CHAPTER I

THE GREAT ELIZABETHAN PROSE WRITERS

WHEN, on the memorable November 17, 1558, the tidings came to Queen
Elizabeth, sitting under a tree in Hatfield Park, of the death of her sister and

predecessor, nothing seemed

to indicate the glories, either in arms or arts, of a reign destined to unprecedented glory in both. The last two reigns had been unfortunate; one distracted by the struggles of ambitious ministers seeking to govern in the name of a boy-king; the other infamous for cruelty at home, and shameful for disaster abroad. Even in 1553 the sagacious Venetian envoy had noted the alarm of the English at the alliance of France and Scotland, and the national spirit and resources had since sunk lower still. Economic causes, in that age hard to comprehend and harder to remedy, aggravated the general depression. The great additions made and daily making to the world's stock of the precious metals had

Queen Elizabeth

From a scarce print by Crispin de Passe after a
drawing by Isaac Oliver

raised prices, rents, and by consequence taxes, to a degree previously unknown. Henry VIII. had allowed himself to be seduced into the expedient of debasing the currency, a practice continued by his successors, and the state of the finances was now nearly desperate. Since Henry's death, no one with any pretensions tc statesmanship, Cranmer alone excepted, had had a share in the government, except in the most subordinate capacities; the ablest men were merely

VOL. II

A

Political and literary out look at the accession of Elizabeth

Influence of the Reforma

tion on Elizabethan literature

energetic like Northumberland, or merely astute like Gardiner. The blight on politics had extended to literature. More and Surrey and Wyatt seemed to have left no successors; at Elizabeth's accession her dominions contained hardly one author of recognised eminence. From every point of view the vessel of State seemed drifting on the rocks, but a breeze was to spring up unexpectedly, and bear her back to prosperous voyage on the open sea. Not less manifestly than in the day of the Armada, afflavit Deus.

The key to the marvellous change which was to ensue lies in the two watchwords we have already found so potent, Reformation and Renaissance. Nothing

is more undeniably evident
than the happy fate of the
countries which embraced
the Reformation in com-
parison with those which
rejected it, except the
further observation, less
agreeable to the reformers,
that they were rather in-
debted for this felicity to
their rulers than to their
preachers. Wherever the
principles of the Reforma-
tion were adopted by the
sovereign, the Reformation
triumphed; wherever, with
the single exception of
Scotland, more apparent
than real, the
real, the monarch
sided with the Church, the
Reformation was crushed.

By virtually adhering to the
Reformation Henry VIII.

had saved the country from a civil war as terrible as that which, at Elizabeth's accession, was rendering the hereditary enemy, France, a cipher in European politics. At the same moment the Reformation gained the upper hand in Scotland, and the alliance of France and Scotland which had occasioned English statesmen so much anxiety fell away of itself. Thus were the two great sources of apprehension removed as though by enchantment, while at the same time England was, as it were, placed under bonds to adhere steadily to the Reformation as a condition of the friendship of Scotland, and the sympathies of French Huguenots, Dutch Protestants, and whoever else was helping to ward off the attacks which she might apprehend from continental powers. The principles of the Reformation do not here concern us, otherwise than in their connection with literature: but it is manifest that the mere assumption of a hostile attitude towards so much that had for centuries passed as

L

REFORMATION AND RENAISSANCE

3

beyond discussion must have been a most potent intellectual stimulus, and
provocative of mental activity in every direction.

Nor was the influence of the Renaissance less extensive or less salutary. influence of It had not, as in Italy, produced any development of the arts; no English- the Renaisman of the period is remembered as architect, painter, or sculptor. When

a great artist was wanted, a Torregiano had to be imported from Italy, or a
Holbein from Germany. Even in the thirteenth century the magnificent
statuary in Wells Cathedral had in all probability been executed by Italian
sculptors what native art could perform in Henry VIII.'s time may be
seen in the rude though vigorous
exterior sculpture of Launceston
Church. Just as little was the re-
action towards classical paganism,
so conspicuous in Italy, visible in
a country united to the ancient
world by no affinities of blood,
and remote from the silent preach-
ing of ruined temples and monu-
ments of ancient worship. The
influence of the Renaissance in
England was mainly educational,
it did not immediately create a
school of literature, but prepared
the way for a new school uniting
the best elements of the Renais-
sance school with the romantic.
It had thoroughly permeated the
upper classes of society, and trans-
formed the fighting aristocracy of
the Middle Ages, with just enough
culture to appreciate the songs of
After the portrait in the National Portrait Gallery
a minstrel, into a society of polite
and accomplished ladies and gentlemen. The high standard of cultivation
attained in Elizabeth's time by the nobility and upper class of gentry is
attested by a witness above suspicion, the simple and sober-minded William
Harrison, author of the invaluable description of England published along
with Holinshed's Chronicles in 1577. He is not backward to stigmatise the
vices of the court; but of its merits he says:

Sir Nicholas Bacon

This further is not to be omitted to the praise of both sorts and sexes of our courtiers here in England, that there are very few of them which have not their use and skill of sundry speeches, besides an excellent vein of writing before time not regarded. Troth it is a rare thing with us now to hear of a courtier which hath but his own language. And to say how many gentlemen and ladies there are that beside sound knowledge of the Greek and Latin tongue are thereto no less skilful in the Spanish, Italian, and French, or in some one of them, it resteth not in me, sith I am persuaded that as the noblemen and gentlemen do surmount in this behalf,

sance