The publication of The Broadview Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Verse and Prose is a literary event; this comprehensive volume is the first anthology of the period to reflect the breadth of seventeenth-century studies in recent decades. Over one hundred writers are included, from John Chamberlain at the beginning of the century to Elisabeth Singer Rowe at its end. There are generous selections from the work of all major writers, and a representation of the work of virtually every writer of significance. The work of women writers figures prominently, with extensive selections not only from canonical writers such as Behn and Bradstreet, but also from other writers (such as Katherine Philips and Margaret Cavendish) who have been receiving considerable scholarly attention in recent years.
The anthology is broadly inclusive, with writing from America as well as from the British Isles. Memoirs, letters, political texts, travel writing, prophetic literature, street ballads, and pamphlet literature are all here, as is a full representation of the literary poetry and prose of the period, including the poetry of Jonson; the prose of Bacon; the metaphysical poetry of Donne, Herbert, Marvell, and others; the lyric verse of Herrick; and substantial selections from the poetry and prose of Milton and Dryden. (While Samson Agonistes is included in its entirety, Milton’s epic poems have been excluded, in order to allow space for other works not so readily accessible elsewhere.)
The editors have included complete works wherever possible. A headnote by the editors introduces each author, and each selection has been newly annotated.
Comments
Praise for The Broadview Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Verse and Prose:
“There are many good things to be said about The Broadview Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Verse and Prose—not least that it comes to help relieve a quarter-of-a-century’s dearth of decent anthologies, that it covers the whole century, and that it includes a number of women writers…This ambitious and thoughtful anthology deserves a large audience.” — Tom Clayton, Regents Professor of English, University of Minnesota
MARY SIDNEY HERBERT, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE
- The Psalms of David
- Psalm 52 Quid Gloriaris?
Psalm 58 Si Vere Utique
Psalm 74 Ut Quid, Deus
Psalm 120 Ad Dominum
MICHAEL DRAYTON
- To the Virginian Voyage
To the Cambro-Britons, and their Harp, his Ballad of Agincourt
Sonnet 61
THOMAS CAMPION
- from A Book of Airs
Let him that will be free and keep his heart from care
Follow your Saint, follow with accents sweet
from Two Books of Airs
Sweet, exclude me not, nor be divided
As by the streams of Babylon
from The Third Book of Airs
If Love loves truth, then women do not love
from The Fourth Book of Airs
There is a garden in her face
HENRY WOTTON
- On his Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia
The Character of a Happy Life
Upon the Death of Sir Albert Morton’s Wife
On a Bank as I Sat a-Fishing: A Description of the Spring
De Morte
AEMILIA LANYER
- Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (excerpts)
To All Virtuous Ladies in General
The Author’s Dream to the Lady Mary
Salve Deus Rex Judaorum (excerpts)
The Description of Cooke-ham
JOHN DONNE
- Songs and Sonnets
- The Apparition
The Flea
The Good-Morrow
Love’s Alchemy
The Indifferent
The Anniversary
The Sun Rising
The Canonization
Confined Love
Air and Angels
Twicknam Garden
A Valediction: of Weeping
The Ecstasy
Farewell to Love
A Valediction: forbidding Mourning
A Nocturnal upon S. Lucy’s Day being the shortest day
The Relic
- Elegies
- Elegy VI
Elegy VII
Elegy VIII The Comparison
Elegy IX The Autumnal
Elegy XIX To His Mistress Going to Bed
Elegy [XVIII] Love’s Progress
- Satires
- Divine Poems
Holy Sonnets
- VI
VII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
- Holy Sonnets from the Westmoreland MS
- XVII
XVIII
XIX
Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward
A Hymn to Christ, at the Author’s last going into Germany
A Hymn to God my God, in my sickness
A Hymn to God the Father
BEN JONSON
- To the Reader
To Alchemists
On Something that Walks Somewhere
To William Camden
On My First Daughter
On My First Son
On Lucy, Countess of Bedford
To Sir Henry Savile
To Sir Thomas Roe
To the Same
Inviting a Friend to Supper
To Penshurst
To Heaven
Song To Celia
Her Triumph
An Epistle to Master John Selden
An Epistle Answering to One that Asked to be Sealed of the Tribe of Ben
An Ode. To Himself
To the Immortal Memory and Friendship of that Noble Pair, Sir Lucius Gary and Sir H. Morison
The Praises of a Country Life
On The New Inn Ode. To Himself
To the Memory of My Beloved, The Author, Mr William Shakespeare
Clerimont’s Song
A Vision of Beauty
RICHARD CORBETT
- Upon an Unhandsome Gentlewoman, who made Love unto him
The Fairies Farewell: Or God-a-Mercy Will
The Distracted Puritan
EDWARD, LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY
- An Ode upon a Question moved, Whether Love should continue for ever?
