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government and religion, enjoying display and rapidly gaining the means to indulge the taste, changing its habits and its modes of life,-such an age of feeling, daring and doing must produce a wonderful literature. The age of Elizabeth justifies the expectation and stands unrivaled in all English history. It was the age of Bacon, of Spenser and of Shakespeare; it gave us some of the greatest masterpieces in prose and in poetry, while in the drama it is absolutely unrivaled. But this age of Elizabeth should not be confined in thought to the years of her reign, for the causes which produced such a wealth of literary excellence continued to act through the reign of her successor and even to the Puritan Reformation, though in the latter years other causes were at work which prepared the way for a different school of writers.

The people demanded excitement, were anxious to be amused, had money to spend and were looking for new ways of spending it agreeably. Books of poetry and romance came into demand and the stirring events of the day furnished material for countless tales and the inspiration for scores of poets. The imagination of every one was active and childlike in its demands, so that the influence of the Italian school of writers, which had manifested itself to some extent in the writings of Chaucer, came to be the ruling spirit of the age. There were literally hundreds of minor literary

characters who wrote and were read, but who are now forgotten. Many others there were who are still read, whose influence even now is felt but whose importance is not sufficient to justify us in considering them at length in this course. However, there are three names so great that any attempt to give them due attention would shut out the others. Sir Francis Bacon, philosopher and essayist; Edmund Spenser, "the poet's poet," "the rightest English poet," and William Shakespeare who bears the greatest name in all literature, these three make the Elizabethan Age the grandest of all time.

For a score of years after the beginning of Elizabeth's reign nothing great was accomplished in either prose or poetry. The quantity written had never been exceeded in the same length of time, but most of it was produced by numerous writers who had no special aptitude for composition. Prose was of little interest and of less value; the vivid imagination of the people demanded the play of fancy and glitter of figures that only poetry could afford.

John Lyly

The fantastic spirit of the time found expression in a peculiar kind of writing and of speech that was practiced by many of the courtiers and affected by brilliant men and women outside the circle of royalty. Its use was not confined to England but the writers of other nations at about the same time became infected

by the spirit. In England it was known as Euphuism, from the name of the principal character in a prose romance, Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit, written by John Lyly and published about 1579. Euphues talked in enigmatical sentences, using far-fetched and obscure figures and labored antitheses.

As an example of Lyly's style at its best, take the following:

"It is therefore a most evident sign of God's singular favour towards him, that he is endued with all these qualities, without the which man is most miserable. But if there be any one that thinketh wit not necessary to the obtaining of wisdom, after he hath gotten the way to virtue, and industry, and exercise, he is a heretic, in my opinion, touching the true faith in learning. For if nature play not her part, in vain is labour; and, as it is said before, if study be not employed, in vain is nature. Sloth turneth the edge of wit, study sharpeneth the mind; a thing, be it never so easy, is hard to the idle; a thing, be it never so hard, is easy to wit well employed. And most plainly we may see in many things the efficacy of industry and labour. The little drops of rain pierce the hard marble; iron, with often handling, is worn to nothing.

Besides this, industry sheweth herself in other things; the fertile soil, if it be never tilled, doth wax barren; and that which is most noble by nature is made most vile by negligence. What tree, if it be not topped, beareth any fruit? What vine, if it be not pruned, bringeth forth grapes? Is not the strength of the body turned to weakness with too much delicacy? Were not Milo his arms brawnfallen for want of wrestling? Moreover, by labour the fierce unicorn is tamed, the wildest falcon is reclaimed, the greatest bulwark is sacked."

And as another:

"The sharp north-east wind doth never last three days; tempests have but a short time; and the more violent the thunder is, the less permanent it is. In the like manner, it falleth out with the jars and crossings of friends, which, begun in a minute, are ended in a moment. Necessary it is that among friends there should be some over-thwarting; but to continue in anger, not convenient. The camel first troubleth the water before he drink; the frankincense is burned before it smell; friends are tried before they are trusted, lest, like the carbuncle as though they had fire, they be found, being touched, to be with

out fire. Friendship should be like the wine which Homer, much commending, calleth Maroneum, whereof one pint being mingled with five quarts of water, yet it keepeth his old strength and virtue, not to be qualified by any discourtesy. Where salt doth grow, nothing else can breed; where friendship is built, no offence can harbour."

Sir Philip
Sidney.

Some writers, greater than Lyly himself, were influenced by his style. Sir Philip Sidney, of whom mention has been more than once made in the earlier numbers of this course, in addition to his fame as a soldier and courtier, deserves mention for his prose romance Arcadia, his collection of sonnets and his Apologie for Poetrie, which is the first successful critical essay in the language. His style though at first pedantic and euphuistic, grew to be quite clear and forceful with real poetic power in expression. These few lines are taken from his Defence of Poesie.

"Now therein (that is to say, the power of at once teaching and enticing to do well) — now therein, of all sciences—I speak still of human and according to human conceit-is our poet the monarch. For he doth not only show the way, but giveth so sweet a prospect into the way, as will entice any man to enter

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