Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 159

=Singing Apple= (_The_), in the deserts of Libya. This apple resembled a ruby crowned with a huge diamond, and had the gift of imparting wit to those who only smelt of it. Prince Cherry obtained it for Fairstar. (See SINGING TREE.)

The singing apple is as great an embellisher of wit as the dancing water is of beauty. Would you appear in public as a poet or prose writer, a wit or a philosopher, you only need smell it, and you are possessed at once of these rare gifts of genius.--Comtesse D'Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ ("Princess Fairstar," 1682).

=Singing Tree= (_The_), a tree, every leaf of which was a mouth, and all the leaves sang together in harmonious concert.--_Arabian Nights_ ("The Two Sisters," the last story).

? In the tale of _Cherry and Fairstar_, "the singing tree" is called "the singing apple" (_q.v._).

=Single-Speech Hamilton=, William Gerard Hamilton, statesman (1729-1796).

His first speech was delivered November 13, 1775, and his eloquence threw into the shade every orator except Pitt himself.

It was supposed that he had exhausted himself in that one speech, and had become physically incapable of making a second; so that afterwards, when he really did make a second, everybody was naturally disgusted, and most people dropped his acquaintance.--De Quincey (1786-1859).

=Singleton= (_Captain_), the hero of a novel by D. Defoe, called _The Adventures of Captain Singleton_.

=Singular Doctor= (_The_), William Occam, _Doctor Singularis et Invincibilis_ (1276-1347).

? The "Occam razor" was _entia non sunt multiplicanda_, "ent.i.ties are not to be unnecessarily multiplied." In other words, elements, genera, and first principles are very few in number.

=Sinner Saved= (_A_). Cyra, daughter of Proterius of Cappadocia, was on the point of taking the veil among Emmelia's sisterhood, and just before the day of renunciation, Eleemon, her father's freed slave, who loved her, sold himself to the devil, on condition of obtaining her for his wife. He signed the bond with a drop of his heart's blood, and carried about with him a little red spot on his bresst,[TN-181] as a perpetual reminder of the compact. The devil now sent a dream to Cyra, and another to her father, which caused them to change their plans; and on the very day that Cyra was to have taken the veil, she was given by St. Basil in marriage to Eleemon, with whom she lived happily for many years, and had a large family. One night, while her husband was asleep, Cyra saw the blood-red spot; she knew what it meant, and next day Eleemon told her the whole story. Cyra now bestirred herself to annul the compact, and went with her husband to St. Basil, to whom a free and full confession was made. Eleemon was shut up for a night in a cell, and Satan would have carried him off, but he clung to the foot of a crucifix. Next day Satan met St. Basil in the cathedral, and demanded his bond. St. Basil a.s.sured him the bond was illegal and invalid. The devil was foiled, the red mark vanished from the skin of Eleemon, a sinner was saved, and St.

Basil came off victorious.--Amphilochius, _Life of St. Basil_. (See Rosweyde, _Vitae Patrum_, 156-8.)

? Southey has converted this legend into a ballad of nine lays (1829).

=Sinon=, the crafty Greek, who persuaded the Trojans to drag the Wooden Horse into their city.--Virgil, _aeneid_, ii.

Dante, in his _Inferno_, places Sinon, with Potiphar's wife, Nimrod, and the rebellious giants, in the tenth pit of Malebolge.

=Sin Saxon.= Sprightly, sparkling personage, who appears, first as a saucy girl, then, as a vivacious young matron, in several of A. D. T.

Whitney's books. She marries Frank Sherman.--A. D. T. Whitney, _Leslie Goldthwaite_ and _The Other Girls_.

=Sintram=, the Greek hero of the German romance, _Sintram and His Companions_, by Baron Lamotte Fouque.

_Sintram's Sword_, Welsung.

=Sio'na=, a seraph, to whom was committed the charge of Bartholomew, the apostle.--Klopstock, _The Messiah_, iii. (1748).

=Siph'a=, the guardian angel of Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter.--Klopstock, _The Messiah_, iii. (1748).

=Si'phax=, a soldier, in love with Princess Calis, sister of Astorax, king of Paphos. The princess is in love with Polydore, the brother of General Memnon, ("the mad brother").--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Mad Lover_ (1617).

=Sir Oracle=, a dictatorial prig; a dogmatic pedant.

I am Sir Oracle, And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark.

Shakespeare, _Merchant of Venice_, act i. sc. 1 (1598).

