' Six Types of Tudor Prose
V, The Literature of Travel,' by Mr. T. S. ELIOT
FOR the Elizabethans the world was, in a sense it is not today, their oyster. From the comparatively narrow confines of Europe (with occasional expeditions, such as the Crusades provided, into remoter regions) the popular imagination was suddenly invited to widen out to new continents, new seas, new peoples. The effect of such a stimulus on the thought and literature of the time is incalculable. Only by the use of the most fantastic facts (and fictions) can the travel writer of today hold the popular interest in the world outside our ken ; it was enough, in Tudor days, however, to set before the reader the simple facts themselves. To this simplicity must be added the native dignity of Elizabethan prose.
For his fifth talk Mr. Eliot takes this literature travel as his illustration of Tudor prose, emphasizing especially Raleigh's account of the Revenge and Hakluyt's famous Travels.