Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 141

=Scapin=, valet of Leandre, son of Seignior Geronte. (See FOURBERIES.)--Moliere, _Les Fourberies de Scapin_ (1671).

(Otway has made an English version of this play, called _The Cheats of Scapin_, in which Leandre is Anglicized into "Leander," Geronte is called "Gripe," and his friend, Argante, father of Zerbinette, is called "Thrifty," father of "Lucia."[TN-160]

=Scapi'no=, the cunning, knavish servant of Gratiano, the loquacious and pedantic Bolognese doctor.--_Italian Mask._

=Scar= (_Little_), son of Major and Madam Carroll, believed by his father to be legitimate, known by his mother to have been born during the lifetime of her first husband, although she had married the major, supposing herself a widow.--Constance Fenimore Woolson, _For the Major_.

=Scar'amouch=, a braggart and fool, most valiant in words, but constantly being drubbed by Harlequin. Scaramouch is a common character in Italian farce, originally meant in ridicule of the Spanish don, and therefore dressed in Spanish costume. Our clown is an imbecile old idiot, and wholly unlike the das.h.i.+ng poltroon of Italian pantomime. The best "Scaramouches" that ever lived were Tiberio Fiurelli, a Neapolitan (born 1608), and Gandini (eighteenth century).

_Scar'borough Warning_ (_A_), a warning given too late to be taken advantage of. Fuller says the allusion is to an event which occurred in 1557, when Thomas Stafford seized upon Scarborough Castle, before the townsmen had any notice of his approach. Heywood says a "Scarborough warning" resembles what is now called Lynch law: punished first, and warned afterwards. Another solution is this: If s.h.i.+ps pa.s.sed the castle without saluting it by striking sail, it was customary to fire into them a shotted gun, by way of warning.

Be suerly seldom, and never for much ...

Or Scarborow warning, as ill I believe, When ("Sir, I arrest ye") gets hold of thy sleeve.

T. Tusser, _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_, x. 28 (1557).

=Scarlet= (_Will_), =Scadlock= or =Scathelocke=, one of the companions of Robin Hood.

"Take thy good bowe in thy hande," said Robyn.

"Let Moche wend with the And so shall Wyllyam Scathelocke, And no man abyde with me."

Ritson, _Robin Hood Ballads_, i. 1 (1520).

The tinker looking him about, Robin his horn did blow; Then came unto him Little John And William Scadlock, too.

Ditto, ii. 7 (1656).

And there of him they made a Good yeoman Robin Hood, Scarlet and Little John, And Little John, hey ho!

Ditto, appendix 2 (1790).

In the two dramas called _The First and Second Parts of Robin Hood_, by Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle, Scathlock or Scadlock, is called the brother of Will Scarlet.

... possible that Warman's spite ... doth hunt the lives Of bonnie Scarlet and his brother, Scathlock.

Pt. i. (1597).

Then "enter Warman, with Scarlet and Scathlock bounde," but Warman is banished, and the brothers are liberated and pardoned.

=Scarlet Woman= (_The_), popery (_Rev._ xvii. 4).

And fulminated Against the scarlet woman and her creed.

Tennyson, _Sea Dreams_.

=Scathelocke= (2 _syl._) or =Scadlock=, one of the companions of Robin Hood. Either the brother of Will Scarlet or another spelling of the name. (See SCARLET.)

=Scatterbury= (_Juliet_). Ambitious New York woman, who lives in a flat and pretends to distant friends that she lives in a Fifth Avenue brown stone front; "an egregious follower of Ananias and Sapphira."--William Henry Bishop, _The Brown Stone Boy and Other Stories_ (1888).

=Scavenger's Daughter= (_The_), an instrument of torture, invented by Sir William Skevington, lieutenant of the Tower in the reign of Henry VIII.

"Scavenger" is a corruption of Skevington.

_To kiss the scavenger's daughter_, to suffer punishment by this instrument of torture, to be beheaded by a guillotine or some similar instrument.

=Sceaf= [_Sheef_], one of the ancestors of Woden. So called because in infancy he was laid on a wheatsheaf, and cast adrift in a boat; the boat stranded on the sh.o.r.es of Sleswig, and the infant, being considered a gift from the G.o.ds, was brought up for a future king.--_Beowulf_ (an Anglo-Saxon epic, sixth century).

=Scepticism= (_Father of Modern_), Pierre Bayle (1647-1706).

=Schacabac=, "the hare-lipped," a man reduced to the point of starvation, invited to a feast by the rich Barmecide. Instead of victuals and drink, the rich man set before his guest empty dishes and empty gla.s.ses, pretending to enjoy the imaginary foods and drinks. Schacabac entered into the spirit of the joke, and did the same. He washed in imaginary water, ate of the imaginary delicacies, and praised the imaginary wine.

