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Coppee, Henry

"English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History Designed as a Manual of Instruction"

" From this, it is said, Shakspeare drew in writing his
"Henry VIII."
Roger Ascham, 1515-1568: specially famous as the successful instructor of
Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey, whom he was able to imbue with a taste for
classical learning. He wrote a treatise on the use of the bow, called
_Toxophilus_, and _The Schoolmaster_, which contains many excellent and
judicious suggestions, worthy to be carried out in modern education. It
was highly praised by Dr. Johnson. It was written for the use of the
children of Sackville, Lord Buckhurst.


CHAPTER XI.
SPENSER AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE.

The Great Change. Edward VI. and Mary. Sidney. The Arcadia. Defence of
Poesy. Astrophel and Stella. Gabriel Harvey. Edmund Spenser--Shepherd's
Calendar. His Great Work.

THE GREAT CHANGE.

With what joy does the traveller in the desert, after a day of scorching
glow and a night of breathless heat, descry the distant trees which mark
the longed-for well-spring in the emerald oasis, which seems to beckon
with its branching palms to the converging caravans, to come and slake
their fever-thirst, and escape from the threatening sirocco!
The pilgrim arrives at the caravansery: not the long, low stone house,
unfurnished and bare, which former experience had led him to expect; but a
splendid palace.


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