Of the many mythological verse narratives that were inspired by Ovid in the English Renaissance, Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis (1593) is one of the most important. Through close readings of the text, these essays explore the complexities of the poem's imaginative, rhetorical and structural patterns and provide keys to their elaborate construction by referring back to the context of Renaissance Ovidian poems, mythographical interpretations, and related myths such as that of the Gardens of Adonis. What emerges is a kaleidoscopic poem, constantly shifting in tone and perspective, that challenges the reader's capacity for intellectual versatility.

This volume is designed to help candidates for the Agrégation by suggesting lines of thought leading into the poem, while providing them with methodological tools so that they may in turn embark on their own exploration of this fascinating, elusive poem.