Psalm Culture and Early Modern English Literature

Examining the influence of the biblical Psalms on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English literature, this study explores the imaginative, beautiful and ingenious as well as sometimes ludicrous and improbable ways in which the Psalms were 'translated'. Spanning ancient Israel to Renaissance and Reformation England, the book focuses on literature of major writers that ranges from Shakespeare and Milton to less prominent ones: George Gascoigne, Mary Sidney Herbert, and George Wither.