East Smithfield, in London, and was educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge.
He had the good fortune to secure the friendship of the all-powerful
Earl of Leicester, of Sir Philip Sidney and Sir Walter Raleigh. By their
introduction to Queen Elizabeth, he obtained an annuity of £50 a year;
and besides being employed by Leicester on a mission to France, went to
Ireland in 1580 with Lord Grey de Wilton. We have already mentioned his
"View of the State of Ireland," and for that able work, as well as for
other services, he received a grant of the abbey and manor of Enniscorthy
in Wexford, which the same year, probably under pressure of necessity,
he transferred to a Mr. Lynot. The estate, at the time of Gilbert's
survey of Ireland, was worth £8,000 a year. Afterwards Spenser obtained
the grant of the castle of Kilcolman, in the county of Cork, part of the
estate of the unfortunate Earl of Desmond, with 3,000 acres of land.
On this property the poet went to live, and his dear friend Sir Philip
Sidney being just then killed at the battle of Zutphen, he wrote his
pastoral elegy of "Astrophel" in his honour. He also wrote his great work
the "Faerie Queene" there; but in 1597 he was chased by the exasperated
Irish from his castle, which was burned over his head, his youngest child
perishing in the cradle. He reached London, with his wife and two boys
and a girl, and thus broken down by his misfortunes, he sank and died in
1599 at an inn or lodging-house in King Street, Westminster. Ben Jonson
says "he died for lake of bread, yet refused twenty pieces sent to him by
my Lord of Essex, adding he was sorry he had not time to spend them."
It has been asked how he could die of "lack of bread" with an annuity
of £50 a year. The thing is very possible. Burleigh was his life-long
enemy. He hated him as the commonplace soul instinctively hates the man
of genius, and this hatred was aggravated by his being patronised by
Leicester, Essex, and Raleigh, all men whom Burleigh detested. Nothing
was, therefore, easier than for Burleigh to withhold the dying poet's
pension, or his son Robert Cecil, who now possessed his power, for
Burleigh was in his last days, and Cecil inherited all his meanness.
Spenser has recorded the malice of Burleigh in various places. In his
"Ruins of Time" he says:--
"The rugged foremost that with grave foresight
Wields kingdoms' causes and affairs of state,
My looser verse, I wot, doth sharply wite
For praising love."
And at the close of the sixth book of "The Faerie Queene," he declares
there is no hope of escaping "his venomous despite." Spenser's verses in
"Mother Hubbard's Tales," describing the miseries of Court dependence,
have often been quoted:--
"Full little knowest thou that hast not tryed
What hell it is in suing long to byde;
To lose good days that might be better spent;
To waste long nights in pensive discontent;
To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow;
To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow;
To have thy prince's grace, yet want her peeres';
To have thy asking, yet wait many years;
To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares;
To eat thy heart with comfortless despairs;
To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run,
To spend, to give, to want, to be undone."
The minor poems of Spenser beside the "Astrophel," are the "Epithalamium"
on his own marriage; four "Hymns to Love and Beauty;" "Sonnets;" "Colin
Clout come Home again;" "The Tears of the Muses;" "Mother Hubbard's
Tales," which refer to Court characters of the time; "The Ruins of
Time;" "Petrarch's Visions," "Bellaye's Visions," &c. In all these there
is much beauty and fancy, mingled with much that is far-fetched and
fantastic--the inevitable fault of that age. The "Faerie Queene" rises
above them all as the cathedral over the lesser churches of a great city.
It was written in a stanza which from him has ever since been called the
Spenserian, a stanza so capable of every grace, strength, and harmony,
that there are few poets who have not essayed it: Thomson's "Castle of
Indolence," Beattie's "Minstrel," Mrs. Tighe's "Psyche," Campbell's
"Gertrude of Wyoming," and Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," have
made it the vehicle of many immortal thoughts.
To the modern reader, nevertheless, the "Faerie Queene" would prove a
tedious task in a continuous perusal. It is of a fashion and taste so
entirely belonging to the age in which it was written--that of courtly
tourneys, of parade of knighthood, at least in books, and of fondness
of high-flown allegory--that it unavoidably strikes a reader of this
more realistic age as visionary, formal in manner, and descriptive not
of actual human life, but of an impossible style of existence. It is
dedicated to Queen Elizabeth as "The Most High, Mightie, and Magnificent
Empresse," and in a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh he explains its plan.
Following the example of Ariosto in his "Orlando," he endeavours to
exalt worthy knighthood by portraying Prince Arthur before he was king,
under the image of a brave knight, perfected in the twelve private moral
virtues, as Aristotle hath devised, in which is the purpose of these
first twelve books. From the arguments of "Despair" to the "Red-Crosse
Knight," we may take a specimen of the "Faerie Queene:"
"'Who travailes by the wearie, wandering way,
To come unto his wished home in haste,
And meets a flood that doth his passage stay,
Is not great grace to help him over past,
Or free his feet that in the myre sticke fast?
Most envious man that grieves at neighbour's good,
And fond, that joyest in the woe thou hast,
Why wilt not let him passe, that long hath stood
Upon the bancke, yet wilt thyselfe not pas the flood?
"'He there does now enjoy eternall rest,
And happy ease, which thou dost want and crave,
And further from it daily wanderest:
What if some little payne the passage have,
That makes frayle flesh to feare the bitter wave?
Is that not payne well borne, that bringes long ease,
And lays the soul to sleepe in quiet grave?
Sleepe after toyle, port after stormie seas,
Ease after warre, deathe after life, does greatly please.'
"The knight much wondered at his suddeine wit,
And sayst, 'The terme of life is limited,
Ne may a man prolong, nor shorten it;
The soldier may not move from watchful steed,
Nor leave his stand, until his captaine bid.'
'Who life did limit by Almightie doome,'
Quoth he, 'knows best the terms established;
And he that points the centenel his roome,
Doth license his depart at sound of morning droome.
"'Is not his deed, whatever thing is done,
In heaven and earth? Did he not all create
To die againe? All ends, that was begoune,
Their times in his eternall booke of fate
Are written sure, and have their certain date.
Who, then, can strive with strong necessitie?
That holds the world in its still changing state,
Or shunne the death ordayned by destinee?
When houre of death is come, let none aske whence nor why.
"'The longer life, I wote, the greater sin;
The greater sin, the greater punishment.
All those great battles which thou boasts to win,
Through strife, and bloodshed, and avengement,
Now praysed, hereafter deare thou shalt repent--
For life must life, and blood must blood repay.
Is not enough thy evill life forespent?
For he that once hath missèd the right way,
The further he doth goe, the further he doth stray.'"
The language of Spenser must not be held to be the language of the time;
he purposely used an antiquated diction to give a quaint and piquant
tone to his romance. A modern critic has denied that the language is
thus treated by the poet; but it must be allowed that Sir Philip Sidney,
living at the moment, was a competent judge of this fact, and in his
"Defence of Poesie" he complains of this very circumstance in the "Faerie
Queene."
[Illustration: THE HOUSE AT STRATFORD-ON-AVON IN WHICH SHAKESPEARE WAS
BORN.]
We arrive now at the last name which we intend to introduce in our review
of the literature of England at this period, and it is the greatest;
perhaps the greatest which has yet diffused its glory over this or any
other country. The genius of Shakespeare appears to penetrate into all
departments of human knowledge, and his instincts possess a universal
accuracy. Whether he describes the beauties of Nature at large, or
enters the haunts of busy life, high or low, royal, noble, or plebeian,
or sends his all-searching glance into the depths of the human mind,
or the strange intricacies of human nature, we are equally astonished
at the clearness of his perceptive faculties, and the justness of his
conclusions. We shall not here discuss the various guesses, for such to a
great degree they are, which have been indulged in by his host of critics
and biographers, regarding his little known life. It is sufficient that
we know that he was born at Stratford-on-Avon in 1564; that his father
was in the Town Council, and a man of property; that William was said to
have been apprenticed to a butcher, or that one of his father's trades
was that of a butcher; that at the age of nineteen he married Anne
Hathaway, who was eight years his senior; that at the age of twenty-two
he was driven by increasing poverty, and it is said through a disturbance
about poaching in Sir Thomas Lucy's park, to London, where he became
connected with the theatre, and so early as 1589 we find that he had
written "Hamlet," if no other of his dramas, though none of them seem to
have been published till 1597, eight years afterwards. The first of his
poems, "Venus and Adonis," was printed in 1593, four years earlier, and
the "Rape of Lucrece" in the following year. From that time to 1603,
the year of the death of Elizabeth, a great number of his dramas was
published, but "King Lear," "Macbeth," "Cymbeline," "The Winter's Tale,"
the "Tempest," "Troilus and Cressida," "Henry VIII.," "Coriolanus,"
"Julius Cæsar," and "Antony and Cleopatra," would appear to have been the
glorious products of his ten or thirteen years of leisure in his native
town. One of the first labours of his retirement seems to have been the
collection of his Sonnets, for they were published in 1609.
We mention these facts here merely as historical data; because it will
be necessary to notice his plays in the next centennial period of our
history, in connection with the drama at large; but we shall confine our
notice of Shakespeare on this occasion solely to his poetical character.
The poems of Shakespeare are "Venus and Adonis," "The Rape of Lucrece,"
"Sonnets," "A Lover's Complaint," and "The Passionate Pilgrim." The
poems for the most part, if not altogether--"The Passionate Pilgrim" and
some of the sonnets excepted--would appear to have been his earliest
productions. He dedicates "Venus and Adonis" to Lord Southampton, and
styles it "the first heir of my invention." This poem, "The Rape of
Lucrece," and the "Lover's Complaint," bear marks of youthful passion.
They burn with a voluptuous fire, yet they are at the same time equally
prodigal of a masterly vigour, imagination, and the faculty of entering
into and depicting the souls of others. They as clearly herald the great
poet of the age, as a morning sun in July announces what will be its
intensity at noon. The language, in its purity and eloquence, is so
perfect that it might have been written, not in the days of Elizabeth,
but in those of Victoria, and presents a singular contrast to that of
Spenser. "The Passionate Pilgrim" is an extraordinary production; it has
no thread, not even the slightest, of story or connection, and seems
to be merely a stringing together of various passages of poetry, which
he had struck off at different moments of inspiration, and intended to
use in his dramas. Some of them indeed we find there. It opens with a
commencement of the legend of "Venus and Adonis," apparently his first
rude sketch of the poem he afterwards wrote more to his mind. It then
breaks suddenly off with those well-known lines, beginning--
"Crabbed age and youth
Cannot live together;"
soon after as suddenly changes into--
"It was a lording's daughter, the fairest one of three;"
as abruptly gives us those charming stanzas opening with--
"Take, oh, take those lips away
That so sweetly were forsworn;"
and presents us with a number of disjointed passages which are found in
"Love's Labour's Lost."
But the Sonnets are the most interesting, because they give us glimpses
into his own life and personal feelings. Many of them are plainly written
in the characters of others; some express the sentiments of women towards
their lovers, but others are unmistakably the deepest sentiments and
feelings of his own life. From these we learn that Shakespeare was not
exempt from the dissipations and aberrations incident on a town life at
that time, but his true and noble nature led him to abandon the immoral
city as early as possible, and retire to his own domestic roof in his own
native place. We may select one specimen of these sonnets, which probably
was addressed to his wife, and which at once betrays his dislike of his
profession of an actor, and his regret over the influence which it had
had on his mind, and the stigma which it had cast on his name; for the
profession of a player was then so low as to stamp actors as "vagabonds."
"Oh, for my sake do you with Fortune chide,
The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,
That did not better for my life provide
Than public means which public manners breeds:
Thence came it that my name receives a brand,
And almost thence my nature is subdued
To what it works in, like the dyer's hand.
Pity me then, and wish I were renewed;
Whilst, like a willing patient, I will drink
Potions of eysell[A] 'gainst my strong infection;
No bitterness that I will bitter think,
Nor double penance to correct correction.
Pity me then, dear friend, and I assure ye,
Even that your pity is enough to cure me."
But if the great dramatist and inimitable poet shrank with disgust from
the profession of acting, because of the estimation in which the actor
then was held and the pollutions which surrounded the stage, he held a
very different opinion of the vocation of a dramatist. In the peaceful
and virtuous retirement of his country residence he still occupied
himself with the composition of the noblest dramas of all time; and
whilst he was so free from the petty egotism of a small mind that he left
scarcely any record of himself, he boldly avowed his assurance of the
immortality of his fame:--
"Now with the drops of this most balmy time,
My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes;[B]
Since, spite of him, I'll live in this poor rhyme,
While he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes:
And thou in this shalt find thy monument,
When tyrants' crests and tombs of brass are spent."
[Footnote A: Vinegar.]
[Footnote B: Submits.]
[Illustration: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.
FROM THE PAINTING KNOWN AS THE CHANDOS PORTRAIT, ATTRIBUTED TO RICHARD
BURBAGE, IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY.]
