's, _AEneid_ is given in Bronson, II., 4, 5; in P. &
S., 322, 323; and Chambers, I., 162.

Why are Wyatt and Surrey called amourists? What contributions did they
make to the form of English verse? What foreign influences did they
help to usher in?

FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER III:

[Footnote 1: _Knightes Tale_.]

[Footnote 2: _Testament of Cresseid_.]

[Footnote 3: _The Cloud_.]

[Footnotes 4-6: _The Golden Targe_.]

[Footnote 7: _Prologue to AEneid_, Book XII.]

[Footnote 8: _The Winter's Tale_, IV., 4.]

[Footnote 9: Wright's _Songs and Carols of the Fifteenth Century_, p.
30.]

[Footnote 10: For full titles, see p. 50.]

[Footnote 11: For full titles, see p. 6.]

CHAPTER IV: THE AGE OF ELIZABETH, 1558-1603

The Reign of Elizabeth.--Queen Elizabeth, who ranks among the
greatest of the world's rulers, was the daughter of Henry VIII. and
his second wife Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth reigned as queen of England
from 1558 until her death in 1603. The remarkable allowances which she
made for difference of opinion showed that she felt the spirit of the
Renaissance. She loved England, and her most important acts were
guided, not by selfish personal motives, but by a strong desire to
make England a great nation.

She had a law passed restoring the supremacy of the monarch, "as well
in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things as temporal." The prayer
book of Edward VI. was again introduced and the mass was forbidden.
She was broad enough not to inquire too closely into the private
religious opinions of her subjects, so long as they went to the
established church. For each absence they were fined a shilling. Next
to churchgoing and her country, she loved and encouraged plays.

[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF ELIZABETH'S SIGNATURE TO A LICENSE
FOR THE EARL OF LEICESTER'S COMPANY OF PLAYERS, 1574.]

For more than twenty years she was worried by fear that either France
or Spain would put her Catholic cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, on the
English throne. With masterly diplomacy, Elizabeth for a long time
managed to retain the active friendship of at least one of these great
powers, in order to restrain the other from interfering. She had kept
Mary a prisoner for nineteen years, fearing to liberate her. At last
an active conspiracy was discovered to assassinate Elizabeth and put
Mary on the throne. Elizabeth accordingly had her cousin beheaded in
1587. Spain thereupon prepared her fleet, the Invincible Armada, to
attack England. W