: Allgemeine Geschichte der
Literatur
des Mittelalters im
Abendlande, Vol.
Abendlande, Vol.
Ovid - Some Elizabethan Opinions of the Poetry and Character of OVid
472.
uIb. , p. 472.
"lb. , p. 357-
MIb. , p. 371.
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? 6 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
although in him as in Spenser, "the narrative may be said to fall
below the highest order in that the independence of the character is
merged in description and sequence of events",34 he remains one of
the favorite narrative poets of the world. By common consent, he is
master of the art of transition and_ skillfulI variation of material.
With unerring instinct he seizes upon the essentials of his narrative,
jtrjoarejQtly with no thought of any lesson to teach or moral to impart.
Of the Metamorphoses Mackail justly observes: "One might almost
say that it is without moral quality. Ovid narrates the treachery of
Scylla or the incestuous passion of Myrrha with the same light and
secure touch as he applies to the charming idyl of Baucis and Phil-
emon or the love-tale of Pyramus and Thisbe; his interest is in what
happened, in the story for the story's sake. " S5 The Elizabethan
poet and his audience were almost as insistent upon story. 36
Moreover, Ovid was a master of verse-form. As a result of his
extraordinary mastery of the elegiac couplet: "The usage was stereo-
typed by his example; all through the Empire and the Middle Ages,
and even down to the present day, the Ovidian metre has been the
single dominant type: and though no one ever managed it with such
ingenuity again, he taught enough of the secret to make its use
possible for almost every kind of subject. "37 "For the metre of
the Metamorphoses Ovid chose the heroic hexameter, but he used
it in a strikingly new and original way Ovid's hexameter
is a thing of his own. It becomes with him almost a new metre--
light, brilliant, and rapid, but with some monotony of cadence, and
without the deep swell that it had, not in Virgil only, but in his
**W. P. Ker: Epic and Romance, p. 33.
"Latin Literature, p. 141.
* Specific obligations of the dramatists to Ovid are presented in:
Dorrinck, A. : Die lateinischen Zitate in den Dramen der wichtigsten
Vorganger Shakespeares. Strassburg, 1907.
Frey, K. : Die klassische Cotter- und Heldensage in den Dramen von
Marlowe, Lyly, Kyd, Greene und Peele. Karlsruhe, 1909.
Kettler, F. : Lateinische Zitate in den Dramen der namhaften Zeitge-
nossen Shakespeares. Strassburg, 1909.
Rupf, P. : Die Zauberkomodie vor Shakespeare.
Root, R. K. : Classical Mythology in Shakespeare.
"Mackail: Latin Literature, p. 138.
\
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID 7
predecessors. The swift, equable movement is admirably adapted
to the matter of the poem. " 38
Ovid's gift of penetrating insight into human character, especially .
so far as its foibles and weaknesses are concerned, also must have \y{
appealed to an age that delighted in the satirist and the character
writer. He furnished some of the keenest shafts in Ben Jonson's
Epicoene. TM -*
Professedly devoted to the ideas and fashions of his own times,
Ovid is one of the nearest to us of the poets of the ancient world.
He expresses his own attitude thus:
Prisca iuvent alios, ego me nunc denique natum
Gratulor: haec aetas moribus apta meis.
And this might have served as a motto for the Elizabethan.
Moreover, the poetry of Ovid has the charm of romantic atmos-
phere and suggestiveness, which has often been compared to the
Arabian Nights. The world of the Metamorphoses is not the actual
world; it is pervaded by the fabulous and the superhuman. Simcox
calls the poem "the most romantic work in Latin literature. "40
Perhaps the strongest single reason for the popularity of Ovid''
lies in what Mr. Ronald Bayne calls "the intensely sensuous nature
of the Elizabethan";41 and Professor Saintsbury, "the peculiar
Renaissance note, the union of sensual and intellectual rapture. " 42
The greatest value of Ovid as a source lies in the fact that his
works are a storehouse of classic myths. Not only did he present
the great stories of Greece and Rome with freshness, charm and
permanent power of appeal; but he transmitted a rich fund of
mythological lore the sources of which are frequently obscured or
lost beyond recovery. It was largely or entirely through the poems
of Ovid that many writers became acquainted with the riches of
classical mythology. Nowhere else was such a wealth of legend
to be found in so attractive a form.