We shall have occasion to show that Shakespeare had much to do in shaping
and raising the drama out of that chaotic state in which he found it,
and the wonder has always been that, with his apparently imperfect
education, he could accomplish so much. But there is no education like
self-education; this was William Shakespeare's, and his genius was of
that brilliant and healthy kind that gave him all the advantages of such
a tuition. In history and in society he found the materials of the drama,
but the wealth and power of the poet he found in the great school of
Nature.
In Scotland the language had remained much more stationary than in
England. In this period we find the chief Scottish poets writing in a
diction far more unintelligible to the English reader than Chaucer's or
Gower's was in the middle of the fourteenth century. Two of the Scots
poets of that period--Barbour and King James I.--wrote in English, and,
therefore, in a language far in advance of Gawin Douglas, Dunbar, and
Sir David Lyndsay in the sixteenth century. One great reason of this
probably was the constant strife and enmity between the nations, which
made the Scots cling in confirmed nationality to their own language and
customs, for the works and merits of the English poets were known and
acknowledged. James I. called Chaucer and Gower "his maisters dear."
Henryson, a succeeding poet, even wrote a continuation of Chaucer's
"Troilus and Cresseide," under the names of the "Testament," and the
"Complaint of Cresseide;" and Gawin, or Gavin, Douglas, the famous Bishop
of Dunkeld, pronouncing his vernacular tongue barbarous, declared that
rather than remain silent through the scarcity of Scottish terms, he
would use bastard Latin, French, or English. A still greater and later
poet, Dunbar, expresses repeatedly his admiration of "Chawcer of Makars
flowir," of "the Monck of Berry," "Lydgate," and "Gowyr." Yet if we use
the very language which he did to utter his admiration in, we find no
advance towards the polish of these poets:
"O reverend Chawcer, rose of rethouris all,
As in our toung the flowir imperiall,
That ever raise in Brittane, quha reids richt,
Those biers of makars the triumphs ryall,
The fresche enamallit termes celestiall;
This matter thou couth haif ilumint bricht,
Was thou not of our _Inglis_ all the licht;
Surmounting every toung terrestiall,
As far as Mayis fair morning does midnight.
"O morale Gower and Lidgate laureat,
Zour suggurat toungs and lipps aureat
Bene till our eirs cause of grit delyte."
It is curious that Dunbar calls this English and not Scots. He also
enumerates a long list of Scottish poets who were deceased, as Sir Hew
of Eglintoun, Etrick, Heriot, Wyntoun, Maister John Clerk, James Afflek,
Holland, Barbour, Sir Mungo Dockhart of the Lie, Clerk of Tranent, who
wrote the adventures of Sir Gawayn, Sir Gilbert Gray, Blind Harry, and
Sandy Traill, Patrick Johnstone, Mersar, Rowll of Aberdeen, and Rowll
of Corstorphine, Brown of Dunfermline, Robert Henryson, Sir John the
Ross, Stobo, Quinten Schaw, and Walter Kennedy. Of these little is now
known, except of Henryson, and that chiefly for his ballad of "Robert and
Makyn," given by Bishop Percy in his "Reliques of English Poetry."
Gawin Douglas, third son of the celebrated fifth Earl of Angus, called
Bell-the-Cat, was born in 1474. He lived a troubled life in those stormy
times, and died a refugee in London, of the Plague, in 1522. He was
patronised by Queen Margaret, sister of Henry VIII., and richly deserved
it, for his learning, his virtues, and his genius. He was most celebrated
in his own time for his translation of Virgil's "Æneid," the first
metrical version of any ancient classic in either English or Scots. He
also translated Ovid's "De Remedio Amoris." But his original poems, "The
Palace of Honour," "King Hart," and his "Comoediæ Sacræ," or dramatic
poems from the Scriptures, are now justly esteemed the real trophies of
his genius. "The Palace of Honour" and "King Hart" are allegoric poems,
abounding with beautiful descriptions and noble sentiments.
The principal poems of William Dunbar (_b._ 1465, _d._ 1530,) are "The
Golden Terge," or target; "The Thistle and the Rose," in honour of the
marriage of Margaret of England with James IV. of Scotland; "The Fained
Friar;" the "Lament of the Death of the Makars," or poets, and a number
of other poems, chiefly lyrical, which display versatile genius--comic,
satirical, grave, descriptive, and religious--and place him in the first
rank of Scotland's poets, notwithstanding the obsolete character of his
language; and not the least of his distinctions is the absence of that
grossness which disfigured the writings of the poets of those times. A
few lines may denote the music of his versification:
"Be merry, man, and tak nocht far in mynd
The waivering of this wrechit world of sorrow,
To God be humill, and to thy freynd be kynd,
And with thy nychtbouris glaidly len and borrow;
His chance to-nycht, it may be thyne to-morrow."
[Illustration: SHAKESPEARE. (_From the Portrait by Droeshout in the First
Folio._)]
The last poet of this period that we must notice is Sir David Lyndsay
of the Mount, Lyon King-at-Arms, whom Sir Walter Scott, in "Marmion,"
has made so familiar to modern readers, predating, however, Sir David's
office of Lyon King by seventeen years. Sir David was born about 1490,
and is supposed to have died about 1567; so that he lived in the reigns
of Henry VII. of England and of Elizabeth, through the whole period
of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Mary. His life was cast in times most
eventful, and Sir David, as Lyon-Herald of Scotland, occupied a prominent
position in the shaping of those events. At the time of the battle of
Flodden in 1513, both Pitscottie and Buchanan assure us that he was with
James IV. when the ghost appeared to him in the church at Linlithgow,
warning him against the battle. Lyndsay was then only three-and-twenty.
He was appointed page to the young king, and continued about him and in
his service during the king's life. In his "Complaynt," addressing the
king, he says:--
"How as are chapman beres his pack,
I bore thy grace upon my back,
And sometymes stridlingis on my neck,
Dansand with mony bend and beck:
The first syllabis that thou did mute,
Pa-da-lyn upon the lute;
For play, thou leit me never rest,
But gyngertoun, thou luffit ay best.
And ay quhen thou come from the scule,
Then I luffit to play the fule."
Lyndsay went to France on embassies of royal marriage; and after the
king's early death, under the Regency, he was again sent to the Low
Countries on a mission to the Emperor Charles V. In 1548 he went as
Lion-King to Denmark, to King Christian, to seek aid against the English,
and afterwards lived to see the great struggle between the old Church and
the Reformation, the murder of Cardinal Beaton, the return of Knox, and
must have died about the time of the murder of Darnley.
[Illustration: THE ACTING OF ONE OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS IN THE TIME OF
QUEEN ELIZABETH.]
Sir David, though bred a courtier, was a thorough Reformer; and his poems
abound with the most unrestrained exposure of the corruptions of Courts
and of the Church. On the flagitious lives of monks, nuns, and clergy,
he pours forth the most trenchant satire and denunciation; and in this
respect he may be styled the Chaucer of Scotland. His poems are "The
Dreme," "The Complaynt," "The Complaynt of Papingo," "The Complaynt of
Bagsche," "Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Three Estatis," "The Answer to the
King's Flyting," "Kittie's Confession," "The Tragedie of the Cardinal,"
"The Historie and Testament of Squire Meldrum," "Monarchie," and "The
Epistill Nuncupatorie."
"The Dreme" reminds one of the dreams of former poets, of Chaucer,
William Langland's, "The Vision of Piers Plowman," and of those of
Douglas and Dunbar. Probably "The Golden Terge" of Dunbar suggested
this poem, for just as Dunbar goes out, as "the stern of day began to
schyne," and lying under a _roseir_, or arbour of roses, lulled by
the songs of birds and the sound of a river, dreams, so does Lyndsay
dream, passing, with Dame Remembrance as his guide, through earth, hell,
purgatory, heaven, paradise, and "the planets seven," hearing and seeing
all the works of God, and the rewards and punishments of the good and
the evil. "The Complaynt" describes the degenerate manners of the Court
whilst Lyndsay was banished from it, and the grapes were sour. "The
Complaynt of the Papingo," or the king's parrot, deals out the same
measure to the hierarchy as Lyndsay had given to the State, and in it
Cardinal Beaton, the Pope and the clergy in general, are soundly rated.
Next comes "The Three Estatis," a morality play in which all kinds of
emblematical personages--Rex Humanitas, Sensualitie, Chastitie, &c.--act
their parts. Its scope may be inferred from its being declared to be
"in commendation of vertew and vituperation of vyce." This is the great
work of Lyndsay, and was acted before the king and queen, who sat out
nine mortal hours in its performance, in which they successively heard
every order in the State--Court, nobility, Church, and people--severely
criticised. Lyndsay's play has the merit of preceding both "Gorboduc"
and "Gammer Gurton's Needle;" and it certainly possesses the moral of
the former and the wit of the latter. "The Answer to the King's Flyting"
is a very curious example of what the indulgence of a professional fool
at Court led to: it produced not only the jester but the poet laureate.
The king condescended to flyte, or jibe, with his jester; the jester
in return became the satirist, and the poet laureate healed all wounds
by his eulogies. James V. flyted with Lyndsay, and Lyndsay answered
with interest. In "Kittie's Confession" Lyndsay ridicules auricular
confession. In "The Cardinal" he sings a song of triumph over the fall
of Beaton. In the "Legend of Squire Meldrum" the poet dresses up the
adventures of a domestic of Lord Lyndsay's of that name in the manner of
an ancient romance, and it was extremely popular. It has been declared by
critics of note to be the best of Lyndsay's poems, and equal to the most
polished pieces of Drayton, who lived a century after him.
We have taken thus much notice of the Lyon King-at-Arms, because
nowadays he does not enjoy, perhaps, his due fame in comparison with
that of our Chaucer and our early dramatists; yet a perusal of his works
is necessary to a real knowledge of the times in which he lived. The
reader, however, must be warned that in the search after this knowledge
he will have to wade through much filth, and language now astonishing
for its naked coarseness. On the other hand, he will occasionally find
scientific theories of modern pretension quite familiar to our Lyon-King.
For instance, Kirwan in his "Elements of Mineralogy"--a work published
in 1794 and marking a considerable advance in knowledge--claimed the
geologic discovery that the currents which broke up the hills in Europe
came from the south-west, leaving the diluvial slopes declining to the
north-east. But hear Lyndsay three hundred years ago:--
"I reid how clerkis dois conclude,
Induryng that maist furious flude
With quhilk the erth was sa opprest,
The wynd blew feorth of the south-west,
As may be sene be experience,
How, throw the watter's violence,
The heich montanis, in every art,
Ar bain fornenst the south-west part;
As the montanis of Pyreneis,
The Alpis, and rochis in the seis;
Richt sa the rochis gret and gray
Quhilk standis into Norroway.
The heichest hillis, in every art,
And in Scotland, for the maist part,
Throuch weltryng of that furious flude,
The craigis of erth war maist denude.
Travelling men may considder best
The montanis bair nixt the south-west."
The sixteenth century was nearly as distinguished for its Music as its
poetry. The reproach which has been cast on England in our own time for
not being a musical or music-producing nation did not apply then. On the
contrary, we stood at the head of Europe in original musical composition.
The monarchs of that age, like their most illustrious predecessors from
Alfred downwards, were highly educated in music. Henry VIII. was himself
a composer of Church music. It must be recollected that Henry, being but
the second son of Henry VII., was originally educated for the Church,
whose dignities were then princely; and, as a matter of course, he was
made familiar with its music, which occupied so prominent a part in its
worship. Erasmus bears testimony to the fact of Henry having composed
Offices for the Church--a fact confirmed by Lord Herbert of Cherbury and
Bishop Burnet; and Sir John Hawkins in his "History of Music," and Boyce,
in his "Cathedral Music of English Masters," have preserved specimens of
the Royal composition. Boyce gives a fine anthem of Henry's, "O Lord, the
Maker of all things." The king's musical establishment for his chapel
consisting of 114 persons cost annually upwards of £2,000, and was
continued by Edward. Mary and Elizabeth were equally learned in music,
though they do not appear to have patronised it as royally.
Under these circumstances great composers, both of sacred and social
music flourished in the sixteenth century. The names of Tye, Marbeck,
Tallis, Bird, Farrant, Dowland, Bennet, Wilbye, Ford, &c., stand in
superb array as composers of some of our finest Church music, or of
madrigals and part songs.
Tye was so much esteemed by Henry VIII., that he was made music
preceptor to Edward VI., and was afterwards organist to Elizabeth. He
composed both anthems and madrigals; and his motett, "Laudate nomen
Domini," is still famous. Marbeck composed the notes to the Preces
and Responses, which, with some alterations, are still in use in our
cathedrals. He was organist at Windsor, and was very nearly losing his
life under the ferocious Henry, being found to be a member of a society
for religious reformation. He and his three accomplices were condemned to
the stake; but Marbeck was saved by his musical genius, Henry observing,
on Marbeck's "Latin Concordance," on which he had been employed, being
shown to him, "Poor Marbeck! it would be well for thine accusers if they
employed their time no worse." His fellows were burnt without mercy,
though no more guilty than himself.
[Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH'S CITHER AND MUSIC-BOOK.]
Tallis was indebted to Marbeck for the notes just mentioned in his
compositions for the Church. His entire service, including prayers,
responses, Litany, and nearly all of a musical kind, are preserved in
Boyce's collections. They became the most celebrated of any of that
remarkable age. In conjunction, also, with his pupil William Bird, he
published, in 1575, "Cantiones Sacræ"--perfect of their kind; one of
them, "O sacrum convivium," since adapted by Dean Aldrich to the words
"I call and cry," still continues to be frequently performed in our
cathedrals. The "Cantiones" are also remarkable as having been the first
things of the sort protected by a patent for twenty-one years, granted by
Elizabeth.
Bird was the author of the splendid canon, "Non nobis, Domine," which has
been claimed by composers of Italy, France, and the Netherlands, but, as
sufficiently proved, without any ground. The names of Tallis and Bird are
of themselves an ample guarantee to the claim of musical genius by this
country. Richard Farrant and Dr. Bull--the first a chorister in Edward
VI.'s chapel, and the latter organist to Queen Elizabeth--added greatly
to the sacred music of the period. Farrant's compositions especially are
remarkable for their deep pathos and devotion. His anthem, preserved by
Boyce, "Lord, for Thy tender mercy's sake." is unrivalled.
In social music the poetical Surrey stands conspicuous, having set his
own sonnets to music. Madrigals and other part songs--since better
known as glees--were carried to a brilliant height in this country. The
madrigal was originally invented by the Flemings, but glee singing seems
to be English, though no doubt derived from the madrigal. Morley's first
book of madrigals was published in 1594, Weelkes's in 1597, Wilbye's
in 1598, Bennet's in 1599, and soon after Ward's and Orlando Gibbons'.
Dowland's and Ford's are more properly glees than madrigals; the former
appeared in 1597, and the latter in 1607. Morley, one of the gentlemen
of Queen Elizabeth's chapel, appears, like Dowland, to have studied the
works of the great composers abroad; and the harmony and science which he
evinces are eminent. His canzonets for two voices are especially lively
and pleasing. Dowland not only travelled in France, Italy, and Germany,
but, at the request of King Christian IV., who saw him in England,
he went to reside in Denmark. Fuller declares that he was the rarest
musician of the age. In 1598 Wilbye published thirty madrigals, and a
second book, applicable to instrumental as well as vocal music, in 1609,
amongst which are, "Lady, when I behold the roses sprouting," "As fair
as morn," "Down in a valley," &c.; and in 1599 John Bennet published a
set of madrigals, including the admirable ones of "O sleep, fond Fancy!"
"Flow, O my tears!" Lastly, John Milton, the father of the poet, who
also composed several psalm tunes, was a contributor to "The Triumphs
of Oriana," a set of madrigals in praise of Queen Elizabeth. Altogether
this century was brilliant in both Church and convivial music; and if
we are to judge from some specimens to be found in "The Dancing Master"
and "Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book," the popular airs were in many
instances of a superior character, among which we may mention Bird's
"Carman's Whistle" and the "Newe Northern Ditty of Ladye Green Sleeves."
The change which marked religion and literature in this country extended
itself as strikingly into Architecture. We have no longer to record
the rise of new Orders of ecclesiastical building, nor to direct the
attention of the reader to splendid churches as examples of them. The
unity of the Church, which had enabled it to erect such a host of
admirable cathedrals and abbeys, was broken up; the wealth which had
supplied the material and engaged the skill was dispersed into other
hands, and destined not only to produce new orders of society, but new
forms of architecture. Churches must give way to palaces and country
halls, as full of innovations as the very faith of the country. From
this period to our own time the taste for ecclesiastical architecture
continued to decline, till the very principles of what is called Gothic
architecture were forgotten. The architects, as Wren and Jones, went back
to classic models, so little adapted to the spirit of Christian worship
that, in spite of the genius expended upon them, they have remained few
in number and, from the revival of the knowledge of Anglo-Gothic amongst
us, are not likely to increase.
[Illustration: HOLLAND HOUSE, KENSINGTON. (_From a Photograph by Bedford,
Lemere & Co._)]
But it is even a question whether the Gothic style had not reached its
full development at the period of the Reformation; for we find in most
European countries that the noblest buildings of this kind are for the
most part anterior to this epoch. It is at the same time true that the
same causes which brought our ecclesiastical architecture to a sudden
stand in the sixteenth century strongly affected all Europe, even where
Roman Catholicism managed to maintain its ground. Everywhere the conflict
was raging--everywhere the rending influence was felt; and the ancient
power and wealth of the Church were broken and diminished. In England a
few churches might be pointed to of this period, but they exhibit the
influence of the age in marks of decline, and to none can we turn as
examples to be named with our Westminsters, Yorks, and Winchesters. Bath
Abbey was in progress of erection when the Reformation burst forth and
arrested its progress. It was not completed till 1616--more than ten
years after the death of Elizabeth--and cannot be named as one of our
finest erections.
The wealth which was diverted from the Church into the hands of the Crown
and the aristocracy, reappeared in palaces and country halls; and a
totally new genius displayed itself in these. The old Tudor, so called,
which marked the baronial residences even before the Tudors reached the
throne, the mixture of castle and manor-house, with its small windows,
battlemented roofs, and flanking turrets, began to enlarge and exaggerate
most of these features, and to mix with them new elements clearly brought
into the country by foreign architects, and in a great measure from
Italy. The windows rapidly augmented themselves, till they soon occupied
a predominant portion of the towers and fronts; the turrets became
surmounted by domes, and by those bulbous domes which were often piled
one above another. There was soon seen one tier of pillared or pilastered
storey above another, in the Palladian or Paduan fashion. Turrets often
gave way to scroll-work parapets; and instead of the house standing as
heretofore on a level plain, it was elevated on a terrace, with broad and
balustraded flights of steps, and all the adjuncts of fountains, statues,
and balustraded esplanades essential to the Italian garden.
[Illustration: THE GREAT COURT OF KIRBY HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.]
The houses were still built round a court or quadrangle, and adorned
with outer and inner gateways, while groined roofs and rich oriels still
demonstrated the connecting link of descent from the Gothic. In fact,
the architecture of the Tudor period is a singular yet often superb
mixture of the Gothic and the Italian, with profusion of ornaments and
ingraftment of parts which tell strongly of a more Eastern origin. Nor
does it appear that these foreign elements were introduced at the latter
portion of this period only--they stand forth conspicuously in the very
commencement of it. In the later years of the reign of Elizabeth we
can point to noble houses which are more allied to the ancient Tudor,
with its small windows and simple towers and roofs, than those of the
Henrys VII. and VIII., who in their earlier days had a gorgeous and even
fantastic taste for palatial architecture. For example, Hampton Court
is far more simple and chaste than Richmond Palace (_see_ p. 341), built
by Henry VII., or Nonsuch, built by Henry VIII. In family mansions,
Wimbledon House, built in 1588, with its open court, its two terraces,
clearly Italian in character, is yet so chaste and simple, with its flat
roof, its square slated towers, and mixture of small and large windows,
that, compared to Nonsuch, as it has been, you at once see the violent
contrast of the fanciful and the grave. Again, in Charlton House, in
Kent, with its central entrance of Italian character, with two tiers of
engaged columns, its ornamented parapets just verging into scroll-work,
its turret windows of medium size, and its turret domes simple, and still
plainer chimneys; or in Holland House (_see_ p. 380), built in 1607,
without domes, but with ogee-gables; or in Campden House, as it was built
in 1612, with roof of plainest character, and pilastered entrance, we
mark a far less ornate style than in the days of the Henrys. The whole
of this period was one of a mixed style, in which different architects
indulged themselves in employing more or less of one or other of the
prevailing elements, according to their tastes. What is more strictly
called Elizabethan may be seen in such houses as Wollaton or Hardwicke,
in which the ample square windows, the square towers superseding the
octagon ones of Nonsuch, the absence of the Eastern-looking domes, and
the presence of superb scroll-work, give a fine distinctive style.
The Palace of Richmond, as built by Henry VII., with its projecting
towers occupied almost entirely with windows, and its roof presenting
an immense number of double domes, a smaller one surmounting a lantern
placed on the larger domes, had an air more Saracenic than English;
but the Palace of Nonsuch, built by Henry VIII., outdid that in the
singularity of its style, and was the wonder of its age. It was built
round a quadrangle; the front was flanked by octagonal towers which, at
the height of the ordinary roof, rose, by a demi-arch expanding over
the lower one, into three more storeys, and upon these were lesser
towers of two storeys, surmounted by domes and fanes. All the lower
storeys were divided into compartments by pilasters and bands, these
compartments embellished by figures and groups in bas-relief. The lower
part of this palace was of stone, the upper of wood. Hentzner, the German
traveller, became quite enthusiastic in describing it as a palace in
which everything that architecture could perform seemed to have been
accomplished; and says that it was "so encompassed with parks full of
deer, delicious gardens, groves ornamented with trellis-work, cabinets
of verdure, and walks so embowered by trees, that it seemed to be a place
pitched upon by Pleasure herself to dwell in along with Health."
But there were two men in the reign of Henry VIII. who drew him off from
this more florid and fanciful style to others of a very different, but
equally imposing character, and full of rich detail. These were Wolsey
and John of Padua. Wolsey appeared to have an especial fondness for
brick-work, and Hampton and the gatehouse of his mansion at Esher remain
as proofs of the admirable masonry which he used. In Hampton Court (_see_
p. 121) we go back from the barbaric pomp of Nonsuch to the castellated
style; to small windows, pointed archways, castellated turrets and
battlements, mingled with rich oriel windows over the entrances, rich
groined roofs in the archways, but a very sparing use of the ordinary aid
of the bulbous dome. In this and the other buildings of this class, as
Hengrave in Suffolk, the richly cross-banded chimneys are a conspicuous
ornament. John Thorpe, or John of Padua, who became chief architect to
Henry VIII., and afterwards built Somerset House for the Protector,
seems to have been unknown in his own country, but originated a modified
Italian style here which bears his name, possessing great grace and
dignity, and of which Stoneyhurst College in Lancashire, Longleat in
Wiltshire, and Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire (built for Sir Christopher
Hatton), are fine examples.
In the smaller houses of town and country there continued to be
little change. They were chiefly of timber, and displayed much more
picturesqueness than they afforded comfort. In towns the different
storeys, one over-hanging another till the inhabitants could almost shake
hands out of the attic windows across the narrow streets, and their want
of internal cleanliness and ventilation, caused the plague periodically
to visit them. The Spaniards who accompanied Philip, in Mary's reign,
were equally amazed at the good living of the English people and the
dirt about their houses. One great improvement about this time was the
introduction of chimneys; and in good country-houses the ample space of
their staircases, often finely ornamented with balustrade work, diffused
a pure atmosphere through them.
In other arts, however, the sixteenth century in England was almost
destitute of native talent. In Statuary and Carving the preceding century
had made great progress, but the destruction of the churches, and
the outcry raised against images and carving on tombs as idolatry and
vain-glory, gave a decided check to their development. As for Painting,
it had never, except in illumination, flourished much among the English,
and now that the Italian and Flemish schools had taken so high a
position, it became the fashion of the princes and nobility, not to call
forth the skill of natives, but to import foreign art and artists. In
the reign of Henry VII. a Holbein, supposed to be the uncle of the great
Hans Holbein, visited England, but we know little of his performance
here. There is a picture at Hampton Court, called a Mabuse, of the
Children of Henry VII.--Prince Arthur, Prince Henry, and the Princess
Margaret. As Prince Henry appears to be about seven years old, that
would fix the painting of the picture about 1499. But its authenticity
is doubtful, as, according to some, Mabuse was born that year. In Castle
Howard there is a painting by him of undoubted authority, "The Offering
of the Magi," containing thirty principal figures. It is in the highest
state of preservation, and Dr. Waagen, who was well acquainted with the
productions of this artist in the great galleries of the Continent,
pronounced it of the highest excellence. He is said to have painted the
children of Henry VIII., but if he did so, the picture has perished.
The date of his visit is quite uncertain, and the attribution to him of
portraits is at the best no more than conjectural. Mabuse was a very
dissipated man, and had fled from Flanders on account of his debts or
delinquencies, yet the character of his performances is that of the most
patient industry and painstaking. His works done in England could not
have been many, as his abode here is supposed to have been only a year.
He died in 1532.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE FROM THE COURTYARD OF BURLEIGH HOUSE, STAMFORD.]
Besides Mabuse, the names of several other foreign artists are known
as having visited England; but little or nothing is known of the works
of Toto del Nunziata, an Italian, or of Corvus, Fleccius, Horrebout
or Horneband, or of Cornelius, Flemish artists; but another Fleming
was employed, in the early part of the reign of Henry VIII., by Bishop
Sherbourne, in painting a series of English kings and bishops in
Chichester Cathedral.
