OF THE LITERATURE 
 
 THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE 
 
 EDWIN GREENLAW 
 
 BORN & CO.
 
 UNIVERSITY O* 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO
 
 75 
 
 / ^ 3 o
 
 AN OUTLINE OF THE LITERATURE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ENGLISH RENAISSANCE 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWIN GREENLAW 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 ov wdAA* ciAAa woXv 
 
 BENJ. H. SANBORN & CO. 
 
 CHICAGO NEW YORK BOSTON 
 1916
 
 COPTKIGHT, 1916, BY 
 
 BENJ. H. SANBORN & CQ
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THIS book consists, in the main, of those pages from A Syllabus of English 
 Literature, published in 1912, which deal with the literature of the English 
 Renaissance. Such an outline, it is hoped, will prove a convenience to 
 teachers and students in advanced courses who wish to deal with the special 
 period and who do not need the larger work. In order to adapt the out- 
 line to the needs of such students a considerable additional bibliography 
 has been prepared. This bibliography makes no pretensions to com- 
 pleteness; it consists of references to books and articles, not given in 
 the original Syllabus, which a student dealing with the period will find 
 of the greatest value. A few references to articles in scholarly journals 
 have been included, sometimes because of their value as contributions to 
 knowledge, at other times because they deal with topics not treated specifi- 
 cally elsewhere but necessary in a complete study of the field in which 
 they lie. Obviously such references have been made sparingly, and many 
 excellent essays have been omitted. 
 
 For assistance hi preparing the additional bibliography, particularly 
 that portion which deals with the age of Milton, I am under obligations 
 
 to my colleague, Professor J. H. Hanford. 
 
 EDWIN GREENLAW 
 
 Chapel Hill, North Carolina 
 October, 1916 
 
 in
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION 1 
 
 THE PERIOD AS A WHOLE 11 
 
 GENERAL WORKS 11 
 
 THE DRAMA 15 
 
 SPENSER 19 
 
 BACON 20 
 
 OTHER ELIZABETHAN PROSE 22 
 
 POETS FROM SPENSER TO MILTON , 23 
 
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PROSE 23 
 
 MILTON 23 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINES 27 
 
 CHANGES INFLUENCING LITERATURE 28 
 
 EARLY HUMANISM IN ENGLAND 28 
 
 TRANSITIONAL POETRY 30 
 
 THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES 32 
 
 TOTTEL'S MISCELLANY 32 
 
 GASCOIGNE 34 
 
 THE NEW ENGLISH POETRY 36 
 
 INFLUENCE OF ITALY AND FRANCE 36 
 
 THE SONNET 38 
 
 THE PASTORAL 42 
 
 OTHER LYRIC POETRY 46 
 
 SPENSER 48 
 
 THE DRAMA '. 56 
 
 ORIGIN 56 
 
 THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION 62 
 
 THE NEW DRAMA 66 
 
 LYLY 66 
 
 MARLOWE 66 
 
 KYD, PEELE, GREENE 68 
 
 SHAKSPERE 72 
 
 CONTEMPORARIES OF SHAKSPERE 84 
 
 JONSON, CHAPMAN, DEKKER -. 84 
 
 BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER 86 
 
 THE END OF THE ROMANTIC DRAMA 86 
 
 V
 
 VI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ELIZABETHAN PROSE 88 
 
 PROSE FICTION 88 
 
 LITERARY CRITICISM 92 
 
 HISTORICAL AND DIDACTIC WORKS 96 
 
 BACON 96 
 
 ELIZABETHAN TRANSLATIONS 100 
 
 POETRY FROM JONSON TO MILTON 106 
 
 DRAYTON, DONNE 106 
 
 JONSON, HERRICK 108 
 
 THE SCHOOL OF SPENSER 110 
 
 THE LYRIC POETS 112 
 
 BEGINNINGS OF PSEUDO-CLASSICISM 114 
 
 WALLER, DENHAM 116 
 
 COWLEY, DAVENANT 118 
 
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PROSE BEFORE DRYDEN 120 
 
 PROSE OF LEARNING AND SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY 120 
 
 BROWNE, FULLER 120 
 
 WALTON 122 
 
 TRAVEL, HISTORY, THEOLOGICAL WRITERS 122 
 
 MILTON 124
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 IN his Modern Studies Oliver Elton has remarked that -for Englishmen 
 the chief critical task of the present time is "to enter into the mind of 
 the English Renaissance." The same obligation rests upon American 
 inheritors of English literature and thought. During the sixteenth cen- 
 tury our common language took on its modern forms, our common litera- 
 ture epic, lyric, dramatic, narrative first gained adequate expres- 
 sion, and it is to the English Renaissance that we owe many of the 
 characteristics which differentiate Anglo-Saxon political thought from that 
 of other races. It is true that Tudor absolutism apparently culminated 
 under the Stuarts in the pestilent doctrine of the Divine Right and that 
 the democratic ideal emerged late in the eighteenth century. It is true 
 that in the field of science Bacon's accomplishment seems negligible hi 
 comparison with that of the giants of the nineteenth century. And in 
 the field of literature, it is true that only Shakspere seems to possess a 
 kingdom in the minds of men of to-day, since the drama written by his 
 contemporaries is read only by students who are interested in dramatic 
 history, while Spenser is more admired than read and even Milton is dis- 
 carded along with his theology. Utopia and The New Atlantis are mere 
 names; the Faerie Queene is a long poem which others than Macaulay 
 comment on or commend without a reading; Lycidas has become an 
 instrument of torture in the effort to make English as difficult for the 
 high school student as Mathematics or Greek. 
 
 Nevertheless, if we could only see it, no other period in English literature 
 or history lies so close to the present. Our own national history should 
 teach us this. Begotten through a political idealism of a kind dimly 
 felt among Elizabethans; developed through a pioneer stage of forest 
 conquest which the English of that century had left behind not too remotely; 
 proceeding, in these later days, to a conquest of nature such as Bacon 
 pointed out and prayed for but did not live to see, and, just now, rising 
 
 1
 
 to a conception of nationalism which in its enthusiasm and consciousness 
 of power bids fair to revolutionize all our modes of thinking and to do 
 away with much of our selfish individualism, our present civilization 
 is ripe for a transformation which may well be a new birth. The parallel 
 is extraordinary. Tudor England had shaken off feudalism and estab- 
 lished a strongly centralized government, had shaken off also the idea of 
 withdrawal from world affairs and become one of the family of nations, 
 and had felt not only in government circles but in the rank and file of the 
 people a passionate patriotism embodied in men of action like Drake and 
 Raleigh; celebrated by Holinshed and Hakluyt, recorders of their deeds; 
 finding literary expression in Spenser, who was of the court, in Shakspere, 
 who was of and for all classes, and in Thomas Deloney, who discoursed of 
 the virtues and opportunities of those who plied the gentle craft. So the 
 United States, passing from a confederation of sovereignties to a new 
 and vital sense of national unity, and now to a loftier sense of duty and 
 of power, abandons provincial isolation and prepares to take a hand in 
 world affairs. Again, nationalism finds a stimulus hi the development 
 of commerce; Tudor England's vision of commercial empire, taught by 
 her great navigators, finds a parallel in the vision opening to American 
 trade. 
 
 In the field of culture there are also interesting parallels. English 
 culture developed, during the sixteenth century, from the first impulse 
 gained through contact with the classics to an appropriation of whatever 
 in the classics was thought suitable to the new conditions. The human- 
 ism of Colet, More, and Erasmus differs from the humanism of Spenser and 
 Shakspere, Jonson and Milton, but the later humanism was a develop- 
 ment from seed to fruit, not a dry rot. The study of the classics in the 
 universities became pedantry, but knowledge of their contents became 
 more widely diffused, and therefore more potent. It was a golden age of 
 translation, to the immeasurable gain of the native tongue in vocabulary, 
 of English prose style in technique, and of English culture in familiarity 
 with the riches of ancient literature. And while the present tendency in 
 American education seems to be away from the classics and toward the 
 so-called vocational subjects, no one who knows American character can 
 believe that an efficient utilitarianism will usurp finally and completely
 
 the place of liberal studies. We are passing through a period of transi- 
 tion. A change in method is inevitable, but the humanities will not be 
 irretrievably lost. The letter may perish, but the spirit is a pure and 
 ever-burning flame. 
 
 Even from the standpoint of letters there are parallels between the 
 present age and the Renaissance. Early sixteenth century literature, like 
 much of our recent literature, was preoccupied with form without life, or 
 with bizarre experiments in metre and stanza, or with mere imitation. 
 But when the abounding flood of life swept England, a new literature was 
 born. When she attained a soul her voice became clear, resonant, authen- 
 tic. Drama, lyric, romance, epic, spoke this life. With us, too, there 
 are already signs of a new day. Movements such as the Little Country 
 Theatre of certain middle-western states are full of promise; revivals of 
 community spirit, first and properly manifested in sanitation, clean-up 
 weeks, city-beautiful campaigns, are developing the sense that not only 
 community health and economic welfare are important, but that com- 
 munity festivals, dramas, music, are natural extensions of the renewal of 
 folk-consciousness. Out of such folk-consciousness, stimulated by the new 
 nationalism, fed by contact with other literatures, the drama of the age 
 of Shakspere was born, and, to a certain extent, the whole glorious body 
 of poetry and prose of that age. 
 
 Besides such parallels as these, there are other reasons why the study 
 of the literature of the English Renaissance is profitable to-day. For one 
 thing, no other period in our literary history is so rich in what may be 
 called symbols of racial experience. This is partly due to Elizabethan 
 fondness for allegory, which took on new forms, but at bottom it is due to 
 the way in which men of that tune looked on life. There is no better 
 approach to the study of the period than that afforded by Marlowe's 
 Faustus. The framework is that of the old morality: vices and virtues 
 contending for man's soul; the life in sin; the final effort, fitly symbolized 
 by the old man, at reclamation, and the ultimate disaster. But these 
 old symbols take on new life, first, through the exaltation of the individual, 
 the seeking for deeper and richer experience, and, second, through the 
 fact that here we have the first clear statement of the struggle between 
 what Arnold later called Hebraism and Hellenism. Hebraism, strictness
 
 of conscience, consciousness of sin, is illustrated by the tortures through 
 which Faustus passes. But Hellenism, renaissance passion for beauty 
 and for more abundant life, is clearly seen in such passages, for example, 
 as that beginning 
 
 Have I not made blind Homer sing to me? 
 
 or the splendid outburst 
 
 Was this the face that launched a thousand ships 
 And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? 
 
 On the one hand is the procession of the seven deadly sins; on the other 
 the desire of the mind to look on things as they really are, " still climbing 
 after knowledge infinite." Thus Faustus, relic of medievalism in plot 
 and form, becomes as clearly symbolical as allegory itself, and should be 
 studied not only as an example of early English tragedy but also as a 
 means for understanding life as men of the Renaissance conceived it. 
 Again, Spenser's use of familiar situations in the old romances to sym- 
 bolize his political idealism, as for example Artegal's defense of Irena, 
 illustrates the fact that in periods when men's minds are powerfully stirred 
 through some crisis or through some sudden development in national 
 ideals, story and thought of the past acquire symbolic meaning. There 
 are stories that are not stories, but symbols woven into the innermost 
 depths of the human spirit, possessing not the immortality of beauty which 
 Keats saw hi the Grecian Urn, or the immortality of verse which Shakspere 
 promised for his sonnets, or the immortality of influence of which Shelley 
 wrote hi Adonais, but operating like the secret and mysterious forces of 
 nature, taking on new forms when humanity, in some renaissance or some 
 world crisis, calls on its deepest powers in its search for an interpretation 
 of life. Therefore Spenser's version of Arthurian romance is at once a 
 revival of one of the most beautiful expressions of the medieval spirit and 
 a re-interpretation of that material to symbolize the experience of the 
 new England. Like Faustus it is more than the creation of one man; 
 morality and allegory are alike typical of so large a body of thought and 
 opinion as to be, so to speak, racial. This may be clearly seen if we com- 
 pare, let us say, Endimion with either of them. Lyly's play is a charming 
 fancy, enormously popular, appealing to the popular taste for witty dia-
 
 logue, graceful lyrics, and playful identification of court dignitaries with 
 classical figures. But Faustus is a superb phrasing of the conflict between 
 Puritanism and the new spirit of scientific inquiry, between the fearsome 
 idea that men sign with their blood contracts to deliver their souls to 
 Satan and the tendency to throw off authority, to probe life to its depths, 
 to be troubled with thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls. And the 
 Faerie Qwene, outwardly a romance like Amadis or Arcadia, also uses 
 medieval allegory and morality play and chivalric story to shadow forth 
 a mighty panorama, an infinitely varied succession of dissolving views, an 
 interpretation through symbol of the life that pulsed so intensely through 
 the veins of Elizabethan England. 
 
 Other illustrations might be given. There is, for example, that pro- 
 foundly interesting "religion of beauty hi women," concerning which 
 Professor Fletcher has written with so much learning and insight. Here, 
 too, we have medievalism drawn upon to symbolize new thought. On the 
 one hand there were the fanciful allegories of the courts of love and of 
 the Roman de la Rose; on the other the whole range of medieval mysticism. 
 In Italy a literature grew up about these allegories, from Dante's Divine 
 Comedy and New Life to Ficino's exposition of Platonism and Petrarch's 
 glorification of love in his sonnets, reaching an eloquent climax in Bembo's 
 speech on love in the fourth book of II Cortegiano. This too found a place 
 in Elizabethan sonnets and in Spenser's noble Hymns, on the one hand 
 marking a transition from the earlier English attitude toward women to 
 the imperishable portraits of Rosalind, Desdemona, Cordelia, Perdita, 
 and Imogen, and on the other hand bearing witness to the fact that in an 
 age of great deeds, an age of exploration and discovery, the imagination 
 may be so touched that philosophy comes down from heaven to be em- 
 bodied in experience and made " current coin" 
 
 Though truth in manhood darkly join 
 
 Deep-seated in our mystic frame. . . . 
 
 Where truth in closest words shall fail 
 
 . . . truth embodied in a tale 
 
 Shall enter in at lowly doors. 
 
 It is not less true that Shakspere's greatest dramas are also symbols 
 of racial experience. The historical plays and tragedies are analogous
 
 6 
 
 to such works as Faustus, the Faerie Queene, and the literature of Eliza- 
 bethan Platonism in that they are based on medieval stories told hi such 
 a way as to apply directly to the problems which England as a nation 
 and Englishmen as individuals found most absorbing. Thus though 
 Shakspere avoids allegory, though direct references to contemporary affairs 
 in his plays are few and unimportant, and though he apparently takes no 
 interest in questions of national policy such as one finds in the writings 
 of his contemporaries, he reaches results that are similar. Beginning 
 with Richard II and John we have, for example, a series of studies of the 
 Prince. At first, following Marlowe, the crown is represented as a symbol 
 of glory, and kingship is a personal privilege. In Gloucester's career we 
 have a complete exposition of the Machiavellian philosophy, with, how- 
 ever, swift Nemesis at the end. Lear resembles Richard II in many 
 details of plot and is a later and maturer study of the same theme, while 
 Macbeth bears a similar relation to Richard III. In all these dramas is a 
 clear perception of the illusion of worldly place and honor and a progressive 
 criticism of the political philosophy which then 'dominated Europe and 
 of which the writings of Machiavelli afford the chief exposition. So also 
 with his treatment of pastoralism; he avoids the artificial elements of the 
 genre, and yet a number of the plays, among them As You Like It, Cymbe- 
 line, and The Winter's Tale, are closely linked with the familiar discussion 
 as to the relations between the active and the contemplative life. The 
 Tempest, again, is not a sustained allegory, yet it is filled with symbolism, 
 while Macbeth is another Faustus. Shakspere deals with kings and courts, 
 democracy is not in him, but his kings and tragic heroes symbolize various 
 phases of experience. He is "universal" and "for all tune" not because 
 he deals with the stuff of romance or is unequalled in his power of creating 
 character, but for far deeper reasons. Professor Gilbert Murray has 
 recently compared Orestes and Hamlet to show how in both dramas, 
 springing from legends born hi 'remotest antiquity, we have "a strange 
 unanalyzed vibration below the surface, an undercurrent of desires and 
 fears and passions, long slumbering yet eternally familiar, which have for 
 thousands of years lain near the root of our most intimate emotions and 
 been wrought into the fabric of our most magical dreams." Thus Shak- 
 spere, like his great contemporaries, finds in old forgotten far-off things
 
 the materials for his interpretation of life. The recent observance of the 
 tercentenary of his death has taken on an aspect almost religious. In 
 his own age powerful currents were changing the course of civilization; hi 
 ours the same Titanic forces are at work once more. In such a tune there 
 is no human help save hi the return of the spirit of man upon itself. The 
 record of that spirit is in the literature of the past, not in all literature of 
 the past, but hi that through which what Emerson called "the vast back- 
 ground of our being" has found momentary expression. The thoughts 
 that wander through eternity, for which even Belial would not lose this 
 intellectual being; the story symbols which possess a life beyond life; 
 the deeper meanings found in Macbeth or Lear or Hamlet when read hi this 
 century which sees, as no century since the sixteenth has seen, the working 
 of that law of mutability of which Spenser wrote, to these we instinc- 
 tively turn. 
 
 I have dwelt on this aspect of Elizabethan literature for two reasons. 
 In the first place, we have confined our study of this period too exclusively 
 to the drama, and even in our study of the drama, apart perhaps from 
 Shakspere, we have further narrowed our study to matters of technique. 
 We read extracts from the Faerie Queene, a page or two from Euphues, a 
 few sonnets and pastorals, a few essays by Bacon, and emerge with the 
 feeling that the days of Elizabeth were spacious indeed but that we do 
 not care to explore them. But if it is worth while for us to try to under- 
 stand the mind of the English Renaissance we shall need to study it from 
 other angles than that afforded by Shakspere's plays, and, as I have 
 tried to show, even Shakspere may be better understood through such a 
 course. Such studies are not uninteresting or without bearing on present 
 problems. There is, for example, the development of humanism from 
 the early Tudor period to Milton, a theme of great value in view of the 
 constantly decreasing interest in the classics to-day. There is also the 
 subject of literary criticism, not an arid field, since it was during this period 
 that most of the literary forms with which we are familiar developed. 
 As for Bacon, we know him on only one side if we limit ourselves to a few 
 essays and neglect his noble treatise on the Advancement of Learning. 
 His political theory has been left almost untouched by historians; his 
 conception of the aims and methods of university education has been
 
 8 
 
 neglected by college students and teachers, though it is stimulating in the 
 highest degree. There are more general subjects, such as the training of 
 the courtier for service of the state, or the larger conception of historical 
 writing, or the new attitude toward science. From the literary stand- 
 point, there are the short stories, for the adequate study of which no con- 
 venient collection exists. Deloney's romances of middle class life and 
 Nash's Jack Wilton deserve more attention, because of their greater interest, 
 than Euphues. The literature of travel, the great translations, the history 
 of the English Bible, all afford opportunities. Most of all, English litera- 
 ture of the Tudor and Stuart periods gives opportunities for acquaintance 
 with other literatures. This is the natural and legitimate use for what 
 is called comparative literature. Such interesting sources as Malory, the 
 High History of the Holy Grail, Amadis of Gaul, such classics as Virgil and 
 Theocritus, such Italian masterpieces as II Principe, II Cortegiano, and 
 Tasso's great epic, are a few of many illustrations of the riches in this 
 field. Milton, it is true, we study; yet how seldom as the crowning glory 
 of English classicism or as one who in his thought sums an epoch. Whether 
 one gives, therefore, a college term or a lifetime to the study of this litera- 
 ture from a standpoint other than that of the development of the drama, 
 there is richness for his pains. 
 
