which he disposed of the cases brought before him as lord chancellor. On one occasion he was told that there were no more cases upon the docket; whereupon a wit

wrote:

When More sometime chancellor had been,

No more suits did remain;

The same shall never more be seen,

Till More be there again.

Lord Campbell, in his "Lives of the Lord Chancellors," says that the same thing has never happened since that time.

Sir Thomas More was a conscientious Catholic, even carrying his zeal so far as to aid in the persecution of heretics. He was also intensely loyal to his king; but when the latter loyalty interfered with that to his church and his conscience, he did not hesitate for a moment. When Henry VIII., who burnt men when they did not believe in the doctrines of the church, chose to declare himself its head in England; More, with others as unflinching as himself, denied the king's right to such supremacy, and after a farcical trial was convicted of high treason and suffered death at the block. He never lost his cheerfulness nor his humor. When the lieutenant of the tower apologized for the poor fare he was forced to give him, More replied that he found no fault with it, but when he did, the officer was at liberty to thrust him out at once. When he mounted the scaffold, being then somewhat infirm, he asked the warden to help him up. "When I come down," said he, "I can shift for myself." On kneeling down to receive the stroke he put his long white beard out of the way, saying to himself, "Pity that should be cut; it has never committed treason." After his death, his head was placed on London bridge, according to the custom of the time; and his daughter Margaret Roper bribed the keeper of the bridge to let it fall into her hands as she was rowed

in a boat underneath. This beloved head she always kept in her own apartment, and died clasping it to her breast in a fit of delirium.*

No new translation of the Bible had been made for about a hundred and fifty years, when William Tyndale (1484– 1536), an English clergyman who had long before declared that he wished an English Bible might be in the hands of every ploughboy in the country, finished his version of the New Testament (1525). He had been obliged to do it in secrecy and under constant dread of detection, for he was one of the followers of Luther, and therefore liable to the penalties of heresy. Hunted from place to place, he still persevered in his work, and from time to time rendered other parts of the Scriptures into his native tongue. The language of Wycliffe's version had become obsolete, and was therefore out of the reach of the common people. Tyndale's possessed a force and purity which made hist translation rank among the best specimens of English in his time.

Knowing himself to be unsafe in England, he took refuge in Flanders; but the enmity of the king pursued him there, and through Henry's urgency he was apprehended at Brussels, and strangled at Vilvoorde, near Brussels; his body being afterward burnt to ashes. His last words were: "Lord, open the king of England's eyes!"

Miles Coverdale (1487-1568) made a version of the whole Bible, printed ten years after Tyndale's translation of the New Testament, which does not differ from it widely in diction. Coverdale was the first to separate from the body of the Old Testament the books known as Apocrypha (rejected matter), and place them separately at the end.

From this time, for the next twenty years, repeated versions appeared, which were often only revisions of the

* See Tennyson's "Dream of Fair Women.

previous ones; and by the time Queen Elizabeth had been ten years on the throne (1668), the Bible was, or might be, in the hands of every one who knew how to read.

The remaining writers of this period need only a few words. Robert Fabyan and Edward Hall wrote chronicles of English history, of more or less accuracy. Lord Berners, at the request of Henry VIII., translated Froissart's chronicle into English. John Leland (1500-52), the first professional antiquarian, made it his business to collect as much as he could of the vast mass of historical material lying unrecognized and in danger of destruction in town-halls, cathedrals, and castles. To further this object he traveled over England, describing minutely all the places he visited; his description of these journeys is called "Leland's Itinerary." He was a man of prodigious industry and enthusiasm, and overworked his brain, being insane during the last two years of his life.

Sir Thomas Elyot is noted as being the first English writer on education. In his treatise called "The Governor," he condemns the practice of allowing "cruel and irascible schoolmasters" to have unlimited power over the helpless children committed to their care, and recommends a discipline reasonable, yet firm. He was a physician, and wrote a professional work called "The Castle of Health," which was much admired.

Among the writers of the time must be included King Henry VIII., who wrote, early in his reign, a book in Latin against Luther, entitled "The Seven Sacraments." For this service to the church, the pope bestowed on him formally the title of "Defender of the Faith," which has been borne by his royal descendants ever since.*

Henry VIII. did much greater service to literature by

* "Fidei Defensor," abbreviated "Fid. Def.," may still be found on some English coins.

the encouragement he gave to literary men than by his own contributions to letters. He gave John Leland the title of "King's Antiquary," and supported him while he was making his researches; he sent Roger Ascham abroad to pursue his studies, and took care that Sir Thomas Elyot was supported while he was writing books for the instruction of his countrymen. We have already mentioned the translation of Froissart, made by Lord Berners at his request. This last work, being "chronicles"-pictures of the times-and being written with simple-hearted faithfulness, marks almost an era in literature. Men speak of "the time of Froissart." Even its translation into English was a noteworthy event. One simple, thoughtless remark has become classic, noting as it does the impression made on the Frenchman's mind by the Englishman. He says of some whom he met, "They took their pleasure sadly, after their fashion."

The drama now began to assume a form somewhat different from that of the old "Mysteries" and "Miracle Plays." A new kind of dramas called "Moralities" came into vogue, having for their characters personages representing the virtues and vices in a sort of allegory. Next came the "Interlude," a short play resembling a farce, and full of the rough jokes suited to the coarse taste of the times. In one of these interludes, for instance, called "The Four P's," there is a dispute between a Pedler, a Palmer, a Pardoner, and a 'Poticary, as to which can tell the greatest lie. Each tries to outdo the other; until at last the Pardoner says he never saw a woman out of temper, and is declared winner. John Heywood was the most famous writer of interludes.

It

The first English comedy was written by Nicholas Udall (1505-56), and belongs to this same half-century. is called "Ralph Royster Doyster," and gives a picture of life in London. It was followed a few years later by "Gammer Gurton's Needle," by John Still, afterward a bishop, in which the characters are rustics of the humble

sort, and the humor is of a lower order than that of Udall's play. Such was the preparation for the full development of English drama in the plays of Shakespeare, whose birth took place only a few years later.

Udall was head - master at Eton school, and "Ralph Royster Doyster" is supposed to have been written to be acted by his boys. One of these boys was Thomas Tusser, author of a poem called "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry," and he shows up the methods of Udall as follows:

From Paul's I went to Eton sent,

To learn straightways the Latin phrase,
Where fifty-three stripes given to me
At once I had.

For fault but small, or none at all,
It came to pass that beat I was;
See, Udall, see, the mercy of thee
To me, poor lad.

CHAPTER XI.

EARLY ELIZABETHAN PERIOD.

S has been noticed by an eminent writer on English literature, the most splendid authors of Elizabeth's

reign were not born until just about the time when that reign began. The era of greatness, therefore, for this period, does not begin until the Virgin Queen had been for some twenty-five years seated upon the throne, and we must first turn our thoughts to some of the minor lights which served to usher in the day.

A name which brings up a train of gentle and kindly thoughts is that of Roger Ascham (1515-68), the tutor of Queen Elizabeth, and friend of Lady Jane Grey. To a sweetness of nature which nothing ever embittered, he