The Common Touch: Popular Literature from the Elizabethans to the Restoration

During the Elizabethan Age, and for the following hundred and fifty years, such figures as Shakespeare and Jonson, Milton and Pope dominated the English literary scene. But what was the vast majority of society really watching, reading and singing? This pioneering anthology, set in two volumes, answers this question by offering a wide selection of material, ranging from broadside ballads and drolls to witch trial reports and political newsbooks.

Professor Paul A. Scanlon, educated in Canada, the United States and Ireland, taught English Literature at universities in Canada, the West Indies, Swaziland, Japan and Oman, holding chairs and deanships in several of them. His various books and articles centre on South African writing, Elizabethan prose fiction and the eighteenth-century novel, including editions of Moll Flanders and Joseph Andrews. He has recently published an historical novel entitled Memoirs of the German Princess. Currently teaching at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Professor Adrian Roscoe has held chairs of English in New Zealand, South Africa, and Malawi. His recent work includes The Columbia Guide to Central African Literature in English and, with Dr Rahma Mahrooqi, Literacy, Literature and Identity: Multiple Perspectives.