oetical spirit which it is often impossible to find for years together in
other periods of poetry. For instance, if ever there was a "dull dog" in
verse it was Richard Edwards. Yet in _The Paradise of Dainty Devices_
Edwards's poem with the refrain "The falling out of faithful friends
renewing is of love," is one of the most charming things anywhere to be
found. So is, after many years, the poem attributed to John Wooton in
_England's Helicon_ (the best of the whole set), beginning "Her eyes like
shining lamps," so is the exquisite "Come, little babe" from _The Arbour of
Amorous Devices_, so are dozens and scores more which may be found in their
proper places, and many of them in Mr. Arber's admirable _English Garner_.
The spirit of poetry, rising slowly, was rising surely in the England of
these years: no man knew exactly where it would appear, and the greatest
poets were--for their praises of themselves and their fellows are quite
unconscious and simple--as ignorant as others. The first thirty years of
the reign were occupied with simple education--study of models, efforts in
this or that kind, translation, and the rest. But the right models had been
provided by Wyatt and Surrey's study of the Italians, and by the study of
the classics which all men then pursued; and the original inspiration,
without which the best models are useless, though itself can do little when
the best models are not used, was abundantly present. Few things are more
curious than to compare, let us say, Googe and Spenser. Yet few things are
more certain than that without the study and experiments which Googe
represents Spenser could not have existed. Those who decry the historical
method in criticism ignore this; and ignorance like wisdom is justified of
all her children.

CHAPTER II

EARLY ELIZABETHAN PROSE

The history of the earlier Elizabethan prose, if we except the name of
Hooker, in whom it culminates, is to a great extent the history of
curiosities of literature--of tentative and imperfect efforts, scarcely
resulting in any real vernacular style at all. It is, however, emphatically
the Period of Origins of modern English prose, and as such cannot but be
interesting. We shall therefore rapidly survey its chief developments,
noting first what had been done before Elizabeth came to the throne, then
taking Ascham (who stands, though part of his work was written earlier,
very much as the first Elizabethan prosaist), noticing the scho