Elizabethan England inherited much that was best in English Medieval fiction. It received as heritage the Arthusian romances, the moralized story of Gower, and the highly finished tales of Chaucer. From Italy came the pastrol romance in its most dreamy and alternated form, the gorgeous poetic romances of Tasso and Aristo and many collections of novella. From Germany came jest book and tales of necromancy; from France and Greece the story of adventure with its st shipwrecks and pirates.
English prose style continued developing throughout the Shakespearean era. Edward Albert remarks: "Euphuism, which appeared early in this epoch, was a kind of literary measles incidental to early growth, and quickly passed away, leaving the general body of English prose healthier than before. There is an increase in the raw material of prose in the shape of many foreign words that are imported, there is a growing expertness in sentence and paragraph construction and in the more delicate graces of style, such as rhythm and melody. The prose of Hooker and Bacon (in his later stages) represents the further development of the time. Prose style has yet a great deal to learn, but it is learning fast."
In order to properly understand the magnificent growth of prose, we should analyse and evaluate the development of various prose genres of this period.
I
ESSAY
The essay, which Montaigne began in France, has been variously defined. According to Dr. Johnson it is "a loose sally of mind, indigested piece, not a regular and orderly performance." The Oxford English Dictionary defines the essay as "a composition of moderate length on any particular subject, or branch of a subject; originally implying want of finish, 'an irregular, indigested piece', but now said of a composition more or less elaborate in style, though limited in range." Alexander Smith writes: "The essay as a literary form, resembles the lyric, insofar as it is moulded by some central mood— whimsical, serious or satirical. Give the mood, and the essay from the first sentence to the last, grows around it as the cocoon grows around the silkworm." He adds: "The essayist does not usually appear early in the literary history of a country, he comes naturally after the poet and the chronicler. His habit of mind is leisurely; he does not write from any special stress of fashionable impulse, he does not create material so much as he comments on material already existing ……..He is usually full of illusions and references, and these his reader must be able to understand and follow." There is vagueness in these definitions.
Hugh Walker classifies essays into two categories— compositions to which custom has assigned the name of essay. Such essays may be written on any subject under the sun. An essay is a short composition and more or less incomplete. Its theme may be any department of human thought —scientific, philosophic, historical or critical. Secondly, there are essays in which we do detect a special literary form. The essays of Lamb in English and those of Montaigne in French are the best examples of this type of essay, known as the personal essay.
The year 1597, the year when Bacon published his ten essays, marks the beginning of 'essay writing in ,English literature. The origin and development of essay is.given below.
SIR FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626)
Bacon's Life
Bacon's contribution
Bacon, a versatile thinker and writer, wrote both in Latin and English. He thought that his Latin works would become immortal, while his English works would not last long. It is sheer irony that Bacon is remembered today by dint of his English works, while his Latin works have fallen into oblivion.
(1) Latin Works:
His Latin works were to be fashioned into a vast scheme, which he called Instauratio Magna, expounding his classical theories. It was laid out on the following plan, but it was scarcely half finished.
(a) De Augmentis Scientiarum (1623): This treatise, in which the English work on The Advancement of Learning is embodied, gives a general summary of human knowledge.
(b) Novum Organum (1620): It explains the new logic or the inductive method of reasoning, upon which his philosophy is founded.
(c) Sylva Sylvarum: It was left incomplete. It was designed to give a complete view of what we call Natural Philosophy and Natural History.
(d) Scala Intellectus: Only a few opening pages are available.
(e) Prodromi: Only a few fragments were written.
(f) Philosophia Secunda: It was never written.
(2) English Works:
(a) Essays: Bacon's Essays, ten in number, appeared in 1597. The second edition (1612) and the third edition (1625) raised the number to thirty-eight and fifty-eight respectively. They are on familiar subjects and they represent the meditations of trained and learned mind. They contain utilitarian wisdom and are written in lucid, clear and aphoristic style. Bacon began the vogue of essay writing in English.
(b) Scientific and Philosophical Prose: The Advancement of Learning which contains the substance of Baconian philosophy, appeared in 1605. It was in this book that Bacon offered the memorable division of knowledge into history, poetry and science. He investigated the present state and future prospects. The Advancemnet of Learning is memorable not only in the history of science and philosophy, but also in the history of English prose. That effective use of language, which is the basis of logic, is found here to the fullest advantage. Its language is completely dominated by the subject, which is divided into headings and sub-headings. Bacon was the first prose writer who made English worthy of European recognition. It is for this reason that he is credited with the title of one of the makers of English prose and language.
(c) History: In the History of Henry VII (1622), Bacon deals with the subject scientifically, basing his account on facts and leaving the facts to speak for themselves. His work, however, is more a biography than a history, but is undoubtedly considered as the first modern history, chronologically as well as by reason of its stylistic merit. It presents an impartial character history of a British King. Its style in natural, racy and straightforward. It has a distinctive style of its own, quite distinct from the aphoristic, epigrammatic and paradoxical style of the Essays and different also from the expository and speculative style of The Advancement of Learning.
(d) New Atlantis (1626): It was left incomplete due to his death in 1626. It is a philosophical romance modelled on More's Utopia. As a work of fiction, it is in the ancestory of English novel.
Bacon, the Wisest, the Brightest and the Meanest of Mankind Bacon's character was full of contradictions. Macaulay said that Bacon was the supreme example of shining intellect conjoined to a base and abject moral nature. Alexander Pope very succinctly summed up Bacon's character in the following couplet:
"If part allure thee, think, how Bacon shined,
The wisest, the brightest and the meanest of mankind."
Bacon has merited Pope's verdict on the basis of the following indisputable aspects of his character:
1. Bacon: the Wisest of Mankind: Bacon was the pioneer of modern scientific and speculative thought. He, first of all, expounded the philosophy of Induction which has earned for him the title of the Father of Modern Science, though his contributions to science stand at zero. Bacon was the first to insist that "knowledge is power" and modern science has proved the force of his utterance. His Advancement of Learning and the Novum Organum were intended to be parts of a great system of Baconian philosophy, which he called the Instauratio Magna. It consisted of six parts. When all the parts were completed, Bacon confidently thought that all knowledge about the world and the things contained in it would be available to mankind. Some parts of this scheme refer to or depend upon the existing knowledge or old discoveries in Nature, while some parts relate to examination and discovery of fresh truths in nature.
Bacon's one pursuit was the advancement of knowledge. He lived for it and died for it. In the case of Bacon, "a commanding intellect and a rich imagination were qualified by a strong incapacity of emotion or moral earnestness, and have left these enigmas in the conduct of his life." Dr. Abbot says that Bacon was "intended to be a prophet of science, a mouthpiece of the discoveries of time", but fate had "diverted him to the petty details of a lawyer's, of a courtier's or a statesman's life. The prophet -of science had missed his vocation."
(2) Bacon: the Brightest of Mankind: Bacon was the brightest prose writer of his time. His position as one of the originators of English prose has been the subject of much controversy. He made the following damaging remarks about English in the Preface to The Advancement of Learning:
1. That English language is not sufficiently developed to bear the burden of his learning.
2. That no work written in a vernacular has lived beyond its age. He deliberately chose to put his vast learning in Latin in which books had lived for thousand of years.
3. He wanted to make an appeal to the vital intellectual hierarchy of Europe and not to confine his ideas to English readers who were not intellectually advanced enough to appreciate his high ideas.
Bacon himself made these remarks but he became a great writer of English prose by merely a stroke of good luck and not by deserving labour. It is an irony of fortune that his Latin works, for which Bacon hoped an eternal fame have been assigned to the oblivion by his English works for which he had only an ironical tolerance.
