"An infamous Renaissance classic, The Prince shocked Europe upon publication with its ruthless tactics for gaining absolute power and its abandonment of conventional morality. Niccolo Machiavelli even came to be regarded by some as an agent of the Devel, his name taken for the intriguer "Machevill" of Jacobean tragedy. For his treatise on statecraft Machiavelli drew upon his own experience of office under the turbulent Florentine republic, rejecting...

In this groundbreaking collection of translations, Waley gives us his skilled renderings of "The No Plays of Japan." A traditional form of Japanese theater, No drama has origins in the 14th century. With its particular strictures of style and content, No drama is recognizable for is simplistic beauty, use of gesture, and masked actors. The subject matter of the plays is broad-often times combining the physical with the spiritual, the dramas tend to...

Lyrical verses span the career of a twentieth-century American poet, and illuminate his concern for the future of humanity

Left at a monastery as a baby, Ambrosio grew up to be a cruel and stern monk, renowned for his sermons and piety. When a nun named Agnes goes to Ambrosio for the sacrament of confession, she admits that she is pregnant after having a long love affair with a man named Raymond. Though admissions told in confession are meant to be kept in confidence, Ambrosio turns Agnes over to the authorities in her convent for punishment. Without a trace of guilt...