Venus and Adonis (Vol. 33) | Lennet J. Daigle (essay date 1980)
Lennet J. Daigle (essay date 1980)
SOURCE: " Venus and Adonis: Some Traditional Contexts," in Shakespeare Studies: An Annual Gathering of Research, Criticism, and Reviews, Vol. XIII, 1980, pp. 31-46.
[In the following essay, Daigle discusses the means by which Venus and Adonis has been studied and argues that focusing both on allegory and on characterization is necessary. Daigle maintains that due to the way in which the poem uses mythology, many questions about the poem's meaning are resolved by interpreting the actions of Venus and Adonis with respect to their traditional allegorical roles.]
There is little agreement in critical discussions of Venus and Adonis. Reactions to the poem fluctuate between extremes suggested by Horace's dictum. One faction views the poem as serious moral instruction presumably warning courtly Elizabethan Adonises against the dangers of lust.1 Another sees it as light, erotic...
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