Shakespeare and Ovid

This volume is an account of the relationship between Shakespeare and his favourite poet, Ovid.

Examining the full range of Shakespeare's writings, Jonathan Bate shows how deeply creative the influence of Ovid on Shakespeare was, especially in the latter's representation of myth, metamorphosis and sexuality.

From the raped Lavinia's turning of the pages of the "Metamorphoses" in "Titus Andronicus" and the staging of "Pyramus and Thisbe" in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", to the reanimation of Hermione's statue in "The Winter's Tale" and Prospero's renunciation of his magic in "The Tempest".

Ovid's presence is identified not only in the narrative poems and pastoral comedies, but in the sonnets and mature tragedies as well.

The "Heroides" are shown to have been vital to Shakespeare's female characters, but it is the "Metamorphoses" which animate Professor Bate's book, just as they animated the whole of Shakepeare's career.

The author has also written "Shakespeare and the English Romantic Imagination" and "Shakespearian Constitutions: Politics, Theatre, Criticism 1730-1830".