The starting-point.
A long silence and two generations of effort preceded the renaissance9 of English poetry, which may conveniently, though perhaps somewhat arbitrarily, be said to date from the publication of the Shepherd’s Calendar in 1579. The choice of this year as the actual starting-point is arbitrary, because Spenser was already recognised by his friends as the “new poet,” and his work was known among them in manuscript. It had therefore begun to live, and to exercise an influence, before it was given to the world. But the convention which treats the ascertainable10 date of printing, and not the first moment[186] when the poet’s mind began to create, as the starting-point, is useful, and we may (always remembering that it is a convention) put 1579 at the head of the history of the great Elizabethan poetry.
Italian influence.
With us, as with the Spaniard, the spark, which was to grow into so great a flame, was brought from Italy. Before Spenser there had been Surrey and Wyatt, who had worked in the Italian metres in the reign of Henry VIII., and their example had been set up for all to follow by the publication of Tottel’s Miscellany in 1557. There had also been the leaders of the New Learning, and the classic models. But the resemblance between the history of poetry in the two countries goes no further. Italy could affect only individual Englishmen. No such similarity of language, beliefs, and character existed between the two countries as would have enabled Italy to press on us as it did on Spain, all along the line. There was not the same proximity11, nor had there been an equally close previous relationship of pupil to master stretching far back into the Middle Ages. The Italian influence in England was rather an incitement12 to independent effort than a mere13 pattern to be copied, as it was to the Spaniard. The opposition to rhyme. Nor were the Greek and Latin models more, though in this case a deliberate effort was made to bring English verse into subjection to ancient prosody14. Much ridicule15 was shed then, and has been poured since, on those who endeavoured to write English verse by quantity only. The quaint16 pragmatic figure of Spenser’s friend Gabriel Harvey, who was the most conspicuous18, though not[187] the first of the school, was of itself enough to confer a certain absurdity19 on the effort. And the verse produced in this struggle to do the impossible was altogether worthy20 of Harvey’s oddities. Putting aside Stanyhurst’s ?neid, published in 1582, which is the most bulky example of misapplied labour, it ought, one would think, to have been warning enough to those who thought to force English into an alien mould when they found a writer of the real intelligence and natural good taste of Webbe, author of The Discourse22 of English Poetrie, contentedly23 pronouncing such a line as this:—
“Hedgerows hott doo resound24 with grasshops mournfully squeeking.”
Webbe did worse, for he seems really to have believed that he improved Spenser, whom he admired and recognised as the new poet, when he turned the song in The Shepherd’s Calendar beginning—
“Ye dainty Nymphes that in this blessed brooke doo bathe your brest,”
into this:—
“O ye Nymphes most fine who resort to this brooke
For to bathe your pretty breasts at all times,
Leave the watrish bowers26 hyther and to me come
At my request now.”
Yet the mistake of Webbe was one which Spenser himself, and Sidney, had so far shared that they played with the classic metres. Excuses for this. Nor was it altogether absurd, but, on the contrary, natural, and even inevitable27. When there were no[188] native models newer than Chaucer to follow, and when the splendour of classic literature was just being fully25 recognised, it was not wonderful that men who were in search of a poetic28 form should have been deluded29 into thinking that they could reproduce what they admired, or should have agreed with Ascham that “to follow rather the Goths in rhyming, than the Greeks in true versifying, were even to eat acorns30 with swine, when we may freely eat bread among men.”
Its little effect.
Then this mania31, pedantry32, or whatever other evil name may be given it, never attained34 to the dignity of doing harm. No Englishman who could write good rhyme was ever deterred35 from doing so by the fear that he would become a Goth, and eat acorns with swine. The real belief of the Elizabethan poets was expressed in The Arte of English Poesie, which tradition has assigned to George Puttenham. If we have not the feet of the Greeks and Latins, which we “as yet never went about to frame (the nature of our language and wordes not permitting it), we have instead thereof twentie other curious points in that skill more than they ever had, by reason of our rime36, and tunable37 concords38, or simphonie, which they never observed. Poesie therefore may be an arte in our vulgar, and that very methodicall and commendable39.” The Arte of English Poesie was published in 1589. Webbe’s discourse had appeared three years before. The conflict, such as it was, was really over, though the superiority of “versifying” to rhyming might continue to be discussed as[189] an academic question. Thomas Campion, who, as if to show the hollowness of his own cause, was a writer of rhymed songs of great beauty, might talk “of the childish titilation of riming” in his Art of English Poetry in 1602, and be answered by Daniel in his Defence of Ryme, but they were discussing “a question of the schools.” The attempt to turn English poetry from its natural course belongs to the curiosities of literary history.
Poetry of first half of Elizabeth’s reign.
Poetry so completely dominated the literature of Elizabeth’s reign that we can leave not only the prose, which was entirely40 subordinate, but the drama, poetic as it was, aside for the time. There was no great drama till the poets had suppled41 and moulded the language. The example set by Surrey and Wyatt had no such immediate42 influence as had been exercised by Boscan and Garcilaso in Spain. Part even of their own work hardly rose above the level of the doggerel43 to which English verse had fallen. Those who look for an explanation of the flowering or the barrenness of literature elsewhere than in the presence or absence of genius in a people, may account for this by the troubled times which followed the death of Henry VIII. But the return of peace and security with the accession of Elizabeth brought no change. The first twenty years of her reign were as barren as the disturbed years of Edward or Mary. Indeed they were even poorer, for Sackville’s Induction44 to The Mirror of Magistrates45 and his Complaint of Buckingham, which have been recognised as the best verse[190] written in England between Chaucer and Spenser, though not published till Elizabeth was on the throne, had been written before 1559—in the reign of Mary. Between this year and the publication of The Shepherd’s Calendar (1579) the voice of poetry was not mute in England—at least not the voice of those who were endeavouring to write poetry. When Webbe spoke46, with more emphasis than respect, of the “infinite fardles of printed pamphlets,” mostly “either meere poeticall or which tend in some respects (as either in matter or forme) to poetry,” by which “this country is pestered48, all shoppes stuffed, and every study furnished,” he was not wholly exaggerating. Translators were very busy, and not a few published original work. There were certainly many others who wrote but did not publish. But these forerunners50 could in no case have deserved more than the praise which Sir John Harington gave to one of them, George Turberville:—
“When times were yet but rude thy pen endeavoured
To polish barbarism with purer style.”
Their inferiority to Surrey, Wyatt, and Sackville diminishes their claim even to so much as this.
They were enslaved to the old fourteen-syllabled metre, which might or might not be printed in lines of eight and six, but which, in whatever way it was arranged, had a fatal tendency to fall into a rocking-horse movement. We constantly meet with rhymes like these:—
[191]
“The hawtye verse that Maro wrote
made Rome to wonder muche,
And mervayle none for why the style
and weightynes was such,
That all men judged Parnassus Mownt
had clefte herselfe in twayne,
And brought forth51 one that seemed to drop
from out Minervaes brayne.”
