Woord is but wynd; leff woord and tak the dede. - John Lydgate

He is the first of our writers whose style is cloathed with that perspicuity, in which the English phraseology appears at this day to an English reader…Whether his subject be the life of a hermit or a hero, of saint Austin or Guy earl of Warwick, ludicrous or legendary, religious or romantic, a history or an allegory, he writes with facility.

He as a kyng is crowned in Fairie,
With sceptre and suerd, & with his regalie
Shal resorte as lord and souereyne,
Out of Fairye & regne in Breteyne,
And repaire ageyn the Rounde Table.

For princis ofte, of furious hastynesse,
Wil cachche a quarrel, causeless in sentence,
Ageyn folk absent, thouh ther be non offence.