Chapter Shield of Love to Shoes of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Shield of Love to Shoes

Shield of Love (The). This buckler was suspended in a temple of Venus by golden ribbons, and underneath was written, “WHOSEEVER BE THIS SHIELD, FAIRE AMORET BE HIS.”—Spenser: Faërie Queene, iv. 10 (1596).

Shield of Rome (The), Fabius “Cunctator.” Marcellus was called “The Sword of Rome.” (See FABIUS, p. 350.)

Shift (Samuel), a wonderful mimic, who, like Charles Mathews the elder, could turn his face to anything. He is employed by sir William Wealthy to assist in saving his son George from ruin, and accordingly helps the young man in his money difficulties by becoming his agent. Ultimately, it is found that sir George’s father is his creditor, the young man is saved from ruin, marries, and becomes a reformed and honourable member of society.—Foote: The Minor (1760).

Shillalah or Shillelagh, a wood near Arklow, in Wicklow, famous for its oaks and blackthorns. The Irishman’s bludgeon is so called, because it was generally cut from this wood. (See SPRIG OF SHILLELAH.)

Shilling (To cut one off with a). A tale is told of Charles and John Banister. John having irritated his father, the old man said, “Jack, I’ll cut you off with a shilling.” To which the son replied, “I wish, dad, you would give it me now.”

The same identical anecdote is told of Sheridan and his son Tom.

Shimei. Dryden is satirized under this name in Pordage’s Azaria and Hushai, a rejoinder to Absalom and Achitophel (1683). In Dryden’s Absalom, etc., Shimei is meant for Bethel, the lord mayor.

The council violent, the rabble worse,
The Shimei taught Jerusalem [London] to curse.
   —Pt. i. 669, 670.

Ship. The master takes the ship out, but the mate brings her home. The reason is this: On the first night of an outward passage, the starboard watch takes the first four hours on deck, but in the homeward passage the port watch. Now, the “starboard watch” is also called the master’s or captain’s watch, because when there was only one mate, the master had to take his own watch (i. e. the starboard). The “port watch” is commanded by the first mate, and when there was only one, he had to stand to his own watch.

When there were two mates, the second took the starboard watch. (See also BELLS, p. 107.)

Ship (The Intelligent). Ellida (Frithjof’s ship) understood what was said to it; hence in the Frithjof Saga the son of Thorsten constantly addresses it, and the ship always obeys what is said to it.—Tegner: Frithjof Saga, x. (1825).

Ship-Shape. A vessel sent to sea before it is completed is called “jury-shaped” or “jury-rigged,” i. e. rigged for the nonce (jour-y, “pro temporê”); while at sea, she is completed, and when all the temporary makeshifts have been changed for the proper riggings, the vessel is called “ship-shape.”

Having been sent to sea in a hurry, they were little better than jury-rigged, and we are now being put into ship-shape.—Daily News, August 23, 1870.

Ship of Fools (The), or Shyp of Folys, a poem in octo-syllabic stanzas, by Alexander Barclay; designed to ridicule the vices and follies of the day. It is the allegory of a ship freighted with fools; and a paraphrase of the German satire by Sebastian Brandt (1494).

Ship of the Desert, the camel or dromedary employed in “voyages” through the sand-seas of the African deserts.

…let me have the long
And patient swiftness of the desert-ship,
The helmless dromedary.
   —Byron: The Deformed Transformed, i. I (1821).