Table Of Contents:
Preface to the Seventh Edition xxxiii
Acknowledgments xliii
``The Persistence of English'' xlvii

Geoffrey Nunberg
The Middle Ages (to ca. 1485) 1(22)

Introduction 1(20)

Anglo-Saxon England 3(4)

Anglo-Norman England 7(2)

Middle English Literature in the Fourtheenth and Fifteenth Centuries 9(5)

Medieval English 14(5)

Old and Middle English prosody 19(2)

Timeline 21(2)
ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND 23(87)

Bede (ca. 673--735) and CÆdmon's Hymn 23(3)

An Ecclesiastical History of the English People 24(2)

[The Story of Cædmon] 24(2)

The Dream of the Rood 26(3)

Beowulf Translated 29(70)

Seamus Heaney

The Wanderer 99(3)

The Wife's Lament 102(1)

The Battle of Maldon 103(7)
ANGLO-NORMAN ENGLAND 110(5)

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 110(5)

[Obituary for William the Conqueror] 110(3)

[Henry of Poitou Becomes Abbot of Peterborough] 113(1)

[The reign of King Stephen] 114(1)
LEGENDARY HISTORIES OF BRITAIN 115(27)

Geoffrey of Monmouth 115(3)

The History of the Kings of Britain 116(2)

[The Story of Brutus and Diana's Prophecy] 116(2)

Wace 118(4)

Le Roman de Brut 118(4)

[The Roman Challenge] 118(4)

Layamon 122(2)

Brut 122(2)

[Arthur's Dream] 122(2)

The Myth of Arthur's Return 124(2)

Geoffrey of Monmouth: From History of the Kings of Britain 125(1)

Wace's: From Roman de Brut 125(1)

Layamon: From Brut 125(1)

Marie De France 126(16)

Lanval 127(13)

Fables 140(1)

The Wolf and the Lamb 140(1)

The Wolf and the Sow 141(1)
CELTIC CONTEXTS 142(14)

Exile of the Sons of Uisliu 142(8)

Lludd and Lleuelys 150(3)

Ancrene Riwle (Rule for Anchoresses) 153(3)

[The Parable of the Christ-Knight] 154(2)
MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES 156(313)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (ca. 1375--1400) 156(54)

Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1343--1400) 210(107)

The Canterbury Tales 213(2)

The General Prologue 215(20)

The Miller's Prologue and Tale 235(17)

The Prologue 236(1)

The Tale 237(15)

The Man of Law's Epilogue 252(1)

The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale 253(28)

The Prologue 253(19)

The Tale 272(9)

The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale 281(15)

The Introduction 281(1)

The Prologue 282(3)

The Tale 285(10)

The Epilogue 295(1)

The Nun's Priest's Tale 296(14)

[Close of Canterbury Tales] 310(1)

The Parson's Tale 311(2)

The Introduction 311(2)

Chaucer's Retraction 313(1)

Lyrics and Occasional Verse 313(1)

Troilus's Song 314(1)

Truth 315(1)

To His Scribe Adam 315(1)

Complaint to His Purse 316(1)

William Langland (ca. 1330--1387) 317(32)

The Vision of Piers Plowman 319(30)

The Prologue 319(1)

[The Field of Folk] 319(3)

Passus 5 322(1)

[The Confession of Envy] 322(1)

[The Confession of Gluttony] 323(2)

[Piers Plowman Shows the Way to Saint Truth] 325(3)

Passus 6 328(1)

[The Plowing of Piers's Half-Acre] 328(8)

Passus 18 336(1)

[The Harrowing of Hell] 336(10)

The C-Text 346(1)

[The Dreamer Meets Conscience and Reason] 346(3)

Middle English Lyrics 349(6)

The Cuckoo Song 350(1)

Alison 351(1)

My Lief is Faren in Londe 352(1)

Western Wind 352(1)

I Am of Ireland 352(1)

What is he, this lordling, that cometh from the fight 352(1)

Ye That Pasen by the Weye 353(1)

Sunset on Calvary 353(1)

I Sing of a Maiden 353(1)

Adam Lay Bound 354(1)

The Corpus Christic Carol 354(1)

Julian of Norwich (1342-ca. 1416) 355(11)

A Book of Showings to the Anchoress Julian of Norwich 356(10)

[The First Revelation] 356(1)

Chapter 3 356(1)

Chapter 4 357(1)

Chapter 5 358(1)

From Chapter 7 359(1)

Chapter 27 360(1)

[Jesus as Mother] 361(1)

From Chapter 58 361(1)

From Chapter 59 362(1)

Chapter 60 363(1)

Chapter 61 364(2)

[Conclusion] 366(1)

Chapter 86 366(1)

Margery Kempe (ca. 1373--1438) 366(13)

The Book of Margery Kempe 367(12)

[The Birth of Her First Child and Her First Vision] 367(2)

[Her Pride and Attempts of Start a Business] 369(1)

[Margery and Her Husband Reach a Settlement] 370(1)

[A Visit with Julian of Norwich] 371(1)

[Pilgrimage to Jerusalem] 372(2)

[Examination before the Archbishop] 374(3)

[Margery Nurses Her Husband in His Old Age] 377(2)

Mystery Plays 379(40)

The Chester Play of Noah's Flood 380(11)

The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play 391(28)

Sir Thomas Malory (ca. 1405--1471) 419(20)

Morte Darthur 421(18)

[The Conspiracy against Lancelot and Guinevere] 421(5)

[War Breaks Out between Arthur and Lancelot] 426(4)

[The Death of Arthur] 430(5)

[The Deaths of Lancelot and Guinevere] 435(4)

Robert Henryson (ca. 1425--ca. 1500) 439(6)

