He also prefixed a poem entitled
_Hobbinol_, to the Faery Queene. But Harvey most deserves our notice
because he was the champion of the hexameter verse in English, and imbued
even Spenser with an enthusiasm for it.
Each language has its own poetic and rhythmic capacities. Actual
experiment and public taste have declared their verdict against hexameter
verse in English. The genius of the Northern languages refuses this old
heroic measure, which the Latins borrowed from the Greeks, and all the
scholarship and finish of Longfellow has not been able to establish it in
English. Harvey was a pedant so thoroughly tinctured with classical
learning, that he would trammel his own language by ancient rules, instead
of letting it grow into the assertion of its own rules.
EDMUND SPENSER--THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR.--Having noticed these lesser
lights of the age of Spenser, we return to a brief consideration of that
poet, who, of all others, is the highest exponent and representative of
literature in the age of Queen Elizabeth, and whose works are full of
contemporary history.
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