re still there. It is the noble close of one of the noblest poetic careers in the history of the English literature.

Milton's
Greatness

Milton is undoubtedly one of the very greatest poets of England and of the world. He was a man of truly poetical nature; but he was also possessed of great intellectual power and of great moral character. These the spirit of his age was able to use to the detriment of his poetic work; but they nevertheless contributed in the end to exalt his poetic fame. He was a revealer of the mingled strength and beauty, sternness and tenderness, gloom and glory, of the English race. He was a poet speaking for the deep religious feeling of mankind. We may safely reject the theory of Taine that he was a great poet in spite of the fact that he was a Puritan, and hold rather with Green that he was a great poet because he was a Puritan. This may be to the Jews a stumbling-block, to the Greeks foolishness, and to the French a riddle; but if so, it is the riddle of all English poetry- the riddle of Samson, "out of the strong came forth sweetness." Neither Englishmen nor Puritans may strike the world as very poetical; but after all, the English race has produced the world's greatest poetry, not in spite of the fact that it was English, but because it was English.

BOOK IV

CLASSICISM (1660–1780)

CHAPTER X

THE AGE OF DRYDEN (1660-1700)

pulses

THERE came a day when the intellectual enthusiasm of the Renaissance and the spiritual fervor of the Reformation had spent their force. Men grew tired Decline of of the "unchartered freedom" of poetic feeling Older Imand imagination, grew tired also of that religious intensity which made the Puritan desire to worship God in his own way and made him desire also that all other men should worship God in the same way. There came, naturally enough, a reaction which was destined to change for a time the whole face of literature. So far, the religious spirit had been a great literary impulse from the very beginning of English literature. The spirit of romance had been powerful ever since the Norman Conquest, though greatly modified by the Renaissance. Now, men desired

to be neither religious nor romantic. If this had been all, the attitude would have been merely a negative one, and therefore incapable of producing any great literary results. The movement, however, had a positive side as well, and thus became genuinely fruitful.

The new impulse which now became operative was what we ordinarily call Classicism. Men were no longer genu

inely inspired by the ancient writers, as in the Rise of days of the Renaissance. They sought to follow Classicism them in formal fashion, and they succeeded in following them only afar off. It has been truly said that the clas

sical movement was more Latin than Greek, and more French than Latin. On the face of it, it is more distinctly foreign than any other movement that has greatly affected English literature. Looking deeper, we shall see that what power it had was due to the fact that it found something already in the English nature which was in harmony with its spirit. The early Elizabethan dramatists had endeavored to conform English drama to Senecan models, but had found themselves swept away by the great tide of romanticism. Ben Jonson had stood for classic "art" as opposed to Shakespeare's wild "nature," but had found most of his contemporaries on Shakespeare's side. The followers of Jonson had carried on the classic tradition, but had not made much headway. | Milton had cultivated a classic refinement of style, but had found this phase of his genius overshadowed by greater elements. Now, at last, in the exhaustion of powers greater in themselves and more consonant with the English character, the day of the classicist had come, and whatever of classic instinct was latent in the English nature was to have its opportunity. The prevailing French influence strengthened and encour aged this tendency, but did not create it. What seems at first sight like a movement entirely from without, is seen to be for the most part an attempt on the part of the English race to develop powers hitherto repressed and to try its strength in ways hitherto barred. That this is really the weaker side of the racial character accounts for the comparative inferiority of the literature of the classical period; that the strongest instincts of the race led it in other directions, accounts for the powerful and complete reaction which finally came.

Meaning of

What is Classicism? That is a difficult question to answer briefly; for the term is used in many Classicism ways and really means many things. As ap plied to the literature under consideration, Classicism is