History of English Literature, Volume 1 - EBook : Medieval and Renaissance Literature to 1625

For ordering the hardcover version of this book, please contact order@peterlang.com (Retail Price: £90.00, $135.90). History of English Literature is a comprehensive, eight-volume survey of English literature from the Middle Ages to the early twenty-first century. This reference work provides insightful and often revisionary readings of core texts in the English literary canon. Richly informative analyses are framed by the biographical, historical and intellectual context for each author. Volume 1 begins by discussing Anglo-Saxon literature before focusing on the three major Middle English poets of the late fourteenth century: Gower, Langland and Chaucer. It then engages with the sixteenth-century prose romances of Sidney, the epic and lyrical poetry of Spenser, and Donne's love and religious poems. Full coverage is devoted to the legendary fifty-year blossoming of the Elizabethan theatre (excluding Shakespeare, the object of Volume 2), from Kyd and Marlowe up to Jonson, Webster, Middleton, Ford and Shirley. The final part addresses the sixteenth-century prose works of Lyly, Greene and Nashe, homiletics by Hooker and others, and Elizabethan travel literature and historiography. Contents 6 List of abbreviations 16 § 1. The initial and terminal dates of this volume 18 Part I: The Formation of a National Literature 20 § 2. Placing Old English literature in the canon 22 § 3. English history to 1066 31 § 4. Bede 36 § 5. Old English poetry 38 § 6. Beowulf 45 Part II: The Middle English Period 52 § 7. English history from 1066 to 1485 54 § 8. Genres and ‘matters’ 62 § 9. The Arthurian romances: Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace, Layamon 76 § 10. Ricardian literature 81 § 11. The influence of the Roman de la Rose 84 § 12. Pearl and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 90 § 13. Gower 102 § 14. Langland 109 § 15. Chaucer I: Stereotypes of courtly love and symptoms of modernity 122 § 16. Chaucer II: Biography 136 § 17. Chaucer III: Dream-vision poems 140 § 18. Chaucer IV: ‘Troilus and Criseyde’ 148 § 19. Chaucer V: ‘The Canterbury Tales’ I. The poem as a field of contrary vectors 153 § 20. Chaucer VI: ‘The Canterbury Tales’ II. The internal texture 164 § 21. The English Chaucerians: Hoccleve, Lydgate, Hawes 177 § 22. Barclay 190 § 23. Skelton 195 § 24. Fifteenth-century Scottish literature 208 § 25. The Scottish Chaucerians: Douglas, Henryson, Dunbar 214 § 26. Lyndsay 227 § 27. Popular ballads and lyrics 232 § 28. Medieval drama 236 § 29. Fifteenth-century prose 242 § 30. The Paston Letters 245 § 31. Caxton 249 § 32. Malory I: ‘Le Morte d’Arthur’ I. Authorship, publication and popularity 253 § 33. Malory II: ‘Le Morte d’Arthur’ II. The stark kaleidoscope 262 Part III: The Sixteenth Century 268 § 34. England under the Tudors 270 § 35. The English Reformation 280 § 36. English humanism and the Renaissance I: The continental trail 284 § 37. English humanism and the Renaissance II: Forms, reception and genetic and historical theories 292 § 38. English humanism and the Renaissance III: The arts 298 § 39. More 301 § 40. Conduct books 311 § 41. The ‘Miscellanies’ 321 § 42. Wyatt 324 § 43. Surrey 335 § 44. The ‘Mirror for Magistrates’ 343 § 45. Gascoigne 347 § 46. Other minor poets 350 § 47. Elizabethan Catholic poets 351 § 48. Sidney I: The diagnostician and healer of