ON THE

DRAMATIC LITERATURE

OF THE

AGE OF ELIZABETH;

DELIVERED AT THE SURREY INSTITUTION,

BY WILLIAM HAZLITT.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

JOHN WARREN, OLD BOND-STREET.

MDCCCXXI.

ADVERTISEMENT.

By the Age of Elizabeth (as it relates to the History of our Literature) I would be understood to mean the time from the Reformation, to the end of Charles I. including the Writers of a certain School or style of Poetry or Prose, who flourished together or immediately succeeded one another within this period. I have, in the following pages, said little said little of two of the greatest Writers of that Age, Shakespear and Spenser, because I had treated of them separately in former Publications.