Elizabethian Critical Essays, Edited with an Introduction by G. Gregory Smith (2 volumes)

Octavo. 2 volume set. From the sheets of the first edition. Volume I, xcii, 431 pages; Volume I, iv, 599 pages, index. This remains one of the great collections of criticism from the 16th century including the often-neglected essay by Sir Philip Sidney's An Apology for Poetrie (1595); Richard Carew's The Excellency of the English Tongue (1595-1595); and many others. The work is therefore an attempt to recover, primarily in the words of the Elizabethans themselves, what then passed for critical opinion in literary circles. A near fine set bound in dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, only a couple of small corner bumps, in gray dust jackets lettered and decorated in blue some toning to spines, previous owner's nice bookplate.