These verses, which are from Barnabe Googe’s Epitaph on Thomas Phayre, are not bad examples of a kind of metre which seems to come naturally to Englishmen, but their capacity for turning to doggerel is patent. They, with here and there a note which shows that if the writer had had the good fortune to be young after, and not before, The Shepherd’s Calendar, he might have contributed to the great body of exquisite52 Elizabethan songs, make the staple53 of the verse of the first half of the reign. These men are entitled to their own honour. They rough-harrowed the ground. George Turberville, who was born about 1530 and died about 1594; George Gascoigne, whose dates are 1535 or thereabouts to 1577; and Barnabe Googe, born in 1540, who died in 1594, tried many things; and if they did nothing else, they helped to extend the knowledge of the average Englishman, and to give practice to the language by their translations. The strongest of the three was Gascoigne, who, in addition to his attempt to write a verse satire55—The Steel Glass—was the author of some pretty occasional poetry, of a translation of Ariosto’s Gli Suppositi, stories from Bandello, and a tragedy of Euripides, and who may be said to have begun the writing of critical essays in English by his[192] brief note of Instruction for the construction of English verse, published as a preface to The Steel Glass.[61]
Spenser.
The sincerity56 with which the best intellects in England were studying poetry, and looking for a poet, helps to explain the instant recognition of Spenser. At this moment the times called for the man, and he came. Edmund Spenser was born in London, probably in 1552, of a Lancashire branch of a very ancient and famous house. His family was poor, and he received his education at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, as a sizar. He remained at Cambridge from 1569 to 1573, and it is believed that he then spent some time in the north of England with his family before coming to London to seek his fortune. It could be obtained in one way only—by the favour of friends who could secure him a place. That Spenser was resolved to make poetry the chief aim of his life is certain; but he could not live by it at a time when no form of literature, with the exception of the drama, brought certain payment, and even the drama gave but starvation wages. He had to rely on the willingness of powerful patrons to see him provided for because he was a poet. Spenser was not without friends who might have been useful. At Cambridge he had become known to Gabriel Harvey, who, as the older man, a good scholar, and perhaps also as a person of pragmatical[193] self-confidence and indomitable pertinacity57, exercised a certain limited influence over him. Harvey introduced Spenser to Leicester and Leicester’s kinsman58, Sir Philip Sidney. His undoubted Puritanism was, it may be, in part learnt from the equally undoubted though very different Puritanism of the queen’s favourite. But Leicester did, and it may be could do, little for his client. The Shepherd’s Calendar was published in 1579, a year or two after Spenser came to London, but he had no share in “the rich fee which poets won’t divide.” There is no need to look far for the causes of his disappointment. Elizabeth had little money, and much to do with it, while her Lord Treasurer60, Burghley, who had no love for Leicester, was the man to meet any pensioned poet with the ungracious attitude of Sully to Casaubon: “You are no use, sir, and you cost the king as much as two captains.” In 1580 Spenser accompanied Lord Grey to Ireland, where estates of confiscated61 land were to be won. From that time he was plunged62 into the horrible strife63 between the anarchy64 of Celtic Ireland and the repression65 of the queen’s officers, who fought for order with ferocious66 means. He obtained a grant of land in County Cork67, married in 1594, and reached some measure of prosperity. A small but apparently68 ill-paid pension was granted him. The rebellion of 1598 shattered his fortunes altogether. His house at Kilcolman was burnt in the usual fashion of the brutal69 Irish wars, and it was said that one of his children perished with it. Spenser fled to England, and died on the 16th January 1599—“for lack of bread,”[194] according to Ben Jonson, and undoubtedly70 in great poverty.
Order of his work.
It seems certain that he began writing very young, for some translations from Petrarch and Joachim du Bellay, which were afterwards reprinted unchanged, or changed only by rhyme, in his acknowledged works, appeared in The Theatre of Voluptuous71 Worldlings of John Van Noodt in 1569. Ten years, however, passed before he published The Shepherd’s Calendar, and then an equal period before he prepared to bring out the first three books of The Fa?rie Queen, which was registered at Stationers’ Hall on the last day of 1589, and appeared in the following spring. Next year—1591—appeared the minor72 poems, under the name of The Complaints (The Ruins of Time, The Tears of the Muses74, Virgil’s Gnat75, Mother Hubberds Tale, The Ruins of Rome, Muiopotmos, and The Visions). The address to the reader gives a promise of other poems, which have been lost; and it may be noted76 that the same thing had happened with The Shepherd’s Calendar. The Daphnaida followed. In 1596 the Amoretti, the Epithalamium, Colin Clout’s Come Home Again, the fourth, fifth, and sixth books of The Fa?rie Queen, the Hymns77, and the Prothalamium were published within a short time of one another. Nothing more was to appear in his life. Part of a seventh book of The Fa?rie Queen, and a prose treatise78 giving a very vivid, very true, and very terrible “View of the Present State of Ireland,” were printed after his death. The treatise did not come out for thirty[195] years, when it was published by Sir J. Ware79. The Fragments were included in the new edition of The Fa?rie Queen in 1611.
Few great poets were ever so little beholden to predecessors80 as Spenser. He had before him Chaucer, and near his own time Sackville, who had written with original force in Chaucer’s stanza82. There were also the Italians, whom he knew well, their few English followers83, and the French poets of the Pléiade. In his Shepherd’s Calendar Spenser imitated the Italian copies of the classic Eclogues, and he translated from the French. Neither he nor any man could live uninfluenced by his time. The notes of the Renaissance are abundantly audible in his work—its love of beauty, its desire for joy, and the melancholy85 which was natural in men whose ideals were unattainable in a very harsh world, which was never harder than amid the disruption of faith, the violent clash of contending forces, and the unchaining of violent passions, of the sixteenth century. But there might have been all this, and no Spenser. His metre. He is great by what was wholly his own, both in form and spirit. The Shepherd’s Calendar may be called the work of his prentice hand, done when he had not attained complete control of his own vast powers. Yet it is not so far below the impeccable verse of his later years as it is above the level of his immediate predecessors in Elizabeth’s reign. The part of imitation which there is in it is the weakest. What he inherited from nobody was the new melody he imparted to English poetry. It[196] is out of his own genius that he perfected the form in which that melody found its full expression. The Spenserian stanza does not appear in The Shepherd’s Calendar; but it had been constructed, and was being used in the earlier cantos of The Fa?rie Queen at least immediately after the earlier work was finished. It is surely no longer necessary to argue that this form was not imitated from the Italians. The ottava rima and the sonnet4 may have—indeed must have—helped Spenser with indications, but they did no more. Had he been an imitator he would have done as the Spaniards did,—he would have taken an already finished form, and would have adhered to it slavishly. But he did a very different thing. He constructed a stanza which is to English what the ottava rima is to the Italian. It is just the difference between a successor and a mere follower84, that whereas the second toils86 to reproduce the letter, the first gives a new form to the spirit. The relation in which Spenser stands to the Italians is that he carried on the torch of great poetry, but he lit it of English wood, and bore it to a measure of his own. His sonnet is hardly less independent than his stanza, and all talk of obligation to any model becomes idle indeed when we think of the melody of the Hymns, the Epithalamium, and the Prothalamium.
The character of his poetry.
The matter which this form bodied forth to the world is not to be expressed in our meagre prose. It could be uttered only in his own perfect verse. The mere doctrine87 may be defined with no overwhelming amount of difficulty, for there[197] is a strong and, not only unconcealed but, firmly avowed88 didactic aim in Spenser. It was no purpose of his to be “the idle singer of an empty day.” He held with his friend Sir Philip Sidney that the poet “doth intend the winning of the mind from wickedness to virtue89.” The poet in their creed90 was the seer, and Spenser strove to fulfil his lofty function by teaching the Platonism which endeavours to trace back the love of virtue and the love of beauty to that divine origin where they are one, and by singing a Puritanism which is the poetic expression of the Englishman’s innate91 conviction that the religion which is not interpreted into conduct is an empty hypocrisy92. But all this didactic side of Spenser is the side which was not necessarily poetic. In so far as the Hymns merely teach a Platonist doctrine, they do not surpass the final pages of Castiglione’s Courtier. In so far as The Fa?rie Queen is an allegory, it is no more consistent, ingenious, or perfectly93 adapted to its purpose than The Pilgrim’s Progress. But over all that could be adequately expressed in prose Spenser cast a spell which carried it into the realm of fancy—that golden world of the poet which Sir Philip Sidney contrasted with nature’s “brazen” earth. A very trifling94 change in the wording of one passage of The Apologie for Poetrie is all that is needed to make it applicable to The Fa?rie Queen: “Nature never set forth the earth in so rich tapistry as ‘this poet hath’ done, neither with pleasant rivers, fruitful trees, sweet-smelling flowers; nor whatsoever95 else may make the too much loved earth more lovely.” It is to this word that the[198] attempt to estimate Spenser finally leads. By the magic of his melody, and the force of that imagination which could transmute96 all from prose to poetry, he made a lovely world of poetry out of the real earth. When he used ugliness, as he could, it was for the purpose of heightening beauty by contrast.
As the poet of The Fa?rie Queen, Spenser stands apart in his time. He is connected with his contemporaries by the sonnet. This form, introduced into English literature by Surrey and Wyatt, had been little, and ill, cultivated in the duller generation which followed them. But with the revival97 of the poetic genius of England towards the middle of the queen’s reign, it naturally attracted men who were in search of richer and more artful forms of verse. Moreover, it lent itself to the expression of feeling, and that was of itself enough to make it popular with a lyrical generation. For this reason the sonnet work of the Elizabethans has been made subject to a great deal of comment which is not of the nature of literary criticism. It has been treated as a form of confession99 and veiled autobiography100. Various considerations—the limits of space being not the least important among them—make it impossible to discuss the question at length here. Moreover, where the external evidence is naught101, and the internal evidence is subject to various interpretations102, which is always the case, comment on the inner meaning of the sonnets must always be more or less guesswork. To start from arbitrary premisses, with the certainty of arriving at no definite conclusion, ought to be considered[199] a waste of time. Sidney may have decided103 to leave it on record that he found out his love for Penelope Devereux too late, and that he then hovered104 round the thought of adultery. Shakespeare may have made poetry out of his friendship and his love. If so, the passions which left them so much masters of themselves as to be able to produce these artistic105 forms of verse cannot have been very absorbing. Finished sonnets do not come to men either in their sleep or in anguish106. What we know for certain of Spenser, Sidney, Shakespeare, and others is, that they lived active lives in the world, and that they were artists. The nature of the artist is that he endeavours to give form to the passion or action which he can conceive, in the terms of his art, whether he be poet, painter, or actor. It is because he has the constructive107 imagination and the power of expression that he gives truth to his work. The genius which could give reality to the sorrow of Constance, to the manhood of the Bastard108, to the jealousy109 of Othello, to more men, women, and passions than could be named on this page, was quite adequate to giving the same reality to the scheme of the Sonnets. As much may be said of the other Elizabethans, each in his place in the scale. From the literary point of view, too, it is of no importance how the debate be settled. Poetry is not valuable because it tells us that this or the other dead poet felt as a man the common hopes and disappointments of humanity, but because it fixes what all men can feel in forms of immortal110 beauty.
Sir P. Sidney.
The sonnet was much cultivated in the literary[200] society gathered around Sir Philip Sidney in and about 1580. His high birth,—he was son of Sir Henry Sidney, Lord President of Wales and Lord Deputy in Ireland, and nephew of Elizabeth’s sinister111 favourite, the Earl of Leicester,—the fact that he stood in the relation of patron to many of the men of letters of his time, his amiable112 personal character, and the heroic circumstances of his death in a skirmish fought to prevent a Spanish convoy113 from entering the besieged114 town of Zutphen in 1586, have combined to make Sir Philip Sidney a very shining figure. It is possible that he is more conspicuous than his intrinsic power would have made him without the gifts of fortune. Yet there must have been a great personal fascination115 in the man who could inspire the reverential love which was felt for Sir Philip Sidney by Fulke Greville, while his Apologie for Poetrie, his Arcadia, the sonnets collected under the title of Astrophel and Stella, with his other poems, remain to prove that wherever he had been born he would have left his mark on the time.
The Apologie for Poetrie.
The Arcadia may be left aside for the present, but The Apologie for Poetrie, though written in prose, cannot, without violently separating things akin116 to one another, be taken apart from his poetry. It is to some extent our English equivalent for the Deffense et Illustration de la Langue fran?aise of Joachim du Bellay, the manifesto117 of a new school of poets. The circumstances in which the two were written differ widely. The Pléiade, with the Frenchman’s usual love of a large and minute ordonnance,[201] drew up a scheme for the conquest and orderly division of the poetic world. Sir Philip Sidney was provoked into writing his little treatise by a very foolish tract98 printed in 1579, and named The School of Abuse, the work of one Stephen Gosson (1535-1624), an unsuccessful playwright118 who took orders, and lived to a great age as a clergyman of Puritanical119 leanings. The School of Abuse, which was absurdly dedicated120 to Sir Philip Sidney without his consent, and perhaps because he was the nephew of the chief protector of the Puritans, is in itself insignificant121, except in so far as it contains a statement of the narrow puritan view that all modern poetry was wicked, and that the theatre was the home of every corruption122. It is chiefly worth naming now because Sidney did it the signal honour to give it an answer. The Apologie for Poetrie is in no sense an Ars Poetica. Sidney does not deal with the formal part of poetry. He replies to those who belittle123 it by an emphatic124 assertion that it is the noblest of all things. The view and the spirit of the Elizabethan time are nowhere more clearly shown than in the Apologie. That Sidney fell into one gross heresy125 is true. He said that poetry was independent of metre. But that was not an error likely to mislead either himself or others. Against it has to be set his conception of poetry as the noble expression of that which in itself is fine, made for a lofty purpose. There may not be much guidance in this; but it is not as a guide that the Apologie is to be considered, but as the challenge of the coming English poetry, lyrical, epic126, and[202] dramatic—a declaration that it was to be something more than ingenious exercises in metres, that it was to be the expression in beautiful form of passion and thought, of fancy and imagination. If English poets of that generation looked up to Sidney, it was not only for the reasons given above, but because he spoke early and worthily127 to the enemy at the gate. The style of the Apologie is full of the animation128 and sincerity of the writer. It has a colour and melody unknown to the downright sober English of his predecessor81 Ascham or his contemporary Puttenham, and is free from the conceits130 of his own Arcadia.
