which no writers of that age are quite free. Such cases he has himself described. "There are men Who carrying the stamp of one defect, Shall in the general censure take corruption * The dram of base Doth all the noble substance of worth outweigh, It is not needful to say more on this subject, than that the other dramatic poets of the time of Shakspeare, and succeeding him, are in no sense so pure. Their writings as a whole are unreadable. Notwithstanding their genius, the absence of a moral purpose has injured and nearly destroyed their vitality. It is not wonderful that a period producing such poets as Spenser and Shakspeare should be rich in minor poets. The names of Drayton, Daniel, and Drummond of Hawthornden (the Scottish Petrarch), would not have been secondary but for the grandeur of the first names. the splendour of the sun hides the radiance of the stars. as CHAP. VIII. MINOR POETS BETWEEN THE TIME OF SHAKSPEARE AND MILTON. THE minor poets of the period contemporary with and immediately succeeding Shakspeare, are well worthy of reverential remembrance. Their number was very great. "Ellis reckons up a hundred minor poets of the time, and Drake made a list of two hundred."* They carried the short lyric to a greater perfection than it had previously attained, and some of their stanzas will live as long as piety and genius continue to influence the heart and mind of man. Who can read without a sense of their quaint sweetness Sir Walter Raleigh's lines MY PILGRIMAGE. "Give me my scallop shell of quiet, My scrip of joy (immortal diet!) * Hallam's Introduction to the Literature of Europe, vol. ii. p. 132. My gown of glory, hope's true gage; Where spring the nectar fountains, The bowl of bliss, And drink my everlasting fill Upon every milken hill; My soul will be a-dry before, But after that will thirst no more." William Habington, the author of "Castara," among many beautiful stanzas, has some peculiarly fine in his little poem, In the present age, a taste has revived for the quaint sweetness of some of the lyrics of Herrick. While the heavenly strains of George Herbert are justly considered as the finest devotional poems between the time of the greatest dramatic and epic poet of our land, there is a little stanza of the sweet and fanciful Herrick that breathes true penitence for the license of some of his poems. "For those my unbaptized rhymes, But if 'mongst all, Thou find'st there one That one of all the rest shall be, The glory of my work and me." Equally beautiful and true is the sentiment, that worldly honours are hinderances to the Christian life. "Give me honours: what are these But the pleasing hindrances Stiles, and stops, and stays, that come To my Heaven less run than fly." Incomparably the most spiritual and tender poet of that period was, as we said, George Herbert. His stanzas are pervaded by a most glowing piety, and reveal a delicate loving nature. How strange a it seems that the first celebrated infidel writer that England ever produced (Lord Herbert of Cherbury) should have been the brother of this Christian poet! The brothers Herbert are curious instance of the difference of mental manifestation that may occur with a similar mode of training and education. Their mother was a most admirable woman, and trained her sons in the knowledge and practice of every Christian virtue. Nevertheless the one was a sceptic, the other a believer. Each was active in spreading his opinions, -the one suggesting doubt, the other confirming faith. It was probably owing to the excellent lessons of the mother, that Lord Herbert in the midst of his disbelief was yet a moral man ; and that his gloomy creed, though it could yield no comfort either to himself or his reader, did not in his case, as it so often does, lead to corruption of life. George Herbert was the perfect embodiment of a good pastor. Isaac Walton's biography of this admirable man contains exquisite touches, that exemplify the apostolic simplicity and piety of his character." It is recorded in his biography, "that in one of his walks to Salisbury to join a musical society, he |