The Norton Anthology of English literature. Volume 2

addition, black-and-white engravings and illustrations by Hogarth, Blake, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti provide compelling examples of the hybrid art of the "visual narrative." In selecting visual material�from the Sutton Hoo treasure of the seventh century to Anish Kapoor's immense Marsyas in the twenty-first century�the editors sought to provide images that conjure up, whether directly or indirectly, the individual writers in each section; that relate specifically to individual works in the anthology; and that shape and illuminate the culture of a particular literary period. We have tried to choose visually striking images that will interest students and provoke discussion, and our captions draw attention to important details and cross-reference related texts in the anthology.

Period-by-Period Revisions

The scope of the extensive revisions we have undertaken can be conveyed more fully by a list of some of the principal texts and features that have been added to the Eighth Edition.

The Middle Ages. The period, edited by Alfred David and James Simpson, is divided into three sections: Anglo-Saxon Literature, Anglo-Norman Literature, and Middle English Literature of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. The heart of the Anglo-Saxon section is the great epic Beowidf, in an acclaimed translation, specially commissioned for The Norton Anthology of English Literature, by Seamus Heaney. The selection of Anglo-Saxon texts has been newly augmented with the alliterative poem Judith and with King Alfred's preface to the Pastoral Care. The Anglo-Norman section�a key bridge between the Anglo-Saxon period and the time of Chaucer�-includes two clusters of texts: "Legendary Histories of Britain" traces the origins of Arthurian romance in the accounts of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace, and Layamon. "Celtic Contexts" explores the complex multilingual situation of the period, represented by the Old Irish "Exile of the Sons of Uisliu"; newly added, the conclusion of Thomas of England's Le Roman de Tristan, which comes from Irish, Welsh, and Breton sources and was written down in Old French; and Marie de France's magnificent Breton lay Lanval, one of the period's principal texts, as well as her Chevrefoil, in a new verse translation by Alfred David. A tale from the Confessio Amantis of John Gower, a new author, complements the generous selections from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. We have added new selections from the remarkable Margery Kempe and from Langland's Piers Plowman and an important new topical cluster, "Christ's Humanity." Our representation of medieval drama has been strengthened by the addition of the powerful York Play of the Crucifixion.

The Sixteenth Century.. For the first time with this edition, the anthology includes the whole of Thomas More's Utopia, the visionary masterpiece that helped to shape the modern world. Edited by George Logan and Stephen Greenblatt, this period includes five other complete longer texts: Book 1 of Spenser's Faerie Queene, Marlowe's Hero and Leander and Doctor Faustus, and Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and King Lear. The selection of poems offers new works by Wyatt, five additional sonnets by Sidney, five additional sonnets by Shakespeare, and two sonnets by a poet introduced here for the first time, Richard Barnfield. In addition we provide modern prose translations of several of Petrarch's rime in order to show their close relationship with sonnets by Wyatt, Sidney, and Ralegh. The cluster on the period's bitter religious contro

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versies, "Faith in Conflict," has been redesigned in order to better represent the Catholic as well as the Protestant position. A new cluster, "Women in Power," greatly expands the selections from Queen Elizabeth and sets her writings alongside those of three compelling new figures: Mary Tudor ("Bloody Mary"), Lady Jane Grey, the tragic queen for nine days, and Mary, Queen of Scots, Elizabeth's cousin and prisoner. The topic as a whole provides insight into the strange position of female rulers attempting to shape their public performances in a society that ordinarily allowed little scope for women's shaping power.