ABSTRACT
The “New World” was the dominant thought in the secular mind of England from the time of Henry VII. to that of James I. The exploration and discoveries of John and Sebastian Cabot, following the voyages of Columbus and Vespucius, created a spirit of adventure and colonization which all the religious controversies of the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. could not allay. The press was teeming with the literature of the all-important subject. “Voyages,” “Travels,” “Discoveries,” new maps of the world, and descriptions of new-found countries were filling the old world with excitement and speculation. The intellectual, political, and financial atmosphere was saturated with “America.” The discovery of America had much to do with the revival of English learning and literature, and aroused the Anglo-Saxon mind to that creative activity which produced her immortal drama. Columbus, Cabot, Drake, Raleigh, and—America, made possible Shakespeare.
