Florova Valeriya Sergeevna
Moscow State University of Education
Submitted: 08.11.2018
Abstract. The article is devoted to the issue of the development of the "food-love" metaphor in Elizabethan sonnetists’ and Shakespeare’s works. The metaphor origin is traced in folk culture and Anacreontic poetry, and its transformation in sonnet cycles by Ph. Sidney, G. Constable, E. Spencer, R. Barnfield and W. Shakespeare is also considered. It has been ascertained that the development of the metaphor in Anacreontic nature, refined and playful, is peculiar to the Elizabethan sonnet tradition, while Shakespeare’s understanding is closer to common people and even partly Rabelaisian. This indicates that Shakespeare’s "Sonnets" deviate significantly from the traditional Elizabethan concepts.