Ovid and the Liberty of Speech in Shakespeare's England

This book explores how Ovid, as the poet-philosopher of the liberty of speech, galvanized poetic innovation in English Renaissance poetry.

Heather James (Author)

9781108487627, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 July 2021

320 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.58 kg

'An erudite, pathbreaking achievement … Highly recommended.' N. Lukacher, Choice Connect

The range of poetic invention that occurred in Renaissance English literature was vast, from the lyric eroticism of the late sixteenth century to the rise of libertinism in the late seventeenth century. Heather James argues that Ovid, as the poet-philosopher of literary innovation and free speech, was the galvanizing force behind this extraordinary level of poetic creativity. Moving beyond mere topicality, she identifies the ingenuity, novelty and audacity of the period's poetry as the political inverse of censorship culture. Considering Spenser, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson, Milton and Wharton among many others, the book explains how free speech was extended into the growing domain of English letters, and thereby presents a new model of the relationship between early modern poetry and political philosophy.

1. Flower power: political discontents in Spenser's flowerbeds
2. Loving Ovid: Marlowe and the liberties of erotic elegy
3. Shakespeare's Juliet: the Ovidian girlhood of the boy actor
4. In pursuit of change: the Metamorphoses in A Midsummer Night's Dream
5. The trial of Ovid: Jonson's defense of poetic liberty.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]