Chapter 8

A town which did a famous siege endure ...By Suvaroff orAnglicèSuwarrow.Byron,Don Juan, vii. 8 (1824).

A town which did a famous siege endure ...

By Suvaroff orAnglicèSuwarrow.

Byron,Don Juan, vii. 8 (1824).

Suzanne, the wife of Chalomel, the chemist and druggist.--J. R. Ware,Piperman’s Predicament.

Swallow’s Nest, the highest of the four castles of the German family called Landschaden, built on a pointed rock almost inaccessible. The founder was a noted robber-knight. (See “Swallow.”)

Swan.Fionnuāla, daughter of Lir, was transformed into a swan, and condemnedto wander for many hundred years over the lakes and rivers of Ireland, till the introduction of Christianity into that island.

T. Moore has a poem on this subject in hisIrish Melodies, entitled “The Song of Fionnuala” (1814).

Swan(The), called the bird of Apollo or of Orpheus (2syl.). (See “Swan.”)

Swan(The knight of the), Helias, king of Lyleforte, son of King Oriant and Beatrice. This Beatrice had eight children at a birth, one of which was a daughter. The mother-in-law (Matabrune) stole these children, and changed all of them, except Helias, into swans. Helias spent all his life in quest of his sister and brothers, that he might disenchant them and restore them to their human forms.--Thoms,Early English Prose Romances, iii. (1858).

Eustachius vanit ad Buillon ad domum ducissæ quæ uxor erat militis qui vocabatur “Miles Cygni.”--Reiffenberg,Le Chevalier au Cygne.

Swan(The Mantuan), Virgil, born at Mantua (B.C.70-19).

Swan(The Order of the). This order was instituted by Frederick II. of Brandenburg, in commemoration of the mythical “Knight of the Swan” (1443).

Swan-Tower, of Cleves. So called because the house of Cleves professed to be descended from the “Knight of the Swan” (q.v.)

Swan of Avon(The Sweet). Shakespeare was so called by Ben Jonson (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).

Taylor, their better Charon, lends an oar,

Once Swan of Thames, tho’ now he sings no more.

Pope,The Duncaid, iii. 19 (1728).

Swane(1syl.) orSwegen, 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).

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 arrivedthe 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 calledThe 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 proposof 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, inHamlet, 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 proposof 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 saidminfor “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, seeDictionary 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.

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 theAmădis 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 commemorationof 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 slewRebellious Tyler in his alarmes;The king, therefore, did give him in lieuThe dagger to the city armes.Fishmongers’ Hall(“Fourth Year of Richard II.,” 1381).

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 calledLe Beau Sabreur(1767-1815).

Syb´arite(3syl.), 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 criedAloud because his feelings were too tenderTo brook a ruffled rose leaf by his side.Byron,Don Juan, vi. 89 (1824).

[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, inThe 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 privatecitizens 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 calledSylla(1822), and the character of “Sylla” was a favorite one with Talma, the French actor. In 1594, Thomas Lodge produced his historical play calledWounds 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). (SeeTappertit.)

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,aliasPinch, 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)(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 wellstocked 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)(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, calledThe Tour of Dr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque(1812.)

Dr. Syntax’s Horsewas 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).

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’sEclogue, iv., is Anne Boleyn, and “Pan” is Henry VIII. (1579).

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