This article introduces "The Beggar's Opera" and its many satirical targets, including the court of George I, the politician Robert Walpole, the British legal system, and Italian opera.

Examine representations of gender and sexuality in Restoration and 18th-century literature including Paradise Lost and The Rape of the Lock, and explore the works of early women writers such as Aphra Behn, Frances Burney and Margaret...

The Thomas Gray Archive is an interactive hypermedia repository for the study of the life and works of British poet Thomas Gray (1716-1771 CE). The Archive consists of two major sections, the Primary Texts section and the Materials section.

The major Romantic poets cannot be understood, historically, without an awareness of the extent to which their distinctive concepts, plots, forms, and imagery were shaped first by the promise, then by the tragedy, of the French...

Good discussion of the Age of Dryden. First section of a lengthy article from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature.

This article charts the growth of 18th-century theatre, looking at the new venues, stage technology, audiences, playwrights, and great actors of the age.

Discover how writers of the 17th and 18th centuries used satire and humour to address issues around politics and power, inequality and class, gender and marriage - as well as to entertain readers and audiences.

This article explains how the coffee-house came to occupy a central place in 17th and 18th-century English culture and commerce, offering an alternative to rowdy pubs and more formal places of business and politics.

Towards the end of the 18th century, a movement emerged calling for an end to the slave trade and, later, slavery itself. This article traces the road to abolition from the 1780s to the 1830s, highlighting the impacts of grass-root...

Do you know what type of literature "literary Gothicism" represents? Find out what types of literature throughout the ages have been touched by the Gothic influence when you visit this site.

The Enlightenment's emphasis on reason shaped philosophical, political, and scientific discourse from the late 17th to the early 19th century. This article traces the Enlightenment back to its roots in the aftermath of the Civil War, and...

Read an overview of "The Rape of the Lock" by Alexander Pope and view additional resources such as articles and collection items.

The University of Toronto offers selected poems of Chales Lamb, with notes on his life and works.

Familiarize yourself with the life and works of Jonathan Swift. This source contains a quick fact sheet, a short biography, and links to related articles, collection items, and works.

Familiarize yourself with the life and works of the poet Alexander Pope. This source contains a quick fact sheet, a short biography, and links to related articles, collection items, and works.

The complete text of this literary work is available to download or read online in multiple digital formats.

Full text of Milton's poem from "The Oxford Book of English Verse."