troubled the advance of learning and refinement amongst mankind. The revival of learning, and the discredit fallen on the 'lazy cells where superstition bred,' promised a halcyon period; but the enemy of mankind, inspiring Loyola, Luther, and Calvin with an infernal spirit of bigotry, had dashed those hopes to the ground. Fanaticism, dislodged from the monasteries, had taken possession of the printing press. Authority had fallen only to give place to sectaries and schismatics of a hundred types, all quarrelling with one another, and inflated with spiritual pride and a boundless presumption :

But seven wise men the ancient world did know,

We scarce know seven who think themselves not so.

In a poem on Lord Strafford, Denham calls him

'Three kingdoms' wonder, and three kingdoms' fear.' He also wrote some interesting memorial verses Cowley's death, and burial amongst the ancient poets.'

On Mr. Abraham

19. William Habington, the representative of an old Catholic family settled at Hindlip in Worcestershire, is known as the author of the collection of pretty love-poems and quaint paraphrases on verses in the Psalms published in 1635 under the title of Castara. This was the name which he gave to the fair and noble maiden who had won his heart, Lucy Herbert, a daughter of the first Lord Powis. The poetry of Habington is sweet, pleasing, and pure; this last characteristic distinguishes it favourably from nearly all the love-verses of the period. The tender pacific nature of the man is well shown in the following lines, which come at the end of a poem 'To the Honble. Mr. Wm. G.'

And tho' my fate conducts me to the shade
Of humble quiet, my ambition payde
With safe content, while a pure virgin fame
Doth raise me trophies in Castara's name;
No thought of glory swelling me above
The hope of being famed for virtuous love;
Yet wish I thee, guided by better starres,
To purchase unsafe honour in the warres,
Or envied smiles at court; for thy great race,
And merits, well may challenge th' highest place;
Yet know, what busie path so ere you tread

To greatnesse, you must sleep among the dead.

20. Only three poets took the Puritan side; but quality made up for quantity. John Milton was born in London in the year 1608. At sixteen he was sent to Cambridge, where he speedily gave proofs of an astonishing vigour and versatility of intellect by the Latin and English compositions, chiefly the former, which he produced in his college years. In spite of the

was a kind of forerunner of Pope, and a writer of the classical school.

38. Samuel Butler, the son of a Worcestershire farmer, lived for some years in early life in the house of Sir Samuel Luke, one of Cromwell's commanders, who furnished him with the original of Hudibras. While staying here he composed his famous satire. Little is known with certainty about his manner of life after the Restoration. It is certain, however, that he was befriended by Buckingham, and by Dryden's patron, the Earl of Dorset, and also that he passed all the latter part of his life in extreme poverty. The king, though he was extremely fond of Hudibras, and used constantly to quote from it, suffered the author to starve with his usual selfishness and ingratitude. This famous poem, which is in substance a satire on Puritans and Puritanism, may also be regarded as a burlesque on romances, the influence of Don Quixote being apparent; and even as, in a partial sense, a parody on the Faerie Queene, the titles to the cantos being clearly imitated from those of Spenser. The political importance of the poem was great. It turned the laugh against those terrible Puritans, a handful of whom had so long held the nation down, and defeated more effectually than cannon-balls or arguments could have done the stubborn crew of errant saints,'

who build their faith upon
The holy text of pike and gun;
Decide all controversies by
Infallible artillery;

6

And prove their doctrine orthodox

By apostolic blows and knocks.

This famous satire is in three parts, containing three cantos each. The mere plot is slight, and may be described in a few words. The knight, Sir Hudibras, who is a Presbyterian, attended by his squire Ralpho, who belongs to the ranks of those formidable sectaries who overturned both king and parliament, sally forth to put down a bearbaiting. They come upon the rabble rout, whom the knight in a long speech bids to disperse. Their leaders, Talgol, Orsin, Trulla, &c., laugh him to scorn: a fight ensues, full of droll ups and downs, in the course of which the bear gets loose and helps Hudibras in putting the crowd to flight. Presently, however, they rally and return to the attack; Trulla defeats and disarms the knight, and he and his squire are laid by the heels in the parish stocks. Here they are visited by the widow,' the object of the knight's mercenary affections. A long conversation ensues, of which the upshot is, that in consideration of his swearing to give himself a severe flogging, the widow causes Hudibras to be released from the stocks. Next morning he repairs to the place where he is to perform the promised operation. But scruples arising within him concerning the legality of keeping his oath, he refers the case to Ralpho, who argues powerfully and lengthily in favour of the non-obligation on the knight, being a saint, to keep his oath :

For all of us hold this for true,
No faith is to the wicked due;
For truth is precious and divine,
Too rich a pearl for carnal swine.

Hudibras follows in the same strain; the idea presently occurs to him of taking the whipping vicariously, which Ralpho approves, but strongly demurs to becoming the substitute himself. The whipping thus falls through; but doubting whether the widow would not find him out, the knight resolves to go to Sidrophel the conjuror, and have his fortune told. He goes; but through his speaking contemptuously of Sidrophel's art, a fight ensues, in which the knight is victorious, disarming Sidrophel, kicking his man Whackum out of the house, and departing with much plunder. In the third part the story flags, and at last breaks down altogether. The knight again endeavours to make an impression on the widow's heart, but to no purpose. The second canto dismisses Hudibras from sight altogether, being merely a long tirade against the Puritanic'saints' and their proceedings in the civil war. In the third and last canto the knight seriously thinks of invoking the arm of the law, and of suing instead of wooing, but first indites an heroical epistle to the widow, with whose epistle in reply the poem ends.

