Interspersed are passages from the author's "Essays" and "Journal."

The first book in this Elizabethan epic poem follows the adventures of the chivalrous Redcrosse Knight and his virtuous love Lady Una. Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene ushered in a new sensibility in English literature as the reunited country entered the seventeenth century. In his distinctive verse form-which came to be known as the Spenserian stanza-Spenser inspired his countrymen with tales of noble adventure, romance, and chivalry. This first...

"The three plays here presented were the outcome of a period when Björnson's views on many topics were undergoing a drastic revision and he was abandoning much of his previous orthodoxy in many directions. Two of them were written during, and one immediately after, a three years' absence from Norway--years spent almost entirely in southern Europe. ... For nearly ten years previous to this voluntary exile, Björnson had been immersed in theatrical...