 The other reason has already been implied in all that has been said. 
 In recent years the stress in college courses in English literature has fallen 
 increasingly on technique. The technical characteristics of the lyric or 
 of versification, the technique of the drama or of the novel or short story 
 have absorbed attention. To a certain extent this tendency illustrates 
 the prevailing interest in efficiency and in getting results. More than one 
 successful writer of magazine fiction has confessed to prolonged study of 
 Maupassant, for example, in an effort to seize the secret of his success. 
 College courses and even correspondence courses are given with the object 
 of making, hi the words of some circulars, a successful short story writer 
 out of anybody. In the drama the thing is not less conspicuous. The 
 technique of Ibsen and Pinero has been studied, and the same method has 
 been applied to a host of lesser luminaries, with the object, avowed or un- 
 conscious, of making Tom or Dick or Mary a successful dramatist. The 
 question has not been whether the playwright whose productions are thus
 
 9 
 
 honored with our study has anything to say, but altogether as to the 
 methods which brought him success. In the welter of writing and lecturing 
 about successful plays and short stories we frequently deal with works 
 which never knew the divine fire but are merely imitations, paste jewels, 
 and our pupils write imitations of these imitations, sometimes with golden 
 results, oftener to no avail. To adapt Mr. Mackaye's portrait of the Scare- 
 crow, we see on every stage, in every season, plays which have been merely 
 galvanized into a semblance of life through sheer force of technique, and we 
 study these scarecrows and encourage our pupils to try similar manufacturing 
 enterprises. This semblance of life cannot make up for certain qualities 
 found in older plays which technically fall far short of our present precision. 
 Is it not possible that we need to forget technique for a tune, useful and 
 important as it is, hi order to get back to the foundations ? In the age of 
 Pope, for example, there was the same study of technical perfection that 
 we make the object of so much literary study to-day. Did not the writers 
 of that age plume themselves upon their superiority and view with con- 
 descension the mouldy and Gothic past ? Was not then* chief interest 
 too often in the letter rather than hi the spirit ; in trying to find the "secret " 
 of Homer and Virgil or Shakspere rather than the soul; in trying to do, 
 hi short, precisely what our technicians are trying to do to-day ? They 
 succeeded in their aims, and so do we. It is also true that then* literary 
 productions, surpassingly fine as they frequently are in technique, are 
 unread to-day except hi courses in literary history. 
 
 The truth of the matter is that it is out of the re-interpretation of the 
 literature of the past that the great poetry and drama have most often 
 been born. This is seen in Greek and Roman literature; it is profoundly 
 true, as I have pointed out, of the English Renaissance; it is also true of 
 much of the noblest prose and verse of the nineteenth century. The 
 literature of the past has not always this power to beget new masterpieces. 
 In an age of material prosperity and fat peace, when life presents no teasing 
 questions, the great themes of the past lack this magic of the dragon's 
 tooth. But hi a crisis, a period of transition, a tune when civilization 
 is on the rack, men turn as instinctively to the past experiences of the 
 soul as to God. The old symbols acquire new meaning, the instincts 
 deeply rooted in our mystic frame are stirred once more and vibrate in
 
 10 
 
 sympathy with chords struck in ages long forgotten. To make these 
 harmonies once more audible genius is required. That the mere study of 
 literature in college courses can bring back the age of gold is a prepos- 
 terous idea. Nevertheless, in this age when men all over the world are 
 making supreme sacrifices, are expelling the dragon of selfishness from 
 the woods of Westermain, are shaken once more by tragedy and thrilled 
 with idealism, the new poets and dramatists may find their way to college 
 class-rooms. If so, there is no richer pasture ground for them than the 
 English Renaissance, a period when literature was indeed not marked by 
 the flawless technique characteristic of much of our writing of to-day, 
 but when the theatre of life was crowded with stirring scenes and when 
 these scenes were interpreted to the multitudes by men who drew on the 
 inexhaustible stores accumulated by the human spirit through thousands 
 of years.
 
 EDITIONS AND AUTHORITIES 
 
 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS
 
 THE PERIOD AS A WHOLE 
 
 I. GENERAL WORKS 
 
 NOTE. The following pages contain the names of the important books and monographs for 
 the study of the literature of the period, the most important editions, and a statement of topics 
 for study designed to enable students to gain a knowledge of the period as a whole, and of the 
 relations to the period of great authors like Spenser, Shakspere, Bacon, and Milton. Dates have 
 been given only in the case of books and monographs recently published, or belonging to the 
 sixteenth century. Names of publishers are given only for textbooks and for a few other books 
 which for one reason or another may be hard to find. Standard histories of English literature 
 are referred to by the name of the author. Such books as are generally accessible in libraries, not 
 texts or books which the student will probably desire to purchase, are referred to by author and 
 title only. 
 
 Both references and statement of problems are designed for students in courses dealing with 
 the period as a whole, not for the special student of a single author. Thus, the graduate student 
 who is working on a dissertation will need more inclusive bibliographies than are here given. 
 Many important books and monographs are therefore omitted in order not to render the bibli- 
 ography so bulky as to be confusing. The test of admission, even of the more general works, has 
 been the importance of the book in the study of the character and thought of the English Ren- 
 aissance as expressed in the literature, not in the study of a special author or of a particular 
 literary type. 
 
 The historical background necessary to the understanding of the litera- 
 ture of the English Renaissance is best secured through the study of 
 Gardiner's History of England, volume I, pages 1-43. This account is 
 compact and weighty, but of great interest to students of literature as well 
 as of politics. Creighton's Age of Elizabeth is a convenient and interest- 
 ing brief account. Froude's History may now be had in Everyman's 
 Library; the section from it published under the title Queen Elizabeth 
 
 11
 
 12 
 
 is in five volumes. More recent and also more trustworthy are the single 
 volume histories of the period by Pollard and Innes; these deal particularly 
 with politics. The great authority on the history of the period, both 
 English and continental, is the Cambridge Modern History, volumes I-III. 
 
 On the Renaissance in general a brief account, interesting but at times 
 ill-informed and badly proportioned, is supplied by Edith Sichel's volume in 
 the Home University Library. Vernon Lee's Euphorion and Walter Pater's 
 The Renaissance are invaluable, but they are for students who already 
 possess considerable knowledge of the subject. The standard work on 
 the Italian Renaissance is that by J. A. Symonds, particularly the two 
 volumes dealing with Italian literature. The principal German work on 
 the subject, by Jakob Burckhardt, is available hi an English translation. 
 Villari's Life and Times of Machiavelli is also a work of the highest value. 
 Other useful books are Boulton's Tasso and his Times; Sichel's Michel de 
 Montaigne, and Hume's The Great Lord Burghley. Professor Fletcher's 
 little volume on Dante, in the Home University Library, supplies a useful 
 exposition of much of the thought which influenced the period. An Intro- 
 duction to the Study of the Renaissance, by L. F. Field, may also be con- 
 sulted. 
 
 On the social aspects of the age of Elizabeth consult Traill's Social Eng- 
 land, volume III; Stephenson's Shakespeare's London and The Elizabethan 
 People; Rolfe's Shakespeare the Boy; and such works on dramatic history 
 as Chambers' Mediaeval Stage and Gayley's Plays of our Forefathers. Origi- 
 nal sources are supplied in such collections as Letters of Eminent Literary 
 Men (Camden Society Publications, volume XXIII); Robert Laneham's 
 Letter, with the valuable introduction by F. J. Furnival (Early English 
 Text Society) ; Harington's Nugce Antiques; and letters such as the Sidney 
 Correspondence, edited by Pears. See also the essay on Bruno in England, 
 in Elton's Modern Studies, for light on conditions in London in the sixteenth 
 century. To these should be added not only the chapters on the Courtier 
 and allied subjects in Einstein's Italian Renaissance in England but special 
 monographs like Howard's English Travellers in the Renaissance and 
 Sheavyn's The Literary Profession in England in the Sixteenth and Seven- 
 teenth Centuries. Jusserand, Ten Brink, Morley (English Writers, volume 
 IX), and Courthope are the best sources of information among the histories
 
 13 
 
 of literature. Special fields are covered by Merrick Whitcomb's Literary 
 Source Book of the Italian Renaissance; Robinson and Rolfe's Petrarch; 
 Sir Sidney Lee's The French Renaissance in England; Upham's French In- 
 fluence in English Literature; and Scott's Elizabethan Translations from the 
 Italian (Houghton, 1916). 
 
 Interesting chapters on Humanism will be found in Jusserand, Courthope, 
 and the Cambridge History of English Literature. The most convenient 
 larger authority is A History of Classical Scholarship, volume II, by J. E. 
 Sandys. But a knowledge of the spirit of Humanism is best gained from 
 W. H. Woodward's Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators. 
 Browning's A Grammarian's Funeral, with the comments on it in Griffin's 
 Life of Robert Browning, may be read in connection with this book. Other 
 poems by Browning, such as Andrea del Sarto, Pictor Ignotus, The Bishop 
 Orders His Tomb, Fra Lippo Lippi, will assist in making the Renaissance 
 more vivid to the student. Of the highest value is P. S. Allen's Age of 
 Erasmus, which contains chapters on Schools, Monasteries, Universities, 
 Private Life and Manners, Point of View, Pilgrimages, etc., written, the 
 author says, "to present sketches of the world through which Erasmus 
 passed, and to view it as it appeared to him and to his contemporaries." 
 Seebohm's The Oxford Reformers, now available in Everyman's Library, 
 contains chapters on Colet, More, and Erasmus. For these men see also 
 Morley's English Writers, volume VII. Biographies of Erasmus are by 
 Emerton (Heroes of the Nations] and by J. A. Froude (Life and Letters of 
 Erasmus). See also the essay by Froude in Short Studies in Great Subjects. 
 The letters of Erasmus, which are of extraordinary interest, are also edited 
 by F. M. Nichols. There is an interesting chapter on More in Lee's Great 
 Englishmen of the Sixteenth Century, and Utopia has been edited by W. D. 
 Armes in a convenient little edition published by Macmillan. For more 
 special studies of the literary aspects of Humanism see Herford's Literary 
 Relations of England and Germany in the Sixteenth Century, and the re- 
 cently published book, covering the same field for the seventeenth century, 
 by G. Waterhouse. F. S. Boas has an authoritative discussion of the 
 drama in his University Drama in the Tudor Age. There have been im- 
 portant articles in the Modern Language Review on the same subject. 
 Finally, the relations of Humanism to modern literature and thought have
 
 14 
 
 been treated by Professor Irving Babbitt in several books; see especially 
 the chapter "What is Humanism?" in Literature and the American College. 
 Certain books in other literatures are essential to an understanding of 
 sixteenth century English Literature. Philosophy, especially Platonism, 
 is an important subject, involving the "religion of beauty in women," 
 political theory, and the theory of poetry. For this the volume in Every- 
 man's Library containing five dialogues by Plato on poetic inspiration is 
 convenient. These dialogues form an introduction to the study of 
 such a work as Sidney's Defense and also to the subject of love as treated 
 in the sonnets and in Spenser's Hymnes. On both these subjects consult 
 Castiglione's Courtier, either in the Tudor Translations edition (Hoby's 
 translation, 1561, with a valuable introduction by Professor Raleigh), or 
 in the cheaper edition with Opdycke's translation, published by Scribners. 
 On the subject of "love" see also Professor Fletcher's The Religion of Beauty. 
 Petrarch's sonnets, which not only influenced profoundly all the English 
 cycles but also show clearly the essential elements of the genre, both in 
 form and in thought, may be had in translation in the Bohn Library. The 
 best introduction to Renaissance pastoral is to be had through a study of 
 Theocritus and Virgil; an excellent translation, in one volume, is in the 
 Bohn Popular Library. For epic, Virgil is most important; translations 
 are easily accessible. Tasso and Ariosto are translated in the Bohn Library 
 and elsewhere. Machiavelli's Prince is essential to an understanding of 
 the political thought of the period : a translation may be had in Everyman's 
 Library. With Machiavelli's treatment of the subject should be compared 
 that of Castiglione in the fourth book of the Courtier. An excellent dis- 
 cussion of Machiavellism is in Courthope; an account of the garbled form 
 in which this philosophy, through the French version by Gentillet and the 
 English translation of it by Patericke, became popularly known in Eliza- 
 bethan England, is in Meyer's monograph on the influence of Machiavelli 
 on the drama (Literarhistorische Forschungen, volume I). For additional 
 material, see N. H. Thomson's translation of the Discorsi, and Villari's 
 History of Florence. Cellini'^ Autobiography, a colorful account of Renais- 
 sance life, is in Everyman's Library. French literature of the period is 
 thoroughly covered in Tilley's Literature of the French Renaissance, two 
 volumes. See also Sichel's Montaigne and Tilley's Rabelais. The Essais
 
 15 
 
 of Montaigne are in the World's Classics (Oxford), in the best translation 
 (Florio, 1603). Selections from French literature are accessible in Danne- 
 steter and Hatzfeld's LeJSeizieme Siecle en France. Two volumes of selec- 
 tions from Ronsard and Marot, edited respectively by Sainte-Beuve and 
 Voizard, are published in inexpensive editions by Garnier Freres, Paris. 
 The best edition of du Bellay's Defence is that by Henri Chamard, Paris, 
 1904. This book is important in any study of the literary criticism of the 
 period, and especially for its influence on Spenser. 
 
 On the language in the age of Elizabeth see Abbott's Shakespearean 
 Grammar and the sections in such works as Bradley's Making of English, 
 Ellis' Early English Pronunciation, Jespersen's Progress in Language, and 
 the histories of the English language by Wyld, Emerson, Lounsbury, Krapp, 
 and others. 
 
 II. THE DRAMA 
 
 The bibliography of the Elizabethan drama has reached such vast pro- 
 portions that only a few important items can be included here. For 
 special bibliographies of individual dramatists see under the names in the 
 Dictionary of National Biography and the full bibliographies hi the Cam- 
 bridge History of English Literature. The most useful history covering the 
 period is that by F. E. Schelling, in two volumes. Ward's History of English 
 Dramatic Literature, hi three volumes, is valuable for its complete ab- 
 stracts of plots, etc. Other authorities in the general field are Creizenach, 
 Geschichte des neueren Dramas, and, for the early period, Chambers, The 
 Mediaeval Stage. Tucker Brooke's The Tudor Drama is a small volume deal- 
 ing with the subject in an interesting and somewhat unusual manner. The 
 most convenient collection of texts of the Elizabethan period is that edited 
 by Professor Neilson (Houghton). For collections on a larger scale and 
 including plays difficult to find elsewhere, see Hazlitt's edition of Dodsley's 
 Old English Plays and also the publications of the Early English Drama 
 Society and the Tudor Facsimile Texts. 
 
 On the Elizabethan stage see, besides older works, like H. B. Baker's 
 History of the London Stage, such recent publications as Albright's The
 
 16 
 
 Shaksperean Stage, Murray's English Dramatic Companies, 1558-1642, 
 The Elizabethan Playhouse, two volumes, by W. J. Lawrence, and The 
 Court and the London Theatres, by T. S. Graves. Mr. Lawrence has pub- 
 lished valuable reviews and articles in the Modern Language Review and 
 elsewhere, and Professor Graves has made important contributions to the 
 subject in Modern Philology, Studies in Philology, and elsewhere. See also 
 the monographs by G. F. Reynolds, and Government Regulation of the 
 Elizabethan Drama, by Dr. Gildersleeve. 
 
 As to types of drama, the best exposition of the folk plays and their 
 significance is to be found in Chambers' Mediaeval Stage. The best treat- 
 ment of the morality play (types of plot structure, characterization, 
 allegory, etc.) is in R. L. Ramsay's introduction to his edition of Skelton's 
 Magnyfycence (Early English Text Society). On this subject see also the 
 book by W. R. Mackenzie on English Moralities. For tragedy, see Pro- 
 fessor Thorndike's Tragedy, in the Types of Literature. For comedy no 
 complete treatment exists, but C. R. Baskervill's English Elements in 
 Jonson's Comedy and A. Feuillerat's John Lyly treat certain aspects of the 
 subject; see also The Influence of Jonson on English Comedy, by Mina 
 Kerr, and the essays in the collection of English comedies edited by C. M. 
 Gayley. The technique of romantic comedy has received little attention. 
 For the masques, see the various articles by J. W. Cunliffe, and the volume 
 Court Masques of James I, by Mary Sullivan. 
 
 The Publications of the New Shakspere Society and the Jahrbuch pub- 
 lished by the German society contain a great deal of material, very unequal 
 in value. But the Jahrbuch is indispensable as a bibliography of current 
 monographs and books on all phases of Elizabethan literature. 
 
 The Elizabethan drama is a vast literature in itself, and it may be studied 
 in various ways. From the standpoint of the student who seeks in it- 
 means for understanding the mind of the Renaissance, matters of technique 
 are of secondary importance, as is also the critical valuation of separate 
 dramas or of the work of individual dramatists. Such a student may 
 approach the material from three points of view. In the first place, themes 
 or topics which are of importance in other forms of literature find ad- 
 ditional illustration in the drama. Thus, Skelton's Magnyfycence becomes 
 interesting not as a dramatic production but as a treatment of a theme
 
 17 
 
 found in Elyot's Governour, Spenser's Faerie Queene, Bacon's Essays, and in 
 the entire literature of courtiership. Or, Lyly's Endimion may be con- 
 sidered, not merely as an admirable example of the new English comedy, 
 but as illustrative of the tendency to use old story to present in allegorical 
 form some contemporary situation and even to show what the author 
 thought of that situation; from this point of view it is to be compared 
 with Mother Hubberds Tale and the fifth book of the Faerie Queene. Once 
 more, Shakspere's treatment of pastoral conventions in a play like As You 
 Like It, or his treatment of the "love" of the sonnet cycles, as in Twelfth 
 Night or Romeo and Juliet or The Two Gentlemen of Verona, may be com- 
 pared with pastoral and sonnet as Renaissance "kinds." Or again, a 
 study of classicism in the Renaissance would include not only the works of 
 the Humanists, the critical theories of Sidney, or the learning of Bacon, 
 but also the Sejanus of Jonson and the Antony and Cleopatra of Shakspere. 
 Considered from this standpoint, Elizabethan drama may be studied, not 
 as a special form, following a certain technique, but as a body of material 
 illustrating all sorts of topics and themes which interested the writers and 
 the public of that time. 
 
