izure made in 1586 of the copies surreptitiously
printed. This long and singular poem is a kind of metrical chronicle,
containing the remarkable events of _English_ history from the
flood,--the starting point of all chroniclers,--to the reign of queen
Elizabeth. It is written in the common ballad measure, and in a style
often creeping and prosaic, sometimes quaint and affected; but passages
of beautiful simplicity and strokes of genuine pathos frequently occur
to redeem its faults, and the tediousness of the historical narration is
relieved by a large intermixture of interesting and entertaining
episodes. The ballads of Queen Eleanor and fair Rosamond, Argentile and
Curan, and the Patient Countess, selected by Dr. Percy in his Relics of
Ancient Poetry, may be regarded by the poetical student of the present
day as a sufficient specimen of the talents of Warner: but in his own
time he was complimented as the Homer or Virgil of the age; the
persevering reader travelled, not only with patience but delight,
through his seventy-seven long chapters; and it is said that the work
became popular enough, notwithstanding its prohibition by authority, to
supersede in some degree its celebrated predecessor the Mirror for
Magistrates.

CHAPTER XXIII.

FROM 1591 TO 1593.

Naval war against Spain.--Death of sir Richard Grenville--Notice of
Cavendish.--Establishment of the East India company.--Results of voyages
of discovery.--Transactions between Raleigh and the queen.--Anecdotes of
Robert Cary--of the Holles family.--Progress of the drama.--Dramatic
poets before Shakespeare.--Notice of Shakespeare.--Proclamation
respecting bear-baiting and acting of plays.--Censorship of the
drama.--Anecdote of the queen and Tarleton.

The maritime war with Spain, notwithstanding the cautious temper of the
queen, was strenuously waged during the year 1591, and produced some
striking indications of the rising spirit of the English navy.

A squadron under lord Thomas Howard, which had been waiting six months
at the Azores to intercept the homeward bound ships from Spanish
America, was there surprised by a vastly more numerous fleet of the
enemy which had been sent out for their convoy. The English admiral got
to sea in all haste and made good his retreat, followed by his whole
squadron excepting the Revenge, which was entangled in a narrow channel
between the port and an island. Sir Richard Grenville her commander,
after a vain attempt to b