Abbreviations: NAEL (Norton Anthology of English Literature, 6^th, or 7th ed.); NAWM (Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, 5th or 6th ed.). Asterisk indicates material to be found in either NAEL or NAWM. Many of the other terms, genres, periods, etc., are briefly discussed in Holman-Harmon's A Handbook to Literature or Cuddon's and Preston's The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory

--Renaissance comes later in England than Continental Europe: 14th century in Italy vs. 16th in England

--Period and literature have several general names. Tudor = reigns of Henry VII - Elizabeth I (1485-1603); (early) Stuart = reigns of James I (of England; also James IV of Scotland) - Charles I (1603-1649), as well as the Commonwealth or Interregnum (1649-1660; 1660 = Restoration, so-called because of restoration of Charles II to throne, after period of Parliamentary domination, including Oliver Cromwell, about whom poems* are written by both Marvell and Milton). Elizabethan = Tudor period, specifically reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), or more loosely, the whole period, from 1500 to 1660. Jacobean = 1603-1640's; technically, for the reign of James (=Jacobus in Latin), 1603-1625. Caroline = lit. of reign of Charles I (=Carolus in Latin), 1625-1649; Charles executed in 1649. Civil War and Commonwealth in England from 1641/2 through 1660. Lit. of the Elizabethan period more joyous, reflecting optimistic philosophy of Pico Della Mirandola and others about humanity's possibilities, as well as rising economic prosperity and the peace achieved by Elizabeth I. Lit. of the Jacobean era gloomier, suggested by the standard term "Jacobean melancholy," reflecting the pessimistic or skeptical philosophy of Montaigne and others, as well as some economic decline and worries about what would follow the generally successful forty-five year reign of Elizabeth (cf. Elizabethan vs. Jacobean Shakespeare)

General

--period is especially strong in poetry and drama. Exuberant discovery of and inventive play with language. Has great lyric poetry (e.g., Philip Sidney*, Shakespeare*, Thomas Campion*, John Donne*, Ben Jonson*, Robert Herrick*, Andrew Marvell*, John Suckling*, Richard Lovelace*), epic (John Milton*), allegory or allegorical epic or epic allegory (Edmund Spenser*), formal verse satire (Wyatt*, Surrey*, Donne*), pastoral (Spenser*, Robert Herrick*, Andrew Marvell*, Milton*), religious poetry (George Herbert*, Donne*). Rise of English nonfiction prose, from Thomas More's History of Richard III*, through courtesy books (behavior and value manuals) or translations (Sir Thomas Hoby*, Roger Ascham*), to Philip Sidney's literary criticism*, Richard Hooker's political tract*, various authors' translations of the Bible*, John Donne's religious meditations and sermons*, Francis Bacon's essays*, Robert Burton's "anatomy"*, Izaak Walton's biographies*, and Sir Thomas Browne's philosophical meditations*. Beginnings of prose fiction in George Gascoigne, John Lyly*, Philip Sidney*

Poetry

--John Skelton (1460-1529)*, a transitional figure from late Medieval to early Renaissance poetry; medieval moralizing, concerns about the Church, and allegorical satire, but also interest in new learning and exuberant play with language. Uses "skeltonics" or "tumbling verse" (short lines, lots of same rhyme in a row); English Renaissance analogue of "rap" music

--Thomas Wyatt (1503-42)*, with younger contemporary Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (="Surrey")* (1517-47), introduces sonnet (both Italian form of octave/sestet, and English form of three quatrains and clinching couplet) and Petrarchism (=language and courtly love conventions and sonnets of Petrarch* [see NAWM]), by way of their experience of Continental literature, especially Italian. Wyatt rhythmically rougher, more dramatic than Surrey's smoother regularity; Wyatt acerbic (theme of inconstancy and betrayal in love, life, politics) vs. Surrey's more conventional Petrarchism or Petrarchanism (unrequited, suffering lover). Wyatt's language often plainer or blunter, enhanced by refrain lines (which also accent bitterness, irony). Surrey introduces blank verse via his translation* of part of Vergil's Aeneid.

