Handbook of Universal Literature, From the Best and Latest Authorities Part 38

Stephen Hawes, who wrote in the reign of Henry VII., is the author of "The Pastime of Pleasure," an allegorical poem in the same taste as the "Romance of the Rose." This allegorical school of poetry, so widely spread through the Middle Ages, reappears in the Elizabethan age, where the same turn of thought is seen in the immortal "Faerie Queene."

In leaving this period we bid adieu to metrical romances, which, introduced into English in the latter half of the thirteenth century, continued to be composed until the middle of the fifteenth century, and were to the last almost always translations or imitations. Chivalrous stories next began to be related in prose. The most famous of these, one of the best specimens of Old English, and the most delightful of all repositories of romantic fiction is the "Mort Arthur," in which Sir Thomas Mallory, a priest in the reign of Edward IV., combined into one narrative the leading adventures of the Round Table.

As the romances ceased to be produced, the ballads gradually took their place, many of which indeed are either fragments or abridgments of them.

The ballad-poetry was to the popular audience what the recital of the romances had been among the n.o.bles. The latter half of the fifteenth century appears to have been fertile in minstrels and minstrelsy. "Chevy Chase," of which Sir Philip Sidney said it would move him like the blast of a trumpet, is one of the most ancient; but, according to Hallam, it relates to a totally fict.i.tious event. The ballad of "Robin Hood" had probably as little origin in fact.

Towards the close of the fifteenth century, a mighty revolution took place. William Caxton, a merchant of London residing abroad, became acquainted with the recently invented art of printing, and embraced it as a profession. He introduced it into England about 1474, and practiced it for nearly twenty years. He printed sixty-four works in all, and the low state of taste and information in the public for which they were designated is indicated by the selection. But the enterprise and patience of Caxton hastened the time when this mighty discovery became available in England, and his name deserves to stand with honor at the close of the survey of English literature in the Middle Ages. Thenceforth literary works were to undergo a total change of character, brought about by many causes, but none more active than the subst.i.tution of the printed book for the ma.n.u.script.

6. THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES IN SCOTLAND.--From the twelfth and thirteenth centuries there might be collected the names of a few scholastic theologians of Scottish birth, whose works have survived; but they spent their lives mostly on the continent, as was the case with Michael Scott, who gained his fame as a wizard at the court of the Emperor Frederic II. His extant writings are wholly inferior to those of Friar Bacon, his contemporary.

Two metrical romances of note belong to the fourteenth century, the "Original Cronykil" of Andrew Wyntoun (d. 1420), a long history of Scotland, and of the world at large; and "The Bruce" of John Barbour (d.

1396), a narrative of the adventures of King Robert in more than thirteen thousand rhymed lines. Dramatic vigor and occasional breadth of sentiment ent.i.tle this poem to a high rank. Sir Walter Scott, in his "Lord of the Isles," owes much to "The Bruce."

The earliest Scottish poem of the fifteenth century, "The King's Quair,"

or Book, in which James I. (d. 1437) celebrates the lady whom he afterwards married, presents no traces of a distinct Scottish dialect. But James was educated in England, and probably wrote there, and his pleasing poem exhibits the influence of those English writers whom he acknowledges as his masters. From this time, however, the development of the language of Scotland into a dialect went rapidly on. The "Wallace" of Henry the Minstrel, or Blind Harry, rivaled the "Bruce" in popularity, on account of the more picturesque character of the incidents, its pa.s.sionate fervor, and the wildness of fancy by which it is distinguished.

Towards the close of this century, and in the beginning of the next, Scottish poetry, now couched in a dialect decidedly peculiar, was cultivated by men of high genius. Robert Henryson (d. 1400) wrote "The Testament of the Faire Cresside," a continuation of Chaucer's poem, and "Robin and Makyne," a beautiful pastoral, preserved in Percy's "Reliques."

