It is to the great credit of G.W. Pigman that this edition of Gascoigne's work so triumphantly guides the reader through the maze that is A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres ... This is an excellent edition of Gascoigne's work.
Reformation
Pigman's meticulous edition will ensure a more even-handed reading of Gascoigne, and will enable scholars to study A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres not merely as a precursor to something better, but as a significant collection in its own right.
Early Modern Literary Studies
There is an extensive and dependable glossary which, crucially, renders A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres a teachable text. And the commentary, running to nearly 300 pages, presents a scholarship that is dexterous, lucid, provocative, and as wide-ranging as Gascoigne's own writing.
Early Modern Literary Studies
To this exuberant, overflowing collection Pigman brings a scholarly clarity while avoiding subduing the vibrancy of Gascoigne's work, or offering resolved readings where there are none.
Early Modern Literary Studies
Makes a valuable contribution to sixteenth-century literary scholarship ... His [Pigman's] biographical introduction is compact but complete ... It is the notes that are this edition's finest achievement. Pigman's "Commentary" on Flowres is about five times the length of Prouty's "Critical Notes", and is a very impressive piece of scholarship ... Pigman has hit the mark, and Gascoigne's major work has found an editor for the new millennium.
Sixteenth Century Journal
This fine volume makes available for the first time an authoritative edition of Gascoigne's A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres with a full commentary and reliable supporting material ... The edition is the first to use A Hundreth as the copy-text and to include all the revisions and additional material from The Posies.
Notes and Queries
Professor Pigman is a thoughtful and rigorous editor who precisely identifies sources and allusions and provides meticulous translations of material in Latin, Italian, French, and Dutch.
Notes and Queries
The biographical introduction, a very concise and lucid summary of what is actually known about Gascoigne's life, will be required reading ... It will be an extremely useful tool (especially for undergraduates) when read alongside his [Gascoigne's] stated views in 'Certayne Notes of Instruction' (454-62), the earliest essay on English prosody and sometimes claimed as the earliest critical essay in English.
Notes and Queries
Thoroughly recommended to all scholars interested in mid-Elizabethan literature and language.
Review of English Studies
Pigman offers a detailed and illuminating commentary on the text, its allusions, echoes, sources, and keys to interpretation, as well as providing useful indexes and a glossary. If anything deserves to bring George Gascoigne back into the spotlight of serious attention, it is this judicious and scholarly edition. Clearly the result of some years of thoughtful preparation and research, G. W. Pigman's A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres is a worthy addition to the Oxford English Authors series and is a reminder of just how valuable responsible editing can be.
Peter Beal, Times Literary Supplement