Shakespeare's first published Poem "Venus and Adonis" is decorated with two latin lines ("Vilia miretur....")
from Ovids Amores Elegie 15-Book-1 [OE15-1].
7th and 8th last line!
What is their Significance?
The significance of the latin title lines (Vilia miretur....) and of the complete Ovid Elegy 15-Book I (OE15-1) has not been sufficiently taken into account by experts.
The lines are surrounded by an aura of complex contextual facts. Some examples:
1) Ovids Elegies (Amores) were translated by Christopher Marlowe and must have been distributed and well known prior to his disappearance, 1593.
2) Marlowes translation of OE15-1 belongs to 10 of the 44 elegies which were printed 1599 for the first time together with 48 epigrammes of JD (John Davies?) [s.also Blog 303]
3) OE15-1 deals with the death and fame of the poet. - Remember that Marlowe's alleged death May 30 1593 happened only weeks prior to the print of "Venus and Adonis"
4) Scene 1 Act I of Jonsons play "Poetaster"(1602) begins with the last 2 lines of OE15-1
5) Scene I/1 of Jonsons "Poetaster" (1602) gives also the complete OE15-1, spoken by Ovid.
6) In the subsequent scene I/2 of "Poetaster" Ben Jonson distinguishes between an "Ovid Junior" (Mar.Ovid =Marlowe) and an "Ovid senior" (Pub.Ovid- =Ovid)
7) "Ovid senior" accuses "Ovid junior"/Mar.Ovid [=Marlowe] of being a Pleader (...one that pleads in the law-court), becoming a "Play-maker", a "Stager" (SOED: graduated, cunning, sly), an "Enghle (Fire/ catamite) of players", a "Gull", a "Rooke", a "Shot-glog"
8) OE15-1 in Marlowes Complete Translations 1603 of Ovids Amores was translated twice!!, a second time by B.I. (Ben Jonson?) , see faksimile excerpt !
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Marlowe's translations of OE15-1
(last 8 lines including the lines (8/7)
of Shakespeares "Venus and Adonis", red)
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Jonson's Translations of OE15-1
(last 8 lines including the lines 8/7
of Shakespeares "Venus and
Adonis", red)
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It seems difficult to imagine, that Marlowe had nothing to do with the sudden appearance of Shakespeare's op.1 "Venus and Adonis" (1593), only weeks after his alleged death and that Shakespeare arrived with Venus and Adonis already at a peak of his literary mastery.
It remains astonishing, that James Shapiro in his "Contested Will" eliminated Bacon and Oxford as possible authors of the Shakespeare canon, but did not attack Marlowe. I suppose he had no idea of countless contexts and ->arguments of this kind. .(s.Blog 76)#
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