This lecture forms the introduction to the series on the "Literature of the Age of Elizabeth." Hazlitt might have derived hints for it from Schlegel, who speaks of the zeal for the study of the ancients, the extensive communication with other lands, the interest in the literature of Italy and Spain, the progress in experimental philosophy represented by Bacon, and contrasts the achievements of that age, in a vein which must have captured Hazlitt's sympathy, with "the pretensions of modern enlightenment, as it is called, which looks with such contempt on all preceding ages." The Elizabethans, he goes on to say, "possessed a fullness of healthy vigour, which showed itself always with boldness, and sometimes also with petulance. The spirit of chivalry was not yet wholly extinct, and a queen, who was far more jealous in exacting homage to her sex than to her throne, and who, with her determination, wisdom, and magnanimity, was in fact, well qualified to inspire the minds of her subjects with an ardent enthusiasm, inflamed that spirit to the noblest love of glory and renown. The feudal independence also still survived in some measure; the nobility vied with each other in the splendour of dress and number of retinue, and every great lord had a sort of small court of his own. The distinction of ranks was as yet strongly marked: a state of things ardently to be desired by the dramatic poet." "Lectures on Dramatic Literature," ed. Bohn, p. 349. P. 1. _Raleigh_, Sir Walter (1552-1618), the celebrated courtier, explorer, and man of letters. _Drake_, Sir Francis (1545-1595), the famous sailor, hero of the Armada. _Coke_, Sir Edward (1552-1634), the great jurist, whose "Institutes," better known as Coke upon Littleton, became a famous legal text-book. _Hooker_, Richard (1553-1600), theologian, author of the "Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity" (1593), a defense of the Anglican Church against the Puritans and notable also as a masterpiece of English prose. P. 2. _mere oblivion_. "As You Like It," ii, 7, 165. _poor, poor dumb names_ [mouths]. "Julius Caesar," iii, 2, 229. _Marston_, John (1575-1634). In the third lecture on the "Age of Elizabeth," Hazlitt calls him "a writer of great merit, who rose to tragedy from the ground of comedy, and whose _forte_ was not sympathy, either with the stronger or softer emotions, but an impatient scorn and bitter indignation against the vices and follies of men, which vented itself either in comic irony or in lofty invective. He was properly a satirist. He was not a favourite with his contemporaries, nor they with him." Works, V, 224. His chief tragedy is "Antonio and Mellida."