Chapter Shah to Shandy of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Shah to Shandy

Shah Have you seen the Shah? A query implying a hoax, popular with street arabs when the Shah of Persia visited England. (1873.)

Shah-pour the Great (Sapor II.). Surnamed Zu-lectaf (shoulder-breaker), because he dislocated the shoulders of all the Arabs taken in war. The Romans called him Posthumus, because he was born after the death of his father Hormuz II. He was crowned in the womb by the Magi placing the royal insignia on the body of his mother.

Shahzada A prince, the son of a king. (Anglo-Indian.)

Shakedown Come and take a shakedown at my house - a bed. The allusion is to the time when men slept upon litter or clean straw. (See below, Shakes .)

Shakers Certain agamists founded in North America by Ann Lee, called “Mother Ann,” daughter of a poor blacksmith born in Toad Lane (Todd Street), Manchester. She married a smith named Stanley, and had four children, who died in infancy, after which she joined the sect of Jane Wardlaw, a tailoress, but was thrown into prison as a brawler. While there she said that Jesus Christ stood before her, and became one with her in form and spirit. When she came out and told her story six or seven persons joined her, and called her “the Lamb's bride.” Soon after this she went to America and settled at Water Vliet, in New York. Other settlements were established in Hancock and Mount Lebanon.

“The Shakers never marry, form no earthly ties, believe in no future resurrection.” - W Hepworth Dixon: New America, vii. 12.

Shakes No great shakes. Nothing extraordinary; no such mighty bargain. The reference is to shingle for the roof of shanties, or to stubble left after harvest for the poor.

“The cabin itself is quite like that of the modern settlers, but the shingles, called shakes, ... make the wood roof unique.” - Harper's Weekly, July 18th, 1891, p. 534.

   I'll do it in a brace of shakes - instantly, as soon as you can shake twice the dice-box.

Shakespeare, usually called “Gentle Will.”
   His wife was Anne Hathaway, of Shottery, about eight years older than himself.
   He had one son, named Hamnet, who died in his twelfth year, and two daughters.
   Ben Jonson said of him - “And though thou hadst small Latin and less Greek ...”
   Milton calls him “Sweetest Shakespeare, fancy's child,” and says he will go to the well-trod stage to hear him “warble his native wood-notes wild.” (L'Allegro, 133.)
   Akenside says he is “Alike the master of our smiles and tears.” (Ode i.)
   Dryden says of him - “He was a man who of all modern and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul.”
   Young says - “He wrote the play the Almighty made.” (Epistle to Lord Lansdowne.)
   Mallett says - “Great above rule ... Nature was his own.” (Verbal Criticism.)
   Collins says he “joined Tuscan fancy to Athenian force.” (Epistle to Sir Thomas Hanmer.)
   Pope says -

“Shakespeare (whom you and every play-house bill
Style “the divine,” “the matchless,” what you will)
For gain, not glory, winged his roving flight.
And grew immortal in his own despite.”
Imitations of Horace, Ep. i.

   The dedication of Shakespeare's Sonnets has provoked much controversy. It is as follows: -

TO THE ONLIE BEGETTER OF
THESE INSUING SONNETS
MR. W. H. ALL HAPPINESSE
AND THAT ETERNITIE
PROMISED
BY
OUR EVER-LIVING POET
WISHETH

   - that is, Mr. William Herbert [afterwards Lord Pembroke] wisheth to [the Earl of Southampton] the only begetter or instigator of these sonnets, that happiness and eternal life which [Shakespeare] the ever-living poet speaks of. The rider is -

THE WELL-WISHING
ADVENTURER IN
SETTING
FORTH.

T.T.

   That is, Thomas Thorpe is the adventurer who speculates in their publication. (See Athenæum, Jan. 25, 1862.)
   Shakespeare. There are six accredited signatures of this poet, five of which are attached to business documents, and one is entered in a book called Florio, a translation of Montaigne, published in 1603. A passage in act ii. s. 2 of The Tempest is traced directly to this translation, proving that the Florio was possessed by Shakespeare before he wrote that play.
   The Shakespeare of divines. Jeremy