for the care of returned crusaders who had become insane. 245a 240. moilèd, bedaubed, defiled. 259. chop, come or go suddenly or violently. 245b 274. Don Quixote, the Knight of La Mancha, hero of Cervantes' celebrated burlesque romance by the same name. Sancho Panza is his famous squire. 280. gravel, perplex, run aground. 282. Puck, an English popular sprite, known by several names but with one character. See Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream for the greatest of all delineations of him. 291. bush, thicket. 246a 326. hautboy, ancestor of the present oboe. 246b 371. her over-match, more than a match for her. 383. out of hand, forthwith, instantly. 385. fern-seed doth bestow. According to the popular notion, fernseed had the power to render the possessor invisible. 386. kernel of the mistletoe. Mistletoe was consecrated to religious purposes by the ancient Celts. The present custom of kissing under the mistletoe at Christmas time is a relic of an old superstition." 389. night-shade, henbane. 390. vervain, a species of verbena, used as a cooling remedy. 390. dill, a member of the carrot family, with aromatic seeds, used in pickling. 396. lunary, moonwort. 397. molewarp, the mole. 398. pismire, the ant. 247a 417. mandrake's dreadful groans. Mandragora, so named from the rough resemblance of its forked root to a man. When torn from the soil, it was reputed to utter a shriek, which drove any hearer insane. It was supposed to have strong medicinal properties. 418. lubrican, the leprechaun, in Irish su perstition a pygmy sprite given to serving human beings when treated well. 422. fire-drake, a fire-breathing monster or dragon. See Beowulf, 1. 2200 ff. 426. stound, stroke. 428. fear us, cause us to fear. 430. night-raven, the night-heron. 436. she doth only mind him, she is apprehensive of, or gives attention to, him only. 455. case, skin. 247b 476. madding, acting madly. 490. cockle-shell, shell of a species of mollusk. 493. a bent, a rush stalk. 495. pile, point or head. 248a 546. quoint, quaint, pretty. 249a 618. poke, bag or sack. 651. pother, a smothering cloud of smoke, dust, etc. 662. eschew his blame, avoid his punish ment. 249b 701. mickle, much, great. THOMAS HOWELL Thomas Howell, of whom very little is known, was probably a native of Dunster in Somerset. At the time of his Arbor of Amitie, "by Thomas Howell, Gentleman," 1568, he appears to have been employed in the household of the Earl of Shrewsbury. His last work, so far as known, was his Derises, "for his own exercise and his Friends pleasure," in 1581, when he was in service to the Countess of Pembroke, at Wilton. Here, while in temporary retirement from court, Sidney wrote for his incomparable sister his Arcadia, which Howell almost certainly saw in manuscript and celebrated in his best known poem. belongs to the school of Wyatt and Surrey and wrote on the approved themes. In his metrical variety he points the way to the lyrical riches of form which were soon to follow. He 249a WRITTEN TO A MOST EXCELLENT BOOK, etc. The book was most probably the Arcadia, by Sir Philip Sidney, which was not published until 1590. 1. Pallas, Pallas Athena, goddess of Wisdom. 3. Pan, a popular rural divinity, god of Flocks and Herds. 3. Zoylus, a Greek rhetorician of the fourth century before Christ, called the "Scourge of Homer" because of his severe criticism of the great bard. 4. lower at thy laud, frown upon thy praise. 249b 9. dight, prepare, indite. 11. filèd, polished. 13 f. How much they err, etc. The book in its conclusion shows how wrong people are who try to set aside fate. 250a 25. Minerva's mirrour. Minerva's shield was polished like a mirror. By its reflection Perseus slew the Gorgon. 26. y-fret, adorned. 33. The worthy Countess, Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, Sir Philip's sister and a patroness of letters, for whom the Arcadia was written. A DREAM 250b 11. hire, reward. 12. When hope with hap, etc., when hope in realization may enjoy its object. SIR EDWARD DYER Dyer was born at Sharpham Park in Somerset, the birthplace later of the novelist, Henry Fielding. He attended Oxford but took no degree. After some travel he rose to a high place at Court, winning for himself the honor of a comparison with Sir Philip Sidney in his sovereign's esteem. He was patronized by Leicester, and like Sidney, with whom he was intimate, was a master spirit of the Areopagus Club. Little is known of his last years. He enjoyed considerable fame as a poet, specifically in elegy, during the last quarter of the century, receiving mention by the contemporary critic of the Arte of English Poesie for his "sweet solemn and high conceit." But his poems were not collected at the time, and from those that remain it is hard to judge either of his general merits as a poet or of his works by classes or kinds. His poem on the contentment of a quiet mind is a household possession. The word prothalamion means a song in celebration of a marriage." Spenser's poem was written in celebration of the doubie marriage of the ladies Elizabeth and Katherine Somerset, daughters of the Earl of Worcester, to Henry Guilford and William Peter in 1596 while Spenser was sojourning in London. 