Literature and Nature in the English Renaissance
Literature and Nature in the English Renaissance
Featuring over two hundred nature-themed texts spanning the disciplines of literature, science and history, this sourcebook offers an accessible field guide to the environment of Renaissance England, revealing a nation at a crossroads between its pastoral heritage and industrialized future. Carefully selected primary sources, each modernized and prefaced with an introduction, survey an encyclopaedic array of topographies, species, and topics: from astrology to zoology, bear-baiting to bee-keeping, coal-mining to tree-planting, fen-draining to sheep-whispering. The familiar voices of Spenser, Shakespeare, Jonson, and Marvell mingle with a diverse chorus of farmers, herbalists, shepherds, hunters, foresters, philosophers, sailors, sky-watchers, and duchesses - as well as ventriloquized beasts, trees, and rivers. Lavishly illustrated, the anthology is supported by a lucid introduction that outlines and intervenes in key debates in Renaissance ecocriticism, a reflective essay on ecocritical editing, a bibliography of further reading, and a timeline of environmental history and legislation drawing on extensive archival research.
- Compendium of over two hundred primary sources that demonstrates the broad range of environmental representations in English renaissance literature
- Provides fresh perspectives on the environmental issues of early modern England, such as population growth and proto-industrialisation
- Supported by a range of editorial apparatus including introductions to each text, guides to further reading, glossaries and chronologies of environmental events and literature
Reviews & endorsements
'A beautifully scholarly compendium … Nothing I've read in this year of climate catastrophe made me think more.' Daniel Swift, The Spectator
'Borlick's anthology is beautifully crafted, celebrates the wonders of nature, and warns of the dire consequences of the mistreatment of the natural world.' Rachel White, The British Society for Literature and Science
'… illustrates the rich diversity and complexity of English Renaissance thinking about the interrelationship between nature and humanity.' B. E. Brandt, Choice
'… a timely scholarly tool that will be indispensable to any new research on nature in early modern English writing.' Goran Stanivukovic, Renaissance et Réforme
Product details
March 2021Paperback
9781316649534
624 pages
229 × 152 × 32 mm
0.826kg
Not yet published - available from June 2025
Table of Contents
- Part I. Cosmologies: Section 1. Creation and the State of Nature
- Section 2. Natural Theologies
- Part II. The Tangled Chain
- Section 1. Hierarchy and the Human Animal
- Section 2. Beasts
- Section 3. Birds
- Section 4. Fish
- Section 5. Insects
- Section 6. Plants
- Section 7. Gems, Metals, Elements, Atoms
- Part III. Time and Place
- Section 1. Seasons
- Section 2. Country Houses
- Section 3. Gardens
- Section 4. Pastoral: Pastures, Meadows, Plains
- Sections 5. Georgic: Fields, Farms
- Section 6. Forests, Woods, Parks
- Section 7. Heaths, Moors
- Section 8. Mountains, Hills, Vales
- Section 9. Lakes, Rivers, Oceans
- Part IV. Interactions
- Section 1. Animal- Baiting
- Section 2. Hunting, Hawking
- Section 3. Fishing
- Section 4. Pet-Keeping
- Section 5. Cooking, Feasting, Fasting, Healing
- Part V. Environmental Problems in Early Modern England
- Section 1. Population
- Section 2. Enclosure
- Section 3. Deforestation
- Section 4. The Draining of the Fens
- Section 5. Pollution
- Part VI. Disaster and Resilience in the Little Ice Age
- Section 1. Extreme Weather, Disorder, Dearth
- Section 2. Decay
- Section 3. Resilience.
