One dollar buys a cup of coffee for a writer. This 1993 anthology of English Renaissance Poetry is very much the product of latter-day academia's penchant towards New Historicist criticism, hyperaware of its own intentions, reflecting our postmodern concerns back into the Renaissance. The notion of individual authorship is cast aside as an organizing principle. The net effect of this approach is to deemphasize the poems as poetic expressions of individual authors. The editors of this anthology aren't coming out and telling you you shouldn't read that way, but they're not exactly encouraging it either.
Anthologies are, by nature, focal points for tough editorial decisions.
Also reduced in scope are songs. On the upside, we have more contributions from women and writers at the geographical margins. Latin verse is given deserved attention. Popular verse is welcomed into the fold. It is a fuller picture of the poetic landscape, true enough, but it's unfortunate that some of the best poetry of the age is a no show, because it didn't quite fit.