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The Broadview Anthology of Sixteenth-Century Poetry and Prose

The Broadview Anthology of Sixteenth-Century Poetry and Prose

The Broadview Anthology of Sixteenth-Century Poetry and Prose
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ISBN-10:
1551111624
ISBN-13:
9781551111629
Pub. Date:
10/24/2011
Publisher:
Broadview Press
ISBN-10:
1551111624
ISBN-13:
9781551111629
Pub. Date:
10/24/2011
Publisher:
Broadview Press
The Broadview Anthology of Sixteenth-Century Poetry and Prose

The Broadview Anthology of Sixteenth-Century Poetry and Prose

Overview

The Broadview Anthology of Sixteenth-Century Poetry and Prose makes available not only extensive selections from the works of canonical writers, but also substantial extracts from writers who have either been neglected in earlier anthologies or only relatively recently come to the attention of twentieth- and twenty-first-century scholars and teachers. Popular fiction and prose nonfiction are especially well represented, including selections from popular romances, merchant fiction, sensation pamphlets, sermons, and ballads.

The texts are extensively annotated, with notes both explaining unfamiliar words and providing cultural and historical contexts.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781551111629
Publisher: Broadview Press
Publication date: 10/24/2011
Pages: 1344
Product dimensions: 7.80(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Marie Loughlin is Associate Professor of English at UBC Okanagan.

Sandra Bell is Professor of English at the University of New Brunswick Saint John.

Patricia Brace is Professor of English at Laurentian University.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

EDITORIAL PREFACE

REFERENCE WORKS AND ABBREVIATIONS

JOHN SKELTON (c. 1460-1529)

  • from The Tunning of Elynour Rummyng (1521)

SIR THOMAS MORE (1478-1535)

  • Utopia (Latin edition, 1516; English translation, 2nd corrected edition, 1556)
    • Thomas More to Peter Giles
      The First Book of the Communication of Raphael Hythloday
      The Second Book of the Communication of Raphael Hythloday
      • Of the Cities and Namely of Amaurot
        Of the Magistrates
        Of Sciences, Crafts, and Occupations
        Of Their Living and Mutual Conversation Together
        Of Their Journeying or Travelling Abroad
        Of Bondmen, Sick Persons, Wedlock, and Divers Other Matters
        Of Warfare
        Of the Religions in Utopia

MARGARET MORE ROPER (1505-1544)

  • from A Devout Treatise upon the Pater Noster (1525)
    • Richard Hyrde unto […] Frances S. The Seventh Petition
  • Letter
    • Margaret Roper to Erasmus, 4 November 1529

WILLIAM ROPER (1495/1498-1578)

  • from The Life of Sir Thomas More (composed, c. 1535)

JUAN LUIS VIVES (1492-1540)

  • from The Instruction of a Christian Woman (1529/30)
    • Unto […] Queen Katherine
      The Preface
      Of Her First Exercise. The Third Chapter
      Of the Learning of Maids. The Fourth Chapter
      What Books to Be Read and What Not. The Fifth Chapter

HUGH LATIMER (c. 1485-1555)

  • Sermon on the Ploughers (1548)

SIR THOMAS ELYOT (c. 1490-1546)

  • from The Book Named the Governor (1531)
    • The Proem of Thomas Elyot Knight unto […] King Henry the Eighth
      The Signification of a Public Weal
      That One Sovereign Governor Ought to Be in a Public Weal
      At What Age a Tutor Should Be Provided and What Shall Appertain to His Office to Do
      Wherefore in the Good Order of Dancing a Man and a Woman Danceth Together

ANNE ASKEW (c. 1521-1546)

  • from The First Examination of […] Anne Askew (1546)
    from The Latter Examination of […] Anne Askew (1547)
    • The Censure or Judgement of John Bale thereupon
      The Sum of My Examination
      The Confession of Me Anne Askew
      The Sum of the Condemnation of Me Anne Askew
      My Letter Sent to the Lord Chancellor
      My Faith Briefly Written to the King’s Grace
      The Effect of My Examination and Handling
      Anne Askew’s Answer unto John Lascelles’s Letter
      The Confession of Her Faith […] Afore She Suffered
      The Ballad Which Anne Askew Made and Sang

KATHERINE PARR, QUEEN OF ENGLAND (1512-1548)

  • from Prayers or Meditations (1545)
    • A Prayer for the King
      A Prayer for Men to Say Entering into Battle
  • from The Lamentation of a Sinner (1547)
    • “Preface” by William Cecil
      A Lamentation or Complaint of a Sinner
  • Letter to Mary, 20 September 1544

LADY ANNE COOKE BACON (c. 1528-1610)

  • from Sermons of Barnardine Ochine of Sena (1548)
    • The Interpreter to the Gentle Reader
      How a Christian Ought to Make His Last Will and Testament
  • from Fourteen Sermons of Barnardine Ochine (1551)
    • To the Christian Reader
      To the […] Beloved Mother, the Lady. F.
  • Selected Letters
    • Letter to Lord Burghley [no date]
      Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon, 3 February 1592
      Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon, 29 May 1592
      Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon, 24 July 1592
      Francis Allen about Lady Bacon, 17 August 1589

LADY JANE (OR JOANNA) LUMLEY (1537-1578)

  • from Jane Lumley’s Commonplace Book: Dedicatory Letters and Translations from Euripides and Isocrates
    • Letter 1 (A New Year’s letter to her father, Lord Arundel) [date unknown]
      Letter 2 (To her father, Lord Arundel) [date unknown]
  • from The Tragedy of Euripides Called Iphigenia (c. 1554)

RICHARD TOTTEL (b. in or before 1528-d. 1593)

