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renown rests chiefly on his novels. Of the twenty-nine, which form the Waverley series,the greater number have an historical groundwork. Scottish history and Scottish soil were invested by his genius with a new lustre.

War Summons of the Clan, p. 201.
Irving's Recollections of Scott, p.

211.

The Return of Ravenswood, p.288. Lochinvar, p. 362. Helvellyn, p. 395. SEPULCHRE or SEPULCHER (sep'ulker).

SERGEANT (sär'jent).

SES-QUI-ALTER (Italian, sesquialtero, sesquiältro), a mixed stop of an organ, running through the scale of the instrument, and consisting of three, four, and sometimes of five ranks of pipes, tuned in thirds, fifths, and eighths.

SES-QUI-PE-DA'LI-AN (Latin, sesqui, more by a half, and pes, pedis, a foot), containing or measuring a foot and a half.

SEW (so), to join or fasten with a

thread or needle. SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM, was born at Stratford-on-Avon, in Warwickshire, England, in April (probably April 23d), 1564. His father, a woolcomber, though not opulent, seems to have been in good circumstar.ces; but it is alleged that a short course in the Stratford grammar school was all the regular education Shakespeare ever received. He married, at the age of 18, Anne Hathaway, a woman seven or eight years older than himself, the daughter of a substantial yeoman in the neighborhood. Two or three years after his marriage he removed to London, having possibly perceived the incipient tendencies of his genius during the occasional visits of the metropolitan players to Stratford.

In London we soon find the poet in comparative opulence. He rapidly acquired a large property in more than one theatre. The order in which he produced his dramatic compositions has been a subject of keen inquiry; but the minute researches of Malone elicit no satisfactory result. It is certain that Shakespeare soon vindicated the immense superiority of his genius by universal popularity. He became the companion of the nobles and wits of the time, and a favorite of

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The wealth which his genius realized enabled him, comparatively early in life, to retire from his professional career. He had purchased an estate in the vicinity of his native town; but his tranquil retirement was of no long duration. He enjoyed it only four years. He died in 1616, and was buried on the north side of the Chancel in the great church of Stratford. His bust is placed in the wall over his grave. His only son had died early; all the children of his married daughters died without issue.

The works of Shakespeare consist of 37 plays, tragedies, comedies, and histories; the poems "Venus and Adonis," and "Tarquin and Lucrece," with a collection of sonnets. Three or four of the plays, embodied in his works, are supposed to be erroneously attributed to him. The total want of care to preserve and to authenticate the productions of his genius before his death has been supposed to indicate the poet's indifference to fame.

The subject of Shakespeare's dramatic and poetical character is so vast that it would be idle here to attempt its analysis. On the occasion of the centennial celebration, in England and America, on the 23d of April, 1864, of his birth, the wellknown American critic, Mr. E. P. Whipple, remarked: "The fortune of Shakespeare's genius is to grow in fame with the growth of civilization, and to appear greatest to the greatest minds. His fame is wider now than ever before, and it will increase with the increasing study of his works. The most comprehensive of human intellects, he has, as a necessary result, never been thoroughly comprehended, and while he includes so many classes of minds, he is included by none.

"But enough is felt and known of his genius to make him the favorite poet of all the kinds and classes of men his ample page reflects, and to-day he will probably be gratefully remembered by a wider variety of devoted admirers than any other intellectual benefactor of the race ever succeeded in attracting. And doubtless the reason is to be sought in the fact that the most richly

endowed of human intellects had also the most sympathetic and tolerant of human hearts."

Another critic justly remarks: "To say that he is the greatest man that ever lived, or the greatest intellect that ever lived, is to provoke a useless controversy; but what we will say, and what we will challenge the world to gainsay, is that he was the greatest expresser that ever lived. No man that ever lived said such splendid ex-tem'po-re things on all subjects universally; no man that ever lived had the faculty of pouring out on all occasions such a flood of the richest and deepest language. He may have had rivals in the art of imagining situations; he had no rival in the power of sending a gush of the appropriate intellectual effusion over the image and body of a situation once conceived.

"From the jeweled ring on an alderman's finger to the most mountainous thought or deed of man or demon, nothing suggested itself that his speech could not envelop and enfold with ease. That excessive fluency which astonished Ben Jonson when he listened to Shakespeare in person astonishes the world yet. Abundance, ease, redundance, a plenitude of word, sound, and imagery, which, were the intellect at work only a little less magnifi cent, would sometimes end in sheer braggardism and bombast, are the characteristic of Shakespeare's style. Nothing is suppressed, nothing omitted, nothing canceled. On and on the poet flows, words, thoughts, and fancies, crowding on him as fast as he can write, all related to the matter on hand, and all poured forth together, to rise and fall on the waves of an established cadence."

