Shakespeare and the development of English poetry epyllionic genre.Lodge knew his Latin sources for the legend of Glaucus and Scylla,especially Ovid's Metamorphoses 13.898-14.74,and he knew his French Petrarchists,especially Ronsard and Desportes,whose sonnets and poems he had translated in dozens and scattered through his own sonnet sequence Phillis (1593)and his prose romance Rosalynde (1590).In Petrarchan terms,but notably inverting the gendered parallels between himself and female speakers,Lodge's Glaucus compares his unrequited love for Scylla to Venus's for Adonis(stanzas 21-3,23.3-4)and,improbably evoking Ariosto's Orlando Furioso,to Angelica's for Medoro(stanzas 24-6, 24.2-3).As lurid as any overwrought Petrarchist,he blazons Scilla from head to crotch (stanzas 48-53)and he sings of his despair(Dead alas still I live', 59.2).At length,Cupid heals him and punishes Scilla so that when the poem closes,Glaucus enjoys his sexual vindication at her expense.So no doubt did those worldly connoisseurs of Ovidian erotica and Petrarchan amours who had constituted Lodge's readership. Shakespeare knew he could do better.If Lodge had tapped Ronsard's poetry for some Petrarchan figurations,Shakespeare would tap the work of England's own Edmund Spenser for more powerful ones.The latter's Complaints (Stationers'Register,29 December 159o)showed that Petrarchism held a greater potential for serious verse than any contemporary English sonneteer had yet imagined.Surrounding his Ovidian(and pseudo- Virgilian)mythic fables (Virgil's Gnat,Mother Hubbards Tale,and Muiopotmos)with poetic laments (The Ruines of Time,Teares of the Muses),Spenser offers three dream visions translated from Italian and French:Visions of Petrarch from the latter's apocalyptic canzone 323;The Visions of Bellay from Du Bellay's fifteen apocalyptic sonnets entitled Songe; and the Ruines of Rome:by Bellay from the latter's thirty-two sonnets on the fall of Rome,Les Antiquitez de Rome.7 Although both Visions constitute juvenilia,while Ruines seems only a belated minor effort,they nonetheless gave English readers a glimpse of continental poets whose meditations on past,present,and future history drew upon scriptural texts from Psalms and classical texts from Virgil,Horace,and Ovid.Approaching Vens and Adonis from this Spenserian perspective,we find that Venus's address to Death,"Imperious supreme of all mortal things"'(996),her discovery of Adonis 'Where,lo,two lamps burnt out in darkness lies'(I128),and her account of how Love's contrarieties"Pluck down the rich,enrich the poor with treasures"'(I5o)resonate deeply with figurations of mortality in Complaints.8 Book 3 of The Faerie Oueene(Stationers'Register,I December 1589) proves yet more relevant.Midway through the Legend of Chastity,the Garden of Adonis(3.6.29-53)provides a place where Venus's sexuality 17
epyllionic genre.6 Lodge knew his Latin sources for the legend of Glaucus and Scylla, especially Ovid’s Metamorphoses 13.898–14.74, and he knew his French Petrarchists, especially Ronsard and Desportes, whose sonnets and poems he had translated in dozens and scattered through his own sonnet sequence Phillis (1593) and his prose romance Rosalynde (1590). In Petrarchan terms, but notably inverting the gendered parallels between himself and female speakers, Lodge’s Glaucus compares his unrequited love for Scylla to Venus’s for Adonis (stanzas 21–3, 23.3–4) and, improbably evoking Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, to Angelica’s for Medoro (stanzas 24–6, 24.2–3). As lurid as any overwrought Petrarchist, he blazons Scilla from head to crotch (stanzas 48–53) and he sings of his despair (‘Dead alas still I live’, 59.2). At length, Cupid heals him and punishes Scilla so that when the poem closes, Glaucus enjoys his sexual vindication at her expense. So no doubt did those worldly connoisseurs of Ovidian erotica and Petrarchan amours who had constituted Lodge’s readership. Shakespeare knew he could do better. If Lodge had tapped Ronsard’s poetry for some Petrarchan figurations, Shakespeare would tap the work of England’s own Edmund Spenser for more powerful ones. The