  • from Songs and Sonnets Written by the Right Honourable Lord Henry Howard Late Earl of Surrey, and Others (1557)
    • The Printer to the Reader
      Henry Howard, earl of Surrey (1516/17-47)
      Description of Spring, Wherein Each Thing Renews, Save Only the Lover (“The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings”)
      Complaint of a Lover Rebuked (“Love that liveth and reigneth in my thought”)
      Description and Praise of His Love Geraldine (“From Tuscan came my lady’s worthy race”) A Complaint by Night of the Lover Not Beloved (“Alas, so all things now do hold their peace”)
      How Each Thing, Save the Lover, in Spring Reviveth to Pleasure (“When Windsor walls sustained my wearied arm”)
      Vow to Love Faithfully Howsoever He Be Rewarded (“Set me whereas the sun doth parch the green”)
      Prisoned in Windsor, He Recounteth His Pleasure There Passed (“So cruel prison how could betide, alas”)
      Complaint of the Absence of Her Lover Being upon the Sea (“O happy dames that may embrace”)
      The Means to Attain Happy Life (“Martial, the things that do attain”)
      Of the Same [Of the Death of Sir T.W.] (“W[yatt] resteth here that quick could never rest”)
  • Sir Thomas Wyatt (c. 1503-42)
    • The Lover for Shamefastness Hideth His Desire within His Faithful Heart (“The long love that in my thought I harbour”)
      Description of the Contrarious Passions in a Lover (“I find no peace, and all my war is done”)
      The Lover Compareth His State to a Ship in Perilous Storm Tossed on the Sea (“My galley charged with forgetfulness”)The Lover Showeth How He Is Forsaken of Such as He Sometime Enjoyed (“They flee from me that sometime did me seek”)
      To His Love Whom He Had Kissed against Her Will (“Alas, madam, for stealing of a kiss”)
      The Lover Compareth His Heart to the Overcharged Gun (“The furious gun, in his most raging ire”)
      The Lover Complaineth the Unkindness of His Love (“My lute awake, perform the last”)
      How by a Kiss He Found Both His Life and Death (“Nature that gave the bee so feat a grace”)
      The Lover Laments the Death of His Love (“The pillar perished is whereto I lent”)
      That Pleasure Is Mixed with Every Pain (“Venomous thorns that are so sharp and keen”)
      Description of a Gun (“Vulcan begat me; Minerva me taught”)
      Wyatt Being in Prison, to Bryan (“Sighs are my food, my drink are my tears”)
      The Courtier’s Life (“In court to serve, decked with fresh array”)
      Of the Courtier’s Life Written to John Poins (“Mine own John Poins, since ye delight to know”)
  • Uncertain Authors
    • Comparison of Life and Death (“The life is long that loathsomely doth last”)
      Upon Consideration of the State of This Life, He Wisheth Death (“The longer life, the more offence”)
      Of a New Married Student That Played Fast and Loose (“A student at his book so placed”)
      A Praise of Petrarch and of Laura His Lady (“O Petrarch, head and prince of poets all”) That Petrarch Cannot Be Passed, but Notwithstanding That Laura Is Far Surpassed (“With Petrarch to compare there may no wight”)
      The Lady Forsaken of Her Lover Prayeth His Return or the End of Her Own Life (“To love, alas, who would not fear”)
  • N[icholas] G[rimald] (b. 1519/20-d. in or before 1562)
    • Description of Virtue (“What one art thou, thus in torn weed yclad?”)
      Praise of Measure-Keeping (“The ancient time commended, not for naught”)

SIR THOMAS WYATT (c. 1503-1542)

  • The Long Love (“The long love that in my thought doth harbour”)
    They Flee from Me (“They flee from me that sometime did me seek”)
    Whoso List to Hunt (“Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind”)
    Blame Not My Lute (“Blame not my lute, for he must sound”)

JOHN KNOX (c. 1514-1572)

  • from The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558)
    The Preface
    The First Blast, to Awake Women Degenerate

ANNE (VAUGHAN) LOCKE [LOK] (c. 1530-1590/1607)

  • from Sermons of John Calvin, Upon the Song that Hezekiah Made (1560)
    • To the […] Lady Katharine, Duchess of Suffolk
      A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner

JOHN FOXE (1516/1517-1587)

  • from Acts and Monuments of These Latter and Perilous Days (1563)
    • The Behaviour of Dr. Ridley and Master Latimer, at the Time of Their Death
      A Lamentable Example of Cruelty Showed upon John Bolton

LADY JANE GREY (1537-1554)

  • Letter
    • Lady Jane Grey to Her Father, 9 February 1554
  • From John Foxe, Acts and Monuments of These Latter and Perilous Days (1563)
    • The Communication Had Between the Lady Jane and Feckenham
      A Letter Written by the Lady Jane […] unto Her Sister Lady Katherine
      A Certain Prayer of the Lady Jane in the Time of Her Trouble
      Certain Pretty Verses Written by the Said Lady Jane with a Pin
      • “Do never think it strange”
        “If God do help thee”

WILLIAM BALDWIN (d. in or before 1563)

  • from Beware the Cat (1570)
    • T.K. to the Reader
      The Epistle Dedicatory
      The Argument
      The First Part of Master Streamer’s Oration
      The Second Part of Master Streamer’s Oration
      The Third Part of Master Streamer’s Oration
      An Exhortation
      The Hymn
  • from A Mirror for Magistrates (1563)
    • A Mirror for Magistrates
      To the Nobility and All Other in Office
      A Brief Memorial of Sundry Unfortunate Englishmen
      William Baldwin to the Reader
      How King Richard II Was for His Evil Governance Deposed from His Seat, and Miserably Murdered in Prison
      How Jack Cade Traitorously Rebelling against His King, Was for His Treasons and Cruel Doings Worthily Punished
      The Second Part of the Mirror for Magistrates
      William Baldwin to the Reader
      The Induction
      How Shore’s Wife, Edward the Fourth’s Concubine, Was by King Richard Despoiled of All Her Goods and Forced to Do Open Penance

MARY STUART, QUEEN OF SCOTS (1542-1587)

  • Sonnets to Bothwell (composed, c. 1566-67)
    • “O gods, have of me compassion” (“O Dieux ayez de moy compassion”)
      “In his hands and in his full power” (“Entre ses mains & en son plein pouvoir”))
      “And now she begins to see” (“Et maintenant elle commence à voir”))
      “You believe her (alas) I perceive it too well” (“Vous la croyez, las! trop je l’apperçoy”)
  • Sonnet to Elizabeth (composed, c. 1567-68)

