The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Archive

The Middle Ages
The Sixteenth Century
The Early Seventeenth Century
The Restoration and Eighteenth Century
The Romantic Period
The Victorian Age
The Twentieth Century

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Also in the archives: Overview : Alphabetical Index : Audio Readings

The Middle Ages
	- MANKIND - THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE [Henry of Poitou Becomes Abbot of Peterborough] [The Reign of King Stephen] - THE BATTLE OF MALDON - THE BROME PLAY OF ABRAHAM AND ISAAC - WILLIAM CAXTON Preface to Morte Darthur - GEOFFREY CHAUCER The Canterbury Tales The Merchant's Tale The Introduction The Tale The Epilogue The Franklin's Tale The Introduction The Prologue The Tale The Tale of Sir Thopas The Introduction The Tale The Parson's Tale The Remedy Against Lechery The Parliament of Fowls To Rosamond - LLUDD AND LLEUELYS - MEDIEVAL ATTITUDES TOWARD LIFE ON EARTH Contempt for the World Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy Triumph Over the World The Last Journey A Change in Perspective “Beauty That Must Die” [Ubi Sunt Qui ante Nos Fuerunt] François Villon: The Ballad of Dead Ladies The Goddess Fortune Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy Fortune Defends Herself Dante: Fortune an Agent of God's Will “Life Is Sweet” A Vision of Nature in Piers Plowman Aucassin and Nicolette Aucassin Renounces Paradise From The Land of Cockaigne - MIDDLE ENGLISH LYRICS In Praise of Brunettes The Appreciative Drinker A Charm Against the Night Goblin The Blacksmiths Earth Took of Earth Spring Has Come with Love The Henpecked Husband A Bitter Lullaby - AN OLD ENGLISH RIDDLE The Bow - SIR ORFEO - PIERS PLOWMAN Passus 5: The Confession of Envy Passus 5: The Confession of Gluttony - POPULAR BALLADS Edward Hind Horn Judas Robin Hood and the Three Squires
The Sixteenth Century
	- ANONYMOUS LYRICS Back and Side Go Bare, Go Bare In Praise of a Contented Mind Though Amaryllis Dance in Green Constant Penelope Sends to Thee The Queen’s Champion Retires The Shepherd’s Consort Come Away, Come, Sweet Love! Thule, the Period of Cosmography Madrigal ("My love in her attire doth show her wit") Weep You No More, Sad Fountains The Silver Swan An Exhortation Concerning Good Order and Obedience to Rulers and Magistrates The Book of Homilies - ROGER ASCHAM Comeliness - THOMAS CAMPION When Thou Must Home to Shades of Underground What If a Day Never Love Unless You Can Rose-cheeked Laura Think’st Thou to Seduce Me Then - SAMUEL DANIEL From Delia From Musophilus [Imperial Eloquence] - SIR JOHN DAVIES From Orchestra - THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROSE STYLE Sir John Cheke [Our Own Tongue Clean and Pure] The Bible Translations of the Twenty-third Psalm Sir Philip Sidney From Arcadia Philip Stubbes From The Anatomy of Abuses William Bullein From A Dialogue Against the Pestilence [Travelers’ Tales] - MICHAEL DRAYTON Idea - SIR EDWARD DYER My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is - RICHARD EDWARDS Amantium Irae Amoris Redintegratio Est - JOHN FOXE From Acts and Monuments - HUGH LATIMER Sermon of the Plowers - GEORGE GASCOIGNE Gascoigne’s Lullaby Woodmanship Farewell with a Mischief The Lullaby of a Lover - FULKE GREVILLE, LORD BROOKE From Mustapha [Chorus Sacerdotum] - ARTHUR GOLDING from Ovid's Metamorphoses The Four Ages - HAKLUYT’S