latter’s Complaints (Stationers’ Register, 29 December 1590) showed that Petrarchism held a greater potential for serious verse than any contemporary English sonneteer had yet imagined. Surrounding his Ovidian (and pseudoVirgilian) mythic fables (Virgil’s Gnat, Mother Hubbards Tale, and Muiopotmos) with poetic laments (The Ruines of Time, Teares of the Muses), Spenser offers three dream visions translated from Italian and French: Visions of Petrarch from the latter’s apocalyptic canzone 323; The Visions of Bellay from Du Bellay’s fifteen apocalyptic sonnets entitled Songe; and the Ruines of Rome: by Bellay from the latter’s thirty-two sonnets on the fall of Rome, Les Antiquitez de Rome. 7 Although both Visions constitute juvenilia, while Ruines seems only a belated minor effort, they nonetheless gave English readers a glimpse of continental poets whose meditations on past, present, and future history drew upon scriptural texts from Psalms and classical texts from Virgil, Horace, and Ovid. Approaching Venus and Adonis from this Spenserian perspective, we find that Venus’s address to Death, ‘ ‘‘Imperious supreme of all mortal things’’ ’ (996), her discovery of Adonis ‘Where, lo, two lamps burnt out in darkness lies’ (1128), and her account of how Love’s contrarieties ‘ ‘‘Pluck down the rich, enrich the poor with treasures’’ ’ (1150) resonate deeply with figurations of mortality in Complaints. 8 Book 3 of The Faerie Queene (Stationers’ Register, 1 December 1589) proves yet more relevant. Midway through the Legend of Chastity, the Garden of Adonis (3.6.29–53) provides a place where Venus’s sexuality Shakespeare and the development of English poetry 17
WILLIAM J.KENNEDY and sensuality -previously represented as sheer carnality on Malecasta's Adonis tapestry (3.1.34-8)-become reconciled with married love and procreation.Before our eyes,Spenser is reversing and correcting earlier valuations attached to the goddess's passionate inclinations.Spenser plays upon the etymology of Adonis's name as related to eden(Hebrew 'garden') as well as to bedone (Greek 'pleasure').The young man now presides over a locale where he dwells 'eterne in mutabilitie'and will forever be called 'father of all formes'(47).Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman language,myth,and literary allusion conspire to edit,revise,supplement,and magnify Spenser's initial representation of Venus.?This kinetic approach,learned from Spenser,allows Shakespeare to modulate from an initially comic impression of Venus to one that grants her a deeply earned pathos at the end.Upon the goddess's apprehension of Adonis's untimely death,a sharp tonal change unearths 'variable passions'(967)in the contrarious Petrarchan manner. Fear,confidence,guilt,denial,hope,despair,compromise,self-assertion- each by turns overtakes Venus until her eyes shirk their duty and multiply her grief(1037-64).Her account of how contrariety originates in erotic turmoil (135-64)extends the Petrarchan antagonisms of her complaint.Her retreat to Paphos consequently ends the poem on a note of suspension and dissolu- tion,emulating the resistance to closure in Book 3 of The Faerie Oueene. Shakespeare learned more from Spenser than versification or poetic techni- que:he learned principles of figurative repetition and thematic revision as well. The Rape of Lucrece Shakespeare's next poem,The Rape of Lucrece,likewise ends on a note of suspension,and it is one that portends a defining moment in Roman history when the aristocracy supplanted a tyrannical monarchy with limited repub- lican rule.The poem's ancient sources derive chiefly from Ovid's poetic account of Lucrece in Fasti 2.685-852 and from Livy's prose account in History of the Republic 1.57-60,and its possible medieval sources include accounts in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women 1680-1885 and Gower's Confessio Amantis 7.4763-5130.What appears fascinating about Lucrece,however,is that Shakespeare draws his chief stylistic and rhetorical models from Renaissance humanist writing,with references to Greene, Nashe,Spenser,and Marlowe and the ambitious projects that they spoke for. Greene and Nashe had implied that Shakespeare possessed only a tyro's grasp of classical rhetoric.The formal declamations of Lucrece allow him to display his control over suasoriae and sententiae and to criticize stylistic assumptions subtending their development in English literary history.For 18