=Sirens=, three sea-nymphs, whose usual abode was a small island near Cape Pelorus, in Sicily. They enticed sailors ash.o.r.e by their melodious singing, and then killed them. Their names are Parthenope, Ligeia, and Leucothea.--_Greek Fable._

=Sirloin of Beef.= James I., on his return from a hunting excursion, so much enjoyed his dinner, consisting of a loin of roast beef, that he laid his sword across it, and dubbed it Sir Loin. At Chingford, in Ess.e.x, is a place called "Friday Hill House," in one of the rooms of which is an oak table with a bra.s.s plate let into it, inscribed with the following words:--"ALL LOVERS OF ROAST BEEF WILL LIKE TO KNOW THAT ON THIS TABLE A LOIN WAS KNIGHTED BY KING JAMES THE FIRST ON HIS RETURN FROM HUNTING IN EPPING FOREST."

Knighting the loin of beef is also ascribed to Charles II.

Our second Charles, of fame facete, On loin of beef did dine; He held his sword, pleased, o'er the meat.

"Arise, thou famed Sir Loin."

_Ballad of the New Sir John Barleycorn._

=Sister Anne=, sister of Fatima (the seventh and last wife of Bluebeard).

Fatima, being condemned to death by her tyrannical husband, requested sister Anne to ascend to the highest tower of the castle to watch for her brothers, who were momentarily expected. Bluebeard kept roaring below stairs for Fatima to be quick; Fatima was constantly calling out from her chamber, "Sister Anne, do you see them coming?" and sister Anne was on the watch-tower, mistaking every cloud of dust for the mounted brothers. They arrived at last, rescued Fatima, and put Bluebeard to death.--Charles Perrault, _Contes_ ("La Barbe Bleue," 1697).

This is a Scandinavian tale taken from the _Folks Sagas_.

=Sis'yphos=, in Latin =Sisyphus=, a king of Corinth, noted for his avarice and fraud. He was punished in the infernal regions by having to roll uphill a huge stone, which always rolled down again as soon as it reached the top. Sisyphos is a type of avarice, never satisfied. The avaricious man reaches the summit of his ambition, and no sooner does he so than he finds the object of his desire as far off as ever.

With many a weary step, and many a groan, Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone; The huge round stone, returning with a bound, Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground.

Homer, _Odyssey_, xi. [Pope's trans.].

=Sisyphus=, in the Milesian tales, was doomed to die, but when Death came to him, the wily fellow contrived to fasten the unwelcome messenger in a chair, and then feasted him till old Spare-ribs grew as fat as a prize pig. In time, Pluto released Death, and Sisyphus was caught, but prayed that he might speak to his wife before he went to Hades. The prayer was granted, and Sisyphus told his wife not to bury him, for though she might think him dead, he would not be really so. When he got to the infernal regions, he made the ghosts so merry with his jokes, that Pluto reproved him, and Sisyphus pleaded that, as he had not been buried, Pluto had no jurisdiction over him, nor could he even be ferried across the Styx. He then obtained leave to return to earth, that he might persuade his wife to bury him. Now, the wily old king had previously bribed Hermes, when he took him to Hades, to induce Zeus to grant him life, provided he returned to earth again in the body; when, therefore, he did return, he demanded of Hermes the fulfillment of his promise, and Hermes induced Zeus to bestow on him life. Sisyphus was now allowed to return to earth, with a promise that he should never die again, till he himself implored for death. So he lived, and lived till he was weary of living, and when he went to Hades the second time, he was allotted, by way of punishment, the task of rolling a huge stone to the top of a mountain. Orpheus (2 _syl._), asked him how he could endure so ceaseless and vain an employment, and Sisyphus replied that he hoped ultimately to accomplish the task. "Never," exclaimed Orpheus; "it can never be done!"

"Well, then," said Sisyphus, "mine is at worst but everlasting hope."--Lord Lytton, _Tales of Miletus_, ii.

=Sitoph'agus= ("_the wheat-eater_"), one of the mouse princes, who being wounded in the battle, crept into a ditch to avoid further injury or danger.

The lame Sitophagus, oppressed with pain, Creeps from the desperate dangers of the plain; And where the ditches rising weeds supply ...

There lurks the silent mouse relieved of heat, And, safe embowered, avoids the chance of fate.

Parnell, _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_. iii. (about 1712).

The last two lines might be amended thus: