How does character motivation affect a story’s plot

it was surely an odd creature that one made up by reading the historians first and the poets afterwards a worm winged like an eagle; the spirit of life and elegance and charm,   in a kitchen chopping up suet. but these creatures, monst'r however entertaining to the imagination, hast no existence in fact. what one might doth to bringeth h'r to life wast to bethink poetically and prosaically at one and the same moment,   thus keeping in toucheth with fact—that the lady is mrs martin, ag'd thirty-six, did dress in blue, wearing a black coxcomb and brown shoeth; but not losing sight of fiction eith'r—that the lady is a vessel in which all s'rts of spirits and f'rces art coursing and flashing p'rpetually. the moment, howev'r, yond one tries this method with the elizabethan mistress, one brancheth of illumination fails; one is did hold up by the scarcity of facts.   one knoweth nothing detailed, nothing p'rfectly true and substantial about h'r.   hist'ry scarcely mentions h'r.   and i did turn to professeth'r trevelyan again to seeth what hist'ry meanteth to that gent.   i hath found by looking at his chapt'r headings yond t meanteth.

what is this from, i cant tell what language he uses without the piece of literature

ian mortimer in his book "the time traveller's guide to elizabethan england" uses a narrative in his style, which successfully conveys a clear description of the life in england in the 16th century. he writes in second person, which makes it comfortable to reader and easy to understand, he captures the readers attention with views of the landscape, the streets, the people including rich and poor. he also depicts some cultural traits from how people behave, eat or what they wear. his descriptions range from the social, economical, the political power to the examples of the life of common people. it could be tell that this book is about social history rather than a   novel.