dom of the Ancients, in which he endeavored to explain the political and moral truths concealed in the mythology of the classical ages; and in this work he exhibits an ingenuity which Macaulay justly describes as almost morbid; an unfinished romance, The New Atlantis, which was intended to embody the fulfilment of his own dreams of a philosophical millennium; a History of Henry VII., and a vast number of state-papers, judicial decisions, and other professional writings. All these are marked by the same vigorous, weighty, and somewhat ornamented style which is to be found in the Instauratio, and are among the finest specimens of the English language at its period of highest majesty and perfection.

§ 14. In every nation there may be found a small number of writers who, in their life, in the objects of their studies, and in the form and manner of their productions, bear a peculiar stamp of eccentricity. No country has been more prolific in such exceptional individualities than England, and no age than the sixteenth century. There cannot be a more striking example of this small but curious class than old ROBERT BURTON (1576-1640), whose life and writings are equally odd. His personal history was that of a retired and laborious scholar, and his principal work, the Anatomy of Melancholy, is a strange combination of the most extensive and out-of-the-way reading with just observation and a peculiar kind of grave saturnine humor. The object of the writer was to give a complete monography of Melancholy, and to point out its causes, its symptoms, its treatment, and its cure: but the descriptions given of the various phases of the disease are written in so curious and pedantic a style, accompanied with such an infinity of quaint observation, and illustrated by such a mass of quotations from a crowd of authors, principally the medical writers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, of whom not one reader in a thousand in the present day has ever heard, that the Anatomy possesses a charm which no one can resist who has once fallen under its fascination. The enormous amount of curious quotation with which Burton has incrusted every paragraph and almost every line of his work has rendered him the favorite study of those who wish to appear learned at a small expense; and his pages have served as a quarry from which a multitude of authors have borrowed, and often without acknowledgment, much of their materials, as the great Roman feudal families plundered the Coliseum to construct their frowning fortress-palaces. The greater part of Burton's laborious life was passed in the University of Oxford, where he died, not without suspicion of having hastened his own end, in order that it might exactly correspond with the astrological predictions which he is said, being a firm believer in that science, to have drawn from his own horoscope. He is related to have been himself a victim to that melancholy which he has so minutely described, and his tomb bears the astrological scheme of his own nativity, and an inscription eminently characteristic of the man: "Hic jacet Democritus, junior, cui vitam dedit et mortem Melancholia."

Our notice of the prose writers of this remarkable period would be

incomplete without some mention of LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY (1581-1648), who was remarkable as a theologian and also as an historian. He was a man of great learning and rare dignity of personal character, and was employed in an embassy to Paris in 1616. There he first published his principal work, the treatise De Veritate, an elaborate pleading in favor of deism, of which Herbert was one of the earliest partisans in England. He also left a History of Henry VIII., not published until after his death, and which is certainly a valuable monument of grave and vigorous prose, though the historical merit of the work is diminished by the author's strong partiality in favor of the character of the king. Though maintaining the doctrines of a freethinker, Herbert gives indications of an intensely enthusiastic religious mysticism, and there is proof of his having imagined himself on more than one occasion the object of miraculous communications by which the Deity confirmed the doctrines maintained in his books.

§ 15. But in force of demonstration, and clearness and precision of language, none of the English metaphysicians have surpassed THOMAS HOBBES (1588-1679), who, however, more properly belongs to a later period. Hobbes was a man of extraordinary mental activity, equally remarkable, during the whole of a long literary career, for the power as for the variety of his philosophical speculations. The theories of Hobbes exerted an incalculable influence on the opinions, not only of English, but also of Continental thinkers, for nearly a century, and though that influence has since been much weakened by the errors and sophistries mingled in many of this great writer's works, in some important and arduous branches of abstract speculation, as for example in the great question respecting Free Will and Necessity, it is doubtful whether any later investigations have thrown any new light upon the principles established by him. He was born at Malmesbury in Wiltshire in 1588, was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and subsequently travelled abroad as private tutor to the Earl of Devonshire. On his return he became intimate with the most distinguished men of his day, through the influence of his patron the Earl of Devonshire. His first literary work, the translation of Thucydides, was published in the third year of the reign of Charles I., in 1628. He subsequently passed several years in Paris and Italy, and he was in constant communication with the most illustrious minds among his contemporaries, as with Descartes for example, with Galileo, and with Harvey. Though of extreme boldness in speculation, Hobbes was an advocate for high monarchical or rather despotic principles in government: his theory being that human nature was essentially ferocious and corrupt, he concluded that the iron restraint of arbitrary power could alone suffice to bridle its passions. This theory necessarily flowed from the fundamental proposition of Hobbes's moral system; viz. that the primum mobile of all human actions is selfish interest. Attributing all our actions to intellectual calculation, and thus either entirely ignoring or not allowing sufficient influence to the moral elements and the affections, which play at least an equal part in the drama of