"lb. , p. 141.
"P. Chasles: Thiatre anglais, p. 135.
40 History of Latin Literature, I, p. 354.
? Cambridge Hist, of Eng. Lit. , VI, p. 370.
"Hist, of Eng. Lit. , p. 268.
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? 8 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
\
In the following pages an attempt is made to assemble the
more typical expressions of opinion with regard to the poetry and
character of Ovid. The one aim has been to try to see the poet as
the Elizabethans saw him. To the possible objection that there
was ho "Elizabethan^ attitude on this matter, that the citations
represent only partial, scattered, and individual views, it may be
replied that this must be true of almost any other similar study.
In dealing with matters of this kind, one must not lose sight of the
fact that one has to do with varying expressions of personal feeling
and judgment, and must not obscure the situation with any general
term. At the same time Hennequin has shown the value of noting
the groups of admirers and critics of a widely influential writer in
order to form thereby some conception of the literary and moral
ideals of a given epoch. 43 What the Elizabethans thought of Ovid
is not, so far as classical scholarship is concerned, a matter of
very great moment. As a side-light on their ideas and tastes, what
they thought of the poet has its interest, as indeed must everything
have that relates to this fascinating period. Moreover, the attitude
of the times under consideration toward Ovid was, in the main,
but part of a larger and far more vital question--the right of
poetry to exist.
As for the expressions of concern for poetry and for some at
least of the more or less labored and pedantic defenses that figure
in the ensuing pages, the reader may perhaps feel--
Non tali auxilio nee defensoribus istis
tempus eget.
But such was by no means the position of those whose utterances
are to be here considered. Those who really believed that much of
the poetry regarded as classic offended the moral or religious sensi-
bilities, demanded an answer to charges which they preferred in-
sistently and in language that could not be mistaken. These charges
were not infrequently occasions for embarrassment and for resort
to what may sometimes appear to us mere tricks of desperation.
It remained for Sir Philip Sidney to make the one great apology
of his time by transcending in a serene and noble way the turmoil
and logomachy which is here passed in review.
"La Critique Scientifique. Paris, 1888.
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID 9
Widely scattered and radically differing expressions of opin-
ion with regard to the personality and works of Ovid appear in
England from Sir Thomas Elyot's The Governour (1531) to Dry-
den's Preface to the Fables (1700). With very general agreement ^
that the poems often give occasion for offense to the moral sense, ^f
and in some instances with extremely plain speaking upon this
matter, writers commonly see one of two possibilities. Some would
condemn the poems to what they regarded as well-merited oblivion,
while others would have recourse to what they considered a sort
of Higher Criticism. They would separate the good from the evil
in the poems, and ignoring or forgetting the latter, make the utmost
profit out of the good. On their favorite analogy of the bee, which
extracts honey from even the most poisonous plants, . they would,
moreover, find some profit in the evil itself. The latter very natu-
rally, therefore, attach peculiar importance to the manner of read-
ing or interpretation. Moralization, based on the assumed under-
lying allegory, or in some cases very numerous allegories, is the
alchemy with which they would transmute the baser metal. What
appears to the hasty reader or to the untrained mind as a "filthy
fable" must in this view be "moralized in its kind"; whereupon
it yields matter "both pleasant and profitable," thereby justifying
the oft-quoted Horatian maxim.
This method of interpretation goes back, of course, to the
"moralized Ovids" of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance,
and is typified by the Metamorphosis Ozndiana moraliter a Magistro
Thoma Walleys Anglico de professione Praedicatorum sub sanctis-
simo patre Dominico explanata. This work was first printed at
Paris in 1509; and again in 1510, with the text of Ovid, at Lyons.
J. B. Haureau 44 has shown that Thomas of Wales really had
nothing to do with this work, which is to be ascribed to Pierre
Bersuire, (d. 1362). Mr. F. G. Stokes, in his edition of Epistolae
Obscurorum Virorum,45 gives an illuminating specimen of the four-
fold method of interpretation in the work of Bersuire. It may be
taken as typical of its kind. Applying this method to the fable of
Saturn, we have the following meanings:
"Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, tome XXX, pp. 44-55.
