The Shoemaker's Holiday by Thomas Dekker

PRIMARY SOURCE: THE SHOMAKERS Holiday. OR The Gentle Craft. With the humorous life of Simon Eyre, shoomaker, and Lord Maior of London.
Context

• Publication: Performed in 1599 by the Admiral's Men. Printed by Valentine Simmes in quarto for sale at the White Swan: publisher presumably Simmes. Reprinted in six more editions—five before the war. Printed with two prefatory "three-man songs" [A4r]. Held by the Wrights for 45 years. Transferred to William Gilbertson on my birthday!
• Scholarship: Scholars are interested in Dekker's representation of the Dutch as an ethnic Dutchman. Citizen protagonists reveal something of class struggle in England, though they're easily resolved by the arrival of the King. The City.
• Why I'm reading it: The canon, city comedy, butterboxes.

Content

• Form: Play in five acts.
• Genre: Comedy, city comedy.
• Conceit: Shoemaker Simon Eyre takes as apprentice the aristocrat Rowland Lacy, disguised as a Dutchman. Lacy is escaping military service required to redeem his value as part of his marriage to the citizen's daughter Rose. The shoemaker Ralph fights in France, while the gentleman Hammon woos his wife, Jane. She consents to an eventual marriage when she sees false proof of Ralph's death. Ralph returns, searches for Jane, and refuses to sell her to Hammon on reunion.  Throughout, Eyre ascends to Sheriff, then Lord Mayor. Rose and Rowland marry. The King upholds both decisions and knights Rowland. At the end, Eyre creates a pancake-based celebration on Shrove Tuesday for the apprentices of London.
• Other notes: Pancake holiday!

Edward II by Christopher Marlowe

PRIMARY SOURCE: The troublesome raigne and lamentable death of Edward the second, King of England: with the tragicall fall of proud Mortimer: Written by Chri. Marlow Gent
Context

• Publication:
  Published by bookseller William Jones (2) and printed by Robert Robinson in 1594. Registered to Jones in 1593, though later transferred to Barnes, Bell, and Haviland & Wright: four editions with a different publisher or printer each time. Printed in a quarto format that dropped from 48 leaves to about 40 in later editions. Performed by Pembroke's Men in 1591-2, though Greg lists Queen Anne's Men and the Red Bull theater.
• "As it was sundrie times publiquely acted in the honourable citie of London, by the right honourable the Earle of Pembrooke his seruants."
• "Imprinted at London for William Iones, dwelling neere Holbourne conduit, at the signe of the Gunne. 1594."
• EEBO link.
• Scholarship: This is Marlowe's historical drama, drawing exact phrases from Holinshed. Formally, scholars appreciate the play's clarity and consistent characterization. Stylistically, there is less strutting and ranting than in Marlowe's antihero plays. The central homoerotic relationship exemplifies DiGangi's contention that transgressive class relations, rather than homoerotics, were seen as disruptive in early modern England. Despite Edward's failures as a king, he still draws significant sympathy in captivity.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon

Content

• Form: Tragic History in 5 acts. 
• Genre: History (annals), tragedy.
• Summary:
1. 
   
1. Gaveston returns to England against the objections of the lords. Though they threaten rebellion, Edward loves Gaveston. A priest threatens to drive Gaveston back to France.
2. The bishop is in the Tower & Queen Isabella leaves for the forest. The lords decide to eject Gaveston and thus provoke Edward into civil war.
3. Gaveston marks his enemies at Lambeth.
4. The conspirators seize Gaveston from the king's side. They take him away and plan to rebel. Instead of overthrowing the king outright, they plan either assassination or popular rebellion.
2. 
   
1. Spenser aligns himself with Gaveston.
2. Edward obsesses over Gaveston's return rather than French invasion. Mortimer wounds Gaveston. Edward bans Mortimer from court and so begins the rebellion. Just then, Mortimer learns that the Scots are holding his uncle for ransom, a ransom that only the king could pay. Spenser becomes Edward's minion.
3. The conspirators plan to ambush the king.
4. The king's company flees the ambush. Edward overlooks Queen Isabella, who commends Mortimer to slay Gaveston.
5. The conspirators refuse to return Gaveston to Edward.
3. 
   
1. Warwick takes Gaveston back.
2. Edward makes Spenser his new favorite. France retakes Normandy. Edward hears that Warwick killed Gaveston and swears vengeance. The lords request that Spenser be banned.
3. They fight.
4. Mortimer and Kent are captured.
4. 
   
1. Kent and Mortimer leave for Queen Isabella in France.
2. Kent and Mortimer meet Queen Isabella.  The French promise aid but the young prince believes Edward will win.
3. Edward's spy reports the events of the last act.
4. Queen Isabella and Mortimer give speeches for invasion.
5. The King's party flees for the Queen Isabella.
6. Queen Isabella captures Kent and Spenser's father.
7. Queen Isabella's men capture the last of the King's party, e.g. Spenser.
5. 
   
1. Edward is imprisoned and laments haughtily. He refuses to resign, then relents.
2. Mortimer sidles up to Queen Isabella's authority. He installs a puppet as successor. The prince knows they're liars. Mortimer orders his seizure, and so loses both Queen Isabella  and the Prince as his allies.
3. Captors torture Edward. The Prince is seized.
4. Mortimer gloats. He orders Kent murdered.
5. Edward endures imprisonment. He fears for his life. Lightborn kills him and Gurney kills Lightborn.
6. Edward III swears vengeance on Queen Isabella and Mortimer. He orders a lord to kill Mortimer and sends Queen Isabella to the Tower.
• Other notes:

Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare

PRIMARY SOURCE: Venus and Adonis (1593)
Context

• Publication: Probably composed between June 1592 and May 1594, during a plague closure. Entered with the Stationers' on April 18, 1593. Printed by Richard Field, a fellow Stratfordian.By 1600, Venus and Adonis became a widely quoted poem, integral to Shakespeare's transition from dramatist to poet. Venus and Adonis was positively noted by Gabriel Harvey and many Cambridge undergraduates. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars read Venus and Adonis to understand Shakespeare's Ovidian and Renaissance influences, and to treat the issue of erotic love in Shakespeare's poetry.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon.

Content

• Form: Iambic pentameter in six-line stanzas, ABABCC
• Genre: Heroic romantic poem.
• Conceit: Adonis is a delight to all, but doesn't desire love. Venus goes to meet him during a hunt, and forces him to listen and recline with her. Adonis doesn't reciprocate her affection, and breaks away to go home--but his horse runs away in romance. Venus appeals again to him, but faints after he scorns her. He aids her, she recovers, and Venus forsees Adonis' death. Adonis refuses her advances again, and refuses earthly lust in favor of heavenly love. Venus follows the sounds of the hunt and comes upon a wounded dog and a dead Adonis. Venus then curses love, at which time Adonis evaporates and is replaced by a purple and white flower.
• Other notes: Most of the amorous arguments are recycled from the sonnets, especially the self-consuming waste and self-consuming selfishness.
  
