Literature and Nature in the English Renaissance: An Ecocritical Anthology

Cover
Half-title page
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Editorial Principles: Towards the Ecocritical Editing of Renaissance Texts
Introduction
Part I Cosmologies
	Creation and the State of Nature
		“The Creation of the World,” from Genesis (c. 900–500
bce; the Geneva translation 1560)
		Ovid, “The Creation,” “The Four Ages,” and “The
Oration of Pythagoras” (4 bce – 2 ce; Arthur Golding
translation 1567) 30
		Lucretius, “That the World Was Not Created for
Mankind’s Sake” and “The First Productions of the
Earth” (c. 55 bce; Lucy Hutchinson translation c. 1650s)
		Philip Sidney, “As I my little flock on Ister Bank” (c. 1580)
		William Shakespeare, “Each thing’s a Thief,” from Timon
of Athens (c. 1606)
		John Norden, “The state of this island of Great Britain at
the beginning” (1607)
		Thomas Traherne, “Dumbness” (c. 1660)
		Lucy Hutchinson, [The Third Day] and [The Naming of
the Animals] (c. 1670s)
	Natural Theologies
		Psalm 104 (c. 900–400 bce; Mary Sidney translation c. 1599)
		Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, “The World’s a Book in
Folio” (1578; Joshua Sylvester translation 1605)
		Giordano Bruno, “The World Soul” (1584)
		Richard Hooker, “The Law Which Natural Agents Have
Given Them to Observe” (1593)
		John Donne, “Why are we by all Creatures waited on?” (c. 1609)
		Walter Ralegh, “How It Is To Be Understood That the Spirit of God Moved Upon the Waters” and “That Nature Is No Principium Per Se” (1614)
		George Wither, “Song for Rogation Week” (1623)
		John Milton, “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity” (1629)
		George Herbert, “Man” and “Providence” (1633)
		Thomas Browne, “Nature is the Art of God” (c. 1635)
		Thomasine Pendarves, [Embracing the Creatures] (1649)
		Joseph Caryl, “To cause it to rain on the earth where no man is” (1653)
		John Ray, from The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of Creation (1691)
Part II The Tangled Chain
	Hierarchy and the Human Animal
		Ambroise Paré, “Of Monsters by the Confusion of Seed of Diverse Kinds” (1572; Thomas Johnson translation 1634)
		Reginald Scot, “That the Body of a Man Cannot Be Turned into the Body of a Beast by a Witch” (1584)
		Michel de Montaigne, “Apology for Raymond Sebond” (c. 1580; John Florio translation c. 1603)
		Francis Bacon, “Prometheus, or the State of Man” (1609; Arthur Gorges translation 1619)
		René Descartes, “The Animal Machine” (1637; anonymous translation 1649)
		Margaret Cavendish, [Animal Intelligence] (1664)
		John Bulwer, “Man was at first but a kind of Ape” (1650)
		Ann Conway, “This Transmutation of Things out of one Species into another” (c. 1675)
		from Anonymous, from Scala Naturæ (1695)
	Beasts
		Edward Topsell, [Dedicatory Epistle] and “Of the Unicorn,” from A History of Four-Footed Beasts (1607)
		Thomas Heyrick, “On an Ape” (1691)
		William Shakespeare, [The Courser and the Jennet], from Venus and Adonis (1593)
		John Harington, “My Dog Bungay” (1608)
		William Baldwin, from Beware the Cat (c. 1553)
		Kenelm Digby, “Concerning the Invention of Foxes and Other Beasts” and “Of the Several Cryings and Tones of Beasts” (1644)
		Thomas Tryon, “Of the Language of Sheep” (1684)
		Jacques Du Fouilloux, “The Badger” (1561; George Gascoigne translation 1575)
		Richard Brathwaite, “The Squirrel” and “The Hedgehog” (1634)
		Edward May, “On a Toad” (1633)
		John Derricke, “[Why] the Irish ground … neither breedeth nor fostereth up any venomous beast or worm” (1581)
	Birds
	John Skelton, “Speak, Parrot” (c. 1521)
		Henry Vaughan, “The Eagle” (1655)
		George Morley, “The Nightingale” (c. 1633)
		William Turner, [The Kite] (1555) and [The Robin
and Redstart] (1544)
		Henry Chillester, “A Commendation of the Robin Redbreast” (1579)
