repressed his passions and even his natural instincts, and spent his life in self-denial of innocent enjoyment and "subdued the flesh" by fastings and self-inflicted tortures. These changes of standpoint imply a profound conflict of views, and the triumph of the new ideas was accompanied with an intellectual excitement which gave literature energy and life. The drama of the period is the representative form, and in many of the plays the interest depends not so much on the plot or story as in the representation of human wills in vigorous action. The characters are, in many cases, profoundly conceived as active agents, sometimes of exaggerated will power and energy. This is a reflex of the theory of the dignity and self-sufficiency of the individual soul which gave the Puritan vital energy. Again, the love of luxurious ornamentation and color which marked the artists of the Renaissance is seen in many of the dramas. The relation to classic literature became broader and sounder as the early English period passed into the Elizabethan. The classic authors were far more generally read than in the former period, since printing made their works accessible to all, and their literature became known to a far larger number of people. The old picturesqueness of social life resulting from the contrasted orders of society. remained, but men were conscious of living in a growing and expanding world, both materially and intellectually, and did not fear to invent new forms of expression. Chaucer had imported Italian stanzas, but the Elizabethan lyrists did not hesitate to invent a hundred new song forms, not imitative, but based on a natural perception of the music of words. Elizabethan literature is so extensive and the period was marked by so great an advance that specimens of many different types are embraced in it, but we can safely say that its thought element rests on a broader and profounder philosophy, and its form is more varied, and the mental tone it expresses is more vigorous, than those of any other epoch. QUESTIONS Compare fifty lines of Chapman's translation of Homer's "Iliad" or of his "Odyssey" with a like number of Pope's version of the same poems. Read Matthew Arnold's essay "On Translating Homer.” Sketch the metrical scheme and point out Italian Renaissance tone modified by English sincerity and reverence in Spenser's "Epithalamion." Compare any one of Jonson's Roman plays with any one of Shakespeare's for (a) plot construction, (b) faithfulness to history, (c) truthfulness to spirit of Roman society, (d) human interest, (e) abstract poetry. Describe the representation and scenic effects of one of Jonson's Masques. How far is Macbeth radically bad and how far is he weak? What is meant by "pastoral poetry"? Compare in painting the work of Watteau. Compare Marlowe's Mephistophilis with Goethe's creation of a similar name, in their respective dramas of 'Dr. Faustus" and "Faust." 66 What are the distinguishing features of the age of Elizabeth, which render it unique in literary history? In what way was Spenser influenced by the masterpieces of Ariosto and Tasso? Wherein lies the importance of the " Mirrour for Magistrates"? Sketch the status of actors in Shakespeare's time. By whose authority were companies formed? In what famous work did Puritanism avenge the insult and ridicule with which the dramatists had assailed it? In which of Sir Walter Scott's novels is Euphuism satirized in the person of one of its characters, and how far is the picture true? Does the language of the Authorized Version of the Bible really represent that which prevailed in the reign in which it was issued? LITERARY REFERENCES CHILD, C. G. John Lyly and Euphuism. Munich, 1894. GOSSE, E. Jacobean Poets. HALE, E. E., JR. Selections from Herrick. HERFORD, C. H. Literary Relations of England and Germany in the Sixteenth Century. HANNAY, D. The Later Renaissance. (Per. of European Lit.) JUSSERAND, J. J. English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare. MANLY, J. M. Specimens of the Pre-Shakespearean Drama. 3 v. MORLEY, H. English Writers. v. 6-11. SAINTSBURY, G. History of Elizabethan Literature. SCHELLING, F. E. Elizabethan Lyrics. STEBBING, W. Sir Walter Raleigh: a Biography. SYMONDS, J. A. Ben Jonson. (E. W.) SYMONDS, J. A. Shakespeare's Predecessors in the English Drama. THORNBURY, G. W. Shakespeare's England. 2 v. WARD, A. W. History of English Dramatic Literature. v. 1. WOODBRIDGE, E. Studies in Jonson's Comedy. (Yale Studies in English. Ed. A. S. Cook.) SHAKESPEARE For the literature relating to Shakespeare consult the special bibliographies of the subject; e.g.: Brit. Museum Cat. of Printed Books. (The entries under Shakespeare were separately printed in 1897.) Hubbard, J. M. Catalogue of Shakespeariana in the Barton Collection of the Boston Public Library. TEDDER, H. R. Classified bibliography of Shakespeariana. (Appended to the article on S. in the Ency. Brit., 9 ed.) Poole's Index supplies a host of references to articles in the standard periodicals. The most useful edition of Shakespeare's Works is that edited by W. G. Clark and W. A. Wright and known as the " Cambridge Shakspeare." It embodies all the textual variations of preceding editions and furnishes the best and fullest apparatus criticus. Dr. Furness's "Variorum " edition takes the place of all others for the plays edited. Professor W. J. Rolfe's texts are the best for reading in a mixed class. DOWDEN, E. Shakspere: His Mind and Art. 4th ed. 1887. Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare. LEE, S. A Life of William Shakespeare. 1898. (This is a republication of the author's article in the D. N. B., revised and considerably added to. It is probably the best biography of the poet that we have; certainly the most usable one.) ULRICI, H. Shakespeare's Dramatic Art. 2 v. (Bohn.) CHAPTER V THE PURITAN PERIOD (1634 to 1660) Historical References CARLYLE, T. Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches: with Elucidations. MASSON, D. Life of John Milton. 6 v. (This work is, in effect, a political, ecclesiastical, and literary history of the time.) GARDINER, S. R. (Ed.) The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1628-1660. GARDINER, S. R. The First Two Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution. 1603-1660. (Epochs of Modern Hist.) JESSE, J. H. Memoirs of the Court of England during the Reign of the Stuarts, including the Protectorate. 2 v. (Bohn.) Historical THE culmination of the Elizabethan period may be placed early in the reign of the most un-Elizabethan king, James I. "Hamlet" appeared in its perfected form in 1602, "Othello" in 1604, "Lear" in 1605; "Macbeth" was produced in 1606, and "The Tempest" in 1610. After that date the productive energy of the English Renaissance seems to diminish. Writers were as active as ever, but the animating spirit is reminiscent of the past and less inventive and original than it was ten years earlier. The days of the great romantic drama were numbered, and it becomes an inspiration from the past rather than an expression of a living spirit. Most of the later dramatists are tame and tedious compared to their predecessors. James Shirley, 1594–1666, may be regarded as the last of the line of Elizabethan play |