  Written with notes.

“The Ecstasy” by John Donne

PRIMARY SOURCE: "The Ecstasy" (1635)
Context

• Publication: Likely composed at the same time as the Satires in residence in London, ca. 1593-6, and circulated in manuscript. Up to this point in his life, Donne only struggled with his closeted Catholicism and choice of profession, not the financial, legal, and marital woes that would consume him later. "The Ecstasy" was published in Donne's Songs and Sonnets four years after his death in 1631, in 1635. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars read Donne as one of the foremost metaphysical poets, though not in communication with others due to his purported manuscript circulation. Scholars also read Donne as a Catholic at war with himself.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, metaphysical poetry.

Content

• Form: Alternating quatrains in iambic tetrameter.
• Genre: Love poetry, meditation.
• Conceit: The lovers in bed join souls, and perfect one another.
• Other notes: 
• This is Diadima's idea of love from the Symposium. 
• Famous quote:
  "When love with one another so
  Interanimates two souls,
  That abler soul, which thence doth flow,
  Defects of loneliness controls. "

The Temple by George Herbert

PRIMARY SOURCE: The Temple (1633)
Context

• Publication: Herbert graduated Trinity and worked as a Reader, than as an orator, at Cambridge. In 1624 he was elected to represent Montgomery in Parliament. He become Rector of Fugglestone in 1630, and died of TB three years later. There is a popular narrative set in 1633, when a dying Herbert gave his manuscript to Nicholas Ferrar with orders to publish or destroy. The narrative explains several salient factors. Nicholas Ferrar founded Little Gidding as an Anglican community in 1625, and in 1633 a scribecreated the Bodleian manuscript Tanner 307.
  I read a diplomatic edition based on Tanner 307, the Bodleian manuscript of Herbert's poems. Thomas Buck published a version of Herbert's collection in 1633, referred to by Mario Di Cesare as "a deft kind of Tottelization." (WELL I NEVER.) The book was printed in eight editions by 1690. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: In the ODNB, Colin Burrow set Herbert among the "central figures" of metaphysical poetry, along with Cranshaw, Marvell, and Vaughan. TS Eliot shaped discussion of the metaphysical poets, so scholars commonly debate Herbert's high-church tendencies, or his use of conceits. Stanley Fish summarized this debate between the catechistic and chaotic Herberts. Fish promoted a synthesis that ultimately favors the chaotic Herbert, though he found The Church Militant to be anticlimactic.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, ekphrasis, figure poetry.

Content

• Form: The Temple is divided into the Church-porch, the Church, and the Church Militant. The Church-porch is entirely in six-line iambic pentameter stanzas (ABABCC) advocating (first) virtues of moderate living, (second) social virtues, and (third) virtues of devotion. The Church is a mixture of poems devoted to church architecture, Biblical geography, the liturgy, scriptures, virtues, parable figures, and other rhetorical figures. The Church Militant is a progressive history in iambic pentameter couplets.
• Genre: Devotional poetry, metaphysical poetry.
• Conceit: The three sections of The Temple describe the church before, during, and after Christ's reign. The Church is the most interesting within this scheme, since Christ's presence through metaphor suggests that Herbert endorsed an amillennial eschatology.
• Other notes: "The Window" is of unique interest to my project.

Actes and Monuments (selections) by John Foxe

PRIMARY SOURCE: Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, Touching Matters of the Church (1563-70)
Context

• Publication: Naturally, this is deveolped at length by Evenden & Freeman. EEBO link 1. EEBO link 2.
• Scholarship: Scholarship on Actes and Monuments largely considers Foxe as a Protestant propagandist, his political connections, and the development of a Protestant iconography.
• Why I'm reading it: Illustrations! The Canon, history of religion.

Content

• Form: Illustrated prose.
• Genre: Protestant history. Martyrology.
• Conceit:
• 1. "Dedication to Queen Elizabeth I"
     Foxe compares Elizabeth to Constantine and himself to Eusebius as an analogy to elicit Elizabeth's support for this martyrology.
  2. "The Miraculous Preservation of the Lady Elizabeth"
     Foxe narrates the seizure, transport, trials, and imprisonment of Elizabeth following the Wyatt rebellion. Elizabeth is imprisoned around Palm Sunday, transferred on Trinity Sunday, and sent to Woodstock until the death of Mary. Foxe ventures an interesting side-narrative to exhibit the unloyal nature of a metonymic Catholic merchant.
  3. "From the Life of William Tyndale"
     
     
  4. "The Burning of Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley"
     
     
  5. "The Examination and Execution of Alice Driver and Alexander Gouch"
     
     
  6. "The Hairbreadth escape and Exile of the Duchess of Suffolk"
     
     
  7. "The Deliverance of Catherine Parr from Court Intrigue"
     
     
• Other notes:

Poetry (1) by Thomas Wyatt

PRIMARY SOURCE: (1557)

1. “My galy charged with forgetfulnes” 
2. “Marvaill no more all tho”

Context

• Publication: Wyatt was born c. 1503 to a Privy Councillor and Tudor loyalist. Wyatt studied at St. Johns College, Cambridge.  He married Elizabeth Brooke, daughter of Lord Cobham, c. 1520, though he divorced her c. 1525 on charges of adultery--around the same time he seems to have interested in Anne Boelyn. Asked to translate Petrarch in 1527, around the same time Henry VIII was interested in Anne Boelyn. Committed briefly to the Fleet for a brawl with the Sergeants of London in 1534. Imprisoned  to the Tower, probably as an ally of Anne, upon Suffolk's suggestion in 1536. After diplomatic missions 1539-40' is arrested in 1541 for association with Cardinal Pole. After a long life of public office in Kent, Wyatt is seized with fever after hard riding and dies at Sherbone. Wyatt's poetry circulated in manuscript, then published in A Booke of Ballets and Certain Psalms. Richard Tottel published 47 of Surrey's poems alongside 90 by Wyatt in the 1557 Miscellany. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars have been interested in Wyatt's early adoption of the sonnet, his role in politics, and in his use of heraldry.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, the court, sonnets, songs.

Content

• Form:

1. “My galy charged with forgetfulnes”: Roughly a Shakespearean sonnet, variable meter.
2. “Marvaill no more all tho”: Iambic trimeter, eight-line stanza, ababacac.

• Genre:

1. “My galy charged with forgetfulnes”: Petrarchan boat poem.
2. “Marvaill no more all tho”: Petrarchan lament

• Conceit:

1. “My galy charged with forgetfulnes”: Sailing-by-starlight metaphor for a Stoic lament.
2. “Marvaill no more all tho”: A synesthetic inventory of lament results in an aestheticized sadness, and thanks to Fortune for the song.

