Renaissance Literature - An Anthology Of Poetry And Prose 2E

This extensively revised anthology makes available the most important poetry and prose from the period between the accession of Henry VIII in 1509 and the English Revolution of 1640. Responding to the broadening of the canon in recent years, it balances the work of familiar Renaissance figures with important texts by women writers, supported by helpful introductions and annotations.

• A new edition of this popular anthology, which includes many writings from women and from lesser-known writers, alongside established Renaissance figures
• Includes work by prominent writers of the period, such as such as Spenser, Shakespeare, and Donne, alongside important texts by women, including Queen Elizabeth I, Lady Mary Wroth, and Elizabeth Cary
• Brings together a variety of key works of the period, along with introductions and annotations to the texts, reflecting developments in critical and cultural theory and the latest Renaissance scholarship
• Extensively revised, corrected, and expanded to increase the level of annotation, and to make the volume more user-friendly
• Now includes a thematic table of contents and timeline, and a substantially expanded introduction to enable students to consider entries more easily in the social, cultural, and historical context of the period

John Hunter is Associate Professor of Comparative Humanities at Bucknell University. His previous publications include essays on Francis Bacon and on early modern drama.

List of Illustrations

Alphabetical List of Authors

Preface: Representing the Renaissance in the Twenty-First Century

Acknowledgments

Timeline: The Tudor and Stuart Monarchs, 1509–1642

Introduction: Renaissance English History and Literature

John Skelton (1460?–1529)
Philip Sparrow [Part I]

Sir Thomas More (1477/8–1535)
[From] The History of King Richard the Third (ca. 1513–18)
[From] A Dialogue Concerning Heresies (1529)
Letter from Margaret Roper to Alice Alington, August 1534

Sir Thomas Elyot (ca. 1490–1546)
[From] The Book Named the Governor
[From] The First Book of The Castell of Health

William Tyndale (1494–1536)
[From] The Obedience of a Christian Man (1528)
[From] Tyndale’s Translation of the Pentateuch (1530)
[From] Tyndale’s Translation of the New Testament (1534)
Mark 4:1–34 [the Parable of the Sower and the Seed]
The Gospel of Saint John, Chapter 1
[Tyndale’s Translation of Luther’s] A Prologue to the Epistle of Paul to the Romans

Sir Thomas Wyatt (ca. 1503–1542)
[From] Certain Psalms (published 1549)
[Prologue]
Psalm 51. Miserere mei domine
Poems Attributed to Wyatt in the Egerton Manuscript and in Tottel’s Miscellany
[The Long Love]
[Whoso List to Hunt]
[The Pillar Perished]
[Farewell, Love]
[Sometime I Fled the Fire]
[Tagus, Farewell]
[Sighs Are My Food]
[Lucks, My Fair Falcon]
[In Court to Serve]
[They Flee from Me]
[Madam, Withouten Many Words]
[And Wilt Thou Leave Me Thus?]
[My Lute, Awake!]
[Mine Own John Poyntz]

Broadside Ballads (ca. 1535 onwards)
A Ballad of Luther, the Pope, a Cardinal, and a Husbandman (ca. 1535)
London’s Lottery (1612)
The Silver Age; or, the World Turn’d Backward (1621)

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517–1547) (os)
[Translations from the Aeneid]
[From] Book II [The Death of Creusa]
[From] Book IV [The Suicide of Dido]
Psalm 55
[When Ragyng Love]
[The Soote Season]
[Set Me Wheras the Sonne]
[Love That Doth Raine]
[The Sonne Hath Twyse Brought Forthe]
[London, Hast Thow Accused Me]
[W. Resteth Here]

John Foxe (1517–1587)
[From] Acts and Monuments of These Latter and Perilous Days
Story and Martyrdom of Anne Askew

Richard Mulcaster (1530?–1611)
[From] Positions (1581)
[From] The First Part of the Elementarie (1582)

Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
[Written on a Window Frame at Woodstock]
[’Twas Christ the Word]
[The Doubt of Future Foes]
On Monsieur’s Departure
[When I Was Fair and Young]
Verse Exchange Between Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh
[Raleigh to Elizabeth]
[Elizabeth to Raleigh]
[Song on the Armada Victory, December 1588]
Letter from Princess Elizabeth to Queen Mary, August 2, 1556
Queen Elizabeth’s Speech at the Closing of Parliament, March 29, 1585

George Gascoigne (ca. 1534–1577)
[From] A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres (1573)
Gascoigne’s Woodmanship
Gascoigne’s Goodnight

Certain Sermons or Homilies (1547, 1563)
A Fruitful Exhortation to the Reading and Knowledge of Holy Scripture (1547)
An Homily of the Misery of All Mankind, and of His Condemnation to Death Everlasting, by His Own Sin (1547)
An Homily of the State of Matrimony (1563)

The Book of Common Prayer (1549, 1552, and 1559) (os)
The Preface (1559)
Of Ceremonies, Why Some be Abolished, and Some retayned (1559)
[From] The Litany (1552)
[From] The order of the ministracion of the lordes supper or holy Communion (1552)

Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) (os)
[From] The Shepheardes Calender
Aprill
 [From] Amoretti
Epithalamion
[From] The Faerie Queene
A Letter of the Authors expounding his whole intention … to Raleigh
Book II, cantos 1, 7, 9–10, 12
Two Cantos of Mutabilitie
[From] A View of the State of Ireland

Anonymous Carols
[Sing We With Mirth]
[By Reason of Two]
[Of All Creatures Women Be Best]

Richard Hakluyt (ca. 1552–1616) (os)
[From] The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation
The third troublesome voyage made … by M. John Hawkins
[From] A true discourse of the three Voyages of discoverie …
The woorthy enterprise of John Foxe …
The answere of her Maiestie to the aforesaid Letters of the Great Turke …

John Lyly (ca. 1553–1606)
[From] Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit

John Florio (1553?–1625)
[From] The Essayes of Michael Lord of Montaigne
To the courteous Reader
Of the Cannibals

Sir Walter Raleigh (ca. 1553–1618)
Like to a Hermit Poor
The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd
The Lie
A Farewell to False Love
[Even Such is Time]
The 21st (and last) Book of the Ocean to Cynthia

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)
The Defense of Poesy
[From] Astrophil and Stella
Miscellaneous Poetry
Poems from The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia
[As I my little flock on Ister bank]
[Ye goat-herd gods]
  Sonnets
[Thou blind man’s mark]
[Leave me, O love]
[From] The Psalms of David
Psalm 22
Psalm 23
Psalm 30

Thomas Hariot (1560–1621) and John White (1540?–1590)
[From] A briefe and true report of the new found Land of Virginia of the commodities and of the nature and manners of the natural inhabitants (1590)
To the Adventurers, Favourers, and Well-Willers of the Enterprise for the Inhabiting and Planting in Virginia
The third and last part … with a description of the nature and manners of the people of the country

Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
[From] The Advancement of Learning (1605)
[From] Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral (1625)
Of Truth
Of Simulation and Dissimulation
Of Innovations
Of Plantations
Of Nature in Men
Of Studies
Of Vicissitude of Things
New Atlantis (published 1627)

Robert Southwell (1561–1595)
The Burning Babe
Decease Release
Man’s Civil War
Look Home

Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (1561–1621) (os)
To the Angell Spirit of the Most Excellent Sir Philip Sidney
[From] The Psalms of Sir Philip Sidney and the Countess of Pembroke
Psalm 44 Deus, auribus
Psalm 59 Eripe me de inimicis
Psalm 138 Confitebor tibi
Psalm 139 Domine, probasti

A Mirror for Magistrates (1563, 1587 editions) (os)
[From] A Mirror for Magistrates
The Induction
Cardinal Wolsey

Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) (os)
Hero and Leander
[From] All Ovid’s Elegies
Book One, Elegia 1
Book One, Elegia 5
Book Three, Elegia 7
Book Three, Elegia 11
The Passionate Shepherd to his Love

