SOURCE: "'The Phoenix and the Turtle' in its Dramatic Context," English Studies, Vol. 58, No. 6, December, 1977, pp. 494-500.

In the following essay, Straumann argues that The Phoenix and Turtle reflects a shift in Shakespeare's expression and concept of "the possible union of beauty and truth " towards an emphasis on the fleetingness of such a union.

Scholars and critics seem, on the whole, agreed on the opinion that at the turn of the 16th to the 17th century Shakespeare must have undergone some vital changes, if not a crisis, in his views about man and the basic values he had accepted before that time. And even those who are sceptical of interpretations along such lines will readily admit that the tone of his works is clearly no longer the same after 1601. Whatever conflicting views on 'The Phoenix and the Turtle' may exist, there can be no doubt about the poem...