		Richard Brathwaite, “The Lapwing” and
“The Swallow” (1621)
		Anonymous, A Battle of Birds (1621)
		Hester Pulter, “The Lark” (c. 1655)
		John Caius, “Of the Puffin” (1570)
		William Harvey and Francis Willoughby, [Gannets at Bass Rock] (1633, 1661)
	Fish
		Edmund Spenser, “Huge Sea monsters” (1590)
			Tomos Prys, “The Porpoise” (c. 1594–1600)
			Michael Drayton, [Fish in the River Trent] (1622)
			Izaak Walton, “Observations of the Salmon” and “Observations of the Eel” (1655)
	Insects
		Thomas Moffett, from The Theatre of Insects (1589)
		Charles Butler, from The Feminine Monarchy, or a Treatise Concerning Bees (1609)
		Richard Lovelace, “The Ant” (c. 1655)
		Margaret Cavendish, “Of the Spider” (1653)
		Anonymous, “Upon the biting of Fleas” (c. 1650)
	Plants
		Edmund Spenser, [The Oak and the Briar] (1579)
		William Lawson, [The Size and Age of Trees] (1618)
		William Strode, “On a Great Hollow Tree” (c. 1634)
		Robert Herrick, “The Willow Tree,” “The Vine,” “Parliament of Roses to Julia,” and “Divination by a Daffodil” (1648)
		Anonymous, [The Crab-tree’s Lament] (1558)
		William Turner, “Orobanche” (1568)
		John Gerard, from The Herbal (1597)
		John Donne, [The Mandrake] (1601)
		John Heywood, “A Rose and a Nettle” (1550)
		Francis Bacon, “Sympathy and Antipathy of Plants” (c. 1625)
	Gems, Metals, Elements, Atoms
		John Maplet, “Sovereign Virtues in Stones” (1567)
		Anne Bradstreet, “The Four Elements” (1650)
		Margaret Cavendish, “Motion directs, while Atoms dance” and “A World in an Earring” (1653)
Part III Time and Place
	Seasons
		Henry Howard, “Description of Spring” (c. 1535)
		Alexander Hume, “Of the Day Estival” (1599)
		Nicholas Breton, “Harvest” and “October” (1626)
		Alexander Barclay, “The winter snows, all covered is the ground” (c. 1518)
	Country Houses
		George Gascoigne, [The Wild Man of Kenilworth] (1575)
		Aemelia Lanyer, “The Description of Cookham” (1610)
		Ben Jonson, “To Penshurst” (c. 1611)
		Thomas Carew, “To Saxham” (c. 1635)
		Andrew Marvell, “Upon Appleton House” (c. 1651)
	Gardens
		Thomas Hill, “Rare inventions and defences for most seeds” (1577)
		Anonymous, “The Mole-catcher’s Speech” (1591)
		William Shakespeare, [The Duke of York’s Garden] from Richard II (c. 1595)
		Francis Bacon, “Of Gardens” (1625)
		Andrew Marvell, “The Garden” and “The Mower against Gardens” (c. 1651)
		Abraham Cowley, “The Garden” (1667)
	Pastoral: Pastures, Meadows, Plains, Downs
		Philip Sidney, from The Arcadia (c. 1585)
		Richard Barnfield, from The Affectionate Shepherd (1594)
		Michael Drayton, “A Nice Description of Cotswold” (1612)
		William Browne, “The Swineherd” (1614)
		William Strode, “On Westwell Downs” (c. 1640)
		Robert Herrick, “To Meadows” (1648)
		John Aubrey, [Salisbury Plains and the Downs]
(c. 1656–1685)
	Georgic: Fields, Farms
		Virgil, from Georgics (c. 29 bce; Thomas May
translation 1628)
		Thomas Tusser, “The Praise of Husbandry” (1570)
		Hugh Plat, “A Philosophical Garden,” “Gillyflowers,” and “Grafting” (1608)
		Margaret Cavendish, “Earth’s Complaint” (1653)
	Forests, Woods, Parks
		William Harrison, “Of Parks and Warrens” (1577)
		Philip Sidney, “O sweet woods” (c. 1580)
		Nicholas Breton, “Now lies this walk along a wilderness” (1592)
		John Manwood, “The Definition of a Forest” (1598)
		Anthony Bradshaw, “A Friend’s Due Commendation of Duffield Frith” (c. 1588–1608)
		Michael Drayton, “The Forest of Arden” (1612)
		Edward Herbert, “Made upon the Groves near Merlow Castle” (1620)
		Mary Wroth, [Pamphilia’s Tree-Carving] (1621)
		William Habington, “To Castara, venturing to walk too far in the neighbouring wood” (1633)
		Katherine Philips, “Upon the graving of her Name upon a Tree in Barn Elms’ Walks” (1669)
	Heaths, Moors
		John Norden, “Heathy Ground” (1607)
