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Proposals

letter submission of proposals for texts published by the Society are always welcome—both texts an applicant would like to edit and a text an applicant would like someone else to edit so as to make it more widely available. If the latter, please indicate some possibilities of who might edit the text.

RETS publishes critical editions of non-dramatic works from 1475 to 1660 in England, either printed books in English or transcribed English manuscripts. A proposal should include the following:

  • a description of the text and its contents
  • its value to us now and its usefulness
  • a history (with commentary) of any earlier editions or printings, including an argument for this edition if previous ones exist
  • the length of the proposed edition, including introductory and critical materials
  • a description of the apparatus to be included
    • an outline of the introduction
    • a description of the appendices
    • the number, if any, of anticipated illustrations

Send the proposal and your c.v. to the interim President of the Society, Joseph Black (jlblack@umass.edu), by February 1 of any given year for consideration at the RSA meeting in late May.

Style Guide

Edited manuscript miscellanies should conform to the standards noted below:

  • Table of contents
  • Abbreviations of frequently cited sources
  • Introduction
    1. Summary overview of the document (key facts, e.g. scribe (s), number and types of poems, dates of compilation, languages, poets/authors) Why is this MS important? (1-2 paragraphs)
    2. Physical description (dimensions, leaves, stubs, foliation, catchwords, running heads/titles, hands)
    3. Provenance
    4. Evaluation and conclusions (narrative concerning entry of the texts, their organization and importance, unique texts, authorship, the overall cultural significance of the collection)
    5. Earlier editions and scholarship on the MS.
    6. Editorial principles
  • Text
    1. Enumerated entries
    2. Lineation
    3. Textual notes (for script or layout that can’t be represented in print)
  • Explanatory Notes, including:
    1. Circumstances of transcription
    2. Authors
    3. Allusions
    4. Textual cruxes
    5. Alternate texts in MS and print, with collations, and textual relationships
  • Bibliographies
    1. Works cited
    2. MSS cited
  • Glossary
  • Indexes
    1. First lines, titles
    2. Authors
    3. Authors and/or titles of translated entries in the manuscript
    4. Tunes, musical settings, composers

Series titles

1.   Merie Tales of the Mad Men of Gotam by A. B., ed. Stanley J. Kahrl, and The History of Tom Thumbe by R. I., ed. Curt F. Bühler, 1965.

2. Thomas Watson’s Latin ‘Amyntas’ (1585), ed. Walter F. Staton, Jr., and Abraham Fraunce’s translation: ‘The Lamentations of Amyntas’ (1587), ed. Franklin M. Dickey, 1967.

3.   The Dyaloge Called Funus, A Translation of Erasmus’s Colloquy (1534), and A Very Pleas­aunt & Fruitful Diologe Called The Epicure, Gerrard’s Translation of Erasmus’s Colloquy (1545), ed. Robert R. Allen, 1969.

4.   Thomas Rogers, Leicester’s Ghost, ed. Franklin B. Williams, Jr., 1972.

5–6. George Wither, A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne (1635), introd. Rose­mary Freeman; bibliographical notes by Charles S. Hensley, 1975.

7–8. The Most Pleasant History of Tom a Lincolne by R. I., ed. Richard S. M. Hirsch, 1978.

9.   George Cavendish, Metrical Visions, ed. A. S. G. Edwards, 1980.

10. Two Early Renaissance Bird Poems: The Harmony of Birds, The Parliament of Birds, ed. Malcolm Andrew, 1984.

11. Francis Quarles, Argalus and Parthenia, ed. David Freeman, 1986.

12. Marcus Tullius Ciceroes Thre Bokes of Duties, to Marcus His Sonne, Turned Oute of Latine into English, by Nicolas Grimalde, ed. Gerald O’Gorman, 1990.

13. Thomas Moffet, The Silkewormes and Their Flies, ed. Victor Houliston, 1989.

14. John Bale, The Vocacyon of Johan Bale, ed. Peter Happé and John N. King, 1990.

15. The Nondramatic Works of John Ford, ed. L. E. Stock, Gilles D. Monsarrat, Judith M. Kennedy, and Dennis Danielson, 1991.

