Mery Enterlude of a Palmer, a Pardoner, a Potecary, and a
Pedlar," the jest was, that after each had shown his humors
and here Heywood, although firm to the old Church, wrote as
contemptuously as Sir David Lindsay of the Pardoner's traffic
first rank was to be adjudged by the Pedlar to whichever of
his three companions excelled in lying, since that was, in the
way of business, common to all. The Palmer won with this:

"And this I would ye should understand,
I have seen women five hundred thousand;
And oft with them have some time tarried.
Yet in all places where I have been,
Of all the women that I have seen,

I never saw nor knew, in my conscience,

Any one woman out of patience."

PART IV.

MODERN ENGLISH:

1550 to the Present.

CHAPTER I.

SECOND HALF OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLISH WRITERS OF LATIN; ENGLISH TRANSLATORS; WRITERS OF RELIGIOUS AND THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.

1. Approach of the Elizabethan Era in Literature.-2. Classical Study.-3. Writers of Books in Latin; Sir John Cheke and Sir Thomas Smith.-4. Other Writers in Latin.-5. George Buchanan.-6. The Translators from Greek, Latin, Italian, and French; Phaer; Twyne; Golding; Turbervile; Brooke; Paynter; North; Stanihurst; Hall; Googe; Florio; Harington; Carew; Fairfax ; Savile; Sylvester. - 7. Religious Writings; Whittingham; the Geneva Bible; the Bishops' Bible.-8. John Knox.-9. John Fox.-10. Stephen Gosson.— 11. Philip Stubbes.-12. Richard Hooker.

1. In entering upon the second half of the sixteenth century, we approach the most powerful and brilliant era in English literature. At the beginning of this period, the youthful Edward VI. was on the throne of England. He died in 1553, and was succeeded by his half-sister, Mary, who reigned until her death in 1558. Then began the illustrious reign of Elizabeth, who ruled England until 1603. The literary splendor of the Elizabethan era did not begin, however, until the latter part of her reign, and it lasted through the reign of her successor. Most of the men who made the greatness and glory of Elizabethan literature were not born until about the time that Elizabeth ascended the throne, or afterward. Thus, Raleigh was born in 1552, Hooker, Lyly, and Spenser about 1553, Sidney in 1554, Chapman in 1557, Warner about 1558, Bacon in 1561, Daniel in 1562, Marlowe and Shakespeare in 1564, Middleton about 1570, Ben Jonson about 1574, Beaumont about 1586, Fletcher in 1576, and Massinger in 1584.

2. The great impulse given, during the previous hundred years, to the study of the ancient literatures, was still felt in many ways:in the study of those literatures, not only by professional scholars, but by men and women of high rank; in