comedies of supreme interest among the plays of the time? Describe the nature of the court-masque and the manner of its presentation. What modern form of entertainment has grown out of it? Who raised the masque-form to a higher beauty than even Jonson had given it? Milton's "Comus" was suggested in part by "The Faithful Shepherdess": tell what you can of the author of this play, and of his relations with his collaborator. Note the signs of decay in the dramas of Beaumont and Fletcher and their successors. Reflect upon the phrase "health of soul" as applied to Shakespeare, and see if you can illustrate its meaning from one or more of his plays. Why were the Puritans antagonistic to the theatre? Why did their antagonism become stronger as time went on? When were the theatres closed and for how long? READING GUIDE.-The plays of Shakespeare best adapted for school study are perhaps "Julius Cæsar," "Macbeth," "The Merchant of Venice," and "As You Like It." All these plays are included in the inexpensive Riverside Literature series (Houghton, Mifflin). Among the numberless biographies and critical studies of Shakespeare, the best for school use is the little volume by E. Dowden, in the Literature Primers series (Appleton). The many interesting illustrations in H. W. Mabie's "William Shakespeare, Poet, Dramatist, and Man," if they can be put before a class, will do much toward making the surroundings of the dramatist's life realizable. Emerson's essay on Shakespeare, in his "Representative Men," Carlyle's essay in "Heroes and Hero-Worship," and Lowell's in "Among My Books," will be found valuable in giving the student a larger understanding of Shakespeare's significance. If time serve, and the students are sufficiently advanced, a volunteer report to the class upon one of Ben Jonson's masques should be asked for. This will be of especial interest if given in connection with the class-study of Milton's "Comus." Several of Jonson's masques, and an essay on the masque as a dramatic form, may be found in H. A. Evans's "English Masques." For advanced students a rapid reading of one of Jonson's realistic comedies, as "The Silent Woman," and one of Shakespeare's romantic comedies, such as "Twelfth Night,” and a comparison of the two, will be of great interest. Those who wish to gain a first-hand acquaintance with the work of Shakespeare's great contemporaries in the drama, will find excellent material in "The Best Elizabethan Plays," edited by W. H. Thayer (Ginn). The plays included are Marlowe's "Jew of Malta," Jonson's "Alchemist," Beaumont and Fletcher's "Philaster" and "The Two Noble Kinsmen" (attributed in part to Shakespeare), and Webster's "Duchess of Malfi." Three of Jonson's comedies, "The Alchemist," "Volpone," and "The Silent Woman," together with his beautiful pastoral play, "The Sad Shepherd" (left unfinished at his death), and his poems, are to be had in a single volume in Morley's Universal Library. William Black's novel, "Judith Shakespeare,' gives a fresh and charming picture of rural England in Shakespeare's day. CHAPTER VIII THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: FROM THE RESTORATION I. INTRODUCTION The Growth of Puritanism.-The period between the death of Elizabeth and the Restoration (1603-1660) was one of great excitement and disturbance in the national life. Puritanism, under various names, had been growing in strength since the days of Wyclif and Langland. In Henry VIII.'s reign the Bible, newly translated by Tyndale and Coverdale, had been set up in the churches. This mighty book, in which every form of literature, idyll, song, drama, and epic, was eloquently represented, became the chief food of the popular mind. Crowds gathered about the pillars in the churches to which the Book was chained, and listened eagerly while some lettered person "with an audible voice" read from its pages. Theology became the passion of the people, or at least of that portion of the people, the Puritan element, which had most deeply felt the impulse of the Reformation. Men were brought face to face with the source of divine authority; they began to feel an awful personal responsibility concerning the welfare of their souls. Out of these conditions arose the Puritans, whose black steeple-crowned hats and sombre cloaks typified the sombreness and severity of their view of life. Their distrust of forms and ceremonies in religion, and of the gayeties of social life, led them to hate the painted windows, gilded organ pipes, and carved chancel rails of old cathedrals, and to long to sweep away all traces of the "merry England" of Elizabeth's time, typified by such innocent and time-honored customs as the dance about the Maypole, and ་༡༠ the hanging of yew and holly at Christmas. The same sombre zeal made of them, under Cromwell, formidable soldiers, who advanced with hymns and with snatches of old Hebrew war songs on their lips, to overthrow the proud cavalier armies. It made of them wanderers and exiles, seeking in Holland, and in the far-off wilds of America, a place where they could worship God after their own hearts. As early as 1620, when Milton was a boy of twelve, a band of these "pilgrims" landed at Plymouth, on the coast of Massachusetts, and began there the founding of a great Puritan commonwealth of which we are the inheritors. Struggle Between King and Parliament.-With the demand for religious freedom, there soon became involved a demand for greater political liberty. The struggle between the king and parliament grew in bitterness through the reign of James I. (1603-1625). James handed on to his son, Charles I., his doctrine that kings govern, not by the will of the people but by divine right, and that the church is as much under the royal jurisdiction as are the temporal affairs of the nation. As Charles became more arrogant in his policy, the mood of parliament became more hostile. In 1629 Charles dissolved parliament, and for eleven years there was no meeting of either house. With the aid of judges of his own appointment, and of counsellors and favorites pledged to his absolute view, Charles governed without heed to the growing wrath of the nation. He gave the direction of the church into the hands of Archbishop Laud, who not only compelled uniformity in worship, but insisted upon ceremonies, such as kneeling at the communion table and making the sign of the cross, which seemed to threaten the return of Catholicism. Milton's "Lycidas," written in 1637, expresses the indignation and fear which Laud's policy aroused in the hearts of all Puritans. The Civil War and the Protectorate: The Restoration.-By 1639 Charles had become involved in a war with the Scotch Presbyterians, upon whom he had tried to force a new prayerbook. He was compelled to summon parliament, but dismissed it angrily. The Scotch invaded England. A new parliament, the famous Long Parliament, which met in 1640, took affairs into its own hands and made common cause with the Scotch. The civil war followed. Oliver Cromwell, with his "Ironsides," as the flower of the stern Puritan army were called, crushed the king's forces, after three years of fighting, at Naseby, in 1645. Four years later Charles was beheaded on a scaffold outside the windows of the palace of Whitehall. In 1653, Cromwell took the reins of power into his single hands, and under the title of Lord Protector, reigned as a military despot, the excuse for his despotism being that the only alternative to it was anarchy. During all this troubled period John Milton, whose character gives us the highest and best expression of Puritanism, stood forth as champion of the cause, though often at odds both with the parliament and with Cromwell, and maintaining many independent convictions. On Cromwell's death, in 1658, the dictatorship existed for a while under his feeble son. By this time the temper of the nation had changed. Puritanism had ceased to be dominant; the people were eager for the restoration of the Stuart family. In 1660 Charles's son was recalled from exile, and mounted the throne as King Charles II. Rise of Scientific Thought.-Along with these religious and political causes of disturbance, there went also an intellectual one. The seventeenth century saw the rise of modern scientific thought. It was a time when the foundations of knowledge were being questioned. A spirit of bold speculation was in the air. Creed clashed with creed, and theory with theory, much as they have done in our age, which has been, like the seventeenth century, an age of discovery and excited question. This new scientific spirit found its chief expression in the writings of Sir Francis Bacon. II. FRANCIS BACON (1561-1625) Bacon's Life and Character.-Francis Bacon was born in 1561, three years before Shakespeare. His father was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to Elizabeth, and his uncle was Lord Burleigh, Elizabeth's prime-minister. He was thus marked out by birth for a public career. Owing to the op position of his jealous uncle, he got little preferment under |