The Agonist, the Lover and the Poet: An Intertextual Study across Virgil, Ovid and Shakespeare introduces the idea of an eros/agon complex originating ultimately from the third book of Virgil’s Georgics, where the icons of both parts of the complex – the myth of Hero and Leander and fulva harena as the agonistic ground par excellence – made their first appearance. This complex and its thematic importance are then traced across the Aeneid, the Metamorphoses, the Heroides and Ovid’s exile poetry, while the last three chapters show how the complex informs Venus and Adonis, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest in ways that open new vistas and, at the same time, account for a variety of at times puzzling aspects of these three Shakespearean works.

While this study is mainly directed at academics and researchers, the author hopes that, with its pragmatic approach, it will be of interest to undergraduates and practising poets as well. Thanks to the extensive sign‑posting and cross-referencing, this volume, as well as being read sequentially, could be approached in the first instance through specific entry points selected by the reader. Alternatively, the Introduction highlights some, though by no means all, of the places where the intriguing literary strategies applied by our three authors are particularly in evidence.

Elisabetta Tarantino (currently an Honorary Research Fellow in the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages of the University of Oxford, England) is the author and editor of books and articles on various literary subjects, with an emphasis on Shakespeare and on (inter)textual devices.