An engaging study that offers new and provocative re-readings of Spenser's pastoral poems, with a focus on Spenser's acknowledged debt to Virgil and his Eclogues. Reception studies, politics and classical studies are interweaved to provide a greater understanding of both poets.

Syrithe Pugh is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Aberdeen

Introduction
1. Intertextuality and allegory in Virgil's Eclogues
2. Virgilian negotiations in The Shepheardes Calender
3. Virgilian structure in The Shepheardes Calender
4. Reshaping the Virgilian cursus: pastoral vocation in 'Astrophel'
5. Reimagining the pastoral muse in 'Colin Clouts Come Home Againe'
Index