莎士比亚叙事诗《维纳斯与阿多尼斯》对奥维德《变形记》的改写及诗人身份自觉

Shakespeare’s Self-Consciousness of the Poet’s Identity in His Rewriting of Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Venus and Adonis

莎士比亚在1593年出版了他的首部诗歌作品《维纳斯与阿多尼斯》,并在献词中明确表示这是“我文思的头胎儿”,向世人宣告他以诗人身份进入文坛。该诗作在当时获得非凡成功,但历代评论者大都忽视了献词与诗歌文本的互动,尤其未能洞察莎士比亚在献词中隐含的独立意识以及诗歌文本对神话结局改写的重要意义。本文基于文艺复兴时期的模仿概念探索莎士比亚该诗作对其创作来源奥维德《变形记》的神话改写。在贵族资助成为诗人生存必要、印刷媒介带来更大受众市场的时代背景下,莎士比亚的《维纳斯与阿多尼斯》既体现了他对时代诗学精神的回应,又是他突破文学传统的宣言。年轻无名的莎士比亚凭借此诗成功进入诗歌圈,在神话重述中展现了他的诗人身份自觉,确立了他的诗歌权威。

In 1593,Shakespeare published his first poem Venus and Adonis,and assuredly claimed it“the first heir of my invention”in the dedication,announcing to the literary world his first foray as a poet.The poem was a remarkable success,but through the centuries critics seem to have overlooked the interaction between the dedication and the poem,especially Shakespeare’s implicit defense of independence in the dedication and the significance of his rewriting of the poem’s ending.Relying on the Renaissance notion of imitation,this article explores Shakespeare’s rewriting of the Venus-Adonis myth in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in his narrative poem,against the backdrop when aristocratic patronage became necessary for the survival of poets and the printing brought a larger market for readers.It argues that Venus and Adonis is both a response to Elizabethan poetic consciousness and a personal declaration of poetic independence from the literary tradition underlying the myth,by which the young and unknown poet succeeds in joining the literary circle.Shakespeare in his retelling of Venus-Adonis myth demonstrates his self-consciousness of the poet’s identity and establishes his poetic authority.