--development of the Renaissance sonnet. Petrarchism (or Petrarchanism) and sonneteering become the vogue via dissemination of Wyatt and Surrey in Tottel's Miscellany (1557)*, formally titled Songs and Sonnets written by . . . Surrey and other. Sir Philip Sidney in Astrophel [or] Astrophil and Stella* ("star lover" and "star"), develops sonnet sequence (vague story, as in Petrarch's sonnets to Laura) (1580's; published 1591), use of witty conceits (ingenious, often extended figures), and often ironic reversals in concluding couplet. Spenser in Amoretti* ("little loves"; 1595) has, typically, more moral tinge and straightforward Neoplatonism (cf. Sidney's ironic use of Neoplatonic struggle between body and mind). Shakespeare in sonnets* (1590s to early 1600s; published 1609) has some sequence (poet, friend, dark lady, rival poet), variety of themes (procreation, immortalizing through progeny or poetry, friendship, love, lust, old age), and as with Sidney, some anti-Petrarchism, as in Shakespeare's "My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun" (cf. the album/CD by Sting with this title). Samuel Daniel's Delia* and Michael Drayton's Idea* other sequences of the '90s into early 1600s (with revision). Donne's Holy Sonnets* (early 17th cent.) with Metaphysical, religious cast. John Milton's sonnets* (1630s - 1650s) have serious or solemn tone about autobiographical concerns (aging, blindness) and Puritan religion and politics (Milton on Puritan side, against Charles I)

-- Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)*, English-born and university-educated but spends most of life in Ireland (cf. Jonathan Swift); the poet's poet of the sixteenth century, using great variety of forms, including Spenserian stanza (9 lines; 8 iambic pentameter, 9th = alexandrine; a-b-a-b-b-c-b-c-c-c) and Spenserian modification (linked progression of rhymes) of the sonnet rhyme scheme. Spenser's poetry, unlike virtually all others' of the period, printed in its archaic- or old-spelling form, because of Spenser's intentional archaism in language and his wordplay involving archaic spelling. The Shepheardes Calender* (1579) a pastoral, with twelve poems all in pastoral dialogue form (shepherds speaking) but with differing stanzaic and rhyme patterns = twelve months, dealing symbolically or allegorically with general human problems (e.g., love, nature, city vs. country, sophisticated vs. simple), literary problems (trying times for authors, what genres to practice). Condemned by Sidney in "The Defence of Poesy"* for archaism (amongst discussion of other pastoral poetry). The Faerie Queene (Books I-III, 1590; Books I-VI, 1596)*, dedicated to Spenser's patron Sir Walter Ralegh* (himself an important poet and prose writer), an allegorical romance epic or epic romance allegory, based on King Arthur and St. George (plus the inevitable flattering portrait of Elizabeth I), about England and the true Church (= Puritan Church); has multiple levels (general, specific religious, specific historical or political). Each book about a specific virtue. Book I* (about true Holiness) features Redcross Knight, Una, a dwarf, King Arthur, and the villains (among others) Archimago and Duessa. Book II* = Temperance, featuring Sir Guyon; Book III* = Chastity, featuring female knight Britomart. Famous parts include Bower of Bliss (Book III), and pessimistic "Mutability Cantos" to be fitted into some unfinished book of the work. Two longish marriage poems, "Prothalamium" and "Epithalamium" (1595)*, among most famous in the language; see complicated numerological symbolism of the latter explained in NAEL

--other important Tudor lyric poets are Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)*, with his longish romantic "Hero and Leander"* and pastoral "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love"*, the latter evoking numerous satiric replies (from Marlowe's time down to today), including Sir Walter Ralegh's "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd"* and John Donne's "The Bait"*. Ralegh's poems* skeptical and tart, often gloomy (much gloom, including long imprisonment and execution, in Ralegh's life). Thomas Campion (1567-1620)* like Daniel* and Drayton* straddles Tudor and Stuart periods; Campion has pure impersonal (though often ironic) lyric voice, characteristic of Tudor period (contrast to more personal, distinctive voice of Stuart poets Donne, Jonson, or Herbert) and poems written as lyrics to be sung to melody and accompanying instrument (famous example is "There Is a Garden in Her Face" with various metaphorical equivalents of the lady's charms, plus the partly ironic refrain, "which none may buy/ Till 'Cherry ripe!' themselves do cry").

--John Donne (1572-1631)*, fountainhead of one of two "schools" dominating Stuart poetry, schools of Donne and (Ben) Jonson (1572-1637)*. Donne famous in his lyrics* (whether secular or religious) for colloquialism, dramatic voice, intensity, conceits (e.g., comparison of separation of lovers to two legs of compass or gold hammered into ultrafine sheet in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"*), and ratiocination (a sense that the speaker is really thinking, cleverly, his way through what he's talking about). Adds up to "Metaphysical" movement, condemned by Dr. Samuel Johnson in 18th century, especially for the conceits (cf. Johnson's "Lives of the Poets: Cowley"*). Typical themes are unity (often put with paradox, a favorite device of Donne, as "one" = "two") vs. separation/diversity, constancy / fidelity vs. inconstancy/infidelity, whether in secular or religious poems. Racy love poems (equated with identity of "Jack Donne"), as well as serious philosophical and religious poems (equated with identity of "Dr. Donne" [of St. Paul's]). Important also in prose for his Devotions upon Emergent Occasions* and sermons*.

--Lyrics of Ben Jonson (1572-1637)* more judgmental and neoclassical than Donne's (even to the use of couplets), partly through the heavy influence of classical Roman poets (e.g., Catullus, Horace) on Jonson. Fewer distinctive fireworks than Donne. "Sons of Ben" or "Tribe of Ben" (=school of Jonson; self-proclaimed; cf. Herrick's "His Prayer to Ben Jonson"* and Thomas Carew's "To Ben Jonson"*) include Robert Herrick (1591-1674)*, Thomas Carew (1595-1640; pronounced "Carey")*, Sir John Suckling (1609-1642)*, and, to a certain extent Edmund Waller (1606-87)*. Herrick, Carew, Suckling often grouped as "The Cavalier Poets": a pure lyric style (cf. Campion), emphasis on secular (including secular love), sympathy with King Charles (and royal cause) against the Puritans (complete with anti-Puritanism in poems).

-- Herrick's* short secular lyrics (1,130 collected in Hesperides, title reflecting pastoral) often pastoral, dealing with rural flora, fauna, practices (and using imagery of these); famous for poems on clothes (e.g., "Delight in Disorder"* and "Upon Julia's Clothes"*, advocating variety, and suggesting sensuality and sexuality), carpe diem ("Corinna's Going A-Maying"*, "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time"*), and aesthetic sensuality or eroticism (e.g., "The Vine"*, "Upon the Nipples of Julia's Breasts"*). A clergyman, Herrick wrote 272 religious lyrics, collected in Noble Numbers (numbers = word for poetry in Renaissance), as in last selections of NAEL.

--Carew* (pronounced Carey as in "carry") does thoughtful literary criticism in verse ("An Elegy"*, "To Ben Jonson"*) and frank sensuality ("Song: Persuasions to Enjoy"*, "A Song: 'Ask Me No More'"*, "A Rapture"). Suckling*, from the plain-speaking, ironic Wyatt school, has satiric or ironic touches in his love poetry. 3 of 4 selections by Lovelace* in NAEL represent the political Cavalier lyric, focusing on war, honor (vs. love), and friendship (vs. oppressive political environment of Puritanism): famous lines from Lovelace are "I could not love thee, dear, so much,/ Loved I not honor more" ("To Lucasta, Going to the Wars"*) and "Stone walls do not a prison make,/ Nor iron bars a cage" ("To Althea, from Prison"*)