and sensuality – previously represented as sheer carnality on Malecasta’s Adonis tapestry (3.1.34–8) – become reconciled with married love and procreation. Before our eyes, Spenser is reversing and correcting earlier valuations attached to the goddess’s passionate inclinations. Spenser plays upon the etymology of Adonis’s name as related to eden (Hebrew ‘garden’) as well as to hedone (Greek ‘pleasure’). The young man now presides over a locale where he dwells ‘eterne in mutabilitie’ and will forever be called ‘father of all formes’ (47). Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman language, myth, and literary allusion conspire to edit, revise, supplement, and magnify Spenser’s initial representation of Venus.9 This kinetic approach, learned from Spenser, allows Shakespeare to modulate from an initially comic impression of Venus to one that grants her a deeply earned pathos at the end. Upon the goddess’s apprehension of Adonis’s untimely death, a sharp tonal change unearths ‘variable passions’ (967) in the contrarious Petrarchan manner. Fear, confidence, guilt, denial, hope, despair, compromise, self-assertion – each by turns overtakes Venus until her eyes shirk their duty and multiply her grief (1037–64). Her account of how contrariety originates in erotic turmoil (1135–64) extends the Petrarchan antagonisms of her complaint. Her retreat to Paphos consequently ends the poem on a note of suspension and dissolution, emulating the resistance to closure in Book 3 of The Faerie Queene. Shakespeare learned more from Spenser than versification or poetic technique: he learned principles of figurative repetition and thematic revision as well. The Rape of Lucrece Shakespeare’s next poem, The Rape of Lucrece, likewise ends on a note of suspension, and it is one that portends a defining moment in Roman history when the aristocracy supplanted a tyrannical monarchy with limited republican rule. The poem’s ancient sources derive chiefly from Ovid’s poetic account of Lucrece in Fasti 2.685–852 and from Livy’s prose account in History of the Republic 1.57–60, and its possible medieval sources include accounts in Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women 1680–1885 and Gower’s Confessio Amantis 7.4763–5130. 10 What appears fascinating about Lucrece, however, is that Shakespeare draws his chief stylistic and rhetorical models from Renaissance humanist writing, with references to Greene, Nashe, Spenser, and Marlowe and the ambitious projects that they spoke for. Greene and Nashe had implied that Shakespeare possessed only a tyro’s grasp of classical rhetoric. The formal declamations of Lucrece allow him to display his control over suasoriae and sententiae and to criticize stylistic assumptions subtending their development in English literary history. For WILLIAM J. KENNEDY 18
Shakespeare and the development of English poetry example,the poem's seven-line rhyme royal stanza form hearkens back to that of Chaucer's Troilus,of the multiple-authored Mirror for Magistrates (1555-87),and of Samuel Daniel's Complaint of Rosemond(1592).Each of these predecessors undercuts celebratory versions of the past with a tragic or at least ironic view of human self-deception.So too does Shakespeare,but with a richness of texture and allusion that ranges over the entire canon of Tudor and Elizabethan literature.The moral sophistry of John Lyly's witty hero in Eupbues(I578)subtends the rapist's decision to proceed with his act ('All orators are dumb when beauty pleadeth',280),just as the Petrarchan blazon of the victim's body(386-420)suppositiously strengthens his resolve. Shakespeare goes out of his way to fashion a distinctly performative rhetoric for Lucrece as well,enabling her to plan for action but also requiring her to confront its socially and politically gendered consequences.Her plea