SOURCE: "The Phoenix and the Turtle," in Orbis Litterarum, Vol. XXIII, No. 3, 1968, pp. 199-220.

In the following essay, Dronke discusses the imagery and literary contexts of The Phoenix and Turtle, as well as the poem's theme: "that pure, unwavering love can find its perfect fulfilment in death, and that its power can extend even beyond death. "

When one looks at the bewildering number of interpretations of The Phoenix and the Turtle cited and summarised in the Variorum Shakespeare (The Poems p. 566 ff.), it is clear that (until 1938 at least) the great majority have been personal or historical readings. The Phoenix was Queen Elizabeth, or Christopher Marlowe, Sir John Salisbury, or his wife or sister-in-law or daughter, Lucy Countess of Bedford, or the Fair Youth of the Sonnets, to mention only a few of the more colourful suggestions. Interpretation then implied inventing an 'occasion' for the poem, to fit...