d on the threshold of modern
English; (7) Mandeville's _Travels_, with its entertaining stories;
(8) Wycliffe's monumental translation of the _Bible_ and vigorous
religious prose pamphlets; (9) _Piers Plowman_, with its pictures of
homely life, its intense desire for higher ideals and for the
reformation of social and religious life; (10) Gower's _Confessio
Amantis_, a collection of tales about love; and (11) Chaucer's poetry,
which stands in the front rank for the number of vivid pictures of
contemporary life, for humor, love of nature, melody, and capacity for
story-telling.

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

HISTORICAL

An account of the history of this period may be found in either
Gardiner[40], Green, Lingard, Walker, or Cheney. Volumes II. and III.
of the _Political History of England_, edited by Hunt (Longmans), give
the history in greater detail. For the social side, consult Traill, I.
and II. See also Rogers's _Six Centuries of Work and Wages_. Freeman's
_William the Conqueror_, Green's _Henry II_., and Tout's _Edward I_.
(_Twelve English Statesmen Series_) are short and interesting.
Kingsley's _Hereward the Wake_ deals with the times of William the
Conqueror and Scott's _Ivanhoe_ with those of Richard the
Lion-Hearted. Archer and Kingsford's _The Story of the Crusades_,
Cutt's _Parish Priests and their People in the Middle Ages in
England_, and Jusserand's _English Wayfaring Life in the fourteenth
Century_ are good works.

LITERARY

_Cambridge History of English Literature_, Vols. I. and II.

Bradley's _Making of English_.

Schofield's _English Literature from the Conquest to Chaucer_.

Ker's _Epic and Romance_.

Saintsbury's _The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory_.

Lawrence's _Medieval Story_ (excellent).

Weston's _The Romance Cycle of Charlemagne and his Peers_.

Weston's _King Arthur and his Knights_.

Maynadier's _The Arthur of the English Poets_.

Nutt's _The Legends of the Holy Grail_.

Jusserand's _Piers Plowman_.

Warren's _Langland's Vision of Piers the Plowman, Done into Modern
Prose_.

Savage's _Old English Libraries_.

Schofield's _Chivalry in English Literature_.

Snell's _The Age of Chaucer_.

Root's _The Poetry of Chaucer_.

Tuckwell's _Chaucer_ (96 pp.).

Pollard's _Chaucer_ (142 pp.).

Legouis's _Chaucer_.

Coulton's _Chaucer and his England_.

Lowell's _My Study Windows_ contains one of the best essays ever
written on Chaucer.

Mackail's _The