Part 154 (1/2)
Wordsworth, _The White Doe of Rylstone_ (1815).
=Shepherd of Banbury.= (See SHEPHERD, JOHN CLARIDGE.)
=Shepherd of Filida.=
”Preserve him, Mr. Nicholas, as thou wouldst a diamond. He is not a shepherd, but an elegant courtier,” said the cure.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. i. 6 (1605).
=Shepherd of Salisbury Plain= (_The_), the hero and t.i.tle of a religious tract by Hannah More. The shepherd is noted for his homely wisdom and simple piety. The academy figure of this shepherd was David Saunders, who, with his father, had kept sheep on the plain for a century.
=Shepherd of the Ocean.= So Colin Clout (_Spenser_) calls Sir Walter Raleigh in his _Colin Clout's Come Home Again_ (1591).
=Shepherdess= (_The Faithful_), a pastoral drama by John Fletcher (1610).
The ”faithful shepherdess” is Corin, who remains faithful to her lover although dead. Milton has borrowed rather largely from this pastoral in his _Comus_.
=Sheppard= (_Jack_), immortalized for his burglaries and escapes from Newgate. He was the son of a carpenter in Spitalfields, and was an ardent, reckless and generous youth. Certainly the most popular criminal ever led to Tyburn for execution (1701-1724).
? Daniel Defoe made _Jack Sheppard_ the hero of a romance in 1724, and W. H. Ainsworth, in 1839.
=Sherborne=, in Dorsets.h.i.+re, always brings ill luck to the possessor. It belonged at one time to the see of Canterbury, and Osmond p.r.o.nounced a curse on any laymen who wrested it from the Church.
The first laymen who held these lands was the Protector Somerset, who was beheaded by Edward VI.
The next laymen was Sir Walter Raleigh, who was also beheaded.
At the death of Raleigh, James I. seized on the lands, and conferred them on Car, earl of Somerset, who died prematurely. His younger son, Carew, was attainted, committed to the Tower, and lost his estates by forfeiture.
? James I. was no exception. He lost his eldest son, the prince of Wales, Charles I. was beheaded, James II. was forced to abdicate, and the two Pretenders consummated the ill luck of the family.
Sherborne is now in the possession of Digby, earl of Bristol.
(For other possessions which carry with them ill luck, see GOLD OF TOLOSA, GOLD OF NIBELUNGEN, GRAYSTEEL, HARMONIA'S NECKLACE, etc.)
=Sheridan's Ride=, the story of the brilliant dash of Sheridan upon Winchester, that turned the fortunes of the day in favor of the Federal forces. Early, in command of the Confederates, had driven the United States troops out of the town. When Sheridan met them, they were in full retreat.
”Hurrah! hurrah for horse and man, And when their statues are placed on high, Under the dome of the Union sky, The American soldier's Temple of Fame, There, with the glorious General's name Be it said, in letters both bold and bright:-- Here is the steed that saved the day By carrying Sheridan into the fight, From Winchester--twenty miles away!'”
Thomas Buchanan Read, _Sheridan's Ride_.
=Sheva=, the philanthropic Jew, most modest, but most benevolent. He ”stints his appet.i.te to pamper his affections, and lives in poverty that the poor may live in plenty.” Sheva is ”the widows' friend, the orphans'
father, the poor man's protector, and the universal dispenser of charity, but he ever shrank to let his left hand know what his right hand did.” Ratcliffe's father rescued him at Cadiz, from an _auto da fe_, and Ratcliffe himself rescued him from a howling London mob. This n.o.ble heart settled 10,000 on Miss Ratcliffe at her marriage, and left Charles the heir of all his property.--c.u.mberland, _The Jew_ (1776).