This lecture forms the introduction to the series on the "Literature of
the Age of Elizabeth." Hazlitt might have derived hints for it from
Schlegel, who speaks of the zeal for the study of the ancients, the
extensive communication with other lands, the interest in the literature
of Italy and Spain, the progress in experimental philosophy represented by
Bacon, and contrasts the achievements of that age, in a vein which must
have captured Hazlitt's sympathy, with "the pretensions of modern
enlightenment, as it is called, which looks with such contempt on all
preceding ages." The Elizabethans, he goes on to say, "possessed a
fullness of healthy vigour, which showed itself always with boldness, and
sometimes also with petulance. The spirit of chivalry was not yet wholly
extinct, and a queen, who was far more jealous in exacting homage to her
sex than to her throne, and who, with her determination, wisdom, and
magnanimity, was in fact, well qualified to inspire the minds of her
subjects with an ardent enthusiasm, inflamed that spirit to the noblest
love of glory and renown. The feudal independence also still survived in
some measure; the nobility vied with each other in the splendour of dress
and number of retinue, and every great lord had a sort of small court of
his own. The distinction of ranks was as yet strongly marked: a state of
things ardently to be desired by the dramatic poet." "Lectures on Dramatic
Literature," ed. Bohn, p. 349.
P. 1. _Raleigh_, Sir Walter (1552-1618), the celebrated courtier,
explorer, and man of letters.
_Drake_, Sir Francis (1545-1595), the famous sailor, hero of the Armada.
_Coke_, Sir Edward (1552-1634), the great jurist, whose "Institutes,"
better known as Coke upon Littleton, became a famous legal text-book.
_Hooker_, Richard (1553-1600), theologian, author of the "Laws of
Ecclesiastical Polity" (1593), a defense of the Anglican Church against
the Puritans and notable also as a masterpiece of English prose.
P. 2. _mere oblivion_. "As You Like It," ii, 7, 165.
_poor, poor dumb names_ [mouths]. "Julius Caesar," iii, 2, 229.
_Marston_, John (1575-1634). In the third lecture on the "Age of
Elizabeth," Hazlitt calls him "a writer of great merit, who rose to
tragedy from the ground of comedy, and whose _forte_ was not sympathy,
either with the stronger or softer emotions, but an impatient scorn and
bitter indignation against the vices and follies of men, which vented
itself either in comic irony or in lofty invective. He was properly a
satirist. He was not a favourite with his contemporaries, nor they with
him." Works, V, 224. His chief tragedy is "Antonio and Mellida."
_Middleton_, Thomas (1570?-1627), and _Rowley_, William (1585?-1642?). In
the second lecture on the "Age of Elizabeth," Hazlitt associates these two
names. "Rowley appears to have excelled in describing a certain amiable
quietness of disposition and disinterested tone of morality, carried
almost to a paradoxical excess, as in his Fair Quarrel, and in the comedy
of A Woman Never Vexed, which is written, in many parts, with a pleasing
simplicity and _naivete_ equal to the novelty of the conception.
Middleton's style was not marked by any peculiar quality of his own, but
was made up, in equal proportions, of the faults and excellences common to
his contemporaries.... He is lamentably deficient in the plot and
denouement of the story. It is like the rough draft of a tragedy with a
number of fine things thrown in, and the best made use of first; but it
tends to no fixed goal, and the interest decreases, instead of increasing,
as we read on, for want of previous arrangement and an eye to the
whole.... The author's power is _in_ the subject, not _over_ it; or he is
in possession of excellent materials which he husbands very ill." Works,
V, 214-5. For characters of other dramatists see notes to p. 326.
_How lov'd_. Pope's "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady."
P. 3. _draw the curtain of time_. Cf. "we will draw the curtain and show
you the picture." "Twelfth Night," i, 5, 251.
_within reasonable bounds_. At this point Hazlitt digresses to reprove the
age for its affectation of superiority over other ages and the passage,
not being relevant, has been omitted.
_less than smallest dwarfs_. "Paradise Lost," I, 779.
_desiring this man's art_. Shakespeare's Sonnets, XXIX.
_in shape and gesture_. "Paradise Lost," I, 590.
_Mr. Wordsworth says_. See Sonnet entitled "London, 1802."
P. 4. _drew after him_. "Paradise Lost," II, 692.
_Otway_, Thomas (1652-1685), author of "Venice Preserved," the most
popular post-Shakespearian tragedy of the English stage. Hazlitt notes in
this play a "power of rivetting breathless attention, and stirring the
deepest yearnings of affection.... The awful suspense of the situations,
the conflict of duties and passions, the intimate bonds that unite the
characters together, and that are violently rent asunder like the parting
of soul and body, the solemn march of the tragical events to the fatal
catastrophe that winds up and closes over all, give to this production of
Otway's Muse a charm and power that bind it like a spell on the public
mind, and have made it a proud and inseparable adjunct of the English
stage." Works, V, 354-5.
_Jonson's learned sock_. Milton's "L'Allegro."
