epresented the
usurpation of Lancaster, and the realm was convulsed with the revolts of
rival aristocracy; and, although Prince Hal, or Henry V., warred with
entire success in France, and got the throne of that kingdom away from
Charles VI., (the Insane,) he died leaving to his infant son, Henry VI.,
an inheritance which could not be secured. The rival claimant of York,
Edward IV., had a strong party in the kingdom: then came the wars of the
Roses; the murders and treason of Richard III.; the sordid valor of Henry
VII.; the conjugal affection of Henry VIII.; the great religious
earthquake all over Europe, known as the Reformation; constituting all
together an epoch too stirring and unsettled to permit literature to
flourish; an epoch which gave birth to no great poet or mighty master, but
which contained only the seeds of things which were to germinate and
flourish in a kindlier age.

In closing this notice of Chaucer, it should be remarked that no English
poet has been more successful in the varied delineation of character, or
in fresh and charming pictures of Nature. Witty and humorous, sententious
and didactic, solemn and pathetic, he not only pleases the fancy, but
touches the heart.

JOHN GOWER.--Before entering upon the barren period from Chaucer to
Spenser, however, there is one contemporary of Chaucer whom we must not
omit to mention; for his works, although of little literary value, are
historical signs of the times: this is _John Gower_, styled variously Sir
John and Judge Gower, as he was very probably both a knight and a justice.
He seems to owe most of his celebrity to his connection, however slight,
with Chaucer; although there is no doubt of his having been held in good
repute by the literary patrons and critics of his own age. His fame rests
upon three works, or rather three parts of one scheme--_Speculum
Meditantis_, _Vox Clamantis_, and _Confessio Amantis_. The first of these,
_the mirror of one who meditates_, was in French verse, and was, in the
main, a treatise upon virtue and repentance, with inculcations to conjugal
fidelity much disregarded at that time. This work has been lost. The _Vox
Clamantis_, or _voice of one crying in the wilderness_, is directly
historical, being a chronicle, in Latin elegiacs, of the popular revolts
of Wat Tyler in the time of Richard II., and a sermon on fatalism, which,
while it calls for a reformation in the clergy, takes ground against
Wiclif, his doctrines, and