Out-Oviding Ovid in Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

Shakespeare was hailed as the new Ovid by Francis Meres who declared in Palladis Tamia: ‘As the soule of Euphorbus was thought to liue in Pythagorus: so the sweete wittie soule of Ouid liues in mellifluous and hony-tongued Shakespeare, witnesse his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece’ (Meres 1598, 281^v–282^r). In pairing a word of Latin derivation (‘mellifluous’) and a Saxon compound (‘honey-tongued’), Meres celebrates the trans-linguistic feat of this reincarnation: Shakespeare is said to be able to express in his English style the sweetness and fluidity of Ovid’s soul.