LADY MARY WROTH
- Pamphilia to Amphilanthus
- 77 In this strange labyrinth, how shall I turn?
78 Is to leave all, and take the thread of Love
79 His flames are joys, his bands true lovers’ might
80 And be in his brave court a glorious light
81 And burn, yet burning you will love the smart
82 He may our prophet, and our tutor prove
83 How blest be they then, who his favours prove
84 He that shuns love doth love himself the less
85 But where they may return with honour’s grace
86 Be from the Court of Love, and Reason torn
87 Unprofitably pleasing, and unsound
88 Be given to him who triumphs in his right
89 Free from all fogs but shining fair, and clear
90 Except my heart which you bestowed before
103 My muse, now happy, lay thy self to rest
WILLIAM BROWNE
- On the Countess Dowager of Pembroke
ROBERT HERRICK
- To the Most Illustrious, and Most Hopeful Prince, Charles, Prince of Wales
The Argument of his Book
When he would have his verses read
The Difference Betwixt Kings and Subjects
Upon the Loss of His Mistresses
Cherry-Ripe
To the King and Queen,Upon Their Unhappy Distances
Delight In Disorder
Duty to Tyrants
To Dianeme
Corinna’s Going A Maying
To live merrily, and to trust to Good Verses
To the Virgins, To make much of Time
The Hock-cart, or Harvest home:
To Anthea, who may command him anything
To Meadows
Upon Prudence Baldwin her sickness
On himself
Casualties
To Daffodils
Matins, or morning Prayer
Evensong
The Bracelet to Julia
The Departure of the Good Daemon
The Power in the People
To His Book
Shame, no Statist
Fresh Cheese and Cream
His Winding-Sheet
His Prayer to Ben. Jonson
An Ode for him
My Ben
The bad season makes the Poet sad
His return to London
His Grange, Or Private Wealth
Upon Julia’s Clothes
A Thanksgiving to God, for his House
His Litany, to the Holy Spirit
FRANCIS QUARLES
- Emblem III (from Book III)
Emblem VII (from Book III)
Epigram III (from Book IV)
Eclogue VIII
HENRY KING
- An Exequy to his Matchless never to be forgotten Friend
Upon the Death of my ever Desired Friend Dr Donne Dean of Paul’s
Sic Vita
GEORGE HERBERT
- The Altar
Redemption
Easter Wings
Affliction (I)
Prayer (I)
Jordan (I)
The H. Scriptures I
The H. Scriptures II
Church-monuments
The Windows
Denial
Vanity (I)
Virtue
The Pearl. Matth. 13:45
Man
Life
Jordan (II)
The Quip
Providence
Paradise
The Pilgrimage
The Collar
The Pulley
The Flower
Aaron
The Elixir
Love (III)
L’Envoy
THOMAS CAREW
- A deposition from Love
Disdain returned
To Saxham
A Rapture
To Ben Jonson
An Elegy Upon the Death of the Dean of Pauls, Dr. John Donne
To a Lady that desired I would love her
A Song
The second Rapture
In praise of his Mistress
JAMES SHIRLEY
- “The glories of our blood and state”
RACHEL SPEGHT
THOMAS RANDOLPH
- The Second Epode of Horace Translated
An Elegy upon the Lady Venetia Digby
Upon his Picture
An Ode to Master Anthony Stafford, to hasten him into the Country
An Answer to Master Ben. Jonson’s Ode
On the Death of a Nightingale
A Pastoral Courtship
WILLIAM HABINGTON
- Nox nocti indicat Scientiam
EDMUND WALLER
- On a Girdle
Go, Lovely Rose!