Barmecide was so delighted with his guest, that he ordered in a substantial meal, of which he made Schacabac a most welcome partaker.--_Arabian Nights_ ("The Barber's Sixth Brother"). (See SHACCABAC.)

=Schah'riah=, sultan of Persia. His wife being unfaithful, and his brother's wife too, Schahriah imagined that no woman was virtuous. He resolved, therefore, to marry a fresh wife every night, and to have her strangled at daybreak. Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter, married him notwithstanding, and contrived, an hour before daybreak, to begin a story to her sister, in the sultan's hearing, always breaking off before the story was finished. The sultan got interested in these tales; and, after a thousand and one nights, revoked his decree, and found in Scheherazade a faithful, intelligent, and loving wife.--_Arabian Nights'

Entertainments._

=Schah'zaman=, sultan of the "Island of the children of Khal'edan,"

situated in the open sea, some twenty day's sail from the coast of Persia. The sultan had a son, an only child, named Camaral'zaman, the most beautiful of mortals. Camaralzaman married Badoura, the most beautiful of women, the only daughter of Gaiour (2 _syl._), emperor of China.--_Arabian Nights_ ("Camaralzaman and Badoura").

=Schaibar= (2 _syl._), brother of the fairy Pari-Banou. He was only eighteen inches in height, and had a huge hump both before and behind.

His beard, though thirty feet long, never touched the ground, but projected forwards. His moustaches went back to his ears, and his little pig's eyes were buried in his enormous head. He wore a conical hat, and carried for quarterstaff an iron bar of 500 lbs. weight at least.--_Arabian Nights_ ("Ahmed and Pari-Banou").

=Schamir= (_The_) that instrument or agent with which Solomon wrought the stones of the Temple, being forbidden to use any metal instrument for the purpose. Some say the Schamir' was a worm; some that it was a stone; some that it was "a creature no bigger than a barleycorn, which nothing could resist."

=Scheherazade= [_Sha.ha'.ra.zah'.de_], the hypothetical relater of the stories in the _Arabian Nights_. She was the elder daughter of the vizier of Persia. The sultan, Schahriah, exasperated at the infidelity of his wife, came to the hasty conclusion that no woman could be faithful; so he determined to marry a new wife every night, and strangle her at daybreak. Scheherazade, wis.h.i.+ng to free Persia of this disgrace, requested to be made the sultan's wife, and succeeded in her wish. She was young and beautiful, of great courage and ready wit, well read, and an excellent memory, knew history, philosophy, and medicine, was besides a good poet, musician, and dancer. Scheherazade obtained permission of the sultan for her younger sister, Dinarzade, to sleep in the same chamber, and instructed her to say, one hour before daybreak, "Sister, relate to me one of those delightful stories which you know, as this will be the last time." Scheherazade then told the sultan (under pretence of speaking to her sister) a story, but always contrived to break off before the story was finished. The sultan, in order to hear the end of the story, spared her life till the next night. This went on for a thousand and one nights, when the sultan's resentment was worn out, and his admiration of his sultana was so great that he revoked his decree.--_Arabian Nights' Entertainments._ (See MORADBAK.)

Roused like the Sultana Scheherazade, and forced into a story.--C.

d.i.c.kens, _David Copperfield_ (1849).

=Schemseddin Mohammed=, elder son of the vizier of Egypt, and brother of Noureddin Ali. He quarrelled with his brother on the subject of their two children's hypothetical marriage; but the brothers were not yet married, and children "were only in supposition." Noureddin Ali quitted Cairo, and travelled to Basora, where he married the vizier's daughter, and on the very same day Schemseddin married the daughter of one of the chief grandees of Cairo. On one and the same day a daughter was born to Schemseddin, and a son to his brother, Noureddin Ali. When Schemseddin's daughter was 20 years old, the sultan asked her in marriage, but the vizier told him she was betrothed to his brother's son, Bed'reddin Ali.

At this reply, the sultan, in anger, swore she should be given in marriage to the "ugliest of his slaves;" and accordingly betrothed her to Hunchback, a groom, both ugly and deformed. By a fairy trick, Bedreddin Ali was subst.i.tuted for the groom, but at daybreak was conveyed to Damascus. Here he turned pastry-cook, and was discovered by his mother by his cheese-cakes. Being restored to his country and his wife, he ended his life happily.--_Arabian Nights_ ("Noureddin Ali,"

etc.). (See CHEESE-CAKES.)