Taken from Ovid, the story finds Venus, burning with desire, wooing the young huntsman Adonis, who resists her pleading, kisses and arguments. He insists on hunting the boar the next day, and her foreboding grows as the poem moves toward tragedy. Shakespeare dedicated it to the Earl of Southampton in 1593 as the first heir of his invention.
Shakespeare’s first published work, a witty and sensuous narrative poem that was hugely popular in its day. Download the free EPUB.