became fashionable. The form was artless, and the absence of upholstery, save on the seat, produced a somewhat angular effect. This type of settee was in essence two chairs with one set of arms. Chippendale made many such pieces, some of them of great beauty. As the taste for carved furniture waned these sturdy settees were replaced by lighter ones, often graceful enough in outline—Hepplewhite and Sheraton were distinguished practitioners—but partaking more and more of the “stuffed-over” character. The desire for comfort and ease gradually drove out the original idea that the settee was intended only for sitting bolt upright. Its modern varieties are many, but in all of them the frame, once so lavishly ornamented, is almost concealed by upholstery.
SETTEMBRINI, LUIGI (1813–1877), Italian man of letters and politician, was born in Naples. At the age of twenty-two
he was appointed professor of eloquence at Catanzaro, and
married Raffaela Luigia Faucitano (1835). While still a young
man he had been affected by the wave of liberalism then spreading
all over Italy, and soon after his marriage he began to conspire
mildly against the Bourbon government. Betrayed by a priest,
he was arrested in 1839 and imprisoned at Naples; although
liberated three years later he lost his professorship and had to
maintain himself by private lessons. Nevertheless he continued
to conspire, and in 1847 he published anonymously a “Protest
of the People of the Two Sicilies,” a scathing indictment of the
Bourbon government. On the advice of friends he went to
Malta on a British warship, but although, when King Ferdinand
II. granted a constitution (16th of February 1848), he returned
to Naples and was given an appointment at the ministry of education,
he soon resigned on account of the prevailing chaos, and
retired to a farm at Posilipo. When reaction set in, once more
Settembrini was arrested as a suspect (June 1849) and imprisoned.
After a monstrously unfair trial, he and two other “political”
were condemned to death, and nineteen others to varying terms
of imprisonment (February 1851). The death sentences were,
however, commuted to imprisonment for life, and Settembrini
was sent to the dungeons of San Stefano. There he remained
for eight years. His friends, including Antonio Panizzi, then in
England, made various unsuccessful attempts to liberate him,
and at last he was deported with sixty-five other political
prisoners. The exiles received an enthusiastic welcome in
London, but Settembrini after a short stay in England joined
his family at Florence in 1860. On the formation of the Italian
kingdom he was appointed professor of Italian literature at the
university of Naples, and devoted the rest of his life to literary
pursuits. In 1875 he was nominated senator. He died in 1877.
His chief work is his Lezioni di letteratura italiana, of which the
dominant note is the conviction that Italian literature “is as
the very soul of the nation, seeking, in opposition to medieval
mysticism, reality, freedom, independence of reason, truth and
beauty” (P. Villari).
See L. Settembrini, Ricordanze, 2 vols., edited by F. de Sanctis (Naples, 1879–1880); Epistolario di Luigi Settembrini, edited by F. Fiorentino; P. Villari, Saggi critici (Florence, 1884); Countess Martinengo Cesaresco, Italian Characters (London, 1901).
SETTLE, ELKANAH (1648–1724), English poet and playwright,
was born at Dunstable on the 1st of January 1648. He
entered Trinity College, Oxford, in 1666, but left the university
without taking a degree. His first tragedy, Cambyses, King of
Persia, was produced at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1667. The
success of this play led the earl of Rochester to encourage the
new writer as a rival to Dryden. Through his influence Settle’s
Empress of Morocco (1671) was twice acted at Whitehall, and
proved a signal success on the stage. It is said by Dennis to
have been “the first play that was ever sold in England for
two shillings, and the first play that was ever printed with
cuts.” These illustrations represent scenes in the theatre, and
make the book very valuable. The play was printed with a
preface to the earl of Norwich, in which Settle described with
scorn the effusive dedications of other dramatic poets. Dryden
was obviously aimed at, and he co-operated with Crowne and
Shadwell in an abusive pamphlet entitled “Notes and Observations
on the Empress of Morocco” (1674), to which Settle replied
in “Some Notes and Observations on the Empress of Morocco
revised” (1674). In the second part of Absalom and Achitophel,
in a passage certainly by Dryden’s hand, he figures as “Doeg.”
Neglected by the court party he took an active share in the
anti-popish agitation. When this subsided he turned round
to expose Titus Oates, and with the Revolution he veered
towards the Whig party. But he had lost the confidence of
both sides, and “recanting Settle” accordingly abandoned
politics for the appointment (1691) of city poet. In his old age
he kept a booth at Bartholomew Fair, where he is said to have
played the part of the dragon in a green leather suit devised by
himself. He became a poor brother of the Charterhouse, where
he died on the 12th of February 1724.
Settle’s numerous works include, beside numerous political pamphlets and occasional poems, Ibrahim, the Illustrious Bassa (1676), a tragedy taken from Madeleine de Scudéry's romance; The Female Prelate; being the History of the Life and Death of Pope Joan (1680), a tragedy; The Ambitious Slave: or A Generous Revenge (1694); The World in the Moon (1697), an opera, of which the first scene was formed by a moon fourteen feet across; and The Virgin Prophetess, or The Fate of Troy (1701), an opera.
SETTLE, a market town in the Skipton parliamentary division
of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 4112 m. N.W. from
Leeds by the Midland railway. Pop. (1901) 2302. It lies in
the upper part of the Ribble valley, amid the wild scenery of
the limestone hills of the Pennine system. The district includes
several caves, such as Victoria Cave, close to the town, where
bones of animals, and stone, bone and other implements and
ornaments have been discovered. Other points of interest are
Malham Cove and tarn, the ravine of Gordale Scar, the cliffs
of Attermyre, Giggleswick Scar and Castleberg (the last immediately
above Settle itself), the Clapham and Weathercote caves,
the chasm of Helln Pot and the waterfall of Stainforth Foss.
In the town are cotton factories and a tannery. To the west
of the town is the grammar school of Giggleswick, one of the
principal public schools in the north of England, founded in 1512.
SETTLE, a wooden bench, usually with arms and a high back,
long enough to accommodate three or four sitters. It is most
commonly movable, but occasionally fixed as in the “boxes”
of those old coffee-houses of which a few examples, still remain
in London, and perhaps elsewhere. It shares with the chest and
the chair the distinction of great antiquity. Its high back
was a protection from the draughts of medieval buildings—a
protection which was sometimes increased by the addition of
winged ends or a wooden canopy. It was most frequently
placed near the fire in the common sitting-room. Constructed
of oak, or other hard wood, it was extremely heavy, solid and
durable. Few English examples of earlier date than the middle
of the 16th century have come down to us; survivals from
the Jacobean period are more numerous. Settles of the more
expensive type were often elaborately carved or incised; others
were divided into plain panels. A well-preserved specimen,
with its richly polished oak, darkened by time and beeswax, is
a handsome piece of furniture often still to be found in its
original environment—the farm-house kitchen or the manorial
hall. Its vogue did not long outlast the first half of the 18th
century, to which period most of the existing specimens belong.
SETTLEMENT, in law, a mutual arrangement between living persons for regulating the enjoyment of property, and the instrument by which such enjoyment is regulated. Settlements may be either for valuable consideration or not: the latter are usually called voluntary, and are in law to some extent in the same position as revocable gifts; the former are really contracts, and in general their validity depends upon the law of contract. They may accordingly contain any provisions not contrary to law or public policy.[1]
The elements of the modern settlement are to be found in Roman law. The vulgaris, pupillaris or exemplaris substitutio (consisting in the appointment of successive heirs in case of the
- ↑ In this English law allows greater freedom than French. By § 791 of the Code Napoleon, in a contract of marriage the succession to a living person cannot be renounced.