For passages quoted from Shakespeare in this volume, see 3, p. 31; 14, 16, p. 33; 21, 22, p. 34; 1, 4, p. 36; 3, p. 37; 4, p. 38; 5, p. 39; 7, 9, p. 40; 12, 13, 14, p. 41; 3, 4, 5, p. 43; 11, 12, p. 45; 1, 2, p. 46; 7, 1, 2, 3, p. 48; 4, 5, p. 49; 12, 1, 2, p. 51; 1, p. 55; 3, p. 56; 9, p. 59; 14, p. 62; 5, p. 69; 8. p. 70; 4, p. 75; 1, p. 78; 1, p. 421.

Quarrel of Brutus and Cassius, p.

140.

Regrets of Drunkenness, p. 234.
The Trial Scene, p. 243.
Iago and Othello, p. 301.

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Shelley's school-days were made uncomfortable by his sensitive temper, and he was not distinguished as a scholar. Before he was sixteen he had written two novels. In 1808 he was sent from Eton to Oxford. Here, with very slight philosophical reading, he became entangled in metaphysical difficulties, and, at seventeen, was pleased to publish, with a direct appeal to the heads of colleges, a pamphlet, entitled "The Necessity of Atheism." Instead of treating the audacious freak with the unconcern it merited, the college authorities gravely raised it from insignificance into importance by expelling the author. Thus martyrdom made his wild notions all the more precious to him.

Soon afterward he printed his poem of "Queen Mab," in which singular poetical beauties are interpersed through a mass of speculative absurdities. At the age of eighteen an imprudent marriage alienated Shelley from his family. After three years of misery to himself and his wife, the ill-assorted union issued in a separation; and not long afterwards the young poet was agitated into temporary derangement by learning that his wife had destroyed herself. His children were taken from him by a decree of the Court of Chancery, on the ground of the atheism which he

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Already, among his various wanderings, he had, in 1816, become acquainted with Lord Byron, and lived near him on the Lake of Geneva. There, and by the Lake of Como, he began to write poetry very sedulously. He studied and admired Wordsworth and Coleridge; he was familiar with the Greek dramatists, and was influenced largely by Goethe and Calderon. Not long after his wife's death he married the daughter of Godwin, a lady well known in literature. In 1818 they settled at Pisa (pe'za), in Italy.

Here, with health already failing, he produced some of his principal works, in a period of about four years. Such were his lyrical drama, called "Prometheus Unbound," the gloomy but powerful tragedy of

The Cenci" (chen'che), and many singularly fine minor poems, among which we may specify "The Skylark,' "The Cloud," and "The Sensitive Plant." In July, 1822, when he had not quite completed his twenty-ninth year, he was drowned in a storm which he encountered in his yacht in the Gulf of Spezzia (spet'se-a).

Shelley's poems, amid much that is mystical and unintelligible, are pervaded by a spiritual beauty which produces on the reader the effect of a strain of exquisite music. There is something marvelous in the rich originality of his imagination, and the ideal loveliness of the forms which it pours forth. His true and noble heart contradicts the boyish errors of his head. He was generous, charitable, and affectionate; and, every year of his life, love was leading him nearer and nearer to the great truths of God and immortality, which the untrained speculative intellect had wandered away from.

The Skylark, p. 447. SHENSTONE, WILLIAM, a pleasant, but not vigorous writer in verse and prose, was born in Shropshire, England, 1714; died 1763. He was skilled in landscape gardening, and his estate, known as the Leasowes, was often resorted to as a showplace. SHERIDAN, RICHARD BRINSLEY, was born in Dublin, Ireland, 1751. His

father, Thomas Sheridan, was well known as an actor and a teacher of elocution, and as the author of a Pronouncing Dictionary. Richard, an idle and mischievous boy, passed at school for a hopeless blockhead. Leaving school he professed to study law; but his prospects were very hazy indeed, when, being barely of age, he made a runaway marriage with Miss Linley, a beautiful and accomplished singer. A small fortune she brought him was speedily dissipated by that careless way of living which he practiced at all stages of his life.

His earliest comedy, "The Rivals," appeared in 1775, when the author was not 24 years old; his "School for Scandal," in 1777; and his witty, but ill-natured farce," The Critic," in 1779. Becoming acquainted with Burke and Fox, and impressing these eminent men with a strong belief in his political and oratorical talents, he obtained a seat in Parliament in 1780. But he became improvident in his expenditures and intemperate in his habits; and the wit and orator died in 1616, abandoned by friends and hunted by bailiffs.

