=Spenser.= _The Spenser of English Prose Writers_, Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667). _Spenser._ _From Spenser to Flecknoe_, that is, from the top to the bottom of all poetry; from the sublime to the ridiculous.--Dryden, _Comment on Spenser, etc._ =Spenser’s Monument=, in Westminster Abbey, was erected by Anne Clifford, countess of Dorset. =Spider’s Net= (_A_). When Mahomet fled from Mecca, he hid in a cave, and a spider wove its net over the entrance. When the Koreishites came thither, they passed on, being fully persuaded that no one had entered the cave, because the cobweb was not broken. In the _Talmud_, we are told that David, in his flight, hid himself in the cave of Adullam, and a spider spun its net over the opening. When Saul came up and saw the cobweb, he passed on, under the same persuasion. =Spindle= (_Jack_), the son of a man of fortune. Having wasted his money in riotous living, he went to a friend to borrow £100. “Let me see, you want £100, Mr. Spindle; let me see, would not £50 do for the present?” “Well,” said Jack, “if you have not £100, I must be contented with £50.” “Dear me, Mr. Spindle!” said the friend, “I find I have but £20 about me.” “Never mind,” said Jack, “I must borrow the other £30 of some other friend.” “Just so, Mr. Spindle, just so. By-the-by would it not be far better to borrow the whole of that friend, and then one note of hand will serve for the whole sum? Good morning, Mr. Spindle; delighted to see you! Tom, see the gentleman down.”--Goldsmith, _The Bee_, iii. (1759). =Spirit of the Cape= (_The_), Adamastor, a hideous phantom, of unearthly pallor, “erect his hair uprose of withered red,” his lips were black, his teeth blue and disjointed, his beard haggard, his face scarred by lightning, his eyes “shot livid fire,” his voice roared. The sailors trembled at the sight of him, and the fiend demanded how they dared to trespass “where never hero braved his rage before?” He then told them “that every year the shipwrecked should be made to deplore their foolhardiness.” According to Barreto the “Spirit of the Cape” was one of the giants who stormed heaven.--Camoens, _The Lusiad_ (1572). In me the Spirit of the Cape behold ... That rock by you the “Cape of Tempests” named ... With wide-stretched piles I guard ... Great Adamastor is my dreaded name. Canto v. =Spiri´to=, the Holy Ghost as the friend of man, personified in canto ix. of _The Purple Island_, by Phineas Fletcher (1633). He was married to Urania, and their offspring are: Knowledge, Contemplation, Care, Humility, Obedience, Faith or Fido, Penitence, Elpi´nus or Hope, and Love, the foster-son of Gratitude. (Latin, _spirĭtus_, “spirit.”) =Spitfire= (_Will_), or WILL SPITTAL, serving-boy of Roger Wildrake, the dissipated royalist.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).