Introductions
- William Alabaster
- Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Chichester, Ely, and Winchester
- Anon.
- Dorothy Arundell
- Roger Ascham
- Anne Askew
- Mary Astell
- Katherine Austen
- Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam, Viscount St Albans
- John Bale, Bishop of Ossory
- Alexander Barclay
- Jane Barker
- Richard Barnfield
- Ann Bathurst
- Agnes Beaumont
- Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher: Dramatic Works in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon
- Francis Beaumont
- Sir John Beaumont
- Aphra Behn
- Frances Boothby
- Anne Bradstreet
- Nicholas Breton
- Sir Thomas Browne
- William Browne of Tavistock
- John Bunyan
- Robert Burton
- Elizabeth Bury
- Samuel Butler
- Dorothy Calthorpe
- William Camden
- Thomas Campion
- Thomas Carew
- Mary, Lady Carey
- William Cartwright
- Elizabeth Cary, Viscountess Falkland
- George Cavendish
- Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle
- Susannah Centlivre
- John Chalkhill
- George Chapman
- Jane Cheyne and Elizabeth Egerton
- Lady Mary Chudleigh
- Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon
- John Cleveland
- Lady Anne Clifford
- William Congreve
- Henry Constable
- Richard Corbett, Bishop of Oxford and Norwich
- Charles Cotton
- Sir Robert Cotton
- Abraham Cowley
- Richard Crashaw
- Samuel Daniel
- Sir William Davenant
- Sir John Davies
- Thomas Dekker
- Lady Elizabeth Delaval
- Thomas Deloney
- Sir John Denham
- Alexander Dicsone
- John Donne
- Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, Fourth Earl of Middlesex, Sixth Earl of Dorset
- Gavin Douglas
- Anne Dowriche
- Michael Drayton
- William Drummond of Hawthornden
- John Dryden
- William Dunbar
- Sir Edward Dyer
- John Earle, Bishop of Worcester and Salisbury
- Sarah Egerton
- Elizabeth I
- Sir Thomas Elyot
- Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex
- Sir George Etherege
- John Evelyn
- Mary Fage
- Edward Fairfax
- Ann, Lady Fanshawe
- George Farquhar
- Owen Felltham
- Giles Fletcher the Younger
- John Fletcher
- Phineas Fletcher
- John Florio
- John Ford
- John Foxe
- Abraham Fraunce
- Elizabeth Freke
- Thomas Fuller
- George Gascoigne
- Grace, Lady Gethin
- Charles Gildon
- Thomas Goffe
- Sir Arthur Gorges
- John Grange
- Robert Greene
- Fulke Greville Lord Brooke
- William Habington
- George Savile, First Marquess of Halifax
- Anne, Lady Halkett
- Joseph Hall, Bishop of Exeter and Norwich
- Sir John Harington
- James Harrington
- Gabriel Harvey
- Stephen Hawes
- Alice Hayes
- Robert Henryson
- Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury
- George Herbert
- Robert Herrick
- John Heywood
- Thomas Heywood
- Thomas Hobbes
- Margaret, Lady Hoby
- Richard Hooker
- John Hoskyns
- Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton
- Sir Francis Hubert
- Anna Hume
- Lucy Hutchinson
- Esther Inglis
- Elizabeth Isham
- Joyce Jefferies
- Rachel Jevon
- Sarah Jinner
- Elizabeth Jocelin
- Ben Jonson
- Anne Killigrew
- Sir William Killigrew
- Thomas Killigrew
- Henry King, Bishop of Chichester
- Thomas Kyd
- Emilia Lanier
- Nathaniel Lee
- Dorothy Leigh
- John Leland
- Sir David Lindsay
- Thomas Lodge
- Mary Love
- Richard Lovelace
- John Lyly
- Bathsua Makin
- Sir Thomas Malory
- Delarivier Manley
- Christopher Marlowe
- John Marston
- Dorcas, Lady Martin
- Andrew Marvell
- Philip Massinger
- Jasper Mayne
- Elizabeth Melville, Lady Culross
- Thomas Middleton
- Grace, Lady Mildmay
- John Milton
- Mary Mollineux
- Mary Monck
- Henry More
- Sir Thomas More
- George Morley
- Martha Moulsworth
- Constantia Munda
- Thomas Nashe
- Sir Robert Naunton
- Frances Neville, Lady Bergavenny
- Roger Boyle, first Earl of Orrery
- Thomas Otway
- Sir Thomas Overbury
- Edward de Vere, seventeenth Earl of Oxford
- Mary Oxlie
- Julia Palmer
- George Peele
- Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke
- William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke
- Samuel Pepys
- Katherine Philips ()
- Mary Pix
- Walton Poole
- Lady Hesther Pulter
- George Puttenham
- Sir Walter Ralegh
- Thomas Randolph
- Elizabeth Richardson (Ashburnham)
- John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester
- Katherine Ross
- Sir Benjamin Rudyerd
- Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset
- George Sandys
- Sir Charles Sedley
- Thomas Shadwell
- William Shakespeare
- James Shirley
- Robert Sidney
- Sir Philip Sidney
- John Skelton
- Thomas Southerne
- Anne, Lady Southwell
- St Robert Southwell, S.J.
- Ester Sowernam
- Rachel Speght
- Edmund Spenser
- William Strode
- Sir John Suckling
- Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
- Anne Sutcliffe
- Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down and Connor, and Dromore
- Gertrude Thimelby
- Alice Thornton
- Chidiock Tichborne
- William Tindale
- Cyril Tourneur
- Aurelian Townshend
- Thomas Traherne
- Anne, Lady Twysden
- Nicholas Udall
- Sir Thomas Urquhart
- Sir John Vanbrugh
- Henry Vaughan the Silurist
- Marion Veitch
- Anne Venn
- Elizabeth Walker
- Edmund Waller
- Octavia Walsh
- Izaak Walton
- John Webster
- Elizabeth Jane Weston
- Anne Wharton
- Anne Wheathill
- Isabella Whitney
- Elizabeth Wilkinson
- Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos
- Thomas Wilson
- George Wither
- Sir Henry Wotton
- Lady Mary Wroth
- Sir Thomas Wyatt
- William Wycherley