The Cock and the Fox 439(6)

Everyman (after 1485) 445(24)
The Sixteenth Century (1485--1603) 469(69)

Introduction 469(28)

Timeline 497(2)

John Skelton (ca. 1460--1529) 499(4)

Mannerly Margery Milk and Ale 500(1)

Lullay, lullay, like a child 500(1)

The Tunning of Elinour Rumming 501(2)

Secundus Passus 501(2)

Sir Thomas More (1478--1535) 503(22)

Utopia 506(17)

Book 1 506(1)

[More Meets a Returned Traveler] 506(5)

Book 2 511(1)

[The Geography of Utopia] 511(2)

[Their Gold and Silver] 513(2)

[Marriage Customs] 515(1)

[Religions] 516(4)

[Conclusion] 520(3)

The History of King Richard III 523(2)

[A King's Mistress] 523(2)

Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder (1503--1542) 525(13)

The long love that in my thought doth harbor 527(1)

Whoso list to hunt 527(1)

Farewell, Love 528(1)

My galley 528(1)

Divers doth use 528(1)

Madam, withouten many words 529(1)

They flee from me 529(1)

The Lover Showeth How He is Forsaken of Such as He Sometime Enjoyed 530(1)

My lute, awake! 530(1)

And wilt thou leave me thus? 531(1)

Forget not yet 532(1)

Blame not my lute 533(1)

Stand whoso list 534(1)

Who list his wealth and ease retain 534(1)

Mine own John Poins 535(3)
LITERATURE OF THE SACRED 538(351)

The English Bible 539(3)

From Tyndale's Translation 540(1)

From The Geneva Bible 541(1)

From The Douay-Rheims Version 541(1)

From The Authorized (King James) Version 542(1)

William Tyndale: The Obedience of a Christian Man 542(2)

[The Forgiveness of Sins] 543(1)

[Scriptural Interpretation] 543(1)

John Calvin: The Institution of Christian Religion 544(3)

From Book 3, Chapter 21 545(2)

Anne Askew: From The First Examination of Anne Askew 547(4)

John Foxe: Acts and Monuments 551(2)

[The Death of Anne Askew] 551(1)

The Words and Behavior of the Lady Jane [Grey] upon the Scaffold 552(1)

Book of Common Prayer: From The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony 553(3)

Book of Homilies: From An Homily Against Disobedience and Willful Rebellion 556(2)

Richard Hooker: Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity 558(5)

Book 1, Chapter 3 559(1)

[On the Several Kinds of Law, and on the Natural Law] 559(2)

Book 1, Chapter 10 561(1)

[The Foundations of Society] 561(2)

Roger Ascham (1515--1568) 563(6)

Toxophilus 564(1)

The Second Book of the School of Shooting 564(1)

[Comeliness] 564(1)

The Schoolmaster 565(4)

The First Book for the Youth 565(1)

[Teaching Latin] 565(1)

[A Talk with Lady Jane Grey] 566(1)

[The Italianate Englishman] 567(2)

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517--1547) 569(8)

The soote season 570(1)

Love, that doth reign and live within my thought 571(1)

Alas! so all things now do hold their peace 571(1)

Th'Assyrians' king, in peace with foul desire 572(1)

So Cruel prison how could betide 572(2)

Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest 574(1)

O happy dames, that may embrace 575(1)

Martial, the things that do attain 576(1)

The Fourth Book of Virgil 576(1)

[The Jilted Queen] 576(1)

Sir Thomas Hoby (1530--1566) 577(16)

Castiglione's The Courtier 578(15)

Book 1 578(1)

[Grace] 578(1)

Book 4 579(1)

[The Ladder of Love] 579(14)

Queen Elizabeth (1533--1603) 593(7)

The doubt of future foes 594(1)

On Monsieur's Departure 595(1)

Letters 595(2)

To Sir Amyas Paulet 595(1)

To Henry III, king of France 596(1)

Speech to the Troops at Tilbury 597(1)

The ``Golden Speech'' 598(2)

Arthur Golding (1536--1605) 600(1)

Ovid's Metamorphoses 601(1)

[The Golden Age] 601(1)

George Gascoigne (1539--1578) 601(5)

Woodmanship 602(4)

Isabella Whitney (fl. 1567--1573) 606(8)

Will and Testament 606(8)

Edmund Spenser (1552--1599) 614(264)

The Shepheardes Calender 616(6)

To His Booke 617(1)

October 617(5)

The Faerie Queene 622(161)

A Letter of the Authors 624(4)

Book 1 628(144)

Book 2 772(1)

Canto 12 773(1)

[The Bower of Bliss] 773(10)

Book 3 783(80)

Proem 783(2)

Canto 1 785(15)

Canto 2 800(13)

Canto 3 813(1)

[The Visit to Merlin] 813(6)

[Canto 4 Summary] 819(1)

Canto 5 819(1)

[Belphoebe and Timias] 819(7)

Canto 6 826(13)

[Cantos 7 and 8 Summary] 839(1)

[Cantos 9 and 10 Summary] 839(1)

Canto 11 840(13)

Canto 12 853(10)

Amoretti 863(5)

Sonnet 1 (``Happy ye leaves when as those lilly hands'') 864(1)

Sonnet 34 (``Lyke as a ship that through the Ocean wyde'') 865(1)

Sonnet 37 (``What guyle is this, that those her golden tresses'') 865(1)

Sonnet 54 (``Of this worlds Theatre in which we stay'') 865(1)

Sonnet 64 (``Comming to kisse her lyps [such grace I found]'') 866(1)

Sonnet 65 (``The doubt which ye misdeeme, fayre love, is vaine'') 866(1)