infected man 355 § 49. Sidney II: ‘The Lady of May’ and other youthful lyrics 362 § 50. Sidney III: ‘Astrophel and Stella’ 364 § 51. Sidney IV: The ‘Old Arcadia’ I. The neoclassical polish and the oblivion of reality 371 § 52. Sidney V: The ‘Old Arcadia’ II. Malice, humour and political allegory in the pastoral canvas 377 § 53. Sidney VI: The ‘New Arcadia’. The toning down of the pastoral and the emphasis on the heroic 381 § 54. Sidney VII: ‘The Defence of Poesy’ 384 § 55. Greville 389 § 56. Spenser I: The most poetic of English poets 392 § 57. Spenser II: ‘The Shepheardes Calender’. 1579: The fateful year 398 § 58. Spenser III: Aesopian and pastoral fables and elegies 403 § 59. Spenser IV: ‘The Faerie Queene’ I. The poem’s ‘dark conceit’ 406 § 60. Spenser V: ‘The Faerie Queene’ II. Upright knights against felons, monsters and enchantresses 415 § 61. Spenser VI: ‘The Faerie Queene’ III. Man vs beast 421 § 62. Spenser VII: ‘The Faerie Queene’ IV. The ‘Mutability Cantos’ 431 § 63. Spenser VIII: ‘Amoretti’ 433 § 64. Spenser IX: ‘Epithalamion’ and ‘Prothalamion’ 436 § 65. Spenser X: The four hymns to heavenly love 440 § 66. Ralegh, Wotton 444 § 67. Thomas Campion 451 § 68. Drayton 454 § 69. Daniel 459 § 70. Other sonneteers and pastoral poets 465 § 71. Davies and Davies of Hereford 468 § 72. Hall 471 § 73. Donne I: The holy sinner and the ‘querelle’ on concettism 474 § 74. Donne II: Biography 484 § 75. Donne III: ‘Songs and Sonnets’ I. The obsolescence of Petrarchism 487 § 76. Donne IV: ‘Songs and Sonnets’ II. Love, rescued from, and a slave to, time 493 § 77. Donne V: Elegies and epithalamia 501 § 78. Donne VI: The satires 505 § 79. Donne VII: The ‘Verse Letters’ 507 § 80. Donne VIII: The ‘Anniversaries’ 510 § 81. Donne IX: Divine poems I. ‘La Corona’ and ‘Holy Sonnets’ 514 § 82. Donne X: Divine poems II. The hymns 522 § 83. Donne XI: Treatises, libels and sermons 523 § 84. Puttenham 527 Part IV: The Elizabethan Theatre 532 § 85. Tudor masques and interludes 534 § 86. Elizabethan drama: An overview 537 § 87. The incunabula 542 § 88. Udall 548 § 89. Bale 550 § 90. ‘Gorboduc’ 553 § 91. ‘Cambyses’ 557 § 92. ‘Arden of Feversham’ 559 § 93. Kyd 562 § 94. Peele 567 § 95. Marlowe I: The apotheosis and its nemesis 571 § 96. Marlowe II: ‘Dido, Queen of Carthage’ 578 § 97. Marlowe III: ‘Tamburlaine the Great’ 580 § 98. Marlowe IV: ‘The Jew of Malta’ 583 § 99. Marlowe V: History plays 586 § 100. Marlowe VI: ‘Doctor Faustus’ I. A short history of Faustism 589 § 101. Marlowe VII: ‘Doctor Faustus’ II. The drama of irresolution 595 § 102. Marlowe VIII: ‘Hero and Leander’ 599 § 103. Marston I: The satires 601 § 104. Marston II: His theatrical career and his early retirement 604 § 105. Marston III: Plays of disguise and revenge 608 § 106. Marston IV: ‘The Malcontent’ 612 § 107. Marston V: The two city comedies 615 § 108. Marston VI: ‘Sophonisba’ 618 § 109. Marston VII: ‘The Insatiate Countess’ 619 § 110. Chapman I: ‘Homeri metaphrastes’ 621 § 111. Chapman II: Orphic and mythological poems 628 § 112. Chapman III: The comedies on the trial of chastity 633 § 113. Chapman IV: ‘Bussy D’Ambois’ and the surrendering hero 637 § 114. Chapman V: The stoic hero 642 § 115. Jonson I: Construction and deconstruction of Jonson’s classicism 644 § 116. Jonson II: The comedies of ‘humours’ 654 § 117. Jonson III: The Roman tragedies 662 § 118. Jonson IV: The tetralogy of tricksters I. ‘Volpone’ and ‘The Alchemist’ 665 § 119. Jonson