VOYAGES From A Brief and True Report An Extract of Master Ralph Lane’s Letter - MARY (SIDNEY) HERBERT, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE To the Angel Spirit of Sir Philip Sidney Psalm 58 Si Vere Utique - SIR THOMAS HOBY The Courtier - RICHARD HOOKER Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity From The Preface [On Moderation in Controversy] From Book 1, Chapter 8 [On the Scope of the Several Laws] From Book 1, Chapter 10 [The Foundations of Society] From Book 1, Chapter 12 [The Need for Revealed Law] From Book 1, Chapter 16 [Conclusion] - HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY The Fourth Book of Virgil [The Hunt] The Second Book of Virgil [Hector Warns Aeneas to Flee Troy] Set Whereas the Sun Doth Parch the Green Give Place, Ye Lovers, Here Before - JOHN LYLY Cupid and My Campaspe - “MARTIN MARPRELATE” Hay Any Work for Cooper - THOMAS NASHE Spring, the Sweet Spring Pierce Penniless, His Supplication to the Devil An Invective Against Enemies of Poetry [The Defense of Plays] From The Unfortunate Traveler, or The Life of Jack Wilton [Roman Summer] - GEORGE PEELE Fair and Fair - SIR WALTER RALEGH A Report of the Truth of the Fight About the Isles of Azores This Last Summer Betwixt the Revenge, One of Her Majesty’s Ships, and an Armada of the King of Spain Walsinghame - WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE SONGS FROM THE PLAYS When Daisies Pied Spring Winter The Woosel Cock So Black of Hue Tell Me Where Is Fancy Bred Sigh No More, Ladies Under the Greenwood Tree Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind It Was a Lover and His Lass Oh Mistress Mine Take, Oh, Take Those Lips Away Hark, Hark! the Lark Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun When Daffodils Begin to Peer Full Fathom Five Where the Bee Sucks, There Suck I SONNETS 56 ("Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said") 104 ("To me, fair friend, you never can be old") 118 ("Like as, to make our appetites more keen") 121 ("’Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed") 124 ("If my dear love were but the child of state") 128 ("How oft when thou, my music, music play’st") The Phoenix and the Turtle King Henry the Fourth, Part I - SIR PHILIP SIDNEY Astrophil and Stella 7 ("When Nature made her chief work, Stella's eyes") 39 ("Come Sleep! O sleep the certain knot of peace") 61 ("Off with true sights, oft with uncallèd tears") The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia The Absent Urania Kalander Tells About Basilus The Country of Arcadia - JOHN SKELTON Upon a Dead Man's Head To Mistress Margaret Hussey Colin Clout [The Spirituality vs. the Temporality] - EDMUND SPENSER From Amoretti Sonnet 15 ("Ye tradefull merchants, that with weary toyle") Sonnet 35 ("My hungry eyes through greedy covetize") Sonnet 59 ("Thrise happie she, that is so well assured") Sonnet 70 (“Fresh spring the herald of loves mighty king”) THE FAERIE QUEENE Book II. The Cave of Mammon Book III. Contayning the Legend of Britomartis, or of Chastitie Book VII. Mutabilitie Cantos Canto VI Canto VII The VIII Canto, unperfite An Hymne in Honour of Beautie - CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE Tichborne’s Elegy - ISABELLA WHITNEY Will and Testament - SIR THOMAS WYATT (the Elder) Like to the Unmeasurable Mountains Lux, My Fair Falcon Tangled I Was in Love’s Snare In Spain And wilt thou leave me thus?
