building on the strengths of two previous editions, the revised and enlarged third edition continues to offer more poetry than any other comparable volume. all selections are based on early and established texts. to facili-tate discussion of the place of the body and of pastoral elements in spenser's epic,the third edition includes more of the faerie queene: from book ii, canto 9 (the house of alma), and, from book vi, the remainder of canto 10 and all of cantos 11-12. the shepheardes calender is again represented by six eclogues, with the much-discussed "februarie" replacing "june." colin clouts come home againe, in- creasingly a focus of critical attention, is an important addition, and amoretti is now offered complete. all poems are fully glossed and precisely annotated. in addition,an editors' note exploring important issues follows each selection. 　　 seventeen new critical essays, judiciously chosen from the many published since 　　1982, have been added while eleven of the original commentaries (including that by 　　samuel taylor coleridge) remain. newly represented in the third edition are spenser's contemporary william camden and, from the twentieth century, virginia 　　woolf, william nelson, a. bartlett giamatti, donald cheney, judith anderson,richard helgerson, louis adrian montrose, and david lee miller. the critical essays on the house of busyrane, spenser's pastoral, muiopotmos, and amoretti (eight of twelve essays are new) are grouped to "speak" to each other in ways sure to stimulate class discussions. this class-tested feature, introduced in the second edition, is back by popular demand with added essays by d. c. allen, robert a. brinldey, ronald p.bond, anne lake prescott, andrew d. weiner, susanne lindgren wofford, harry 　　berger, jr., and paul alpers. 　　 a chronology of spenscr's life and an extensive bibliography are included.