ABSTRACT
Nor can any person be widely conversant in the literature of the age of Elizabeth without discovering and deploring numerous similar abuses. Complimentary effusions, commanded strains of congratulation or condolence on subjects then interesting to few, and now to no one, form the larger portion of the occasional pieces of Spenser, ofJonson, of Donne, and of the whole herd of minor poets. Shakespeare alone, preeminent in moral as in intellectual dignity, disdained to prostitute his immortal lines to temporary or selfish purposes. . . .
