Description:
First published in 1524-5, this charming collection of amusing (sometimes scurrilous) anecdotes was greatly celebrated in Tudor England, and is even name-checked by Shakespeare.
The fullest ever edition, drawing on all known originals.
Brief description: John Rastell (c.1475-1536) was an adventurer and explorer, he worked as an artist alongside Holbein, he wrote entertainments for kings and emperors, he created the first usable type for printing music, he was the first printer of secular drama, and he built the first modern theatre, but it is on his legacy as a writer, printer and publisher that his reputation now chiefly rests.
Review Quotes:
"I had all my wit out of the Hundred Merry Tales" (William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act II, scene i)