Such is the plot; but these slight outlines are filled up, so as to compose a poem of more than 11,000 lines, with long dialogues between Hudibras and his squire or the widow, discussing for the most part points of Puritanic casuistry. Thus the whole of the first canto of the second part is taken up with a conversation between Hudibras and the widow, the former urging his love, and insisting on the duty of his fair one to accept him, the latter making various objections and counter-propositions. Again, the second canto of the same part consists chiefly of a discussion between Hudibras and Ralpho on the obligation of oaths, as between the saints and the wicked. For though Hudibras has evidently an insuperable objection to fulfilling his oath to the widow in regard to the whipping, yet he desires to extricate himself from the obligation in such a manner as that his tender and scrupulous conscience may be entirely at rest. Ralpho's earnestness in drawing lines of demarcation between the saints, amongst whom he and his master were of course shining lights, and the sinners, is admirably described::

Again,

For as on land there is no beast,
But in some fish at sea's exprest,
So in the wicked there's no vice,
Of which the saints have not a spice;
And yet that thing that's pious in
The one, in th' other is a sin.

He that imposes an oath makes it,

Not he that for convenience takes it;
Then how can any man be said

To break an oath he never made?

39. Sir William Davenant, knighted by the king for services before 'Gloucester in 1643, is the author of Gondibert and a few minor poems.

The story of Gondibert is unfinished; in fact, the author himself tells us in a postscript that just one-half of the poem, as it was originally designed, is presented to the reader. The scene is laid in Italy; the principal action is the courtship of the Princess Rhodalind, daughter of Aribert, king of Tuscany, in rivalry for whose love her most powerful suitors, Duke Gondibert and Prince Oswald, engage in internecine strife. Davenant seems to have been a disciple of Hobbes and a necessitarian; we have the sage Astragon in the second book discoursing at great length to the purport of what follows:--

But penitence appears unnatural;

For we repent what Nature did persuade,
And we, lamenting man's continued fall,
Accuse what Nature necessary made.

Considerable intellectual power and literary skill are evident in the structure of this poem; but as the fictitious narrative is in itself wholly uninteresting, and the springs of passion are not strongly touched, the result is but moderately satisfactory.

Heroic Plays: Dryden, Otway, Lee, Crowne, Behn ;-Comedy of Manners, Congreve, Etherege, Wycherley:-Jeremy Collier.

40. The position of the English drama after the Restoration may be explained in a few words. The theatres had been closed ever since the Puritan party had gained the mastery in London, that is, since the year 1643. At the Restoration they were reopened as a matter of course: the king during his long foreign sojourn had become used to and fond of theatrical entertainments; the courtiers ostentatiously shared in the royal taste; and the long-silenced wits were only too glad of a favourable opportunity of displaying their powers. Two theatres were licensed; one, which was under the direct patronage of Charles, was called the King's, the other, which was patronized by his brother, was known as the Duke's, theatre. Dryden, who, as has been mentioned, took to writing plays at this time for a livelihood, attached himself to the former. The taste of the king was for the French school in tragedy, and the Spanish school in comedy; and the influence of both is perceptible in Dryden's plays for many years. He could not, indeed, adopt

the French heroic metre--the Alexandrine-for which our language is eminently unsuited; but, retaining the ten-syllable verse of the Elizabethan dramatists, he followed Corneille and Racan in forming it into riming couplets. In the plot and manner of his early pieces the Spanish taste conspicuously prevails. The high-flown sentiment, the daring enterprise, the romantic adventure, of the days of chivalry, still hold their

ground in them,—still please a society which the modern critical spirit had as yet but partially invaded. These heroic plays of Dryden's are rightly described by Scott as 'metrical romances in the form of dramas.' A brief outline of the plot of the Conquest of Granada, the most brilliant and successful among them, will best explain this definition :—

The scene is laid in the Moorish kingdom of Granada; the period is the fifteenth century, about the time of the conquest of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella. Almanzor, a peerless and invincible Moorish knight-errant, who owns no master upon earth, and, amongst other enormous boasts, is made to say,

I am as free as Nature first made man,
Ere the base laws of servitude began,

When wild in woods the noble savage ran;

nor has hitherto stooped to love, breaks in upon a fight between two Moorish factions at Granada, and by the might of his single arm puts the combatants to flight. He then offers his services to the Moorish king Boabdelin. He transfers his allegiance several times in the course of the play, from the king to his plotting brother Abdalla, and back again; but the side, whichever it is, that he supports, with ease puts its enemies to the rout. His love, when he once yields to the passion, is as romantic as his valour. While aiding Abdalla, he takes captive Almahide, a noble lady betrothed to Boabdelin. The first glance from her eyes causes him to fall desperately in love; but hearing of her engagement, he magnanimously resolves to release her. Later, after he has carried his sword to the side of the king, and having provoked Boabdelin by his arrogance to order his guards to fall upon him has been overpowered and sentenced to die, Almahide obtains his pardon as the price of her consenting to marry the king immediately. Hearing this, Almanzor would have killed himself; but Almahide lays her command upon him to live, and he obeys. After he has left the court, and the Christian armies are pressing strongly forward, a word from her recalls him, and his prowess rolls back for a time the tide of invasion. In the concluding battle the king is slain, and Almanzor recognizes in the Spanish general, after nearly killing him, his own father, from whom he had been separated in infancy. Almahide and he become Christians, and agree to marry when her year of widowhood is expired.

Other heroic plays composed by Dryden are, The Indian Emperor, or The Conquest of Mexico (1665), and Tyrannick Love, or The Royal Martyr (1669).

41. Such was the material of which Dryden's tragedies were composed down to the year 1671,-a notable epoch in his dramatic career. The heroic play, it must be evident, from its tumid exaggerated style, offered a broad mark for a clever satirist; and its weak points were accordingly seized with great effect by the Duke of Buckingham and his coadjutors Sprat and