Sonnet 67 (``Lyke as a huntsman after weary chace'') 866(1)

Sonnet 68 (``Most glorious Lord of lyfe, that on this day'') 867(1)

Sonnet 74 (``Most happy letters fram'd by skilfull trade'') 867(1)

Sonnet 75 (``One day I wrote her name upon the strand'') 867(1)

Sonnet 79 (``Men call you fayre, and you doe credit it'') 868(1)

Epithalamion 868(10)

Sir Walter Ralegh (1552--1618) 878(11)

The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd 879(1)

What is our life? 879(1)

[Sir Walter Ralegh to His Son] 880(1)

The Lie 880(2)

Farewell, false love 882(1)

Methought I saw the grave where Laura lay 883(1)

Nature, that washed her hands in milk 883(1)

[The Author's Epitaph, Made by Himself] 884(1)

From The discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful Empire of Guiana 885(3)

The History of the World 888(1)

[Conclusion: on Death] 888(1)
THE WIDER WORLD 889(320)

Frobisher's Voyages to the Arctic, 1576--78 890(4)

From A true discourse of the late voyages of discovery 890(4)

Drake's Circumnavigation of the Globe, 1577--80 894(3)

From The Famous voyage of Sir Francis Drake into the South Sea 894(3)

Amadas and Barlowe's Voyage to Virginia, 1584 897(4)

From The first voyage made to Virginia 898(3)

Hariot's Report on Virginia, 1585 901(5)

From A Brief and true report of the new-found land of Virginia 901(5)

John Lyly (1554--1606) 906(3)

Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit 907(2)

[Euphues Introduced] 907(2)

Sir Philip Sidney (1554--1586) 909(46)

The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia 911(5)

Book 2, Chapter 1 912(4)

Astrophil and Stella 916(16)

(``Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show'') 917(1)

(``Not at first sight, nor with a dribbed shot'') 917(1)

(``It is most true that eyes are formed to serve'') 918(1)

(``Some lovers speak, when they their muses entertain'') 918(1)

(``When nature made her chief work, Stella's eyes'') 918(1)

(``Queen Virtue's court, which some call Stella's face'') 919(1)

(``Reason, in faith thou art well served, that still'') 919(1)

(``You that do search for every purling spring'') 920(1)

(``In nature apt to like when I did see'') 920(1)

(``With what sharp checks I in myself am shent'') 920(1)

(``Fly, fly, my friends, I have my death-wound, fly'') 921(1)

(``Your words, my friend [right healthful caustics], blame'') 921(1)

(``You that with allegory's curious frame'') 921(1)

(``With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies'') 922(1)

(``My mouth doth water, and my breast doth swell'') 922(1)

(``Come sleep! O sleep the certain knot of peace'') 922(1)

(``Having this day my horse, my hand, my lance'') 923(1)

(``Stella oft sees the very face of woe'') 923(1)

(``What, have I thus betrayed my liberty?'') 924(1)

(``I on my horse, and Love on me doth try'') 924(1)

(``A strife is grown between Virtue and Love'') 924(1)

(``In martial sports I had my cunning tried'') 925(1)

(``Fie, school of Patience, fie, your lesson is'') 925(1)

(``Oft with true sighs, oft with uncalled tears'') 925(1)

(``O joy, too high for my low style to show'') 926(1)

(``Who will in fairest book of Nature know'') 926(1)

(``Desire, though thou my old companion art'') 926(1)

(``I never drank of Aganippe well'') 927(1)

(``O kiss, which dost those ruddy gems impart'') 927(1)

Fourth Song (``Only joy, now here you are'') 928(1)

(``When I was forced from Stella ever dear'') 929(1)

(``Now that of absence the most irksome night'') 930(1)

(``Stella, while now by Honor's cruel might'') 930(1)

Eleventh Song (``Who is it that this dark night'') 930(1)

(``When Sorrow [using mine own fire's might]'') 931(1)

The nightingale 932(1)

Thou blind man's mark 932(1)

Leave me, O Love 933(1)

The Defense of Poesy 933(22)

[The Lessons of Horsemanship] 934(1)

[The Poet, Poetry] 935(3)

[Three Kinds of Poets] 938(1)

[Poetry, Philosophy, History] 939(4)

[The Poetic Kinds] 943(4)

[Answers to Charges against Poetry] 947(1)

[Poetry in England] 948(5)

[Conclusion] 953(2)

Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke (1554--1628) 955(1)

Caelica 955(1)

100 (``In night when colors all to black are cast'') 955(1)

Chorus Sacerdotum 955(1)

Robert Southwell (1561--1595) 956(1)

The Burning Babe 956(1)

Mary (Sidney) Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (1562--1621) 957(7)

To the Angel Spirit of the Most Excellent Sir Philip Sidney 958(2)

Psalm 52 960(1)

Psalm 139 961(3)

Samuel Daniel (1562--1619) 964(2)

Delia 964(1)

(``When men Shall find they flower, the glory pass'') 964(1)

(``Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night'') 964(1)

(``Let others sing of knights and paladins'') 965(1)

Musophilus 965(1)

[Imperial Eloquence] 965(1)

Michael Drayton (1563--1631) 966(4)

Idea 967(1)

To the Reader of These Sonnets 967(1)

(``How many paltry, foolish, painted things'') 967(1)

(``Since there's no help, come, let us kiss and part'') 967(1)

Ode. To the Virginian Voyage 968(2)

Christopher Marlowe (1564--1593) 970(56)

Hero and Leander 971(18)

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love 989(1)

Doctor Faustus 990(36)

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus 991(32)

The Two texts of Doctor Faustus 1023(3)

William Shakespeare (1564--1616) 1026(170)

