English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History Part 11

Such were her character and condition as displayed to the English world; but we know, in addition, that she bore her sufferings with great fort.i.tude; that, an unloved wife, she was a pattern of conjugal affection and fidelity; that she was a dupe in the hands of designing men and a fierce propaganda; and we may infer that, under different circ.u.mstances and with better guidance, the real elements of her character would have made her a good monarch and presented a far more pleasing historical portrait.

Justice demands that we should say thus much, for even with these qualifications, the picture of her reign is very dark and painful. After a sad and b.l.o.o.d.y rule of five years--a reign of worse than Roman proscription, or later French terrors--she died without leaving a child.

There was but one voice as to her successor. Delirious shouts of joy were heard throughout the land: "G.o.d save Queen Elizabeth!" "No more burnings at Smithfield, nor beheadings on Tower green! No more of Spanish Philip and his pernicious bigots! Toleration, freedom, light!" The people of England were ready for a golden age, and the golden age had come.

ELIZABETH.--And who was Elizabeth? The daughter of the dishonored Anne Boleyn, who had been declared illegitimate, and set out of the succession; who had been kept in ward; often and long in peril of her life; destined, in all human foresight, to a life of sorrow, humiliation, and obscurity; her head had been long lying "'twixt axe and crown," with more probability of the former than the latter.

Wonderful was the change. With her began a reign the like of which the world had never seen; a great and brilliant crisis in English history, in which the old order pa.s.sed away and the new was inaugurated. It was like a new historic fulfilment of the prophecy of Virgil:

Magnus ... saeclorum nascitur ordo; Jam redit et _Virgo_, redeunt Saturnia regna.

Her accession and its consequences were like the scenes in some fairy tale. She was indeed a Faerie Queene, as she was designated in Spenser's magnificent allegory. Around her cl.u.s.tered a new chivalry, whose gentle deeds were wrought not only with the sword, but with the pen. Stout heart, stalwart arm, and soaring imagination, all wore her colors and were amply rewarded by her smiles; and whatever her personal faults--and they were many--as a monarch, she was not unworthy of their allegiance.

SIDNEY.--Before proceeding to a consideration of Spenser's great poem, it is necessary to mention two names intimately a.s.sociated with him and with his fame, and of special interest in the literary catalogue of Queen Elizabeth's court, brilliant and numerous as that catalogue was.

Among the most striking characters of this period was Sir Philip Sidney, whose brief history is full of romance and attraction; not so much for what he did as for what he personally was, and gave promise of being.

Whenever we seek for an historical ill.u.s.tration of the _gentleman_, the figure of Sidney rises in company with that of Bayard, and claims distinction. He was born at Pennshurst in Kent, on the 29th of November, 1554. He was the nephew of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the chief favorite of the queen. Precocious in grace, dignity, and learning, Sidney was educated both at Oxford and Cambridge, and in his earliest manhood he was a _prud' homme_, handsome, elegant, learned, and chivalrous; a statesman, a diplomatist, a soldier, and a poet; "not only of excellent wit, but extremely beautiful of face. Delicately chiselled Anglo-Norman features, smooth, fair cheek, a faint moustache, blue eyes, and a ma.s.s of amber-colored hair," distinguished him among the handsome men of a court where handsome men were in great request.

He spent some time at the court of Charles IX. of France--which, however, he left suddenly, shocked and disgusted by the ma.s.sacre of St.

Bartholomew's Eve--and extended his travels into Germany. The queen held him in the highest esteem--although he was disliked by the Cecils, the constant rivals of the Dudleys; and when he was elected to the crown of Poland, the queen refused him permission to accept, because she would not lose "the brightest jewel of her crown--her Philip," as she called him to distinguish him from her sister Mary's Philip, Philip II. of Spain. A few words will finish his personal story. He went, by the queen's permission, with his uncle Leicester to the Low Countries, then struggling, with Elizabeth's a.s.sistance, against Philip of Spain. There he was made governor of Flus.h.i.+ng--the key to the navigation of the North Seas--with the rank of general of horse. In a skirmish near Zutphen (South Fen) he served as a volunteer; and, as he was going into action fully armed, seeing his old friend Sir William Pelham without cuishes upon his thighs, prompted by mistaken but chivalrous generosity, he took off his own, and had his thigh broken by a musket-ball. This was on the 2d of October, 1586, N.S. He lingered for twenty days, and then died at Arnheim, mourned by all. The story of his pa.s.sing the untasted water to the wounded soldier, will never become trite: "This man's necessity is greater than mine," was an immortal speech which men like to quote.[25]