SIR THOMAS HOBY (1530-1566)

  • from The Book of the Courtier (1561)
    • The Printer to the Reader)
      To the Reader)
      To […] the Lord Henry Hastings)
      The Second Book of the Courtier)
      The Third Book of the Courtier)
      The Fourth Book of the Courtier

ROGER ASCHAM (1514/1515-1568)

  • from The Schoolmaster (1570)
    • To […] Sir William Cecil (by Margaret Ascham)
      The First Book for the Youth

GEORGE GASCOIGNE (1534/1535?-1577)

  • from A Hundred Sundry Flowers (1573)
    • The Printer to the Reader
      The Adventures of Master F.J.
      Gascoigne’s Lullaby
      “The common speech is, spend and God will send”
      1 (“In haste post haste when first my wand’ring mind”)
      2 (“Before mine eye to feed my greedy will”)
      3 (“And every year a world my will did deem”)
      4 (“To prink me up and make me higher placed”)
      5 (“All were too little for the merchant’s hand”)
      6 (“For why? the gains doth seldom quit the charge”)
      7 (“‘No haste but good,’ where wisdom makes the way”)
      Gascoigne’s Good Morrow
      Gascoigne’s Good Night
      Gascoigne’s Woodmanship
  • from The Posies of George Gascoigne (1575)
    • The Green Knight’s Farewell to Fancy
  • Appendix: The Retitled and Revised Introduction and Conclusion of The Adventures of Master F.J.

ISABELLA WHITNEY (fl. 1566-1578)

  • from A Sweet Nosegay, or Pleasant Posy (1573)
    • To […] George Mainwaring
      The Author to the Reader
      T.B. in Commendation of the Author
      A Sweet Nosegay, or Pleasant Posy
      • The 97 (“Ask nothing of thy neighbour that”)
        The 98 (“If that thou minded are to give”)
        The 99 (“It glorious is to give all things”)
        The 100 (“Whilst that thou hast free liberty”)
        The 101 (“That lawyer, which is chose to plead”)
        The 102 (“A little gold in law will make”)
        The 103 (“Gold savours well, though it be got”) The 104 (“Such poor folk as to law do go”)
        The 105 (“A hasty tongue, which runs at large”)
        The 106 (“Two eyes, two ears, and but one tongue”)
        The 107 (“Keep well thy tongue and keep thy friend”)
        The 108 (“Seek not each man to please, for that”)
        The 109 (“Of wicked men to be dispraised”)
        The 110 (“Whenas the wicked are in midst”)
    • A Sovereign Receipt
      A Farewell to the Reader
      Certain Familiar Epistles and Friendly Letters
      • To Her Brother, G.W.
        To Her Brother, B.W.
        An Order Prescribed, by Is. W. to Two of Her Younger Sisters Serving in London
        To Her Sister Mistress A.B.
        A Careful Complaint by the Unfortunate Author
        An Answer to Comfort Her
        A Reply to the Same
        The Author … Maketh Her Will and Testament
    • The Lamentation of a Gentlewoman (1578)

ELIZABETH I, QUEEN OF ENGLAND (1533-1603)

  • Letter
    • To […] Queen Katherine, 31 December 1544
  • Verse
    • Written on a Window Frame at Woodstock (composed, c. 1554-55)
      Written in Her French Psalter (composed, 1565?)
      The Doubt of Future Foes (composed, c. 1568-71/87?)
      On Monsieur’s Departure (composed, c. 1582)
      When I Was Fair and Young (composed, c. 1580s)
  • Selected Speeches
    • To the Troops at Tilbury (delivered, 1588)
      The Golden Speech (delivered, 30 November 1601)

JOHN DEE (1527-1609)

  • from General and Rare Memorials Pertaining to the Perfect Art of Navigation (1577)
    from John Dee’s Actions with Spirits (1581-83)
    • Mysteriorum Liber Primus. Mortlaci [The First Book of the Mysteries of Mortlake] (1581-82)
      • Ad Deum Omnipotentem [To the Almighty God]
    • Liber Mysteriorum Quintus [The Fifth Book of the Mysteries] (1583)
      • Maundy Thursday, after None. hor. 3 1/2
        Aprilis 6. Saturday after none
    • Quinti Libri Mysteriorum. Appendix
      • Aprilis 20 — Saturday
        Aprilis 29 — Monday, a meridie [towards midday]

BARNABE GOOGE (1540-1594)

  • from Eclogues, Epitaphs, and Sonnets (1563)
    • To […] Master William Lovelace
      An Epitaph of the Death of Nicholas Grimald
      To Doctor Bale
      Of Edwards of the Chapel
      To the Translation of Palingen
      Of Money
      Going towards Spain
      Coming Homeward out of Spain
  • Appendix: From George Turberville’s Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songs and Sonnets (1567)
    • To Master Googe’s Fancy That Begins “Give money me, take friendship whoso list”

MARGARET TYLER (fl. 1558-1578)

  • from The Mirror of Princely Deeds and Knighthood (1578)
    • To […] the Lord Thomas Howard
      M.T. to the Reader
      Chapter 38
      Chapter 45

RICHARD ROGERS (1551-1618)

  • from The Diary of Richard Rogers (composed, c. 1586-90)

STEPHEN GOSSON (1554-1625)

  • from The School of Abuse (1579)
    • To the Reader
      The School of Abuse
  • from Plays Confuted in Five Actions (1582)
    • To the […] Gentlemen and Students of Both Universities, and the Inns of Court
      The First Action
      The Second Action
      The Third Action
      The Fourth Action
      The Fifth Action

ANNE WHEATHILL (fl. 1584)

  • from A Handful of Wholesome (Though Homely) Herbs (1584)
    • To All Ladies, Gentlewomen, and Others
      21. A Prayer of the Creation of Mankind, of the True Samaritan, and for Strength against Temptation
      31. A Prayer that We May Hear the Word of God and Keep It