V: The tetralogy of tricksters II. ‘Epicoene’ and ‘Bartholomew Fair’ 671 § 120. Jonson VI: Last Jacobean and Caroline plays 676 § 121. Jonson VII: The masques 681 § 123. Tourneur 685 § 124. Webster I: Nihilism and possibilism in the Italian trilogy 691 § 125. Webster II: ‘The White Devil’ 699 § 126. Webster III: ‘The Duchess of Malfi’. The blood taboo 704 § 127. Webster IV: ‘The Devil’s Law Case’ 709 § 128. Dekker I: The brothel syndrome 713 § 129. Dekker II: The prose 722 § 130. Middleton I: A journeyman in Olympus 723 § 131. Middleton II: Comedies set in the London gutter 727 § 132. Middleton III: The romantic comedies 731 § 133. Middleton IV: ‘Women Beware Women’. Conjugal fidelity checkmated 733 § 134. Middleton V: ‘The Changeling’. Woman is voluble, and so is man 737 § 135. Middleton VI: Other tragedies and tragicomedies 740 § 136. Middleton VII: ‘A Game at Chess’ 742 § 137. Beaumont and Fletcher I: The pliable centaur 744 § 138. Beaumont and Fletcher II: Independent plays 747 § 139. Beaumont and Fletcher III: Co-authored plays 751 § 140. Beaumont and Fletcher IV: Plays by Fletcher alone 756 § 141. Massinger I: Necessity and apology of self-sacrifice 759 § 142. Massinger II: Satires of pretentiousness 768 § 143. Massinger III: Caroline compromises 770 § 144. Ford I: The focus on incest 774 § 145. Ford II: Heroines of firmness 781 § 146. Ford III: ‘Unity is no sin’ 787 § 147. Thomas Heywood I: ‘A Woman Killed with Kindness’ 790 § 148. Thomas Heywood II: Other plays 796 § 149. Shirley I: Elegant ‘causeries’ 798 § 150. Shirley II: The demise of Elizabethan tragedy 807 Part V: The Beginnings of Narrative Prose 812 § 151. The first eclectic writers 814 § 152. Lyly I: The Euphues romances 815 § 153. Lyly II: The comedies 821 § 154. Lodge 825 § 155. Greene I: From the Arcadian euphuist to the Defoe-like realist 828 § 156. Greene II: The dramatist 835 § 157. Nashe 838 § 158. Deloney 844 § 159. The ‘Marprelate Tracts’ 848 § 160. Hooker 850 § 161. Travel literature and historical compilations 852 Index of names 856 Thematic index 878 History of English Literature is a comprehensive, eight-volume survey of English literature from the Middle Ages to the early twenty-first century. This reference work provides insightful and often revisionary readings of core texts in the English literary canon. Richly informative analyses are framed by the biographical, historical and intellectual context for each author.0Volume 1 begins by discussing Anglo-Saxon literature before focusing on the three major Middle English poets of the late fourteenth century: Gower, Langland and Chaucer. It then engages with the sixteenth-century prose romances of Sidney, the epic and lyrical poetry of Spenser, and Donne?s love and religious poems. Full coverage is devoted to the legendary fifty-year blossoming of the Elizabethan theatre (excluding Shakespeare, the object of Volume 2), from Kyd and Marlowe up to Jonson, Webster, Middleton, Ford and Shirley. The final part addresses the sixteenth-century prose works of Lyly, Greene and Nashe, homiletics by Hooker and others, and Elizabethan travel literature and historiography History of English Literature is a comprehensive, eight-volume survey of English literature from the Middle Ages to the early twenty-first century. Volume 1 covers Anglo-Saxon literature, including Gower, Langland and Chaucer, and ends with Elizabethan theatre and literature, excluding Shakespeare.