Works
Harrison has principally been known for his Description of England, first published in 1577 as part of Holinshed's Chronicle. This work enumerated England's geographic, economic, social, religious and political features and represents an important source for historians interested in life in Elizabethan England. He gathered his facts from books, letters, maps, the notes of John Leland, and conversations with antiquaries and local historians like his friends John Stow and William Camden. He also used his own observation, experience and wit, and wrote in a conversational tone without pedantry, which has made the work a classic. The result is a compendium of Elizabethan England during the youth of William Shakespeare. "No work of the time contains so vivid and picturesque a sketch," was the assessment of The Cambridge History of English and American Literature.
Harrison also wrote a number of unpublished manuscripts, including The Great English Chronologie. This work traced fortunes of the Christian church in history, stretching from creation to his own time. In the Chronologie, Harrison revealed his sympathy with the Calvinist perspective of those seeking to reform the Church of England. At the same time, Harrison also indicated his distrust of the political intentions of England's Puritans and his ultimate loyalty to England's ecclesiastical authorities.
Read more about this topic: William Harrison (priest)
Famous quotes containing the word works:
“There is a great deal of self-denial and manliness in poor and middle-class houses, in town and country, that has not got into literature, and never will, but that keeps the earth sweet; that saves on superfluities, and spends on essentials; that goes rusty, and educates the boy; that sells the horse, but builds the school; works early and late, takes two looms in the factory, three looms, six looms, but pays off the mortgage on the paternal farm, and then goes back cheerfully to work again.”
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“Most works of art, like most wines, ought to be consumed in the district of their fabrication.”
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“Puritanism, in whatever expression, is a poisonous germ. On the surface everything may look strong and vigorous; yet the poison works its way persistently, until the entire fabric is doomed.”
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