ENG 319

Sixteenth-century English literature absorbed and contributed to the European Renaissance, led at Henry VIII's court by the Thomas More circle, while popular culture developed new expressions of older traditions. These rich courtly and popular traditions unite in the achievements of the Elizabethan younger generation, especially the Sidneys, Spenser, and Shakespeare. Omitting full-length drama and epic treated elsewhere, this course highlights other major genres of prose and poetry in English from 1485 to 1603.