Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/181

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CHAPTER XIII

Circa 1558—1603

"MERRIE ENGLAND"

FROM the necessarily serious attitude of our forefathers under the religious changes of the early Tudors, it is a relief to turn to the study of England under her first great Queen, to dream once again of that "merrie" country so fantastically described by Spenser, and to realise that

"This happy breed of men, this little world,
 This precious stone set in the silver sea,"

so dramatically represented by Shakspere, resembles more closely than heretofore the England of to-day.

The Middle Ages have gone for ever. Past is

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