English sonnets (issued under the title "Astrophel and Stella") as well as of an English classic. His reputation rests on his "Apologie for Poesie," a brief treatise written in 1581 to confute the opinions of that class of Elizabethan Puritans which aimed to suppress literature and art as well as many articles of adornment.

Edmund Spenser, the second of the great masters of English poetry, was born in East Smithfield, London, about the year 1552. The accepted date of his birth is based upon a passage in the sixtieth sonnet of the "Amoretti," where he writes of having lived forty-one years. This work was published in 1595. The place of his birth is traced also from his writings, for in his "Prothalamion" we read:

Merry London my most kindly nurse,

That to me gave this life's first native source.

Spenser was educated at the Merchant Taylor's School and at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, whither he was sent through the benevolence of Robert Nowell, a London merchant. Spenser was about sixteen years old when he entered Pembroke, which he did as a sizar, and was graduated therefrom as master of arts in 1576. How he occupied the three succeeding years is not known, but in 1579 he issued a volume of verse entitled "The Shepherd's Calendar." This, it has been said, was the balm that healed a wounded heart, for he had paid court to a lady whom he called Rosalind, who, after she had tired of his attentions, discarded him. Although this poem was begun in the North of England it was finished at Penshurst, the home of the Earl of Pembroke, where Spenser met Sir Philip Sidney, who "put him in the way of preferment." The entire poem is

in reality a personal narrative of Spenser's experiences, and it was dedicated to Sidney, who obtained for him a secretaryship to Lord Grey of Wilton, whom he accompanied to Ireland when the latter was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of that country. Outside of the charm and power of the "Shepherd's Calendar" there is little in it to attract the reader, for this work requires a special training to understand it to the full, since its language is composite, being a combination of Chaucerian English with North Anglian. Nevertheless, it was received with marked enthusiasm, chiefly because it was in a form then unknown to English literature, and showed unmistakable command of meter and phrase.

Spenser's greatest achievement, "The Faerie Queene," which he himself modestly called a "simple song," proved to be the greatest poem that was written in England since Chaucer wrote his "Canterbury Tales." Spenser created the nine-lined stanza in which this poem was penned. The first three books of "The Faerie Queene" were written among the green alders by the Mulla's shore, whither Spenser withdrew after the death of his friend Sidney. They were issued in 1586. When asked to explain "the ethical part of moral philosophy" by some of his associates then in Ireland, he replied that he could not do so offhand, but that he had in preparation a poem which would illustrate it in action. Spenser was esteemed by these associates as a scholar "not only perfect in the Greek tongue, but also very well read in philosophy, both moral and natural." This was undoubtedly due to the fact that Spenser, if not actually the most learned, was one of the most learned of the English poets. In 1596 Spenser, who had held public office first as clerk of the council for Munster and later as

sheriff of Cork, went to England, and there published the fourth, fifth, and sixth books of "The Faerie Queene," and then returned home, where he hoped to live the rest of his life in the peaceful enjoyment of that reputation which his work had achieved for him. But he had barely settled down there when the smoldering embers of rebellion broke aflame, and the oppressed peasantry marched upon his home, which they sacked and set on fire. Spenser and his wife, who were forced to abandon their child in the haste of their flight, barely escaped with their lives, and, crossing to England, found shelter in King Street, Westminster, where, three months later, the poet passed away (January 16, 1599). He died in abject poverty. Ben Jonson declared that he perished for lack of bread, and that when the Earl of Essex heard of his distress he sent twenty pieces 93 to relieve his need, but the poet returned them, regretting he had no time to spend them.

The quality of Spenser's work in "The Faerie Queene" was uneven. The earlier books show the poet at his best; in the later books he seems to have striven to interweave with allegory the history of his own time, and thereby marred what has otherwise been described as the most exquisite picture of chivalrous life that has ever been limned in English words. Nevertheless, Spenser has exerted great influence on the poetic literature of England. In his own day he had several imitators, such as William Smith, who wrote "Chloris" (1595), and Richard Niccols, the author of "The Beggar's Ape" (1627). Milton, who characterized him as "our sage and serious poet, Spenser," considered him a sure guide as a thinker and as a poet. Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" has been attributed to the influence

93 A piece was an English coin worth from 20 to 22 shillings.

of Spenser's Faerie Queene" on its author by Dr. Samuel Johnson. Dryden found in Spenser a master of English and one endowed with natural genius and a greater fund of knowledge to support it than any other poet. James Russell Lowell declared that no other poet has given an impulse to so many and so diverse minds as did Spenser, under whose inspiration wrote such men as Thomson, Burns, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey, Keats, Shelley, and Byron. Charles Lamb gave him his just title when he styled Spenser "the poet's poet."

Although his work ranks below that of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Milton, it unites rare genius with purity, luxuriant and prolific power of imagination with sweetness of language and elegance of expression. For tenderness of feeling and purity of thought Spenser's work has possibly never been surpassed.

The following extract from the second eclogue of the "Shepherd's Calendar," tells in part the "Tale of the Oak and the Briar," and will serve as a specimen of English in 1579:

94 Firm.

95 Much.

There grew an aged tree on the green,

A goodly Oak sometime had it been,
With arms full strong and lergely displayed,
But of their leaves they were disarrayed;
The body big and mightily pight,94
Throughly rooted, and of wondrous height:
Whilom he had been the king of the field,
And mochel95 mast to the husband96 did yield,
And with his nuts larded many swine;
And now the grey moss marred his rine;97
His bared boughs were beaten with storms,
His top was bald and wasted with worms,

96 Husbandman.
97 Rind (bark).

His honour decayed, his branches sere.
Hard by his side grew a bragging Brere,
Which proudly thrust into th' element,
And seemed to threat the firmament;
It was embellished with blossoms fair,
And thereto aye wonted to repair
The shepherds' daughters to gather flowers,
To paint their garlands with his colours;
And in his small bushes used to shrowd
The sweet nightingale, singing so loud;
Which made this foolish Brere wex so bold,
That on a time he cast him to scold

And sneb the good Oak, for he was old.

Why stand'st there, quoth he, thou brutish block?

When Richard Hooker gave to the world his "Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity" he enriched English literature with a masterpiece of philosophical thought, notable as much for its gracefulness of style as for its nice discriminations in the choice of words. Hooker was born at Heavitree, near Exeter, England, in 1553 or 1554. While at school he showed such marked aptitude and unusual facility in acquiring knowledge that his teacher advised his parents to educate him for the Church. This they were unable to do, but an uncle, John Hooker, secured his admission to Corpus Christi College at Oxford, gave him a small pension, and secured for him the patronage of Bishop Jewel, through whose influence he obtained a clerkship in the college.

In 1567 Richard Hooker entered on his duties, and had been in the University barely four years when his patron, Bishop Jewel, died (1571). Fortunately for him, he found another friend in Dr. Cole, then the president of the college, who offered to replace Jewel as his patron. Necessity compelled Hooker to accept, but he determined to secure his