Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 140

... ere Saul they chose, G.o.d was their king, and G.o.d they durst depose.

Pt. i. (1681).

? This was the "divine right" of kings.

=Saunders=, groom of Sir Geoffrey Peveril of the Peak.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

_Saunders_ (_Richard_), the pseudonym of Dr. Franklin, adopted in _Poor Richard's Almanac_, begun in 1732.

=Saunders Sweepclean=, a king's messenger, at Knockwinnock Castle.--Sir W.

Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time George III.).

=Saunderson= (_Saunders_), butler, etc., to Mr. Cosmo Comyne Bradwardine, baron of Bradwardine and Tully Veolan.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

=Saurid=, king of Egypt, say the Copt.i.tes (2 _syl._) built the pyramids 300 years before the Flood, and according to the same authority, the following inscription was engraved upon one of them:--

I, King Saurid, built the pyramids ... and finished them in six years. He that comes after me ... let him destroy them in 600 if he can ... I also covered them ... with satin, and let him cover them with matting.--Greaves, _Pyramidographia_, (seventeenth century).

=Savage= (_Captain_), a naval commander.--Captain Marryat, _Peter Simple_ (1833).

=Sav'il=, steward to the elder Loveless.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Scornful Lady_ (1616).

=Sav'ille= (2 _syl._), the friend of Doricourt. He saves Lady Frances Touchwood from Courtall, and frustrates his infamous designs on the lady's honor.--Mrs. Cowley, _The Belle's Stratagem_ (1780).

_Saville_ (_Lord_), a young n.o.bleman with Chiffinch (emissary of Charles II.).--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time Charles II.).

=Saviour of Rome.= C. Marius was so called after the overthrow of the Cimbri, July 30, B.C. 101.

=Saviour of the Nations.= So the duke of Wellington was termed after the overthrow of Bonaparte (1769-1852).

Oh, Wellington ... called "Saviour of the Nations!"

Byron, _Don Juan_, ix. 5 (1824).

=Sawney=, a corruption of Sandie, a contracted form of Alexander. Sawney means a Scotchman, as David a Welshman, John Bull an Englishman, Cousin Michael a German, Brother Jonathan a native of the United States, Macaire a Frenchman, Colin Tampon a Swiss, and so on.

=Sawyer= (_Bob_), a dissipated, struggling young medical pract.i.tioner, who tries to establish a practice at Bristol, but without success. Sam Weller calls him "Mr. Sawbones."--C. d.i.c.kens, _The Pickwick Papers_ (1836)

=Saxon Duke= (_The_), mentioned by Butler in his _Hudibras_, was John Frederick, duke of Saxony, of whom Charles V. said, "Never saw I such a swine before."

=Sboga= (_Jean_), the hero of a romance by C. Nodier (1818), a leader of bandits, in the spirit of Lord Byron's _Corsair_ and _Lara_.

=Scadder= (_General_), agent in the office of the "Eden Settlement." His peculiarity consisted in the two distinct expressions of his profile, for "one side seemed to be listening to what the other side was doing."--C. d.i.c.kens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1844).

=Scalds=, court poets and chroniclers of the ancient Scandinavians. They resided at court, were attached to the royal suite, and attended the king in all his wars. They also acted as amba.s.sadors between hostile tribes, and their persons were held sacred. These bards celebrated in song the G.o.ds, the kings of Norway, and national heroes. Their lays or _vyses_ were compiled in the eleventh century by Saemund Sigfusson, a priest and scald of Iceland, and the compilation is called the _Elder_ or _Rythmical Edda_.

=Scallop-Sh.e.l.l= (_The_). Every one knows that St. James's pilgrims are distinguished by scallop-sh.e.l.ls, but it is a blunder to suppose that other pilgrims are privileged to wear them. Three of the popes have, by their bulls, distinctly confirmed this right to the Compostella pilgrim alone: viz., Pope Alexander III., Pope Gregory IX. and Pope Clement V.

