REVIEW OUTLINE.-The political situation in England between 1400 and 1485 should be noted as a reason for the literary decline; and the changes which followed the accession of Henry VII. and the beginning of the new monarchy, as making the conditions for the Eng lish Renaissance. What was the essential element in the Renaissance? What was the situation of the individual man under the feudal system? Under the medieval church? What change did the Renaissance bring about in the attitude of men toward the world? Suggest several reasons for the rapid development of the Renaissance in Italy. What did other nations contribute to the Renaissance? What conditions of the fifteenth century tended to forward the Renaissance in England? What caused the revival of learning in Italy? How was it brought to England? What was its influence on literature?

In considering the progress of the Renaissance in England it may be interesting to point out some differences between the English movement and the Italian. In the first place the influence of patriotism centering about the person of the English sovereign should be noted, as limiting the exercise of personal ambition, which in Italy made for division. And in the second place, the fact that in England the Refor. mation took place before the Renaissance had got its full headway, should be recalled; and the influence of the new religious interest, checking the temptations of the time toward a life of pleasure, should be noted in writers from Wyatt to Spenser. It will be well also to examine rather carefully the history of the time, and observe how the religious and the national spirit, stimulated by various events, reached their height under Elizabeth in the years which saw also the appearance of the greater Elizabethan literature.

What were some of the characteristics of the court of Henry VIII? Comment on the character of the king. What influences moulded the character of Sir Thomas More? What was his purpose in "Utopia"? What are some of the features of the Utopian society? In what way is the book typical of the Renaissance? What influence did the court of Henry VIII. have on poetry? Name the chief poets of his court. What is the chief characteristic of Wyatt's verse? What were the ser vices of Wyatt and Surrey to English poetry?

The Renaissance was in England very largely a matter of imitation. The Reformation was a more spontaneous national movement. What earlier attempts at religious reform had prepared the way for the English Reformation? What political situation in the reign of Henry

VIII. furthered it? What were the features of the Reformation under Edward VI. and Mary? What was the religious policy of Elizabeth? What was the influence of Tyndale and Coverdale's translation of the Bible on literature? What was the "Book of Martyrs"?

The years between the death of Henry VIII. and the accession of Elizabeth may be regarded as a period of reaction, between the earlier and the later Renaissance. With the accession of Elizabeth came a quickening of all the forces of the age, the individual spirit of ambition and adventure, thirst for pleasure, and love of glory, which may be illustrated from the life of Raleigh, and the plays of Marlowe, to be discussed in the next chapter; the spirit of religious patriotism, which finds its personal representation in Sidney, and its literary expression in "The Faerie Queene." Who was John Lyly? What is the character of Euphues"? What does it illustrate? What characteristic marked its style? Outline the career of Sir Philip Sidney. What was "Astrophel nd Stella"? Why did Sidney write the "Arcadia"? Give some characteristics of the story. What was the "Defence of Poesy"? Contrast Raleigh with Sidney in character and in career. In what respects is Raleigh an illustration of the interests of his time? What are his chief works?

Outline the life of Spenser. What was the influence on him of Cambridge? of London? of Ireland? What was the "Shepherd's Calendar"? Under what circumstances did Spenser write "The Faerie Queene"? What was the purpose of the poem? What its plan? How does Spenser illustrate the dependence of English literature upon Italian? What is the Spenserian stanza?

What led to the growth of the reading public at the time of the Renaissance? What effects did this growth have upon literature? Illustrate from the career of Robert Greene. How do Greene and his friends differ from Spenser and Sidney in their attitude toward literature? In their lives? Explain the prominence of lyric verse in this period.

READING GUIDE.-All students should read at least Canto I, Book I, of the "Faerie Queene"; this portion of the poem is given in Maynard's English Classic series. If further reading is required in Spenser, it should include the "Prothalamion," and the first portion of "Colin Clout" or "The Shepherd's Calendar." Convenient texts are "Minor Poems of Spenser," in the Temple Classics, and "Selected

Poems," in the Canterbury Poets series. Lowell's essay on Spenser, in "Among My Books," should, if possible, be read.

