Shakespeare's Ovid: The Metamorphoses in the Plays and Poems

Ovid’s great poem, the Metamorphoses, was a source of life-long fascination and inspiration for Shakespeare. He drew on its great myths throughout his career: in early works like Venus and Adonis and Titus Andronicus, works of the middle period like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night, and late plays such as The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. This book provides a comprehensive examination of his use of Ovid’s poem with contributions from leading international scholars. It begins by examining the use of Ovid’s myth in early Elizabethan literature, a use dramatically changed by Marlowe and Shakespeare himself. It then offers detailed readings of Shakespeare’s use of Ovid in a wide range of plays and poems, placing new emphasis on several important but hitherto underestimated features. The book also provides the first survey of twentieth century criticism and methodology in the field.