Sidney was himself one of the first to sound the high note of the great Elizabethan poetry.
No part of his work was printed in his life. The Arcadia was prepared for publication immediately after his death in 1586, but it did not appear till 1590, and then first in a pirated edition. A more accurate version followed in 1593. His Sonnets and Lyrics. The sonnets and other lyric pieces, collected under the title of Astrophel and Stella, were printed in 1591, and the Apologie for Poetrie in 1595. His metrical version of the Psalms131 remained in manuscript till 1823, while some fragments of his verse have only been recovered recently by Dr Grosart.[62] But the date of printing was comparatively unimportant at a time when a poet’s work not only could be, but generally was, known in manuscript to the reading world long before it was published. Sidney was renowned[203] as a poet and prose-writer in his lifetime, and his case is only one of many. Therefore we may fairly count his influence as having been exercised from the day when his sonnets were handed about among his friends, which must have been as early as, if not earlier than, 1580. Those to whom they came must have learnt at once that the day when Gascoigne, Turberville, Googe, or an industrious132 decent verse-writer of the stamp of Churchyard, represented English poetry, was over. The sonnets are not all on the same high level. The epithet133 of “jejune134” which Hazlitt applied21 to Sidney cannot be justly used of any of them; but the sonnet beginning, “Ph?bus was judge betweene Jove, Mars, and Love,” or the other which has for first line, “I on my horse and love on me, doth try,” or the third, “O grammar-rules, O now your virtues135 show,” are not equally safe against the other epithet “frigid.” They are at least more marked by laboured and cold-blooded conceit129 than by passion or fancy. Yet even these have an accomplishment136 of form which was new, and in the others the greater qualities are by no means rarely shown. The first in the accepted order—“Loving in truth and faine in verse my love to show,”—with its ringing last line, “‘Foole,’ said my Muse73 to me, ‘looke in thy heart and write,’” and the last, “Leave me, O Love, which reachest but to dust,” are abundantly lofty and passionate137; and were, in the sense in which the word was used, “insolent138”—that is, unprecedented—in the English poetry of that generation. To these it would be easy to add many others.[204] “With how slow steps, O Moon”; “Having this day my horse, my hand, my lance,” are but two of them; while the sonnet “Good brother Philip” is a gem139 of gaiety overlaying passion. Sidney did not confine himself to the so-called legitimate140 form of two quatrains and two tercets, but tried experiments. He stretched the term sonnet as far as it will go when he applied it to twelve Alexandrines and a heroic couplet. Nor was it in the sonnet only that Sidney set an example. The songs of Astrophel and Stella usher141 in the great Elizabethan lyric, in which there is nothing to surpass the “Doubt you to whom my Muse these notes entendeth” in soaring melody. The verse which abounds142 in the Arcadia and the metrical version of the Psalms does not reach the level of the Astrophel and Stella. Yet it appears inferior only when judged by his own best work, and the best that was to follow. We may doubt whether Sidney has a claim to the place in the active life of Elizabeth’s time assigned him by the affection of Fulke Greville and by tradition, but there can be no question that he stands beside Spenser as one of the beginners of the unsurpassed poetic literature of her reign.
Watson.
It is mainly on historical grounds that mention must be made of his contemporary Thomas Watson (1557-1592). Watson was a busy writer of verse and translator, whose claim to be remembered now rests on this, that he was working at the sonnet beside Sir Philip Sidney, and independently of him. What he called a sonnet was a set[205] of three stanzas143 of six lines, each complete in itself.[63] There the independence of Watson ends. His sonnets are avowedly144 imitations of Italian or French originals when they are not translations. But his chief work, the Hecatompathia, or Passionate Century of Love, has an undoubted value as a piece of evidence. It supplies a link in the chain of literary history, and then it gives what may be called a glimpse into the workshop of a sonnet-cycle maker145. Watson candidly146 confesses, in a “Letter to the Friendly Reader,” that his pains in suffering the pangs147 of love which his sonnets record are “but supposed.” His less ingenuous148 followers leave us to guess as much concerning them. But in addition to this there is an apparatus149 criticus which in everything except bulk bears a very close resemblance to the pedantic150 commentaries added by his admirers to the early editions of the Spaniard Góngora. Each sonnet is introduced, explained, annotated151, and the passion it is to express described, and we are shown the machinery152 at every stage. One of these introductions contains what is, in fact, a by no means bad criticism on the whole body of the sonnets. “This Passion,” No. xli., “is framed upon a somewhat tedious, or too much affected153, continuation of that figure of Rhetorique whiche of the Greeks is called παλιλλογ?α or ?ναδ?πλωσι?, of the Latins Reduplicatio.” Somewhat tedious, too much affected, and full of repetitions are these sonnets; but they show the increased mechanical skill of our writers of verse, and they are historically interesting. When[206] tempted154 to make autobiography out of the cycles of other sonneteers, it is well to remember Watson’s confession, and also this, that to have a lady for the saint of your literary devotions had been “common form” as far back as the troubadours. His later work, The Tears of Fancy, is in regular quatorzains.
The sonneteers.
The popularity of the Astrophel and Stella (there were three editions in the first year in which it was printed—1591), as well as the example it set, help to account for the profuse155 production of sonnet cycles in the next few years. The following list, which does not profess156 to be exhaustive, of the collections published before 1595, will show the wealth of Elizabethan literature in this form: The Parthenophil and Parthenophe of Barnabe Barnes (which owes its survival to the accident which has preserved a single copy at Chatsworth, reprinted by Dr Grosart), the Licia of Giles Fletcher, and the Phillis of Thomas Lodge, were published before the end of 1593. In 1594 appeared the C?lia of William Percy, Constable’s Diana, Daniel’s Delia, and Drayton’s Idea. To these may be added the names of Willoughby’s Avisa, which, however, does not consist of sonnets, and the anonymous157 Zepheria. Spenser’s Amoretti, or love sonnets, belong in date of publication to 1595. Three other collections—the Fidessa of Griffin, Lynch’s Diella (thirty-eight sonnets, prefixed to the amorous158 poem of Diego and Genevra), and the Chloris of W. Smith, belong to 1596. The sonnet, too, was written by others who did not construct cycles. Every reader of The Fa?rie Queen knows the splendid “Me thought[207] I saw the grave where Laura lay,” by Sir W. Raleigh, and its less legitimately159 built successor, “The praise of meaner wits,” which was addressed less to Spenser’s masterpiece than to the vanity of Queen Elizabeth. During many long fallow years of silence the poetic genius of the English race had been accumulating, and it wanted but a touch to set it free. Even among the poets named here who are not otherwise famous, there was some measure of original power. Putting aside Spenser, who towers over all, the finest lyric force was in Lodge, and the most uniform accomplishment in Daniel. It was left to Shakespeare to give the greatest of English sonnets, but the form he preferred—the three rhymed quatrains and the couplet—had been polished and established as the prevalent English type by Daniel.[64]
Other lyric poetry.
