ing shagreen. Those who follow this occupation not only gain considerable profit by the sale of their production to the Tartars of Cuban, Astracan, and Casan, who ornament with it their Turkey leather boots, slippers, and other articles made of leather, but they derive considerable advantage from the great sale of horses' hides, which have undergone no other process than that of being scraped clean, and of which several thousands are annually exported, at the rate of from seventy-five to eighty-five roubles per 100, to Persia, where there is a scarcity of such hides, and from which the greater part of the shagreen manufactured in that country is prepared. The hind part only of the hide, however, which is cut out in the form of a crescent about a Russian ell and a half in length across the loins, and a short ell in breadth along the back, can properly be employed for shagreen. The remaining part is improper for that purpose, and is therefore rejected. The preparation of the skins, after being cut into the above form, is as follows:-They are deposited in a tub filled with pure water, and suffered to remain there for several days, till they are thoroughly soaked, and the hair has dropped off. They are then taken from the tub, one by one, extended on boards placed in an oblique direction against a wall, the corners of them, which reach beyond the edges of the board, being made fast, and the hair with the epidermis is then scraped off with a blunt iron scraper called urak. The skins thus cleaned are again put in pure water to soak. They are then taken from the water a second time, spread out as before, and carefully scraped on both sides. They then take frames, made of a straight and a semicircular piece of wood, having nearly the same form as the skins. On these the skins are extended in as even a manner as possible by cords; and, while extending them, they are several times besprinkled with water, again moistened, and carried into the house, where the frames are deposited close to each other on the floor with the flesh side next the ground. The upper side is then thickly bestrewed with the black, smooth, and hard seeds of a kind of goose foot, (chenopodium album), and, that they may make a strong impression on the skins, a piece of felt is spread over them, and the seeds are trod down with the feet, and thus deeply imprinted into the soft skins. The frames, without shaking the seeds, are then carried out into the open air, and placed in a reclining position against a wall to dry. In this state the skins are left several days to dry in the sun, until no moisture is observed in them, when they are fit to be taken from the frames. When the impressed seeds are beat off from the hair side, it appears full of indentations or inequalities, and has acquired that impression which produces the grain of the shagreen. The operation of smoothing is performed on an inclined bench or board, which is furnished with an iron hook, and is covered with thick felt of sheep's wool, on which the dry skin may gently rest. The skin is suspended in the middle of the bench to its iron hook, by one of the holes made in the edge of the skin for extending it in its frame as before mentioned; and a cord, having at its extremity a weight, is attached to each end of the skin, to keep it in its position while under the hands of the workman. It is then smoothed and scraped by two different instruments. The first is a piece of sharp iron bent like a hook, with which the surface is pretty closely scraped to remove all the projecting inequalities. This operation, from the hardness of the skin, is attended with difficulty; and great caution is required that too much of the impression of the alabuta seed be not destroyed. After all these operations, the shagreen is again put into water, partly to make it pliable, and partly to raise the grain. As the seeds occasion indentations in the surface of the skin, the intermediate spaces, by the operations of smoothing and scraping, lose some part of their projecting substance; but the parts which have been depressed, and which have lost none of their substance, now swell up above the scraped parts, and thus form the grain of the shagreen. To produce this effect the skins are left to soak in water for twentyfour hours; after which they are immersed several times in a strong warm ley, obtained by boiling from a strong alkaline earth named schora, which is found in great abundance in the neighbourhood of Astracan. When the skins have been taken from this ley they are piled up, while warm, on each other and suffered to remain in that state several hours; by which means they swell and become soft. They are then left twenty-four hours in a moderately strong pickle of common salt, which renders them exceedingly white and beautiful, and fit for receiving any color. The color most usual for these skins is a sea-green; but old experienced workmen can dye them blue, red, or black, and even make white shagreen. For the green color nothing is necessary but filings of copper and sal ammoniac. Sal ammoniac is dissolved in water till the water is completely saturated; and the shagreen skins, still moist, after being taken from the pickle, are washed over with the solution on the ungrained flesh side, and, when well moistened, a thick layer of copper filings is strewed over them: the skins are then folded double, so that the side covered with the filings is innermost. skin is then rolled up in a piece of felt; the rolls are all ranged together in proper order, and they are pressed down by some heavy bodies placed ever them, under which they remain twenty-four hours, after which the skins are spread out and dried. For the blue dye indigo is used. About two pounds of it, reduced to a fine powder, are put into a kettle: cold water is poured over it, and the mixture is stirred round till the color begins to be dissolved; five pounds of pounded alakar, which is a kind of barilla or crude soda, are then dissolved in it, with two pounds of lime and one pound of pure honey, and the whole is kept several days in the sun, and often stirred round. The skins intended to be dyed blue must be moistened only in the natrous ley schora, but not in the salt brine. When still moist they are folded up and sewed together at the edge, the flesh side being innermost, and the shagreened hair side outwards; after which they are dipped three times in the remains of an exhausted kettle of the same dye, the superfluous Each dye being each time expressed; and, after this process, they are dipped in the fresh dye prepared as above, which must not be expressed. The skins are then hung up in the shade to dry; after which they are cleaned and paired. For black shagreen gall-nuts and vitriol are employed. The skins, moist from the pickle, are thickly bestrewed with finely pulverised gall-nuts. They are then folded and laid over each other twentyfour hours. A new ley, of bitter saline earth or schora, is prepared and poured hot into small troughs. In this ley each skin is several times dipped; after which they are again bestrewed with pounded gall-nuts, and placed in heaps for a certain period, that the galls may thoroughly penetrate them, and they are dried and beat to free them from the dust of the galls. They are then rubbed over, on the shagreen side, with melted sheep's tallow, and exposed a little in the sun, that they may imbibe the grease. The shagreen makers roll up each skin separately and squeeze it with their hands to promote the absorption of the tallow. The superfluous particles are removed by a blunt wooden scraper; and, when the skins have lain some time, a sufficient quantity of vitriol of iron is dissolved in water, with which the shagreen is moistened on both sides, and thus acquires a beautiful black dye. To obtain white shagreen the skins must first be moistened on the shagreen side with a strong solution of alum. When the skin has imbibed this liquor it is daubed over on both sides with a paste made of flour which is suffered to dry. The paste is then washed off with alum water, and the skin is placed in the sun till it is completely dry. As soon as it is dry it is gently besmeared with pure melted sheep's tallow, which it is suffered to imbibe in the sun; and, to promote the effect, it is pressed and worked with the hands. The skins are then fastened in succession to the before-mentioned bench, where warm water is poured over them, and the superfluous fat is scraped off with a blunt wooden instrument. Shagreen perfectly white is thus obtained, and nothing remains but to pare the edges and dress it. But this white shagreen is not intended so much for remaining in that state as for receiving a dark red dye; because, by the above previous process, the color becomes much more perfect. The skins destined for a red color, after they have been whitened, must be left to soak in the pickle for twenty-four hours. The dye is prepared from cochineal. About a pound of the dried herb tschagann, which grows in great abundance near Astracan, and is a kind of soda plant or kali (salsola ericoides) is boiled a full hour in a kettle containing about four common pailfuls of water; by which means the water acquires a greenish color. The herb is then taken out, and about half-a-pound of pounded cochineal is put into the kettle, and the liquor is left to boil a full hour. About fifteen or twenty drachms of orchilla is added, and, when the liquor has been boiled for some time longer, the kettle is removed from the fire. The skins taken from the pickle are then placed over each other in troughs; and the dye liquor is poured over them four different times, and rubbed into them with the hands, that the color may be equally imbibed and diffused. The liquor each time is expressed after which they are fit for being dried. Skins prepared in this manner are sold at a much dearer rate than any of the other kinds.' SHAHABAD, a large fertile district of the province of Bahar, Hindostan; it is advantageously situated between the rivers Soane and Ganges, as they approach their confluence. It is estimated to contain a million of inhabitants, in the proportion of nineteen Hindoos to one Mahometan. Its towns are Chunar, Boujepore, and Arrah. It constitutes one of the British Bahar collectorships, and is governed by a judge, who is amenable to the circuit court of Patna. Its capita! is Arrah. SHAHJEHANPORE, a town of Hindostan, in the province of Delhi, and district of Bareily, on the east side of the Gurrah River. Long. 79° 53′ E., lat. 27° 51′ N. SHAHJEHANPORE, a town of Hindostan, province of Malwah, on the banks of the Sagormutty River, belonging to the Mahrattas. It is a place of consequence, being the capital of a district. Long. 76° 18′ E., lat. 23° 38' N. There are several other places of the same name, called after the emperor Shah Jehan. SHAHNOOR, SANORE, Or SEVANOOR, an extensive district of Hindostan, province of Bejapore, belonging to the Mahrattas. It is situated between the Kistna and Tungbudra, and lat. 15° N. The country is fertile and under a good government would be very productive. SHAHNOOR, SANORE, SEVANORE, or SAVANOOR, a city of Hindostan, the ruined capital of the above-mentioned district. It was formerly fortified, contained a palace and many good buildings, and is said to have been taken by the Mahometans so early as the year 1397. In the course of time it became the capital of one of the many nabobs who arose into power on the decline of the empire of Delhi. The first who is mentioned is the person who attended the Nizam Nasir Jung, when he entered the Carnatic in 1749, and in the following year took a part in the mutiny which cost Nasir Jung his life; in the year 1751 he was himself killed in a second rebellion. The successor of this nabob seems to have sought protection from the Mahrattas against the viceroy; for in 1756 a French army, in the service of the Nizam Salbut Jung, advanced to Sevanore, to exact the tribute due from the nabob; but, by the intrigues of the Mahratta chief, Morari Row, this object was defeated. In 1763 Hyder Aly sent to the nabob of Shahnoor, soliciting his alliance, and that of the two other Afghaun nabobs of Cuddapah and Kurnoul, against the Mahrattas; but, the former having rejected the overture, Hyder invaded his dominions, totally defeated him in a general engagement, and compelled him to submit to humiliating terms. Subsequently his country was invaded by the Mahrattas, who took permanent possession of one half of his dominions. In 1779 Hyder com-pelled the nabob to enter into a double marriage with his family, the nabob taking Hyder's sister for wife, and giving his daughter to Kereem Sahib, the second son of Hyder. This, however, could not save the nabob from the merciless treatment of Tippoo Sultan, who, in 1786, took Shahnoor, plundered it of every thing valuable, and forced the nabob to take refuge with the Mahrattas. At the conclusion of the war Shahnoor was included in the portion of territory assigned to the Mahrattas. SHAIL, v. n. Belg. and Teut. schail. To walk sideways. A low word. Child, you must walk straight, without skiewing and shailing to every step you set. L'Estrange. SHAKE, v. a., v. n., & n. s. Saxon rceacan; SHAKER, n. s. Swedish shaka ; Goth. skeaka. To agitate; make to tremble or totter, or to throw down by violent motion; to drive off; drive away by such motion; sometimes taking off to be agitated, driven, &c., in this way; be in terror: and, as a noun-substantive, the concussion or motion produced: shaker corresponding. : What said the wench, when he rose up again? -Trembled and shook; for why, he stamp'd, As if the vicar meant to cozen him. Id. Nor can it be safe to a king to tarry among them who are shaking hands with their allegiance, under pretence of laying faster hold of their religion. King Charles. If that thy fame with every toy be pos'd, Herbert. The rapid wheels shake heaven's basis. Milton. Under his burning wheels The stedfast empyrean shook throughout, Id. Like leaves saluted by the wind. Say, sacred bard! what could bestow Courage on thee, to soar so high? Waller. Tell me, brave friend! what help'd thee so To shake off all mortality? Id. Him I reserved to be answered by himself, after I had shaken off the lesser and more barking creatures. Stilling fleet. He shook the sacred honours of his head : With terror trembled heav'n's subduing hill, And from his shaken curls ambrosial dews distil. Dryden. Taxallan, shook by Montezuma's powers, Has, to resist his forces, called in ours. Can I want courage for so brave a deed? I've shook it off: my soul is free from fear. Id. Id. He, short of succours, and in deep despair, Shook at the dismal prospect of the war. Id. Æneid. He looked at his book, and, holding out his right leg. put it into such a quivering motion, that I thought he would have shaked it off. Tatler. How does thy beauty smooth The face of war, and make even