JAMES I. OF SCOTLAND.

From the KING'S QUAIR.

Now was there made, fast by the Toure's wall,
A garden fair; and in the corners set
An herbere1 green, with wandis long and small
Railed about, and so with treeis set

Was all the place, and hawthorne hedges knet,
That life was none walking there forby,
That might within scarce any wight espy.

And therewith cast I doun myn eye again;
Whereas I saw, walking under the Toure,
Full secretly, new comyn her to playen,2

*

The fairest, or the freshest younge flower
That ever I saw, methought, before that hour.
For which sudden abate anon astert

The blood of all my body to my heart.

And when she walked had a little threw

Under the sweete greene boughis bent
Her fair fresh face, as white as any snow,
She turned her, and furth her wayis went;
But tho began my aches and torment,
To see her part and follow I na might,
Methought the day was turned into night.

HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY.

Contrast the two sonnets given below, -the simple beauty and earnestness of the first, with the affected alliterative style of the latter. Both were written by the Earl of Surrey.

1 arbor.

DESCRIPTION OF SPRING.

The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings,
With green hath clad the hill, and eke the vale.

The nightingale with feathers new she sings;
The turtle to her make hath told her tale.
Summer is come, for every spray now springs;
The hart hath hung his old head on the pale,"

2 play, take exercise.

4 the soft sound was sometimes given to the ch in this word.

8 then.

6 sweet.

The buck in brake his winter coat he flings;
The fishes flete with new repaired scale;
The adder all her slough away she flings;
The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale;1
The busy bee her honey now she mings;2

Winter is worn that was the flowers' bale.
And thus I see among these pleasant things
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs.

THE FRAILTY AND HURTFULNESS OF BEAUTY.
Brittle beauty, that Nature made so frail,

Whereof the gift is small, and shorter is the season;
Flow'ring to-day, to-morrow apt to fail;

Tickle treasure, abhorred of reason:

Dangerous to deal with, vain, of none avail:
Costly in keeping, past, not worth two peason,*
Slipperer in sliding than is an eel's tail;

Hard to obtain, once gotten never geason;5
Jewel of jeopardy, that peril doth assail;
False and untrue, enticed oft to treason;
Enemy to youth, that most men bewail;

Ah! bitter sweet, infecting as the poison,
Thou fairest as the fruit that with the frost is taken;
To-day ready ripe-to-morrow all to shaken.

SIR THOMAS MORE.

From the UTOPIA.

OF THEIR LAWS.

They have but few laws, and such is their constitution that they need not many. They do very much condemn other nations, whose laws, together with the comments on them, swell up so many volumes; for they think it an unreasonable thing to oblige men to obey a body of laws that cannot be read or understood by every one of the subjects. They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort of people whose profession it is to disguise matters as well as to wrest laws.

OF WEALTH.

They wonder much to hear that gold, which in itself is a very useless thing, should be everywhere so much esteemed, that even man, for whom it was made and by whom it has its value, should yet be thought of less value than it is.

1 small.

2 mingles. 3 unsteady.

4 plural of

pea.

6 worth getting.

OF MUSIC.

They exceed as much in their music, both vocal and instrumental, which does so imitate and express the passions, and is so fitted to the present occasion, whether the subject-matter of the hymn is cheerful or made to appease, or troubled, doleful, or angry, that the music makes an impression of that which is represented, by which it enters deep into the hearers, and does very much affect and kindle them.

IN TRAVELLING,

They carry nothing with them, yet in all their journey they lack nothing, for wheresoever they come they be at home. There are no wine taverns nor ale houses.

ON WAR.

They detest war as a very brutal thing, and which, to the reproach of human nature, is more practised by men than by any sort of beasts.

A COMMON-WEALTH.

In all other places it is visible that whereas people talk of a Common-wealth, every man only seeks his own wealth, but there all men do zealously pursue the good of the public.

WILLIAM TYNDALE.

From the TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

Luke x. 25.

And marke a certayne Lawere stode up and tempted hym, sayinge: Master, what shal I do to inherit eternall lyfe? He sayd unto him: What is written in the lawe? Howe redest thou? And he answerde, and sayde: Thou shalt love thy lorde god wyth all thy hert and wyth all thy soule and wyth all thy strengthe and wyth all thy mynde and thy neighbor as thy self.