More vigorous in thought and fancy, though inferior in skill and expression, was Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld (d. 1522). His "King Hart" and "Palace of Honor" are complex allegories; and his translation of the Aeneid is the earliest attempt to render cla.s.sical poetry into the living language of the country.

William Dunbar (d. 1520), the best British poet of his age, exhibits a versatility of talent which has rarely been equaled; but in his comic and familiar pieces, the grossness of language and sentiment destroys the effect of their force and humor. Allegory is his favorite field. In his "Golden Terge," the target is Reason, a protection against the a.s.saults of love. "The Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins" is wonderfully striking; but the design even of this remarkable poem could not be decorously described.

While Scotland thus redeemed the poetical character of the fifteenth century, her living tongue was used only in versified compositions.

Scottish prose does not appear in any literary shape until the first decade of the sixteenth century.

PERIOD THIRD.

FROM THE ACCESSION or HENRY VIII. TO THE PRESENT TIME (1509-1884).

1. AGE OF THE REFORMATION.--In the early part of the sixteenth century human intellect began to be stirred by impulses altogether new, while others, which had as yet been held in check, were allowed, one after another, to work freely. But there was no sudden or universal metamorphosis in literature, or in those phenomena by which its form and spirit were determined. It was not until 1568, when the reign of Elizabeth was within thirty years of its close, that English literature a.s.sumed a character separating it decisively from that of the ages which had gone before, and took its station as the worthy organ of a new epoch in the history of civilization. But the literary poverty of the age of the Reformation was the poverty which the settler in a new country experiences, while he fells the woods and sows his half-tilled fields; a poverty, in the bosom of which lay rich abundance.

The students of cla.s.sical learning profited at first more than others by the diffusion of the art of printing, from the greater number of cla.s.sical works which, were given to the press. Foreign men of letters visited England; Erasmus, especially, gave a strong impulse to study, and Greek and Latin were learned with an accuracy never before attained. Among the scholars of the time were Cardinals Pole and Wolsey, Ridley, Ascham, and Sir Thomas More, the author of the "Utopia," a romance in the scholastic garb. It describes an imaginary commonwealth, the chief feature of which is a community of property, on an imaginary island, from which the book takes its name. The epithet "Utopian" is still used as descriptive of chimerical schemes.

The most important works in the living tongue were those devoted to theology, and first among them were the translations of the Scriptures into English, none of which had been publicly attempted since that of Wickliffe. In 1526, William Tyndale (afterwards strangled and burnt for heresy, at Antwerp), translated the New Testament, and the five books of Moses. In 1537, after the final breach of Henry VIII. with Rome, there was published the first complete translation of the Bible, by Miles Coverdale.

Many others followed until the accession of Mary, when the circulation of the translation was made in secrecy and fear. The theological writers of this period are chiefly controversial. Among them are Ridley, famous as a preacher; Cranmer, remarkable for his patronage of theological learning, and Latimer (d. 1555), whose sermons and letters are highly instructive and interesting. The "Book of Martyrs," by John Fox (d. 1527), was printed towards the close of this period.

The miscellaneous writings of this age in prose are most valuable as specimens of the language in its earliest maturity. None of them are ent.i.tled to high rank as monuments of English literature. The style of Sir Thomas More (1480-1535) had great excellence; but his works were only the recreation of an accomplished man in a learned age. The writings of the learned Ascham (1515-1565) have a value not to be measured by their inconsiderable bulk. Their language is pure, idiomatic, vigorous English; and they exhibit a great variety of knowledge, remarkable sagacity, and sound common sense. His most celebrated work, the "Schoolmaster," proposes improvements in education for which there is still both room and need.

Thomas Wilson, who wrote a treatise on the "Art of Logic" and "Rhetoric,"

may be considered the first critical writer in the living tongue.

The poetry of England during the reigns of Henry VIII. and his immediate successors is like the prose, valuable for its relation to other things, rather than for its own merit. Yet it occupies a higher place than the prose; it exhibits a decided contrast to that of the times past, and in many points bears a close resemblance to the poetry of the energetic age that was soon to open.