Although the Elizabethan age was great in all forms of pure literature, except the prose romance and the satire, and was not wholly barren even of these, yet it was more copious160, more uniformly excellent in the lyric, than in any other. Sir Walter Scott has spoken of the wind of poetry which blew throughout that wonderful generation. He was thinking of the drama; but this general inspiration which gives its grandeur161 to the activity of the time is to be traced more widely, and with less admixture of weakness in its songs, than in any other of its manifold activities. But this very extension of the lyric faculty162, and the number of the[208] singers, makes it not merely difficult but impossible to deal fully with the subject within the limits of our space. Of the sonnet writers we can speak with some approach to completeness, for there the field, though large, is not boundless163. But the freer forms of lyric spread over all the life and literature of England. Raleigh, who was a soldier, politician, discoverer, colonist164, historian, political writer, and amateur chemist, was also a lyric poet of more than note. So were the Jesuit missionary165 Southwell and the courtier Earl of Oxford166. Some of the most beautiful lyrics in the language were written by pamphleteers, prose story-writers, and dramatists. The composer wrote his own songs, and some of them are among the best, while many are only just below that level. So much was the time penetrated167 by poetic fire, that gems168 of verse are to be found in its song-books for which no known author can be traced.
The Collections and Song-books.
The general wealth of the time in lyric poetry can be better appreciated by taking its miscellaneous collections, whether of pure poetry or of verse written to accompany music, than by a list of the names of writers who may be held to deserve particular mention. Putting aside Tottel’s Miscellany as belonging to an earlier time, though it was repeatedly reprinted under Elizabeth, and The Mirror of Magistrates, which stands apart, there were numerous collections of minor pieces made in the queen’s reign. The Paradise of Dainty Devises, 1576; A Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant169 Inventions, 1578; A Handful of Pleasant Delights, 1584; The Ph?nix Nest, 1593;[209] England’s Helicon, 1600; A Poetical47 Rhapsody, 1602; England’s Parnassus, 1600; and Belvedere, or the Garden of the Muses, in the same year, are the names of some of them. To these are to be added the list of song-books collected or written by Byrd, Yonge, Campion, Dowland, Morley, Alison, Wilbye, and others.[65] Some of the poems in these collections have always been known, but they contain many which had fallen entirely into obscurity. There can have been very few readers to whom Mr Bullen’s collection, made from a class of books which in most ages are full of mere insipidities, was not a revelation. The point is that it represents not the exceptional work of the time, but the average production, which we may almost call commercial, or the poets’ corner, and that being this, it maintains such an extraordinarily170 high level of inspiration and melody. It is not a mere question of that workmanlike dexterity171 which a great poet, as Scott said half humorously, but not without truth, to Moore, can teach a receptive generation. Spenser himself could never have taught anybody to produce such a piece of genuine lyric poetry as the “Fain would I change that note,” which Mr Bullen quotes from Captain Hume’s First Part of Airs. It, and much else only less good, would not have been written without Spenser and Sidney; but it is one thing to be influenced by great models, and another merely to echo them.
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The historical poems.
The love of verse led in England, as in Spain, to the production of not a little in what is almost inevitably172 a bastard kind—the historical poem. By attempting to do in poetry what could be adequately done in prose, the authors of The History of the Civil War or of The Barons’ Wars, condemned173 themselves to be often dull, or to endeavour to escape dulness by mixing purely175 romantic episodes with what professes176 to be record of matter of fact. The romance is superfluous177 to those who read for the history, and the history is tiresome178 to those who read for the romance. Our own historical poems are commonly the more subject to the danger of dulness, because the authors, unlike the Spaniards, did not, as a rule, choose the great events of their own time, or of the previous generation, of which the memory was still fresh. They went back to the past, which they could only know through books. This would have done no harm if they had used their authorities only to find “local colour” for their romance. But they did not. They aimed at even a minute historical accuracy, and thereby179 condemned themselves to produce works of learning in an inappropriate shape. It is no doubt bad criticism to condemn174 any form of literature for being itself and not another. Yet we could spare even the Polyolbion for an Elizabethan Mariana, which Drayton, whose prose was excellent and whose learning was great, might well have been, and still have left himself free to write his sonnets, his Nymphidia, and his Ballad180 of Agincourt.
Fitz-Geoffrey and Markham.
The curious literary bad fortune which has pursued[211] the achievements of Englishmen at sea is well illustrated181 by the vehement182, but also frothy and flamboyant183, poem of Charles Fitz-Geoffrey, called Sir Francis Drake, his Honourable184 Life’s Commendation and his Tragical185 Death’s Lamentation186. It is in the seven-line stanza which Drayton, after first trying it, renounced187 as too soft for the subject of his Barons’ War. Fitz-Geoffrey wraps up the substantial figure of Sir Francis in clouds of hyperbole, and makes a terrible abuse of the figure called “by the Latines Reduplicatio.” We see the great corsair only in glimpses through the very smoky flames of Fitz-Geoffrey’s melodious188 rhetoric189. The most honourable Tragedie of Sir Richard Grinvill, by Gervase Markham, in an eight-lined stanza, very flowing and mythological190, has much the same defect. The author, who founded his poem on Raleigh’s pamphlet describing the last fight of the Revenge, endeavours to “outcracke the scarcrow thunderbolt.”
Warner.
Three names stand out among the writers of historical poems—William Warner, because he was at once a forerunner49 to the others and a link between the poetry of the earlier and the later Elizabethans; Daniel, for a certain mild, yet grave, wisdom; Drayton, for his manly191 force and intrinsic poetic power. Warner, who was born about 1567, and who certainly died in March 1609 (the year in which Shakespeare’s Sonnets were published), was attached in some uncertain relationship as client or servant to the Careys, Lords Hunsdon. His historical poem, Albion’s England, was in part written before[212] 1586, when it was suppressed for some unknown reason by an order of the Star Chamber192.[66] If this date is correct, the decidedly jejune account of the defeat of the Armada, and the most unfriendly passage on the execution of Queen Mary, must have been added later. Warner had written a collection of prose stories called Syrinx, as he says, “with acceptance.” But his claim to be remembered rests on his Albion’s England, a long poem in the old seven-foot or fourteen-syllable metre, on the history, and more particularly on the legends of the history, of England. His well-established reputation as “a good, honest, plain writer” is fully deserved. Warner, indeed, carries plainness so far that in the most poetic passage of his book—the episode of Curan and Argentill, in which there is a genuine simple poetry—he tells us that the hero “wiped the drivel from his beard.” Beginning at the creation of the world, he comes down to his own time, with constant digressions into romantic episodes of his own growing, and classical or Biblical tales. He does not always escape the tendency of his metre to drop into a jog-trot, yet in the main he canters briskly along with a very fair proportion of spirited lines. His farewell to Queen Mary is worth quoting, both as an example of his verse and as a rather engaging mixture of charity and implacability:—[213]
“Then to her wofull servants did she pass a kind a-dew,
And kissing oft her crucifix, unto the block she drew,
And fearless, as if glad to dye, did dye to papisme trew.
Which and her other errors (who in all did ever erre)
Unto the judge of mercie and of justice we referre.
If ever such conspirator193 of it impenitent194,
If ever soule pope-scooled so, that sea to Heaven sent,
If ever one ill lived did dye a papist Godwards bent195,
Then happie she. But so or not, it happie is for us,
That of so dangerous a foe196 we are delivered thus.”