* P. 74, note.
*
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? IO SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
#
(Literaliter) "Saturn is said to devour his own sons, because
a person born under the 'constellation' of Saturn rarely lives. "
(Naturaliter) "Saturn devours his own sons, because he signifies
Time, and whatsoever is born of Time is by Time wasted and
consumed. "
(Historialiter) "Saturn was King of Crete, of whom his brother
Titan predicted that one of his sons would drive him from the
throne. Whereupon he determined to devour his sons and avert
the evil fate. "
. ' (Allegorice) "An avaricious man, armed with rapine as with a
scythe, devours his children, in the sense that by his extortions he
impoverishes them and consumes their substance. "
The method of interpretation illustrated by the foregoing ex-
tract has played a tremendous role in the history of human thought.
First seen in the fragments of Aristobulus, the method culminated
in the work of Philo Judaeus, On the Allegories of the Sacred
Laws. 4" It developed in an attempt to reconcile Greek philosophy
with Jewish legislation,47 and followed lines that had already been
applied to the study of Homer. 48 Founded on the sincerest of
motives, and dedicated to the most pious purposes, it came to be
regarded during the Middle Ages as a very pillar of the faith. It
gave pith and point to religious instruction and furnished ideals for
human conduct. The leading exponent of the allegorical method
of scriptural interpretation was Origen. 49 Clement of Alexandria
declared that all scripture must be allegorically understood. 50 Al-
though there were protests against the views of Origen, and against
"Farrar, F. W. : History of Interpretation, p. 127.
For a summary of Philo's rules, see pp. 139-157.
Seeberg, R. : Lehrbuch der . Dogmengeschichte, I, 52 ff.
Cf. Hatch: The Hibbert Lectures, 1888, pp. 59-65; 66-79.
Bigg: The Christian Platonists, pp. 56-58; 92; 134.
Davidson, S. : Sacred Hermeneutics, Ch. IV.
"Farrar, op. cit. , p. 131.
? lb. , p. 125.
? lb. , p. 177.
M lb. , p. 183.
Cf. Ebert, A.
: Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters im
Abendlande, Vol. I, pp. 139; 147; 150; 215; 245; 378; 516; 550; 596.
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID II
what appeared to be hazardous extensions of the idea,51 the ad-
herents of the allegorical method ultimately carried the day. 52 It
became the recognized method of scholastic exegesis, as is exempli-
fied notably in the works of Aquinas. 53 Despite the sincerity of
the motives, there is small room for doubt that the persistent
tendency to seek for veiled meanings in even the most literal state-
ments exercised a dangerous fascination over certain types of mind,
and led directly or indirectly to excess, exaggeration, and puer-
ilities of all sorts. Brunetiere remarks in this connection: "Un-
fortunately, if the intentions were excellent, the method was false;
--for the idea did not become clearer in proportion as recourse was
had more and more to allegory;--and the writers got further
away from truth and nature in the same proportion. This is
what Petrarch meant when he made the authors of the Roman de
la Rose the reproach that their 'Muse' was asleep;--and when he
contrasted with their coldness the passionate ardour breathed by
the verses 'of those divine singers of love', Virgil, Catullus, Pro-
pertius, and Ovid. "" Before the dawn of critical yr. bnlarshin such
intellectual exercises were doomed to lead to wild inconsistencies
when they concerned themselves with the classics. To what lengths
they actually did go in this direction Comparetti has given ample
illustration in his famous account of Virgil in the Middle Ages. 85
If Virgil became to the popular imagination a wizard and a pro-
phet of Christ, we need feel no surprise when, in 1467, a monk
of Paris copies the Ars Amandi "ad laudem et gloriam Virginis
Mariae. " 56 Horace, as Stemplinger has shown, met with the same
general treatment. 67 A curiously belated example of the method
is to be found in two poems by Laurence le Brun (1607-1663):
a Farrar, pp. 206-222.
"lb. , p. 239.
See also the summary in Taylor, H. O. : The Classical Heritage of the
Middle Ages, pp. 97-103.
M Farrar, p. 271.