The names of the poets of this age may be arrayed in three groups, headed by Skelton, Surrey, and Sackville. The poems of Skelton (d. 1529) are singularly though coa.r.s.ely energetic. He was the tutor of Henry VIII., and during the greater part of the reign of his pupil he continued to satirize social and ecclesiastical abuses. His poems are exceedingly curious and grotesque, and the volubility with which he vents his acrid humors is truly surprising. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516-1547), opened a new era in English poetry, and by his foreign studies, and his refinement of taste and feeling, was enabled to turn poetical literature into a path as yet untrodden, although in vigor and originality this ill-fated poet was inferior to others who have been long forgotten. His works consist of sonnets and poems of a lyrical and amatory cast, and a translation of the Aeneid. He first introduced the sonnet, and the refined and sentimental turn of thought borrowed from Petrarch and the other Italian masters. In his Aeneid he introduced blank verse, a form of versification in which the n.o.blest English poetry has since been couched. This was also taken from Italy, where it had appeared only in the century. Surrey's versions of some of the Psalms, and those of his contemporary, Sir Thomas Wyatt, are the most polished of the many similar attempts made at that time, among which was the collection of Sternhold and Hopkins.

Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst (1686-1608) wrote those portions most worthy of notice, of the "Mirror for Magistrates," a collection of poems celebrating ill.u.s.trious but unfortunate personages who figure in the history of England. From his "Induction," or preparatory poem, later writers have drawn many suggestions.

The dramatic exhibitions of the Middle Ages, which originated in the church, or were soon appropriated by the clergy, were of a religious cast, often composed by priests and monks who were frequently the performers of them in the convents. All the old religious plays called _Mysteries_ were divided into _Miracles_, or _Miracle_ plays, founded on Bible narratives or legends of the saints; and _Moralities_ or _Moral_ plays, which arose out of the former by the introduction of imaginary features and allegorical personages, the story being so constructed as to convey an ethical or religious lesson. They became common in England about the time of the reign of Henry VI. (1422-1461). Some of the Miracle plays treated of all the events of Bible history, from the Creation to the Day of Judgment; they were acted on festivals, and the performance often lasted more than one day. The most sacred things are here treated with undue freedom, and the broadest and coa.r.s.est mirth is introduced to keep the attention of the rude audience. Many of them had a character called _Iniquity_, whose avowed function was that of buffoonery. The Mysteries were not entirely overthrown by the Reformation, the Protestant Bishop Bale having composed several, intended to instruct the people in the errors of popery. After the time of Henry VIII. these plays are known by the name of _Interludes_, the most celebrated of which are those by John Heywood (the epigrammatist). They deal largely in satire, and are not devoid of spirit and humor. But they have little skill in character- painting, and little interest in the story.

About the middle of the century (sixteenth) the drama extricated itself completely from its ancient fetters, and both comedy and tragedy began to exist in a rude reality. The oldest known comedy was written by Nicholas Udall (d. 1556); it has the t.i.tle of "Ralph Roister Doister," a personage whose misadventures are represented with much comic force.

Ten years later the earliest tragedy, known by two names, "Gorboduc" and "Ferrex and Porrex," was publicly played in the Lower Temple. It is founded on the traditions of fabulous British history, and is believed to have been written by Thomas Norton and Lord Buckhurst. The chief merit of this earliest English tragedy lies in its stately language and solemnly reflective tone of sentiment.

2. THE AGE OF SPENSER, SHAKSPEARE, BACON, AND MILTON (1558-1660).--The prose of this ill.u.s.trious period is vast in amount and various in range.

The study of the Oriental languages and other pursuits bearing on theology were prosecuted with success, and many of the philosophical and polemical writings were composed in Latin. A second series of translations of the Scriptures were among the most important works of the time. The first of the three versions which now appeared (1560), came from a knot of English and Scotch exiles who sought refuge in Geneva, and their work, known as the Geneva Bible, though not adopted by the Church of England, long continued in favor with the English Puritans and Scotch Presbyterians.

