« Le corps nu de Diane ou les égarements du cœur et de l’esprit dans Doctor Faustus et Edward II »

Doctor Faustus and Edward II present the tragic destinies of two men intent on satisfying their desires as well as engaged in a quest for power and knowledge. The numerous allusions to Actœon’s fable that are to be found in these two plays focus on the bathing Diana (Ovid, Metamorphoses, III). The goddess’s body, thus exhibited, sets a trap for those who behold her. Caught in the contemplation of her physical beauty, they forget the quest of the absolute that she also embodies and they die because of this fatal error. The myth’s traditional associations are thus perverted, leaving it seemingly reduced to mere sensual beauty. Yet Diana remains a cypher, impenetrable to the tragic heroes although intellegible to the audience.Boyer-Lafont Agnès. « Le corps nu de Diane ou les égarements du cœur et de l’esprit dans Doctor Faustus et Edward II ». In: Anglophonia/Caliban, n°13, 2003. Mythe et Littérature. Shakespeare et ses contemporains. pp. 69-82