Benefits--William of
Malmesbury--Geoffrey of Monmouth--Other Latin Chronicles--Anglo-Norman
Poets--Richard Wace--Other Poets

CHAPTER VI.

THE MORNING TWILIGHT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

Semi-Saxon Literature--Layamon--The Ormulum--Robert of
Gloucester--Langland. Piers Plowman--Piers Plowman's Creed--Sir Jean
Froissart--Sir John Mandevil

CHAPTER VII.

CHAUCER, AND THE EARLY REFORMATION.

A New Era: Chaucer--Italian Influence--Chaucer as a Founder--Earlier
Poems--The Canterbury Tales--Characters--Satire--Presentations of
Woman--The Plan Proposed

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAUCER (CONTINUED).--REFORMS IN RELIGION AND SOCIETY.

Historical Facts--Reform in Religion--The Clergy, Regular and
Secular--The Friar and the Sompnour--The Pardonere--The Poure
Persone--John Wiclif--The Translation of the Bible--The Ashes of Wiclif

CHAPTER IX.

CHAUCER (CONTINUED).--PROGRESS OF SOCIETY, AND OF LANGUAGE.

Social Life--Government--Chaucer's English--His Death--Historical
Facts--John Gower--Chaucer and Gower--Gower's Language--Other Writers

CHAPTER X.

THE BARREN PERIOD BETWEEN CHAUCER AND SPENSER.

Greek Literature--Invention of Printing. Caxton--Contemporary
History--Skelton--Wyatt--Surrey--Sir Thomas Moore--Utopia, and other
Works--Other Writers

CHAPTER XI.

SPENSER AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE.

The Great Change--Edward VI. and Mary--Sidney--The Arcadia--Defence of
Poesy--Astrophel and Stella--Gabriel Harvey--Edmund Spenser: Shepherd's
Calendar--His Great Work

CHAPTER XII.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE HISTORY IN THE FAERIE QUEENE.

The Faerie Queene--The Plan Proposed--Illustrations of the History--The
Knight and the Lady--The Wood of Error and the Hermitage--The
Crusades--Britomartis and Sir Artegal--Elizabeth--Mary Queen of
Scots--Other Works--Spenser's Fate--Other Writers

CHAPTER XIII.

THE ENGLISH DRAMA.

Origin of the Drama--Miracle Plays--Moralities--First Comedy--Early
Tragedies--Christopher Marlowe--Other Dramatists--Playwrights and
Morals

CHAPTER XIV.

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

The Power of Shakspeare--Meagre Early History--Doubts of his
Identity--What is known--Marries and goes to London--"Venus" and
"Lucrece"--Retirement and Death--Literary Habitudes--Variety of the
Plays--Table of Dates and Sources

CHAPTER XV.

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE (CONTINUED).

The Grounds of his Fame--Creation of Character