The tragedy of love is depicted in the romance of Tristram and Iseult, where a love-potion plays a prominent part.

But, although knightly love and valor are the stock topics, we occasionally come across a theme of Christian humility, like Sir Isumbras, or of democracy, as in the Squire of Low Degree and in the Ballads of Robin Hood.
With the advent of Chaucer a new poet, a new language, and new themes appear.

Many of his Canterbury tales are miniature epics, borrowed in general from other writers, but retold with a charm all his own.

The Knight's Tale, or story of the rivalry in love of Palamon and Arcite, the tale of Gamelyn, and that of Troilus and Cressida, all contain admirable epic passages.
Spenser, our next epic poet, left us the unfinished Faerie Queene, an allegorical epic which shows the influence of Ariosto and other Italian poets, and contains exquisitely beautiful passages descriptive of nature, etc.

His allegorical plot affords every facility for the display of his graceful verse, and is outlined in another chapter.
There are two curious but little-known English epics, William Warner's chronicle epic entitled "Albion's England" (1586), and Samuel Daniel's "Civil Wars." The first, beginning with the flood, carries the reader through Greek mythology to the Trojan War, and hence by means of Brut to the beginnings of English history, which is then continued to the execution of Mary Stuart.