Cranmer's version was next revised (1568) under the superintendence of Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, eminent among the fathers of the English church, and called the Bishops' Bible, a majority of fifteen translators having been selected from the bench. The Catholic version, known as the Douay Bible, appeared in 1610. Our current translation, which also appeared in 1610, during the reign of James I., occupied forty-seven learned men, a.s.sisted by other eminent scholars, for a period of three years.

Among theological writings, the "Ecclesiastical Polity" of Hooker (1553- 1600) is a striking effort of philosophical thinking, and in point of eloquence one of the n.o.blest monuments of the language. More than Ciceronian in its fullness and dignity of style, it wears with all its richness a sober majesty which is equally admirable and rare. The sermons of Bishop Andrews (1565-1626), though corrupt as models of style, made an extraordinary impression, and contain more than any other works of the kind the inwrought materials of oratory. The sermons of Donne (1573-1631), while they are superior in style, are sometimes fantastic, like his poetry, but they are never coa.r.s.e, and they derive a touching interest from his history.

But the most eloquent of all the old English divines are the two celebrated prelates of the reign of Charles I., Joseph Hall (1574-1656) and Jeremy Taylor (1613-1671), alike eminent for Christian piety and conscientious zeal. Besides his pulpit discourses, Bishop Hall has left a series of "Contemplations" on pa.s.sages of the Bible, and "Meditations,"

which are particularly rich in beautiful descriptions. Among the most practical and popular of Taylor's works are his "Holy Living" and "Holy Dying," while his sermons distinguish him as one of the great ornaments of the English pulpit. The chief theologian of the close of the period was Richard Baxter (1615-1691). His works have great value for their originality and acuteness of thought, and for their vigorous and pa.s.sionate though unpolished eloquence. His "Call to the Unconverted" and "The Saint's Everlasting Rest" deserve their wide popularity. Among the semi-theological writers of the time are Fuller, Cudworth, and Henry More, Fuller (1608-1661) is most widely known through his "Worthies of England,"

a book of lively and observant gossip. Cudworth and More, his contemporaries, deviated in their philosophical writings from the tendencies of Bacon and the sensualistlc doctrines of Hobbes, and regarded existence rather from the spiritual point of view of Plato; in the preceding generation, the skepticism of Lord Herbert of Cherbury taught a different lesson from theirs.

In this period we encounter in the philosophical field two of the strongest thinkers who have appeared in modern Europe, Bacon and Hobbes.

Bacon (1561-1620) aimed at the solution of two great problems, the answers to which were intended to const.i.tute the "Instauratio Magna," the great Restoration of Philosophy, that colossal work, towards which the chief writings of this ill.u.s.trious author were contributions. The first problem was an a.n.a.lytic Cla.s.sification of all departments of Human Knowledge, which occupies a portion of his treatise "On the Advancement of Learning."

Imperfect and erroneous as his scheme may be allowed to be, D'Alembert and his coadjutors in the last century were able to do no more than to copy and distort it. In his "Novum Organum" he undertakes to supply certain deficiencies of the Aristotelian system of logic, and expounds his mode of philosophizing; he was the first to unfold the inductive method, which he did in so masterly a way, that he has earned, with posterity, the t.i.tle of the father of experimental science. His "Essays," from the excellence of their style and the interesting nature of the subjects, are the most generally read of all the author's productions. No English writer surpa.s.ses Bacon in fervor and brilliancy of style, in force of expression, or in richness and significance of imagery. His writings, though they received during his lifetime the neglect for which he had proudly prepared himself, gave a mighty impulse to scientific thought for at least a century after his time. In his will, the following strikingly prophetic pa.s.sage is found: "My name and memory I leave to foreign nations, and to mine own country, after some time is pa.s.sed over."