Sonnets 1028(15)

1 (``From fairest creatures we desire increase'') 1029(1)

(``Look in the glass and tell the face thou viewest'') 1029(1)

(``When I do count the clock that tells the time'') 1030(1)

(``When I consider every thing that grows'') 1030(1)

(``Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?'') 1031(1)

(``Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws'') 1031(1)

(``A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted'') 1031(1)

(``When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes'') 1032(1)

(``When to the sessions of sweet silent thought'') 1032(1)

(``Full many a glorious morning have I seen'') 1033(1)

(``No more be grieved at that which thou hast done'') 1033(1)

(``Not marble, nor the gilded monuments'') 1033(1)

(``Like as the waves make towards the prbbled shore'') 1034(1)

(``Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea'') 1034(1)

(``No longer mourn for me when I am dead'') 1034(1)

(``That time of year thou mayst in me behold'') 1035(1)

(``But be contented; when that fell arrest'') 1035(1)

(``Farewell: thou art too dear for my possessing'') 1036(1)

(``They that have power to hurt and will do none'') 1036(1)

(``How like a winter hath my absence been'') 1036(1)

(``From you have I been absent in the spring'') 1037(1)

(``When in the chronicle of wasted time'') 1037(1)

(``Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul'') 1037(1)

(``Alas, tis true I have gone here and there'') 1038(1)

(``Let me not to the marriage of true minds'') 1038(1)

(``O thou, my lovely boy, who in they power'') 1039(1)

(``In the old age black was not counted fair'') 1039(1)

(``How oft when thou, my music, music play'st'') 1039(1)

(``Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame'') 1040(1)

(``My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun'') 1040(1)

(``Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy will'') 1041(1)

(``When my love swears that she is made of truth'') 1041(1)

(``Two loves I have of comfort and despair'') 1041(1)

(``Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth'') 1042(1)

(``My love is as a fever, longing still'') 1042(1)

Twelfth Night, or What You Will 1043(63)

King Lear 1106(90)

The Two Texts of King Lear 1192(4)

Thomas Campion (1567--1620) 1196(4)

My sweetest Lesbia 1196(1)

I care not for these ladies 1196(1)

When to her lute Corinna sings 1197(1)

Rose-cheeked Laura 1198(1)

Now winter night enlarge 1198(1)

There is a garden in her face 1199(1)

Think'st thou to seduce me then 1199(1)

Fain would I wed 1200(1)

Thomas Nashe (1567--1601) 1200(9)

A Litany in Time of Plague 1201(1)

Pierce Penniless, His Supplication to the Devil 1202(2)

[The Defense of Plays] 1202(2)

The Unfortunate Traveler, or The Life of Jack Wilton 1204(5)

[Roman Summer] 1204(5)
The Early Seventeenth Century (1603--1660) 1209(319)

Introduction 1209(22)

Timeline 1231(2)

John Honne (1572--1631) 1233(48)

Songs and Sonnets 1236(1)

The Flea 1236(1)

The Good-Morrow 1236(1)

Song (``Go and catch a falling star'') 1237(1)

The Undertaking 1238(1)

The Sun Rising 1239(1)

The Indifferent 1239(1)

The Canonization 1240(2)

Song (``Sweetest love, I do not go'') 1242(1)

Air and Angels 1243(1)

Break of Day 1243(1)

A Valediction: Of Weeping 1244(1)

Love's Alchemy 1245(1)

A Nocturnal upon Saint Lucy's Day, Being the Shortest Day 1245(2)

The Bait 1247(1)

The Apparition 1247(1)

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning 1248(1)

The Ecstasy 1249(2)

The Funeral 1251(1)

The Blossom 1252(1)

The Relic 1253(1)

A Lecture upon the Shadow 1254(1)

On His Mistress 1254(2)

To His Mistress Going to Bed 1256(1)

Satire 3 1257(3)

The Storm 1260(2)

From An Anatomy of the World 1262(6)

Holy Sonnets 1268(4)

(``Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?'') 1268(1)

(``I am a little world made cunningly'') 1268(1)

(``At the round earth's imagined corners, blow'') 1269(1)

(``If poisonous minerals, and if that tree'') 1269(1)

(``Death, be not proud, though some have called thee'') 1270(1)

(``What if this present were the world's last night?'') 1270(1)

(``Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you'') 1271(1)

(``Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt'') 1271(1)

(``Show me, dear, Christ, thy spouse so bright and clear'') 1271(1)

(``Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one'') 1272(1)

Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward 1272(1)

A Hymn to Christ, at the Author's Last Going into Germany 1273(1)

Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness 1274(1)

A Hymn to God the Father 1275(1)

Devotions upon Emergent Occasions 1276(4)

Meditation 4 1276(1)

Meditation 17 1277(1)

From Expostulation 19 [The Language of God] 1278(2)

From Death's Duel 1280(1)

Aemilia Lanyer (1569--1645) 1281(11)

Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum 1282(5)

To the Doubtful Reader 1282(1)

To the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty 1282(1)

To the Virtuous Reader 1283(2)

Eve's Apology in Defense of Women 1285(2)

The Description of Cooke-ham 1287(5)

Ben Jonson (1572--1637) 1292(130)

The Masque of Blackness 1294(9)

Volpone, or The Fox 1303(90)

Epigrams 1393(1)

To My Book 1393(1)

On Something, That Walks Somewhere 1394(1)

To William Camden 1394(1)

On My First Daughter 1394(1)

To John Donne 1395(1)

On Don Surly 1395(1)

On Giles and Joan 1396(1)

On My First Son 1396(1)

On Lucy, Countess of Bedford 1397(1)

To Lucy, Countess of Bedford, with Mr. Donne's Satires 1397(1)

