Venus and Adonis,the Rape of Lucrece,and the Isabelle of Nicolas de Montreux

Abstract

This article proposes that Nicolas de Montreux's tragedy Isabelle (c. 1584), which draws its main plot and framing elements from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, presents distinctive resemblances to both Shakespeare's early narrative poems. Its heroine chooses death to avoid a rape, with the example of Lucrece multiply evoked. Framing this episode is an amorous pursuit illustrating the tyrannical potency of both love and hate in a way anticipating the goddess's rejection by Shakespeare's Adonis. While Isabelle cannot be considered a formal source, there is reason to hypothesise its catalytic function for Shakespeare at a formative stage of his career.