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Philip Massinger (1584-1640).—Author of a number of plays, one of which, A New Way to Pay Old Debts, is still acted.

John Ford (1586-1639).—A melancholy dramatist. Author of a number of deep tragedies-The Broken Heart, Love's Sacrifice, etc.

2. NON-DRAMATIC POETS.

Thomas Sackville (1536–1608).—Earl of Dorset. Author of the Mirror for Magistrates and the Story of the Duke of Buckingham.

Robert Southwell (1560-1595).-Author of St. Peter's Com plaint and other poems.

Samuel Daniel (1562-1619).-Known as "well-languaged Daniel." Author of Musophilus and A History of the Wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster.

Michael Drayton (1563–1631).-Poet-laureate in 1626. Author of Polyolbion, The Shepherd's Garland, and other poems.

George Herbert (1593-1632).-Often called "Holy George Herbert." Wrote The Temple and a number of other sacred poems.

3. PROSE-WRITERS.

Roger Ascham (1515-1568).-Teacher of Queen Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey. A graduate of Cambridge. Author of Toxophilus, in the preface of which he apologizes for writing in English. His best work is The Schoolmaster.

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586).—A gallant soldier and a chivalric gentleman. Educated at Oxford and Cambridge. Author of a romance Arcadia, The Defense of Poesie, and many beautiful sonnets.

Richard Hooker (1553–1600).-A celebrated English divine. Wrote Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, the first book of which has teen pronounced by Hallam to be at this day one of the mas. terpieces of English eloquence."

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Sir Walter Raleigh (1552–1618).—An accomplished scholar and soldier. Author of a History of the World, Narrative of a Cruise to Guiana, and a number of poems of merit. He was executed by order of King James I.

Robert Burton (1578-1640).—Rector of Segrave. Author of a quaint and witty book, The Anatomy of Melancholy, by Democ ritus Junior.

III.

AGE OF MILTON.

1625-1660.

REIGN OF CHARLES I. AND PROTECTORATE OF CROMWELL.

THIS era was characterized by continual strife and controversy, both political and religious. The trial and execution of Charles I., the civil war between the Cavaliers and the Roundheads, the rise and fall of the Protectorate of Cromwell,-all tended to prevent the production of any literature except that of a controversial character. A few great authors, however, came to the surface, whose excellent works have added largely to the wealth of our literature. Among these the most noted was John Milton, and with him may be named such worthies as Izaak Walton, Thomas Fuller, and Jeremy Taylor.

5. JOHN MILTON,

1608-1674.

JOHN MILTON, one of the greatest of English poets, was born in London, December 9, 1608. His father was a scrivener by profession and a man of fine musical taste --a talent which his son John inherited, and which, under the instruction of his father, made him an accomplished organist.

It is said that Milton began to write verse before he was eleven years of age, and at the age of twelve he

often studied late into the night-thus, with the imperfect light then used, so injuring his eyesight that at the age of forty-six he became partially blind. He entered the University at Cambridge in the year 1625. Here, on account of his personal beauty and delicate taste, he was nicknamed the "Lady of Cambridge." He spent seven years at the University, when he took his master's degree. Leaving Cambridge in 1632, he went to Horton, where he spent five years in leisure and study. It was during this time that he wrote some of his finest poems, among them L'Allegro and Il Penseroso in 1632, Comus, which appeared in 1634, and Lycidas, written in 1637.

In 1638 he began a tour of Continental Europe, visiting France and Italy, where his strong letters of recommendation and his great culture made his society courted by the most brilliant Italian wits. His stay abroad continued only fifteen months, for Milton was a Puritan, and when the Thirty Years' War began he hastened home and espoused the cause of the people against the prelates and the Royalists.

Milton, on his return to England in 1639, took a house in London and began teaching the children of his sister, Mrs. Philips. His success as a teacher soon attracted other pupils, and he continued this work for ight years. In 1643 he married Mary Powell, but she left him at the end of a month, and, though frequently solicited to return, she refused. In about a year, how ever, when she found Milton advocating the right of divorce, the intervention of friends secured a reconcili tion, and she returned.

Milton held the post of Latin secretary under the Protectorate of Cromwell, and during this time he wrote his political works. When Charles II. was placed on the throne the post of Latin secretary was again tendered to Milton, though he was one of the strongest opponents

of 10yalty, but he refused to accept the position, and retired to private life, where he again devoted himself to poetry. It was during this time that he wrote his masterpiece, Paradise Lost, which was completed in 1665 and published in 1667. The manuscript of this poem is said to have been sold for twenty-eight pounds.

The later years of Milton's life were spent in gloom and disappointment. The cause for which he had written so spiritedly and contended so persistently was lost by the fall of Cromwell and the accession of Charles II. to the throne; and, to complete the measure of his infirmities, the great poet became wholly blind in the year 1662. His death occurred in November, 1674, when he was buried by the side of his father, though a monument was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey.

His greatest prose work was styled Areopagitica, a plea for the freedom of the press. In addition to the poems named, he wrote also Paradise Regained, which did not, however, rank in any sense with his masterpiece, Paradise Lost.

CRITICISM BY JOHN RICHARD GREEN.

THE whole genius of Milton expressed itself in the Paradise Lost. The romance, the gorgeous fancy, the daring imagination which he shared with the Elizabethan poets, the large but ordered beauty of form which he had drunk in from the literature of Greece and Rome, the sublimity of conception, the loftiness of phrase which he owed to the Bible, blended in this story "of man's first disobedience, and the fruit of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste brought death into the world and all our woe." It is only when we review the strangely-mingled elements which make up the poem that we realize the genius which fused them into such a perfect whole. The meagre outline of the IIe

brew legend is lost in the splendor and music of Milton's verse. The stern idealism of Geneva is clothed in the gorgeous robes of the Renaissance. If we miss something of the free play of Spenser's fancy, and yet more of the imaginative delight in their own creations which gives so exquisite a life to the poetry of the early dramatists, we find in place of these the noblest example which our literature affords of the ordered majesty of classic form.

LYCIDAS.

NOTE. In this poem Milton bewails the loss of a friend, Edward King, a native of Ireland, to whom he was warmly attached, and who had been his schoolmate at Cambridge. Having graduated, King was qualifying himself for the ministry, but in a sea-voyage from Chester the ship was wrecked on the Welsh coast, and King was drowned. He was noted for his piety, brilliant scholarship, and gentleness of character.

YET Once more, O ye laurels, and once more,

Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere,

I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,

And with forced fingers rude

Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year,
Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear,

5

NOTES. 3. harsh and crude, 5. mellowing year, mellowing

unripe.

5. shatter, scatter.

time of year.
6. constraint, necessity.

ANALYSIS.-1. O ye laurels. Give the case of ye and laurels.

2. Ye myrtles. Give the case of ye and myrtles.

What does the word sere modify?

4. forced fingers rude. Notice the arrangement-adjective, nɔun,

and adjective—a favorite one with Milton.

5. mellowing year. What figure? Parse shatter.

1-5. The whole sentence seems to indicate that Milton feels himself compelled to write under constraint and unprepared.

6. sad occasion dear. Notice the arrangement.

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