of the May.' In 1580 he was in disgrace at court on account of his opposition to the proposed marriage of Elizabeth to the Duke of Anjou. He withdrew to Wilton, the seat of his sister the Countess of Pembroke, and there for her diversion he wrote the famous romance of the 'Arcadia.'

The story is of two dear friends, Musidorus, Prince of Thessaly, and Pyrocles, Prince of Macedon, and of their adventures in the land of Arcadia. The king of that country has two daughters, Pamela and Philoclea, with whom the princes fall in love, and in order to be near them they assume strange names and disguises, Musidorus appearing as the shepherd Dorus, and Pyrocles as an Amazon under the name of Zelmane. The story is long and involved, like all the old prose romances, but the language is melodious, and Sidney has been well described as a 'warbler of poetic prose.'

The following lines are taken from the description of the place where the Arcadian peasantry meet for their rustic games:

It was indeede a place of delight, for through the middest of it there ran a sweet brooke, which did both hold the eie open with her azure streames, and yet seeke to close the eie with the purling noise it made upon the pibble stones it ranne over, the field itselfe being set in some places with roses, and in all the rest constantly preserving a flourishing greene; the roses added such a ruddie shew unto it as though the field were bashfull at his own beautie about it.

The silent growth of love in the heart of Philoclea for the beautiful Amazon is thus described:

First shee would wish that they two might live all their lives together, like two of Diana's nymphes; but that wish shee thought not sufficient, because she knew there would be more nymphes besides them, who also would have their part in Zeimane. Then would shee wish that shee were

her sister, that such a naturall band might make her more speciall to her; but against that shee considered that though being her sister, if shee happened to be married, shee should be robbed of her. Then, growne bolder, shee would wish either herselfe or Zelmane a man, that there might succeede a blessed mariage betweene them; but when that wish had once displayed his ensigne in her minde, then followed whole squadrons of longings that so it might be, with a maine battle of mislikings and repinings against their creation that so it was not.

6

In 1581 Sidney wrote another great work, his Apology for Poetrie.' Two years before, Stephen Gosson had written his Schoole of Abuse,' an invective against Poets, Pipers, Plaiers, Jesters, and such-like Caterpillers of a Commonwelth,' and he dedicated the work (probably without leave) to Sidney. The Apology for Poetrie is a noble setting forth of the office of the poet, who is not simply the writer of verses, but every writer whose work is the creation of the imagination.

Truely, even Plato, whosoever well considereth shall find that in the body of his work, though the inside and strength were Philosophy, the skinne as it were and beautie, depended most of Poetrie; for all standeth upon Dialogues wherein he faineth many honest Burgesses of Athens to speake of such matters, that if they had been sette on the racke, they would never have confessed them. Besides, his poetical describing the circumstances of their meetings, as the well ordering of a banquet, the delicacie of a walke, with enterlacing meere tales, as Giges Ring, and others, which who knoweth not to be flowers of Poetrie, did never walke into Appolo's Garden.

He tells us that the Philosopher, the Historian, and the Poet all strive to incite men to lead noble lives, but the last with most success.

For the Philosopher, setting down with thorny argument the bare rule, is so hard of utterance, and so misty to be conceived, that one that hath no other guide but him, shall wade in him till he be olde, before he shall finde sufficient cause to be honest. On the other side the Historian wanting the precept is so tyed, not to what should be but to what

is, to the particular truth of things and not to the general reason of things, that his example draweth no necessary consequence, and therefore a lesse fruitfull doctrine.

Nowe dooth the peerelesse Poet performe both; for whatsoever the Philosopher sayth shoulde be doone, he giveth a perfect picture of it in some one by whom he presupposeth it was done. A perfect picture I say, for he yeeldeth to the powers of the minde, an image of that whereof the Philosopher bestoweth but a woordish description; which dooth neyther strike, pierce, nor possesse the sight of the soule, so much as that other dooth.

In 1582 Sidney's eyes were turned with longing to America, and Elizabeth gave him a grant of land in Virginia, but would not permit him to go there, and in the next year he married the daughter of the queen's faithful minister Walsingham.

In 1584 the Prince of Orange was murdered, and Elizabeth was constrained to aid the Dutch in their struggle for freedom. Troops were sent over under the command of the Earl of Leicester, and Sidney was made Governor of Flushing. In September 1586 he fell sorely wounded in the fight at Zutphen, lingered for twenty-six days, and died in October. In November his body was brought home, and in the following February he was buried with great splendour in St. Paul's.

THE REFORMERS--LATIMER, KNOX.

ENGLISH literature owes much to the Reformation of Religion, which cleared away prejudices, stimulated the spirit of inquiry, and set free the judgment. The direct contributions of the Reformers themselves were not inconsiderable. The noble translation of the Bible

is based upon the labours of Tyndale, and to Cranmer chiefly we owe the simple and beautiful prayers of the Liturgy.

Two of the Reformers, Latimer in England and Knox in Scotland, the first in his sermons, the second in his History, give such graphic pictures of their own times that it may be well to say a few words about each. Hugh Latimer was born at Thurcaston, in Leicestershire, in 1491.

My father was a Yoman and had no landes of his owne, onlye he had a farme of iii or iv pound by yere at the uttermost, and hereupon he tiled so much as kepte halfe a dosen men. He had walke for a hundred shepe and my mother mylked xxx kyne. He was able and did find the king a harnesse, with hym selfe and hys horsse, while he came to the place, that he should receyve the kynges wages. I can remembre, that I buckled hys harnes, when he went unto Blackheeath felde.

At the age of fourteen he was sent to Cambridge, and ten years later he was professor of Greek in the University. He studied with ardour Duns Scotus, Thomas Aquinas, and other scholastic doctors, and dissuaded his companions from the study of the Bible, till his heart was touched by the words of Bilney, who afterwards suffered as a martyr.

Maister Bilney (or rather Saint Bilney that suffred death for God's worde sake) was the instrument whereby God called me to knowledge. For I was as obstinate a papist as any was in England, in so much that when I should be made Bachelor of Divinitie, my whole oration went agaynst Philip Melancthon and agaynst his opinions. Bilney heard me at that time and perceived that I was zealous without knowledge, and he came to me afterward in my study, and desired me for God's sake to heare his confession and I did so. And to say the trueth, by his confession I learned more than before in many yeares. So from that time forward I began to smell the word of God, and forsooke the Schoole Doctoures and such fooleries.

In 1530 he was called to preach before the king, and he did so again in 1534, and was heard with such favour that next year he was made Bishop of Worcester. This dignity he resigned in 1539, as he did not approve of the king's measures, and for the rest of the reign he was in disgrace and was commanded to silence.

With the accession of Edward VI. Latimer was once more in favour, and had he been willing he would once more have been Bishop of Worcester. A pulpit was set up in the King's privie garden at Westminster and therein Doctor Latimer preached before the king, where he mought be heard of more than foure times so manie people as could have stood in the king's chapell.' In this place or at St. Paul's Cross he preached in 1548 and the two following years. Then he went down into Lincolnshire and remained there till Edward died, and twenty-eight of his Lincolnshire sermons have been preserved. When Mary became queen, Latimer was brought to London, cast into the Tower, then was imprisoned at Oxford, and there, in October 1555, he was burnt with Ridley.

The language of Latimer's sermons is vigorous and effective, full of homely wit and racy anecdotes and illustrations. Sometimes he chides the idle bishops who neglect their flocks:

Who is the most diligent bishoppe and prelate in al England, that passeth al the reste in doinge his office, I can tel, for I knowe him, who it is I knowe hym well. But nowe I thynke I se you lysting and hearkening that I shoulde name him. There is one that passeth al the other, and is the most diligent prelate and preacher in al England. And wyl ye knowe who it is? I wyl tel you. It is the Devyl. He is the moste dyligent preacher of al other, he is never out of his dioces, he is never