The story of its destruction is too well known for repetition. This was
England's proudest achievement. Philip accepted the terrific downfall of
all his scheming and ambitions with a gallant calm. He had truly
believed that Heaven wished him to reassert Catholicism. He accepted the
storms which partly destroyed his fleet as the divine refusal of his
aid. "You could not strive against the will of Heaven," he said kindly
to his defeated admiral.[20]
[20] See _Defeat of the Spanish Armada_, page 251.
In England, the repeated plunderings of Spanish ships, and now this
final victory, flooded the land with wealth and triumph. The internal
improvement, the intellectual advance of the people, were prodigious.
The "Elizabethan Age" is the most famed in English literature. The first
English theatre was built in 1570, a crude and queer affair for cruder,
queerer plays.[21] Yet, in perhaps that very armada year of 1588,
Shakespeare began writing his remarkable plays. In 1601 the drama rose to
its perfection in his _Hamlet_, the flower of English literary genius,
accredited by some as the grandest new creation that ever came from the
hand of man.[22]
[21] See _Building of First Theatre in England_, page 163.
[22] See _Culmination of Dramatic Literature in_ Hamlet, page 287.
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