Of the celebrated Hans Holbein, the case is better authenticated. He
resided in England nearly thirty years, and died in London of the plague
in 1543. There is an obscurity about both the time and place of his
birth, but the latter appears now to be settled to be Grünstadt, formerly
the residence of the Counts of Leiningen-Westerburg. He accompanied his
father to Basle, receiving from him instructions in his art. There he
became acquainted with Erasmus, who gave him letters to Sir Thomas More.
He arrived in England in 1526, and lived and worked in the house of his
noble patron, Sir Thomas, for three years. The learned chancellor invited
Henry VIII. to see his pictures, who was so much delighted with them,
that he took him instantly into his service. It is related of him that
while busily engaged with his works for the king, he was so much annoyed
and interrupted by a nobleman of the court, that he ordered him to quit
his studio, and on his refusing, pushed him downstairs. When the nobleman
complained to Henry of this rudeness, Henry bluntly told him that the
painter had served him right, and warned him to beware of seeking any
revenge. "For," added he, "remember you now have not Holbein to deal
with, but me: and I tell you, that of seven peasants I can make as many
lords, but I cannot make one Holbein."
The demand of portraits from Holbein by the Court and nobility was so
constant and extensive, that he completed comparatively few historical
compositions. He has left us various portraits of Henry, and adorned the
walls of a saloon at Whitehall with two large paintings representing the
triumphs of riches and poverty. He also painted Henry as delivering the
charter of the barber-surgeons, and Edward VI. delivering that for the
foundation of Bridewell Hospital. The former piece is still at the hall
of that guild. Amongst the finest of Holbein's paintings on the Continent
is that of "The Burgomaster and his Family" in the gallery at Dresden.
There is less of the stiffness of his manner in that than in most of his
pieces; but in spirited design, clearness and brilliancy of tone, and
perfection of finish, few painters excel Holbein; he wanted only a course
of study in the Italian school to have placed him among the greatest
masters of any age.
[Illustration: ELIZABETH'S DRAWING-ROOM, PENSHURST PLACE.
(_From a Photograph by Carl Norman and Co., Tunbridge Wells._)]
In the reign of Mary, Sir Antonio More, a Flemish artist, was the great
portrait-painter. In that of Elizabeth, though she was not more liberal
to the arts than to literature, yet her personal vanity led her to have
her own portrait repeatedly painted, and the artists, chiefly Flemings,
were much employed by the nobility in the same department. Some of the
foreign artists also executed historical and other pieces. Among these
artists may be named Frederic Zuccaro, an Italian portrait-painter; Luke
van Heere, who executed a considerable number of orders here, including
a series of representations of national costume for the Earl of Lincoln;
and Cornelius Vroom, who designed the defeat of the Spanish Armada, for
the tapestry which adorned the walls of the House of Lords, and which
was destroyed by the fire in 1834. In Elizabeth's reign also two native
artists distinguished themselves: Nicolas Hilliard, a miniature-painter;
and Isaac Oliver (_b._ 1556, _d._ 1617), his pupil, who surpassed his
master in portraits, and also produced historical works of merit.
Among the sculptors were Pietro Torregiano, from Florence, who, assisted
by a number of Englishmen, executed the bronze monument of Henry VII.,
and is supposed also to be the author of the tomb of Henry's mother in
his chapel. John Hales, who executed the tomb of the Earl of Derby at
Ormskirk, was one of Torregiano's English assistants. Benedetto Rovezzano
designed the splendid bronze tomb of Henry VIII., which was to have
exhibited himself and Jane Seymour, as large as life, in effigy, an
equestrian statue, figures of the saints and prophets, the history of St.
George, amounting to 133 statues and forty bas-reliefs. This monument
of Henry's egotism none of his children or successors respected him
enough to complete; and Parliament, in 1646, ordered the portion already
executed to be melted down.
[Illustration: SOLDIERS OF THE TUDOR PERIOD.]
In Scotland during this period the arts were still less cultivated.
The only monarch who had evinced a taste for their patronage was James
V., who improved and adorned the royal palaces, by the aid of French
architects, painters, and sculptors whom he procured from France, with
which he was connected by marriage and alliance. His chief interest and
expenditure were, however, devoted to the palace at Linlithgow, which he
left by far the noblest palace of Scotland, and worthy of any country in
Europe.
The furniture of noble houses in the sixteenth century was still
quaint; but in many instances rich and picturesque. The walls retained
their hangings of tapestry, on which glowed hunting-scenes, with their
woodlands, dogs, horsemen, and flying stags, or resisting boars, or
lions; scenes mythological or historical. In one of the finest preserved
houses of that age, Hardwicke, in Derbyshire, the state-room is hung
with tapestry representing the story of Ulysses; and above this are
figures, rudely executed in plaster, of Diana and her nymphs. The hall is
hung with very curious tapestry, of the fifteenth century, representing
a boar-hunt and an otter-hunt. The chapel in this house gives a very
vivid idea of the furniture of domestic chapels of that age; with its
brocaded seats and cushions, and its curious altar-cloth, thirty feet
long, hung round the rails of the altar, with figures of saints, under
canopies, wrought in needlework. You are greatly struck as you pass
along this noble old hall, which has had its internal decorations and
furniture carefully retained, with the air of rude abundance, and what
looks now to us nakedness and incompleteness, mingled with old baronial
state, and rich and precious articles of use and show. There are vast and
long passages, simply matted; with huge chests filled with coals, which
formerly were filled with wood, and having ample crypts in the walls for
chips and firewood. There are none of the modern contrivances to conceal
these things; yet the rooms, which were then probably uncarpeted, or only
embellished in the centre with a small Turkey carpet bearing the family
arms, or perhaps merely with rushes, are still abounding with antique
cabinets, massy tables, and high chairs covered with crimson velvet, or
ornamental satin. You behold the very furniture used by the Queen of
Scots; the very bed, the brocade of which she and her maidens worked with
their own fingers. In the entrance hall the old feudal mansion still
seems to survive with its huge antlers, its huge escutcheons, and carved
arms thrust out of the wall, intended to hold lights. But still more
does its picture gallery, extending along the whole front of the house,
give you a feeling of the rude and stately grandeur of those times. This
gallery is nearly 200 feet long, of remarkable loftiness, and its windows
are stupendous, comprising nearly the whole front, rattling and wailing
as the wind sweeps along them, whilst the walls are covered with the
portraits of the most remarkable personages of that and prior times.
You have Henry VIII., Elizabeth, the Queen of Scots, with many of the
statesmen and ladies of the age.
In such old houses we find abundance of furniture of the period. The
chairs are generally high-backed, richly carved, and stuffed and covered
with superb velvet or satin. At Charlcote House, near Stratford-on-Avon,
the seat of the Lucys, there are eight fine ebony chairs, inlaid with
ivory, two cabinets, and a couch of the same, which were given by Queen
Elizabeth to Leicester, and made part of the furniture of Kenilworth. At
Penshurst, Kent, the seat of the Sidneys, in the room called Elizabeth's
room, remain the chairs which it is said she herself presented, with the
rest of the furniture. They are fine, tall, and capacious; the frames are
gilt, the drapery is yellow and crimson satin, richly embroidered, and
the walls of each end of the room are covered with the same embroidered
satin. In the Elizabethan room at Greenwich Court are chairs as well as
other articles of that age. In Winchester Cathedral is yet preserved
the chair, a present from the Pope, in which Queen Mary was crowned and
married.
At Penshurst we have, in the old banqueting-hall, the furniture and
style which still prevailed in many houses in Sir Philip Sidney's time:
the dogs for the fire in the centre of the room, from which the smoke
ascended through a hole in the roof, the rude tables, the raised daïs,
and the music gallery, such as Sir Philip Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare,
and Bacon, as well as the Royal Elizabeth, witnessed them. In this
house is also preserved a manuscript catalogue of all the furniture of
Kenilworth in Leicester's time, a document which throws much light on the
whole paraphernalia of a great house and household of that day.
Looking-glasses were now superseding mirrors of polished steel. Sir
Samuel Meyrick had a fine specimen of the looking-glass of this age at
Goodrich, as well as a German clock, fire-dogs, a napkin-press, and an
"arriere-dos" or "rere-dosse," and a small brass fender of that age. He
also possessed the box containing the original portraits of Henry VIII.
and Anne of Cleves. The clock, like the large one over the entrance
at Hampton Court, had the Italian face, with two sets of figures,
twelve each, thus running the round of the twenty-four hours, such as
Shakespeare alludes to in "Othello:"--
"He'll watch the horologe _a double set_,
If drink rock not his cradle."
Richly carved wardrobes and buffets adorned the Tudor rooms: some of
these buffets were of silver and of silver gilt. Engravings of these, as
well as of tables with folding tops, round tables with pillar and claw,
and many beds of that period may still be seen in old houses, and are
represented in engravings in Montfaucon, Shaw, and Willemin. The beds at
Hardwicke, the great bed at Ware, a bedstead of the time of Henry VIII.
at Lovely Hall, near Blackburn, are good specimens. Forks, though known,
were not generally used yet at table, and spoons of silver and gold were
made to fold up, and were carried by great people in their pockets for
their own use. Spoons of silver--apostle-spoons, having the heads of the
twelve apostles on the handles--were not unfrequent, but spoons of horn
or wood were more common.
The armour of every period bears a coincident resemblance to the civil
costume of the time, and is in this period rather noticeable by its
fashion than by any material change of another kind. The breastplate was
still globose, as in the reign of Edward IV., but was beautifully fluted
in that of Henry VII. In the reign of Henry VIII., the breastplate being
still globose, the old fashion revived of an edge down the centre, called
a tapul; and in this reign puffed and ribbed armour, in imitation of the
slashed dresses of the day, was introduced. In the reign of Elizabeth
the breastplate was thickened to resist musket-balls. The helmet in all
these reigns assumed the shape of the head, having movable plates at the
back to guard the neck, and yet allow free motion to the head. In the
reign of Elizabeth the morions were much ornamented by engraving. In the
time of Henry VII. the panache which had appeared on the apex of the
bassinets of Henry V. was changed for plumes, descending from the back
of the helmet almost to the rider's saddle. A new feature in armour also
came in with Henry VII., called "lamboys" from the French "lambeaux,"
being a sort of skirt or petticoat of steel, in imitation of the puckered
skirts of cloth or velvet worn at that time, and this fashion, with
variations in form, continued through the whole period. In the reign of
Henry VIII. the armour altogether became very showy and rich, in keeping
with the ostentation of that monarch. A magnificent suit of the armour
of Henry is preserved in the Tower, which was presented to him by the
Emperor Maximilian, on his marriage with Catherine of Aragon, and is
the fellow to a suit of Maximilian's preserved in the Little Belvedere
Palace in Vienna. It covers both horse and man, and is richly engraved
with legendary subjects, badges, mottoes, and the like. The seal of Henry
presents a fine figure of him on horseback, in armour, with his tabard
and crowned helmet, and its depending plumes.
The tilting helmet disappeared altogether in the time of Henry VIII.,
and a coursing-hat was worn instead, with a "mentonnière," or defence
for the lower part of the face. In the reign of Mary we learn that the
military force of the kingdom consisted of demi-lancers, who supplied
the place of the men-at-arms; pikemen, who wore back and breast-plates,
with tassets, gauntlets, and steel hats; archers, with steel skull-caps
and brigandines; black-billmen or halberdiers, who wore armour called
almain rivet and morions; and harquebussiers, similarly appointed. In
Elizabeth's reign the armour was seldom worn on the legs and thighs,
except in jousting, and not always then.
There were various changes in the shapes of swords and glaives; the
battle-axe changed into the halberd in the time of Edward IV., which
became general in that of Henry VII. In the reign of Henry VIII. was
added the partisan, a kind of pike or spontoon; but the great change
was in firearms, the hand-gun making several steps towards its modern
termination in the musket and rifle, with detonating caps. The first
improvement was to place a cock to the gun-barrel, to hold and apply the
match instead of the soldier holding it in his hand. This was called an
arc-a-bousa, thence corrupted into the arquebuse, much used by Henry
VII. In his son's reign the wheel-lock was invented by the Italians, in
which a wheel revolving against a piece of sulphuret of iron ignited the
powder in the pan by its sparks. Pistols were also introduced now, and
called pistols or dags, according to the shape of the butt-ends; the
pistol finishing with a knob, the dag--or tacke--having its butt-end
slanting. Pistols at first more resembled carabines in length, and the
pocket pistol was of a considerable bulk. Cartridges were first used in
pistols, and were carried in a steel case called a patron. In the reign
of Elizabeth we hear of carabines, petronels, and dragons. Carabines were
a sort of light, Spanish troops, who, probably, used this kind of arm;
petronels were so called because their square butt-end was placed against
the chest, or "poitrine;" and the dragon received its name from its
muzzle being terminated with the head of that fabulous monster, and gave
the name of "dragoon" to the soldiers who fought with them. Bandoliers,
or leathern cases, each containing a complete charge of powder for a
musket, were used till the end of the seventeenth century, when they gave
way to the cartridge-box.
