The Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol. 1
CONTENTS
Preface to the Revised Edition…………. xxv
The Middle Ages (to 1485)………………….. 1
Medieval English…………………………….. 19
Old & Middle English Prosody…………. 24
OLD ENGLISH POETRY………………… 26
CAEDMON’S HYMN…………………….. 26
THE DREAM OF THE ROOD…………. 27
BEOWULF…………………………………….. 30
THE WANDERER………………………….. 89
THE BATTLE OF MALDON…………… 92
GEOFFREY CHAUCER (ca. 1343-1400)……… 100
THE CANTERBURY TALES………… 105
The General Prologue…………………….. 107
The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale 129
The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale…… 159
The Introduction………………….. .159
The Prologue………………………… 161
The Tale………………………………. 164
The Epilogue………………………… 174
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale………………….. 175
The Miller’s Tale……………………………. 190
The Introduction…………………… 190
The Tale………………………………. 192
The Parson’s Tale…………………………. 207
The Introduction…………………… 207
[The Remedy Against Lechery].. 209
Chaucer’s Retraction…………….. 212
LYRICS AND OCCASIONAL VERSE… 213
To Rosamond……………………………….. 213
To His Scribe Adam………………………. 214
Complaint to His Purse………………….. 214
Merciless Beauty…………………………… 215
Gentilesse…………………………………….. 216
Truth…………………………………………… 217
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT (ca. 1375-1400).. 218
PIERS PLOWMAN (B Text, ca. 1377)………….. 273
The Prologue……………………………. 275
Passus I…………………………………… 277
MIDDLE ENGLISH LYRICS…………. 283
Fowls in the Frith……………………… 284
Alison……………………………………… 284
My Lief Is Faren in Londe………….. 285
Western Wind…………………………… 285
I Have a Young Sister………………… 285
Spring Has Come with Love……….. 286
The Cuckoo Song……………………… 287
Tell Me, Wight in the Broom………. 288
The Henpecked Husband……………. 288
I Am of Ireland…………………………. 288
Sunset on Calvary…………………….. 289
I Sing of a Maiden…………………….. 289
Adam Lay Bound……………………… 290
The Corpus Christi Carol…………… 290
THE SECOND SHEPHERDS’ PLAY (ca. 1385)… 291
EVERYMAN (ca. 1485)………………… 313
POPULAR BALLADS…………………… 335
Lord Randall…………………………….. 338
Edward……………………………………. 338
Barbata Allan…………………………… 340
The Wife of Usher’s Well…………… 341
The Three Ravens……………………… 342
Bonny George Campbell……………. 343
Sir Patrick Spens………………………. 343
The Bonny Earl of Murray…………. 345
Thomas Rhymer……………………….. 345
Robin Hood and the Three Squires. 347
St. Steven and King Herod…………. 350
SIR THOMAS MALORY (ca. 1405-1471)… 351
Morte Darthur………………………….. 353
[The Death of Arthur]………………… 353
WILLIAM CAXTON (ca. 1422-1491)….. 360
Preface to Morte Darthur……………. 361
TOPIC IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE…….. 365
MEDIEVAL ATTITUDES TOWARD LIFE ON EARTH……… 365
CONTEMPT FOR THE WORLD.. 366
Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy…. 366
[Triumph over the World]………….. 366
Earth Took of Earth………………….. 367
Earth upon Earth………………………. 367
Geoffrey Chaucer: [A Thoroughfare Full of Woe]……. 368
THE GODDESS FORTUNE………. 368
Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy 369
[Fortune Defends Herself]…………… 369
Dante: [Fortune an Agent of God’s Will]…… 370
Geoffrey Chaucer: [The Monk’s Definition of Tragedy].. 370
Geoffrey Chaucer: [The Tragedy of Pierre de Lusignan].. 371
“life is sweet”…………………………………………………. 371
[A Vision of Nature in Piers Plowman]………………………. 371
Aucassin and Nicolete: [Aucassin Renounces Paradise].. 372
The Land of Cockaigne……………………………………………. 373
“beauty that must die”…………………………………….. 376
[Ubi Sunt Qui ante Nos Fuerunt]………………………………. 376
Francois Villon: The Ballad of Dead Ladies………………… 377
Geoffrey Chaucer: [This Worlde That Passeth Soone as Floures Faire]… 378
The Sixteenth Century (1485-1603)…………………………………… 379