Cf. Haureau, B. : Histoire de la philosophie scolastique, Vol. I, Chap. III.
M Manual of (he History of French Literature, trans, by R. Derechef, p. 27.
- K English trans, by Benecke. London, 1888.
"Monnier: Le Quattrocento, Vol. I, p. 113.
m Das Fortleben der Horazischen Lyrik seit der Renaissance, p. 26.
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? 12 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
k
Virgilius Christianus and Ovidius Christianus. In the second of
these the Metamorphoses undergo transformation into stories of
converted penitents. 68 The spirit of Pierre Bersuire lived on in
Webbe, Harington, Golding, Sandys, Garth, and many others; it
colored the whole Elizabethan attitude toward Ovid and toward
the general interpretation of poetry.
Occasionally, to be sure, a voice was raised in protest. Thus
in his Obedience of a Christian Man, Tyndale found cause for
indignation at the methods of the schoolmen in the fact that, "some
will prove a point of the Faith as well out of a fable of Ovid or any
other poet, as out of St. John's Gospel or Paul's Epistles. "*8 An/
allegory in itself, he thinks, "proveth nothing, neither can do. For
it is not the scripture, but an ensample or a similitude borrowed
of the scripture, to declare a text or a conclusion of the scripture
more expressly and to root it and grave it in the heart If
I could not prove with an open text that which the allegory doth
express, then were the allegory a thing to be jested at, and of no
greater value than a tale of Robin Hood. "60 Although he admits
the utility of allegory under proper conditions, Tyndale warns
expressly against its dangers: "Finally, beware of allegories; for
there is not a more handsome or apt thing to beguile withal than
an allegory. And contrariwise; there is not a better, vehementer,
or mightier thing to make a man quickwitted and print wisdom in
him, and make it to abide, when bare words go but in at the one
ear, and out at the other. "61 Whitgift is equally plain in his
warning as to the dangers attendant upon the method: "All men
know how uncertain a reason it is that is grounded upon figures and
types, except the application thereof may be found in the scriptures.
For a man may apply them as it pleaseth him, even as he may do
in allegories. "62 Whitaker argues to the same purpose: "We
affirm that there is but one true, proper and genuine sense of scrip-
tures, arising from the words rightly understood, which we call
"Dictionnaire Universelle, X, p. 291.
"Tyndale's Works, Parked Society, I, p. 306.
M lb. , p. 428.
<<Ib.
"Works, Parker Society, II, p. 92.
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID 13
the literal: and we contend that allegories, tropologies and ana-
gogues are not various senses, but various collections from one
sense, or various applications and accommodations of that one
meaning The sense of scripture, therefore, is but one. "83
Expressions such as the foregoing were, however, restricted
to the field of theological controversy and appear to have exerted
little influence on the current application of allegorical interpretation
to works of literature. Apparently not even the keenest satire
availed at once to wean the minds of readers and commentators
from their delight in subtleties and far-fetched interpretations.
Letter number 28 of the Epistolae Virorum Obscurorum, as trans-
lated by Mr. Stokes, reads, in part, as follows:
"I already know by rote all the fables of Ovid in his Meta-
morphoses, and these I can expound quadruply--to wit, naturally,
literally, historically, and spiritually--and this is more than the
secular poets can do
"You will hence understand that nowadays these Poets do but
study their art literally, and do not comprehend allegorizing and
spiritual expositions: as saith the Apostle, 'The natural man re-
ceiveth not the things of the spirit of God. '
"Now you may ask where I have obtained this subtle skill. I
reply that I lately bought a book composed by a certain English
Doctor of our Order, Thomas of Wales by name; and the book is
all writ concerning Ovid's Metamorphoses, explaining each story
allegorically and spiritually, and its profoundity in Theology pas-
seth belief.
"Most assuredly hath the Holy Spirit inspired this man with so
great learning, for in his book he setteth forth the harmonies be-
tween the Holy Scriptures and the fables of the Poet, and of these
you may judge from the instances subjoined.
"Of the Python that Apollo slew, the Psalmist saith, 'This
dragon which thou hast formed to play therein! ' And, again,
'Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk. '
"A Disputation on Holy Scripture, Parker Society, p. 404.
