The Classic English Literature Podcast

Imitation and Optimism: The Essays of Alexander Pope

14 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Send a textAlexander Pope, whom some critics regard as the most important poet of the early 18th century, set out to comprehensively explain the rules...

A Critique of Reason: Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

01 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textWhile many may think of Swift's magnificent octopus as a mere children's adventure tale, it is, in fact, one of the darkest an...

Food for Thought: Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" and Other Writings

31 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textI hope you've brought your appetite, because today we're looking at some of Dr. Swift's shorter prose satires (along with...

Seditious Greetings!: The Political Code of "O Come All Ye Faithful"

21 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textOne of the most theologically and liturgically important Christmas carols may contain coded messages against the Throne of England!Addit...

"Read All About It!": The Rise of the Public Press

26 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textIn the early 18th century, the public press came to dominate English writing.  Pamphlets, newspapers, and periodicals fed the appetite ...

The First English Novel? Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe

09 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textOn this trip, we're looking at the conventional candidate for the first modern novel in English.  Defoe's story of a resource...

The First Ghost Story? Daniel Defoe's "The Apparition of Mrs. Veal"

26 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textFor you today, Trick or Treaters, a discussion of what some critics assert is the first modern ghost story in English: Daniel Defoe&apos...

Modish Men and the Way of the World: The Great Restoration Comedies of Manners

10 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textWell, I probably should have done this episode earlier, since it might have been good for it to precede our other discussions of Resto c...

"A Foolish Marriage Vow": John Dryden's Marriage a la Mode and Amphitryon

21 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textFor our second episode on John Dryden, we'll talk about two of his plays which marked an innovation in the tragi-comic romance: Ma...

"The Amendment of Vices": John Dryden's Satires

07 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textOnce hailed as the towering literary figure of the Restoration age, John Dryden is little known now by the general reader.  Let's ...

Puritans in Arcadia: Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, and Pastoralism

24 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textSince they wrote in 17th century Massachusetts, poets Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor are often overlooked in surveys of English lite...

The Ambiguity of Wit: William Wycherly's The Country Wife

03 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textCharles II reopened the theatres in 1660 and inaugurated the second golden age of the English stage.  Today's show looks at one of...

On The Battle of the Boyne

11 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textToday marks the anniversary of one of the most mythologized battles in Anglo-Irish history: the Battle of the Boyne.  In July of 1690, ...

Tea and Revolution: Nahum Tate's "Panacea"

03 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textAs Americans celebrate Independence Day, I'm here once again to remind them of the debt American independence owes to English liter...

Aphra Behn's Oroonoko: Blurring History and Romance

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textIn today's chinwag, we'll explore a candidate for the first novel in English by the first professional female writer in Englis...

Dear Diary: Samuel Pepys, John Evelyn, and Navel-Gazing as History

01 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textToday we look at the diary, a form of writing that became extraordinarily popular over the course of the 1600s.  We'll especially ...

A Parody of Pomposity: Samuel Butler's Hudibras

18 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textI'm back before you even had a chance to miss me!Today, a bit of a genealogy of a now little read mock epic -- Samuel Butler's...

Forward to the Past: John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress

04 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textPut on your comfortable shoes and grab your walking stick because today we're embarking on the most famous allegory in the English ...

Nasty, Brutish, and Naturally Free: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and the Social Contract

20 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textThe political upheavals of 17th century England demanded new answers for old political questions: what is the purpose of government, how...

Early Science Fiction: Lunar Geese and Blazing Worlds

02 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textWe often think of science fiction as a particularly modern genre of storytelling, born of the science and technology of the electronic a...

A Garden and a Coy Mistress: Andrew Marvell

16 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textWhich is better: the life of ascetic contemplation or one of passionate sensuality?  Let's see what the last great poet of the Stu...

The Earliest Tales of Robin Hood (Out of Time Episode 2)

02 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textHere's another episode in our foundling series "Out of Time."  Today, I correct an oversight from our 15th century liter...

To Justify the Ways of God: John Milton's Paradise Lost (episode 2)

17 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textWe return to Milton's magnificent octopus today with an eye toward evaluating the epic's success according to its own mission ...

Sexy Satan: John Milton's Paradise Lost (episode 1)

02 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textSexy Satan, what have you done? You made a fool of every one!On this episode we tackle the rather thorny question of Paradise Lost'...

"Pastures New": John Milton's "Lycidas"

12 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textIn 1638, John Milton -- whom many see as perhaps the (second) greatest poet in English -- produced what many think to be his first major...

Christmas on Trial!

