‘Ovid was there, and with him were Catullus, Propertius and Tibullus’: Catullus and the shaping of early Tudor love poetry

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis essay suggests that Petrarch's canzoniere, rather than being an originator of a mode of literary erotics, is a reception and mediator of classical Latin love elegy. Taking its starting point from Catullus’ searing erotic poems written to and about Lesbia, it investigates the evidence for reading Catullus as a source for Renaissance literary love, and considers the ways in which Catullan erotics shape the poetics of love in early sixteenth-century England. The first section clarifies Latin elegy's defining tropes and maps these onto Renaissance erotics. The essay then traces the transmission of Catullus to the Renaissance and the ways in which he was received by readers, commentators and writers. The generally-accepted position on Catullus in England is that Philip Sidney was the first to translate one of his poems into English, but this paper offers pressing evidence that Catullus had a hitherto underexplored position at the Henrician court. A close reading of Wyatt's ‘Whoso List to Hunt’ considers how framing this text with Catullus rather than just Petrarch reveals the complex intertextual dialogues in the poem. As well as elucidating an alternative model for Wyatt's erotics, the readings here provide a case-study in Wyatt's practice of imitatio.