The Paradise of Dainty Devices (1576-1606)

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1927 Hard cover, 4to, in blue cloth with title in gilt to front and spine, (lxix), 297pp., First Edition. Printed on laid paper at Oxford University Press, London: Humphrey Milord. With reproductions of the title pages of eight of the Elizabethan editions. "The present edition, based upon nine of the ten Elizabethan editions, is the only one in existence which reprints every line of these nine and enumerates every change."--Introduction. Includes indexes. Condition: Very Good Plus (or better). Small scuff to rear board, and gentlest of wear to rear joint. Inch long split along inner front hinge. One small fox or soiling at title page, seen in photo. Otherwise, this is clean, tight and very, very mildly age toned. Author Harvard Professor of English Hyder Edward Rollins, (1889-1958), was a prolific voice on topics of early English literature, including Chaucer and Shakespeare, from Pepys to Keats. This volume is the first critical edition of the nine extant editions of Elizabethan poetry originally compiled by the playwright and lyricist Richard Edwards (d. 1566) and first published by Henry Disle in 1576 under the title of "The Paradise of Dainty Devices." The work was later amended into ten different editions in with a revolving set of authors, most of whom remain anonymous. Rollins's lengthy Introduction gives a detailed history, and there follows handsome selections of the contents. OCLC 2104047. . Hard Cover. Very Good Plus.