2. Zephyrus, the West Wind. 6. my long fruitlesse stay, etc. Spenser had long waited expectantly, though in vain, for preferment from Elizabeth because of the delight she had expressed at the early books of his Faerie Queene. 12. rutty, rooty. 251b 27. feateously, neatly. 33. vermeil, vermilion. 37. two swannes of goodly hewe, representing the brides to be. 40. Pindus, a range of mountains separating Thessaly and Epirus in ancient Greece. 43. Leda, the mother of Clytemnestra, Helen, and Castor and Pollux. She was wooed by Zeus in the form of a milk-white swan. 252a 63. Venus silver teeme. Venus is often represented as being drawn through the air in a pearl shell by a team of white doves or pigeons, sometimes sparrows. 67. Somers-heat, a play on the word "Somerset," the family name of the brides. 78. Peneus, a river in Thessaly running through the Vale of Tempe. 97. heart-quelling sonne, Cupid. 252b 100. assoile, absolve. 110. undersong, burden, refrain. 121. shend, put to shame. 128. my most kyndly nurse, etc. Spenser was born in London. 130. from another place, etc. Spenser's family, it is thought by some, long re sided in Lincolnshire. 132. those bricky towres. The Temple, formerly the property of the Knights Templar until the suppression of the order by Edward II, was occupied by students of law. 137. a stately place, Leicester House. After Leicester's death in 1588 the place became the property of the Earl of Essex and was known as Essex House. 253a 145. a noble peer, the Earl of Essex. 147. through all Spaine did thunder. Essex commanded the land forces in the expedition against Cadiz in 1596, which resulted in its capture. 148. Hercules two pillors, the rocks on each side of the Strait of Gibraltar. 157. Elisaes, Queen Elizabeth's. 164. Hesper, the evening star. 169. Two gentle knights, the bridegrooms. 173. the twins of Jove, Castor and Pollux, the constellation Gemini. SIR WALTER RALEGH Sir Walter Ralegh (or Raleigh) was the most restless and many-sided spirit of Elizabeth's reign. Like Sidney he satisfied well the ideal of the complete gentleman, but unlike Sidney he was not a universal favorite, because of his overweening hauteur and pride. He came of seaman stock of Devonshire, the son of a country gentleman by a third wife. He was at Oxford for a while, and in 1576 was a member of the Middle Temple, more as a passing lodger, however, than as a serious student of the law. He saw service at sea against the Spaniards and in Ireland against the native rebels. Rising rapidly at court, he was knighted in 1584, and represented his native shire in Parliament. In 1586 he obtained the grant of a vast estate (40,000 acres) in Ireland and became a neighbor of Spenser while temporarily out of favor at court. Meanwhile he had interested himself in explorations and discoveries in America, which resulted in the addition of Virginia to the Queen's dominions. He was denied the privilege of accompanying the expedition to the Azores in 1591, but his responsibility in the enterprise gave us his celebrated account of the glorious fight of the Revenge (p. 295 ff.). At the beginning of James's reign the partisans of the late Earl of Essex, Ralegh's arch enemy, succeeded in bringing him to trial on charges 253b of the highest treasonable offense against the country and the crown. He was convicted and sentenced to execution on December 11, 1603; but he was reprieved the day before he was to suffer, his property was confiscated, and he was committed to the Tower. He languished in prison for many years, engaging in scientific experiments, writing his History of the World, and solacing himself with the friendship of the gallant Henry, Prince of Wales. At last in a desperate venture to regain his freedom, he went on an expedition to the Orinoco, engaging to return with a shipload of gold as the price of his liberty, or forfeit his life. After a year of fruitless voyaging under the worst of circumstances, he returned to England to meet his fate. His execution took place on October 29, 1618. In gratification of his lifelong passion for literature, he cultivated, during his leisure in London, the friendship of scholars and men of letters. His prose, which is ever stately and lucid, becomes nobly eloquent when he is aroused. When it is narrative in character, as it frequently is, it is the best of its kind at the time. Poetry was an occupation with him all his life, but only a slender remnant of his verse has been preserved. That remnant, mirroring as it does the aristocratic personality of the author, is aptly described by a contemporary as "most lofty, insolent, and passionate." A VISION UPON THIS CON- This sonnet was prefixed to the first book 1. Laura. The lady to whom Petrarch addressed some three hundred sonnets during an acquaintanceship of fifteen or twenty years has been identified as Laure de Noves, later Madame de Sale, a French woman of Avignon, 1308-1348. 