P. 6. _The translation of the Bible_. The first important 16th century
translation of the Bible is William Tyndale's version of the New Testament
(1525) and of the Pentateuch (1530). The complete translations are those
of Miles Coverdale (1535), the Great Bible (1539), the Geneva or Breeches
Bible (1557), the Bishop's Bible (1568), and the Rheims-Douay Bible--the
New Testament (1582) and the Old Testament (1609-1610). Finally came the
Authorized Version in 1611.
P. 8. _penetrable stuff_. "Hamlet," iii, 4, 36.
_his washing_, etc. St. John, xiii.
_above all art_, etc. Cf. Pope's "Epistle to the Earl of Oxford": "Above
all Pain, all Passion, and all Pride."
_My peace_. St. John, xiv, 27.
_they should love_. Ibid., xv, 12.
_Woman, behold_. Ibid., xix, 26.
_his treatment of the woman_. Ibid., viii, 1-12.
_the woman who poured precious ointment_. St. Matthew, xxvi, 6-13; St.
Mark, xiv, 3-9.
_his discourse with the disciples_. St. Luke, xxiv, 13-31.
_his Sermon on the Mount_. St. Matthew, v-vii.
_parable of the Good Samaritan and of the Prodigal Son_. St. Luke, x,
25-37; xv, 11-32.
P. 9. _Who is our neighbour_. Ibid., x, 29.
_to the Jews_, etc. I Corinthians, i, 23.
P. 10. _Soft as sinews_. "Hamlet," iii, 3. 71.
_The best of men_. Dekker, "The Honest Whore," Part I, v, 2, sub fin.
P. 11. _Tasso by Fairfax_. Torquato Tasso (1544-1595), an Italian poet
whose great epic, the "Gerusalemme Liberata," was finished in 1574. The
English translation by Edward Fairfax was published in 1600 as "Godfrey of
Bulloigne, or the Recoverie of Jerusalem."
_Ariosto by Harrington_. Lodovico Ariosto (1474-1533), whose romantic
epic, "Orlando Furioso," was first published in 1516, and translated by
Sir John Harrington in 1591.
_Homer and Hesiod by Chapman_. George Chapman (1559?-1634), poet and
dramatist, published a complete translation of the "Iliad" in 1611, of the
"Odyssey" in 1614, of Homer's "Battle of Frogs and Mice" in 1624, and of
"The Georgicks of Hesiod" in 1618.
_Virgil_. A complete English translation of the "AEneid" was made by Gavin
Douglas, a Scottish poet (1474?-1522), and first printed in London in
1553. There was a translation of the second and fourth books into blank
verse by the Earl of Surrey, published in 1557, but the one most in use
was by Thomas Phaer (1510?-1560), which appeared incompletely in 1558 and
1562 and was completed by Thomas Twyne in 1583.
_Ovid_. There were a number of translators of Ovid during this period,
chief of whom was Arthur Golding, whose version of the "Metamorphoses"
appeared in 1565 and 1567. "The Heroides" were translated by George
Turberville in 1567.
_Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch_. The chief work of Plutarch,
a Greek writer of the first century, is the "Parallel Lives," which was
translated into French by Jacques Amyot in 1559. Sir Thomas North's
translation of Amyot's version in 1579 was the most popular and
influential of all Elizabethan translations.
P. 12. _Boccaccio_, Giovanni (1313-1375), Italian poet and novelist. Among
the English his best known work is the "Decameron," a collection of a
hundred prose tales. Versions of some of these stories appeared in
various Elizabethan collections, such as the "Tragical Tales" translated
by George Turberville in 1587. The first complete translation was
published in 1620 and reprinted in the Tudor Translations in 1909.
_Petrarch_ (1304-1374), Italian humanist and poet, whose sonnets were
widely imitated by French and Italian poets during the Renaissance.
_Dante_ (1265-1321). The author of the "Divine Comedy" was not very well
known to Elizabethan readers. There was no English translation of his poem
attempted till that of Rogers in 1782, and no version worthy of the name
was produced till H. F. Cary's in 1814.
_Aretine_. The name of Pietro Aretino (1492-1556), an Italian satirist who
called himself "the scourge of princes," was well known in England, but
there was no translation of his works.
_Machiavel_. Nicolo Machiavelli (1468-1527), a Florentine statesman, whose
name had an odious association because of the supposedly diabolical policy
of government set forth in his "Prince." But this work was not translated
till 1640. His "Art of War" had been rendered into English in 1560 and his
"Florentine History" in 1595.
_Castiglione_, Baldassare (1478-1529). "Il Cortegiano," setting forth the
idea of a gentleman, was translated as "The Courtier" by Thomas Hoby in
1561 and was very influential in English life.
_Ronsard_, Pierre de (1524-1585), the chief French lyric poet of the
sixteenth century, whose sonnets had considerable vogue in England.
_Du Bartas_, Guillaume de Saluste (1544-1590), author of "La Semaine, ou
la Creation du Monde" (1578), "La Seconde Semaine" (1584), translated as
the "Divine Weeks and Works" (1592 ff.) by Joshua Sylvester.
P. 13. _Fortunate fields_. "Paradise Lost," III, 568.
_Prospero's Enchanted Island_. Eden's "History of Travayle," 1577, is now
given as the probable source of Setebos, etc.
_Right well I wote_. "Faerie Queene," II, Introduction, 1-3.
P. 14. _Lear is founded_. Shakespeare's actual sources were probably
Geoffrey of Monmouth's "History of the Kings of Britain" (c. 1130) and
Holinshed's "Chronicle."
_Othello on an Italian novel_, from the "Hecatommithi" of Giraldi Cinthio
(1565).
_Hamlet on a Danish, Macbeth on a Scottish tradition_. The story of Hamlet
is first found in Saxo Grammaticus, a Danish chronicler of the tenth
century. Shakespeare probably drew it from the "Histoires Tragiques" of
Belleforest. "Macbeth" was based on Holinshed's "Chronicle of Scottish
History."
P. 15. _those bodiless creations_. "Hamlet," iii, 4, 138.
_Your face_. "Macbeth," i, 5, 63.
_Tyrrell and Forrest_, persons hired by Richard III to murder the young
princes in the Tower. See "Richard III," iv, 2-3.
_thick and slab_. "Macbeth," iv, 1, 32.
_snatched a_ [wild and] _fearful joy_. Gray's "Ode on a Distant Prospect
of Eton College."
P. 16. _Fletcher the poet_. John Fletcher the dramatist died of the plague
in 1625.
_The course of true love_. "Midsummer Night's Dream," i, 1, 34.
_The age of chivalry was not then quite gone._ Cf. Burke: "Reflections on
the French Revolution" (ed. Bohn, II, 348): "But the age of chivalry is
gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators, has succeeded; and
the glory of Europe is extinguished forever."
_fell a martyr_. Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586), poet, soldier, and
statesman, received his mortal wound in the thigh at the battle of Zutphen
because, in emulation of Sir William Pelham, he threw off his greaves
before entering the fight.
_the gentle Surrey_. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1518?-1547), was
distinguished as an innovator in English poetry as well as for his
knightly prowess.
_who prized black eyes_. "Sessions of the Poets," verse 20.
_Like strength reposing_. "'Tis might half slumb'ring on its own right
arm." Keats's "Sleep and Poetry," 237.
P. 17. _they heard the tumult_. "I behold the tumult and am still."
Cowper's "Task," IV, 99.
_descriptions of hunting and other athletic games_. See "Midsummer Night's
Dream," iv, 1, 107 ff., and "Two Noble Kinsmen," iii.
_An ingenious and agreeable writer_. Nathan Drake (1766-1836), author of
"Shakespeare and his Times" (1817). In describing the life of the country
squire Drake remarks: "The luxury of eating and of good cooking were well
understood in the days of Elizabeth, and the table of the country-squire
frequently groaned beneath the burden of its dishes; at Christmas and at
Easter especially, the hall became the scene of great festivity." Chap. V.
(ed. 1838, p. 37).
_Return from Parnassus_. Hazlitt gives an account of this play in the
"Literature of the Age of Elizabeth," Lecture V.
P. 18. _it snowed_. "Canterbury Tales," Prologue, 345.
_as Mr. Lamb observes_, in a note to Marston's "What You Will" in the
"Specimens of Dramatic Literature" (ed. Lucas, 1, 44): "The blank
uniformity to which all professional distinctions in apparel have been
long hastening, is one instance of the decay of Symbols among us, which,
whether it has contributed or not to make us a more intellectual, has
certainly made us a less imaginative people." Cf. Schlegel's remark in the
first note.
_in act_. "Othello," i, I, 62.
_description of a mad-house_. "Honest Whore," Part 1, v. 2.
_A Mad World, My Masters_, the title of a comedy by Middleton.
P. 19. _Music and painting are not our forte._ Cf. Hazlitt's review of the
"Life of Reynolds" (X, 186-87): "Were our ancestors insensible to the
charms of nature, to the music of thought, to deeds of virtue or heroic
enterprise? No. But they saw them in their mind's eye: they felt them at
their heart's core, and there only. They did not translate their
perceptions into the language of sense: they did not embody them in
visible images, but in breathing words. They were more taken up with what
an object suggested to combine with the infinite stores of fancy or trains
of feeling, than with the single object itself; more intent upon the moral
inference, the tendency and the result, than the appearance of things,
however imposing or expressive, at any given moment of time.... We should
say that the eye in warmer climates drinks in greater pleasure from
external sights, is more open and porous to them, as the ear is to sounds;
that the sense of immediate delight is fixed deeper in the beauty of the
object; that the greater life and animation of character gives a greater
spirit and intensity of expression to the face, making finer subjects for
history and portrait; and that the circumstances in which a people are
placed in a genial atmosphere, are more favourable to the study of nature
and of the human form."
_like birdlime_. "Othello," ii, 1, 126.
P. 20. _Materiam superabat opus_. Ovid's "Metamorphoses," II, 5.
_Pan is a God_. Lyly's "Midas," iv, 1.