(3) Bacon: the Meanest of Mankind: Bacon has been called the meanest of mankind on the ground of following charges of utter misconduct in his capacity as a public servant:
(a) His Relations with Essex: Essex was a constant and true patron and sincere friend of Bacon. The charge of treason was levelled against him and it caused him much distress. Bacon, at the instigation of the Queen, conducted the case against his friend, Essex and concluded it with his execution. Spedding defends Bacon on the ground that the prevailing moral standard was very low. Bacon's conduct on the occasion of Essex's execution may be defended on professional grounds. His loyalty to the Queen was greater than his fidelity to Essex. It was commanded from Elizabeth, the most capricious of monarchs, that Bacon had no choice. Either he had to obey the Queen or he had to lose life.
(b) His Very Low Flattery of King James, the First: Bacon always suppressed his real opinions in all matters, jumped in tune with the wishes of the King, exploited all arts of flattery with all sorts of men in whose hands lay the key to open the gateway for a higher rise. In the first book of The Advancement of Learning, he paid more than ordinary flattery to the King. The book, he tells the King, would be "a fixed memorial and immortal monument" to the King. A philosopher like Bacon who should have shown a God-like indifference, was found guilty of the most unbecoming flattery.
Bacon may be absolved from this charge when we consider the moral standards of the Elizabethan Age. Flattery of the men in power was the order of the day. Even in the preface of The Authorised Version of the Bible the most abject flattery was paid to the King. If the prelates of the Church in that holy preface could he so flattering, why should Bacon be charged with flattery ?
In The Advancement of Learning, Bacon had many scientific ideas, the working out of which needed funds. It was, perhaps, to excite the generosity of the King to a philosophic cause that Bacon had descended to flattery. His conduct might be base, but his motive was noble.
(c) Bacon's corrupt record as the Lord Chancellor and Judge of Exchequer: In 1620 Bacon was made Viscount St. Albans but his fall was imminent. Instigated by Bacon's old enemy, Sir Edward Coke, then Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, the House of Commons ordered an inquiry into an increase of monopoly patents, promoted by Bacon, by means of which the King's creature, Buckingham had enriched his relatives. It was then openly complained that Bacon was in the habit of taking bribes from suitors in his court, and in 1621 the charges were sent to the House of Lords by the Commons for investigation.
That Bacon took bribes from suitors is undeniable, but that he allowed these gifts to influence his judgements is disputed. Dr. Abbot in his life of Bacon has proved to the entire satisfaction of the readers that these gifts were nothing less and nothing more than bribes, the giving and receiving of which was the normal feature of the social morality in the reign of Elizabeth. The charges were furnished against Bacon at a time when he was ill. There was nothing left to Bacon but to submit himself to the will of his fellow peers, without formulating a defence. All that he could urge in his defence was that these were the "faults of the time", not the "faults of the man".
(d) Bacon's Misuse of Power: Bacon was also found guilty of misusing his official position and power. His granting of monopolies was a false charge as he had not favoured individuals but nations.
Conclusion: Bacon's attempts to make fortune by corrupt practices, though deplorable, were intended to supply him with the means for the promotion of science. A noble ambition governed his ignoble conduct. He aimed at advancing human happiness by removing ignorance and by promoting knowledge. The removal of superstitions, the cultivation of the refinement of manners, and improvement of morals are all included in the fruit of knowledge. He was not thinking merely of additions to man's stock of material comforts. But he was deeply impressed with the idea that what nature does we can do, if we can only find out how she does. Man may, if he will, possess himself of the key to the interpretation of nature. "The spirit of man is as the lamp of God wherewith he reacheth the inwardness of all secrets." Power can be gained through knowledge and knowledge can be attained only by a patient and methodical study of nature. We must be content to be the servants and interpreters of nature. In the words of Selby, Bacon "is one of the most interesting figures of this age. He represents its deep patriotism, its patient effort, its wide interest, its high aims, its lofty enthusiasm." Bacon was certainly "the wisest and the brightest" intellectual of the Elizabethan England but in an age of moral obliquity he was certainly not "the meanest of mankind".
Bacon as the Father of English Essay or
The Historical or Literary Importance of Bacon's Essays or
The Characteristics of Bacon's Essays
Neither Nash nor the character writers are the forerunners of essay writing. Bacon is the first great English writer who, in the words of Hugh Walker, is the first English essayist, as he remains for sheer mass and weight of genius, the greatest." His Essays have won him a place apart, and are a source of his fame with the world at large. They introduce a new form of composition into English literature, which was destined to have a varied and fruitful development. They are also in a sense, a record of Bacon's outlook on the world throughout the years of his active life. The slim volume of the essays, published in 1597, grew to thirty-eight in the edition of 1612, and to fifty-eight in the final edition of 1625, and many of the essays were amplified as time went on.
(1) Bacon and Montaigne: Bacon borrowed the general conception of essay from Montaigne's Essais, published in 1580, but he has little in common with them, except that both books consist of notes on human life and human nature by men of the world. In the dedication to Prince Henry, Bacon expounding his conception of essay, writes that they are "certain brief notes, set down rather significantly than curiously, which I have called Essays. The word is late, but the thing is ancient. For Seneca's Epistles to Lucilius, if one marks them well, are but Essays, that is, dispersed meditations, though conveyed in the form of Epistles." Bacon's Essays are much more concentrated and concise than Montaigne's Essais. The charm of Montaigne is that of shrewd but inconsequent comments on men and things set out at leisure by a humane and open-eyed observer. Bacon's Essays represent rather the reflections of a politic player of the game of life summed up in short, pregnant sayings that strike the imagination and cling to the memory. The effect of the one is diffused humanity, of the other an insight into human nature, pointed with consummate mastery of single words and phrases.
(2) Impersonal and Objective: As an essayist Bacon is not friendly, confidential, intimate and familiar with the reader. If we try to find in them the history of Bacon's inner life, we are disappointed. His essays "are for the most part detached and impersonal, and there is nothing in them to mark the tragedy of his life." But to say that the essays of Bacon do not bear the stamp of the personality of their author is a gross error. He did not consider life lightly and he was too serious a man to view the problems of life in a chatty, gossipy manner. He dealt with life with its varied problems seriously and tried hard to provide solutions. It was in this mood that these essays were conceived and written. Bacon, never for a moment, stoops down to treat life romantically and playfully. He, according to Hugh Walker, "is too stately, and his thought is so profound to permit us to speak of the essays as the confidential chat of a great philosopher; but in them he comes as near that as his nature would permit. Bacon's attitude to life, the conditions of his time and the frame of his mind compelled him to conceal rather than reveal his personality in his essays. The age of Elizabeth was one of the most treacherous ages of British history. Bacon could not commit anything to writing that could be considered his own views on religion, politics or morality. He was a politician surrounded on all sides with rivals and enemies who could make capital out of his personal utterances. He did not want to be exploited on that account. Bacon had to keep himself to himself. The conditions of his life and his time always kept his pen in check. He never spoke out, and whenever he spoke, he spoke like a philosopher or a statesman. Bacon writes as "a statesman and politician, as Attorney General or Lord Chancellor, with the robes of his office on."
Bacon, therefore, took the form from Montaigne, but filled it with material drawn from his own mind. Montaigne emerges in his essays as "the spectator of life and its shrewd critic" and Bacon comes out as "the ambitious English lawyer and statesman, with one eye fixed upon the pole-star of philosophic truth, and the other watching the political weather-cock."
(3) Neatness and Ordered Compactness: Bacon found the essay as a suitable form to receive many thoughts of his mind. He was extraordinarily discursive in his interests. He took all knowledge to be his province. He surpassed all his contemporaries in the capacity to utter pregnant thoughts on almost any theme. He was short of time and thrifty of his thoughts and his literary material. He wanted to preserve the treasures of his mind for the benefit of posterity in aphoristic utterances. To Bacon, who was thrifty both of time and of literary material, the essay was a Godsend. So, there is a neatness and ordered compactness which distinguish his essays which are occasional and discursive, containing detached thoughts, written down as they occur. They are not set compositions but rather jottings of collections of thoughts that have shaped themselves, as if, spontaneously in the epigrammatic phase. This occasional nature of Bacon's essays set the fashion of essay writing in English literature.
(4) Variety of Subjects: The astonishing range of topics of Bacon's essays is his great attraction. He passes from religion and empire to gardens and buildings. In Montaigne and Lamb, the subject is unimportant but in Bacon the subject always is important. He may be unsystematic in his treatment of it but he never wanders beyond his bounds.
(5) Language and Style: In his essays Bacon, writes Rickett, "is the pioneer of clear, sententious English that suggests rather than expounds, and blends dignity with familiarity, in that pleased and attractive manner which is the secret of the power of all our great essayists." He was the first English essayist who employed a style that is conspicuous for lucidity, clarity, economy, precision, directness, masculinity and mathematical plainness. He carefully avoided any fineness or affectation of phrases. His images and figures of speech are simple and clearly illustrate the ideas that he wishes to convey. For example:
"Revenge is a wild kind of justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out." (Of Revenge)
"Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark."
(Of Death)
"Suspicions among thoughts are like bats amcng birds—they fly best by twilight." (Of Suspicion)
In all these quotations the function of the images is not to intensify the meaning, to make it deeper or richer, but simply to make more effective a meaning that was already fully formed before the application of the illustrative device.
Bacon's style is suffused with wit and fun. Of wit, in the sense of the perception of analogy, there are various examples in his essays. He detects similarities and can give apt illustrations, as he can detect endless analogies in nature. But often Bacon's wit is mere play of words, as "through indignities, men rise to dignity", "by pain men come to greater pain." Sometime we come across ingenious combination of incongruous words, as men who have no friends are described as "cannibals of their own heart", "money is like a muck." Bacon's similes and metaphors are full of wit, for example, "riches are the baggage of virtue", "he that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune".
Flexibility is an important characteristic of Bacon's style. The older style was cumbrous; it could rise, but it could not easily sink. The new style of Bacon fitted itself as easily to buildings and gardens, or to suitors or ceremonies, as to truth and death.
Bacon was a distinguished rhetorician. His command of phrase was extraordinary. No one knows better than he either how to leave a single word to produce all its effect by using it in slightly uncommon sense, and setting the wit at work to discern and adjust this, or how to unfold all manner of applications and connotations, to open all inlets of sight, view and perspective. That Bacon dazzles, amuses, half delusively suggests, stimulates, provokes, edifies, instructs, satisfies, is indeed perfectly true. His literary methods are of the orator, not the dialectician. "But in rhetoric quality— in the use, that is to say, of language to dazzle and persuade, not to convince — he has few rivals and no superiors in English."
As a thinker and stylist, Bacon is the pioneer of rational and scientific thinking, and of lucid and clear style which developed in the age of Dryden and Pope. L. C. Knights rightly remarks: "Almost as much as his explicit philosophy, Bacon's prose style is an index of the emergence of modern world."
Two Styles of Bacon: Critics find two styles in Bacon. The qualities of his style vary with his works. George Saintsbury attributes the change of style to the variety of Bacon's subject matter. He wrote varied kinds of prose — philosphical in The Advancement of Learning, speculative in New Atlantis, historical in Henry VII, aphoristic in the Essays. History of Henry VII and New Atlantis have a style of their own, quite distinct from the aphoristic, epigrammatic and objective style of the Essays and different also from the expository and speculative style of the Advancement of Learning.
The "two styles" theory was, first of all, propounded by Macaulay who illustrated it by highlighting the difference between the first edition of Bacon's Essays, and the second and third editions. He attributed this change to the faster growth of judgement and the slow development of fancy in Bacon. Hugh Walker dismisses this proposition and finds it "in a change in Bacon's conception as to the function and possibilities of the essay form." In 1597 when he published the slender volume of ten essays, an essay was to Bacon an "attempt" at a subject, a group of jottings, "dispersed meditations" and something incomplete. So the style in the essays in the first edition is extremely crisp and sententious. The sentences are short with few connectives. Each sentence stands by itself, the concentrated expression of weighty thought. The essay Of Studies is a fine specimen of the style of the first edition; for example: "Read not to contradict and believe nor to believe, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to he read only in parts, others to be read but curiously, and some few to be read wholly-and with diligence and attention." Edward Albert writes about the style of the first edition: "In the first edition the style is crisp, detached, and epigrammatic, conveying the impression that each essay has arisen from some happy thought and phrase, around which other pithy statements are agglomerated."
In the essays of 1612, and still more of 1625, we find that Bacon imparts warmth and colour to the style. Metaphors and similes are frequently used and sometimes they have a poetical quality. He finds room for conjunctions and connective classes. A few examples given here illustrate the change in the style in the essays of the second and third editions: "Suspicions among thoughts are like bats among birds—they fly best by twilight." "Virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue." Hugh Walker points out that the change of style was caused due to Bacon's changed conception of essay. He remarks: "Compositions in which such sentences as these occur are obviously a good deal more than mere jottings. Bacon's conception of essay had developed, and therefore he clothed his 'dispersed meditations' in a richer vesture." Edward Albert also writes: "In the later editions the ideas are expanded, the expression loses its spiky pointedness, and in them we have an approach to a freer middle style. In choice of subject and approach, they reveal the breadth of intellect, his worldly wisdom, his concern with public life and material advancement. They are impersonal, objective, and orderly in thought, and reflect a cool, scientific detachment, which makes them, in spite of an occasional flash of poetic fire, as in Of Death, rather formal and cold. Yet they are written in the language of ordinary men, and the imagery is that of everyday life. The essays are brief and full of condensed, weighty, antithetical sentences, which have the qualities of proverbial expressions, and are notable for their precision and clarity of expression."
Bacon, the Representative of the Renaissance
"Bacon," writes B. Ifor Evans, "is the most complete representative of the Renaissance in England, learned, worldly wise, ambitious, intriguing, enamoured of all the luxury that wealth in his time could supply and while knowing so much, almost completely ignorant about himself." He represents the wickedness and treachery, deceitfulness and hypocrisy, flattery and lust for power of the Renaissance England. He had a fertile, versatile intelligence. He could employ his genius for good or for evil. He found it expedient to resort to treachery in order to make his way in the world, he did not hesitate in betraying his friend and benefactor, Essex. Bacon bartered his genius meant for philosophical and humanitarian pursuits of extraordinary sorts for the unworthy and petty worldly achievements. Macaulay writes: "Scarcely any man has been better entitled to be called a thorough man of the world. The founding of a new philosophy, the imparting of a new direction to the minds of speculators, this was the amusement of his leisure, the work of hours occasionally stolen from the Woolsack and the Council Board. This consideration, while it increases the admiration, with which we regret his intellect, increases also our regret that such an intellect should so often have been unworthily employed. He well knew the better course, and had, at one time, resolved to pursue it. "I confess," said he in a letter when he was still young, "that I have vast contemplative ends as I have moderate civil ends." Had his civil ends continued to be moderate, he would have been, not only the Moses, but the Joshua of philosophy." Then, he could have passed his life placidly, honourably, beneficently "in industrious observations, grounded conclusions, and profitable inventions and discoveries".
