FIFTH AND LAST EPOCH OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. LITERATURE UNDER THE TUDORS. ENGLISH poetry has, hitherto, appeared to us under catholic colours; the Vatican was the abode of the muses who sang beneath the half formed dome of St. Peter, erected for them by Michael Angelo; they are now on the eve of apostatizing and turning protestant. Their change of religion was not, however, felt in a very decided manner, for the Reformation took place before the language had emerged from its barbarism; all the writers of the first order made their appearance subsequently to the reign of Henry VIII. My observation relative to Shakespeare, Pope, and Dryden will be seen hereafter. Be this as it may, a chief feature pervades the epoch upon which we now enter; in the same manner as I portrayed the middle age to the reader, before I adverted to the authors of those times, it seems proper that I should preface the second part of this work by some enquiries on the subject of the Reformation. How was it brought about? what were its consequences to the human mind, to literature, to the arts, to governments? These are questions well worthy of our consideration. |