23 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textThe original "War on Christmas"!  This year's stocking stuffer looks at England's Christmas ban from 1647 to 1660 a...

Cavaliers and Roundheads: The English Civil Wars

19 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textToday we have a slightly different kind of show -- literary analysis takes a bit of a back seat to historical context.  We'll look...

Thanksgiving in Plain Style

27 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textThis Subcast episode marks the American Thanksgiving holiday by looking at two early accounts of the celebration by Pilgrims William Bra...

Carpe Diem!: The Cavalier Poets

17 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textToday we look at the love children of John Donne and Ben Jonson, a group of monarchist soldiers during the English Civil War.  Collecti...

"Death the Leveller" by James Shirley

30 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textThis year's Halloween Subcast episode looks at James Shirley's meditation on Death.  I hope you love it!Support the showPleas...

Cant, Costume, and Cutpurses: Dekker and Middleton's The Roaring Girl

26 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textLet's head into the Fortune Theatre for a performance of one of the most innovative and deceptively complex comedies of the English...

"The test of experience": The Philosophy of Sir Francis Bacon

06 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textWe'll get a bit philosophical today and look at the English language's greatest influence on the scientific revolution: politi...

Vikings Are A Thing! The Scandinavian Influence on English (Out of Time Episode 1)

22 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textThis is the first of what I'm calling the "Out of Time" episodes, an embedded series of Subcast shows that fill in gaps I...

Will the Real Hamlet Please Stand Up

15 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textHere's a short episode to answer a special request by a loyal listener!  Let's dive a little deeper into the various versions...

An Unintended Episode: English Country House Poems

02 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textI had not thought to do an episode on the English country house poetry of the 17th century, but was recently reminded of their place in ...

John Webster's Sensational The Duchess of Malfi

20 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textLet's head back to the theatre for a really blood-soaked tragedy!  And while we're at it, let's think about the intersec...

Flesh and Spirit: The Writing of John Donne

05 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textPoet and priest John Donne's work seems to transcend its early 17th century moment and feels as fresh and alive to us as anything w...

"Drink to me only with thine eyes": Ben Jonson's Lyrics

21 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textToday, we'll wrap up our Jonsonian mini-series by looking at some his lyrics, including poems from the 1616 Works and songs from h...

English Comes to America

03 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textIt's Independence Day here in America, so today's show takes the opportunity to look at some of writing of early English colon...

"A Pretty Kind of Game": Ben Jonson's Volpone and The Alchemist

17 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textWe'll finish our look at Ben Jonson's comedies today with perhaps his most well-regarded efforts: Volpone, or The Fox and The...

Humorous Humors: Ben Jonson's Early Comedies

02 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textToday, I look askance at two plays by Ben Jonson, whom many see (not me, though) as the greatest English playwright bar Shakespeare: Ev...

The Bible in English

19 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textToday, we take a historical survey of the Bible in English, from early partial translations and paraphrases in the 7th century through t...

More than the Dark Lady: Aemilia Lanyer's "Eve's Apology in Defense of Women"

05 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textToday we look at Aemelia Lanyer's pioneering and influential work, "Eve's Apology in Defense of Women" from 1611&apo...

Fair Youths and Dark Ladies: Shakespeare's Sonnets

20 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textFor our final episode focusing on Shakespeare, we look at his sonnets, arguably the most famous collection of lyric poems in the languag...

"You taught me language": Shakespeare's The Tempest

07 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textFor our (probably) final episode on Shakespeare's plays, we sail through The Tempest, a late romance which has attracted historica...

The Felix Culpa: George Herbert's "Easter Wings"

31 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textTo mark the Easter holiday, we return to George Herbert, Jacobean poet and priest, and his most famous work, the pattern poem "East...

Shakespeare: The Narrative Poems

10 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textWhile most people know Shakespeare as a playwright, he saw himself as a poet in the quite traditional sense.  Today, we'll look at...

Shakespeare's The Tragedy of King Lear and the Absurdity of Suffering

18 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textThe Tragedy of King Lear, while considered by many as Shakespeare's greatest play, is also his most devastating.  In this episode,...

Shakespeare's Problematic Plays

28 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textIn this episode, we look at how our current concerns with identity politics intersects with those of Shakespeare's plays which port...

Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth: A Love Story

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textIs Shakespeare's darkest tragedy a cautionary tale about ambition? a bit of Jacobean mythmaking?  Or is it the portrait of a deepl...

Who is There?: Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet

29 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textShakespeare's Hamlet has not been out of production for over four centuries and its profound examination of the human condition con...