 In the second place, the drama is a mine of wealth for the study of the 
 life and customs of the time. Plays like Henry IV, Every Man in His 
 Humour, The Shoemaker's Holiday, Bartholomew Fair, The Alchemist, Hyde 
 Park, abound in illustrations of Elizabethan and Jacobean character and 
 life. It is not necessary to confine attention to such dramas as are chiefly 
 realistic in tone; dramatized romances like Twelfth Night or As You Like 
 It also afford material. 
 
 But there is a third method of study which is more valuable than these. 
 Elizabethan literature, like all true literature, is an expression of what 
 great writers of that time thought about life. In the drama Eliza- 
 bethan literature found consummate expression. This dramatic literature, 
 therefore, is important not merely from the technical standpoint but 
 as a means for understanding the Renaissance. In such a study it 
 is best to begin with Marlowe, particularly with his Tamburlaine and 
 Doctor Faustus, expressions of Renaissance thirst for power, for beauty, 
 and for intellectual domination. Shakspere's Richard III and Macbeth are 
 expositions of Machiavellism; Hotspur is an epic character, a seeker after
 
 18 
 
 personal distinction; John of Gaunt and Faulconbridge voice the new 
 English nationalism, while Henry V is an incarnation of it. The story of 
 Othello is almost a morality Mephisto seeking the soul of Faustus or 
 Satan warring on innocence and beauty as hi Paradise Lost. Lear should 
 be studied as a complement to Tamburlaine; the romance that in the 
 earlier play invests place and power is in this greatest of tragedies dis- 
 pelled; it is the climax in a series of dramas in which, hi one way or an- 
 other, Shakspere subjected Renaissance passion for glory to searching 
 analysis. From another point of view, ^iakspere's plays represent the 
 intense interest hi personality characteristic sixteenth century. In 
 
 the medieval period man as an individual h uo value; hi Shakspere as 
 in the Faerie Queene or the Book of the Courtier and in Renaissance thought 
 generally the development of a man's personality was a subject of sur- 
 passing interest. To the conception of virtu, praised by Marlowe, and the 
 nationalism and the study of personality in Shakspere's plays, should be 
 added the classical tragedy of Jonson, a tragedy of types rather than of 
 individuals, and also Jorison's satire of the materialism of the later Ren- 
 aissance in Volpone and The Alchemist, and Massinger's and Shirley's 
 even more realistic criticism in A New Way and the Lady of Pleasure or 
 Hyde Park. Volpone is beast fable cast in the mould of classical comedy; 
 The Akhemist is a scathing arraignment of what Marlowe's lust for wealth 
 and power may degenerate into; A New Way might have had for a sub- 
 title "The Getters," because of its portrayal of the self-made man who 
 thinks his money will purchase anything, while A Lady of Pleasure should 
 have for a sub- title "The Spenders," three generations removed from 
 Tamburlaine the pioneer, and one generation from Sir Giles Overreach. 
 To sum up, the study of the Elizabethan drama as representative of the 
 thought of the Renaissance should include the following plays: Tambur- 
 laine and Faustus; Richard II, John, Henry IV, and Henry V; Richard HI, 
 Macbeth, Lear, Sejanus; Othello; Volpone, The Akhemist, A New Way, 
 ind either A Lady of Pleasure or Hyde Park. But to this list any 
 number of additions may be made.
 
 19 
 
 III. SPENSER 
 
 Many important articles on Spenser have appeared in recent years in 
 the Publications of the Modern Language Association, Modern Philology, 
 The Modern Language Review, and elsewhere. The Oxford Spenser is an 
 excellent single volume text. 
 
 For material essential to the preliminary study of Spenser, such as pastoral, 
 sonnet, Platonism, Renaissance epic, see the preceding sections of this 
 bibliography. For English pastoral antedating Spenser texts may be 
 found as follows: Barclay in ercy Society Publications, volume XXII; 
 Googe in Arber's Engli^ r hits. On the sonnet consult also Sir Sidney 
 Lee's introduction to the Vo. ines of Elizabethan sonnets republished from 
 Arber's English Garner. In both pastoral and sonnet, however, the most 
 profitable means of approach is through reading in the foreign authors 
 from whom the English poets drew their inspiration and much of their 
 material. Herford's introduction to his edition of the Shepheards Calender, 
 for example, will be much better understood if it is read in connection with 
 the pastorals of Theocritus and Virgil, accessible in inexpensive form in the 
 Bohn Popular Library (Macmillan). Such reading will also help in the 
 study of Milton's pastorals. In connection with the Amoretti of Spenser 
 the following works should be used: Fletcher's Dante (Home University 
 Library) ; Petrarch's Sonnets (Bohn) ; Wyatt and Surrey (Padelford's Early 
 Sixteenth Century Lyrics or the edition of Tottel in Arber's English Re- 
 prints); Shakspere's Sonnets (editions by Beeching or Rolfe or the new 
 variorum edition by Alden), and Spenser's Fowre Hymnes (the edition by 
 L. Winstanley, Cambridge University Press, is the best, and contains an 
 extremely valuable introduction). 
 
 For the Faerie Queene there are several avenues of approach. For the 
 native and medieval elements in it, Malory's Morte Darthur and the High 
 History of the Holy Grail, both in Everyman's Library, are indispensable. 
 For the allegory, besides the usual references, see Ramsay's introduction 
 to his edition of Skelton's Magnyfycence. The debt of Spenser to Skelton, 
 especially in Books I and II, is beyond question. But Spenser's allegory 
 is too frequently studied from examples of the medieval type; attention 
 must also be paid to the Renaissance theory of allegory hi epic poetry. 
 For this see not only his letter to Raleigh but also Sidney's Defense fedi-
 
 20 
 
 tions by Cook and by Shuckburgh); see also other criticism in Smith's 
 Elizabethan Critical Essays. 
 
 The epics of Virgil, Ariosto, and Tasso should be studied, not merely as 
 sources of the Faerie Queene but first as examples of epic poetry and 
 second for the material which they supply for understanding the problems 
 of unity, management of episode, allegory, and relation to the conception 
 of the ideal hero. On this last topic it becomes necessary also to consider 
 other books on courtiership. W. M. Rossetti's Early Italian Courtesy 
 Books (Early English Text Society), Castiglione's II Cortegiano, Elyot's 
 Boke of the Governour (Everyman's Library), and Sir Humphrey Gilbert's 
 Queen Elizabeth's Academy (Early English Text Society), together with the 
 chapter on the courtier in Einstein's Italian Renaissance and Raleigh's 
 introduction to Hoby's translation of Castiglione (Tudor Translations), are 
 all easily accessible and put the student in possession of certain fundamental 
 ideas which governed Spenser. Of the Faerie Queene itself, the first book 
 is best for the study of medieval elements in Spenser's work, and the fifth 
 as a perfect example of the Renaissance conception of allegorical epic. 
 Books I and II have recently been admirably edited by L. Winstanley 
 (Cambridge University Press); unfortunately, no adequate edition of 
 Books III- VI exists. 
 
 Additional references: Morley's English Writers, volume IX; Saints- 
 bury's English Prosody, volume I, chapter v; Dowden in Transcripts and 
 Studies; Harper's Sources of the British Chronicle History in the Faerie 
 Queene; Woodberry's The Torch; MackaiFs Springs of Helicon, pages 
 71-134; Kuhns, The Source of the Infinite (for Platonism); introduction 
 to the Oxford Spenser. 
 
 IV. BACON 
 
 The standard edition of Bacon is that by Spedding, Ellis, and Heath, in 
 fourteen volumes. This contains, besides the major works, the letters 
 and fragments which enable the student to compare similar passages as 
 they occur in various places. As Bacon is a weighty and compact writer, 
 such comparison is frequently necessary in order to understand his exact 
 meaning, as, for example, in the often-quoted but usually misunderstood 
 sentence, "I have taken all knowledge to be my province."
 
 21 
 
 Of the major works, the best edition of the Essays for the advanced 
 student is that by S. H. Reynolds (Oxford). Of school editions the most 
 complete is that by M. A. Scott. The Advancement of Learning and the 
 New Atlantis are in an attractive small volume in the World's Classics, 
 but without notes; the best annotated edition of the Advancement is that 
 by W. A. Wright (Oxford), of the Atlantis, by G. C. Moore-Smith (Cam- 
 bridge). For criticism of Bacon see the article in the Dictionary of National 
 Biography and also the very full account of his political career in Gardiner's 
 History of England. There is also an essay by Sidney Lee in his Great 
 Englishmen. 
 
 There are various methods of approach to the study of Bacon. From 
 the standpoint of the aims and methods of higher education, it is best to 
 begin with Humanism: Woodward's Vittorino da Feltre, Erasmus, Ascham 
 (the best edition of his works is by W. Aldis Wright, Cambridge English 
 Classics'), Elyot's Governour, and Gilbert's Queen Elizabeth's Academy. 
 To these may be added, as a further representation of the standpoint of 
 Elyot and Gilbert, Castiglione's Courtier. The subject culminates, for the 
 Renaissance, in Milton. For Bacon, not only such essays as the one on 
 "Studies," but the far more important passages in the Advancement of 
 Learning are required. To see clearly his point of view, acquaintance with 
 the theories and methods of scholasticism is necessary (Sandys, History of 
 Classical Scholarship). The reasons for his criticism of Aristotle, both 
 educational and scientific, will then become apparent. In the Advance- 
 ment is not only criticism which applies to much college teaching to-day but 
 also anticipation of some of the best elements of modern higher education, 
 and an inspiring idealism for college students. 
 
 Closely akin to this subject is Bacon's conception of the importance of 
 scientific studies. Preparation for the study of this conception may be 
 through the medieval attitude toward science: from a multitude of illus- 
 trations the story of Roger Bacon (on which compare Greene's Friar Bacon 
 and Friar Bungay), and the story of Faust (compare Marlowe's drama) 
 may be considered. Bacon's own ideas must be collected from his writ- 
 ings, and will be found interesting for his anticipation of laboratory methods 
 of instruction and also for his insistence on the value of science as a means 
 for increasing the efficiency and comfort of life.
 
 22 
 
 Bacon's political theory is to be approached from two viewpoints: first, 
 his relation to Machiavellism, a constant influence in his works, and, 
 second, his conception of the relationship between the crown and parlia- 
 ment. For the second topic, acquaintance with the political conditions 
 in his own time is necessary, on which see Gardiner's History of England. 
 
 As to Bacon's personal character, concerning which such diverse views 
 have been expressed, the Essays and the Advancement give abundant ma- 
 terial for study, this material to be supplemented by study of his letters, 
 his state papers, and the record of his deeds. 
 
 Other topics for study are Bacon's style, on which compare other Eliza- 
 bethan prose; his literary criticism; Bacon and Montaigne; the evolution 
 of the essays, studied through the editions of 1597, 1612, and 1625; imagi- 
 nary commonwealths; the relation of passages in the Essays to passages in 
 his other works. 
 
 V. OTHER ELIZABETHAN PROSE 
 
 On the novel see, besides the works named in the Outline, the following: 
 Chandler, The Literature of Roguery (for the picaresque novel); Deloney? 
 Works, edited by F. 0. Mann; John Lyly by A. Feuillerat. An edition of 
 Sidney's works, by A. Feuillerat, is in process of publication; the 1580 
 edition of Arcadia has already appeared. Many of the prose romances 
 are difficult to obtain. For those used by Shakspere, see Furness' Variorum. 
 Greene's works, in fifteen volumes, edited by Grosart; Lodge's works, 
 edited by E. Gosse; and R. W. Bond's edition of Lyly are generally accessi- 
 ble. Painter's Palace of Pleasure is edited, in three volumes, by J. Jacobs. 
 For Nash, see the edition by R. B. McKerrow. 
 
 Holinshed may be best studied in Shakespeare's Holinshed, edited by 
 W. G. Boswell-Stone. No modern edition of Raleigh exists; the best is 
 edited by Oldys and Birch, eight volumes. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity 
 may be had in Everyman; annotated editions of Book I, by R. W. Church, 
 and of Book V, by R. Bayne, are accessible. 
 
 For literary criticism see, besides Gregory Smith's collection of Elizabethan 
 critical essays and Spingarn's Literary Criticism in the Renaissance, the collec- 
 tion of seventeenth century critical essays edited by Professor Spingarn and 
 also Saintsbury's History of English Criticism. Acquaintance with Aristotle is
 
 23 
 
 essential to the understanding of literary criticism in the Renaissance ; this 
 may be gained through a study of the translations and commentaries 
 by Butcher and Atwater, or in the brief but exceedingly useful volume 
 Aristotle on the Art of Poetry by Lane Cooper. 
 
 VI. POETS FROM SPENSER TO MILTON 
 
 Gascoigne's works are edited by J. W. Cunliffe in the Cambridge Eng- 
 lish Classics. For Drayton, consult 0. Elton's book on the subject; selec- 
 tions from his works are edited by A. H. Bullen, by E. Brett (best edition), 
 and, including selections from Daniel, by H. C. Beeching. Grierson's 
 Oxford edition of Donne is the best; others are by Grosart and Chambers. 
 The best edition of Herrick is that by F. W. Moorman; the same scholar 
 has published a biography of Herrick. Everyman's Library contains the 
 Hesperides. A. B. Grosart has published editions of Daniel and of Giles 
 and Phineas Fletcher. The standard edition of Herbert is that by G. H. 
 Palmer. See also Walton's Lives of Herbert and Donne. A convenient 
 selection from Waller is edited by G. T. Drury in the Muses Library. On 
 Waller's influence on the development of classicism see Gosse's From 
 Shakespeare to Pope and his Seventeenth Century Studies. These books also 
 contain essays on other writers of this period. The standard edition of 
 Cowley is that by A. R. Waller; the Essays are also edited by A. B. Gough. 
 
 VII. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PROSE 
 
 The standard edition of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy is that by A. 
 R. Shilleto (Bohn). Sir Thomas Brown's works are edited by A. R. Waller; 
 selections are in Everyman's Library. For Bunyan, see the biographies 
 by W. Hale White and J. A. Froude. A valuable dissertation on the 
 Sources of Bunyan's Allegories is by J. B. Wharey (University of Pennsyl- 
 vania). Walton's Compkat Angler is in Everyman's Library. 
 
 VIII. MILTON 
 
 Important editions of the poems are those by D. Masson, three volumes; 
 by W. A. Wright (Cambridge); by H. C. Beeching (Oxford), which re- 
 stores the spelling of editions issued in Milton's time; and by W. Vaughn 
 Moody (Houghton). An admirably annotated edition of Paradise Lost is
 
 24 
 
 that by A. W. Verity (Cambridge University Press). The prose may be 
 found in the Bohn Library; selections are numerous. Annotated editions 
 of the Areopagitica are by J. W. Hales (Oxford) and in the Riverside Liter- 
 ature Series. Other biographies are those by R. Garnett (with a useful 
 bibliography) and by W. P. Trent. For versification see Milton's Prosody, 
 by Robert Bridges, and an essay in Masson's edition of the poems. For 
 the literary history of the period see J. H. B. Masterman's The Age of 
 Milton. Important studies on special topics are C. G. Osgood's The 
 Classical Mythology of Milton's English Poems, and Good's Studies in the 
 Milton Tradition, a study of Milton's fame published by the University of 
 Illinois. For excellent general criticism see the essay in the Springs of 
 Helicon, by J. W. Mackail; the essay in Woodberry's The Torch; and 
 Studies in Milton, by Alden Sampson. Essays on Milton, a volume by 
 E. N. S. Thompson which deals with the epic structure and theme of 
 Paradise Lost, has recently been published by the Yale University Press. 
 There is also a thorough study of Milton's Ready and Easy Way to Establish 
 a Free Commonwealth in the Yale Studies in English. See also Addison's 
 criticism of Paradise Lost in The Spectator and Coleridge's Seven Lectures on 
 Shakespeare and Milton. 
 
 In Milton's time English literature, like English life, was traversed by 
 many currents. The old drama had passed after 1642 the theatres were 
 closed. Herrick was the last of the shepherds in Arcady. Poetry had 
 lost its former authority over the minds of men. A new conception 
 of classicism was gaining volume and was destined to rule English 
 literature for a century. But in Milton sounded clearly the last great 
 voice of the Renaissance. In his life and works is found expression, al- 
 ways authentic, often final, of each of the great " notes" of the period 
 which he brought to a close. There is medievalism, as in Spenser, made to 
 phrase the thought of his tune; there is the exaltation of the individual, 
 as in Marlowe and Shakspere; there is the fusion of pagan and Christian 
 thought, shown in his pastoral poetry, in the Hymn, and in Paradise Lost; 
 there is the assimilation of the bone and sinew of the classics, represented 
 among the Elizabethans by Ben Jonson; there is the doctrine that the 
 man of parts, true courtier, should serve the state, a doctrine that per- 
 meates Renaissance thought; and there is the lofty conception of the poet's
 
 25 
 
 function, so often dwelt upon by Sidney, Spenser, and their contemporaries, 
 here so completely illustrated by his life and writings as to render him a 
 vates or seer. Political idealism, the worship of Beauty, the use of symbol 
 and allegory, the regard for epic as the highest of the "kinds," the verse, 
 are other Renaissance characteristics which may be studied hi his works. 
 
 Suggestions for the study of these topics may be found in the analyses 
 of Milton's works in the body of this Outline. The topics may be roughly 
 classified under four heads: Milton's learning, and the sources of his 
 poetry; his personality and his stress on individualism; his conception of 
 the poet's function; and his style. For the study of the first group, the 
 materials are both autobiographical and critical. The reprinted portions 
 of his notebooks, showing his study of possible subjects, may be found in 
 Masson; to these should be added autobiographical passages in his letters 
 and tracts. The Latin elegies and many of the English poems also con- 
 tain passages important for the light they throw on his reading. To these 
 add such topics as his use of medieval material, particularly shown in pas- 
 sages embodying religious doctrine, and his habit of fusing pagan and 
 Christian material, of which the Hymn and Lyeidas give familiar examples. 
 Here Milton should be compared with Spenser. The culmination of this 
 research consists in a study of his classical learning and the use he made 
 of it. Of the three aspects under which the classics appear in the English 
 Renaissance: the revival of study of the ancient masterpieces, represented 
 in the Tudor Humanists; the romantic re-working of classical stories, 
 shown in Lyly, Shakspere, Spenser, and in many other places; and the 
 adaptation of Humanism, as Jonson had seen it, to life, Milton represents 
 the third. Sejanits and Samson Agonistes, for example, may be compared 
 with each other, with Greek tragedy, with the romantic classicism of 
 Shakspere, and with the later classicism of Dryden and Pope. The key 
 to the study here is hi the relation between Jonson and Milton. 
 
