Renaissance Essays for Kitty Scoular Datta brings together a rich collection of new work on the English and European Renaissance by scholars from three continents. Professor Datta, who now lives in Oxford, spent most of her working life in India, where she helped greatly in activating Renaissance studies and setting up links between Indian and Western scholars in the field. This collection has been initiated by Jadavpur University in Calcutta, where she taught for many years.

An important function of the collection is the link set up by most essays between the English Renaissance and the continental, particularly the humanist currents. This implies attention to the classical elements of the Renaissance, though medieval continuities are also explored in several pieces. There are studies of Renaissance approaches to reading, and to time and history, as well as essays on Spenser, George Herbert, Bacon and Milton.

But the greatest number, as might be expected, relate to Renaissance English drama. There are five essays on Shakespeare, and others on Marlowe, Jonson and Middleton, as well as the evolution of the drama generally.

1. The contributors include most of the eminent Renaissance scholars in India, as well as Professor Datta's colleagues and friends from British and American universities. There is a bibliography of her writings in an appendix.