CHAPTER V.
ELIZABETHAN CRITICISM.
Backwardness of English Criticism not implying inferiority 144 Its cause 145 The influence of Rhetoric and other matters 146 Hawes 146 The first Tudor critics 147 Wilson: his _Art of Rhetoric_ 149 His attack on “Inkhorn terms” 149 His dealing with Figures 150 Cheke: his resolute Anglicism and anti-preciosity 151 His criticism of Sallust 152 Ascham 153 His patriotism 154 His horror of Romance 154 And of the _Morte d’Arthur_ 155 His general critical attitude to Prose 156 And to Poetry 156 The craze for Classical Metres 157 Special wants of English Prosody 157 Its kinds— (1) Chaucerian 158 (2) Alliterative 158 (3) Italianated 159 Deficiencies of all three 159 The temptations of Criticism in this respect 160 Its adventurers: Ascham himself 160 Watson and Drant 161 Gascoigne 162 His _Notes of Instruction_ 163 Their capital value 164 Spenser and Harvey 165 The Puritan attack on Poetry 169 Gosson 169 _The School of Abuse_ 170 Lodge’s _Reply_ 170 Sidney’s _Apology for Poetry_ 171 Abstract of it 172
Its minor shortcomings 174 And major heresies 175 The excuses of both 175 And their ample compensation 176 King James’s _Reulis and Cautelis_ 176 Webbe’s _Discourse_ 178 Slight in knowledge 179 But enthusiastic 180 If uncritical 180 In appreciation 182 Puttenham’s (?) _Art of English Poesie_ 182 Its erudition 183 Systematic arrangement 184 And exuberant indulgence in Figures 185 Minors: Harington, Meres, Webster, Bolton, &c. 186 Campion and his _Observations_ 187 Daniel and his _Defence of Rhyme_ 189 Bacon 191 The _Essays_ 192 The _Advancement of Learning_ 192 Its denunciation of mere word-study 193 Its view of Poetry 194 Some _obiter dicta_ 194 The whole of very slight importance 195 Stirling’s _Anacrisis_ 196 Ben Jonson: his equipment 197 His _Prefaces_, &c. 198 The Drummond Conversations 199 The _Discoveries_ 200 Form of the book 203 Its date 204 Mosaic of old and new 204 The fling at Montaigne 205 At _Tamerlane_ 206 The Shakespeare Passage 206 And that on Bacon 206 General character of the book 208
INTERCHAPTER IV. 211
BOOK V.
THE CRYSTALLISING OF THE NEO-CLASSIC CREED.