Venus and Adonis is a poem by
William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, written in 1592-93, with a plot based on passages from
OvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who wrote about love, seduction, and mythological transformation....
's Metamorphoses. It is a complex, kaleidoscopic work, using constantly shifting tone and perspective to present contrasting views of the nature of love.
Venus and Adonis was entered into the
Stationers' RegisterThe Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers in England...
on April 18, 1593; the poem appeared later that year in a
quartoThe size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf , or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...
edition, published and printed by
Richard FieldRichard Field was a printer and publisher in Elizabethan London, known for his close association with the poems of William Shakespeare.-Life and career:...
, a
Stratford-upon-AvonStratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of the county town, Warwick. It is the main town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers a...
man and a close contemporary of Shakespeare.
Venus and Adonis is a poem by
William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, written in 1592-93, with a plot based on passages from
OvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who wrote about love, seduction, and mythological transformation....
's Metamorphoses. It is a complex, kaleidoscopic work, using constantly shifting tone and perspective to present contrasting views of the nature of love.
Publication
Venus and Adonis was entered into the
Stationers' RegisterThe Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers in England...
on April 18, 1593; the poem appeared later that year in a
quartoThe size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf , or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...
edition, published and printed by
Richard FieldRichard Field was a printer and publisher in Elizabethan London, known for his close association with the poems of William Shakespeare.-Life and career:...
, a
Stratford-upon-AvonStratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of the county town, Warwick. It is the main town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers a...
man and a close contemporary of Shakespeare. Field released a second quarto in 1594, then transferred his copyright to John Harrison ("the Elder"), the
stationerThe Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was founded in 1403; it received a Royal Charter in 1557...
who published the first edition of
The Rape of LucreceThe Rape of Lucrece is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Lucretia. In his previous narrative poem, Venus and Adonis , Shakespeare had included a dedicatory letter to his patron, the Earl of Southampton, in which he promised to write a "graver work"...
, also in 1594. Subsequent editions of
Venus and Adonis were in
octavoThe size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf , or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...
format rather than quarto; Harrison issued the third edition (O1) probably in 1595, and the fourth (O2) in 1596 (both of Harrison's editions were printed by Field). The poem's copyright then passed to
William LeakeWilliam Leake, father and son , were London publishers and booksellers of the late sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries...
, who published two editions (O3, O4) in 1599 alone, with perhaps four (O5, O6, O7, and O8) in 1602. The copyright passed to William Barrett in 1617; Barrett issued O9 that same year. Five more editions appeared by 1640 — making the poem, with 16 editions in 47 years, one of the great popular successes of its era.
Story
As Adonis is preparing to go hunting, Venus "seizeth on his sweating palm" and "Backward she push'd him, as she would be thrust" (for purposes of sexual intercourse). We find next that "Panting he lies, and breatheth in her face," while Venus tells him "Be bold to play, our sport is not in sight." She seduces him, and they begin a passionate affair, but Adonis is soon killed in a hunting accident.
The poem contains what may be Shakespeare's most graphic depiction of sexual excitement.
Historical background
In 1593, an outbreak of the
plagueThe Black Death was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. It is widely thought to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, but this view has recently been challenged...
in London caused the city authorities to close all the public playhouses. Shakespeare had by this time written perhaps the first 5 or 6 of his plays, and was building a reputation. He set about what he would publish as "the first heire [
sic] of my invention" — that is, the first legitimate offspring from his "muse". He dedicated the work to
Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of SouthamptonHenry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton , one of William Shakespeare's patrons, was the second son of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, and his wife Mary Browne, Countess of Southampton, daughter of the 1st Viscount Montagu.- Early life :He was born on 6 October 1573, in Cowdray...
.
In 1594 Shakespeare dedicated
Lucrece to Southampton as the 'graver labour' promised in his dedication to
Venus and Adonis. Southampton was in financial difficulties, but it is still possible that this patron was extravagant enough to reward these irresistible overtures with a substantial amount of money. Shakespeare from somewhere acquired enough capital to become a one-twelfth sharer in his theatre company's profits from performance. It was thereafter apparently more lucrative for him to write plays than long poems.
Literary background
VenusVenus was a major Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty and fertility, who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths. From the third century BC, the increasing Hellenization of Roman upper classes identified her as the equivalent of the Greek goddess...
and
AdonisAdonis is a figure of West Semitic origin, where he is a central cult figure in various mystery religions, who entered Greek mythology. He is closely related to the Egyptian Osiris, the Semitic Tammuz and Baal Hadad, the Etruscan Atunis and the Phrygian Attis, all of whom are deities of rebirth...
comes from Ovid's
MetamorphosesThe Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a narrative poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world. Completed in 8 AD, it has remained one of the most popular works of mythology, being the Classical work best known to medieval writers and thus having a great deal of...