 The second topic may be approached through the study of Milton's own 
 personality, shown through the autobiographical portions of his poems, his 
 tracts, and unconsciously throughout his work. This will reveal a man 
 cast in the mould of the Renaissance, like Sidney or Cellini or Marlowe or 
 Machiavelli, however restrained he may have been through his Puritanism. 
 But the complete study of the topic involves also the consideration of
 
 26 
 
 Milton's great characters, Satan and Samson. From both phases of the 
 study, Marlowe is the man of the earlier Renaissance with whom Milton 
 is to be compared. 
 
 The third topic involves a review of all that has been studied relative to 
 the Renaissance conception of the poet and his function. See, for ex- 
 ample, Castiglione's Courtier, Sidney's Defense, Spenser's theory of the poet 
 and his work. To this add all that has been learned concerning the political 
 idealism of the Renaissance poets, the service which learning ought to 
 render to the state, the mystical conception of beauty. Here material is 
 abundant hi Milton's works; he should be compared especially with 
 Sidney and Spenser. 
 
 The fourth group is capable of indefinite extension. Symbol and alle- 
 gory, so characteristic of the Renaissance, are abundant : there is the formal 
 symbolism of the medieval type, illustrated, for example, hi his Sin and 
 Death; there is also the interpretation of current conditions through the 
 medium of ancient story, as hi Samson Agonistes. Here, again, the key to 
 the study is found in Spenser. Furthermore, Milton's conception of the 
 epic is to be studied through comparison not only with Virgil but also with 
 Spenser and Tasso; it is also to be studied hi what Milton himself said 
 about the subject. Finally, Milton's verse is of the Renaissance; it re- 
 creates the evolution of prosody through that period. This may be seen, 
 for example, through tracing his narrative verse from the Marlowesque 
 passages in the first two books of Paradise Lost through various stages hi 
 Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained to the marvelously flexible yet subtle 
 metre of Samson Agonistes. On this Mr. Moody's analysis of the versifica- 
 tion of Milton's classical tragedy will be found helpful. The material 
 for comparison should be drawn from Marlowe, Shakspere, Beaumont and 
 Fletcher, and Webster and Ford. The Elizabethan quality of his verse 
 may be made clear by contrast with that of Dryden and Pope.
 
 27 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINES
 
 28 
 THE RENAISSANCE 
 
 I. Changes influencing the Literature of the Sixteenth Century 
 
 1. In language: such as (a) changes in pronunciation due for ex- 
 ample to the dropping of final e as a separately sounded syllable; 
 metrical regularity of Chaucer's verse no longer appreciated; 
 (6) the consequent breaking down of old metrical standards and 
 the introduction of freakish forms ("Poulter's measure"; "Skel- 
 tonic" verse, etc.). Later in the century, the attempt to adapt 
 classical quantitative verse to English (The Areopagus, etc.). 
 
 2. In thought : such as (a) the new nationalism, due to the political 
 changes made by Henry VIII and Elizabeth; (6) the revival of 
 interest in the classics (Humanism) which had been almost un- 
 known in the Middle Ages; (c) cosmopolitanism, due to travel; 
 the influence of Italy and France, reflected in Chaucer, again 
 becomes prominent. 
 
 3. In literary themes: such as the introduction of the sonnet and 
 other forms of subjective literature; the pastoral; the new theory 
 of the epic; the novel; the essay; the drama. 
 
 II. Early Humanism in England 
 
 1. Humphrey of Gloucester (1391-1447) 
 
 2. Colet (1466-1519) and Erasmus (1465-1536) 
 
 3. Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) 
 
 (a) Utopia (Latin version, 1516; English translation by 
 Ralph Robinson, 1551) 
 
 4. Early translations from the classics 
 
 (a) Phaer's Aeneid (1558-1562). Two books of the Aeneid 
 also translated by Surrey, in blank verse. 
 (6) Seneca was translated by Jasper Heywood and others, 
 1581. 
 
 (c) North's Plutarch (1579) was famous for its influence "on 
 Shakspere.
 
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 30 
 
 HI. Transitional Poetry of the Early Sixteenth Century 
 
 1. John Skelton (c. 1460-1529) 
 
 (a) Author of various translations and adaptations of human- 
 istic works. 
 
 (6) Influenced by Chaucer in Garlande of Laurell, a medley 
 of all sorts of material, but in lively metre; and in the more 
 important Bowge of Courte, an allegory owing something to 
 Chaucer, something to the "ship" allegory of Brant and 
 Barclay. 
 
 (c) Phillyp Sparowe, a story of the death and burial of a pet 
 sparrow; travesty, incoherent structure, "Skeltonic" verse. 
 Written to please a patron. 
 
 (d) Colyn Clout, a satire of the clergy from the point of view 
 of a layman. 
 
 (e) Why come ye nat to courtel a bitter invective against 
 Wolsey. 
 
 (/) Magnyfycence, a morality play but with probably direct 
 application to political matters. 
 
 (g) Skelton's verse is usually written in two-accent lines, 
 irregular in unaccented syllables, and with rhymes rambling 
 through any number of lines. 
 
 2. Alexander Barclay (c. 1475-1552) 
 
 (a) The Ship of Fools (1509) a translation, with many addi- 
 w~ *+y~* * tions, of the Narrenschiff of Sebastian Brant; satire of all 
 sorts of folly, shown by women, clerics, beggars and vaga- 
 bonds ; full of classical and biblical allusions and many proverbs ; 
 scurrilous; vivid picture of contemporary life; shows niter- 
 relation of Germany and England in early sixteenth century. 
 (6) Eclogues (c. 1514). Five pastoral eclogues translated 
 from Mantuan and Aeneas Sylvius but with many additions 
 and applications to local conditions; they treat of miseries 
 of court and the superiority of country life, and the sad 
 state of poets. Important as being the first examples of 
 Renaissance pastoral in English, and have the characteristic 
 satire veiled by allegory; they are racy, homely, vivid. 
 
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 32 
 
 IV. The Mirror for Magistrates 
 
 i. Combines medieval and renaissance elements 
 
 (a) Written by various men, 1555 ff.; a series of medieval 
 "tragedies" similar to Chaucer's Monk's Tale and Boccaccio's 
 De Casibus Virorum; immediate model Lydgate's Fall of 
 Princes and first planned as a re-issue and continuation of 
 that work. 
 
 (6) Great popularity throughout the century, and particu- 
 larly influential on the drama, thirty historical plays being 
 extant which are based on stories told in the Mirror. 
 (c) Chief importance due to the Induction written 1563 by 
 Thomas Sackville (who also collaborated with Norton in 
 writing Gorboduc [acted 1562] a Senecan tragedy in blank 
 verse); this Induction, influenced by Chaucer and Virgil, 
 and perhaps by Dante, notable for its allegory, its grave 
 and musical verse, and its direct influence on Spenser. 
 V. Tottel's Miscellany (1557) 
 
 i. A collection of nearly three hundred poems by Sir Thomas 
 Wyatt (1503-1542), the Earl of Surrey (c. 1517-1547), and others. 
 These poems are mainly (a) sonnets in imitation of Petrarch; 
 (6) other amoristic lyrics, introducing, with the sonnets, a new 
 code of courtly "love"; (c) satires, epistles, epigrams, showing 
 the influence of the classics but dealing with certain conventional 
 subjects, such as the superiority of the country to the town and 
 the hardships of the courtier's life; a few, such as Wyatt's The 
 Mean and Sure Estate, showing the influence of Chaucer. By 
 far the greater number are amoristic, and are written in the most 
 diverse metrical forms. 
 
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 34 
 
 VI. George Gascoigne (c. 1525-1577) 
 
 1. A poet of moderate genius whose importance springs from the 
 way in which he anticipated many of the literary activities of the 
 Elizabethan period. 
 
 2. Representative works 
 
 (a) Dramatic writings: The Supposes, a comedy acted in 
 1566, based upon a comedy by Ariosto; Jocasta, acted 1566, 
 a tragedy of the Senecan type. 
 
 (b) Certayne Notes of Instruction, 1575, the first important 
 work of literary criticism in English. 
 
 (c) The Posies, 1575, a collection of poems, mainly lyrical, 
 on many subjects and in many forms. 
 
 (d) The Steel Glass, 1576, a satire based on a comparison 
 between the old steel mirrors, representing the superior 
 moral and manners of an earlier age, and the crystal mirrors 
 then coming into fashion, by which he symbolizes the 
 corruption and follies of his age. Somewhat in the manner 
 of Piers Plowman. 
 
 References: On the changes in language, etc., in the sixteenth century, see 
 Cambridge, III. 499-530. On the general character of the Renaissance, see 
 Jusserand, II. 3-25; 40-92; 134-149, and in his Novel in the Time of Shakespeare, 
 chapter ii; Einstein, Italian Renaissance in England, chapters ii and viii. For 
 Humanism, see Cambridge Modern History, I. chapter vi; Courthope, II. chap- 
 ter i; Cambridge, III. 1-27; Jusserand, II. 76-92. For Tottel's Miscellany, see 
 Jusserand II. 134-148; Cambridge III. 187-206; Courthope, II. chapters ii and 
 iii; and the introduction to Padelford's Sixteenth Century Lyrics (Heath & Com- 
 pany). For Gascoigne: Cambridge, III. 227-238; Courthope, II. 167-177. A 
 selection from the Steel Glass is to be found in Skeat's Specimens of English 
 Literature, 1394-1579, pp. 312-325. This book may also be consulted for its 
 selections from other transitional authors from Chaucer to Spenser.
 
 36 
 THE NEW ENGLISH POETRY 
 
 I. The Influence of Italy and France 
 
 1. Italian writers important for their influence on English liter- 
 ature in the sixteenth century. 
 
 (a) Petrarch (1304-1374) His Rime, or Sonetti e canzoni 
 in vita di Madonna Laura, a cycle of 207 sonnets, inter- 
 spersed with various other short lyrics, treating of the suffer- 
 ings of the lover, the cruelty of his mistress, the lofty in- 
 fluence of love, the whole given the form of a cycle through 
 references to the passing of time and to incidents of his 
 courtship. These sonnets exerted great influence in France 
 and England through their form, then- phraseology, and the 
 Neo-Platonic theory of love. 
 
 (6) Ariosto (Orlando Furioso, 1516) and Tasso (Gerusalemme 
 Liberata, 1575) were writers of epic poetry whose works pro- 
 foundly influenced Spenser. 
 
 (c) The writers of novelle, short stories usually of a tragic 
 cast, which formed the basis for the many English collec- 
 tions of short stories and also served as storehouses of plot 
 for the dramas. 
 
 2. The influence of France felt mainly through the critical theories 
 of the Pleiade, through the pastorals of Marot and others, and 
 through the sonnets and other lyrics of Ronsard, Du Bellay, 
 Desportes.
 
 38 
 
 n. The Sonnet 
 
 1. Origin. Arose in Italy near the end of the thirteenth century; 
 practiced by Dante, Michelangelo, Tasso, Ariosto, and Petrarch. 
 At first, however, the name was applied to any short amoristic 
 lyric, and a similar confusion persisted in England even in Shaks- 
 pere's time. Rossetti's translation of the New Life of Dante 
 will illustrate early sonnet forms and aims. Chaucer translated 
 one of Petrarch's sonnets in his Troilus, Book 1. 11. 400-420. 
 
 2. Form. 
 
 (a) True Italian type. Fourteen lines, the first eight con- 
 stituting the octave, which introduces the theme, and the 
 last six the sestet, which is sub-divided into two tercets. 
 The first tercet prepares the leading idea or theme of the 
 octave for the conclusion in the second tercet. See Words- 
 worth's sonnet on Milton for a fairly close imitation of this 
 form. The rhyme scheme of the octave is abba, abba; 
 less accurately, abba, a c c a; of the sestet, c d e, c d e; 
 or c d c d c d; or c d c d e e. 
 
 (b) English forms in the sixteenth century fall under two 
 main classes: the Shaksperean, consisting of three quatrains 
 rhyming alternately, and a concluding couplet; and the 
 Spenserian, somewhat like the stanza of the Faerie Queene, 
 ab ab, b cb c , cd cd , e e. Milton's sonnets are correct 
 in rhyme, but often careless of the distinction between oc- 
 tave and sestet. 
 
 3. English sonnet cycles of the sixteenth century 
 
 (a) Wyatt, Surrey, Gascoigne, Watson, wrote many sonnets 
 before the time of the great cycles; Tottel's collection of 
 songs and sonnets was reprinted seven times by 1587; 
 Shakspere introduced three sonnets into Love's Labour's 
 Lost and two in Romeo and Juliet; chief vogue of the genre 
 from 1591 to 1597, in which period the French writers were 
 drawn upon quite as much as the Italian. 
 (6) The chief cycles: Sidney, Astrophel and Stella, 1591, 
 platonic courtship of Lady Penelope Rich, 108 sonnets,
 
 40 
 
 based on Petrarch, Ronsard, and Desportes; Daniel, Delia, 
 1592, mainly French, some of them of high literary value; 
 Constable, Diana, 1592, 1594; Barnes, Parthenophil and 
 Parthenope, 1593; Watson, Tears of Fancie, 1593; Giles 
 Fletcher the Elder, Licia, 1593, frankly confessed to be 
 literary exercises; Lodge, Phillis, 1593; Dray ton, Idea, 
 1594; Spenser, Amoretti, 1595, but some of them perhaps 
 written at a much earlier date, in then* present form repre- 
 senting his courtship of Elizabeth Boyle, whom he married; 
 Shakspere, Sonnets, ca. 1594, which differ from the other 
 cycles in that some of them are addressed to a man and 
 others show distaste for the conventions of the genre. 
 (c) Total number of amoristic sonnets written during this 
 period estimated at 1200; in addition, about 500 addressed 
 to patrons and as many on philosophical and religious 
 themes. 
 Studies 
 
 1. Conventionalities in diction and tropes, such as the similes of the 
 
 ship, the warrior, etc., and in the narrative element, "the prologue, 
 hope, and the epilogue, despair." 
 
 2. The idealistic view of love. This form of Elizabethan Platonism 
 
 especially prominent in the sonnets of Sidney and of Spenser. For 
 the complete statement of the religion of beauty, see Spenser's 
 Four Hymns. 
 
 3. The problem of Shakspere's sonnets. Besides the reference given 
 
 above to Lee, the introductions to the editions of the sonnets by 
 Beeching and by Rolfe may be used. 
 
 References: On the general character of the sonnet and the history of its form, 
 consult Alden, English Verse, pp. 267-297, and Corson, Primer of English Verse, 
 pp. 143-185. On the Elizabethan sonnet, see Cambridge III. 281-310 (Lee); 
 Jusserand, II. 383-419. A more d'taued : "count of the cycles is in Lee's Life 
 of Shakespeare, s. v. the sonnets and also in the appendix. For the Italian in- 
 fluence, consult Einstein, The Italian Renaissance in England, and for the French, 
 Lee, The French Renaissance in England, and Upham, French Influence in English 
 Literature.
 
 42 
 
 HI. The Pastoral 
 
 1. Classical pastorals 
 
 (a) Theocritus (280 B.C.). His Idyls marked by realism and 
 by introduction of themes afterwards characteristic of the 
 genre, such as the singing match, dirge, love-lay, etc. No 
 allegory or veiled satire. 
 
 (6) Virgil's Eclogues are less realistic and introduce allusions 
 to life of the times. 
 
 2. Italian Group 
 
 (a) Petrarch wrote twelve Latin eclogues 1346-1356; these 
 
 have strong political allegory. His eclogues imitated by 
 
 Boccaccio. 
 
 (6) Mantuan (1448-1516) wrote a series of pastorals in 
 
 which the satire of church and state is more pronounced. 
 
 Some of these translated into English by Barclay. 
 
 (d) Sannazaro's Arcadia, 1490-1495; consists of twelve 
 
 eclogues connected by passages in lyrical prose; the most 
 
 striking theme is the praise of Arcadia as a refuge from 
 
 the town. Compare Sidney's romance, and As You Like It. 
 
 3. French Group 
 
 (a) Of the poets who wrote pastorals in France in the six- 
 teenth century, Marot is important for the influence he 
 exerted on Spenser. 
 
 4. English predecessors of Spenser 
 
 (a) Barclay translated some of Mantuan's eclogues ca. 1514. 
 
 (b) Googe in 1563 wrote eight eclogues loosely connected 
 by two narratives running through them, realistic in style 
 and homely in metre, moral in intention. 
 
 (c) There were some pastoral elements in the other poetry 
 of the period, as in Tottel; Chaucer was also regarded as 
 a pastoral poet by Spenser and others.
 
 44 
 
 5 Spenser's Shepheards Calender, 1579. Twelve eclogues, some- 
 what loosely connected by the motif of the seasons, one being 
 assigned to each month, and by the romance of Colin (Spenser) 
 and Rosalind. Five of the eclogues deal with religious and politi- 
 cal conditions, and are native rather than foreign in source and 
 model. The others imitate conventional pastoral themes, such 
 as the singing match, the praise of the poet's patron, the dirge, 
 the complaint of unrequited love. In freshness, lyric power, 
 and thought the Calender marks the beginning of a new era in 
 English poetry. 
 Studies 
 
 1. The most notable eclogues of the Shepheards Calendar are those 
 
 for 'February' (religious allegory; fable of the oak and the briar, 
 told in what was thought to be the style of Chaucer and in a four 
 stress verse which roughly imitates the way Chaucer's verse must 
 have sounded as pronounced in Spenser's time); 'April' (Song in 
 praise of Elizabeth); 'October' (the perfect poet). 
 
 2. Study the versification of 'February.' 
 
 3. The eclogues for 'September,' 'October' and 'November' contain 
 
 ideas and phrases echoed by Milton in Lycidas. 
 
 References: A convenient introduction to the pastorals is to be found in Pro- 
 fessor Herford's edition of the Shepheards Calendar; see also the introduction to 
 English Pastorals, edited by E. K. Chambers; Morley, English Writers, IX. 
 35-58; Jusserand, II. 455-472; Cambridge, III. 247-269; Courthope, II. 242- 
 245, 252-256; Church, Life of Spenser, chapter ii. The Idyls of Theocritus have 
 been translated by A. Lang and others; Virgil's Eclogues appear in translation 
 in Everyman's Library.
 
