1587, the first edition being that at Antwerp in the year 1529. It was translated into French, German and English. The English edition is from the year 1540 by a school teacher at London called Johannes Palsgrave, and is dedicated to King Henry VIII, so that it is nearly impossible that Gascoigne should not have known the work, even if he never had been in the Netherlands. The question whether Gascoigne wrote his Glasse of Government in 1565, before he came to the Netherlands, or in 1575, after he returned to England, is therefore of very little importance.

Herford, in his Studies, makes an elaborate comparison between Gascoigne's Glasse of Government and the Acolastus of Gnapheus, with Macropedius' Rebelles and the Studentes of Stymmelius, showing that in all the main points, the subject is treated in the same way, so that every thought of their being independent of each other is excluded1 "Distinct copy," says Herford, "is Gascoigne's Glasse of Government not; it is written throughout with a different bias; it is the work of a Calvinist, not of a Catholic or of a Lutheran; it is in the vernacular, not in Latin; in prose, not in verse. For all that, however, it assuredly belongs to the same dramatic cycle; it is the attempt, that is, to connect Terentian situations with a Christian moral in a picture of school life.”2

The interesting part about Gascoigne is that in his broadminded conception the two lines of Renaissance and Reformation seem to meet each other, and to unite as in the works of the great Reformers, avoiding the one sidedness of the Humanists in their exclusive admiration of classical form, as well as that

1 Ibid., p. 162-164.

2 Ibid., p. 160. A review of the contents of the Acolastus, as well as of Gascoigne's Glasse of Government, is given by Herford and in the Cambridge History of English Literature, V. 127.

of the Protestant people, where they, in their zeal for religious reform, neglected too much the value of literary beauty.

Besides the works of Gascoigne we find the influence of the Latin dramas in different works of English literature. "A reminiscence of the Acolastus of Gnapheus," says Herford, "is doubtless also to be found in S. Nicholson's Acolastus, His After-wit, where Eubulus, the ancient friend and good counsellor, corresponds to the Prodigal's father of the same name in Gnapheus; while Acolastus himself is distinctly assimilated to the Prodigal."

Finally, Johannes Bolte, in his edition of Macropedius' Rebelles and Aluta, mentions one of the ballads of the Scottish priest, Alexander Geldes (17371802), to be found in R. Chambers, The Scottish Songs, II, 316, and in A. Whitelaw, The Book of Scottish Songs, p. 76, as showing the most close connection with the Aluta of Macropedius.2

1 Herford, p. 159, note.

2 J. Bolte, Macropedius Rebelles und Aluta, Einleitung, p. XXIII.

CHAPTER XXVI

THOMAS CHURCHYARD (1520-1604)-THE "NESTOR OF ELIZABETHAN HEROES" AS A SOLDIER AND POET IN THE NETHERLANDS.

Thomas Churchyard (1520-1604), although not a genius as powerful as Gascoigne, and not to be compared with Spenser and Shakespeare, yet "honestly is ranked by a competent judge among the great poets of his age; among such poets, as have not often been equalled and will not soon be surpassed;" a poet "who may run abreast with any of that age writing in the beginning of Elizabeth's reign." "For his period a smooth and accomplished versifier, who had taken to heart the lessons taught by Wyatt and Surrey, and who did his share of work of restoring form and order to English poetry."2 Both in his life and in his works he stands in close contact with the Netherlands.

His life is divided into three periods: The first period is from his birth in 1520, at Shrewsbury, till the year 1542, when he left his native country to serve as a soldier on the Continent. About this period we know that he studied at Oxford; that, at the age of 17, he "besought his father to let him depart from home, to seek his hap amidst the many competitions of life;" that he went to court, wasted his money, and found service with Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, during the four years from 1537 to 1541. The Earl of Surrey, the same nobleman in whose home Hadrianus Junius lived as a tutor during some years just after Churchyard left, is always remembered by Churchyard with gratefulness and praise.

1 George Chalmers, Churchyard's Chips concerning Scotland, with historical notes, and a life of the author, London, 1817. This little book, although under so modest a title, gives by far the best biography of Churchyard ever published till our present day.

2 Cambridge History of English Literature, III, p. 205.

The second period (1542-1572) contains the thirty years in which Churchyard served as a soldier in the Netherlands, in Ireland and in Scotland, writing at the same time a great number of his works in verse and in prose. This period, from his twenty-second til his fifty-second year, is the deciding one of his life and has made him forever the poet-soldier in English literature.

The third period (1572-1604) of Churchyard's life, contains the thirty years of life's decline, during which he often "assisted in amusing the queen" Elizabeth by his poems, and out of all the richness of his experiences produced a great number of poems and prose works, reflecting all the knowledge and the wisdom, all the thrilling stories, dangers and braveries of his eventful life.

During the second period of his life, we find Churchyard in the Netherlands successively in seven different campaigns:

(1) In the years 1542-1544 he fought in the army. of the Emperor, Charles V, who, in alliance with the King of England, Henry VIII, made war against Francis I of France. After the peace of Crespy, in 1544, Churchyard returned to England,

"Aweary of those wasting woes,

Awhile he left the war,

And for desire to learn the tongues
He travelled very far,

And had of every language part
When homeward did he draw,

And could rehearsal make full well

Of that abroad he saw."

But this was only the first campaign, and the opportunity to see many things and to make rehearsal was to be offered to him still many times.

(2) In the years 1552-1555, after Churchyard had wooed the widow Browning, who gave him a plain

refusal, he again "found solace in war, with its perils, its varieties and its pleasures." He served again in the army of Charles V against Francis I during three years. It was during this war that Churchyard "sailed down the pleasant flood of Rhine" and served in Flanders, the richest of all the countries under the dominion of the Emperor. From the Netherlands and especially from Flanders, Charles V got two-fifths of all his income. But soon it became the scene of murder and devastation, of which Churchyard was destined to be an eye-witness.

(3) During the years 1557-1559, in the beginning of the reign of Philip II over Spain and over the Netherlands, Churchyard was again at the wars when Queen Mary of England (1553-1558), whom Philip had married, made war against France. During that campaign Calais was taken by the French army under Guise in 1558, and after the conquest of Calais, immediately the city of Guisnes was besieged. Churchyard was one of the defenders, and he was an intermediary in offering the surrender of this city.

(4) In the year 1566, during the outbreak of image-breaking in Antwerp, Churchyard was there, being an eye-witness of that tremendous tumult. There he offered his services to the Prince of Orange; the Prince

"Bad ine do well, and shed no guiltless blood;

And save from spoil poor people and their good." Being in the service of the Prince, and probably agreeing with his policy, we can understand what Churchyard says, that in the eyes of the tumultuous population he was too moderate. "The Prince retired from this scene of tumult. The insurgents, amounting to 30,000, placed Churchyard, at their head; the nobles having fled, he saved the religious houses and the