Inviting a Friend to Supper 1398(1)

Epitaph on S. P., a Child of Queen Elizabeth's Chapel 1399(1)

The Forest 1399(1)

To Penshurst 1399(3)

Song: To Celia 1402(1)

To Heaven 1402(1)

Underwood 1403(1)

From A Celebration of Charis in Ten Lyric Pieces 1403(5)

A Sonnet to the Noble Lady, the Lady Mary Wroth 1408(1)

My Picture Left in Scotland 1409(1)

To the Immortal Memory and Friendship of That Noble Pair, Sir Lucius Cary and Sir H. Morison 1409(4)

Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount 1413(1)

Queen and Huntress 1413(1)

Still to Be Neat 1414(1)

To the Memory of My Beloved, The Author, Mr. William Shakespeare, and What He Hath of Left Us 1414(2)

Ode to Himself 1416(2)

From Timber, or Discoveries 1418(4)

Mary Wroth (1587?--1651?) 1422(10)

The Countess of Montgomery's Urania 1423(5)

From The First Book 1423(4)

Song (``Love what art thou? A vain thought'') 1427(1)

Pamphilia to Amphilanthus 1428(4)

(``When night's to black mantle could most darkness prove'') 1428(1)

(``Am I thus conquered? Have I lost the powers'') 1428(1)

Song (``Sweetest love return again'') 1428(1)

(``Take heed mine eyes, how your looks do cast'') 1429(1)

(``False hope which feeds but to destroy, and spill'') 1429(1)

(``My pain, still smothered in my grieved breast'') 1430(1)

Song (``Love a child is ever crying'') 1430(1)

From A Crown of Sonnets Dedicated to Love 1431(1)

(``In this strange labyrinth how shall I turn?'') 1431(1)

(``My muse now happy, lay thyself to rest'') 1431(1)

John Webster (1580?--1625?) 1432(76)

The Duchess of Malfi 1433(75)

Elizabeth Cary (1585?--1639) 1508(20)

The Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry 1509(19)

From Act 1 1510(6)

From Act 3 1516(3)

From Act 4 1519(5)

From Act 5 1524(4)
THE SCIENCE OF SELF AND WORLD 1528(197)

Francis Bacon 1529(27)

Essays 1531(1)

Of Truth 1531(1)

Of Marriage and Single Life 1532(1)

Of Great Place 1533(2)

Of Superstition 1535(1)

Of Plantations 1536(2)

Of Negotiating 1538(1)

Of Masques and Triumphs 1539(2)

Of Studies [1597 version] 1541(1)

Of Studies [1625 version] 1541(1)

The Advancement of Learning 1542(2)

[The Abuses of Language] 1542(2)

Novum Organum 1544(4)

[The Idols] 1544(4)

The New Atlantis 1548(8)

[Solomon's House] 1548(4)

Martha Moulsworth: The Memorandum of Martha

Moulsworth, Widow 1552(4)

Rachel Speght: Mortality's Memorandum 1556(4)

From A Dream 1556(4)

Robert Burton: The Anatomy of Melancholy 1560(9)

From Democritus Junior to the Reader 1561(4)

From Love Melancholy 1565(4)

Sir Thomas Browne 1569(13)

Religio Medici 1570(8)

Sections 1--6, 9, 15, 16, 34, 59 1570(7)

Section 1 1577(1)

Hydriotaphia, or Urn-Burial 1578(4)

From Chapter 5 1578(4)

Izaak Walton: The Life of Dr. John Donne 1582(5)

[Donne on His Deathbed] 1583(4)

Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan 1587(8)

The Introduction 1588(1)

[The Artificial Man] 1588(1)

Part 1 1589(1)

Of Sense 1589(1)

Of the Natural Condition of Mankind as Concerning Their Felicity and Misery 1590(3)

Of the First and Second Natural Laws 1593(1)

Of Other Laws of Nature 1594(1)

George Herbert (1593--1633) 1595(20)

The Temple 1597(1)

The Altar 1597(1)

Redemption 1597(1)

Easter 1598(1)

Easter Wings 1599(1)

Affliction (1) 1599(2)

Prayer (1) 1601(1)

Jordan (1) 1601(1)

Church Monuments 1602(1)

The Windows 1602(1)

Denial 1603(1)

Virtue 1604(1)

Man 1604(1)

Jordan (2) 1605(1)

Time 1606(1)

The Bunch of Grapes 1607(1)

The Pilgrimage 1608(1)

The Holdfast 1609(1)

The Collar 1609(1)

The Pulley 1610(1)

The Flower 1610(2)

The Forerunners 1612(1)

Discipline 1613(1)

Death 1613(1)

Love (3) 1614(1)

Henry Vaughan (1621--1695) 1615(14)

Poems 1616(1)

A Song to Amoret 1616(1)

Silex Scintillans 1617(1)

Regeneration 1617(2)

The Retreat 1619(1)

Silence, and Stealth of Days! 1620(1)

Corruption 1621(1)

Unprofitableness 1622(1)

The World 1622(2)

They Are All Gone into the World of Light! 1624(1)

Cock-Crowing 1625(1)

The Night 1626(2)

The Waterfall 1628(1)

Richard Crashaw (ca. 1613--1649) 1629(14)

Delights of the Muses 1630(1)

Music's Duel 1630(4)

Steps to the Temple 1634(1)

To the Infant Martyrs 1634(1)

I Am the Door 1634(1)

On the Wounds of Our Crucified Lord 1634(1)

Luke 11.[27] 1635(1)

Carmen Deo Nostro 1635(1)

In the Holy Nativity of Our Lord God: A Hymn Sung as by the Shepherds 1635(4)