		John Speed, [Norfolk Heaths and Yorkshire Dales] (1612)
		Tristram Risdon, [Dartmoor and the Devonshire Countryside] (c. 1633)
		Richard James, [Pendle Hill and the Wild Moorlands]
(1636)
		Gerrard Winstanley, “The barren land shall be made fruitful” (1649)
	Mountains, Hills, Vales
		Robert Southwell, “A Vale of Tears” (c. 1578)
		Thomas Churchyard, “A Discourse of Mountains” (1587)
		William Browne, “A Landscape” and “Description of a Solitary Vale” (1613)
		Thomas Hobbes, from The Wonders of the Peak (c. 1627)
		Anne Kemp, “A Contemplation on Basset’s Down Hill” (c. 1658)
		Thomas Burnet, “Concerning the Mountains of the Earth” (1684)
		Jane Barker, “The Prospect of a Landscape, Beginning with a Grove” (1688)
	Lakes, Rivers, Oceans
		Richard Brathwaite, “The Lake” (1634)
		William Browne, [Marina and the River-God] (1613)
		John Taylor, from Taylor on Thame Isis (1632)
		Henry Vaughan, “To the River Usk” (1651)
		John Donne, “The Storm” and “The Calm” (1597)
		Samuel Daniel, [Milford Haven] (1610)
		Anonymous, A Poetical Sea-Piece (1633)
		Margaret Cavendish, “Similarizing the Sea to Meadows and Pastures” (1653)
		Thomas Heyrick, from “The Submarine Voyage” (1691)
Part IV Interactions
	Animal-Baiting
		Robert Laneham, [Bear-Baiting at Kenilworth] (1575)
		Philip Stubbes, “Bear-baiting and other Exercises Used Unlawfully in Ailgna” (1583)
		Robert Wild, “The Combat of the Cocks” (1637)
	Hunting, Hawking
		John Caius, “Why there are no wolves in England” (1570)
		George Gascoigne, “The Woeful Words of the Hart to the Hunter” and “The Otter’s Oration” (1575)
		Henry Porter, [Lady Smith’s Denunciation of the Hunt] (1597)
		Jonas Poole, [Killing Polar Bears and Walrus in the Arctic] (1606, 1609)
		Margaret Cavendish, “The Hunting of the Hare” (1653)
		George Turberville, “In Commendation of Hawking” (1575)
	Fishing
		John Dee, “Manifold disorder used about fry and spawn” (1577)
		Thomas Bastard, “There is no fish in brooks” and “De Piscatione” (1598)
		John Dennys, from The Secrets of Angling (1613)
		Timothy Granger, Seventeen Monstrous Fishes Taken in Suffolk (1568)
		Edmund Waller, from “The Battle of the Summer Islands” (1645)
	Pet-Keeping
		John Caius, “Of the delicate, neat, and pretty kind of dogs called the Spaniel Gentle, or the Comforter” (1570)
		John Harington, “To His Wife, for striking her Dog”(c. 1600)
		Anonymous, “The Old Woman’s Legacy to Her Cat” (1695)
		George Gifford, [Witches’ Familiars] (1593)
	Cooking, Feasting, Fasting, Healing
		Thomas Dawson, from The Good Housewife’s Jewel (1587)
		Thomas Nashe, “Nature in England is But
Plain Dame” (1592)
		John Harington, “Against Feasting” and “In Defence of Lent” (c. 1600)
		Thomas Middleton, from A Chaste Maid
in Cheapside (c. 1613)
		Thomas Moffett, “Of Fatting of Meats” (1655)
		Thomas Tryon, “The Voice of the Dumb, or the Complaints of the Creatures” (1691)
		John Fletcher, “Enter Clorin the Shepherdess, sorting of herbs and telling the natures of them” (1610)
		Aletheia Talbot, from Natura Exenterata (1655)
		William Cole, “Of the Signatures of Plants” (1656)
		Margaret Baker, “Of Millefeuille or Yarrow and His Great Virtue” (c. 1675)
Part V Environmental Problems in Early Modern England
	Population
		Thomas Harriot, “An estimable reckoning how many persons may inhabit the whole world” (c. 1590)
		Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton, “The Necessity of a Plague” (1603)
		Thomas Freeman, “London’s Progress” (1614)
		Walter Ralegh, “Necessary War” (c. 1615)
		Gabriel Plattes, from A Discovery of Infinite Treasure (1639)
		William Petty, from An Essay Concerning the Multiplication of Mankind (1682)
	Enclosure
		Thomas More, “English Sheep Devourers of Men” (1516; Ralph Robinson translation 1551)
		Thomas Bastard, “Sheep have eat up our meadows and our downs” and “When the great forests” dwelling was so wide” (1598)
