opinion: the great form the epoch; the many reflect the age."
Chameleon-like, most of them take the political, social, and religious
hues of the period in which they live, while a few illustrate it perhaps
quite as forcibly by violent opposition and invective.

We shall see that in Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_ and in Gower's _Vox
Clamantis_ are portrayed the political ferments and theological
controversies of the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. Spenser decks
the history of his age in gilded mantle and flowing plumes, in his tribute
to Gloriana, The Faery Queen, who is none other than Elizabeth herself.
Literature partakes of the fierce polemic and religious enthusiasm which
mark the troublous times of the Civil War; it becomes tawdry, tinselled,
and licentious at the Restoration, and develops into numerous classes and
more serious instruction, under the constitutional reigns of the house of
Hanover, in which the kings were bad, but the nation prosperous because
the rights of the people were guaranteed.

Many of the finest works of English literature are _purely and directly
historical_; what has been said is intended to refer more particularly to
those that are not--the unconscious, undesigned teachers of history, such
as fiction, poetry, and the drama.


PURPOSE OF THE WORK.--Such, then, is the purpose of this volume--to
indicate the teachings of history in the principal productions of English
literature. Only the standard authors will be considered, and the student
will not be overburdened with statistics, which it must be a part of his
task to collect for himself. And now let us return to the early literature
embodied in those languages which have preceded the English on British
soil; or which, by their combination, have formed the English language.