omitted.* The following is the description by an eye-witness of such a fête, given by Elizabeth at her palace of Hampton Court, in the spring of 1581 "The central point of attraction was a splendid tournament. Scaffolding was erected on both the sides and ends of a square, for an extraordinary concourse of spectators. First appeared forty lords and gentlemen in magnificent dresses covered with precious stones, and riding on Spanish or Italian horses richly caparisoned; next followed eight heralds bearing the ensign of England, and four trumpeters in red and yellow velvet. After these came four marshals and judges of the Lists, accompanied by many noble personages. Next followed four bands of combatants; first, the followers of the Earl of Arundel, &c. After riding round the ring, with their lances in rest and their visors down, they drew up in a line before the Queen. Hereupon an ancient tower was rolled forward, on which was erected a triple chandelier with flambeaus. Out of a door in the tower a large serpent wound itself, and tried to ascend a tree richly laden with fruit, which stood close by. Behind the tower were six eagles skilfully contrived, in the bodies of which musicians and trumpeters were concealed. In the next place two horses appeared, without saddles, and gilded all over, and on each sat a little boy with golden locks, and clothed in flowing robes of silver tissue. Then came a triumphal car, which apparently moved backwards, on which sat the three Sisters of Fate, dragging after them, by a golden chain, a noble knight as prisoner:" &c. &c. On the following day, when the sword-fight took place, there was no want of similar ingenious and fanciful devices.†

The tone of morals in this age was not, in truth, the most severe. The relation of the sexes was light and loose, and bore rather an impress of the sensual and fantastic gallantry of chivalry, than the moral and religious character of Christianity. Intrigue and gallant adventures were looked upon as indispensable to the finished gentleman. Elizabeth herself, though in all probability really pure and spotless, set an evil example by her light and

* Raumer, Gesch. Eur. after Johnston, 252. Aikin, ii, 307. Osborn, Mem. of Eliz. 380.

† Raumer, Briefe aus Paris, ii. 500, 504.

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inconsiderate way, both of talking and behaving, which evinced pretty strongly the natural bias of her inclinations. To the Earl of Leicester, for instance, she assigned a chamber in the palace close to her own. Henneage, Hatton, Raleigh, Oxford, Blount, Anjou, were generally looked upon as her admitted suitors; of her fondness for Essex she latterly made no disguise, after she had had him executed for treason; and at a very advanced age she conferred extraordinary favours on an Earl of Clancarty, for no other reason than his great personal beauty.* Without a lover of this kind, who was half the servant of her Majesty, half the suitor to her beauty, she seems to have been unable to live. gratify this weakness of her heart, or her known vanity, her courtiers, and all who approached her, vied with each other in gallantry and flattery. It was but natural that the whole court should imitate the example set them by the Queen, and it is therefore nothing singular if strict moralists, like Faunt and Harrington, called it a place "where every enormity prevailed, where there was little godliness or practice of religion; where in general the most licentious habits and evil conversation were to be met with, and where there was no love but that of the wanton god Asmodeno."+ That the whole nation should have followed in some degree the example of the court, is at once to be supposed; Molino expressly charges the English people with intemperance and gluttony. The vice of drunkenness especially seems to have been very general (Drake, ii. 124. 128.) However morally wrong all this undoubtedly was, yet it is nevertheless undeniable, that this general selfindulgence and luxury, and no less this freedom of manners, were well calculated, in a youthful, vigorous, and masculine age, to invest all things with a halo of poetical, fantastic, and sensuous imagery. On the other hand, it should be remembered that the extreme license of the court had its antidote in the gloomy severity of the Puritans; and as all violent extremes quickly find their adjustment, we may safely conclude that the middle classes at least were sound at heart, and formed a right mean between the frivolity of the court and the Pharisaism of the Puritans.

Birch, i. 39. 25. Nuga Antiquæ, 166. Lingard, ibid.

To what height of excellence art generally, or at all events poetry, rose in Elizabeth's reign, has been already shown in the preceding section. The great number of compositions in every branch of poetry, which about the time of Shakspeare appeared contemporaneously with the no less numerous dramas, is really astonishing, and we cannot but concur with the laborious Drake, (i. 601), who enumerates them all, in regarding the fiftytwo years from 1564-1616, as the most prolific period of English poetical literature. Although Elizabeth did not spend very large sums in patronizing it, still (what was far better,) she possessed a pure and cultivated taste, and a genuine love of music and poetry. She played extremely well on the clavier, sung to the guitar, made translations from Horace and other classical authors, and tried her own powers of composition in some lyrical pieces, to which it is impossible to deny the merit of a certain gracefulness and poetical turn.* In all these accomplishments the nobles and courtiers were her rivals. Science also was held in high estimation, and advanced as far as the practical, rather than the speculative character of the age, permitted. With the Reformation, a new dawn. had broken upon science. "Whoever has the means," the Florentine Petruccio Ubaldini writes of England, even in the year 1551, "has his sons and daughters taught Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, for since the storm of heresy first burst over this land it has been held to be necessary for every one to read the Scriptures in their original tongues. Even the poor, who are unable to give their children a scientific education, are still anxious that they should not appear ignorant, or altogether devoid of the refinement of the world," &c. &c.

