Documents of Shakespeare's England

John A. Wagner, PhD, has taught classes in British and American history at Arizona State University and Phoenix College.

Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsEvaluating and Interpreting Primary DocumentsIntroduction: Shakespeare's EnglandChronologyChapter 1 Society and Family1. "It Was Ordained for a Remedy against Sin": The Marriage Ceremony as Mandated by the Book of Common Prayer (1559)2. "Give Yourself to Be Merry": Sir Henry Sidney's Advice to His Son, Philip Sidney (c. 1566)3. "They Have Invented Such Strange Fashions": Philip Stubbes's Description of Elizabethan Barbers (1583)4. "Sorrows Draw Not the Dead, to Life, But the Living to Death": Sir Walter Raleigh's Letter of Comfort to Sir Robert Cecil upon the Death of Cecil's Wife (1597)5. "One Sharp and Discrete Word Is Sufficient": John Dod and Robert Cleaver on Proper Household Relations between Husbands and Wives, Masters and Servants (1598)Chapter 2 Economy and Work6. "That Certain Abuses Might Be Suppressed": Regulating the Trade of Cloth in the Town of Beverley (1561)7. "A Convenient Proportion of Wages": Parliament Enacts a Uniform Labor Code—the Statute of Artificers (1563)8. "How Our Maltbugs Lug at This Liquor": William Harrison on Grain Buying in Country Markets (1577)9. "They Will Not Buy Any Thing of Our Country-Men": The Economic Impact of Immigration on the London Economy (1593)10. "Is Not Bread There?": The Anger over Monopolies (1601)Chapter 3 Politics and Parliament11. "A Place of Free Speech": Freedom of Debate in Parliament (1562, 1576)12. "His Word Is a Law": Sir Thomas Smith Describes the Power and Position of the English Monarch (c. 1565)13. "A Coronet on Her Head": John Hooker's Account of the Dissolution of a Session of Parliament (1571)14. "The Place of Secretary Is Dreadful": William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Describes the Duties and Requirements of the Office of Secretary of State (c. 1571)15. "He Is the Eye and the Head of the Whole Commonweal": John Hooker's Description of the Duties of the Mayor and City Recorder of Exeter (1584)Chapter 4 Queen and Court16. "Comely Rather Than Handsome": Descriptions of the Young Princess and the Aging Queen (1557, 1598)17. "A Fresh Delicate Harmony of Flutes": The Queen on Progress—Robert, Earl of Leicester, Entertains the Queen at Kenilworth Castle (1575)18. "In His Clown's Apparel": The Comic Actor Richard Tarlton All about the Court (1580s)19. "Being Much Moved to Be So Challenged in Public": Queen Elizabeth Schools the Malapert Polish Ambassador (1597)20. "I Have Reigned with Your Loves": The Queen's Valedictory—the "Golden Speech" (1601)Chapter 5 Anglicans, Puritans, and Catholics21. "The Queen's Highness Is the Only Supreme Governor of This Realm": Framing the Anglican Religious Settlement (1559)22. "Elizabeth, the Pretended Queen of England": Pope Pius V Excommunicates and Deposes Queen Elizabeth—and the Consequences for English Catholics (1570, 1582)23. "To Wash His Hands in the Protestants' Blood": News of a Catholic Plot to Assassinate the Queen and Bring in the Spanish (1570)24. "Brought Many to Great Disobedience": The Bishops Wrestle with Growing Puritan Activity in the Counties (1573, 1581)25. "Which We Do Barbarously Call Sunday": Puritans Petition the Queen in the Commons for a Church Organized Along Presbyterian Lines (1585)Chapter 6 Literature, Plays, and Poetry26. "I Aske of God a Vengeance on Thy Bones": Historical Complaint Literature—The Poetry of A Mirror for Magistrates (1563)27. "None More Witty Than Euphues": John Lyly Writes Popular Elizabethan Romance Novels (1579, 1580)28. "In the Defence of That My Unelected Vocation": Sir Philip Sidney Defends Poetry and the Theater against Their Critics (c. 1583)29. "Why Made You Night to Cover Sin?": Thomas Kyd Writes