SIIAFTESBURY SHAKSPEARE. 



213 



Besides his dramatic writings, he was author of 

 several pieces of poetry of no great merit. The 

 best edition of his works was printed in 1720 (4 

 vols. 12mo.) 



SHAFTESBURY, LORD. See Cooper. 



SHAGREEN, OR CHAGREEN (in the Levant, 

 Saghir) ; a kind of grained leather, of a close and 

 solid substance, used for forming covers for cases, 

 &c., which easily receives different colours. It is 

 prepared by the Tartars, Russians and Tripolitans, 

 from the skin of the Buc.harian wild ass, and is also 

 made, in some parts of Russia, and in Persia, of 

 horse-skin. The hinder back piece of the hides of 

 these animals is cut off just above the tail and 

 around the loins, in the form of a crescent. The 

 piece thus separated is soaked several days in wa- 

 ter, till the hair drops off. It is then stretched, 

 and the hair and epidermis are removed with a scra- 

 per. After a second soaking, the flesh side is scraped 

 in a similar manner ; the skins are then stretched 

 on wooden frames, and the hair side is covered with 

 the seeds of the chenopodium album, or goose-foot. 

 The seeds are then trodden into the leather, which, 

 being dried, and freed from the seeds, is left full of 

 indentations, which produce the grain of the sha- 

 green. The dried skins are then scraped with a 

 piece of sharp iron, till the inequalities are removed, 

 and soaked again for twenty-four hours; the parts 

 where the impressions of the seed were produced, 

 are thus swollen and raised above the scraped sur- 

 face. The skins are next immersed in ley, and are 

 ready to receive their colour. The most common 

 colour is sea-green (given by means of copper filings 

 and a solution of sal ammoniac) ; but blue, red, 

 black, and other colours, are also given it. Sha- 

 green is also made of the skins of the sea-otter, 

 seal, &c. 



SHAH, OR SCHAH, in Persian, signifies king; 

 whence Shahnameh (book of kings). See Ferdusi, 

 and Persian Literature. 



SHAH, NADIR. See Nadir Shah. 



SHAKE, in music. See Trill. 



SHAKERS, OR SHAKING QUAKERS; a 

 sect which arose at Manchester, in England, about 

 1747, and has since been transferred to America, 

 where it now consists of a number of thriving 

 families. The founders were a number of obscure 

 Quakers; and the Shakers still agree with the 

 Friends in their rejection of the civil and ecclesias- 

 tical authority, and military service, in their objec- 

 tions to taking oaths, their neglect of the common 

 courtesies of society, their rejection of the sacra- 

 ments, and their belief in the immediate revelations 

 of the Holy Ghost (gifts). At first, the motions 

 from which they derive their name were of the 

 most violent, wild, and irregular nature leaping, 

 shouting, clapping their hands, &c. ; but at present, 

 they move in a regular, uniform dance, to the 

 singing of a hymn, and march round the hall of 

 worship, clapping their hands in regular time. 

 There are at present fifteen families, as their com- 

 munities are called, in the United States, com- 

 prising 6000 individuals. In these communities, 

 the property is held in common, and the members 

 are distinguished for their industry, frugality, 

 honesty, and good morals. Celibacy is enjoined, 

 and their numbers are recruited by converts. The 

 office of leader is bestowed by impulse or revelation 

 on him who has the gift to assume it. The sect of 

 Shakers was first introduced into America by Anne 

 Lee, who, in 1770, became their leader. She was 

 born at Manchester, in 1736, and was the daughter 



of a blacksmith of Manchester, where she also, at 

 an early age, became the wife of a blacksmith. 

 Her first " testimony of salvation and eternal life," 

 borne in 1770, was the injunction of celibacy as the 

 perfection of human nature, and the holding forth 

 herself as a divine person. She was from this time 

 honoured with the title of " mother Anne," and 

 she styled herself " Anne the word." Having been 

 persecuted in England, she went out to America in 

 1774, with several members of the society, and 

 formed the first community at Watervliet, near 

 Albany, where she died in 1784. Societies were 

 soon organized at New Lebanon, in New York, 

 and at Enfield, in Connecticut, and have gradually 

 increased to their present number. See the official 

 work, The Testimony of Christ's Second Appear- 

 ance, or the article The Shakers, in the 16th volume 

 of the North American Review. 



SHAKSPEARE, WILLIAM, the greatest dra- 

 matic poet which the world has yet produced, was 

 born in 1564, at Stratford on the Avon, a market- 

 town in Warwickshire. The day of his birth is 

 generally said to have been April 23, 1564. His 

 father, according to Rowe, and most of the subse- 

 quent biographers of the poet, was a consideiable 

 dealer in wool; but according to John Aubrey 

 (who entered himself as a student at Oxford in 

 1642, only twenty-six years after Shakspeare's 

 death, and who derived his information from some 

 of the neighbours of the family), he was a butcher; 

 according to Malone, a glover. Malone says that 

 William was the second son of eight children. In 

 regard to his early education, there is much uncer- 

 tainty. It is probable, however, that he learned 

 Latin in the school of his native town : the French 

 and Italian, which he often introduces in his plays, 

 he may have acquired afterwards by himself. 

 Before he was sixteen years old, his father required 

 his aid in his trade ; and, in his eighteenth year, he 

 married Anne Hathaway of Shottery, who was 

 twenty-five years of age, and who became the 

 mother, in 1583, of his favourite daughter Susanna, 

 and, in 1584, of his twin children, Hamnet and 

 Judith. It must have been soon after this event 

 that he visited London. The time usually assigned 

 is 1586, when he was in his twenty-second year; 

 but the cause of his leaving his native place, as 

 well as his connexions and prospects in London, 

 are unknown. Rowe relates, and others have 

 adopted the opinion, that, having fallen into bad 

 company, he was induced more than once to assist 

 his associates in stealing deer from the park of Sir 

 Thomas Lucy, of Charlcote, near Stratford. For 

 this he was prosecuted by that gentleman so 

 severely, that he at first wrote a satirical ballad on 

 him, and afterwards fled from his home to avoid 

 arrest. This story, however, does not rest on 

 sufficient evidence to entitle it to credence. 

 Without dwelling on this circumstance, or credit- 

 ing another improbable story of his holding horses 

 at the door of a theatre for his livelihood, we shall 

 find a rational motive for his visiting London, and 

 resorting to the theatre, by knowing that he had a 

 relative and townsman already established there, 

 and in some estimation. This was Thomas Green, 

 a comedian. He became an actor, but, according 

 to Rowe, he never rose higher than the performance 

 of the ghost in his own Hamlet. Others, however, 

 have endeavoured to prove that he was an excellent 

 actor. His greatest patron was a friend of Essex, 

 the earl of Southampton, who is said to have 

 presented him, on one occasion, with a thousand 