William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
The Rape of Lucrece
[From] Sonnets

Thomas Campion (1567–1620) (os)
[From] A Booke of Ayres (1601)
To the Reader
I–II
VI
X
XII
XV
XXI
[Female Persona Lyrics]
2: IX
2: XV
4: XVIII

Thomas Nashe (1567–1601)
The Choice of Valentines
  [From] Pierce Penniless His Supplication to the Devil (1592)

Æmilia Lanyer (1569–1645) (os)
Salve Deus Rex Judæorum

Ben Jonson (1572–1637)
[From] Epigrams (1616)
xi. On Something that Walks Somewhere
xiv. To William Camden
xxii. On My First Daughter
xxiii. To John Donne
xlv. On My First Son
lii. To Censorious Courtling
lxii. To Fine Lady Would-Be
lxxvi. On Lucy, Countess of Bedford
lxxxiii. To a Friend
lxxxix. To Edward Alleyn
ci. Inviting a Friend to Supper
cii. To William, Earl of Pembroke
cv. To Mary, Lady Wroth
cx. To Clement Edmonds, On His Caesar’s Commentaries Observed and Translated
cxviii. On Gut
cxxxiv. On the Famous Voyage
[From] The Forest (1616)
i. Why I Write Not of Love
ii. To Penshurst
v. Song: To Celia
ix. Song: To Celia
xv. To Heaven
[From] Underwoods (1640)
2. A Celebration of Charis in Ten Lyric Pieces
His Excuse for loving
Her Triumph
His discourse with Cupid
9. My Picture Left in Scotland
23. An Ode. To Himself
29. A Fit of Rhyme Against Rhyme
47. An Epistle Answering to One that Asked to be Sealed of the Tribe of Ben
70. To the Immortal Memory and Friendship of that Noble Pair,
Sir Lucius Cary and Sir H. Morison
Miscellaneous Poems
To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author Mr. William Shakespeare: And What He Hath Left Us

John Donne (1572–1631)
[From] Songs and Sonnets
The Anniversary
The Apparition
The Bait
The Canonization
The Ecstasy
A Fever
The Flea
The Funeral
The Indifferent
A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy’s Day, Being the Shortest Day
The Relic
Song
The Sun Rising
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
Elegies
Elegy 8. To His Mistress Going to Bed
Elegy 9. Change
The First Anniversary: An Anatomy of the World
Religious Poems
Holy Sonnets: 6–7, 10
Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward
[From] Paradoxes, Problems, Essays, Characters (published 1652)
A Defence of Women’s Inconstancy
That Nature is our Worst Guide
Why Puritans make long Sermons?
[From] Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624)
XVII. Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris

John Marston (1576–1634)
[From] Metamorphosis of Pygmalion’s Image, and Certaine Satyres (1598)
Satire II

Martha Moulsworth (1577–?) (os)
November the 10^th 1632, The Memorandum of Martha Moulsworth Widdowe

Elizabeth (Tanfield) Cary, Lady Falkland (1585–1639)
[From] The Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry
The Argument
Actus Primus. Scena Prima

Myles Smith (d. 1624)
The Translators to the Reader – the Preface to the Authorized Version (King James Bible) (1611)

Lady Mary (Sidney) Wroth (1586?–1651?)
[From] Pamphilia to Amphilanthus
[From] The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania

George Wither (1588–1667)
[From] A Collection of Emblemes Ancient and Moderne

George Herbert (1593–1633)
[From] The Temple
The Altar
The Agonie
Sepulchre
Easter
Easter Wings
Sinne
Prayer (I)
Love I
Jordan (I)
Employment (I)
The H. Scriptures I
Church Monuments
The Windows
The Quiddity
Denial
Vertue
The Pearl. Matth. 13. 45
Life
Jordan (II)
The British Church
The Quip
Paradise
The Collar
The Pulley
The Sonne
Discipline
Death

Rachel Speght (1597–?) (os)
A Mouzell for Melastomus
Gazetteer of Classical and Early Modern Names and Places

Bibliography

Index of Titles

Introductions, and Notes