Poetry by Henry Howard

PRIMARY SOURCE:

• "I never saw my lady lay apart"
• "The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green"
• "London! hast thou accused me"
• "Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest" 

Context

• Publication: Surrey was born eldest son of Thomas Howard and Elizabeth Stafford (daughter to Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham), entitled Earl of Surrey at age 7 when his father ascended to Duke of Norfolk upon his father's death, and raised alongside Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, from age 12. Surrey spent a year at the French court, returning for Anne Boelyn's wedding. Surrey wed Frances de Vere, daughter to the Earl of Oxford, in 1532. The Seymours conspired against Surrey at court, eventually resulting in Surrey's imprisonment in Windsor. He returned to favor, but was imprisoned in Fleet for drunken rioting, where he composed "London hast thou accused me." Despite his service in war, the Seymours won a campaign to have Surrey convicted of treason. Among other reasons, Surrey displayed the royal quarterings on his shield. Surrey's poetry circulated in manuscript long after his death, and Richard Tottel published 47 of them alongside 90 by Wyatt in the Miscellany. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars have been interested in Surrey's early adoption of the sonnet, in his Ovidianism, his erotic politics, and in his use of heraldry.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, the court, sonnets, songs, heraldry.

Content

• Form:
• "I never saw my lady lay apart": Iambic pentameter. Shakespearean rhyme scheme.
• "The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green": Iambic pentameter. abab
• "London! hast thou accused me": Iambic tetrameter. abab
• "Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest": Iambic pentameter. abab
• Genre:
• "I never saw my lady lay apart": Sonnet.
• "The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green": Lover's lament.
• "London! hast thou accused me": Satiric jeremiad.
• "Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest": Elegy and encomium.
• Conceit:
• "I never saw my lady lay apart": The speaker can't see his Petrarchan lover through her hairpiece.
• "The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green": A pathetic environment mourns the speaker's spurning by his lady.
• "London! hast thou accused me": The speaker hides his unruly behavior with a feigned jeremiad.
• "Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest": The speaker anatomizes Wyatt's corpse to praise his virtues.

Poetry by Thomas Carew

PRIMARY SOURCE: "An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean of Paul's, Dr. John Donne" and "To Ben Jonson" (1640)

Context

• Publication: Carew wrote throughout the 20s and 30s, and associated with the Jonson circle in the Caroline court. Carew was made gentleman of the Privy Chamber Extraordinary and Sewer in Ordinary to the King (dining planner). Carew's courtly output was mixed: he borrowed from Giordano Bruno's philosophy for Coelum Britannicum, and translated nine Psalms, despite his reputation for witty society poems and libertine ethics. Poems printed by John Dawson for Thomas Walkley in 1640. Quarto. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Carew's drawn attention as a master of late Caroline courtly poetry, a successor to Jonson and Donne, and an earlier commentor on contemporary English poetry.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, the court, formalism.

Content

• Form: Iambic pentameter couplets.
• Genre: 
• Elegy. 
• Ode.
• Conceit:
• The elegy begins with a lament and memento mori based on Donne's passing. The poem then praises Donne's rhetorical powers of convention and invention. Ultimately, the poem praises Donne as a priest of both Apollo and God.
• The ode begins by praising Jonson's powers as a censor to bad poetry, but then switches to praising the harmony in his lines and characters: all showing the same mind, but all different. Other poets aspire to match his craft, but he is justly greater than them.

Volpone by Ben Jonson

PRIMARY SOURCE: Volpone (1605/6)
Context

• Publication: Opened at the Globe in 1606 with a cast that had recently performed Othello. The original run was successful until the closing of the playhouses. Published both in the 1607 Quarto Volpone and the 1616 Folio Works. Corrections to the F are relatively minor, with the exception of Celia's reaction to the rape at the end--she is rendered desperate in Q, rational in F. Quarto printed by George Eld for Thomas Thorppe. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars read Volpone to understand Jonson's shifting comedic effects--from morality plays to dark social satire.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, social satire.

Content

• Form: A play in five acts. No constant verse.
• Genre: Comedy, social satire.
• Conceit: Volpone has amassed a fortune through questionable means. He works with Mosca to feign fatal illness and attract sycophants. Mosca assures Voltore, Corbaccio, and Corvino that they are all the favorites to be Volpone's heir--and he advises Corbaccio to disinherit his son. Volpone commits to sleep with Corvino's wife, Celia. While selling snake oil, Volpone haggles with Sir Politic and Peregrine and sees Celia. Mosca persuades Corvino to send Celia to Volpone. After a tortuous encounter with Lady Would-Be, Corvino delivers Celia to Volpone, saying that she should prove her virginity. Mosca diverts Bonario. Volpone nearly rapes Celia, but Bonario saves her. Corbaccio enters but sees Volpone as an invalid. Mosca reassures Corbaccio, then convinces Voltore to help him defraud Corbaccio, and that Bonario attacked Volpone. Voltore prosecutes Bonario and Celia, and the witnesses are Corbaccio, Corvino, and Lady Would-Be: the Lady is motivated by Mosca's promise of Volpone's inheritence. Volpone fakes his death, and sends Mosca out as his heir. The sycophants begin to rescind their stories without any further incentive, and Mosca is ready to confirm Volpone's faked death unless Volpone concede actual riches. Volpone reveals himself, and justice is served.
• Other notes: Mneumonic: Vol(pone) Mos(ca) Cor(baccio) Bo(naria) Cor(vino) Ce(lia) Wou(ld-Be)
  Volition must corrupt both co-receivers, seen woolgathering.

"L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" by John Milton

PRIMARY SOURCE: "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" (comp. 1632, pub. 1646)
Context

• Publication: Composed around the time that Milton completed his MA at Cambridge, July 1632.  In 1646. Printed by Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Moseley. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars are interested in the parallel constructions of both poems, in Milton's reconfiguration of the classics, and in the thought of early Milton.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, the pastoral.

Content

• Form: 
• "L'Allegro." Mixed: first alternating trimeter and pentameter couplets; mostly tetrameter couplets.
• "Il Penseroso." Mixed: first alternating trimeter and pentameter couplets; mostly tetrameter couplets.
• Genre:
• "L'Allegro." Pastoral (alacritous).
• "Il Penseroso." Pastoral (pensive).
• Conceit:
• "L'Allegro." A cheerful man invokes Mirth against Melancholy, a creature regarded as madness. The speaker follows Mirth ("sweet Liberty") as one of her followers. He observes a lark rising, a hunt, and a cock crowing. He observes the country people at work, animals, and shepherds. This observation is entirely speculative, since he observes so many things in one place. The day turns into a rustic holiday characterized by country tales and ale. The cheerful man imagines a tournament at a castled village, a wedding feast, and a performance of comedies by Jonson and Shakespeare. He calls for soft music that would awake Orpheus, and vows to follow Mirth if she can provide that.
• "Il Penseroso." A man walks alone at evening in pensive melancholy. He welcomes the goddess Melancholy, who is both black and bright as a constellation, since she is the daughter of Vesta. We also invites Peace and Quiet, though they are interrupted by a nightingale's song. The speaker would prefer silent walks under the moonlight through the land or by the shore. He takes inspiration and transport from ancient Greek and recent tragedy. The morning comes in clouds and showers. The speaker considers retiring to a cloister and submitting to the music of an organ. He wishes to be a prophetic figure in his study of beauty, and vows to follow Melancholy if she can provide that.
• Other notes: 
• Both poems follow a similar structure. Both speakers begin with a parodic invocation, respond to birdsong, journey abroad, respond to music, and vow to follow their muse.
• There's something in the Neoplatonic response to organ music that connects "Il Penseroso" to "Upon Appleton House," though that may just be the figure of the nightingale.
• Quoted and illustrated by Blake--

"There let Hymen oft appear
In Saffron Robe with Taper clear
With Mask & Antique Pageantry
Such sights as Youthful Poets dream
On Summers Eve by haunted Stream
Then lo the well trod Stage anon
If Johnsons learned Sock be on
Or Sweetest Shakespeare Fancys Child
Warble his native wood notes wild"

(NB: written with notes.)

