that Christmas. But, as it chanceth to busy builders, so, in building this my poor schoolhouse (the rather because the form of it is somewhat new, and differing from others), the work rose daily higher and wider than I thought it would in the beginning. And though it appear now, and be in very deed, but a small cottage, poor for the stuff and rude for the workmanship, yet in going forward I found the site so good as I was loth to give it over, but the making so costly, outreaching my ability, as many times I wished that some one of those three my dear friends with full purses, Sir Thomas Smith, Mr. Haddon, or Mr. Watson, had had the doing of it. Yet nevertheless I myself, spending gladly that little that I gat at home by good Sir John Cheke, and that that I borrowed abroad of my friend Sturmius, beside somewhat that was left me in reversion by my old masters Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero, I have at last patched it up as I could, and as you see. A GENTLE TEACHER AND PUPIL. FROM BOOK I. And one example whether love or fear doth work more in a child for virtue and learning, I will gladly report; which may be heard with some pleasure, and followed with more profit. Before I went into Germany I came to Broadgate in Leicestershire, to take my leave of that noble Lady Jane Grey, to whom I was exceed ing much beholden. Her parents, the duke and duchess, with all the household, gentlemen and gentlewomen, were hunting in the park. found her in her chamber reading "Phaedon Platonis in Greek, and that with as much delight as some gentlemen would read a merry tale in Bocase.2 After salutation and duty done, with some other talk, I asked her why she would lose such pastime in the park? Smiling she answered me, "I wis, all their I 1 Plato's Phaedo, on the Immortality of the Soul. 2 Boccaccio. 3 y-wis, certainly and sport in the park is but a shadow to that pleas ure that I find in Plato. Alas! good folk, they never felt what true pleasure meant." "And how came you, madam," quoth I, "to this deep knowledge of pleasure, and what did chiefly allure you unto it, seeing, not many women, but very few men, have attained there unto?" "I will tell you, quoth she; tell you a truth which, perchance, ye will marvel at. One of the greatest benefits that ever God gave me is that he sent me so sharp and severe parents and so gentle a schoolmaster. For when I am in presence of either father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go, eat, drink, be merry or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it, as it were, in such weight, measure, and number, even so perfectly as God made the world, or else I am so sharply taunt ed, so cruelly threatened, yea presently sometimes with pinches, nips, and bobs, and other ways which I will not name for the honor I bear them, so without measure misordered,5 that I think myself in hell till time come that I must go to Mr. Elmer, who teacheth me so gently, so pleasantly, with such fair allurements to learning, that I think all the time nothing whilst I am with him. And when I am called from him I fall one weeping, because whatsoever I do else but learning, is full of grief, trouble, fear, and whole misliking unto me. And thus my book hath been so much my pleasure, and bringeth daily to me more pleas ure and more, that in respect of it all other pleasures, in very deed, be but trifles and troubles unto me." I remember this talk gladly, both because it is so worthy of memory, and because also it was the last talk that ever I had and the last time that ever I saw that noble and worthy lady. THE ELIZABETHAN AGE-POETRY SIR THOMAS WYATT (1503-1542)* THE LOVER HAVING DREAMED OF ENJOYMENT Unstable dream, according to the place,t My body in tempest her delight t'embrace. And where it was at wish, could not remain? OF HIS LOVE THAT PRICKED HER FINGER WITH A NEEDLE She sat and sewed, that hath done me the wrong Whereof I plain, and have done many a day; And whilst she heard my plaint in piteous song, She wished my heart the sampler1, that it lay. The blind master whom I have served so long, Grudging to hear that he did hear her say, Made her own weapon do her finger bleed, To feel if pricking were so good indeed! 