Part 23 (1/2)

SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE. +1300-1372+. Physician; traveller; prose-writer.

+The Voyaige and Travaile+. Travels to Jerusalem, India, and other countries, written in Latin French and English (1356). The first writer ”in formed English.”

Edward II ascends the throne, 1307.

Battle of Bannockburn, 1314.

JOHN BARBOUR. Archdeacon of Aberdeen. +1316-1396+.

+The Bruce+ (1377), a poem written in the Northern English or ”Scottish” dialect.

Edward III. ascends the throne, 1327.

+1350+

JOHN WYCLIF. +1324-1384+. Vicar of Lutterworth, in Leicesters.h.i.+re.

Translation of the +Bible+ from the Latin version; and many tracts and pamphlets on Church reform.

Hundred Years' War begins, 1338.

Battle of Crecy, 1346.

JOHN GOWER. +1325-1408+. A country gentleman of Kent; probably also a lawyer.

+Vox Clamantis+, +Confessio Amantis+, +Speculum Meditantis+ (1393); and poems in French and Latin.

The Black Death, 1349, 1361, 1369.

WILLIAM LANGLANDE. +1332-1400+. Born in Shrops.h.i.+re.

+Vision concerning Piers the Plowman+-- three editions (1362-78).

Battle of Poitiers, 1356.

First law-pleadings in English, 1362.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER +1340-1400+. Poet; courtier; soldier; diplomatist; Comptroller of the Customs: Clerk of the King's Works; M.P.

+The Canterbury Tales+ (1384-98), of which the best is the +Knightes Tale+. Dryden called him ”a perpetual fountain of good sense.”

Richard II. ascends the throne, 1377.

Wat Tyler's insurrection, 1381.

JAMES I. OF SCOTLAND. +1394-1437+. Prisoner in England, and educated there, in 1405.

+The King's Quair+ (= _Book_), a poem in the style of Chaucer.

Henry IV. ascends the throne, 1399.

+1400+

WILLIAM CAXTON. +1422-1492+. Mercer; printer; translator; prose-writer.

+The Game and Playe of the Chesse+ (1474)-- the first book printed in England; +Lives of the Fathers+, ”finished on the last day of his life;” and many other works.

Henry V. ascends the throne, 1415.

Battle of Agincourt, 1415.

Henry VI. ascends the throne, 1422.

Invention of Printing, 1438-45.