--Sacred or religious poetry in Stuart period represented by George Herbert (1593-1633)*, Richard Crashaw (1613-1649)*, Henry Vaughan (1621-1695)*, and Thomas Traherne (1637-1674)*. Leader of this school is Herbert, himself influenced by Donne's metaphysical wit, but asserting (in several poems about poetry*) that it can be better applied in religious poetry to religious subjects. About 160 poems in The Temple (1633), of great virtuosity, including shaped poems (carmen figuratum; poems, like "The Altar"* and "Easter Wings"* that actually have those shapes, the pictorial form and thematic form interacting), anagrams, acrostics, pruning poem, wreath poems, and echo poems, along with ingeniously expressive use of rhyme, metaphor, paradox, pun, etc. A theme, as well as related technique, of Herbert's (cf. Wyatt) is the conflict and contrast between plain and fancy diction. Vaughan* influenced by, and alludes to Herbert. Crashaw* represents Baroque influence, partly through Continental visual arts, with wild imagery. Traherne* represents, along with certain Vaughan poems, proto-Romanticism, in emphasis on yearning to return to purity of childhood

--Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)*, like Milton*, stands outside, or above, the schools of Donne* and Jonson*, and the contrast between secular and sacred verse in the Stuart era. Also, Marvell in verse satire, using couplet form, straddles the Restoration period and can be considered, with Dryden, a Restoration verse satirist, as well as a Stuart lyric poet. Many pastoral poems, with subtle use of the pastoral form for both straightforward and ironic effects. Metaphysical tinge in imagery, irony, and emphatic thoughtfulness shows in "To His Coy Mistress"*; Puritan sympathies show in "Bermudas"* and partly in "An Horatian Ode" (about Cromwell)*. Marvell managed to placate both Puritans and Royalists, and thus was able to intervene to keep Milton, who had been strenuously Puritan (and had written a tract defending the execution of Charles I, which didn't sit very well with Charles II, in the Restoration), from more severe consequences than the virtual "house arrest" which was imposed on Milton from 1660 until Milton's death in 1674.

--Milton (1608-1674)* has one of literature's most famous pastoral elegies in "Lycidas" [1637]* (about the death of a friend, Edward King); see also Dr. Johnson's negative comment in NAEL about the poem. Milton experimented, via Italian models, with the caudated sonnet (sonnets with "tails," or extra lines)*. He wrote the Masque (a short drama, with little action, much use of special effects, for and starring members of the nobility) Comus, also known a A Masque at Ludlow Castle (1637). Religious poetry other than Paradise Lost (1667, 1674)* represented by "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity"*, Samson Agonistes: A Dramatic Poem (1671)*, and Paradise Regained. Miltonic style in Paradise Lost (what is referred to as Milton's "grand style")* has great impact for a century or more (cf. Pope's use of "dire" and other favorite Miltonic words, along with rising-falling imagery, light-dark imagery, in Pope's Rape of the Lock and Essay on Man). See also Dr. Johnson's comment* as well as Joseph Addison's comment* in the eighteenth century on Paradise Lost.

Drama (abbreviations: st = approximate date staged; pub = published)

--origins: three contributing streams to English Renaissance drama are medieval Church liturgical drama, the very late medieval Interlude, and the very early Renaissance discovery of the classical Roman drama of Seneca (for tragedy) and Plautus and Terence (for comedy). (1) From quem quaeritis ('whom do you seek') trope in service for Easter (scene at the tomb) comes enacting longer dramas, which become too elaborate and boisterous to continue staging in church and move outdoors. These develop into the medieval miracle (dealing with miracles and saints), mystery (based on Biblical stories, and staged by the guilds, such as shoemakers, the old word for which was "mystery"), and morality (religious and allegorical, such as Everyman*) plays. (See also The Second Shepherd's Play*.) (2) The Interlude develops from the morality play, and deals with central, secular characters, often in an amusing way. Medieval mystery and morality plays, as well as Interludes, continue to be staged, often in the countryside, throughout the English Renaissance. Arguably, Iago and Falstaff are versions or developments of the Vice character from the medieval morality plays. (3) The discovery of the Classics in the Renaissance leads to reading and imitation of the bloody Senecan tragedy (leading to both "tragedies of blood" and "revenge tragedies") and Plautine or Terentian comedies of intrigue, twins, and double plots (e.g., Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors)

