id never mortall eye behold such heavenly grace.

"It fortuned out of the thickest wood
A ramping Lyon rushed suddeinly,
Hunting full greedy after salvage blood.
Soone as the royall virgin he did spy,
With gaping mouth at her ran greedily,
To have att once devoured her tender corse;
But to the pray when as he drew more ny,
His bloody rage aswaged with remorse,
And with the sight amazd, forgat his furious forse.

"In stead thereof he kist her wearie feet,
And lickt her lilly hands with fawning tong,
As he her wronged innocence did weet.
O, how can beautie maister the most strong,
And simple truth subdue avenging wrong!"[9]

The power of beauty has seldom been more vividly described. As we read
the succeeding stanzas and see the lion following her, like a faithful
dog, to shield her from harm, we feel the power of both beauty and
goodness and realize that with Spenser these terms are
interchangeable, Each one of the preceding selections shows his
preference for the subjective and the ideal to the actual.

Spenser searched for old and obsolete words. He used "eyne" for
"eyes," "fone" for "foes," "shend" for "shame." He did not hesitate to
coin words when he needed them, like "mercify" and "fortunize." He
even wrote "wawes" in place of "waves" because he wished it to rime
with "jaws." In spite of these peculiarities, Spenser is not hard
reading after the first appearance of strangeness has worn away.

A critic rightly says that Spenser repels none but the anti-poetical.
His influence upon other poets has been far-reaching. Milton, Dryden,
Byron, Wordsworth, Keats, and Shelley show traces of his influence.
Spenser has been called the poet's poet, because the more poetical one
is, the more one will enjoy him.

THE ENGLISH DRAMA

The Early Religious Drama.--It is necessary to remember at the
outset that the purpose of the religious drama was not to amuse, but
to give a vivid presentation of scriptural truth. On the other hand,
the primary aim of the later dramatist has usually been to entertain,
or, in Shakespeare's exact words, "to please." Shakespeare was,
however, fortunate in having an audience that was pleased to be
instructed, as well as entertained.

Before the sixteenth century, England had a religious drama that made
a profound impression on life and thought. The old religious plays
helped to educate the public, the playwrights, and the actors for the
later drama