To the Noblest & Best of Ladies, the Countess of Denbigh 1639(1)

The Flaming Heart 1640(3)

Robert Herrick (1591--1674) 1643(13)

Hesperides 1644(1)

The Argument of His Book 1644(1)

Upon the Loss of His Mistresses 1645(1)

The Vine 1645(1)

Dreams 1646(1)

Delight in Disorder 1646(1)

His Farewell to Sack 1646(2)

Corinna's Going A-Maying 1648(1)

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time 1649(1)

The Hock-Cart, or Harvest Home 1650(1)

How Roses Came Red 1651(1)

Upon the Nipples of Julia's Breast 1651(1)

Upon Jack and Jill, Epigram 1652(1)

To Marygolds 1652(1)

His Prayer to Ben Jonson 1652(1)

The Bad Season Makes the Poet Sad 1653(1)

The Night-Piece, to Julia 1653(1)

Upon His Verses 1654(1)

His Return to London 1654(1)

Upon Julia's Clothes 1654(1)

Upon Prue, His Maid 1655(1)

To His Book's End 1655(1)

Noble Numbers 1655(1)

To His Conscience 1655(1)

Another Grace for a Child 1655(1)

Thomas Carew (1595--1640) 1656(8)

An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean of Paul's, Dr. John Donne 1656(3)

To Ben Johnson 1659(1)

A Song (``Ask me no more where love bestows'') 1660(1)

A Rapture 1661(3)

Sir John Suckling (1609--1642) 1664(6)

Song (``Why so pale and was, fond lover?'') 1665(1)

Fragmenta Aurea 1665(1)

Loving and Beloved 1665(1)

A Ballad upon a Wedding 1666(3)

The Last Remains of Sir John Suckling 1669(1)

Out upon It! 1669(1)

Richard Lovelace (1618--1657) 1670(5)

Lucasta 1670(1)

To Lucasta, Going to the Wars 1670(1)

The Grasshopper 1671(1)

To Althea, from Prison 1672(1)

Love Made in the First Age. To Chloris 1673(2)

Edmund-Waller (1606--1687) 1675(1)

The Story of Phoebus and Daphne Applied 1675(1)

Song (``Go, lovely rose!'') 1676(1)

Abraham Cowley (1618--1667) 1676(3)

Ode: Of Wit 1677(2)

Katherine Philips (1632--1664) 1679(5)

A Married State 1679(1)

Upon the Double Murder of King Charles 1680(1)

Friendship's Mystery, To My Dearest Lucasia 1681(1)

To Mrs. M. A. at Parting 1682(1)

On the Death of My First and Dearest Child, Hector Philips 1683(1)

Andrew Marwell (1621--1678) 1684(41)

Poems 1685(1)

The Coronet 1685(1)

Bermudas 1686(1)

A Dialogue Between the Soul and Body 1687(1)

The Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Fawn 1688(3)

To His Coy Mistress 1691(1)

The Definition of Love 1692(1)

The Picture of Little T. C. in a Prospect of Flowers 1693(1)

The Mower Against Gardens 1694(1)

Damon the Mower 1695(2)

The Mower to the Glowworms 1697(1)

The Mower's Song 1698(1)

The Garden 1698(2)

An Horatian Ode 1700(4)

Upon Appleton House 1704(21)
VOICES OF THE WAR 1725(320)

Lucy Hutchinson: Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 1726(4)

[A Confrontation] 1727(3)

Lady Anne Halkett: The Memoirs 1730(4)

[Springing the Duke] 1731(3)

John Lilburne: The Picture of the Council of State 1734(5)

[Lilburne Defies the Authorities] 1735(4)

Gerrard Winstanley: From The True Levellers' Standard Advanced 1739(4)

Anna Trapnel: From Anna Trapnel's Report and Plea, or, a Narrative of Her Journey from London into Cornwall 1743(4)

Abiezer Coppe: From A Fiery Flying Roll 1747(4)

Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon: The History of the Rebellion 1751(3)

[The Character of Oliver Cromwell] 1751(3)

Thomas Traherne (1637--1674) 1754(5)

Centuries of Meditation 1755(1)

From The Third Century 1755(1)

Wonder 1756(1)

On Leaping over the Moon 1757(2)

Margaret Cavendish (1623--1673) 1759(12)

Poems and Fancies 1759(1)

The Poetess's Hasty Resolution 1759(1)

The Hunting of the Hare 1760(2)

From A True Relation of My Birth, Breeding, and Life 1762(3)

From The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing World 1765(6)

John Milton (1608--1674) 1771(25)

Poems 1774(1)

On the Morning of Christ's Nativity 1774(8)

On Shakespeare 1782(1)

L'Allegro 1782(4)

Il Penseroso 1786(4)

Lycidas 1790(6)

The Reason of Church Government Urged Against Prelaty 1796(249)

[Plans and Projects] 1796(5)

From Areopagitica 1801(10)

Sonnets 1811(1)

How Soon Hath Time 1812(1)

On the New Forcers of Conscience Under the Long Parliament 1812(1)

To the Lord General Cromwell, May 1652 1813(1)

When I Consider How My Light is Spent 1814(1)

On the Late Massacre in Piedmont 1814(1)

Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint 1815(1)

Paradise Lost 1815(230)
The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (1660--1785) 2045(539)

Introduction 2045(24)

Timeline 2069(2)

John Dryden (1631--1700) 2071(51)

Annus Mirabilis 2073(2)

[London Reborn] 2073(2)

Song from Marriage a la Mode 2075(1)

Absalom and Achitophel: A Poem 2075(24)

Mac Flecknoe 2099(7)

To the Memory of Mr. Oldham 2106(1)

