12. Mutual = common.

13. Orpheus = a Thracian poet who accompanied the Argonauts, and had the power of moving inanimate objects by the music of his lyre.

14. Stockish stupid, insensible.

=

15. Spoils = robbery, acts of plundering.

16. Erebus =

the underworld, or region of the dead.

17. Without respect = absolutely, independent of circumstances. attended to, heard attentively.

18. Attended: =

19. Season'd are are made fit.

20. Endymion. — In Greek mythology Silene, or the moon, is represented as charmed with the beauty of Endymion, whom she put to sleep on Mount Latmos, that she might nightly kiss him unobserved.

21. Tucket = a flourish on a trumpet to announce an arrival.

22. We should hold day, etc. we should have day at the same time with the Antipodes, if you, Portia, would walk abroad at night in the absence of the sun.

=

God dispose or arrange all things.

in all reason.

25. Breathing courtesy = courtesy consisting of mere breath or talk. 26. Gratiano and Nerissa have been talking apart in dumb show. 27. Posy sentiment or motto inscribed on rings. A contraction of poesy. It was the custom to inscribe sentiments, usually in distichs, upon knives by means of aqua fortis.

28. Respective = mindful or regardful of your oath.

=

29. The virtue of the ring the power of the ring. It gave its possessor a right to Portia and all she had.

retain.

as to have wanted; dependent on so much un

32. Ceremony: = a sacred thing.

33. Civil doctor doctor of civil law.

34. Shame and courtesy = shame at being thought ungrateful, and a

40. Satisfied of these events at full =

events.

=

fully satisfied concerning these

41. Charge us upon inter'gatories, etc. "In the Court of Queen's Bench, when a complaint is made against a person for a 'contempt,' the practice is that before sentence is finally pronounced he is sent into the Crown Office, and being there charged upon interrogatories,' he is made to swear that he will answer all things faithfully.''

CIVIL WAR PERIOD.

REPRESENTATIVE WRITER.

JOHN MILTON.

OTHER PROMINENT WRITERS.

WALLER, COWLEY, QUARLES, HERRICK, Suckling,

CAREW.

Historian. - LORD CLARENDON.

Religious Writers. — TAYLOR, BAXTER, BUNYAN.

III.

CIVIL WAR PERIOD.

1625-1660.

GENERAL SURVEY. - Though short, this period is worthy of careful study. It is characterized by a great conflict that absorbed every other important interest. The antagonistic elements in England were at last brought into an armed contest for supremacy. Charles I. ascended the throne in 1625, and moulded his policy according to high notions of the divine right of kings. He sought to establish an absolute monarchy. He assumed a haughty tone in addressing the Commons, telling them to "remember that parliaments were altogether in his power for their calling, sitting, or dissolution, and that, therefore, as he should find the fruits of them good or evil, they were to be, or not to be."

Two Parliaments were convened in rapid succession, but showed themselves unyielding to the royal will. When the king demanded supplies, the Commons clamored for redress of grievances. In each case the king dissolved Parliament, and proceeded to levy taxes in defiance of law. Resistance to the royal demands led to immediate imprisonment; and in order to exercise his tyranny the better, he billeted soldiers among the people, and in some places established martial law.

A third Parliament was called in 1629. Finding it still