Seventeenth Century Reading List

Drama Jonson, Ben, The (1601) Sejanus His Fall (1602?) (1606) Epicoene, or, the Silent Woman (1609) (1610) (1614) Marston, John, The Malcontent (1604) Tourneur, Cyril, The Revenger’s Tragedy (1607) Chapman, George, Bussy D’Ambois (1607) Heywood, Thomas, A Woman Killed by Kindness (1607) Webster, John, The White Devil (1610-12) Beaumont, Francis, and John Fletcher, The Maid’s Tragedy (1611) Beaumont, Francis, and John Fletcher, A King and No King (1611) Webster, John, The Duchess of Malfi (1613) Middleton, Thomas, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (1613) Middleton, Thomas, and William Rowley, The Changeling (1622) Ford, John, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (1630ish)

Masques Jonson, Ben, The of Blackness (1605) Barriers at a Marriage (1606) (1609) (1612) (1616) Christmas His Masque (1616) Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue (1618) Neptune’s Triumph for the Return of Albion (1624) (1631) Love’s Welcome at Bolsolver (1634) Campion, Thomas, The Lord Hay’s Masque (1607) The Caversham Entertainment (1613) Daniel, Samuel, Tethys’ Festival (1610) Chapman, The Memorable Masque (1613) Anon, The Coleorton Masque (1618) Townshend, Aurelius, Tempe Restored (1632) Milton, John, Comus (1634) Carew, Thomas, Coelum Britannicum (1634) Davenant, Salmacida Spolia (1640)

Cavalier Poets Jonson, Ben (1572-1637) Herrick, Robert (1591-1674) Carew, Thomas (1594-1642) Waller, Edmund (1606-1687) Suckling, Sir John (1609-1641) Denham, Sir John (1615-1669) Lovelace, Richard (1618-1658) Devotional Poets Donne, John (1571-1631), Songs and Sonnets (1633, 1635) Holy Sonnets and other devotional lyrics Quarles, Francis (1592-1644), Divine Fancies (1632), Emblems (1634-5) Herbert, George (1593-1633), The Temple (1633) Wither, George, A Collection of Emblems, Ancient and Modern (1635) Crashaw, Richard (1612-1649), Steps to the Temple, Delights of the Muses Vaughan, Henry (1621-1695), Poems, Olor Iscanus (1650) Silex Scintillans 1 and 2 (1650, 1655) Traherne, Thomas (1637-1674), Dobell Manuscript, Poems of Felicity

Other Lyrics Wroth, Lady Mary (1587-1651) The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania (1621) Pamphilia to Amphilanthus (1621) Marvell, Andrew (1621-1678)

Prose Donne, John, Paradoxes (1590s) Problems (early 1600s) Biathanatos (1608) Devotion upon Emergent Occasions (1624) Selected Sermons (1617-1631) Bacon, Sir Francis, The Advancement of Learning (1605) The New Organon (1620) Essays (1597, 1612, 1625) The New Atlantis (1627) Burton, Robert, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) Browne, Religio Medici (1635) Lilburne, John, The Picture of the Council of State (Levellers’ pamphlet, 1649) Coppe, Abiezer, A Fiery Flying Roll (Ranters’ “inspired” [hectic] pamphlet, 1649) Hobbes, Thomas, Leviathan (1651) Hyde, History of the Rebellion (post-Restoration)

Milton Selected lyrics: “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity,” “On Shakespeare,” “L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso,” “Lycidas,” “Avenge O Lord…” “When I Consider…” Paradise Lost (1667, 1674) Paradise Regained (1671) Samson Agonistes (1671) Selections from Prose: Prolusions (late 1620s) The Reason of Church Government Urged Against Prelaty (1642) The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643) Of Education (1644) Aeropagitica (1644) The Christian Doctrine (1650s)