Poems by Thomas Lodge, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Francis Beaumont, John Marston.
Scylla, mad with desire for Glaucus, is turned into a rocky crag. Venus pursues a young "rose-cheek'd" Adonis and locks him in an amorous embrace. Leander seduces the virgin Hero. Salmacis lusts after the androgynous Hermaphrodite and joins him in a pool where they become one creature. And Pygmalion creates his ideal lover, a beautiful statue which comes to life.
In the late sixteenth century the poets here have perfected their art while drawing on the worlds of Ovid, that "amorous schoolmaster" and produced these epic poems of love that radiate with the intensity of human passion.
A comprehensive edition, with introduction, notes, selected criticism and chronologies of the poets and their times.
