The manner of the stories brought together in this anthology
(Allen and Unwin, 7s. 6d.) charms even when the matter fails. Prolix, immature, they nevertheless provide a racy picture of • Elizabethan life which is unparalleled even in the contemporary drama and which compares favourably with the tales 'told by "gents of mode and language" of today. The writers represented include, indeed, Sidney, Greene and Nashe, but some of the best- told tales are by little-known authors— this was an age almost inexhaustible in its raconteurs. The anthology was much needed. Mr. O'Brien's modernised text has emasculated the original narra- tive style of much of its untranslatable vigour, but the tales still remain eminently readable ; and he has not translated them away into another
• genre, as Dryden did with his rendering of Chaucer. A long preface heavy with facts, provides an historical back- ground.
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