beautiful; and the language itself had become full and rich, and well fitted to express the splendid thoughts of such poets as Spenser and Shakespeare. The encouragement given to eminent authors by Queen Elizabeth and her successors, is also of great importance in accounting for the literary greatness of England at this time. In the present chapter we treat of the various schools or classes of poets-I. The Spenserian or Allegorical School; II. The "Metaphysical" School; III. The Lyrical School; and IV. Other Classes of Poets; reserving the Drama and Shakespeare for succeeding chapters.

I. THE SPENSERIAN OR ALLEGORICAL SCHOOL.

EDMUND SPENSER (b. 1553, d. 1599) is the greatest allegorical poet of England. He was born in London, and is supposed to have belonged to an illustrious house of that name. His own parents, however, seem to have been poor, for we find him entered at the University of Cambridge as a sizar—that is, a student who received his education for a smaller sum than usual, and who had to serve as a waiter on the wealthier students at meal times. While at college he got intimate with an eccentric but learned man, called Gabriel Harvey, who introduced him to the famous Sir Philip Sydney. At Penshurst, Sydney's estate, Spenser and Sir Philip became excellent friends, and the poet was soon recommended to the illustrious courtier, the Earl of Leicester, who in turn introduced him to the notice of the great Elizabeth herself. The result of royal favour was his appointment as secretary to Lord Grey de Wilton, the new lieutenant of Ireland, to which country the poet now proceeded. Afterwards he received from the Queen a grant of the lands of Kilcolman, near Cork, on condition that he should live there. These lands, and the castle in which Spenser resided, had once been the property of the rebel Desmonds, and had been confiscated or taken possession of by the Government. Here the poet remained for twelve years, and here he wrote his greatest poem

The Faerie Queen. Unfortunately for himself, he did not try to be friendly to the wild natives among whom he lived; and, when the next rebellion took place, the insurgents attacked Kilcolman Castle so suddenly and so furiously that he and his wife had to flee for their lives from the blazing ruin, leaving behind them their youngest child, who was burnt to death. Broken-hearted and almost in poverty, the poet returned to London, where, three months afterwards, he died.

Spenser's greatest work, as above stated, is The Faerie Queen. The hero of the poem is Prince Arthur, who sees in a dream the Fairy Queen; and, being charmed with her beauty, he visits fairy-land, where he finds her holding a twelve days' festival. At her court is a beautiful lady with whom twelve gallant knights have fallen in love; and, in order to prove which of them is most worthy of the prize, the Queen gives each an adventure, with the promise that he who shall perform the bravest deed is to be the husband of the beautiful lady. The poem was to consist of twelve books, each of which was to contain an adventure; but of these we have only six, and it is very doubtful if the poet wrote any more. The knights were intended to represent Virtues, and in their exploits they were to show how virtue always triumphs over vice. Nearly all the persons mentioned in the poem are strictly allegorical, except the Fairy Queen and one or two others, who also represent Queen Elizabeth, Lord Grey, and other historical personages. A recent critic thus describes the kind of writing which is to be found in the first book:"A knight 'pricks along the plaine,' among the trees, and at a crossing of the paths meets other knights, with whom he engages in combat; suddenly, from within a cave, appears a monster, half-woman and half-serpent, surrounded by hideous offspring; farther on, a giant with three bodies; then a dragon, great as a hill, with sharp talons and vast wings. For three days he fights him, and twice overthrown, he comes to himself only by aid of a gracious ointAfter that there are savage tribes to be conquered, castles surrounded by flames to be captured. Meanwhile,

ment.

:

ladies are wandering in the midst of forests on white palfreys, exposed to the attacks of wretches, now guarded by a lion which follows them, now delivered by a band of satyrs who adore them. Magicians work charms; palaces display their festivities; and sea gods, nymphs, fairies, and kings mingle together in feasts, surprises, and dangers."

The most wonderful characteristic of Spenser's poetry is its richness of imagination. His knights and other characters in the poem, the lands they live in, and the heroic deeds they perform, are all the invention of the poet's fancy. The Faerie Queen is called chivalric, because it recounts the adventures of knights; allegorical, because its personages represent abstract qualities; narrative, because each book tells a story; and descriptive, because, besides telling us what the knights did, it describes their persons and characters, and shows us the giants, the dragons, the darksome caves, and the lovely islands so distinctly that we think them living beings and real places.

