Queen Elizabeth--they are penetrated by that despondent
tone which is so strikingly audible in our literature
in the middle years of the sixteeth century, not
surprisingly, if the general history of the time be
considered. Meanwhile, our language had changed much,
and Chaucer had grown almost unintelligible to the
ordinary reader. Therefore, about the year 1590, the
nation was practically without a great poem. At the
same time, it then, if ever, truly needed one. Its
power of appreciation had been quickened and refined by
the study of the poetries of other countries; it had
translated and perused the classical writers with
enthusiasm; it had ardently pored over the poetical
literature of Italy. Then its life had lately been
ennobled by deeds of splendid courage crowned with as
splendid success. In the year 1590, if ever, this
country, in respect of its literary condition and in
respect of its general high and noble excitement, was
ready for the reception of a great poem.
Such a poem undoubtedly was the _Faerie Queene_,
although it may perhaps be admitted that it was a work
likely to win favour with the refined and cultured
sections of the community rather than with the
community at large. Strongly impressed on it as were
the instant influences of the day, yet in many ways it
was marked by a certain archaic character. It depicted
a world--the world of chivalry and romance--which was
departed; it drew its images, its forms of life, its
scenery, its very language, from the past. Then the
genius of our literature in the latter part of Queen