His moderate length (a fairly girt reader can begin and end him in a longish evening), his disregard for mere historical fact, and a certain childish downrightness, make Warner easier reading than much better poets. Although Warner adhered to the fourteener in the face of Spenser and Sidney, he was so far affected by their example that he generally raised his verse above the mere rocking-horse motion, which is its special bane.
Daniel.
Samuel Daniel, the son of a music-master, was born near Taunton in 1562, and was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. He began by translating the Imprese of Paulus Jovius, and his first independent works were his sonnets to Delia, already mentioned. It is possible that he went abroad as servant to Elizabeth’s ambassador in France, Lord Stafford, and that he visited Italy before 1590. Although Daniel wrote two tragedies—Cleopatra and Philotas—they were on the classical model, which our stage has never tolerated, and he therefore could not live by literature, since it was then only the theatre which paid. It was necessary for him to seek support in the service of rich people. He found it in the patronage198 of the Pembroke family, and was afterwards tutor to the daughter of the famous seafaring[214] Earl of Cumberland. In his later years he was in the service of Queen Anne, the wife of James I., as “inspector of the children of the Queen’s revels,” and as groom199 or “gentleman extraordinary of her majesty’s private chamber.” At the end he appears to have achieved independence, for he died on a farm of his own near Beckington in 1619.
In spite of the interruptions caused by his tutoring, at which he repined not a little, Daniel was a voluminous writer. He was the author in prose of a history of England down to the reign of Edward III., popular in its day, and of the excellent Defence of Rime in answer to Campion’s belated plea for “pure versifying.” But it is as a poet that Daniel ranks in English literature, though with a limitation, somewhat roughly worded by his stronger contemporary Drayton, who said that “his manner better fitted prose.” This would be a very unfair judgment200 if it were applied to all his work without qualification. The Complaint of Rosamonde, his first considerable poem, published in 1592, is neither in manner nor matter better fitted for prose. It is a very poetic retelling of the legend of Henry II.’s mistress in the favourite seven-line stanza. His moral epistles in verse escape the vice197 of mere moralising by virtue of a loftiness of sentiment which is fitly enough wedded201 to poetic form. Yet there is none of the “lofty, insolent, and passionate” note of the Elizabethans in Daniel, and Drayton’s harsh sentence may be applied with little or no restriction202 to the Civil Wars. Daniel’s claim to honour was as well stated by himself in some prefatory[215] verses to an edition of his poems in 1607 as by any of the many good judges of literature who have praised him:—
“I know I shall be read among the rest
So long as men speak English, and so long
As verse and virtue shall be in request,
Or grace to honest industry belong.”
Grace to honest industry seems but a humble203 plea for the poet. We may paraphrase204 it with more dignity and not less truth by saying that Daniel was a most accomplished205 and conscientious206 artist in verse, who had a genuine, but mild, poetic nature. The care he took to revise his work is evidence of his conscience as a workman, and the fact that his changes were commonly for the better is proof of his judgment. It is mainly the beauty of his English which will cause him to be read for ever among the rest. If it never has the splendour of the greatest Elizabethan poetry, neither does it fall into “King Cambyses’ vein,” into the roaring fury which gave an outlet207 to the exuberant208 energy of that time. Southey gave Daniel as the nearest English equivalent to Camoens, on the ground that the main charm of both is the even purity of their language. This of itself is hardly compensation enough for the undoubted tediousness of his Civil Wars, which tell the essentially209 dreary210 history of the Wars of the Roses down to the marriage of Edward IV.[67]
It was perhaps partly his dislike of the Bohemian habits of his brother men of letters which has left the[216] life of Michael Drayton so obscure. He was a Warwickshire man of respectable parentage, but so poor that he owed his education to the kindness of patrons. The date of his birth was 1563, and he died in 1631, well into the reign of Charles I. If confidence can be placed in the jottings of Drummond of Hawthornden, there was at one time an armed neutrality between Jonson and Drayton; but Jonson wrote some highly laudatory211 verses on the Polyolbion, and we need not place too much reliance on casual remarks he threw out in conversation when he had no knowledge that his words were to be written down. It is known, too, that Drayton was patronised by Prince Henry, who in his short life was the friend of many men of pith and substance, from Raleigh to Phineas Pett the shipbuilder. Ill-founded legend asserts that he was of the party in the carouse212 which is said to have been the death of Shakespeare.
Drayton.
Drayton[68] was a stronger man than Daniel, and there came forth more sweetness from him. No writer of the time was more voluminous. The sonnets, to which he seems to have been somewhat indifferent, form a very small portion of his work. Whenever he began to write (it is said that his love of literature was shown when he was a boy), he did not publish early. His first poem—A Harmonie of the Church—appeared in 1591. It was suppressed by the censorship, then directed by Archbishop Whitgift,[217] but republished under another title, The Heavenly Harmonie of Spiritual Songs and Holy Hymns, in 1610. In 1593 he published nine eclogues with the title of Idea, a name also given to the sonnets printed in 1594. It is to be noted that the famous sonnet beginning, “Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part,” which is so superior to the others, and so like Shakespeare’s, was first included in the edition of 1619. Drayton, like Daniel, was much in the habit of revising his work. He not uncommonly213 incorporated his earlier poems in his later with great changes. In 1596 appeared the awkwardly named Mortimeriados, in the seven-line stanza, recast and republished in ottava rima in 1603 under the title of The Barons’ Wars. Between these two came the Heroical Epistles in 1597. In 1604 Drayton made a most unfortunate attempt to win the favour of James I. by flattery, and he also published a satirical poem, The Owl54, and his Moses in a Map of his Miracles. To 1605 belongs a collection of short poems, including the most famous of his minor poems, except the universally known sonnet, the magnificent Ballad of Agincourt. The years which follow were employed in the composition of his vast Polyolbion, of which nineteen books appeared in 1613, and which was completed in 1622. Between these dates he brought out an edition of his poems in 1619. In 1627 he went back on the battle of Agincourt, and produced the poem of that name, together with Nymphidia and The Miseries214 of Queen Margaret. At the very close of his life, in 1630, he published the gay and graceful215 Muses’ Elysium. He wrote also for[218] the stage, to which he had no natural inclination216, in an occasional and subordinate way.
