Author Description

John Nichols's The Progresses of Queen Elizabeth (1788-1823) has long been an indispensable reference tool for scholars working on Elizabethan court and culture - despite the serious limitations of an antiquarian edition now two centuries old. This old-spelling edition of the early modern materials contained in Nichols's Progresses is edited to high and consistent standards, and based on a critical re-examination of printed and manuscript sources. It is structured by a narrative of the two sets of annual progresses undertaken by Queen Elizabeth I: the 'summer progresses,' when Elizabeth travelled throughout southern England and the Midlands, visiting cities as far afield as Bristol, Coventry, Norwich, and Southampton; and the 'winter progresses,' when Elizabeth moved between her residences in and around London, including Richmond, Hampton Court, and Whitehall. New editions of the major progress entertainments - Kenilworth, Woodstock, Elvetham, Cowdray, Ditchley, and Harefield - are set alongside accounts of civic receptions, tilts and Accession Day entertainments, and non-dramatic texts, many of which have not been published since Nichols, including verses delivered by Eton scholars before the Queen (1563); John Lesley's Oratio (1574); Gabriel Harvey's Gratulationum Valdinensium (1578); and the Oxford and Cambridge verses on the death of Queen Elizabeth (1603). The editions are supported by translations of all non-English material, full scholarly annotation, illustrations, and maps. This will make John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth: A New Edition of the Early Modern Sources the most comprehensive collection of early modern texts pertaining to the court and culture of Queen Elizabeth.