The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare

PRIMARY SOURCE: The Winter's Tale (prod. 1609-1611, pub. 1623)
Context

• Publication: First produced in 1609. Published in collections: 1623 and 1632. Categorized with "comedies" in the Folio; same as The Tempest. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars are interested in the early romantic sensibilities of this play: the disruption of Aristotelian unity, the importance of magical intervention, and the plot of coincidences. Scholars are also interested in Shakespeare's modifications of Roland Greene's Pandosto, namely the addition of Paulina and the redemption of Leontes. Consequently, scholars have viewed Winter's Tale as a Christocentric play, newly structured around death, penitence, and resurrection. The passage from Winter to spring roughly matches the Lenten period, though the diptych may also signify a naturalist passage between seasons and ages. Mamilla is also of interest, as Shakespeare augmented his role and named him after the mammary--a sign of the kingdom contingent upon the mother's sustenance.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, formalism, the pastoral, statues, ballads.

Content

• Form: Mixed verse. Five acts.
• Genre: Romance, tragicomedy, comedy (Folio attribution). 
• Conceit: Polixenes (King of Bohemia) visits his boyhood friend, Leontes (King of Sicilia). When Polixenes tries to leave, Leontes sends his wife, Hermione to persuade him to stay. Unlike his normal response, Bohemia yields to Hermione. Leontes concludes that Polixenes has cuckholded him. Leontes doubts the legitimacy of his son, Mamillus, and orders the counselor Camillo to poison Polixenes  Camillo resists, but agrees to poison Polixenes on the condition that Leontes should trust and reconcile with Hermione. Polixenes asks Camillo about Leontes s change in spirit, and Camillo reveals the plot. Together, they flee for Bohemia. Leontes learns that they have fled and suspects more than ever that Polixenes is the father of Hermione's current pregnancy. Against his servants' protests, Leontes publicly accuses Hermione and orders her to be imprisoned. In prison, Hermione births Paulina. She takes Paulina to the Leontes, but Leontes orders Antigonus to abandon the baby on the shore. Leontes orders a messengers to the Oracle at Delphi to confirm Hermione's guilt, but they return with a scroll stating that Hermione is innocent, Leontes is a tyrant, and that he will live without an heir until that which is lost is found. Leontes ignores that and rails against Hermione. Suddenly, a servant tells him that Mamillus died overnight of anxiety for Hermione. Hermione swoons and dies in her chambers. Leontes realizes that the oracle was right, and vows penance.
  Antigonus takes Paulina to the shore, but lays a bag of gold with her, alongside instructions to call the baby Perdita (from his dream). Antigonus is killed by a bear, and his ship and crew are wrecked by a storm. A shepherd sees all of this, and finds Perdita.
  Time itself appears and explains the passage of 16 years. While the grown shepherdess Perdita allures Prince Florizel, heir to Bohemia, Leontes grieves alone in the palace. Polixenes and Camillo follow Florizel to a sheep-shearing festival, all in disguise. Polixenes recognizes the noble bearing of Perdita when she dances with Florizel, but forbids Florizel's marriage. Florizel plans to elope with Perdita. Camillo advises them to go to Sicilia as a goodwill ambassador from Bohemia, and so supplies them with letters of introduction. Camillo wants Polixenes to pursue them into Sicilia, so Camillo can retutrn home. The shepherd-father tells Polixenes how he found Perdita, but he is captured by Autolycus and taken away to Sicilia.
  Florizel and Perdita arrive in Sicilia, pursued by Polixenes and Camillo. The shepherd hears of Leontes' lost daughter, and describes Perdita's origin. Leontes is reunited with Perdita/Paulina, and Polixenes blesses her marriage to Florizel. Still, Leontes mourns Hermione.
  Paulina visits a statue of Hermione in Leontes' memorial chapel. All gather to view the statue, hear soft music, and marvel at the statue. The statue is in fact Hermione, who lived in the wilderness awaiting news of Paulina. The family is united, as are the friends. All celebrate the marriage of Florizel and Perdita.
• Other notes: Autolycus' ballad-selling is an interesting moment of economic ambiguity. The character is a masterless man, but he bases the authority of his ballads on the testimony of judges. Also, the shepherds buy these "true" tunes on the strength of the signed testimonies of other common people. The ballad market is represented as a self-sustaining system of myths, maintained by a con man's textual claim to authority.
  The statue scene is more fascinating. This seems like Renaissance move to secularize the power of the Resurrection, rather than represent it, because Hermione is (a) a transgressive female in Christ's role, and (b) not otherwise endowed with any sanctified qualities of Christ.
• Mneumonic: Pol(ixenes) Her(mione) Le(ontes) Mam(illus) Cam(illo) Ant(igonus) Pau(lina) Per(dita) Flo(rizel) Aut(olycus)
• Politicians and hermits, leaders and mamillists come anticipating polity, perish flourishing autonymy.

(NB: written with notes.)
Atchity, Kenneth John. "The Winter’S Tale." Masterplots, Fourth Edition(2010): 1-4. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Feb. 2013.

Shakespeare, William, Stephen J. Greenblatt, and Andrew Gurr. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. Print.