		John Harington, “Of Sheep Turned Wolves” (c. 1600)
		John Taylor, from Taylor’s Pastoral (1624)
		Anonymous, “The Diggers of Warwickshire to all other Diggers” (1607)
		Gerrard Winstanley et al., from The True Levellers’ Standard Advanced (1649)
		Henry King, “Woe to the worldly men” (1657)
	Deforestation
		Robin Clidro, “Marchan Wood” (c. 1545–1580)
		Anonymous, “Glyn Cynon Wood” (c. 1600)
		William Harrison, “Of Woods” (1577)
		John Lyly, “The Crime of Erysichthon” (c. 1588)
		John Harington, “Of the Growth of Trees, to Sir Hugh Portman” (c. 1600)
		John Norden, “Articles of Inquiry from a Court of Survey” and “Gentlemen Sell Their Woods too Fast” (1607)
		Michael Drayton, [Deforestation in Poly-Olbion] (1612, 1622)
		Michael Drayton, “The Tenth Nymphal” (1630)
		Gerard Boate, “Woods much diminished in Ireland since the first coming in of the English” (1645)
		Margaret Cavendish, “A Dialogue between an Oak and a Man cutting him down” (1653)
		Abraham Cowley, [The Oak’s Prophecy] (1662; Aphra Behn translation 1689)
		John Aubrey, “This whole island was anciently one great forest” (c. 1656–1685)
	The Draining of the Fens
		Michael Drayton, “Holland Fen” (1622)
		Ben Jonson, “The Duke of Drowned Land” (1616)
		Penny of Wisbech, “The Pout’s Complaint” (c. 1619)
		Anonymous, “The Draining of the Fens” (c. 1620–1660)
		Gerard Boate, “Draining of the Bogs practised by the English in Ireland” (1645)
		John Bunyan, “The Slough of Despond” (c. 1660–1678)
		Samuel Fortrey?, “A True and Natural Description of the Great Level of the Fens” (c. 1660–1680)
	Pollution
		Edmund Spenser, [Mammon’s Delve] (1590)
		Gawin Smith, “For the Cleansing and Clean Keeping and Continuing Sweet of the Ditches about the Walls of London” (c. 1610)
		Ben Jonson, “On the Famous Voyage” (1616)
		Patrick Hannay, “Croydon clothed in black” (1622)
		Hugh Plat, “Sea-coal sweetened and multiplied” (1603)
		Thomas Middleton, “The Mist of Error” (1613)
		William Strode, [The Chimney-Sweeper’s Song] (c. 1640)
		Anonymous, “Upon the Foggy Air, Sea-coal Smoke, Dirt, Filth, and Mire of London,” (c. 1640–1660)
		William Davenant, “London is smothered with sulph’rous fires” (1656)
		John Evelyn, from Fumifugium (1661)
Part VI Disaster and Resilience in the Little Ice Age
	Extreme Weather, Disorder, Dearth
		John Heywood, from The Play of the Weather (1533)
		Roger Ascham, [The Wind on the Snow] (1545)
		Thomas Hill, “The End, Effect, and Signification of Comets” (1567)
		Abraham Fleming, “A Terrible Tempest in Norfolk” (1577)
		Thomas Nashe, “Backwinter” (c. 1592–1600)
		Ludwig Lavater and William Barlow, “Dearth” (1596)
		John Stradling, “The Incredible Flooding of the Severn” and “Another Poem on the Flood” (1607)
		William Browne, “As Tavy creeps” (1613)
		Thomas Dekker?, The Great Frost (1608)
		John Taylor, “The Frozen Age” (1621)
		William Cartwright, “On the Great Frost, 1634” (1634)
		Henry Coventry, “On the Dry Summer” (1636)
		Gabriel Plattes, “Islands of Ice” (1639)
		John Evelyn, “The Freezing of the Thames” (1684)
	Decay
		John Lilliat, “Finding few fruit upon the Oak” (c. 1596)
		Thomas Bastard, “Our fathers did but use the world before” (1598)
		Edmund Spenser, “Two Cantos of Mutability” (c. 1598)
		John Donne, from An Anatomy of the World (1611)
	Resilience
		Joachim Du Bellay, “Then I beheld the fair Dodonian tree” (1558; Edmund Spenser translation 1569)
		George Wither, “A Posteritati: He that delights to Plant and Set” (c. 1620)
		George Hakewill, “Of this Pretended Decay” (1627)
		Michael Drayton, from “Noah’s Flood” (1630)
Appendix A Industrialization and Environmental Legislation
in the Early Anthropocene: A Timeline
Appendix B Further Reading: A Bibliography of EnvironmentalScholarship on the English Renaissance