re_, the records of libraries,
cathedrals, priories, abbeys, colleges, etc., and has left a vast amount
of curious antiquarian learning behind him. He became insane by reason of
the pressure of his labors.

George Cavendish, died 1557: wrote "The Negotiations of Woolsey, the Great
Cardinal of England," etc., which was republished as the "Life and Death
of Thomas Woolsey." From this, it is said, Shakspeare drew in writing his
"Henry VIII."

Roger Ascham, 1515-1568: specially famous as the successful instructor of
Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey, whom he was able to imbue with a taste for
classical learning. He wrote a treatise on the use of the bow, called
_Toxophilus_, and _The Schoolmaster_, which contains many excellent and
judicious suggestions, worthy to be carried out in modern education. It
was highly praised by Dr. Johnson. It was written for the use of the
children of Sackville, Lord Buckhurst.

CHAPTER XI.

SPENSER AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE.

The Great Change. Edward VI. and Mary. Sidney. The Arcadia. Defence of
Poesy. Astrophel and Stella. Gabriel Harvey. Edmund Spenser--Shepherd's
Calendar. His Great Work.

THE GREAT CHANGE.

With what joy does the traveller in the desert, after a day of scorching
glow and a night of breathless heat, descry the distant trees which mark
the longed-for well-spring in the emerald oasis, which seems to beckon
with its branching palms to the converging caravans, to come and slake
their fever-thirst, and escape from the threatening sirocco!

The pilgrim arrives at the caravansery: not the long, low stone house,
unfurnished and bare, which former experience had led him to expect; but a
splendid palace. He dismounts; maidens purer and more beautiful than
fabled houris, accompanied by slaves bearing rare dishes and goblets of
crusted gold, offer him refreshments: perfumed baths, couches of down,
soft and soothing music are about him in delicious combination. Surely he
is dreaming; or if this be real, were not the burning sun and the sand of
the desert, the panting camel and the dying horse of an hour ago but a
dream?

Such is not an overwrought illustration of English literature in the long,
barren reach from Chaucer to Spenser, as compared with the freshness,
beauty, and grandeur of the geniuses which adorned Elizabeth's court, and
tended to make her reign as illustrious in history as the age of Pericles,
of Augustus, or of Louis XIV. Chief among these we