From a broadly historical point of view, the Renaissance means above all the expansion of the world known to the Europeans to include the Far-East and America. It means, therefore, an enormous development in communication and therefore in commercial and cultural exchange. From this historical viewpoint it also means the growth of the importance of the bourgeois class of merchants and their participation in political power through the figure of the king. The atomization of the medieval feudal system gradually gives way to more centralized units of power: nations and nationalism become the dominant discourse. The organization of a lay culture around the figure of the king will have great importance for literature, since it will give rise to the system of patronage.While poetry was occasionally defined as something secondary in importance, a pastime or recreation, some Renaissance humanists give it a higher value. This comprehensive book is an analysis of English Renaissance literary criticism to appear for nearly a century. It would be an ideal resource guide for English Literature graduate students and professors.