The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume IV. Prose and Poetry: Sir Thomas North to Michael Drayton.
§ 11. Goldings Ovid
The best loved of all the ancient poets was Ovid, whose popularity is attested by many translations of varying worth. The first version in point of date is The Fable of Ovid treting of Narcissus, translated oute of Latin into Englysh Mytre, with a moral therein to, very pleasante to rede. This was followed, five years later, by the first edition of Arthur Golding’s work (1565), of which more will be said presently. In 1567, George Turbervile printed The Heroycall Epistles of the learned Poet Publius Ovidius Naso, and, in 1577, there came from the press two versions of Ovid his Invective against Ibis, one of which is the work of Thomas Underdowne, to whom, also, we owe the Aethiopian Historie of Heliodorus. Marlowe turned the Elegies into rimed couplets, and George Chapman, in 1595, published Ovid’s Banquet of Sauce, a coronet for his Mistress Philosophy, and his amorous Zodiac. De Tristibus was Englished by Churchyard, and Francis Beaumont gave proof of his skill in a lively version of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus. The cause of Ovid’s popularity is not far to seek. He was an efficient guide to the Greek and Roman mythologies, and he furnished the poets with theme, sentiment and allusion. Of all the translations, by far the most famous was Arthur Golding’s rendering of the Metamorphoses. The first edition (1565) contained but four books. In 1567, the work was complete. It is described on the title-page as “a worke very pleasaunt and delectable,” and a stern couplet warns the reader against frivolity:
The chief characteristic of the translation is its evenness. It never falls below or rises above a certain level. The craftsmanship is neither slovenly nor distinguished. The narrative flows through its easy channel without the smallest shock of interruption. In other words, the style is rapid, fluent and monotonous. The author is never a poet and never a shirk. You may read his mellifluous lines with something of the same simple pleasure which the original gives you. Strength and energy are beyond Golding’s compass, and he wisely chose a poet to translate who made no demand upon the qualities he did not possess. He chose a metre, too, very apt for continuous narrative—the long line of fourteen syllables—and it is not strange that his contemporaries bestowed upon him their high approval. Puttenham paid him no more than his due when he described him as “in translation very cleare and very faithfully answering his author’s intent.” He won the rare and difficult praise of Thomas Nashe, and he was honoured by Shakespeare, who did not disdain to borrow of his verses. The lines which follow will recall to everyone a celebrated passage in The Tempest: