And this figure he addede eek therto, For if a prest be foul, on whom we truste And leet his scheep encombred in the myre, By good ensample, this was his busynesse. He taughte, and first he folwede it himselve. NOTES.-23. yren, iron. 25. lewed, unlearned. brotherhood to be enroll ed. 28. Seynte Poules, St. Paul's. 36. digne, high or haughty. Notice the change in the 43. snybbe scharply for the possessive termination. 30 bretherhede to withholde, nones, snub or rebuke sharply for the occasion. ANALYSIS.-27. What figure in this line? 28, 29. Point out the modifiers of ran. 38-39. What is the subject of the sentence? Show what is in apposition with this. 44-47. Write these four lines in modern English. 2.5 30 35 40 45 CONTEMPORARIES OF THE AGE OF CHAUCER. POETS. Robert Langland (about 1332-1400).-A secular priest and a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. Author of the Vision of Piers Ploughman. John Gower (1325?-1408).-Called by Chaucer "Moral Gower." Author of Speculum Meditantis, Vox Clamantis, and the Confessio Amantis. John Barbour (1316?-1396).-A Scotch poet, archdeacon of Aberdeen. His greatest poem is The Bruce. PROSE-WRITERS. Sir John Mandeville (1300–1372).—The earliest writer of English prose. Studied for the medical profession. Was a traveler for thirty-four years. His book, Mandeville's Travels, was the first English book published. John Wycliffe (1324–1384).—A learned and eloquent preacher. Sometimes called "The Morning Star of the Reformation." Educated at Oxford. His chief Latin work is Trialogus, his chief English production, the first English translation of the whole Bible. 11. THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 1550-1625. REIGNS OF ELIZABETH AND JAMES I. THIS was the most brilliant period in the history of our literature. It produced not only a Spenser, a Shakespeare, and a Bacon, but also a host of dramatic and other poets whose writings would in any other age have placed them in the foremost rank of the literary men of their time. Not only during the reign of Elizabeth, but also during that of her successor, King James I., did literary genius put forth its most brilliant efforts. The invention of printing, the study of classical literature, the freedom with which all questions were dis cussed, the translations from the literature of France and Italy, the revised translation of the Scriptures, and the general introduction of the inductive philosophy,all had a tendency to encourage literary effort and develop the literary taste of the age. It was this age also that witnessed the marvelous development of the English drama. The earliest form. of the drama in England was that known as the Miracle Play, or Mystery, which was acted in the churches and convents either by the clergy or under their immediate supervision. The subjects chosen were usually some striking mystery of Scripture, as the Atonement, the Creation, the Crucifixion, the Deluge, the Resurrection, etc., and the only knowledge of Scripture possessed by the mastes was derived from these plays. About the mid dle of the thirteenth century sometimes a full set of plays was acted, setting forth the whole of sacred history from the Creation to the Day of Judgment. These usually continued for about a week. In order to please the ignorant and illiterate, the comic element was introduced, and the chief comedian chosen was the Prince of the Infernal Regions, who was always represented, according to the popular notion, with horns, hoofs, and tail. The Miracle Plays were gradually changed into the Moralities. Here Justice, Virtue, etc. were substituted for the Scripture personages. The object now was to teach not religion, but morality. The Devil was still retained to furnish the comic features of the play, and the contest between him and the Vice represented in the play furnished the chief amusement to the audience. The Moralities formed the basis of the modern drama. The serious portions gave us the elements of English tragedy, and the comic those of English comedy. But previous to the comedy proper came the Interludes, which resembled our modern Farce; and of these John Heywood, who lived in the reign of Henry VIII., was probably the most noted writer. The first representative of the modern drama was the first English comedy, Ralph Roister Doister, a picture of London life, written by Nicholas Udall about the middle of the sixteenth century. Udall was a Lutheran and head-master of Eton College, where he made himself notorious for his cruel floggings. The first English tragedy is supposed to have been Gorboduc, or the old British story Ferrex and Porrex, dramatized by Sackville and Norton, and acted in 1561 by the students of the Inner Temple. New interest was given to the plays by the introduction of real human characters instead of continuing the representation of the abstract virtues; and from this time forward the English drama made such rapid strides that in a few years the magnificent creations of Shakespeare's genius took the place of the grotesque drolleries of Heywood, and the English court and the English people could sit and laugh at the rollicking humor of the broadest comedy or tremble at the stirring passion of the greatest tragedies the world has ever known. The first English theatre was built at Blackfriars, in London, in 1576. It was merely a round wooden wall, enclosing an open space, except that occupied by the stage, which was covered. The Globe Theatre, which was built for Shakespeare, was erected in 1594. It was the model after which nearly all others were patterned. The exterior was hexagonal, and the interior circular. The scenery was of the rudest description. A change of scene was announced by hanging out a placard with the name of the place-Padua, Paris, or some other city -painted on it. The audience consisted of groundlings, who occupied the pit, and the gallants, who sat in two rows on the stage, the actors playing between them. The actors, of whom Shakespeare and the scholarly Ben Jonson were representatives, also wrote for the tage. The two callings were nearly always united. 2. EDMUND SPENSER, 1553-1599. ONE of the most illustrious representatives of the Elizabethan era of English literature was EDMUND SPENSER, born in East Smithfield, London, in 1553. His parents were poor, and young Spenser entered Pembroke College, Cambridge, as a "sizar," or charity student, in 1569, and remained at college until he took his degree of M. A. in 1576, seven years later. |