it to the best of our abilities. For what do we expect can happen, when every day pell-mell poor sons of Alma Mater, sprung from the soil, mannikins of no rank whatever, are eagerly admitted to degrees? And if these have learnt by heart one or two definitions and distinctions, and spent the usual number of years in chopping logic, it matters not to what profit, whatever kind of fellows they eventually turn out to be, idiots, triflers, gamesters, tipplers, worthless slaves to lust and pleasure, 'Such as the suitors of Penelope, Or worthless courtiers of Alcinous. ' Provided they have spent so many years at the University, and passed muster as gownsmen, they are presented for lucre's sake, and through the interest of their friends: I may add often with splendid testimonials to their morals and learning; and on leaving College they are furnished with these, written most amply in their favour, by those who undoubtedly thereby abandon good faith and lose credit. For Doctors and Professors (as one says) care for this only, that from their various professions, irregular more frequently than legitimate ones, they may promote their own interests, and make their gains at the cost of the public. The only thing our annual officials generally desire is that they may squeeze money from the number of those who take degrees, nor do they much care what manner of men they are, whether literate or illiterate, provided they are fat, and sleek, and handsome, and, to sum up in one word, monied. Philosophasters who have no art become Masters of Arts and the authorities bid those be wise who are endowed with no wisdom, and bring nothing to their degree but the desire to take it. Theologasters, sufficiently and more than sufficiently learned if they but pay the fees, emerge full-blown B. D. 's and D. D. 's. And hence it happens that such sorry buffoons everywhere, so many idiots, placed in the twilight of letters, ghosts of pastors, itinerant quacks, stupids, dolts, clods, asses, mere animals, burst with unwashed feet into the sacred precincts of Theology, bringing nothing but a brazen countenance, some vulgar trash, and scholastic trifles hardly worth hearing on the high roads. This is that unworthy and half-starved class of men, indigent, vagabond, slaves to their belly, that ought to be sent back to the plough-tail, fitter for sties than altars, who basely prostitute our Divinity. After admitting that the Church of England and the English Universities shew many fine examples, better probably than in any European country, Burton continues : "No one has so blind a mind as not to see, no one so dull an intelligence as not to perceive, no one so obstinate a judgement, as to refuse to realise that sacred Theology is polluted by idiots and mountebanks, and the heavenly Muses prostituted as some common thing..... Hence that Academic squalor, that sadness of the Muses in these days,' since any mannikin ignorant of arts rises.... But I will not dwell on this sad theme any longer. Hence Hence come our tears, hence is it that the Muses are in mourning, hence is it that Religion itself, to use the words of Sesellius, is brought into ridicule and contempt, and the Priesthood is debased; and, since this is the case, I may venture to say so, and to quote the low saying of a low person about the Clergy, that they are a low lot, poor, ignorant, sordid, melancholy, wretched, despicable, and contemptible!" CHAPTER X THE WORDMAKERS It is impossible to study the Elizabethan Drama without being impressed by the Protean versatility of its authors. In swift and dizzying rotation their poetic souls seem to have been metamorphosed into those of Physicians, Divines, Musicians, Courtiers, Botanists, Kings, Scientists, Philosophers, Lawyers and Philologers. They themselves clearly realised their Protean characteristics and references to the fable are frequent. I have as many shapes as Proteus had. ANON (Sir John Oldcastle 1. 2.) 1599-1600. I can add colours to the chameleon Change shapes with Proteus for advantages. SHAKESPEARE (3 Henry VI. 111. 2.) 1592. I have such strange varieties of colours RANDOLPH (Muses Looking Glass IV. 5) 1638. Proteus ever changed shapes until he was straitened and held fast. BACON (Advancement of Learning) 1605. He then devised himself how to disguise, For by his mighty science he could take As many forms and shapes in seeming wise As ever Proteus to himself could make. SPENSER (Fairy Queen 1. II. x.) 1590-1609. He wandered in the world in strange array..... Disguised in thousand shapes that none might [him bewray. IBID (III. 6.) I will play the changeling, I'll change myself into a thousand shapes To court our brave spectators; I'll change my [postures Into a thousand different variations To draw even ladies eyes to follow mine. Oh the miserable Condition of a prince who, though he vary More shapes than Proteus in his mind and [manners, He cannot win an universal suffrage 1631-1632. It is in the rôle of philologers that the poets now claim attention. At the time immediately prior to the advent of the dramatists the English language was a slighted, poor, inexpressive and unseemly thing. In the Elizabethan era there was a marked and successful movement for its augmentation and amendment. |