Here, in his own translations and in original English versions of his own, Professor Praz has gathered many important essays central to his life's work, in a continuous study of the vital currents which have flowed between two cultures, the English and the Italian. The classic writers of Italy--Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Ariosto, Tasso, and others--are studied in their effects on English literature.