The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-04-19

frolicson1e-only the depths of passion
they never sound. The ecstacy Of youth
is theirs.
This lyrical revel goes on unchecked
into the reign of King James; only, the
mood changes, and more serious note
makes itself heard. Meanwhile, though
lyrics were the most characteristic pro-
duct of the first Elizabethan period,
many other literary forms were deVel-
oping They were all marked with the
same strange mixture of experiment
and inspiration. Criticism in prose
sprang up, in books like Sidney's
Apologize for Poetrie," itself a SPLEEN
did prose- poem, and Webbe'S Dis
course of English POetrie." 1t was
childish enough, but its existence was
significant. Art prose was feeling It's
way, getting lost sometimes in maze
of affectations, as in Lyly's ''Euphues,"
and sometimes, as in Sidney's Ar
cadia,' reaching under. Spanish and
Italian guidance a land of pure ro-
nance. The great Elizabethan trans
/ lations were beginning, and turning
stream Of foreign and classical lnhu-
ence from the Latin racee upon Eng
land. Prose Of adventure, like Hak-
| luyt's famous Voyages" was getting
under way. But indeed, in one sense,
/ it is all prose of adventure which the
/ y
/ whether people are shaping the new
/ language to delightful unwonted uses,
or recording their explorations of dis
tant seas.
This period of romance, of poetic eX-
| pertinent of keen enthusiasm for adj
venture and learning, moved to a eli
max in a great romantic eplc-Spen-
! ser's 'Faerie Queen" Chaucer's Can
| terbury Tales expressed with charm
/ ing ease and Transforming grace the
whole imaginative life of the middle
! ages. Just so the TFaerie Queen gath
ers into itself the imaginative life OF
! the central renaissance, and flashes 1t
forth to us in myriad forms and hues
/ of beauty. The poem is an allegory, a
dream; yet it is filled, as no romance
| of the middle ages, with the sense OF
reality and of manhood. ITO fashion a
/ gentleman or noble person in Virtuous
and gentle discipline is, Spenser tells
us, his object; and this end, so charac-
teriStic of the new nation, he achieves
| through beWildering wrath OF lnVen-
tions and images in which all civiliza-
lions known TO him are laid under con-
tribution. The afterglow of chivalry is
in the poem; but hearsay of FRUITFUL
! eat Virginia" has widened Spenser' s
knowledge of fairyland, and so nave
his travels in the worlds of the classic
poets, and of Tasso and Ariosto- With
the frank ecleeticism of the renaissance,
these different influences blend in his
work. Yet one feels no incOngruity IN
the poem, rather a perfect harmony.
One yields, enchanted, TO the opulence
Of beauty, to the wealth Of exquisite
pictures presented to the inner eye.
Best of all, this seemingly unrestrain-
ed loneliness can be enjoyed without
qualm or scruple. Often the beauty Of
this visible world has inspired good men
with terror. 1t terrified the monk be-
fore Sponsors day, and the Puritan
after him. In way monk and Puri-
tan are right. That the world of sense
is fraught with danger to the spirit no
one can watch the literary development
that followed Spenser and deny Spen-
ser knows this we'll; his knights are
ever on their guard, and fairyland IS
one great battlefield. Yet his imagina-
| ton, pure and healthful> as IL is senSl-
tive, revels in the beauty of nature, art
and humanity, unchecked by fear. Tnls
he can do, becaused, filed, like all men
of his day, with devotion 10 all that
| can make the too much loved earth
more lovely" he is a yet more lmpas-
stoned lover of that unseen and ever
! lasting beauty to be seen by the eyes
of the mind only cleared by faith. The
| 'Faerie Queen" with all its classic
adOrnments, is profoundly CHRISTIAN,
and Spenser is a son of the reformation
as well as Of the renaissance. perhaps
| this happy synthesis could not long
/ endure. On the one hand, the jacob
can drama was to follow, with Its SAD
revel of the senses; on the other, the
harsh literature of Puritanlsm. But we
may at least rejoice that before TINS
parting OF the ways We possess one
great poem in which We find the Tree
and fearless union of sensuous charm
with perfect purity, and the passionate
love of visible and an invisible beauty
are blended for once without strife
The mood of the nation was 10 alter
| It was to dream no more of fairy lana;
it was to play with life no longer. Inc
| joyous, eager, aristocratic literature OF
the first EliZabethan period, with lts
unforgettable natural magic, was 10
be followed by a literature tnat eX-
pressed an Overwhelming reality OF eX-
perience and of passion. In four or nVe
years at latest after the publication OF
the ErSt three books OF the acre
| Queen will be acted Romeo ana Ju-
| let" and that means that one poet at
least knows the sorrowful depths OF the
human heart. Already, IN l5Si, MAI
| loves DIR. Faustus' has struck SUI
emn note like a warning bell. Inc oay
is to a new art; and during all the rest
of Elizabeth's reign. and through the
reign of her SUCCESSOR, the 'chleI mag
| NATIVE energies of the EhSHSn
race are absorbed in tnat su-
premely great creation, the romaheic
/ drama Not that other literary ioi"is