_Squintum_ (_Dr._). The Rev. Edward Irving, who had an obliquity of the eyes, was so called by Theodore Hook (1792-1834). =Squire of Dames= (_The_), a young knight, in love with Col´umbell, who appointed him a year’s service before she would consent to become his bride. The “squire” was to travel for twelve months, to rescue distressed ladies, and bring pledges of his exploits to Columbell. At the end of the year he placed 300 pledges in her hands, but instead of rewarding him by becoming his bride, she set him another task, viz., to travel about the world on foot, and not present himself again till he could bring her pledges from 300 damsels that they would live in chastity all their life. The squire told Columbell that in three years he had found only three persons who would take the pledge, and only one of these, he said (a rustic cottager) took it from a “principle of virtue;” the other two (a nun and a courtezan) promised to do so, but did not voluntarily join the “virgin martyrs.” This “Squire of Dames” turned out to be Britomart.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, iii. 7 (1590). ⁂ This story is imitated from “The Host’s Tale,” in _Orlando Furioso_, xxviii. =Squires= (_Milton_), servant in the Fairchild family, boorish, vindictive hind who murders one brother and tries to fasten the deed upon another.--Harold Frederic, _Seth’s Brother’s Wife_ (1886). =Squirt=, the apothecary’s boy in Garth’s _Dispensary_; hence any apprentice lad or errand boy. Here sauntering ’prentices o’er Otway weep. O’er Congreve smile, or over D’Urfey sleep, Pleased sempstresses the Lock’s famed Rape unfold, And Squirts read Garth till Apozems grow cold. J. Gay, _Trivia_ (1712). (Pope wrote _The Rape of the Lock_, 1712.) =Squod= (_Phil_), a grotesque little fellow, faithfully attached to Mr. George, the son of Mrs. Rouncewell (housekeeper at Chesney Wold). George had rescued the little street arab from the gutter, and the boy lived at George’s “Shooting Gallery” in Leicester Square (London). Phil was remarkable for limping along sideways, as if “tacking.”--C. Dickens, _Bleak House_ (1852). =Stael= (_Madame de_), called by Heine [_Hi.ne_] “a whirlwind in petticoats,” and a “sultana of mind.” =Stagg= (_Benjamin_), the proprietor of the cellar in the Barbican where the secret society of “Prentice Knights” used to convene. He was a blind man, who fawned on Mr. Sim Tappertit, “the ’prentices glory” and captain of the “’Prentice Knights.” But there was a disparity between his words and sentiments, if we may judge from this specimen: “Good-night, most noble captain! farewell, brave general! bye-bye illustrious commander! a conceited, bragging, empty-headed, duck-legged idiot!” Benjamin Stagg was shot by the soldiery in the Gordon riots.--C. Dickens, _Barnaby Rudge_ (1841).