Everyman Classics: Italian Tales From The Age Of Shakespeare

Stories translated from Boccaccio, Bandello, Cinthio, By William Painter, George Whetstone, Sir Thomas Elyot, and others.

So delightful and powerful are these tales of murderous husbands and brothers, clever wives - both faithful and unfaithful - gullible young men and cruel rulers that many sixteenth and seventeenth century dramatists based their plays on them. Included in this volume are sources and analogues of Shakespeare's 'Measure For Measure', 'All's Well That Ends Well', 'Twelfth Night', Jonson's 'The Devil Is An Ass' and Webster's 'The Duchess Of Malfi'.

This is the most comprehensive edition available, with introduction, notes, selected criticism, glossary, text summaries and chronology of the authors' lives and times.