SIDNEY'S WORKS.--But it is as a literary character that we must consider Sidney; and it is worthy of special notice that his works could not have been produced in any other age. The princ.i.p.al one is the _Arcadia_. The name, which was adopted from Sannazzaro, would indicate a pastoral--and this was eminently the age of English pastoral--but it is in reality not such. It presents indeed sylvan scenes, but they are in the life of a knight. It is written in prose, interspersed with short poems, and was inspired by and dedicated to his literary sister Mary, the Countess of Pembroke. It was called indeed the _Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia_. There are many scenes of great beauty and vigor; there is much which represents the manners, of the age, but few persons can now peruse it with pleasure, because of the peculiar affectations of style, and its overload of ornament. There grew naturally in the atmosphere of the court of a regnant queen, an affected, flattering, and inflated language, known to us as _Euphuism_. Of this John Lilly has been called the father, but we really only owe to him the name, which is taken from his two works, _Euphues, Anatomy of Wit_, and _Euphues and his England_. The speech of the Euphuist is hardly caricatured in Sir Walter Scott's delineation of Sir Piercie Shafton in "The Monastery." The gallant men of that day affected this form of address to fair ladies, and fair ladies liked to be greeted in such language. Sidney's works have a relish of this diction, and are imbued with the spirit which produced it.

DEFENCE OF POESIE.--The second work to be mentioned is his "Defence of Poesie." Amid the gayety and splendor of that reign, there was a sombre element. The Puritans took gloomy views of life: they accounted amus.e.m.e.nts, dress, and splendor as things of the world; and would even sweep away poetry as idle, and even wicked. Sir Philip came to its defence with the spirit of a courtier and a poet, and the work in which he upholds it is his best, far better in style and sense than his Arcadia. It is one of the curiosities of literature, in itself, and in its representation of such a social condition as could require a defence of poetry. His _Astrophel and Stella_ is a collection of amatory poems, disclosing his pa.s.sion for Lady Rich, the sister of the Earl of Ess.e.x. Although something must be allowed to the license of the age, in language at least, yet still the _Astrophel and Stella_ cannot be commended for its morality. The sentiments are far from Platonic, and have been severely censured by the best critics. Among the young gallants of Euphuistic habitudes, Sidney was known as _Astrophel_; and Spenser wrote a poem mourning the death of Astrophel: _Stella_, of course, was the star of his wors.h.i.+p.

GABRIEL HARVEY.--Among the friends of both Sidney and Spenser, was one who had the pleasure of making them acquainted--Gabriel Harvey. He was born, it is believed, in 1545, and lived until 1630. Much may be gathered of the literary character and tendencies of the age by a perusal of the "three proper and wittie familiar letters" which pa.s.sed between Spenser and himself, and the "four letters and certain sonnets," containing valuable notices of contemporary poets. He also prefixed a poem ent.i.tled _Hobbinol_, to the Faery Queene. But Harvey most deserves our notice because he was the champion of the hexameter verse in English, and imbued even Spenser with an enthusiasm for it.

Each language has its own poetic and rhythmic capacities. Actual experiment and public taste have declared their verdict against hexameter verse in English. The genius of the Northern languages refuses this old heroic measure, which the Latins borrowed from the Greeks, and all the scholars.h.i.+p and finish of Longfellow has not been able to establish it in English. Harvey was a pedant so thoroughly tinctured with cla.s.sical learning, that he would trammel his own language by ancient rules, instead of letting it grow into the a.s.sertion of its own rules.

EDMUND SPENSER--THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR.--Having noticed these lesser lights of the age of Spenser, we return to a brief consideration of that poet, who, of all others, is the highest exponent and representative of literature in the age of Queen Elizabeth, and whose works are full of contemporary history.

Spenser was born in the year of the accession of Queen Mary, 1553, at London, and of what he calls "a house of ancient fame." He was educated at Cambridge, where he early displayed poetic taste and power, and he went, after leaving college, to reside as a tutor in the North of England. A love affair with "a skittish female," who jilted him, was the cause of his writing the _Shepherd's Calendar_; which he soon after took with him in ma.n.u.script to London, as the first fruits of a genius that promised far n.o.bler things.

Harvey introduced him to Sidney, and a tender friends.h.i.+p sprang up between them: he spent much of his time with Sidney at Pennshurst, and dedicated to him the _Shepherd's Calendar_. He calls it "an olde name for a newe worke." The plan of it is as follows: There are twelve parts, corresponding to twelve months: these he calls _aeglogues_, or goat-herde's songs, (not _eclogues_ or e????a?--well-chosen words.) It is a rambling work in varied melody, interspersed and relieved by songs and lays.

