"That gentle bard, Chosen by the Muses for their page of state, AFTER the "Morning-Star" came a long, dark night, instead of the bright dawn, and for more than one hundred and fifty years no great poet appeared. He has, With Chaucer, our literature and language had made a burst" which they were not able to maintain. by Warton, been well compared to some warm, bright day in the very early spring, which seems to say that the winter is over and gone. But its promise is deceitful; the full bursting and blossoming are yet far off: "Old Chaucer, like the morning-star, To us discovers day from far; His light those mists and clouds dissolved, Which our dark nation long involved; But he, descending to the shades, Darkness again the age invades." It was, indeed, a dark and stormy period, an age of change and revolution, without progress, a desert-tract of time, a blank in our literary history. No form of government, no creed was safe; life and property were nowhere protected. Yet England was in a better condition than any other country in this respect. How could men improve in such dreadful days? the crown claimed by rival kings, the people divided into factions, causing that civil war "Which sent, between the red rose and the white, A thousand souls to death and deadly night!" How could men be merry or wise, when the bells in the church-steeples were not heard for the sound of drums and trumpets, and their voices were daily hushed by ⚫ battle-cries and the crackling of fagots? for the best men of the day were burned for heresy. But at last there came a blessed change. The dark ages, with all their gloom and horror, passed away, and the dawn came on. Henry VII. ascended the throne in 1485, and from that time the people began to enjoy peace and prosperity. SPENSER now appeared, to clasp hands with Chaueer over the black abyss that parted them, uniting the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries by their sweet minstrelsy. That was the "golden age" of English literature, in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I. The great men of the world, its lights and teachers, come in clusters, and it is a well-known fact that a period of peculiar literary glory often succeeds a great national revolution. Lowell says 66 the world is only so many great men old," and we find so many men of genius and wisdom in this century, that the "ball or sphere" (as the geographies say) on which we are revolving so swiftly, yet so quietly, must have added several years to its life during those brilliant days when Spenser, Shakespeare, Bacon, Hooker, Raleigh, Coke, and Sidney, were busy with tongue and pen at court, the bar, and pulpit. Queen Bess was very fond of mythology, which, of course, made it popular with her subjects; and fables, fiction, strange, concerts, and whimsical pageants, were the order of the day. When she passed through a town every display in her honor consulted this fancy. Mercury was her herald, Cupid her special attendant, and the Penates, or household gods, guarded her abode. 'Tis even said. that the cooks learned to be expert mythologists, and tempted her dainty palate with Ovid's wondrous metamorphoses, done in confectionery, and immense loaves of plum-cake, on which were embossed, in elaborate icing, the destruction of Troy and other historical events. Handsome pages, dressed like wood-nymphs, peeped from every bower to pay their obeisance to their virgin queen, and stupid footmen gambolled over the lawns, arrayed like satyrs. Though chivalry, as a political or social system, had ceased to exist at this period, though the joust and tournament had lost their ancient splendor, yet the chivalric character, "high thoughts seated in a heart of courtesy," still modified the manners of the higher classes. Such were the influences surrounding EDMUND SPENSER, the greatest poet between Chaucer and Shakespeare. He was born in London, in 1553, and speaks in one of his poems of "Merry London, my most kindly nurse, That to me gave this life's first native source." His parents were poor, though his father belonged to an old and honorable family, and he was obliged to enter Cambridge as a "sizar," or charity student, the name derived from the size of the portion of bread and meat allowed to them. Chaucer, you remember, did not develop his best powers until late in life, resembling but Spenser was a poet from his boyhood-" at home in the temple of the Muses, as the child Samuel was in the temple of God"—and, like the young prophet, he consecrated his youth with religious exercises to letters and poesy. His intimate companion at Cambridge was Gabriel Harvey, who was his firm friend through life, exerting no small influence upon his fortunes. After taking his degree, he went to the north of England, whether to visit a friend or in the capacity of a tutor is not certain. He remained, at any rate, long enough to fall in love, and be rejected. Poets have often been compared to the nightingale, "singing with a thorn in her breast," and Spenser's fame, like so many others, had its root in a deep sorrow. “A lady, whom he calls Rosalind, made a plaything of his heart, and, when tired of her sport, cast it from her. She little knew the worth of the jewel she had flung away. 'The sad, mechanic exercise of verse' was balm to the wounded poet, who poured forth his tender soul in 'The Shepherd's Calendar.'" The name at once suggests scenes of rural life, where "Every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale," or pipes his tender song, "In shadow of a green oak-tree," marking with red letters those days made bright by the smiles of his true-love. But instead, we have a series of twelve long and rather prosy eclogues,* named after the twelve months of the year, written in such an antiquated style, that even then an explanation of the obsolete words followed each eclogue, and the shepherds, instead of sighing over the charms of some Chloe or Phyllis, discuss, in a solemn way, the comparative merits of the Protestant and Romish Churches. He aimed at originality in the form of his work and its language, and the change from the beaten path was no improvement; but, notwithstanding these faults, the “Calendar" was considered an extraordinary production, placing Spenser among the highest poetical names of the day, and attracting for him the notice and patronage of the great. Through his friend Harvey he had been introduced to Sir Philip Sidney, and, under the grand old oaks in the beautiful park at Penhurst, the ancestral mansion of the Sidneys, Spenser is said to have completed this poem. He seemed to fear the criticism of envious or evil tongues, and dedicated it to his young patron, "Maister Philip Sidney-worthy of all titles, both of learning and chivalry " -under a feigned name: "Goe, little booke, thyself present, A life of Spenser, however brief, would be incomplete without some notice of this accomplished friend, the em Pastoral poems. |