A History of Seventeenth-Century English Literature

Preface.

1. The Last Years of Elizabeth I: Before March 1603.

Literary Consumption and Production.

Latin, Neo-Latin and English.

Manuscript, Performance, Print.

The Press and its Controls.

The Final Years of Elizabethan Theatre.

Patronage and Court Culture.

2. From the Accession of James I to the Defenestration of Prague: March 1603 to May 1618.

Changes and Continuities.

The Making of the Royal Courts.

Masques and Other Court Entertainments.

Early Jacobean Theatre.

Jacobean Shakespeare.

Other Drama.

Non-Dramatic Poetry.

Non-Fictional Prose.

3. From the Defenestration of Prague to the Personal Rule: May 1618 to March 1629.

Continental Wars.

Three Funerals and a Wedding.

Masques and Pageants.

Plays and Players.

Poetry and Prose Romance.

Non-Fictional Prose.

News.

4. The Literature of the Personal Rule: March 1629 to April 1640.

The Making of the Caroline Court.

Masques of the Personal Rule.

Other Entertainments.

Music and Literature at the Caroline Court.

Themes, Occasions and Conversations.

From Manuscript to Print.

Plays and Players.

Literature and Laudianism.

George Herbert.

The Emblem Books of Quarles and Wither.

Early Milton.

5. From the Short Parliament to the Restoration: April 1640 to May 1660.

Events and Consequences.

Royalist Poetry.

Crashaw and Vaughan.

Mid-Century Drama.

Sir Thomas Browne.

Poetry for Parliament and Protectorate.

Pamphlet Wars.

Newspapers.

6. The Literature of the Rule of Charles II: May 1660 to February 1685.

Dissent, Popery, and Arbitrary Government.

Theatre of the Rule of Charles II.

Rochesterism.

The Poetry of Dryden and Butler.

Marvell after 1660.

Bunyan, Pepys, and Sprat.

Milton, St Nicholas, and Hutchinson.

Katherine Philips and Margaret Cavendish.

7. From the succession of James II: After February 1685.

James II and the Williamite Revolution.

Aphra Behn: The Late Works.

Dryden and James II.

After 1690.

Bibliography.

Index