Paradise Lost by John Milton

PRIMARY SOURCE: Paradise Lost (pub. 1667 [10 book], 1674 [12 book])
Context

• Publication: Milton finished Paradise Lost at least two years before Samuel Simmons published it asa quarto in 1667. There are at least three political explanations: the Anglo-Dutch war caused a paper shortage in 1665 England. Milton had a reputation for controversy since Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce and his work in the Protectorate government. The Great Fire of 1666 disrupted the normal process of commerce in London. Simmons had several advantages: his presses seem to have been undamaged by the fire; his shop was close to Milton's house; he had a reputation for printing seditious literature. Milton tried to license his poem, and the Archbishop of Canterbury and licenser Thomas Tompkins objected on the basis of Milton's reputation and anti-monarchical themes. Nevertheless, Tompkins ultimately licensed the poem. Milton sold his poem (the license? perpetual rights?) to Simmons for ten pounds. 1667 EEBO link.
  After the 1667 edition, Milton and Simmons added more material with minimal changes to the 1667 typesetting. First, they experimented with varied title pages. In 1668, Milton added an argument for each book to the beginning of the volume. Simmons added a letter to the reader. By 1669, Milton fulfilled his contract for 1300 copies sold. In 1674, Simmons set an octavo edition with significant copy-corrections but no line numbers. In this edition, Milton divided the seventh and tenth books into two each, making the poem a twelve-book demi-epic. Simmons moved the arguments to their respective books, and added a portrait of the poet. 1674 EEBO link.
• Scholarship: In brief, critics are interested in the following attributes of Milton's poem: its nature as a Protestant English epic; Milton's conception of God; Milton's definition of marriage; Milton's description of the Son; Milton's theory of knowledge; and Milton's cosmology.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, history of religion, the history of science, formalism.

Content

• Form: Blank verse. 10 or 12 books.
• Genre: Epic.
• Conceit: 

1. The speaker invokes the muses to sing of man's first disobedience, the fruit, exile from Eden, and redemption through Christ. The action begins in the infernal pit, in darkness visible. Satan addresses Beelzebub and describes how Beelzebub looks different than in Heaven. Then Satan recalls the rebellion against God, and Beelzebub admits that he's worried about their current state. Satan commits to only doing evil from now on, and moves to the burning plain to assemble the fallen. The fallen assemble into squadrons, represented by their leaders: Moloch, Chemos, Baalim, Ashtaroth, Thammuz, Dagon, Rimmnon, Isis, Osiris, Orus, and Belial. Many of the fallen angels are the false gods worshiped by the ancients. Satan proposes that the angels corrupt God's newly created world. The angels build Pandemonium and assemble for a great debate.
2. Moloch proposes open war with God. Belial argues that hell is better than outright destruction, and that God may show leniency. Mammon counters that leniency is an unacceptable form of slavery, but Hell can still prove profitable. Beelzebub observes that they survive in Hell only on God's leniency, so peace is impossible. Instead, he says the angels should corrupt the newly created Earth. The angels approve, but Beelzebub can't find a volunteer to go first. Satan volunteers to go through the "unessential Night." The angels pursue their natural tendencies in Hell once Satan is gone. Satan makes it past Sin and Death, though learning that Sin is his daughter, and Death is their incestuous son. Sin is always consumed by her incestuous hell-hound offspring, fathered by Death. Sin opens the gates to Chaos. Satan passes by Chaos, and sees the world hanging from Heaven by a golden chain.
3. Milton invokes the celestial light. God looks down on Adam and Eve, and also Satan, and explains that everyone has free will. He has made himself known to all creation, and all are capable of Grace. The Son volunteers to be sacrificed for man's sin. God makes the Son ruler of the universe, and explains his plan for the Last Judgment. Just as God made the universe through the Son, and defeated the rebel angels through the Son, God will send the Son to judge all the dead before closing the gates of Hell forever. Angels boogie in Heaven. Satan checks out the gates of Heaven, the Sun, and chats with Uriel, who relays the location of Paradise.
4. The narrator laments Man's ignorance. Satan acts surly around the Sun, Paradise, the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge. He despairs, "Which way I fly is Hell; my self am Hell" and vows "Evil be thou my Good." Nevertheless, Paradise is really nice. Satan spies on the perfect relationship of the first couple, who cannot be tempted for lack of curiosity. The sun sets, Gabriel begins the search for Satan, and once Eve is in bed, Satan becomes a toad and poisons her dreams. Gabriel faces off against Satan, and Satan splits.
5. Eve tells Adam of her dream: a bite of the fruit takes her up to Heaven. Adam reassures her, and they set to work in the Garden. God sends Raphael to warn Adam. They lunch, and Raphael explains the cosmology. Importantly, Raphael warns against disobedience. Raphael explains that Satan rebelled to avoid subservience to the Son. Abdiel refuses.
6. The battle begins. God sends Michael and Gabriel to fight Satan's legions. Abdiel scorns and fights Satan. The battle is super huge. On the first night, Satan claims that the stalemate is proof of God's fallibility. The next day, God's angels whoop the rebels.On the third day, God sends his Son to drive the rebels to the Deep. The Son scares the rebels into fleeing Heaven. They fall nine days to Hell. The angels praise Jesus. Satan remarks that Raphael's lesson is instruction in Disobedience.
7. The speaker  invokes Urania, the pre-pagan muse. Adam asks Raphael about the creation of the world. Raphael explains, with reservation, that God will have one man give birth to the human race. The Son divided the world (the universe) from Chaos with the golden compass, diving light from dark.  God creates the firmament to divide the waters of the earth and heaven. God creates the vegetation on the third day. God creates the heavenly bodies on the fourth day. On the fifth day, he creates the creepy-crawly vertebrates. On the sixth day, he creates the beasts of the Earth, then Adam & Eve.
8. Adam asks Raphael about cosmology. Raphael gives a couple options, then tells Adam not to worry about it. Adam tells Raphael about his own creation, his first minutes in the Garden, and the creation of Eve. God warns Adam not to be over-awed by Eve. Adam asks Raphael about angelic sex. Raphael explains how awesome it is, reminds Adam not to disobey God, and splits.
9. The speaker changes his notes to tragic. Satan returns to the Garden through the river Tigris, then enters the serpent. Eve convinces Adam to divide their labor--so that they don't flirt all day--by saying that temptation is important for testing virtue. Satan moves in on Eve, but he's stunned by her beauty. When he does speak, he convinces the surprised Eve that a serpent can speak thanks to the Tree of Knowledge. In a couple of appeals, he convinces her that the Tree will make her like God. Eve stuffs her face and Nature shudders. Eve realizes that God will give Adam a replacement Eve once she dies, so she explains the situation to him. Adam decides to die with Eve, and stuffs his face, too. The earth is fallen. They have the first bad sex, and realize they're naked. They spend the rest of the day blaming each other.
10. The angels give God the bad news, but God explains the master plan. The Son descends to Paradise and questions Adam. Adam is guilty of submitting to his wife. Eve is guilty for the first sin. The earth, birth, and the serpent are cursed. Sin and Death realize that Satan has succeeded, and they start building a bridge to Earth. Satan laughs it up with them, then sneaks into Hell before announcing his victory. All the rebel angels turn into serpents, and the torture increases. Adam realizes the consequences of his actions, and the justice of God's judgment. Adam and Eve reconcile and pray to God.
11. God sends Michael to banish the humans, but to tell them about the future. The humans observe that the beasts eat each other. Michael gives Adam the eviction notice, and Eve cries. Then Michael promises that God will remain on earth, and introduces him to Biblical history: Cain & Abel, sickness and death, the ascension of prophets, Noah, and the God's promise to never destroy the world again until the final fire.
12. Michael gives Adam a breather, then covers the Tower of Babel, Abraham and the Israelites, Moses, the Commandments, the Promised Land, David, Babylonian Captivity, Roman rule, and Jesus. Adam rejoices in the Son's triumph over Satan. Michael explains future persecutions, and Adam takes away the moral of obedience. Adam wakes Eve from Michael's pleasant dreams, and the humans leave the Garden.

