Rise and Progress of Englsh Poetry. 20% 
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor ; 
One who for thy maintenance commits his body 
To painful labour both by sea and land, 
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe. 
He seeks no other tribute at thy hand, but love, fair looks, 
And true obedience. Too little payment for so great a debt. 
A woman moved is as a fountain troubled, 
Muddy, ill seeming thick, bereft of beauty, 
And when she is so, none so dry, or thirsty, will deign 
To drink one drop of it.” 
The quotation is so lengthy, and perhaps in feminine 
ears too treasonable to give it zz ertenso. It concluded, 
however, with a very fair argument. 
‘Why are your bodies smooth, unapt to toil and trouble in the 
world, 
But that your fair condition, and your hearts, 
Should well agree with your external parts.” 
Bidding a hasty adieu to the Elizabethan period, with 
barely space enough to glance at its brightest luminaries, 
Spenser and Shakespere. It may, however, at this junc- 
ture be worthy to note the cause which influenced, without 
doubt, the poetry of the time. Religious and political ex- 
citement will be seen in this, and as we proceed, in future 
times, to influence poetic effect. 
Happily for England, the bigotry and intolerance 6g Papal 
sway which had, during the reign of Mary, cast its gloom 
over the length and breadth of our land, was removed in 
the present one. The arm of Omnipotence had struck the 
rock which had so long o’ershadowed us, and the gleam of 
truth burst forth with redoubled splendour in this auspicuous 
era. It appeared as ifthe whole resources of our national 
genius which had been so long hidden in obscurity, in the 
antecedent, burst forth with redoubled splendour in the pre- 
sent reign. Then was it too, that the Muse ever foremost in 
the train of literary championship, blazoned forth Spenser as 
a worthy successor of Chaucer, and pressing onward with re- 
newed joy at the enlightenment of the period, boasted of 
one unrivalled by any country in the known world. The 
Elizabethan period then was undeniably owing for its ad- 
vancement, to the freedom of religious and political opinion, 
which marked this reign, which gave birth to new feelings 
and conceptions, and new actions, not less in the political 
and social hemisphere, than in the literary one. 
(To be continued.) 
