The Poems: Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Passionate Pilgrim, A Lover's Complaint

by William Shakespeare , Edited by John Roe

• ISBN13: 9780521855518
• ISBN10: 0521855519
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-07-03
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

"This is a fully annotated edition of all the poems which can be confidently assigned to Shakespeare, excluding the Sonnets. It contains Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Passionate Pilgrim, and A Lover's Complaint. John Roe's introduction to the two long narrative poems examines their place within the classical and Renaissance European traditions, comparing Shakespeare's poetry with that of Ovid, Livy, Chaucer, Ariosto, Marlowe, and Daniel in the light of Neoplatonic influences and courtly style." "Some of these issues extend into the discussion of the various ways of reading The Phoenix and the Turtle. The Passionate Pilgrim is a miscellany of twenty sonnets and lyrics, containing only five poems which are certain to be Shakespeare's. John Roe analyses the interesting enigma of the publisher's role in preparing the collection and the conditions in which it was produced. Evidence for and against Shakespeare's authorship of A Lover's Complaint is weighed. A reassessment of the much-debated question of the poem's genre concludes that it is best treated as a narrative in the 'complaint' mode."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	vi
Preface	vii
List of abbreviations and conventions	viii
Introduction	1	(80)
Venus and Adonis	3	(18)
The Rape of Lucrece	21	(20)
The Phoenix and the Turtle	41	(12)
The Passionate Pilgrim	53	(6)
A Lover's Complaint	59	(13)
Recent critical interpretations	72	(9)
Note on the text	81	(4)
Principles of collation	82	(3)
VENUS AND ADONIS	85	(62)
THE RAPE OF LUCRECE	147	(92)
THE PHOENIX AND THE TURTLE	239	(6)
THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM	245	(26)
A LOVER'S COMPLAINT	271	(20)
Supplementary notes	291	(5)
Textual analysis	296	(10)
Reading list	306