CHapter ⅠThe Anglo-Saxon Perlod (450-1066) 1
1．Historical background 1
2．Northumbrian School and Wessex Iiterature 3
3．Anglo-Saxon poetry Beoundf 4
CHapter Ⅱ The Norman period ( 1066-1350) 14
1．Historical background 14
2．Middle English 15
3．Religious literature 15
4．Roumance and the influence of French literature 16
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 18
Historical background 23
CHapter Ⅲ The age of Chaucer (1350-1400) 23
Geoffrey Chaucer (ca.1340?-1400) 27
The Canterbury Tales 31
CHapter Ⅳ The Fifteenth Century(1400-1550) 47
1．Historical background 47
2．Popular ballads 48
3．Sir Thomas Malory (ca．1405-1471) 49
4．Early English plays 50
The popular Ballads 52
The Three Ravens 52
Sir Patrick Spens 54
Robin Hood and the Three Squires 57
2．The enclosure movement 63
1．Historical background 63
Chapter Ⅴ The English renaissance (1550-1642) 63
3．Humanism 64
Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599) 65
The Faerie Queene 68
4．The flourishing of drama 79
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) 81
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus 83
William Shakes peare (1564-1616) 88
Sonnets 92
Sonnet 18 93
Sonnet 29 94
Sonnet 66 95
Romeo and Juliet 97
The Merchant of Venice 100
Julius Caesar 123
Hamlet 138
Chapter Ⅵ The seventeenth Century (1603-1688) 147
1．Historical background 147
The ．king James Bible of 1611 150
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) 157
Of Great place 158
Of Studies 164
2．Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poets 168
John Donne (1572-1631) 169
Song 170
The Canonization 172
A valediction：Forbidding mourning 177
George Herbert (1593-1633) 181
Virtue 181
Ben Jonson (1572-1637) 183
Song to Celia 183
Robert Herrick (1591-1674) 185
Tothe Virgins, To Make Much of Time 185
John Milton〔1608-1674〕 187
To Mr,Cyriack Skunner Upon His Blindness 190
John Bunyan (1628-1688) 192
Poradise Lost 192
The Pilgrim's Progress 198
John Dryden (1631-1700) 200
An Essay of Dramatic Poesy 206
CHapter Ⅶ The Eighteenth Century (1688-1798) 212
Historical background 212
Daniel Defoe (1661-1731) 217
Moll Flanders 221
Jonathan Swift 〔1667-1745〕 229
A Modest Proposal 232
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) and Ricbard Steele (1672-1729) 245
The Royal Exchange 247
Sir Roger at Church 253
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) 257
An Essay on Man 260
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) 265
Letter to the Right Honourable The Earl of Chester field 266
The Preface to Shakespeare 269
Henry Fielding (1707-1754) 274
The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling 278
Thomas Gray (1716-1771) 291
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard 292
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) 301
The School for Scandal 302
Robert Burns (1759-1796) 319
Is There for Honest Ponerty 320
Scots, Wha Hae 322
Auld Lang Syne 324
A Red, Red Rose 326
William Blake (1757-1827) 328
Songfs of Innocence 330
The Lamb 330
Holy Thursday 331
Songs of Experience 332
The Chirnney Suueeper 332
Holy Thursday 333
The Tyger 334
London 335
Contents in Chinese 338