THE HE sixty-four years comprehended in this period produced some great names; but, considering the mighty events which then agitated the country, and must have influenced the national feelings such as the abolition of the ancient monarchy of England, and the establishment of the Commonwealth-there was less change in the taste and literature of the nation than might have been anticipated. Authors were still a select class, and literature, the delight of the learned and ingenious, had not become food for the multitude. The chivalrous and romantic spirit which prevailed in the reign of Elizabeth, had, even before her death, begun to yield to more sober and practical views of human life and society: a spirit of inquiry was fast spreading among the people. The long period of peace under James, and the progress of commerce, gave scope to domestic improvement, and fostered the reasoning faculties and mechanical powers, rather than the imagination. The reign of Charles I. a prince of taste and accomplishments, partially revived the style of the Elizabethan era, but its lustre extended little beyond the court and the nobility. During the Civil War and the Protectorate, poetry and the drama were buried under the strife and anxiety of contending factions. Cromwell, with a just and generous spirit, boasted that he would make the name of an Englishman as great as ever that of a Roman had been. He realised his wish in the naval victories of Blake, and the unquestioned supremacy of England abroad; but neither the time nor inclination of the Protector permitted him to be a patron of literature. Charles II. was better fitted for such a task, by natural powers, birth, and education; but he had imbibed a false and perverted taste, which, added to his indolent and sensual disposition, was as injurious to art and literature as to the public morals. Poetry declined from the date of the Restoration, and was degraded from a high and noble art to a mere courtly amusement or pander to immorality. The whole atmosphere of genius was not, however, tainted by this public degeneracy. Science was assiduously cultivated, and to this period belong some of the proudest triumphs of English poetry, learning, and philosophy. Milton produced his long-cherished epic, the greatest poem which our language can boast; Butler, his inimitable burlesque of Hudibras; and Dryden, his matchless satire and versification. In the department of divinity, Jeremy Taylor, Barrow, and Tillotson laid the sure foundations of Protestantism, and the best defences of revealed religion. In history and polite literature, we have Clarendon, Burnet, and Temple. In this period, too, Bunyan composed his inim itable religious allegory, and gave the first conspicuous example of native force of mind and powers of imagination rising successful over all the obstructions caused by a low station in life, and a miserably defective education. The world has never been, for any length of time, without some great men to guide and illuminate the onward course of society; and, happily, some of them were found at this period to serve as beacons to their contemporaries and to all future ages. POETS. JOHN TAYLOR, 'THE WATER POET.' One of the most voluminous of city rhymsters and chroniclers was JOHN TAYLOR (circa 15801654), a London waterman, who styled himself 'The King's Majesty's Water Poet.' Taylor was a native of Gloucester, and having served an apprenticeship to a waterman in London, continued to ply on the Thames, besides keeping a public-house. The most memorable incident in his career was travelling on foot from London to Edinburgh, 'not carrying any money to or fro, neither begging, borrowing, or asking meat, drink, or lodging.' He took with him, however, a servant on horse-. back, who carried some provisions and provender, and having met Ben Jonson at Leith, he received from Ben a present of a piece of gold of two and twenty shillings to drink his health in England.' Of this journey, Taylor wrote an account, entitled The Penniless Pilgrimage, or the Moneyless Perambulation of John Taylor, alias the King's Majesty's Water Poet, &c. 1618. This tract is partly in prose and partly in verse. Of the latter, the following is a favourable specimen : The Border Lands of England and Scotland. Eight miles from Carlisle runs a little river, Which England's bounds from Scotland's grounds do sever. Without horse, bridge, or boat I o'er did get ; |