Symkyn (Symond), nicknamed “Disdainful,” a miller, living at Trompington, near Cambridge. His face was round, his nose flat, and his skull “pilled as an ape’s.” He was a thief of corn and meal, but stole craftily. His wife was the village parson’s daughter, very proud and arrogant. He tried to outwit Aleyn and John, two Cambridge scholars, but was himself outwitted, and most roughly handled also.--Chaucer, Canterbury Tales “The Reeve’s Tale,” (1388)[(1388)].
Symmes’s Hole. Captain John Cleve Symmes maintained that there was, at 82° N. lat., an enormous opening through the crust of the earth into the globe. The place to which it led he asserted to be well stocked with animals and plants, and to be lighted by two under-ground planets named Pluto and Proserpine. Captain Symmes asked Sir Humphrey Davy to accompany him in the exploration of this enormous “hole” (*-1829).
Halley, the astronomer (1656-1742), and Holberg, of Norway (1684-1754), believed in the existence of this hole.
Symon´ides the Good, king of Pentap´olis.--Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1608).
Symphony (The Father of) Francis Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)[(1732-1809)].
Synia, the portress of Valhalla.--Scandinavian Mythology.
Syntax (Dr.), a simple-minded, pious, hen-pecked clergyman, green as grass, but of excellent taste and scholarship, who left home in search of the picturesque. His adventures are told by William Coombe in eight-syllable verse, called The Tour of Dr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque (1812.)
Dr. Syntax’s Horse was called Grizzle, all skin and bone.
Synter´esis, Conscience personified.
On her a royal damsel still attends,