fantastically dressed. One of these mummers, | ascendant in England, the acquirement of Greek, who officiated as the fool or jester of the pageant, was clothed in hairy skins, and a cap of the same material, with a long tail dangling from behind, while his mate, called Bessie, was a man dressed like an old woman. In this way they marched along, collecting money from house to house in honour of the fool-plough; and if any was so hardy as to refuse, the ground was ploughed up before his door, by way of branding him as a | churl. This practice is still kept up in some parts of the north of England, where it appears to have originated. It will be seen at once that all these foregoing observances, some of which dated from the introduction of Christianity into the English heptarchy, and others from a still earlier period, could not long maintain their ground against the changes and revolutions in manners and character that had now resistlessly commenced. The growing intelligence of the people began to despise them, the stern rules of the Reformation condemned them, and the severe spirit of Puritanism swept them away. Nothing of them has survived the storm but a few relics, which like ruins attest the completeness of the overthrow. In the history of the progress of Learning, the fifteenth century will ever constitute the most important of epochs: it was then that the unlocking of its repertories by the taking of Constantinople, and the new mode of communicating its treasures through the invention of printing, accomplished in a single generation the work of ages, and impressed a new character upon Europe. Happily, too, this progress commenced by laying a solid foundation-by the erection of schools and colleges, through which the newly acquired treasures were to be prepared for universal diffusion. Such was the case in England, where between the close of the fifteenth, and little more than the middle of the sixteenth century, eight new colleges were founded in the university of Oxford, and as many in that of Cambridge, while the endowment of grammar-schools in London, and other parts of the kingdom, during the same period, rivalled the newly-excited zeal for the erection of princely colleges. In the establishment of these institutions also, we find, that Latin was no longer deemed sufficient, and that Greek formed the most essential part of their curriculum. It was not, however, without strong opposition that this innovation was accomplished, for the old scholars were not only indignant at a novelty by which their own literary importance was lessened, but religious bigotry was alarmed at the introduction of the study of Greek, because it was identified with the commencement of the Reformation, and the new readings of Scripture. But as soon as Protestantism began to obtain the and even of Hebrew, as well as Latin, was regarded as a necessary accomplishment of thorough scholarship. Even this extension, too, upon which the progress of the Reformation so greatly depended, was in the first instance favoured in many cases by the champions of the ancient faith. Among these, may be mentioned Cardinal Wolsey and Bishop Fox, Sir Thomas More and Richard Pace, themselves accomplished scholars in the new learning, and therefore all the more eager to promote it. Even Henry VIII. himself, who possessed more learning than most sovereigns of his day, was a patron of the study of Greek, though a persecutor of Protestantism. When only a younger son, his father had educated him for the church; and thus, it may be, that in the course of events, the future "Defender of the Faith" missed the Popedom, through the accident of succeeding, by the death of his elder brother, to the throne of England. While learning was thus encouraged, and the means of its acquirement so greatly facilitated, we must still remember that little more than a solid foundation as yet was laid, and that happier times were needed for carrying on and completing the superstructure. The revival of learning needed a previous work of demolition, and that, too, not merely in literary but religious belief. Not only the old philosophies were dethroned, but the monasteries as well as schools that were attached to them were suppressed; and a transition period followed, in which reflective minds were at a loss not only as to what they should study, but what they should believe and worship. Hence, scholarship was rather of an individual than a general character, and the names of the accomplished men of England during the whole of this period may be easily enumerated. But these very difficulties only the more invigorated this chosen band in their efforts, and the result was exhibited in the production of such scholars as would have equalled the list of any succeeding age. Here, the names of Cardinal Pole, Sir Thomas Smith, Sir John Cheke, and Roger Ascham, will occur; of Leland, Lily, and Colet; of Grocyn, Linacre, and Dr. Walter Hadden; of Archbishop Parker, and Bishop Andrews; and superior to them all, of Sir Thomas More. But this extraordinary passion for learning in the midst of general ignorance, when few of the commons even yet could sign their own names, was not exclusively a characteristic of the stronger sex. This was also in a remarkable degree an age of learned ladies, and perhaps no subsequent period in the history of England could exhibit such an amount of female erudition. The example that was set by royalty itself during this period of female sovereignty, must have in no small de twelve years after, when it appeared from the press of Wynkyn de Worde. The estimate formed by Warton of Hawes is, that he was the first writer who dared to abandon the dull taste of his own age, for the inventiveness and brilliant style of Chaucer. Contemporary with Hawes, was Alexander Barklay, whose best work, the Ship of Fools, was published in 1509. This