Bacon's quest for knowledge, truth and power led him to the study of philosophy. He was the first rational thinker who was inspired with the Faustian urge. With the confidence of his genius he could declare, "I am an encyclopedia of learning." The man, who could declare, that he took all knowledge to be his province, was a shrewd observer of facts and men. P. F. and E. F. Matheson point out: "A preacher of research and experiment, full of enthusiasm for discovery, he never succeeds in stating clearly and convincingly the new method which is to revolutionise the world of knowledge....... He was significantly out of touch with the actual discoveries of his time…….If Bacon did not discover a new method it remains true that by the eloquent and inspiring language in which he laid down the vital importance of experiment and of study of things instead of words, and by the noble conception he made current of what science might accomplish if pursued by enthusiasm and promoted by combined effort, he gave an incalculable stimulus to the progress of thought and experiment in England and in Europe."
In fact, Bacon was "the prophet, if not the founder of modern scientific rationalism." He directed reason towards the understanding and mastery of the material world. He propounded the method of scrupulous examination of how things work and how they influence each other. We call it the scientific method. Bacon defined the aim and the general method. He repeatedly points out that the purpose of knowledge is "the benefit and use of man", "the endowment and benefits of man's life", "the serious use of business and occasions." The method proposed by Bacon is a "laborious and sober inquiry of truth", "ascending from experiments to the invention of causes and descending from causes to the new experiments." The scope of rational investigation is universal. These quotations from The Advancement of Learning sufficiently indicate the main directions of his thought.
In an era of superstitions and ignorance, Bacon believed that the right way was the way of observation and experiment. He said: "Man, the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of Nature. Beyond them he neither knows anything nor can do anything." First, then, let us collect the data by diligent research and then rearrange it into a well-digested order from which we may formulate axioms. This will serve as stepping stone to new experiments from which we may finally deduce new facts.
The plan that Bacon suggested failed but no one can doubt his sincerity and the value of his ideas. In an age that was infested with superstition, that believed in black magic, that mistook hearsay for science, the value of the new experiments and observations cannot be undervalued. For his ideas he has been the father of modern ideas. His ideas have a forward looking quality. He himself said about his pioneering role in the field of scientific and rational thought: "I only sound the clarion, but I enter not the battle." Dr. Rudolf Metz assigns Bacon an outstanding place as a Renaissance thinker: "For the first time the philosopher meets us not as a sedentary figure closed away from the affairs of the world, not as a mere onlooker who seeks truth for its own sake, but as a being possessed by a passionate impulse to action, who places his knowledge at the service of practical ends and assigns to it as its greatest task the subjection of nature to the will of man In this Bacon's thoughts and feelings are entirely modern and there is no vestige of medievalism left. The science which is placed at the service of humanity has as its final aim technical mastery, which now supplants artistic culture. This shifting from arts to technics represents, it seems to me, an important difference between early and Renaissance thinking. Thus Bacon is the first to celebrate the coming of the technical age and his doctrine is full of faith in future progress."
If Bacon proved his wisdom in philosophy his knowledge of men and manners showed his genius for practical and realistic approach towards life in society. Were we to sum up Bacon's character in one word, it is "reason". This shrewd observer of human nature was never swayed by emotions in life. Heart, it appears, he did not have. He was wisdom, born of reason incarnate. In his attitude towards life he was Machiavellian. A pragmatic man, a man of action, according to him, must not be merely "like the lark that can mount and sing and please himself and nothing else", but must be "like the hawk, that can soar aloft, and can also descend and can strike upon the prey." Emotions and cheap sentiments must be carefully fenced out from the life of man who must rise.
Thus, Bacon, "the ambitious English lawyer and statesman, with one eye fixed upon the pole star of philosophic truth, and the other watching the political weather-cock" is the true child of the Renaissance.
Worldly Wisdom and the Art of Success in Bacon's Essays
Bacon emerges in his essays as the man of the world, "a citizen of the world". He had a strong sense of the imperfections of humanity, so he impregnated his "dispersed meditations" with worldly wisdom and the art of getting success in life. In his dedication to the Duke of Buckingham, Bacon wrote that the essays "come home to men's bosom and business." Yes, it is to both bosoms and business to which he applies himself,—not of course to the technique of a particular profession, nor the examination of bosom as a physician or theologian would approach it. His approach to the "bosom" itself is a part of the general technique of "business". There is a cold, utilitarian and Machiavellian approach in the pearls of wisdom which are scattered all over his essays. But Bacon never forces his wisdom upon the readers. He never claims finality for the correctness of his wisdom, based on observation and experience. Bacon writes: "These are thoughts which have occurred to me: weigh them well, or take them or leave them."
Honesty is always the best policy. It is good in business; it is, therefore, an ideal virtue. A lie faces God, but shirks from man, yet "the mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better", while "clear and round dealing is the honour of man's nature". "Have openness in reputation, use secrecy in habits, dissimulation in seasonable use, and power to feign, if there be no remedy." These are the maxims of a man of business — not of a speculative philosopher or a theorist. These maxims and reflections, if practised, can lead to the success of man.
Bacon's wisdom is not for the hermit or the anchorite or the speculative philosopher or the theologian, but for the man of the business or of the world. The man, who believes in action, will always find inspiration in his essays. He formulated in his Essays a system for getting on into the world—how to rise and how to prevent a fall. Bacon was one of the earliest high priests of the Goddess of Getting On and he chanted forth the hymns and laid down the rituals of this religion for the use of private men, and particularly for the princes and politicians. Bacon propounded a new technique and a new morality for men at the helm of public affairs, who must rise in the world and yet beware of the incompleteness of Wisdom for a man's self. He advises in the essay on Wisdom for a Man's Self: " ..... divide with reason between self-love and society" for pure self-love is after all "the wisdom of rats that will leave a house before it falls" or "the wisdom of crocodiles that shed tears when they devour". Men in the service of the state should strike a golden mean between self-1ove and love of the public. Kings should be careful about choosing ministers as "are more sensible of duty than of rising...." (Of Ambition). Believing that the interests of the public weal more or less coincide with the interests of the king, Bacon examines the utility of all sorts of things from the point of view of their advantage to the king. Maxims are given for the guidance of the king in the Essay of Empire. What the king must do in the case of his wife and children, in the case of his favourites, in the case of his councillors, in the case of the nobility, in the case of churchmen grown powerful, in the case of ambitious generals and statesmen, this is the burden of song of practically all of Bacon's essays dealing with kings and princes. While nearly half of these essays are thus written for the advice of the king than for the good of men in street — essays full of the teachings of Machiavelli, breathing a gospel of territorial aggrandisement, expansion of colonies, increase of revenue by commerce, manufacture and navigation, and unblushing militarism, there are, of course, a few essays in which the ethics of private life are dealt.
Becon’s essays are imbued with practical wisdom. The lines: "He that hath wife and children bath given hostages to fortune", "wife and children are a kind of discipline of humanity", "clear and round dealing is the honour of man's nature", "unmarried men are the best friends, best masters and best servants", appeal to all times and countries.
Becon does not believe in conventional morality. His morality is prudential. His essays seem to be the work of an opportunist. Hugh Walker writes: "On the whole Bacon gives impression of singular aloofness from moral considerations. His maxims are prudential. He appears to be looking down with absolute dispassionateness from a height, and determining what course of conduct pays best. He condemns cunning, not as a thing loathsome and vile, but as a thing unwise. Occasionally he even lays down the rules for immoral conduct without a word of overt disapproval."