for Tarquin to live up to his monarchical dignity(575-644:"Thou seem'st not what thou art,a god,a king;/For kings like gods should govern every- thing"',601-2)draws upon advice to princes as represented in such treatises as More's Utopia(1516)and Sir Thomas Elyot's Boke named the Governour (1531)and in such plays as Sackville and Norton's Gorboduc (I562)and Gascoigne's translation of Lodovico Dolce's Jocasta (I566).But like the advice proffered by More's spokesperson and by the royal counsellors in both plays,it fails to deter the aggressor's wilful behaviour.Nor does she trust the power of rhetoric to defend her chastity in the eyes of others. Lucrece convinces herself that only suicide can prove her innocence and perhaps motivate a change in social values("To see sad sights moves more than hear them told"',1324).The poem's outcome provides a staging ground to test the power of argument itself and the self-deluding,self-dividing bases on which it stands. In this respect,Lucrece builds upon Greene's blank-verse play,the grimly comic The Scottish Historie of James the Fourth(1591?),in which the King of Scotland plots to murder his wife,the daughter of England's monarch,so that he might marry the daughter of the countess of Arran.To no avail his advisors warn him of dangers to the state that will result from'His lawless and unbridled vein in love';happily,the queen foils his attempt and restores order to the kingdom in the end.It builds too upon Nashe's prose fiction, The Unfortunate Traveller,dedicated to the earl of Southampton on 27 June 1593,ten months before Shakespeare's poem entered the Stationers'Register (9 May I594).Nashe's narrative recounts a brutal rape whose victim fails to deter the deed with her classical rhetoric ('How thinkest thou,is there a power above thy power?).Shakespeare consequently appears to be rewrit- ing the cynical rhetoric of his predecessors in darker,more self-conscious, more culturally loaded tones than they had imagined. 19
example, the poem’s seven-line rhyme royal stanza form hearkens back to that of Chaucer’s Troilus, of the multiple-authored Mirror for Magistrates (1555–87), and of Samuel Daniel’s Complaint of Rosemond (1592). Each of these predecessors undercuts celebratory versions of the past with a tragic or at least ironic view of human self-deception. So too does Shakespeare, but with a richness of texture and allusion that ranges over the entire canon of Tudor and Elizabethan literature. The moral sophistry of John Lyly’s witty hero in Euphues (1578) subtends the rapist’s decision to proceed with his act (‘All orators are dumb when beauty pleadeth’, 280), just as the Petrarchan blazon of the victim’s body (386–420) suppositiously strengthens his resolve. Shakespeare goes out of his way to fashion a distinctly performative rhetoric for Lucrece as well, enabling her to plan for action but also requiring her to confront its socially and politically gendered consequences. Her plea for Tarquin to live up to his monarchical dignity (575–644: ‘ ‘‘Thou seem’st not what thou art, a god, a king; / For kings like gods should govern everything’’ ’, 601–2) draws upon advice to princes as represented in such treatises as More’s Utopia (1516) and Sir Thomas Elyot’s Boke named the Governour (1531) and in such plays as Sackville and Norton’s Gorboduc (1562) and Gascoigne’s translation of Lodovico Dolce’s Jocasta (1566). But like the advice proffered by More’s spokesperson and by the royal counsellors in both plays, it fails to deter the aggressor’s wilful behaviour. Nor does she trust the power of rhetoric to defend her chastity in the eyes of others. Lucrece convinces herself that only suicide can prove her innocence and perhaps motivate a change in social values (‘ ‘‘To see sad sights moves more than hear them told’’ ’, 1324). The poem’s outcome provides a staging ground to test the power of argument itself and the self-deluding, self-dividing bases on which it stands. In this respect, Lucrece builds upon Greene’s blank-verse play, the grimly comic The Scottish Historie of James the Fourth (1591?), in which the King of Scotland plots to murder his