Samuel Daniel is known by name to even the most casual students of Elizabethan literature. But though his work has sound claims to recognition both on historical and on artistic grounds, it has long remained practically inaccessible. In the present volume are reprinted: Delia, a sonnet sequence which is believed to have influenced Shakespeare; The Complaint of Rosamond; Musophilus; Epistles; Ulisses and the Syren; and A Defence of Ryme—this last an important document in the history of English criticism. The texts are based on first editions, with full variant readings representing in many cases the poet’s own revisions. A brief Introduction is concerned with Daniel’s life and the general characteristics of his writings.

With the best will in the world, the playwright is forbidden to take a short cut and address us in person, and he must also face certain disadvantages inherent in his prescribed method of imparting information by word of mouth. Shakespeare had to reckon, still further, with the special conditions of his own theatre: the lack of programmes, of scenery, and of artificial lighting. Yet in spite of all these hindrances, he is able to make us enter into the lives of his characters and to see not only their point of view but his own as well. How he turns the trick is of immediate interest to everyone who sees the plays produced in the theatre or reflects upon them in terms of the theatre rather than of the closet. Such is Dr Sprague’s point of departure for a fresh survey of Shakespeare as vital and stimulating as anything that has been written in its field for these many years.