EXPEDITIONS AGAINST SPAIN.

163

taxation, if they only gave sixty thousand pounds towards a great expedition for winning Portugal from the Castilians,-whom the Portuguese hated,-to place the crown upon the head of Don Antonio, an illegitimate branch of the royal line of that country which Philip had added to Spain. Sir Francis Drake and sir John Norris undertook to lead this somewhat rash enterprise. A great body of adventurers joined the expedition. They did not, however, sail direct to Portugal, but attacked Corunna; burnt some ships; defeated a Spanish army; and took the lower town. At last they went on the real purpose for which the armament was fitted out. But Philip was now prepared. Every attempt at insurrection was promptly suppressed. Lisbon was defended by a large force. When the English army under Norris advanced from Peniche, their landing-place, and Drake sailed up the Tagus, they could only obtain possession of the suburbs of Lisbon; and were speedily forced to re-embark for want of ammunition and provisions. On their return they took and burned Vigo; and then came back to England triumphant to a limited extent, but having lost one half of the adventurers, many in fight, but the greater number by famine and sickness. The young earl of Essex was one of those who took part in this enterprise as a volunteer.

As Drake's ships were returning homeward, with their halfstarved crews and soldiers, they received some supplies from a fleet of seven ships, which the earl of Cumberland had fitted out at his own charge to attack the Spanish coasts. A fearful mortality amongst the men of this expedition also crippled their exertions; and, though many prizes were made, the prosperous issue of the great contest was little advanced by this and other detached enterprises. But there was a higher result of such a warfare than the taking of ships or the burning of towns. A grand spirit of devotion to their country was engendered in the people. The energies called forth in that stirring time produced a corresponding elevation of the national character. In one of his earliest comedies, Shakspere, in a scene where a father recommends his son "to seek preferment," has briefly indicated the great principles which stimulated the ambition of the gentlemen of England at this period:

"Some, to the wars, to try their fortune here;

Some, to discover islands far away

Some, to the studious universities."

"Two Gentlemen of Verona," act i. sc. 3.

They had been fighting in the Netherlands during the command of Leicester; they were still fighting for the same cause under Maurice of Nassau; they were about to fight for Henry of Navarre. War against Philip of Spain, wherever to be carried on, would be a war of enthusiasm. Discovery, a natural result of commercial extension, was the one thing wanting to fill the "homekeeping youths" with an ardent desire to burst the narrow confines of their own land, to seek wealth and honour in regions where the earth yielded its richest increase to the slightest labour. Knowledge was to be sought; for not only were learning and ability now the stepping-stones to civil preferment, but ignorance had become a disgrace amongst the highborn, who once left the churchmen to the almost exclusive possession of intellectual power. The stormy time of the Reformation had been succeeded by a time of compara tive peace and security; but this position had been won by a gen eral enlargement of the national thought, and through this growing freedom of opinion a great Literature was bursting into life,-sustaining and carrying forward the mental independence which had produced it. Gabriel Harvey, in one of his tracts, directed, as verses of his friend Spenser had been directed, against some of the ribaldry of vulgar controversialists, shows, in a passage which is worth quoting, the stimulus which heroic action ought to give, as it must have given, to intellectual production: "England, since it was England, never bred more honourable minds, more adventurous hearts, more valorous hands, or more excellent wits, than of late. The date of idle vanities is expired. Away with these scribbling paltries. There is another Sparta in hand, that indeed requireth Spartan temperance, Spartan frugality, Spartan exercise, Spartan valiancy, Spartan perseverance, Spartan invincibility; and hath no wanton leisure for the comedies of Athens. The wind is changed, and there is a busier pageant upon the stage,

When you have observed the course of industry, examined the antecedents and consequences of travel, compared English and Spanish valour, measured the forces of both parties, weighed every circumstance of advantage, considered the means of our assurance, and finally found profit to be our pleasure, provision our security, labour our honour, warfare our welfare,-who of reckoning can spare any lewd or vain time for corrupt pamphlets; or who of judgment will not cry, away with these paltering fiddle faddles." * This stilted eloquence of Gabriel Harvey conveys a great truth. "Pierce's Supererogation," 1593. Reprinted in "Archaica," vol. ii. p. 62.

i

THE HEROIC TIMES.

