William Cecil, Lord Burghley (1520–1598), was the closest adviser to England’s Queen Elizabeth I and—as this revealing and provocative biography shows—he was the driving force behind the Queen's reign for four decades. Cecil’s impact on the development of the English state was deep and personal. A committed Protestant, he guided domestic and foreign affairs with the confidence of his religious conviction. Believing himself the divinely instigated protector of his monarch, he felt able to disobey her direct commands. He was uncompromising, obsessive, and supremely self-assured—a cunning politician as well as a consummate servant. This comprehensive biography gives proper weight to Cecil's formative years, his subtle navigation of the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I, his lifelong enmity with Mary Queen of Scots, and his obsession with family dynasty. It also provides a fresh account of Elizabeth I and her reign, uncovering limitations and concerns about invasions, succession, and conspiracy. Intimate, authoritative, and enormously readable, this book redefines our understanding of the Elizabethan period.

This volume comprises of a substantial selection of E.S. Dallas’s journalism in The Times. Although his reviews were crucial not only in forging the literary reputations of upcoming writers such as different as George Eliot and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, but also in recalibrating the response to well-established authors such as Tennyson and Dickens, Eneas Sweetland Dallas (1827-79) remains arguably the most unjustly neglected of mid-Victorian critics. Although Dallas wrote for many other periodicals, it was his reviews in The Times that had the greatest impact on both the market for books and literary culture in the mid-Victorian period. This collection brings together an anthology of his contributions, as well as a newly written introduction, a comprehensive listing of the articles he submitted to The Times, critical apparatus to contextualise the materials, and a detailed chronology, reappraising Dallas’ biography. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of literary history.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1843.