300 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



writers have equaled Shakespere in sonu' om> 

 quality, but he excels tliein all in the combina- 

 tion of great qualii 



Ben Jonson wrote three great dramas which 

 will repay reading. " Yolpone." "The Alchemist." 

 and "The Silent Woman." aiul to the>e three 

 some would add a fourth. "Every Man in His 

 Humor." Jonson failed in his delineation of 

 character. He \\a< a critic of men's follie- and 

 he gave a distorted and incomplete picture of 

 life. In his delineation of women, where 

 Shakespere was >tronge>t. Jonson utterly failed. 



The decay of the drama began while Shake- 

 spere was yet alive. The drama in his hands 

 had been the painting of the whole of human 

 nature, the painting of characters as they were 

 built up by their natural bent, and by the play 

 of circumstance upon them. The drama, in 

 Ben Jonson's hands, was the painting of that 

 particular human nature which he saw in his 

 own a ire: and his characters are not men and 

 women as they are, but as they may become 

 when they are mastered by a special bias of the 

 mind. In Beaumont and Fletcher, the women 

 are overdrawn and the men are base in thought. 

 Shakespere's men and women are of the types 

 of the noblest characters his age produced. 



One of the most remarkable men who adorned 

 the court of Queen Elizabeth was Sir Francis 

 Bacon, the greatest prose writer of the age. 

 As courtier and scholar he adorned both this and 

 the succeeding reign of James I. His political 

 success and his political disgrace are familiar 

 stories in history. His enduring work is in 

 literature. He was both poet and philosopher. 

 His great work in philosophy is magnificent in 

 scope, as may be inferred from the title "In- 

 stauratio Magna," or "The Great Institution of 

 True Philosophy." It is a great work designed 

 to be written in six parts, but never finished. 

 The second part, "Novum Organum," the "new 

 instrument," is described as "the science of a 

 better and more perfect use of reason in the 

 investigation of things, and of the true aids of 

 the understanding." It sets forth the methods 

 to be adopted in searching after truth, points 

 out sources of error, and suggests the means of 

 avoiding errors in the future. His entire phi- 

 losophy is built upon the idea of inductive inves- 

 tigation. Bacon had so little respect for the 

 English language that he wrote his great phi- 

 losophy in Latin. His " New Atlantis," like Sir 

 Thomas More's "Utopia," pictures in romance 

 an ideal commonwealth, some features of which 

 have been realized in our own republic. The 

 most important among his English works is his 

 volume of essays, clear, concise, practical in 

 observation, of profound wisdom. Sir Walter 

 Raleigh contributed to prose his ambitious 



Hi-tory of the World," and to poetry a few 

 beautiful lyrics. 



With the death of Bacon, in 1626, we pass 

 from the glory of the Elizabethan age into the 

 Puritan age. There are some characteristics 

 which sharply separate this age from the pre- 

 ceding. Intense patriotism, peace within the 

 realm, general prosperity, and much worldliness 

 characterized the reign of Elizabeth. The Stuart 

 reign was characterized by controversy in relig- 

 ion and politics, open rupture between king and 



parliament protracted into the Great Civil War. 

 Puritan standards became triumphant during 

 this period. Literature, which always reflects 

 life, presented the somber tone of the age and 

 was in large part religious. The " King -lames 

 Version of the Bible" was printed in Loll. It 

 is impossible to overestimate the influence of 

 this translation upon the lives of the people and 

 the language of every day. The study of the 

 Bible became so universal that it colored the 

 Imagination and the speech of the common 

 people. Even those who were irreligious in 

 their lives spoke in the language of the Scrip- 

 tures. 



The great literature of the Elizabethan age 

 was in poetry. With one exception, John Mil- 

 ton, the great literature of the Puritan age was 

 in prose. But the prose writers of the Puritan 

 age were not without imagination and delicacy 

 of humor. Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress," by 

 some thought to be the crowning work of the 

 imagination, is a product of this age, and during 

 the same period Thomas Fuller brightens his 

 "History of the Worthies of England" by irre- 

 sistible touches of humor, and Isaak Walton 

 adds delight in nature and rustic pastime in his 

 "Complete Angler"; but for the most part the 

 world was looked upon seriously. 



John Milton has been awarded the second 

 place among the great names in English litera- 

 ture. He was born eight years before the death 

 of Shakespere. It may be that Shakespere -aw 

 the boy Milton. One likes to think so. Milton's 

 childhood was very happy. His parents trusted 

 him because they realized that he was a boy of 

 high ideals. He had every advantage of a lib- 

 eral education and of long quiet years of study 

 at his father's home in Horton. This was well 

 for the years of struggle that followed. Milton's 

 literary career may be divided into three periods : 

 that of his youth, his manhood, and his old age. 

 It has been called "a drama in three acts." 

 The first may be stated in years as extending 

 from 1623 to 1640; the second, from 1610 to 

 1660; and the third, from 1660 to 1674. 



The first period, that of his youth, was spent 

 at school and among his family at Horton. 

 During this period he wrote the "Hymn on the 

 Morning of Christ's Nativity," the "Masque of 

 Comus," "Lycidas," "L' Allegro," "II Pense- 

 roso," and a number of his sonnets. Some 

 critics consider "Comus" Milton's finest poem. 

 It is perfect in lyric qualities and as an apothe- 

 osis to virtue is lofty in conception. "If virtue 

 feeble were, Heaven itself would stoop to her." 



"Lycidas," an elegy on Milton's class-mate, 

 Edward King, ranks as one of the great elegies 

 in our language. "L'Allegro" and "II Pense- 

 rosp" are companion poems; one describes the 

 delights of social life, the other the deep enjoy- 

 ment of the scholar in seclusion. These poems 

 will always remain favorites for their beautiful 

 imagery and their truthful study of the emo- 

 tions. Milton's sonnets have for their theme 

 such subjects as religion, patriotism, domestic 

 affection; whereas the older poets. Shakespere, 

 Spenser, Sidney, Raleigh, and their imitators, 

 preferred to write sonnets on love. The most 

 remarkable of Milton's minor poems is the 

 "Hymn on the Nativity," written when the 



