Most radiant, exquisite, and unmatchable beauty, I pray you tell me SHAKESPEARE (Twelfth Night 1. 5.) 1623. Fair mould of beauty, miracle of fame. PEELE (Edward I) 1593. Fair comely nymph, the beauty of your face hath GREENE (James IV) 1598. Fairest of fair that fairness dost excel This happy day I have to greet you well. 1 Blissful lamp of excellence! KYD (Spanish Tragedy iv. 4.) 1594. Many sweet morrows to my worthy wife! BEAUMONT & FLETCHER (Noble Gentleman 1. 1.) Twenty goodmorrows to my lovely Kate! 1647. ANON (Taming of a Shrew) 1594. Madam and mistress, a thousand goodmorrows! O give you good even ! here's a million of manners! SHAKESPEARE (Two Gentlemen II. 1.) 1623. Fair hour to you mistress! "Fair hour!" Fine term! Faith I'll score it up anon. A beautiful thought to you Sir! MARSTON (Dutch Courtesan III. 1.) 1605. Many fair mornings Lady! As many mornings bring as many days 1613-1620 I I include Spenser among the dramatists as he is said to have written nine lost comedies. 66 'Poorly, poor man he lived, Fair gentle maid, goodmorrow. May thy goodness get thee a happy husband. FLETCHER (Two Noble Kinsmen II. 4.) 1613-1634. Hail to thee, Lady! and the grace of Heaven before, behind thee, and on every hand, enwheel thee round! SHAKESPEARE (Othello 11. 1.) 1622. Bless you fair ladies. God make you all his servants. MARSTON (What you will, IV. 1.) 1607. "So all your own desires go with you lady "And sweet peace to your grace. BEAUMONT & FLETCHER (King and no King IV. 2.) 1611-1619. These relish of better breeding than the outward circumstances of the dramatists would lead one to anticipate. From the fact that quite ninety per cent. of the early drama deals with kings, queens, and the ceremonial of court life, it is manifest that the writers were au fait with the aristocracy, sharing with Shakespeare that subtle distinction of which Emerson speaks : — "High behaviour is as rare in fiction as it is in fact. Scott is praised for the fidelity with which he painted the demeanour and conversation of the superior classes. Certainly kings and queens, nobles and great ladies, had some right to complain of the absurdity that had been put in their mouths before the days of Waverley; but neither does Scott's dialogue bear criticism. His lords brave each other in epigrammatic speeches, but the dialogue is in costume, and does not please on the second smart reading it is not warm with life. In Shakespeare alone the speakers do not strut and bridle, the dialogue is easily great, and he adds to so many titles that of being the best bred man in England and Christendom. " In the assertion that Shakespeare stands alone Emerson is quite wrong. CHAPTER III. THE STATE OF LEARNING "In the works of Shakespeare, we perceive, says Schlegel," an elevation of genius which may almost be said to exceed the powers of human nature. It was one of Emerson's dicta that the mind of Shakespeare is the horizon of human thought beyond which the world does not see. According to Macaulay the intellect of Francis Bacon was the most exquisitely constructed ever bestowed upon the human race. Paradoxical as it sounds, these two intellectual eagles, rarely, if ever, soared higher than the small fowl which fluttered amid the unholy surroundings of the playhouses. Or, to put the paradox in a scarcely less perplexing form, the minds of the " lewdest persons in the land, apt for pilfering, perjury, forgery or any villainy" were in few, if any, respects inferior to the finest and most exalted intellects of the age. A man's immorality does not necessarily detract from the clarity of his style, but it leaves its impress upon his subject matter. Although the dramatists were "haunters of the alehouse and brothel, "" notable braggarts," "skipping swaggerrers, " "seminaries of impiety," "base and common fellows, "vagabond abjects," and such like, it is clear from their writings that in aristocracy of thought and nobility of sentiment they were on almost precisely the same plane as Lord Verulam and the enlightened author of Religio Medici, Sir Thomas Browne. To confirm this assertion I shall, for comparison, place side by side. passages from the drama and from the writings of Lord Verulam and of Sir Thomas Browne. In felicity of phrase, purity of diction, and exquisite sequence of words, the dramatists mostly equal, sometimes outstrip the philosophers. To appreciate the depth, profundity, and encyclopædic character of the knowledge displayed, and to realise to what an extent it was in advance of current sentiment and education, it is requisite to contrast a few unimpeachable facts. The current impression that the spacious times of great Elizabeth were a period of high moral and intellectual development is not endorsed by History, nor is it deducible from the evidence of men who were then living. I cite a few contemporaries as witnesses: Learning (alas, the while !) is nowadays like a commodity without request, scarce saleable by the hands of a cunning broker. Nothing is more worth money and less in request. LODGE (PREFACE to Josephus) 1602. It is hard to find in these days of noblemen or gentlemen any good mathematician, or excellent musician, or notable philosopher, or else a cunning poet. I know very many notable gentlemen in the Court that have written commendably and suppressed it again or suffered it to be published without their own names to it, as |