FROM CHAUCER TO THE REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH:
Civil wars were frequent in England in the fifteenth century, and the cultivation of letters met little encouragement. Accordingly, there was no great work in prose or poetry in this period. But if no literature appeared, that which had already been produced took deeper root and spread wider its branches, mainly through the work of *William Caxton(1422? -1491), the *“Father of the English Press,”* as he has been called. He began to print books in London in about the year 1474.* This man, whose name has very great significance in the history of English literature, had long been a writer when he took up the business of printing. He was not only an author and printer, but a compositor, proofreader, binder, and publisher as well. Caxton’s press produced about fifty important works, nearly all of them in English. A number of his publications were translations, made by Caxton himself, of notable foreign books. He printed the poems of Chaucer and of Gower, and the *History of King Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory.* The sixteenth century was remarkable for its production of ballads which were widely circulated among the common people. *A ballad tells a story in verse. Its verse form generally consists of alternate rimes, with four accents in one line and three in the other.* For example, the following is a stanza of four lines from an old ballad:--
Towards│his house│in Not│tingham│
He fled│full fast│away,│
And so│did all│his com│pany,│
Not one│behind│did stay.│
Note that the syllables or words (four in the first and third lines, and three in the second and fourth) that receive the rhythmic stress are marked. The two riming syllables are in italics. The first half of this century witnessed also the dawn of a new era in poetry, marked by the appearance of *Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503? -1542) and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517? -1547).* Both these writers had traveled for many years in Italy. They had learned to appreciate the greatness of Italian literature, and they have been called “the first reformers of English meter and style.” Surrey translated part of a Latin work in blank verse, and she shares with Wyatt the credit of introducing the sonnet lines into English literature. The sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines, no more, no less. The simplest definition of blank verse is that it is verse without rime. The Earl of Surrey first used the English blank verse.
Two prose writers of this time deserve notice. *Sir Thomas More (1478- 1535)* wrote in a plain, vigorous, impressive style, the *Life and Reign of Richard III.* This is the first work deserving the name of history that appeared in the English language. The book, however, which comes first to mind at the mention of *Thomas More’s name is his Utopia,─ a description of the “Land of Nowhere.”* This favored country is a republic, and in it, there are no saloons, no fashions, no wars, and no lawyers.
*William Tyndale (1484-1536) is famous for his translation of the Bible.* His English is remarkably pure and vigorous. Very few of the words used in his translation have become out of date, and the work is therefore a landmark in the history of the English language. This brief sketch brings us to a consideration of the literature of the Elizabethan reign. Certain conditions and influences of the last quarter of the sixteenth and the first years of the seventeenth century strongly disposed English letters to the dramatic form of expression. For several centuries the representations in the form of plays had been rude. They consisted of the miracle plays, which deal with the events given in the Bible. These plays were performed sometimes within the monasteries and sometimes in the churches.
Then, as time passed, something new was demanded by the people, and by gradual steps, the so-called “moral plays” took the place of those representing Bible stories. Next came translations of the ancient tragedies and comedies; then crude plays founded on Italian romance.
Companies of players traveled from place to place, performing in town halls or in such other buildings as could give accommodation to their audiences.
The first regular public theater in England was established just outside of the city limits of London in the year 1575. The number of players and the prosperity of the playhouse steadily increased. We are now ready to consider William Shakespeare and the other great writers of Queen Elizabeth’s time.
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