Chapter Skeffington to Sleary of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Skin (The Man without a), Richard Cumberland. So called by Garrick, on account of his painful sensitiveness of all criticism. The same irritability of temper made Sheridan caricature him in The Critic as “sir Fretful Plagiary” (1732–1811).

Skinfaxi [“shining mane”], the horse which draws the chariot of day.—Scandinavian Mythology.

Skofnung, the sword of king Rolf the Norway hero, preserved for centuries in Iceland.

Skogan. (See Scogan, p. 970.)

Skreigh (Mr.), the precentor at the Gordon Arms inn, Kippletringan.—Sir W. Scott: Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Skulls. The skulls of the ancient Persians were so thin-boned that a small pebble would break them; whereas those of the Egyptians were so thick in the bone that they would not break even with the blow of a huge stone.—Herodotos:

History (in nine books, called “The Nine Muses”).

Skulls at Banquets. Plutarch tells us that towards the close of an Egyptian feast a servant brought in a skeleton, and cried to the guests, “Eat, drink, and be merry; for to-morrow you die!” (See Skeleton At The Feast.)

Like skulls at Memphian banquets.
   —Byron: Don Juan, iii. 65 (1820).

Skurliewhitter (Andrew), the scrivener.—Sir W. Scott: Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).

Sky-Lark, a lark with the “skies” or ’scis. The Westminster boys used to style themselves Romans, and the “town” Volsci; the latter word was curtailed to ’sci [sky]. A row between the Westminsterians and the town roughs was called a ’sci-lark, or a lark with the Volsci.

“Snowball the skies!” thought I, not knowing that “skies” and “blackguards” were synonymous terms.—Lord W. Lennox: Celebrities, etc., i. 1.

Skylark (Ode to the), by Percy B. Shelley (1820). One of the most exquisite odes in the language.

James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, has also an admirable poem called the Skylark. It begins—

Bird of the wilderness,
Blithsome and cumberless,
Sweet be thy matin o’er moorland and lea!

Skyresh Bolgolam, the high admiral or galbet of the realm of Lilliput.—Swift: Gulliver’s Travels (“Voyage to Lilliput,” iii., 1726).

S. L. Laud ordered William Prynne to be branded on both cheeks with the letters S. L., meaning “Schismatic libellers;” but Prynne insisted that the letters stood for Stigmata Laudis (“Laud’s disgrace”).

Slackbridge, one of the “hands” in Bounderby’s mill at Coketown. Slackbridge is an ill-conditioned fellow, ill made, with lowering eyebrows, and, though inferior to many of the others, exercises over them a great influence. He is the orator, who stirs up his fellow-workmen to strike.—Dickens: Hard Times (1854).

Slammerkin (Mrs.). Captain Macheath says of her, “She is careless and genteel.” “All you fine ladies,” he adds, “who know your own beauty, affect an undress.”—Gay: The Beggar’s Opera, ii. 1(1727).