Popular Elizabethan Tragedy (1592)30. "I Fill'd the Gaols with Bankrupts in a Year": The Popular and Influential Plays of Christopher Marlowe (1592, 1594)Chapter 7 William Shakespeare's Life and Works31. "I Love What Others Do Abhor": The Sonnets (c. 1576, 1609)32. "Mine Arm Is Like a Blasted Sapling": William Shakespeare and His Sources—the Second Edition of Holinshed's Chronicle (1587) and Richard III (c. 1592–1593)33. "For the Recreation of Our Loving Subjects": King James I Licenses William Shakespeare's Theatrical Company (1603)34. "My Second Best Bed": William Shakespeare's Will (1616)35. "He Was a Happy Imitator of Nature": The First Folio Edition of Shakespeare's Works (1623)Chapter 8 London Life36. "And Never More Me Name": Poet Isabella Whitney Bids a Mocking Farewell to London (1573)37. "My Purse in This Fray Is Taken Out of My Pocket": The Elizabethan Underworld as Described in Robert Greene's Cony-Catching Pamphlets (1592)38. "Justice Somewhere Is Corrupted": Thomas Nashe Inveighs against the Stews and Strumpets of London (1593)39. "The Said High Street Stretched Straight to Ludgate": John Stow Describes the Wards of Elizabethan London (1600)40. "Salute at Parting No Man but by the Name of Sir": Thomas Dekker's Advice on Walking Home Late through London (1609)Chapter 9 Scotland and the Scottish Queen41. "How Can That Doctrine Be of God?": John Knox's Account of His Meeting with Queen Mary of Scotland (1561)42. "No Man Said So Much as Amen": A Description of the Marriage of Mary of Scotland and Henry, Lord Darnley (1565)43. "He Had in His Body above Sixty Wounds": The Murder of David Rizzo and Its Immediate Aftermath (1566)44. "So Soon as the Said Design Shall Be Executed": Queen Mary Endorses Babington's Plot—and Thereby Seals Her Fate (1586)45. "Show You Worthy the Place": Queen Elizabeth Advises James VI of Scotland on How to Be a King (1592)Chapter 10 Spain and the Armada46. "Pitiful Miseries and Horrible Calamities": Queen Elizabeth Justifies Her Military Intervention in the Low Countries (1585)47. "This Hath Bred a Great Fear in the Spaniard": Sir Francis Drake Describes His Raid on the Spanish Port of Cadiz (1587)48. "Furnished with Armor and Weapon Mete for Your Calling": The Council Prepares for Possible Spanish Invasion (1588)49. "Your Highness's Enemies Are Many": Sir Francis Drake Describes the English Fleet's Encounters with the Spanish Armada (1588)50. "The Fight Was Very Terrible": An Account of the English Raid on Cadiz (1596)Chapter 11 Ireland and the English51. "Such Lamentable Cries and Doleful Complaints": Lord Deputy Sir Henry Sidney's Shocking Account of Conditions in Parts of Ireland (1567)52. "All Things Are at a Hard Hand": A Scarcity of Money and Merchandise in Elizabethan Ireland (1568)53. "Who Can Keep His Living?": Three Accounts of the Storming of Clogrennan Castle (1569)54. "Reducing That Savage Nation to Better Government and Civility": English Views of the Evils of Irish Government and Society (1595)55. "That All Irishmen May Freely Travel": The Demands of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, for Irish Control of a Catholic Ireland (1599)Chapter 12 America and the English56. "We Would Deal Friendly with Them": George Best's Description of the Frobisher Expedition's Encounters with the Inuit (1577)57. "To Adventure as Becometh Men": An Account of Newfoundland by a Member of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Expedition (1583)58. "Shall from Time to Time Adventure Themselves": Sir Walter Raleigh's Title to Virginia (1584)59. "After the Manner of the Golden Age": A Report on Virginia by the Leaders of Sir Walter Raleigh's First Expedition to America (1584)60. "Matter for All Sorts and States of Men to Work Upon": Richard Hakluyt's Reasons for Establishing English Colonies in America (1584)BibliographyIndex