A Song for St. Cecilia's Day 2106(2)

Epigram on Milton 2108(1)

Alexander's Feast 2109(5)

Criticism 2114(1)

An Essay of Dramatic Poesy 2114(5)

[Two Sorts of Bad Poetry] 2114(1)

[The Wit of the Ancients: The Universal] 2115(2)

[Shakespeare and Ben Jonson Compared] 2117(2)

The Author's Apology for Heroic Poetry and Heroic License 2119(1)

[``Boldness'' of Figures and Tropes Defended: The Appeal to ``Nature''] 2119(1)

[Wit as ``Propriety''] 2120(1)

A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire 2120(1)

[The Art of Satire] 2120(1)

The Preface to Fables Ancient and Modern 2121(1)

[In Praise of Chaucer] 2121(1)

Samuel Pepys (1633--1703) 2122(10)

The Diary 2123(9)

[The Great Fire] 2123(4)

[The Deb Willet Affair] 2127(5)

John Bunyan (1628--1688) 2132(13)

From Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners 2132(5)

The Pilgrim's Progress 2137(8)

[Christian Sets out for the Celestial City] 2137(2)

[The Slough of Despond] 2139(1)

[Vanity Fair] 2140(3)

[The River of Death and the Celestial City] 2143(2)

John Locke (1632--1704) 2145(5)

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding 2146(4)

From The Epistle to the Reader 2146(4)

Sir Isaac Newton (1642--1727) 2150(5)

From A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton 2151(4)

Samuel Butler (1612--1680) 2155(7)

Hudibras 2156(6)

From Part 1, Canto 1 2156(6)

John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester (1647--1680) 2162(3)

The Disabled Debauchee 2162(1)

The Imperfect Enjoyment 2163(2)

Aphra Behn (1640?--1689) 2165(50)

The Disappointment 2167(3)

Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave 2170(45)

William Congreve (1670--1729) 2215(69)

The Way of the World 2217(64)

Mary Astel (1666--1731)

From Some Reflections upon Marriage 2281(3)

Daniel Defoe (ca. 1660--1731) 2284(7)

Roxana 2285(6)

[The Cons of Marriage] 2285(6)

Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661--1720) 2291(3)

The Introduction 2291(2)

A Nocturnal Reverie 2293(1)

Matthew Prior (1664--1721) 2294(4)

An Epitaph 2295(1)

A True Maid 2296(1)

A Better Answer 2297(1)

Jonathan Swift (1667--1745) 2298(181)

A Description of a City Shower 2300(1)

Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift 2301(11)

From A Tale of a Tub 2312(9)

Abolishing of Christianity in England 2321(8)

Gulliver's Travels 2329(144)

A Letter from Captain Gulliver to His Cousin Sympson 2331(2)

The Publisher to the Reader 2333(1)

A Voyage to Lilliput 2334(38)

A Voyage to Brobdingnag 2372(42)

A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdrib, Luggnagg, and Japan 2414(1)

[The Flying Island of Laputa] 2414(6)

[The Academy of Lagado] 2420(3)

[The Struldbruggs] 2423(5)

A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhms 2428(45)

A Modest Proposal 2473(6)

Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele (1672--1719) (1672--1729) 2479(26)

The Periodical Essay: Manners 2481(1)

Steele: [The Gentleman; The Pretty Fellow] (Tatler 21) 2481(1)

Steele: [Dueling] (Tatler 25) 2482(2)

Steele: [The Spectator's Club] (Spectator 2) 2484(4)

Addison: [Sir Roger at Church] (Spectator 112) 2488(2)

Addison: [Sir Roger at the Assizes] (Spectator 122) 2490(2)

The Periodical Essay: Ideas 2492(1)

Addison: [The Aims of the Spectator] (Spectator 10) 2492(2)

Addison: [Wit: True, False, Mixed] (Spectator 62) 2494(5)

Addison: [Paradise Lost: General Critical Remarks] (Spectator 267) 2499(3)

Addison: [On the Scale of Being] (Spectator 519) 2502(3)

Alexander Pope (1688--1744) 2505(74)

An Essay on Criticism 2509(16)

The Rape of the Lock 2525(19)

Epistle to Miss Blount 2544(1)

Eloisa to Abelard 2545(9)

An Essay on Man 2554(8)

Of the Nature and State of Man, with Respect to the Universe 2555(6)

Of the Nature and State of Man with Respect to Himself, as an Individual 2561(1)

Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot 2562(11)

The Dunciad: Book the Fourth 2573(6)

[The Educator] 2575(1)

[The Carnation and the Butterfly] 2576(1)

[The Triumph of Dulness] 2577(2)

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689--1762) 2579(5)

The Lover: A Ballad 2580(2)

Epistle from Mrs. Yonge to Her Husband 2582(2)
DEBATING WOMEN: ARGUMENTS IN VERSE 2584(222)

Jonathan Swift: The Lady's Dressing Room 2585(3)

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: The Reasons that Induced Dr. Swift to Write a Poem Called the Lady's Dressing Room 2588(2)

Alexander Pope: Improptu to Lady Winchelsea 2590(1)

Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea: The Answer (To Pope's Impromptu) 2591(1)

Alexander Pope: Epistle 2. To a Lady 2592(7)

Anne Ingram, Viscountess Irwin: An Epistle to Mr. Pope 2599(4)

Mary Leapor: An Essay on Woman 2603(2)

John Gay (1685--1732) 2605(47)

The Begger's Opera 2606(46)

Illustration: William Hogarth, The Beggar's Opera 3.11 2646(6)

William Hogarth (1697--1764) 2652(8)

Marriage A-la-Mode 2654(6)

