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February 1867 Issue
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This magazine has been fully digitized as a part of The Atlantic's archive. Each
article originally printed in this magazine is available here, complete and
unedited from the historical print. Read more from this magazine, or explore the
full archive.
 * Reviews and Literary Notices
   William Dean Howells
 * Glacial Phenomena in Maine (Part I)
   Louis Agassiz
 * Comic Journalism
   Charles Dawson Shanly
 * The Guardian Angel
   Oliver Wendell Holmes
 * Mona
   Alice Cary
 * Characteristics of the Elizabethan Literature
   E. P. Whipple





CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE


By E. P. Whipple
February 1867 Issue
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THE term “literature of the age of Elizabeth ” is not confined to the literature
produced in the reign of Elizabeth, but is a general name for an era in
literature, commencing about the middle of her reign, in 1580, reaching its
maturity in the reign of James I., between 1603 and 1626, and perceptibly
declining during the reign of his son. It is called by the name of Elizabeth,
because it was produced in connection with influences which originated or
culminated in her time, and which did not altogether cease to act after her
death ; and these influences give to its great works, whether published in her
reign or the reign of James, certain mental and moral characteristics in common.
The most glorious of all the expressions of the English mind, it is, like every
other outburst of national genius, essentially inexplicable in itself. It
occurred, but why it occurred we can answer but loosely. We can state the
influences which operated on Spenser, Shakespeare, Bacon, Hooker, Raleigh, but
the genesis of their genius is beyond our criticism. There was abundant reason,
in the circumstances around them, why they should exercise creative power ; but
the possession of the power is an ultimate fact, and defies explanation. Still,
the appearance of so many eminent minds in one period indicates something in the
circumstances ot the period which aided and stimulated, if it did not cause, the
marvel ; and a consideration ot these circumstances, though it may not enable us
to penetrate the mystery of genius, may still shed some light on its character
and direction.



The impulse given to the English mind in the age of Elizabeth was but one effect
of that great movement of the European mind whose steps were marked by the
revival of letters, the invention of printing, the study of the ancient
classics, the rise of the middle class, the discovery of America, the:
Reformation, the formation of national literatures, and the general clash and
conflict of the old with the new, — the old existing in decaying institutions,
the new in the ardent hopes and organizing genius by which institutions arc
created. If the mind was not always emancipated from error during the stir and
tumult of this movement, it was still stung into activity, and compelled to
think; for if authority, whether secular or sacerdotal, is questioned, authority
no less than innovation instinctively frames reasons for its existence. If power
was thus driven to use the weapons of the brain, thought, in its attempt to
become fact, was no less driven to use the weapons of force. Ideas and opinions
were thus all the more directly perceived and tenaciously held, from the fact
that they kindled strong passions, and frequently demanded, not merely the
assent of the intellect, but the hazard of fortune and life.

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