Shakespeare and Ovid by Jonathan Bate 2001 Profound Literary Criticism

by Jonathan Bate

$60 · Offered by eBay

Ovid was William Shakespeare's favorite classical poet and the single greatest mythological source for his plays and poems. Shakespeare studied Ovid in Latin at Stratford Grammar School and read Arthur Golding's 1567 English translation of the Metamorphoses. Key Connections and Examples • Titus Andronicus: Lavinia uses a copy of the Metamorphoses to reveal her rapists, mirroring the myth of Philomela. • A Midsummer Night's Dream: The mechanicals stage the tragic story of Pyramus and Thisbe, which Ovid originally told, and Bottom undergoes a literal transformation into an ass like Ovid's Midas. • The Tempest: Prospero’s speech renouncing his magic ("Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves...") directly echoes Medea’s invocation in Book 7 of the Metamorphoses. • The Winter's Tale: The magical coming-to-life of Hermione’s statue draws on Ovid's myth of Pygmalion. • Venus and Adonis: Shakespeare’s narrative poem opens with a Latin epigraph from Ovid's Amores and expands upon Ovidian themes of desire and beauty. Contemporary Praise The Elizabethan writer Francis Meres famously noted in 1598 that "the sweet wittie soule of Ovid lives in mellifluous and hony-tongued Shakespeare." You can explore a detailed literary study of this connection in Jonathan Bate's book, Shakespeare and Ovid.

• Year: 2001
• Condition: Fine

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