SOURCE: "Miscellaneous Poems: Th e Phoenix and Turtle.'" in William Shakespeare: Sonnets and Poems, Twayne Publishers, 1998, pp. 81-88.

In the essay that follows, Kay provides a general introductory discussion of the poem, with particular attention to its textual history and critical reception.

The Phoenix and Turtle is Shakespeare's contribution to Loves Martyr: or, Rosalins Complaint, Allegorically shadowing the Truth of Love, in the constant Fate of the Phoenix and Turtle (1601), a volume of poems associated with Sir John Salusbury and compiled by Robert Chester. Appended to this work are "Some new compositions, of severall modern writers whose names are subscribed to their several workes, upon the first subject: viz., the Phoenix and Turtle." These modern writers are "Ignoto" (possibly John Donne), Shake—speare, John Marston, George Chapman, and Ben Jon—son. Shakespeare's poem appears without a title.

Chester's Love's Martyr is an allegorical poem (treating the myth...