Outlines of English and American Literature. William J. Long

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СКАЧАТЬ to some real or imaginary mistress; and that the fashion was followed in England is evident from Spenser's Amoretti, Sidney's Astrophel and Stella, Shakespeare's Sonnets, and other less-famous effusions.

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      SPENSER AND THE LYRIC POETS

      [Illustration: MICHAEL DRAYTON]

      LYRICS OF LOVE. Love was the subject of a very large part of the minor poems of the period, the monotony being relieved by an occasional ballad, such as Drayton's "Battle of Agincourt" and his "Ode to the Virginian Voyage," the latter being one of the first poems inspired by the New World. Since love was still subject to literary rules, as in the metrical romances, it is not strange that most Elizabethan lyrics seem to the modern reader artificial. They deal largely with goddesses and airy shepherd folk; they contain many references to classic characters and scenes, to Venus, Olympus and the rest; they are nearly all characterized by extravagance of language. A single selection, "Apelles' Song" by Lyly, may serve as typical of the more fantastic love lyrics:

      Cupid and my Campaspe played

       At cards for kisses; Cupid paid.

       He stakes his quiver, bow and arrows,

       His mother's doves and team of sparrows:

       Loses them too; then down he throws

       The coral of his lip, the rose

       Growing on's cheek (but none knows how);

       With these the crystal of his brow,

       And then the dimple of his chin.

       All these did my Campaspe win.

       At last he set her both his eyes;

       She won, and Cupid blind did rise.

       O Love, has she done this to thee?

       What shall, alas! become of me?

      MUSIC AND POETRY. Another reason for the outburst of lyric poetry in Elizabethan times was that choral music began to be studied, and there was great demand for new songs. Then appeared a theory of the close relation between poetry and music, which was followed by the American poet Lanier more than two centuries later. [Footnote: Much of Lanier's verse seems more like a musical improvisation than like an ordinary poem. His theory that music and poetry are subject to the same laws is developed in his Science of English Verse. It is interesting to note that Lanier's ancestors were musical directors at the courts of Elizabeth and of James I.] This interesting theory is foreshadowed in several minor works of the period; for example, in Barnfield's sonnet "To R. L.," beginning:

      If music and sweet poetry agree,

       As they must needs, the sister and the brother,

       Then must the love be great 'twixt thee and me,

       Because thou lov'st the one, and I the other.

      The stage caught up the new fashion, and hundreds of lyrics appeared in the

       Elizabethan drama, such as Dekker's "Content" (from the play of _Patient

       Grissell), which almost sets itself to music as we read it:

      Art thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers?

       O sweet content!

       Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplexed?

       O punishment!

       Dost laugh to see how fools are vexed

       To add to golden numbers golden numbers?

       O sweet content, O sweet, O sweet content!

       Work apace, apace, apace, apace! Honest labour bears a lovely face. Then hey noney, noney; hey noney, noney!

      Canst drink the waters of the crisped spring?

       O sweet content!

       Swim'st thou in wealth, yet sink'st in thine own tears?

       O punishment!

       Then he that patiently want's burden bears

       No burden bears, but is a king, a king.

       O sweet content, O sweet, O sweet content!

      So many lyric poets appeared during this period that we cannot here classify them; and it would be idle to list their names. The best place to make acquaintance with theo is not in a dry history of literature, but in such a pleasant little book as Palgrave's Golden Treasury, where their best work is accessible to every reader.

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      EDMUND SPENSER (1552–1599)

      Spenser was the second of the great English poets, and it is but natural to compare him with Chaucer, who was the first. In respect of time nearly two centuries separate these elder poets; in all other respects, in aims, ideals, methods, they are as far apart as two men of the same race can well be.

      LIFE. Very little is known of Spenser; he appears in the light, then vanishes into the shadow, like his Arthur of The Faery Queen. We see him for a moment in the midst of rebellion in Ireland, or engaged in the scramble for preferment among the queen's favorites; he disappears, and from his obscurity comes a poem that is like the distant ringing of a chapel bell, faintly heard in the clatter of the city streets. We shall try here to understand this poet by dissolving some of the mystery that envelops him.

      He was born in London, and spent his youth amid the political and religious dissensions of the times of Mary and Elizabeth. For all this turmoil Spenser had no stomach; he was a man of peace, of books, of romantic dreams. He was of noble family, but poor; his only talent was to write poetry, and as poetry would not buy much bread in those days, his pride of birth was humbled in seeking the patronage of nobles:

      Full little knowest thou, that hast not tried,

       What hell it is in suing long to bide: …

       To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run,

       To spend, to give, to want, to be undone.

      To the liberality of a patron he owed his education at Cambridge. It was then the heyday of Renaissance studies, and Spenser steeped himself in Greek, Latin and Italian literatures. Everything that was antique was then in favor at the universities; there was a revival of interest in Old-English poetry, which accounts largely for Spenser's use of obsolete words and his imitation of Chaucer's spelling.

      After graduation he spent some time in the north of England, probably as a tutor, and had an unhappy love affair, which he celebrated in his poems to Rosalind. Then he returned to London, lived by favor in the houses of Sidney and Leicester, and through these powerful patrons was appointed secretary to Lord Grey de Wilton, the queen's deputy in Ireland.

      [Illustration: EDMUND SPENSER]

      [Sidenote: SPENSER'S EXILE]

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