76
dashes to see what is happening.
She spies “the hunted boar” (l.900),
sees Adonis’s exhausted and
wounded hounds, and bemoans
his suspected fate.
Deluded into supposing that
he is still alive she reproaches
herself for being too fearful but,
coming upon his body, speaks an
elegy for him and prophesies that
henceforward sorrow will always
attend upon love. Adonis’s body
melts away and she vows to cherish
the purple flower that springs up
in its place. Finally, she returns to
Cyprus in her dove-drawn chariot,
planning to seclude herself away
in perpetual mourning.
Publication and date
Venus a nd Adon is first appeared
in print in 1593. London’s theaters
were closed that year and for much
of the following year because of an
outbreak of plague, and it seems
likely that Shakespeare, who was
already an established playwright,
had time on his hands. The poem
was published by Richard Field, a
well-known London printer. Field,
who was also from Stratford-upon-
Avon, went on to publish The Rape
of Lucrece. Venus a nd Adon is was
the first book to bear Shakespeare’s
name as author.
The first edition bore a Latin
motto from the poems Amores
(“The Loves”) by the Roman poet
Ovid: “Vilia miretur vulgus; mihi
flavus Apollo pocula Castalia plena
ministret aqua”—“let low-minded
people admire vile things, but for
me let Apollo supply goblets full
of the water of the Muses.”Dedication
The poem bears a dedication
to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of
Southampton, a precocious and
talented nobleman who was only
17 at the time. The formal dedication
reads, “Right Honourable, I know not
how I shall offend in dedicating my
unpolished lines to your lordship,
nor how the world will censure me
for choosing so strong a prop to
support so weak a burden. Only, if
your honour seem but pleased, I
account myself highly praised, and
vow to take advantage of all idle
hours till I have honoured you withOvid wrote his narrative poem
Metamorphoses in the first decade CE.
Running to 15 books and covering
250 myths, it would have given the
schoolboy Shakespeare a thorough
grounding in classical mythology.some graver labour. But if the first
heir of my invention prove deformed,
I shall be sorry it had so noble a
godfather, and never after ear [till]
so barren a land for fear it yield me
still so bad a harvest. I leave it to
your honourable survey, and your
honour to your heart’s content;
which I wish may always answer
your own wish and the world’s
hopeful expectation. Your honour’s
in all duty, William Shakespeare.”
Shakespeare also dedicated his
other narrative poem, The Rape
of Lucrece, published in the
following year, to Southampton.Source
Shakespeare based Venus and
Adonis on an episode from one of
his favorite books, the long poem
Metamorphoses by Ovid, which he
would have studied at school andVENUS AND ADONIS
With this she seizeth
on his sweating palm,
The precedent of pith
and livelihood,
And, trembling in her
passion, calls it balm –
Earth’s sovereign salve
to do a goddess good.
Venus and Adonis
ll.25–28O, what a sight it was
wistly to view
How she came stealing
to the wayward boy,
To note the fighting conflict
of her hue,
How white and red each
other did destroy!
Venus and Adonis
ll.343–346