A history of English literature

by Edward Albert

THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERARY FORMS

At the beginning of the Elizabethan age English literary forms were still to a large extent in the making; at the end of the period there is a rich and varied store of most of the chief literary species. All that can be done here is to give the barest outline of this development.

1. Poetry. (a) Lyrical Poetry. The temper of the age was suited to the lyrical mood, and so the abundance of the lyric is very great. It begins with the first efforts of Wyat and Surrey (1557); it continues through the dramas in all their stages; and it appears in the numerous miscellanies of the period. Then the lyrical impulse is carried on without a break into the melodies of Campion and the darker moods of Donne. The forms of the lyric are many, and on the whole its notes are musical, wild, and natural.

An interesting sub-species of the lyric is the sonnet. We have seen how it took two forms—the Italian or Petrarchan form, and the English or Shakespearian type. During this period both kinds flourished, the English kind to a greater degree. Wyat began (1557) with a group of the Italian type; Surrey introduced the English form. Then the sonnet, in one or other of its two forms, was continued by Sidney in Astrophel and Stella (published in 1591), by Spenser, by Shakespeare, by Daniel in Delia (1592), and by Watson in Heoatompathia, or Passionate Century of Sonnets (1582). Later in the period the sonnet was less popular, though Drayton wrote at least one of great power.

(b) Descriptive and Narrative Poetry. This is a convenient title for a large and important class of poems. In this period it begins with such works as Sackville’s Induction (1555), and continues with Marlowe’s Hero and Leander (1598) and Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594). It culminates in the sumptuous allegorical poetry of Spenser; and it begins its decline with the Spenserians of the type of the Fletchers and with Drayton’s Endimion and Phœbe (1600). The pastoral, which is a kind of descriptive poem, is seen in Spenser’s Shepherd’s Calendar (1579), in Browne’s Britannia’s Pastorals (1613), and in Drayton. Almost purely descriptive poetry is represented in Drayton’s Polyolbion (1612); and a more strongly narrative type is the same poet’s England’s Heroical Epistles (1597). All these poems are distinguished by strong descriptive power, freshness of fancy, and sometimes by positive genius of style.

(c) Religious, satirical, and didactic poetry cannot take a position equal in importance to the rest. During the period the satirical intent is quite strong, but it does not produce great poetry. Gascoigne’s Steel Glass (1576) is one of the earliest satires; and it is followed by Donne’s Satires (1593) and Hall’s Satires (1597). Drayton’s Harmony of the Church (1591) is religious in motive; so are several poems of Donne, and also many of those of the Jesuit Robert Southwell (1561–95).

2. Drama. The opening of the Elizabethan period saw the drama struggling into maturity. The early type of the time was scholarly in tone and aristocratic in authorship. An example of the earliest type of playwright is Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke (1554–1628), who distinguished himself both as a dramatic and lyrical poet.

To this stage succeeded that of Shakespeare, which covered approximately the years 1595 to 1615. Of this drama all we can say here is that it is the crown and flower of the Elizabethan literary achievement, and embodies almost the entire spirit both of drama and poetry.

The decline begins with Jonson, and continues with Beaumont and Fletcher, Dekker, Heywood, and the other dramatists mentioned in this chapter. The decline is made clear in several ways: in the narrowing of the ample Shakespearian motive, which comprises all mankind, into themes of temporary, local, and fragmentary importance; in the lack of creative power in the characterization, resulting (as in Jonson) in mere types or “humors,” or (as in Dekker and Fletcher) in superficial improvisation, or in ponderous tragical figures (as in Webster and Tourneur); and lastly, in the degradation of the style, which will be noted below. Sometimes the decline is gilded with delicate fancy, as in Fletcher’s Faithful Shepherdess, or in the exquisite Parliament of Bees (1607) by John Day (1574–1640); but the grace and charm of such plays cannot conceal the falling-off in power and imagination.

With regard to the development of the different dramatic types, we have already noted that tragedy developed first; in Shakespeare all kinds received attention, tragedy most of all. In post-Shakespearian drama light comedy was the most popular species, chiefly because the tragic note of exalted pity had degenerated into melodrama and horrors.

A special word is perhaps necessary on the masque, which during this time had a brief but brilliant career. The masque is a short dramatic performance composed for some particular festive occasion, such as the marriage or majority of a great man’s son; it is distinguished by ornate stage-setting, by lyrics, music, and dancing, and by allegorical characters. It finds a place in Shakespeare’s Tempest and other plays; it is strongly developed in the works of Jonson, Fletcher, and other poets of the time; and it attains its climax during the next age in the Comus (1637) of Milton.

3. Prose. In Elizabethan times the development of prose was slower and slighter than that of poetry.

(a) The essay, beginning in the pamphlet, character-sketch, and other miscellaneous writing, develops in the work of Bacon. Its rise will be sketched more fully in a future chapter (see p. [268]).

(b) The novel has some meager but significant beginnings in More’s Utopia (1516), Sidney’s Arcadia (published in 1590), Lyly’s Euphues (1579), Bacon’s New Atlantis (1626), and most of all in Nash’s The Unfortunate Traveller (1594). The rise of the novel is also reserved for a later chapter (see p. [336]).

(c) Miscellaneous prose, in the pamphlets, theological works, sermons, translations, travels, and such abnormalities as Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), is exceedingly voluminous and important. We have here a large, loose, and varied mass of English prose, the central exercising-ground of the average prose-writer, that is to be the foundation of many important groups of the future.