Spenser and Ovid

Syrithe Pugh, University of Aberdeen, UK

'Syrithe Pugh gives us the first sustained account of Ovid's presence in the Spenser canon. She is a gifted intertextual critic, as much at home in Ovid as she is in Spenser ... heady and eloquent, an important contribution to early modern studies.' Patrick Cheney, Professor of English, Penn State University 'Pugh provides a number of persuasive new readings of familiar episodes...a rigorously and intelligently argued book, which makes a strong case, and will help us to understand the complicated and problematic relationship between Renaissance authors and their classical forebears.' Times Literary Supplement 'Pugh's study, magisterial in its marshalling of parallels between Ovid and Spenser on programmatic level, is perhaps most valuable for enabling future commentary to explore the poem in greater textural details and thereby to trace more precisely the line from Ovid through Chaucer and Ariosto to his principal Elizabethan avatar.' Renaissance Quarterly '... Pugh's discussions are continuously illuminating.' Modern Languages Review 'Pugh's book is a fertile, refreshingly readable study that prompts reexamination of Ovidian influence upon Spenser's poetry and career. Pugh displays an impressive command of Ovid's and Spenser's careers and writings, she demonstrates convincingly the extensive reach of Spenser awareness of Ovid's corpus, and she makes a strong case for reassessing the nature and purpose Spenser assigned to his poetry and career... Pugh's book [...] makes a crucial contribution to a reassessment of Ovid's influence upon Spenser's writing and career.' Sixteenth Century Journal 'Through a lively and sustained reading of the intertextual relationship between Spenser and Ovid, Syrithe Pugh helps to bridge the gap between the contrasting versions of Ovid currently circulating in Spenser criticism and in classical studies... uncovers a wealth of covert political criticisms, is a must-read for Spenserians... Spenser and Ovid makes an important contribution to Spenser studies...' The Spenser Review 'This is an eminently readable study...' The Year's Work in English Studies

• Contents: Introduction; Spenser's new Fasti: Ovidian strategies of protest in The Shepheardes Calender; Epic idolatry and concupiscent romance in Book I of The Faerie Queene; Ovid and the limitations of temperance in Book II of The Faerie Queene; Unbinding love: Britomart's Ovidian inquest; Vates profugus: love, exile and authority in the poems of 1595; Sors mea rupit opus: exile and the 1596 Faerie Queene; Spenser, Ovid and political myth-making: Mutabilitie's challenge to the ideology of power; Bibliography; Index.