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? 14 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
"Concerning Saturn--who is always feigned an old man, and
the father of the gods--devouring his own children, Ezekiel saith:
'The fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee. '
"Diana signifieth the Blessed Virgin, Mary
"Cadmus, too, seeking for his sister, is a figure of Christ who
seeketh for his sister, to wit, the soul of man; and he buildeth a
city, that is, the Church.
"Concerning Actaeon, who beheld Diana naked, Ezekiel prophe-
sied, saying 'Thou wast bare and full of confusion, and I passed
by thee and saw thee. '
"Not without cause is it written in the Poets that Bacchus was
twice born, for by him is denoted Christ, who was twice born
"Semele also, who nursed Bacchus, is an image of the Blessed
Virgin.
"All this, and much more, I have learned out of that book.
If you were but with me you should behold marvelous things.
"And that is the way in which we ought to study Poetry. "
Here is keen satire of the allegorical method uncontrolled by
reason and accurate knowledge, a satire addressed, with a final
thrust, to Frater Dollenkopfius (Dunderhead). Rabelais, too, poked
/- fun at the method,64 though, as may be seen, without destroying
so deeply rooted a mental habit, or shaking its hold on such writers
as were determined to read moral truths and allegorical lessons
into the Metamorphoses, and were carried away with the exercise
of intellectual subtlety in the face of what were seemingly the
greatest difficulties. Rather perhaps it was the very consciousness
of such difficulties and the delight in appearing to reconcile them
that spurred such minds on to further effort. It was an absorbing
'game.
In The Governour Sir Thomas Elyot gives first place in the study
of poetry to Homer, an eminence not called in question in any of
the works under review. 65 He recommends, however, that some
Latin author be studied along with the Greek: "and especially
Virgile; which, in his wark called Eneidos, is most like to Homere
in latine and none one autor serueth to so diuers wits
"Trans, by Urquhart, Book I, Ch. 58.
"Cf. Prolong of the first Bulk of Eneados, by Gavin Douglas, ed. J. Small.
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID 15
as doth Virgile wherefore he is in the order of lernyng
to be preferred before any other autor latine. " "6 "I woulde set
nexte to him two bookes of Ouid, the one called Metamorphosios,
whiche is as moche as to say as, chaungynge into other figure or
fourme: the other is entitled De fastis: where the ceremonies of the
gentiles, and especially the Romanes, be expressed: bothe right neces-
sary for the understandynge of other poetes. But by cause there
is litell other lernyng in them, concernyng either vertuous maners
or policie, I suppose it were better that as fables and ceremonies
happen to come in a lesson, it were declared abundantly by the
maister than that in the said two bokes, a longe tyme shulde be
spente and almost lost: which mought be better employed on suche
autors that do minister both eloquence, ciuile policie, and exhor-
tation to vertue. Wherefore in his place let us bring in Horace,,
in whom is contayned moche varietie of lernynge and quicknesse
of sentence. " 6T
Incidentally to his statement of the proper subjects of instruc-
tion, Elyot opens what was to prove a long and absorbingly inter-
esting debate by undertaking, "to shewe what profite may be taken
by the diligent reading of auncient poetes, contrarye to the false
opinion, that nowe rayneth, of them that suppose that in the works
of poetes is contayned nothynge but baudry, (suche is their foule
worde of reproche), and unprofitable leasinges. "68 The cause of
such an error of judgment is, in Elyot's opinion, ignorance. "But
they whiche be ignoraunt in poetes wyll perchaunce obiecte, as is
their maner, agayne these verses, saying that in Therence and
other that were writers of comedies, also Ouide, Catullus, Martialis,
and all that route of lasciuious poetes that wrate epistles and ditties
of loue, some called in latin Elegiae and some Epigrammata, is
nothynge contayned but incitation to lechery. "89
Such a view Elyot undertakes to refute by dwelling on the
"good sentences", even in what he regards as the extreme case
of "Ouidius, that seemeth of all poetes lasciuious, in his mooste
"Croft's ed. , I, p. 66.
"lb. , pp. 67-68.
"lb. , p. 123.
"lb. , p. 123.
