THE GREAT ELIZABETHAN PROSE WRITERS
WHEN, on the memorable November 17, 1558, the tidings came to Queen
Elizabeth, sitting under a tree in Hatfield Park, of the death of her sister and
predecessor, nothing seemed
to indicate the glories, either
in arms or arts, of a reign
destined to unprecedented
glory in both. The last two
reigns had been unfortu-
nate; one distracted by the
struggles of ambitious min-
isters seeking to govern in
the name of a boy-king; the
other infamous for cruelty
at home, and shameful for
disaster abroad. Even in
1553 the sagacious Venetian
envoy had noted the alarm
of the English at the alliance
of France and Scotland, and
the national spirit and re-
sources had since sunk lower
still. Economic causes, in
that age hard to compre-
hend and harder to remedy,
aggravated the general de-
pression. The great addi-
tions made and daily mak-
ing to the world's stock of
the precious metals had
raised prices, rents, and by consequence taxes, to a degree previously unknown.
Henry VIII. had allowed himself to be seduced into the expedient of debasing
the currency, a practice continued by his successors, and the state of the finances
was now nearly desperate. Since Henry's death, no one with any pretensions
tc statesmanship, Cranmer alone excepted, had had a share in the government,
except in the most subordinate capacities the ablest men were merely
From a scarce print by Crispin de Passe after a
drawing by Isaac Olizer
Political
and liter
ary outlook at the accession of Elizabeth