The course examines representative selections of the poetry and prose of the high and late Renaissance period in England, covering a century from about 1580-1680, an era characterized by an impressive range of literary output that has never been rivaled in the western world. Even apart from the work of the most eminent figures— Shakespeare and Milton—this period offers a rich and varied legacy of poetry and impressive essays, treatises, and allegories, by such great literary figures as Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe, Wroth, Jonson, Bacon, Donne, Herbert, Marvell, Browne, Pepys, and Bunyan who, along with other selected authors, are represented in this course. The course also addresses the political, religious, and theological controversies that energized so much of the writing of this dynamic century.