Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland: England

Raphael HolinshedProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.1
Word count
645K words
Chapters
65

Tags

English Originals Historical Classics Historical ReappraisalMilitary StrategyPolitical AllegoryPortrait GalleryPower GamePatriotism

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (08 of 12)Author: Holinshed, Raphael, -1580?,Language: English, Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe, Release Date: Aug 24, 2014

Editor's review

This is the eighth of twelve England volumes in Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, a public-domain ebook from Project Gutenberg. The Chronicles are among the most important historical compilations of sixteenth-century England and a core source for Shakespeare's history plays, giving the work dual value for understanding Tudor historical thought and literary lineage. This volume is the eighth part of the second book of the whole work; it continues from the preceding volume and does not form a self-contained narrative unit, so readers should note its place in the series. The text is in Early Modern English, with spelling and syntax preserved as originally printed, posing some difficulty for non-specialist readers. Its strength lies in the direct presentation of primary historical material: annalistic narrative, anecdotes of persons, and geography and local description interwoven, making it usable as a primary text for research on early modern English historiography, as source material for drama, or for reading practice in older English. It is suited to consultation as a reference rather than continuous reading, and is best used alongside a guide or a modern translation.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the series' general catalogue and volume notes first to establish this volume's place before entering the text.
  2. Read alongside a modern English translation or the relevant passages of Shakespeare's plays to lower the language barrier and highlight the source value.
  3. Use it topically, jumping by index of persons or events rather than reading page by page.
  4. Note archaic spellings and syntactic features as you read, as practice in the language.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65

FAQ

Can this book be read on its own? Standalone reading is not recommended. This is the eighth of twelve England volumes, continuing from the volumes before and after it, with no independent beginning or end. To understand the context, consult the adjacent volumes or the whole work's catalogue and treat it as one link in a series.
How difficult is the language? The text is in sixteenth-century Early Modern English, with spelling, punctuation, and syntax preserved as originally printed and markedly different from modern English. Readers with some experience of older English can manage with notes or a parallel translation; beginners should start with introductory material before tackling the original.
Is this book useful for studying Shakespeare? Holinshed's Chronicles were a major source for several of Shakespeare's history plays, and the material in this volume offers primary textual evidence for comparative study of the plays. Note, however, that this volume is only a segment of the whole work; researchers should compare it with the relevant volumes and specific passages in Shakespeare.
Are there any points to note about using the electronic edition? This is a public-domain ebook released by Project Gutenberg and freely available. Layout and pagination may differ across devices; when citing, give the volume and chapter rather than page numbers so others can check the original text.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Raphael Holinshed Author · British

Raphael Holinshed (died perhaps 1580) was an English chronicler. Public information about his life is limited, and later generations have known him chiefly through the historical work he edited. Employed by the London publisher Wolfe, he presided over the compilation of the first edition of the Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1577. The chronicle recounts the events and figures of the history of the British Isles in annalistic form, drawing on earlier writings and documents; its narrative is detailed and carries a strong tone of political and moral instruction. The work circulated widely and became a principal source for Shakespeare's history plays and for Macbeth, bridging English historiography and literature. The collection contains 27 works related to him.