Chapter Schahzaman to Sciolto of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

School for Wives (L’école des Femmes, “training for wives”), a comedy by Molière (1662). Arnolphe has a crotchet about the proper training of girls to make good wives, and tries his scheme upon Agnes, whom he adopts from a peasant’s cottage, and designs in due time to make his wife. He sends her from early childhood to a convent, where difference of sex and the conventions of society are wholly ignored. When removed from the convent, she treats men as if they were school-girls, kisses them, plays with them, and treats them with girlish familiarity. The consequence is, a young man named Horace falls in love with her, and makes her his wife, but Arnolphe loses his pains.

Chacun a sa méthode

En femme, comme en tout, je veux suivre ma mode…
Un air doux et posé, parmi d’autres enfants,
M’inspira de l’amour pour elle dès quatre ans;
Sa mère se trouvant de pauvretè presé,
De la lui demander il me vint en pensée;
Et la bonne paysanne, apprenant mon desire,
A s’ôter cette charge eut beaucoup de plaisir.
Dans un petit couvent, loin de toute pratique,
Je la fis èlever selon ma politique.

Molière: L’école des Femmes, act 1(1662).

School of Husbands (L’école des Maris, “wives trained by men”), a comedy by Molière (1661). Ariste and Sganarelle, two brothers, bring up Léonor and Isabelle, two orphan sisters, according to their systems for making them in time their model wives. Sganarelle’s system was to make the women dress plainly, live retired, attend to domestic duties, and have few indulgences. Ariste’s system was to give the woman great liberty, and trust to her honour. Isabelle, brought up by Sganarelle, deceived him and married another; but Léonor, brought up by Ariste, made him a fond and faithful wife. Sganarelle’s plan—

J’entend que la mienne vive a ma fantasie—
Que d’une serge honnête elle ait son vêtement,
Et ne porte, le noir qu’aux bons jours seulement;
Qu’enfermée au logis, en personne bien sage,
Elle s’applique toute aux choses du ménage,
A recoudre mon linge aux heures de loisir,
Ou bien à tricoter quelques bas par plaisir;
Qu’aux discours des muguets elle ferme l’oreille,
Et ne sorte jamais sans avoir qui la veille.

Ariste’s plan—

Leur sexe aime à jouir d’un peu de libetare;
On le retient fort mal par tant d’austérité;
Et les soins défiants, les verroux et les grilles,
Ne font pas la vertu des femmes ni des filles;
C’est l’honneur qui les doit tenir dans le devoir,
Non la sévérité que nous leur faisons voir…
Je trouve que le cœur est ce qu’il faut gagner.

Moliére: L’école des Maris, act 1.2(1661).

Schoolmen. (For a list of the schoolmen of each of the three periods, see Dictonary of Phrase and Falbe,IIIO.)

Schoolmistress (The), a poem in Spenserian metre, by Shenstone (1737 and 1742). The “schoolmistress” was Sarah Lloyd, who taught the poet himself in infancy. She lived in a thatched cottage, before which grew a birch tree, to which allusion is made in the poem.

There dwells, in lowly shed, and mean attire,
A matron old, whom we schoolmistress name…
And all in sight doth rise a birchen tree.
   —Stanzas 2,3.

Schreckenwald (Ital), steward of count Albert—Sir W. Scott: Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).

Schrimner, the hog which is daily roasted and eaten in Walhalla, but which becomes entire every morning—Scandinavian Mythology. (See RUSTICUS’S PIG, p.942.)

Schwanker (Jones), jester of Leopold archduke of Austria.—Sir W. Scott: The Talisman (time, Richard I.).