Marlowe Translates Ovid's Amores
Poet involved
What happened
While a student at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Marlowe produced an English translation of Ovid's Amores, a collection of elegiac love poems from ancient Rome. The translation circulated privately and was later published, though it would eventually be publicly burned in 1599 by order of the Archbishop of Canterbury for its perceived indecency.
Literary impact
The Amores translation sharpened Marlowe's skill with erotic and elegiac verse, directly feeding the sensuous language of poems like The Passionate Shepherd to His Love. It also marked him early as a writer willing to court controversy through frank treatment of desire, a boldness that later defined his dramatic voice.
Source: Wikipedia