MAN AND SOCIETY……………………………………………………… 400
SIR THOMAS MORE (1478-1535)’…………. 402
Utopia……………………………………………………………………….. 403
Book I……………………………………………………………………….. 403
Book II: 1. Their Country and Agriculture………………………. 408
Book II: 7. Their Gold and Silver, and How They Keep It…. 411
Book II: 12. Their Marriage Customs…………………………….. 413
Book II: 16. The Religion of the Utopians………………………. 414
THE BOOK OF HOMILIES……………………. 421
An Exhortation Concerning Good Order and Obedience to Rulers and Magistrates 421
SIR THOMAS HOBY (1530-1566)………….. 423
The Courtier……………………………………… 424
Book I: [Grace]………………………………….. 424
Book IV: [Love]………………………………… 426
RICHARD HOOKER (1554-1600)…………… 439
The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity…………. 440
The Preface: [On Moderation in Controversy]… 440
Book I, Chapter 3: [The Law of Nature].. 444
Book I, Chapter 8: [On Common Sense].. 445
Book I, Chapter 9: [Nature, Righteousness, and Sin].. 446
Book I, Chapter 10: [The Foundations of Society]…… 447
Book I, Chapter 12: [The Need for Law].. 449
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)…. 449
[Ulysses’ Speech on Degree]………………… 449
SIR THOMAS WYATT THE ELDER (1503-1542)…….. 452
The Long Love That in My Thought Doth Harbor. 454
Farewell, Love…………………………………… 454
I Find No Peace…………………………………. 455
Madam, Withouten Many Words…………. 455
Whoso List to Hunt……………………………. 456
My Lute, Awake!………………………………. 456
They Flee from Me…………………………….. 457
The Lover Showeth How He is Forsaken of Such as He Sometime Enjoyed 459
Divers Doth Use………………………………… 458
Tangled I Was in Love’s Snare…………….. 458
Mine Own John Poins………………………… 460
HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY (1517-1547).. 462
Love, That Doth Reign and Live Within
My Thought……………………………………… 463
The Soote Season………………………………. 464
Alas! So All Things Now Do Hold Their Peace…… 464
Give Place, Ye Lovers, Here Before……… 464
My Friend, the Things That Do Attain….. 465
The Fourth Book of Virgil………………….. 466
[The Hunt]………………………………………… 466
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (1554-1586)…………… 467
Ye Goatherd Gods…………………………….. 470
Thou Blind Man’s Mark…………………….. 472
Leave Me, o Love………………………………. 472
Astrophel and Stella…………………………… 473
1 (“Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show”)…… 473
(“It is most true that eyes are formed to serve”)……………….. 473
(“Some lovers speak, when they their Muses entertain”)…… 474
10 (“Reason, in faith thou art well served, that still”)……….. 474
18 (“With what sharp checks I in myself am shent”)………… 474
21 (“Your words, my friend, right healthful caustics, blame”)…….. 475
31 (“With how sad steps, Oh Moon, thou climb’st the skies!”)…… 475
39 (“Come sleep! Oh sleep, the certain knot of peace”)…….. 475
41 (“Having this day my horse, my hand, my lance”)……….. 476
64 (“No more, my dear, no more these counsels try”)……….. 476
71 (“Who will in fairest book of Nature know”)………………. 476
74 (“I never drank of Aganippe well”)……………………………. 477
An Apology for Poetry………………………. 477
EDMUND SPENSER (1552-1599)………….. 492
The Shepheardes Calendar………………….. 495
October……………………………………………. 495
The Faerie Queene……………………………… 500
A Letter of the Authors………………………. 503
Book I……………………………………………… 506
Walsinghame…………………………………….. 829
The Lie…………………………………………….. 830
Farewell, False Love…………………………… 832
The Author’s Epitaph, Made by Himself. 833
ROBERT SOUTHWELL (1561-1595)………….. …………. 833
The Burning Babe……………………………… 833
SAMUEL DANIEL (1562-1619)………………………………. 834
Delia………………………………………………… 834
33 (“When men shall find thy flower, thy glory pass”) 834
(“Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night”) 835
(“Let others sing of knights and paladins”) 835
