A Description of Elizabethan England
by William Harrison · The Description of England
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1577, revised 1587
- Era
- Renaissance
- Form
- History
- Language
- English
- Length
- Medium · 150 pp120 to 300 pages
- Difficulty
- Moderate2 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendThe Description of EnglandDover, 1994Georges Edelen's Folger edition of the full text; the Harvard Classics selection in Volume 35 is the free alternative.
These links go straight to Amazon and Bookshop.org and earn this site nothing today. Prices are the same either way. How this works.
A survey of England under Elizabeth I, written by a country clergyman as the introduction to Holinshed's Chronicles, the history Shakespeare read. Harrison describes the Church, the universities, the ranks of society from gentlemen to labourers, food and diet, clothing, houses and their new chimneys and glass, the law and its punishments, fairs and markets, inns, dogs, gardens, the navy and the poor. It is the fullest firsthand picture of daily life in Shakespeare's England.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns A Description of Elizabethan England are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
