358 



SHADWELL 



any shadow, whether cast by the BUD or by an 

 artificial liu'ht . -ln>w- that its margin is not clear 

 cut. This U chiefly iluc to tlie fact that the source 

 of light has a liiiiti 1 si/e. There must consequently 

 exist certain regions from which the source of lij,'ht 

 appears to be only partially screened. In these 

 regions the shadow is partial ; whereas in regions 

 from which the source of light is wholly screened 

 by the intercepting sulwtance, the shadow is com- 

 plete. Other forms of radiant energy may be inter- 

 cepted, and correspond ing shadows cast. Take, 

 for example, sound. To appreciate the existence 

 of sound shadows we must ourselves get within the 

 shadow, that is, we must set ourselves so that a 

 large obstacle intervenes between us and the source 

 of sound. In such circumstances the intensity of 

 the sound becomes very much diminished. The 

 deadening effect of an ordinary wall upon a sound 

 originating at the farther side is a familiar illus- 

 tration. In electrical 'radiations shadows also 

 may exist, and may be made evident by suitable 

 means. It should be remembered, however, that 

 a substance which is opaque to one kind of 

 radiation is not necessarily opaque to another. 

 A stone wall is opaque to light, but is not 

 opaque to electrical radiations of a certain kind. 

 Again, rock-salt and glass cast no very appar- 

 ent light shadows ; but with radiant heat glass 

 casts a distinct shadow, while rock-salt caste 

 little or none. See HEAT, and LIGHT ; also 

 ECLIPSES. 



Shad v> HI. THOMAS, a dramatic writer of some 

 note in his day, though now only remembered as 

 the ' MacFlecknoe ' of Dryden's satire, was liorii 

 in 1640 in Norfolk. He was educated for the law, 

 but not finding it a pursuit to his mind he deserted 

 it, and after an interval of foreign travel betook 

 himself seriously to literature. His first comedy 

 of The Sullen Lovers ( 1668 ) had great success, and 

 he continued from year to year to entertain the 

 town with a succession of similar pieces, a com- 

 plete edition of which was published in four 

 volumes (1720). The immortality which these 

 must have failed to achieve for him he was 

 fated to attain in another way. With Dryden he 

 seems at first to have been on terms of "friendly 

 intimacy, and indeed the great poet contributed 

 the prologue to his True Widow ; but when Dryden 

 flung his Absalom and Achitophel and The Medal 

 into the cause of the court Shadwell was rash 

 enough to make a gross attack upon him in the 

 JUet/al of John Bayes. Dryden heaped deathless 

 ridicule upon his antagonist in the stiii^inf: satire 



of JUacflecknoe and as ' Og ' in the second part of 

 Absalom and Achitophel. Though his works, 

 hasty and careless as they are, exhibit lively talent 

 and considerable comic force, all that the reading 

 world now knows of Shadwell is that ' Shadwell 

 never deviates into sense.' It was some consolai ion 

 to succeed his enemy in the laureateship, which in 

 1688 it became necessary for Dryden to resign. He 

 did not survive long to enjoy it, however, as in 

 1692 he died of an overdose of laudanum, it is 

 said. See FLECKNOE. 



Slialiitcs. the name of one of the four prin- 

 cipal sects of the Sunnites (q.v. ), or 'orthodox' 

 Muslims, h- name is received from its founder, 

 Abu AMallah Mohammed Urn Idris, called Al- 

 ShAlif, from one of his ancestors who descended 

 from .Mohammed's grandfather, Abdul Muttalih. 



Shaft. See COLUMN. 



