That may compassion of their evils move?
There is; else much more wretched were the case
Of men than beasts: but oh, the exceeding grace
Of highest God, that loves his creatures so,
And all his works with mercy doth embrace,
That blessed angels he sends to and fro,

To serve to wicked man, to serve his wicked foe?

How oft do they their silver bowers leave
To come to succor us that succor want!
How oft do they with golden pinions cleave
The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant,
Against foul fiends to aid us militant!

They for us fight, they watch and duly ward,
And their bright squadrons round about us plant,—
And all for love and nothing for reward:

Oh, why should Heavenly God to men have such regard?
F. Q., Bk. II., Canto VIII.

SHAKSPEARE. 1564-1616.

William Shakspeare, the greatest dramatist, and probably the greatest genius, of all time, was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1564. His boyhood was passed in his native village, where, when about eighteen, he married Ann Hathaway, a woman eight years older than himself. Soon after he went to London, where he became successively an actor, a dramatist, and a theatrical manager. Having obtained both fame and fortune, he retired in 1611 to Stratford, where he died in 1616, on his fifty-second birthday.

His greatest works are his dramas, thirty-seven in number. These may be classified, as to their nature, into Tragedies and Comedies; as to their origin, into Historical and Fictitious. The historical plays may be still further divided into Authentic and Legendary. Among the best of his tragedies are Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, and King Lear; among the best comedies, The Merchant of Venice, As you Like it, and Midsummer Night's Dream; among the best historical plays, Julius Cæsar, King Henry IV., King Henry V., and King Richard III.

EXTRACTS.

I.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. Hamlet.

II.

This above all-to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

III.

Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Hamlet.

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

IV.

The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,

As you Like it.

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And, as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen

Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.

V.

Midsummer Night's Dream.

These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

BACON. 1561-1626.

The Tempest.

Sir Francis Bacon, known as Lord Bacon, was born in 1561, and died in 1626. After his graduation he spent some time in travel, then studied law, and rapidly rose from one honor to another, until

he became Viscount St. Albans and Lord High Chancellor of England. Finally, being convicted of accepting bribes, he was removed from office, banished from court, and heavily fined. Bacon was in many respects one of the greatest men that ever lived, but he is especially honored as "the father of inductive philosophy." His most profound work is Novum Organum (The New Organ), but his most popular one is his Essays.

No pleasure is comparable to the standing on the vantage-ground of truth.

III.

A little philosophy inclineth a man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.

OTHER AUTHORS OF THIS AGE.

NON-DRAMATIC POETS.

THOMAS SACKVILLE (1536-1608), Earl of Dorset, author of Mirror for Magistrates.

ROBERT SOUTHWELL (1560-1595), a devout poet, memorable alike for his sufferings and his genius. Being a Jesuit, he died a martyr to his religion. Author of St. Peter's Complaint, Magdalene's Tears, Content and Rich, etc. SAMUEL DANIEL (1562-1619), known as "well-languaged Daniel," author of Musophilus, and History of the Wars of the Roses.

MICHAEL DRAYTON (1563-1631), author of Polyolbion and many other poems.

GEORGE HERBERT (1593-1632), known as "Holy George Herbert," author of The Temple, and The Country Parson. One of the best of our sacred poets.

DRAMATIC POETS.

CHRISTOPHER Marlowe (1564-1593), the greatest dramatist before Shakspeare, author of Tamburlane and Faustus.

BEN JONSON (1574-1637), second to Shakspeare only, author of Every Man in his Humor, Volpone, or the Fox, Sejanus, etc.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER, very popular in their day, wrote Two Noble Kinsmen, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife, Faithful Shepherdess, and many other works. Some were written by them jointly, some by Fletcher alone. PHILIP MASSINGER (1584-1640), author of Duke of Milan, Fatal Dowry, New Way to Pay Old Debts, etc.

WEBSTER, FORD, CHAPMAN, SHIRLEY, and several others, were also distinguished dramatists of the second class.

PROSE WRITERS.

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (1554-1586), one of the most chivalrous gentlemen and accomplished writers of this age, author of Arcadia, a prose romance; Defence of Poesy; and some beautiful Sonnets.

SIR WALTER RALEIGH (1552-1618), courtier, soldier, adventurer, and writer, author of History of the World (written in prison), and several poems of much merit. He was executed by order of James I.

ROGER ASCHAM (1515-1568), tutor of Princess (afterward Queen) Elizabeth, and author of Toxophilus (archery), and The Schoolmaster.

RICHARD HOOKER (1553-1600), a learned and eloquent divine, author of Ecclesiastical Polity.

Y PERIOD IV.—AGE OF MILTON.

1625-1660.

(Reign of Charles I. and Protectorate of Cromwell.)

HIS was an age of fierce political and religious controversy.

of

the Cavaliers and Roundheads, and the rise and fall of the Commonwealth and Protectorate. It was not favorable to authorship, hence but few works were produced, and these were mostly of a religious and controversial character. Of the authors who lived during this period, there were, however, a few of great excellence. Of these the most celebrated are John Milton and John Bunyan.

MILTON. 1608–1674.

John Milton, the greatest of English poets since Shakspeare, was born in 1608, and died in 1674. Having spent seven years at the university and five years in studious retirement at home, he set out, at the age of thirty, on a continental tour; but returned on the breaking out of the civil war, and soon after entered the service of Cromwell as Latin secretary, and contributed powerfully by his pen to the success of the Puritan cause. On the Restora

tion, he was forced into retirement, and devoted himself, in pov erty, blindness, and political disgrace, to the composition of his great epic.

Milton's principal poetical works are-Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes (a drama), Comus (a masque), L’Allegro, Il Penseroso, Hymn to the Nativity.

The best of his prose works is Areopagitica, a Plea for Unlicensed Printing.

Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye,
In every gesture dignity and love.

III.

P. L.,Bk. VIII.

Accuse not Nature, she hath done her part,
Do thou but thine.

IV.

P. L., Bk. VIII.

Virtue could see to do what virtue would,

By her own radiant light, though sun and moon
Were in the flat sea sunk.

V.

A thousand fantasies

Begin to throng into my memory,

Comus.

Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire,
And airy tongues that syllable men's names

On sands and shores and desert wildernesses.

Comus.

BUNYAN. 1628-1688.

John Bunyan, at first a poor, profane tinker, wrote, after his conversion, and while confined in Bedford jail, the greatest allegory in the world, Pilgrim's Progress. It has been translated into nearly every language, and has probably exerted a wider influence than any other religious book except the Bible.