almost bewildered by the number and variety of manifestations. A few writers, however, deserve a distinct notice:-Thomas Dekker was one of the most prolific of these. Although he generally appears as a fellow-laborer with other dramatists, yet in the few pieces attributed to his unassisted pen, he shows great elegance of language and deep tenderness of sentiment. Thomas Middleton, best known as the author of The Witch, is admired for a certain wild and fantastic fancy which delights in portraying scenes of supernatural agency. John Marston is distinguished mainly by a lofty and satiric tone of invective, in which he lashes the vices and follics of mankind. Thomas Heywood exhibits a graceful fancy, and one of his plays, A Woman Killed with Kindness, is among the most touching of the period.

The dramatic era of Elizabeth and James closes with James Shirley (1594-1666), whose comedies, though in many respects bearing the same general character as the works of his great predecessors, still seem the earnest of a new period (96). He excels in the delineation of gay and fashionable society; and his dramas are more laudable for ease, grace, and animation, than for profound analysis of human nature, or for vivid portraiture of character. But the glory of the English drama had almost departed; and its extinction by external violence in 1642 but precipitated what was inevitable. The breaking out of the Civil War in that year closed the theatres; and this suspension of the dramatic profession was made perpetual by an ordinance of the Commons in 1648. From that date until the Restoration, all theatrical performances were illegal; but with the connivance of Cromwell, Davenant gave dramatic entertainments at Rutland House; and upon the great Protector's death in 1658, he ventured to re-open a public theatre in Drury Lane. With this event began an entirely new chapter in the history of the English stage.

The Elizabethan drama is the most wonderful and majestic outLurst of genius that any age has yet seen. It is characterized by marked peculiarities; an intense richness and fertility of imagination, combined with the greatest force and vigor of familiar expression; an intimate union of the common and the refined; the boldest flights of fancy and the most scrupulous fidelity to actual reality. The great object of these dramatists being to produce

THE BLIZABETHAN DRAMA.

113

Intense impressions upon a miscellaneous audience, they sacrificed everything to strength and nature. Their writings reflect not only faithful images of human character and passion under every conceivable condition, not only the strongest as well as the most delicate coloring of fancy and imagination, but also the profoundest nad simplest precepts derived from the practical experience of life.

For brief discussions of authors named in this chapter, see Hazlitt's Works, Vol III., Coleridge's Works, Vol. IV., Lamb's Works, Vol. IV., Hailam's Literature of Aurope, Vol. III

CHAPTER XI.

THE PROSE LITERATURE OF THE ELIZABETHAN PERIOD.

THE object of the present chapter is to trace the nature and the results of that revolution in philosophy brought about by the writings of Bacon; and at the same time to give a general view of the prose literature of the Elizabethan era. As Bacon was the grandest thinker of that age who wrote in prose, he must be the principal figure of the chapter; and other authors of inferior merit must be but briefly mentioned.

Much of the peculiarly practical tendency of the political and philosophical literature of our own time can be traced to its beginning in the Elizabethan era, when, as a result of the Reformation, education first found many devotees among English laymen, and prose literature, for the first time, was generally used for other than ecclesiastical purposes. The clergy had no longer the monopoly of that learning and of those acquirements which, during preceding centuries, had given them the monopoly of power. Laymen were wielding the pen. It must be admitted that the prose of that era makes but a poor figure when compared with the splendor of the Elizabethan poetry; and that it is, indeed, redeemed from almost utter insignificance by the few English writings of Francis Bacon, a man who gained his chief glories from works that were written in the Latin language.

In the humble department of historical chronicles, John Stow, before the end of the sixteenth century, published his Summary of English Chronicles, Annals and A Survey of London; and Raphael Holinshed, who died in 1580, had written the pages from which Shakespeare drew the material for some of his half-legendary, halfhistorical dramas, and for the majority of his purely historical plays.

BIR WALTER RALEIGA.

