Chapter Syddall to Syrinx of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Syddall to Syrinx

Syddall (Anthony), house-steward at Osbaldistone Hall.—Sir W. Scott: Rob Roy (time, George I.).

Sydenham (Charles), the frank, open-hearted, trusty friend of the Woodvilles. —Cumberland: The Wheel of Fortune (1779).

Syl, a monster like a basilisk, with human face, but so terrible that no one could look on it and live. (See Ouranabad, p. 790.)

Medusa’s hair, changed into snakes, was so terrible that whosoever set eyes on it was changed to stone.

The basilisk, king of serpents, looked any one dead who set eyes on it.

Sylla (Cornelius), the rival of Marius. Being consul, he had ex-officio a right to lead in the Mithridatic war (B.C. 88), but Marius got the appointment of Sylla set aside in favour of himself. Sylla, in dudgeon, hastened back to Rome, and insisted that the “recall” should be reversed. Marius fled. Sylla pursued the war with success, returned to Rome in triumph, and made a wholesale slaughter of the Romans who had opposed him. As many as 7000 soldiers and 5000 private citizens fell in this massacre, and all their goods were distributed among his own partisans. Sylla was now called “Perpetual Dictator,” but in two years retired into private life, and died the year following (B.C. 78).

(Jouy has a good tragedy in French called Sylla (1822), and the character of “Sylla” was a favourite one with Talma the French actor. In 1594 Thomas Lodge produced his historical play called Wounds of Civil War, lively set forth in the True Tragedies of Marius and Sylla.)

Sylli (Signor), an Italian ex quisite, who walks fantastically, talks affectedly, and thinks hims elf irresistible. He makes love to Camiola “the maid of honour,” and fancies, by posturing, grimaces, and affectation, to “make her dote on him.” He says to her, “In singing, I am a Siren, in dancing, a Terpsichorê.” “He could tune a ditty lovely well,” and prided himself “on his pretty spider fingers, and the twinkling of his two eyes.” Of course, Camiola sees no charms in these effeminacies; but the conceited puppy says he “is not so sorry for himself as he is for her” that she rejects him. Signor Sylli is the silliest of all the Syllis.—Massinger: The Maid or Honour (1637). (See Tappertit.)

Sylva, Evelyn’s treatise on forest trees (1664). Its object was to induce people to plant forest trees.

Sylvia, daughter of justice Balance, and an heiress. She is in love with captain Plume, but promised her father not to “dispose of herself to any man without his consent.” As her father feared Plume was too much a libertine to make a steady husband, he sent Sylvia into the country to withdraw her from his society; but she dressed in her brother’s military suit, assumed the name of Jack Wilfred alias Pinch, and enlisted. When the names were called over by the justices, and that of “Pinch” was brought forward, justice Balance “gave his consent for the recruit to dispose of [himself] to captain Plume,” and the permission was kept to the letter, though not in its intent. However, the matter had gone too far to be revoked, and the father made up his mind to bear with grace what without disgrace he could not prevent.—Farquhar: The Recruiting Officer (1705).

I am troubled neither with spleen, cholic, nor vapours. I need no salts for my stomach, no hartshorn for my head, nor wash for my complexion. I can gallop all the morning after the hunting-horn, and all the evening after a fiddle.—Act i. 2.

Sylvio de Rosalva (Don), the hero and title of a novel by C. M. Wieland (1733–1813). Don Sylvio, a quixotic believer in fairyism, is gradually converted to common sense by the extravagant demands which are made on his belief, assisted by the charms of a mortal beauty. The object of this romance is a crusade against the sentimentalism and religious foolery of the period.

Symkyn (Symond), nicknamed “Disdainful,” a miller, living at Trompington, near Cambridge. His face was round, his nose flat, and his skull “pilled as an ape’s.” He was a thief of corn and meal, but stole