WEBSTER, FORD, CHAPMAN, SHIRLEY, and several others, were also distinguished dramatists of the second class. PROSE WRITERS. SIR PHILIP SIdney (1554-1586), one of the most chivalrous gentlemen and accomplished writers of this age, author of Arcadia, a prose romance; Defence of Poesy; and some beautiful Sonnets. SIR WALTER Raleigh (1552-1618), courtier, soldier, adventurer, and writer, author of History of the World (written in prison), and several poems of much merit. He was executed by order of James I. ROGER ASCHAM (1515-1568), tutor of Princess (afterward Queen) Elizabeth, and author of Toxophilus (archery), and The Schoolmaster. RICHARD HOOKER (1553-1600), a learned and eloquent divine, author of Ecclesiastical Polity. THIS PERIOD IV.-AGE OF MILTON. 1625-1660. (Reign of Charles I. and Protectorate of Cromwell.) HIS was an age of fierce political and religious controversy. It witnessed the trial and execution of Charles I., the wars of the Cavaliers and Roundheads, and the rise and fall of the Commonwealth and Protectorate. It was not favorable to authorship, hence but few works were produced, and these were mostly of a religious and controversial character. Of the authors who lived during this period, there were, however, a few of great excellence. Of these the most celebrated are John Milton and John Bunyan. MILTON. 1608-1674. John Milton, the greatest of English poets since Shakspeare, was born in 1608, and died in 1674. Having spent seven years at the university and five years in studious retirement at home, he set out, at the age of thirty, on a continental tour; but returned on the breaking out of the civil war, and soon after entered the service of Cromwell as Latin secretary, and contributed powerfully by his pen to the success of the Puritan cause. On the Restora. tion, he was forced into retirement, and devoted himself, in poverty, blindness, and political disgrace, to the composition of his great epic. Milton's principal poetical works are-Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes (a drama), Comus (a masque), L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Hymn to the Nativity. The best of his prose works is Areopagitica, a Plea for Unlicensed Printing. EXTRACTS. Morn, 'Waked by the circling hours, with rosy hands II. Par. L., Bk. VI. Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye, III. P. L.,Bk. VIII. Accuse not Nature, she hath done her part, IV. P. L., Bk. VIII. Virtue could see to do what virtue would, By her own radiant light, though sun and moon V. A thousand fantasies Begin to throng into my memory, Comus. Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, On sands and shores and desert wildernesses. Comus. BUNYAN. 1628-1688. John Bunyan, at first a poor, profane tinker, wrote, after his conversion, and while confined in Bedford jail, the greatest allegory in the world, Pilgrim's Progress. It has been translated into nearly every language, and has probably exerted a wider influence than any other religious book except the Bible. EXTRACT. He that forgets his friend is ungrateful to him; but he that forgets his Saviour is unmerciful to himself. OTHER AUTHORS OF THIS AGE. POETS. EDMUND WALLER (1605-1687), first a Republican, afterwards a Royalist, author of Panegyric to My Lord Protector, and many short poems. Very popular in his day. ABRAHAM COWLEY (1618-1667), once regarded as a great poet, author of The Mistress (or Love Verses), Pindaric Odes, Davideis, etc.; also of some ex. cellent Essays. GEORGE WITHER (1588-1667), a soldier and poet on the side of Cromwell, author of Shepherd's Hunting, Hymns and Songs of the Church, Abuses Stript and Whipt (a satire), etc. ROBERT HERRICK (1591-1674), a fine lyric poet, but sometimes coarse ; author of Cherry Ripe, Gather Rosebuds while ye may, and other songs. SIR JOHN SUCKLING (1608-1642), a Cavalier poet, author of many charming short poems and songs. RICHARD CRASHAW ( ? -1650), a religious poet of rich and fervid imagination, author of Steps to the Temple, Music's Duel, Delights of the Muses, etc The celebrated line, "The conscious water saw its God and blushed," is a translation of one of his Latin verses. PROSE WRITERS. EDWARD HYDE, Earl of Clarendon (1608-1673), an