A Handful of Pleasant Delights (1584) by Clement Robinson and Divers Others

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Lovers of poetry as well as students of Tudor literature and of English balladry will welcome this new edition of “A Handful of Pleasant Delights,” a book which was a favorite of Shakespeare. Of modern reprints there have been three; not only are all practically unobtainable, but furthermore none treats the miscellany from the point of view of balladry, none has a wholly accurate text, and none has a discussion of the problem that gives vital interest to the book—the question of its date. In the present edition the texts are reprinted line for line, page for page, from the unique copy of the 1584 edition, now preserved at the British Museum. The editorial matter is unusually complete. The typography has been supervised by Bruce Rogers, so that the physical make-up of the book is worthy of the alluring poetry thus presented to a new generation.