[Footnote 26:  Green’s “Short History of the English People,” p. 203.]

[Footnote 27:  “Tom-a-Lincoln” has been reprinted in W.J.  Thorn’s valuable collection of “Early English Prose Romances,” where may also be found a story similar in nature, called “Helyas, Knight of the Swanne.”  I do not consider these productions worthy of more extended notice here, as they possess no interest in themselves, and serve only to illustrate the degeneracy of the fictions relating to the knighthood during the 16th century.  The compilation called “The Seven Champions of Christendom”, by Richard Johnson, the author of “Tom-a-Lincoln”, said to contain “all the lyes of Christendom in one lye,” obtained considerable popularity and circulation during this period.  Dunlop mentions ("Hist. of Fiction,” chap. xiv) the “Ornatus and Artesia”, and “Parismus, Prince of Bohemia,” by Emmanuel Ford, and the “Pheander, or Maiden Knight,” by Henry Roberts, belonging in the same class of composition.  An English version of the old tale of Robert the Devil belongs to this period, and may be found in W.J.  Thom’s collection.]

[Footnote 28:  Ritson’s “Robin Hood.”]

[Footnote 29:  Hunter’s “Robin Hood”, p. 13.]

[Footnote 30:  “George-a-Green,” chap. x, Thom’s “Early Eng.  Prose Romances.”]

[Footnote 31:  “Thomas of Reading,” chap. 12.]

[Footnote 32:  Thom’s preface to “Vigilius,” “Early Eng.  Prose Romances.”]

[Footnote 33:  “Lai d’Hippocrate,” Le Grand.  Thom’s Prelude to “Virgilius.”]

[Footnote 34:  Wright’s “Essays on the Middle Ages,” Essay x.]

[Footnote 35:  Buckle’s “Hist. of Civilization,” vol.  I, p. 147.  Appleton’s ed.]

[Footnote 36:  “A fruteful and plesaunt worke of the beste state of a publyque weale, and of the newe yle called UTOPIA:  written in Latin by SYR THOMAS MORE KNYGHT, and translated into Englysshe by RAPHE ROBYNSON Citisein and Goldsmythe of London at the procurement and earnest request of George Tadlowe Citisein and Haberdassher of the same Citie.  Imprinted at London by Abraham Wele, dwelling in Paul’s Churcheyarde at the Sygne of the Lambe, Anno, 1551.”  Arber’s reprint.]

CHAPTER III.

The age of Elizabeth:  Lyly, greene, Lodge, Sidney.

I.

In the rapidity and scope of intellectual and material progress, the age of Elizabeth is unequaled in English history.  The nation seemed to pass from the darkness of night into a sunshine which would never end.  Freed from the trammels which had hitherto impeded their way, all classes put on a new vigor, a new enterprise, and a new intelligence, which brought advancement into every walk of life.  The spread of the Copernican doctrine of the revolutions of the earth, and the relations of our planet to the solar system gradually drove before