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? l6 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
wanton bokes [who still] hath right commendable and noble sen-
tences; as for proufe thereof I will recite some that I have taken
at aduenture. " TM And here he translates lines 131 to 136 of De
Remedio Amoris. In fine, he makes a plea in extenuation: he
cannot deny that there are matters in his author that may justly
give offense; but he still maintains that whatever is good in the
poet should be turned to enjoyment and profit. On the whole,
this may be regarded as a very characteristic expression of the
more moderate view that prevailed throughout the period. In
the case of Ovid and in that of the poets of love generally it
was frankly admitted that occasions for offense to moral ideals were
sometimes given. The defense generally made was that such oc-
casions were negligible, or at least should not be allowed to out-
weigh the excellencies of the poet. So Elyot argues:
"Martialis, whiche, for his dissoulute wrytynge, is mooste sel-
dome radde of men of moche grauitie, hath not withstandynge
many commendable sentences and right wise counsailes, as among
diuers I will reherce one which is first come to my remembrance.
If thou wylte eschew bytter aduenture,
And auoide the gnawynge of a pensifull harte,
Sette in no one persone all holy thy pleasure,
The lasse ioy shalte thou haue but the lasse shalte thou smarte.
"I coulde recite a great nombre of semblable good sentences out
of these and other wanton poetes, who in the latine do expresse
them incomparably with more grace and delectation than our
englische tonge may yet comprehende.
"Wherefore sens good and wise mater may be picked out of
these poetes, it were no reason, for some lite mater that is in their
verses, to abandone therefore al their warkes, no more than it were
to forbeare or prohibite a man to come into a faire garden, lest
the redolent sauors of swete herbes and floures shall meue him to
wanton courage, or leste in gadring good and holsome herbes he
may happen to be stunge with a nettile Semblablye if he
do rede wanton mater mixte with wisedome, he putteth the warst
under foote and sorteth out the best, or, if his courage be stered
or prouoked, he remembereth the litel pleasure and gret detriment
wIb. , p. 133-
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID \J
that shulde ensue of it, and withdrawynge his minde to some other
studie or exercise shortly forgetteth it
"So all thoughe I do nat approue the lesson of wanton poetes
to be taughte unto all children, yet thynke I conuenient and neces-
sary that, whan the mynde is become constant and courage is
asswaged, or that children of their naturall disposition be shamfaste
and continent, none auncient poete wolde be excluded from the
lesson of suche one as desireth to come to the perfection of wyse-
dome. ""
In The Scholemaster, published in 1568, Ascham lays no stress
on the reading of Ovid: Varro, Sallust, Caesar, and Cicero are his
favorites as subjects of instruction. And he approves the dictum
of Sir John Cheke--"I would haue a good student passe and iorney
through all authors both Greke and Latin: But he that will dwell
in these few books onelie: first, in Gods holie Bible, and than
ioyne with it, Tullie in Latin, Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Isocrates,
and Demosthenes in Greke: must nedes proue an excellent man. "72
Erasmus, De Ratione Studii Commentariolus (1512) recommends
that the teacher "should himself have travelled through the whole
circle of knowledge among the poets, Homer and Ovid. "73
Webbe, however, in his essay Of English Poetry carries Elyot's
view still further: "For surelie I am of this opinion that the
wantonest Poets of all, in their most laciuious workes wherein
they busied themselues, sought rather by that meanes to withdraw
mens mindes (especiallie the best natures) from such foule vices
then to allure them to imbrace such beastly follies as they de-
tected. " 74
So far then the lover of poetry and the friend of Ovid had
before him certain clearly defined possibilities. Enjoying and ap-
propriating whatever was good in the poet, he could ignore or
forget any "unhonest matter", he could regard it as an exemplum,
he could "moralize it in its kind", or he could explore the mine
n lb. , pp. 123-131.
"G. G. Smith: Elizabethan Critical Essays, I. p. 18.
"W. H. Woodward: Desiderius Erasmus Concerning the Aim and
Method of Education, p. 167.
TM G. G. Smith: Elizabethan Critical Essays, I, p. 251.
*
? ?
uIb. , p. 472.
"lb. , p. 357-
MIb. , p. 371.
