Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

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ingly placed together in a division of the Acromyodian
Passeres, differing from all the rest and since recognized, as
has been said (Ornithology, vol. xviii. pp. 40, 41), by Mr
Sclater as a Sub-order Pseudoscines. A detailed anatomical
description of Atrichia has, however, yet to be given, and a
comparison of many other Australian types is needed1
before it can be certainly said to have no nearer ally than
Menura. Both the known species of Scrub-bird are about
West - Australian Scrub-bird {Atrichia damosa).
the size of a small Thrush—A. clamosa being the larger of
the two. This species is brown above, each feather
barred with a darker shade j the throat and belly are
reddish white, and there is a large black patch on the
breast; while the flanks are brown and the lower tail-
coverts rufous. A. rufescens has the white and black of
the fore-parts replaced by brown, barred much as is the
upper plumage. Both species are said to inhabit the
thickest “scrub” or brushwood forest; but little has been
ascertained as to their mode of life except that the males
are noisy, imitative of the notes of other birds, and given
to violent gesticulations. The nest and eggs seem never
to have been found, and indeed no example of the female
of either species is known to have been procured, whence
that sex may be inferred to escape observation by its in¬
conspicuous appearance and retiring habits. . .(a. n.)
SCUDERY is the name of a family which is said to
have been of Italian origin and to have transferred itself to
Provence, but which is only known by the singular brother
and sister who represented it during the 17th century.
Georges de Scttdery (1601-1667), the elder of the pair,
was born at Havre, whither his father had moved from
Provence, in 1601. He served in the army for some time,
and, though in the vein of gasconading which was almost
peculiar to him he no doubt exaggerated his services, there
seems little doubt that he was a stout soldier. But he con¬
ceived a fancy for literature before he was thirty, and during
the whole of the middle of the century he was one of the
most characteristic figures of Paris. Despite his own merit,
which was not inconsiderable, and his sister’s, which was
more, he was unlucky in his suits for preferment. Indeed
from some stories told by men not his friends he seems to
have hurt his own chances by independence of spirit. He
received, however, the governorship of the fortress of Xotre
Dame de la Garde near Marseilles in 1643, and in 1650
was elected to the Academy. Long before he had made
1 Forbes shewed that Orthonyx (vol. xviii. p. 52) did not belong
to the group as at one time supposed.
-SCU 555
himself conspicuous by a letter attacking Corneille s Cid,
which he addressed to that body. He was. himself an
industrious dramatist, L'Amour Tyrannique being the chief
piece which (and that only partially) has escaped, oblivion.
His other most famous work was the epic of Alaric (1654).
He lent his name to his sister’s first romances, but did little
beyond correcting the proofs. His death occurred at Paris
on 14th May 1667. Scudery’s swashbuckler affectations
(he terminates his introduction to the works of Theophile
de Viaud by something like a challenge in form to any one
who does not admit the supremacy of the deceased poet),
the bombast of his style, and his various oddities have
been rather exaggerated by literary gossip and tradition.
Although probably not quite sane, he had some poetical
power, a fervent love of literature, a high sense of honour
and of friendship.
His sister Madeleine (1607-1701), born also at Havre
in 1607, was a writer of much more ability and of a much
better regulated character. She was very plain and had
no fortune, but her abilities were great and she was very
well educated. Establishing herself at Paris with her
brother, she was at once admitted to the Rambouillet coterie,
afterwards established a salon of her own under the title
of the Societe du Samedi, and for the last half of the 11 th
century, under the pseudonym of “Sapho” or her own
name, was acknowledged as the first blue-stocking of France
and of the world. Her celebrated novels, Artamene ou le
Grand Cyrus, Clclxc, Ibrahim ou VIllustrc Passa, Almahidc,
and others are known by quotation to every one, and were
the delight of all Europe, including persons of the wit and
sense of Madame de Sevigne. But for at least a century
and a half they have lain unread, and their immense length
has often been satirized even by persons well read in letters
with the term “ folio,” when in fact they were originally
issued in batches of small octavos, sometimes (allowing for
two parts to each volume) running to a . score or so.
Neither in conception nor in execution will they bear
criticism as wholes. With classical or Oriental personages
for nominal heroes and heroines, the whole language and
action are taken from the fashionable ideas of the time,
and the personages can be identified either really or colour-
ably with Mademoiselle de Scudery’s contemporaries. The
interminable length of the stories is made out by endless
conversations and, as far as incidents go, chiefly by suc¬
cessive abductions of the heroines, conceived and related
in the most decorous spirit, for Mademoiselle de Scudery
is nothing if not decorous. Nevertheless, although the
books can hardly now be read through, it is still possible
to perceive their attraction for the wits, both male and
female, of a time which certainly did. not lack wit. In
that early day of the novel prolixity did not repel.
“Sapho” had really studied mankind in her contempo¬
raries and knew how to analyse and describe their characters
with fidelity and point. She was a real mistress of con¬
versation, a thing quite new to the age at least as far as
literature was concerned, and proportionately welcome.
She could moralize—a favourite employment of the time—
with sense and propriety, and the purely literary merits
of the style which clothed the whole were considerable.
Madeleine survived her brother more than thirty years
(scandal says that she was not sorry to be relieved from
his humours), and in her later days published numerous
volumes of conversations (to a great extent extracted fiom
her novels) and short moral writings. Dryden says that he
had heard of an intention on her part to translate the
Canterbury Tales, and it is not impossible. She never
lost either her renown or her wits or her good sense, and
died at Paris on 2d June 1701. It is unfortunate and
rather surprising that no one has recently attempted an
anthology from her immense work.