Framing the early modern epyllion in its literary, historical and social context

在法院的律师学院的城市环境中复苏和培育，主要是在受过大学教育的年轻作家的明确的社会环境中，早期现代史诗具有丰富的互文性，其特点是充满色情和机智的风格，对求爱，欲望，青年的成熟感兴趣，修辞及其说服力。在伊丽莎白统治的最后十年里，这部史诗在世纪末的感觉中蓬勃发展，它存在于一个非常特定的时间框架内：第一部史诗被认为是托马斯·洛奇的《锡利亚变形记》（1589年）;最后一部是弗朗西斯博蒙的《萨尔马西斯和Hermaphroditus》（1602年）。通过对一系列史诗的文化、文学和社会背景的研究，我的博士论文试图研究这一特殊的亚体裁在这样一个明确的历史时刻存在的原因，认为文法学校的改革和法院的律师协会所促进的人文教育，16世纪60年代开始的奥维德作品的翻译，1592年由马洛完成，随着对梅毒和瘟疫的日益担忧，伊丽莎白本人和她的宫廷中升华的色情创造了一个环境，使埃皮里翁能够崛起和繁荣。相反，1599年的主教禁令、讽刺作品的兴起和伊丽莎白的衰落使这种诙谐的体裁在1602年结束，使史诗成为一种充满性色彩的文学插入语，在童贞女王之后就不复存在了。莎士比亚的《维纳斯与阿多尼斯》（1593年）作为主导讨论的文本，将贯穿我的研究，作为大多数章节的参考点;围绕这一关键文本，我将考虑广泛的不太熟悉的材料，包括洛奇的《锡莱斯变形记》（1589年）;马洛的《英雄与利安德》（1593年）;爱德华兹的《水仙》（1595年）;约翰·韦弗的《福纳斯与蜜花》（1601）;弗朗西斯博蒙的《萨尔马西斯与赫玛佛洛狄忒斯》（1602）。在界定了诗歌的体裁和被认为是史诗的诗歌之后，我的研究将继续如下。第一章将致力于污染，污染和性病的主题在锡利亚变形和莎士比亚的史诗。第二章将通过奥维迪安的复兴和性的镜头分析希罗和利安德，这将导致第三章，重点是维纳斯和阿多尼斯，水仙和萨尔马西斯和Hermaphroditus中的性别反转和性支配女性。维纳斯和阿多尼斯将在第四节中再次深入分析，在亚里士多德教育和修辞学研究的背景下。最后，第五章将考虑Faunus和Melliflora，尽管不是按时间顺序排列的最后一个epyllion，但通过促进主教禁令，谴责以前的epyllia作家，并通过采取更具讽刺性和道德化的方法逐渐远离epyllion的惯例，这是一个杀死体裁的作品。在伊丽莎白统治的最后15年里，缺乏对史诗繁荣和衰落原因的具体研究，这就是为什么我认为应该进行更多博士研究的原因，特别是关注这种体裁的特定文化和历史框架的原因。

Revived and nurtured in the urbane environment of the Inns of Court, mostly at the hands of a well-defined social milieu of university-educated young writers, the early modern epyllion is rich in intertextuality, characterised by an erotically charged and witty style, interested in courtship, desire, maturation of youths, and rhetoric and its persuasive power. Flourished in the midst of the fin de siècle feeling of the last decade of Elizabeth's reign, the epyllion existed within a very specific timeframe: the first epyllion is considered to be Thomas Lodge's Scillaes metamorphosis (1589); the last, Francis Beaumont's Salmacis and Hermaphroditus (1602). By studying a selection of epyllia in their cultural, literary, and social context, my doctoral dissertation intends to research the reasons why this particular sub-genre existed in such a well-defined historical moment, arguing that the humanistic education promoted by the reform of grammar schools and by the Inns of Court, the translations of Ovid's works inaugurated in the 1560s and completed in 1592 by Marlowe, a growing anxiety about syphilis and plague, Elizabeth herself and the sublimated eroticism of her court created the environment in which the epyllion could rise and prosper. Conversely, the Bishops' Ban of 1599, the rise of the satire, and the decline of Elizabeth brought this witty genre to an end by 1602, making the epyllion a sexually charged literary parenthesis that did not survive the Virgin Queen. As the text which has come to dominate discussion, Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis (1593) will run throughout my study as a point of reference in most of the chapters; around this key text, I will consider a wide range of less familiar material that includes Lodge's Scillaes metamorphosis (1589); Marlowe's Hero and Leander (1593); Edwards' Narcissus (1595); John Weever's Faunus and Melliflora (1601); Francis Beaumont's Salmacis and Hermaphroditus (1602). After having defined the genre and the poems that are considered epyllia, my research shall proceed as follow. A first chapter will be dedicated to themes of contamination, pollution and venereal diseases in Scillaes metamorphosis and Shakespeare's epyllion. The second shall analyse Hero and Leander through the lenses of the Ovidian revival and sexuality, which will lead to the third chapter, focused on gender inversion and sexually dominating women in Venus and Adonis, Narcissus and Salmacis and Hermaphroditus. Venus and Adonis will then be analysed again in depth in the fourth section, in the context of Elizabethan education and the study of rhetoric. Finally, the fifth chapter shall take in consideration Faunus and Melliflora that, despite not being the last epyllion chronologically, is the one that kills off the genre by promoting the Bishops' Ban, condemning previous epyllia writers, and drifting away for the conventions of the epyllion by taking a more satirical and moralising approach. The lack of specific studies on the reasons that made the epyllion flourish and fade within the last fifteen years of Elizabeth's reign is the reason why I believe that more doctoral-length research is due, especially one that focuses on the specific cultural and historical frame of this genre.