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socket that the gay and courtly Chaucer turned to the example of the last of the ancients, translated the "Consolations of Philosophy," and snatched from its picture of the bliss of the Former Age this wail over the misery of the present:

Alas, alas, now may men wepe and crye,

For in our days is nought but covetyse,

Doubleness, tresoun, and envye,

Poyson, manslawtyr, murder in sondry wyse."

Both in Italy and in England a period of barrenness ensued, marked in one country by the refinements of knowledge, and in the other by the quibbles and sophisms of an ignorance that aped wisdom. The French of Stratford atte Bow in Chaucer's time was neither English nor French, but twenty years later even University learning had grown so contemptible that "Oxford Latin " became a proverbial expression signifying an unmeaning jargon. The sciences were unknown, of course, though the heavens were methodically set off into twelve parts, called "houses," or "mansions," and medicine was practiced with confidence, but on superstitious and empiric principles, which had not been changed since the Emperor Nero's physician compounded the con

fection called, from him, Theriaca Andromachi, composed of the dried flesh of vipers and scores of other equally valuable ingredients. We find in Chaucer many allusions to the heavenly "houses" and to the influence of the signs upon the nature and welfare of men, as well as to the "treacle" which was esteemed an antidote to all bodily disease.

In the fourteenth century the three classes of society were always clashing. The House of Commons, representing the middle class, was continually impinging upon the prerogatives of the Crown and the ancient aristocracy, causing the great charters to be repeatedly confirmed and grievances to be diminished. On the other hand, the laboring class, comprising the majority of the population, was demanding the enactment of laws like the "Statute of Laborers," of 1350, and those aimed at the improvement of the administration of justice and the establishment of trial by jury.

The progress of Freedom lies often through revolution; and the reign of Richard II. presents a constant succession of social upheavals which ended during the last year of the century in the "renunciation" of the crown and the

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elevation of Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, to the throne as King Henry IV.

The rebellion of 1381 was one of the signs of the times. It resulted from a tax of the previous year, and began with the murder of the royal collector (a man of the Commons who represented the aristocracy above him) by Wat the Tyler (a man of the laboring order), and it did not end until all Essex and Kent and Suffolk and Norfolk had been involved in the wildest confusion, their palaces sacked, their towns besieged, their prisons destroyed, their hospitals burned, and their aristocracy massacred in large numbers. The end came, and it was followed by the legal execution of hundreds of those who had vainly risen to gain the freedom which, since the hour when the yeomen of England won the victory of Cressy, it had been the dream of their children one day to secure. Thus ended the reign of Richard II., in the overthrow of a tyrant by the agreement of the three classes of society, having generally different interests, but now united for the maintenance of freedom. It is not ours to inquire minutely into the measures by which one sovereign was placed at the mercy of his ambitious successor, nor to ask how far society

was benefited by the change that was thus brought about. Our simple purpose is to note that there was a change which put upon the throne a grandson of Edward III., and son of John of Gaunt, the friend of the poet Chaucer. As we close our historical survey there reach our ears hoarse murmurs of discontent from the Marches of Wales, where the "irregular and wild Glendower" is doing such deeds

"As may not be, Without much shame, re-told or spoken of;"

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and from the North comes more uneven and unwelcome news," for Harry Percy and the Earl of Northumberland are leading their forces to victory on the field of Holmedon ; and we close the book as the Te Deum of the Archbishop of Canterbury sounds above the popular clamor, while he goes forth to meet the procession bearing the heads of King Richard's personal attendants, over whose destruction he chants his barbarous exultations.

II.

With comparative ease the panorama of public events can be made vivid, even after centuies have spread their mists over the scenes,

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but the case is quite otherwise when we essay to penetrate further and bring out the inner life of the fourteenth century.

It was a time of chivalry and magnificence at the beginning; but before it ended feudalism was decaying and tottering to its fall. In the reign of Edward III. the hierarchy was at the height of its grandeur: cathedrals were going up in Lincoln and Wells and Peterborough and Salisbury; churches were supplied everywhere; William of Wykeham was doing his great work at Winchester; the church at Westminster received extensive additions; and friars and other churchmen greatly increased in power. It was at about 1380,1 however, that John Wiclif inaugurated his reforming work, and after that his tracts, and the poor preachers who carried them, circulated through the length and breadth of the land; the people saw that the Church was grasping, and that those who should be the promoters of purity and humility were often as corrupt and as proud as they appear on the pages of Piers the Plowman and of Chaucer. The doctrines

of Wiclif became popular, and the Lollards, his followers, grew rapidly in numbers. The

1 This date is not established beyond doubt. See Professor Lech er's Life of Wiclif.