JOHN LYLY (1554-1606)

  • from Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578; 2nd revised edition, 1579)
    To […] Sir William West
    To the Gentlemen Readers
    To My Very Good Friends, the Gentlemen Scholars of Oxford
    Euphues

BARNABE RICHE (1542-1617)

  • from Barnabe Riche His Farewell to Military Profession (1581)
    • To the Right Courteous Gentlewomen, Both of England and Ireland
      To the Noble Soldiers Both of England and Ireland
      To the Readers in General
      Of Apolonius and Silla
      The Conclusion

RAPHAEL HOLINSHED (c. 1525-?1580)

  • from Chronicles: England, Scotland and Ireland (1587)
    • To the Readers Studious in Histories
      Of Brute and His Descent
      The First Chapter
      The Third Chapter
      The Fourth Chapter
      Mary the Eldest Daughter of King Henry the Eighth
      The Order of Arraignment of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton […] 17 April 1554

WILLIAM HARRISON (1535-1593)

  • from An Historical Description of the Island of Britain (1587)
    • Book II: The Description of England
      • Chapter 3: Of Universities
        Chapter 5: Of Degrees of People in the Commonwealth of England
        Chapter 6: Of the Food and Diet of the English

POPULAR LITERATURE IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND

PAMPHLETS OF MURDER AND MAYHEM

  • Arthur Golding (1535/1536-1606), The Murder of George Saunders (1573)
    Anonymous, The Murder of John Brewen (1592)
    Anonymous, The Examination, Confession, and Condemnation of Henry Robson (1598)

THE MONSTROUS CHILDREN BROADSIDES

  • The Much Horkesley Monster (1562)
    The Chichester Monster (1562)
    The Isle of Wight Monster (1564?)
    The Ruffs Monster (1566)
    The Maidstone Monster (1568)

WITCHCRAFT: LEGAL AND POPULAR DISCOURSES

  • An Act against Conjurations, Enchantments, and Witchcrafts (1563)
    Anonymous, The Examination and Confession of Certain Witches at Chelmsford (1566)
    Reginald Scott (d. 1599), from The Discovery of Witchcraft (1584)
    • Book XVI, Chapter VI
      Book XVI, Chapter VII
  • James VI (1566-1625), from Daemonology (1597)
    • The Preface to the Reader
      The Second Book. Chapter III
      The Second Book. Chapter V

JESTBOOKS

  • from A Hundred Merry Tales (1526)
    • Tale 3
      Tale 17
      Tale 19
      Tale 27
      Tale 32
      Tale 41
      Tale 67
      Tale 69
  • from Merry Tales, Witty Questions and Quick Answers (1567)
    • Of Him that Rode Out of London and Had His Servant Following on Foot
      Of the Chaplain that Said Our Lady Matins Abed
      Of the Jealous Man
      Of King Louis of France and the Husbandman
      Of Another Pickthank and the Same King
      Of the Uplandish Man that Saw the King
  • from Merry Tales Newly Imprinted and Made by Master Skelton, Poet Laureate (1567)
    • How the Vintner’s Wife Put Water into Skelton’s Wine
  • from The Mirror of Mirth (1583)
    • To the Courteous and Gentle Readers
      Of the Three Sisters Newly Married
      Of a Certain Student in the Law

JAMES VI, KING OF SCOTLAND (1566-1625)

  • To the Queen (composed, c. 1589)
    from The Essays of a Prentice (1584)
    • Sonnet 4 (“And grant I may so vively put in verse”)
      Sonnet Deciphering the Perfect PoetA Short Treatise, Containing Some Rules and Cautels to Be Observed and Eschewed in Scottish Poetry
      Chapter VII
  • from The True Law of Free Monarchies (1598)
    • An Advertisement to the Reader
      The True Law of Free Monarchies
  • from Basilikon Doron (1599, 1603)
    • “God gives not kings the style of gods in vain”
      To the Reader
      Of a King’s Christian Duty towards God
      Of a King’s Duty in His Office
      Of a King’s Behaviour in Indifferent Things

ANNE CECIL DE VERE, COUNTESS OF OXFORD (1556-1588)

  • Four Epitaphs (1584)
    • 1 (“Had with morning the gods left their wills undone”)
      2 (“In doleful ways I spend the wealth of my time”)
      3 (“The heavens, death, and life have conjured my ill”)
      4 (“Idall for Adon nev’r shed so many tears”)
  • Others of the Four Last Lines, of Other That She Made Also
    • “My son is gone, and with it death end my sorrow”
  • An other
    • “Amphiôn’s wife was turned to rock. Oh”

JANE ANGER (fl. 1588)

  • from Jane Anger, Her Protection for Women (1589)
    • To the Gentlewomen of England
      To all Women in General, and Gentle Reader Whatsoever
      A Protection for Women
      A Sovereign Salve to Cure the Late Surfeiting Lover
      Eiusdem ad Lectorem de Authore

ANNE DOWRICHE (before July 1560-after 1613)

  • from The French History (1589)
    • To […] Her Loving Brother, Master Pearse Edgecombe
      To the Reader
      To the Reader that Is Friendly to Poetry
      The Bloody Marriage, or Butcherly Murder of the Admiral of France

RICHARD HAKLUYT (?1552-1616)

  • from The Second Volume of the Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation (1599)
    The Voyage Made to Tripoli in Barbary, in the Year 1583 from The Third and Last Volume of the Voyages, Navigations, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation (1600)
    • The Second Voyage of Master Martin Frobisher, Made to the West and Northwest Regions in the Year 1577
      The Voyage of Master Hore and Divers Other Gentlemen to Newfoundland and Cape Breton, in the Year 1536
      A Report of the Voyage and Success Thereof, Attempted in the Year of Our Lord 1583 by Sir Humphrey Gilbert
      The First Voyage Made to the Coasts of America … Part of the Country Now Called Virginia, Anno 1584