 46 
 
 IV. Other Lyric Poetry 
 
 1. The Elizabethan Anthologies were almost as popular and as 
 numerous as the sonnet cycles; they were composed of short poems 
 collected from the works of well-known poets or extracted from 
 song-books, novels, and dramas. Chief examples: 
 
 (a) Totter s Miscellany (1557) 
 
 (6) Paradise of Dainty Devices (1576). Themes largely 
 
 moral; reprinted eight times by 1600. 
 
 (c) Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions (1578) 
 
 (d) A Handfull of Pleasant Delights (1584) 
 
 (e) The Phoenix's Nest (1593) 
 (/) England's Helicon (1600) 
 
 (gr) The Passionate Pilgrim (1599). Ascribed to Shakspere. 
 (h) Poetical Rhapsody (1602) 
 
 2. A group of narrative poems, strongly lyrical in method, based 
 on classical sources: Shakspere's Venus and Adonis (1593) and 
 The Rape of Lucrece (1594); and Marlowe's Hero and Leander 
 (published 1598). 
 
 Studies 
 
 1. Compare the Elizabethan song lyric with the popular ballad in stanza, 
 
 use of refrain, evidences of conscious literary art, theme. 
 
 2. The place of the lyric in the dramas and romances of the time. 
 
 3. The Elizabethan Song Books. 
 
 References: The best introduction to the lyrics of the Elizabethan period is 
 to be found in Schelling's Elizabethan Lyrics or in Carpenter's English Lyric 
 Poetry. See also Cambridge IV. 127-146. On the general characteristics of 
 lyric poetry, see Gummere, Handbook of Poetics, pp. 40-57.
 
 48 
 EDMUND SPENSER (1552-1599) 
 
 I. Early Works 
 
 1. While a student at Cambridge contributed some translations 
 from Du Bellay to a miscellany, Theatre for Worldlings (1569). 
 
 2. In London in the service of the Earl of Leicester, 1578-1580. 
 Here published (1579) the Shepheards Calender, which, among 
 other elements, contained a warning to the Puritans of the danger 
 to England in the alliance between Rome and Philip of Spain. 
 Also wrote Mother Hubberds Tale, a beast fable in the manner of 
 Chaucer, warning Leicester to prevent the proposed marriage 
 between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou. For his boldness, 
 Spenser sent to Ireland, 1580, as the secretary of Lord Grey, and 
 spent the remainder of his life there except for two visits to London. 
 
 II. The Faerie Queene 
 
 1. Planned in imitation of Ariosto as early as 1579 and written 
 in part, though perhaps not in the form in which it was finally 
 published. First three books brought by Spenser to London 
 1589 and published 1590; the next three published 1596, though 
 completed two years earlier. In 1609 two additional cantos in 
 the same stanza but not otherwise closely related to the epic. 
 
 2. Plan 
 
 (a) Virgil, regarded in the Renaissance as the ideal poet, 
 was thought not only to have written the history of the 
 founding of Rome but also to have presented in the form of 
 allegory a view of the state and a portrait of the ideal man. 
 Thus Spenser, passing like Virgil from pastoral to epic, 
 planned an epic that should deal with the early history of 
 Britain, should shadow forth the ideal man, and present a 
 theory of the state. 
 
 (6) The details of the plan of the epic are given in the letter 
 to Raleigh prefixed to the edition of 1590. There were to 
 be twelve books, each of them devoted to the adventures of 
 a knight representing a cardinal virtue. Unity was to be 
 given through the person of Arthur representing Magnifi-
 
 50 
 
 cence in the moral allegory, Leicester in the political allegory, 
 and England in the conception of the State. Gloriana, the 
 Taerie Queene', represents Elizabeth. But the allegory, 
 after the fashion of the time, is very complex; for example, 
 Elizabeth is represented not only as Gloriana but also as 
 Britomart and Mercilla. 
 Contents. 
 
 (a) Book I. The Red Cross Knight, accompanied by Una, 
 slays the Dragon. Moral allegory : Holiness guided by Truth 
 overcomes Error. Political allegory: the events of the 
 English Reformation. 
 
 (6) Book II. The adventures of Guyon and Arthur, leading 
 to the defence of Alma and the overthrow of Acrasia. Moral 
 allegory: the course of Temperance through life, avoiding 
 extremes of gloom or of false joy, avoiding wrath and vio- 
 lent passion, conquering desires for wealth and sensual 
 enjoyment. Political allegory less marked; the character- 
 istics of the English gentleman are represented, and his 
 patriotism is grounded on study of past history of his nation. 
 
 (c) Book III. The adventures of Britomart; her love for 
 Artegall. Moral allegory: Britomart represents chastity. 
 Political allegory: Britomart represents the Queen as Sov- 
 ereign, loving Artegall, who stands for Justice, an attribute 
 of -sovereignty. Many of the incidents refer to social and 
 political affairs at court. 
 
 (d) Book IV. No dominating knight in this book but a 
 series of adventures representing the various aspects of love. 
 Cambell and Triamond represent friendship between men; 
 Britomart and Amoret, that between women; the love stories 
 of Britomart and Amoret are continued. 
 
 (e) Book V. Artegall saves Irena; Arthur goes to defend 
 Belgae; Duessa is tried and executed. The moral allegory 
 deals with the virtue of Justice presented under various 
 forms. The political element deals with the function of jus- 
 tice in the state and concretely with the problem of Ireland.
 
 52 
 
 (f) Book VI. The quest for the Blatant Beast by Calidore. 
 Moral allegory: Calidore represents courtesy; the Beast 
 is Scandal. Political allegory: reference to the damage 
 done to England by the detraction visited upon Lord Grey 
 and others in spite of their service to the state; Sidney the 
 personification of Courtesy. 
 
 (g) Book VII (?) Two cantos of Mutability and the danger 
 it brings the state; perhaps a reference to the course of Eng- 
 land in dealing with the Irish problem. 
 
 III. Spenser's Other Works. 
 
 1. Complaints. A collection of minor poems published in 1591 
 but written at various times. Most important Mother Hubberds 
 Tale and Virgils Gnat. 
 
 2. Miscellaneous Pastorals: Daphnaida (1591); Astrophel, and 
 Colin Clout (1595). Also, two marriage hymns, Epithalamion 
 and Prothalamion. 
 
 3. Fowre Hymnes, published 1596. These present Spenser's 
 philosophy of Love and Beauty, his Neo-Platonic creed. For 
 the Amoretti, see p. 59. 
 
 4. Veue of the Present State of Ireland, written 1595-1596, a 
 prose discussion in form of dialogue, based on Machiavelli's 
 Prince', the prose counterpart of Faerie Queene V.
 
 54 
 
 Studies 
 
 1. The Stanza: observe its structure, the effect of the rhyme-scheme and 
 
 the alexandrine. (See Corson, Primer of English Verse, pp. 87- 
 107; Alden, English Verse, pp. 102-106). (6) The stanza as em- 
 ployed by subsequent poets. For a list of such imitations see 
 Corson, pp. 108-142. (c) Find stanzas remarkable for pictorial 
 quality, sensuous charm, etc. 
 
 2. Compare Spenser's use of simile with that of Milton in Paradise Lost. 
 
 His diction. 
 
 3. Study the plot construction of the first book of the Faerie Queene. 
 
 Is the book successful as narrative? 
 
 4. Study the characterization in the same book; the character-groups, 
 
 the different allegorical types, etc. 
 
 5. Compare Spenser's use of Arthurian romance material with Tenny- 
 
 son's. Compare the two poets as to use of allegory. Compare 
 Spenser's allegory with Chaucer's. With Bunyan's. 
 
 6. Note the main principles of Spenser's religion of beauty. 
 
 References: The best biography of Spenser is that contributed by Professor 
 Fletcher to the Encyclopedia Americana. For criticism, see Lowell's essay on 
 Spenser and the brilliant though unfair account in Jusserand III. 473-509. 
 Courthope's chapter in Cambridge III. 259-272 contains much excellent criticism 
 together with some inaccuracies in detail.
 
 56 
 
 THE DRAMA 
 
 I. The Origin of the English Drama 
 i. The Religious Drama 
 
 (a) Origin in the trope, a, text for a special day, introduced 
 in the musical service of the Mass. Some of these were 
 dramatic in character, especially those for Easter and Christ- 
 mas; they date from about the ninth century. An excellent 
 example of the trope is the Easter Quern Quoeritis, which may 
 be found in translation in Manly's Pre-Shaksperean Drama, 
 I. xix, or in Early Plays (Riverside Literature Series), pp. 2 ff. 
 (6) By the thirteenth century, rude dramas had developed 
 about the sepulcher (Easter) and the manger (Christmas); 
 these expanded into groups of scenes; a third group formed 
 by the introduction of scenes from the Old Testament sup- 
 posed to prophesy the coming of Messiah. All this develop- 
 ment within the church. 
 
 (c) Third stage of development shown in transfer to the 
 guilds, to be presented by them outside the church. Ver- 
 nacular took the place of the Latin; more realistic treatment 
 of incidents, especially those that were extra-biblical; in- 
 troduction of comedy scenes; development of character types, 
 such as Herod, Pilate, Noah's wife. 
 
 (d) The English Cycles. Of the hundreds of plays pro- 
 duced in England during the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 
 turies, four fairly complete cycles are extant: The York, 
 containing 48 pageants; Towneley or Wakefield, 32 pageants; 
 the so-called Coventry cycle, with 43 ; and the Chester cycle, 
 with 25. These usually presented on Corpus Christi Day, 
 elaborate in staging and detail, the cycles covering the main 
 events from the Creation to the Day of Doom, the chief 
 stress being upon the periods from the Creation to the Flood; 
 the life of Christ, with the Ascension, and the early Apostolic 
 age. These plays originally called "mysteries" (Fr. mystere) 
 because presented by the guilds. Also a few "miracles" 
 6r dramatized legends about saints.
 
 58 
 
 2. Moralities 
 
 (a) These dramatized moral allegories of the fifteenth and 
 sixteenth centuries due to the great popularity of allegory. 
 (6) Themes: religious and moral instruction; religious polem- 
 ics; later, plays showing the value of learning. Examples: 
 The Castle of Perseverance, Everyman, Hycke Scorner, Nyce 
 Wanton. 
 
 (c) Bale's Kynge Johann (ca. 1538) introduces historical 
 characters along with allegorical abstractions, but the play 
 deals with religious controversy of the time and is not 
 properly chronicle history. 
 
 3. Interludes 
 
 (a) Origin uncertain and strict definition difficult; object 
 entertainment rather than instruction, thus deals with real- 
 istic comedy. An early example of high dramatic merit in 
 the Second Shepherd's play of the Towneley religious 
 cycle. 
 
 (6) John Heywood (c. 1497-c. 1577) wrote many interludes, 
 e. g., Weather; Love; Four PP; Johan Johan;etc. 
 
 4. Folk Plays 
 
 (a) Certain folk customs and festivals contain dramatic 
 elements, some of them of great age: Hock Tuesday Play; 
 Sword Dance, etc., are examples. 
 
 (6) Somewhat later are numerous plays dealing with St. 
 George, Robin Hood, etc. Some of these still survive as 
 mummer's plays in parts of England. See the interesting 
 account of the Christmas mummer's play in Hardy's novel, 
 The Return of the Native. Further material on the subject 
 of folk customs and plays may be found in Chambers' 
 The Mediaeval Stage, volume II.
 
 60 
 
 Studies 
 
 1. The best illustration of the dramatic version of biblical story is to 
 
 be found in the Brome play of Abraham and Isaac (Reprinted 
 in Early Plays, R.L.S., and in Manly.) Study the way hi which 
 the author enters into sympathy with the main characters; his sense 
 of the tragedy; the force of the climax; the realism of treatment and 
 independence of slavish following of his source. For extra-biblical 
 material, see one of the Noah plays, broad farce, or the far superior 
 Shepherds Play (Early Plays; Manly). Study plot construction of 
 the latter; characterization; realism. 
 
 2. Everyman and Nice Wanton should be studied among the moralities, 
 
 as to plot, characterization, management of allegory. 
 
 References: Text of early plays may be had in convenient form in the volume 
 Early Plays in the Riverside Literature Series; see also Manly, The Pre-Shaks- 
 perean Drama, volume I.; Pollard, English Mystery Plays, etc., which also contains 
 an extended introduction. A volume in Everyman's Library is also devoted to 
 texts. For discussion, see Cambridge, V. 40-68 (The Religious Drama) and pp. 
 26-39 (Folk Plays). The English Religious Drama, by K. L. Bates, contains 
 much interesting material on methods of presentation, costumes, acting, etc. 
 See also Ward's English Dramatic Literature, I. 1-157, and Jusserand, I. 439- 
 494.
 
 62 
 
 The Period of Transition 
 i. Early tragedy 
 
 (a) Tragic elements in the religious drama, such as the 
 Brome Abraham play, the drastic realism of the Crucifixion. 
 (6) Senecan tragedy. The ten tragedies ascribed to Seneca 
 (first century) were popular through the Middle Ages for 
 their philosophy and oratorical quality; they were not 
 acted, however. In the Renaissance many translations 
 and imitations were put on the stage; English translation 
 in 1581; imitations adopted the five act division, were 
 tragedies of blood, not character, were highly rhetorical, 
 made use of chorus, and gave the stage such stock charac- 
 ters as the ghost, the tyrant, the confidant, etc. Gorboduc, 
 by Sackville and Norton, acted 1562, based on early English 
 history, but in Senecan style; purpose didactic, dealing 
 with problem of Queen's marriage; blank verse. Jocasta, 
 by Gascoigne, 1566, from Italian version of tragedy by 
 Euripides; blank verse. The Misfortunes of Arthur, by 
 Thomas Hughes, acted 1588, based on Geoffrey and Malory, 
 but Senecan style; blank verse. 
 
 (c) Other early tragedies, important for relations to Shaks- 
 pere, were The Troublesome Raigne of King John anjl The 
 True Chronicle History of King Leir.
 
 64 
 
 2. Early Comedy 
 
 (a) Comedy elements were present in the religious plays, 
 notably in the Noah plays, the shepherds' plays, etc. Note 
 also the interludes. 
 
 (6) Neo-classical group. One form of these plays origi- 
 nated in Germany, aimed at reproducing the wit and senten- 
 tiousness of Plautus and Terence but with a moral aim; 
 usually variations of the story of the Prodigal Son; examples 
 in the Acolastus of William Gnaphaeus and the anti-papal 
 Pammachius of Thomas Kirchmayer. These translated 
 and imitated in English school dramas; notable example 
 in Gascoigne's Glasse of Government. Nicholas Udall, a 
 schoolmaster, adapted Roman comedy to English; his 
 Ralph Roister Doister, ca. 1553, the first true English comedy 
 having structure and complicated plot; imitates Plautus 
 in inspiration and form. Gammer Gurtons Nedle, ca. 1562, 
 by William Stevenson (?), classical in structure like other 
 college plays, but native English farce in characters and plot. 
 Note, finally, that Shakspere made use of Latin comedy 
 in his Comedy of Errors. 
 
 (c) Translations. Gascoigne's Supposes, acted 1566, a trans- 
 lation from Ariosto. 
 
 References: For texts, see Manly's Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama, 
 and the volume in Everyman's Library. Gayley's Representative English Come- 
 dies contains specimens of the comedies, together with much historical matter. 
 For history and criticism, Cambridge V. 68-135; Ward's English Dramatic 
 Literature, chapter ii; Jusserand III. 24-35.
 
 66 
 
 HI. The New English Drama 
 
 1. John Lyly (1553-1606) 
 
 (a) First literary work, his novel Euphues, 1578. 
 (6) His plays usually presented by the Children's Companies 
 of the Chapel Royal and St. Paul's. His themes usually 
 pastoral or classical myth, often treating in allegory current 
 politics or social affairs at court. 
 
 (c) Chief comedies: Endymion, 1579, an application of the 
 myth to the quarrel between Leicester and the Queen; 
 Sapho and Phao, ca. 1582, also allegorical; Campaspe, 
 printed 1584, classical story of Alexander, Campaspe, and 
 Apelles. Pastoral elements added in Gallathea, printed 1592, 
 and Love's Metamorphosis, printed 1601. Mother Bombie, 
 printed 1594, deals with mistaken identity, like Plautus, 
 and has less Euphuism and more farce than usual in Lyly. 
 Woman in the Moone, printed 1597, is in blank verse. 
 
 (d) The significance of Lyly as a dramatist rests upon his 
 stressing of the comedy of wit rather than situation, thus 
 producing high comedy as against the older farce; his in- 
 troduction of the lighter aspects of love; his symmetrical 
 grouping of characters; his use of prose; the introduction 
 of lyrics into the plays; his attention to style. In all these 
 respects he influenced "Shakspere. 
 
 2. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) 
 
 (a) Romantic tragedies: Tamburlaine, in two parts, 1587- 
 1588, a study of the thirst for universal political dominion; 
 Doctor Faustus, 1588, an adaptation of the Faust legend 
 from contemporary German accounts, a study of the thirst 
 for intellectual greatness; The Jew of Malta, 1589, dealing 
 with the thirst for universal wealth. 
 
 (6) Chronicle History: Edward the Second, ca. 1592; not the 
 primitive type of chronicle play, since its material is selected 
 and the theme is fairly unified, leading to a tragic close. 
 Influenced Shakspere's Richard II; Marlowe's influence also 
 apparent in Richard III.
 
 68 
 
 (c) The significance of Marlowe consists in his establishing, 
 by the great popularity of his plays as well as the skill of 
 his versification, blank verse as the form of Elizabethan 
 tragedy; in his study of the individualism, the virtu, so 
 characteristic of the Renaissance; in the epic and lyric 
 qualities of his work. 
 
 Thomas Kyd (1558-1594) 
 
 (a) Important for his use of the Revenge Tragedy, character- 
 ized by introduction of ghost seeking revenge; madness; 
 play within the play; much bloodshed; strongly reminiscent 
 of Seneca. Compare Hamlet. 
 
 (6) His chief plays The Spanish Tragedy, acted 1586, and 
 the Ur- Hamlet, acted 1588. 
 
 George Peele (1558-1598) 
 
 (a) His plays significant for skill in use of words and rich, 
 often ironical, humor; they blend romance with realism, 
 and show true love of nature and simple country life. 
 (6) Chief plays: The Arraignment of Paris, published 1584; 
 The Old Wives Tale, ca. 1590, which contains a version of 
 the story of Comus and much folk-lore; David and Bethsabe, 
 printed 1599, a romantic version of the biblical story. 
 
