Abstract
ABSTRACTThis essay argues that Michael Drayton's Englands Heroicall Epistles engages in a highly productive and transformative relationship with Ovid's Heroides, one which focuses on the utility and application of the female voice. By adapting the Ovidian model to a distinctively patterned version of English history, Drayton manages to invest the female voice with both authority and political meaning, as the various female figures outline the symbolic importance of the feminine to the public sphere and to dynastic stability. The means by which Drayton does this are heavily indebted to the practices of imitation and invention, yet in the process, Drayton produces heroines who critique and comment on male conduct, particularly sexual conduct, whilst manipulating early modern culture's norms for women's textual production. At the same time, Drayton also attempts to enhance his own poetic authority by his overt competition with Ovid.
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