6. the Fairy Queen, Queen Elizabeth. John Lyly was a native of the Weald of Kent. He was registered at Oxford as "plebeii filius," proved an indifferent student but attained both degrees, and later was incorporated M.A. of Cambridge. His Euphues appeared in 1579 and brought him at once into fame but not into fortune. He became a playwright for children's companies and aspired to the Mastership of the Revels. But the boys' companies suffered legal restrictions, after a few years he was superseded by better dramatists, and, disappointed at court, he died in obseurity in 1606. He attained the high-water mark of artificiality of style in his Euphues, a work that was enormously imitated in his day, affecting even the speech of the time, and since has provided the language with a new critical term, Ephuism. His plays are pleasant reading, but ultimately they cloy. While showing some skill in comedy, he is not a great acting dramatist. His finest work is in his lyrics. ROBERT GREENE The most facile writer and probably the best writer of fiction during the Elizabethan age was Robert Greene, the son of poor but honest parents of Norwich. He attended Cambridge as a sizar and in due time won both the Arts degrees. After a period of travel he returned to his native city, and was married and resided there in the mid-eighties, but deserted wife and child and settled permanently in London to try his fortune as a "university wit." He was essentially a religious being at heart, but, innately weak in character, in conduct he fell hopelessly short of the bounties of grace and virtue with which his pen is so fluent. His associations with the London underworld he often turned to his own profit in his penitential pamphlets, when his nobler impulses were dominant. Improvidence was his bane, and he died in squalor in London when not much more than half the number of his days were fulfilled. He was both a prolific and a popular writer in his day. His works comprise pamphlets, plays, and romances. greatest service was in prose fiction. His plays are more important in the history of English drama than they are intrinsically significant. His poems, found chiefly in his romances, are justly famous. Noble in sentiment, tender in sympathy, refined and elegant in phrase, they are among the treasures of English lyrical poetry. SEPHESTIA'S SONG TO HER CHILD His Sephestia is the banished daughter of King Damocles in Greene's Menaphon. 256b THE SHEPHERD'S WIFE'S SONG This song is found in the Mourning Garment, a tract which adopted for its theme the Biblical story of the Prodigal Son. 35. More sounder. Double comparatives are common in Elizabethan usage. 257a 36. spill, lose, destroy. 42. tide or sithe, time or occasion. SONG This song occurs in one of the author's numerous penitential tracts, the Farewell to Folly. Compare Dyer's poem on the same theme, p. 250. 9. The mean, suggestive of "the golden mean "; in music, the middle part of a three-part harmony. GEORGE PEELE He Peele was the son of a London citizen of Devonshire stock. He was brought up in Christ's Hospital School, where his father for many years was clerk and a teacher of commercial subjects. went up to Oxford in 1571 and continued through to his M.A. degree in 1579. He enjoyed some reputation as a poet during his university career. Later he acquired a reputation for being extremely wild. With his eclectic genius he pursued the calling of playwright and actor until his life came to a miserable end while he was still under forty years of age. “He is a less witty and more poetic Lyly." His lyrics were popular in literary circles and have continued the best preservers of his fame down to the present time. CUPID'S CURSE In The Arraignment of Paris. 