Elizabethan and Jacobean England: Sources and Documents of the English Renaissance records the transformative changes that defined the lives and thoughts of English society from the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558 to the end of the reign of James I in 1625. The volume is accessibly structured into sections covering government, society, economics, literary arts, religion, and learning; with contextual introductions included at the start of each. Extracts from primary sources provide a vivid portrait of life in late Tudor and early Stuart England, while newly commissioned essays by leading scholars offer insights into how to interpret the contextual material and inspire further research. By combining original source materials with critical essays, readers are challenged to confront problems of evidence and interpretation, new theories and methodologies, and contemporary assumptions about Renaissance literature.

Arthur F. Kinney is Thomas W. Copeland Professor of Literary History at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and Director of the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies. He is editor of the journal English Literary Renaissance, the author of Shakespeare by Stages (2003), and the editor of A Companion to Renaissance Drama (2002), and Renaissance Drama: An Anthology, 2e (2004), all published by Wiley-Blackwell.