本书可作为高等院校英语专业教材，也可供师范院校、教育学院、广播电视大学及社会上英语自学者学习使用。本书精选了英国文学作品多篇，包括乔叟、莎士比亚、培根、狄更斯、哈代、劳伦斯等英国文学大家的杰作以及弥尔顿、华兹华斯、拜伦、雪莱、艾略特等著名诗人的诗歌精选。

Beowulf (Excerpts， in modern English translation)

Geoffrey Chaucer

　　The Canterbury Tales (in modern English translation)

　　　　The Prologue

　　　　The Pardoner's Tale (excerpt)

The Popular Ballads

　　Robin Hood and the Bishop

　　Sir Patrick Spens

　　Get Up and Bar the Door

Thomas More

　　Utopia (2 excerpts)

Edmund Spenser

　　The Faerie Queene (Book I， Canto I)

Christopher Marlowe

　　The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

William Shakespeare

　　Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?

　　Sonnet 29: When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes

　　Sonnet 66: Tired with All These， for Restful Death I Cry

　　Two Songs from As You Like It (Under the

　　　　Greenwood Tree; Blow， Blow， Thou Winter Wind)

　　The Merchant of Venice (Act IV， Scene 1)

　　Hamlet (Act I， Scene 2; Act III， Scene 1)

Ben Jonson

　　Song to Celia

John Donne

　　Death Be Not Proud

Robert Herrick

　　To the Virgins， To Make Much of Time

George Herbert

　　Virtue

Francis Bacon

　　Of Studies

The King James Bible of 1611

　　The Story of Samson

John Milton

　　Areopagitica (2 excerpts)

　　Sonnet: To Cyriack Skinner (Cyriack， this three years'

　　　　day these eyes， though clear)

　　Paradise Lost (Book I， Lines 84—191)

　　Samson Agonistes (Lines 1596—1659)

John Bunyan

　　The Pilgrim's Progress (excerpt: Vanity Fair)

John Dryden

　　An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (excerpt; on Shakespeare，

　　　　Beaumont and Fletcher， Ben Jonson)

Alexander Pope

　　An Essay on Criticism (excerpt: Lines 289—383)

Daniel Defoe

　　Robinson Crusoe (excerpt)

Jonathan Swift

　　Gulliver's Travels (Part IV， Chapters 5 & 6)

Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

　　Tile Spectator (Vol. I， Nos. I & 2)

Henry Fielding

　　Tom Jones (Book III， Chapters 8 & 10; & Book VII，Chapter 7)

Samuel Johnson

　　Letter to The Right Honourable The Earl of

　　　Chesterfield

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

　　The School for Scandal (Act I， Scene I)

Thomas Gray

　　Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (2 excerpts)

William Blake

　　The Chimney-Sweeper

　　Holy Thursday

　　London

　　The Tyger

Robert Burns

　　John 'Anderson， My Jo

　　A Red， Red Rose

　　The Slave's Lament

　　Scots， Wha Hae

　　Is There for Honest Poverty

Appendix I　 Biographical Sketches

Appendix II　 List of Books from Which the Texts in

　　This Anthology Are Taken