LECTURE IV.

THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA.

A. Causes which led to the Armada.

Spain threatened England's internal unity and her Imperial aspirations. Close connexion between political and religious hatred which animated England against Spain.

Particular Causes.

(a) Elizabeth's attitude towards the Netherlands revolt. (b) Action of Drake and the Buccaneers against Spanish territory, trade and interests.

(c) Execution of Mary Queen of Scots.

(d) Restoration of Roman Catholicism in England.

(e) Failure of plots against Elizabeth.

B. Preparations for attack.

Fitting out the Armada. Cadiz harbour. Drake 'Singes the King of Spain's beard,' 1587. His plan of attack and defence. The Queen at Tilbury. Her parsimony.

Philip's plan of attack: not naval, but military. The Spanish equipment in men and ships. The English equipment. General plan of resistance. The English fleet at Plymouth. The Commanders-Howard of Effingham, Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher. News of the Armada.

C. The Fight.

The English fleet works up on the weather gauge of the Spaniards. Desultory actions throughout the week-off Portland, off the Isle of Wight. The Spaniards run to Calais. The Fireships. Battle of Gravelines. The retreat by the North.

Subsequent encounters. Comparison between position of Spain at beginning and end of Elizabeth's reign.

LECTURE V.

THE CLIMAX OF THE RENAISSANCE.

Sense in which the word 'Renaissance' is used-the awakening and growth of intellectual energy. A movement influencing a long period of time, but showing its effects very clearly in England at the close of fifteenth century. This revival of intellectual energy exhibits itself in many directions. Politically it tended towards nationality and unity. In Religion towards the recasting of opinion on points of doctrine. In Science towards fact and experiment as opposed to abstract speculation. In Literature towards humanity and realities of things.

The invention of Printing, the use of the Compass, the discovery of America were agencies resulting from this new conception of life, and largely contributed to forward it.

The Age of Elizabeth is the point where several centuries of progress seem to culminate.

In Politics.-European nationalities clearly defined, though religious dissensions tend to disunion. Elizabeth's reign is a fairly successful attempt to secure uniformity in religion and unity in the State. England, secure at home, moves forward on Imperial lines. Elizabeth's age sums up the past and is the starting ground for the future.

'Men stood then, as it were, between two dreams—a dream of the past, thronged with sinister and splendid reminiscences; a dream of the future, bright with unlimited aspirations and indefinite hopes.'

England as a naval power.

Geographical discoveries and the spirit of adventure, the two chief agencies in securing for England supremacy on the sea and all that it implies.

In Religion.-Elizabeth hopes to end religious schism. Impossibility of uniformity. The tolerance of rulers out of harmony with the conviction of the people. First beginning of the Puritan spirit. Puritanism stands at the parting of the ways between the past and future.

Literature. The philosophy of Bacon. Contrast between Baconian and Aristotelian philosophy. The outcome of the philosophy of the schools and the starting-point for a new system.

Sir P. Sidney.-Versatility of the men of that age. Dreams of social perfection. The Utopia and the Arcadia.

Renaissance of History.—Sir Thomas More's Henry VII and Richard III. Sir W. Raleigh's History of the World.

'To study Raleigh's character is to study the tendencies of his age. There was no field of activity then open to men into which he did not enter; there was no work undertaken in which he did not share. In an age remarkable for its varied forms of intellectual vigour, he represents with wonderful many-sidedness the different interests which then absorbed men's minds.'-L. CREIGHTON.

LECTURE VI.

SHAKSPERE AND SPENSER.

'The very age and body of the time.'

Shakspere "painted human nature as he saw it in his time."'

RUSKIN.

Shakspere represents (a) the new learning, which seeks its inspiration in the past, applies it to the present, and constructs upon it the aspirations for the future.

Julius Caesar and Coriolanus exhibit the modern view of the classical past. Reflections of the Elizabethan age in the classical plays.

(b) The Italian influences of the Renaissance, e.g. Romeo and Juliet.

(c) The new spirit of adventure. Fairy lands. Romantic tales of travellers. The Tempest, Othello, Midsummer Night's Dream. (d) The Historical Renaissance, which is associated with the ardent patriotism of his age. The English Historical Plays.

(e) The Social Life of England in all its phases. Examples can be taken from the plays generally.

Shakspere as a Dramatist.

Origins of the Drama. Miracle Plays and Masks. Play actors and their reputation. The stage in Shakspere's time. Mise en scène and character representation. Shakspere's materials. His treatment of them.

SPENSER.

Last representative of the age of chivalry. Ariosto and Cervantes. Failure of Spenser to reanimate the past. His transitional position between the old order and the new.

His conception coloured by his own surroundings. The Faërie Queene as the embodiment of the spirit of his times. Essential beauties and defects of the poem. 'The delight of every accomplished gentleman, the model of every poet, the solace of every soldier.'

Spenser, as representing the religious impulses of his time. 'His poem strikes the note of the coming Puritanism.' Spenser and the Bible. Spenser and Milton. 'Spenser was his original.'

The very incongruities of the story of Arthur and his knighthood, strangely as it had been built up out of the rival efforts of bard and Jongleur and priest, made it the fittest vehicle for the expression of the world of incongruous feeling which we call the Renaissance.'-GREEN.