"This fully annotated edition of the poet and theorist's major work reveals a mind intensely engaged with different-even opposing-perspectives on philosophical and literary problems. Both innovative and influential, Daniel was an Elizabethan poet coming to terms with the social milieu, intellectual constructs, and poetic modes of the Jacobean era. His verse epistles illuminate the complex politics of poetic patronage, and the popular "Complaint of Rosamund" and "Letter from Octavia" give rare insight into early modern woman's predicament. Daniel's "Defense" was a pivotal text for Renaissance English poetics." -- back cover.