115

One of the most extraordinary men of this era was Sir Walter Raleigh (1553–1618), whose romantic career belongs to the political rather than to the literary history of England (15, 56). He was among the foremost courtiers of the queen; he was a bold navigator, exploring unknown regions of the globe; he was a brave soldier, winning laurels on the Continent and in Ireland. When James L came to the throne, Raleigh's fortunes declined. He was charged with treason, was tried, and sentenced to the Tower, where he was imprisoned for thirteen years. During the weary years of this long imprisonment be devoted himself to literary and scientific work; -some of the time experimenting in chemistry with the hope of discovering the philosopher's stone, and much of the time, with the help of friends, writing his History of the World. By that work he won his literary fame. Later histories have shown that what be supposed to be historical facts were merely fancies, and that many of his theories were groundless; still, he holds and deserves the honor of being the pioneer in the department of dignified historical writing. After his long imprisonment he was sent to South America in quest of riches for the king. The expedition was unfortunate. One of Raleigh's exploits enraged the Spanish court, and to appease the wrath of the Spaniards, Raleigh was seized upon his return to England, and was beheaded in 1618. A man of remarkable patience and resoluteness, and showing many signs of powerful intellect, Raleigh must have been one of the grandest of the literary men of his age, had his life been devoted to letters, instead of being spent in gaining brilliant temporary successes in a variety of pursuits. He was the founder of that famous "Mermaid Club" in which Jonson, Fletcher, probably Shakespeare, and other eminent wits of the day, gathered to enjoy each other's sparkling conversation, and was himself accounted one of the most charming men of that literary company. His resources of character must have been

"The legend of his first introduction to Elizabeth is too romantic to be omitted, although we must not forget that it rests only on tradition. When the Queen, in walking one day, came to a muddy place, these places were very common in English roads and pathways then,-she stopped and hesitated. Raleigh, seeing her pause, with ready tact dung down his rich plush cloak for her to step on. The graceful act, which was just the kind of flattering attention that Elizabeth liked best, showed that Raleigh was cut out for a courtier. A capital investment it was that the young soldier made. He lost his cloak, but he gained the favor of a queen who well knew how to honor and reward.”—W. F. Collier.

equal to his reputation, for in the most desperate circumstances he was thoroughly self-possessed. In his trial for treason, when the Attorney-General, hurling fierce invectives at him, said, "I want words to express thy viperous treasons," "True," said Raleigh, "for you have spoken the same thing half a dozen times over already;" and when he was brought to the block, taking the axe in his hand, he ran his fingers over its keen edge, smiling as he said, "This is a sharp medicine, but it will cure all diseases." It is to be regretted that he did not use his ever-present wit, his poetio talent and his ready pen, in making more varied and more valuable contributions to our literature.

The great champion of the principles of the Church of England against the encroachments of Puritan sentiments was Richard Hooker (1553-1600), a man of piety and of vast learning. He was for four years a fellow of the University of Oxford, where he gained fame as a lecturer on Oriental literature. In 1585 his eloquence and learning obtained for him the eminent post of Master of the Temple in London. Here his colleague, Walter Travers, propounded doctrines of church government similar to those of the Calvinistic confession, and therefore incompatible with Hooker's opinions. The mildness and modesty of Hooker's character made controversy odious to him. He induced his ecclesiastical superior to remove him to the more congenial duties of a country parish, and there he devoted the remainder of his life to that work which has placed him among the most eminent of Anglican divines, and among the best prose-writers of his age. The title of this work is A Treatise on the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (57), and its purpose is to investigate and define the principles which underlie the right of the Church to claim obedience from its members, and the duty of the members to render obedience to the Church. But while thus fortifying the organization of the English Church against the attacks of the Roman Catholics on the one hand and of the Puritans on the other, Hooker has built up his arguments upon those eternal truths which are the foundation of all law, all duty, and all rights, political as well as religious. The Ecclesiastical Polity is a work of profound and cogent reasoning, supported by immense and varied erudition, and vitalized by a spirit of fervent devotion. It gave new dignity to English prose literature. Its style is wholly free from pedantry, clear and vigorous. To Hooker belongs the