The Ways to Perfect Religion
4. Hugh Latimer (1491–1555) was born in Leicestershire, educated at Cambridge, and rose to be chaplain to Henry VIII and Bishop of Worcester. He resisted some of the reforms of Henry, was imprisoned in the Tower, and was released on the death of the King. At the accession of Mary he was once again thrown into jail, and was burned at Oxford.
Latimer’s English prose works consist of two volumes of sermons published in 1549. They are remarkable for their plain and dogmatic exposition, their graphical power, and their homely appeal. He is the first of the writers of plain style.
5. Sir Thomas More (1478–1535) was born in London, and was the son of a judge. He was educated in London, attached to the household of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and became a lawyer. A man of eager and aspiring mind, he fell under the influence of Erasmus, Colet, and other humanists of the period. For a time he sat in Parliament and saw State service. His advanced political views led to his imprisonment (1534), and he was beheaded in the following year.
Owing to their elegance and wit, his Latin works are of unusual importance. They include his Utopia, the description of his imaginary ideal state. This book was not translated into English until 1551, and so does not count as an English work of More’s. His English prose works include The Lyfe of John Picus, The Historie of Richard III, and a number of tracts and letters. He writes ably and clearly, but with no great distinction of manner. He is the first writer of the middle style.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERARY FORMS
1. Poetry. In this period we have to chronicle the appearance of the eclogue or pastoral in the work of Barclay (Ecloges) and in some shorter poems like Henryson’s Robene and Makyne. The pastoral, which in classical times had been practiced by Virgil and Theocritus, became a common form of poetical exercise in Italy, France, and Spain before, in the sixteenth century, it appeared in England. It was marked by a set of conventional shepherds and shepherdesses, possessing such names as Colin, Phyllis, and Phœbe; by stock scenes introducing sheep, meadows, and flowers; and it was often made the medium for philosophical and political theories. As yet the golden age of the pastoral had not made its appearance in England, but the beginning of the vogue was apparent.
A glance at the poems mentioned in this chapter will reveal the importance of the allegory. In this period it grew and hardened into a mechanical and soulless device, for the poets lacked sufficient poetical fire to give it life. The allegory, as we can see in Dunbar’s Golden Targe and Lydgate’s Temple of Glass, usually opened with a garden and a dream, conventionalized to an absurd degree, and it continued with the introduction of the Goddess of Love, the Virtues and Vices, and similar stock personations. The allegory, however, in spite of its enormous elaboration, was not at the end of its popularity, and, as we shall see in the next chapter, it was to add another great poet to its list of devotees.
The development of the ballad and carol continued, with highly satisfactory results. These poems began to acquire polish and expertness, for the early rudeness was becoming a thing of the past. To this period probably belong the lovely carol to the Virgin Mary beginning “I sing of a maiden,” and the ballads connected with Robin Hood, Fair Rosamund, and many others.
2. Prose. There were no outstanding achievements in prose, but facts all helped to reveal the waning influence of Latin and the increasing importance given to English. English prose appeared in theological works, as in those of Fisher; and Cranmer (1489–1556) gave it a new field in his notable English Prayer Book. Historical prose was represented by The Chronicle of England of Capgrave (1393–1464), who wrote in a businesslike fashion; a species of philosophical prose appeared in The Governance of England of Fortescue (1394–1476), and in The Boke named the Governour of Eylot (1490–1546), a kind of educational work; The Castle of Health, also by the last author, was a medical work. The great race of Elizabethan translators is well begun by Lord Berners (1467–1533), who translated Froissart with freedom and no mean skill; and, lastly, the English Bible was taking shape.