With the progress of firearms, it is almost needless to say that the
famous art of archery, by which the English had won such fame in the
world, was gradually superseded. During the reigns of Henry VII. and
Henry VIII., bows were much used in their armies as well as firearms,
but it was impossible long to maintain the bow and arrow in the presence
of the hand-gun and powder. In vain did Henry VIII. pass severe laws
against the disuse of the bow; by the end of his reign it had fallen, for
the most part, from the hands of the warrior into that of the sportsman.
In vain did Henry forbid the use even of the cross-bow to encourage the
practice of archery, and Roger Ascham in his "Toxophilus" endeavour to
prolong the date of the bow. By the end of the reign of Elizabeth, the
endeavour to protract the existence of archery by statute was abandoned,
and its long reign, except as a graceful amusement, was over.
The costumes of this age come down to us depicted by great masters, and
are displayed to us in their full effect, at least this much can be said
for those of the aristocracy. Looking at these ladies and gentlemen, they
appear as little like plain matter-of-fact English people as possible.
There is a length and looseness of robes about the men which has more the
air of a holiday, gala garb, than the attire of people who had serious
affairs to carry through, and you would scarcely credit them to be the
ancestors of the present prosaic, buttoned-up, and busy generation. In
a MS. called the "Boke of Custome," the chamberlain is commanded to
provide against his master's uprising, "a clene sherte and breche, a
pettycotte, a doublette, a long cotte, a stomacher, hys hosen, hys socks,
and his shoen." And the "Boke of Kervynge," quoted by Strutt, says to
the chamberlain, "Warme your soverayne his pettycotte, his doublette,
and his stomacher, and then put on his hosen, and then his schone or
slyppers, then stryten up his hosen mannerly, and tye them up, then lace
his doublette hole by hole." Barclay, in the "Ship of Fools," printed by
Pynson in 1508, mentions some who had their necks
"Charged with collars and chaines,
In golden withs, their fingers full of rings,
Their necks naked almost to the raines,
Their sleeves blazing like unto a crane's winges."
Their coats were generally loose and with broad collars, and turned back
fronts, with loose hanging sleeves, often slashed, and sometimes without
sleeves at all, but the sleeves of their doublets appearing through them,
laced tight to the elbow and puffed out above. Hats and caps were of
various fashions in the time of Henry VII. There was the square turned-up
cap, a round hat something like the present wide-awake, but the more
gay and assuming wore large felt hats, or bonnets of velvet, fur, or
other materials, with great spreading plumes of party-coloured feathers.
They wore the showy hats so much on one side, as to display under them
close-fitting caps, often of gold network. Others, again, wore only the
small cap, and let the large plumed hat hang on their shoulders.
The hose, when the dress was short enough to show them, were
close-fitting, and of gay, often of two different colours; the long-toed
shoes had given way to others, with toes called duck-bills, from their
shape, being wider in front than they were long. Top-boots were worn for
riding. The face was close shaven, except in the case of soldiers or
old men, and the hair was suffered to hang long and flowing. The first
mention of a collar of the garter occurs in this reign, and a collar is
seen on the effigy of Sir George Daubeny, of this date.
In the costume of the ladies the sleeves were as wide as they were in
that of the men, and have been imitated in modern times, being called
"bishop's sleeves" in London. The gown was cut square in the neck, and
they wore stomachers, belts, and buckles, girdles with long pendents in
front, and hats and feathers. Others wore caps and cauls of gold net, or
embroidery, from beneath which the hair hung down the shoulders half way
to the ground. The morning dress was a full, loose, flowing robe, with
cape and hood, and the extent and material of it was regulated by Royal
ordinance.
Every one is familiar with the costume of the reigns of Henry VIII. and
Edward VI. The ordinary costume of bluff Harry was a full-skirted jacket,
or doublet, with large sleeves to the wrists; over which was worn a
short but equally full cloak or coat, with loose, hanging sleeves, and
a broad, rolling collar of fur. Many, however, still wore the doublet
sleeves, as in the last reign: tight to the elbow, puffed out about the
shoulders, and the coat sleeveless, allowing this to appear. The cap
was square or round, and still worn somewhat side-ways, jewelled, and
plumed with ostrich feathers. The hose were now often divided into hose
and stockings, and the shoes, though sometimes square-toed, yet often
resembling the modern shape. The Norman "chausses" were revived under
the older name of "trousses," being close hose, fitting exactly to the
limbs.
[Illustration: THE WEDDING OF JACK OF NEWBURY: THE BRIDE'S PROCESSION.
(_See p._ 390.)]
Henry VIII. was most extravagant in dress, and was followed with so much
avidity by his subjects in his ostentation, that in the twenty-fourth
year of his reign he was obliged to pass a sumptuary law to restrain
them, and the style and quality of dress for every different rank was
prescribed--as we may suppose with indifferent success. No person of less
degree than a knight was to wear crimson or blue velvet or embroidered
apparel, broched or guarded with goldsmith's work, except sons and heirs
of knights and barons, who might use crimson velvet, and tinsel in their
doublets. Velvet gowns, jackets and coats, furs of martens, &c., chains,
bracelets, and collars of gold, were proscribed to all but persons
possessing two hundred marks per annum; except the sons and heirs of such
persons, who might wear black velvet doublets, coats of black damask,
etc.
Henry's own dress was of the most gorgeous kind. He is described at a
banquet at Westminster as arrayed in a suit of short garments of blue
velvet and crymosine, with long sleeves all cut and lined with cloth
of gold, and the outer garments powdered with castles and sheaves of
arrows--the badges of Queen Catherine--of fine ducat gold; the upper part
of the hose of like fashion, the lower parts of scarlet, powdered with
timbrels of fine gold. His bonnet was of damask silver, flat, "woven
in the stall," and therefore wrought with gold, and rich feathers on
it. When he met Anne of Cleves he had tricked himself out in a frock of
velvet embroidered all over with flatted gold of damask, mixed with a
profusion of lace; the sleeves and breast being cut and lined with cloth
of gold, and tied together with great buttons of diamonds, rubies, and
orient pearls. The king was deemed to be the best dressed sovereign in
the world, for he put on new clothes every holy day.
Henry ordered his subjects to cut off their long hair; beards and
moustaches were now worn at pleasure.
The reigns of Edward and Mary did not vary much in the costume of the
men. The dress worn now by the boys of Christ's Hospital (familiarly
known as the Bluecoat School), founded by Edward, is very much that which
was worn by the London apprentices of that period--blue coats and yellow
stockings being also common to the citizens generally. The square-toed
shoes were banished by proclamation in the reign of Queen Mary.
The costume of the ladies of the reign of Henry VIII. is extremely
familiar, from the numerous portraits of his six wives, engravings of
which are in Lodge's "Portraits." With the exception of the bonnet or
coif--which, though worn by Catherine of Aragon, came to be called the
Anne Boleyn cap--the dress of the ladies of this reign bears a striking
resemblance to one of the later Victorian fashions, though differing of
course in material. You find the gown fitting close to the bust of the
natural length of waist, and cut square at the chest, where it is edged
with narrow lace. The sleeves, tight at the shoulder, widened to the
elbow, where they hung deep, showing an under-sleeve of fine lawn or
lace extending to the wrist, and terminated by lace ruffles. On the neck
was generally worn a pearl necklace, with a jewelled cross. The skirts
were full, the train long, according to rank. Seven yards of purple
cloth of damask gold were allowed for a kirtle for Queen Catherine, in
a wardrobe account of the eighth year of Henry's reign. The sleeves of
ladies' garments, like those of gentlemen's dresses, could be changed at
pleasure, being separate and attached at will. They were extremely rich;
and we find in one lady's inventory three pair of purple satin sleeves,
one of linen paned with gold over the arms, quilted with black silk, and
wrought with flounces between the panes and at the hands; one pair of
purple gold tissue damask wire, each sleeve tied with aglets of gold; one
pair of crimson satin, four buttons of gold on each sleeve, and in every
button nine pearls.
The coif was of various materials, from simple linen to rich velvet and
cloth of gold; either with the round front, as in Mary and Elizabeth as
princesses, in Catherine Parr and Catherine Howard, or dipping in front,
which came to be called the "Queen of Scots" bonnet; but the commonest
shape was the five-cornered one. This last was indeed the hood of the
time of Henry VII., in which we have a portrait of his queen, Elizabeth
of York; the lappets of the hood depending on the bosom, embroidered and
edged with pearls; the scarf behind hanging on the shoulders. In the
portrait of Catherine of Aragon, the front, embroidered and jewelled,
had become shorter, touching the neck only; but the scarf behind still
spread on the shoulder. In Anne Boleyn's portrait the coif had reached
its extreme of elegance; the frontlet, consisting of the five-pointed
frame, is still shorter, only covering the ears, and is faced with a
double row of pearls (_see_ p. 165). Her hair is scarcely seen, being
concealed by an under-coif, which shows as a band in a slanting direction
over the forehead. The back consists of a green velvet hood, with broad
scarf lappets, of which one is turned up over the back of the head,
and the other hangs on the left shoulder. Of the dress of the ladies
of the citizen class we have a curious account in the bride of John
of Winchcomb, the famous clothier, called "Jack of Newbury." "She was
habited in a gown of sheep's russet, and a kirtle of fine worsted, her
head attired with a billiment of gold, and her hair, as yellow as gold,
hanging down behind her, which was curiously combed and plaited. She was
led to church by two boys with bride laces and rosemary tied about their
silken sleeves. When she in after years came out of her widow's weeds,
she appeared in a fair train gown stuck full of silver pins, having a
white cap on her head, with cuts of curious needlework under the same,
and an apron before her as white as driven snow."
With Elizabeth came in a totally new fashion, not only of women's but
of men's costumes. The large trunk hose made their appearance; the
long-waisted doublet, the short cloak or mantle, with its standing
collar, the ruff, the hat, the band and feather, the roses in the shoes,
are all of this period. To such a degree did the fashion of puffed
and stuffed breeches obtain, which had begun to swell in the prior
reigns, that about the thirty-third of Elizabeth, over the seats in the
Parliament House, were certain holes, some two inches square, in the
walls, in which were placed posts to uphold scaffolds round about the
house for those to sit upon who wore great breeches stuffed with hair,
like woolsacks.
As to ruffs, Stubbs, in his "Anatomie of Abuses," tells us that sooner
than go without them, men would mortgage their lands, or risk their
lives at Tyburn; and he adds, "They have now newly (1595) found out a
more monstrous kind of ruff of twelve, yea, sixteen lengths apiece, set
three or four times double, thence called three steps and a half to the
gallows." The French or Venetian hose, he tells us, cost often £100 a
pair, probably from being cloth of gold and set with jewels. To these
were added boot hose of the finest cloth, also splendidly embroidered
with birds, beasts, and antiques. The doublets, he says, grew longer
and longer in the waist, stuffed and quilted with four, five, or six
pounds of bombast, the exterior being of silk, satin, taffeta, gold,
or silver stuff, slashed, jagged, covered, pinched, and laced with all
kinds of costly devices. Over these were their coats and jerkins, some
with collars, some without, some close to the body, some loose, called
mandilions; some buttoned down the breast, some under the arm, some
down the back. They had cloaks also--white, red, tawny, yellow, green,
violet--of cloth, silk, or taffeta, and of French, Spanish, or Dutch
fashion, ornamented with costly lace of gold, silver, or silk. These
cloaks were as costly inside as out. Their slippers or "pantoufles"
were of all colours, and yet, says Stubbs, they were difficult to keep
on, and went flap-flap up and down in the dirt, casting the mire up to
their knees. Their hats, he states, were sharp at the crown, peaking up
like the shaft of a steeple a quarter of a yard above the crown of their
heads, some more, some less; others were flat and broad on the crown;
some had round crowns and bands of all colours; and these hats or caps
were of velvet, taffeta, or sarcenet, ornamented with big bunches of
feathers; and finally we hear of _beaver hats_, costing from twenty to
forty shillings apiece, brought from beyond seas.
But if such was the dress of gentlemen to please the strange taste of
the maiden queen, that of this famous queen herself, as evinced by her
numerous portraits, has nothing like it in all the annals of fashion.
In an early portrait of Elizabeth we have her dressed in a costume very
little different to that of a man. Over her gown or doublet she wore a
coat with the enormous shoulder-points standing up six inches, and with
a close upright collar completely enveloping her neck, and surmounted by
a ruff; her coat cut and slashed all over, and on her head a round hat,
pulled down to a peak in front, and thickly jewelled. Stubbs, alluding to
this particular fashion, says, "The women have doublets and jerkins as
the men have, buttoned up to the breast, and made with wings, welts, and
pinions on the shoulder-points, as men's apparel in all respects.... Yet
they blush not to wear it."
