 

 his death, in one volume, 4to, which contains various maps and plates, 

 and the supplement. 



SHAWER, originally a Mamluke in the house of the vizir of 

 Talai-Ebn-Razik, by whom he was appointed governor of the Said. The 

 attempt however of Razik-al-Adel, son and successor of his benefactor, 

 to remove him from this province, led to a civil war, ia which Razik 

 was slain ; and Shawer compelled the helpless Fatiinite kalif, Adhed , 

 to appoint him vizir and commander-in-chief, A.D. 1162 (A.H. 558). 

 He was however expelled in a few months by another chief named 

 Dargham, and fled into Syria to the sultan, Noor-ed-deen [NoOKEDDiu], 

 whom he persuaded, by a promise of a third of the revenues of Egypt, 

 to send a force under Shirakoh [SHiBAKOH] to reinstate him ; but he 

 broke his engagement when the service was fulfilled, and called in a 

 French army from Palestine, which drove Shirakoh out of Egypt. A 

 second invasion by the troops of Noor-ed-deen (1166), who was now 

 converted into an enemy, was repulsed by the same aid. But the 

 Christians in their turn threatened to seize on the country, and Shawer 

 was compelled to throw himself on the mercy of the sultan for help. 

 Shirakoh a third time entered Egypt (1168), and expelled the Franks; 

 but becoming suspicious of the good faith of Shawer, soon seized 

 him and put him to death, himself assuming the vacant dignity of 

 vizir. The fall of the Fatimite dynasty followed within three years. 

 [SALAH-ED-DEEN.] 



BIOQ. DIV. VOL. V. 



SHEE, SIR MARTIN ARCHER, President of the Royal Academy, 

 was born on the 23rd of December 1770, at Dublin, where his father 

 (the descendant of an old Irish family) was a merchant. His father 

 having, after considerable hesitation, yielded to hia desire to adopt 

 painting as his profession, he was entered, while little more than a 

 child, as a student in the Dublin Society. Here, before he was twelve 

 years old, he had carried off the three chief prizes for figure, land- 

 scape, and flower drawing. His father's death threw the youthful 

 artist on his own resources, but he had prosecuted his studies to such 

 purpose that at the age of sixteen he is said to have found ample 

 occupation in Dublin aa a portrait-painter, and his lively and polished 

 manners gave him ready access to the best society of the Irish 

 capital. 



Anxious however to acquire a wider reputation, he, in 1788, came 

 to London. Here he found in Edmund Burke a kind friend and 

 adviser. Burke introduced him to Sir Joshua Reynolds, who treated 

 him with much cordiality. Mr. Shee now entered as a student at 

 the Royal Academy, and in 1789 became for the first time a con- 

 tributor to the exhibition, sending a ' Portrait of a Gentleman,' and a 

 'Head of an Old Man.' Though he did not become a popular 

 portrait-painter, nor, for some years at least, obtain many sitters from 

 among the aristocracy or beauty of the land, Shee made his way 

 steadily into a good and tolerably lucrative practice, towards which 

 his geniality of manners rendered him valuable service. In 1798 he 

 was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and he now deemed 

 his position sufficiently secure to venture on taking the house in 

 Cavendish-square, which Romney (whose successor he aspired to 

 become) had built for himself when in the height of his celebrity. 

 In this house Shee continued to reside until failing health compelled 

 him to abandon his profession and remove to Brighton, some half a 

 century later. Thia change of residence was attended with an 

 improvement in his professional standing. He had painted a good 

 many portraits of the leading actors, and of noted politicians, and 

 other celebrities, which had attracted attention at the exhibition, and 

 sitters readily followed him to his fashionable house. That he was fast 

 making his way was sufficiently shown by his election as Academician 

 in 1800, only two years after his election as Associate : his presentation 

 picture was a ' Belisarius.' 



From this time his career was marked by few changes or vicissi- 

 tudes. Like most of the English painters of the time, during the 

 short lull in the war between France and England he went to Paris 

 to examine the art-treasures which Bonaparte had collected in the 

 Louvre ; but besides that, his biographers find little to notice until 

 he appeared before the public in the character of a poet, by the publi- 

 cation, in 1805, of his 'Rhymes on Art, or the Remonstrance of a 

 Painter,' a work which its author described as " a poem on painting, 

 in which, more particularly, the early progress of the student is 

 attempted to be illustrated and encouraged." A second part of it 

 appeared in 1809. Byron praised the poem, and it was a good deal 

 read and quoted at the time ; and painters still occasionally garnish 

 their literary essays with a stanza from it ; but its vitality has long 

 since departed, though it has an easy flow of rhyme, and is not with- 

 out more substantial merit, and the notes are occasionally valuable. 

 Again on the occasion of a collection of the works of Sir Joshua 

 Pieynolds being exhibited at the British Institution, and a 'commemo- 

 ration dinner ' in honour of Sir Joshua being given by the directors 

 of the institution in May 1803, at Willis's Rooms, the prince regent 

 presiding Mr. Shee invoked the muse, and published, in 1814, a small 

 volume of poetry entitled ' The Commemoration of Sir Joshua Rey- 

 nolds, and other poems.' His next appearance as an author was under, 

 to himself, more exciting circumstances. He had written a tragedy 

 called ' Alasco,' the principal character of which he deemed to be par- 

 ticularly suited to the histrionic powers of his friend Keruble ; who 

 agreed to act it. But it happened to be the first tragedy which fell 

 under the hands of Colman, the new licenser of plays, and he regard- 

 ing himself as charged with the conservation of the political as well 

 as the moral purity of the play-going public, sternly refused to permit 

 it to be performed so long as it contained certain bits of declamation 

 about liberty, and denunciations of despotism, as well as one or two 

 expletives. To the expurgation of these the author as resolutely refused 

 to submit, and appealed to the Lord Chamberlain himself against 

 the decision of his deputy. But the chamberlain (the Duke of Mon- 

 trose) declining to examine that on which his deputy had " reported " 

 replied, with some characteristic dislocation of grammar, " I do con- 

 clude, that at this time, without considerable omissions, the tragedy 

 should not be acted." Shee however was not to be so silenced, and 

 resolved to shame his censors by printing, though he could not play, 

 his tragedy. It accordingly appeared in 1824, with a preface in which 

 the facts were set forth with considerable warmth, while all the pro- 

 hibited passages were printed in italics. The tragedy itself is forgotten 

 new, but it will be referred to by writers of literary and political 

 history for illustrations of what was prohibited as politically dangerous 

 in London so late as 1824. The censor certainly did his work care- 

 fully. Treason is seen to lurk sometimes in single words often in 

 single lines, such as 



" Or question the high privilege of oppression." 

 Even the mention of 



