Looking for Renaissance poetry

[nancylebov]

I can sell wall hanging of Renaissance poetry (I suppose prose would be ok, too) at a Renfaire. The problem is that I don't know much of anything about Renaissance poetry. Any recommendations for reasonably short pieces for a general audience?

At this point, all I've got in mind is "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" (suitable for office doors) and the witches' recipe from Macbeth.

I was considering My Cat Jeoffry, but 1762 is probably too recent.

Comments

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

You can't go too far wrong with John Donne or Ben Jonson. Possibly Marlowe (something from "Hero and Leander" or the "Why this is Hell, nor am I out of it" speech from Dr Faustus?). Heck, delve into the old [b]Norton Anthology[/b] - it's arranged chronologically and if you don't like the specific examples you find, you'll get a great list of poets to work from.