LADY ELIZABETH COOKE HOBY RUSSELL (1528-1609)

  • Selected Mortuary Verse
    • Verse on the Hoby Tombs at Bisham (composed, c. 1566)
      Elizabethae in Obitum Katharinae Sororis Epicaedia
      A Lamentation for the Death of Mrs. K. Killigrew (composed, c. 1583)
  • from A Way of Reconciliation of a Good and Learned Man (1605)
    • The Author to the Reader
      To […] Lady Anne Herbert

FULKE GREVILLE, FIRST BARON BROOKE OF BEAUCHAMPS COURT (1554-1628)

  • from Caelica, Containing CIX Sonnets (composed, c. 1577/80-1600?)
    • Sonnet XXII (“I with whose colours Myra dressed her head”)
      Sonnet LVI (“All my senses, like beacons’ flame”)
      Sonnet LXXXVIII (“Man, dream no more of curious mysteries”)
      Sonnet XC (“The Turkish government allows no law”)
      Sonnet C (“In night when colours all to black are cast”)
      Sonnet CVIII (“What is the cause, why states, that war and win”)
      Sonnet CIX (“Sion lies waste, and thy Jerusalem”)

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (1554-1586)

  • from Astrophil and Stella (1591, 1598)
    • Sonnet 1 (“Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show”)
      Sonnet 5 (“It is most true, that eyes are formed to serve”)
      Sonnet 9 (“Queen Virtue’s court, which some call Stella’s face”)
      Sonnet 21 (“Your words, my friend, right healthful caustics, blame”)
      Sonnet 23 (“The curious wits, seeing dull pensiveness”)
      Sonnet 27 (“Because I oft, in dark abstracted guise”)
      Sonnet 47 (“What, have I thus betrayed my liberty?”)
      Sonnet 53 (“In martial sports I had my cunning tried”)
      Sonnet 63 (“O grammar rules, O now your virtues show”)
      Sonnet 71 (“Who will in fairest book of nature know”)
      Sonnet 81 (“O kiss, which dost those ruddy gems impart”)
      Sonnet 82 (“Nymph of the garden where all beauties be”)
      Sonnet 83 (“Good brother Philip, I have borne you long”)
      Sonnet 85 (“I see the house; my heart, thy self contain”)
      “Fourth Song”
      “Eighth Song”
      “Ninth Song”
      Sonnet 87 (“When I was forced from Stella, ever dear”)
      Sonnet 93 (“O fate, O fault, O curse, child of my bliss”)
      Sonnet 98 (“Ah bed, the field where joy’s peace some do see”)
      Sonnet 107 (“Stella, since thou so right a princess art”)
      Sonnet 108 (“When sorrow, using mine own fire’s might”)
  • from The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1593)
    • To […] the Countess of Pembroke
      To the Reader
      Book 1
      Book 3
  • from The Defence of Poesy (1595)
    Appendix 1: Selected Correspondence between Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Molyneux (1578-82)
    Appendix 2: Selected Correspondence of Lady Mary Sidney to Edmund Molyneux (1578)

MARY SIDNEY HERBERT, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE (1561-1621)

  • The Doleful Lay of Clorinda (1595)
    Even Now that Care (1599)
    To the Angel Spirit of the Most Excellent Sir Philip Sidney (composed, 1592)
    Dialogue between Two Shepherds, Thenot and Piers, in Praise of Astraea (composed, c. 1599?)
    from Psalms (completed by 1599)
    • Psalm 45: Eructavit cor meum
      Psalm 49: Audite haec omnes
      Psalm 51: Miserere mei Deus
      Psalm 57: Miserere mei Deus
      Psalm 58: Si vere utique
      Psalm 72: Deus Judicium
      Psalm 73: Quam bonus Israel
      Psalm 82: Deus stetit
      Psalm 100: Jubilate Deo
      Psalm 139: Domine probasti

RICHARD BARNFIELD (1574-1620)

  • from The Affectionate Shepherd (1594)
    • To […] the Lady Penelope Rich
      The Tears of an Affectionate Shepherd Sick for Love
      The Second Day’s Lamentation of the Affectionate Shepherd
  • from Cynthia. With Certain Sonnets (1595)
    • To the Courteous Gentlemen Readers
      To His Mistress
      Sonnet 1 (“Sporting at fancy, setting light by love”)
      Sonnet 6 (“Sweet coral lips, where nature’s treasure lies”)
      Sonnet 8 (“Sometimes I wish that I his pillow were”)
      Sonnet 9 (“Diana [on a time] walking the wood”)
      Sonnet 10 (“Thus was my love, thus was my Ganymed”)
      Sonnet 11 (“Sighing and sadly sitting by my love”)
      Sonnet 12 (“Some talk of Ganymede th’Idalian boy”)
      Sonnet 14 (“Here; hold this glove [this milk-white cheveril glove]”)
      Sonnet 16 (“Long have I longed to see my love again”)
      Sonnet 17 (“Cherry-lipped Adonis in his snowy shape”)
      Sonnet 20 (“But now my Muse toiled with continual care”)

EDMUND SPENSER (?1552-1599)

  • from The Shepheardes Calender (1579)
    • To His Booke
      To […] Mayster Gabriell Harvey
      Januarye
      Aprill
      October
      November
  • from Amoretti (1595)
    • Sonnet 1 (“Happy ye leaves when as those lilly hands”)
      Sonnet 3 (“The soverayne beauty which I doo admyre”)
      Sonnet 6 (“Be nought dismayd that her unmoved mind”)
      Sonnet 9 (“Long-while I sought to what I might compare”)
      Sonnet 15 (“Ye tradefull Merchants that with weary toyle”)
      Sonnet 16 (“One day as I unwarily did gaze”)
      Sonnet 22 (“This holy season fit to fast and pray”)
      Sonnet 26 (“Sweet is the Rose, but growes upon a brere”)
      Sonnet 34 (“Lyke as a ship that through the Ocean wyde”)
      Sonnet 37 (“What guyle is this, that those her golden tresses”)
      Sonnet 54 (“Of this worlds Theatre in which we stay”)
      Sonnet 56 (“Fayre ye be sure, but cruell and unkind”)
      Sonnet 64 (“Comming to kisse her lyps, [such grace I found]”)
      Sonnet 68 (“Most glorious Lord of lyfe that on this day”)
      Sonnet 69 (“The famous warriors of the anticke world”)
      Sonnet 70 (“Fresh spring the herald of loves mighty king”)
      Sonnet 74 (“Most happy letters fram’d by skilfull trade”)
      Sonnet 75 (“One day I wrote her name upon the strand”)
      Sonnet 80 (“After so long a race as I have run”)
      Sonnet 82 (“Joy of my life, full oft for loving you”)
      Sonnet 89 (“Lyke as the Culver on the bared bough”)
  • Epithalamion (1595)
    from The Faerie Queene (1590, 1596)
    • To […] Sir Walter Raleigh
      The First Booke of the Faerie Queene
      • Canto I
        Canto II
        Canto III
        Canto IIII
        Canto V
        Canto VI
        Canto VII
        Canto VIII
        Canto IX
        Canto X
        Canto XI
        Canto XII

THOMAS NASHE (1567-?1601)

  • from The Unfortunate Traveller (1594)

LADY MARGARET HOBY (1571-1633)

  • from The Diary of Lady Hoby (1599-1603)

SAMUEL DANIEL (1562/1563-1619)

  • from Delia (1592)
    • To […] the Lady Mary, Countess of Pembroke
      Sonnet VI (“Fair is my love, and cruel as sh’is fair”)
      Sonnet IX (“If this be love, to draw a weary breath”)
      Sonnet XV (“If that a loyal heart and faith unfeigned”)
      Sonnet XVIII (“Restore thy tresses to the golden ore”)
      Sonnet XXX (“I once may see when years shall wreck my wrong”)
      Sonnet XXXV (“Thou canst not die whilst any zeal abound”)
      Sonnet XLIX (“Unhappy pen and ill-accepted papers”)
  • from The Complaint of Rosamond (1592)
    To the Lady Lucy, Countess of Bedford (1603)
    To the Lady Anne Clifford (1603)
    A Panegyric Congratulatory to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty (1603)
    from A Defence of Rhyme (1603)
    • To William Herbert Earl of Pembroke

THOMAS LODGE (1558-1625)

  • from Rosalind (1590)
    • To […] the Lord of Hunsdon
      To the Gentlemen Readers
      The Schedule Annexed to Euphues’ Testament
      Rosalind
  • from A Fig for Momus (1595)
    • To the Gentlemen Readers Whatsoever
      To His Mistress A.L.: Epistle 3
  • Appendix: Physiology in Lodge’s “To His Mistress A.L.: Epistle 3,” lines 39-46

ROBERT GREENE (1558-1592)

  • from A Quip for an Upstart Courtier (1592)
    • To […] Thomas Barnaby Esquire
      To the Gentlemen Readers: Health
      A Quip for an Upstart Courtier
  • from A Disputation between a He Cony-Catcher and a She Cony-Catcher (1592)
    • To All Gentlemen, Merchants, Apprentices, and Country Farmers
      A Disputation between Laurence, a Foist and Fair Nan, a Traffic
      The Conversion of an English Courtesan
  • from Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit (1592)
    • The Printer to the Gentle Readers
      To the Gentlemen Readers
      Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit
      To Those Gentlemen His Quondam Acquaintance
      A Letter Written to His Wife

WILLIAM KEMP (fl. 1585-1602)

  • Kemp’s Nine Days’ Wonder (1600)
    • To […] Mistress Anne Fitton
      Kemp’s Nine Days’ Wonder
      • The First Day’s Journey
        The Second Day’s Journey
        The Third Day’s Journey
        The Fourth Day’s Journey
        The Fifth Day’s Journey
        The Sixth Day’s Journey
        The Seventh Day’s Journey
        The Eighth Day’s Journey
        The Ninth Day’s Journey
        Kemp’s Humble Request to […] Ballad-Makers and Their Coherents

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)

  • Venus and Adonis (1593)
    • To […] Henry Wriothesley
  • from Sonnets (1609)
    • Sonnet 2 (“When forty winters shall besiege thy brow”)
      Sonnet 3 (“Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest”)
      Sonnet 4 (“Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend”)
      Sonnet 12 (“When I do count the clock that tells the time”)
      Sonnet 17 (“Who will believe my verse in time to come”)
      Sonnet 18 (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”)
      Sonnet 20 (“A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted”)
      Sonnet 23 (“As an unperfect actor on the stage”)
      Sonnet 29 (“When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes”)
      Sonnet 30 (“When to the sessions of sweet silent thought”)
      Sonnet 32 (“If thou survive my well-contented day”)
      Sonnet 40 (“Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all”)
      Sonnet 42 (“That thou hast her, it is not all my grief ”)
      Sonnet 44 (“If the dull substance of my flesh were thought”)
      Sonnet 45 (“The other two, slight air and purging fire”)
      Sonnet 55 (“Not marble nor the gilded monuments”)
      Sonnet 71 (“No longer mourn for me when I am dead”)
      Sonnet 73 (“That time of year thou mayst in me behold”)
      Sonnet 76 (“Why is my verse so barren of new pride?”)
      Sonnet 81 (“Or I shall live your epitaph to make”)
      Sonnet 87 (“Farewell, thou art too dear for my possessing”)
      Sonnet 89 (“Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault”)
      Sonnet 90 (“Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now”)
      Sonnet 91 (“Some glory in their birth, some in their skill”)
      Sonnet 94 (“They that have pow’r to hurt, and will do none”)
      Sonnet 99 (“The forward violet thus did I chide”)
      Sonnet 102 (“My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming”)
      Sonnet 106 (“When in the chronicle of wasted time”)
      Sonnet 116 (“Let me not to the marriage of true minds”)
      Sonnet 128 (“How oft when thou, my music, music play’st”)
      Sonnet 129 (“Th’expense of spirit in a waste of shame”)
      Sonnet 130 (“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”)
      Sonnet 135 (“Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will”)
      Sonnet 138 (“When my love swears that she is made of truth”)
      Sonnet 143 (“Lo as a careful housewife runs to catch”)
      Sonnet 144 (“Two loves I have of comfort and despair”)
      Sonnet 145 (“Those lips that Love’s own hand did make”)
      Sonnet 146 (“Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth”)
      Sonnet 147 (“My love is as a fever, longing still”)
      Sonnet 151 (“Love is too young to know what conscience is”)
      Sonnet 154 (“The little love-god, lying once asleep”)

