Excerpt from Middle England From the Accession of Henry II: To the Death of Elizabeth In 'Middle England' the aim has been to narrate accurately a part of the Biography of the people of England. Special attention has been given to the delineation of the varieties of character presented by the leading men of the successive generations; and it is hoped that the gallery of historical portraits sketched in the text will be found not unworthy of the beautiful series of vignettes with which the artist has adorned the pages. The earlier lessons are designed to lay carefully the foundations of the later history; here, the qualities sought after have been accuracy and fulness. In the middle chapters advantage has been taken of the unequalled series of historical plays bequeathed to the nation by its greatest Dramatist; and any increase of vitality and vigour there displayed is due solely to the poet who could, without boasting, say - "Graves, at my command, Have waked their sleepers; oped, and let them forth, By my so potent art." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.