Ben Jonson (1573-1637)
Ben Jonson a dramatist of high water-mark composed his aphoristic essays in the timber or Discoveries. (written about 1630 and printed posthumously about 1641). His essays are moral and critical. Jonson's style is noticeable for lucidity, terseness and strength. In epigrammatic quality he rivals Bacon. Jonson's style is free from the vice of enthusiasm and he can treat a subject in a plain and simple way. The following lines illustrate the qualities of Jonson's style: "Without truth all the actions of mankind are craft, malice, what you will, rather than wisdom ..... Nothing is lasting that is feigned; it will have another face than it had ere long."
John Selden (1584-1654)
Acid-natured aphorisms, exhibiting rough common sense though little imagination, and foreshadowing the later Essay of John seldens Tale Talk published in 1889. As a practitioner of aphoristic essay he stands next to Bacon and Ben Jonson. His wisdom delights the readers: "Commonly, we say, a judgment falls upon a man for something in him we cannot abide", "Syllable governs the world", "Take a straw and throw it up into the air, you may see by that which way the wind is." Besides Table Talk, he also wrote The Titles of Honour (1614) and the History of Tithes (1618).
II
PHILOSOPHICAL PROSE
Besides Bacon's The Advancement of Learning which has already been dealt with, the following writers also contributed to the writing of the philosophical prose:
1. Coryate (1577-1627). Crudities is a record of coryates wanderings. The author does not pretend to depth or method, but he has nicely picked up a number of minute particulars on the customs of the age in many countries, which make his account not only entertaining but full of quaint information.
2. Robert Burton (1576-1640). The Anatomy of Melancholy speaks the humanism of Robert Burton. The book contains indeed nothing which was Burton's own because he pillaged all known books. In subject Burton is nearer to Montaigne. Although he professes to confine himself to melancholy, he reviews all the follies of man. Sometimes, when he intervenes directly and speaks of himself, relating his life and experiences, he is very close to Montaigne, the author of the Essais.
Burton in prose is not like Donne in poetry. He is not so full of elaborate and fantastic conceits as Donne. What distinguishes this work is the spirit of sombre meditation and philosophical contemplation. Burton has full command over his matter; if he will he can be as terse and pithy as Bacon himself; as succinct and lucid as Ben Jonson, or as rhetorical as S. T. Browne.
III
Sea Discoveries and Prose Works. The discovery of the world in astronomy and navigation was no less glorious than "the discovery of man", it had also vast and unexplored possibilities of imagination. The adventurous seaman was to open not only new countries but a new literature.
Navigators of Elizabethan Age wrote about their experiences and opened a treasure of imagination, and, thus, influenced contemporary and subsequent literature. Richard Hakluyt's Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, and Samuel Purchas' Pilgrimages are full of the spirit of adventure, national feelings and keen imagination. They are memorable contribution to the literature of travel. The influence of these works on Marlowe, Shakespeare, Milton, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, and Coleridge's The Ancient Mariner are obvious.
IV
LITERARY CRITICISM
The reading of the classics-Aristotle's Poetics and Horace's Ars Poetica- encouraged literary criticism a great deal. A major part of the prose of the period consists of literary criticism. But much of this criticism is mediocre and the only work of value is Sidney's Apology for Poetry (1595). Sidney's defence of poetry makes him the first great English critic. It is the first really great and eloquent critical treatise on the art of poetry. As a result of the increasing influence of Italy, the depravity of Italy, her immorality and corruption, was making rapid inroads into English life, with the result that poetry came to be regarded as synonymous with depravity and hence scholars with religious leaning, came out with bitter attacks on all secular literature.
Stephen Gosson's The School of Abuse (1579) is a bitter indictment of all secular literature, particularly of drama. To him poets are "fathers ' of lies". Gosson's style is pointed but bitter. Other works are William Webb's Discourse of English Poetry (1586) and George Ruttenham's Art of Poesie (1589). Sidney's Defence of Poesie (published posthumously in 1595) shows the remarkable influence of the ancients. He exalts both poets and poetry. To him the poet is the first law giver, superior both to the historian who is chained to reality and to the philosopher who is obliged to be constantly severe and abstract. Its style is eloquent, frequently poetic, more frank and more virile than Arcadia. Ben Jonson's Timber or Discoveries is the greatest critical work of this period. It shows the influence of Horace and the importance of classical rules. Jonson is really the precursor of Dryden and the new age of English prose.
V
CHARACTER-WRITERS
The seventeenth century witnessed the origin and development of another kind of essay known as character-writing. The character-writers were influenced by Theophrastus and Seneca. Another was the influence of dramatists who both gave to and borrowed from the character-writers. There is very intimate connection between Overbury and. Earle on the one hand and Jonsonian comedy of humours on the other. The character-writers conceive of virtues and vices as embodied in individual men. They are also highly indebted to Francis Bacon who provided them with a pattern of style — concise, pointed and sententious in which they could easily copy the model of Theophrastus. "The character-writers," writes Hugh Walker, "are precisely the prose analogue of the metaphysical poets. They have the same merits and defects, they show the same interests, and they rise, flourish and decline just at the same time. The eminent character-writers are given below:
1. Thomas Dekker (1572-1632). Dekker in unusual short sentences delineates vivid character-sketches. His Bellman of London (1608) and a strange Morse-Race 91613) are good examples of character-sketches. When the occasion demanded, he could also manage the long sentence with a skill which has never been common and at the same time was rare indeed. The importance of Dekker's prose as a storehouse of information regarding the manners and customs of the time has been repeatedly and amply acknowledged.
2. Joseph Hall (1574-1656). Joseph Hall was endowed with the qualities required for character-writing. The essays of this type are largely satirical, for whether human vices and fables be or be not more common than human virtues, it is at any rate easier to make capital out of the former. Hall was certainly inclined to satire. He is, indeed, a pioneer in the field of satire. As a rule, Hall, like Theophrastus confined himself to the delineation of embodied qualities, but in the Good Magistrate he gives an example of a type which soon became common—the representative of a calling. Hall's practice as a satirist stood him in good stead as a writer of characters. There is a touch of sarcasm in his character-sketches.
3. Thomas Overbury (1581-1613). Overbury Characters is a collection of numerous characters. Overbury's character-sketches are more concrete than Hall's. He usually tacks the character to some trade or occupation. The character takes colour from the occupation from which it draws its virtues and vices. Overbury's style is hopelessly artificial, and he subordinates substance to form, manner to matter.
4. Earle (1601-1665). Microcosmography (1628) is his a collection of Earle’s portrayls. It is written in a delightful style. It is full of genuine wit which never becomes antiquated. He portrays in a fluent, easy and vigorous style those traits of human nature which last from generation to generation. Earle imitated the models of Theophrastus in Greek and Overbury in English. Unlike Overbury who is content with the portrayal of the superficialities of characters, Earle tries to penetrate the depths of the characters he portrays.
5. George Herbert (1593-1633). A Priest to the Temple or A Country Parson. He is different in style from overbury and Eark. It is not a collection of unconnected sketches, but a short treatise in thirty-seven chapters, each of which delineates a phase of parson's life — his knowledge, his praying, his preaching, his comforting etc. We have seen that the prevailing vice with character-writers was that they were more concerned with themselves than with their subject. They primarily aimed at the display of their wit. George Herbert is free from this vice. He aims at imparting reality to his character. His parson has that reality which so many of the characters lacked. The picture is no more exercise of ingenuity, but the expression of Herbert's sincere feeling. Herbert's aim is to recommend religion by the delineation of a most winning and saintly life. Herbert observes unity of design, which was essential to his purpose in The Country Parson, but it is irreconcilable with the Theophrastic character-sketch. Hugh Walker opines that it "is one of the most charming of essays, but it is not in the strictest sense a character."
