the progress of the Spanish Armada. Who could doubt this when the paper was in the Manuscript Department of the British Museum, open to the inspection of all the world? So it was, but nobody inspected it, and the statement was repeated unchallenged in a hundred places between 1794 THE and 1839, when Mr. Thomas Watts, after English Mercurie. N51. wards Keeper of Published by AUTHORITIE, For the Prevention of falfe Reportes. Whitehall, July 26th 1588. A Journal of what has paffed fince the 21st of this Month, between her Admirall to the Lordes of the Councill ULY 22d. The whole Fleete being come up, wee fayled in Pursuite of the Enemie, who bore along by the Starte; a large Ship belonginge to the Guypu/coan Squadrone having beene fet on Fire by a Dutch Gunner, that thought himself ill ufed, and very much da-. maged, the Enemie were forced to abandon and turne her a drift. The Lorde Thomas Howard and Capt. Hawkins were by the Admirall's order fente on board her; they founde the Dooks fallen in, the Steerage broken, the Stern blowne out, and fifty poore Saylors burnte with Powder in a moft terrible Manner. In this myferable Condition, the was immediately fente into Weymouth. This Galleon had the Enemie's militarie Chefte on board, which they removed into another Ship, before we tooke her. The following Nighte proving calme, the foure Galleaffes of Naples fingled themselves out, as if they woulde fall upon fome of our Ships, which had advanced too farre from the Line, but they attempted noething. July 23d. The Spanish Armado, which was now come over against Portland, tacked about, and stoode in towardes the Shoare, which wo likewife did. After feverall Attemptes to get the Winde of each other, a fmart Engagement began: The Triumph, (commaunded by Rear-Admirall Forbifher), with the Reft of his Divifione, having fallen to Leeward were brifkly attacqued by Don Juan de Recalde: They had warme Worke for an Houre and halfe, when the Lorde Admiral obferved them to be in fome Distreffe,and bore downe with his owne Ship,the Elizabeth C A page of the spurious "English Mercurie" Jonas, Printed Books at the Museum, had the curiosity to look at it, and "the success ful imposition of fifty years was shattered to pieces in, five minutes." Paper and print were of the eighteenth century, and two MS. copies of numbers, from the numerous corrections evidently the first drafts of the author, are eighteenth century also. It is almost certain that the fabricator was Philip Yorke, second Earl of Hardwicke, who had already essayed a more innocent mystification as the writer of The Athenian Letters. News-letters registering particular occur rences circulated widely both in manuscript and print in most European countries during the early part of the seventeenth century; but no periodical devoted to news appeared in England until, on May 23, 1622, Nathaniel Butter, Nicholas Bunne, and Thomas Archer issued the Weekly News from Italy, Germany, &c. Germany, however, had been beforehand with England, the Frankfurter Journal having been commenced in 1615.. CHAPTER III SPENSER AND MINOR ELIZABETHAN POETS AN ancient emblem, recalled to the recollection of the present time by the genius of Burne-Jones, expresses the inexorable revolution of the Wheel of Fortune. As originally conceived, three kings are represented revolving along with the fateful wheel. From the mouth of the one who is descending proceeds the legend, "I have been"; another, surmounting the summit of the circumference, proudly declares, “I am"; a third, ascending, yet more proudly announces, "I am to be." The representation might serve for an allegory of the condition in the middle of the sixteenth century of the three countries, Italy, Portugal, and England, each of which enriched the later Renaissance with a national epic poet. Tasso was driven to seek a theme in the past. The subject of his epic is not national, except in so far as he has contrived to connect it with the House of Ferrara, but he is only too faithful a representative of his country, still teeming with beauty, but deeply infected with that poison of the Counter Reformation which ultimately so nearly destroyed her intellectual life. We blush to be told that the Jerusalem Delivered was revised by ecclesiastics with the full assent of the author. Milton's licenser at one time would fain have silenced him, but never presumed to mend him. Camoens-though the symptoms of decay were already beginning to appear-celebrates his country at the height of her fame and glory. Spenser, like the third king in the emblem proclaiming what is not yet but is to be, sets forth the coming glories in a majestic but obscure allegory. The three poets whom we have thus brought together do indeed wear a family likeness, only to be explained by the degree in which they are representatives of their age. Perhaps in no age have the characters of cavalier and poet been so perfectly united as in the sixteenth century. Poets continue to be usually men of breeding, but, as is inevitable from the great development of literature, the man of letters has encroached upon the courtier and the soldier. In the sixteenth century it is often difficult to decide which type is more prominent in the individual. In Tasso the scholar, in Spenser the courtier, in Camoens the soldier almost rival the poet; but all characters blend together to compose a singularly attractive personality. We shall have to speak further of Spenser's relation to the great contemporary poets of the Continent, and here only note the remarkable circumstance that, while Tasso and Camoens and Ariosto are famous all over Europe, Spenser, except to the English-speaking peoples, is almost unknown. This is no isolated phenomenon; with the exception of Shakespeare and Milton, our most exquisite singers are far less appreciated abroad than those whom we should place in the Edmund second rank. If our Wordsworths and Shelleys and Spensers should ever force themselves upon recalcitrant Europe as Shakespeare and Scott and Byron have done, we shall see another literary revolution and a second Romantic School. Edmund Spenser, though born in East Smithfield, probably in 1552, was of Lancashire extraction, his father having migrated to London from the neighbourhood of Burnley. The family was well connected, but Spenser's father, like many another cadet of a good house, was compelled to resort to trade, and several years after the poet's birth is found exercising "the art and mystery of clothmaking" in the service of N.cholas Peele, whom, remembering Robert Peel, we must con One of the School-rooms at Merchant Taylors, where Spenser was educated clude to have been a Lancashire man also. It was but natural that the younger Spenser, doubtless a youth of promise, should obtain admittance to Merchant Taylors' School, just founded, and the rather as the warden of the Company at the time was a namesake, and probably a relation. In due time Spenser went to Pembroke Hall, afterwards College, at Cambridge, and is mentioned among thirty-one scholars from London grammar schools admitted to the University in 1569. In the same year he anonymously translated poems from Du Bellay and Petrarch as letterpress for woodcuts introduced to enliven A Theatre for Worldlings, a moral tract translated from the Flemish. He must, therefore, have studied modern as well as classical languages, and his University career, though frequently interrupted by ill-health, was distinguished and profitable. He contracted many friendships, the most important being that with the sour and rancorous, but able and learned, Gabriel Harvey, the "Hobbinol" of The |