INTRODUCTION.

WHI HILE the accumulated materials of successive ages seem to have been requisite for the completion of other arts, many of which, indeed, still remain imperfect and progressive, Poesy, with a certain preternatural eccentricity, has distinguished herself by arriving at a degree of comparative perfection, with less gradual and adventitious assistance.

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nec longum tempus et ingens,

Exiit ad cœlum ramis felicibus arbos."

Though ages have elapsed since the birth of Homer, we still gaze at him with undiminished curiosity, till our eyes grow dim with admiration: yet this Bard, who has stood the scrutiny of Greece and of Rome, and the trying test of three thousand years, had no pre-existing models of consequence to look up to; the literary prospects of his day were barren, uncultivated, and disheartening. Criticism, as it was a subsequent production to his works, and in great measure originally derived from them, had no share in advancing him to immortality, by forming his taste, correcting his fancy, or improving his judgment. Shakspeare, whose name will suffer little in being mentioned after him, at a time when to read and write was an accomplishment, untutored by learning (for those scanty sparks of it that faintly glimmered on his eye through the medium of translation, are hardly to be considered as such), destitute of the advantages of birth, without rules, and without examples, carried Dra

matic Poetry to a height that has hitherto baffled imitation, and seems likely to descend to future times without a rival. The original rectitude of some men's minds, of the

is such, as to serve them in place both of rules and examples; and though Genius, thus unassisted, seldom in any department of Science produces a perfect model, yet it is always its pride, and not unfrequently its lot, to rise in proportion to the deficiency of its resources, and bear up without them in such a manner as to give an appearance of their being unnecessary. If we seriously and impartially examine the cluster of poetical names that shone, and were concentered in the space of ninety-one years, from the accession of Elizabeth inclusively, to the restoration of Charles the Second, and compare them with those who have respectively flourished from that time to this, a period of an hundred and thirty-eight years*, we shall find the phalanx of older classics but little affected by a comparison with the more modern muster-roll. The following scale will tend at one view to illustrate how large and valuable a portion of literature is comprehended in a very narrow period. Many names are omitted of no particular import, individually or collectively considered.

ELIZABETH began to reign in 1558.

* Referring to the date of the former edition of this work, 1788.

In thus bringing forward the most meritorious and prominent luminaries of a past age, a natural question seems to arise; how happens it that the great parts of poetry, should so soon be filled up, and manifest a degree of excellence in some respects unequalled, and in others unexceeded, by our later writers? In the following remarks I have endeavoured to assign a true reason. I cannot but think, that there exists a very close analogy, between the intellectual and the bodily powers, and that the strength of the one, in its operations, is in a similar manner affected with that of the other. The secondary endeavours of bodily exertion are seldom proportioned to the ardour of the first; the labours of the husbandman are generally found to be most efficacious in the morning, the sultry noon induces lassitude and weakness, and "the night cometh on in which no man worketh." If we turn our eyes to the mind's works in individuals, instances are sufficiently numerous where its primary effusions remain unequalled by every succeeding one; like the nature of some soils, whose fertility is exhausted by a single harvest,. and whose after-crops do but teem with the rankest weeds. or the most sickly flowers. The star of science no sooner appeared in the British hemisphere, than, struck with the

luxury of its beams, the minds of men were suddenly aroused and awakened to the most animated exertions, and the most daring flights; silent were the legendary oracles of the Bard and the Minstrel, the dark and long-impending clouds of barbarism were dispelled, and instantly gave way to a' clear and a healthy horizon. Add to this, we constantly find a period in the annals of every country, at which its people begin to be sensible of the shame and the ignominy of ignorance: this no sooner becomes perceived than it is deeply felt the mind, stimulated by a forcible impulse, catches the alarm, and hastens at once to renounce its slavery; in the struggle and collision that ensues, the genius of the people frequently takes astonishing strides towards perfection. Not satisfied with a tardy, gradual, and deliberate reform, the cause of learning and improvement is carried far beyond those limits that experience and cooler reason might have fixed for its advances. Peter the Great had no sooner returned from the inspection of foreign courts, and the influence of the transplanted arts had begun to soften the grossness and severity of the Russian manners; than his court, disgusted at the meanness of their appearance, would not content themselves with a mere reform, nor proceed in the common course, from squalor to decency, and from thence to elegance; but resolved to do something; and not knowing where to stop, they hastily passed over the happy medium, and assuined at once an air of tawdry splendor, of awkward and irregular magnificence, not to be paralleled by any nation on the face of the globe. We may yet further observe, that the military spirit of the day, in Eliza's reign, being put upon the stretch far beyond its usual tone by the perilous and alarming situation of the kingdom, served to excite and to diffuse a general inclination for action, that invigorated attempts of every kind, whether literary or political. The temper of the times was happily and

singularly disposed for the reception and cultivation of the classics, which then more immediately began to operate with salutary effects. The manly spirit of expiring chivalry lent a romantic grace to the prevailing taste, which, associating with the fantastic incongruities of Italian imagery, required nothing but the chastity and good sense of ancient learning to add a weight and a value to composition which were hitherto unknown.

In order to enter more closely into the nature of that species of poetry which it is the purpose of these volumes to recommend, it will be necessary to consider it under the following heads: Language, Versification, Style, Sentiment, and Imagery.

As to language, it has been very justly remarked by Johnson, that "from the authors which rose in the time of Elizabeth a speech might be formed adequate to all the purposes of use and elegance." This acknowledgment of the Doctor's is confirmed by Dryden: in his Essay on Dramatic Poesie, speaking of Beaumont and Fletcher, he says, "I am apt to believe the English language in them arrived to its highest perfection; what words have since been taken in, are rather superfluous than ornamental." It would have been a matter of national advantage, had Johnson, after an attentive perusal of the poets of this age, distinguished in his Dictionary those particular obsolete words which, from their sound and significance, merit use and adoption; the sanction of his authority might have gone far towards restoring them to that rank, both in writing and conversation, which they have too long undeservedly forfeited: but, by the contracted lists of authors his quotations are drawn from, it is evident he neglected dirtying himself in the dust of the Black-Letter, a task which, however uninviting, was indispensably requisite

* Fugitive Pieces, Vol. II. p. 74.