In tracing the development of the literature of this period, we have noted (1) the metrical romances; (2) Geoffrey of Monmouth's (Latin) _History of the Kings of Britain_, and Layamon's _Brut_, with their stories of Lear, Cymbeline and King Arthur; (3) the _Ormulum_, a metrical paraphrase of those parts of the _Gospels_ used in church service; (4) the _Ancren Riwle_, remarkable for its natural eloquent prose and its noble ethics, as well as for showing the development of the language; (5) the lyrical poetry, beginning to be redolent of the odor of the blossom and resonant with the song of the bird; (6) the _Handlyng Synne_, in which we stand 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_.