The influence of Hobbes on philosophy in England has been greater than that of Bacon. In politics, his theory is that of uncontrolled absolutism, subjecting religion and morality to the will of the sovereign; in ethics he resolves all our impulses regarding right and wrong into self-love. His reasoning is close and consistent, and if his premises are granted, it is hardly possible to avoid his conclusions. Other departments in the prose literature of this period were amply filled and richly adorned.

Speculations upon the Theory of Society and Civil Polity were frequent.

Among them are the Latin works of b.e.l.l.e.n.den "On the State," the "New Atlantis," a romance by Lord Bacon, the "Oceana" of Harrington, and the "Leviathan" of Hobbes.

In the collection of materials for national history the period was exceedingly active. Camden and Selden stand at the head of the band of antiquaries. Hobbes wrote in his old age "Behemoth, or a History of the Civil Wars," and the "Turkish History" of Knolles has been p.r.o.nounced one of the most spirited narratives in the language.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), while lying in the Tower under sentence of death, wrote a "History of the World," from the Creation to the Republic of Rome. The narrative is spirited and pervaded by a tone of devout sentiment.

The accomplished Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586), in his "Defense of Poesy,"

pays an eloquent tribute to the value of the most powerful of all the literary arts. His "Arcadia" is a ponderous combination of romantic and pastoral incidents, the unripe production of a young poet, but it abounds in isolated pa.s.sages beautiful alike in sentiment and language.

Towards the close of the period, Milton manifested extraordinary power in prose writing; his defense of the "Liberty of Unlicensed Printing" is one of the most impressive pieces of eloquence in the English tongue. His style is more Latinized than that of most of his contemporaries, and this exotic infection pervades both his terms and his arrangement; yet he has pa.s.sages marvelously sweet, and others in which the grand sweep of his sentences emulates the cathedral music of Hooker.

The press now began to pour forth shoals of short novels, romances, and essays, and pamphlets on various subjects. Among other productions is Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," a storehouse of odd learning and quaintly-original ideas; it is deficient, however, in style and power of consecutive reasoning. Far above Burton in eloquence and strength of thought is Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682), whose writings have all the characteristics of the age in a state of extravagant exaggeration. The thoughtful melancholy, the singular mixture of skepticism and credulity, and the brilliancy of imaginative ill.u.s.tration, give his essays a peculiarity of character that renders them exceedingly fascinating. The poet Cowley, in his prose writings, is distinguished for his undeviating simplicity and perspicuity, and for smoothness and ease, of which hardly another instance could be produced from any other book written before the Restoration.

The English drama has been called Irregular in contrast to the Regular drama of Greece and that of modern France, founded upon the Greek, by the French critics of the age of Louis XIV. The princ.i.p.al law of this system, as we have seen, prescribed obedience to the Three Unities, of Time, of Place, and of Action; the two first being founded on the desire to imitate in the drama the series of events which it represents, the time of action was allowed to extend to twenty-four hours, and the scene to change from place to place in the same city. But by Shakspeare and his contemporaries no fixed limits were acknowledged in regard either of time or place, the action stretching through many years, and the scene changing to very wide distances. The rule prescribing unity of action, that everything shall be subordinate to the series of events which is taken as the guiding-thread, is a much more sound one; and in most of Shakspeare's works, as well as those of his contemporaries, this unity of impression, as it has been called, is fully preserved.

Before the year 1585 no perceptible advance had been made in the drama, and for the period of sixty years, from that date to the closing of the theatres in 1645, on the breaking out of the Civil War, the history of Shakspeare's works forms the leading thread. Men of eminent genius lived around and after him, but there were none who do not derive much of their importance from the relation in which they stand to him, and hardly any whose works do not owe much of their excellence to the influence of his.

Thus considered, the stages through which the drama now pa.s.sed may be said to have been four, three of which occurred chiefly during the life of the poet, the fourth after his death. The first of these periods witnessed the early manhood of Shakspeare, and closes about 1593. Among his immediate predecessors and coadjutors were Marlowe and Greene. The plays of Marlowe (1562-1593) are stately tragedies, serious in purpose, energetic and often extravagant in pa.s.sion and in language, and richly and pompously imaginative. His "Tragical History of Doctor Faustus" is one of the finest poems in the language. The productions of Greene are loose, legendary plays of a form exemplified in Cymbeline.

