Elizabethan Exile after OvidThomas Churchyard’s Tristia (1572)

The Brief Ovidian Career of Isabella Whitney: From Heroidean to Tristian Complaint

“…60 The Tristia, which was partially translated by Churchyard and published as The Thre First Bookes of Ouids De Tristibus in 1572, 1578, and 1580, has received considerably more attention as a literary model for the "fashioning of exilic, predominantly masculine, subjectivities" in the Elizabethan era. 61 It has been claimed that Ovid's poetry "is unique in ancient literature for the sheer number and quasi-systematic regularity of [its] autobiographic situations" and that, in particular, his "exilic poetry seems to give his readers direct, unmediated access to his experiences and thoughts." 62 It is little wonder, then, that Ovidian exile was hailed widely as "a master-trope that could be used to express all forms of … dissatisfaction" in the late sixteenth century: it provided "an important cultural paradigm for … authors who … found themselves subject to exile or similar experiences," including "alienation within a community that fails to recognize or reward one's presence or labours."…”