Samuel Johnson (1709--1784) 2660(89)

The Vanity of Human Wishes 2662(8)

Prologue Spoken by Mr. Garrick 2670(2)

On the Death of Dr. Robert Levet 2672(1)

Translation of Horace, Odes, Book 4.7 2673(1)

Rambler No. 5 [On Spring] 2674(3)

Idler No. 31 [On Idleness] 2677(1)

From The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia 2678(34)

Rambler No. 4 [On Fiction] 2712(4)

Rambler No. 60 [Biography] 2716(3)

A Dictionary of the English Language 2719(6)

From Preface 2719(4)

[Some Definitions: A Small Anthology] 2723(2)

The Preface to Shakespeare 2725(11)

[Shakespeare's Excellence, General Nature] 2725(4)

[Shakespeare's Faults. The Three Dramatic Unities] 2729(5)

[Twelfth Night] 2734(1)

[King Lear] 2734(2)

Lives of the Poets 2736(1)

Cowley 2736(2)

[Metaphysical Wit] 2736(2)

Milton 2738(8)

[Lycidas] 2738(1)

[L'Allegro, Il Penseroso] 2739(1)

[Paradise Lost] 2740(6)

Pope 2746(3)

[Pope's Intellectual Character. Pope and Dryden Compared] 2746(3)

James Boswell (1740--1795) 2749(34)

Boswell on the Grand Tour 2751(1)

[Boswell Interviews Voltaire] 2751(1)

The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. 2752(31)

[Plan of the Life] 2752(2)

[Johnson's Early Years. Marriage and London] 2754(5)

[The Letter to Chesterfield] 2759(3)

[A Memorable Year: Boswell Meets Johnson] 2762(3)

[Goldsmith. Sundry Opinions. Johnson Meets His King] 2765(4)

[Fear of Death] 2769(1)

[Ossian. ``Talking for Victory''] 2770(2)

[Dinner with Wilkes] 2772(5)

[Dread of Solitude] 2777(1)

[``A Bottom of Good Sense.'' Bet Flint. ``Clear Your Mind of Cant''] 2777(2)

[Johnson Prepares for Death] 2779(1)

[Johnson Faces Death] 2780(3)

Frances Burney (1752--1840) 2783(23)

The Journal and Letters 2784(22)

[First Journal Entry] 2784(1)

[Mr. Barlow's Proposal] 2785(4)

[``Down with her, Burney!''] 2789(2)

[A Young and Agreeable Infidel] 2791(2)

[Encountering the King] 2793(5)

[A Mastectomy] 2798(8)
SLAVERY AND FREEDOM 2806(157)

Ignatius Sancho and Laurence Sterne 2807(4)

Sancho: A Letter to Laurence Sterne 2807(1)

Sterne: Reply to Sancho 2808(1)

Sterne: Tristram Shandy, Volume 9, Chapter 6 2809(1)

Sancho: Letter to Jack Wingrave 2810(1)

Samuel Johnson: [A Brief to Free a Slave] 2811(1)

Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself 2812(10)

[The Middle Passage] 2813(4)

[A Free Man] 2817(5)

James Thomson (1700--1748) 2822(3)

The Seasons 2822(3)

Autumn 2822(1)

[Evening and Night] 2822(2)

Ode: Rule, Britannia 2824(1)

Thomas Gray (1716--1771) 2825(8)

Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College 2826(3)

Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat 2829(1)

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard 2830(3)

William Collins (1721--1759) 2833(6)

Ode Written in the Beginning of the Year 1746 2834(1)

Ode on the Poetical Character 2834(2)

Ode to Evening 2836(2)

Ode on the Death of Mr. Thomson 2838(1)

Christopher Smart (1722--1771) 2839(18)

Jubilate Agno 2840(2)

[My Cat Jeoffrey] 2840(2)

A Song to David 2842(15)

Oliver Goldsmith (ca. 1730--1774] 2857(10)

The Deserted Village 2858(9)

George Carbbe (1754--1832) 2867(8)

The Village 2867(8)

Book 1 2867(8)

William Cowper (1731--1800) 2875(7)

The Task 2875(5)

Book 1 2875(1)

[A Landscape Described, Rural Sounds] 2875(2)

[Crazy Kate] 2877(1)

Book 3 2877(1)

[The Stricken Deer] 2877(1)

Book 4 2878(1)

[The Winter Evening: A Brown Study] 2878(2)

The Castaway 2880(2)

Popular Ballads 2882(7)

Lord Randall 2883(1)

Bonny Barbara Allan 2883(1)

The Wife of Usher's Well 2884(2)

The Three Ravens 2886(1)

Sir Patrick Spens 2886(2)

The Bonny Earl of Murray 2888(1)

Poems in Process 2889(10)

John Milton 2890(2)

Lycidas 2890(2)

Alexander Pope 2892(2)

The Rape of the Lock 2892(1)

An Essay on Man 2893(1)

Samuel Johnson 2894(2)

The Vanity of Human Wishes 2895(1)

Thomas Gray 2896(3)

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard 2896(3)

Selected Bibliographies 2899(34)

Suggested General Readings 2899(2)

The Middle Ages 2901(6)

The Sixteenth Century 2907(8)

The Early Seventeenth Century 2915(10)

The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century 2925(8)

Geographic Nomenclature 2933(1)

British Money 2934(3)

The British Baronage 2937(5)

The Royal Lines of England and Great Britain 2939(3)

Religions in England 2942(2)

Poetic Forms and Literary Terminology 2944(19)

Illustrations

The Universe According to Ptolemy 2960(2)

A London Playhouse of Shakespeare's Time 2962(1)
Permissions Acknowledgments 2963(2)
Index 2965