16. George Herbert, The Temple: A Diplomatic Edition of the Bodleian Manuscript (Tanner 307), ed. Mario A. Di Cesare, 1995.

17. Lady Mary Wroth, The First Part of The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania, ed. Jose­phine A. Roberts, 1995.

18. Richard Beacon, Solon His Follie, or, A Politique Discourse Touching the Reformation of Common-Weales Conquered, Declined or Corrupted, ed. Clare Carroll and Vincent Carey, 1996.

19. An Collins, Divine Songs and Meditacions, ed. Sidney Gottlieb, 1996.

20. Lady Anne Southwell, The Southwell-Sibthorpe Commonplace Book: Folger Ms. V.b. 198, ed. Sr. Jean Klene, 1997.

21. The Collected Works of Anne Vaughan Lock, ed. Susan M. Felch, 1999.

22. Thomas May, The Reigne of King Henry the Second: Written in Seauen Bookes, ed. Götz Schmitz, 1999.

23. The Poems of Sir Walter Ralegh: A Historical Edition, ed. Michael Rudick, 1999.

24. Lady Mary Wroth, The Second Part of The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania, ed. Jose­phine A. Roberts, completed by Suzanne Gossett and Janel Mueller, 1999.

25. The Verse Miscellany of Constance Aston Fowler: A Diplomatic Edition, ed. Deborah Aldrich-Watson, 2000.

26. An Edition of Luke Shepherd’s Satires, ed. Janice Devereux, 2001.

27. Philip Stubbes, The Anatomie of Abuses, ed. Margaret Jane Kidnie, 2002.

28. Cousins in Love: The Letters of Lydia DuGard, 1665–1672: With a New Edition of ‘The Marriages of Cousin Germans’ by Samuel DuGard, ed. Nancy Taylor, 2003.

29. The Commonplace Book of Sir John Strangways (1645–1666), ed. Thomas G. Olsen, 2004.

30. The Poems of Robert Parry, ed. G. Blakemore Evans, 2005.

31. William Baspoole, The Pilgrime, ed. Kathryn Walls, with Marguerite Stobo, 2008.

32. Richard Tottel’s ‘Songes and Sonettes’: The Elizabethan Version, ed. Paul A. Marquis, 2007.

33. Cælivs Secvndus Curio: His Historie of the Warr of Malta: Folger Ms. V.a. 508 (For­merly Ms. Add. 5 88), Translated by Thomas Mainwaringe (1579), ed. Helen Vella Bo­navita, 2007.

34. Nicholas Oldisworth’s Manuscript (Bodleian MS. Don.c.24), ed. John Gouws, 2009.

35. The Holgate Miscellany: An Edition of Pierpont Morgan Library Manuscript, MA 1057, ed. Michael Denbo, 2012.

36. The Whole Book of Psalms Collected into English Metre by Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins, and Others: A Critical Edition of the Texts and Tunes Vol. I, ed. Beth Quit­slund and Nicholas Temperley, 2018.

37. The Whole Book of Psalms Collected into English Metre by Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins, and Others: A Critical Edition of the Texts and Tunes Vol. II, ed. Beth Quit­slund and Nicholas Temperley, 2018.

38. Averrunci, or, The Skowrers: Ponderous and New Considerations upon the First Six Books of the ‘Annals’ of Cornelius Tacitus Concerning Tiberius Caesar (Genoa, Biblioteca Durazzo, MS. A IV 5) by Edmund Bolton, ed. Patricia J. Osmond and Robert W. Ulery, Jr., 2017.

39. The Lyrics of the Henry VIII Manuscript, ed. Raymond G. Siemens, 2018.

40. Elizabeth Butler, The Letters of the First Duchess of Ormonde, ed. Naomi McAreavey, 2022.

41. Elizabethan Poetry in Manuscript: An Edition of British Library Harley MS 7392(2), edited by Jessica Edmondes, 2022.

42. The Poems of William Herbert, Third Earl of Pembroke, edited by Mary Ellen Lamb, Garth Bond, and Steven W. May, 2024.