Early Modern Literature Reading List

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The following reading list for the English and Film Studies PhD program is provided by the department and is updated yearly to reflect changes in the discipline.

For more information about reading lists, see the Comprehensive Area Exam page.

Drama

  • Norton and Sackville, Gorboduc
  • Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy
  • Marlowe
    • Doctor Faustus
    • The Jew of Malta or Tamburlaine the Great Part One
  • Shakespeare
    • Richard the Third
    • Hamlet
    • Macbeth
    • King Lear
    • Othello
    • Richard the Second
    • Henry the Fourth Part One
    • The Merchant of Venice
    • A Midsummer Night’s Dream
    • As You Like It
    • The Winter’s Tale
    • The Tempest
  • Anonymous, Arden of Faversham
  • Heywood, A Woman Killed with Kindness
  • Cary, The Tragedy of Mariam
  • Jonson
    • Volpone; Epicene
    • Bartholomew Fair or The Alchemist
  • Dekker, The Shoemakers’ Holiday
  • Middleton and Dekker, The Roaring Girl
  • Middleton
    • Women Beware Women
    • A Chaste Maid in Cheapside or A Game at Chess
  • Middleton and Rowley, The Changeling
  • Webster, The Duchess of Malfi
  • Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster or The Maid’s Tragedy
  • Ford, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore or The Broken Heart

Poetry

  • Tottel’s Miscellany (Wyatt and Surrey)
  • Sidney, Astrophil and Stella
  • Spenser
    • Faerie Queene, Books 1-3
    • Shephearde’s Calendar or Amoretti
  • Marlowe, Hero and Leander
  • Selected lyrics by:
    • Raleigh
    • Marlowe
    • Drayton
    • Campion
    • Fulke Greville
    • Daniel
    • Suckling
    • Lovelace
  • Shakespeare, Sonnets
  • Jonson, “To Penshurst;” selected poems
  • Wroth, Pamphilia to Amphilanthus
  • Lanier, Salve Deus Rex Judeorum; “The Description of Cookham”
  • Donne, Songs and Sonnets; Holy Sonnets; Anniversaries; selected poems
  • Herbert, The Temple
  • Philips, selected poems
  • Vaughan, Silex Scintillans
  • Crashaw, Steps to the Temple (selections)
  • Herrick, Hesperides (selections)
  • Marvell, selected poems, including “An Horatian Ode” and “To Appleton House”
  • Milton, “L’Allegro;” “Il Penseroso;” “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity;” “On Shakespeare;”
    • “Lycidas;” selected sonnets
    • Paradise Lost
    • Paradise Regained or Samson Agonistes

Prose

  • Sidney, Defence of Poesy / Apology for Poetry
  • More, Utopia
  • Elyot, The Book Named the Governor
  • Ascham, The Schoolmaster
  • Raleigh, History of the World
  • Hakluyt, Voyages and Discoveries
  • Elizabeth I, “Speech to the Troops at Tilbury;” “The ‘Golden Speech;’” selected letters
  • Certain Sermons or Homilies (1547) with “A Homily Against Disobedience and Wilful
    Rebellion” (1570), plus selected homilies
  • Debates about Women: Jane Anger Her Protection of Women; Swetnam, The Arraignment of
    Lewd, Idle, Froward and Unconstant Women; Speght, A Muzzle for Melastomus; Hic
    Mulier / Haec Vir; Anna Trapnel’s Report and Plea (selections)
  • Bacon, Essays; selections from The Advancement of Learning
  • Burton, selections from The Anatomy of Melancholy
  • Donne, selections from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions; Five Sermons upon Special
    Occasions (1626)
  • Browne, Religio Medici or Urn Burial
  • Hobbes, Leviathan
  • Milton, Areopagitica; The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates