BOOKS BY A. L. ROWSE

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1 THE ENGLISH SPIRIT

2 BOOKS BY A. L. ROWSE Literature WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: A BIOGRAPHY SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS: Edited with an Introduction and Notes CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE: A BIOGRAPHY SHAKESPEARE'S SOUTHAMPTON: PATRON OF VIRGINIA THE ENGLISH SPIRIT TIMES, PERSONS, PLACES A CORNISH CHILDHOOD A CORNISHMAN AT OXFORD POEMS OF A DECADE, POEMS CHIEFLY CORNISH POEMS OF DELIVERANCE POEMS PARTLY AMERICAN WEST-COUNTRY STORIES History BOSWORTH FIELD AND THE WARS OF THE ROSES THE ENGLAND OF ELIZABETH THE EXPANSION OF ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND THE ELIZABETHANS AND AMERICA RALEGH AND THE THROCKMORTONS SIR RICHARD GRENVILLE OF THE 'REVENGE' TUDOR CORNWALL THE EARLY CHURCHILLS THE LATER CHURCHILLS THE SPIRIT OF ENGLISH HISTORY THE USE OF HISTORY THE END OF AN EPOCH ALL SOULS AND APPEASEMENT ST. AUSTELL: CHURCH, TOWN, PARISH A HISTORY OF FRANCE By Lucien Romier Translated and completed

3 The English Spirit ESSAYS IN LITERATURE AND HISTORY BY A. L. ROWSE REVISED EDITION Palgrave Macmillan 19 66

4 ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / To G. M. Trevelyan admirable exemplar of the English spirit A. L. Rowse 1966 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1 st edition MACMILLAN AND COMPANY LIMITED Little Essex Street London WC2 also Bombay Caleutta Madras Melboume THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA LIMITED 70 Bond Street Toronto 2 First Edition 1944 Reprinted 1945 (twiee), 1946, 1950 Seeond Edition (revised and reset) 1966

5 CONTENTS Preface Vll Acknowledgments IX I The Personality of Shakespeare I II The Problem of Shakespeare's Sonnets Solved 19 III The Shakespeare Exhibition 50 IV Queen Elizabeth I and the Historians 59 V Sir Winston Churchill as an Historian 78 VI Erasmus and England 93 VII The Tudor Character 105 VIII An Elizabethan Exhibition 113 IX Elizabeth at Rycote X The Spanish College at Bologna XI The Old Music School at Oxford 134 XII The Caroline Country Parson 140 XIII Three Civil War Figures 146 XIV Clarendon's Life 157 XV Pictures in a Deanery 164 XVI Swift as Poet 170 XVII Sarah Churchill in Old Age 179 XVIII Horace Walpole and George Montagu 188 XIX The Letters of Junius 194- XX Carlyle's Past and Present 201 XXI Macaulay's Essays XXII The Neglected Froude XXIII Kilvert's Diary 222 XXIV Rudyard Kipling 229 XXV Three Americans on England 246 Index 271 v

6 PREFACE THIS book was originally published in the heroic days of its essays and articles gathered together in the last months before the liberation of Europe from the island springboard - and owed something of its success to the circumstances of the time: it seems to have caught the mood of the moment. After some five impressions in this country, it has long been out of print, and the time has come for a thorough revision. It is now by nearly half a new book and, I hope, as much improved. The general scheme remains, but I have omitted the topical essays that made the first third of the book: there is now far less about politics and much more about the (more durable) arts, particularly literature. Some of the new pieces were written for special occasions. 'The Personality of Shakespeare' and 'Sir Winston Churchill as an Historian' were delivered as Founder's Day addresses at the Huntington Library and Art Gallery in California - a unique honour to have been invited twice for the occasion. 'The Problem of Shakespeare's Sonnets Solved' was given in its original form as the Giff Edmonds Memorial Lecture to the Royal Society of Literature. I am much indebted to these distinguished institutions in America and Britain for the honour they did me. 'Queen Elizabeth and the Historians' is the sole piece I have rescued from a little book I have allowed to go out of print, An Elizabethan Garland. The earlier pieces have been heavily revised - some of them shortened, others expanded, some much added to - I found that the earlier written the more the revision necessary. However, continuity and theme have been retained. Trenarren, St. Austell. Easter, A. L. ROWSE vii

7 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THE author and publishers wish to thank Mrs. Bambridge for permission to quote extracts from the works of Rudyard Kipling issued either by the present publishers or by Messrs. Methuen & Co. Ltd.; and Messrs. Jonathan Cape Ltd. for permission to quote the extracts from Kilvert's Diary, edited by William Plomer. ix

BOOKS BY A. L. ROWSE

BOSWORTH FELD BOOKS BY A. L. ROWSE History The England of Elizabeth The Expansion of Elizabethan England The Elizabethans and America Ralegh and the Throckmortons Sir Richard Grenville of the Revenge Tudor