wife, the daughter of England’s monarch, so that he might marry the daughter of the countess of Arran. To no avail his advisors warn him of dangers to the state that will result from ‘His lawless and unbridled vein in love’; happily, the queen foils his attempt and restores order to the kingdom in the end.11 It builds too upon Nashe’s prose fiction, The Unfortunate Traveller, dedicated to the earl of Southampton on 27 June 1593, ten months before Shakespeare’s poem entered the Stationers’ Register (9 May 1594). Nashe’s narrative recounts a brutal rape whose victim fails to deter the deed with her classical rhetoric (‘How thinkest thou, is there a power above thy power?’).12 Shakespeare consequently appears to be rewriting the cynical rhetoric of his predecessors in darker, more self-conscious, more culturally loaded tones than they had imagined. Shakespeare and the development of English poetry 19
WILLIAM J.KENNEDY Here,too,Lucrece bears traces of Spenser's and Marlowe's influence.3 Some emerge in the ecphrastic painting of Troy's siege,echoing Spenser's account of the event in The Faerie Oueene 3.9.33-43 as well as Marlowe's paraphrase of Virgil's account in Dido,Oueen of Carthage 2.1.121-288 (with the collaboration of Nashe,posthumously published in I594).Others derive from Paridell's carnal attraction to chaste Britomart in The Faerie Queene 3.9.21-4 and his lusty seduction of Hellenore in 3.9.27-32 and 3.10.4-16.Still others recall Marlowe's effort around I592 to translate into blank verse Lucan's late Roman epic,De bello civili(also known as the Pharsalia),about conflicts that followed upon the assassination of Julius Caesar.The result,LUCANS firste booke of the famous Civill warr trans- lated line for line by Christopher Marlowe,depicts 'outrage strangling law and people strong'(2)amid rhetorical representations of duplicitous motives.4 Marking a stunning improvement upon such fall-of-princes poems as A Mirror for Magistrates,it gave Shakespeare an important precedent for depicting a similar moment in Roman history when outrage provoked a new form of strength.Lucrece ends as the tyrant's kinsman Junius Brutus(Latin brutus'dullard')casts off his formerly doltish demeanour'Wherein deep policy did him disguise'(85)and issues an unexpected plea for public action.This bravura display of cunning is not unlike that of Marlowe's dramatic Tamburlane and Barabas and is pregnant with anticipations of later cunning in Shakespeare's own dramatic Hamlet,Hal,Duke Vincentio,and Edgar.In Lucrece,Shakespeare moves beyond his earlier representation of Roman his- tory in Titus Andronicus toward the later effects of his mature tragedies. Poetry in Shakespeare's plays The success of Venus and Adonis(sixteen editions before 1640)and Lucrece (eight editions before 1640)gave Shakespeare the assurance of being a published author,and empowered him toward further poetry in the plays of his middle period after the theatres reopened in June 1594.Here we find him experimenting with the sonnet form in Love's Labour's Lost and Romeo and Juliet,where it is applied to comic,dramatic,and romantic situations. Earlier in Two Gentlemen of Verona (3.1.140-9)and later in Much Ado about Nothing (3.1.107-16),the love-sick Valentine and the scorner of marriage Beatrice offer examples of truncated sonnets.In the much later All's Well That Ends Well,Helena casts her letter to the Countess about her marriage to Bertram in the form of a sonnet,'I am Saint Jaques'pilgrim, thither gone'(3.4.3-17). The plays of Shakespeare's extended middle period make distinct and explicit allusions to lyrics from an earlier generation.After the Nurse 20
