The old high,
fervid spirit of chivalry was not lost; there were the same sense of
honor, the same knightly bearing, the same passion for glory, and the
same admiration for courage and prowess that had prevailed in the
earlier days of its sway. But these were tempered by milder and more
attractive virtues and accomplishments; the clerkly learning, which had
held so humble a rank in the days when nobles could scarcely sign their
names, had now risen into far higher estimation. Great warriors were now
no longer ashamed to know how to read and write; on the contrary, the
possession of learning and literature, the delicate arts of poetry and
music, the graces of conversation and manners, were now as requisite to
the full accomplishment of the knight, as his horsemanship, or his skill
in the management of his lance. In a word, the sterner characteristics
of the ancient knight were softened down, in the age of Elizabeth, into
the more perfect and graceful attributes of the gentleman. The perfect
gentleman was more completely exhibited in the days of Elizabeth than at
any time before; for the chivalry and the accomplishments which were
then united in the same individual, had been formerly divided between
the noble and the churchman or the clerk.
Were we called upon to characterize the age in which Spenser lived, by a
single word, we could find none that would better express its combined
attributes, than the word which the poet uses in describing his principal
hero: "In the person of Prince Arthure," says he in his letter to Raleigh,
"I set forth magnificence.
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