MICHAEL DRAYTON (1563-1631)…………………………. 835
Idea…………………………………………………………………… 836
6 (“How many paltry, foolish, painted things”)………. 836
37 (“Dear, why should you command me to my rest”) 836
50 (“As in some countries far removed from hence”).. 836
61 (“Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part”) 837
THOMAS NASHE (1567-1601)……………………………….. 837
Spring, the Sweet Spring…………………….. 837
A Litany in Time of Plague…………………. 838
THOMAS CAMPION (1567-1620)…………………………… 839
My Sweetest Lesbia……………………………. 839
When to Her Lute Corinna Sings…………. 840
When Thou Must Home to Shades of Underground… 840
Rose-cheeked Laura…………………………… 840
What If a Day……………………………………. 841
Never Love Unless You Can……………….. 842
There Is a Garden in Her Face……………… 842
ANONYMOUS LYRICS…………………………………………. 843
Back and Side Go Bare, Go Bare…………. 843
Though Amaryllis Dance in Green……….. 844
Come Away, Come, Sweet Love!…………. 845
Thule, the period of Cosmography………. 845
Madrigal (“My Love in her attire doth show her wit”) 846
Weep You No More, Sad Fountains…….. 846
The Silver Swan………………………………… 847
TOPIC IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE…… 848
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROSE STYLE……………….. 848
Sir John Cheke: [Our Own Tongue Clean and Pure]… 851
The Bible: Translations of the Twenty-Third Psalm…. 852
The Great Bible…………………………….. 852
A Latin-English Psalter………………….. 852
Thomas Stemhold and John Hopkins’ Psalm-Book 853
The Geneva Bible………………………….. 853
The Bishops’ Bible………………………… 853
The Douai Bible……………………………. 854
The Authorized or King James Bible… 854
John Lyly: Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit 854
Sir Philip Sidney: Arcadia…………………… 856
Philip Stubbes: The Anatomy of Abuses. 856
William Bullein: A Dialogue Against the Pestilence…. 857
The Seventeenth Century (1603-1660)……………………….. 861
JOHN DONNE (1572-1631)…………………… .879
The Good-Morrow…………………………….. 883
Song (“Go and catch a falling star”)……… 883
The Undertaking……………………………….. 884
The Indifferent…………………………………… 885
The Canonization………………………………. 886
Twicknam Garden……………………………… 887
The Apparition…………………………………. 888
Love’s Alchemy………………………………… 888
The Flea…………………………………………… 889
The Bait…………………………………………… 890
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning……. 891
The Ecstasy………………………………………. 892
Lovers’ Infiniteness……………………………. 894
The Sun Rising………………………………….. 895
Air and Angels………………………………….. 896
Break of Day…………………………………….. 896
A Valediction: Of Weeping…………………. 897
The Funeral………………………………………. 898
The Relic…………………………………………. .898
To the Countess of Bedford………………… 899
Elegy IV. The Perfume……………………….. 901
Satire III, Religion……………………………… 903
Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward….. 906
Holy Sonnets…………………………………….. 907
1 (“Thou hast made me, and shall Thy work decay?”)….. 907
5 (“I am a little world made cunningly”)……………………… 908
7 (“At the round earth’s imagined corners, blow”)………. 908
10 (“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee”) 909
14 (“Batter my heart, three-personed God”)……………….. 909
18 (“Show me, dear Christ, Thy spouse so bright and clear”)… 910
A Hymn to Christ, at the Author’s Last Going into Germany… 910
Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness… 911
A Hymn to God the Father…………………. 912
Paradoxes and Problems…………………………………………………… 913
Paradox VI. That It Is Possible to Find Some Virtue in Women 913
Problem II. Why Puritans Make Long Sermons……………………. 914
Problem VI. Why Hath the Common Opinion Afforded Women Souls? 914
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions……. 915
Meditation XIV…………………………….. 915
Meditation XVII……………………………. 916