--earliest Ren. dramas by John Heywood (1497-1580) [The Four PP: A New and Very Merry Interlude of a Palmer, a Pardoner, an Apothecary, a Pedlar (st 1523; pub 1545)], John Bale's history play King Johan (c. 1538), Thomas Preston's Tragedy . . . of Cambises (c. 1569). Academic (nonprofessional) drama (staged in and by university teachers and students) included Nicholas Udall's comedy Ralph Roister Doister (st 1535, pub 1566), Mr. S's comedy Gammer Gurton's Needle (st 1553, pub 1575) and Thomas Sackville's and Thomas Norton's tragedy Gorboduc, or Freerex and Porrex (st 1561-62). Dramas staged at court by courtiers (or wouldbe courtiers) include George Gascoigne's comedy Supposes (1566) and the plays of John Lyly.

--public theater (see model drawing in Appendix of NAEL, vol. 1) develops from Pageant wagons, booth stages of medieval period, as well as typical inn courtyards and the bull- and bearbaiting rings. Public theaters located outside city limits to avoid Puritannical city father prohibitions. Private theaters on royal property inside city limits but not under city fathers' jurisdictions

--main genres of early plays (continued throughout period) are (a) revenge tragedy, as in Thomas Kyd's Spanish Tragedy (c. 1586); (b) "fall of princes" tragedy as in Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine (c. 1587); (c) the chronicle play, as in Christopher Marlowe's Edward II and Shakespeare's history plays; (d) (romantic) comedy, as in George Peele's Old Wives' Tale (c. 1590) and Robert Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1590); (e) domestic tragedy as in the anonymous Arden of Feversham (1592) and Thomas Heywood's A Woman Killed with Kindness (c. 1603)

--later developments in genres are (f) the comedy of humours (as in Ben Jonson's Every Man in His Humor (1598) and Every Man Out of His Humor (1599); (g) Jacobean city comedy, such as Jonson's The Alchemist (1610), and comedies by Chapman, Dekker, and Marston; (h) the masque (short, poetic, not much plot, with elaborate special effects & costumes, staged at court by nobility), as in Ben Jonson's Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue*; (i) the tragicomedy and romance, as in several plays by Beaumont and Fletcher, whose popularity Shakespeare capitalizes on in his final romance plays (Bill knew what was making and would make money)

--main pre-Shakespearean dramatists are John Lyly (1554-1606) [Galathea (c. 1587), Endymion (c. 1588)], George Peele (1557-96) [The Arraignment of Paris (1584), The Old Wives' Tale (1590), Edward I (1593)], Robert Greene (1560-92) [Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (st 1590; pub 1594), Thomas Kyd (1558-94) [The Spanish Tragedy or Hieronimo Is Mad Again (c. 1586)], and Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)*

--Marlowe* shows the dramatists of the English Renaissance how blank verse could be done, and was very influential, including on Shakespeare; famous for his "mighty line" (gorgeous and high-sounding language) and "overreacher" characters (including the titular heroes of Tamburlaine and Dr. Faustus [c. 1590])*; terrific use of stage effects, such as the firecrackers, exploding appearance and disappearance of devils, the false leg that comes off in the hostler's hand, and the ascending and descending heavenly throne (1616 version; not 1604 version) in Dr. Faustus*; the considerably differing 1604 and 1616 versions of Dr. Faustus demonstrate the textual and bibliographical problem of establishing the best or authoritative text of a literary work, as well as how staging conditions affect a dramatic work

