Chapter S. P. Q. R to Saffron Gown of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Sabra, daughter of Ptolemy king of Egypt. She was rescued by St. George from the hands of a giant, and ultimately married her deliverer. Sabra had three sons at a birth: Guy, Alexander, and David.

Here come I, St. George, the valiant man,
With naked sword and spear in han’,
Who fought the dragon and brought him to slaughter,
And won fair Sabra thus, the king of Egypt’s daughter.

Notes and Queries, December 21, 1878.

Sabreur (Le Beau), Joachim Murat (1767–1815).

Sabrin, Sabre, or Sabrina, the Severn, daughter of Locrine (son of Brute) and his concubine Estrildis. His queen Guendolen vowed vengeance, and, having assembled an army, made war upon Locrine, who was slain. Guendolen now assumed the government, and commanded Estrildis and Sabrin to be cast into a river, since then called the Severn.—Geoffrey: British History, ii. 5 (1142).

(An exquisite description of Sabine, sitting in state as a queen, is given in the opening of song v. of Drayton’s Polyolbion; and the tale of her metamorphosis is recorded at length in song vi. Milton in Comus, and Fletcher in The Faithful Shepherdess, refer to the transformation of Sabrina into a river.)

Sabrinian Sea or Severn Sea, i.e. the Bristol Channel. Both terms occur not unfrequently in Drayton’s Polyolbion.

Sacchini (Antonio Maria Gaspare), called “The Racine of Music,” contemporary with Glück and Piccini (1735–1786).

I composed a thing to-day in all the gusto of Sacchini and the sweetness of Glück.—Mrs. Cowley: A Bold Stroke for a Husband.

Sacharissa. So Waller calls the lady Dorothea Sidney, eldest daughter of the earl of Leicester, to whose hand he aspired. Sacharissa married the earl of Sunderland. (Greek, sakchar, “sugar.”)

Sachenteges , instruments of torture. A sharp iron collar was put round the victim’s throat, and as he could not stir without cutting himself, he could neither sit, lie, nor sleep.—Ingram: Saxon Chronicle.

Sack. To give one the sack, to dismiss from further service. At one time manufacturers who employed those who worked at home put the work to be done in a bag or sack. If when brought back the work was satisfactory, the bag or sack was filled again. with materials; if not, it was laid empty on the counter, and this indicated that the person would no longer be employed by the firm.

Sackbut, the landlord of a tavern, in Mrs. Centlivre’s comedy A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1717).

Sackerson or Sacarson and Harry Hunkes were two famous bears exhibited in the reign of queen Elizabeth at Paris Garden, Southwark.

Publius, a student of the common law,
To Paris Garden doth himself withdraw;
Leaving old Ployden, Dyer, and Broke alone,
To see old Harry Hunkes and Sacarson.

Sir John Davies: Epigram (about 1598).

Sacred Allegories, by the Rev. William Adams,who died 1848.

Sacred Fish, Greek, ichthus (“a fish”), is compounded of the initial Greek letters: I[esous] CH[ristos], TH[eou] U[ios], S[oter] (“Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Saviour”). Tennyson, describing the “Lady of the Lake,” says—

And o’er her breast floated the sacred fish.
   —Gareth and Lynette.