eminent Royalist statesman, author of an excellent History of the Rebellion. THOMAS HOBBES (1588-1679), an eminent philosopher, author of The Leviathan. SIR THOMAS BROWNE (1605-1682), a quaint and powerful writer, author of Religio Medici (Religion of a Physician), etc. IZAAK WALTON (1593-1683), author of The Complete Angler, one of the most celebrated books of the age; and Walton's Lives (lives of Wotton, Herbert, Hooker, etc.). THOMAS FULLER (1608-1661), a learned divine, author of Church History, Worthies of England, the Holy and the Profane State, etc. JEREMY TAYLOR, D. D. (1613-1667), a great pulpit orator, author of Holy Living, Holy Dying, Liberty of Prophesying, etc. DR. ISAAC BARROW (1630-1677), a great mathematician (instructor of Sir Isaac Newton) and powerful preacher; author of Mathematical Works, Sermons, etc. Dr. Richard Baxter (1615-1691), a great preacher and writer, author of Call to the Unconverted, Saints' Everlasting Rest, Hymns, etc. PERIOD V.-AGE OF THE RESTORATION. TH 1660-1700. (Reigns of Charles II., James II., William and Mary.) IIIS age presents a marked contrast to the preceding one. The gravity and austerity of the Puritans gave way before the flood of French tastes, French fashions, and French vices, that came in with Charles and his gay Cavaliers. Corruption and licentiousness reigned in court and camp, and literature was debased and made to pander to the false tastes and lusts of the ruling class. Its greatest events were the restoration of the Stuarts, and the great Revolution of 1688, which resulted in the banishment of James II., and the enthronement of William and Mary. Its greatest author was John Dryden. DRYDEN. 1631-1700. John Dryden, the greatest poet of the Restoration, was born in 1631, and died in 1700. His parents were Puritans, and he was at first a great admirer of Cromwell, on whom he wrote a panegyric; but on the accession of the Stuarts he became an ardent Royalist, and addressed a flattering poem to the King. Dryden's chief defect was a lack of high principle. He wrote for present gain and popularity, not because he had any great message to deliver. Hence, though he was endowed with genius of the highest order, his life was comparatively a failure. He wrote dramas, poems, and essays. The best of his dramas is The Indian Emperor. His principal poems are Alexander's Feast; Absalom and Achitophel, a political satire; The Hind ana Panther, a poem in defence of the Catholic Church; and a Trans lation of Virgil's Æneid. EXTRACTS. Men are but children of a larger growth. II. But Shakspeare's magic could not copied be; III. Three poets* in three distant ages born, OTHER AUTHORS OF THIS AGE. POETS. Samuel BUTLER (1612-1680), author of Hudibras, one of the most famous satires in the language, ridiculing the Puritans and Independents. HENRY VAUGHAN (1621-1695), a religious poet, author of Silex Scintillans, etc. His poems, though marred by the conceits of the time, show him to be a true poet, and some of his lines, such as "The youthful world's gray fathers," etc., have been an inspiration to other poets. Some of his most beautiful single poems are The Rainbow, They are All Gone, The World, The Bee. PROSE WRITERS. JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704), a great philosopher, author of Essay Concerning the Human Understanding, etc. SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727), the great mathematician, author of The Principia. SIR WM. TEMPLE (1628-1699), a diplomatist, and a graceful esssyist. JOHN EVELYN, F. R. S. (1620-1706), author of Sylva, a Discourse on Forest Trees; and Terra, a work on Agriculture. SAMUEL PEPYS (1632-1703) left a marvellously entertaining and important Diary, which has taken a permanent place in literature. AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES. JOHN ELIOT (the "great apostle to the Indians"), and COTTON MATHER. PERIOD VI.-AGE OF QUEEN ANNE. (Queen Anne, George I., George II.) HE moral and religious tone of this age was not much higher THE than that of the last. It was characterized by a sort of superficial refinement—a refinement, not of morals and character, but of manners and language. This was especially apparent in its *Homer, Virgil, Milton. |