SPERMACETI 



SPHAGNUM 



627 



to England. In 1596 was published the second 

 and last instalment of the Faerie Queene, except 

 a fragment consisting of two cantos and two 

 stanzas. For a time he was the guest of Lord 

 Essex ; and under his roof, once that of Lord 

 Leicester, he composed what is probably his last 

 complete poem, Tlte Prothalamion, or a Spousal 

 Verse. Even in this song of congratulation and 

 joy his anxiety and distress find expression. He 

 speaks of himself as one 



Whom sullen care, 



Through discontent of my long fruitless stay 

 In Prince's Court, and expectation vain 

 Of idle hopes which still do fly away 

 Like empty shadows, did afflict my brain 



(his emotion overpowering his grammar), and of 

 liis 'friendless case.' But again his suit obtained 

 no success ; and again he turned his face to the 

 country, not of his choice, but of his necessity. 



Meanwhile in that unhappy island a fresh storm 

 had been gathering, and in 1598 burst furiously on 

 the head of the unpopular occupant of Kilcolman. 

 One of the first exploits of the new insurrection 

 (that under Hugh O'Neil) was to fire Spenser's 

 castle ; and he and his had to flee for their lives. 

 About the close of 1598 or the beginning of 1599 

 he reached London homeless, destitute, exhausted. 

 On January the 13th (not the 16th, as is usually 

 said ; see John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carltpn, 

 January 17, 1599) he died at a tavern in King 

 Street, Westminster, certainly in distressed cir- 

 cumstances, if not, as Ben Jonson stated to 

 Drummond, and we would fain not believe, 'for 

 lack of bread.' At least in his last resting-place 

 he was happy ; he was laid by Chaucer by him 

 who taught him his songs, as he was proud to 

 say in the south transept of Westminster Abbey. 

 And, if admiration and fame were or are any com- 

 pensation for his adverse fortunes, such compensa- 

 tion was and is his in no slight measure. His 

 wealth of language, his fine sense of melody, his 

 abundance of fancy, his ardent patriotism, his pro- 

 found sympathy with all things lovely and of good 

 report gave him at once and have retained for him 

 a foremost position in English literature. It is his 

 special ami his supreme distinction to be known, 

 and with good reason, as the ' Poet's Poet.' 



See editions liy Todd (8 vols. 1805) and A. 15. Grosart 

 (10 vols. 1HK2 84); of the Poems, the Aldine edition, 

 with Life by Collier, and the Globe edition, with Memoir 



Hennewy's Sir Waltrr Balriiih in Ireland ( 1883 ) ; Dean 

 Kitchin's Faerie Qutrnr ( books i. and ii. ). The ' Spenser 

 Society," founded 18<>7-W*, has printed works of Heywood, 

 Taylor the Water-poet, Wither, Drayton, &c. 



Spermaceti is a waxy matter obtained mixed 

 with oil from the head of the sperm-whale, Physeter 

 macrocephalus. The mass obtained from an ordi- 

 nary sized whale would till twelve barrels. It is 

 puritied by draining off the oil and repeatedly 

 washing with hot water and weak boiling potash- 

 lye. It is in white, pearly, semi-transparent masses, 

 somewhat unctuous to the touch, lighter than 

 water, and melting a little above 100 (38 C.). It 

 is insoluble in water, but soluble in ether, chloro- 

 form, &c. Medicinally it is no longer given inter- 

 nally, but it is an ingredient of many ointments, 

 to "which it gives a crystalline appearance. 

 Chemically it is almost pure cetyl palrmtate, but 

 cuii tains small quantities of other fate. See WHALE. 



Spermatozoa, the male reproductive cells of 

 animals, the physiological complements of the egg- 

 cells or ova. See EMBRYOLOGY, REPRODUCTION. 



Sperrylite, the name given to an arsenide of 

 platinum (PtAs.,) discovered in 1888 in the pro- 

 vince of Ontario, Canada. 