257b 10. bin, are. 11. roundelay, a song in which a simple strain is oft repeated, suitable for singing to a dance in a circle. THOMAS LODGE Thomas Lodge was the second son of the Lord Mayor of London, though not certainly born in the city. He attended the Merchant Taylors' School and Oxford University, and became a member of Lincoln's Inn. But he soon gave up law for literature, thus adding one more name to the brilliant group of "university wits" who were adorning literature in London at the close of the century. He tried his hand at play making for a while, mainly in collaboration with Greene, without great success. Then he turned adventurer and voyaged as far as South America. From his travel came his Euphuistic romance of Rosalynde, the best of the time, from which Shakespeare drew his plot for As You Like It. In 1596 he abandoned literature for medicine, and for the remainder of his rather long life he was a fashionable practitioner in London. His prose is ornate, though languid, and modern readers find it tedious. He best deserves remembrance for his lyrical poems, where, though fervor is often lacking, he charms with his unique artistry. ROSALIND'S MADRIGAL In Rosalynde. Among the many representations of love in the poetry of the time, this one is unique in that love is compared to a bee. ROSALIND'S DESCRIPTION 1. highest sphere, the empyrean or sphere of pure fire, according to the Ptolemaic system of astronomy. 258a 43. for her fair, as for her beauty. NICHOLAS BRETON Breton came of an ancient family, originally settled in Essex, but his father removed to London, amassed a fortune there in trade, and died in 1558, when the son was some twelve years of age. Ten years later his mother was married to George Gascoigne, the poet. He may have attended Oxford. By 1577, the year of his stepfather's death, he was settled in London and lodging in Holborn. He was married in 1592, and from the records of the births and deaths of his children he resided in Cripplegate. He was referred to as a gentleman, but no record remains of his death. Volumi nous works in prose and verse appeared from his pen regularly from 1577 to 1626. He was patronized early by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke. He wrote with great facility and wrote too often and too much. Versatility and refinement are his characteristics. He is best in his pastoral lyrics, where he is always sincere, often gay without being gross, and quite regularly melodious and fresh without being notable for originality of thought or weight of content. A SWEET LULLABY Compare Greene's Sephestia's Song to Her Child, p. 256. 258b 39. rascal, an inferior deer or other animal, unfit for the chase. PHYLLIDA AND CORYDON 259a 6. Phyllida and Corydon, conventional names of pastoral lovers. ROBERT SOUTHWELL The Catholic poet Robert Southwell was born near Norwich in Norfolk. His ma ternal grandmother was a Shelley, from which line descended the great lyric poet of the nineteenth century. He received his early schooling at Douay and Paris under Jesuit instruction. He prepared for orders in the Jesuit Society and studied at Rome, becoming in due time prefect of studies in the English College there. He was ordained priest in 1584. and by his own wish was nominated for the English mission, where from the rigor of the penal laws priests were in the utmost peril. On his arrival in England he became at once active and, very soon, influential. His headquarters were in London. In time he was arrested and tortured to extort confession, but in vain. Finally, after an extremely hazardous life of nearly ten years, he was tried, sentenced, and met the fate he had long invited, by hanging at Tyburn in February, 1595. He left much writing ready for the press, including his chief volume of verse, St. Peter's Complaint, with Other Poems, which was published soon after his death. Piratical reprints and other volumes of his poetry attest his popularity. He was acquainted with the poetry of his contemporaries, but his constant effort, he declared, was to show that virtue and piety are as worthy topics for a poet's pen as the worldly subjects usually treated. To this end he uses the artificial and "conceited" manner introduced from Italy as a vehicle for his ardent religious fervor. CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE Christopher Marlowe, the second greatest personage in English drama, was the son of a Canterbury shoemaker. He was educated at the king's School of his native town. In 1580 he proceeded to Cambridge as a pensioner. The following year he was admitted to a six-years' scholarship and continued for the B.A. and M.A. degrees, the latter of which he received in 1587. He probably went up to London at once and began playwriting He was early attached to the Lord Admiral's Company, the company of the great Edward Alleyn, which produced most of his plays. His Tamburlaine, in two parts, of which the first appeared in 1587 and opened a new vein for English tragedy, is written in a flexible blank verse form, which has since been called "Marlowe's mighty line." His Dr. Faustus followed, probably the next year, and his Jer of Malta a year or two later. This brilliant succession showed clearly the possibilities of the great tragic passions in English drama. Edward II, an historical play, about 1592, is generally acknowledged to be the best of its kind in the |