But it was about the middle of her reign that Elizabeth introduced
that astounding style of dress in which she figures in most of her
portraits, and in which the body was imprisoned in whalebone to the
hips; the partlet or habit-shirt, which had for some time been in use,
and covered the whole bosom to the chin, was removed, and an enormous
ruff, rising gradually from the front of the shoulders to nearly the
height of the head behind, encircled the wearer like the enormous wings
of some nondescript butterfly. In fact, there was ruff beyond ruff;
first, a crimped one round the neck like a collar; and then a round
one standing up from the shoulders behind the head; and, finally, the
enormous circular fans towering high and wide. The head of the queen is
seen covered with one of her eighty sets of false hair, and hoisted above
that a jaunty hat, jewelled and plumed.
In order to enable this monstrous expanse of ruff to support itself,
it was necessary to resort to starch, and, as Stubbs tells us, also to
a machinery of wires, "erected for the purpose, and whipped all over
with gold thread, silver, or silk." This was called a "supportasse, or
underpropper." The queen sent to Holland for women skilled in the art of
starching; and one Mistress Dingham Vander Plasse came over and became
famous in the mystery of tormenting pride with starch. "The devil," says
Stubbs, "hath learned them to wash and dress their ruffs, which, being
dry, will then stand inflexible about their necks."
From the bosom, now partly left bare, descended an interminable
stomacher, and then the farthingale spread out its enormous breadth,
like the Victorian crinoline. Stockings of worsted yarn and silk had
now become common; and Mistress Montague presented Her Majesty, in the
third year of her reign, with a pair of silk stockings knit in England;
thereupon she would never wear any else. A fashion of both ladies and
gentlemen of this time was to wear small looking-glasses hanging at their
sides or inserted in the fan of ostrich feathers.
The history of the coinage from Henry VII. to the reign of Elizabeth is
one of depreciation and adulteration, as it had been in the preceding
century. Not till Elizabeth did it begin to return to a sound and honest
standard.
Henry VII. made several variations in the money of the realm. He
preserved the standard of Edward IV. and Richard III., coining 450
pennies from the pound of silver, or thirty-seven nominal shillings and
sixpences. He introduced shillings as actual money, being before only
nominal, and used in accounts. These shillings, struck in 1504--called
at first large groats, and then testons, from the French "teste," or
"tête," a head--bore the profile of the king instead of the full face; a
thing unknown since the reign of Stephen, but ever after followed, except
by Henry VIII. and Edward VI., who, however, used the profile in their
groats. Henry coined also a novel coin--the sovereign, or "double rose
noble," worth twenty shillings, and the "rose rial," or half-sovereign.
These gold coins are now very rare. On the reverse of his coins he for
the first time placed the Royal arms.
The gold coins of Henry VIII. were sovereigns, half-sovereigns, or
rials, half and quarter rials, angels, angelets, or half angels, and
quarter-angels, George nobles--so called from bearing on the reverse
St. George and the dragon--crowns, and half-crowns. His silver coins
were shillings, groats, half-groats, and pennies. Amongst these appeared
groats and half-groats coined by Wolsey at York, in accordance with a
privilege, exercised by the Church long before. In his impeachment it was
made a capital charge that he had placed the cardinal's hat on the groats
under the king's arms. The groats also bore on each side of the arms his
initials, "T. W.," and the half-groats "W. A."--Wolsey Archiepiscopus.
Not only did Henry adulterate the coin in the most scandalous manner,
but he also depreciated the value of the silver coins, by coining a much
larger number of pennies out of a pound of the base alloy. Before his
time the mixed mint pound had consisted of eleven ounces two pennyweights
of silver, and eighteen pennyweights of alloy; but Henry, in 1543,
altered it to ten ounces of silver and two ounces of alloy. Two years
later he added as much alloy as there was silver; and not content with
that, in 1546, or one year after, he left only four ounces of silver
in the pound, or eight ounces of alloy to the four ounces of silver!
But this even did not satisfy him: he next proceeded to coin his base
metal into a larger amount than the good metal had ever produced before.
Instead of 37s. 6d., or 450 pennies, into which it had been coined ever
since the reign of Edward IV., he made it yield 540 pennies, or 45s.,
in 1527, and in 1543 he extended it to 48s., or 576 pennies. He thus,
instead of 450 pennies out of a pound containing eleven ounces two
pennyweights of silver, coined 576 pennies out of only four ounces of
silver! Such were the lawless robberies which "Bluff Harry" committed
on his subjects. Any one of the smallest debasements by a subject would
have sent him to the gallows. He certainly was one of the most wholesale
issuers of bad money that ever lived.
The counsellors of his son Edward--a most rapacious set of
adventurers--however, even out-Harryed Harry; for though Edward restored
at first the value of the mint mixture in some degree, in 1551 the amount
of silver in a pound of that alloy was only three ounces, or an ounce
less than the worst coin of his father. And still worse, instead of 48s.,
the largest number coined by his father out of a pound, he coined 72s.,
or instead of 450 pennies out of four ounces of silver, 864 pennies were
coined out of three ounces. The ruin, the confusion of prices, and the
public outcry, however, consequent upon this violent public fraud, at
length compelled Government to restore the amount of silver in the pound
to nearly what it was at the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII., and
the number of shillings was reduced from seventy-two to sixty. The gold,
which was equally debased, was also restored to the same extent.
Queen Mary, while she issued a proclamation at the commencement of her
reign denouncing the dishonest proceedings of her predecessors, again
increased the alloy in a pound of mint silver to an ounce instead of
nineteen pennyweights; and she added two pennyweights more of alloy to
the ounce of gold. The coins issued by Philip and Mary bear both their
profiles.
Elizabeth honourably restored the coinage to its ancient value. She
fixed the alloy in a pound of silver at only eighteen pennyweights;
but she coined sixty-two shillings out of the pound instead of sixty,
at which it remained till 1816, when it became sixty-six, as it still
remains. The standard mixture of Elizabeth has continued the same to
our own day. She called in and melted down the base money of her father
and brother to the nominal value of £638,000, but of real value only
£244,000. The gold coins of Elizabeth are rials, angels, half-angels,
and quarter-angels, crowns and half-crowns, nobles and double nobles.
Some of her coins were the first which had milled edges, both of gold and
silver. Besides shillings, sixpences, groats, and pence, Elizabeth coined
a crown, for the use of the East India Company, called portcullis crowns,
in imitation of the Spanish dollar. These were valued at four shillings
and sixpence, and are now rare.
[Illustration: SHIPS OF ELIZABETH'S TIME.]
In Scotland the alloy of the silver at the mint was not so great as in
England during this period; but the number of shillings coined out of one
pound of silver was astonishingly increased. This kind of depreciation
had been going on for two centuries before this period; but from 1475,
when only 144 shillings were coined out of the pound of silver, the
number was rapidly augmented every few years, till in 1601 no less than
720 shillings were coined out of it, or, in other words, the original
value of one pound was made to pass for thirty-six pounds.
In tracing the historical events of these reigns, we have had occasion to
show the increasing strength of the Royal navy of England. Both in the
reigns of Henry VIII. and of Elizabeth the sea fights were of a character
and attended by results which marked out England as a maritime power
growing ever more formidable. In the fourth year of his reign Henry drove
the French fleet from the Channel with forty-two ships, Royal and others.
He chastised the Scots, who, under James V., had become daring at sea;
and on various occasions during his reign he showed his superiority to
the French and Spaniards.
But it was the victory over the Armada under Elizabeth, and the exploits
of Drake, Essex, Raleigh, and others in the Spanish ports, and of
Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher in the Spanish settlements of America,
that raised the fame of the British fleet to a pitch which it had never
reached before. For, after all, the amount of Henry's fleet never was
large. We are told, indeed, that at first he had only one ship of war,
the _Great Harry_, till he took the _Lion_, a large Scottish ship, with
its commander, the celebrated Andrew Barton; but probably this is meant
of such size as to merit the name of man-of-war. Parsimonious as was
Henry VII., and careful to avoid any collisions with foreign powers, we
cannot suppose he left the kingdom totally destitute of a navy. But Henry
VIII. was not contented with owning merely a mediocre fleet; he had an
ambition of building large vessels, and in 1512 he built one of 1,000
tons, called the _Regent_. This was blown up in a battle with the French
fleet off Brest, and instead of it he built another called _Grâce de
Dieu_. The rivalry of Henry was excited by the King of Scotland building
a much larger ship than his _Regent_, which was said to carry 300 seamen,
120 gunners, and 1,000 soldiers. This ship, like Henry's _Regent_,
was unfortunately lost at sea. By the end of Henry's reign, his fleet
altogether amounted to 12,500 tons.
Besides building of ships, Henry seems to have planned all the necessary
offices for a naval system. He established the Navy Office, with a
sort of Board of Admiralty for its management, and he also founded, in
the fourth year of his reign, the Corporation of the Trinity House at
Deptford, for managing everything relating to the education, selection,
and appointment of pilots, the putting down of buoys, and erecting
beacons and lighthouses. Similar establishments were created by him at
Hull and Newcastle. He built at great cost the first pier at Dover, and
passed an Act of Parliament for improving the harbours of Plymouth,
Dartmouth, Teignmouth, Falmouth, and Fowey, which had been choked up by
the refuse of certain tin-works, which he prohibited. But perhaps his
greatest works of the kind were his establishment of the navy-yards and
storehouses at Woolwich and Deptford. No monarch, in fact, had hitherto
planned so efficiently and exerted himself so earnestly to found an
English navy. Great merit is due to him for his advancement of the
maritime interests of the nation.
The manner in which the different monarchs of the Tudor dynasty advanced
or neglected the navy is well shown by the returns of the Navy Office to
Parliament in 1791. At the end of the reign of Henry VIII. it amounted
to 12,500 tons, at the end of that of Edward VI. to only 11,065 tons,
and at the end of Mary's to 7,110 tons, but at the end of Elizabeth's
it rose to 17,110. At the time of the Armada, Elizabeth had at sea 150
sail, of which, however, only forty were the property of the Crown; the
rest belonged to the merchants who were liable to be called upon on
such emergencies to furnish their largest craft for the public service.
Thirty-four of these ships were from 500 to 1,100 tons each, and these
larger vessels are said to have carried 300 men and forty cannon each.
Besides the vessels thus called out for war, the mercantile navy at this
time amounted to another 150 sail of various capacity, averaging each 150
tons, and carrying forty seamen.
This extent of Royal and mercantile navy had not been reached without
much fostering care on the part of the queen. With all her parsimony
and dread of expense, it was one of the finest parts of her very mixed
character, that she saw the necessity of a strong power at sea and had
all the pride of her father to maintain it. Whilst on land she introduced
the manufacture of gunpowder, and raised the pay of the soldiers, she
extended her care to the fleet, and made it in the end the best equipped
navy in Europe. She raised the pay of the sailors as she had done that
of the soldiers, and the merchants entered so readily into her service
that she had no longer occasion to hire vessels, as her predecessors
had done, from the Hanse Towns, or from Venice and Genoa. She built a
fort on the Medway, somewhere near the present Sheerness, to protect her
fleet, and justly acquired the name of the Queen of the North Seas. Many
circumstances combined to give a new and wonderful development in her
time to commerce--the discovery and partial settlement of the New World;
the way opened by the Cape to India; the extension of commercial inquiry
and enterprise into the north of Europe and to the banks of Newfoundland.
But ere this stirring period arrived, commerce had had to struggle
with many severe restrictions, the fruit of the ignorance of political
economy.
[Illustration: THE WORLD
in the
XVIth CENTURY
showing
the DISCOVERIES of
BRITISH & other EXPLORERS.]
Henry VII. is praised by Hall, the chronicler, as a prince who "by
his high policy marvellously enriched his realm and himself, and left
his subjects in high wealth and prosperity; as is apparent by the
great abundance of gold and silver yearly brought into the kingdom, in
plate, money, and bullion, by merchants passing and repassing." But
the true reason of the rapid advance of commerce under Henry VII. was,
undoubtedly, the quietness and stability of affairs which he introduced;
for Henry was too fond of hoarding to be a very munificent patron of
trade. Amongst the very first measures which he passed was one against
usury, totally forbidding the loan of money on interest, which, if it
could have been really carried out, would have nearly extinguished
commerce altogether. In this, however, Henry was but continuing the
practice of his predecessors, who, though great warriors, were no
merchants. So severe was Henry's enactment against usury, that, by the
Act of the third year of his reign, every offender was, on discovery, to
be fined £100, and the bargain to be made void. Henry VIII. abrogated
this law, and allowed usury under ten per cent.; it was again put in
force by Edward VI. in terms of the utmost severity, declaring it to be
"a vice most odious and detestable, and utterly prohibited by the Word of
God." Elizabeth, however, again restored the law of her father in 1571,
permitting interest under ten per cent.
