An English garner, Volume 4: ingatherings from our history and literature

About this book

Edward Arber’s fourth miscellany gathers older English writing and historical accounts, offering a varied record rather than one continuous story. When a three-year-old boy is questioned about carrying flowers to Lady Elizabeth in the Tower, his innocent answers unsettle the suspicious men who interrogate him. Overbury’s account of the United Provinces, based on his travels in 1609, turns to geography and politics, noting how water helped make the country defensible. Elsewhere, verse considers love, judgment, and restraint, giving the volume a marked shift between public affairs and private conduct.