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? 6 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
although in him as in Spenser, "the narrative may be said to fall
below the highest order in that the independence of the character is
merged in description and sequence of events",34 he remains one of
the favorite narrative poets of the world. By common consent, he is
master of the art of transition and_ skillfulI variation of material.
With unerring instinct he seizes upon the essentials of his narrative,
jtrjoarejQtly with no thought of any lesson to teach or moral to impart.
Of the Metamorphoses Mackail justly observes: "One might almost
say that it is without moral quality. Ovid narrates the treachery of
Scylla or the incestuous passion of Myrrha with the same light and
secure touch as he applies to the charming idyl of Baucis and Phil-
emon or the love-tale of Pyramus and Thisbe; his interest is in what
happened, in the story for the story's sake. " S5 The Elizabethan
poet and his audience were almost as insistent upon story. 36
Moreover, Ovid was a master of verse-form. As a result of his
extraordinary mastery of the elegiac couplet: "The usage was stereo-
typed by his example; all through the Empire and the Middle Ages,
and even down to the present day, the Ovidian metre has been the
single dominant type: and though no one ever managed it with such
ingenuity again, he taught enough of the secret to make its use
possible for almost every kind of subject. "37 "For the metre of
the Metamorphoses Ovid chose the heroic hexameter, but he used
it in a strikingly new and original way Ovid's hexameter
is a thing of his own. It becomes with him almost a new metre--
light, brilliant, and rapid, but with some monotony of cadence, and
without the deep swell that it had, not in Virgil only, but in his
**W. P. Ker: Epic and Romance, p. 33.
"Latin Literature, p. 141.
* Specific obligations of the dramatists to Ovid are presented in:
Dorrinck, A. : Die lateinischen Zitate in den Dramen der wichtigsten
Vorganger Shakespeares. Strassburg, 1907.
Frey, K. : Die klassische Cotter- und Heldensage in den Dramen von
Marlowe, Lyly, Kyd, Greene und Peele. Karlsruhe, 1909.
Kettler, F. : Lateinische Zitate in den Dramen der namhaften Zeitge-
nossen Shakespeares. Strassburg, 1909.
Rupf, P. : Die Zauberkomodie vor Shakespeare.
Root, R. K. : Classical Mythology in Shakespeare.
"Mackail: Latin Literature, p. 138.
\
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID 7
predecessors. The swift, equable movement is admirably adapted
to the matter of the poem. " 38
Ovid's gift of penetrating insight into human character, especially .
so far as its foibles and weaknesses are concerned, also must have \y{
appealed to an age that delighted in the satirist and the character
writer. He furnished some of the keenest shafts in Ben Jonson's
Epicoene. TM -*
Professedly devoted to the ideas and fashions of his own times,
Ovid is one of the nearest to us of the poets of the ancient world.
He expresses his own attitude thus:
Prisca iuvent alios, ego me nunc denique natum
Gratulor: haec aetas moribus apta meis.
And this might have served as a motto for the Elizabethan.
Moreover, the poetry of Ovid has the charm of romantic atmos-
phere and suggestiveness, which has often been compared to the
Arabian Nights. The world of the Metamorphoses is not the actual
world; it is pervaded by the fabulous and the superhuman. Simcox
calls the poem "the most romantic work in Latin literature. "40
Perhaps the strongest single reason for the popularity of Ovid''
lies in what Mr. Ronald Bayne calls "the intensely sensuous nature
of the Elizabethan";41 and Professor Saintsbury, "the peculiar
Renaissance note, the union of sensual and intellectual rapture. " 42
The greatest value of Ovid as a source lies in the fact that his
works are a storehouse of classic myths. Not only did he present
the great stories of Greece and Rome with freshness, charm and
permanent power of appeal; but he transmitted a rich fund of
mythological lore the sources of which are frequently obscured or
lost beyond recovery. It was largely or entirely through the poems
of Ovid that many writers became acquainted with the riches of
classical mythology. Nowhere else was such a wealth of legend
to be found in so attractive a form.
"lb. , p. 141.
"P. Chasles: Thiatre anglais, p. 135.
40 History of Latin Literature, I, p. 354.
? Cambridge Hist, of Eng. