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THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



regions, where he meets with Remorse, Dread, Eevenge, Misery, 

 Care, and other characters, each of whom is described with much 

 power, and in lines which often remind us of some of Spenser's 

 allegorical descriptions. The following striking verses are from 

 the description of old age : 



" But who had seen him, sobbing, how he stoode, 



Unto himself, and how he would bemone 

 His youth forepast, as though it wrought him good 

 To talk of youth, all were his youth foregone, 

 He would have mused, and mervaylde much, whereon 

 This wretched age should life desire so fayne, 

 And knowes full well lyfe doth but length his payne. 



" Crookebackt he was, toothshaken, and blere eyde, 



Went on three feet, and sometyme crept on four, 

 With old lame bones, that rattled by his syde, 

 His scalp all pild, and he with eld forlore ; 

 His withred fist still knocking at Death's dore, 

 Fumbling and driveling as he draws his breath 

 For brief, the shape and messenger of Death." 



At last the Duke of Buckingham appears upon the scene, and 

 tells the story of his woes. The whole framework of the poem 

 underwent much alteration, though it certainly received no 

 improvement from its later authors. The stories of later intro- 

 duction are by no means confined to English character, nor are 

 the characters always brought upon the scene with anything 

 like Sackville's skill and power. 



Contemporary with Sackville was George Gascoigne, a poet of 

 a class very characteristic of the times. He was a soldier, a 

 courtier, and a poet brilliant in all these capacities. The poem 

 by which he is known to posterity is a vigorous satire, in blank 

 verse, upon the manners and vices of his day, quaintly entitled 

 "The Steel Glass." 



But, as we have already said, the supreme greatness of the 

 Elizabethan literature belongs not to the beginning, but to the 

 later period of the reign of the great queen ; and this latter 

 portion of her reign may, with respect to poetry, be again divided 

 into two portions the period of poetry other than dramatic, 

 during which Spenser held the throne of literature ; and the 

 period of the drama, during which Shakespeare reigned supreme. 

 Of course, we do not say there were not great plays written 

 before Shakespeare, and beautiful poems written during the 

 period of his greatness. But it is clearly true that, even putting 

 aside the greatest names, Spenser and Shakespeare, poetry 

 was earlier in its development than the drama. We are, there- 

 fore, following the natural order when we treat of Elizabethan 

 poetry before the Elizabethan drama. 



Among the Elizabethan poets Spenser holds by far the first 

 place, and there can be little doubt that the popularity of his 

 works, the finish which he gave to the English language, and 

 the beauty and music of his versification, contributed much to 

 promote the cultivation of poetry, and to form the style of con- 

 temporary poets. But it will be more convenient to treat of 

 Spenser and his works in a separate lesson, and to devote what 

 remains of the present to a very brief account of some of the 

 other poets of his day. 



Sir Philip Sidney, whom we shall have to notice hereafter as 

 filling an important place in the history of prose writing in Eng- 

 lish, and as the generous and discriminating patron of literature, 

 is entitled to a place among the poets of his time, by virtue of 

 his collection of sonnets, which are smooth and graceful, 'but not 

 distinguished by much force or originality. 



Samuel Daniel was a poet of great reputation among his con- 

 temporaries, though his poems, with all their ease of versifica- 

 tion and purity of style, are not very attractive reading in the 

 present day. He wrote many shorter pieces, but his two largest 

 and most important works are a narrative poem, " The History 

 of the Civil Wars," on the contest between the houses of York 

 and Lancaster ; and a dialogue in verse, entitled " Musophilus," 

 which is a sort of defence of literature. 



William Warner was by profession an attorney. He was 

 the author of a long poem, which he called " Albion's Eng- 

 land." This work, like the " Mirror for Magistrates," the 

 " History of the Civil Wars," and many other of the most 

 popular poems of this period, was historical in subject and 

 narrative in form. It purports to be a poetical history of 

 England, from the very earliest times to the writer's own day. 

 From its singular terseness and vigour of style, its variety of 

 incident, and the unusual descriptive power which it displays, 



and perhaps to some extent also from a vein of coarseness quite 

 in harmony with the prevalent taste of the day, Warner's work 

 attained a remarkable popularity. 



