Let others sing of kings and paladines
    In aged accents and untimely words,
    Paint shadows in imaginary lines.

This fling at Spenser and his followers marks the beginning of the modern and realistic school, which sees in life as it is enough poetic material, without the invention of allegories and impossible heroines.  Daniel’s poetry, which was forgotten soon after his death, has received probably more homage than it deserves in the praises of Wordsworth, Southey, Lamb, and Coleridge.  The latter says:  “Read Daniel, the admirable Daniel.  The style and language are just such as any pure and manly writer of the present day would use.  It seems quite modern in comparison with the style of Shakespeare.”

THE SONG WRITERS.  In strong contrast with the above are two distinct groups, the Song Writers and the Spenserian poets.  The close of the reign of Elizabeth was marked by an outburst of English songs, as remarkable in its sudden development as the rise of the drama.  Two causes contributed to this result,—­the increasing influence of French instead of Italian verse, and the rapid development of music as an art at the close of the sixteenth century.  The two song writers best worth studying are Thomas Campion (1567?-1619) and Nicholas Breton (1545?-1626?).  Like all the lyric poets of the age, they are a curious mixture of the Elizabethan and the Puritan standards.  They sing of sacred and profane love with the same zest, and a careless love song is often found on the same page with a plea for divine grace.

THE SPENSERIAN POETS.  Of the Spenserian poets Giles Fletcher and Wither are best worth studying.  Giles Fletcher (1588?-1623) has at times a strong suggestion of Milton (who was also a follower of Spenser in his early years) in the noble simplicity and majesty of his lines.  His best known work, “Christ’s Victory and Triumph” (1610), was the greatest religious poem that had appeared in England since “Piers Plowman,” and is not an unworthy predecessor of Paradise Lost.

The life of George Wither (1588-1667) covers the whole period of English history from Elizabeth to the Restoration, and the enormous volume of his work covers every phase of the literature of two great ages.  His life was a varied one; now as a Royalist leader against the Covenanters, and again announcing his Puritan convictions, and suffering in prison for his faith.  At his best Wither is a lyric poet of great originality, rising at times to positive genius; but the bulk of his poetry is intolerably dull.  Students of this period find him interesting as an epitome of the whole age in which he lived; but the average reader is more inclined to note with interest that he published in 1623 Hymns and Songs of the Church, the first hymn book that ever appeared in the English language.