Extracts from speech at the trial of Hastings, p. 34.

Extract from "The Rivals," p. 79. Sir Lucius and Bob Acres, p. 83. Scene from " The Critic," p. 368. SHORT-LIVED (lived). SHRIVELED or SHRIVELLED. SIBYL (sib'il), a pagan prophetess. SIMILE (sim'e-le).

SIMULTANEOUS (sim- or si-). SINAI (sī'nā or si'na-i). SI'REN, in Greek mythology, one of certain female divinities who, by the sweetness of their song, so fascinated passing mariners, that they forgot their homes, and remained till they perished.

SKEPTIC or SCEPTIC (from the Greek skeptikos; skeptomai, to look about, to consider). The form skeptic is preferred by Johnson, Ash, Kenrick, Entick, Sheridan, Perry, Jameson, Richardson, and many other leading lexicographers. The form is more agreeable to the genius of our language, and is less liable than sceptic to be mispronounced. SKILLFUL or SKILFUL. SKY (not ske-i).

SMITH, HORACE, joint author, in connection with his brother James, of

the famous "Rejected Addresses," was born in London, 1779, died 1849. A collection of his poems, edited by Epes Sargent, was published in New York in 1856. See extract, p. 63. SMITH, SYDNEY, born in Essex, England, in 1768, was educated at Winchester and Oxford. About 1796 he became a curate, and soon afterwards removed with a pupil to Edinburgh. Here he became the principal originator of the Edinburgh Review, and wrote several papers for that celebrated periodical. During the years 1804-5-6 he delivered in London a series of admirable lectures on Mental Philosophy. He now settled in Yorkshire as rector of a parish. In 1831 he was made a canon of St. Paul's. Smith was celebrated for his wit, his powers of raillery and sarcasm, and his flashes of eccentric fun. A vigorous and elegant writer, he was equally distinguished as a brilliant talker. He was a strenuous advocate of Catholic emancipation.

On Religious Freedom, p. 193. Labor and Genius, p. 418. The Uses of the Passions, p. 374. All Sorts of Minds, p. 468. SOCIALISM, appropriately, the substitution of the principle of association for that of competition in every branch of human industry; a state in which there is a community of property among all the citizens. SOC'RA-TES, born at Athens in the year 468 B. C., suffered the punishment of death for "impiety at the age of 70; his impiety consisting in his pursuit of truth, however it might conflict with the absurd mythologies of the age. He was styled by Plato "the best of all men of the time, the wisest and most just of all men." See p. 138.

SOLWAY. The spring tides in the Solway Frith, an arm of the Irish Sea, are very remarkable for their rapidity and volume. At ebb-tide a large portion of the Solway is left dry.

SORCERY (sor'cer-y).

SOVEREIGN (Suv'ur-in or sov'ur-in).
SPENCER, HERBERT, an English phi-
losophical writer, born about 1807.
See pp. 148, 393.

SPENSER, EDMUND, a great English
poet, was born in London, about
1553, died 1599. His principal work,
"The Fairy Queen," is an allegori-
cal poem, full of beauties; but Hume

truly remarks of it, "yet does its
perusal soon become a kind of task
reading."
SPHERE (sfere).

SPON'DEE, a poetical foot containing
two long syllables.
SPRAGUE, CHARLES, an American
poet, was born in Boston, Oct. 26,
1791. He was educated at the
Franklin school, in that city, and
entered a mercantile house at 13
years of age. In 1820 he became a
teller, and afterwards a cashier, in
the Globe Bank, a position he still
held in 1864. His poetical writings
consist of a series of theatrical prize
addresses, "Curiosity," a poem, a
Shakespeare Ode, and a number of
minor pieces, all exhibiting remark-
able grace and power in the use of
language, and a genuine poetical
sensibility. See p. 254.

STOCKTON, ROBT. FIELD, of the U. S.
navy, a grandson of Richard Stock-
ton, a signer of the Declaration of
Independence, was born in Prince-
ton, N.J., 1796. He entered the navy
at 15, and behaved with marked
gallantry in several battles. In
1845 he was sent as commodore to
the Pacific coast, and was very
efficient in establishing the authority
of the United States over California.
In 1851 he was elected to the Senate
of the United States, where he pro-
cured the passage of a law for the
abolition of flogging in the navy.
See p. 154.
STORY (store'ry).