SpcilsippllK (B.C. 394-336?), an Athenian 

 philosopher, who, after the death of his uncle 

 Plato, became head of the Platonic school or Older 

 Academy. Of his philosophical works, in which 

 he taught a doctrine differing but little from 

 Plato's, nothing is left but titles and fragments. 



Spey, a river of Scotland, rising at an altitude 

 of 1500 feet above sea-level and running 107 miles 

 north-eastward through or along the boundary of 

 Inverness, Elgin, and Banff shires, until it falls into 

 the Moray Firth at Kingston between Lossiemouth 

 and Portknockie. The Dulnain and Avon are its 

 principal tributaries. The salmon-fisheries, belong- 

 ing to the Duke of Richmond, at its mouth, above 

 which comparatively few fish penetrate, bave a 

 yearly value of from 8000 to 10,000; else the 

 Spey is almost without value, nor can it generally 

 be called a picturesque stream. It has the swiftest 

 current of all the large rivers in Britain, and is 

 subject to sudden and violent freshets, resulting at 

 times in disastrous inundations. See Sir Thomas 

 Dick Lauder's Moray Floods (1830); and A. E. 

 Km ix, Autumns on the Spey (1882). 



Speyer. See SPIRES. 



Sp'/ia. the principal naval port of Italy, stands 

 near the bead of a deep and commodious bay on 

 the west side of the peninsula, 56 miles 8E. of 

 Genoa by rail. It was Napoleon I. who first 

 recognised the suitability of this bay for the pur- 

 poses to which the Italians, instigated thereto by 

 Cavour, have now put it. An artificial break- 

 water (built in 1860), 2400 feet long, covers the 

 entrance ; whilst formidable batteries of the 

 heaviest artillery (supplemented by torpedo appli- 

 ances) bristle on the hills that overlook the bay 

 and on the island of Palmeria that guards its 

 entrance. Here the Italians have constructed the 

 great national arsenal, and build their large war- 

 ships, and have their ship-repairing yards and 

 docks, and their naval victualling yards, store- 

 houses, and so forth. Some of these, however, are 

 at San Bartolomeo, on the opposite shore of the 

 bay. There are also in the town large barracks, 

 a military hospital, schools of navigation, an iron- 

 foundry, and manufactures of cables, sail-cloth, 

 and white-lead. The adjacent country produces 

 excellent olive-oil. The lieauty of the bay and the 

 lovely climate cause Spezia to be much frequented 

 as a seaside resort. It was on the shores of this 

 bay that Shelley spent the last few months of his 

 life, while at the town of Spezia Charles Lever 

 was consul for ten years. Pop. ( 1861 ) 6105 ; ( 1881 ) 

 19,864 ; (1895, estimated) 23,500. 



Spe/y.ia (or Spetsai ; ancient Piti/nssa), a 

 Greek island at the entrance to the Gulf of Nauplia. 

 Area, 64 sq. in. ; pop. 7000, mostly in the town of 

 Spezzia, which has a good harbour. 



Sphacteria, the small island that closes in the 

 bay of Navarino (q.v. ). 



Spllierq-siderlte, impure earthy or concre- 

 tionary varieties of carbonate of iron. 



Sphagnum, a genus of Mosses, whose spore- 

 case is an urn closed by a deciduous lid, and its 

 brim toothless, the calyptra irregularly torn. 

 Several species are natives of Britain, and are 

 common in bogs, from which they derive their 

 popular name, Bog Moss. They are remarkable 

 for the whitish colour of their leaves. They are 

 very elegant plants. They often grow in consider- 

 able masses, absorbing water like a sponge, but 

 becoming friable when dry. They contribute 

 much to the formation of peat. Gardeners employ 

 them in preference to other mosses for covering the 

 roots of plants and keeping them moist, as they 

 have in a high degree the property of absorbing 

 moisture from the atmosphere. They have been 