 Robert Greene (1558-1592) 
 
 (a) Significant for his lyrics and for his contributions to 
 prose fiction (Pandosto, etc.) and to pamphleteering as well 
 as for his dramas. Plays filled with love of nature and in- 
 teresting for use of Italian romantic story, realism of Eng- 
 lish setting, admirable characterization. 
 (6) Representative dramas: Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, 
 printed 1594, introduces much folk-lore, shows popular 
 interest in necromancy (cf. Faustus), and presents romantic 
 story. James the Fourth, licensed 1594, introduces Oberon 
 in a prose induction, contains highly romantic story for 
 main plot, with masque elements; excellent example of mix- 
 ture of serious plot with comedy.
 
 70 
 
 Studies 
 
 1. Lyly's Campaspe is the best of his plays for a study of his romantic 
 
 comedy with serious main plot and comic sub-plot. Observe the 
 three groups of characters, the slightness of story, the failure to 
 realize the dramatic crisis, the dialogue, the songs. 
 
 2. Marlowe: (a) Tamburlaine may be studied for its versification, its 
 
 weakness in characterization, its repetition of incident, its epic 
 qualities. (6) Doctor Faustus is far more dramatic in its introduc- 
 tion and conclusion, but breaks down in intervening scenes. Why 
 is this so? Compare other versions of the legend, (c) Edward the 
 Second: The dramatic problem involved in changing our view of 
 the King; the selection of material to give unity to the plot; the 
 advance over Tamburlaine in characterization (cf. Isabel-Zenocrate; 
 Edward-Tamburlaine) ; yet the failure to render with effectiveness 
 the dramatist's conceptions of character and the frequently awk- 
 ward exposition. 
 
 3. Greene's James the Fourth may be studied for its relation to Shaks- 
 
 pere's romantic comedy and its introduction of some of the situ- 
 ations used by Shakspere. Note also the abundance of story sup- 
 plied by the two plots, the large number of characters, the grouping 
 of characters, the pseudo-historical element. 
 
 References: For Lyly, see Cambridge V. 136-144; Ward, History of English 
 Dramatic Literature, I. 270-303. Campaspe is printed by Manly, volume II. 
 273-326, and in Gayley, Representative English Comedies, with a critical essay by 
 Professor Baker, I. 263-332. For Marlowe, Cambridge V. 160-176; Jusserand 
 III. 133-148; Ward, History etc., I. 313-363. A convenient text of Marlowe's 
 plays is published in Everyman's Library. For Kyd, Peele, Greene, see Cam- 
 bridge V. 144-155, 176-185; Ward, History etc., I. 270-409; Jusserand III. 121- 
 133. Greene's James the Fourth, Peele's David and Bethsabe, and Kyd's Spanish 
 Tragedy are in Manly, II. Peele's Old Wives' Tale and Greene's Friar Bacon are 
 in Gayley I. See also Everyman's Library.
 
 72 
 
 IV. William Shakspere (1564-1616) 
 
 i. Development as a writer of comedies 
 
 (a) The period of experiment, 1589-1591. To this belong 
 The Comedy of Errors, a comedy of situation, not charac- 
 ter, based on the Menechmi of Plautus and thus related 
 to the Latin school drama; Love's Labour's Lost, with ap- 
 parently original plot, but like Lyly in slightness of story, 
 stress of witty dialogue, symmetrical grouping of characters, 
 and affectation in style; Two Gentlemen of Verona, based 
 
 4 in part on Montemayor's Diana and, in the denouement, 
 
 on the popular story of male friendship, Titus and Gysippus, 
 the play being a first study in romantic comedy with serious 
 main plot and humorous subordinate characters. 
 (6.) The period of transition, 1595-1598. Here belong the 
 fairy play of Midsummer- Night's Dream; the romantic 
 story combined with a study of character which verges on 
 tragedy in The Merchant of Venice; and the development 
 of farce-comedy seen in The Taming of the Shrew and The 
 Merry Wives of Windsor. Of these, the Shrew and Mer- 
 chant of Venice owe something to earlier English plays, 
 while the Dream and the Merry Wives are, in the main plot, 
 more original. 
 
 (c) The triumph of romantic comedy, 1599-1600. Here 
 belong Much Ado about Nothing (partly based on a novel 
 of Bandello's), in which the serious plot (Hero-Claudio) 
 comes very near tragedy, being relieved only by the slight- 
 ness of stress, the greater emphasis on the Benedick-Beatrice 
 story, and the masque-like close; As You Like It (a pretty 
 close dramatization of Lodge's Rosalynde), which shows 
 the influence of pastoral and sonnet literature, made real 
 through the skill in characterization; Twelfth Night (based 
 mainly on Belleforest through the tale of Apolonius and Silla 
 in Barnabe Riche his Farewell to the Militarie Profession); 
 most admirable of the comedies in plot construction and 
 exposition.
 
 74 
 
 Studies in Shakspere's Comedies 
 
 1. Love's Labour's Lost may be compared with Lyly's Campaspe as to 
 
 character, plot, and style. Where does the dramatic climax come? 
 Criticize the fifth act. Does the dialogue characterize? 
 
 2. Two Gentlemen of Verona: What is the main theme? How long 
 
 doe& it take the dramatist to get the situation fully before us? 
 Account for the extraordinary denouement. Note parallels in situ- 
 ation and character between it and later plays. 
 
 3. Midsummer- Night' s Dream: Study the relations between plots. 
 
 Account for the slightness of the story of the lovers. Compare 
 the "fairies" with Spenser's conception in the Faerie Queene. 
 
 4. Merchant of Venice: Here, again, study the plot-relations. Is the 
 
 title justifiable? Would "Shylock" be more accurate? Or is the 
 Bassanio-Portia story the main unifying influence? Function of 
 the Lorenzo-Jessica story? What is Shakspere's attitude toward 
 Shylock? 
 
 5. Much Ado: Account for the indistinct characterization of Hero and 
 
 Claudio and the improbable denouement. How is the Benedick- 
 Beatrice story brought into relation with it? Which constitutes 
 the main plot? ^How much incident is there in the Benedick- 
 Beatrice story? How is this story made prominent, and why? 
 
 6. As You Like It: Compare the first act with the corresponding portion 
 
 of Lodge's novel. What reflections of the sonnet ideal of love re- 
 main in the play? Function of the Touchstone-Audrey-William 
 story; is it comparable with Shakspere's method in other plays, 
 e.g., Love's Labour's Lost and Two Gentlemen? Criticize from the 
 modern view-point the dramatic effectiveness or ineffectiveness 
 of acts one and five. 
 
 7. Twelfth Night: Compare the first act with those of Two Gentlemen 
 
 and As You Like It. Compare the relations between the romantic 
 story and the comedy elements in this play with the method in 
 Shakspere's other romantic comedies. Compare the story of Viola 
 with that of Julia (Two Gentlemen) as to incident, characterization, 
 and exposition.
 
 76 
 
 2. The Chronicle History Group 
 
 (a) Henry VI. In three parts; about 1592; very little 
 of the first part by Shakspere. Represents primitive type 
 of chronicle play, 'history dramatized en bloc. 
 (&) Historical plays having a tendency toward tragedy: 
 Richard III (1593), a play in Marlowe's manner, strongly 
 centralized about the Machiavellian character of Richard; 
 hint of Nemesis as foundation for tragedy at the end (com- 
 pare Macbeth) ; King John (ca. 1594) based in part upon an 
 earlier play, and uncertain in effect through representation 
 of John as both hero and villain; thus a return in construction 
 to primitive unorganized type, though with the difference 
 that main interest is in character, not incident. Richard 
 II (ca. 1594) based on Holinshed but similar in many respects 
 to Marlowe's Edward the Second; deals with closing events 
 in Richard's reign, hence, poverty of incident made up 
 by long speeches of epic and lyric quality; hint of tragedy 
 of pity; besides Richard's, full length portrait of Gaunt, 
 representing patriotism of England, is notable. (Compare 
 Faulconbridge, in John, and Henry V, for other elements 
 in Shakspere's conception of the ideal Englishman), 
 (c) The Henry V trilogy (Henry IV, in two parts; Henry V: 
 1597-1599) presents Hal as prince and as king; epic type 
 with strong admixture of realistic comedy; based on old 
 English play. 
 
 Studies on the Historical Plays 
 
 1. Note relations between the group represented by John, Richard II, 
 
 Richard III and Shakspere's later work in tragedy based on 
 chronicle history (Lear, Macbeth). 
 
 2. Note relation of the plays dealing with Henry V (a) to epic con- 
 
 ception of history, both in plot and style; (6) to realistic comedy 
 as apart from the romantic type. 
 
 3. Study the relation of one of the plays to the chronicles of Holinshed; 
 
 note the general character of the changes made by Shakspere, and 
 the effects of these changes.
 
 78 
 
 The Tragedies 
 
 (a) Early experiments: Titus Andronicus (ca. 1594), a 
 tragedy of blood and revenge; crude in characterization; 
 melodramatic; not by Shakspere, though he revised it in 
 part. Romeo and Juliet, printed in imperfect form in 
 1597, written some years earlier; plot drawn mainly from 
 Romeus and Juliet (by Arthur Brooke, 1562) and a version 
 of the story in Painter's Palace of Pleasure, ultimately an 
 Italian story; tragedy of blood but purified by story of 
 youthful love; lyrical like Venus and Adonis. 
 (6) Julius Caesar (ca. 1599), based mainly on North's trans- 
 lation of Plutarch; thus a play similar in part to the chronicle 
 plays, not really classical; chief problem arises in the fact 
 that Caesar dies in act III sc. i and what seems to be remi- 
 niscence of old revenge type of play is introduced by his 
 ghost; cf. Spanish Tragedy, Hamlet. 
 
 (c) Hamlet (1602), probably based on an old revenge play, 
 perhaps by Kyd, but the story goes back to Saxo Grammati- 
 cus. A tragedy of blood and revenge, but these elements 
 made less prominent through stressing of the philosophical 
 element in the play; little external action, the tragedy of 
 the soul of Hamlet. 
 
 (d) Othello (ca. 1604). Source in a story by Cinthio, but 
 notable for manner in which melodramatic and sordid story 
 of lust and murder has been elevated; notable also for absence 
 of comedy element save in sinister humor of lago, for absence 
 of sub-plot, and for marvelous compactness and motivation. 
 
 (e) King Lear (1604-1606). Based on old folk legend, told 
 also in Geoffrey's Chronicle, Gesta Romanorum, Mirror for 
 Magistrates, Holinshed, The Faerie Queene, etc., and in 
 an old chronicle play of 1594; underplot from Sidney's 
 Arcadia', remarkable parallelism between main plot and the 
 story of Gloucester deepens the tragedy. 
 
 (/) Macbeth (1606). Based on Holinshed; a tragedy of 
 personal ambition; shortest of the great tragedies.
 
 80 
 
 (0) Last tragedies of Shakspere: Timon of Athens (ca. 
 1607); Antony and Cleopatra (1608); Coriolanus (ca. 1609). 
 Shakspere's Last Works 
 
 (a) Comedies written during the period of the great tragedies 
 and showing cynicism and disillusion: Troilus and Cressida 
 (1602); widely known story treated in original and baffling 
 manner; compare the version by Chaucer. All's Well that 
 Ends Well (ca. 1602); based on Painter's version of a story 
 by Boccaccio. Measure for Measure (1604) ; story of Italian 
 origin, through a comedy by Whetstone. 
 (6) Dramatic romances: Pericles, printed 1608; not wholly 
 by Shakspere. Cymbeline (ca. 1610); pseudo-historical 
 setting from Holinshed; main story widely known, and told 
 by Boccaccio and in Westward for Smelts, an English mis- 
 cellany. Winter's Tale (1611); from Greene's romance 
 Pandosto; unites tragic story with pastoral romance. The 
 Tempest (1611); source of main plot uncertain; notable 
 for observance of classical unities and skilful use of the 
 supernatural.
 
 82 
 
 Studies 
 
 1. Study the effect of emphasis by comparing the Hero-Claudio story 
 
 (Much Ado) with the denouement of Romeo and Juliet and with the 
 story of Desdemona. 
 
 2. Compare lago and Richard III. Study the relations of Othello with 
 
 its source, particularly in the characterization of lago, in moti- 
 vation, and in the denouement. Note the cumulative effect of the 
 incidents and other details. 
 
 3. Study the use of incident in Hamlet; the amount of it, the elements 
 
 drawn from the old revenge plays. The various explanations of 
 the relation of Hamlet's character to the tragedy, as given in the 
 Variorum edition (Furness). 
 
 4. The history of the tragedy of Lear in the eighteenth century. 
 
 5. Contrast the fourth act of Macbeth with the other acts in motivation, 
 
 compactness, style. 
 
 6. Compare the conception of tragedy set forth in Romeo and Juliet 
 
 with that of Hamlet, Lear, Othello, Macbeth. The relation of these 
 last to the classical ideal of tragedy. 
 
 7. Compare Winter's Tale and The Tempest as to structure; Winter's 
 
 Tale and Othello as to main plot; Winter's Tale, Romeo and Juliet 
 and Much Ado in denouement. 
 
 8. Compare Tempest and Midsummer- Night's Dream in use of super- 
 
 natural, in versification, in style. 
 
 References: The best brief biographies of Shakspere, complementary to each 
 other in method and view, are those by Sidney Lee and Walter Raleigh. A 
 convenient introduction to the plays may be had in Dowden's Primer and in the 
 Introduction to Shakspere by Professor MacCracken and others. For a discus- 
 sion of Shakspere's advance in technique, see Baker, The Development of Shaks- 
 pere as a Dramatist. See also the larger histories of literature, especially Cam- 
 bridge for its bibliographies, and such criticism as in Dowden, The Mind and Art 
 of Shakspere. Convenient complete texts of the plays are to be had in the 
 single volume Cambridge or Globe or Oxford editions. For sources and later 
 histories of the plays, see the Variorum editions so far as issued. For the Eliza- 
 bethan Stage, see Jusserand III. 36-104; Cambridge VI. 271-313; Baker, 36-99; 
 and the monograph on the Shaksperean Stage, by V. E. Albright.
 
 84 
 
 V. Dramatists contemporary with Shakspere 
 
 1. Ben Jonson (1573-1637) 
 
 (a) Represents a theory of drama opposed to Shakspere's 
 in his deference to classic models, his adherence to "rules", 
 his hatred of the romantic type, his carefully constructed 
 plot, his simple, not complex characters; his method to 
 construct a plot to fit his conception of his characters rather 
 than to create the characters to fit an old plot. 
 
 (6) Early comedies of the "humor" type: Every Man in 
 His Humour, 1598; Every Man out of His Humour, 1599. 
 
 (c) Later comedies, realistic in manner, classical in style, 
 satirical in intent: Volpone, 1606; Epicoene, 1609; The 
 Alchemist, 1610: Bartholomew Fair, 1614. 
 
 (d) Classical tragedy: Sejanus (1603); Catiline (1611). 
 
 (e) Jonson also wrote many masques. 
 
 2. George Chapman (1559-1634) 
 
 (d) Translated Homer; wrote both comedies, such as The 
 Gentleman Usher (1606), and tragedies, such as Bussy d'Am- 
 bois (1607) and The Revenge of Bussy d'Ambois (1613). 
 
 (b) Style vivid, poetic, imaginative; plot romantic and 
 exaggerated; epic rather than dramatic in manner. 
 
 3. Thomas Dekker (ca. 1570-ca. 1641) 
 
 (a) The Shoemaker's Holiday (1600), realistic study of 
 
 London life. 
 
 (6) Old Fortunatus (1600), a poetic comedy. 
 
 (c) Many other comedies notable for their descriptions of 
 London life.
 
 86 
 
 4* Francis Beaumont (1584-1616) and John Fletcher (1579- 
 1625) 
 
 (a) Wrote many plays in collaboration; others individually. 
 (6) Chiefly significant for dramatic romances and tragi- 
 comedies, such as Philaster (1608) and The Maid's Tragedy 
 (1609). 
 
 5. The End of the Romantic Drama 
 
 (a) From the death of Shakspere to the closing of the thea- 
 tres in 1642 the main dramatic tendencies were toward sen- 
 sationalism and theatricality; stressing of the scene rather 
 than the whole plot; lowered moral tone; licentiousness 
 in versification. The themes were mainly tragedies or tragi- 
 comedies of sex-interest and comedies of manners. 
 
 (b) John Webster is remembered chiefly for his Duchess of 
 Malfy (1616) ; John Ford, for his tragedy The Broken Heart 
 (1633); James Shirley, for his tragedy The Cardinall (1641), 
 the last of the great tragedies, and for his comedies of man- 
 ners, such as Hyde Park (1632) and The Lady of Pleasure 
 (1635). 
 
 References: All these dramatists are discussed in Cambridge VI. See also 
 Ward II. 296-765; III. 1-124; Jusserand III. 369-463. 

 
 88 
 
 ELIZABETHAN PROSE 
 I. Prose Fiction 
 
 1. The old romances retained considerable popularity during the 
 sixteenth century, partly through the revival of chivalry. Malory 
 still read; other popular romances being Guy of Warwick, Lancelot, 
 Bevis of Hampton, and the later Amadis. Compare Faerie Queene. 
 Romances attacked, however, on the ground of immorality; most 
 Elizabethan fiction is either really or professedly moral in intention; 
 later in the century, the Italian prose tales largely supplanted them. 
 
 2. The collections of prose tales 
 
 (a) Based on the Italian novella, a short story romantic 
 in theme, but simple and realistic in style and often cli- 
 mactic in construction. Important for their influence on 
 Shakspere and other dramatists. 
 
 (6) Chief collections: William Painter, The Palace of Pleas- 
 ure, 1566; G. Fenton, Tragical Discourses, 1567; Barnabe 
 Riche His Farewell to the Militarie Profession, 1581. 
 
 3. The Novel 
 
 (a) John Lyly, Euphues, 1578-1580. A short story expanded 
 by letters and moral discussions; style highly mannered 
 (antithesis, exaggerated similes, intricate alliteration, exact 
 balance of accents). 
 
 (6) Robert Greene, Pandosto, 1588 (influenced Winter's 
 Tale) ; Menaphon, 1589. Pastoral romances, unreal in scene 
 and euphuistic in style; filled with maxims; slight in charac- 
 terization. 
 
 (c) Thomas Lodge, Rosalynde, 1590. Main source of As 
 You Like It; a pastoral romance based on the pseudo- 
 Chaucerian Tale of Gamely n; style a combination of Euphu- 
 ism and Petrarchism; combines prose and verse; best of the 
 Elizabethan romances. 
 