(jocally Shiwlon), a very ancient 

 municipal DOTODgb in Dorsetshire, .'1 miles" SSW. of 

 Semley station and 22 WS\V. of Salisbury. It 

 stands on a narrow chalk ridge, and commands 

 magnificent views over Dorset-, Somerset-, and 

 WCtshires. The Caer Palladwr of the Britons, it 



SHAFTESBURY 



was made by King Alfred the seat of a famoui 

 abbey of Benedictine nuns (880), whither Edward 

 the Slartvr's body was translated in !S(), and where 

 Canute died, 10*35. At the date of Domesday 

 Shufteslmry had three mints and twelve churches, 

 bnt four only remain 8t Peter's (Norman) the 

 most interesting. Till 1832 Shaftesburv returned 

 two members, and then till 1885 one. Pop. (1851) 

 2493 ; ( 1891 ) 2122. See Mayo's Municipal Record* 

 of Shaftesbury (Slierlnmie, 1891). 



Sliaftesbnry, ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, 

 EARL OF, WHS born on 22d July 1621, at Wimborne 

 St Giles in Dorsetshire, the seat of his mother's 

 father, Sir Anthony Ashley (1551-1628), a clerk of 

 the Privy-council. He was the elder son of John 

 Cooper of Rockliorne in Hampshire, who next year 

 was created a baronet. His mother died in 1628, 

 his father in 1631 ; and though he ultimately came 

 into over 6000 a vear, his estate was then torn 

 and rent from him by unjust kinsmen to the tune, 

 he tells us, of 20,000. His boyhood was mostly 

 spent at Cashiobury in Herts, Southwick in 

 Hampshire, and Maddington in Wilts, till at 

 sixteen, having had three tutors, he went up as 

 a gentleman commoner to Exeter College, Oxford, 

 where he 'not only obtained the good-will of the 

 wiser and elder sort, but became the leader even of 

 all the rough young men.' He left without a 

 degree, and in February 1639 married Margaret, 

 daughter of the Lord Keeper Coventry. She died, 

 sore lamented by him, in 1649 ; and nine months 

 later he married Ladv Frances Cecil, the Earl of 

 Exeter's sister, who also dying in 1654, in 1655 he 

 married pious Margaret Spencer, the Earl of 

 Sutherland's sister, who survived him till 1693. 

 Only two sons were born to him, both by his 

 second wife, and one of them died in childhood ; 

 but by all three marriages he largely strengthened 

 his family connections. 



Meanwhile in 1640 he had entered the Short 

 Parliament for Tewkesbury, but he had not a seat 

 in the Long. A royalist colonel (1643), after ten 

 months' service he went over to the parliament, 

 either from pique or from ' the dictates of a good 

 conscience,' and for nine months more commanded 

 their forces in Dorsetshire, then from 1645 to 1652 

 I lived as a great country gentleman. In 1653 he 

 entered Barebone's parliament, and was appointed 

 one of Cromwell's council of state, but from 1655 

 he was in opposition, and in 1677 we find him 

 claiming to have ' had the honour to have a prin- 

 cipal hand in the Restoration.' He was one or the 

 twelve commissioners gent to Breda to invite 

 Charles II. home, and on the way thither met with 

 the carriage accident which caused him a lifelong 

 internal abscess, but which also in 1666 secured 

 him a lifelong friend in an Oxford student of medi- 

 cine, John Locke. 



For his services he was made a privy -councillor 

 ( 1660), and next year Baron Ashley and Chancellor 

 of the Exchequer. He served on the trial of the 

 liegicides ; proved a diligent minister; supported 

 the war with Holland ; and after Clarendon s fall 

 ( 1667), in which he had no direct share, sided with 

 Buckingham, with whom he formed one of the in- 

 famous Cabal, mid like whom he was fooled as to 

 the Catholic clauses in the secret treaty of Dover 

 ( 1669-70). He seems to have opposed the ' stop of 

 the exchequer* (1672), which yet lie justified ; that 

 same year was made Earl of Shaftesbury and Lord 



Chancellor (he proved a most upright judge) ; but 

 in 1673, suddenly espousing the popular Protestant- 

 ism, supported the Test Bill, which broke up the 

 Cabal. 



On 9th October, the Great Seal l>eing demanded 

 of him, he uttered one of hi- memorable sayings, 

 'It is only laying down my gown, and putting 

 on my sword ; and, the bribe and the dukedom 



