The herald of God's loving kindness

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Nick Aitchison

"Macbeth: Man and Myth is the first book to study Macbeth in all his manifestations: historical, mythological and dramatic. Bringing together much widely scattered material, it begins by placing Macbeth in the context of the turbulent politics of eleventh-century Scotland, before examining the evidence for the historical Macbeth and his reign. The book then traces the origins and development of the myths surrounding the king through a range of medieval source material to the culmination of this process in Shakespeare's Macbeth, as well as later adaptations and interpretations of the play. The author skilfully disentangles the real from the mythical Macbeth and puts into focus a blurring of fact and fiction that is as old as Macbeth himself. The concluding chapter goes in search of Macbeth, travelling from the 'blasted heath', where Shakespeare's Macbeth met the witches, to Dunsinane where he met his death at the hands of Macduff. The archaeology, architecture, topography and folklore of Macbeth's Scotland are here brought together for the first time. Book jacket."--Jacket.

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K.L. Maund

The reign of the North Welsh king Gruffudd ap Cynan (1075-1135) marked the culmination of a century of rapid social and political change. A product of three cultures (Welsh, Irish and Scandinavian), Gruffudd faced a Wales divided by Norman incursion and dynastic rivalry, and demonstrated a unique adaptability. His re-creation of his North Welsh kingdom saw him acting on the wider (and often deadly) stage of Anglo-Norman politics, and surviving where more 'traditional' Welsh rulers failed. His reign encouraged a new growth in Welsh literature and creativity, and is often looked upon as a literary 'golden age'. This collaborative biography analyses key aspects of the career and context of this remarkable king.

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Alan S. Trueblood

Juana Inés de la Cruz was acclaimed in her time as the "Phoenix of Mexico", America's tenth muse; a generation later she was forgotten. Rediscovered 300 years later, her works were reissued and she is now considered one of the finest Hispanic poets of the seventeenth century. Her works speak directly to our concern for the freedom of women to realize themselves artistically and intellectually. This anthology contains a selection of her poems.

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cEsperanza Ramirez-Christensen

Shinkei (1406-75), one of the most brilliant poets of medieval Japan, is a pivotal figure in the development of renga (linked poetry) as a serious art. In an age when anyone who wished to signal his denial of mundane concerns or make his way in the world with relative freedom donned the robes of a monk, Shinkei stood out by being a practicing cleric with a temple in Kyoto, the Japanese capital. His priestly duties and his devotion to Buddhist ideals are directly reflected in the intensely pure, lyrical longing for transcendence that is the most notable quality of his sensibility. Shinkei's life and work also provide a vivid portrayal of a tumultuous period of Japanese history that was one of the defining moments of its culture, when Zen Buddhism began to directly influence the arts . The book is in two parts. The first part is a literary biography based primarily on Shinkei's own writings - his critical essays, waka sequences, hokku collections, and commentaries - supplemented by various external sources. What emerges is the compelling portrait of a man who bore witness to the tragic anarchy of his times while clinging to the ideal of poetic practice as a mode of being and access to Buddhist enlightenment. Shinkei became embroiled in the factional struggles preceding the Onin War (1467-77) and died a refugee in what is now Kanagawa. The second part consists of annotated translations of Shinkei's most representative poetry: (1) selected hokku (opening verse of a sequence) and tsukeku (linked pairs of verses), along with Muromachi-period commentaries on them; (2) two 100-verse renga sequences - the first a solo composition from 1467, and the second a collaboration with Sogi and other poet-priests and samurai from 1468; and (3) a selection of one hundred waka poems highlighting Shinkei's most characteristic mode of ineffable remoteness. Throughout, the author's annotations seek to define and clarify the unique genre called "linked poetry."