Modern History Sourcebook:

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

William Harrison (1534-1593):
Description Of Elizabethan England, 1577
(from Holinshed's Chronicles)

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Introductory Note

Near the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, Reginald Wolfe, the Queen's Printer, with the splendid audacity characteristic of that age, planned to publish a "universal Cosmography of the whole world, and therewith also certain particular histories of every known nation." Raphael Holinshed had charge of the histories of England, Scotland, and Ireland, the only part of the work ever published; and these were issued in 1577, and have since been known as "Holinshed's Chronicles." From them Shakespeare drew most of the material for his historical plays.

Among Holinshed's collaborators was one William Harrison, chaplain to Lord Cobham, and later Rector of Radwinter in Essex and Canon of Windsor. To him was allotted the task of writing the "Descriptions of Britain and England" from which the following chapters are drawn. He gathered his facts from books, letters, maps, conversations, and, most important of all, his own observation and experience; and he put them loosely together into what he calls "this foul frizzled treatise." Yet, with all his modesty, he claims to "have had an especial eye to the truth of things"; and as a result we have in his pages the most vivid and detailed picture in existence of the England into which Shakespeare was born.

In 1876 Dr. Furnivall condensed Harrison's chapters for the New Shakespeare Society, and these have since been reprinted by Mr. Lothrop Withington in the modern dress in which the most interesting of them appear here. No apology is needed for thus selecting and rearranging, since in their original form they were without unity, and formed part of a vast compilation.

Harrison's merit does not lie in the rich interest of his matter alone. He wrote a racy style with a strong individual as well as Elizabethan flavor; and his personal comment upon the manners of his time serves as a piquant sauce to the solid meat of his historical information.

• Chapter I: Of Degrees Of People In The Commonwealth Of Elizabethan England
• Chapter II: Of Cities And Towns In England
• Chapter III: Of Gardens And Orchards
• Chapter IV: Of Fairs And Markets
• Chapter V: Of The Ancient And Present Estate Of The Church Of England
• Chapter VI: Of The Food And Diet Of The English
• Chapter VII: Of Our Apparel And Attire
• Chapter VIII: Of The Manner Of Building And Furniture Of Our Houses
• Chapter IX: Of Provision Made For The Poor
• Chapter X: Of The Air And Soil And Commodities Of This Island
• Chapter XI: Of Sundry Minerals And Metals
• Chapter XII: Of Cattle Kept For Profit
• Chapter XIII: Of Wild And Tame Fowls
• Chapter XIV: Of Savage Beasts And Vermin
• Chapter XV: Of Our English Dogs And Their Qualities
• Chapter XVI: Of The Navy Of England
• Chapter XVII: Of Sundry Kinds Of Punishment Appointed For Offenders
• Chapter XVIII: Of Universities