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SHAKESPEARE
only become a dramatist but had excelled Greene himself
in his chosen field of romantic comedy becomes intelligible
enough. Even in his wrath, however, Greene bears
eloquent witness to Shakespeare’s diligence, ability, and
marked success, both as actor and playwright. All this
is fully confirmed by the more deliberate and detailed
language of Chettle’s apology, already quoted. Of Shake¬
speare’s amazing industry and conspicuous success the
next few years supply ample evidence. Within six or
seven years he not only produced the brilliant reflective
and descriptive poems of Venus and Adonis and Lucrece,
but at least fifteen of his dramas, including tragedies,
comedies, and historical plays. Having found his true
vocation, Shakespeare works during these years as a
master, having full command over the materials and
resources of his art. The dramas produced have a fulness
of life and a richness of imagery, a sense of joyousness
and power, that speak of the writer’s exultant absorption
and conscious triumph in his chosen work. The sparkling
comedies. and great historical plays belonging to this
period evince the ease and delight of an exuberant mind
realizing its matured creations.
Nor after all is this result so very surprising. Shake¬
speare entered on his London career at the very moment
best fitted for the full development of his dramatic
genius. From the accession of Elizabeth all the domi¬
nant impulses and leading events of her reign had pre¬
pared the way for the splendid triumph of policy and
arms that closed its third decade, and for the yet more
splendid literary triumph of the full-orbed drama that
followed. After the gloom and terror of Mary’s reign
the coming of Elizabeth to the crown was hailed with
exultation by the people, and seemed in itself to open
a new and brighter page of the nation’s history.
Elizabeth’s personal charms and mental gifts, her high
spirit and dauntless courage, her unfailing political tact
and judgment, her frank bearing and popular address,
combined with her unaffected love for her people and
devotion to their interests, awakened the strongest feelings
of personal loyalty, and kindled into passionate ardour
the spirit of national pride and patriotism that made the
whole kingdom one. The most powerful movements of
the time directly tended to reinforce and concentrate these
awakened energies. While the Reformation and Renais¬
sance impulses had liberalized men’s minds and enlarged
their moral horizon, the effect of both was at first of a
political and practical rather than of a purely religious or
literary kind. The strong and exhilarating sense of civil
and religious freedom realized through the Reformation
was inseparably associated with the exultant spirit of
nationality it helped to stimulate and diffuse. The pope,
and his emissaries the Jesuits, were looked upon far more
as foreign enemies menacing the independence of the
kingdom than as religious foes and firebrands seeking to
destroy the newly established faith. The conspiracies,
fomented from abroad, that gathered around the captive
queen of Scots, the plots successively formed for the
assassination of Elizabeth, were regarded as murderous
assaults on the nation’s life, and the Englishmen who
organized them abroad or aided them at home were
denounced and prosecuted with pitiless severity as traitors
to their country. Protestantism thus came to be largely
identified with patriotism, and all the active forces of the
kingdom, its rising wealth, energy, and intelligence, were
concentrated to defend the rights of the liberated empire
against the assaults of despotic Europe represented by
Rome and Spain. These forces gained volume and
impetus as the nation was thrilled by the details of Alva’s
ruthless butcheries, and the awful massacre of St Bar¬
tholomew, until at length they were organized and hurled
759
vith resistless effect against the grandest naval and military
armament ever equipped by a Continental power,—an arma¬
ment that had been sent forth with the assurance of victory
y t e wealthiest, most absolute, and most determined
monarch of the time. There was a vigorous moral element
in that national struggle and triumph. It was the spirit
ot freedom, of the energies liberated by the revolt from
ome, and illuminated by the fair humanities of Greece
and Italy, that nerved the arm of that happy breed of
men m the day. of battle, and enabled them to strike with
fatal effect against the abettors of despotic rule in church
and state. The material results of the victory were at
once apparent. England became mistress of the seas, and
rose, to an assured position in Europe as a political and
maritime power of the first order. The literary results
at home were equally striking. The whole conflict reacted
powerfully on the genius of the race, quickening into life
its latent seeds of reflective knowledge and wisdom of
poetical and dramatic art.
Of these effects the rapid growth and develop- Growth
merit of the . national drama was the most brilliant of the
and characteristic. There was indeed at the time anative
unique stimulus in this direction. The greater num-drama-
her of the eager excited listeners who crowded the
rude theatres from floor to roof had shared in the
adventurous, exploits of the age, while all felt the keenest
interest in life and action. And the stage represented
with admirable breadth and fidelity the struggling forces,
the mingled elements, humorous and tragic, the passionate
hopes, deep-rooted animosities, and fitful misgivings of
those eventful years. The spirit of the time had made
personal daring a common heritage: with noble and
commoner, gentle and simple, alike, love of queen and
country was a romantic passion, and heroic self-devotion
at the call of either a beaten way of ordinary life. To
act with energy and decision in the face of danger,
to strike at once against any odds in the cause of
freedom and independence, was the desire and ambition
of all. This complete unity of national sentiment
and action became the great characteristic of the time.
The dangers threatening the newly liberated kingdom were
too. real and pressing to admit of anything like seriously
divided councils, or bitterly hostile parties within the
realm. Everything thus conspired to give an extraordinary
degree of concentration and brilliancy to the national life.
For the twenty years that followed the destruction of the
Armada London was the centre and focus of that life.
Here gathered the soldiers and officers who had fought
against Spain in the Low Countries, against France in
Scotland, and against Rome in Ireland. Along the river
side, and in noble houses about the Strand, were the hardy
mariners and adventurous sea captains, such as Drake,
Hawkins, and Frobisher, who had driven their dauntless
keels into unknown seas, who had visited strange lands
and alien races in order to enlarge the knowledge, increase
the dominions, and augment the wealth of their fellow-
countrymen. Here assembled the noble councillors,
scholars, and cavaliers whose foresight and skill guided the
helm of state, whose accomplishment in letters and arms
gave refinement and distinction to court pageants and
ceremonials, and whose patronage and support of the
rising drama helped to make the metropolitan theatre
the great centre of genius and art, the great school of
historical teaching, the great mirror of human nature in
all the breadth and emphasis of its interests, convictions,
and activities. The theatre was indeed the living organ
through which all the marvellous and mingled experiences
of a time incomparably rich in vital elements found
expression. There was no other, no organized or adequate
means, of popular expression at all. Books were a solitary