Here, too, Lucrece bears traces of Spenser’s and Marlowe’s influence.13 Some emerge in the ecphrastic painting of Troy’s siege, echoing Spenser’s account of the event in The Faerie Queene 3.9.33–43 as well as Marlowe’s paraphrase of Virgil’s account in Dido, Queen of Carthage 2.1.121–288 (with the collaboration of Nashe, posthumously published in 1594). Others derive from Paridell’s carnal attraction to chaste Britomart in The Faerie Queene 3.9.21–4 and his lusty seduction of Hellenore in 3.9.27–32 and 3.10.4–16. Still others recall Marlowe’s effort around 1592 to translate into blank verse Lucan’s late Roman epic, De bello civili (also known as the Pharsalia), about conflicts that followed upon the assassination of Julius Caesar. The result, LUCANS firste booke of the famous Civill warr translated line for line by Christopher Marlowe, depicts ‘outrage strangling law and people strong’ (2) amid rhetorical representations of duplicitous motives.14 Marking a stunning improvement upon such fall-of-princes poems as A Mirror for Magistrates, it gave Shakespeare an important precedent for depicting a similar moment in Roman history when outrage provoked a new form of strength. Lucrece ends as the tyrant’s kinsman Junius Brutus (Latin brutus‘dullard’) casts off his formerly doltish demeanour ‘Wherein deep policy did him disguise’ (1815) and issues an unexpected plea for public action. This bravura display of cunning is not unlike that of Marlowe’s dramatic Tamburlane and Barabas and is pregnant with anticipations of later cunning in Shakespeare’s own dramatic Hamlet, Hal, Duke Vincentio, and Edgar. In Lucrece, Shakespeare moves beyond his earlier representation of Roman history in Titus Andronicus toward the later effects of his mature tragedies. Poetry in Shakespeare’s plays The success of Venus and Adonis (sixteen editions before 1640) and Lucrece (eight editions before 1640) gave Shakespeare the assurance of being a published author, and empowered him toward further poetry in the plays of his middle period after the theatres reopened in June 1594. Here we find him experimenting with the sonnet form in Love’s Labour’s Lost and Romeo and Juliet, where it is applied to comic, dramatic, and romantic situations. Earlier in Two Gentlemen of Verona (3.1.140–9) and later in Much Ado about Nothing (3.1.107–16), the love-sick Valentine and the scorner of marriage Beatrice offer examples of truncated sonnets. In the much later All’s Well That Ends Well, Helena casts her letter to the Countess about her marriage to Bertram in the form of a sonnet, ‘I am Saint Jaques’ pilgrim, thither gone’ (3.4.3–17). The plays of Shakespeare’s extended middle period make distinct and explicit allusions to lyrics from an earlier generation. After the Nurse WILLIAM J. KENNEDY 20
Shakespeare and the development of English poetry discovers Juliet's inert body,the minstrels assembled for her wedding per- form a lament,When dripping grief the heart doth wound'(RJ4.4.148-63), based on Richard Edwards's poem'In Commendation of Music'published in The Paradyse of Daynte Devises (1576).'5 In Much Ado about Nothing 1.1.213,Don Pedro taunts Benedick with 'In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke',a line drawn from Sonnet 47 of Thomas Watson's Hekatompathia (1582),previously echoed in Kyd's Spanish Tragedy 2.1.13.When Benedick attempts to sing,he begins a popular ballad The god of love',whose simple rhyme eludes him (Much Ado 5.2.22-25).In Merry Wives of Windsor,the Welsh parson Sir Hugh Evans twists lines from Marlowe's'Come live with me and be my love'and further contaminates them with metrical verses from Psalm 137(3.1.13-25).Two scenes later Falstaff tries to seduce Mistress Ford by singing from the Second Song of Sidney's Astrophil and Stella,Have I caught my heav'nly jewell'(3.3.35).In Twelftb Night,Feste sings two traditional love ballads(2.3.36-48 and 2.4.50-65),and ends the play with a song that evokes a young man's passage from innocence to experience (5.1.376-95);he also torments the incarcerated Malvolio with a song (4.2.65-72)based on'Ah Robin/Jolly Robin'composed by another expec- tant overreacher,Sir Thomas Wyatt,and drawn from Tottel's Songes and Sonnettes.From the same anthology,the Gravedigger in Hamlet sings 'In youth when I did love'(5.1.57-69),a poem by Lord Vaux that its editor captioned The Aged Lover Renounceth Love'. This creative melding of echoes from Watson,Marlowe,Sidney,and various anthologies displaying their roots in Wyatt and Lord Vaux,reminds us of Shakespeare's role as an active reader who absorbed the major poetic currents of his time.This anthologizing spirit