Find the chronological order of the writers in terms of the period they belonged to:
A) Richard Steele
B) Charles Lamb
C) John Dryden
D) Francis Bacon
E) Matthew Arnold
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

The correct answer is D, C, A, B, E.

To find the correct chronological order, we can look at the active periods and lifespans of each writer:
1. Francis Bacon (D) (1561 - 1626): He was a major figure of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras (English Renaissance).
2. John Dryden (C) (1631 - 1700): He was the dominant literary figure of the Restoration period.
3. Richard Steele (A) (1672 - 1729): He was a prominent essayist and co-founder of The Spectator during the Augustan age of the early 18th century.
4. Charles Lamb (B) (1775 - 1834): He was a key English essayist of the Romantic period, famous for his Essays of Elia.
5. Matthew Arnold (E) (1822 - 1888): He was an influential poet and cultural critic of the Victorian era.

By ordering them chronologically from the earliest era to the latest, we get: Francis Bacon (D), followed by John Dryden (C), Richard Steele (A), Charles Lamb (B), and finally Matthew Arnold (E). This corresponds to the sequence D, C, A, B, E.