Chapter Secret Tribunal to Serbonian Bog of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Selim, son of Acbar. Jehanguire was called Selim before his accession to the throne. He married Nourmahal the “Light of the Haram,” but a coolness rose up between them. One night, Nourmahal entered the sultan’s banquet-room as a lute-player, and so charmed young Selim that he exclaimed, “If Nourmahal had so sung, I could have forgiven her!” It was enough. Nourmahal threw off her disguise, and became reconciled to her husband.—Moore: Lalla Rookh (“Light of the Haram,” 1817).

Selim, son of the Moorish king of Algiers. [Horush] Barbarossa, the Greek renegade, having made himself master of Algiers, slew the reigning king, but Selim escaped. After the lapse of seven years, he returned, under the assumed name of Achmet, and headed an uprising of the Moors. The insurgents succeeded, Barbarossa was slain, the widowed queen Zaphira was restored to her husband’s throne, and Selim her son married Irenê the daughter of Barbarossa.—J. Brown: Barbarossa (1742 or 1755).

Selim, friend of Et an (the supposed son of Zamti the mandarin).—Murphy: The Orphan of China (1759).

Selima, daughter of Bajazet sultan of Turkey, in love with prince Axalla, but promised by her father in marriage to Omar. When Selima refused to marry Omar, Bajazet would have slain her; but Tamerlane commanded both Bajazet and Omar to be seized. So every obstacle was removed from the union of Selima and Axalla.—Rowe: Tamerlane (1702).

Selima, one of the six Wise Men from the East led by the guiding star to Jesus. —Klopstock: The Messiah, v. (1771).

Selith, one of the two guardian angels of the Virgin Mary and of John the Divine.—Klopstock: The Messiah, ix. (1771).

Sellock (Cisly), a servant-girl in the service of lady and sir Geoffrey Peveril of the Peak.—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Selma, the royal residence of Fingal, in Morven (north-west coast of Scotland).

Selma, thy halls are silent. There is no sound in the woods of Morven.—Ossian: Lathmon.

Selvaggio, the father of sir Industry, and the hero of Thomson’s Castle of Indolence.

In Fairy-land there lived a knight of old,
Of feature stern, Selvaggio well y-clept;
A rough, unpolished man, robust and bold,
But wondrous poor. He neither sowed nor reaped;
Ne stores in summer for cold winter heaped.
In hunting all his days away he wore—
Now scorched by June, now in November steeped,
Now pinched by biting January sore,
He still in woods pursued the libbard and the boar.
   —Thomson: Castle of Indolence, ii. 5 (1745).

Semele , ambitious of enjoying Jupiter in all his glory, perished from the sublime effulgence of the god. This is substantially the tale of the second story of T. Moore’s Loves of the Angels. Liris (q. v.) requested her angel lover to come to her in all his angelic brightness; but was burnt to ashes as she fell into his embrace.

For majesty gives nought to subjects,…
A royal smile, a guinea’s glorious rays,
Like Simelê, would kill us with its blaze.
   —Peter Pindar [Dr. Wolcot]: Progress of Admiration (1809).

Semida, the young man, the only son of a widow, raised from the dead by Jesus, as he was being carried from the walls of Nain. He was deeply in love with Cidli, the daughter of Jairus.

He was in the bloom of life. His hair hung in curls on his shoulders, and he appeared as beautiful as David when, sitting by the stream of Bethlehem, he was ravished at the voice of God.—Klopstock: The Messiah, iv. (1771).