June 22. 1833
Hacket’s Life of Archbishop Williams — Charles I — Manners Under Edward III., Richard II., and Henry VIII
What a delightful and instructive hook Bishop Hacket’s Life of Archbishop Williams is! You learn more from it of that which is valuable towards an insight into the times preceding the Civil War than from all the ponderous histories and memoirs now composed about that period.
Charles seems to have been a very disagreeable personage during James’s life. There is nothing dutiful in his demeanour.
I think the spirit of the court and nobility of Edward III. and Richard II. was less gross than that in the time of Henry VIII.; for in this latter period the chivalry had evaporated, and the whole coarseness was left by itself. Chaucer represents a very high and romantic style of society amongst the gentry.