--Shakespeare's contemporaries: (a) Ben Jonson (1572-1637)*; (b) George Chapman (1559-1634) [realistic comedy All Fools (c. 1599-1604), "fall of princes" tragedy Bussy D'Ambois (c. 1604)]; (c) John Marston (1575-1634) [revenge tragedies Antonio's Revenge (c. 1599) and The Malcontent (1604); the latter of these two makes "the malcontent" a popular stock character--as in Hamlet's title character--and as referred to, by this term, in John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi* (in the character Bosola); realistic comedy The Dutch Courtesan (c. 1603-05)]; (d) Thomas Dekker (c. 1570-c. 1632) [romantic comedy The Shoemaker's Holiday (1599), with popular focus on the middle class; sensational tragedy of The Honest Whore (1604); (e) Thomas Heywood (c. 1575-1641) [domestic tragedy A Woman Killed with Kindness (c. 1603), again focus on the middle class; Thomas Middleton; (f) Thomas Middleton (c. 1570-1627), comedies Michaelmas Term (c. 1604-06) and A Trick to Catch the Old One (c. 1604-07); sensational tragedy, in collaboration with William Rowley, The Changeling (c. 1622)

--Ben Jonson* founds the "humor" or "humour" play, focusing on the idiosyncracy or bent (the "humor," from the ancient and medieval concept of the "theory of the humors" or four fluids determining personality) of each character; he writes about Roman subjects (cf. Shakespeare's Roman plays) in his tragedies Sejanus (1603) and Catiline (1611), but is most famous for comedies that deal with knaves seeking to outwit gulls in a degraded society; Epicene, or The Silent Woman (1609-10) is admired by and discussed at length by Dryden in Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy (Restoration, 18th century)*; Bartholomew Fair (1614; pronounced "bar'-tel-mee") satirizes the Puritans (one character is Zeal-of-the-land Busy), against the backdrop of Britain's most famous marketplace and recreation center; Volpone, or the Fox (1605-06)* is a Jacobean city comedy transplated into Venice, with various characters (all named after animals, as in beast fable, and most of the characters act bestially except the conventional hero and heroine) legacy-hunting after the supposedly-dying Volpone's riches (his dying-out-of-business sale runs indefinitely in order to keep acquiring gifts that are aimed at getting the giver into his will); condemnation of whole society in demonstration of faulty court system

--late in Shakespeare's career and post-Shakespearean dramatists: (a) Francis Beaumont (1584-1616) and John Fletcher (1579-1625) [The Maid's Tragedy (c. 1608-11); tragicomedy of Philaster, or, Love Lies A-Bleeding (c. 1609-10); by Beaumont alone, mock heroic comedy, satirizing middle class The Knight of the Burning Pestle (c. 1607-10); by Fletcher alone, tragicomedy The Faithful Shepherdess (c. 1608-09)]; (b) Cyril Tourneur (c. 1580-1626) [revenge tragedies The Revenger's Tragedy (pub 1607) and The Atheist's Tragedy (1611)] (c) John Webster (c. 1580-c. 1625) [sensational tragedies The White Devil (c. 1607-12) and The Duchess of Malfi (c. 1612-14)*]; (d) Philip Massinger (1583-1640) [comedy A New Way to Pay Old Debts (c. 1621-25), tragicomedy The Maid of Honour (c. 1621-32), sensational tragedy, with Nathaniel Field, The Fatal Dowry (c. 1618-19)]; (e) John Ford (1586-c. 1640) [sensational tragedies 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (c. 1625-33) and The Broken Heart (c. 1625-33); domestic tragedy The Witch of Edmonton (1621)]; (f) James Shirley (1596-1666) [sensational tragedy The Cardinal (1641); comedy Hyde Park (1632)]

--Webster's The Duchess of Malfi* is pervaded by the imagery of decay, corruption, and disease, reflecting on not only the sick Italian society but by extension the sick world of Webster's own time (the dark view of the Jacobean period and Jacobean melancholy). Famous lines from the play include "I am the Duchess of Malfi still" (when the Duchess remains tragically and heroically uncontaminated by the machinations and evil of those around her, particularly her own brothers, one of whom has an implied incestuous crush), "we are the stars' tennis balls" (uttered by Bosola, the malcontent, who converts from bad to good, but to no effect, suggesting a dark view of the world's ways), and "cover her face; mine eyes dazzle; she died young" (uttered by the incestuous brother who has ordered that the Duchess be driven mad and then murdered; line is the source of a title of one of English writer P.D. James' detective novels)

--English Renaissance drama in effect ended when Puritans come into power and theaters closed, 1642

Nonfiction Prose

--beginnings are The History of King Richard III (pub 1557)* by Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)*, whose rhetorical prose style (balance, antithesis, alliteration) portrays in the NAEL excerpt contrasts between Richard III's villainy and Jane Shore's goodness, Richard III's appearance vs. his reality, etc. (a distorted view through Tudor propaganda, but basis of subsequent presentations, including Shakespeare's); The Book Named the Governor (1531), a combination courtesy and educational tract (to tell the rising middle class and nobility how to act and be cultured; often referred to simply as The Governor), by Sir Thomas Elyot (c. 1490-1546); Toxophilus (1545), a dialogue on archery and much more (Cf. Robert Persig's Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance), and The Scholemaster (pub 1570)*, an educational and cultural treatise, by Roger Ascham (1515-68); The Courtier (1561), combination courtesy and educational tract, as translated from the Italian of Baldassare Castiglione (see the modern English translation in NAWM) by Sir Thomas Hoby (1530-66)*, with Neoplatonic discussion of a kiss and sensual love leading to higher things (cf. Plato's Symposium); and Acts and Monuments (often referred to as Foxe's Martyrs) (1561, plus many later editions)* by John Foxe (1516-87) vividly and dramatically describing Protestant martyrdoms (mainly for anti-Catholic propaganda). Marvelous prose in the sermons of Hugh Latimer (1485-1555), most famous sermon being "Sermon of the Plough." Written in Latin (and thus uneasy in English literature), and a combination of fiction, satire, and philosophical treatise on politics and culture is Sir Thomas More's Utopia (1516)*, which gives us the word and concept of the ideal society

--mature Elizabethan prose represented by The Defence of Poesy (also called An Apology for Poetry, because of the work's being published by two different, competing publishers) (1580's; pub 1595)*, literary criticism containing theory of poetry (defense against Puritans' and Plato's charges) plus sweeping historical review from ancients through Renaissance, by Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586); Pierce Penniless, His Supplication to the Devil (usually, just Pierce Penniless) (1592)*, wide-ranging satire of British society, with comic invective and most exuberant prose of the period, by Thomas Nashe (1567-1601), who got into a pamphlet war of invective with Gabriel Harvey that ended up with the burning of their books and prohibition of any more; and Of The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1594, 1597)*, combination political and religious treatise, moderate reasoned defense against Puritan assertions, by Richard Hooker (1554-1600).

--other important Elizabethan prose includes the several pamphlets on society, crime, and lowlife (e.g., A Notable Discsovery of Cozenage and A Groatsworth of Wit) by Robert Greene (1560-92); and the historical pamphlet on Guiana and the general history A History of the World* (pub 1614) by Sir Walter Ralegh (1552-1618)