horror smile! At sight of thee my heart shakes off its sorrows. Addison. The freeholder is the basis of all other titles: this is the substantial stock, without which they are no more than blossoms, that would fall away with every shake of wind. Id. SHAKSPEARE, or SHAKESPEARE (William), the prince of dramatic writers, was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, on the 23d of April, 1564. From the register of that town it appears that a plague broke out there on the 30th of June following, which raged with great violence; but fortunately it did not reach the house in which this infant prodigy lay. His father, John Shakspeare, enjoyed a small patrimonial estate, and was a considerable dealer in wool; his mother was the daughter and heir of Robert Arden of Wellingcote. Our illustrious poet, being designed for the business of his father, received no better education than the master of the free-school of Stratford could afford. After applying some time to the study of Latin, he was called home to assist his father, who seems to have been reduced in his circumstances. Before he was nineteen he married the daughter of Mr. Hathaway, a substantial yeoman near Stratford. This lady was eight years older than her husband. Having fallen into bad company, he was seduced into some profligate actions, which drew on him a criminal prosecution, and at length forced him to take refuge in the capital. In concert with his associates he broke into a park belonging to Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, and A parliamente member, a justice of peace, He thinks himself great, Yet an asse in his state, We allowe by his ears but with asses to mate. If the rest of the ballad were of a piece with this continued in it several years afterwards; till, having acquired such a fortune as satisfied his moderate wishes and views in life, he quitted the stage, and all other business, and passed the remainder of his time in an honorable ease, at his native town of Stratford, where he lived in a handsome house of his own purchasing, to which he gave the name of New Place; and he had the good fortune to save it from the flames in the dreadful fire that consumed the greatest part of the town in 1614. In the beginning of 1616 he made his will, wherein he testified his respect to his quondam partners in the theatre; he appointed his youngest daughter, jointly with her husband, his executors, and bequeathed to them the best part of his estate, which they came into the possession of not long after. He died on the 23rd of April following, being the fifty-third year of his age; and was interred among his ancestors on the north side of the chancel, in the great church of Stratford, where there is a handsome monument erected for him, inscribed with the following elegiac distich in Latin: Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem, Terra tegit, Populus moret, Olympus habet. In 1740 another very noble one was raised to his memory at the public expense, in Westminster Abbey; an ample contribution for this purpose being made upon exhibiting his tragedy of Julius Cæsar, at the Theatre-Royal in Drury Lane, April 28th, 1738. A mulberry tree, planted upon his estate by his own hands, was cut down not many years ago; and the wood being converted to several domestic uses was all eagerly bought at a high price, and each single piece treasured up by its purchaser as a precious memorial of the planter. The character of Shakspeare as a dramatic writer has been often drawn, but perhaps never with more accuracy than by Dr. Johnson :-'Shakspeare,' says he, 'is, above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life. His characters are not modified by the customs of particular places, unpractised by the rest of the world; by the peculiarities of studies or professions, which can operate but upon small numbers; or by the accidents of transient fashions or temporary opinions; they are the genuine progeny of common humanity, such as the world will always supply, and observation will always find. His persons act and speak by the influence of those general passions and principles by which all minds are agitated, and the whole system of life is continued in motion. In the writings of other poets a character is too often an individual; in those of Shakspeare it is commonly a species. It is from this wide extension of design that so much instruction is derived. It is this which fills the plays of Shakspeare with practical axioms and domestic wisdom. It was said of Euripides that every verse was a precept; and it may be said of Shakspeare that from his works may be collected a system of civil and economical prudence. Yet his real power is not shown in the splendor of particular passages, but by the progress of his fable, and the tenor of his dialogue; and he that tries to recommend him, by select quotatics, will succeed like the pedant in Hierocles, who, when he offered his house to sale, carried a brick in his pocket as a