MICHAEL DRAYTON (1563-1631)

  • from The Shepherds’ Garland (1593)
    • The Third Eclogue
  • from Idea’s Mirror (1594)
    • “My heart imprisoned in a hopeless isle”
      “Some wits there be which like my method well”
      “Why do I speak of joy or write of love”
      “My heart the anvil where my thoughts do beat”
      “When first I ended, then I first began”
  • from England’s Heroical Epistles (1597)
    • The Lady Jane Gray, to the Lord Gilford Dudley
      The Lord Gilford Dudley to the Lady Jane Gray

ROBERT SOUTHWELL (1561-1595)

  • The Author to His Loving Cousin (1595)
    from Saint Peter’s Complaint (1595)
    From Fortune’s Reach (1595)
    Christ’s Bloody Sweat (1595)
    The Prodigal Child’s Soul Wrack (1595)
    from The Sequence on the Virgin Mary and Christ (1595)
    • vi. The Nativity of Christ
  • The Burning Babe (1602)
    Decease Release: Dum morior orior [date unknown]

SIR WALTER RALEGH (OR RALEIGH) (1554-1618)

  • A Vision upon this Conceit of “The Faerie Queene” (“Methought I saw the grave, where Laura lay”) (1590)
    The Lie (“Go, soul, the body’s guest”) (composed, c. 1590/92?)
    The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd (“If all the world and love were young”) (1600)
    Sir Walter Ralegh to His Son (“Three things there be that prosper up apace”) (circulated, c. 1625-60)
    from The Ocean to Cynthia (composed, 1582-83)
    Nature that Washed Her Hands in Milk (composed, c. 1603-18?; circulated, c. 1625-60)
    from The Discovery of Guiana (1596)
    • To […] Charles Howard […] And […] Sir Robert Cecil
      To the Reader
      The Discovery of Guiana

SIR JOHN DAVIES (1569-1626)

  • from Epigrams and Elegies (1595?)
    • Ad Musam (Epigram 1)
      In Rufum (Epigram 3)
      In Titum (Epigram 6)
      In Severum (Epigram 13)
      In Gerontem (Epigram 20)
      In Ciprium (Epigram 22)
      In Haywodum (Epigram 29)
      In Dacum (Epigram 30)
      Of Tobacco (Epigram 36)
      In Philonem (Epigram 38)
      Meditations of a Gull (Epigram 47)
      Ad Musam (Epigram 48)
      Ignoto
      • “I love thee not for sacred chastity”
        “Faith (wench) I cannot court thy sprightly eyes”
        “Sweet wench, I love thee, yet I will not sue”
    • from Gulling Sonnets (composed, c. 1594-1604)
      • To His Good Friend, Sir Anthony Cooke
        Sonnet 2 (“As when the bright cerulean firmament”)
        Sonnet 3 (“What eagle can behold her sunbright eye”)
        Sonnet 6 (“The sacred Muse that first made love divine”)
        Sonnet 8 (“My case is this: I love Zepheria bright”)
    • from Nosce Teipsum (1599)
      • To My Most Gracious Dread Sovereign
        Of Human Knowledge
    • from Hymns of Astraea (1599)
      • Hymn I. Of Astraea
        Hymn II. To Astraea
        Hymn XV. Of Her Wit
        Hymn XVI. Of Her Will
        Hymn XX. Of the Passions of Her Heart
        Hymn XXIII. Of Her Justice
        Hymn XXIV. Of Her Magnanimity
        Hymn XXVI. To Envy

FRANCIS BACON, VISCOUNT ST ALBAN (1561-1626)

  • Letter to Lord Burghley (1592?)
    from Essays (1597)
    • The Epistle Dedicatory to Master Anthony Bacon
      Of Studies
      Of Discourse
      Of Ceremonies and Respects
      Of Followers and Friends
      Of Suits
      Of Negotiating

GEORGE CHAPMAN (1559/1560-1634)

  • from Ovid’s Banquet of Sense (1595)
    • To […] Master Matthew Royden
      I.D. of the Middle Temple (“Only that eye which for true love doth weep”)
      Another (“Since Ovid [love’s first gentle master] died”)
      Ovid’s Banquet of Sense
      The Argument
      Narratio
  • De Guiana, Carmen Epicum (1596)
    from Achilles’ Shield (1598)
    • To the Understander
      Book 18 of Homer’s Iliad
  • Appendix: Corinna’s Garden—Ovid’s Banquet of Sense, Stanzas 9-10

JOHN DONNE (1572-1631)

  • Song (“Go and catch a falling star”)
    The Bait
    Woman’s Constancy
    The Flea
    The Relic
    Satire I
    Satire III
    Elegy 1: Jealousy
    Elegy 8: The Comparison
    Elegy 19: To His Mistress Going to Bed
    The Storm
    The Calm
    To Sir Henry Wotton (“Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls”)
    Sappho to Philaenis

JOHN MARSTON (1576-1634)

  • from The Scourge of Villainy (1599)
    • Satyre X: Humours
      To Him that Hath Perused Me

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE (1564-1593)

  • Hero and Leander (1598)

JOHN STOW (1524/1525-1605)

  • from A Survey of London (1598)
    • To […] the Lord Mayor of the City of London
      The Antiquity of London
      Houses of Students of the Common Law
      Of Orders and Customs
      Honour of Citizens and Worthiness of Men in the Same
      The Singularities of the City of London

