La lyre et le sanglier : destins croisés d’Orphée dans Venus and Adonis et The Rape of Lucrèce

Insofar as it explores the boundaries between man and beast, the myth of Orpheus plays a crucial role in Shakespeare’s narrative poems, which centre on sexual desire depicted as animal instinct. Orpheus recurs in reference to Adonis and Lucrece, both victims of a passion they have unwittingly aroused. However the mythological hint serves opposed purposes : in Venus and Adonis, it supports the view that desire humanises animals, thus balancing the bestial imagery that characterizes Venus’ ardour, whereas in The Rape of Lucrece, comparing Lucrece with the lyre player aims at exacerbating the beastly violence of Tarquin’s sexual urge. The parallels and inversions created by the allusions to Orpheus greatly contribute to structuring the two poems into an oxymoronic diptych.Bataille Sylvaine. La lyre et le sanglier : destins croisés d’Orphée dans Venus and Adonis et The Rape of Lucrèce. In: Anglophonia/Caliban, n°13, 2003. Mythe et Littérature. Shakespeare et ses contemporains. pp. 39-55