Shandy, Mrs.—The mother of Tristram Shandy in Sterne’s novel of this name. She is the ideal of nonentity, a character individual from its very absence of individuality.
Shandy, Tristram.—The nominal hero of Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent.
Shandy, Walter.—The name of Tristram Shandy’s father in Sterne’s novel of this name, a man of an active and metaphysical, but at the same time a whimsical, cast of mind, whom too much and too miscellaneous learning had brought within a step or two of madness.
Sharp, Becky.—A leading character in Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, the daughter of a poor painter, dashing, selfish, unprincipled, and very clever.
Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, The.—The hero and title of a religious tract by Hannah More. The shepherd is noted for his homely wisdom and simple piety.
Shepherd’s Calendar, The.—Twelve eclogues in various meters, by Spenser, one for each month. January: Colin Clout (Spenser) bewails that Rosalind does not return his love. February: Cuddy, a lad, complains of the cold, and Thenot laments the degeneracy of pastoral life. March: Willie and Thomalin discourse of love. April: Hobbinol sings a song on Eliza. May: Palinode exhorts Piers to join the festivities of May, but Piers replies that good shepherds who seek their own indulgence expose their flocks to the wolves. June: Hobbinol exhorts Colin to greater cheerfulness. July: Morrel, a goatherd, invites Thomalin to come with him to the uplands. August: Perigot and Willie contend in song, and Cuddy is appointed arbiter. September: Diggon Davie complains to Hobbinol of clerical abuses. October: On poetry. November: Colin being asked by Thenot to sing, excuses himself because of his grief for Dido, but finally sings her elegy. December: Colin again [815] complains that his heart is desolate. Thenot is an old shepherd bent with age, who tells Cuddy, the herdsman’s boy, the fable of the oak and the brier, one of the best-known fables included in the calendar.
Shepherd’s Pipe.—Pan, in Greek mythology, was the god of forests, pastures, and flocks, and the reputed inventor of the shepherd’s flute or pipe.
Sheridan’s Ride.—A lyric by T. B. Read, one of the few things written during the heat of the Civil war that is likely to survive.
She Stoops to Conquer.—A comedy by Oliver Goldsmith, said to have been founded on an incident which actually occurred to its author. When Goldsmith was sixteen years of age, a wag residing at Ardagh directed him, when passing through that village, to Squire Fetherstone’s house as the village inn. The mistake was not discovered for some time, but all concerned enjoyed the joke. She Stoops to Conquer is one of the gayest, pleasantest, and most amusing pieces of English comedy.
Shingebis.—In Longfellow’s Hiawatha, the diver who challenged the North Wind and put him to flight in combat.