'This masterly work ought to be The Elizabethan Encyclopedia, and no less.' - Cahiers Elizabethains Edmund Spenser remains one of Britain's most famous poets. With nearly 700 entries this Encyclopedia provides a comprehensive one-stop reference tool for: * appreciating Spenser's poetry in the context of his age and our own * understanding the language, themes and characters of the poems * easy to find entries arranged by subject.

Exploring the boundaries between poetry and history on three of England's epic literary works, Galbraith argues that they enter into a dialogue with classical and contemporary predecessors with implications for understanding the English Renaissance.