Sinon.—In Vergil’s Æneid the cunning Greek who, by a false tale, induced the Trojans to drag the wooden horse into Troy.
Sir Roger de Coverley (kuv´er-li).—In Addison’s The Spectator. The prototype of this famous character was Sir John Pakington, a hypothetical baronet of Coverley or Cowley, near Oxford.
Skeleton in Armor, The.—A lyric by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, suggested to him while riding on the seashore at Newport. A year or two previous a skeleton had been dug up at Fall River, clad in broken and corroded armor; and the idea occurred to him of connecting it with the Round Tower at Newport, generally known hitherto as the Old Windmill, though now claimed by the Danes as a work of their early ancestors.
Sketch-Book, The.—A series of short tales, sketches, and essays, published by Washington Irving in 1820. They are chiefly descriptive of English manners and scenery, and have often been reprinted.
Skylark, Ode to the.—By Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1820. “In sweetness,” says Leigh Hunt, “and not even there in passages, the Ode to the Skylark is inferior only to Coleridge—in rapturous passion to no man. It is like the bird it sings—enchanting, profuse, continuous, and alone; small, but filling the heavens.”
Hail to thee, blithe spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That, from heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
Slick, Sam.—The hero of various humorous narratives, by Haliburton, illustrating and exaggerating the peculiarities of the Yankee character and dialect.
Slop, Dr.—The name of a choleric and uncharitable physician in Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, Gent.
Slough of Despond.—Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan. A deep bog, which Christian had to pass on his way to the Wicket Gate.
Sly, Christopher.—Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare. A keeper of bears and a tinker and a sad drinker, son of a peddler.