STORY, Wм. W., a poet and sculptor,
is the son of Judge Story, of the U.
S. Supreme Court, and was born in
Salem, Mass., 1819. He graduated
at Harvard College in 1838, and
published a volume of poems in
1847. He has resided for many
years in Italy, where he has ac-
quired a high reputation in art. See
p. 466.

STREW (stroo or strō,- and sometimes
spelt strow).
STUART, the royal house of Great
Britain, after the union of Scotland.
James, whose successors all bore
the same name, succeeded to the
throne of Scotland in 1406; the
fifth of his line becoming father of
the unhappy Mary, queen of Scots.
The other kings of this house were
James VI. of Scotland and I. of
England, Charles I. (who was be-
headed), Charles II., and James II.,
by whose deposition, in 1688, the

Stuarts were finally expelled the throne.

SUFFICE (suf-fize').

SUGGEST (sud-jest or sug'jest). Of the pronunciation of this word Smart truly remarks: "It is possible, with a great deal of pains, to pronounce suggest so as to preserve to each g its regular sound; but surely the elegant, because the easy, pronunciation is that which runs both letters into the same sound, namely, that of j." SULPHUROUS (sulfur-us). SUMNER, CHARLES, born at Boston, Mass., Jan. 6, 1811, was prepared for college at the Latin school, and graduated at Harvard in 1830. Entering the law school he soon distinguished himself by the breadth and thoroughness of his legal acquisitions. In 1837, he visited Europe, and became personally acquainted with the most distinguished of his foreign contemporaries. In 1851 he was elected the successor of Mr. Webster in the Senate of the U. States.

SWIFT, JONATHAN, a celebrated writer, was born in 1667, at Dublin, in Ireland, and was educated at Kilkenny School, Trinity College, Dublin, and Hertford College, Oxford. In 1701 he took his doctor's degree, and on the accession of Queen Anne he visited England. In 1710 he became active as a political writer. When he first returned to Ireland he was exceedingly unpopular, but he lived to be the idol of the Irish people. In 1726 he gave "Gulliver's Travels " to the world. As he advanced in years he suffered from deafness and fits of giddiness; in 1739 his intellect gave way, and he expired in October, 1745.

SWARTHY (Swawrth'e, the th aspirate, as in froth).

SWATH (Swoth or swawth).

SWORD (sōrd or sword; the former is the preferred mode).

SYDNEY, ALGERNON, the second son

of Robert, earl of Leicester, was born in England about the year 1621. He was a thorough republican, and opposed the dictatorship of Cromwell. He is the author of a volume of noble discourses concerning government. He was beheaded Dec. 7th, 1683, for supposed implication in plots against royalty. He met his fate with iron firmness; and

will always appear, in the eyes of freemen, more glorious on that bloody scaffold than any king on his throne.

TALFOURD, THOMAS NOON, born in Stafford, England, in 1795, died 1854. He was the author of " Ion," a classical tragedy, from which see an extract, 13, p. 45. TAR-PEIAN, in Roman antiquity, an appellation given to a steep rock in Rome, whence those persons guilty of certain crimes were precipitated. It formed part of the hill on which stood the Capitol.

TASSO, TORQUATO, a celebrated Italian poet, was born in 1544 at Sorrento, on the southern shore of the Bay of Naples. He wrote "Jerusalem Delivered," one of the few great epics which the world has seen. He was confined in a madhouse for seven years; but in 1595 was invited to come to Rome from Naples, and be crowned a poet as Petrarch had been. He died about the time fixed for the coronation. See p. 297. TAUNT (tänt or tawnt). TAYLOR, HENRY, born in England about the year 1802, has contributed to literature the fine historical drama of "Philip van Artevelde," froin which see an extract, p. 372. TEDIOUs (te'de-us or tede'yus). TEM'PE, a beautiful valley of Thessaly, in ancient Greece, between Mounts Olympus and Ossa. TENNYSON, ALFRED, poet-laureate of England, was born in 1810, at Somersby, a small parish in Lincolnshire. The laureate's father, a clergyman, was an amalgam of poet, painter, architect, musician, linguist, and mathematician. At Trinity College, Cambridge, Alfred obtained the chancellor's medal for an English poem on Timbuctoo. The year following, a volume of " Poems, chiefly Lyrical," appeared from his pen. Three years afterward he put forth another volume which contained his "May Queen" and other popular poems. From this time onward the circle of his admirers began to widen; and in 1850, the publication of his "In Memoriam," a group of 129 poems, suggested by the death of the friend of his youth, Arthur Henry Hallam, gave Tennyson a rank among the greatest poets of England. His genius is essentially retiring, meditative, and spiritual. He is a thorough master of versifi

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