strong, clear life-blood. But in the period to which we now turn, this element of joyousness becomes less typical, and there appears in literature a new power, more stern and austere, that of Puritanism. Let us see who the Puritans were, and what they stood for. The Puritans and Puritanism. We have seen that the Reformation in the sixteenth century was largely the result of a new and independent study of the Bible by men who were not contented with the interpretation of Scripture made by the Church, or with the practices followed by it in the name of Christianity. The aim of the reformers or Protestants had been to get back to what they considered a simpler and more real religion. In England, during the reign of Henry VIII, the king had thrown off his allegiance to the Pope and had made himself the head of the Church within his dominions. Although this step had been taken for political reasons, England's freedom from papal authority had afforded new opportunities for the growth of Protestant doctrines. This national or established church came to be known as the Anglican Church or the Church of England. But notwithstanding the changes thus made in England by the English Reformation, there were, even in Elizabeth's reign, some Protestants who wished to depart still further from the doctrines and practices of the Roman Church. They were called Puritans because they aimed to purify their own lives, and to free the Church of what they thought were Popish practices. Many of the Puritans were eccentric people, but although they were ridiculed for peculiarities of manner and dress for their solemn and often sour visages, their steeple hats and closely cropped hair, and for such strange practices as embroidering Scripture texts on their shirts or petticoats they were in many respects the most solid people of the nation. Life was a serious business with them, a preparation for an existence hereafter. Their religion they placed above all else. God was their immediate lord and master, and they felt that allegiance to Him, to truth and the right, was above loyalty to the King. They believed they were responsible directly to God, and therefore they opposed the government of the Church of England and the authority of the bishops. Just as they had learned to interpret the Bible for themselves, and to criticize the teachings of the Church, so afterward, with the same independence, they learned to study political questions for themselves and to discuss the whole theory of government in church and state. There was thus a close connection between the cause of religious liberty and that of political liberty; and in the first half of the seventeenth century, during the reigns of James I and Charles I, these two causes became one under the name of Puritanism. The Puritans had been active and, among certain classes, even numerous, during Elizabeth's time; we have seen how they opposed the production of plays in the city of London. But in James I's reign they grew even more influential, and in that of Charles I finally became the most powerful party in the realm. The Stuart kings failed to understand the people; they were arbitrary and obstinate, and flaunted before the people's rising sense of personal dignity and independence their theory of the "Divine Right" of kings. They believed that they were appointed of God to rule over England, and implied that they could do no wrong. But in the eyes of the Puritans the King did many wrongs; he favored the Established Church, with its bishops and its more formal service; he tolerated vice and drunkenness at court, and he trampled upon their ancient liberties by collecting unjust taxes without their consent. These things were contrary to what the Puritans believed to be the will of God, and when, at the end of the Civil War, Charles I was condemned and beheaded, the Puritans felt that they were but instruments in the hands of God, executing His stern judgment. There were thus in the England of this time two distinct parties -the Puritans and the Royalists who were opposed to each other in politics, in religion, and in their private way of life. The former in their extreme moral severity condemned plays and masques, all dancing, archery, and playing at bowls on Sunday, - games which the young people of England had practised time out of mind on the village green. The Royalists or Cavaliers stood for greater freedom of life; in politics they were stanch supporters of the King and of a strong monarchy, and in religion they favored the more tolerant Established Church of England. They wore their hair long, over the shoulders, and were, in mind as in appearance, more elegant and graceful than the Puritan "Roundheads." With most men of Elizabeth's time, they believed that the world was a very good place, not to be condemned but enjoyed, and that pleasure was a worthy end in itself. The New Version of the Bible. One of the greatest results of the religious conflicts of the time was the publication of the King James version of the Bible. Both parties felt the need of an accurate translation of the Scriptures. In 1604, therefore, a commission of forty-seven churchmen and Puritan ministers was appointed, which, under the supervision of the King, made a careful revision and comparison of the earlier English translations. The work was completed in 1611, and has ever since been an incalculable spiritual force in thousands of English households, and a great influence in the development of literature. Some of our greatest poets and prose writers have studied closely its thought, and striven to emulate its strength and simplicity of style. The King James version of the New Testament was based largely upon Tyndale's translation (1525). "If God spare my life," Tyndale had said to a learned opponent, "ere many years I will cause that a boy that driveth the plow shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost." The Bible became the literature of the people, telling to the poorest and plainest the essential things of life in words that all could understand. If we find a typical picture in the press of London shopkeepers and 'prentices crowding the pit of the "Fortune" or the "Globe" theater, we find one no less typical in the eager throngs gathered about the reader of the Bible in the nave of St. Paul's cathedral. - The Complexity of the Age. We must realize in studying this confused and many-sided period that though politically England was divided into two parties, there were many shades of opinion and much diversity of temperament among the members of each party. We must not think of all Cavaliers as gay and immoral; there were high-minded Royalists, who, though differing with the Puritans on questions of politics and of church. government and church doctrine, held to a rule of life that was almost Puritanical in its strictness. Many Churchmen, standing for the king and a strong church organization in the hands of the bishops, led the most pious and genuinely spiritual lives. Nor must we imagine that all Puritans were hard, intolerant, joyless disciplinarians. John Milton, for example, in some respects the greatest of Puritans, was one who loved music and color, and who delighted in the exquisitely sensuous poetry of Spenser. In short, as we might expect, all the right was not on one side, and honorable and patriotic men were to be found in both parties. The literature of the early sixteenth century reflects the different moods and tendencies of the age. We have on the one hand the work of the later dramatists and lyric poets, carrying over from the time of Elizabeth something of the ardent enthusiasm and large enjoyment of life which was the most marked feature of the Renaissance; and on the other a religious literature, which finds its highest expression in the great epic poems of Milton, and in the strong, simple, biblical prose of John Bunyan. LATER ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE THE DRAMA To form any just conception of the commanding genius of Shakespeare, we must measure his altitude by that of his contemporaries. We must imagine him, also, in his daily human relations with men of his own class and calling; we must think of him as an actor among actors, as a theatrical manager, as one of that immortal group at the Mermaid Tavern which included Ben Jonson, Francis Beaumont, and John Fletcher. Some knowledge of Shakespeare's contemporaries or immediate successors in the drama is absolutely necessary if we would see either Shakespeare or his time in proper perspective; but the number of these dramatists is so great, their total production so enormous, that we can consider here only two or three of the most important. Ben Jonson. The most commanding figure of this group is BEN JONSON (1573-1637), a big-framed, dominant, aggressive man, who by his own native ability and |