Even in an age of emerging nationhood, English men and women still thought very much in terms of their parishes, towns, and counties. This book examines the vitality of early modern local consciousness and its deployment by writers to mediate the larger political, religious, and cultural changes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

JOHN M. ADRIAN Assistant Professor of English at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, USA, where he teaches courses on Renaissance Literature and directs the College's Honors Programme. He has published articles on sixteenth and seventeenth century literature and culture in journals such as English Literary Renaissance, The Seventeenth Century, and Renaissance Papers.