Upon His Majesty’s Repairing of Paul’s
On St. James’s Park, As Lately Improved by His Majesty
Of the last verses in the book
JOHN MILTON
- On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity
L’Allegro
II Penseroso
Lycidas
Sonnet 7
Sonnet 12 On the detraction which followed upon my writing certain treatises
Sonnet 18 On the Late Massacre in Piedmont
Sonnet 19
On the New Forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament
Sonnet 15 On the Lord General Fairfax at the Siege of Colchester
Samson Agonistes
SIR JOHN SUCKLING
- To the Reader
Song
A Ballad. Upon a Wedding
The Constant Lover
A Barley-break
Sonnet I
Sonnet II
Sonnet III
The Wits
A Candle
GERHARD WINSTANLEY
ANNE BRADSTREET
- The Prologue
A Dialogue between Old England and New Concerning their Present Troubles
The Flesh and the Spirit
The Author to Her Book
To My Dear and Loving Husband
Another
In Memory of my Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet
Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666
RICHARD CRASHAW
- Wishes. To his (supposed) Mistress
Saint Mary Magdalene or The Weeper
A Hymn to the Name and Honour of the Admirable Saint Teresa
JOHN CLEVELAND
- The King’s Disguise
The Rebel Scot
Epitaph on the Earl of Strafford
The General Eclipse
SAMUEL BUTLER
ROWLAND WATKYNS
- To the Reader
The Anabaptist
Upon the mournful death of our late Soveraign Lord Charles the first, King of England, &c
The Common People
The holy Sepulchre
The new illiterate Lay-Teachers
SIR JOHN DENHAM
RICHARD LOVELACE
- To Lucasta, Going to the Wars
The Grasshopper
To Lucasta. From Prison
To my Worthy Friend Mr. Peter Lilly
To Althea, From Prison
The Ant
To a Lady with child that asked an Old Shirt
ABRAHAM COWLEY
- The Wish
The Grasshopper
The Innocent 111
On the Death of Mr. Crashaw
To Mr. Hobbes
Brutus
To the Royal Society
Sors Virgiliana
Of Solitude
ALEXANDER BROME
- The Levellers rant
The New-Courtier
The Saints’ Encouragement
A Satire on the Rebellion
LUCY HUTCHINSON
ANDREW MARVELL
- Flecknoe, an English Priest at Rome
The Coronet
The Gallery
The Definition of Love
To His Coy Mistress
An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell’s Return From Ireland
The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers
The Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Fawn
Upon the Hill and Grove at Bilbrough
Upon Appleton House
The Garden
On a Drop of Dew
A Dialogue between the Soul and Body
The Mower against Gardens
Damon the Mower
The Mower to the Glow-worms
The Mower’s Song
The Character of Holland
Bermudas
The First Anniversary of the Government under His Highness the Lord Protector
On Mr. Milton’s “Paradise Lost”
HENRY VAUGHAN
- A Rhapsody
Upon a Cloak Lent Him by Mr. J. Ridsley
Regeneration
The Retreat
“Joy of my life! while left me here”
The Morning-Watch
“And do they so?”
“I walked the other day”
“They are all gone into the world of light!”