specimen. Upon every other stage the universal agent is love, by whose power all good and evil is distributed, and every action quickened or retarded. But love is only one of many passions; and, as it has no great influence upon the sum of life, it has little operation in the dramas of a poet who caught his ideas from the living world, and exhibited only what he saw before him. He knew that any other passion, as it was regular or exorbitant, was a cause of happiness or calamity. Characters thus ample and general were not easily discriminated and preserved; yet perhaps no poet ever kept his personages more distinct from each other. Other dramatists can only gain attention by hyperbolical or aggravated characters, by fabulous and unexampled excellence or depravity, as the writers of barbarous romances invigorated the reader by a giant and a dwarf; and he that should form his expectations of human affairs from the play, or from the tale, would be equally deceived. Shakspeare has no heroes; his scenes are occupied only by men, who act and speak as the reader thinks that he should himself have spoken or acted on the same occasion: eveh where the agency is supernatural, the dialogue is level with life. Other writers disguise the most natural passions and most frequent incidents: so that he who contemplates them in the book will not know them in the world: Shakspeare approximates the remote, and familiarises the wonderful; the event which he represents will not happen, but, if it were possible, its effects would probably be such as he has assigned; and it may be said that he has not only shown human nature as it acts in real exigences, but as it would be found in trials to which it cannot be exposed. This, therefore, is the praise of Shakspeare, that his drama is the mirror of life; that he who has mazed his imagination, in following the phantoms which other writers raise up before him, may here be cured of his delirious ecstacies, by reading human sentiments in human language; by scenes from which a hermit may estimate the transactions of the world, and a confessor predict the progress of the passions.' The learning of Shakspeare has frequently been a subject of enquiry. That he possessed much classical knowledge does not appear, yet he was certainly acquainted with the Latin poets, particularly with Terence, as Colman has justly remarked, which appears from his using the word thrasonical. Nor was he unacquainted with French and Italian. We are indeed told that the passages in which these languages occur might be impertinent additions of the players; but is it probable that any of the players so far surpassed Shakspeare? That much knowledge is scattered over his works is very justly observed by Pope; but it is often such knowledge as books did not supply. 'There is, however, proof enough,' says Dr. Johnson, that he was a very diligent reader; nor was our language then so indigent of books, but that he might very liberally indulge his curiosity without excursion into foreign literature. Many of the Roman authors were translated, and some of the Greek; the Reformation had filled the kingdom with theological learning; most of the topics of human disquisition had found English writers; and poetry had been cultivated, not only with diligence, but success. This was a stock of knowledge sufficient for a mind so capable of appropriating and improving it.' The works of Shakspeare consist of thirty-five dramatic pieces. The following is the chronological order, which Mr. Malone has endeavoured to establish, after a minute investigation, in which he has in general been successful: 1. First Part of King Henry VI. 8. Two Gentlemen of Verona 12. King Richard II. 14. First Part of King Henry IV. 17. All's Well that Ends Well 19. Much Ado About Nothing 20. As You Like It 21. Merry Wives of Windsor 23. Troilus and Cressida 29. Julius Cæsar 30. Antony and Cleopatra . 1589 1591 1591 1592 1593 1594 1594 1595 1595 1596 1596 1597 1597 The first three of these, Mr. Malone thinks, there is very strong reason to believe are not the original productions of Shakspeare; but that he probably altered them, and added some new scenes. In the first folio edition, in 1623, these plays were entitled 'Mr. William Shakspeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies.' They have been published by various editors. The first folio edition by Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount; the second folio, 1632, by Thomas Cotes for Robert Allott; the third, 1664, for P. C.; the fourth, 1685, for H. Herringham, E. Brewster, and R. Bentley. Rowe published an 8vo. edition in 1709, in 7 vols, and a 12mo. edition in 1714 in 9 vols., for which he received £36 10s. Pope published a 4to. edition in 1725 in 6 vols., and a 12mo in 1728 in 10 vols., for which he was paid £217 12s. Theobald gave a new edition in 8vo. in 1733 in 7 vols., another in 12mo in 1740 in 8 vols., and received for his labor £625 10s. Sir Thomas Hanmer published |