Preface -- Abbreviations -- Introduction : conceptualising archaism -- Within our own memory : old English and the early modern poet -- Chaucer, Gower, and the anxiety of obsolescence -- Archaic style in religious writing: immutability, controversy, prophecy -- Staging generations: archaism and the theatrical past -- Shepherds' speech : archaism and early Stuart pastoral drama -- Archaism and the 'English' epic -- Coda : looking backward, looking forward.
