Ovid and the Liberty of Speech in Shakespeare's England

Heather James

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781108487627
• eBook ISBN: 9781108807210
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Taking Liberties Poetry and the Liberty of Speech
• Chapter 1 Flower Power: Political Discontents in Spenser’s Flowerbeds
• Chapter 2 Loving Ovid: Marlowe and the Liberties of Erotic Elegy
• Chapter 3 Shakespeare’s Juliet: The Ovidian Girlhood of the Boy Actor
• Chapter 4 In Pursuit of Change: The Metamorphoses in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Chapter 5 The Trial of Ovid: Jonson’s Defense of Poetic Liberty
• Epilogue Ovid in the Hands of Women: Milton’s Eve and Wharton’s Love’s Martyr, Or Witt Above Crowns
• Bibliography
• Index