Raleigh is not dwarfed. In the momentous events of the time, which involved all subsequent history; in the conflicts between Roman supremacy and Protestant independence; in the contest with Spain which was to decide the sovereignty of the seas, and the peopling of the new world, he had, as counsellor of the queen and admiral of the fleet, no insignificant share. His versatility of genius was almost unexampled; and to whatever form of activity he turned his attention, he exhibited efficiency and achieved distinction. His capacious mind was equally at home in devising a comprehensive state policy, in managing practical details, and in cultivating the graces of literature.

Born in 1552, near the city of Exeter in Devonshire, -a county that during the sixteenth century gave England Bishop Jewell, Sir Francis Drake, and Richard Hooker,he entered Oxford at the age of fourteen and distinguished himself as a rhetorician and philosopher. With strong Protestant feeling, he went to France and fought as a volunteer in the Huguenot armies. In 1578 he joined an expedition sent to the Netherlands to oppose Don John of Austria; and a little later he accompanied his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, on a voyage to America, the purpose of which was to antagonize Spanish interests. In 1580 he went with Lord Grey (whose secretary was Edmund Spenser) to Ireland, which was then in a state of insurrection, and distinguished himself by his energy and courage. At the court in London he won the special favor of Queen Elizabeth, and became one of her principal counsellors. His tact was admirable. He was once attending the queen on a walk; and when, on coming to a muddy

place, she hesitated for a moment, Raleigh instantly spread his rich plush cloak in the way for her feet. He was made in succession Captain of the Guard, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, Lord Warden of the Stannaries, and Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall.

In the conflict with Spain, Raleigh was of eminent service. When the news reached London that the Armada was advancing, he posted himself, eager for the fray, off the southern coast of England, in order to fly at the flanks of the invading fleet. In council he advocated the tactics by which the Armada was defeated and England saved. In 1589 he made a visit to Ireland and renewed his friendship with Spenser. He brought the author of the "Faery Queene" to London and introduced him at court. a service acknowledged in a poem entitled "Colin Clout's Come Home Again," in which Raleigh figures as the "Shepherd of the Ocean."

Of Raleigh's varied other services as naval commander and explorer, there is not space to speak. With the death of Elizabeth in 1603 his fortunes began to decline. He incurred the displeasure of James I. First deprived of his offices, he was finally imprisoned on a charge of conspiracy. In spite of his innocence, eloquent defence, and admirable bearing, he was adjudged guilty and sentenced to death. The king did not venture to execute the sentence; and after being brought on the scaffold, Raleigh was reprieved and led back to the Tower. He employed the thirteen tedious years of his imprisonment in study, and in 1614 he published his "History of the World." It is an unfinished work, coming down only to the year 170 B.C. As a record of facts, it has long since been super

seded; but it still possesses interest as the best specimen of historical prose that had yet appeared in England. Raleigh's large experience and practical sense preserved him from pedantry, while his reflections are often striking and sometimes eloquent. "O eloquent, just, and mighty death!" he exclaims, "whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised; thou hast drawn together all the far-fetched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, hic jacet !"

Apart from numerous prose writings - epistolary, maritime, geographical, political, and historical - Raleigh felt the impulse of poetry. He contemplated an English epic; but his busy life left him leisure for only a few miscellaneous pieces, in which depth of sentiment is associated with felicitous expression. His reply to Marlowe's "Passionate Shepherd" is well known:

"If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love."

The man of deeds rather than of words is portrayed in the following lines:

"Passions are likened best to floods and streams;

The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb;
So, when affections yield discourse, it seems
The bottom is but shallow whence they come.
They that are rich in words, in words discover
That they are poor in that which makes a lover."

The lines he wrote the night before his execution pos

sess a melancholy interest :

"Even such is time, that takes in trust

Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with earth and dust;
Who, in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days;

But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust.”

The poetic activity of the First Creative Period is astonishing. The list of poets contains no fewer than two hundred names, and many of them were prolific writers. The poetry of this time exhibits all the exuberant vigor of youth, and often also, as might be expected, a youthful immaturity. The choice of subjects is frequently unhappy, and naturalness of style is often supplanted by pedantic affectations. Except in the case of a few master-spirits, the wine of poetry had not yet had time to run clear.

Apart from the drama, the lyrical productions are by far the most successful, and some of them are admirable in form and spirit, comparing favorably with the efforts of a later day. The Elizabethan lyric originated, not among the people, but largely among the cultured circles of the court. The poets of this period were not inaptly styled "courtly makers." The subjects are generally erotic, and the treatment prevailingly objective. What appeals to the senses, rather than to the reflective powers, is made prominent. The lyrical measures are exceedingly varied, though the basis is almost always iambic. The influences pro

ducing this rich variety were threefold: (1) the old national metre with its assonance and alliteration; (2) the metrical forms of France and Italy, which were extensively imitated; and (3) the classical metres, which were studied with enthusiasm.

There are several lengthy poems - Sackville's "Mirror for Magistrates," Warner's "Albion's England," Daniel's "Civil Wars," and Drayton's "Polyolbion " - which can not be spoken of so favorably. They are indeed models of patient authorship, and exhibit great skill in mechanical verse-making; but they have, as a rule, the serious defect of being unreadable. Nothing but the most ardent patriotism can find them interesting. Most persons, after looking into these poems, will discover some basis for the humorous criticism of Lowell, who speaks of this age as "the period of the saurians in English poetry, interminable poems, book after book and canto after canto, like far reaching vertebræ that at first sight would seem to have rendered earth unfit for the habitation of man. They most of them sleep well now, as once they made their readers sleep, and their huge remains lie embedded in the deep morasses of Chambers and Anderson. We wonder at the length of face and general atrabilious look that mark the portraits of the men of that generation, but it is no marvel when even their relaxations were such downright hard work. Fathers, when their day on earth was up, must have folded down the leaf and left the task to be finished by their sons a dreary inheritance."

When the Christian church gained the ascendency in ancient Rome, it set itself in opposition to dramatic representations, which at that time were characterized by lewd

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