--Stuart era and seventeenth century has highpoint of distinctive nonfiction prose stylists. (a) Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions* (each piece composed of the three parts of meditation, expostulation, devotion) and sermons* of John Donne, with rich metaphor (e.g., "no man is an island," "ask not whom the bell tolls for," both from Meditation 17*). (b) Milton's educational tract ("Of Education"), political tracts defending Puritanism (e.g., The Reason of Church Government Urged Against Prelaty*), and defense of free press (Areopagitica*). (c) Francis Bacon (1561-1626) introduces the short, pithy essay into English, with his Essays (important editions 1597, 1612, 1625)*. Also, The Advancement of Learning (1605)*, and in Latin Novum Organum (1620; lit. 'New Instrument')*, with key concept of various "idols" (misconceptions, distortions of values) such as those of the cave or tribe. (d) Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) writes shrewd and skeptical political science treatise Leviathan (1651)*. (e) Thomas Fuller (1608-61) describes general matters and particular types of individuals in The Holy State and Profane State (1642). (f) Jeremy Taylor (1613-67), clergyman, has poetic style in his religious writings The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living (1650) and The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying (1651). (g) Robert Burton (1577-1640) writes the encyclopedic, quirky The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)*, ostensibly about sadness, but really about everything that Burton thinks and has read, plus reams of allusions, Latin quotations, and footnotes. (h) Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82), physician, philosophically meditates about his religion and the world around him in Religio Medici (1643; lit., 'A Physician's Religion')* and Hydriotaphia, Urne-Burial (1658)*. (i) Izaak Walton (1593-1683) does the first major biographies, including his The Life of Donne (1640)*, plus his dialogue about fishing (and broader philosophical ramifications) in The Compleat Angler (1653) (referred to repeatedly in the British science fiction series Dr. Who).

--also important in the period are (a) dramatist Thomas Dekker (1570-1632), whose amusing satirical pamphlets culminate in the Gull's Handbook (1609), with directions for how to act like a jerk (with separate chapter on how to act like a jerk attending a play); (b) Sir Thomas Overbury (A Wife [1614 and later edd.], John Earle (Microcosmographie [1628], and dramatist John Webster (contributor to later editions of Overbury work, and influence of this form can be seen in Webster's The Duchess of Malfi*), authors of "the character," a short and often satirical character sketch, modeled on those of Greek writer Theophrastus; (c) and representing women's contribution, plus feminine views and concerns of the period, Lady Anne Halkett's Memoirs* and Dorothy Osborne's Letters*

Prose Fiction

--whether considered novels or romances, fictional works develop from George Gascoigne's The Adventures of Master F.J. (important editions 1573, 1576), a mixture of prose and verse, dealing with intrigues at a castle; John Lyly's Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578)*, a bildungsroman, whose elaborate prose style (balance, antithesis, alliteration, assonance, even rhyme) creates "euphuism" (first the rage, then a satiric target, as in Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost); Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia (1580-93)*, a romance pastoral with disguised couples, exciting adventures, occasional brilliant lyric poems; Robert Greene's Panadosto (1588); Thomas Lodge's Rosalind (1590), a pastoral romance used as one of Shakespeare's principal sources for As You Like It; Thomas Nashe's more realistic (and novelistic) picaresque tale (a story of a picaro or "rogue, vagabond")The Unfortunate Traveler, or the Life of Jack Wilton (1594); and Thomas Deloney's more realistic (dealing with middle class) and novelistic Jack of Newbury (1597) (focus on clothiers), Thomas of Reading (1598) (focus on Weavers, set in reign of Henry I), and The Gentle Craft (1597; pub 1637) (focus on shoemakers and source of Dekker's play Shoemaker's Holiday [1599])

--short prose fiction enters modern (Renaissance) English literature, like the sonnet, through translation; pioneers of short prose fiction in the Renaissance were Giovanni Boccaccio* in his Decameron* and Marguerite of Navarre* in the collection Heptameron*; both of these are culled and translated, along with short narratives from Livy, Aulus Gellius, Matteo Bandello, and others in one of the earliest short prose fiction anthologies (used as a sourcebook by Shakespeare and other English Renaissance dramatists), by William Painter, in two volumes, 1566-1567, entitled respectively The Palace of Pleasure: Beautified, Adorned, and Well Furnished with Pleasant Histories and Excellent Novelles, Selected Out of Diverse Good and Commendable Authors and The Second Tome of the Palace of Pleasure, Containing Store of Goodly Histories, Tragical Matters, and Other Moral Argument Very Requisite for Delight and Profit, Chosen and Selected Out of Diverse Good and Commendable Authors