• Other notes: Where to begin?

(NB: written with notes.)
Moe, Alison G., and Thomas H. Luxon. "Publication History of Paradise Lost." Milton Reading Room. Dartmouth, 1 Mar. 2008. Web. 4 Feb. 2013. <http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/intro/index.shtml>.

Philaster by Beaumont & Fletcher

PRIMARY SOURCE: Philaster (prod. 1609)
Context

• Publication: Printed in 1620 by Nicholas Okes for Thomas Walkley. Transferred to Hawkins in 1638, and then quickly to Mead & Meredith, then Leake. Printed in 7 quartos total. The 1620 title page exists in two states. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars read Philaster as the first tragicomical collaboration between Beaumont and Fletcher. Fletcher is believed to have turned the play into a tragicomedy, "not so called in respect of mirth and killing, but in respect it wants deaths, which is enough to make it no tragedy, yet brings some near it, which is enough to make it no comedy, which must be a representation of familiar people, with such kind of trouble as no life be questioned" (quoted in Strauss).
  Scholars also like to compare Philaster to Cymbeline, Arcadia, and Othello.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, illustrated title page, the court, formalism.

Content

• Form: Mixed prose with iambic pentameter. Five acts. 
• Genre: Tragicomedy.
• Conceit: The King of Calabria has deposed the King of Sicily, but the heir to the Sicilian throne, Philaster, remains at court. Brash Philaster is supported the people and the courtiers Lord Dion, Cleremont, and Trasilene. The King of Calabria has no male heir, but plans to marry his daughter Arethusa to Pharamond, a Spanish prince. Arethusa loves Philaster and hates Pharamond, who is conceited. Philaster sends his servant, Bellario, to serve Arethusa and to carry their romance.
  Pharamond "attempts the virtue of Galathea" (Strauss), and while she leads him on, she refuses the rude stuff. Arethusa exposes Pharamond's affair with a loose courtier, Megra. Pharamond spreads the rumor that Arethusa has an affair with Bellario. Philaster is fooled by Pharamond's rumor, so during a hunt, he stabs Arethusa. A passing country gentleman discovers them. He fights Philaster, and they wound each other. Other nobles from the court discover Arethusa. Arethusa and Philaster recover.
  Philaster is discovered and sentenced to death. The King puts Philaster under Arethusa's guardianship.  Arethusa marries Philaster, so the King orders both to be executed.
  The citizens rebel and capture Pharamond. Bellario reveals herself to be Eufrasia, Lord Dion's daughter in love with Philaster. Pharamond leaves for Spain. Philaster is now the King's heir, and is restored to the crown.
• Other notes: Okes used a highly unique woodcut on the cover, depicting the scene of Philaster in the forest, ready to duel the gentleman.
• Mneumonic: Si(cily) Ca(labria) Phar(amond) Are(thusa) Phi(laster) Bell(ario) Eu(fasia) Meg(ra)
  Since callous pharoahs are fickle, belles utilize megalomania.

(NB: written with notes.)
Strauss, Gerald H. "Philaster." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-4. Literary Reference Center. Web. 4 Feb. 2013.

King Lear by William Shakespeare

PRIMARY SOURCE: King Lear (prod. 1605-6)
Context

• Publication: First performed to the King at Whitehall on St. Stephans. Printed for Butter by Nicholas Okes in 1608 at St. Paul's near the sign of the Bull. Quarto of 42 leaves. Five editions before the Restoration (3 quartos, 2 folios). Tranferred from Butter to Miles Flesher in 1639. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Where to begin?
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon.

Content

• Form: Prose and iambic pentameter. Five acts.
• Genre: Tragedy; pseudo-history.
• Conceit:
  Lear decides to retire and settle his succession before he dies. Lear divides the kingdom according to the oaths of love from his daughters. Goneril and Regan compete with their praise (Goneril says that she loves Lear more than eyesight, space, liberty, or life itself), but Lear's favorite, Cordelia, says that language is insufficient to express her feelings ("Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave/ My heart into my mouth"). Lear disowns Cordelia. Cordelia, without a dowry to marry Burgundy, marries the King of France. France recognizes Cordelia's inner virtue, but Lear dismisses them without benediction. Lear gives all of Britain goes to the evil sisters, Goneril and Regan, who are married to Albany and Cornwall, respectively. When faithful Kent warns Lear about these actions, Lear banishes Kent. Kent takes the identity "Caius" and serves Lear in disguise.
  Gloucester favors his legitimate son, Edgar, while insulting his bastard Edmund. Edmund frames Edgar with a plot to kill Gloucester--even forging a letter and cutting his own arm--so Edgar flees. Edgar adopts the persona of "Poor Tom." Edmund allies himself with Cornwall and Albany against Cordelia and France.
  Lear brings his Fool, his servant ("Caius," Kent), and his knights to stay with Goneril. Goneril strains to entertain Lear et al., and also fears that the knights can force his will, so she delivers an ultimatum. To Lear: either get rid of 50 knights, or hit the road. Lear leaves with his 100 knights for Regan's estate, then to Gloucester's, to find Regan. Regan isn't receptive to Lear's complaints, and agrees that Lear should ditch some knights. The fool tells Lear the truth about his foolish charity, and so torments Lear. Lear realizes that neither Goneril nor Regan really love him, so he wanders the heath and rages at the storm.
  On the heath, Lear and his fool meet "Poor Tom" (Edgar). Lear has an epiphany on egalitarianism and then takes off his clothes. Lear et al. direly need of shelter, and Edgar takes them to a shack he used as Poor Tom. Gloucester finds them in the shack. Gloucester recommends that Lear join Cordelia in Dover. Cordelia plans to wage war with the French army on her sisters. Regan and Cornwall learn that Gloucester aided Leard and pluck out Gloucester's eyes. Gloucester's servant kills Cornwall in revenge, and Regan kills the servant. Edmund escorts Goneril to her palace, and on the way, they find an interest in each other. But when Goneril learns that Cornwall is dead, she fears that Regan will marry Edmund.
  Meanwhile, the good brother Edgar (still under the "Poor Tom" alias) leads blinded Gloucester to Dover. In despair, Gloucester tries to leap off a cliff. Edgar tricks Gloucester into leaping off a small hill, and "Poor Tom" insists that Gloucester's survival is a sign to live on. At Dover, Edgar defends Gloucester from an assassination attempt. The death of the assassin, Oswald, reveals two things. First, Goneril sent her manservant to kill Gloucester. Second, Oswald was on a mission to request that Edmund kill Albany, so that Goneril can marry Edmund.
  Lear reconciles with Cordelia, though the French lose the battle to the British. Regan and Goneril take Lear and Cordelia captive. Edmund secretly orders Lear and Cordelia to be executed. Regan and Goneril fight over Edmund. Albany orders that Edmund and Goneril be thrown into prison for treason. When Albany is supposed to fight Edmund in single combat, Edgar kills Edmund and Goneril poisons Regan. Edgar reveals himself to Gloucester, who dies of a heart attack. Goneril recognizes that all her allies are dead and kills herself. A dying Edmund reveals that he had ordered the execution of Lear and Cordelia. Lear enters with a dead Cordelia and dies of a broken heart. Lear recognizes Kent at last, and asks his forgiveness before dying in anguish. Only Edgar and Albany are left with claims to the kingdom.
• Other notes: Where to begin?
  

