Ryan C. let me know of the existence of Luminarium, an excellent site devoted mainly to English literature from medieval times to the 18th century. It includes, or links to, works, biographies, criticism, and anything else that seems relevant. There’s a book store with links to Amazon for purchasing books by or about the authors, and even a poster store. And it covers all the major writers and most of the minor ones, including several I hadn’t heard of. (Yes, I know, that doesn’t mean much. But I had managed to miss, for instance, William Alabaster.)

The site’s editor says it’s a labor of love, and she wants to keep it a free resource—to that end you do have to put up with Google ads on the right sidebar.

Note: some of the author home pages automatically play MIDI tracks of historically appropriate music, so if this bothers you, you may want to mute the sound on your computer.

And one question: where’s Traherne?

Ryan also apprised me of another online repository, Renascence Editions, which has English works printed between 1477 and 1799.