SUMMARY OF THE AGE OF ELIZABETH.  This period is generally regarded as the greatest in the history of our literature.  Historically, we note in this age the tremendous impetus received from the Renaissance, from the Reformation, and from the exploration of the New World.  It was marked by a strong national spirit, by patriotism, by religious tolerance, by social content, by intellectual progress, and by unbounded enthusiasm.

Such an age, of thought, feeling, and vigorous action, finds its best expression in the drama; and the wonderful development of the drama, culminating in Shakespeare, is the most significant characteristic of the Elizabethan period.  Though the age produced some excellent prose works, it is essentially an age of poetry; and the poetry is remarkable for its variety, its freshness, its youthful and romantic feeling.  Both the poetry and the drama were permeated by Italian influence, which was dominant in English literature from Chaucer to the Restoration.  The literature of this age is often called the literature of the Renaissance, though, as we have seen, the Renaissance itself began much earlier, and for a century and a half added very little to our literary possessions.

In our study of this great age we have noted (1) the Non-dramatic Poets, that is, poets who did not write for the stage.  The center of this group is Edmund Spenser, whose Shepherd’s Calendar (1579) marked the appearance of the first national poet since Chaucer’s death in 1400.  His most famous work is The Faery Queen.  Associated with Spenser are the minor poets, Thomas Sackville, Michael Drayton, George Chapman, and Philip Sidney.  Chapman is noted for his completion of Marlowe’s poem, Hero and Leander, and for his translation of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.  Sidney, besides his poetry, wrote his prose romance Arcadia, and The Defense of Poesie, one of our earliest critical essays.

(2) The Rise of the Drama in England; the Miracle plays, Moralities, and Interludes; our first play, “Ralph Royster Doyster”; the first true English comedy, “Gammer Gurton’s Needle,” and the first tragedy, “Gorboduc”; the conflict between classic and native ideals in the English drama.

(3) Shakespeare’s Predecessors, Lyly, Kyd, Nash, Peele, Greene, Marlowe; the types of drama with which they experimented,—­the Marlowesque, one-man type, or tragedy of passion, the popular Chronicle plays, the Domestic drama, the Court or Lylian comedy, Romantic comedy and tragedy, Classical plays, and the Melodrama.  Marlowe is the greatest of Shakespeare’s predecessors.  His four plays are “Tamburlaine,” “Faustus,” “The Jew of Malta,” and “Edward II.”

(4) Shakespeare, his life, work, and influence.

(5) Shakespeare’s Successors, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Webster, Middleton, Heywood, Dekker; and the rapid decline of the drama.  Ben Jonson is the greatest of this group.  His chief comedies are “Every Man in His Humour,” “The Silent Woman,” and “The Alchemist”; his two extant tragedies are “Sejanus” and “Catiline.”