, Book 10. Ovid told of how Venus took the beautiful Adonis as her first mortal lover. They were long-time companions, with the goddess hunting alongside her lover. She warns him of the tale of
AtalantaAtalanta is a character from ancient Greek mythology.FamilyAtalanta is the daughter of Schoineus or Iasos, a Boeotian or an Arcadian Princess. Apollodorus is the only one who gives an account of Atalanta’s birth and upbringing...
and
HippomenesIn Greek mythology, Hippomenes , also known as Melanion, was the husband of Atalanta.- Overview :When men who were struck by Atalanta's beauty watched her run through the forest, she became angry and told them "I will race anyone who wants to marry me! Whoever is so swift that he can outrun me will...
to dissuade him from hunting dangerous animals, he disregards the warning, and is killed by a boar.
Shakespeare developed this basic narrative into a poem of 1194 lines. His chief innovation was to make Adonis refuse Venus's offer of herself. It has been argued (by
Erwin PanofskyErwin Panofsky was a German art historian who emigrated to America and remains highly influential in the modern academic study of iconography...
) that Shakespeare might have seen a copy of
Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio, born 1473/1490 , died 27 August 1576, better known as Titian , was the leading painter of the 16th-century Venetian school of the Italian Renaissance. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno , in the Republic of Venice...
's 'Venus and Adonis', a painting that could be taken to show Adonis refusing to join Venus in embraces. But Shakespeare's plays already showed a liking for activist heroines, forced to woo and pursue an evasive male (see
The Two Gentlemen of VeronaThe Two Gentlemen of Verona is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1590 or 1591. It has the smallest cast of any of Shakespeare's plays, and is the first of his plays in which a heroine dresses as a boy. It deals with the themes of friendship and infidelity, the...
).
The other innovation was a kind of observance of the 'Aristotelian' unities: the action takes place in one location, lasts from morning till morning, and focuses on the two main characters.
Adaptations
- Doom metal band My Dying Bride
My Dying Bride is an English doom metal band formed in 1990. To date, My Dying Bride has released one demo, three EPs, several singles, ten full-length studio albums, one box set, four compilation albums, one live album, one live CD/DVD release, and several video releases. The band released its...
used extracts of the poem in the song For My Fallen Angel, on their 1996 album, Like Gods of the SunLike Gods of the Sun is an album by My Dying Bride released in 1996.This is the last album to feature Rick Miah on drums and Martin Powell on keyboards and violins....
.
- The Lone Star Ensemble, a theatre company, has presented a fully staged performance of the poem.
- The original poem is read by several British actors (among them David Burke, Eve Best
Eve Best , is a British actress best known for her stage work.-Early life and education:Best grew up in Ladbroke Grove and attended Wycombe Abbey Girls’ School before going on to Lincoln College, Oxford where she read English. Among her earliest public performances were with the W11 Opera...
and Benjamin Soames) on a Naxos audiobook. The audiobook also includes The Rape of LucreceThe Rape of Lucrece is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Lucretia. In his previous narrative poem, Venus and Adonis , Shakespeare had included a dedicatory letter to his patron, the Earl of Southampton, in which he promised to write a "graver work"...
.
- Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award and was at one time the highest-paid actor in Hollywood...
once recorded a spoken word albumA spoken word album was a record album that did not consist mainly of music or songs, but of spoken material. It could be said to be the ancestor of today's audiobook format...
of the poem for Caedmon Records.
- Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital city and most populous city of the State of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne city centre is the anchor of the larger geographical area and statistical division known as the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area – of which Melbourne is...
based company Malthouse Theatre collaborated with Sydney's Bell Shakespeare to produce a musical adaptation of the work. Directed by Marion Potts, with music by Andree Greenwell, the work was first performed in the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne in 2008 and again in Sydney Theatre CompanyThe Sydney Theatre Company is one of Australia's best-known theatre companies operating from The Wharf Theatre near The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Sydney Theatre and the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre....
's Wharf 2 in February 2009. Most recently the show has traveled to AucklandThe Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with a population approaching 1.4 million residents, percent of the country's population. Demographic trends indicate that it will continue to grow faster than the rest...
, New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
and been performed in The Bruce MasonBruce Edward George Mason was a New Zealand playwright, actor, critic, and fiction writer.Mason is known for his classic New Zealand plays The End of the Golden Weather and The Pohutukawa Tree...
Centre as part of the 2009 Auckland Festival.
- An unusual version of Venus & Adonis starred Melissa Madden-Gray and Susan Prior, both playing the character of Venus. The Adonis character is absent from the stage and is 'played' by the audience. Throughout the performance Venus (Madden-Gray and Prior) attempt to seduce the audience. Venus & Adonis received good reviews in all of its three seasons.
See also
- 1593 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Works published:* Anonymous, The Phoeix Nest, anthology with poems by Thomas Lodge, Nicholas Breton, Sir Walter Ralegh and others; three elegies on Sir Philip Sidney, the "Phoenix" of the title, open the...
- Shakespeare's sonnets
Shakespeare's sonnets, or simply The Sonnets, is a collection of poems in sonnet form written by William Shakespeare that deal with such themes as love, beauty, politics, and mortality. They were probably written over a period of several years...
- Venus and Adonis - painting by Titian
- Ovid's Metamorphoses
The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a narrative poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world. Completed in 8 AD, it has remained one of the most popular works of mythology, being the Classical work best known to medieval writers and thus having a great deal of...
External links