tained
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 it the old
anthropocentric ideas. Men looked into the heavens and saw a new
universe. In the grand scheme of creation there unfolded before them,
they read in spite of themselves the comparative insignificance of
their own world, and an overwhelming blow was dealt at the narrowness
and superstition which had hitherto characterized their thoughts. A new
world, too, was fast becoming known. The circumnavigation of