life, Hobbes fell into a narrow and one-sided view of our motives which makes his theory only half true. He was a man whose reading, though not extensive, was singularly profound: and in the various branches of science and literature which he cultivated we see that clearness of view and vigor of comprehension which is found in men of few books. The most celebrated work of this great thinker was the Leviathan (published in 1651), an argument in favor of monarchical government: the reasonings, however, will apply with equal force to the justification of despotism. But though the Leviathan is the best known of his works, the Treatise on Human Nature, and the Letter on Liberty and Necessity, are incontestably those in which the closeness of his logic and the purity and clearness of his style are most visible, and the correctness of his deductions least mingled with error. Two purely political treatises, the Elementa Philosophica de Cive, and De Corpore Politico,* are remarkable for the cogency of the arguments, though many of the results at which the author struggles to arrive are now no longer considered deducible from the premises. In the latter portion of his life, Hobbes entered with great ardor upon the study of pure mathematics, and engaged in very vehement controversies with Wallis and others respecting the quadrature of the circle and other questions in which novices in those sciences are apt to be led away by the enthusiasm of imaginary discoveries. Hobbes has often been erroneously confounded with the enemies of religion. This has arisen from a misconception of the nature of his doctrines, which, in apparently lowering the moral faculties of man, have seemed to exhibit a tendency to materialism, though in reality nothing can be more opposed to the character of Hobbes's philosophical views; for the selfish theory of human actions, when divested of those limitations which confine the motive of self to those low and short-sighted views of interest with which it is generally associated, no more necessitates a materialistic line of argument than any other system for clearing up the mysteries of our moral nature.†

*These two treatises were published before the Leviathan, and were incorporated in the latter work.

It may also be mentioned that Hobbes wrote, in 1672, at the age of 84, a curious Latin poem on his own life; and he also published in 1675, at the age of 87, a translation in verse of the Iliad and Odyssey. His Behemoth, or a History of the Civil Wars from 1640 to 1660, appeared in 1679, a few months after his death.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

MINOR PROSE WRITERS IN THE REIGNS

OF ELIZABETH AND JAMES I.

WEBSTER PUTTENHAM, published in 1586 the Art of English Poesie; a writer whom Mr. Hallam considers the first who wrote a well measured

prose.

RICHARD GRAFTON, a printer in the reigns of Henry VIII. and the three following sovereigns, is one of the early chroniclers. He wrote in prison, into which he was thrown for printing the procla

mation of the succession of Lady Jane Grey to the throne, An Abridgment of the Chronicles of England, published in 1562.

WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURLEIGH (d. 1598), the celebrated statesman in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, wrote Precepts, or, Directions for the well Ordering and Carriage of a Man's Life, addressed to his son Robert Cecil.

JOHN LYLY, the author of the prose romance of Euphues, and GREENE and NASH, the authors of several pamphlets in prose, are mentioned under the dramatists (pp. 124, 125).

school at Sandwich in Kent, published in 1610 a History of the Turks. Johnson, in a paper in the

Rambler, gives Knolles the superiority over all English historians. "He has displayed all the excellencies that narrative can admit. His style, though somewhat obscured by time and vitiated by false wit, is pure, nervous, elevated, and clear. Nothing could have sunk this author into obscurity but the remoteness and barbarity of the people he relates." Mr. Hallam thinks that Johnson has not too highly extolled Knolles's style and power of

narration.

SAMUEL DANIEL, the poet of whom we have already spoken (p. 80), published in 1618 a History of England, from the Conquest to the Reign of Edward III. Mr. Hallam remarks that "this work is deserving of some attention on account of its language. It is written with a freedom from all stiffness, and a purity of style, which hardly any other work of so early a date exhibits. These qualities are indeed so remarkable that it would require a good deal of critical observation to distinguish it even from writings of the reign of Anne; and where it differs from them (I speak only of the secondary class of works, which have not much individuality of manner), it is by a more select idiom, and by an absence of the Gallicism or vulgarity which is often found in that age. It is true that the merits of Daniel are chiefly negative; he is never pedantic, or antithetical, or low, as his contemporaries were apt to be; but his periods are ill constructed; he has little vigor or elegance; and it is only by observing how much pains he must have taken to reject