The Early Seventeenth Century
	- TOPICS OF THE 17TH CENTURY The Varieties of Wit The Unicorn: End of a Legend - ANONYMOUS The Power of Money Tom a Bedlam - JOHN AUBREY The Life of Thomas Hobbes - SIR ROBERT AYTOUN To an Inconstant One - FRANCIS BEAUMONT AND JOHN FLETCHER Songs from The Faithful Shepherdess Songs from Valentinian Songs from The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray’s Inn - WILLIAM BROWNE On the Countess Dowager of Pembroke - ROBERT BURTON The Anatomy of Melancholy - THOMAS CAREW Song The Second Rapture Disdain Returned Song (Persuasions to Enjoy) - ELIZABETH CARY The Tragedy of Mariam, The Fair Queen of Jewry - JOHN CLEVELAND Mark Antony - ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, FIRST EARL OF SHAFTESBURY A Character of Henry Hastings - ABIEZER COPPE A Fiery Flying Roll - RICHARD CORBET A Proper New Ballad: The Fairies’ Farewell, or God-A-Mercy Will - ABRAHAM COWLEY The Wish To Mr. Hobbes To the Royal Society - RICHARD CRASHAW Luke 7 On Our Crucified Lord, Naked and Bloody - SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT A Song - JOHN DONNE Devotions upon Emergent Occasions: Meditation XI Twicknam Garden To the Countess of Bedford The Curse Lovers’ Infiniteness The Storm Elegy I. Jealousy Elegy IV. The Perfume Paradoxes and Problems Sermon LXV: On the Weight of Eternal Glory Sermon LXXVI: On Falling Out of God’S Hand A Nocturnal upon Saint Lucy’s Day, Being the Shortest Day The Blossom A Lecture upon the Shadow Holy Sonnet 17 ("Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt") - EDWARD, LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY Sonnet of Black Beauty - JOSEPH HALL Sir Thomas Overbury and John Earle - ROBERT HAYMAN Of the Great and Famous - GEORGE HERBERT Temptation Anagram Hope Sin’s Round Love Unknown Aaron The Altar Redemption Easter Wings Jordan (1) The Collar The Pulley The Flower Love (3) - ROBERT HERRICK An Ode for Him Discontents in Devon Upon a Child That Died Oberon’s Feast The Pillar of Fame His Grange, or Private Wealth Upon His Spaniel Tracy To Lar The Lily in a Crystal To Blossoms To the Water Nymphs Drinking at the Fountain - LUCY HUTCHINSON Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson - EDWARD HYDE, EARL OF CLARENDON The History of the Rebellion - BEN JONSON It Was a Beauty That I Saw An Elegy Gypsy Songs The Vision of Delight An Ode To William Camden On Don Surly In the Person of Womankind Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount Epitaph on Elizabeth, L. H. A Celebration of Charis in Ten Lyric Pieces Though I Am Young Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue - HENRY KING The Exequy - JOHN LILBURNE The Picture of the Council of State - RICHARD LOVELACE The Snail - ANDREW MARVELL Mourning On Paradise Lost - JOHN MILTON At a Solemn Music When the Assault Was Intended to the City A Book Was Writ of Late Called Tetrachordon Lawrence, of Virtuous Father Virtuous Son Of Education Comus To My Friend, Mr. Henry Lawes, on His Airs Paradise Lost: The Arguments Samson Agonistes - DOROTHY OSBORNE The Letters of Dorothy Osborne ["Servants"] [Fighting with Brother John] - CHARLES SACKVILLE, EARL OF DORSET Song - SIR CHARLES SEDLEY Song - JAMES SHIRLEY Dirge - JOHN SKELTON Upon a Dead Man’s Head To Mistress Margaret Hussey Colin Clout - RACHEL SPEGHT A Dream - THOMAS SPRAT The History of the Royal Society - JAMES STEWART, KING JAMES I The True Law of Free Monarchies - SIR JOHN SUCKLING A Song to a Lute - JEREMY TAYLOR Gems of Pulpit Rhetoric - ANNA TRAPNEL Report and Plea - EDMUND WALLER Of the Last Verses in the Book On a Girdle Of English Verse - IZAAK WALTON The Life of Dr. John Donne - GERRARD WINSTANLEY The True Leveler’s Standard Advanced - HENRY VAUGHAN The Book Peace Man A Rhapsody I Walked the Other Day (To Spend My Hour) - SIR HENRY WOTTON On His Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia
The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century
	- JOSEPH ADDISON and SIR RICHARD STEELE Addison: [Party Patches] Addison: [The Trial of the Petticoat] Steele: [The Gentleman; The Pretty Fellow] Steele: [Dueling] Addison: [Sir Roger at Church] - JOHN BUNYAN From Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners - WILLIAM COLLINS Ode Written in the Beginning of the Year 1746 Ode on the Death of Mr. Thomson - WILLIAM CONGREVE Love for Love - GEORGE CRABBE from The Borough - A GRACE BEYOND THE REACH OF ART LONGINUS: [Genius and the Rules] QUINTILIAN: [When to Break the Rules] RENÉ RAPIN: [Grace Beyond the Rules] SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE: [The Inadequacy of the Rules] JOHN HUGHES: [“Curiosa Felicitas”] ROGER DE PILES: [Grace Gains the Heart] LEONARD WELSTED: [No Precepts Can Teach Grace] - THE GENERAL AND THE PARTICULAR ARISTOTLE: [Poetry and History Contrasted] HORACE: [Character Types in Comedy] SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT: [Poetry and History Contrasted] ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, THIRD EARL OF SHAFTESBURY: [The General and the Particular in Painting] SAMUEL JOHNSON: [The Particular in Biography] SAMUEL JOHNSON: [The Simplicity of Grandeur] SAMUEL JOHNSON: [Hudibras and the Particular] SAMUEL JOHNSON: [The Grandeur of Generality] JOSEPH WARTON: [On Thomson’s Seasons] HUGH BLAIR: [The Particular in Descriptive Poetry] SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS: [The General and the Particular in Painting—The “Grand Style”] WILLIAM BLAKE: [The Aesthetic Value of the General Denied] - GENIUS Samuel Johnson: [Definitions of Genius] John Dryden: [Genius Is above Correctness] Joseph Addison: [The Beauties of Great Geniuses Independent of Rules] Samuel Johnson: [Genius Requires Invention] Edward Young: [Imitation and Genius] Samuel Johnson: [Genius and Knowledge] Alexander Gerard: [The Origins of Genius] John Moir: [The Unique Vision of Original Genius] Sir Joshua Reynolds: [Genius the Child of Imitation] William Blake: [Genius Unbound] William Hazlitt: [Reynolds’ Genius] - DANIEL DEFOE from The History and Remarkable Life of the Truly Honorable Col. Jacque A True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal - JOHN DRYDEN Epilogue to The Conquest of Granada, II Prologue to The Tempest Epilogue to Tyrannic Love Song from The Indian Emperor Song from An Evening’s Love To the Pious Memory of the Accomplished Young Lady Mrs. Anne Killigrew The Secular Masque from The Preface to Fables Ancient and Modern In Praise of Chaucer - ANNE FINCH, COUNTESS OF WINCHILSEA On Myself - JOHN GAY The Birth of the Squire. An Eclogue Recitativo and Air from Acis and Galatea - OLIVER GOLDSMITH from Letters from a Citizen of the World - THOMAS GRAY Hymn to Adversity - SAMUEL JOHNSON from Prayers and Meditations Rambler No. 203 Idler No. 58 Prologue Spoken by Mr. Garrick Translation of Horace, Odes, Book 4.7 from Lives of the Poets Milton LYCIDAS L’ALLEGRO, IL PENSEROSO PARADISE LOST Cowley Metaphysical Wit Pope Pope’s Intellectual Character. Pope and Dryden Compared The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia - ALEXANDER POPE Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady The First Satire of the Second Book of Horace Imitated The Universal Prayer Epistle to Miss Blount from The Dunciad The Carnation and the Butterfly Ode on Solitude - MATTHEW PRIOR A True Maid A Better Answer - RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN The School for Scandal - CHRISTOPHER SMART A Song to David - SIR RICHARD STEELE See Addision, Joseph - LAURENCE STERNE Reply to Sancho from Tristram Shandy - JONATHAN SWIFT Abolishing of Christianity in England... from A Tale of a Tub Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift - JAMES THOMSON An Ode on Aeolus’s Harp from The Seasons Summer DAWN SWIMMING EVENING Winter A SNOWSTORM :: more of the Chronological Index