6. Thomas Fuller (1608-1661). Fullers The Holy War and Profane State is an outstanding book of characters with a difference. He does not follow the Theophrastian model, he belongs to a school of his own. What distinguishes Fuller is his boundless humanity which is visible in every page. He garnishes his character-sketches with stories and he also imparts personal touch to his essays. So he widely differs from other character-writers. Fuller's characters of virtues and vices are not merely fanciful exercises. They are real and concrete. His style is discursive and condensed and discourages wandering.
The subject-matter of character was exhausted and later writers could do no more than repeat their predecessors. Human nature in the concrete is infinite in variety, but not so its types. Thus the themes of the character-writers became threadbare. Nicholas Breton, Geoffrey Mynshul etc. do not show any sign of originality.
vi
RELIGIOUS PROSE
AUTHORISED VERSION AND ITS INFLUENCE
In the Elizabethan era there was much controversial writing, often violent and abusive in tone. It was a great age of pamph-leteering. The pamphleteers did not hesitate to hurl abuses on their rivals through their pamphlets. Even the religious writers did not hesitate to use this weapon. A great part of the religious literature of the period consists of such controversial writing. The bitter attacks of the Puritans on the Anglican church produced equally spirited defence of it from its supporters.
1. Richard Hooker (1554-1600). Hooker, the brilliant controversialist of this age, wrote his immortal book The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity which is an outstanding contribution in the field of theology. It is also one of the masterpieces of Elizabethan English prose. To the extremists who referred everything to the Bible, Hooker retorts that man receives God's teaching from two sources— revelation in the Bible and reason, which is the gift of God. If these two ever seem to be in conflict, it is reason which must be followed. As for the Bible, it reveals the supernatural truths which man could not have discovered by reason alone. It is an additional but not the only light.
The book deserves a place of lasting importance in English prose for its style, which though still over-rhetorical and involved, is generally plainer and simpler than most contemporary prose. For the first time English is used for high generalisation. The English is indeed modelled on the Latin for which it is a substitute, markedly Latin in point of vocabulary, and often of construction also. However, the style is free from pedantry and vulgarity. It is luminous and harmonious. It is logical and convincing, musical and cadenced, clear and vigorous.
2. The Authorised Version of the Bible (1611). Nothing else in the religious prose of the Renaissance is equal in literary beauty and importance to the Authorised Version of the Bible. It was the work of 47 scholars, nominated by James I, over whom Bishop Lancelot Andrews presided. It is rightly considered as "the first English classic in prose". What are the qualities that make it a classic?
The Bible, as some think, proceeds from divine inspiration, or as others think, is the fruit of the religious genius of others. The authors of the Authorised Version, though of diverse opinions and convictions, were highly gifted and learned individuals, who resolved their differences while writing this work: They were wonderfully consistent in the main Tenor of their writings, and served, in general, for mutual confirmation and illustration.
The Bible is not distinctly an intellectual achievement. Like all other great works of literature, it springs from and addresses human nature as a whole. The character of the Bible as a whole is best understood by regarding the Old Testament as its representative, and devoting attention primarily to that. The Hebraic temper and the achievements of the Hebraic genius give the Bible a unique place in literature. These racial traits were not subject to modification under alien influences of Greek or Roman culture. The tone of the Bible is given to it by the Old Testament which, therefore, may be considered the type of the whole.
The themes of the Bible are the greatest that literature can treat. They are mainly three — God, man and the physical universe. The physical universe is considered subordinate, and even subject to man, within the measure of his capacity and needs, while man, in his turn, is subject to God. The visible creation is the revelation of the wisdom, power and skill of its creator. Man's existence is related to the world about him, in which he finds provision for his physical wants. All human beings are brethren because all of them are the children of God. God is represented as desiring to draw man into closer and closer union with Himself, or as restoring man to his original condition of friendly trustful child.
Three species of literature in the Old Testament which succeed each other in order of time are narrative, poetry— chiefly lyrical and prophetic. In the New Testament the epistles may be said to represent prophecy and the Revelation to be partly of a prophetic, and partly of a poetical character, so far as these two can be distinguished.
Narrative poetry comes first in order of time and in order of books. It deals with the early history of mankind, and the great epochs, especially the earlier, in the history of the Hebrew race. Conceived as affecting the ultimate destinies of all mankind, and, indeed, of every individual soul, these lives, presented in bold and picturesque outlines, are among the most enthralling of stories.
Next in order of the narrative books come the poetic books, of which the Psalter is the chief. These books contain matter of deepest import and overwhelming interest to mankind. Some of the psalms are based on national history and presuppose an acquaintance with the national religion. The religious sentiments of the community appear in a variety of forms. All of them are charged with sincerity, fervour and passion.
The prophetic books form the third main division. After story and song come admonition and reproof, mingled with predictions of a better time. Like the poet, the prophet rehearses or alludes to God's dealings with his people, so that continuity of motive is maintained throughout. A projection into the future opens up occasional vistas of limitless range and surpassing beauty, which give direction to such hopes as men are prone to conceive for themselves or for their descendants.
Unity of theme, concept and design is the chief quality of great literature. In the Bible the theme and purpose exist in the very beginning and subsequent books unfold it. Thus, all the principal books are linked together in a coherent and well-organised manner. To the common consciousness the Bible forms, as it were, a single book. By this test the Bible is a great literature.
The Bible is a classic in itself. It has dignity of theme and earnestness of treatment. It is permanently enjoyable and permanently helpful. The themes of the Bible are of utmost comprehensiveness, depth and poignancy of appeal. There is no artificiality, no ambiguity, no obtrusive ornament in the presentation of the subject-matter. Great thoughts and matters are presented with sincerity, earnestness and warmth of sentiment in a simple and lucid style. So, the Bible has those qualities which make literature enduring.
Another trait of good literature, exemplified by the Bible, is breadth. For example, the Book of Job, the story of Jacob, the parable of the Prodigal Son or St. Paul's speech are noticeable for depth and breadth. No petty or ambiguous details are given. The characters, the events, or the arguments are described with clearness and boldness. The central effect is created with a few masterly strokes. Economy and conciseness distinguish the style of the Bible. The authors of the Bible employed vigorous and forceful style, in which every sentence, nay, every word, contributes to the creation of the central effect. The spirit which animates the whole must inform every particle. "A volume is compressed into a page, a page into a line," for example:
And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.
The lyrical quality distinguishes the Bible, but the lyrical emotions which find utterance in it are few and elemental, and have been expressed vigorously and energetically.
Although the Bible is suffused with egoism and racial pride, it possesses a universality of appeal which has placed it at the foundation or at the head, or both, of all modern literatures. How is the Bible universal in appeal ? First, it deals with the origin of the world and man, in which everyone is interested. Secondly, it emphasises the conception that all nations are of one blood, and that all men are brethren, since God is the father of all. Thirdly, the morality of the Bible is addressed to the well-being of all human beings in the world. Fourthly, it deals with the future of mankind which is regarded in the Bible as bound up with the general acceptance of Hebrew principles and ideals. Fifthly, it proclaims the glory of God. The Psalter, the most lyrical part of the Bible, is perhaps the widest in its appeal because it echoes the deep devout feelings' of every believing soul in the world.
