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The Sixteenth Century section of Norton
Topics Online includes a topic cluster
devoted to Christopher Marlowe's Doctor
Faustus, along with two other topics
which address events that profoundly altered
English culture and society in this century:
the Reformation, and the exploration and
attempted conquest of lands beyond the bounds
of Britain and Europe.
Suggested uses of Norton
Topics Online: The Sixteenth Century with The
Norton Anthology of English Literature,
Seventh Edition (anthology page references
for the new Seventh Edition are included below):
The Magician, the Heretic, and
the Playwright: Faustus, Marlowe, and the English
Stage
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Christopher Marlowe,
Doctor Faustus |
NAEL7.1.990 |
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Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene |
NAEL7.1.622 |
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William Shakespeare,
King Lear |
NAEL7.1.1106 |
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The Magician,
the Heretic, and the Playwright: Faustus,
Marlowe, and the English Stage offers
a rich and varied selection of contexts
for the in-depth study of Marlowe's
play. The texts and images introduce the
reader to sorcery in Elizabethan England,
Marlowe's own shadowy reputation, and
the perceived connections between witchcraft
and stagecraft. While this topic cluster
is designed to accompany Doctor Faustus,
the image of the sorceror in the late sixteenth
century also provides vital background
for the reading of Spenser's Faerie
Queene, and the glimpses of theatrical "special
effects" will interest readers of
Shakespeare's plays, especially King
Lear.
Renaissance Exploration, Travel,
and the World Outside Europe
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Sir Walter Ralegh,
The Discovery of the large, rich,
and beautiful Empire of Guiana |
NAEL7.1.885 |
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Sir Thomas More, Utopia |
NAEL7.1.506 |
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Arthur Golding, Ovid's Metamorphoses
[The Golden Age] |
NAEL7.1.601 |
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Michael Drayton,
Ode. To the Virginian Voyage |
NAEL7.1.968 |
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Andrew Marvell, Bermudas |
NAEL7.1.1686 |
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Aphra Behn, Oroonoko |
NAEL7.1.2174 |
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Renaissance
Exploration, Travel, and the World Outside
Europe supplements the section on The
Wider World in the Norton Anthology (Seventh
Edition) and offers vital background to
travel writings such as Sir Walter Ralegh's
account of the Guiana expedition. The topic cluster emphasizes
the importance of classical models, such
as Ovid's description of the Golden
Age, in shaping perceptions of the New
World. Readers will be able to trace this
persistent theme in Drayton's Ode
To the Virginian Voyage, and in works
of the next century such as Marvell's Bermudas and
Behn's Oroonoko.
Dissent, Doubt, and Spiritual
Violence in the Reformation
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Edmund Spenser,
The Faerie Queene |
NAEL7.1.622 |
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John Skelton |
NAEL7.1.499 |
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Robert Southwell,
The Burning Babe |
NAEL7.1.956 |
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John Milton, Paradise Lost |
NAEL7.1.1815 |
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Areopagitica |
NAEL7.1.1801 |
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Dissent, Doubt,
and Spiritual Violence in the Reformation adds
to the range of texts found in the Norton
Anthology section on The Literature
of the Sacred, and also includes a
fascinating selection of images. The events
and debates of the Reformation lie in the
background of many of the texts printed
in the anthology, notably Book 1 of Spenser's Faerie
Queene and Robert Southwell's religious
lyric, The Burning Babe. A provocative
parallel to the "plain style" of
John Skelton is found in the Song of
the Pilgrims of Grace. The texts dealing
with the translation of the Bible and the
martyrdom of Anne Askew will be helpful
for students of seventeenth-century literature,
especially Paradise Lost and the
controversial prose writings of John Milton.
Island Nations
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Queen Elizabeth, Speech to the Troops at Tilbury |
NAEL7.1.597 |
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William Shakespeare, King Lear |
NAEL7.1.1106 |
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Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene |
NAEL7.1.622 |
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The Shepheardes Calender |
NAEL7.1.616 |
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Isabella Whitney, Will and Testament |
NAEL7.1.606 |
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Island Nations offers a wide range of texts highlighting the role played by literature in debates over ethnic and national identity. A selection of texts and images relating to Ireland, including Spenser's View of the Present State of Ireland, shed light on the colonial context of The Faerie Queene, and can also form the basis for comparisons with English projects in the New World. John Derricke's scurrilous mock-pastoral description of Ireland makes an intriguing contrast with Spenser's Shepheardes Calender. The long-running debate over the unification of the island of Britain provides essential political background to Shakespeare's King Lear. A pair of texts focusing on Elizabethan London illuminate the dynamic milieu from which the plays of Shakespeare and Marlowe sprang, and can be read alongside Whitney's Will and Testament.
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