165

The English nation was growing into loftier proportions in this period of new-born energies. He points to the western discoveries of Gilbert; the West-Indian voyage of Drake; the arctic expedition of Frobisher; the colonisation of Virginia by Raleigh; the hot welcome of the terrible Spanish armada to the coast of England; the voyage into Spain and Portugal of Norris, Drake, and Essex. But he recounts these, to show how the period which called forth such energies ought to bear the corresponding fruits of a high literature, —and he exclaims, “what miracles of excellency might be achieved in an age of policy and a world of industry." They were achieved.

CHAPTER IX.

The three religious classes of the second half of the reign of Elizabeth.-Progress of Non-Conformity.-Statute against the Puritans.-The Puritan enmity to the habits of society.-Philip Stubbes' Anatomy of Abuses.-Pride of Apparel.-Gluttony and Drunkenness.-Dancing considered a vice.-Music held to be corrupting.-The Sabbath profaned by Sports.-The Lord of Misrule.-May-games; Wakes; Churchales.-Country festivals.—Athletic exercises and sports.-Gaming.-Stage Plays.

THE three chief religious classes of the second half of the reign of Elizabeth have been defined by one who lived near that period :"They may for distinction be called the active Romanists, the restless Nonconformists (of which there were many sorts), and the passive peaceable Protestants." In the history of this time, as of every other time, the doings of the "active" and of the " restless" must be far more prominent than any movement of the "passive peaceable." Up to the period of the death of Mary Stuart, the "active Romanists" were the only objects of grave solicitude to the government. All the just and rational energies of the queen and the statesmen who surrounded her; all the severities against Popish recusants, which were defended as being levelled only against traitors, were calculated to uphold the great edifice of Protestantism which was the shelter and bulwark of the civil polity. In this contest against the Romanists, none were more zealous than those who, known as Puritans, first objected to some ceremonies of the Anglican Church, and then denounced the hierarchical constitution upon which she rested. They became "restless Nonconformists." They were compared to a man “who would never cease to whet and whet his knife, till there was no steel left to make it useful." Both these classes, however, constituted a decided minority, as compared with the "passive peaceable Protestants "those who were content to remain in the quiet enjoyment of the security which had been won by the sagacity of their rulers. Amongst their ranks the enthusiasts were not to be found. The Established Church had opened its arms widely, to embrace many who conscientiously differed as to doctrine and discipline. Walton, "Life of Hooker."

tIbid.

PROGRESS OF NON-CONFORMITY.

167

The majority accepted the invitation to abide by the religion of the State, to form contented if not zealous members of a Church which was expressly calculated to reconcile differences. Her decent ceremonies, her abundant provision for the maintenance of her ministers, her beautiful form of Common Prayer, her solemn Offices, were well suited to the quiet and orderly English character. The Romanists, who, at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, were a powerful body decidedly hostile to the government, had, after the contests of a quarter of a century, been absorbed into the ranks of the conformists, or held their own opinions in secret, or had been crushed. The power which had largely contributed to crush the more dangerous of the enemies of the reformed doctrines had, in its turn, become troublesome if not dangerous. Let us endeavour to sketch an outline of the position of the Puritans, in their relations to the church and state and in their social relations, as they present themselves to our observation during the years immediately succeeding the great triumph over the attempt to make England ån appanage of Spain, a country for the bishop of Rome "to tithe and toll in."

In 1588, the bishop of Winchester, Thomas Cooper, published "An Admonition to the People of England," which aimed at counteracting the effect of certain bold and scurrilous pamphlets which had been issued with the intent to bring the Church and its ministers into contempt. He especially complains that such books should be in men's hands and bosoms, "when the view of the mighty navy of the Spaniards is scant passed out of our sight; when the terrible sound of their shot ringeth, as it were, yet in our ears." But though the Puritans were at issue with the government upon the great question of religious freedom, and held opinions very adverse to the constitution and discipline of the Church, as enforced by the Act of Uniformity, they had not been the less ready to defend their country against invasion. They were naturally most strenuous in their hatred of the invader that drew the sword in the name of Rome. When the immediate danger had passed away, the Puritans went with redoubled zeal about the work which they called a Re-reformation. The age of pamphlets had now fully come. As the power of reading was more widely extended, tracts were multiplied, whose tone was adapted for men of strong convictions and obstinate prejudices, to whom abuse would be more acceptable than placid reasoning. Many, also, who cared little for the subjects of controversy, read with avidity the