This list, which is not exhaustive, will show that the forty years of Drayton’s known activity were remarkably217 well filled. And the quality of this great bulk of work was not less remarkable218 than the quantity. It may be allowed at once, and without conceding too much to the eighteenth-century criticism, which talked of his “creeping narrative,” that much of his poetry is dull to other readers than those who find all dull except the last smart short story or newspaper scandal. The reader who can master The Battle of Agincourt (not the Ballad), The Miseries of Queen Margaret, and The Barons’ Wars without an effort may hold himself armed against the more laborious219 forms of study. Drayton indeed tempted dulness when he chose for subject the Barons’ War of Edward II.’s reign, and did not also decide to make the “she-wolf of France” his heroine and to throw history to the winds. Yet even in these the strong poetical faculty of the writer can never be forgotten. The longest of all his poems—the Polyolbion, or “Chorographical Description of all the Tracts220, Rivers, Mountains, Forests, and other parts of Great Britain,” which may be described as a poetical guide-book to his native country—is not dull, though it cannot be praised as exciting. Drayton may have made an error when he decided to write it in the long twelve-syllable line, and not in his favourite eight-line stanza, which, in the words of his preface to The Barons’ Wars, “both holds the time clean through to the base[219] of the column, which is the couplet at the foot or bottom, and closeth not but with a full satisfaction to the ear for so long detention221.” Yet he has mastered his unwieldy verse, and after a time, when the reader’s ear has become attuned222 to the melody, his at first rather strange mixture of topography, legend, and vigorous romantic flashes rolls on in a majestic223 course. It is a proof of the essential strength of Drayton that his most delicate work—the fairy poetry of the Nymphidia and the Nymphalls or Muses’ Elysium—belongs to his later years. He grew sweet as he mellowed224.
The Satiric Poets.
A time so rich as the Elizabethan in new forms of literature could hardly fail to produce the satirist225. In this case also there were Italian and, it need hardly be added, Classic models to follow, and they were followed. Satiric writing there had always been, and that inevitably, since so soon as men began to record observation at all they would see that there was much vice and folly226 in the world, and from this experience all satire springs. The satiric spirit abounded227 in the prose pamphlet literature of the time. Between this and the help afforded by the Latin models, who supplied the ready-made mould, the poetic satirists were led forward by the hand. As a class, and in so far as they were satirists, they were the least interesting body of writers of their time. It is very necessary to limit this estimate to their satires228; for the four who may be mentioned here are all, for one reason or another, notable men, or even more. Lodge, without ever attaining229 to originality230 or power of the first order, was a successful[220] writer in many kinds. Marston has a deservedly high place in our dramatic literature. Hall, though that part of his life lies outside the scope of this book, was a divine and controversialist of mark in his later years. Donne, who however belongs in the main to a later time, is one of the most enigmatical and debated, alternately one of the most attractive and most repellent, figures in English literature.
If Hall’s boast in the Prologue231 to his Satires—
“I first adventure, follow me who list,
And be the second English Satirist,”
is to be taken seriously, he must be supposed to have claimed the honour of leading. If so, he must also be presumed not to have known The Steel Glass of Gascoigne, an undeniable though rambling232 and ineffective satire, belonging to the first half of the queen’s reign. Lodge. He certainly ignored the earlier claim of Lodge, whose Fig17 for Momus appeared in 1595, two years before the first six books of Hall’s Virgidemiarum. But it may be that he wrote long before he printed, and in any case the originality is not great enough to be worth fighting over, since both were followers of Latin originals; while it appears more than probable that Marston and Donne were turning their thoughts in the same direction about the same time. In fact, the Poetic Satire was so certain to arise that many men may well have begun it together in complete independence one of another. The satire of Lodge is confessedly a mere echo of Horace.
[221]
Hall.
This cannot be said of the Satires of Joseph Hall. Hall, who in his very interesting brief autobiography says that he was born on the 1st January, 1574 (which, if he went by the old official calendar, means 1575), and was educated at the Puritan College of Emmanuel, Cambridge, lived to attain33 the bishopric of Exeter, to play a conspicuous part in the early days of the Long Parliament, to be translated to Norwich in the eclipse of King Charles’s fortunes, and to be rabbled out of his palace by the Puritans. He died at Heigham in 1656. His Satires, therefore, appeared when he was at the utmost only twenty-three. Although marked by a certain youthful loftiness of moral pose and some impudence233, they show an undoubted maturity234 of form much more meritorious235 then than it would be now, when there is so much more in English to copy. In “A Postscript236 to the Reader,” printed with the first issue of the Virgidemiarum (a pedantic title taken from Virgidemia, a gathering237 of rods), he states what undoubtedly was the literary faith of the satirists of the time: “It is not for every one to relish238 a true natural satire, being of itself, besides the nature and inbred bitterness and tartness239 of particulars, both hard of conceit and harsh of style, and therefore cannot but be unpleasing both to the unskilful and over-musical ear.” In other words, a rough form and a deliberate violation240 of melody were proper to satire. Marston and Donne acted on that rule. But Hall in his own verses is not markedly hard of conceit or harsh of style. His couplets flow easily enough, carrying with them[222] shrewd but not very important remarks on the contradictions of sinners. We can well believe that when Pope was shown them late in life he wished he had seen them sooner, and that he thought the first satire of the sixth book “optima satira.” Hall’s attitude of superiority to a sinful world is rather comic in a young gentleman who knew no more of it than lay inside the walls of “pure Emmanuel.” His worst fault was a habit of sniffing241 at contemporary poets, whose poetic shoe-latchet he was not worthy to undo59. He falls upon the sonneteers and their “Blowesses” (i.e., Blowsibellas) after a fashion afterwards bettered by Swift with his incomparable brutality242.[69]
Marston.
Marston’s first set of Satires were printed under the assumed name of W. Kinsayder in 1598, together with a poem called Pygmalion’s Image. A second instalment of the Satires followed next year, and both bear the same title—The Scourge243 of Villainy. There was not much villainy to which Marston had better call to apply the scourge than the greasy244 lubricity of Pygmalion’s Image. He preferred to scold at his contemporaries in verse which is as pleasant to read as charcoal245 would be to eat, and to lecture an imaginary world made up of vices246 which he took at second hand from Latin books, in a style which raises the image of ancient Pistol unpacking247 his heart with curses.
