Below is a library of (mostly) open-access editions of texts from the ENG 140 British Literature I syllabus that student essays are engaged with. This course is indebted to the excellent open-access textbook, An Open Companion to Early British Literature, ed. Allegra Villarreal (CC BY-NC 4.0). The readings below represent those on the syllabus for Fall 2022. As one of the outcomes of the course is to problematize notions of canonicity, this site allows us to adjust the texts and readings on this list as the syllabus evolves.
JUDITH
THE FOUR BRANCHES OF THE MABINOGI, 2nd BRANCH
HELDRIS OF CORNWALL – SILENCE, A ROMANCE
- edited and translated by Sarah Roche-Mahdi, Michigan State Univ Press, 1992
GEOFFREY CHAUCER – THE CANTERBURY TALES, GENERAL PROLOGUE
MARIE DE FRANCE – BISCLARVET
THE KING OF TARS
https://sourcebook.stanford.edu/text/king-tars
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
ISABELLA WHITNEY – A SWEET NOSEGAY
- from Montana State Univ
PHILIP SIDNEY – ASTROPHIL AND STELLA
MARY WROTH – PAMPHILIA TO AMPHILANTHUS
RACHEL SPEGHT – A MUZZLE FOR MELASTOMUS
JOSEPH SWETNAM – THE ARRAIGNMENT OF WOMEN
AMELIA LANYER – SALVE DEUS REX JUDAEORUM
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE – KING HENRY V
JOHN MILTON – THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES
JOHN MILTON – SAMSON AGONISTES
https://milton.host.dartmouth.edu/reading_room/samson/drama/text.shtml
JOHN MILTON – SONNETS
https://milton.host.dartmouth.edu/reading_room/sonnets/sonnet_19/text.shtml
MARGARET LUCAS CAVENDISH – THE BLAZING WORLD
APHRA BEHN – OROONOKO
Image Credits: The Bear Garden and the Globe Theatre, London, 1816 (Wikimedia Commons)