ake great use of magic of all
kinds, and show the idyllic side of love. The tragedy of love is
depicted in the romance of Tristram and Iseult, where a love-potion
plays a prominent part. But, although knightly love and valor are the
stock topics, we occasionally come across a theme of Christian
humility, like Sir Isumbras, or of democracy, as in the Squire of Low
Degree and in the Ballads of Robin Hood.

With the advent of Chaucer a new poet, a new language, and new themes
appear. Many of his Canterbury tales are miniature epics, borrowed in
general from other writers, but retold with a charm all his own. The
Knight's Tale, or story of the rivalry in love of Palamon and Arcite,
the tale of Gamelyn, and that of Troilus and Cressida, all contain
admirable epic passages.

Spenser, our next epic poet, left us the unfinished Faerie Queene, an
allegorical epic which shows the influence of Ariosto and other
Italian poets, and contains exquisitely beautiful passages descriptive
of nature, etc. His allegorical plot affords every facility for the
display of his graceful verse, and is outlined in another chapter.

There are two curious but little-known English epics, William Warner's
chronicle epic entitled "Albion's England" (1586), and Samuel Daniel's
"Civil Wars." The first, beginning with the flood, carries the reader
through Greek mythology to the Trojan War, and hence by means of Brut
to the beginnings of English history, which is then continued to the
execution of Mary Stuart. The second (1595) is an epic, in eight
books, on the Wars of the Roses. Drayton also wrote, on the theme of
the Civil Wars, an epic entitled "The Barons' Wars," and undertook a
descriptive and patriotic epic in "Polyolbion," wherein he makes a
tour of England relating innumerable local legends.

Abraham Cowley composed an epic entitled "Davideis," or the troubles
of David. He begins this work in four books with a description of two
councils held in Heaven and hell in regard to the life of this worthy.

Dryden was not only a translator of the classic epics, but projected
an epic of his own about Arthur. Almost at the same time Pope was
planning to write one on Brut, but he too failed to carry out his
intentions, and is best known as the translator of the Iliad, although
some authorities claim the "Rape of the Lock" is a unique sample of
the _epopee galante._

The poet Keats, whose life was so short, left us a complete
mythological epic in "Endym