In The Age of Elizabeth in the Age of Johnson, Jack Lynch explores eighteenth-century British conceptions of the Renaissance.

Preface; Note on the texts and citation; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Struggling to emerge from barbarity: historiography and the idea of the classic; 2. Learning's triumph: historicism and the spirit of the age; 3. Call Britannia's glories back to view: Tudor history and Hanoverian historians; 4. The rage of Reformation: religious controversy and political stability; 5. The ground-work of stile: language and national identity; 6. Studied barbarity: Jonson, Spenser, and the idea of progress; 7. The last age: Renaissance lost; Notes; Bibliography; Index.