GEORGE BUCHANAN (1506–1582), celebrated as an elegant Latin writer, was born at Killearn, in the county of Stirling, and was educated at the Universities of St. Andrews and Paris. He was appointed by the Earl of Murray tutor to the young King James VI. His chief work is a History of Scotland, which was published in 1582, under the title of Rerum Scoticarum Historia. His Latin version of the Psalms has been already mentioned (p. 87). He wrote in the Scottish dialect a work called Chamæleon, to satirize Secretary Maitland of Leth-phrases which were growing obsolete that we give ington.

him credit for having done more than follow the common stream of easy writing. A slight tinge of archaism, and a certain majesty of expression, relatively to colloquial usage, were thought by Bacon and Raleigh congenial to an elevated style; but Daniel, a gentleman of the king's household, wrote as the court spoke, and his facility would be

GEORGE SANDYS (1577-1643), known as a traveller and as a poet, was the youngest son of the Archbishop of York. His Travels in the East were very popular, and were repeatedly republished in the seventeenth century. His chief poetical production was a translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, WILLIAM LITHGOW (d. 1640), a native of Scot-pleasing if his sentences had a less negligent strucland, also celebrated as a traveller. He travelled nineteen years on foot in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The first edition of his Travels was published in

1614.

SIR JOHN HAYWARD (d. 1627), an historian, published in 1599 The First Part of the Life and Reign of Henry IV., dedicated to the Earl of Essex; a work which gave such offence to the queen that the author was thrown into prison. Hayward was subsequently patronized and knighted by James I. In 1613 he published The Lives of the three Norman Kings of England, William I., William II., and Henry I., dedicated to Charles, Prince of Wales. He likewise wrote The Life and Reign of King Edward VI., with the Beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, which was published in 1630, after his death.

ture. As an historian he has recourse only to common authorities; but his narration is fluent and perspicuous, with a regular vein of good sense, more the characteristic of his mind, both in verse and prose, than very commanding vigor."

WILLIAM CAMDEN (1551-1623), the antiquary and historian, was head master of Westminster School, and endowed at Oxford the chair of history, which bears his name. His most celebrated work is in Latin, entitled Britannia, first published in 1586, giving a topographical description of Great Britain from the earliest times. He also wrote in Latin an account of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

SIR HENRY SPELMAN (1562-1641), also an eminent antiquary, published in Latin various works upon legal and ecclesiastical antiquities, of which one of the principal is a History of the English

RICHARD KNOLLES (d. 1610), master of the free- Councils.

CHAPTER VI.

THE DAWN OF THE DRAMA.

§ 1. Origin of the Drama. Earliest religious spectacles, called Mysteries or Miracles. § 2. Plays, called Moralities: BISHOP BALE. § 3. Interludes: JOHN HEYWOOD. § 4. Pageants. Latin Plays. § 5. Chronicle Plays. Bale's King John. First English tragedies. The tragedy of Gorboduc. Other early tragedies. § 6. First English comedies. Ralph Royster Doyster. Gammer Gurton's Needle. § 7. Actors. Theatres. Scenery and properties of the stage. § 8. Dramatic authors usually actors. § 9. Early English playwrights. LYLY. PEELE. KYD. NASH. GREENE. LODGE. § 10. CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE. § 11. Anonymous plays.

1. As the Drama is one of the most splendid and perhaps the most intensely national department of our literature, so its origin and development were peculiar, and totally different from anything to be found in the history of other European countries. It is only Spain and England among all the modern civilized nations, that possess a theatrical literature independent in its origin, characteristic in its form, and reflecting faithfully the features, moral, social, and intellectual, of the people among which it arose: and the nationality of Spain being strongly distinguished from that of England, it is natural that the Spanish drama should possess a character which, though, like that of Britain, strongly romantic, should be very dissimilar in its type. It is possible to trace the first dim dawning of our national stage to a very remote period, to a period indeed not very far removed from the era of the Norman Conquest: for the custom of representing, in a rude dramatic form, legends of the lives of the Saints and striking episodes of Bible History seems to have been introduced from France, and to have been employed by the clergy as a means of communicating religious instruction to the rude population of the twelfth century. There exists the record of one of these religious spectacles, which received the name of Mysteries or Miracles, from the sacred nature of their subject and personages, having been represented in the Convent of Dunstable in 1119. It was called the Play of St. Catherine, and in all probability consisted of a rude dramatized picture of the miracles and martyrdom of that saint, performed on the festival which commemorated her death. In an age when the great mass of the laity, from the highest to the lowest, were in a state of extreme ignorance, and when the little learning that then existed was exclusively in the hands of ecclesiastics, it was quite natural that the latter, which was then the governing class, should employ so obvious an expedient for communicating some elementary religious instruction to the people, and by gratifying the curiosity of their rude hearers, extend and strengthen the influence of the Church. It is known that this play of St. Catherine was performed in French,