only the Renaissance with its rehabilitation of the senses which we find in these poems: there is in them also the Renaissance with its ingenuity, its fantasticality, its passion for conceits, and wit, and clever caprices and playing upon words."

Another specimen of true pastoral beauty is attributed both to Shakespeare and Marlowe, though the weight of authority favors the authorship of Marlowe. I quote the lyric entire.

"Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.
There we will sit upon the rocks

And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
There I will make thee beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies;

A cap of flowers and a kirtle,
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.
A gown made of the finest wool,

Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold.

A belt of straw and ivy buds,

With coral clasps and amber studs;

And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me and be my Love....

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing,

For thy delight each May-morning;

If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love."

After the purely pastoral lyric, followed an outburst of sonnets in which Sidney, Shakespeare, Daniel, Barnes, Watson, Donne and a host of others sang of love either in connected story or scattered verse. The sonnet

treats of a single passion, and the length and form are governed by rule. This rather artificial limitation had a good effect upon the lyrics in general, as care and

pains were taken not only in the substance of the production, but also in the form.

"So oft as I her beauty do behold
And therewith do her cruelty compare,

I marvel of what substance was the mould,

The which her made at once so cruel fair.

Not earth, for her high thoughts more heavenly are;

Not water, for her love doth burn like fire;

Not air; for she is not so light or rare;

Not fire, for she doth freeze with faint desire.
Then needs another element inquire

Whereof she mote be made that is, the sky;
For to the heaven her haughty looks aspire,
And eke her mind is pure immortal high.
Then, sith to heaven ye likened are the best,
Be like in mercy as in all the rest."

EDMUND SPENSER.

The growth of the drama was not without its effect upon the lyric. It became popular to introduce songs and other lyrics to add to the life and vivacity of the play. This became an art in the hands of Shakespeare, Dekker and Lyly. Jonson and Fletcher are among the later Elizabethans, and there is a certain dignity about their lyrics which led to their being called stiff. Though undervalued for a time, the hedonic spirit in them has since influenced to a worthy extent, the verse of Campion, Herrick and

Crashaw.