James Kinsley (1922–1984)

I may need to buy this book. The selection of ballads I read were FABULOUS: strange, dramatic, silly, dark tales of love, sex, magic, and mayhem. Also very, very well-edited - Kinsley presents original texts, antiquated spelling and all, and his interpolations are clearly marked.

It's the sort of book that you can't read in the same room as another person because you will be compelled to interrupt them every five minutes with yet another wacky plot sketch of what you just read.

commented anthology, containing poems of Dryden, Sackville, Wilmot, Swift, Pope, Jenyns, Johnson, Churchill, Goldsmith, BurnsWolcot, Courtenay, Gifford, Byron, and 1 anon.