poem, originally written in German by Sebastian Brand, Barklay has not only translated, but greatly enlarged with a description of the follies of his own countrymen, so that his translation possesses most of the merits of an original production. And yet, these two poets, it must be acknowledged, were at the best little more than imitators: they lacked the daring of original genius, and were more intent upon the choice of words and smoothness of measure, than the discovery of new trains of thought. In this fashion, however, they successfully prepared the way for greater geniuses than themselves. gree contributed to such a change. Thus, Queen | written about A.D. 1505, was not printed till Mary wrote with ease and elegance in Latin, French, and Spanish. Her sister, Elizabeth, besides being a proficient in these languages, as well as Italian, was an accomplished Grecian, and translated Isocrates. Equal in scholarship, and greatly superior in taste, was Lady Jane Grey, whose favourite author was Plato in the original, and the study of whose last hours was the Greek Testament. The three daughters of Sir Anthony Coke were also famed for their varied and classical erudition, to which the youngest added the study of Hebrew, in which she became an apt scholar. To these may be added Mrs. Roper, the daughter of Sir Thomas More, and Mrs. Clement, his kinswoman, who inherited his learning as well as his virtues; Joanna Lady Lumley, and Mary Duchess of Norfolk, her sister, and Mary Countess of Arundel. To these female examples of classical attainments several others might be added, for in the court of Queen Elizabeth, and among her maids of honour, the acquirement of Greek, and the study of Plato, In passing from the English poetry of the pehad become a fashionable accomplishment. Still, riod of Henry VII., to that of his successor, the however, as in the case of the learned men of the first name which occurs is that of John Skelton. day, these ladies were prodigies that stood out He was so accomplished a scholar, that Erasmus the more conspicuously, on account of the gene- called him the "delight and ornament of English ral ignorance with which they were surrounded. literature," and the Latin verses of which he was This may easily be perceived when we remember, the author were characterized by classic elegance. that the common education of ladies of the high-But it was as an English poet that he was chiefly est rank at this season was, "to read and write; to play upon the virginal, lute, and cittern; and to read prick-song at first sight." distinguished, in which character he became popular not only by the rattling vivacity of his verses, but the severe lampoons he wrote upon Cardinal Wolsey, who in requital chased the bold bard into the sanctuary of Westminster, where he died in 1529. But besides vivacity, Skelton had little poetic merit, and his works, which were numerous, are now of as little account as the persons he satirized. A better poet, or perhaps we should say, versifier, was William Roy, the coadjutor of Tyndal in the translation of the New Testament into English, who, finally, for his labours in behalf of the Reformation, suffered martyrdom at the stake. His chief work, published soon after the burning of Tyndal's translation, was distinguished by the following quaint title: As the English mind during the whole of this period had been struggling to create a literature of its own, instead of being wholly dependent upon that of Greece, Rome, or Italy, the native language in which it was to be embodied was constantly acquiring a wider compass, and more harmonious character. As this course of improvement also had commenced in poetry, as is commonly the case in every country, the list of illustrious poetical names in England, from Chaucer-like Skelton, a severe satirist of Wolsey, and to Shakspeare, throws the writers of prose into the shade. A long interval, however, had to continue after the time of Chaucer and his immediate successors, before the English muse produced anything worthy of its original character; and it was not until the wars of the Roses had ended, that even anything like an attempt was hazarded. The first name that appears in this list of revival is that of Stephen Hawes, who wrote during the reign of Henry VII. He was the successor of Lydgate, whom he imitated, and whom he may be said to have surpassed; and like him, he not only modernized the language, but greatly improved its versification. His chief work, entitled, Pastime of Pleasure, or History of Grand Amour and La Belle Pucelle, although "Rede me, and be not wrothe; Under the poetic and religious wrath of Roy "O perverse preste, patriarke of pryde, O beastly brothell, of baudry the bryde, Of thy dampnable dedes to be penitent, Brennyng Goddis worde, the wholy Testament." Another poet of this period was John Heywood, who was author of Six Centuries of Epigrams, a number of plays, and a huge controversial allegory, entitled A Parable of the Spider and the Fly, in which the Romish and Protestant churches are personified. But nothing that he has written can now attract the notice of any one, unless he is some zealous black-letter antiquary. After this twilight of English poetry which succeeded the period of Chaucer, wherein the only lights were at best mere stars, a new morning began to dawn, the happy promise of which was afforded in the writings of Lord Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyatt. The life of the first of these poets was itself a poem. The son of the victor of Flodden, and trained not only in every martial but every literary accomplishment, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, was not only the ornament of the HENRY HOWARD, Earl of Surrey.