As to the form of the Bible, Renan points out that even in the Bible form is found: "Israel had like Greece, the gift of disengaging its idea perfectly, and of expressing it in a concise and finished outline; proposition, measure, taste were in orient, the exclusive privilege of the Hebrew people, and because of this they succeeded in imparting to thought and feeling a form general and acceptable to all mankind." Structure is to be found in limited portions, as in the story of Joseph, a single prophecy, or a speech from "The Acts of the Apostles". The Bible, thus, possesses great literary merits. So, it is a great classic that has exerted and is exerting great influence on mankind and human thought.
The translators of the Bible had to face many problems. The Hebrew language is deficient in a stract and general terms and had no philosophical or scientific v abulary. Nearly every word presents a concrete meaning, clearly visible even through a figurative use. The absence of ideas accounts for he absence of words. "It is hardly too much to say that every general is Lion—or, better, every general truth—expressed by the Hebrew is endered with the utmost directness and in phraseology as direct, as elemental, as stimulative to imagination and feeling, as could possibly be. Such a language is the very language of poetry." The sentence structure was simple and there was no conception of paragraph. "And" was the chief connective and, so, the periodic sentence was beyond their grasp. The ancient Hebrew poetry was measured, not by fact, but by word accents. It was dominated by parallelism of members. The translators could easily surmount these problems. The universality of its interest, the concreteness and picturesqueness of its language, and the simplicity of its structure made their task easy. The simple rhythm of the Bible was "adaptable to every emotion, from the most delicate to the most energetic." The translators were thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the Hebrew Bible and were capable of finding the most appropriate phrase or diction in their own language.
The English translation of the Bible needed a popular language which differed from the artificial or the scholastic. Its vocabulary consisted of such words as ordinary people would naturally use to describe objects and to utter their emotions. It abounded in concrete expressions.
The Bible exercised great influence on the evolution of English language even during the Old English period. Early in the eighteenth century, Bede translated into Old English the Gospel of John. Throughout the Old English period, most of the literature produced was strongly coloured by the Biblical diction. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Ormulium and Piers Plowman show the influence exerted by the Bible on English diction during the period between A. D. 1000 and 1400. Wycliffs version of the Bible also occupies an important place in literature. It is agreed that the English of The Authorised Version was influenced by Tindale. Coverdale also exerted his influence on it. Coverdale introduced such expressions into English as "loving kindness" and "tender mercy".
In The Authorised Version the typical Hebrai character is reflected. Selden points out: "The Bible is rather translated into English words, than into English phrase. The Hebraisms are kept and the phrase of that language is kept." The translators of The Authorised Version studied the English renderings of The Bible and the principal versions into other languages, and compared them with the original. They endeavoured hard to assimilate all the excellencies of these versions into one version, known as The Authorised Version of the Bible. The new version did reconcile all pre-existing differences, it became a powerful agent in establishing unity throughout England. Gardiner remarks: "In its production all sectarian influences were banished and all hostilities were mute." Whereas previously, one Bible was read in the Church and another at home, now, all parties and classes turned with one accord to the new version, and adopted it as their very own. Its language, which is simple, clear, concrete and pictorial, melodious, rhythmical and lyrical, became immensely popular in all sections of the English society, and moulded the development of English language and literature.
The Authorised Version became a national possession and a classic in English literature. It appealed to the rich and to the poor alike. No other has so penetrated and permeated the hearts and speech of the English race as has the Bible. "What Homer was to the Greeks, and the Qoran to the Arabs, that or something, not unlike it, the Bible has become to the English."
The great writers and thinkers of England speak highly of the influence of the Authorised Version. Huxley writes: "Consider the great historical fact that, for three centuries, this book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in English history; that it has become the national epic of Britain ...... that it is written in the noblest and purest English, and abounds in exquisite beauties of pure liteary form; 7)Milton says: "There are no songs to be compared with the songs of Zion, no orations equal to those of the prophets." Ruskin calls it "the most precious and on the whole, they are essential part of all my education." Carlyle rightly remarks about its all-embracing influence: "In the poorest cottage is one Book, wherein the several thousand years the spirit of man has found light, and nourishment, and an interpreting response to whatever is deepest in him." Newman speaks of the scriptures as "compositions which even humanly considered, are among the most sublime and beautiful ever written." Macaulay regarded the Bible as "a book which if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power."
Swift admires it for its simplicity and lucidity of style. Hallam admits that its style is "the perfection of our English language". Rickett remarks about its influence: "The literary influence of the Bible is twofold. There is the rhetorical influence of the Old Testament, and the conversational influence of the New." The Bible has influenced literature in the following modes:
1. The scriptural themes and language influenced English literature. Edmund Gosse writes: "Not a native author but owes something of his melody and his charm to the echo of those Biblical accents, which were the first fragments of purely classical English to attract his admiration in childhood." With the exception of Bacon every prose writer is indebted to Bacon. Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress is an excellent example of the influence of the Bible. Rickett writes: "Both Old and New are seen in John Bunyan, whose style owes more to the Bible, probably more than does any other man of letters. The simple, flowing narrative of the Evangelists, the colloquial ease and force of the parabolic teaching, meet us in almost every page of Pilgrim's Progress." Milton's prose has Hebraic cadences. The historians, Clarendon and Fuller, catch some measures of the stately rhetoric of The Old Testament, while S. T. Browne in his quaint Religio Medici, Robert Burton in his discursive Anatomy of Melancholy and Jeremy Taylor, in varying ways, testify to its influence. Addison's periodical essay is certainly influenced by both the testaments. Swift reflects the sterner qualities of the prophetic books. Carlyle, Ruskin, Richard Bexter, George Fox, Wordsworth, Browning, Tennyson, Richard Baxter, Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Abraham Lincoln had the Bible behind them, which shaped their outlook and style. The influence of the Bible has also been traced on Shakespeare.
2. Writers used quotations from the Bible, slightly changed, into secular writings. They are found in almost every author, especially in the 19th century authors. They are being especially used by writers who have at heart the reform or elevation of society or of individual.
3. Allusions, or considerably modified quotations, are introduced freely and may be found on editorial pages of many a newspaper. Thus, one reads: "The full measure of justiceis not meted out to them", "They have fallen among thieves" etc.
4. Many phrases from the Authorised Version have become so common that they have become a part of the texture of current English, for instance: "highways and hedges", "clear as crystal", "still small voice", "arose as one man", "lick the dust", "a thorn in the flesh", "a broken reed", "root of all evil", "sweat of his brow", "heap coals of fire", "a law unto themselves", "dark sayings", "a soft answer", "a word in season", "moth and rust" etc.
5. The language of the Bible, its style and lyrical quality also greatly influenced literature, as has already been discussed. Coleridge once remarked that the "intense study of the Bible will keep any writer from being vulgar in point of style."
The Authorised Version of the Bible is the chief bond which holds united, in a common loyalty and a common endeavour, the various branches of the English race and the English literature. "The influence of the Bible can be traced through the whole course of English literature and English civilization, and, more than anything else, it tends to give unity and perpetuity to both." Legouis and Cazamian write: "The Bible was the first force which perpetuated in English, even in English prose, elements of poetry and quaintness, and a certain chiaroscuro, and which also maintained in thought and mysticism and on imaginative ferment increasingly threatened by strict rationalism."
