Endorsements

This is by far the biggest ever anthology of English Renaissance pastoral poetry, and among the biggest recent anthologies of any type of Renaissance poetry. It includes 277 pieces extending from Robert Henryson to pastoral elegists for Charles I. Barclay, Spenser, Sidney, Drayton, Jonson and Drummond are amply represented alongside their many contemporaries. There is a wide range of pastoral lyrics, weightier allusive pieces, and translations from classical and vernacular pastoral poetry; also, more unusually, pastoral ballads, and poems set in all kinds of prose works. Pastoral is gaining new attention because of its range of themes and allusions, as well as the theoretical implications of the mode. These concerns are conveyed through a distinctive vein of imagination that has exercised poets since the Hellenistic period, but was most widely and variously explored in the Renaissance. This book opens up the full vista of Renaissance pastoral. Each piece has been newly edited from the original manuscripts and early printed editions. The apparatus includes a headnote, glosses on unfamiliar words and constructions, and a detailed commentary annotating all aspects of the text. It thus meets every need of students of the genre or period, besides catering to more advanced scholars. This book will be complemented by a second volume, which will include a detailed expanded introduction, full textual notes, notes on the authors and various analytic indices.