The single name of Bacon, of Verulam, who justly stands at the head of modern science and philosophy, will prove more than a long catalogue of high-sounding and learned title-pages. He is the representative of that free scientific inquiry which from the time of the Reformation extended itself to every province of intellectual life-the beginning of a new period of enlightenment, in which

*Raumer, Gesch. ii. 616. Lingard, viii. 417. See further, Camden, 736. Keralio, v. 464. Andrews, i. 107, 204. Lodge, ii. 41; iii. 148. Sydney, pap. i. 375, 385, ii. 262.

Raumer, Briefe aus Paris, ii. 70.

the human mind sought from out of the depths of reflection to establish fundamentally, and to give a new shape to, the eternal laws of religion and morality, art, and science, and looked to find the immutable principles of truth in the profundity of its own consciousness. Even though those who laboured with, and in the spirit of, Bacon, were as yet few, yet a new and irresistibly powerful principle of life was introduced into every branch of science, and especially into theology. The controversies between the Romanists and the Protestants, between the High Church party and the Puritans, embraced every topic of divinity, and was fought out with the sword of religious enthusiasm, as well as with the knife of critical acumen; and not only on the proper domain of faith, but on that also of philosophy and science. Stimulated by Bacon's example, Edward Herbert, Lord Cherbury (born 1581, died 1648) sought to determine the notion and nature of truth, both religious and moral; and John Barclay, in his " Icon Animorum," (London, 1614), attempted to develope a science of psychology; and in his "Argenis," (Paris, 1621), the art of government and policy in the spirit of the new scientific principle. William Gilbert (died 1603) comprised the whole doctrine of physics in a new system, resting on the principle of magnetical attraction; while John Napier (d. 1618) and Thomas Harriot (d. 1621) greatly advanced mathematical science, the one by the invention of logarithms, the other by the completion of algebra. Opposite to these clear thinkers stood Robert Fludd the mystic (b. 1754, d. 1635), with his extensive learning and profound theosophic intuitions, with Kenelm Digby, and others. But the study of antiquity, in particular, was cultivated with new and hitherto unparalleled zeal, (Drake, i. 448). By this, and the steadily and rapidly increasing literary and mercantile intercourse with different nations, a certain halo of learned polish and refinement was diffused over all classes of the people. Here, also, Elizabeth led the way, by her own example. She spoke three foreign languages - Spanish, French, and Italian; she read much, and was not only well acquainted with the actual state and circumstances of her own and the neighbouring kingdoms, but (to quote the words of Bouillon) also knew something of history and science. That, although she may have been *Raumer, ibid. Beitr., i. 687. Lingard, ibid.

superior to most others, she yet did not stand quite alone in the possession of these learned accomplishments, admits not of doubt. How widely, for instance, a knowledge, generally indeed superficial, of classical antiquity, and particularly of its poetry and mythology, was diffused among all classes of the people, is sufficiently established by the following well-authenticated particulars :Elizabeth herself spoke not only Latin, but likewise Greek; her preceptor, Roger Ascham, boasts of her great progress in these difficult languages, and affirms that, during her long residence at Windsor, she read more Greek in one day than a Canon of the Chapel Royal would Latin in a week-nay more, in her 65th year, she amused herself by translating Plutarch's Treatise on Curiosity.* Her successor, James I., shared her predilection for books and literary occupations; whatever may have been his other faults and weaknesses, he undoubtedly possessed a highly-cultivated mind, and could justly lay claim to great theological learning (Drake, i. 434; Beaumont, in Raumer's Briefe, ii. 245. &c.), and was apparently not without a taste for the arts. In the age of Shakspeare, allusions, quotations, and illustrations from ancient authors, ran through the whole conversation and amusements of society, as may be seen in the dramas of Lilly, Peele, Greene, Marlowe, and others; and the daughters of the nobility, and all who pretended to a good education, were carefully instructed in Greek and Latin. Moreover, the ancient myths were frequently, on festive occasions, the subjects of the scenic representation at Court. A play of the kind is still recorded, bearing the title of "The Arraignment of Paris," in which the boys of the Chapel Royal represented the judgment of Paris, with the slight change, however, that Elizabeth herself is placed among the Goddesses, and Paris is arraigned for assigning to Venus, and not to her, the apple of beauty. When the Queen honoured any of the grandees o her kingdom with a visit, she was welcomed at the threshold byf the Penates, received by Mercury, and by him conducted to her chamber. In the pleasure-grounds, the lakes were ornamented with Tritons and Nereids; and Wood Nymphs (Pages disguised) animated the thickets, while servants, in the garb of Satyrs, leaped about,

* Raumer, Gesch. ibid. + Warton's History of English Poetry, iii. 90.