1 needle-work pattern 2 as 3 that which 4 make Though Wyatt and Surrey were, in strictness, pre-Elizabethans, their poems, first published in 1557, were manifest harbingers of the creative impulse we associate with Elizabeth's reign. Thirty years later Sidney called these poets "the two chief lanterns of light to all others that have since employed their pens upon English poesy." Wyatt introduced the Petrarchian sonnet form into England; Surrey devised the variation used later by Shakespeare and Surrey was the first to employ heroic blank verse. See Eng. Lit., p. 84. †This phrase appears to have more rhyme than reason. Possibly place text, referring to 1 Cor., xv, 58. THE LOVER COMPLAINETH THE UNKINDNESS OF My lute, awake, perform the last As to be heard where ear is none, Proud of the spoil that thou hast got Vengeance shall fall on thy disdain And then may chance thee to repent Now cease, my lute, this is the last HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SUR- In faith, methink, some better ways REY (1517-1547)* DESCRIPTION Of Spring, WHEREIN EACH THING The soote1 season that bud and bloom forth With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale; A PRAISE OF HIS LOVE, WHEREIN HE Give place, ye lovers, here before, On your behalf might well be sought, DEPARTURE OF AENEAS FROM DIDO Such great complaints brake forth out of Whiles Aeneas full minded to depart, sleep, Ne yet, bestraught3, the dangers dost foresee Dido in mind rolls vengeance and deceit; Straight shalt thou see the seas covered with That spent your boasts and brags in vain; The blazing brands the shore all spread with My Lady's beauty passeth more The best of yours, I dare well sayen, Than doth the sun the candle light, And thereto hath a troth as just As had Penelope the fair; I could rehearse, if that I would, The whole effect of Nature's plaint When she had lost the perfect mold, The like to whom she could not paint. I know she swore with raging mind, That could have gone so near her heart. Sithe nature thus gave her the praise flame, And if the morrow steal upon thee here. Adread, starts up out of his sleep in haste, men! Aboard your ships, and hoise up sail with speed. A god me wills, sent from above again, With which drawn he the cables cut in twain. All things in haste they cast, and forth they The shores they leave; with ships the seas are spread: Cutting the foam by the blue seas thay sweep. (From the Translation of the Fourth Book of Virgil's Aeneid.) EDMUND SPENSER (1552-1599)* For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten THE FAERIE QUEENE THE DEDICATION TO THE MOST HIGH, MIGHTIE, AND MAGNIFICENT EMPRESSE RENOWMED FOR PIETIE, VERTUE, AND ALL GRATIOUS GOVERNMENT ELIZABETH BY THE GRACE OF GOD reeds, And sing of Knights and Ladies gentles deeds; 2 Helpe then, O holy Virgin chiefe of nine", Thy weaker Novice to performe thy will; Lay forth out of thine everlasting scrynee QUEENE OF ENGLAND, FRAUNCE, AND IRELAND, The antique rolles, which there lye hidden still, AND OF VIRGINIA, DEFENDOUR OF THE FAITH, &C. HER MOST HUMBLE SERVAUNT EDMUND SPENSER DOTH IN ALL HUMILITIE DEDICATE, PRESENT, AND CONSECRATE THESE HIS LABOURS TO LIVE WITH THE ETERNITIE 1 Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome1 did maske, As time her taught, in lowly Shepheards weeds2, Am now enforst a far unfitter taske, 1 formerly 2 Referring to the Shepheardes Calender, a pastoral poem. See Eng. Lit., 89-90. The Faerie Queene is an allegory designed to set forth "a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline." The central characters are Gloriana, the queen of an imaginary ("faerie") court, who symbolizes Glory, and ber suitor Prince Arthur, who stands for Magnificence (Munificence), "which virtue is the perfection of all the rest." Besides these, the twelve moral virtues were to have been separately represented by twelve knights, each performing deeds and overcoming temptations according to his character. But as the poet's design was never finished, only half these virtues get representation, and the central characters receive rather less prominence than the six several virtues which are set forth in the six completed books. Each of these books, consisting of twelve cantos, is practically a complete story in itself. The first deals with the Knight of the Red Cross, or Holiness, who, clad in the armor of the Christian faith, is sent forth by his Queen as the champion of Una (Truth) to deliver her parents, "who had been by an huge dragon many years shut up in a brasen castle." neath the moral allegory may be read also a political one, according to which Gloriana is Queen Elizabeth, Prince Arthur is Lord Leicester, Duessa is Mary Queen of Scots, etc. But after all, the poetry of the poem is worth far more than the elaborate allegory. The language and spelling are deliberately and sometimes falsely archaic. See Eng. Lit., pp. 91-94. Be Of Faerie knights and fairest Tanaquill", Whom that most noble Briton Princes so long Sought through the world, and suffered so |