 (d) Sir Philip Sidney, Arcadia, 1580-85; published 1590. 
 Combines pastoral and chivalric elements; contains elements 
 drawn from Sannazaro's Arcadia (title; pastoral back- 
 ground; interspersed eclogues); Montemayor's Diana (open-
 
 90 
 
 ing passages similar; some lyrics translated from it; woman- 
 page motif); Amadis of Gaul (romantic and chivalric epi- 
 sodes) ; and the Greek romances (prince captured by band of 
 outlaws, etc.). Plot badly made, because of multitude 
 of characters and incidents; style marked rather by conceits 
 and bold metaphors than the Euphuistic simile, sentences 
 longer than in Euphues; was regarded as a "poem" in its 
 time, and had great influence on drama (e. g. the Gloucester 
 plot in Lear), on contemporary poetry, and in later times 
 (e. g. Pamela's prayer was used by Charles I and called forth 
 a pamphlet from Milton; name also used by Richardson in 
 Pamela, etc.). 
 
 (e) Thomas Nash, Jack Wilton, 1594. Story of an advent- 
 urer in his travels in France, Germany, and Italy until his 
 return with rich Italian wife. Time of Henry VIII; the poet 
 Surrey is introduced and his love for Geraldine of the sonnets 
 made excuse for ridicule of Petrarchism; purpose also to 
 make fun of German and Italian culture, and of the English 
 for aping foreign fashions. Style affected, but better than 
 Lyly's or Sidney's; more realistic and witty; deals with com- 
 mon life, not pastoral, and is related to picaresque genre. 
 Suggests Don Quixote in parts. 
 
 (/) Thomas Deloney wrote (1596-1600) three storiesh( Thomas 
 of Reading, Jack of Newbury, and the Gentle Craft) in praise 
 of the crafts of the clothiers, the weavers, and the cobblers, 
 with much realistic description of contemporary life. 
 
 References: Jusserand, The English Novel, chapters ii-v; Literary History, 
 III. chapter iv; Cambridge III. 386-424; Canby, The Short Story in English, 
 103-155 (especially good for its treatment of the collections of prose tales); 
 Dunlop, History of Fiction, II. chapter xi (especially for summaries of plots); 
 Courthope, II. chapters vii, viii. See also the histories of the English Novel by 
 Cross, Raleigh, Warren. The chapter on Arcadia in Fox Bourne's Life of Sid- 
 ney; the essay on Lodge in Gosse's Seventeenth Century Studies, and Morley's 
 English Writers X may also be consulted. An excellent edition of Rosalynde 
 is in "The Shakespeare Library" (Duffield & Co.).
 
 92 
 
 II. The Beginnings of Literary Criticism in England 
 
 1. Literary criticism before the sixteenth century 
 
 (a) Chaucer's criticism of the romances in his Sir Thopas. 
 
 (b) Works on Rhetoric were the outgrowth of Humanism. 
 
 2. Roger Ascham introduced some elementary literary criticism 
 in The Scolemaster, 1570. 
 
 3. George Gascoigne, Certayn Notes of Instruction, 1575; rules 
 for writing verse. 
 
 4. Stephen Gosson, School of Abuse, 1579, represents Puritan 
 attack on poetry for its immorality; attacked drama and romances 
 especially. 
 
 5. Thomas Lodge, A Defence of Poetry, 1579; an eloquent reply 
 to Gosson. 
 
 6. Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of Poesy, written about 1583; 
 discusses position of poetry in past ages; classifies the ' 'kinds"; 
 maintains poetry to be the highest of knowledges; defends it 
 against charges of immorality, and reviews state of poetry and 
 drama in his own time; classical point of view. 
 
 7. William Webbe, Discourse of English Poetrie, 1586; historical 
 but inadequate survey of English poetry; abuses rhyme and holds 
 brief for quantitative verse; compare Harvey's letters to Spenser 
 and the theories of the Areopagus. 
 
 8. Puttenham's (?) Arte of English Poesie, published 1589; com- 
 bines rhetoric with poetical criticism; historical survey; praises 
 Spenser and Sidney.
 
 94 
 
 g. Sir John Harington, in the Preface to his translation of 
 Ariosto, 1591, phrases tendency to regard Virgil as model for 
 epic poetry and compares him, in much detail, with Ariosto. 
 10. Thomas Campion, Observations on the Art of English Poesy, 
 1602, reflects protest against effort to make English verse conform 
 to classical models, shown in the earlier quantitative verse. 
 n. Samuel Daniel, A Defence of Ryme, 1603, carries the revolt 
 farther and maintains the necessity of an English system. 
 12. As a whole, Elizabethan criticism has strong moral element, 
 due to the Puritan attack and the defences thereto; leans toward 
 classicism and "rules"; admits the transitional character of 
 poetry of the time; shows beginnings of valuation of authors 
 and works. 
 
 References: Cambridge, III. chapter xiv; the introduction to Gregory Smith's 
 Elizabethan Critical Essays; Spingarn's Literary Criticism in the Renaissance; 
 Jusserand II. 354-368. Sidney's Defense, edited by Cook, is published by Ginn 
 & Company.
 
 96 
 
 ffl. Historical and Didactic Works 
 
 1. Chronicles were written by Raphael Holinshed (editor), Ed- 
 ward Hall, William Camden, and others. Raleigh attempted a 
 history of the world. Richard Hakluyt, Raleigh, and others 
 wrote accounts of travel and colonization. 
 
 2. Richard Hooker wrote, 1594-1597, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical 
 Polity , a defense of the Anglican position as against Calvinism. 
 Notable for its philosophical breadth of view, its dignity, its 
 learning, and a style eloquent and sonorous. 
 
 IV. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) 
 
 1. Lawyer, member of Parliament, and orator of great eminence, 
 as well as an eager and ambitious student during the time of 
 Elizabeth; attained eminence as a writer and philosopher during 
 the reign of James; life marked by doubleness of aim, due to 
 self-seeking ambition coupled with a desire for service to knowl- 
 edge: "I have taken all knowledge to be my province." 
 
 2. Chief prose works 
 
 (a) Essays, published 1597 (containing ten essays); 1612, 
 (38 essays); 1625 (58 essays). "Certain brief notes, set 
 down rather significantly than curiously"; subjects usually 
 abstract, treated from utilitarian point of view; notable for 
 abundance of illustration, shrewdness, extreme conciseness. 
 (6) Advancement of Learning (1605); a summary of existing 
 knowledge. 
 
 (c) The Wisdom of the Ancients (1609); thirty-one classical 
 myths with allegorical interpretation. 
 
 (d) Novum Organum (1620) ; presents the "new instrument of 
 thought and discovery," an analysis and arrangement of 
 inductive evidence; stresses practical aim of knowledge; 
 significant rather for the indication of the way in which 
 science was to develop than for the value of the results 
 reached by the author; written in Latin.
 
 98 
 
 Studies 
 
 1. "Of Studies": Has this essay any structure or is it inorganic? What 
 
 devices are used for marking transitions between sentences and main 
 divisions of the thought, if any? What is the difference between 
 Bacon's use of antithesis and balance and Lyly's? Study with 
 care the diction: use of archaic and obsolete words; source of the 
 vocabulary (Latin or English?); the use of rhetorical figures. Is 
 the style similar to that of the Bible in any respects? 
 
 2. "Of Truth": Structure? How does the imagery differ from that in 
 
 the essay on Studies? What does he mean by "lie"? 
 
 3. What indications of the character of the man are to be found in the 
 
 essays "Of Love," "Of Great Place," "Of Wisdom for a Man's 
 Self"? 
 
 4. Classify the themes of the Essays. 
 
 5. Compare with the Essays of Montaigne. 
 
 References: Cambridge IV. 319-335 (best for discussion of the scientific value 
 of Bacon's work) : Schelling, English Literature During the Lifetime of Shakespeare, 
 337-356 (inclines to hostile view); Scott, Introduction to edition of the Essays 
 (distinctly appreciative view, with thorough study of literary qualities and 
 sources) ; Jusserand III. 524-549 (like Macaulay's Essay in balancing character 
 of the man against wisdom of the writer). The best edition of the Essays is 
 that by M. A. Scott (Scribners).
 
 100 
 ELIZABETHAN TRANSLATIONS 
 
 I. Translations from the Classics 
 
 1. English translations of Ovid, Herodotus, Thucydides, Sallust, 
 Xenophon, Cicero. 
 
 2. Sir Thomas North, Plutarch, 1579. 
 
 3. R. Stanyhurst, Virgil's Aeneid (four books), 1582. 
 
 4. George Chapman, Homer's Iliad, 1598, 1611. 
 n. Translations from contemporary foreign literature 
 
 1. Thomas Hoby, The Boke of the Courtier, 1561, from II Cor- 
 tegiano by Castiglione; a famous "conduct-book," important 
 for its influence on Spenser. 
 
 2. The Italian prose tales were translated by Fenton, Painter, 
 and others. 
 
 3. Machiavelli's II Principe, known in the original and in the 
 garbled French version by Gentillet, exerted profound influence 
 on Elizabethan thought and literature; the Art of War and Floren- 
 tine History were known in English versions. 
 
 4. Italian poetry: Ariosto's Orlando Furioso translated by Haring- 
 ton, 1591; Tasso's Gerusalemme Liber ata translated by Fairfax, 
 1600. Petrarch universally known, but usually translated piece- 
 meal and without acknowledgment. 
 
 5. French literature: Florio's translation of Montaigne, 1603; 
 Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas, 1590-1592. Influence of 
 Ronsard, Desportes, and Du Bellay comparable with that of 
 Petrarch, and transmitted in the same manner. 
 
 References: Schelling, English Literature etc., 262-291; Cambridge IV. 1-28; 
 Jusserand II. 386-377; also the works on the Italian and French Renaissance in 
 England by Einstein, Upham, Lee.
 
 102 
 
 HI. The English Bible 
 
 1. Partial translations made in Anglo Saxon times by Alfred and 
 Aelfric ; in the fourteenth century by John Wyclif . 
 
 2. Translations in the sixteenth century 
 
 (a) William Tindale translated, 1526-1530, the New Testa- 
 ment and the Pentateuch; this influenced Matthew's Bible, 
 edited by John Rogers, 1537, and the Great Bible, edited by 
 Cranmer, 1539. 
 
 (6) First English version of the entire Bible by Miles Cover- 
 dale, 1535. 
 
 3. The King James Bible, 1604-1611, has exerted prodigious 
 influence on English literature. 
 
 (a) Because though translations from the classics and from 
 contemporary foreign literature usually fail to render ex- 
 actly the genius of the original tongue, it was possible to 
 translate the Hebrew scriptures with such fidelity as to 
 reproduce the spirit as well as the matter of the original. 
 (6) Because its concreteness and simplicity corrected the 
 main faults of Elizabethan prose in diction and imagery^ 
 93% of its vocabulary is native English, and there are only 
 about 6000 words as against 20,000 or more in Shakspere 
 and 13,000 in Milton. 
 
 (c) Because the poetical portions of the work, retaining in 
 the translation their emotional and imaginative value, 
 served as a model for an English prose which should have 
 literary distinction without the affectation of Euphuism, 
 or the disorder and incoherence of the tracts, or the abstract 
 and involved style of Latinized prose. 
 
 (d) Because its passionate earnestness and directness of 
 appeal give the intensity found in the drama but rarely in 
 earlier prose. 
 
 (e) Because its phrases and images have become imbedded 
 in daily speech, a source of allusion more pervasive than 
 any other, part and parcel of the style of all English authors 
 of distinction since its time.
 
 104 
 
 (/) Because of the universality of its appeal to all classes 
 of society, whatever the degree of education; only Shaks- 
 pere being comparable in influence in this respect. 
 
 References: Professor Cook's chapter in Cambridge IV. 29-58; Gardiner's 
 The Bible as English Literature, 282-396; Green, History of the English People, 
 Book VII, chapter i. A good introduction to the literary study of the Bible 
 is that by R. G. Moulton (Heath & Company).
 
 106 
 POETRY FROM JONSON TO MILTON 
 
 The Transition to the Seventeenth Century 
 
 1. Michael Drayton (1563-1631) 
 
 (a) Significant because his work reflects the course of Eng- 
 lish poetry from the time of the sonnet cycles to the birth 
 of Dryden. 
 
 (6) Chief works: Idea, the Shepheards Garland, 1593, 1606, 
 a series of eclogues in imitation of the Shepheards Calender 
 but with much less satire and moralizing; Idea's Mirrour, 
 1594, a sonnet cycle which passed through eleven editions 
 by 1631 ; England's Heroicall Epistles, 1597, a series of letters 
 from heroic lovers, written in couplets (compare Pope's 
 Eloisa to Abelard); Odes, 1606; Poly-Olbion, 1613, 1622, 
 an account of observation and travel in England, preserv- 
 ing history and legend as related to places visited; Nym- 
 phidia, 1627, a mock-heroic poem about Oberon and Titania. 
 (Poly-Olbion is one of a number of long poems patriotic 
 in aim and epic in style; other examples being Albion's 
 England, by Warner, 1586, and The Civill Wars, by Daniel, 
 1595-1609.) 
 
 2. John Donne (1573-1631) 
 
 (a) Most of his poems collected and published 1633, 1635, 
 but written 1592-1602; these poems Elizabethan in time 
 but their chief influence felt in the seventeenth century. 
 (6) Themes: songs and sonnets mainly of an erotic type; 
 satires; devotional poems. 
 
 (c) Significant for his rebellion against Petrarchism (com- 
 pare Nash, and the sonnets of Shakspere) ; for his inequal- 
 ity of style and subtlety and ingenuity of thought; for his 
 disregard of convention, and for his use of conceits drawn 
 from scientific and out of the way sources; his imagery, 
 however, not intended for ornament so much as for the 
 expression of highly original and imaginative thought; 
 somewhat similar to Browning.
 
 108 
 
 (d) Representative poems: Go and Catch a Falling Star and 
 Love's Deity (cynicism, contempt for Petrarchistic ideal); 
 The Ecstacy (shows his peculiar style and intellectual 
 subtlety); The Storm (notable example of graphic descrip- 
 tion); Death (a sonnet). 
 Ben Jonson (1573-1637) 
 
 (d) Besides his dramas and masques, Jonson wrote odes, 
 lyrics and epigrams, printed as Epigrams and The Forest, 
 1616; Underwoods, 1640; and the prose Timber or Dis- 
 coveries, 1641. The last contains, besides little essays on 
 men and conduct, essays on style and poetry which show 
 the influence of Quintilian, Horace, and Aristotle and point 
 toward the criticism of the age of Dryden and Pope. 
 
 (b) Jonson' s lyrics are notable for their sense of form, 
 finish of style, indebtedness to the classics, and for their 
 influence on Herrick and others of the "tribe of Ben." 
 Jonson and Donne also used the heroic couplet for satire 
 and epigram. 
 
 Robert Herrick (1591-1674) 
 
 (a) His lyrics, about 1200 in number, written at various 
 times but not collected and published until 1648, with the 
 titles Hesperides and Noble Numbers; the first collection 
 consisting of secular and the second of devotional verse. 
 (6) Besides Jonson's, chief influences on his work the poems 
 of Catullus, Horace, and the Anacreontic lyrics. 
 
 (c) Themes: amoristic poems free from Petrarchism or 
 subtlety; folk customs; the transitoriness of beauty; the 
 seasons; flowers and fairies; religious poems. 
 
 (d) Poetry marked by polish of form combined with great 
 lyrical power; large variety of metrical forms; absence 
 of deep feeling or serious thought.
 
 110 
 
 The School of Spenser 
 
 1. William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649) wrote many 
 lyrics, both amorous and religious; some pastorals; a prose tract, 
 The Cypresse Grove, is a discourse upon death that anticipates 
 the work of Sir Thomas Browne. 
 
 2. George Wither (1588-1677) 
 
 (a) Satire : Abuses Stript and Whipt. 
 
 (b) Pastorals: The Shepherd's Hunting (1615); Fidelia 
 (1617); Faire Virtue (1622). These marked by true love 
 of nature, simplicity, lyrical power, use of the four accent 
 couplet made famous by Milton. 
 
 (c) Religious poetry: Haleluiah, a collection of Puritan 
 hymns, reflecting his sympathy with Puritanism, 1641. 
 
 3. William Browne (1591-1645) 
 
 (a) Britannia's Pastorals (1613, 1616) imitate Spenser, but 
 
 are simple and observant; patriotic in intention. 
 
 (6) Inner Temple Masque, performed 1614-15, influenced 
 
 Comus. 
 
 4. Giles Fletcher (1588-1623) 
 
 (a) Like other poets in this group, links Spenser and Milton. 
 Most important work, Christ's Victorie, 1610, in a modi- 
 fied Spenserian stanza, is in four parts: Heaven, Earth, 
 Death, Resurrection; and illustrates growing tendency 
 toward epic treatment of biblical material. 
 
 5. Phineas Fletcher (1582-1650) 
 
 (a) Britain's Ida, 1628, a version of the Venus and Adonis 
 story written in a modified Spenserian stanza, and long 
 attributed to Spenser. 
 
 (6) The Purple Island, 1633, an allegory of the human body 
 with much moral allegory in the manner of Spenser. Com- 
 pare Nosce Teipsum, by Sir John Davies, 1602, a philo- 
 sophical poem on human nature. 
 
 (c) The Apollyonists, 1627, five cantos in modified Spen- 
 serian stanza, in which the story of the Fall of Lucifer is 
 connected with the history of the Roman church and reaches 
 a climax in the Gunpowder plot. Interesting relations 
 to Milton.
 
 112 
 
 Lyric Poets 
 
 1. The Cavalier Lyrists 
 
 (a) Besides Herrick, a group of court poets wrote songs 
 
 and lyrics during the reign of Charles I. Chief among them 
 
 were Thomas Carew (1598-1639) ; Richard Lovelace (1618- 
 
 1658) ; Sir John Suckling (1609-1641). 
 
 (6) These poets notable for qualities of verse already noted 
 
 in Jonson and Herrick, but with far less range and greater 
 
 artificiality. 
 
 2. Writers of the religious lyric 
 
 (a) George Herbert (1593-1633) wrote The Temple, a col- 
 lection of nearly two hundred poems, published 1633. In 
 attention to form, suggests the Cavalier group; his fondness 
 for conceits shows his relation to the type of poetry insti- 
 tuted by Donne; his passionate intensity and sincerity 
 reveal the character of the man and the contrast between 
 him and Herrick. 
 
 (fr) Richard Crashaw (1612-1649) wrote both secular and 
 religious lyrics. Of the first, Wishes to his Supposed Mis- 
 tress is the most famous; of the second, The Weeper is notable 
 for the grotesqueness of its conceits, while the Hymne 
 to St. Teresa is passionate and powerful. 
 
