378 STERN STESICHORUS STERN, Daniel. See AGOULT, MARIE CATIIE- BINE SOPHIE DE FLAVIGNY. STER.VBERG, a town of Moravia, 10 m. N. of Olmtitz; pop. in 1870, 13,479. It has an old palace and a military school, and is the great centre of the Moravian manufacture of cotton and linen goods. STERNE, Laureate, an English author, born in Clonmel, Ireland, Nov. 24, 1713, died in London, March 18, 1768. His parents were English, and his father, Roger Sterne, was a lieutenant in Handaside's regiment, the move- ments of which, "from barrack to transport, from Ireland to England," young Laurence followed until his 10th year, when he was put to school at Halifax in England. He gradu- ated at Cambridge in 1736, took orders, and was presented to the living of Sutton in York- shire. In 1741 he married, and about the same time obtained the living of Stillington, adjoin- ing Sutton, while his uncle procured him a pre- bend in York cathedral. For nearly 20 years his only acknowledged publications were two sermons, although he wrote political para- graphs for the newspapers, and is said to have conducted for some time a periodical elec- tioneering paper in the whig interest. In 1759 he published at York, under the pseudonyme of "Mr. Yorick," the first two volumes of "Tristram Shandy," which were reprinted in London early in 1760. The 3d and 4th vol- umes appeared in 1761, the 5th and 6th in 1762, the 7th and 8th in 1765, and the 9th in 1767. Long before the completion of the work, the charm and the novelty of the style, the whimsical digressions, the exquisite touch- es of pathos and humor, and its many admi- rably conceived characters, had taken an ex- traordinary hold upon the public, and Sterne ranked with Fielding and Richardson and Smollett as a great writer of prose fiction. He was lionized in London, where people were invited a fortnight in advance to dine with him; and Boswell has recorded John- son's remark that "the man, Sterne, had engagements for three months." The erudi- tion which so greatly astonished the not very learned readers who welcomed the appear- ance of "Tristram Shandy" will, however, scarcely stand the test of modern criticism, and it has been shown by Dr. Ferriar, in his " Illustrations of Sterne " (1798), that the quaint imagery and the quainter conceits scat- tered through the book were largely borrow- ed from Rabelais, Burton, and other authors. But after making liberal allowances for pla- fiarisms, his Uncle Toby, Corporal Trim, Mr. handy, Dr. Slop, and Widow Wadman must be considered among the most original per- sonages in fiction. In 1760 and 1766, du- ring the publication of "Tristram Shandy," appeared four volumes of sermons, also by "Mr. Yorick." In 1760 Sterne received an additional living at Cox wold in Yorkshire, and took a house in York for his wife and daugh- ter, but passed most of his own time in Lon- don or on the continent. In 1762 he visit- ed France, and in 1764 went to Italy for his health. Returning to York in 1767 he wrote the first and only part of " The Sentimental Journey," and took it to London for publica- tion. Soon after its appearance he died with- out a friend near him, and was privately buried at Edgeware. In 1775 his daughter Lydia pub- lished three volumes of his "Letters to his Friends," accompanied by a short autobio- graphical memoir ; and in the same year ap- peared " Letters to Eliza," consisting of ten letters addressed by Sterne in March and April, 1767, to "Mrs. Elizabeth Draper, wife of Dan- iel Draper, Esq., counsellor at Bombay, and at present chief of the factory at Surat," and another collection of letters in one volume. " Seven Letters by Sterne and his Friends," edited by W. Durrant Cooper, were privately printed in 1844. The most complete edition of Sterne's works was edited by James P. Browne, M. D., and comprises in an appendix 13 letters hitherto unpublished (4 vols. 8vo, London, 1873). Of the personal character of Sterne, as seen in his life and letters, no fa- vorable impression can be formed. The latter show him to have been indifferent to the du- ties of his profession, lax in principle, a bad husband, a faithless lover, offering his affec- tions to two or three married women at once, the dupe of every coarse flatterer, and false to his professions of virtue or sensibility. STERNHOLD, Thomas, an English writer, born in Hampshire about 1500, died in August, 1549. He was groom of the robes to Henry VIII. and Edward VI., and was noted at court for his poetical talents and piety. He under- took a translation into metre of the Psalms of David, but completed only 37, printed in 1549, after his death, with seven by John Hopkins, under the title of " All such Psalms of David as Thomas Sternholde, late Grome of the Kinges Majestyes Robes", did in his lyfe-tyme drawe into Englyshe Metre." The version was completed and published in 1562 as "The Whole Book of Psalms, collected into English Metre by T. Sternhold, J. Hop- kins, and others, conferred with the Ebreu ; with apt Notes to sing them withal;" under which title it was annexed to the " Book of Common Prayer," and was used till superseded by Tate and Brady's collection (1696). Stern- hold was also the author of "Certain Chap- ters of the Proverbs of Solomon, drawen into Metre "(1549). STESICHORUS, a Greek lyric poet, born in Himera, Sicily, in 632 B. C., died about 555. He is said to have been educated at Catana, and to have been on friendly terms with Phalaris of Agrigentum. It is said that his real name was Tisias, and that he received the name of Stesichorus, " chorus leader," for his efforts in choral poetry, for which he invented the divi- sions of strophe, antistrophe, and epode. He wrote in the Doric dialect. His poems were chiefly on heroic subjects, although he wrote
