LITERATURE 



381 



personation of intellect without virtue. The one has no 

 head, the other no heart. 



Se'lim. Bride of Abydos, Byron. The char- 

 : of Selim is bold, full of enterprise, and faithful. 

 The story runs that Selim was the son of Abdallah and 

 cousin of Zuleika. When Giaffir murdered Abdallah, 

 he took Selim and brought him up as his own son. The 

 .i? man fell in love with Zuleika. who thought he 

 was her brother; when she discovered he was Abdallah 's 

 son, she eloped with him. As soon as Giaffir discovered 

 this he went after the fugitives, and shot Selim. Zuleika 

 killed herself, and the old pacha was left childless. Selim. 

 son of Akbar, in Arabian tales, marries Nourmahal, the 



t of the Harem." 



x,. inii. Ih. Messiah, Klopstock. One of the 

 guardian angels of the Virgin Mary and of John the 

 Divine. 



>. II.M k. Peverll of the Peak, Scott. A servant 

 girl in the service of Lady and Sir Geoffrey Peveril of 

 the Peak. 



..i. M.I doe, Southcy. A Welsh maiden in 



love with Car'adoe. I rider the assumed name of Mer- 



vyn she became the page of the Princess Goervyl. that 



t follow her lover to America, when Madoc colon- 



r- Madoc. Senena was promised in marriage to 



another; but when the wedding day arrived, the bride 



was nowhere to be found. 



>entimenial .lourney. The. By Laurence Si.-rn. . 

 It was intended to be sentimental sketches of his tour 

 throueh Italy in 1764, but he died soon after completing 



part. 



>epiuaulnt. A Greek version of the books of the 

 Old Testament; so called because the translation is sup- 

 posed to have been made by seventy-two Jews, who. 

 for the sake of round numbers, are usually called the 

 "seventy interpreters." It is said to have been made 

 at the request of Ptolemy Philadelphia. King of Egypt, 

 i'.. C. It is that out of which all the 

 citations in the New Testament from the Old are taken. 

 It was also the ordinary and canonical translation made 

 use of by the Christian Church in the earliest ages: and 

 is Mill retained in t he churches both of the East and West. 

 LI. Faerie Queene. Spenser. Allured by the 

 mildness of the weather, went into the fields to gather 

 wild flowers for a garland, when she was attacked by 

 the Blatant Beast, who carried her off in its mouth. 

 Her cries attracted to the spot Sir Calidore, who com- 

 pelled the beast to drop its prey. 



s. . a me. In Arabian tales given as the talismanic 

 word which would open or shut the door leading into 

 re of the forty thieves. In order to open it, the 

 words to be uttered were, "Open, Sesame! " and in order 

 to close it, "Shut, Sesame!" Sesame is a plant which 

 yields an oily grain, and hence, when Cassim forgot the 

 word, he substituted "barley," but without effect. 

 Sesame has come into general use in connection with 

 any word or act which will open the way for accomplish- 

 ment of the thing desired. 



Sexen H.bl.-. The, or Sacred Books. (1) The 

 of Christians. (2) The " Eddas " of the Scandi- 

 navians. Ci) The "Five Kings" of the Chinese. (4) 

 ...ran" of the Mohammedans. (5) The "Tri 

 Pitikes" of the Buddhists. (6) The "Three Vedas " of 



Hindus. (7) "Zendavesta" of the Persians. 

 Seven M< . p. T-. I he. The tale of these sleepers is 

 told in diver-, manners. The best accounts are those in 

 the "Koran"; "The Golden Ix-gends," by Jacques de 

 Voragine; the "De Gloria Martyrum," by Gregory of 

 und the "Oriental Tales, by Caylus. Accord- 

 ing to one version they were seven noble youths of Kphe- 

 sus, who fled in the Decian persecution to a cave in 

 Mount Celion, the mouth of which was blocked up by 

 stones. * years they were discovered, and 



awoke, but died within a few days, and were taken in a 

 large stone coffin to Marseilles. Another tradition i>. 

 that Edward the Confessor, in his mind's eye, saw the 

 seven sleepers turn from their right sides to their left, 

 and whenever they turn on their sides it indicates great 

 disasters to Christendom. Thin idea was introduced by 

 vson in his poem. " Harold. 



U Ise Master* in the title of a mediaeval 

 JiMtlnfi pf novel*, important l>..th from its contents 



Tarn .rk is undoul>ted- 



when it Was 



Seven >Vise Men. The collective designation of a 



number of Greek sages, who lived abou !i. C.. 



, and devoted themselves to the cultivation of practical 



wisdom. Their moral and social experience was ein- 



; bodied in brief aphorisms, expressed in verse or in i 



S K a'na'relle'. The hero of Moliere's comedy l.e 

 Manage Force." He is represented as a humorist of 

 about fifty-three, who having a mind to marry a fashion- 

 able young woman, but feeling a doubt, consults his 

 friends upon this momentous question. Receiving no 

 satisfactory counsel, and not much pleased with the 

 I proceedings of his bride elect, he at last determines to 

 give up his engagement, but is cudgeled into compliance 

 by the brother of his intended. 