To somewhat the same class as these belong most of the 

 works of another poet of the same period, Michael Drayton. 

 But Drayton was a poet of greater force, and of far greater 

 variety of power. His chief works are " The Barons' Wars," 

 an historical poem on the civil wars of the days of Edward II. ; 

 " England's Heroical Epistles," also historical in subject ; and 

 his " Polyolbion." The latter singular work is a sort of 

 itinerary in verse of the whole of England and Wales, in which 

 he goes through every part of the country in turn, and gives his 

 readers all the stories and legends which history or popular 

 imagination has attached to each spot. This work is written in 

 a singular and not very attractive metre, one which tends to 

 weary the ear with the monotony of its cadences. It is in long; 

 Alexandrine lines of twelve syllables, rhyming in couplets. We 

 give a very few lines, merely as a specimen of the metre : 



" And noar to these our thicks, the wild and frightful herds, 

 Not hearing other noise but that of chattering birds, 

 Feed fairly on the lawns ; both sorts of seasoned deer, 

 Here walk the stately red, the speckled fallow there ; 

 The bucks and lusty stags amongst the rascals strewed, 

 As sometimes gallant spirits amongst the multitude." 



To most modern readers the lighter poems of Drayton will be 

 found more attractive than the " Polyolbion." In his " Nym- 

 phidia," or the " Court of Fairy," his graceful fancies remind 

 the reader of Ben Jonson's lighter poems. 



George Chapman was known as a dramatist, but his fame 

 with posterity rests upon his great translation of Homer. This 

 translation is written in what we now call ballad metre, that is 

 to say, in alternate lines of eight and six syllables. But in 

 Chapman's day, the two lines were written as one long line of 

 fourteen syllables. In its ragged vigour this is probably still 

 the best English translation of Homer. 



Sir John Davies is a type of a class of whom we meet with 

 many in the Elizabethan period men who combined an active^ 

 participation in public affairs, or professional business, with a. 

 keen devotion to literature. Davies was an eminent lawyer, 

 filled for a long time the office of Attorney- General in Ireland,, 

 and was well known as a prudent statesman. In addition to a. 

 few shorter poems, he wrote a long argumentative poem on the 

 immortality of the soul, under the title of "Nosce te ipsum." 

 For its clearness and dignity of style, as well as for the skill of 

 its arguments, this work has been much admired. Sir John 

 Davies was also the author of another work on a singularly dis- 

 similar subject, " Orchestra," a poem in honour of dancing. 



Phineas and Giles Fletcher were brothers. They were jointly 

 the authors of a curious and in some respects powerful poem, 

 "The Purple Island." The Fletchers belong quite to the close 

 of the Elizabethan period, and in the very title of this poem, as 

 well as in its substance, we find plain evidence that the force and 

 simplicity of the Elizabethan poetry were beginning to give 

 place to the subtlety and quaintness which belonged to the next 

 generation. The Purple Island is the human body, and the- 

 poem is a full description of the physical and mental attributes 

 of man. 



Joshua Sylvester is a poet whose works are little read now, 

 though they once enjoyed a very general popularity. His prin- 

 cipal literary productions were translations of the works of the 

 French poet, Du Bartas. 



Among the minor poets of the age ought to be mentioned 

 Drnmmond of Hawthornden, near Edinburgh. He is, perhaps, 

 best known from his intimacy with Ben Jonson ; but his sonnets 

 would, had he lived in an age less crowded with poetical genius, 

 have secured him a very distinguished reputation. 



Dr. Donne, Dean of St. Paul's, and Joseph Hall, Bishop of 

 Norwich, were the founders of English satire. Bishop Hall was 

 a satirist of considerable power. Donne's satires are familiar 

 to most readers in Pope's modernised version of them. 



We have been able to do no more than give a very slight 

 sketch of a few of the most prominent of the Elizabethan poets, 

 other than the dramatists. To attempt more than this would 

 be to turn our lessons into mere catalogues of names. We shall 

 have occasion to show hereafter that many of those who are 

 best known to us as dramatists were also, like Shakespeare him- 

 self, no mean poets in other departments as well. In our next 

 lesson we shall give some account of Spenser and his works. 



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