Most of the early English writers were men of affairs, trained to
business; for no literary class as yet existed, excepting it might
be the priesthood. Chaucer, the father of English poetry, was
first a soldier, and afterwards a comptroller of petty customs.
The office was no sinecure either, for he had to write up all the
records with his own hand; and when he had done his "reckonings"
at the custom-house, he returned with delight to his favourite
studies at home--poring over his books until his eyes were
"dazed" and dull.
The great writers in the reign of Elizabeth, during which there
was such a development of robust life in England, were not
literary men according to the modern acceptation of the word, but
men of action trained in business. Spenser acted as secretary to
the Lord Deputy of Ireland; Raleigh was, by turns, a courtier,
soldier, sailor, and discoverer; Sydney was a politician,
diplomatist, and soldier; Bacon was a laborious lawyer before he
became Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor; Sir Thomas Browne was a
physician in country practice at Norwich; Hooker was the
hardworking pastor of a country parish; Shakspeare was the manager
of a theatre, in which he was himself but an indifferent actor,
and he seems to have been even more careful of his money
investments than he was of his intellectual offspring. Yet these,
all men of active business habits, are among the greatest writers
of any age: the period of Elizabeth and James I.
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