Spenser's verse is peculiar to himself. Imitating the Italian poets, he used the eight-line stanza, but added a ninth line two syllables longer than the others, called an Alexandrine. Here is an example of the Spenserian

stanza

"A gentle knight was pricking on the plaine,
Y'clad in mighty arms and silver shield,
Wherein old dints of deep wounds did remain,
The cruel marks of many a bloody field;
Yet arms till that time did he never wield:
His angry steed did chide his foaming bit,
As much disdaining to the curb to yield:
Full jolly knight he seemed, and fair did sit,

As one for knightly jousts and fierce encounters fit."

THE HOUSE OF SLEEP.

"He making speedy way, through spersed ayre,

And through the world of waters, wide and deepe,

To Morpheus' house doth hastily repaire.
Amid the bowels of the earth, full steepe,
And low, where dawning day doth never peepe,

C

His dwelling is, there Tethys his wet bed

Doth ever wash, and Cynthia still doth steepe,

In silver deaw, his ever drouping hed,

Whiles sad Night over him her mantle black doth spred.

"Whose double gates he findeth locked fast,

The one fayre fram'd of burnisht yvory,
The other all with silver overcast;

And wakeful dogges before them farre doe lye,
Watching to banish Care, their enimy,
Who oft is wont to trouble gentle sleepe.

By them the sprite doth passe in quietly,

And unto Morpheus comes, whom drowned deepe
In drowsie fit he findes; of nothing he takes keepe.

"And more to lulle him in his slumber soft,

A trickling streame, from high rock tumbling downe,
And ever-drizling raine upon the loft,

Mixt with a murmuring winde, much like the sowne
Of swarming bees, did cast him in a swowne.
No other noyse, nor people's troublous cryes,

As still are wont to annoy the walled towne,
Might there be heard; but careless Quiet lyes
Wrapt in eternal silence, farre from enimyes."

From "The Faerie Queen."

Other Allegorical Poets.-The principal of these were PHINEAS FLETCHER, author of The Purple Island; GILES FLETCHER, brother of the former, who wrote Christ's Victory and Triumph; WILLIAM BROWNE, the writer of Britannia's Pastorals; and WILLIAM DRUMMOND, of Hawthornden, a famous writer of Sonnets.

II. THE "METAPHYSICAL" POETS.

Hitherto the poets have been natural-that is, they have expressed their thoughts just as they came from their hearts; now we are to have poets who have excellent ideas to express, but they convey them in forms as strange, odd, and fantastical as it is possible to imagine. For instance, a poet wishing to say of Mary Magdalene that her eyes are exceedingly beautiful, adds that they are so delicious that a cherub comes every morning and takes his breakfast from them. An idea so extravagant is called a

conceit, and the poetry of this school is full of conceits. DR. DONNE, Dean of St. Paul's (1573-1631), was the first to write in this style; but the most notable author whose writings were spoiled by such defects as those we have alluded to, was Abraham Cowley, the last of the "fantastical poets," as they are sometimes called.

ABRAHAM COWLEY (b. London, 1618, d. 1667).-This poet was the son of a stationer, and was educated at Cambridge. At the early age of thirteen he published a volume of poems, in which he states that he meant to become a great man. When Queen Henrietta was obliged to flee to France, Cowley accompanied her as secretary; and for twelve years he remained with her, busily engaged in writing and reading communications passing between Charles and his Queen; for all the letters were written in cypher—that is, in characters which none but the King and Cowley could either write or understand. When the Restoration took place, he naturally expected to be rewarded for his faithfulness to the late King, but he was miserably disappointed. The rest of his days were spent in the retirement of a country life. He died in 1667, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Cowley was an excellent translator of the works of Greek poets. His Anacreontics are translations from Anacreon, a poet who wrote in praise of wine and beauty. Cowley also wrote four books of an epic-a long poem containing a story. It was called The Davideis, and was to give a full account of the troubles which befel King David; but it was never finished.

As we have said, Cowley's writings were disfigured with conceits. Here are a few from the last named work, which occur very near to each other—

Beneath the silent chambers of the earth,
Where the sun's fruitful beams give metals birth:

Beneath the dens where unfledged tempests lie,
And infant winds their tender voices try.

Myriads of spirits fell wounded round him there;
With dropping lights thick shone the singed air.