elizabethan age
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THE ELIZABETHAN AGE
Queen Elizabeth 1 , who ascended the throne in 1558 and ruled until 1603 , was one of the most remarkable geniuses England has ever produced. She had a very shrewd sense of her country' s strenghts and weaknesses. She identified herself with England as no previos ruler had done . "Both in her life and her death she was appointed to be the mirror of her time ," and the age properly bears her name : "Blessed Elizabeth of famous memory" .
The fact that one of England 's cultural periods and Elizabeth' s unique and intensely unEuropean regime came into full flower at the same time was no coincidence . Elizabeth' s was an age which introduced to her country the seeds of those freedoms which Englishmen now take for granted .
In the realm of literature the England of Elizabeth stands on a pinnacle by itself , and the writers who contributed most its brillance were as distinctively national as the anglican church or the poor law . Some connexion doubtless exists between the two aspects of the period , between the heroic deeds of the seamen and soldiers and the wonderful sunburst of poetry , drama , and speculative thought with which the name of Spenser , of Marlowe , of Shakspeare , and of Bacon are associated.
The literature of an age is necessarily a mirror of its history . It's infinitely more than this ...