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SOMERVILLE

1781

SOPHOCLES

spectrum, the results being published in the Philosophical Transactions of 1826. Lord Brougham asked her to put Laplace's Celestial Mechanics into popular form, which she did, publishing her book under the title of Mechanism of the Heavens in 1830. (See LAPLACE.) She was granted a pension in 1835 and made a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of England _ and of many foreign societies. She was in favor of "woman's rights*' and woman suffrage. When 91 she spent five hours a day in mathematical studies. Other works published by her are Connection of the Physical Sciences, Physical Geography and Molecular and Microscopic Science. She died at Naples, Nov. 29, 1872, having lived in Italy for many years. Consult Life by her daughter.

Som'erville, Mass., is a suburb of Boston about two miles from the state-house. It manufactures flour, leather, iron and bricks, and has slaughter-houses, bleaching-works, iron-foundries and many fine residences. Population77 236.

Son'net, The. We owe the sonnet, in its structure and design, to Italy. Since Shakespeare and the early English sonneteers, Sir Thomas Wyatt, the earl of Surrey and Edmund Spenser, to Wordsworth, Cowper, Byron, Keats, Shelley and the modern English and American bards, the sonnet has always had a peculiar fascination for poets of the first class. The Italian sonnet was written in its perfection by Dante, Petrarch and Tasso; and, though the form of the Petrarchan sonnet has been closely followed by English poets, the Shakespearean form has been its keen rival — both dominating other rime* arrangements of this artistic, poetic form of 14 rimed or partially rimed verse. "The Italian sonnet consisted of 14 lines, divided into two groups of eight and six lines respectively; the first eight (called the octave) having only two rimes between them—the first, fourth, fifth and eighth lines being in one rime, and the second, third, sixth and seventh being in the other. There then was a pause in the sense, and the six concluding lines (called the sestette) had two rimes between them, those rimes generally alternating in the most finished specimens. In this form of sonnet Wyatt and Surrey wrote; but since then the only fixed rule in regard to the English sonnet has been that it should consist of 14 lines. The great English masters of this form of verse have all differed in their arrangement of the rimes. Spenser divides the 14 lines thus: The first and third lines rime one way; the second, fourth, fifth and seventh another; the sixth, eighth, ninth and eleventh another; and the tenth and twelfth another, the last two lines form-


 * Webster gives rime, not rhyme, as etymologi-cally preferable and as again coming into use.

ing a couplet with another rime. Shakespeare's sonnets consist simply of three quatrains and a couplet, the rimes being seven in number. In Milton's sonnets there is the classic division into octave and sestette, the former being properly carried out, but the latter being fitted with three rimes — the ninth and twelfth, tenth and thirteenth and eleventh and fourteenth riming together." Wordsworth admittedly is the greatest of English modern sonneteers, some of his sonnets, for exalted feeling as well as for felicity of fancy and of diction — as those dedicated to liberty and his ecclesiastical sonnets — including not only some of the finest things he ever wrote but some of the finest that were ever written. Here is one — in its design an apology for and commendation of the sonnet:

"Scorn not the sonnet; critic, you have frowned Mindless of its just honors;  with this key Shakespeare unlocked his heart; the melody Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound; A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound; "With it Camoens soothed an exile's grief; The sonnet glittered a gay myrtle leaf Amid the cypress with which Dante crowned His visionary brow; a glowworm lamp It cheered mild Spenser, called from Faery-land     » To struggle through dark ways; and when a damp Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand The thing became a trumpet, whence he blew Soul-animating strains — alas, too few!"

Sons of Lib'erty is the title taken by an organization first formed to oppose Gren-yille's stamp-act of 1764. It was strongest in New"" York and Connecticut. This association was active in promoting the separation of the American colonies from Great Britain. In Georgia the Liberty Boys drove out the royal governor; and in all the states they helped to overawe the loyalists. The Sons of Liberty incorporated about 1790 or 1800 with the Tammany Society. Sontag (zon'tag\ Henrietta, Countess Rossi, a German singer, was born at Koblenz, Prussia, Jan. 3, 1806. She appeared on the stage when only six; studied music at Prague; and appeared there at 15. She rose to the first rank of European singers in her brilliant career at Vienna, Berlin and Paris. After her marriage with Count Rossi, an Italian nobleman, in 1828 she left the stage, but appeared again in 1849 on account of pecuniary troubles. She made a successful tour in the United States, and died at Vera Cruz, Mexico, June 18, 1854.  Sophocles, an Athenian poet, was born in 496 B. C. At 16 he was chosen to lead the chorus of youths who celebrated the naval victory of Salamis. At 28, in a dramatic contest, he was awarded the prize which had been given to Æschylus for many years. Only seven of his many dramas are preserved, but these place him at the head of the Greek dramatists. The probable order in which they appeared is Ajax; Antigone; Electra, Œdipus the King; 