1. Text and Context “Informational” Documents and the Foreign Country of the Past

2. Some possible resources Bland, Brown, & Tawney The Babees Book Hic Mulier Prose Works of Milton Cornell University Witchcraft Collection

3. So I have a cool document – now what? First, you need to decide what you want to do with it. Possibilities include Pure contextual reading Support for a larger project (medieval table manners, a mock witch trial, etc.) Scaffolding for another text ( Babees’ Book or Economic Documents with the Canterbury Tales ; Hic Mulier with As You Like It ; witchcraft materials with Macbeth or The Tempest; Milton’s Prose with Paradise Lost )

4. You may have to determine whether your students will adapt well to the text Lexile Context Interest Practical challenges Not all environments allow for electronic reading on a equitable level Some students will resist electronic texts for both compelling and self-serving reasons Some available texts are more accessible than others Some subject matter can generate resistance

5. A brief example The Book of Courtesy (1420ish): Look that no dirt on thy finger be, / To defoul the cloth before thee. / In thy dish if thou wet thy bread, / Look thereof that nought be led / To Drip again thy dish into; / Thou art ill- bred if thou do so. /... While thou holdest meat in mouth, beware / To drink, that is an unhonest chare [trick]; / And also physic forbids it quite, / And says thou may be choked at that bite, / If it go wrong thy throat into / And stop thy wind, thou art fordo [done for]. Chaucer’s Prioress (1400ish): At mete wel ytaught was she withalle; / She leet no morsel from hir lippes falle, / Ne wette hir fyngres in hir sauce depe. / Wel koude she carie a morsel, and wel kepe / That no drope ne fille upon hir brist. / In curteisie was set ful muche hir list; / Hire over-lippe wyped she so clene, / That in hir coppe ther was no ferthyng sene / Of grece, whan she dronken hadde hir draughte. / Ful semely after hir mete she raughte;