Whilst Henry VII. endeavoured to extinguish usury, he was equally jealous
of foreign merchants--of their bringing their foreign manufactures and
carrying out English goods--lest our wealth should be drained away by
them. The careful old king could not see that it mattered little by whom
the exchanges of commerce were made, so that merchants were left to make
their own bargains; whence the result would be that they would only
purchase such things as they wanted, and sell such as they did not want,
with benefit to everybody. It accorded, however, with Henry's ideas, and
was so far beneficial as to induce the settling of English merchants in
foreign countries, with the object of endeavouring to drain them of their
wealth. Therefore, he was careful to heal the breach with the Netherlands
which the patronage of Perkin Warbeck by the Duchess of Burgundy had
made, and the company of Merchant Adventurers was again established in
Antwerp. The treaty on this occasion was termed by the rejoicing Flemings
the "Intercursus Magnus," or Great Treaty of Intercourse; but Henry, in
1506, on intercepting the Archduke Philip at Weymouth, forced from him
a less liberal treaty, which the Flemings branded as the "Intercursus
Malus," or Evil Treaty.
In the same one-sided spirit of trade, Henry, in 1489, concluded a treaty
with Denmark, by which English companies were authorised to purchase
lands in Bergen in Norway, Lund and Landskrona in Sweden, and Lowisa in
Finland, on which to erect factories and warehouses, to remain theirs in
perpetuity for the purposes of trade. He also renewed a similar treaty
at the same time with the great trading republic of Venice, by which the
English companies were to enjoy all the privileges of the citizens of
Florence and Pisa, where they were established, and were privileged to
export English wool, and re-ship the spices and valuable articles which
were brought by the Venetians overland from India.
It was not long, however, before Henry was called on to check the effects
of monopoly in his English companies. The Merchant Adventurers of London
soon showed so strongly these effects, that they compelled the king to
interfere with a view to counteract them.
The markets of Europe were now fast growing in importance and demand. The
wealth of South America was flowing into Spain, in the shape of gold, to
the amount of a million sterling annually, and the spices and riches of
the East Indies into Portugal, since the discovery of the way round the
Cape. Amsterdam became the great mercantile depôt of these commodities
in Europe, and the benefit of it was felt nowhere more sensibly than in
England. Henry VII., who had let slip the opportunity of securing South
America and the West Indies by neglecting the offers of Columbus, now
endeavoured to repair the mischief by granting patents to the Cabots and
others for the discovery of new lands. He could not open his heart or his
coffers sufficiently to assist the adventurers with funds, but he was
ready to reap his share of the benefit, which was to consist of all the
countries discovered and a fifth of the immediate proceeds. Under such
patents the Cabots, father and son, in the course of several voyages,
discovered Labrador in 1497, and afterwards ran along the whole coast of
North America, to the Gulf of Mexico.
From this moment the spirit of mercantile enterprise rapidly developed
itself. In 1562 we find Captain Hawkins trading to Guinea for elephants'
teeth, and to Brazil, to which coasts voyages soon became common.
Trading to all parts of the Mediterranean was frequent during the reign
of Henry VIII.; taking out wool, cloth, and skins, and importing silks,
drugs, wines, cotton-wool, spices, and Turkey carpets. The voyages of
Cabot had opened up a new trade--that of cod-fishing--on the coasts of
Newfoundland, which was eagerly engaged in; and the voyages of Willoughby
and Richard Chancellor, by exploring the White Sea, at the suggestion of
Cabot, opened a new trade with Russia. A Russian company was formed by
Edward VI., and fully incorporated by Mary, who vigorously prosecuted
that trade; and in 1556 an ambassador arrived at London from the Czar.
Jenkinson, an agent of this company afterwards descended the Volga to
Astrakhan, and crossing the Caspian Sea, reached Bokhara, the great
resort of the merchants of Russia, Persia, India, and China. He is said
to have made six other voyages to Bokhara by that route--a striking proof
of the growing enterprise of the English merchant. The loss of Calais
by Mary was a circumstance which, as was to be expected, exerted an
injurious influence on commerce in her unfortunate reign.
[Illustration: THE FIRST ROYAL EXCHANGE, LONDON (FOUNDED BY SIR THOMAS
GRESHAM).]
The earliest European trade with India was Venetian, and was conducted by
way of the Black Sea. On the discovery by Vasco da Gama of the passage by
the Cape of Good Hope, in 1497, the Dutch claimed the exclusive right of
navigating those seas. The Spaniards again were equally exclusive with
regard to their own subsequent discovery of a passage by the Straits of
Magellan. These monopolies, so strange in their contrast to our modern
conceptions and practice, left the English the sole alternative of a
north-west or north-east passage. About 1500, a Portuguese named Corte
Real attempted to discover a north-west passage, and was followed by a
similar effort on the part of the English in 1553. The idea received the
greatest encouragement from Queen Elizabeth, and a company was formed
in 1585, called the "Fellowship for the discovery of the North-West
Passage." Sir Hugh Willoughby's last voyage, which was entered on with
a view to discover a north-east passage to China, was fatal to him and
his brave comrades, who perished in the ice. The instructions given to
Sir Hugh by Sebastian Cabot, Grand Pilot of England by appointment of
Henry VII., are extant, and furnish a curious and interesting specimen of
naval regulation. No dicing, carding, tabling, nor other such practices
were to be allowed on ship-board; morning and evening prayers were to be
diligently observed. On the other hand, the natives of strange countries
were to be "enticed on board and made drunk with your beer and wine, for
then you shall know the secrets of their hearts:" and they were to be
cautious with regard to "certain creatures with men's heads and the tails
of fishes, who swim with bows and arrows about the fords and bays, and
live on human flesh."
[Illustration: SIR THOMAS GRESHAM.]
During the long reign of Elizabeth foreign trade made gigantic strides.
Among the very first acts of this queen was one to abolish the
restriction of English merchants to English ships in the transport of
goods. The Act states that this restriction had provoked the natural
adoption of like restrictions by foreign princes. This was the first
acknowledgment of the mischief of meddling with the freedom of trade;
and our foreign trade had now acquired an importance which demanded
respect. With the Netherlands alone our trade was extraordinary, its
value amounting to nearly two millions and a half sterling annually; and
we find at this time the first mention of insurance of goods on their
voyage. In 1562 we hear also of that detestable commerce the slave trade,
which was introduced by John Hawkins, so well known afterwards as the
daring compeer of Drake and Frobisher, and one of the heroic conquerors
of the Armada. Hawkins carried out English goods, called at the Guinea
Coast, and took in slaves, sailed to Hispaniola, and brought thence
sugar, ginger, hides, and pearls.
During the reign of Elizabeth the many voyages which were made in
order to discover a north-west passage to India led to a more intimate
knowledge of the North American coasts. In these Frobisher, Cavendish,
and Davis distinguished themselves. From 1576 to the end of Elizabeth's
reign, Raleigh and his step-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, made repeated
attempts to colonise North America, and particularly Virginia--so called
in honour of Elizabeth--but in vain. Equally strenuous and unsuccessful
efforts were made to open a direct sea communication with India by the
English; and it was not till the close of Elizabeth's reign that the
incorporation of an East India Company, destined to establish that trade,
was effected. The charter was granted by Elizabeth in 1600. Elizabeth
also chartered a company in 1579 for the exclusive right of trading to
all the countries of the Baltic.
As regarded the domestic manufactures of this period, the woollen
manufactures were the most important, and extended themselves greatly on
account of the foreign demand. This manufacture had to contend with many
old charters and restrictions which were introduced to monopolise the
practice of it to certain towns and persons; but these were gradually
broken through after much contest, and people in both town and country
were allowed to make cloths and other woollen goods. Originally London,
Norwich, Bristol, Gloucester, and Coventry were the privileged places.
Essex became a clothing county; but by degrees the trade spread into
those quarters where it still prevails. Berks, Oxford, Surrey, and
Yorkshire made coarse kerseys for exportation; Wales manufactured fringes
and coarse cloths; but Tiverton, Bridgewater, Chard, and other towns of
Wilts, Gloucester, and Somerset were famous for their broad-cloths; those
of Kidderminster, Bromwich, Coventry, Worcester, Evesham, Droitwich,
as also of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, were in esteem. Manchester and
Halifax were already noted for rugs and fringes, Norfolk for coverlets,
and Lincolnshire and Chester for what were called "cottons," but which
were a species of woollen. There was much complaint at that day of the
adulteration of these fabrics by intermixture of inferior yarns, and
by not taking the proper means to prevent them from shrinking on being
exposed to wet. Norwich had manufactures of woollen different to ordinary
cloth, in which it excelled all other places; and in Elizabeth's reign
the Norwich manufacturers introduced new kinds under the name of Norwich
satins and fustians.
The art of dyeing received a new impulse and new colours from the
discovery of Brazil and other distant countries. Soap-making was
also introduced, soap having before 1524 been chiefly imported. Many
manufacturing processes in weaving, dyeing, and cleaning cloths were
brought over by the refugees from the Netherlands, driven to England by
the Spanish persecutions. During Elizabeth's reign the smelting of iron,
which had been chiefly carried on in Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, became
restricted there on account of the consumption of wood. Copper mines and
alum pits were discovered in the time of Elizabeth, in Cumberland and
Yorkshire, which contributed to the extension of the manufacturing arts.
Sir Thomas Gresham, the chief financial leader of the day, although a
protégé of the Duke of Northumberland's, was received with much favour by
Elizabeth on her accession. The great merchant then gave her advice--the
following of which may well be called an epoch in the history of this
country. He told her that all the debased coin should be converted
into fine coin of a certain weight; that their monopoly should not be
restored to the Steelyard merchants; that licences should be granted as
seldom as possible; that she should incur no debt, or as little debt as
possible, beyond the seas; and that she should keep her credit with her
own merchants, as they would be her best and most powerful friends. These
wise measures of reform were gradually carried out. Elizabeth probably
perceived their value, but she could not find it in her heart to act
altogether with the necessary self-denial and liberality. Thus she would
not give up her power to reward favourites by means of special grants and
licences. The monopoly of sweet wines which Essex enjoyed is an instance
of her influence in this respect.
Gresham himself superintended the restoration of the coinage, and his
advice with regard to the Steelyard merchants was also carried into
practice. It was to him that the merchants of that day owed their first
place of meeting for the transaction of business. Before that they had
been "constrained either to endure all extremities of weather, namely,
heat and cold, snow and rain, or else to shelter themselves in shops."
Gresham therefore built a house for them, which the queen visited in 1570
and called the Royal Exchange. This building, like many others belonging
to the City companies, was destroyed in the Great Fire. It was designed
after the model of the Bourse of Antwerp, and was Flemish also in its
architect, its workmen, and its materials. The commerce of Scotland
during this century was affected by precisely the same circumstances as
that of England.
During this century much progress was made in the improvement of London.
Henry VIII. passed various Acts for the paving of the thoroughfares,
which before were horrible sloughs, "very foul and full of pits."
The public amusements of the nation underwent as great a revolution
during this century as its religion or its literature. The fall of the
Church and the introduction of firearms were fatal to the spirit of
chivalry, and the whole host of religious pageants and plays. Henry VIII.
and Elizabeth exerted themselves to prolong the exercises of chivalry,
but they had lost their spirit, and fell lifeless to the ground. In vain
was the tournament of the Cloth of Gold, or the jousts at which Elizabeth
presided at Greenwich. They were become mere mockeries of what once had
been the all-engrossing contests of knightly honour. In vain did they
endeavour to keep alive the long bow and the feats of archery. The musket
and the sportsman's gun had made the bow and quiver mere playthings. The
tournament made way for the joust, in which the contest was conducted
with headless lances, and fighting at the barriers with blunted axes; and
that gave way to "riding at the ring," in which the gentlemen did not run
their lances through their antagonists, but through a ring suspended for
the purpose. The last of the ancient exercises was the contest with the
sword and buckler; but the sword was deprived of both edge and point,
and as the combatants were not allowed to lunge, but only to strike, the
practice was perfectly harmless. In the time of Henry VIII., however, the
art of fencing was introduced; and in the time of Elizabeth the use of
the rapier and the deadly thrust rendered the acquirement of the art of
fence a matter of the first importance.
But though the chivalric exercises went out in this age, never was
the love of pageant and display more alive. The revival of the Greek
literature brought forward a crowd of gods and goddesses, who figured in
public processions and galas; and the strangest allegoric absurdities
were gazed upon by grave princes and their counsellors, as well as by the
ladies, with all the enthusiasm of country lads and lasses gaping at a
strolling theatre or a puppet-show.
