The Poems: Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Passionate Pilgrim (The New Cambridge Shakespeare) (Paperback)

by William Shakespeare (Author), John Roe (Editor) "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..." (more)
Key Phrases: supplementary title page, see collation, golden bullet, The Rape of Lucrece, Lover's Complaint, Compare Sidney (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
'John Roe offers without doubt the best treatment of the poems for many years ...' The Year's Work in Modern Languages --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description
This is a fully annotated edition of all the poems that can now confidently be assigned to Shakespeare, excluding the Sonnets. It contains Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Passionate Pilgrim, and A Lover's Complaint. John Roe's introduction to each poem examines the classical and Renaissance traditions behind the poetry and the conditions under which the poems were produced. The commentary demonstrates how in his management of formal rhetoric Shakespeare fashions a living language out of handbook oratory.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 315 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 31, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521294118
• ISBN-13: 978-0521294119
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,383,772 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific collection., June 26, 1999

By	R. D. Allison ([e-mail]) (Gainesville, Florida, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

"Venus and Adonis" is Shakespeare's first published work, 199 stanzas of sesta rima (a quatran with a couplet) with an ababcc rhyme scheme. Venus chases and detains Adonis to woo him but does not win his love. In fact, Adonis actually rejects her love. He goes off to hunt and is soon killed by a boar. The poem has eloquent set speeches and beautiful landscapes. "The Rape of Lucrece" is Shakespeare's epic poem in rhyme royal of the story of the rape of a Roman lady which led to the overthrow of Tarquin rule in Rome and the establishment of the Republic. "The Phoenix and the Turtle" is a short (67 lines) allegorical elegy. "The Passionate Pilgrim" is a collection of twenty poems, only five of which are clearly by Shakespeare (although a few others may be as well). Number XI is possibly by Bartholemew Griffin. Numbers VIII and XX are by Richard Barnefield (and possibly No. XIX). The well-known No. XIX is probably by Christopher Marlow. The last stanza to XIX is by Sir Walter Raleigh. "Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music" is the title to the second part of "The Passionate Pilgrim." And, "A Lover's Complaint" is a poem in rhyme-royal (ababbcc) about a maiden who complains of her seduction by an unworthy young man.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine editing, fine printing of the NARRATIVE poems, June 24, 2003

By	richardpinneau.com (Colorado) - See all my reviews

Another example of excellence from "The New Cambridge Shakespeare (NCS)". NOTE, however, that this volume presents exclusively what is usually lumped as "The narrative poems" - i.e., it does NOT include the full set of sonnets ( which appear in a separately edited volume of the NCS series). As a value to the student/customer, therefore is this tradeoff: NCS covers here a smaller portion of the Shakespeare canon than the alternative from Oxford (ed. by Colin Burron, 2002, ISBN 019281933X ), but NCS can therefore offer larger typeface; larger and better quality paper.

In this NCS edition, editor Roe provides helpful background material on each of the poems [Venus, Lucrece, Phoenix & Turtle, Lover's Complaint, and Passionate Pilgrim (*partially* attributable to Shakspeare) ]. The length and depth of discussion of each poem's introduction is not as great as one usually finds for an edition of, say, The Sonnets; but these poems have not stirred so much controversy or confusion either among the reading public or in academic analysis. The poems are (at least on the surface) much more readable and "accessible" to the general reader than are the sonnets. Roe's thorough annotations on each page of text clarify unusual or ambiguous words; they also raise intriguing issues about Shakespeare's art and agenda in suggestive writing with multiple levels of meaning.

Both this NCS edition by Roe and the Burrow Oxford edition were released too early to benefit from fascinating new insights into the ever-puzzling bantam of this flock: The Phoenix and the Turtle. For the compelling evidence that this long-locked enigma of the canon is an eulogy to two Elizabethan Catholic martyrs, the reader will need to turn to a Times Literary Supplement issue from April of this year.

For most of the controversies surrounding these poems, I'll risk claiming that there have been few critical revelations between the publication of this excellent 1993 NCS edition and now; so (excepting the 2003 TLS article mentioned above) it remains satisfyingly current. For reading pleasure and thoughtful study of these masterpieces, I think you'll be most pleased to own this Cambridge edtion.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucrece is beautiful and ethical, that's her doom !, January 31, 2004

By	Jacques COULARDEAU "A soul doctor, so to say" (OLLIERGUES France) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Shakespeare is at his best in this poem. At his best as for the subject : a raped virtuous wife who cannot go over the stain and cannot even utter the name of the rapist because she does not see his crime first, hence her vengeance second, but she only sees her crime first, hence her punishment second, and she commits suicide in front of everyone. At his best in the contradictions he brings in the treatment of his subject : Lucrece is not able to understand that rape is a crime on the side of the rapist, and not a fault on the side of the victim, but, and there Shakespeare is great, Roman society, and probably English society too, at the time but also today, will not accept her explanation if she does not consider herself as absolutely guilty of the crime she was the victim of. A woman is never accepted as clean and white if she is raped, she keeps some guilt in the eye of society, be it only to have « incited » or « caused » the rape by her being enticing, beautiful and desirable. In this society, the Roman society, but also ours, the woman is always, somewhere, even if she goes to court and gets the rapist in jail, the cause of the crime, hence the one responsible, at least partly, for the crime. Shakespeare does a pretty good job at showing this unescapable dilemma for a woman. And this appears clearly in the treatment of Tarquin's banishment in exactly one concluding line. What is banishment when compared to death in mental torture ? But Shakespeare is also at his best in his poetry, in his poetical style, in his brilliant use of the language to enchant us with music, the music of words, sounds, meanings, and all other musics you can imagine and find in this poem. I will suggest everyone to study in fine details the section going from line 925 to line 1035, what I call the « time » soliloquy. It is absolutely marvellous and brilliant, and what's more, it is extremely modern, even if it is fully Renaissance. On this subject, time, the Renaissance was particularly prolix, even verbose, but Shakespeare rises over time into some eternity by the way he composes the rhythm and the harmony of this brilliant piece. It becomes timeless and should be studied by all people to finally understand that time is cruel but that life is even more cruel if we do not accept to go along and away when necessary with time. Time becomes a friend in a way, and not an enemy because it knows how to liberate you from life, suffering and useless aging when aging does not bring anything any more except torture and humiliating degrading and ever increasing inferiority, declining and vacuity.

Dr Jacques CIOULARDEAU