Venus and Adonis: Shakespeare's Critique of Spenser

摘要

IN writing Venus and Adonis, Shakespeare could not have ignoredor been ignorant of The Faerie Queene. When Shakespeare publishedVenus and Adonis in 1593, The Shefheardes Calender(1581) had long since brought Spenser acclaim and renown; SirPhilip Sidney, for example, had singled it out for praise in The Defenseof Poetry. In 1590, the first part of The Faerie Queene appearedand was enthusiastically received. Other writers—Nashe, Harrington,Daniel, Drayton, Lodge—heaped praise upon it: The printer's prefaceto a volume of Spenser's complaints published in 1591 describesthe "favorable passage" The Faerie Queene won from the public.1.