chastest and most beautiful marriage-hymn to be found in the whole range of literature. The ardor of his love transfused it with a rapture not found elsewhere in his verse. Hallam says of it,-"It is a strain redolent of a bridegroom's joy, and of a poet's fancy. The English language seems to expand itself with a copiousness unknown before, while he pours forth the varied imagery of this splendid little poem."

Spenser has left one work which displays his energy and skill as a writer of prose. It is A View of the State of Ireland, setting forth his estimate of the character and condition of the Irish people, and recommending a severe and cruel policy to the English government.*

Samuel Daniel (1562-1619), who is said to have succeeded Spenser as Poet Laureate, enjoyed among his contemporaries a respect merited by his talents and by his character. His life was quiet and studious. He wrote many lyrics, a few dramatic compositions, and The History of the Civil Wars, a poem on the contest between the houses of York and Lancaster (46). His language is pure, limpid, and free from the affectation of archaism, which is found in Spenser's writing.

Michael Drayton (1563-1631) was an industrious poet; also much admired by his contemporaries. His longest and most celebrated work, entitled Polyolbion (48), is a poetical ramble over England and Wales, and is unique in literature. In thirty ponderous cantos, containing fifteen thousand monotonous Alexandrine couplets, be enthusiastically, but with painful accuracy, describes the rivers, mountains, and forests of his country, giving also detailed accounts of local legends and antiquities. Many truly poetic passages are found in the work; but it is chiefly

* The following generally accessible works contain specially interesting discussions of the life and writings of Spenser:

Whipple's Literature of the Age of Elizabeth, The Introduction to the Clarendon Press edition of the Faery Queene, the Memoir in Professor Child's Edition of Spenser's works, Hallam's Literature of Europe, Taine's English Literature, Blackwood's Magazine for November, 1833, Campbell's Specimens of English Poetry, Hazlitt's Lectures on the English Poets, Lectures II. and III.

interesting as a monument of untiring industry. Among his other writings are The Barons' Wars, a poem describing the principal events of the unhappy reign of Edward II., England's Heroical Epistles, letters supposed to have been written by illustrious Englishmen to the objects of their love, and the exquisite Nymphidia (47), in which everything that is delicate, quaint, and fantastic in fairy mythology is accumulated, and touched with consummate felicity.

The success of Spenser led many aspirants to seek poetical fame in allegorical composition. Two brothers, Giles (1588-1623) and Phineas Fletcher (1584-1650), cousins of Beaumont's colleague, were the only imitators who had enough of Spenser's spirit to copy him with any success. The first published a poem entitled Christ's Victory and Triumph (53); the second, under the title of The Purple Island, wrote an allegorical description of the human body and mind. But allegorical anatomy, however skilfully managed, is not attractive to the reader. When the veins and arteries of the body are described as brooks and rivers of blood, poetical fancy cannot redeem verse from the ludicrous misuse.

The origin of English poetical satire is generally assigned to this age. Many passages, indeed, of social and personal invective are found in earlier writers; Chaucer's pictures of the monastic orders abound in open and implied censure; both the spirit and matter of Langlande's work are satirical: but in neither of these authors is satire an essential characteristic; a certain infusion of it was inevitable to the task they undertook, but it was far from being a primary condition. Skelton was too ribaldrous, too full of mere venom and spite against individuals, to be ranked as anything more than a mere lampooner; and Surrey and Wyatt pointed out the way to this kind of composition without following it themselves. The first English writer who distinctly calls himself a satirist is Joseph Hall (1574–1656) (118); and the general opinion of later critics has acquiesced in his assertion. In 1597, then fresh from Cambridge, he published three books of biting satires, and two years afterwards, three more of toothless satires. To the collective work he gave the name of Virgidemarium, or a harvest of rods (51). These poems seem to fulfill all the conditions of satire; with great energy and some humor, they attack the prevailing follies and affectations both of literature and social life. Though the numbers are often harsh and the meaning obscure, they possess enough of the spirit

of Juvenal to make them still readable. In later life Hall won greater distinction by his sermons; and as a champion of episcopacy he ventured to grapple with Milton himself.

