Introduction - Taking Liberties

Summary

This chapter introduces the concept of parrhesia (licentia in Latin) and, in particular, its hitherto unexplored relationship to the idea of poetic license (also licentia in Latin). It further establishes the pivotal, galvanizing role played by Ovid, the boldest poet of the Augustan age, in passing down to early modern English writers the model and theory of poetic indecorum as a form of political resistance. It finally considers the role played by Augustus’s banishment of the poet, Ovid, in the history of early modern English poetry and political thought.