HAZLITT'S AGE OF ELIZABETH, AND CHARACTERS OF

SHAKESPEAR'S PLAYS,

ON

THE LITERATURE OF THE N

AGE OF EINZABETH, 18

AND

CHARACTERS OF SHAKESPEAR'S PLAYS

BY

WILLIAM HAZLITT,
Author of " Table Talk,” “ Lectures on the Eriglish Poets," " The

English Comic Writers," &C., &c.

LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET,

COVENT GARDEN.

1878.

By the “AGE OF ELIZABETH” (as it relates to the history of our Literature) I would be understood to mean the time from the Reformation to the end of Charles I., including the writers of a certain School or style of Poetry or Prose, who flourished together or immediately succeeded one another within this period. I have, in the following pages, said little of two of the greatest writers of that age, Shakspeare and Spenser, because I had treated of them separately in former publications.*