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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sonnets
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| n.十四行诗( sonnet的名词复数 ) | |
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sonnet
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| n.十四行诗 | |
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lyrics
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| n.歌词 | |
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lyric
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| n.抒情诗，歌词；adj.抒情的 | |
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satiric
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| adj.讽刺的，挖苦的 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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renaissance
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| n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴 | |
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ascertainable
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| adj.可确定（探知），可发现的 | |
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proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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incitement
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| 激励； 刺激； 煽动； 激励物 | |
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mere
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prosody
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| n.诗体论，作诗法 | |
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ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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fig
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| n.无花果(树) | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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contentedly
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resound
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fully
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bowers
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| n.（女子的）卧室( bower的名词复数 )；船首锚；阴凉处；鞠躬的人 | |
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inevitable
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poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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deluded
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acorns
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| n.橡子，栎实( acorn的名词复数 ) | |
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mania
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pedantry
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| n.迂腐，卖弄学问 | |
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attain
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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35
deterred
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| v.阻止，制止( deter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
rime
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| n.白霜；v.使蒙霜 | |
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37
tunable
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| adj.可调的；可调谐 | |
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38
concords
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| n.和谐，一致，和睦( concord的名词复数 ) | |
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39
commendable
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| adj.值得称赞的 | |
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40
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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41
suppled
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| 使柔软，使柔顺（supple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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42
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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43
doggerel
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| n.拙劣的诗，打油诗 | |
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44
induction
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| n.感应，感应现象 | |
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45
magistrates
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| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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46
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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47
poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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48
pestered
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| 使烦恼，纠缠( pester的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
forerunner
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| n.前身，先驱（者），预兆，祖先 | |
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50
forerunners
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| n.先驱( forerunner的名词复数 )；开路人；先兆；前兆 | |
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51
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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52
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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53
staple
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| n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类 | |
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54
owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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55
satire
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| n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品 | |
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56
sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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57
pertinacity
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| n.执拗，顽固 | |
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58
kinsman
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| n.男亲属 | |
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59
undo
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| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
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60
treasurer
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| n.司库，财务主管 | |
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61
confiscated
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| 没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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62
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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63
strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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64
anarchy
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| n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序 | |
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65
repression
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| n.镇压，抑制，抑压 | |
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66
ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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67
cork
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| n.软木，软木塞 | |
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68
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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69
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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70
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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71
voluptuous
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| adj.肉欲的，骄奢淫逸的 | |
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72
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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73
muse
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| n.缪斯（希腊神话中的女神），创作灵感 | |
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74
muses
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的第三人称单数 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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75
gnat
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| v.对小事斤斤计较，琐事 | |
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76
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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77
hymns
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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78
treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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79
ware
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| n.(常用复数)商品，货物 | |
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80
predecessors
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| n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身 | |
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81
predecessor
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| n.前辈，前任 | |
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82
stanza
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| n.（诗）节，段 | |
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83
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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84
follower
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| n.跟随者；随员；门徒；信徒 | |
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85
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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86
toils
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| 网 | |
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87
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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88
avowed
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| adj.公开声明的，承认的v.公开声明，承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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89
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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90
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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91
innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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92
hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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93
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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94
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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95
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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96
transmute
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| vt.使变化，使改变 | |
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97
revival
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| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
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98
tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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99
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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100
autobiography
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| n.自传 | |
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101
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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102
interpretations
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| n.解释( interpretation的名词复数 )；表演；演绎；理解 | |
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103
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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104
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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105
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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106
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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107
constructive
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| adj.建设的，建设性的 | |
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108
bastard
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| n.坏蛋，混蛋；私生子 | |
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109
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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110
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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111
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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112
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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113
convoy
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| vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队 | |
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114
besieged
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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115
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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116
akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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117
manifesto
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| n.宣言，声明 | |
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118
playwright
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| n.剧作家，编写剧本的人 | |
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119
puritanical
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| adj.极端拘谨的；道德严格的 | |
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120
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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121
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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122
corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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123
belittle
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| v.轻视，小看，贬低 | |
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124
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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125
heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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126
epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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127
worthily
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| 重要地，可敬地，正当地 | |
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128
animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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129
conceit
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| n.自负，自高自大 | |
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130
conceits
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| 高傲( conceit的名词复数 )； 自以为； 巧妙的词语； 别出心裁的比喻 | |
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131
psalms
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| n.赞美诗( psalm的名词复数 )；圣诗；圣歌；(中的) | |
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132
industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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133
epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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134
jejune
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| adj.枯燥无味的，贫瘠的 | |
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135
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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136
accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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137
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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138
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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139
gem
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| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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140
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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141
usher
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| n.带位员，招待员；vt.引导，护送；vi.做招待，担任引座员 | |
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142
abounds
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的第三人称单数 ) | |
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143
stanzas
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| 节，段( stanza的名词复数 ) | |
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144
avowedly
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| adv.公然地 | |
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145
maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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146
candidly
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| adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地 | |
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147
pangs
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| 突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 )； 悲痛 | |
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148
ingenuous
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| adj.纯朴的，单纯的；天真的；坦率的 | |
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149
apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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150
pedantic
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| adj.卖弄学问的；迂腐的 | |
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151
annotated
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| v.注解，注释( annotate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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152
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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153
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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154
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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155
profuse
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| adj.很多的，大量的，极其丰富的 | |
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156
profess
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| v.声称，冒称，以...为业，正式接受入教，表明信仰 | |
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157
anonymous
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| adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的 | |
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158
amorous
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| adj.多情的；有关爱情的 | |
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159
legitimately
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| ad.合法地；正当地，合理地 | |
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160
copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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161
grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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162
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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163
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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164
colonist
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| n.殖民者，移民 | |
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165
missionary
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|
| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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166
Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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167
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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168
gems
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| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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169
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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170
extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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171
dexterity
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| n.(手的)灵巧，灵活 | |
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172
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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173
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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174
condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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175
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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176
professes
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| 声称( profess的第三人称单数 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
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177
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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178
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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179
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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180
ballad
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| n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲 | |
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181
illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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182
vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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183
flamboyant
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| adj.火焰般的，华丽的，炫耀的 | |
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184
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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185
tragical
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| adj. 悲剧的, 悲剧性的 | |
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186
lamentation
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| n.悲叹，哀悼 | |
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187
renounced
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| v.声明放弃( renounce的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布放弃；宣布与…决裂；宣布摒弃 | |
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188
melodious
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| adj.旋律美妙的，调子优美的，音乐性的 | |
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189
rhetoric
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| n.修辞学，浮夸之言语 | |
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190
mythological
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| adj.神话的 | |
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191
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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192
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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193
conspirator
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| n.阴谋者，谋叛者 | |
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194
impenitent
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| adj.不悔悟的，顽固的 | |
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195
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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196
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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197
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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198
patronage
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| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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199
groom
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| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
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200
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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201
wedded
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| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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202
restriction
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| n.限制，约束 | |
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203
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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204
paraphrase
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| vt.将…释义，改写；n.释义，意义 | |
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205
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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206
conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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207
outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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208
exuberant
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| adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的 | |
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209
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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210
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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211
laudatory
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| adj.赞扬的 | |
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212
carouse
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| v.狂欢；痛饮；n.狂饮的宴会 | |
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213
uncommonly
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| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
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214
miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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215
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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216
inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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217
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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218
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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219
laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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220
tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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221
detention
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| n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下 | |
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222
attuned
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| v.使协调( attune的过去式和过去分词 )；调音 | |
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223
majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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224
mellowed
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| （使）成熟( mellow的过去式和过去分词 )； 使色彩更加柔和，使酒更加醇香 | |
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225
satirist
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| n.讽刺诗作者，讽刺家，爱挖苦别人的人 | |
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226
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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227
abounded
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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228
satires
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| 讽刺，讥讽( satire的名词复数 )； 讽刺作品 | |
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229
attaining
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的现在分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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230
originality
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| n.创造力，独创性；新颖 | |
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231
prologue
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| n.开场白，序言；开端，序幕 | |
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232
rambling
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| adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的 | |
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233
impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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234
maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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235
meritorious
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| adj.值得赞赏的 | |
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236
postscript
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| n.附言，又及；(正文后的)补充说明 | |
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237
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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238
relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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239
tartness
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| n.酸，锋利 | |
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240
violation
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| n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯 | |
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241
sniffing
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| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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242
brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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243
scourge
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| n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏 | |
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244
greasy
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| adj. 多脂的，油脂的 | |
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245
charcoal
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| n.炭，木炭，生物炭 | |
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246
vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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247
unpacking
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| n.取出货物，拆包[箱]v.从（包裹等）中取出（所装的东西），打开行李取出( unpack的现在分词 )；拆包；解除…的负担；吐露（心事等） | |
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