HIS ARCHAISMS.--In view of its historical character, there are several points to be observed. It is of philological importance to notice that in the preliminary epistle, he explains and defends his use of archaisms--for the language of none of his poems is the current English of the day, but always that of a former period--saying that he uses old English words "restored as to their rightful heritage;" and it is also evident that he makes new ones, in accordance with just principles of philology. This fact is pointed out, lest the cursory reader should look for the current English of the age of Elizabeth in Spenser's poems.

How much, or rather how little he thought of the poets of the day, may be gathered from his saying that he "scorns and spews the rakebelly rout of ragged rymers." It further displays the boldness of his English, that he is obliged to add "a Glosse or Scholion," for the use of the reader.

Another historical point worthy of observation is his early adulation of Elizabeth, evincing at once his own courtiers.h.i.+p and her popularity. In "February" (Story of the Oak and Briar) he speaks of "colours meete to clothe a mayden queene." The whole of "April" is in her honor:

Of fair Eliza be your silver song, That blessed wight, The floure of virgins, may she flourish long, In princely plight.

In "September" "he discourseth at large upon the loose living of Popish prelates," an historical trait of the new but cautious reformation of the Marian Church, under Elizabeth. Whether a courtier like Spenser could expect the world to believe in the motto with which he concludes the epilogue, "Merce non mercede," is doubtful, but the words are significant; and it is not to his discredit that he strove for both.

HIS GREATEST WORK.--We now approach _The Faerie Queene_, the greatest of Spenser's works, the most remarkable poem of that age, and one of the greatest landmarks in English literature and English history. It was not published in full until nearly all the great events of Elizabeth's reign had transpired, and it is replete with the history of nearly half a century in the most wonderful period of English history. To courtly readers of that day the history was only pleasantly ill.u.s.trative--to the present age it is invaluable for itself: the poem ill.u.s.trates the history.

He received, through the friends.h.i.+p of Sidney, the patronage of his uncle, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester--a powerful n.o.bleman, because, besides his family name, and the removal of the late attainder, which had been in itself a distinction, he was known to be the lover of the queen; for whatever may be thought of her conduct, we know that in recommending him as a husband to the widowed Queen of Scots, she said she would have married him herself had she designed to marry at all; or, it may be said, she would have married him had she dared, for that act would have ruined her.

Spenser was a loyal and enthusiastic subject, a poet, and a scholar. From these characteristics sprang the Faerie Queene. After submitting the first book to the criticism of his friend and his patron, he dedicated the work to "The most high, mighty, and magnificent empress, renowned for piety, virtue, and all gracious government, Elizabeth, by the grace of G.o.d Queen of England, France, and Ireland, and of Virginia."[26]

CHAPTER XII.

ILl.u.s.tRATIONS OF THE HISTORY IN THE FAERIE QUEENE.

The Faerie Queene. The Plan Proposed. Ill.u.s.trations of the History. The Knight and the Lady. The Wood of Error and the Hermitage. The Crusades.

Britomartis and Sir Artegal. Elizabeth. Mary Queen of Scots. Other Works. Spenser's Fate. Other Writers.

THE FAERIE QUEENE.

The Faerie Queene is an allegory, in many parts capable of more than one interpretation. Some of the characters stand for two, and several of them even for three distinct historical personages.

The general plan and scope of the poem may be found in the poet's letter to his friend, Sir Walter Raleigh. It is designed to enumerate and ill.u.s.trate the moral virtues which should characterize a n.o.ble or gentle person--to present "the image of a brave knight perfected in the twelve private morall vertues, as Aristotle hath devised." It appears that the author designed twelve books, but he did not accomplish his purpose. The poem, which he left unfinished, contains but six books or legends, each of which relates the adventures of a knight who is the patron and representative of a special virtue.

_Book_ I. gives the adventures of St. George, the Red-Cross Knight, by whom is intended the virtue of Holiness.

_Book_ II., those of Sir Guyon, or Temperance.

_Book_ III., Britomartis, a lady-knight, or Chast.i.ty.

_Book_ IV., Cambel and Triamond, or Friends.h.i.+p.

_Book_ V., Sir Artegal, or Justice.

_Book_ VI., Sir Calydore, or Courtesy.

The perfect hero of the entire poem is King Arthur, chosen "as most fitte, for the excellency of his person, being made famous by many men's former workes, and also furthest from the daunger of envy and suspition of present time."

It was manifestly thus, too, that the poet solved a difficult and delicate problem: he pleased the queen by adopting this mythic hero, for who else was worthy of her august hand?

And in the person of the faerie queene herself Spenser informs us: "I mean _glory_ in my general intention, but in my particular, I conceive the most excellent and glorious person of our sovereign, the _Queene_."

Did we depend upon the poem for an explanation of Spenser's design, we should be left in the dark, for he intended to leave the origin and connection of the adventures for the twelfth book, which was never written; but he has given us his plan in the same preliminary letter to Raleigh.