 (c) Henry Vaughan (1621-1695) published Silex Scintillans 
 1650, 1656; owed much to Herbert, but with stronger ten- 
 dency to mysticism; imaginative power manifest in The 
 World and They are all gone into the World of Light. In 
 The Retreat suggested the main thought of Wordsworth's 
 ode on Immortality. 
 
 (d) William Habington (1605-1654) wrote Castara, a col- 
 lection of love poems, together with many religious lyrics. 
 
 (e) Francis Quarles (1592-1644) is remembered for his 
 Emblemes, 1635.
 
 114 
 
 IV. Beginnings of Pseudo-Classicism 
 
 1. The three main tendencies in seventeenth century poetry thus 
 
 far considered: 
 
 (a) The school dominated by Jonson and Herrick represents 
 the classical impulse toward perfection of form. 
 (6) The Spenserian group represents the growing interest 
 in long narrative and epic poems partly religious, partly 
 historical and patriotic. 
 
 (c) The concettists (Donne, Herbert, Crashaw, etc.) repre- 
 sent not only the decadence from Elizabethan imaginative 
 and lyrical power and a new artificiality distinct from the 
 artificiality of Petrarchism, Euphuism, etc., but also an 
 increasingly religious tone of poetry reflecting sincere feel- 
 ing, often expressed in the grotesque and over-wrought im- 
 agery characteristic also of Puritan poetry and prose. 
 
 2. The group now to be considered represents the further devel- 
 opment of classicism into a poetry that stresses form above con- 
 tent. The ode replaces the older pastoral and sonnet; the couplet 
 becomes epigrammatic; "fancy" takes the place of imagination; 
 medieval abstractions become mere conventions; classical allu- 
 sion and studied phrase lead to a new poetic diction. Chief 
 exemplars of this tendency: Waller; Denham; Cowley; Davenant.
 
 116 
 
 Edmund Waller (1605/6-1687) 
 
 (a) His Poems published 1645; translation of a part of Vir- 
 gil, 1658; Divine Poems, 1685; about 5000 lines in all. 
 (6) Distinguished for some fine lyrics, which however are 
 imitative, not original; other lyrics marked by triviality, 
 gallantry, cynicism. Chief reasons for the great influence 
 exerted by him to be found in his popularizing of the closed 
 couplet; in his theory that the function of poetry is to please; 
 and in the example which he set for regarding polish and 
 elegance as the chief duty of a poet. 
 
 (c) Before Waller, the heroic couplet long known. Chaucer 
 used it, but in flexible form, in a large portion of his work; 
 Spenser used it in satirical verse; Shakspere in parts of 
 Love's Labour's Lost] Joseph Hall in his satires (Vergi- 
 demiarum, 1597, based on Juvenal) gave it much of the point 
 and epigram dear to later times; Jonson, who was Waller's 
 master, also used it in his satires; Drayton, in his Heroicall 
 Epistles' and George Sandys, in his versions of Ovid, 1626, 
 and of the Aeneid, Book I, 1632, showed its possibilities as 
 a medium for translation of the classics. 
 
 Sir John Denham (1615-1668) 
 
 (a) Translated part of the Aeneid into heroic couplets. 
 (6) Cooper's Hill, 1642; in heroic couplets; combines des- 
 cription with moral reflection; the description being general, 
 not specific, and the style conventional but concise and 
 antithetical.
 
 118 
 
 5. Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) 
 
 (a) The Mistress, 1647, amoristic poetry marked by frigid- 
 ity, conventionality, conceits. 
 
 (6) Pindarique Odes, 1656, professed to imitate Pindar's 
 "enthusiasticall manner"; not truly Pindaric in form; 
 filled with abstractions and conceits; exerted great influ- 
 ence on succeeding pseudo-classic poets. 
 
 (c) Davideis, 1656, a sacred epic, designed in imitation of 
 Virgil, but only four of the twelve books written; pedantic 
 and labored, but illustrates tendency that was to culminate 
 in Milton; heroic couplet. 
 
 (d) Cowley 's influence mainly felt in his popularizing of 
 the ode, which became the chief lyric form in the pseudo- 
 classic period; and in his use of the couplet for heroic narra- 
 tive. His prose, Advancement of Learning, Cromwell, Essays, 
 (1661), is free from the artificiality of his verse. 
 
 6. Sir William Davenant wrote an epic poem, Gondibert (two 
 books published 1650); planned in five books corresponding to 
 the five acts of a drama; poem suggests the heroic plays of Dry- 
 den in style, theme, and conception of poetry. 
 
 References: The best survey of the lyric poetry of the period is in Schelling, 
 Seventeenth Century Lyrics; see also Ward's English Poets III.; Drayton, in Cam- 
 bridge IV. 193-224; Herrick: Cambridge VII. 5-18; Courthope III. 253-265. 
 Donne: Schelling, English Literature etc., 357-377; Cambridge IV. 225-256; 
 Courthope III. 147-168. The Spenserians: Cambridge IV. 172-192; Courthope 
 III. 9-73; 126-146. Theological and Court lyrists: Cambridge VII. 1-54; Court- 
 hope III. 118-146; 169-333. Classical group: Cambridge VII. 55-8 -, Courthope 
 III. 271-284; 334-385.
 
 120 
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PROSE BEFORE DRYDEN 
 
 I. The Prose of Learning and Scientific Inquiry 
 
 1. Bacon's scientific works belong to the early part of the century. 
 
 2. Robert Burton (1577-1640) 
 
 (a) The Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621, purports to be a 
 
 scientific inquiry into the definition, causes, symptoms, 
 
 and properties of melancholy; its cure; with a special study 
 
 of love melancholy and religious melancholy. 
 
 (6) Style marked by pedantic quotation of authorities; 
 
 ill-digested masses of material; humor; interest in human 
 
 nature. 
 
 (c) Influenced Sterne's Tristram Shandy, Lamb, Coleridge, 
 
 etc. 
 
 3. Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) 
 
 (a) Religio Medici, written about 1635 for private use, pub- 
 lished 1642, 1643; immense popularity due in part to its 
 freedom from the religious controversy of the time, in part 
 to the charm of its style and of the personality revealed 
 in its pages. 
 
 (6) Hydriotaphia or Urn Burial, and The Garden of Cyrus, 
 1658. The first, inspired by the discovery of some burial 
 urns at Norfolk, is an essay on modes of burial, and a series 
 of reflections on death, fame, and immortality, 
 (c) Style intimately revealing, imaginative, rhythmical, 
 erudite; curious in texture, in subject, in intellectual quality. 
 
 4. Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) 
 
 (a) The Holy War (1640); Holy and Profane State (1641); 
 
 The Worthies of England (1662). 
 
 (6) Notable for skill in characterization and for his wit.
 
 122 
 
 5. Izaak Walton (1593-1683) 
 
 (a) Compleat Angler (1653); Lives (of Donne, Herbert, 
 Wotton, and others) published separately at various times; 
 collected, 1670. 
 
 (6) Less pedantic than others included in this section, he 
 shows the spirit of the antiquary, combined with that of 
 the lover of nature; his style charming for its simplicity. 
 II. Travel, History, Political Science 
 
 1. Books of travel by Purchas (1613), Sandys (1615), and others. 
 
 2. Historical works by Bacon (Henry the Seventh), Raleigh 
 ( History of the World), and others. 
 
 3. Thomas Hobbes wrote (1651) Leviathan, "the matter, form, 
 and power of a commonwealth." 
 
 m. Theological Writers 
 
 1. Richard Baxter, The Saint's Everlasting Rest, 1649/50. 
 
 2. Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living (1650); Holy Dying (1651). 
 
 References: No satisfactory history of English prose in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury exists. For the writers in group I., consult Cambridge VII. A convenient 
 edition of Browne's principal writings, with an introduction by Professor Herford, 
 is published in Everyman's Library.
 
 124 
 JOHN MILTON (1608-1674) 
 
 I. First Period (1608-1639) 
 
 1. Poems written while a student at Christ's College, Cam- 
 bridge, 1625-1632. 
 
 (a) On the Morning of Christ's Nativity (1629); unites Pagan 
 and Christian elements in the manner of Renaissance poets; 
 anticipates the conception, in Paradise Lost, that heathen 
 deities, representatives of Satan, were put to flight by the 
 coming of Christ; shows sympathy with the beauty of old 
 religious faiths, not hatred; style disfigured at times by con- 
 ceits, but a poem filled with lyrical beauty despite its learn- 
 ing. 
 
 (6) Seven Latin elegies, written 1625-1629, valuable for 
 autobiographical details: his relations to several friends; 
 an early love affair; his interest in London crowds and thea- 
 tres; his conception of the poet's function. 
 
 (c) Some experiments in verse, such as metrical versions 
 of some Psalms, a speech for a vacation exercise at college, 
 some elegiac poems, a tribute to Shakspere. 
 
 (d) The famous sonnet On Being Arrived at the Age of 
 Twenty Three. 
 
 2. Poems written at Horton (1632-1638) 
 
 (a) Li Allegro and II Penseroso (1634); studies in contrasted 
 moods, representing what were to him the two sides of a 
 well proportioned life; exactly balanced in structure; the 
 setting that of an "ideal day," though this is not strictly 
 followed. 
 
 (6) The Masques: Arcades, a fragment, 1633; Comus, 1634, 
 published 1637. Comus unites classical studies of Milton 
 with elements characteristic of the Renaissance; sources 
 and analogues in Spenser (his theory of Beauty, and the 
 Bower of Bliss); Peele, The Old Wives Tale; Fletcher, The 
 Faithful Shepherdess] Jonson's masque of Pleasure Recon- 
 ciled to Virtue. Distinguished from usual type of masque
 
 126 
 
 by greater amount of story, seriousness of tone, lyrical beauty, 
 perfection of form. 
 
 (<:) Lyddas (1637), published in the collection of elegies 
 in memory of Edward King, 1638; a pastoral dirge which 
 observes many of the conventions of the genre, but individual 
 in style, thought, and beauty. Sources and analogues 
 in Theocritus, Virgil, and Spenser. 
 
 3. Poems belonging to the period of foreign travel, 1638-1639. 
 
 (a) Six Italian sonnets, showing the influence of Petrarch, 
 and perhaps reflecting an experience in Italy. 
 (6) To Manso, a Latin verse epistle addressed to a man of 
 letters whom Milton met at Naples; poem important for in- 
 dication that Milton contemplated an Arthurian epic, 
 (c) Epitaphium Damonis, a pastoral dirge of great beauty, 
 written in Latin, in memory of his friend Diodati, and con- 
 taining further references to the projected Arthurian epic. 
 
 4. These poems were collected in 1645 and published under the 
 title "Poems of Mr. John Milton, both English and Latin, com- 
 posed at several times."
 
 128 
 
 H. Second Period (1640-1660) 
 
 1. This period important chiefly for the prose works; Milton 
 engaged in teaching, 1639-1647; Secretary for Foreign Tongues, 
 1649-1660; completely blind after 1652. 
 
 2. Chief Prose Works 
 
 (a) The Reason of Church Government (1642); one of the 
 most important sources of knowledge concerning his life 
 and opinions. 
 
 (b) The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, 1643. 
 
 (c) Education, 1644. 
 
 (d) Areopagitica, 1644; a defence of the liberty of the press. 
 
 (e) Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, and Eikonoklastes, 
 1649, deal with right of people to dethrone a monarch. 
 
 (f) A Free Commonwealth, 1660; proposes an oligarchy, not 
 true republic; possibly caused loss of secretaryship and 
 arrest, August-December, 1660. 
 
 3. Poems 
 
 (a) Most of the Sonnets belong to this period; these approach 
 more nearly the Italian form and imitate Petrarch rather 
 in the use of themes drawn from religion, politics and 
 the life of the poet than in the Elizabethan sense. Several 
 are addressed to women; others to intimate friends; a 
 third group deals with politics and statesmen, and the fourth 
 is autobiographical. 
 
 (6) Some few translations belong here, chiefly from the 
 Psalms, and the pathetic Latin ode to John Rouse (1646) 
 librarian at Oxford, in which Milton longs for the return 
 of the Muse of Learning and an age of sounder hearts.
 
 130 
 
 HI. Paradise Lost 
 
 1. Published 1667, in ten books; second edition, dividing books 
 vii and x of the original, making twelve books in all, 1674. 
 
 2. Inception from 1641; chief documents are his Epistle to Manso, 
 the Epitaphium Damonis, the Reason of Church Government, and 
 his Common-place Book. Hesitated between Arthurian and Bib- 
 lical subject; epic or Greek tragedy. By 1642 had several outlines 
 on Fall of Man; began work soon after. Influenced by Spenser, 
 Tasso, and Renaissance theory of a poet's function and of the epic. 
 
 3. Sources and analogues: Many epics and dramas on biblical 
 subjects throughout Europe in the seventeenth century. Milton 
 possibly influenced by Andreini (Adamo, Italian drama, 1613); 
 Du Bartas (Divine Week, translated by Sylvester, 1605); Vondel 
 (Lucifer, Dutch drama, 1654). Other poems by Vondel, the 
 Adamus Exul by Grotius, and English poems by Giles and Phineas 
 Fletcher may have had influence. Real significance is not in 
 direct borrowing; rather in proof of widespread interest in such 
 subjects; like Dante, Milton sums up an epoch; his poem is 
 a literary epic, but is the result of something analogous to "epic 
 ferment." Error to regard it as the result of his despair over 
 the failure of the Commonwealth; in inception and in a consid- 
 erable part of the writing it proceeds from a very different mood. 
 
 4. Contents: Book I. Satan and Beelzebub arouse their followers 
 from the Lake of Fire; Pandemonium built. II. The Parliament 
 in Pandemonium; Satan chosen for embassy to Earth; the occu- 
 pations of his followers during his absence; his flight through 
 Chaos. III. The consultation in Heaven; Satan's arrival at 
 the World (Ptolemaic cosmogony) ; interviews Uriel in the Sphere 
 of the Sun; arrives at Earth near Eden. IV. Satan visits Eden, 
 learns the conditions on which Man may remain there; Uriel 
 warns Gabriel, who thwarts Satan's first attack. V.-VIII. 
 Raphael warns Adam; relates the story of Satan's rebellion and 
 fall; gives an account of the Creation. IX. Satan succeeds in 
 his plot. X. Adam and Eve sentenced; Satan's return and ac- 
 count of his victory; remorse of Adam and Eve. XI, XII. 
 Michael, sent to drive Man from Paradise, shows, in vision, the 
 history of the race; the expulsion.
 
 132 
 
 IV. Last Works of Milton 
 
 1. Paradise Regained 
 
 (a) Several subjects from the life of Christ in Milton's 
 list of 1640-1641; subject of Christ's victory over Satan 
 implicit in Paradise Lost; the poem probably written 1665- 
 1667; published 1671. 
 
 (6) Sources and analogues in the book of Job, which Milton 
 regarded as an epic; in Giles Fletcher's Christ's Victorie 
 (of value only as an analogue); and in the biblical account 
 of Satan's temptation of Christ. 
 
 (c) The poem, which is in four books, is less effective than 
 Paradise Lost because of its artificiality in comparison 
 with, the biblical narrative; its consequent failure to be 
 convincing; the lack of creative imagination; the tyranny 
 of religious dogma. 
 
 2. Samson Agonistes 
 
 (a) Published 1671; this subject also included in the list 
 of 1641, and in his choice of Greek tragedy as his model 
 Milton realizes his earlier inclination toward drama; not 
 intended as an acting drama. 
 
 (6) Sources and analogues: Besides the narrative in Judges 
 (chapters xiii-xvi), a drama by Vondel on the same subject 
 (1660) is analogous, though not a true source, 
 (c) Significance consists in the analogy between the theme 
 and the mood of Milton after the Restoration; in the extra- 
 ordinary variety and effectiveness of the versification; 
 in the freedom from ornament and allusion, on which com- 
 pare the Elizabethan prodigality of the early poems. 
 
 3. To this period also belong a text book on Grammar, a History 
 of Britain (1670), and the second edition of the Minor Poems, 
 with some additions (including poems of the second period), 
 1673.
 
 134 
 
 Studies 
 
 1. On the early poems 
 
 (a) Find illustrations in the texts of the characteristics named in 
 
 the Outline. 
 
 (6) Compare Comus with other masques, e. g. one of Jonson's. 
 
 (c) Relation of these poems to Elizabethan poetry. 
 
 (d) Milton's use of Nature. 
 
 2. On the works of the second period 
 
 (a) From the sonnets, the Latin elegies (i, v, vi, vii), the Latin 
 epistle to his father, the Reason of Church Government, summarize 
 the autobiographical material. 
 
 (6) Make an outline of Areopagitica, testing its value as argument, 
 (c) Characteristics of Milton's prose; on which compare Bacon. 
 
 3. On Paradise Lost 
 
 (a) The best books to read are the first, the second, and the ninth. 
 (6) Compare with the Aeneid as to management of the action; 
 unity of the plot; use of epic conventions; heroic simile; the speeches. 
 
 (c) Compare the verse with that of Hamlet or The Tempest. 
 
 (d) Study the characterization of the speakers in Pandemonium 
 and the construction of the speeches as arguments. 
 
 (e) Milton's diction as compared with Shakspere's. 
 
 (/) Milton's use of biblical material. Of classical allusion, 
 (gr) Has the poem a hero? 
 
 4. On Samson Agonistes 
 
 (a) Read Milton's introduction and discuss the relation of the 
 drama to Greek tragedy. 
 
 (6) Compare it with Comus as to action, verse, style. Criticize 
 Macaulay's comparison. 
 
 (c) The autobiographical significance. 
 
 (d) Passages from Milton's works illustrating his attitude toward 
 the drama.
 
 136 
 
 References: The best brief biographies are those by Pattison (English Men of 
 Letters) and Raleigh (Putnam). Professor Saintsbury's essay in Cambridge 
 VII. 108-161; Courthope III. 378-421, and the Introduction (Moody) to the 
 Cambridge edition of the Poetical Works supply both biographical and critical 
 material. For the prose, the most convenient edition is that in the Riverside 
 Literature Series (Lockwood); this also contains several early biographies; see 
 also Morley's selections from the prose, valuable for the autobiographical pas- 
 sages, and Corson's Introduction to MiUon (Macmillan). The best single volume 
 edition of the poems is the Cambridge (Houghton), which is noteworthy for the 
 separate introductions to the several poems. On the verse, see this book and also 
 Corson, Primer of English Verse, 193-220. The great authority on Milton is 
 Masson, The Life of John Milton, six volumes. Of the innumerable essays, those 
 by Lowell, Macaulay, Dowden, Leslie Stephen may be consulted. WoodhulFs 
 The Epic of Paradise Lost is useful for its summaries of plots of analogous works.
 
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