reaches its height in As You Like It,which offers a wide range of amatory and other modes,from Amiens's pastoral (2.5.1-8 and 32-9,mocked by Jaques in 2.5.44-5I)to the trochaic tetrameter love letters of Orlando and Oliver(3.2.76-84 and I13-42,mocked by Touchstone in 3.2.9o-o),and from Amiens's 'Blow, blow,thou winter wind'(2.7.174-93)and the exiled lords'hunting song (4.2.1o-19)to the Page's wedding tribute to Touchstone and Audrey (5.3.14-37)and Hymen's epithalamium for the ensemble(5.4.97-104 and I14-35).As the shepherdess Phebe falls madly in love with Rosalind,her quotation of line 176 from Hero and Leander,Who ever lov'd that lov'd not at first sight'(As You Like It 3.5.82),brings to a climax Shakespeare's earlier competition with Marlowe.Referring to the latter in reverent terms as 'dead shepherd'(3.5.81),the impressionable young woman registers Marlowe's enormous popularity amongst ordinary readers,her own folly in having succumbed to unexamined impulses as she did,and the supercession of the author's envy toward his long deceased predecessor.By now,Shakespeare 21
discovers Juliet’s inert body, the minstrels assembled for her wedding perform a lament, ‘When dripping grief the heart doth wound’ (RJ 4.4.148–63), based on Richard Edwards’s poem ‘In Commendation of Music’ published in The Paradyse of Daynte Devises (1576).15 In Much Ado about Nothing 1.1.213, Don Pedro taunts Benedick with ‘In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke’, a line drawn from Sonnet 47 of Thomas Watson’s Hekatompathia (1582), previously echoed in Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy 2.1.13. When Benedick attempts to sing, he begins a popular ballad ‘The god of love’, whose simple rhyme eludes him (Much Ado 5.2.22–25). In Merry Wives of Windsor, the Welsh parson Sir Hugh Evans twists lines from Marlowe’s ‘Come live with me and be my love’ and further contaminates them with metrical verses from Psalm 137 (3.1.13–25). Two scenes later Falstaff tries to seduce Mistress Ford by singing from the Second Song of Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella, ‘Have I caught my heav’nly jewell’ (3.3.35). In Twelfth Night, Feste sings two traditional love ballads (2.3.36–48 and 2.4.50–65), and ends the play with a song that evokes a young man’s passage from innocence to experience (5.1.376–95); he also torments the incarcerated Malvolio with a song (4.2.65–72) based on ‘Ah Robin/Jolly Robin’ composed by another expectant overreacher, Sir Thomas Wyatt, and drawn from Tottel’s Songes and Sonnettes. From the same anthology, the Gravedigger in Hamlet sings ‘In youth when I did love’ (5.1.57–69), a poem by Lord Vaux that its editor captioned ‘The Aged Lover Renounceth Love’. This creative melding of echoes from Watson, Marlowe, Sidney, and various anthologies displaying their roots in Wyatt and Lord Vaux, reminds us of Shakespeare’s role as an active reader who absorbed the major poetic currents of his time. This anthologizing spirit reaches its height in As You Like It, which offers a wide range of amatory and other modes, from Amiens’s pastoral (2.5.1–8 and 32–9, mocked by Jaques in 2.5.44–51) to the trochaic tetrameter love letters of Orlando and Oliver (3.2.76–84 and 113–42, mocked by Touchstone in 3.2.90–101), and from Amiens’s ‘Blow, blow, thou winter wind’ (2.7.174–93) and the exiled lords’ hunting song (4.2.10–19) to the Page’s wedding tribute to Touchstone and Audrey (5.3.14–37) and Hymen’s epithalamium for the ensemble (5.4.97–104 and 114–35). As the shepherdess Phebe falls madly in love with Rosalind, her quotation of line 176 from Hero and Leander, ‘Who ever lov’d that lov’d not at first sight’ (As You Like It 3.5.82), brings to a climax Shakespeare’s earlier competition with Marlowe. Referring to the latter in reverent terms as ‘dead shepherd’ (3.5.81), the impressionable young woman registers Marlowe’s enormous popularity amongst ordinary readers, her own folly in having succumbed to unexamined impulses as she did, and the supercession of the author’s envy toward his long deceased predecessor. By now, Shakespeare Shakespeare and the development of English poetry 21