This comprehensive anthology collects together primary texts and documents relevant to the literature, culture, and intellectual life in England between 1550 and 1660. Providing a combination of both well-known texts and forgotten texts that were influential at the time, The Renaissance gives the reader an intimate first-hand experience of controversies, ideas, and views on all areas of cultural interest in early modern England. It includes sections on religion, politics, society, education, literary theory, sexuality, science and magic, and exploration and provides historical breadth within each section, easy accessibility to rarely available texts in a single volume, and notes and cross-references which refer readers back to mainstream literary texts.