Since its first publication Isabel Rivers' sourcebook has established itself as the essential student guide
to English Renaissance Poetry. It provides an account of the main classical and Christian ideas, outlining their
meaning, their origins and their transmission to the Renaissance; illustrates the ways in which Renaissance poetry
drew on classical and Christian ideas; contains extracts from key classical and Christian texts and relates these
to the extracts of the English poems which draw on them; and includes suggestions for further reading, and an invaluable
bibliographical appendix. In this new edition, the bibliographies have been updated to take account of important
recent publications in philosophy, religion and Renaissance studies.