Chapter Silenus to Simple of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Silver Star of Love (The), the star which appeared to Vasco da Gama when his ships were tempest- tossed through the malice of Bacchus. Immediately the star appeared, the tempest ceased, and there was a great calm.

The sky and ocean blending, each on fire,
Seemed as all Nature struggled to expire;
When now the Silver Star of Love appeared,
Bright in the east her radiant front she reared.
   —Camoëns: Lusiad, vi. (1572).

Silver-Tongued (The), Joshua Sylvester, who translated The Divine Weeks of Du Bartas (1563–1618).

William Bates, a puritan divine (1625–1699).

Henry Smith, preacher (1550–1600).

Anthony Hammond, the poet, called “Silver Tongue” (1668–1738).

Spranger Barry, the “Irish Roscius” (1719–1777).

Silver Wedding (The), the twenty-fifth anniversary; the fiftieth anniversary is the golden wedding. In Germany those persons who attain the twenty-fifth anniversary of their wedding day should be presented by their friends and family with a wreath of silver flowers, and on the fiftieth anniversary with a wreath of gold flowers. The fifth anniversary is the wooden wedding, and the seventy-fifth the diamond wedding. Sometimes the Wedding Service is repeated on the fiftieth anniversary.

(In 1879 William king of Prussia and emperor of Germany celebrated his golden wedding.)

Silverquill (Sam), one of the prisoners at Portanferry.—Sir W. Scott: Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Silves de la Selva (The Exploits and Adventures of), part of the series called Le Roman des Romans, pertaining to “Amadis of Gaul.” This part was added by Feliciano de Silva.

Silvestre , valet of Octave (son of Argante and brother of Zerbinette).—Molière: Les Fourberies de Scapin (1671).

Silvia, daughter of the duke of Milan, and the lady-love of Valentine one of the heroes of the play.—Shakespeare: The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594).

Simmons (Widow), the seamstress; a neighbour of the Ramsays.—Sir W. Scott: Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).

Simon (Martin), proprietor of the village Bout du Monde, and miller of Grenoble. He is called “The king of Pelvoux,” and in reality is the baron de Peyras, who has given up all his estates to his nephew, the young chevalier Marcellin de Peyras, and retired to Grenoble, where he lived as a villager. Martin Simon is in secret possession of a goldmine left him by his father, with the stipulation that he should place it beyond the reach of any private man on the day it became a “source of woe and crime.” Rabisson, a travelling tinker, the only person who knows about it, being murdered, Simon is suspected; but Eusebe Noel confesses the crime. Simon then makes the mine over to the king of France, as it had proved the source both “of woe and crime.”—Stirling: The Gold-Mine or Miller of Grenoble (1854).

Simon Pure, a young quaker from Pennsylvania, on a visit to Obadiah Prim (a Bristol quaker, and one of the guardians of Anne Lovely the heiress). Colonel Feignwell personated Simon Pure, and obtained Obadiah’s consent to marry his ward. (For the rest, see Feignwell, p. 361.)—Mrs. Centlivre: A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1717).

(Simon Pure has become a household word for “the real man,” the ipsissimus ego.)