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PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

SERIES IN

Philology Literature and Archæology
VOL. IV. No. 2.

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4. Soc. 120. Magn

Site ee. March 17, 18971
ift of the University

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

TRANCE FRED FROM THE

PEABODY MUSEUM

Apr 10.1936

THE Papers of this Series, prepared by Professors and others connected with the University of Pennsylvania, will take the form of Monographs on the subjects of Philology, Literature, and Archeology, whereof about 200 or 250 pages will form a volume. Each Monograph, however, is complete in itself.

The price to subscribers to the Series will be $2.00 per volume; to others than subscribers the numbers will be sold separately at the regular prices.

It is the intention of the University to issue these Monographs from time to time as they shall be prepared.

Each author assumes the responsibility of his own contribution.

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THE period which extended from the close of the fifteenth century through the whole of the sixteenth was a time of rapid change in many aspects of society. In the political and the intellectual world, in the domain of men's material and of their spiritual interests, there were new influences, new ideas, and new institutions. It was the transitional century from the Middle Ages to modern times. One of the most prominent characteristics of this period, and one which strikes us with a certain surprise, is the widespread and continued suffering of the great mass of the people. The contemporary literature, prose and poetry, sermons, pamphlets, private letters, court records, and statutes, reflect "the manifold complayntes of men, touchinge the decaie of this Commonwealthe and Realme of England, that we be now in, moved more at this present then of long time hathe bene had, some imputinge it to one thinge, and some to an other." 1

We hear that "the state of England was never so miserable as it is at this present";2 and again, "England hath been

1 A Discourse of the Common Weal of this Realme of England, p. 10. Lamond's ed., 1893. First printed 1581 and attributed to W. S., but recently shown to have been written in 1549, probably by John Hales.

2 Thomas Becon, Jewel of Joy, Becon's Works, Parker Society ed., p. 435.

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