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(J
VENUS
AND
ADONIS
rhapsody under the joint title of The Pilgrimage to Paradise^
ioyned with the Countess of Penhrookes loue. The skilful manage-
ment of the metre by Spenser, Lodge, and Breton — the
pleasant alternation of the alternately riming quatrains
with the riming couplet — left Shakespeare small oppor-
tunity ofimprovement, and although his mastery is for the
most part complete he did not travel far beyond the bounds
that his predecessors had assigned the stanza/ O^ the
attraction that the metre had for him in early life, he has
left an interesting testimony outside the poem. In what
is probably his earliest play. Loves Labour V Lost^ he attempted
to turn sixains to dramatic uses, and one of the hero
Biron's speeches. Act i, Sc. i, 11. ifi-52, is in regular six-
lined stanzas. But the awkward experiment was not repeated
on the stage, and its main interest lies in the evidence it
offers of Shakespeare's predilection for the metre at a very
early stage of his career.
Reception of The rcccption accorded Shakespeare's work was extra-
^^^^^T ordinarily warm. Reprints were numerous durinof the remain-speare s J ^ _ *-*
poem. ing twenty-three years of Shakespeare's life. References to
it are frequent in contemporary literature, and are couched
for the most part in highly commendatory terms. So signal
a success is adequately explained by the vigorous freshness
of the poem. Subsidiary causes are to be found in the
voluptuous treatment of the story, and in a natural affinity,
^ Of the many long poems written in sixains subsequent to Venus and
Adonis^ it will be sufficient to mention Southwell's St. 'Peter's Compla'mt (i5'^5"),
Barnfield's Affectionate Skepheard (1^94), his Cassandra (l5'95'), his Lady Fecunia
and Complaint ofFoetrie (i^pS), J. C.'s Alcilia (15^5) and Marston's The Meta^
morphosis of Figfnaliofi's Image (i^pS). The metre was so common before Ve7ius
and Adofiis came Out that it would be unsafe to assume that its vogue was
substantially extended by the success of Shakespeare's work. But Barnfield's
plagiarisms of Shakespeare's Ve?ius are so constant and unblushing that
his choice of metre may safely be assigned to the influence of Shakespeare's
poem.
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