-After Titian. court of Henry VIII., which he attended in the capacity of companion to the Duke of Richmond, natural son of his sovereign, but of the still more chivalrous and brilliant court of Francis I. His travels on the Continent were those of a scholar and knight-errant, and the vision which he beheld in Agrippa's magic mirror, of his lady-love, the VOL. II. "Fair Geraldine," whom he has so nobly perpetuated in verse, excited him to such a transport of enthusiasm, that at a tournament in Florence he challenged all who could handle a lance-Turk, Saracen, or cannibal-to dispute against him her claims to the supremacy of beauty, and came off victorious. But the well-known hatred of the tyrant Henry against the whole race of Howard, prematurely extinguished this bright promise of excellence, and Surrey, the last victim of the royal murderer, perished on a scaffold at the early age of twenty-seven. His poetical works were a collection of songs and sonnets, a translation, in verse, of Solomon's Ecclesiastes, and a translation, in blank verse, of the second and fourth books of Virgil's Æneid. In estimating the character of Lord Surrey as a poet, we find him so greatly in advance of his predecessors, as to be justly considered the first in order of the new poetical school upon which the literary character of England is founded. Like Chaucer, he adopted the poetry of Italy for his model; and while he polished his native tongue into a refinement which it had not hitherto exhibited, he avoided the artificial and quaint style of his instructors, and expressed his sentiments not only in the language of genius, but that of nature also. Among his merits it may be noticed, that he was the first of English writers who attempted blank verse, which he did in his translations from Virgil; but whether he invented this innovation or borrowed it from the Italian, it is impossible to determine. Sir Thomas Wyatt, whose name is usually associated with that of Surrey in the history of the revival of English poetry, was father of that unfortunate person of the same name who was executed for rebellion in the reign of Mary, and with whom he has been frequently confounded. This poet, one of the brightest ornaments of the court of Henry VIII., where he lived in close friendship with the Earl of Surrey, is also said to have been an ardent lover of Anne Boleyn, before she sacrificed her hopes of domestic happiness to the allurements of ambition, and the precarious love of a tyrant. As a poet, Sir Thomas Wyatt neither reached the graceful flow of language, nor tenderness of sentiment by which the writings of his illustrious friend are distinguished; but to compensate for this, he occasionally exhibits greater strength and depth of feeling. He died in 1542, only four years before the other perished on the scaffold. The effect of their example may be easily recognized in the classical style and versification of their immediate successors. These were Lord Vaux, Nicholas Grimoald, and Thomas Sackville, whose poetry belongs to the reign of Mary. The first of these poets, of whom but a few relics remain, is chiefly remarkable for the small poem, entitled, "The aged 141 Grey of Wilton, Lord-lieutenant of Ireland. After two years, his patron being recalled, the poet followed him to England, where he obtained from Elizabeth a grant of 3000 acres of land in Cork, out of the forfeited estates of the Earl of Desmond-a boon that obliged him to reside in Ireland, and attend to the cultivation of the land thus assigned to him. On this occasion, he Lover renounceth Love," from which Shakspeare | obtained the appointment of secretary to Lord borrowed three stanzas, which he has put into the mouth of his gravedigger in "Hamlet." As for Grimoald, who was chaplain to Bishop Ridley, and saved himself by recantation when his superior suffered martyrdom, his verses are distinguished by much sweetness both of sentiment and language, while in blank verse he successfully followed the example that had been set by the Earl of Surrey. Thomas Sackville, born in 1536, commenced his career as a poet while still a very young man, and student of law in the Inner Temple. Here it was that he planned "The Mirror for Magistrates," which, written upon the plan of Dante's Inferno, was to give a detail of the misfortunes of the great in English history; and to this collection he contributed the "Induction," and the "Legend of the Duke of Buckingham." The first of these poems is a magnificent collection of allegorical figures, with which the poet is brought into acquaintance while he is conducted by Sorrow through the infernal regions; and they are delineated with such power, as to be little inferior to those of Spenser himself, whom they are supposed to have inspired with emulative ardour. While still a student in the Temple, he also composed "Gorboduc," afterwards changed into the title of "Ferrex and Porrex," the earliest specimen of a regular tragedy in the English language. Though already so distinguished as a poet, his ambition lay elsewhere, in consequence of which he first rose to the title of Lord Buckhurst, and afterwards Earl of Dorset, while he enjoyed the highest offices of the state till his death, which occurred in 1608. In that highest of all poetic attributes-the creative powerhe, more than all the preceding English poets, approached nearest to Chaucer, while he was only surpassed by the author of the "Faerie Queene," whom he so worthily heralded. We now come to Edmund Spenser, by far the greatest of all the poets who had yet appeared in England since the days of Chaucer, and, next to Shakspeare, the brightest ornament of the Elizabethan period. He was born in East Smithfield, London, about the year 1553, and was educated at the university of Cambridge, where he became acquainted with Gabriel Harvey, his first instructor in versification. Unluckily, however, Harvey's favourite idea was, that English verse, like that of Greece and Rome, should be measured by quantities; and Spenser, following this theory, commenced his first attempts in trimeter iambics. His good taste, however, soon rejected this barbarism; and his "Shepherd's Calendar" procured for him the patronage of Sir Philip Sidney, to whom Harvey introduced him, and the still more effectual favour of the Earl of Leicester, through whom he EDMUND SPENSER.