As they came hither from Thee, even so they also seek to go hence to Thee. Had it not been for Geoffrey's _History_, the dramas of _King Lear_ and _Cymbeline_ might never have been suggested to Shakespeare. The influence of Boccaccio and, sometimes, of Dante is noticeable in the principal poems of the Italian period,--the _Troilus and Criseyde, Hous of Fame_, and _Legende of Good Women_. The Reformation was another mighty influence, working side by side with all the other forces to effect a lasting change in English history and literature. The entire joyous world had become a Utopian sheep pasture, in which shepherds piped and fell in love with glorified sheperdesses. Spenser has been called the poet's poet, because the more poetical one is, the more one will enjoy him. In late years a careful study of the specifications (1599) for building the Fortune Theater (see Frontispiece) has thrown much light on the Globe, which is unusually important from its association with Shakespeare. Venus and Adonis_, 1593; _Lucrece_, 1594; _Passionate Pilgrim_, 1599; _Phoenix and Turtle_ in Chester's _Loves Martyr_, 1601; _Sonnets_, 1609, with _A Lover's Complaint_. Among pastoral lyrics, read from Spenser's _Shepherd's Calendar_ for August, 1579, Perigo and Willie's duet, beginning:-- "It fell upon a holy eve," and Marlowe's _The Passionate Shepherd to His Love_. The Bedfordshire village of Elstow saw in 1628 the birth of John Bunyan who, in his own peculiar field of literature, was to lead the world. He took sides in the struggle for liberty, not with credit card minimum monthly payment sword, but with his pen.
William Congreve (1670-1729) made the mast distinctive contribution to the new comedy of manners. Pope used to translate thirty or forty verses cosigners for major credit cards the _Iliad_ before rising, and then to spend a considerable time in polishing them.