Second Frutes 1591

This Italian-English dialogue language-lesson book is perhaps the most attractive & significant to modern readers of all Elizabethan books of this type. Rich in allusions to contemporaries like Spenser, Wyatt, Surrey, Lyly, Harvey, Southampton, & the Queen, the conversations deal with literary criticism, fencing, tennis, the art of translation, & many other topics. Especially notable for its proverbs & idiomatic usage, giving common Renaissance phrases & idioms about clothes, dining, gaming, sports, compliments, courtiers, sleeping, etc.

This book examines Edmund Spenser's essays. It presents the criticisms of John Dryden, which are determined by his own preoccupations than by his reading of other critics, and contains three larger sections (covering the periods 1579-1600, 1600-1660, 1660-1715) into which all this material falls.

A Worlde of Wordes, the first-ever comprehensive Italian-English dictionary, was published in 1598 by John Florio. One of the most prominent linguists and educators in Elizabethan England, Florio was greatly responsible for the spreading of Italian letters and culture throughout educated English society. Especially important was Florio's dictionary, which – thanks to its exuberant wealth of English definitions – made it initially possible for English readers to access Italy's rich Renaissance literary and scientific culture. Award-winning author Hermann W. Haller has prepared the first critical edition of A Worlde of Wordes, which features 46,000 Italian entries – among them dialect forms, erotic terminology, colloquial phrases, and proverbs of the Italian language. Haller reveals Florio as a brilliant English translator and creative writer, as well as a grammarian and language teacher. His helpful critical commentary highlights Florio's love of words and his life-long dedication to promoting Italian language and culture abroad.