ABSTRACT

For most purposes CBEL (Vol. I, 1940, pp. 317–912) with its Supplement (1957) is the most useful bibliography of the period, because it lists the modern editions and commentaries as well as the original editions. For more recent books and articles “Literature of the Renaissance” (published annually in SP since 1917) should always be consulted—or the much less complete section in The Year’s Work in English Studies of the English Association. A contemporary record of great historical value, and some human interest, is the Transcript of the Register of the Company of Stationers, 1554–1640 (ed. E. Arber, 5 vols., 1875–94, reissued 1950). Its sequel, the Register for 1640–1708 (ed. G. E. B. Eyre, 3 vols., 1913–14, reissued 1950) is of less importance, because after 1640 so many of the books of literary interest evaded registration. A. W. Pollard and G. R. Redgrave’s A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of English Books Printed Abroad ( 1926, revised edition in preparation by W. A. Jackson) lists virtually every edition of every book printed within its terminal dates, as well as giving the principal libraries where copies are to be found; an even better sequel for 1641–1700 has been compiled by Donald Wing (3 vols., 1945–51). These, however, are tools for the researcher rather than the literary student, who will probably find the bibliographies attached to the two OHEL volumes—C. S. Lewis’s on the sixteenth 64century, excluding drama (1954), and Douglas Bush’s on the first half of the seventeenth century (1945)—more rewarding. A catalogue within the period that has set new standards in descriptive bibliography, and as such should interest even the merely literary student, is W. W. Greg’s A Bibliography of English Printed Drama to the Restoration (4 vols., 1939–60). The analytical bibliography in which Greg was a pioneer (with his friend R. B. McKer-row) receives further treatment in Chapter XI below.