ROGER ASCHAM.

From the SCHOOLMASTER.

"Before I went into Germanie, I came to take my leave of that noble Ladie Jane Grey, to whom I was much beholding. Her parentes, the Duke and the Duches, with all the houshold, Gentlemen and Gentlewomen, were huntynge in the Park. I found her, in her Chamber, readinge Phaedon Platonis in Greeke, and that with as moch delite as some jentlemen wold read a merie tale in Bocase."*

"As for the Latin and Greek tongue, every thing is so excellently done in them that none can do better; in the English tongue, contrary, every thing in a manner so meanly, both for the matter and handling, that no man can do worse.

"He that will write well in any tongue must follow this counsel of Aristotle, to speak as the common people do, and think as wise men do."

SIR THOMAS MALORY.

From the HISTORY OF KING ARTHUR and the KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE.

How King Arthur had all the knights together for to just in the meadow beside Camelot, or they departed in search of the Holy Grail.

"Now," said the king, “I am sure at this quest of the sancgreall, shall all ye of the round table depart, and never shall I see you again whole together, therefore I will see you all whole together in the medow of Camelot, for to just and to turney, that after your death men may speak of it, that such good knights were wholly together such a day." But all the meaning of the king was to see Sir Galahad proved, for the king deemed hee should not lightly come againe unto the court after his departing. And the queene was in a tower with all her ladies for to behold that turnement.

Of the great lamentation that the faire made of Astolat made when Sir Launcelot should depart, and how she died for his love.

And then she called her father, Sir Bernard, and her brother, Sir Tirre, and heartily she prayed her father that her brother might write a letter like as she would endite it. And when the letter was written word by word like shee had devised, then she prayed her father that she might be watched untill she were dead. "And while my body is whole, let this letter be put into my right hand, bound fast with the letter untill that I be cold, and let me be put in a faire bed with all the richest clothes that I have about me, and so let my bed and all my rich clothes be laide with me in a barge, and but one man with me, such as ye trust to stere me thither, and that my barge be covered with black samite over and over." Then her father and brother made great dole, for when this was done, anon shee died. And so the corpse and the bed and all was led the next way unto the Thamse, and there a man and the corps and all were put in a barge on the Thamse, and the man steered the barge to Westminster.

So by fortune king Arthur and queene Guenivere were speaking to

gether at a window; and so as they looked at the Thamse, they espied the black barge, and had marvaile what it might meane. . . . And then the king took the queene by the hand, and went thither. Then the king made the barge to be holden fast; and then the king and the queene went in, and ther they saw a faire gentlewoman lying in a rich bed, and covered with rich clothes, and all was of cloth of gold; and shee lay as though she had smiled. Then the queene espied the letter in the right hand, and told the king thereof. Then the king brake it open, and bade a clarke to reade it. . . . Then was Sir Launcelot sent for, and king Arthur made the letter to be red to him. And Sir Launcelot said, "My lord king Arthur, wit you well that I am right heavy of the death of this faire damosell; God knoweth I was never causer of her death, by my will, and that I will report mee unto her owne brother, here hee is, Sir Lavaine. She was bothe faire and good, and much I was beholden to her, but she loved me out of measure." Then said the king to Sir Launcelot, "It will be your worship that you oversee that shee bee buried worshipfully." "Sir," said Sir Launcelot, "that shall be done as I can best devise." And on the morrow shee was richly buried.

SYLLABUS.

After Chaucer, there was no great poet in England for a hundred and • fifty years.

The period was one of great events, but of no great literary works.

The principal events were the Invention of Printing, The breaking up of the Eastern Empire (1453), The Discovery of America, The beginning of the Reformation (1517).

It was a period of revival in learning.

Poetry was left in the hands of the uneducated. Ballad poetry was the result.

There were more poets in Scotland than in England.

King James I., Dunbar, Gawain Douglas, and Lindsay were the chief Scottish poets.

In England, Occleve and Lydgate were professed followers of Chaucer. Skelton was an English satirist.

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and Sir Thomas Wyatt were the polishers of English verse.

Surrey introduced the Sonnet and Blank verse into English poetry.
William Caxton introduced printing into England.

Sir Thomas More was the most prominent writer of the age. Utopia was his principal work. It was written in Latin.