The number of minor poets produced indicates the unparalleled literary activity of the Elizabethan age. As many as two hundred have been reckoned who gave evidence of skill in constructing verse.

It is, besides, a special distinction of the same age that it produced translations of unusual excellence. The finest of them, the Iliad and Odyssey of George Chapman (1557-1634), appeared early in the seventeenth century. They have won the enthusiastic admiration of several generations of poets, from Waller to Keats. “The earnestness and passion," says Charles Lamb, "which he has put into every part of these poems would be incredible to a reader of more modern translations."

But the grandest phenomenon of the epoch of Elizabeth is the Drama, and to it we shall now address ourselves.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE DAWN OF THE DRAMA.

SPAIN and England alone, among all the modern civilized

nations, possess a theatrical literature independent in its origin, characteristic in its form, and reflecting faithfully the moral, social, and intellectual features of the people among whom it arose. The dawning of the English dramatic literature can be traced to a period not far removed from the Norman Conquest; for the custom of representing, in a rude dramatic form, legends of the lives of the saints and striking episodes of Bible History, existed as early as the twelfth century. To these the name of Mysteries or Miracleplays was given. The earliest on record is the Play of St. Catherine, which was represented at Dunstable in 1119, written in French,

and was in all probability a rude dramatized picture of the 1119.] miracles and martyrdom of that saint. These performances

were an expedient employed by the clergy for giving religious instruction to the people, and for extending and strengthening the influence of the Church by gratifying the curiosity of rude hearers. At first the plays were composed and acted by monks; the cathedral was transformed for the nonce into a theatre, the stage was a graduated platform in three divisions-representing Heaven, Earth, and Hell-rising one over the other, and the costumes were furnished from the vestry of the church. The simple faith of the monkish dramatists, and of their audience, saw no impropriety in representing the most supernatural beings, the persons of the Trinity, angels, devils, saints, and martyrs. It was absolutely necessary that some comic element should be introduced to enliven the graver scenes; and this was supplied by representing the wicked personages of the drama as placed in ludicrous situations; thus the Devil generally played the part of the clown or

jester, and was exhibited in a light half terrific and half farcical. The modern puppet-play of Punch is a tradition handed down from these ancient miracles, in which the Evil One was alternately the conqueror and the victim of the human Buffoon, Jester, or Vice, as he was called. The morality of the time did not prevent the use of vulgar or of profane language.

Some idea of these religious dramas may be formed from their titles. The Creation of the World, the Fall of Man, the story of Cain and Abel, the Crucifixion of Our Lord, the Massacre of the Innocents, The Play of the Blessed Sacrament, the Deluge, are in the list, besides an infinite multitude of subjects taken from the lives and miracles of the saints. The plays are generally written in mixed prose and verse; and, though abounding in absurdities, they contain passages of simple and natural pathos, and scenes of genuine, if not very delicate, humor. In the Deluge, a comic scene is produced by the refusal of Noah's wife to enter the Ark, and by the beating which terminates her resistance and scolding; whilst, on the other hand, a mystery entitled the Sacrifice of Isaac contains a pathetic dialogue between Abraham and his son. The oldest manuscript of a miracle-play in English is that of the Harrowing of Hell, i. e., the Conquering of Hell by Christ, believed to have been written about 1350.

The Miracle-play is not quite extinct even yet; in the retired valleys of Catholic Switzerland, in the Tyrol, and in some seldom visited districts of Germany, the peasants still annually perform dramatic spectacles representing episodes in the life of Christ. The Mysteries, once the only form of dramatic representation, continued to be popular from the eleventh to the end of the fourteenth century, when they were supplanted by another kind of representation, called The Moralities. The subjects of these new dramas, instead of being purely religious, were moral, as their name implies; and their ethical lessons were conveyed by action of an allegorical kind. Instead of the Deity and his angels, the saints, the patriarchs, and the characters of the Old and New Testament, the persons who figure in the Moralities are, Every-Man, a general type or expression of humanity-Lusty Juventus, who represents the follies and weaknesses of youth - Good Counsel, Repentance, Gluttony, Pride, Avarice, and the like. The same necessity existed as before for the introduction of comic scenes. The Devil was therefore retained;