CHAPTER IV

FROM THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH TO THE CLOSING OF THE THEATRES (1558-1642)

Introduction.

It must not be supposed by the student that the Elizabethan Age in English literature, often called the Golden Age, reached its high development early in Elizabeth's reign. Two full decades of preparation were yet to pass before the appearance of the first great creative works of the age-Spenser's Shepherd's Calender and Lyly's Euphues.

The Preparatory Period. Although this preparatory period was of significance in broadening the intellectual view of the whole nation, its greatest value consisted in its providing material for the drama, the most characteristic literary form of the time. Compilations of British chronicles, crude but valuable dramas built up on classic models, translations of noted works of antiquity and of current works of interest in several European languages, made accessible subject-matter for the dramatists which left the full force of their genius free to be expended on adaptation and reshaping to suit English spirit and taste.

Of the chroniclers the most noted during this time were Grafton, Stowe, Camden, and greatest of all, Ralph Holinshed. Of the plays on classic models need be mentioned only the tragedy Gorboduc, and the comedy, Ralph Roister Doister. Before 1575 nine books of the Eneid had been put into

English verse by Thomas Phaer; three tragedies of Seneca by Jasper Heywood and one by Neville; the Metamorphoses of Ovid by Golding, and the Epistles by Turberville.

The best-known collection of Continental stories (bestknown because used by Shakspere) is Paynter's Palace of Pleasure, the alliterative title of which seems to have suggested one used later by Turberville - Ten Tragical Tales out of Sundry Italians. (Verse collections similarly named are the Paradise of Dainty Devices and the Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions.) In the same year with The Shepherd's Calender and Euphues appeared what is to the moderns perhaps the. most important of all these translations - Sir Thomas North's Plutarch's

Lives, to which we owe Shakspere's Greek and Roman plays.

The Period of Splendor: (1) The Queen. The thirty years following this preparatory period are made splendid not only by the literature produced, but by the development of an intense and vigorous national life. Elizabeth, the "man-minded offset" of Henry VIII, possessed the strength and talents needed to guide the nation through a troubled time. And the nation believed in her: to her subjects she seemed, says the historian J. R. Green," the embodiment of dauntless resolution."

QUEEN ELIZABETH.

The reigns of her Protestant brother, Edward VI, and her Roman Catholic sister, Mary, had left the English peo

ple divided into two opposing parties, each suspicious of the other. Elizabeth set herself to bring them together; and her efforts met with success when Philip II of Spain attempted to invade England. Then it was that "patriotism proved stronger than religious fanaticism in the hearts of the English Catholics;" and their loyalty decided the fate of Philip's scheme.

(2) The People. — One result of the Renaissance was, naturally, a great advance of the people as a whole in knowledge and intelligence. Accompanying this was a great increase in prosperity and in freedom of individual action. A man's chances in life were no longer limited by his rank or his purse.

A Yorkshire yeoman's son, Roger Ascham, devoted himself to learning, and became tutor to the Queen. A boy of humble birth, apprenticed at an early age on a small coasting vessel, developed a passion for exploration, was aided by the Queen, and is known in history as Sir Francis Drake, Admiral, circumnavigator of the earth. A Warwickshire peasant, who in some way got to London when he was about twenty-one years old, obtained work of some sort in a theatre; and ten or twelve years later he was acknowledged the foremost writer of both comedies and tragedies in English.

(3) Manner of Living. The national prosperity expressed itself in many ways. Houses were built more substantially. There was a great increase in the comforts of life; and among all classes except the very poor there was a great variety of food, especially meats. Great care and expense were given to dress, even by yeomen and men of low rank. There was a great fondness for amusements and a widespread indulgence in them; facts which doubtless did much to make the high development of the drama possible.

To summarize, it may be said that the chief national characteristic, found in all classes from the Queen and her advisers to the humblest peasants, was a "youthful exuberance of spirit." The Age of Elizabeth deserves the description "Merry England" more than any period before or since. It is not surprising that from such a period came the nation's greatest literature.

Here one of the most splendid entertainments of Elizabeth took place. See Scott's Kenilworth.

The first writer whom we are to take up is not one of the greatest. He fills only a small niche; but we should add that he fills it completely. This writer, whose field is that of prose, is

John Lyly (1554?-1606?). John Lyly, one of whose works has been named as marking the end of the period of preparation, was born in Kent about the year 1554. Nothing is positively known of his life until he became a student at

Magdalen College (Maudlin), Oxford, from which he was graduated A.B. and A.M. In 1579, the year of the appearance of Euphues, Lyly was connected with the university at Cambridge. Later he wrote nine comedies of the "romantic" type, the direct ancestors of Shakspere's A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like it. There are no other known facts about Lyly's life, though some have identified him with a man who served several years in Parliament. It is generally believed that he died in 1606.

Lyly's importance in literature arises from his romantic. comedies, his lyrics, and his popularizing of the prose style known as "euphuism." One of his best-known and delightful lyrics is that appearing in his play, Alexander and Campaspe, and beginning:

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"Cupid and my Campaspe played

At cards for kisses; Cupid paid."

Euphues," and Euphuism. - Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit (1579), and its sequel, Euphues and His England, form together a sort of novel. The main story in the first is of a young Athenian, Euphues, who goes to Naples, becomes a great friend of one Philautus, falls in love with Lucilla, Philautus's betrothed, and is rejected by her. In the sequel Philautus and Euphues visit England, Philautus has an unfortunate love affair and then a fortunate one, Euphues indulges in extravagant praise of England and Englishwomen (especially Elizabeth), and departs.

The story, it will be seen, is slight, and the bare outline does not promise much entertainment. As a whole, Euphues is not what one would to-day call a " readable" book. Read in brief extracts, however, it is of not a little interest on the side of style, of which the striking features are alliteration, balanced phrases, and far-fetched figures.