VII
PROSE ROMANCES
The writing of the prose romances is a remarkable development of this period. These romances anticipated novel which came into existence during the eighteenth century. The prose romances of this period comprised "tales of adventure as well as romance; it is dealt with contemporary life and events of the past, with the life at the court and the life in the city, it was by turns, humorous and didactic, realistic and fanciful, in short, it represented the first rough drafts of the later novel." The Italian and the Spanish literatures exercised great influence on these romances. Elizabethan prose romances have no history in English because medieval romances were almost all in verse. Prose was first of all used for narrative purpose by Sir Thomas Malory and Caxton. The romance writers of this period preferred to invent their own fables. One major cause for the sudden and profuse appearance of prose romances was the disappearance of the minstrels. The second was the invention of printing. Oral recitation was replaced by reading, and hence verse, which was an aid to memory, was replaced by prose. The prose romances of varied forms and shapes were written during this period. Below is given the development of prose romances:
1. George Gaseoigne (1525 ?-77). Gascoigne's The Adventures of Master F. J. (1573) is a lively sketch of English country-house life. The writer graphically depicts the emotions and day-to-day lives of a group of idle gentlefolk in a great house in northern England. The hero, a guest in the house, fails to reciprocate the affection of the charming daughter of his host, Frances, and instead engages in a clandestine affair with Elinor, the daughter-in-law. When Elinor jilts him for another lover, F. J. quietly takes his leave; Frances remains unmoved, and Elinor goes on with her philanderings. The characters were well portrayed and have a slight touch of realism. It contains no melancholy or existing events and emotions.
2. John Lyly (1554-1606). He is "the pioneer of the English novel, the first stylist in prose, and the most popular writer of the age." His famous work Euphues consists of two parts — Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit (1578) and Euphues and His England (1580). Together they form an extensive moral treatise, and incidentally "our first English novel". Its plot is thin. Every incident expounds a moral. It deals with love and romance. It narrates the story of a youth who left the university of Athens to see the world. In Naples he rejected the good counsel of Enbrilus and cultivated romantic friendship with a young man of his own age named Philasus. His brilliant wit attracted the attention of the new friend's lady love and the consequence was one of the first stories of the eternal triangle. In the end the lady played off both lovers by eloping with a stranger, upon which the two men repaired their friendship and Eupheus returned to Athens to write a treatise on education. Euphues is both sentimental and didactic. From Lyly to the present day the most popular writers of fiction have always been sentimental and didactic. It foretells the rise of the novel of manners, and of the novels involving a detailed analysis of love. It moves away from the fanciful idealism of medieval romance and suggests an interest in contemporary life.
Euphues is especially remarkable for its style, which is known by the name Euphuism. This style is based on alliteration, play upon words, antithesis and a revival of the pseudonatural history of medieval fable books. Every sentence is balanced in two, chiming in sound, changing in sense; for example: "Euphues is a young gallant of more wit than wealth, yet of more wealth than wisdom". Lyly aimed at precision and emphasis by carefully balancing his words and phrases. Its serious defect is that Lyly ignored the distinction between prose and poetry.
3. Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586). Sidney's Arcadia (1590) is a Pastoral romance representing the restless spirit of adventure of the age of chivalry. The country it describes is the land of dream and enchantment, of brave exploits, unblemished chastity, constant love and undying friendship. As a pastoral romance it shows lack of historical sense. Arcadia is a dream world compounded of Sidney's knowledge of classicism and Christianity, medieval chivalry and Renaissance luxury.
The style of Arcadia is as affected and artificial as that of Eupheus. At several places it becomes highly poetical. However, the prayer of Pamela is a good example of prose style in Arcadia.
4. Robert Greene (1558-1592). As a writer of prose romances Greene is remembered for Pandosto (1588), Mamilia and Menaphone (1589). His romances are moral in tone and their style is imitative of Lyly. Pandosto seems to be the source of Shakespeare's Winter's Tale. He takes the readers into the fanciful realms of Bohemia and Arcadia. Greene has no sense of structural unity, restraint and versimilitude. What distinguishes Greene is the skilful portraiture of women characters — Faurnia and Mariana.
Besides these romances, Greene strikes a realistic note in Mourning of Garment (1590) and Never Too Late (1590). Never Too Late is the forerunner of the autobiographical novel, as it deals with certain well-known incidents in the writer's life. Greene realistically depicts London life in pamphlets which expose rogues and describe honest tradesmen. The Notable Discovery of Cosnage deals with rogues, panders, courtesans, card sharpers and swindlers. In The Black Book's Messenger he sketched the grim career of Ned Browne, a celebrated rogue. In Quip For an Upstart Courtier, Greene deals with courtiers and tradesmen. He anticipates the realistic novel. J. W. H. Atkins writes: "With the author (Greene) we pass through tavern doors, enter haunts of iniquity and become witness to the low cunning, the sordidness and violence of the society found there. Bohemian life is laid bare, various characters of low life are drawn."
5. Lodge (1558-1625). Lodge's Rosalynde (1590) is a pastoral romance, imitating the ornate style of Eupheus. It is considered to be the source of Shakespeare's As You Like It.
6. Thomas Nashe (1558-1625). Nash is not a romancer. He is the first great realist who graphically depicted contemporary London life and its manners. In his realistic pamphlets he attacked respectable roguery' and exposed the absurdity of foolish affectations and empty superstitions. His descriptions are tinged with satire. His Anatomy of Absurdity is a characteristic study of contemporary manners, Christ's Tears Over Jerusalem (1593) throws light upon the morals of Elizabethan London, and, incidentally depicts the gamester, the threadbare scholar and tavern life generally. Terrors of Night is a study of the superstitions of the age.
Nash's memorable contribution to English literature is The Unfortunate Traveller or The Life of Jack Wilton (1594), the first picaresque or rogue novel. It was the most remarkable work of its kind before the time of Defoe. It relates the lively adventures of the rogue hero, an English page, who wanders abroad, and comes into contact with many kinds of society. He enters taverns and palaces, makes acquaintance with people worthy and unworthy, and so passes in review the Germany and Italy of his own day.
Although it resembles the picaresque type indigenous to Spain, it is not an imitative work. It is conspicuous for the firm grasp of the realities of life, penetrating observation, forceful expression, and qualities of humour and satire. The Life of Jack Wilton combines both comedy and tragedy. Nash's tragedy is apt to border upon the melodramatic, he is much happier in the comic vein.
Historical element is also found in it, as it duly represents the great intellectual and religious movements of the previous age. According to Atkins, "It also represents our first historical novel."
Nash's prose style is clear, lucid, simple and forceful. He uses no ornamentation, no euphuistic devices.
7. Thomas Deloney (1543-1600). Deloney was a realist who in his works Thomas of Reading, Jack of Newbury and the Gentle Craft realistically depicts contemporary bourgeois life. Atkins writes: "It is the bourgeois type which he handles, the city, not the court; he writes to amuse rather than to instruct, and humour, not wit, is the main ingredient of his style." His,style is remarkable for simplicity, clarity, directness and spontaneity. Deloney is a delightful humorist and an accurate painter. His prose runs easily into spirited dialogue. He realistically portrayed London tradesmen and their apprentices, dignified aldermen and bragging captains, stately city dames and rough serving maids. Deloney was successful in painting a broad picture of his age.
The Elizabethan Age abounded in romances which were fanciful and pastoral, but during the last decade of the sixteenth century a marked change came over the works of fiction. Atkins writes in this connection: "By a sort of normal reaction, idealism gave way to realism, the romance to the realistic pamphlet and story, and from Arcadia to Bohemia with their courtly amenities, the scene moved to London and its everyday life. The chief writers of this type were Greene, Nash and Deloney " They sowed the seeds of the realistic novel which came to full flowering during the eighteenth century. Nash also pioneered the picaresque novel in The Life of Jack Wilton.
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