and her spirit and confidence rose gloriously. She thought "the Lord had fought for her." Never was Lady so praised, so honoured, so worshipped as Elizabeth. "All princely graces That mould up such a inighty piece as this is, Shall still be doubled on her; truth shall nurse her, Holy and heavenly thoughts still counsel her. In her days, every man shall eat in safety So wrote Shakespeare; and Spenser "Fairer and nobler liveth none this hour, Ne like in grace, ne like in learned skill; Therefore they Glorian call that glorious flower; Long mayst thou, Glorian, live in glory and great power!" If we must call this flattery, surely it was flattery that any queen, any woman, might be proud of. Literature. 13. Full of patriotism, of triumph, of noble joy, this was the time when England's most glorious literature came into life. Now were written the books she is proudest of in all her history. In the "golden days of good Queen Bess there were chroniclers, and travellers, and divines, all eager to tell what they had read, and seen, and thought; above all, there were poets who read and saw and thought also, but who, by the glow of their own hearts, felt a life and soul in history, a tender and awful beauty in nature, a vastness and mystery in the heart and fate of man, and in his relations to his Maker, which enlarged the spiritual world in which we dwell more than ever Columbus had enlarged the natural one. 14. To know what the poets of Elizabeth's age did for England and for the world, we must read the books they wrote. Every one knows their names, Shakespeare, and Spenser, and Sydney; but who knows much of what they did and thought? There are others too whose names are not so famous, but who took their part, Green, Marlowe, Drayton, and many others; for this wonderful literary activity went on all through Elizabeth's reign. It was while she was queen that the first public theatre was opened. Little by little the old religious plays, the Mysteries and Miracles, which had been so popular in the middle ages, gave way to the tragedies 1576. The theatre. and comedies of real life, and most people would now be shocked and pained to see sacred subjects brought upon the stage. There is still a lingering remnant of the old religious drama in what is now almost the least serious or instructive of all our exhibitions, the Christmas Pantomime. The ridiculous Pantaloon and Harlequin which delight the children's eyes are descended from the Devil and the Vice, who took parts, and generally grotesque or comic parts, in the old mysteries. 15. The early theatres were very different from ours; there was no gaslight, no fine shifting scenery, no pictured backgrounds. The curtain was a blanket stretched across the front. When the scene changed a board was hung out to say, This is London, or This is Rome, or Bohemia, or France. A great deal was left to the imagination of the spectators and the good acting of the performers. (Shakespeare himself, it is said, was not a good actor; his best part was the Ghost in Hamlet.) 16. The queen was fond of theatrical representations. Whenever she went to visit a nobleman, or a city, or a university, there would be a play or a pageant to welcome her. Sometimes it would be what is called a masque, where beautiful music, and singing, and dancing were added to the acting. But the glory and crown of all were the plays of Shakespeare, and Shakespeare. in them both Elizabeth and her people delighted. Every one could find in them something which would suit the fashion of his mind, and raise it to its highest strain. There was a great deal about the history and glory of England which everybody liked. There were lovely ladies and gallant heroes, there were philosophers and deep thinkers, there were priests and hermits, rogues and clowns, there were dainty fairies and awful ghosts, there were fun and wit, joy and love, there were sorrow, pity, and despair. All of the very highest, and deepest, and truest. Was it not really a new world, of which he held the golden key? 17. With all this activity of the intellect and imagination, practical work was not forgotten. It was in the latter part of Elizabeth's reign that a serious attempt was made to The improve the condition of the poor. It has been Poor Law. already remarked that the breaking up of the monas teries had cut off a great deal of the charity and assistance on which they had been used to depend. Not only were a great many idle people now driven to beg or steal if they would not work, but many poor, and sick, and aged, to whom the monks and nuns had been kind, were left comfortless. Elizabeth's ministers, whilst they were very severe upon the vagabonds, even putting them to death in great numbers, did their best to help and protect the unfortunate. It was they who first introduced a "poor rate," something like the one which we have now; and which, whatever faults it may have, does support the widow, the orphan, the sick, and the infirm in the troubles which must otherwise quite overwhelm them. The Earl of Essex. 18. The defeat of the Armada was the highest point of Elizabeth's glory. Her later years were saddened and lonely. Her great favourite, the Earl of Leicester, the only man whom perhaps she really loved, died in the midst of the rejoicings. Though she was now growing old, she soon after made another favourite of the young Earl of Essex. Essex was accomplished, high-spirited, and warmhearted; he had a rare gift of winning love and admiration. Spenser, to whom he was a generous friend, calls him the "faire branch of Honour, Flower of Chivalrie." Elizabeth ever loved what was gracious, gay, and gallant; but her partiality for the chivalrous young earl did him harm rather than good. He was placed in positions far above his abilities, and requiring qualities which he did not possess-caution, patience, and resolution. He was sent as Lord Lieutenant to Ireland, where the people were again rebelling, and where a wise and firm ruler was much needed. Essex, "Great England's glory, and the world's wide wonder," 1599. 