but other writers crowd about them, each great enough to stand first in a less abundant time. The extent and richness of Elizabethan literature has made our study most limited, for so "spacious" is the time that on every hand are beautiful regions which we cannot even pretend to explore. For instance, there is all the literature of criticism, of which we have mentioned only Sidney's Defense of Poesie; there is the literature of travel, books such as Hakluyt's Voyages (1589), in which the narratives of great navigators like Sir Humphrey Gilbert or Sir Walter Raleigh were collected; there are books of short poems, which tell us how prodigal the country was in song in that full time when England was "a nest of singing birds." Then, too, there are series of sonnets, such as those of Spenser, Sidney, William Drummond (1585-1649); the last perhaps the most Italian in tone and among the most beautiful of them all. We have spoken briefly of the drama, but only extended study can make us realize its power and richness, the great host of busy playwrights and their extraordinary vigor and productiveness. We have alluded to the prose-writers, but we must pass by the work of historian, theologian, romance-writer, and antiquarian, almost without mention. We are forced to leave these regions behind us unexplored, but it will help us to a firmer hold on this period of the new learning if, before leaving it, we fix in our minds certain points of chronology that rise like milestones along the way. In doing this we must remember that such arbitrary divisions of literature are convenient, but not always exactly true, for literary periods are not in reality thus sharply defined. First (about 1491 to about 1509). We may associate the last ten years of the fifteenth and the first nine or ten of the sixteenth centuries with that band of teachers and educational reformers who may be called the missionaries of the new learning. This period reaches from about 1491, the year when Grocyn lectured on Greek at Oxford, to about 1509, the year of the accession of Henry VIII. Second (1509-1557). During this time the influence of Italy begins to be apparent in English poetry. Henry VIII is a patron of learning. More publishes his Utopia, Heywood his Interludes. We note in Ralph Roister Doister the beginning of regular comedy. On the whole, the new learning is making itself apparent in literature, and the time is full of the signs of promise. Third (1557-1579). This period may be remembered as beginning with the publication of Tottel's Miscellany, which marks the real beginning of Elizabethan literature, and ending with that of Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar. During this interval the coming of a mighty outburst draws nearer, the work of preparation goes on in the publication of numerous classical translations; Sackville writes his Induction to the Mirror for Magistrates (1563); short poems and ballads appear in extraordinary numbers; the first regular tragedy is written, and innumerable Italian stories become popular. It is a time of growth, of preparation, and of expectancy. Fourth (1579-1637). This period includes the high noon of the English Renaissance. It begins with the Shepherd's Calendar, which marks the decisive entrance into literature of the greatest poet England had produced since Chaucer. The ten years succeeding are marked by the rapid advance of the drama under Lyly, Peele, Greene, Lodge, and Marlowe, the immediate precursors of Shakespeare. In 1590, with the first instalment of the Faërie Queene and the advent of Shakespeare, we are at the opening of twenty of the most glorious years From about 1613, in the whole course of our literature. when Shakespeare ceased to write, we note the slow decline of this creative energy, and that shifting of the nation's interest to religious and political questions which is a late effect of the Reformation. In 1637 two events occur which emphasize for us the ending of the old order and the beginning of the new. In that year Ben Jonson died, the greatest surviving representative of the glory of the Elizabethans, and in that year also there was published the Lycidas of the young Puritan poet, John Milton. IMPORTANT DATES ELIZABETH, Queen of England EDMUND SPENSER The Shepherd's Calendar The Faërie Queene SIR WALTER RALEIGH The History of the World SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, poet, courtier, ambassador A Defense of Poesie The Arcadia CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE Tamburlaine Other early dramatists, KYD, PEELE, and GREENE. Execution of MARY STUART, Queen of Scots Defeat of the Spanish Armada WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Period of Shakespeare's literary activity BEN JONSON Every Man in his Humour 1558-1603 1552-1599 1579 1590-1596 1552-1618 1614 1554-1586 .about 1581 published 1590 1564-1593 printed 1590 1587 1588 1564-1616 .about 1588-1613 1573-1637 . acted 1598 Other later dramatists, MIDDLeton, Dekker, CHAPMAN, etc. CHAPTER IV THE DECLINE OF THE RENAISSANCE THE ENGLAND OF MILTON ALTHOUGH Shakespeare and Milton are familiarly linked together in our ordinary speech as the two greatest poets of England, in the whole spirit and nature of their work they have but little in common. It is not merely that they are, for the most part, distinguished in separate provinces. of poetry; that Shakespeare is above all the dramatic, and Milton the epic poet of the literature;1 the difference lies much deeper, and declares itself unmistakably at almost every point. Now, this is not entirely due to an inborn, personal difference in the genius of these two representative poets; it is due also to the difference in the spirit of the times they represent. For in a sense even Shakespeare was "of an age," as well as "for all time." In the true spirit of the Renaissance, Shakespeare's work is taken up chiefly with this world rather than with any world hereafter; he is interested in 1 The distinction between dramatic and epic poetry is difficult to make clear in any short definition. In the drama, the author presents the characters of the play directly before the spectator, letting them by their own actions and words unfold the plot and disclose their several natures. In the epic, which is essentially a narrative poem, the author relates the story himself, generally a story of some heroic action or conflict, told in a dignified and elevated style. The drama is written for the stage, and is really not complete until it is produced there. The epic is to be read or recited. life as life, and in men because of their essential humanity; his dramas are alive with the crowding interests and activities of Elizabeth's reign. But the England in which Milton lived and worked was stirred by far different emotions; its finest spirits were inspired by far different ideals. In the time of Milton and his compatriots, England's liberties, which had been fought for as far back as the days of King John and Magna Charta, were threatened with extinction. The Puritans strove to establish civil and religious liberty, the Royalists, or Cavaliers, to uphold the power of the King; and so England was torn by a strife which in Milton's day absorbed the best energies of the nation. Milton interprets and expresses this England of Puritanism, as Shakespeare does the England of Elizabeth; and to understand the difference in the spirit of their poetry, we must turn to history and grasp the broad distinction between the times they respectively represent. We spoke of the Renaissance as the rebirth of the religious as well as of the intellectual life of Europe, and we saw that while in Italy the new life of the mind took form in what we call the Revival of Learning, in Germany the new life of the spirit had its outcome in that religious awakening we call the Reformation. The Revival of Learning and the Reformation entered into England almost at the same time; but it was at different times that they found full and typical expression in literature. The age of Elizabeth was inspired chiefly by the new learning, and its literature was filled with an intense and high-spirited love of England and England's glory. It reflected the brave new world and all its gaiety, its masques and revels, pageantry and music, its luxury of color. It had something of the fine ardor and spontaneity of youth, and something too of youth's |