Cock-Crowing
The Knot
The Night
The Book
To His Books
MARGARET CAVENDISH, DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE
- The Poetress’s Hasty Resolution
A Discourse of Beasts
The Hunting of the Hare
The Pastime of the Queen of the Fairies, when she comes upon earth out of the center
Her Descending Down
“I Language want”
JOHN DRYDEN
- Annus Mirabilis
Absalom and Achitophel
Mac Flecknoe
Religio Laid or A Layman’s Faith (excerpt)
A Song for St Cecilia’s Day, 1687
To the Memory of Mr. Oldham
Juvenal’s Sixth Satire (excerpts)
The Empress Messalina
The learned wife
The gaudy gossip
Juvenal’s Tenth Satire (excerpt)
Sejanus
The Secular Masque
KATHERINE PHILIPS
- Upon the Double Murder of K. Charles I in Answer to a Libelous Copy of Rimes by Vavasour Powell
On the Numerous Access of the English to wait upon the King in Flanders
On the 3 of September, 1651
Friendship’s Mystery, To My Dearest Lucasia
A Retired Friendship, To Ardelia
Wiston Vault
To My Excellent Lucasia, On Our Friendship
A Country Life
Orinda to Lucasia parting October 1661 at London
Orinda Upon Little Hector Philips
Orinda to Lucasia
A Married State
PHILO-PHILIPPA
THOMAS TRAHERNE
- Wonder
Innocence
The Preparative
The Instruction
The Demonstration
The Anticipation
CHARLES SACKVILLE, EARL OF DORSET
SIR CHARLES SEDLEY
- Young Coridon and Phillis
APHRA BEHN
- Song “I Led my Silvia to a Grove”
The Golden Age. A Paraphrase on a Translation out of French
Song “Love Armed”
On a Juniper Tree, Cut Down to Make Busks
The Disappointment
On the Death of the late Earl of Rochester
A Pindaric on the Death of our Late Sovereign
To the fair Clarinda
JOHN WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER
- Song
Upon His Leaving His Mistress
A Satire Against Reason and Mankind
The Disabled Debauchee
Song
The Imperfect Enjoyment
A Ramble in St. James’s Park
A Song of a Young Lady to her Ancient Lover
Signior Dildo
Impromptu on Charles II
ELINOR JAMES
- An Injured Prince Vindicated, or, A Scurrilous and Detracting Pamphlet Answered
THOMAS WHARTON
JANE BARKER
- An Invitation to my Friends at Cambridge
A Virgin Life
The Prospect of a Landscape, Beginning with a Grove
To My Young Lover
To My Friends Against Poetry
JOHN OLDHAM
- An Imitation of Horace
Upon a Bookseller
ANNE KILLIGREW
- A Farewell to Worldly Joys
The Complaint of a Lover
On a Picture Painted by Herself, Representing Two Nymphs of Diana’s
Upon the Saying that my Verses were Made by Another
The Discontent
Cloris’ Charms Dissolved by Eudora
JOHN TUTCHIN
ELIZABETH SINGER ROWE “PHILOMELA”
- Platonic Love
A Poetical Question concerning the Jacobites, sent to the Athenians
The Athenians’ Answer
A Pindaric, to the Athenian Society
To Celinda
The Reply to Mr.——
A MISCELLANY
BALLADS
- Tom o’ Bedlam
A sweet and pleasant Sonnet, entitled: My mind to me a kingdom is
Ditties Lamentation for the cruelty of this age
The King’s Last Farewell to the World
The Royal Health to the Rising Sun
A Looking-Glass for Men and Maids
No ring, no Wedding
POEMS ON THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM
- Upon the Duke of Buckingham
Epitaph on the Duke of Buckingham
Epitaph
COURT SATIRE (1682)
INDEXES
INDEX OF FIRST LINES
INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLES
Alan Rudrum, a Professor Emeritus of English Literature at Simon Fraser University and the anthology’s senior editor, has published extensively on seventeenth-century British literature.
Joseph Black, a Professor in the English Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has published articles on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century British literature and book history.
Holly Faith Nelson, who obtained her doctorate from Simon Fraser University, is a Lecturer at Trinity Western University.
