This volume is a compilation of references and allusions to Chaucer from the beginning of the English Civil War to the beginning of the eighteenth century. Chaucer’s Fame in Britannia 1641–1700 is a continuation of Jackson Campbell Boswell and Sylvia Wallace Holton’s Chaucer’s Fame in England: 1475–1640. Both books are meant to supplement the equivalent parts of Caroline Spurgeon’s invaluable Five Hundred Years of Chaucer Criticism and Allusion 1357–1900. Together, the two volumes considerably expand previous work in this area and offer a substantial contribution to intellectual history that gives us a much fuller and more profound understanding of Chaucer’s influence (and of his uses) during the period covered. Together, these volumes are a massive expansion of Spurgeon’s work. The references and allusions are full and, when possible, complete. Chaucer’s Fame in England: 1475–1640 has proven to be essential for those interested in the afterlives of Chaucer, and Chaucer’s Fame in Britannia 1641–1700 will take a similar place alongside its companion volume.

The first complete, versified English-language translation of the epistles of Renaissance poet Clément Marot.
 
Clément Marot (1496–1544), a royal poet in Renaissance France who ushered in new verse forms and renewed existing ones, stands as one of the most important literary voices of the first half of the sixteenth century. Clément Marot’s Epistles represents a first attempt to offer a sustained English-language translation and critical edition of what is widely considered his most personal, historically relevant, and crowning verse form. Aiming for integrality and poetic precision, the volume translates and sets to verse all seventy-four of Marot’s epistles, employing the same meter and rhyme scheme used by the poet in the original compositions. Likewise focused on capturing Marot’s poetic voice, thus maintaining idiomatic and literary integrity, the resulting translation is an attempt to relate the playfulness and pathos of Marot’s verse, rendering it accessible to an anglophone public.
 
Beyond the more traditional verse epistles included in the primary base text, Marot’s authorized complete works from 1538, the volume also offers translations of the introductory prose epistles penned by Marot for his Adolescence clémentine of 1532 and the 1538 edition (Lyon, Dolet), as well as the coq-à-l’âne and other versified satirical epistles, the “artificial epistle” retelling of a popular medieval romance, and more. A robust critical apparatus includes ample footnotes, an extensive introduction, illustrations, a bibliography, a chronological table, and a concordance with the principal modern French-language editions of Marot’s epistles.

The book should appeal to English-speaking historians and literary scholars alike, as well as to poetry lovers, who will appreciate a new acquaintance with this distinctive voice from poetry’s past.
 

Shakespeare’s archetypal slapstick comedy, now with updated jokes and wordplay.

One of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, The Comedy of Errors is a farcical tale of separated twins and mistaken identities. This slapstick play is a staple of the genre, including madcap bawdiness, love at first sight, reunions, and happily-ever-afters. Christina Anderson’s translation dives deep into the joy of the original text, reinterpreting the metaphor, antiquated slang, and double and triple entendre for a contemporary audience.

This translation of The Comedy of Errors was written as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Play On! project, which commissioned new translations of thirty-nine Shakespeare plays. These translations present work from “The Bard” in language accessible to modern audiences while never losing the beauty of Shakespeare’s verse. Enlisting the talents of a diverse group of contemporary playwrights, screenwriters, and dramaturges from diverse backgrounds, this project reenvisions Shakespeare for the twenty-first century. These volumes make these works available for the first time in print—a new First Folio for a new era.

A powerfully topical new translation of Shakespeare’s study of military power and political folly.

Bay Area director, actor, and producer Sean San José takes on the themes of power and politics in his version of Coriolanus, Shakespeare’s exploration of militaristic might and political folly. San José’s take on this little-known classic reimagines the text to be spoken by and for a community of “others.” The translation, which brings Shakespeare’s language into our era, rendering its thematic and dramatic power broadly accessible, is powered by a reexamination of populism in our current political moment.
 
This translation of Coriolanus was written as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Play On! project, which commissioned new translations of thirty-nine Shakespeare plays. These translations present the work of “The Bard” in language accessible to modern audiences while never losing the beauty of Shakespeare’s verse. Enlisting the talents of a diverse group of contemporary playwrights, screenwriters, and dramaturges from diverse backgrounds, this project reenvisions Shakespeare for the twenty-first century. These volumes make these works available for the first time in print—a new First Folio for a new era.