The First Anglican Christmas Carol

24 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textHappy Christmas and a Merry New Year!  Here's a little subcast episode on poet Nahum Tate's "While Shepherds Watched The...

Honor, Ethics, and Assassination: Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

10 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textIs political violence ever justified?  Who decides?  And what ethical systems can evaluate the justice of such acts?  Today, we look ...

Happy 400th! Shakespeare's First Folio

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textWelcome to the Subcast!  On today's bonus episode, I give a little poddie-training on perhaps the most significant publishing even...

"I am a woman; when I think I must speak": Shakespeare's Rosalind and Beatrice

25 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textIn this episode, we'll look at two women who are generally regarded as among the greatest female characters ever written: Rosalind ...

Happy Thanksgiving! George Herbert's "Gratefulness"

22 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text17th-century poet and priest George Herbert offers a playful poem reminding us to strive for gratefulness.  I am, myself, very grateful...

Shakespeare's Henriad

10 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textIn today's discussion, we take a look at the character of Henry, Prince of Wales, who will become King Henry V in the group of play...

Happy Halloween from Herrick's "The Hag"!

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textTrick or treat!  Here's a bone-us episode on Robert Herrick's "The Hag," about a witch's night ride with the D...

Despair and Damnation: Marlowe's The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus

29 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textHere's a good one for the Halloweeny season: Christopher Marlowe's most famous play.  A scholar sells his soul to the Devil f...

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: A Tragedy of Sonnet-Lovers

15 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textDoes Romeo and Juliet even need an introduction?  Well, this time on the poddie, we'll look at the play's tragic lovers thr...

Concord of this Discord: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

30 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textShssshh! Drift off into Shakespeare's most rhymy and least rational play!  Today, it's The Dream!Support the showPlease like,...

History, History Plays, and Historiography: Shakespeare's Richard III

17 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textWe're here!  Finally, our first Shakespeare play episode.  Today, we'll look at The Tragical History of King Richard III. ...

Spillin' the Tea on Marlowe and Kyd

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textYou may be surprised at how the rivalry between these early Elizabethan theatrical superstars played out!  Betrayal, torture, assassina...

"Violence Prevails": Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy

22 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textOooh, you're in for a bloody one today, dear listener!  Perhaps the most popular revenge tragedy in the 16th-century: Kyd's S...

The Sum of Glory: Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great Parts 1 and 2

13 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textPerhaps the first great play of the Elizabethan stage, Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great  is relentless and ruthless.  How are we t...

An Overview of Renaissance Theatre

04 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textA bonus episode on the Subcast looks at the early modern English theatre, the culture and atmosphere of Elizabethan playgoing, as a prol...

A Still Queer Voice: Richard Barnfield's "The Affectionate Shepherd"

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textThis week on the poddie, we discuss a lesser known -- but by no means a lesser quality -- Elizabethan pastoral by Richard Barnfield call...

Live with Me, Be My Love: Pastoral Eclogues

20 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textIf you listen to much modern American country music, you notice that many of the songs conjure up an idealized vision of small-town rura...

Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene: The Legend of the Redcrosse Knight

12 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textToday we'll look at the most famous tale from Spenser's epic The Faerie Queene: Book I "The Legend of the Redcrosse Knigh...

American Independence: Tudor Roots

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textAs Americans mark Independence Day, I wanted to out that the shift in Western thinking that eventually produced a document like the Decl...

The Perfect Pattern of a Poet: Edmund Spenser's Lyrics

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textSome say he is the first real poet of the English Renaissance.  Whatever that may mean, Edmund Spenser certainly looms large in 16th ce...

The Queen's Two Bodies: Elizabeth I's Poetry

17 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textWhile the political history of Queen Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603) has been well-rehearsed, fewer listeners may be aware that she was also ...

Defending Poetry: Sir Philip Sidney

10 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textThough he spent only a brief period as a courtier of Elizabeth I, Sir Philip certainly cut a dashing figure.  He also dashed off one of...

Nowhereland: Sir Thomas More's Utopia

03 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textSir Thomas More's 1516 book inaugurated a new genre of English literature: the utopian fantasy.  But More's own life, combine...

On Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey

27 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textToday we do a quick look at some of the poetry of Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, who is credited with the development of the English ...

Venus, Venison, and Venom: The Poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt

20 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textFirmly in the Tudor Renaissance now, literati!  Today, we'll look at Sir Thomas Wyatt, the first major poet of Henry VIII's c...

John Skelton: The Last Medieval (or First Renaissance) Poet

13 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textAs we move our discussions toward 16th century Tudor literature, we look at a key transitional figure: John Skelton.  His virtuosic ver...

