[Footnotes 35-36: _Knightes Tale_.]

[Footnote 37: _Truth: Balade de bon Conseyl_.]

[Footnote 38: black.]

[Footnote 39: _The Parlement of Foules_.]

[Footnote 40: For full titles, see p. 50.]

[Footnote 41: For full titles, see p. 6.]


CHAPTER III: FROM CHAUCER'S DEATH, 1400, TO THE ACCESSION OF
ELIZABETH, 1558

The Course of English History.--The century and a half that followed
the death of Chaucer appealed especially to Shakespeare. He wrote or
helped to edit five plays that deal with this period,--_Henry IV.,
Henry V., Henry VI., Richard III._, and _Henry VIII_. While these
plays do not give an absolutely accurate presentation of the history
of the time, they show rare sympathy in catching the spirit of the
age, and they leave many unusually vivid impressions.

Henry IV. (1399-1413), a descendant of John of Gaunt, Duke of
Lancaster, one of the younger sons of Edward III., and therefore not
in the direct line of succession, was the first English king who owed
his crown entirely to Parliament. Henry's reign was disturbed by the
revolt of nobles and by contests with the Welsh. Shakespeare gives a