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- 24 VENUS AND ADONIS
of Adonis was not completed till 1623—long after Shakespeare’s poem was published. The history of his endeavour, however, affords salient proof that the topic persisted in Italian literature throughout Shakespeare’s career.
In the Renaissance poetry of France.
Melin de St. Gelais.
Passerat.
A like story has to be told of the history of the tale in France. It gained its first hold on French readers, when Melin de St. Gelais published in 1547 a beautiful rendering in French of Bion’s *Lament*. This was probably completed ten years earlier, and was constantly reprinted. Before 1574 a graceful lyrist, Jean Passerat, penned a short poem in 134 lines of riming couplets called *Adonis, ou la Chasse du Sanglier*. It is a simple narration on Ovidian lines of Adonis’ beauty, of Venus’ infatuation, of her warnings of the boy against devotion to the chase, of his impetuous challenge of the boar, of his death, and his transformation into a flower.
Subsequently the fable was turned by another French writer to more complex uses. It was made the basis of a tragedy called *Adonis*, by Gabriel le Breton, a Paris lawyer, who published his work in 1579. The play was designed as an allegorical elegy on the death of King Charles IX of France, on May 30, 1574. Adonis represents the dead king, and Venus typifies grief-stricken France. Venus’ lamentations show more tragic power than appears in any contemporary adaptation of the theme. The machinery involves the introduction of characters like Mars, Diane, Cupidon, L’Ombre d’Adonis, and two shepherds, Montan and Sylvain, in addition to the hero and heroine. But the conventional lines of the tale are generally respected, and there are no intricacies of plot.
In Spain it was Italian example which directly inspired the treatment of the story. One of the most accomplished of Spanish statesmen, Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza,
In the Renaissance poetry of Spain.
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