For the Coronation of King Charles III

06 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textTo mark the coronation of Charles III, I present to you a 15th century coronation poem written for Henry VI by John Lydgate.  God Save ...

The Mysteries and the Miller's Tale (The Canterbury Tales, Part 3.75 [?])

30 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textLet's have a look at perhaps why Chaucer, in his "The Miller's Tale," alludes so often to the incipient mystery play...

The Birth of English Drama: Mystery and Morality

22 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textIf, as it's often said, William Shakespeare is the greatest writer in the English -- perhaps, indeed, in any -- language, then wher...

Weal and Woe: Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur (The Matter of Arthur, Part 4)

15 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textSir Thomas Malory's hernia-making masterpiece Le Morte D'Arthur is the subject of part 4 of our sporadic mini-series The Matte...

William Dunbar's "Done is the Battle": An Easter Hymn

09 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textHere's a nice little egg in your Easter basket!  I look at William Dunbar's Easter hymn "Done is the Battle" from a...

The Great Vowel Movement

01 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textToday on the Subcast there's a brief explainer on the Great Vowel Shift, the most significant change in English since the Norman In...

Medieval Mysticism: The Book of Showings and The Book of Margery Kempe

25 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textToday we look at the literature of female mysticism in the English 14th and 15th centuries, particularly  the landmark texts Dame Julia...

Three Doctors and a Razor: Medieval English Philosophers

19 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textA Subcast episode looking at four of the most influential philosophers working in England during the Middle Ages: Anselm of Canterbury, ...

Keep the Faith: Moral John Gower

11 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textToday we take a look at John Gower, who was once considered the "Father of English Poetry," but who is now largely unknown out...

Mock Chivalry: "The Tournament of Tottenham"

05 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textA CEL Subcast episode! Today we look at a comic poem from the first half of the 15th century: "The Tournament of Tottenham." ...

Love and Loss in Anglo-Saxon Poetry

26 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textA Subcast episode!  Let's read two Old English poems that treat the female experience in Anglo-Saxon England: "Wulf and Eadwa...

Revolting Peasants: 1381 and All That

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textWhat do peasants, poets, and priests write about when a toxic slurry of starvation, deprivation, and taxation spill over into the larges...

The Endless Knot: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (The Matter of Arthur, Part 3)

11 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textToday we look at Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, an anonymous narrative poem from the late 14th century Midlands.  The Gawain Poet is ...

"Noble Preaching": The Wife, The Lollards, and Chaucer's Retraction (The Canterbury Tales Part 3.5)

28 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textHave you ever wondered if Chaucer's satirical broadsides against the Church could get him into trouble?  Well, seems he may have t...

"Beaten for a Book": Chaucer's Wife of Bath (The Canterbury Tales Part 3)

23 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Alisoun, the Wife of Bath, is perhaps the most psychologically complex character in all of medieval English literature.  Bawdy, rebel...

Going Blackberrying: Swearing in "The Pardoner's Tale" (The Canterbury Tales Part 2.5)

14 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textWARNING: Contains strong language.In this Subcast minisode, I look at what would have been considered foul language in the Middle Ages. ...

"A Wholly Vicious Man": Chaucer's Pardoner (The Canterbury Tales Part 2)

08 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textOn our second episode for Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, we take a deep look at a character that scholars have called "pre-Sh...

Mary's Christmas!

25 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textA little stocking stuffer of a bonus episode: a couple of Middle English poems taking a look at Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the Nativi...

"Pilgrims were they all": Chaucer's "General Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales (The Canterbury Tales Part 1)

23 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textApril showers bring May flowers, and May flowers bring pilgrims.  No, not those stern po-faced separatists in New England, but a merry ...

Encountering the Divine: Medieval Dream Vision Poetry

08 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textFor us moderns, dreams are personal and interior, bubbling up from the deep chasms of experience, neurochemistry, and cultural symbolism...

Avian Agitation: "The Owl and the Nightingale"

19 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textNicholas of Guildford's "The Owl and the Nightingale" is one of the earliest examples of "verse contest" poetry...

"Wise, Worthy, and Belle": Marie de France's "Lanval" (The Matter of Arthur, Part 2)

05 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textPerhaps the first great Arthurian romance to be written in England, Marie de France's "The Lay of Sir Lanval" is full of ...

The King Arthur of Pseudo-History (The Matter of Arthur, Part 1)

23 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a textToday we start our discussion of what has been called "The Matter of Britain": the tales of King Arthur and his knights.  Thi...