SONNET. 342 SONS OF LIBERTY. two hundred sonnets, and Ronsard more than nine hundred. The fashion, after dying out in the eighteenth century, came in again with the ro- mantics. Among recent French adepts in the sonnet are yully-Prudhomme and Heredia. The sonnet was introduced into England by the Earl of Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyatt. Their collection, numbering thirty-si.x altogether, tirst appeared in Tottel's Miscellany under the title Songcs and Sonnetes (1557). Between 1591 and 1597 were published, according to the conserva- tive estimate of Sidney Lee, more than two tliou- sand English sonnets. Of the vast Elizabethan proeluct, the sonnet-sequences of Sidney, Daniel, Spenser, and Shakespeare stand olit prominently. The Elizabethans did not follow strictly the Pe- trarchan type. Spenser and Shakespeare, though logically developing the idea, reduced the sonnet to three quatrains clinched by a final couplet. With rich musical efl'ect Spenser interlaced his rhymes thus: o5o6, hcbc, cdcd, ee. Shakespeare further simplified the sonnet by employing a dis- tinct set of alternating rhymes in each quatrain. His rhyme-scheme is abab, cdcd, cfcf, (jij. After 1600 tiie sonnet impulse, though weakened, was still a force. And then came ililton, with his small but grand group. Scholar as he was, he held very closely to the Italian octave, sestet, and rhyme scheme. For a century after Hilton, few English sonnets were written, but with the romantic revival the sonnet returned (about 1750), though even Wordsworth, as late as 1827, thought it necessary to defend the form against the critics. Among the great English poets of the nineteenth century who practiced the sonnet, in the Petrarchan, Shakespearean, or some modi- fied form, are Wordsworth, Coleridge. Keats, Mrs. Browning, and the Eossettis. In Germany, though the sonnet appeared as early as the sev- enteenth century, with Weckherlin (1585-1653) and Opitz (1597-1639), it was not much cul- tivated till taken up by the romantics and a few poets just preceding them: Biirger, A. W. Schlegel, Arnim, Voss, Goethe, Riickert, Eichen- dorff, Heyse, Geibel, and Eedwitz. Consult: Bia- dene, "Morfologia del Sonetto," in Studj di Filo- logia Roman~a (Rome. 1889) : Welti. Ocschichte des Sonettes (Leipzig, 1884) ; Schipper, dnindriss der enylischen. Metrik (Vienna, 1895) : Tomlin- son. The Sonnet, Its Origin, f?triictiire, and Place in Poetry (London, 1874) : Corson, A Primer of English Verse (Boston, 1892) ; Theodore de Ban- vilie, Petit traits de podsie frantaise (Paris, 1891); Lee, A Life of Shakespeare, containing chapters on Italian, French, and English sonnets (London, 1898) ; Vaganay, Le sonnet en Italie et en France ail XTIcme Steele (Lyons, 1902) ; Noble, The Sonnet in England (London. 1896) ; Main, A Treasury of English Sonnets (Manches- ter, 1880) ; The Book of^ the Sonnet, edited with essays by L. Hunt and S. A. Lee (Boston, 1867) ; Sonnets of Europe, trans., ed. by Waddington (London, 1886) ; and Herrick, A Century of Sonnets (New York, 1902). SONNINO, son-ne'no. A town in the Province of Rome. Italy. 64 miles southeast of the city of Rome. Its chief feature is the Convent of Fossanova, an exceptionally fine specimen of early Gothic architecture. Population, about 3000. SONOEA, s6-no'rS. A northwestern State of Me.xico, bounded by Arizona and New Mexico on the nortli. the Mexican State of Chihuahua on the east. Sinaloa on the southeast. and the Gulf of California on the west (Ma]): Mexico, D 3). Area. 70,900 square miles. Along the coast ex- tends a low arid region rising gradually toward the interior. In the east rises the Sierra Madre with its numerous ofl'shoots inclosing deep val- leys. The rivers of the State are few, the Yaqui being the most important. The climate differs considerably in the different parts of the State, but the rainfall is generally scanty, and agricul- ture can be carried on only with irrigation. The mineral deposits of Sonora are among the richest in Mexico, and include silver, lead, gold, copper, coal. iron, and graphite. Jlining is carried on ex- tensively and a large proportion of the mineral products is exported to the United States. So- nora is crossed by a railway line from Guaymas, its chief port, to the United States frontier. Population, in 1900, 220,553. Capital, Hermosil- lo (q.v.). SONORAN REGION. An American faunal region whose lioiiiids are very widely extended by some writers, but which is more intelligibly re- stricted to the high and dry plateau region of the northern interior of Mexico and to the contiguous arid region of the Southwestern United States, reaching eastward into Texas and northward into Colorado, Utah, and Nevada between the moun- tain ranges. It is characterized by a large vari- ety of small animals adapted to a desert life, and has been most studied and described by Merriam. SONS OF LIBERTY. In American history, a name appliei_l to an organization extending throughout all the colonies, opposing first the Stamp Act, and afterwards advocating separation from Great Britain. When the Stamp Act (q.v.) was proposed in 1764, loose secret organizations, chiefly of workingmen, were formed in the various colonies to concert resistance. Col. Isaac BarrS (q.v.) in a speech in Parliament in February, 1765, used the phrase 'Sons of Liberty,' which was at once adopted by these societies. With the passage of the Stamp Act they took the lead in opposition to its enforcement, and prevented its execution by force. Committees of correspond- ence were formed and each colony was kept in touch with the sentiment in the others. Though there was no central organization, the activity of John Lamb (q.v.). Isaac Sears (q.v.), and others in New York made the Sons of Liberty in that colony perhaps more important than in any other. With' the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766,' the or- ganization was dissolved in some towns, but in others was active in supporting the Non-Importa- tion Agreement. As sentiment favoring entire separation grew in strength, the secrecy was dis- carded, and the name was given to the younger and more active patriots. In New York they con- trolled the Committee of Safety, and in 1774 the calling of a Continental Congress was, in part, due to them. In Georgia they were called Liberty Boys, and finally drove the royal Governor from the State. In colonies where there was a large Loyalist element the organization was efficient in preserving American supremacy, and was kept up during the Revolution. Afterwards many of the leaders were prominent Anti-Federalists and opposed the adoption of the Constitution. The name was also applied during the Civil War to the Knights of the Golden Circle (q.v.). Con-
