Dubbed 'the English Virgil' in his own lifetime, Spenser has been compared to the Augustan laureate ever since. He invited the comparison, expecting a readership intimately familiar with Virgil's works to notice and interpret his rich web of allusion and imitation, but also his significant departures and transformations. Careful attention to Spenser's complex engagement with Virgil can deepen our understanding of his poems and his conception of his role as poet.

This volume considers Spenser's pastoral poetry, the genre which announces the inception of a Virgilian career -...