ENGLISH LITE! 



.kur that you rafuMd the payment of your 



for .500, due yesterday, 



you had not the necessary funds to moot it 

 As ttio l>ill was drawn at throe months from the dat- 



ally much astonished to hoar of your using tho 

 pretext, for you had plenty of time to provide th 

 \\ hoar that you promise to pay in a few day 

 foro allow you till the end of this week ; but if at that t . 

 hill is not honoured, we shall l.n under the necessity of ; 

 the matter into the hands of our solicitor . 



We are, Gentlemen, yours truly, 



J. & H. WALTOK. 



Birmingham, le 7 Juillct 1881. 

 Messieurs Dash wood & C' e , a Manchester. 



Messieurs, Nous vonons d'approndro a notro grando surprise 

 par notre banquier, quo vous avoz refuso lo paiomont do votro 

 acceptation do ^5^ payablfl hier> 



on disant quo TOUS n'avioz pas lea fonda ncceaaairea pour y 

 fairo honueur. 



L'effet etant tir J a trois mois do la date de notre facturc, nous 

 somrncs vraiment tres-etonncs d'apprendro quo vous aycz donnc 

 oe pretexts, car TOUS avcz ou tout lo temps de vous procurer 

 1'argont. 



Commo 1'on nous ecrit que vous promettez do payer dans 

 quelques jours, nous vous allouerons jusqu'a la fin do la semaino ; 

 mais si a cotto epoque la traito n'est pas payee nons fierons 

 dans la necossite de mettre 1'affairo cutro lea mains do notro 

 avoue. 



Nous vous presentons, Messieurs, 



Noa salutations ompresseea, 



J. & H. WALTON. 



LESSONS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. VII. 



THE ELIZABETHAN AGE POETEY. 



WHAT we said in our last lesson will have enabled the student 

 to understand some of the influences which had been long at 

 work, and which conduced to bring about the Elizabethan 

 literature ; but it must not, of course, be supposed that any- 

 thing we have said or shall say is an exhaustive account of the 

 subject. Our object in speaking on such subjects ia not so 

 much to impart positive instruction, as to suggest a lino of 

 thought and inquiry which seems to us of great importance to 

 the useful study of literature. To assign causes for the greater 

 phenomena of history if, indeed, such a thing be possible at all 

 is quite beyond our scope. But the connection between litera- 

 ture and history is a thing which can generally bo traced with- 

 out much risk of error, and with great profit. To say why one 

 age is through all Europe an age of life, energy, and power, and 

 another age an age of lethargy and monotonous feebleness, we 

 do not attempt. But to fail in observing that the literature of 

 each of these periods partakes of the character of the period 

 would be a serious omission. The sixteenth century waa a 

 century of unequalled energy and power in Europe. In tho 

 wide extent of its intellectual movements, the strength of 

 men's convictions, the abundance of great men, the variety 

 of fields in which mental energy made itself felt in thought 

 and in action, in religion, in politics, in science, in the most 

 serious and permanent undertakings, and in more boyish ad- 

 venture this century probably stands quite unrivalled in the 

 history of Europe, and certainly so in that of England. We 

 need scarcely remind our readers that thia was the era of the 

 Reformation, of the Spanish wars and the defeat of tho Ar- 

 mada, of the colonisation of America, no less than tho age of 

 Shakespeare and of Bacon. 



Tho great achievements of the ago were, however, among 

 tho latest fruits of the intellectual lifo of tho nation. During 

 the actual struggles of tho Reformation literary power had 

 been perverted and literature stunted by tho all-pervading spirit 

 of theological controversy. The Elizabethan literature does not 

 really begin till the latter half of the reign of Elizabeth, and ox- 

 tends to the close of that of James I. When the queen began 

 her reign Spenser was a mere child, and neither Shakespeare 

 nor Bacon waa born. 



