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In the works of Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, Dryden, and Addison, are to
be found the men and women, kings, nobles, and commons, descriptions of
English nature, hints of the progress of science and advancement in art;
the conduct of government, the force of prevailing fashions--in a word,
the moving life of the time, and not its dry historic record.
"Authors," says the elder D'Israeli, "are the creators or creatures of
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.


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