Sermon LXXVI…………………………………. 918
[On Falling Out of God’s Hand]………. 918
BEN JONSON (1572-1637)……………………. 919
To Penshurst…………………………………….. 921
To the Memory of My Beloved Master William Shakespeare… 924
To William Camden…………………………… 926
On My First Daughter………………………… 926
On My First Son……………………………….. 927
To John Donne………………………………….. 927
It Was a Beauty That I Saw………………… 927
Epitaph on Elizabeth, L. H………………….. 928
An Elegy………………………………………….. 928
Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount…………………….. 929
Queen and Huntress…………………………… 930
Gypsy Songs…………………………………….. 930
Though I Am Young and Cannot Tell…… 931
Song: To Celia…………………………………… 931
Come, My Celia………………………………… 932
The Triumph of Chans……………………….. 932
Still to Be Neat………………………………….. 933
Ode to Himself………………………………….. 934
The Vision of Delight…………………………. 935
ROBERT HERRICK (1591-1674)……………. 941
The Argument of His Book…………………. 943
Discontents in Devon…………………………. 943
Delight in Disorder…………………………….. 944
Upon Julia’s Clothes………………………….. 944
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time…. 944
Upon a Child That Died……………………… 945
Another Grace for a Child…………………… 945
Corinna’s Going A-Maying…………………. 945
Oberon’s Feast………………………………….. 947
His Return to London………………………… 949
To the Water Nymphs Drinking at the Fountain…. 949
Upon Pru, His Maid…………………………… 950
Upon His Spaniel Tracy……………………… 950
The Pillar of Fame……………………………… 950
GEORGE HERBERT (1593-1633)…………… 951
Easter Wings…………………………………….. 952
Virtue………………………………………………. 952
Jordan (I)………………………………………….. 953
Jordan (II)………………………………………… 954
Denial………………………………………………. 954
The Altar………………………………………….. 955
The Flower……………………………………….. 956
The Collar………………………………………… 957
The Pulley………………………………………… 958
Discipline………………………………………… 95 8
Prayer (I)………………………………………….. 959
Anagram………………………………………….. 960
Sin’s Round………………………………………. 960
Aaron………………………………………………. 961
Love (III)………………………………………….. 961
RICHARD CRASH AW (ca. 1613—1649).. 962
In the Holy Nativity of Our Lord God….. 963
The Flaming Heart…………………………….. 966
On Our Crucified, Lord, Naked and Bloody 967
To the Infant Martyr………………………….. 967
Am the Door…………………………………….. 967
Luke 11…………………………………………… .968
Upon the Infant Martyrs…………………….. 968
Luke 7……………………………………………… 968
On the Wounds of Our Crucified Lord….. 968
HENRY VAUGHAN (1621-1695)…………… 969
The Retreat……………………………………….. 970
Cock-Crowing…………………………………… 971
Regeneration…………………………………….. 972
Peace……………………………………………….. 974
Corruption……………………………………….. 975
The World………………………………………… 976
They Are AH Gone into the World of Light!….. 977
Man…………………………………………………. 978
ANDREW MARVELL (1621-1678)…………. 979
The Garden………………………………………. 980
The Mower, Against Cardens………………. 982
The Mower’s Song…………………………….. 983
Bermudas…………………………………………. 984
A Dialogue Between the Soul and Body.. 985
Mourning…………………………………………. 986
To His Coy Mistress………………………….. 987
The Definition of Love……………………….. 988
An Horatian Ode……………………………….. 989
JOHN MILTON (1608-1674)………………….. 993
L’Allegro………………………………………….. 995
Penseroso…………………………………………. 999
At a Solemn Music…………………………… 1003
Comus……………………………………………. 1004
Sweet Echo…………………………………. 1004
Sabrina Fair………………………………… 1004
By the Rushy-fringed Bank…………… 1004
Lycidas…………………………………………… 1005
How Soon Hath Time………………………. 1011
When the Assault Was Intended to the City……… 1012
A Book Was Writ of Late Called Tetrachordon…. 1012
On the New Forcers of Conscience Under the Long Parliament… 1013
On the Late Massacre in Piedmont……… 1014
Lawrence, of Virtuous Father Virtuous Son…. 1014
When I Consider How My Light Is Spent…….. 1015
Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint…… 1015
Of Education…………………………………&