But when the literary harvest did begin it came with a rich- 

 ness never known in any age or country. The mere number of 

 writers in this period, and tho extent of their writings, would by 



itself distinguish it from all other*. The poeU who wrote 

 during it are ooonted by hundred*. And toe student who beat* 

 in mind the barrcnuoM of the preceding ago will appreciate 

 tho importance of thu fact. Bat almost IDOM extraordinary 

 than tho extent of the Elizabethan literature is iU variety. The 

 philosophy of Bacon, the poetry of Spenser, and the drama of 

 Shakespeare are type* of literary power M dissimilar to one 

 another as can well be imagined. Nor' ought we to (ail to 

 observe the universality with which tho literary impulse wan 

 diffused throughout the people. This literature was not only 

 national in the seuso of expressing the most ardent patriotism 

 in the most powerful forms, but in the sense, too, that all 

 classes of the nation contributed to it. Sidney and Raleigh, 

 tho courtly cavalier*; Bacon, the diligent lawyer, son of a 

 shrewd and successful statesman ; Shakespeare, the tradesman's 

 son from a small country town, represent extremely different 

 clauses of the social whole. In short, the student who gives 

 most attention to the Elizabethan literature will most fully feel 

 how it ia marked by the same qualities that characterise the 

 whole lifo of England in that day unequalled extent and un- 

 equalled variety of energy and power. 



There is ono poem produced at quite the commencement of 

 tho reign of Elizabeth which must not bo passed by, for while its 

 intrinsic merit is considerable, ita interest, as marking a tran- 

 sition period in literature, ia even greater. Thomas SackvUle, 

 Lord Buckhurat, and afterwards Earl of Dorset, was both an 

 eminent statesman and an eminent writer in more than one de- 

 partment of literature. We shall have occasion to speak of him 

 hereafter aa a dramatist At present we have to do with 

 him as the designer and in part tho writer of a poem or series 

 of poems of extraordinary popularity in their day, entitled, 

 " The Mirror for Magistrates." Sackville's idea seems to have 

 been to bring together for didactic purposes in a poetical form 

 the history of tho moat illustrious men in the history of Eng- 

 land whose career was unfortunate. Ho himself wrote only the 

 " Induction," or introduction to the work, and the story of 

 the Duke of Buckingham, first the associate and afterwards the 

 victim of Richard III. The remainder of the work is by various 

 handa, and, for tho moat part, cf inferior merit. Richard Bald- 

 wyne, George Ferrers, Thomas Churchyard, Thomas Pbaer, a 

 Welsh physician and poet, and a leas-known writer, John Higgins, 

 were contributors to it. Sackville's own share of the work shows 

 much vigour of imagination, a singular power of description, with 

 great skill in versification ; but his music ia all in one key, his 

 thoughts aro entirely of the gloomy and the painful. We give a 

 few specimens from his i; Induction," upon the same principle 

 which wo adopt throughout these lessons that is, to enable the 

 student, by a chain of extracts, to follow the changes in our 

 language and in tho style of English versification. The poet, 

 reflecting upon tho tragic fato of great men, meets with the 

 impersonation, of Sorrow : 



" Musing ou this worldly wealth ia thought, 



Winch comes au J goes, more faster than wo see 



The flickering flame that with the fire ia wrought. 

 My busy mind presented unto mo 

 Such fall of peers as iu the realm had bee. 



That oft I wisbt some would their woes descry ve, 



To warn the rest whom fortune left a lire. 



" And strait forth stalking with redoubled pace, 

 For that I sawe tbe night drew on so fast. 



In blacke all clad there fell before my face 

 A piteous wight, whom woe had all forewast ; 

 Forth on her eyes the crystal tears outbrant, 



And sighing sore, her hands she wrong and f okl6, 



Tore all her hair, that ruth was to beholde. 



" Her body small, forwithred, and forspent, 



As is the stalk that sommer's drought opprect. 

 Her weolked face with woefull teores bee sprent, 



colour pole, and, as it seemed aer best, 

 In woe and plaint n-poned was her rest ; 

 Aiid as the stone that drops of water wears. 

 So dented were, her chokes with tall of teares. 



" Her eyes swollen with flowing streams aflote. 



Where, with her lookes throwne up full piteous^ 

 Her forceless hands together oft she smote, 



With dolefull shrikes, that echoed in the skye; 

 That, iu my doome, was never man did see 

 A wight but halfe so woe-begone as she." 



Sorrow becomes his guide, and lead* him to the infernal 



