Houses of Lancaster and York

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887. Excerpt: ... Hall. But he was thought too fond of show and mag. nificence, and some of his contemporaries accused him of too great love of pleasure. Yet of positive immorality we have no real evidence, and his devotion and tenderness to both his queens (child as the second was) is a considerable presumption to the contrary. And as regards the expenses of his household, it does not appear that he was led on this account to tax his people immoderately. His ruin was simply owing to despotic and arbitrary measures--not in any way to pecuniary burdens that he inflicted on the nation. CHAPTER III. LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. I. THE reign of Richard II. is an interesting period in English literature. Before that time there was, strictly speaking, hardly any English literature at all. There were, indeed, ballads and some rhyming chronicles in English, but all serious authors wrote in Latin. An author who desired many readers naturally preferred to use a language which was understood over all Europe. A courtly author, or one who aimed at refinement, would rather have written in French than in English; for French was the language of the King's court and also of the courts of law. Besides, the English spoken in one part of the country was so unlike the language current in another part, that an author writing in English could not have spoken to the whole people. But by this time Englishmen had begun to write in English for serious purposes. It was, apparently, in the latter part of the reign of Edward III. that a religious poet, whose name is believed to have been William Langland, wrote a remarkable allegorical work called 'The Vision of Piers Plowman.' A little later, Wycliffe translated the Bible into English wycliffe's for the use of the unlearned. The influence Bileof this latte...