Professor Jan Stirm, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Sixteenth Century Literature

Library Assignment

1. Choose 4 random pages from the Pollard and Redgrave print edition of the STC and examine the titles. Categorize the works as best you can: politics, drama, government, religion, domestic, self-help, agriculture, science, medicine, philosophy, poetry. Compare your list with the texts included in the Norton Anthology. Think about your list, and draw some conclusions.
2. Use the Early English Books On Line and do an author search: Each person will choose an author/text from the following list:
   Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey
   Philip Sidney, (Astrophil and Stella)
   Christopher Marlowe (Edward II)
   Thomas Wyatt (Psalms)
   Robert Greene (Discovery of Cozenage)
   Walter Raleigh (Guiana)
   Everyone should ALSO look at this text: John Skelton (Elynour Rummin aka The tunning of Elinor Rumming)
   
   Look in the author/title/subject catalogue for this text, and write down all information about tile, date, place of publication for each edition. Write your observations about the centrality/marginality of this work to the author's other publications.



3. Subject Search: Each person will choose a subject from the following list: London; Elizabeth I, courtesy, education, anatomy, marriage, America, emblems, death, sermons (or choose your own, with instructor's permission). Look up your subject in the author/title/subject catalogue and pick five interesting works on your subject: write down the full information. Comment briefly on what you can tell about your subject just from the titles, authors, and dates of the works.
4. Use the Brown Women Writers Project site to look up one of the following texts.
   Jane Anger Her Protection for Women, 1589
   The First Examination of Anne Askew, 1546
   An Apology or Answer in Defence of the Church of England, 1564
   Women Writers Project first electronic edition, 2000
   Bacon, Ann (Cooke), trans. (from John Jewel) The Tilbury speech (Aske's version), 1588
   Women Writers Project first electronic edition, 1999
   Elizabeth I The Doleful Lay of the Fair Clorinda, 1595
   Women Writers Project first electronic edition, 1999
   Sidney, Mary, Countess of Pembroke

   Glance through the text and comment briefly about it. You might want to compare this project's appearance with that of the EEBO resources. Think about which resources will be useful for different projects.

This assignment was modeled in part on one designed by Rebecca Bushnell.