Thomas N. Corns 
A History of Seventeenth-Century English Literature 

A History of Seventeenth-Century Literature outlines significant developments in the English literary tradition between the years 1603 and 1690.

* An energetic and provocative history of English literature from 1603-1690.

* Part of the major Blackwell History of English Literature series.

* Locates seventeenth-century English literature in its social and cultural contexts.

* Considers the physical conditions of literary production and consumption.

* Looks at the complex political, religious, cultural and social pressures on seventeenth-century writers.

* Features close critical engagement with major authors and texts

Thomas Corns is a major international authority on Milton, the Caroline Court, and the political literature of the English Civil War and the Interregnum.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of illustrations ix

Preface x

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

Literary Consumption and Production 2

Latin, Neo-Latin and English 14

Manuscript, Performance, Print 16

The Press and its Controls 22

The Final Years of Elizabethan Theatre 26

Patronage and Court Culture 30

2 From the Accession of James I to the Defenestration of Prague: March 1603 to May 1618 33

Changes and Continuities 33

The Making of the Royal Courts 35

Masques and Other Court Entertainments 38

Early Jacobean Theatre 42

Jacobean Shakespeare 45

Other Drama 70

Non-Dramatic Poetry 87

Non-Fictional Prose 113

3 From the Defenestration of Prague to the Personal Rule: May 1618 to March 1629 119

Continental Wars 119

Three Funerals and a Wedding 123

Masques and Pageants 129

Plays and Players 133

Poetry and Prose Romance 151

Non-Fictional Prose 156

News 164

4 The Literature of the Personal Rule: March 1629 to April 1640 167

The Making of the Caroline Court 167

Masques of the Personal Rule 176

Other Entertainments 182

Music and Literature at the Caroline Court 184

Themes, Occasions and Conversations 186

From Manuscript to Print 190

Plays and Players 192

Literature and Laudianism 203

George Herbert 206

The Emblem Books of Quarles and Wither 215

Early Milton 221

5 From the Short Parliament to the Restoration: April 1640 to May 1660 229

Events and Consequences 229

Royalist Poetry 239

Crashaw and Vaughan 264

Mid-Century Drama 273

Sir Thomas Browne 277

Poetry for Parliament and Protectorate 283

Pamphlet Wars 295

Newspapers 311

6 The Literature of the Rule of Charles II: May 1660 to February 1685 317

Dissent, Popery and Arbitrary Government 317

Theatre of the Rule of Charles II 327

Rochesterism 352

The Poetry of Dryden and Butler 360

Marvell After 1660 370

Bunyan, Pepys and Sprat 381

Milton, St Nicholas and Hutchinson 391

Katherine Philips and Margaret Cavendish 405

7 From the Accession of James II: After February 1685 409

James II and the Williamite Revolution 409

Aphra Behn: The Late Works 413

Dryden and James II 416

After 1690 421

Bibliography 429

Index 453

Über den Autor

Thomas N. Corns is Professor of English at the
University of Wales, Bangor. His publications include A
Companion to Milton (ed., Blackwell Publishing, 2001) and,
with Gordon Campbell, John Milton: Life, Work, and
Thought (2008). With Ann Hughes and David Loewenstein, he
edited The Complete Works of Gerrard Winstanley (2009), and
he recently edited The Milton
Encyclopedia (2012). He is an Honoured Scholar of the
Milton Society of America.