Chapter Sponge to Squeers of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Spruch-Sprecher (The) or “sayer of sayings” to the archduke of Austria. —Sir W. Scott: The Talisman (time, Richard I.).

Spuma’dor, prince Arthur’s horse, So called from the foam of its mouth, which indicated its fiery temper.— Spenser: Faërie Queene, ii. (1590).

In the Mabinogion, his favourite mare is called Llamrei (“the curveter”).

Spurs (The Battle of), the battle of Guinnegate, in 1513, between Henry VIII. and the due de Longueville. So called because the French used their spurs in flight more than their swords in fight. (See Spurs of Gold, etc.)

Spurs (To dish up the), to give one’s guests a hint to go; to maunder on when the orator has nothing of importance to say. During the time of the border feuds, when a great family had come to an end of their provisions, the lady of the house sent to table a dish of spurs, as a hint that the guests must spur their horses on for fresh raids before they could be feasted again.

When the last bullock was killed and devoured, it was the lady’s custom to place on the table a dish which, on being uncovered, was found to contain a pair of clean spurs—a hint to the riders that they must shift for the next meal.—Border Minstrelsy (new edit.), i. 211 note.

Spurs of Gold (Battle of the), the battle of Courtray, the most memorable in Flemish history (July 11, 1302). Here the French were utterly routed, and 700 gold spurs were hung as trophies in the church of Notre Dame de Courtray. It is called in French Journée des Eperons d’Or. (See Spurs, The Battle of.)

Marching homeward from the bloody battle of the Spurs of Gold.
   —Longfellow: The Belfry of Bruges.

Spy (The), a tale by J. Fenimore Cooper (1821).

Squab (The Poet). Dryden was so called by lord Rochester (1681–1701).

Squab Pie, a pie made of mutton, apples, and onions.

Cornwall squab pie, and Devon white-pot brings,
And Leicester beans and bacon fit for kings.
   —King: Art of Cookery.

Squab Pie, a pie made of squabs, that is, young pigeons.

Square (Mr.), a “philosopher,” in Fielding’s novel called The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749).

Squeers (Mr. Wackford), of Dotheboys Hall, Yorkshire, a vulgar, conceited, ignorant schoolmaster, overbearing, grasping, and mean. He steals the boys’ pocket money, clothes his son in their best suits, half starves them, and teaches them next to nothing. Ultimately, he is transported for purloining a deed. Mrs. Squeers, wife of Mr. Wackford, a raw-boned, harsh, heartless virago, without one spark of womanly feeling for the boys put under her charge.

Miss Fanny Squeers, daughter of the schoolmaster, “not tall like her mother, but short like her father. From the former she inherited a voice of hoarse quality, and from the latter a remarkable expression of the right eye.” Miss Fanny falls in love with Nicholas Nickleby, but hates him and spites him because he is insensible of the soft impeachment.

Master Wackford Squeers, son of the schoolmaster, a spoilt boy, who was dressed in the best clothes of the scholars. He was overbearing, self-willed, and passionate.—Dickens: Nicholas Nickleby (1838).