The most memorable name in our
literature between their time and the _Faerie Queene_
is that of Sackville, Lord Buckhurst--a name of note in
the history of both our dramatic and non-dramatic
poetry. Sackville was capable of something more than
lyrical essays. He it was who designed the _Mirror for
Magistrates_. To that poem, important as compared with
the poetry of its day, for its more pretentious
conception, he himself contributed the two best pieces
that form part of it--the _Induction_ and the
_Complaint of Buckingham_. These pieces are marked by
some beauties of the same sort as those which
especially characterise Spenser; but they are but
fragments; and in spirit they belong to an age which
happily passed away shortly after the accession of
Queen Elizabeth--they are penetrated by that despondent
tone which is so strikingly audible in our literature
in the middle years of the sixteeth century, not
surprisingly, if the general history of the time be
considered. Meanwhile, our language had changed much,
and Chaucer had grown almost unintelligible to the
ordinary reader. Therefore, about the year 1590, the
nation was practically without a great poem. At the
same time, it then, if ever, truly needed one. Its
power of appreciation had been quickened and refined by
the study of the poetries of other countries; it had
translated and perused the classical writers with
enthusiasm; it had ardently pored over the poetical
literature of Italy.
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