The Renaissance conflict between earthly and Platonic values. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory. The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare.
Lovers find each other, with their foolishness and the schemes of their enemies equally ineffectual.
Othello by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare creates a great man in his hero Othello, none of whose greatness protects him from utter destruction by a triviality. Paradise Lost by John Milton. The Christian explanation of free will, determinism and punishment, magnificently told. The Roy Flannagan translation is recommended for its extensive footnotes.