The "Utopia" and "Roper's Life of More" are printed together in the Camelot Series and in the Temple Classics. Volunteers may be called upon to read and report to the class upon each of these.

For Wyatt, Surrey, and Sidney, the poems given in "The Golden Treasury" or in "Ward's English Poets," Vol. I, should, if possible, be read, either privately by each student or before the class.

Sidney's "Defence of Poesy" is edited by A. S. Cooke (Ginn), and in the Pitt Press Series.

Green's "Short History of the English People," chapter vii, is excellent for supplementing the student's knowledge of the times.

Kingsley's "Westward Ho" gives a vigorous picture of England's struggle with Spain by sea and in America. Tennyson's "Ballad of the Revenge" is excellent to illustrate the patriotic temper of Elizabeth's reign.

CHAPTER VI

THE RENAISSANCE: THE DRAMA BEFORE SHAKE.

SPEARE

I. THE ORIGIN OF THE DRAMA: NATIVE SOURCES

Norman Shows and Pageants.-To trace the English drama from the beginning, we must go back as far as the Norman conquest. The Norman people had a great fondness for shows and spectacles. When the Norman kings were once firmly seated on the English throne, they gave full rein to their taste for splendid pageantry. If a royal wedding was to be celebrated, or a victorious monarch welcomed back from war, London was turned into a place of festival. At the entrance gate of the city, or at fixed places on the route to church or palace, elaborate structures were built, representing some mythical or allegorical scene-the gods grouped upon Olympus, an armed St. George giving combat to a golden dragon, or nymphs and satyrs sporting in enchanted gardens. Sometimes music was added, and the personators, by dialogue and action, gave welcome to the royal party. These pageants developed at the Renaissance into a special form of dramatic entertainment, the Masque. Meanwhile, by stimulating in the people a love of dramatic spectacle, they helped to pave the way for regular drama.

The Miracle Play: Its Origin and Growth.--A much more important source of the drama, however, was the massservice of the Catholic church, especially at Christmas-tide and Easter. The ordinary services at these times were enriched with special ceremonies, such as burying the crucifix in a tomb of the church on Good Friday and disinterring it on Easter morning, with monks or choir-boys to take the parts of the three Marys, the angel at the tomb, and the chorus of rejoicing angels in heaven. These little dramatic

ceremonies gradually became detached from the service, and were moved from the church into the church-yard. Later, when the crowds desecrated the graves in their eagerness to see and hear, the plays were transferred to the public green or town square. By Chaucer's time these "miracle plays" or "mysteries" had passed to a large extent out of the hands of the priests, and had come under the control of the tradeguilds, who made use of them to celebrate their annual festival of Corpus Christi. Rivalry among the guilds, and the desire of each to possess a separate play, led to the setting forth of the whole Scripture story from Genesis to Revelations, in a series or cycle forming a great drama, of which the separate plays were, in a sense, only single acts. It was the aim of these great miracle-cycles to give a connected view of God's dealings with man, from the beginning of the world until its destruction.

How Miracle Plays Were Presented.—In order to gain some idea of the impression made by the miracle plays upon the people who witnessed them, let us imagine ourselves for a moment in a provincial English town at the beginning of the fifteenth century, on the morning of Corpus Christi day. Shortly after dawn, heralds have made the round of the city to announce the coming spectacle. The places where the cars or "pageants," which form both stage and dressingroom, are to stop, are crowded with the motley population of a mediæval city. The spectators of importance occupy seats upon scaffolds erected for the purpose, or look on from the windows of neighboring houses, while the humbler folk jostle each other in the street.

Soon the first pageant appears, a great box mounted on four wheels and drawn by apprentices of the masons' guild, which guild is charged with presenting the Creation of Eve and the Fall of Man. The curtains at the front and the sides of the great box are drawn, revealing an upper compartment, within which the main action is to take place. On a raised platform sits enthroned a majestic figure in a red robe, with gilt hair and beard, impersonating the Creator. Before him lies Adam, dressed in a closefitting leather garment painted white or flesh-color. The