Elizabeth's reign was emphatically dramatic; in the
intense life of these years men longed for reality.
Now the _Faerie Queene_ is one long idealizing. These
circumstances are to accounted for partly by the
character of Spenser's genius, partly by the fact
already stated that chronologically Spenser is the
earliest of the great spirits of his day. In truth he
stands between two worlds: he belongs partly to the new
time, partly to the old; he is the last of one age, he
is the first of another; he stretches out one hand into
the past to Chaucer, the other rests upon the shoulder
of Milton.



Footnotes
---------

{1} Nash's _Supplication of Pierce Pennilesse_, 1592.
{2} Skeat's _Specimens of English Literature_, p. 14.






CHAPTER IV.

1591-1599.