Now, the escallop or scallop, is a sh.e.l.l-fish, like an oyster or large c.o.c.kle; but Gwillim tells us what ignorant zoologists have omitted to mention, that the bivalve is "engendered solely of dew and air. It has no blood at all; yet no food that man eats turns so soon into life-blood as the scallop."--_Display of Heraldy_, 171.

_Scallop-sh.e.l.ls used by Pilgrims._ The reason why the scallop-sh.e.l.l is used by pilgrims is not generally known. The legend is this: When the marble ship which bore the headless body of St. James approached Bouzas, in Portugal, it happened to be the wedding day of the chief magnate of the village; and while the bridal party was at sport, the horse of the bridegroom became unmanageable, and plunged into the sea. The ship pa.s.sed over the horse and its rider, and pursued its onward course, when, to the amazement of all, the horse and its rider emerged from the water uninjured, and the cloak of the rider was thickly covered with scallop-sh.e.l.ls. All were dumbfounded, and knew not what to make of these marvels, but a voice from heaven exclaimed, "It is the will of G.o.d that all who henceforth make their vows to St. James, and go on pilgrimage, shall take with them scallop-sh.e.l.ls; and all who do so shall be remembered in the day of judgment." On hearing this, the lord of the village, with the bride and bridegroom, were duly baptized, and Bouzas became a Christian Church.--_Sanctoral Portugues_ (copied into the _Breviaries_ of _Alcobaca and St. Cucufate_).

Cunctis mare cernentibus, Sed a profundo ducitur; Natus Regis submergitur, Totus plenus conchilibus.

_Hymn for St. James's day._

In sight of all the prince went down, Into the deep sea dells; In sight of all the prince emerged, Covered with scallop-sh.e.l.ls.

=Scalping= (_Rules for_). The Cheyennes, in scalping, remove from the part just over the left ear a piece of skin not larger than a silver dollar.

The Arrapahoes take a similar piece from the region of the right ear.

Others take the entire skin from the crown of the head, the forehead, or the nape of the neck. The Utes take the entire scalp from ear to ear, and from the forehead to the nape of the neck.

=Scambister= (_Eric_), the old butler of Magnus Troil, the udaller of Zetland.--Sir W. Scott, _The Pirate_ (time, William III.).

? A udaller is one who holds his lands by allodial tenure.

=Scandal=, a male character in _Love for Love_, by Congreve (1695).

_Scandal_ (_School for_), a comedy by Sheridan (1777).

=Scanderbeg.= So George Castriota, an Albanian hero, was called. Amurath II. gave him the command of 5000 men, and such was his daring and success, that he was called Skander (_Alexander_). In the battle of Morava (1443) he deserted Amurath, and, joining the Albanians, won several battles over the Turks. At the instigation of Pius II. he headed a crusade against them, but died of a fever, before Mahomet II. arrived to oppose him (1404-1467). (Beg or Bey is the Turkish for "prince.")

_Scanderbeg's sword needs Scanderbeg's arm._ Mahomet II. "the Great"

requested to see the scimitar which George Castriota used so successfully against the Ottomans in 1461. Being shown it, and wholly unable to draw it, he p.r.o.nounced the weapon to be a hoax, but received for answer, "Scanderbeg's sword needs Scanderbeg's arm to wield it."

The Greeks had a similar saying, "None but Ulysses can draw Ulysses's bow."

=Scapegoat= (_The_), a farce by John Poole. Ignatius Polyglot, a learned pundit, master of seventeen languages, is the tutor of Charles Eustace, aged 24 years. Charles has been clandestinely married for four years, and has a little son named Frederick. Circ.u.mstances have occurred which render the concealment of this marriage no longer decorous or possible, so he breaks it to his tutor, and conceals his young wife for the nonce in Polyglot's private room. Here she is detected by the housemaid, Molly Maggs, who tells her master, and old Eustace says, the only reparation a man can make in such circ.u.mstances is to marry the girl at once. "Just so," says the tutor. "Your son is the husband, and he is willing at once to acknowledge his wife and infant son."