Strange masquerades and allegoric pageants were got up in London for
Mary and Elizabeth; and readers of worthy Laneham's description of the
nineteen days in which Queen Bess was entertained at Kenilworth by
Leicester, will find plenty of giants, distressed Ladies of the Lake,
"salvage men," presents from Bacchus, Pomona, Ceres, floating islands,
and sham Arions riding on sham dolphins. More healthy but little less
romantic were the holiday sports which had survived the Church, and were
mingled in by both princes, nobles, and people. The old Mystery did not
for some time disappear before the secular drama, and the Coventry Play
was played before Elizabeth at Kenilworth. May-day had its grand may-pole
still; and Henry VIII. did not disdain, on May-day, 1515, to go a-maying
to Shooter's Hill, with his queen and his sister, the Queen-Dowager of
France. May-day was also the great day of the milkmaids, who danced from
door to door with a pyramid of plates on their heads.
Stubbs--who, Puritan as he was, seems to have enjoyed what he describes
so well--gives us the following description of the amusements of the
merry gentlemen of the Temple in those days:--
"First, all the wild heads of the parish covening together, choose them
a grand captain of mischief, whom they ennoble with the title of My Lord
of Misrule, and him they crown with great solemnity and adopt for their
king. This king anointed chooseth for him twenty, forty, threescore, or
a hundred lusty guts like to himself to wait upon his lordly majesty and
to guard his noble person. Then every one of these his men he investeth
with his liveries of green, yellow, or some other wanton colour. And, as
though they were not gaudy enough, they bedeck themselves with scarfs,
ribbons, and laces, hanged all over with gold rings, precious stones, and
other jewels; this done, they tie about either leg twenty or forty bells,
with rich handkerchiefs in their hands, and sometimes laid across over
their shoulders and necks, borrowed for the most part of their pretty
Mopsies and loving Bessies.... Thus all things set in order, then have
they their hobby-horses, dragons, and other antics, together with their
pipers and thundering drummers to strike up the devil's dance withal;
then march these heathen company towards the church and churchyard, their
pipers piping, their drummers thundering, their stumps dancing, their
bells jingling, their handkerchiefs swinging about their heads like
madmen, their hobby-horses and other monsters skirmishing amongst the
throng; and in this sort they go to the church (though the minister be at
prayer or preaching), dancing and swinging their handkerchiefs over their
heads in the church like devils incarnate, with such a confused noise
that no man can hear his own voice. Then the foolish people they look,
they stare, they laugh, they fleer, and mount upon forms and pews to see
these goodly pageants solemnised in this sort. Then, after this, about
the church they go again and again, and so forth into the churchyard,
where they have commonly their summer halls, their bowers, arbours, and
banqueting-houses set up, wherein they feast, banquet, and dance all that
day, and peradventure all that night, too. And thus these terrestrial
furies spend the Sabbath-day in the country."
To relate all the jollity with which Christmas was celebrated is beyond
our space. The Christmas carols with which the waits awoke all the
sleeping people for a fortnight before; the yule-log dragged into the
hall and piled on the fire; the boar's-head feast, with plum-pudding and
mince-pies, and all the dances and games, were as much in fashion as in
the days of the ancient Church. Plough Monday, Valentine Day, Easter and
Whitsuntide, St. John's Eve, and all the charities of Maundy Thursday,
were still maintained. Even Palm Sunday, when the figure of Christ went
on its procession mounted on a wooden ass, resisted the Reformation till
the year 1548.
The drama, which was now shaping itself into freedom and splendour under
such men as Shakespeare and Marlowe, was yet conducted in a very rough
style. The theatres were mostly of wood; the actors were rarely arrayed
in proper costume; women's parts were represented by boys; any scenery
which the play had, remained, like a picture on a country fair booth,
through the whole piece. The aristocratic frequenters sate on the stage,
for there were no boxes or dress-circle, and the commonalty sate on
stools and enjoyed their pipes and beer during the performance. What was
worse, the theatre had to contend, in the affections of the public, with
the bear-garden, bull-baiting, and cock-fighting. This was true--and to
us the fact must seem deplorable--of the very highest classes among the
people.
As Sunday had been the great day of the Church plays or Mysteries,
so Sunday was the chief day of the theatre, which brought it into
disrepute with the serious portion of the community; and when there was
bull-baiting, the theatre was closed that it might not interfere. Queen
Elizabeth was especially fond of the bear-garden, and that sport was
consequently included by Leicester in the recreations which he provided
for her at Kenilworth. In truth, bear-gardens, cock-pits, bowling-greens,
tennis-courts, dicing-houses, taverns, smoking ordinaries, and the like
abounded, giving us a fair idea of the grade of taste of that age.
Hunting and hawking were still pastimes of the gentry, and horse-racing
became a great rage. The first notice we have of this latter pastime is
on the occasion before mentioned, when Henry went a-maying in 1515; after
which it is said that he and his brother-in-law, the Duke of Suffolk,
diverted themselves by "racing on great coursers."
But amid the pleasures of this century there must have existed a large
intermixture of a more moral class, for the Bible had become extensively
read, and the Reformers must have been numerous to enable the Government
to effect the ecclesiastical changes which they did; and the advance
of physical improvement must not be judged of by the popular condition
of to-day, but of previous times. In the course of the century the
condition of the people considerably advanced. At the beginning the
houses of farmers were generally of timber, and those of labourers of
mud, or wattle and mud. In many of them were no chimneys, except one for
cooking. Wooden trenchers and wooden spoons were used instead of pewter
or earthenware; and a yeoman who had half a dozen pewter dishes in his
house was looked on as wealthy. Their lodging was equally mean. Straw
beds and pillows of chaff were most common; flock beds were a rural
luxury; and the farm servants lay on straw, and often had not even a
coverlet to throw over them. The bread of the common people was made of
rye, barley, or oats, and in many districts of peas or beans. The gentry
only ate wheaten bread. The men by the fire in the evening, after their
day's work, made their own shoes, or prepared the yokes for oxen, and
their plough-gear. The women made the wool and the hemp or flax ready
for the weaver at the spinning-wheel. As they do now on the Continent,
the countrywomen worked much in the fields. Fitzherbert, the first of
our writers on husbandry, says that it was the business of the farmer's
wife "to winnow all manner of corn, to make malt, to wash, to make hay,
to shear corn, and, in time of need, to help her husband to fill the
muck-wain, or dung-cart, drive the plough, to load hay or corn, to go to
market and sell butter or pigs or fowls."
Latimer, who was a farmer's son, describes the advance in the value of
land in his time. When he was young, he says, his father's farm was
rented by him at £4 a year; that he employed half-a-dozen men upon it,
and had 100 sheep and thirty cows; that his father managed to send him
to school and college, and to give to each of his daughters £5 on her
marriage. But, continues Latimer, at the time he wrote this, the same
farm was charged £16 a year, or fourfold, and then the farmer of it
could do nothing for his prince, himself, or his children, nor give a
cup of drink to the poor. The cause of this was the increased demand for
wool, which had occasioned great enclosures, and a decrease of tillage
in favour of pasturage. This pressed greatly on the labouring class who
were not employed; for the gentlemen had flocks of from 10,000 to 20,000,
and a few shepherds were all they needed in their great enclosures. The
gentry, who thus occupied the land, we are told, did not reside on it,
but crowded up to London and hung about the Court. "Hence," says Roger
Ascham, "so many families dispersed, so many houses ruined. Hence the
honour and strength of England, the noble yeomanry, are broken up and
destroyed."
[Illustration: THE FROLIC OF MY LORD OF MISRULE. (_See p._ 399.)]
The evils of this state of things compelled the Legislature to put
restrictions on the extent of pasturage, to insist on the tillage of
sufficient land for the wants of the community; and penalties were
enacted for such as did not build proper cottages for their labourers,
with four acres of land each, or who allowed more than one family in one
cottage. The evil produced its own remedy. The scarcity of tillage land
raised the price of produce, and that stimulated to the manuring and
better culture of the land. We learn from Harrison and Norden, writers
of the period, that towards the end of the century things were greatly
improved. The farmers and small builders were become more painstaking and
skilful. They collected manure and even the sweepings of streets, burnt
lime, and carted sea sand, as in Cornwall and Devon. The consequence was
that they had better cattle and better crops, they had milk from their
cows, ewes, and goats; and they used much more meat. In the autumn they
cured bacon and beef for the winter; and in summer they had abundance of
veal, beef, and mutton, which, says Harrison, they ceased to baste with
lard, but basted with butter, or suffered the fattest to baste itself.
With their living, their houses improved. Wood or wattle gave way to
stone or brick, the wooden trenchers were superseded at substantial
tables by pewter, and with the pewter were sometimes seen articles of
silver. Feather beds replaced the straw and chaff mattresses; there was
more abundant linen, bed-covers, and better clothing. Coal was beginning
to make the scarcity of wood less felt.
The vast increase of foreign trade and of manufactures which has been
described must have proved the most effectual means, far more than
enactments, for encouraging tillage, from the augmented demand of
provisions and luxuries; and the same causes would provide employment
and good wages for increased numbers. The land as well as every other
thing in the kingdom was in a transition state, and as the large estates
of nobles and the Church, now divided amongst a multitude, came to be
settled and cultivated, the diffusion of life and prosperity through
the rural districts was no doubt proportional. At this time there must
have been a great flow of population from the agricultural to the
manufacturing districts, as the latter were making increased demands on
the strength of the nation; yet it appears that the produce both of the
tilled ground and of pasturage grew steadily. The small cottagers, who
had probably been but poor farmers, being now gradually absorbed into the
growing artisan population, gave place to greater and wealthier men, who
laid out the ground in large grazing farms. This gave rise to the false
impression that the population was decreasing, and the statistics of the
period give frequent evidence of the alarm thus occasioned. The evidence,
however, for the increase of the population is incontestable; and the
wage for ordinary labour seems to have been quite double its old amount
in this century. It may be interesting to record some of the salaries
of the period. In the household of the Earl of Northumberland, in 1511,
the principal priest of the chapel received £5 a year; a chaplain
graduate, £3 6s. 8d.; a chaplain, not a graduate, £2; a minstrel, £4;
a serving-boy, 13s. 4d.; all these being lodged and fed in addition.
In 1500 a mason received 4d. a day, and 2d. for diet. In 1575 a master
mason received 1s. a day, and a common labourer 8d. In 1601 a master
mason had 1s. 2d. a day, and a labourer 10d. The long continuance of
internal peace had increased the population from two millions and a half
in the commencement of the fifteenth century, to six millions and a half
at the end of the sixteenth; but the increase of trade, of commerce,
and of tillage, had not been able to absorb a tithe of the homeless and
destitute people who had been increasing since the abolition of villenage
and the destruction of the monasteries, which had fed swarms of them. We
have had occasion to show that these wandering tribes overran the country
like a flood--"vagabonds, rogues, and sturdy beggars"--carrying terror
and crime everywhere. Henry VIII., Harrison tells us, in the course of
his reign, hanged of robbers, thieves, and vagabonds, no fewer than
72,000, and Elizabeth, toward the latter part of her reign, sent 300 or
400 of them annually to the gallows.
We find a statute of the first year of Edward VI. containing the
following:--"Idleness and vagabondry is the mother and root of all
thefts, robberies, and all evil acts and other mischiefs, and the
multitude of people given thereto hath always been here within this
realm very great and more in number, as it may appear, than in other
regions; the which idleness and vagabondry all the king's highness' noble
progenitors, kings of this realm, and this high court of Parliament hath
often and with great travail gone about and assayed with godly acts
and statutes to repress; yet until this our time it hath not had that
success which hath been wished; but--partly by foolish pity and mercy
of them which should have seen the said godly laws executed, partly by
perverse natures and long-accustomed idleness of the persons given to
loitering--the said godly statutes hitherto hath had small effect, and
idle and vagabond persons hath been suffered to remain and increase,
and yet so do." "If," continues the Act, "they should be punished by
death, whipping, imprisonment, or with other corporal pain, it were not
without their desert, for the example of others and to the benefit of
the commonwealth; yet if they could be brought to be made profitable and
do service, it were much to be wished and desired." Such words would
lead us to conclude that they were about to adopt conciliatory measures
with regard to this troublesome class, but we find on the contrary the
harshest enactments put in execution. Thus, every person found idle
and wandering without any effort to obtain work was to be considered a
vagabond, and was liable to be seized by any one and forced to labour,
for which he was to receive only his daily food. If he attempted to
run away, he was to be branded on the breast with the letter "V" and
made the slave of his owner for two years. If he made a second attempt
for liberty, he was to be branded on the forehead or cheek with the
letter "S" and made his master's slave for ever; while a third effort
at escape was punishable by death. The severity of this law prevented
it from being properly executed, and caused its repeal in two years.
After various futile enactments, Henry VIII., in 1530, gave the sick and
impotent permission to beg; and in 1536 the magistrates and the clergy
were ordered to make collections for their relief. These were the first
approaches to a poor-law, and in the year 1562 Queen Elizabeth passed an
Act making parochial assessments for the poor compulsory. The poor-law,
therefore, in reality dates from that period; but in the year 1601, the
celebrated Act of the 43rd of Elizabeth organised and completed that
system of employing and maintaining the destitute poor, which--with its
subsequent modifications--has remained ever since the law of England.
[Illustration: PUNISHMENT OF THE STOCKS.]