'The volume's awesome range makes it a valuable preserve for scholars and an ambitious reference for students.' - Times Higher Education Supplement

'This impressive tome must certainly be the last word on English Renaissance literature culture, at least for some considerable time to come.' - Reference reviews

In this comprehensive Companion over fifty of the most eminent modern scholars come together to offer an original and far-reaching survey of English Renaissance literature and culture.

The first part of the volume considers pertinent issues such as humanism, English reformations, the development of the language, court culture and playhouses, in terms of the way in which these aspects of Renaissance culture influenced literary production. There are provocative essays on canonical genres such as love poetry and Jacobean tragedy, but also accounts of popular and occasional drama and verse, and the visual arts.

The Companion also approaches key texts of the period through a number of new readings, providing original perspective and positions on both canonical and non-canonical texts. The essays include a range of approaches to a variety of texts from The Spanish Tragedy and The Faerie Queen to 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, the poems of Lady Mary Wroth, and a selection of critical elegies.

In the final section, the book moves on the explore contemporary debates in Renaissance studies such as feminism, sexuality, historicism, and nation.

This Companion is the only book of its kind to travel beyond the stage and is an invaluable guide for both student and teacher.

Michael Hattaway is Professor of English Literature at the University of Sheffield. His many publications include Elizabethan Popular Theatre (1982) and he has edited plays by Shakespeare, Beaumont and Jonson. He is also the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's History Plays (2002), and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama (1990) and Shakespeare in the New Europe (1994).