Shallow. A braggart and absurd country justice in 

 Shakespere's "Merry Wives of Windsor." and in the 

 second part of " King Henry the Fourth." 



Shalott', The Lady of. The heroine of Tennyson's 

 poem of the same name. She weaves into her web all 

 the sights reflected in the mirror which hangs opposite 

 her window; but when Sir Lancelot passes, she leaves 

 her mirror and looks out of the casement at the knight 

 himself, whereupon a curse comes upon her. She entered 

 I a boat bearing her name on the prow, floated down the 

 river to Camelot, and died heart broken on the way. 



Shan'dy, Mrs. The mother of Tristram Shandy in 

 Sterne's novel of this name. She is the ideal of nonentity, 

 a character individual from its very absence of individu- 

 ality. 



Mi .in il\, Tri -tram. The nominal hero of Sterne's 

 "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent." 



Mian (I \. U alter. The name of Tristram Shandy's 

 father in Sterne's novel of this name, a man of an active 

 and metaphysical, but at the same time a whimsical, 

 cast of mind, whom too much and too miscellaneous 

 learning had brought within a step or two of madness. 

 The romance, "Tristram Shandy," is not built on a regu- 

 lar plot. The hero has no adventures, and the story 

 consists of a series of episodes which introduce the reader 

 to the home-life of an English country family. This 

 family is one of the most amusing. 



Sharp, Rebecca. The prominent character in 

 Thackeray's " Vanity Fair," the daughter of a poor 

 painter, dashing, selfish, unprincipled, and very clever, 

 who manages to marry Rawdon Crawlev, afterwards 

 his excellency Colonel Crawley, C. B. He was disin- 

 herited on account of his marriage with Becky, then a 

 poor governess, but she taught him how to live in splen- 

 dor on no income. Lord Steyne introduced her to court, 

 but her conduct with this peer gave rise to scandal, which 

 caused a separation between her and Rawd: 

 joins her fortunes with Joseph Sedley. a wealthy "col- 

 lector," of Boggley Wollah. in India. Having insured 

 his life and lost his money, he dies suddenly under very 

 suspicious circumstances. Becky at last assumes the 

 character of a pious, charitable Lady Bountiful, given 

 to all good works. 



Shepherdess, The Faithful. A pastoral drama by 

 John Fletcher. The "faithful shepherdess" is Corin. 

 who remains faithful to her lover although dead. Milton 

 has borrowed from this pastoral in his Camus." 



Shepherd of Ban bury. The ostensible author of a 

 work entitled "The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to 

 judge of the Changes of Weather, grounded > 

 Years' Experience, etc.." a work of great populant> 

 among the English poor. 



Shepherd of Salisbury Plain. The. The hero and 

 title of a religious tract by Hannah More. The shepherd 

 is noted for his homely wisdom and simple piety. 



Mi. ph.-rd's rip, . Pan. in Greek mythology, was 

 tures. and flocks, and was tt 



I's flute or pipe, a sriss 

 open at one end and 



oi novel.*, import 



and its wide-spread popularity. The work is Bndoobitd- 

 ly Of Oriental origin, yet neither the period when it \\:i* 

 composed, nor how far it spread through the East, is 

 known, but it existed in Arabic as a translation from 



1 entury. The work 



became known in literature, sometimes in a complete 

 mes only narticula. novels were repro- 

 all sorts of names, in verse and in prose, 

 ersions began to appear about the begn 



1 1 Century and parts have been translated 

 into Ravish. 



the god of forests, 'pastures, and flocks, and was the at- 



intuited inventor of the shepherd's fli 



of graduated tubes set together (ope 



closed at the other), played by blowing across the open 



( i 



'shepherd's 



< ,1. ndar. The. Twelve eclogues in 



various metres, by Spenser, one for each month. Janu- 



ls that Rosalind does 



ary: Colin Clout (Spenser), be 



not return h; niary: 



of the cold, and Ihenot laments 

 toral life. Marrh: W.llie and 

 love. April: II..I.I.MI..I sings a song on is 

 he festivities of 



Palinode exhorts Piern to join the 



plains 

 of pas- 



of 

 : 



but 



Piers replies that good shepherds who seek tl 

 indulgence expose their flocks to the wolves. Jam 

 binol exhorts Colin to greater cheerfulness. July : Mor- 

 rel, a goat-herd, invites Thomalin to come with him to 

 ,) upl.-.u.K Ugs* Mpl sad WJS&t .....trn.t ,M 

 song, and Cuddy is appointed arbiter. September:. Dig- 

 gon Davie complains U> Hobbinol of 

 October: On poetry. November: 



>t to sing, excuses himself be __ 

 Dido, but finally sings her elegy. December: Colin 



