For example, the familiar Ballad of Chevy Chase is an attempt at improving an old ballad; yet the old song is superior in vigor, in vivacity, and is far more inspiring to the fancy. A few stanzas may illustrate its energy.

"The Persè owt * of Northombarlande,†

And a vowe to God mayd he,

That he wolde hunte in the mountayns
Off chyviat within ‡ dayes thre,
In the mauger § of doughti Doglas,
And all that ever with him be.

"The fattiste hartes in all cheviat

He sayd he wold kill and cary them away;
'Be my feth,' sayd the doughti Doglas agayn,
'I wyll let that hontyng yf that I may.'

"Then the Persè owt of Banborowe cam,
With him a myghtye meany, ¶

With fifteen hundrith archares bold;

The wear chosen out of shyars ** thre."

There follows a description of the foray beginning on a Monday morning, of the scattering of the huntsmen, of the gathering and dressing of the deer, of the alert watchers, of the oncoming of Douglas and his men, of the parley before the fight, of the onset, of the bloody death of the two leaders, and of the unyielding struggle until the sun went down. The woe of bereaved women is touchingly depicted; and then the poem closes boldly and bluntly. It was of this ballad that Sir Philip Sidney said in his Apologie for Poetrie, "I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas, that I found not my heart more moved than with a trumpet."

In this chapter we have considered

1. William Caxton. 2. The Paston Letters.

-3. James

During.

A strong company.

** Shires.

*See Life and Times of Saint Anselm by Martin Rule (1883).

For Exeter Book see note p. 23. The Vercelli Book was discovered at Vercelli, forty miles southwest of Milan, Italy, by Fr. Blume. An edition with translations was published for the Elfric Society, Ed. J. M. Kemble (1843, 1856).

Version by T. Arnold (1880).

* See Metrical Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester, Ed. W. A. Wright (1887); Life of Becket, Ed. W. H. Black, Vol. XIX., Percy Society publications (1845). † Edited with notes and glossaries by Early English Text Society (1866). Gesta Romanorum, Ed. Sir Frederick Madden (1838).

§ Ed. Thomas Wright in Vol. XXVIII., Percy Society publications (1849).

THE THIRD PERIOD.

The Tudors, including the Elizabethan Age,

1485-1603.

CHAPTER IX.

THE TUDOR PERIOD TO SPENSER.

THE English spirit becomes dominant in England under the Tudors. The commons are the nation. Parliament is timid and subservient, misusing but possessing its modern powers. Scotland is Anglicized in religion and political ties, and only awaits the advent of its king to the English throne to become an integral part of Great Britain. Foreign influence pervades the land, but it is social and literary, not political. Monasteries are suppressed, and the Reformation triumphs because the people want a national Church. Commercial and industrial independence is achieved. National energy overflows, into new enterprise, and England is become a great power in European politics, because she is a distinct and independent nationality.*

We pass by Stephen Hawes,† whose rhyming allegories are a connecting link showing the transition from Chaucerian tales to the allegorizing so popular in Spenser's time.

*See Chap. II., pp. 14, 15.

† His Pastime of Pleasure may be found in Vol. XVIII. of the Percy Society publications (1845).