1601. was neither wise nor firm; he did not know what to do, and having made an inglorious and useless peace, he returned home. Here he behaved so foolishly and imprudently that he was charged with high treason, found guilty, and beheaded. Elizabeth never could rally from this shock. She was almost seventy years old; she had no near relations; her old counsellors and ministers, so faithful, wise, and patient, were all dead; she was quite lonely and forlorn. She grew moody and suspicious, and her heart, she said, "was sad and heavy." 19. When she was dying they tried to induce her to say who should succeed her. She made some indistinct sign, which they thought meant James of Scotland. The Archbishop of Canterbury, kneeling by her side, said some prayers which seemed to bring her comfort, and so died the last of the Tudors, the queen of whom England had been so proud. 1603. Death of Elizabeth. LECTURE XLVI.—JAMES OF SCOTLAND. The Stuarts. The divine right of kings. James and the Church of James I. 1. Now at last the ancient prophecy seemed to be fulfilled, a Scotch king was seated on the sacred stone, and crowned King of England at Westminster. After all the fighting 1603. and discord of so many hundred years, we may say that Edward I.'s will was accomplished, and one man was king over the whole island; and yet, too, Bruce's will was satisfied, for Scotland was free and unconquered still. She indeed gave the king to all. Had but the king she gave been at all like Bruce, or like Edward! But the new monarch was no very kingly man, and the House of Stuart was the most unfortunate and the most unbearable of all the different royal lines which England ever had. There is indeed a sort of romance about some of them, which makes their history fascinating; but there was nothing of the sort about James I. 2. The descriptions one reads of him are more ridiculous than romantic. "Nature and education," writes Macaulay, "had done their best to produce a finished specimen of all that a king ought not to be." Then he tells of "his awkward figure, his rolling eye, his rickety walk, his nervous tremblings. The most ridiculous weaknesses seemed to meet in this wretched Solomon of Whitehall; pedantry, buffoonery, garrulity, low curiosity, the most contemptible personal cowardice." One can hardly believe this was the son of the beautiful and enchanting Mary. 3. James certainly had a respectable amount of talent and intelligence, but he had no dignity, no majesty either of character or demeanour. Though he was particularly fond of theological studies, and even wrote some books on those subjects; though he had a new edition, and in part a new translation of the English Bible published, and is very highly complimented in the preface as being "a most tender and loving nursing father to the 1 Church," yet his private life was very immoral, and his court was utterly disgraceful. Some of the best poets of his time, who could write very beautifully, yet, when they imitated the manners and talk of James's courtiers, produced plays which are so shameless and coarse and base that it would be a disgrace to look at them. 4. He and all the Stuarts had as much love of arbitrary government as the Tudors, but they had not what the Tudors had, the gift of seeing and understanding when they might have their own way and when they must yield. When the masterful Elizabeth saw that her will clashed with the will of the nation, she could be wise and give in; but the Stuarts never did or could see that. It was in their time that the great struggle came, and once and for ever it was shown to all kings and to all people that England was a free country, whose kings must rule according to the laws and the will of the people, or they should not rule at all. It was a hard struggle, and cost one of the Stuarts his life and another his throne, but it was fought to the end, and will never have to be fought again. 5. James I., though he was borne with, and died peaceably, king both of England and Scotland, began the contest, little guessing what he was doing. He was a strict Protestant, for, having been separated from his mother all his life, he had been brought up by the Scotch Reformers. The Scotch had gone a great deal farther in their reformation than the English had done. They hated a great many things which the Church of England approved, such as for the clergymen to wear a white surplice, or to make the sign of the cross in baptism; they disliked, indeed, the whole English Liturgy. But most of all they objected to bishops and archbishops; they believed that the Church ought only to be governed by presbyters, or priests, and that all bishops were unlawful. The greater part of the Scotch people hold the same opinion now, and the Established Church of Scotland is called the Presbyterian because they have no bishops, but only presbyters. The word "presbyter" is taken from a Greek word meaning "elder," and our word "priest" is only the same shortened down. 6. When James, however, came to England, he at once attached himself heartily to the Episcopalian Church, and the bishops attached themselves to him. The Church of Eng James and the Church land had already begun to alter a good deal from what Cranmer and Ridley had left it; and though of England. they had not drawn nearer to Rome, for they were |