THOMAS DELONEY (d. in or before 1600)

  • The Queen’s Visiting of the Camp at Tilsbury (1588)
    from Thomas of Reading (?1598-?1600)
    • Chapter 1
      Chapter 4
      Chapters 6-8
      Chapter 11
      Chapters 13-15

THOMAS CAMPION (1567-1620)

  • from A Book of Ayres (1601)
    • Song III (“I care not for these ladies”)
      Song V (“My love hath vowed he will forsake me”)
      Song VI (“When to her lute Corinna sings”)
      Song VIII (“It fell on a summer’s day”)
  • from Observations in the Art of English Poesy (1602)
    • To […] the Lord Buckhurst
      The First Chapter, Entreating of Numbers in General
      The Second Chapter, Declaring the Unaptness of Rhyme in Poesy

ELIZABETH GRYMESTON (b. in or before 1563-d. 1601/1604)

  • from Miscellanea. Meditations. Memoratives (1604)
    • The Epistle: To Her Loving Son, Bernye Grymeston
      Chapter I: A Short Line How to Level Your Life
      Chapter III: A Pathetical Speech of the Person of Dives in the Torments of Hell
      Chapter V: A Sinner’s Glass
      Chapter XIII: Evening Meditation

Additional Online Texts

SIMON FISH (d. 1531)

  • A Supplication for the Beggars (1529)

JOHN BALE (1495-1563)

  • The Laborious Journey and Search of John Leland, for England’s Antiquities (1549)
    • The Epistle Dedicatory
      John Bale to the Reader

Certain Sermons or Homilies (1547)

  • An Exhortation Concerning Good Order and Obedience to Rulers and Magistrates

WILLIAM BALDWIN (d. in or before 1563)

  • from A Mirror for Magistrates (1563)
    • The Second Part of the Mirror for Magistrates
      How Collingbourne Was Cruelly Executed

ARTHUR GOLDING (1535/1536-1606)

  • from Ovid’s Metamorphosis (1567)
    • To […] Robert Earl of Leicester
      To the Reader
      Book 10 of Ovid’s Metamorphosis

JOHN DEE (1527-1609)

  • from “The Mathematical Preface to Euclid’s Elements of Geometry” (1570)

POPULAR LITERATURE IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND

Pamphlets of Murder and Mayhem

  • Anonymous, Sundry Strange and Inhuman Murders, Lately Committed (1591)
    • A Declaration of the Monstrous Cruelty of a Father That Hired One to Murder Three of His Own Children
      A True Discourse of a Cruel and Inhuman Murder, Committed upon Master Padge of Plymouth
      Other Strange Things Seen at That Time

Broadsides and Ballads

  • A New Ballad of the Strange and Most Cruel Whips (1588)
    A Ditty Delightful of Mother Watkins Ale (c. 1590)
    Luke Hutton’s Lamentation (1598)

GEORGE GASCOIGNE (1534/1535?-1577)

  • from The Posies of George Gascoigne (1575)
    • Certain Notes of Instruction Concerning the Making of Verse or Rhyme in English

WILLIAM HARRISON (1535-1593)

  • from An Historical Description of the Island of Britain (1587)
    • Chapter 12: Of the Manner of Building and Furniture of Our Houses
      Chapter 20: Of Gardens and Orchards

EDMUND SPENSER (?1552-1599)

  • from The Faerie Queene (1590, 1596)
    • Book II
      Canto XII
    • Book III
      Canto VI
  • from A View of the Present State of Ireland (1596; published 1809)

THOMAS LODGE (1558-1625)

  • from Scylla’s Metamorphosis (1589)
    from Robin the Devil [The Famous, True, and Historical Life of Robert, Second Duke of Normandy] (1591)
    from The Life and Death of William Longbeard (1593)

SIR WALTER RALEGH (OR RALEIGH) (1554-1618)

  • from A Report of the Truth of the Fight … Betwixt the Revenge … and an Armada of the King of Spain (“The Last Fight of the Revenge”) (1591)

SIR JOHN DAVIES (1569-1626)

  • from Orchestra or, a Poem of Dancing (1596)

GEORGE CHAPMAN (1559/1560-1634)

  • from Ovid’s Banquet of Sense (1595)
    • A Coronet for His Mistress Philosophy

THOMAS DELONEY (d. in or before 1600)

  • from Jack of Newbury (1596-97; 1st extant print edition, 1619)

JOHN FLORIO (1553-1625) AND MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE (1533-1592)

  • from The Essays or Moral, Politic and Military Discourses of Lord Michel de Montaigne (1603)
    • To the Courteous Reader
      The Author to the Reader
      Of the Cannibals
  • Appendix: Florio’s Contribution to English Vocabulary

Suggested Reading

ONLINE RESOURCES: ADDITIONAL TEXTS AND SUGGESTED READING

INDEX OF AUTHORS, TITLES, AND FIRST LINES

What People are Saying About This

Gweno Williams

"This substantial and generous anthology is an impressive exercise in re-mapping and opening up the literature of sixteenth-century England for students and scholars alike. It offers a much richer mix of texts and contemporary genres than has hitherto been conveniently available in print, supported by useful annotation, and online extensions and resources. Rediscovered and previously neglected material appears alongside known and familiar texts, offering ample interesting opportunities for comparative and thematic work as well as exciting engagement with 'new' and different writers. The editors are to be congratulated on the fresh and dynamic view of the sixteenth century made accessible here."

Don Beecher

"For the anthologist, the literature of the Tudor period poses extraordinarily difficult choices, and this collection meets that challenge with the best solutions yet. Most refreshing to see, for me, are the selections from William Baldwin, Barnabe Riche, Will Kemp, and Richard Barnfield, the many women writers, the popular pamphlets, jest books, witchcraft treatises, the voyages, and the song books, without compromising the representation of the better-known writers. The introductions are judicious and informative and together make up a complete introduction to the authors and works of the period. This compendium is destined to become the anthology of choice for teaching the literature of the sixteenth century."

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