It is generally understood, I believe, that Edward Dowden's "Spenser, The Poet and Teacher," was important to the shift in Spenser criticism away from such attitudes as that found in James Russell Lowell's reference to FQ as a "nest of nightingale tongues." My question has to do with Dowden's later (1907) Atlantic Monthly essay, "Elizabethan Psychology." Is this the first systematic study of Eliz. psychology for the purpose of providing a background against which to understand Elizabethan literature? Is it, indeed, the first systematic study of Renaissance materials for the purpose of providing such a background, i.e., the first Old Historical study of Eliz. literature? Jim Broaddus Indiana State University (retired) Route 3 Box 1037 Brodhead, KY 40409 606-758-8073 [log in to unmask]