In such poems as "Gunga Din," "Mandalay," "Tommy," "Danny Deever," "If —," "The White Man's Burden," and "The Female of the Species," Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) evoked stirring images and created archetypes of British character at the height of the Empire. Filled with character study, dramatic incident, and rousing language, the poems delineate the time, place, and ethos of British ascendancy as surely as a novel or history of the

...

The Victorian poet Robert Browning (1812 –1889) is perhaps most admired today for his inspired development of the dramatic monologue. In this compelling poetic form, he sought to reveal his subjects' true natures in their own, often self-justifying, accounts of their lives and affairs. A number of these vivid monologues, including the famed "Fra Lippo Lippi," "How It Strikes a Contemporary," and "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's

...

In the mid-seventeenth century, the poets associated with the court of Charles I of England, known as the Cavaliers, were strongly influenced by the classicism of Ben Jonson. Their verse, often concerned with the vagaries of love, is characteristically charming, witty, graceful, and elegant. This volume contains a rich sampling of more than 120 works by four Cavalier poets: Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling, and Richard Lovelace.
Included

...

Regarded by a contemporary as a "brilliant eccentric whose works skirted the outer fringes of English art and literature," William Blake (1757–1827) is today recognized as a major poet and artist. This collection of 104 poems, carefully chosen by noted Blake scholars David and Virginia Erdman, reveals the lyricism, mystical vision, and consummate craftsmanship that have earned the poet his preeminent place with both critics and the general public....

In the pantheon of English poets, Shelley has long occupied a lofty place, his poems as admired for their profound thought and subtle perceptions as for the music and fervor of their language. His life as well as his poetry embraced the passions, ideals, and causes of Romanticism, whose emergence and early influences coincided with the dates of his own brief life (1792–1822).
This selection of many of Shelley’s best-known and most...

A rich uncle announces he has a terminal illness and plans to leave his estate to one of his sister's children but under one condition. The family scrambles to accommodate his needs and meet the requirements of the inheritance. Mrs. Dermott is a widow and mother of five adult children—Oliver, Evangeline, Sylvia, Bobbie and Joyce. They live together in a large country house that they can no longer afford. The children are stagnant with

...

Outraged by the sexual perversity of this one-act tragedy, Great Britain's Lord Chamberlain banned Salomé from the national stage. Symbolist poets and writers — Stéphane Mallarmé and Maurice Maeterlinck among them — defended the play's literary brilliance. Beyond its notoriety, the drama's haunting poetic imagery, biblical cadences, and febrile atmosphere have earned it a reputation as a masterpiece of the Aesthetic

...

Plagued by debt, tormented by writer's block and in desperate need of a new hit, promising new playwright Will Shakespeare finds his muse in the form of passionate young noblewoman Viola De Lesseps. Their forbidden love soon draws everyone, including Queen Elizabeth, into the drama, and inspires Will to write the greatest love story of all time: Romeo and Juliet. Based on the Oscar-winning screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, Shakespeare

...

Henry may be the wittiest playwright of his generation, but he's hopelessly naive when it comes to understanding love and infidelity. Writing about betrayal is one thing, living with it is another. After Henry leaves his wife for another woman, he's confronted with being the cuckold himself.

Much-studied and frequently performed, these comedies by the great Elizabethan playwright Ben Jonson satirize the greed, mendacity, gullibility, and pretension of seventeenth-century London society. Both plays abound in colorful characters, ingenious plotting, biting wit, and sharp insight into human nature.
In Volpone (1605), a crafty rich man attempts to augment his wealth by feigning a mortal illness. His wealthy neighbors, spying the...