The second (1595) is an epic, in eight books, on the Wars of the Roses.

Drayton also wrote, on the theme of the Civil Wars, an epic entitled "The Barons' Wars," and undertook a descriptive and patriotic epic in "Polyolbion," wherein he makes a tour of England relating innumerable local legends.
Abraham Cowley composed an epic entitled "Davideis," or the troubles of David.

He begins this work in four books with a description of two councils held in Heaven and hell in regard to the life of this worthy.
Dryden was not only a translator of the classic epics, but projected an epic of his own about Arthur.

Almost at the same time Pope was planning to write one on Brut, but he too failed to carry out his intentions, and is best known as the translator of the Iliad, although some authorities claim the "Rape of the Lock" is a unique sample of the _epopee galante._ The poet Keats, whose life was so short, left us a complete mythological epic in "Endymion," a fragment of one in "Hyperion," and a reproduction of one of the old romances in "Isabella, or a Pot of Basil." Shelley, Keats' contemporary, wrote poems abounding in epic passages,--"Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude," "The Revolt of Islam," "Adonais," and "Prometheus Unbound"; while Byron's epical poems are "Manfred," "The Corsair," and "Don Juan"; and Scott's, "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," "Marmion," "The Lady of the Lake," and "The Bridal of Triermain." The greatest of Coleridge's poems, "The Ancient Mariner," is sometimes called a visionary epic, while his "Christabel" conforms more closely to the old _roman d'adventure._ As the translator of the epical romances of "Amadis de Gaule" and "Palmerin," Southey won considerable renown; he also wrote the oriental epics "Thalaba" and "The Curse of Kehama," as well as epical poems on "Madoc," "Joan of Arc," and "Roderick, the Last of the Goths." Moore, although preeminently a lyric poet, has left us the eastern epic "Lalla Rookh," and Lockhart some "Spanish Ballads" which paraphrase the Cid.
Among Macaulay's writings the "Lays of Ancient Rome" have epic qualities, which are also found in Leigh Hunt's "Story of Rimini." The plot of Tristram has been utilized both by Matthew Arnold and by Swinburne, while William and Lewis Morris have rewritten some of the old classic stories in "The Earthly Paradise," the "Life and Death of Jason," the "Defense of Guinevere," and the "Epic of Hades." It was, however, the Victorian poet-laureate Tennyson who gave the Arthurian Legend its latest and most artistic touches in "Idylls of the King." Some critics also claim as an example of the domestic epic his "Enoch Arden." Among recent writers, sundry novelists have been hailed as authors of prose epics.

Thomas Westwood has composed in excellent verse the "Quest of the Sangreall," Mrs.Trask "Under King Constantine," a notable addition to the Arthurian cycle, and Stephen Philips has sung of Ulysses and of King Alfred.
FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 20: See the author's "Legends of the Virgin and Christ."] BEOWULF[21] _Introduction._ The only Anglo-Saxon epic which has been preserved entire was probably composed in Sweden before the eighth century, and taken thence to England, where this pagan poem was worked over and Christianized by some Northumbrian bard.