s_ (1775) and _The School
for Scandal_ (1777), by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, are the chief
exceptions before 1890.

SUMMARY

The Elizabethan age was a period of expansion in knowledge, commerce,
religious freedom, and human opportunities. The defeat of the Armada
freed England from fear of Spanish domination and made her mistress of
the sea.

England was vivified by the combined influence of the Renaissance and
the Reformation. Knowledge was expanding in every direction and
promising to crown human effort with universal mastery. The greater
feeling of individuality was partly due to the Reformation, which
emphasized the direct responsibility of each individual for all acts
affecting the welfare of his soul.

Elizabethans were noted for their resourcefulness, their initiative,
their craving for new experiences, and their desire to realize the
utmost out of life. As they cared little for ideas that could not be
translated into action, they were particularly interested in the
drama.

Although the prose covers a wide field, it is far inferior to the
poetry. Lyly's _Euphues_ suffers from overwrought conceits and forced
antitheses, but it influenced writers to pay more attention to the
manner in which thought was expressed. The flowery prose of Sidney's
_Arcadia_ presents a pastoral world of romance. His _Apologie for
Poetrie_ is a meritorious piece of early criticism. While Hooker
indicates advance in solidity of matter and dignity of style, yet a
comparison of his heavy religious prose with the prayer of the king in
_Hamlet_ or with Portia's words about mercy in _The Merchant of
Venice_ will show the vast superiority of the poetry in dealing with
spiritual ideas. Bacon's _Essays_, celebrated for pithy condensation
of striking thoughts, is the only prose work that has stood the test
of time well enough to claim many readers to-day.

Poetry, both lyric and dramatic, is the crowning glory of the
Elizabethan age. The lyric verse is remarkable for its wide range and
for beauty of form and sentiment. The lyrics include love sonnets,
pastorals, and miscellaneous verse. Shakespeare's _Sonnets_ and the
songs in his dramas are the best in this field, but many poets wrote
exquisite artistic lyrics.

Edmund Spenser is the only great poet who was not also a dramatist.
His _Faerie Queene_ fashions an ideal world dominated by a love of
beauty and high endeavor.

The greatest literary successes of the age were won in writing pl