(NB: Written with notes.)
Foster, Edward E. "King Lear." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-4. Literary Reference Center. Web. 4 Feb. 2013.
DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks. Ed. Alan B. Farmer and Zachary Lesser. Created 2007. Accessed18 January 2013. <http://deep.sas.upenn.edu>.

Henry IV 1 & 2 by William Shakespeare

PRIMARY SOURCE: Henry IV, Part 1 (pub. 1598) Part II (pub. 1600)

Context

• Publication: 
• Part 1 produced by the Chamberlain's Men 1596-7. Survives only as single sheet from quarto. EEBO link. 
• Part 2 produced by the same 1597-8. Published once in quarto, twice in folio collections. EEBO link.
• Feb 25, 1598: Entered to Andrew Wise: "a booke intituled The historye of Henry the iiijth with his battaile of Shrewsburye against Henry Hottspurre of the Northe wth the conceipted mirthe of Sr Iohn ffalstoff".
• Jun 25, 1603: Transferred from Andrew Wise to Matthew Law: "iij enterludes or playes. ... The Third of Henry the .4 the first parte. all kinges." (DEEP)
• Scholarship: Scholars are partly interested in Shakespeare's use of multiple spaces to establish nationhood. Accordingly, scholars are interested in the mixture of class representations between Westminster and Eastcheap. Scholars analyze representations of Glendower as analogous to the interpretation of Ireland. Politically, scholars read Hal for Machiavellian strategy and masculine characterization--useful for feminist readings of this play. Lastly, there is interest in the Oxford edition, which features names edited according to the Master of the Revels: Falstaff, importantly, was called Oldcastle--possibly referring to Foxe's idol of Protestant soldiering.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon.

Content

• Form: Two parts. Each part has five acts.
• Genre: History play.
• Plot: 
• Part 1: Henry IV's previous supporters begin to turn on him. Henry Percy Jr. fights for the king against Douglas of Scotland, but uses his prisoners to bargain for the freedom of Mortimer, the chosen successor of Richard II. Mortimer allies himself with Glendower, and thereby brings them together with Henry Percy (Sr. and Jr.) and Douglas--all united against the King. Meanwhile, Prince Hal carouses with Falstaff in Eastcheap. He pranks Falstaff with friends until being summoned by his father. Prince Hal vows to atone for his waywardness by killing Henry Percy. Falstaff begins to organize a troop of soldiers. Henry Percy Sr. falls ill and refuses to send troops to battle. Glendower does the same due to premonitions of failure, and accordingly, Mortimer does, too. Only Henry Percy Jr. appears at Shrewsbury to personally kill Prince Hal. Henry IV offers amnesty for rebels who lay down arms and take an allegiance oath, but Thomas Percy does not carry the message to Henry Percy Jr. The battle begins, Douglas goes on a killing spree, and Falstaff forswears honor in battle--to the extent that he carries a bottle of wine rather than a sword. Hal drives Douglas away from Henry IV, and then meets Henry Percy Jr. As they struggle, Douglas fights Falstaff and Falstaff feigns death. Hal defeats Henry Percy Jr., though Falstaff tries to take credit. Hal appeals to his father to free the valorous Douglas. The Lancasters are redeemed.
• Part 2: Since the Battle of Shrewsbury, the elder Henries are both failing. Henry Percy Sr. grieves his son and flees to Scotland, hoping to carry on the rebellion with the faithful troops of the archbishop of York. Henry IV has to divide his troops to hold off the Irish and the French. He is weary, ill, and troubled by his own ascent to the throne. He is heartened by the death of Glendower. Prince Hal continues his carousing until summoned back to service. Falstaff organizes a rag-tag army from in Gloucestershire, made up of men who couldn't bribe him. Prince John and York meet to discuss peace. John offers peace and reconciliation, on the condition of inspection of the surrendering rebels. They disband too quickly, while John's do not wish to disband under Westmoreland, so John uses his army to arrest rebels and the archbishop. A dying Henry IV is heartened by news of John. He advises his younger sons, Gloucester and Clarence, to maintain unity. Hal visits his fainted father, admits his regrets, promises graceful rule, and leaves with the crown. Henry IV accuses Hal of harmful wishes, but when consoled, the king admits that he gained the crown without principle and begs God for forgiveness. He wishes for a journey to the Holy Land, and advises Hal to occupy the bloodlust of his nobles with foreign conquest. Henry IV dies, and Hal becomes Henry V. A chief justice banishes Falstaff from the new king's presence, and after some dispute, Henry V agrees. He tells Falstaff that he is a changed man, and that the banishment can be gradually lifted on good behavior. Falstaff maintains that Hal is simply putting on a show.
• Other notes: Where to begin?

(NB: Written with anthology notes.)

Archer, Stanley. "Henry IV, Part II." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.

DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks. Ed. Alan B. Farmer and Zachary Lesser. Created 2007. Accessed18 January 2013. <http://deep.sas.upenn.edu>.

Grigsby, John L. "Henry IV, Part I." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.

Shakespeare, William, Stephen J. Greenblatt, and Andrew Gurr. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. Print.

"Lycidas" by John Milton

PRIMARY SOURCE: "Lycidas" (pub. 1638)
Context

• Publication: Milton was invited to contribute to Justa Eduardo King, a collection commemorating his Cambridge classmate Edward King (called "Lycidas" in the poem).
• Scholarship: Ann Garbett writes that "Lycidas" is considered the greatest poem in English. More generally, scholars are interested in the poem as the product of young Milton.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon

Content

• Form: Irregular meter, like an Italian canzone. Two movements with six sections each, suggesting an epic structure.
• Genre: Pastoral elegy. 
• Conceit: Invocation of the muses, description of friendship, protest against death, pastoral, description of mourners, description of the funeral, consolation in death, adaptation to new landscape. The invocation, protest, and description of mourners use heavy water imagery. The friendship is described in pastoral terms, and the pastoral itself discusses Milton's doubt over his personal goals. The protest compares King's death to the death of Orpheus, son of the muse and dead in the river Hebrus, and the protest admits that the nymphs could not save King. After discussing mourners, the speaker lashes out against faithless shepherds. At the end of the poem, the speaker sets out for new land, possibly new poetic ground.
• Other notes:
• Dubrow suggests that the structure of the poem could be inspired by either a monody (lyrical lament for one voice) or a madrigal (polyphonic song for three to six voices) (31).
• Dubrow supposes that the shift in voice at the end signals a move from an old pastoral identity to a new one, though not a shift in speaker (135).

