[susan53]

"grammar" is just the word we use to describe how we out words together to make meaning. once upon a time there was a little group of prehistoric cavemen. Every time they saw a deer they used the word grorg. When the guy who was the Gordon Ramsey of the tribe called them to dinner and told them to eat, he used the word blegga. For a long time these words were used in isolation. Then one day the chef pointed at the meal and said Blegga grorg!. They seemed to understand so the next day he tried again but this time said Grorg blegga! This went on for a time. they would put words together but the order was irrelevant. However, gradually they got in nto the habit of always saying Grorg blegga! and would laugh at anyone who got it wrong and said Blegga grorg! A rule had been invented : the object always precedes the verb. Grammar had been born.

Excuse the fable - but that's all grammar is : the rules that a specific group of people agree on in order to combine words and express meanings. And as I've said, this changes over time (I've never heard the current Gordon Ramsey say Blegga grorg! for example).

Buit why can't you tell your students this ???? If they have to study non-contemporary literature it's essential that they understand that they should never try and copy the language patterns they would find there - they would sound ridiculous. Literature study is valid as a way of appreciating the art and philosophy of past ages (which often have a lot to teach us about modern life too). But it's certainly not a valid way to learn a contemporary language.

There aren't any authoritative grammars of 17th century English, no. Those that existed tended to be prescriptive rather than descriptive - ie they included the rules that the writer thought shouldd be included rather than describing how language is really used. It's only fairly recently, first with the invention of recording and now with the use of computers and corpora that we can really do that.

However, your students don't need one. They need to understand contemporary grammar and to know that if they see anything different in 17th century texts, the explanation will be that the language has changed. They'll never need to speak or write like that, so they don't need to analyse it any further.