-The picture is in possession of the Earl of Kinnoul. took up his abode in Kilcolman Castle, the residence of the former Lords of Desmond; and here, amidst the rich and picturesque scenery by which he was surrounded, he commenced the "Faerie Queene"-that work of beautiful images and dreams, which so significantly speaks of solitary musings among the loveliest of nature's retirements. On being visited by Sir Walter Raleigh, then a young captain in the Irish campaign, Spenser was easily persuaded by such a congenial spirit to give his new work to the world; and, accordingly, after a few years' residence in Ireland, he returned to London, where he published the first three books of his matchless allegory. These visits were more than once repeated in following years, for the publication of the rest of the "Faerie Queene," and other poetical works: but notwithstanding the signal merit of the first-named production, and the admiration of the choice spirits of the day, who could fully appreciate its excellence, the poet had too much occasion to complain with bitterness, as he did, of the hostile in fluences by which he was condemned to neglect. The scanty pension which Elizabeth vouchsafed him, the malignity of Lord Burghley, by which any further favour was prevented, and the unproductive nature of his Irish property were sufficient to counterpoise the enjoyment of his poetical fame, and make him feel how fruitlessly he had lavished the richest panegyrics on the queen and her ungrateful courtiers. But having been published of the twelve which were designed for its completion-this is the less regretted, as each book is a complete story, or rather epic in itself. But all these defects are only specks upon the sun's disk; and amidst the gorgeous pictures and images with which the "Faerie Queene" abounds, few who step within its maze can pause to inquire whether it is an allegory or a tale. The reader finds himself among brave knights and beautiful women, who act, and speak, and feel, like other human beings; and amidst scenery where he hears the murmur of waters and the breath of winds, and sees the bright undulations of mountain, lawn, and forest, mixed with the chivalrous splendour of castles and pavilions, the blare of martial music, and the stirring achievements of tilts and tournaments; while here and there are intermingled the giant's cave, the enchanter's den, and the tangled wilderness, through which the errant damsel strays, or her bold champion rides in quest of dangers. All this, too, is depicted in language appropriate to the subject, and therefore so peculiar, that no other poet has adopted it, or been able successfully to imitate it. "His versification," as a modern critic has well observed, "is at once the most smooth and the most sounding in the language. It is a labyrinth of sweet sounds that would clog by their very sweetness, but that the ear is constantly relieved KILCOI MAN CASTLE, Spenser's Irish residence.-Hall's Ireland. and enchanted by their continued variety of mo even a worse calamity was at hand. After his last return to Ireland, in 1597, the rebellion under Tyrone broke out; the insurgents stormed and burned down his castle, and Spenser, after one of his children had perished in the flames, returned to London a heart-broken and impoverished man, only to die a few months after, in the beginning of 1598. dulation." Another writer, who was one of the best of poets as well as critics,2 thus characterizes the style of Spenser: "Though his story grows desultory, the sweetness and grace of his manner still abide by him. He is like a speaker whose tones continue to be pleasing though he speak too long." There were other English poets during the Elizabethan period who might well deserve to be noticed, but for the superior brilliancy of the "Faerie Queene." This was, indeed, a poetic era, in which the emulation of chivalry had received a higher direction: the intellectual tournaments that had now commenced were for a different competition than that of mere thewes and sinews; and candidates hurried into the lists with all the eagerness of a new-born enthusiasm. But this was especially the era of the English drama, a department in which poetry evinced its highest power, and accomplished its noblest achieve The works of Spenser, besides his principal poem, are the "Shepherd's Calendar," in twelve bucolics, "Colin Clout's come home again," a translation of Virgil's "Culex," "Mother Hubbard's Tale," "Hymns and Visions," "The Tears of the Muses," "Spousal Poems," &c. Besides these, he wrote in prose a "Memorial on the State of Ireland, and its Remedy," in the fashion of a dialogue-a work still applicable to the condition of that unhappy country in the present day. But the superior lustre of the "Faerie Queene" has completely eclipsed all his other pro-ments, while it was exclusively a native producductions. As an allegorical poem, indeed, it is certainly faulty, being so complex as to involve allegory within allegory; and as a narrative it is so tedious, that few are able to peruse it consecutively to the end. The chief interest of the work is contained in the first three books; and although it is but half finished-six books only tion, instead of an imitation of the classical ages, whether of Greece or Italy. But here a field opens upon us so wide and so important, and withal, of such progressive growth, that we must defer it till the commencement of the next period, to which it more properly belongs. It J Hazlitt. Thomas Campbell. |