(NB: written with secondary sources.)
Garbett, Ann D. "Lycidas." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-2.Literary Reference Center. Web. 31 Jan. 2013. Dubrow, Heather. The Challenges of Orpheus: Lyric Poetry and Early Modern England. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. Print.

Comus by John Milton

PRIMARY SOURCE: Comus (perf. 1634)
Context

• Publication: Probably written in 1632, and presented in 1634 at Ludlow Castle on Michelmas to John Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater and newly named Lord President of Wales. Printed in 1637 by Augustus Matthewes for Humphrey Robinson. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars have read Comus as masque, and as such, one of many courtly dramas. Some critics believe that Milton included too few songs for Comus to qualify as a masque, but rather, as an ethical debate. As such, Comus fits into Milton's broader interest in Providential history and clear-cut ethical choices. But more importantly, Milton saw his own work as a masque and probably meant to reclaim the debauched courtly masque form for Protestant, and therefore virtuous, purposes.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, the masque.

Content

• Form: Mixed meter with songs; mostly blank verse. Three scenes. Four songs.
• Genre: Masque, ethical debate.
• Conceit: Ovidian transformation imbued with Protestant themes. The Attendant Spirit is on earth to show the audience godly virtue in the lives of the children of Neptune who are lost in the treacherous woods. In those woods live Comus, son of Bacchus and Circe, who turns travelers into animals with his magic wine. A Lady and her two brothers become lost in the woods on their way to visit father Neptune. While the brothers look for food, the Lady sings to Echo for their guidance. In the disguise of a village boy, Comus leads her away. The brothers dispute whether the Lady is safe or not as she has no guardian but her own chastity. Comus traps the Lady in an enchanted chair and tries to force her to drink a magical cup. The lady refuses, shows her right reason by arguing with Comus, and counters Comus' argument for natural indulgence by appealing to reason and higher nature. The brothers meet the Attendant Spirit in the form of a shepherd, who leads them to defeat Comus. All chase away Comus while the Lady is bound to her chair. The Spirit sings a conjure to Neptune and Triton for Sabrina, the water nymph. Sabrina sees and loves the Lady's virtue and frees her from the chair. The children are united with the parents in a celebration of the beauty and virtue of young people.
• Other notes: 
• This version of temperance is slightly complicated by Paradise Lost, since Adam is supposed to follow this method on the advice of Raphael, but falls anyway. PL seems to recognize that personal temperance is inadequate even before the fall--thus necessitating Christian transcendence.
• Milton, or at least Comus, seems to distinguish ethical virtue from aesthetic virtue when Comus says, "When once her eye / Hath met the vertue of this Magick dust, / I shall appear som harmles Villager" (165). Eyes, then, are subject to intemperate vision that the rational will can temper.

(NB: written with notes.)
Archer, Stanley. "Comus." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-4.Literary Reference Center. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.

Paradise Regained by John Milton

PRIMARY SOURCE: Paradise Regain'd (pub. 1671)
Context

• Publication: Published by John Starkey by JM alongside Samson Agonistes. Licensed July 2 1670. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Most critics read PR to understand it in relation to the other poetic works of mature Milton. Critics also read PR to understand Milton's reaction to the restoration of the monarchy: Milton favors the son who rejects kingship. Critics understand Jesus' temptation for earthly power as analogous to the Puritans' own trouble establishing a zealous kingdom.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, history of religion.

Content

• Form: Blank verse, four books, roughly 500 lines each (2000 total).
• Genre: Epic, narrative poetry, religious disputation.
• Conceit/Plot: Satan struggles to subvert Jesus' life in the world. Jesus is baptized and Satan consults with the fallen angels: they decide to overthrow the new enemy. God and the angels know Satan will fail. Jesus meditates in the desert and refuses foreknowledge of his future. At the first time Jesus feels hunger, Satan--disguised as an old man--tempts him to turn stones to bread. Jesus calls out Satan, and they dispute self-justification. Satan's war council suggests tempting Jesus with women, but Satan instead decides to offer Jesus praise. Jesus dreams of the miraculous food given to Elijah, and when he wakes, Satan offers him food; Jesus refuses all gifts from Satan. Satan offers glorious conquest; Jesus favors piety over conquest and differs all glory to God. Satan offers freedom for the Jews; Jesus  differs all power to God. Satan offers Jesus the kingdoms of the world; Jesus refuses earthly empire. Satan offers Jesus the literature of Greece and Rome; Jesus prefers the literature of the Hebrews. Satan gives Jesus bad dreams and a storm, then takes him to the pinnacle of the temple and demands proof. Jesus refuses to tempt God, and Satan falls a second time. Angels serve Jesus a table of celestial food, and return Jesus to his mother's house.
• Other notes:
• Milton's Satan gives Jesus the choice of literature: classical or pious? Milton's Jesus chooses pious literature over the classics, offering an interesting complication of Norbrook's view of early modern humanism (that is, Norbrook argues Protestantism is a result of the application of classical humanist heuristics to religion).

(NB: Written with notes.)
Martin, Catherine Gimelli. "Paradise Regained." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 27 Jan. 2013.

Utopia by Thomas More

PRIMARY SOURCE: Utopia (Latin 1515-6, English 1551)
Context

• Publication: Printed in English by Abraham Vele. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholarship on Utopia addresses the book's humanism, the status of counsel, religious freedom, communism, rhetoric, and other matters of politics and religion.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, economics, history of religion.

Content

• Form: A discourse in two parts: first, Raphael Hythloday comes to England and meets Cardinal Morton, with whom he discourses on the state of England; second, Hythloday describes the workings of Utopia.
• Genre: (Political) Discourse.
• Conceit: Hythloday recommends that England reduce its violence (war, capital punishment) and inequality (enclosure, gambling, commodity prices). Then Hythloday explains the organization of Utopia (54 shires, 30 families per shire, one town per shire, one councilman per town, one elected prince, semi-weekly meetings), the Utopian economy (guild system, academics, labor rotation, communism, distaste for precious metals), health (vice is replaced with profitable recreation, slaves slaughter cattle, hospitals care for the sick, communities dine together, the elderly are favored), domestic law (slavery replaces the death penalty for crimes such as adultery, companionate marriage is encouraged but limited by age) foreign policy (enemies are bribed and divided, rather than conquered), and religious tolerance (Christianity survives alongside other faiths, but atheism and secularism are forbidden).
• Other notes: 
• Ironic detachment from Hythloday ("nonsense-talker") and Utopia ("nowhere").
• Profoundly Aristotelian understanding of wealth: no reserve value, and actually a weapon against less-enlightened peoples.
• Education as entertainment.
• Despite the passing reference to religious tolerance, most of the practices described resemble austere western Christianity.