To the first period of the dramatic life of Shakspeare (1564-1616) belong the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," the "Comedy of Errors," and "Love's Labor's Lost," which show that the mighty master, even in these juvenile essays, had taken a wide step beyond the dramas of the time. Pure comedy had no existence in England until he created it, and in these comedies it is evident that everything is juvenile, unripe, and marvelously unlike the grand pictures of life which he soon afterwards began to paint. But if he was more than a student in this first stage of his progress, he was a teacher and model ever after. The second period for Shakspeare and the drama closes with the year 1600. During this most active part of his literary life, he produced eight comedies, and re-wrote "Romeo and Juliet." But the most elevated works of these six years were his magnificent series of historical plays. The series after 1600 began with the great tragedies, Oth.e.l.lo, Hamlet (recomposed), Macbeth, and Lear, followed by Henry VIII., the three tragedies on Roman subjects, and the three singular pieces, "Timon of Athens," "Troilus and Cressida," and "Measure for Measure," apparently of the same date. "Cymbeline" and the "Winter's Tale" were probably composed after he had retired from the turmoil of his profession to the repose of his early home. In the "Tempest." doubtless his last work, he peopled his haunted island with a group of beings whose conception indicates a greater variety of imagination, and in some points a greater depth of thought than any others which he has bequeathed to us.

The name of Shakspeare is the greatest in all literature. No man ever came near him in creative power--no man had ever such strength combined with such variety of imagination. Of all authors, he is the most natural in his style, and yet there is none whose words are so musical in arrangement, so striking and picturesque in themselves, or contain so many thoughts. Every page furnishes instances of that intensifying of expression, where some happy word conveys a whole train of ideas condensed into a single luminous point--words so new, so full of meaning, yet so unforced and natural, that the rudest mind intuitively perceives their meaning, and yet which no study could improve or imitate. This const.i.tutes the most striking peculiarity of the Shakspearean language, and while it justifies the almost idolatrous veneration of his countrymen, renders him, of all writers, the most untranslatable. Of all authors, Shakspeare has least imitated or repeated himself. While he gives us, in many places, portraits of the same pa.s.sion, the delineations are as distinct and dissimilar as they are in nature; all his personages involuntarily, and in spite of themselves, express their own characters. From his works may be gleaned a complete collection of precepts adapted to every condition of life and every conceivable circ.u.mstance of human affairs. His wit is unbounded, his pa.s.sion inimitable, and over all he has thrown a halo of human sympathy no less tender than his genius was immeasurable and profound.

The effect of Shakspeare's influence on his contemporaries was predominating in everything but the moral aspect of his plays. The licentiousness, begun in the earlier years of the seventeenth century, increased with accelerated speed down to the closing of the theatres by the Civil War.

Highest by far, in poetical and dramatic value, stand the works of Beaumont (1586-1615) and Fletcher (1576-1625). Many of them are said to have been written by the two jointly, a few by the former alone, and a large number by the latter after he had lost his friend; such alliances in dramatic poetry were common in England at this period. But the looseness of fancy which deformed the drama, and which degenerated at last into deliberate licentiousness, is nowhere so glaring as in these finest and most imaginative productions of their day, and which are poetically superior to all of the kind in the language, except those of Shakspeare.

The cla.s.sical model was closely approached by Ben Jonson (1574-1637) in both tragedy and comedy, and he deserves immortality for other reasons than his comparative purity of morals. He was the one man of his time besides Shakspeare who deserves to be called a reflective artist, who perceived the rules of art and worked in obedience to them. His tragedies are stately, eloquent, and poetical; his comedies are more faithful poetic portraits of contemporary English life than those of any other dramatist, Shakspeare excepted.