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Elizabeth I: Collected Works. Edited by Leah S. Marcus, Janet Mueller, and Mary Beth Rose. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. 446 pages.
Elizabeth I is one of the most famous women in history and both popular and scholarly books about her are produced at a steady rate. There has not been, however, a new and thorough collection and edition of her letters, speeches, poems, and prayers, for many years. While the editions of her letters by G. B. Harrison and her poems by Leicester Bradner have been useful, they pale compared to this present work.
Elizabeth I: Collected Works is an extraordinary collection of Elizabeth I's writings and speeches that will be of great value to scholars and of real appeal to anyone interested in sixteenth-century English politics and culture. The book contains her poems and prayers, her major speeches, and many of her letters. This study is divided into four parts: 1553-1558, when Elizabeth was princess; 1558-1572, 1572-- 1587, and 1588-1603, dividing her reign into three sections. All sections have Elizabeth's letters, poems, and prayers, and all but the first also have her speeches. The spelling has been modernized, though the editors also have retained...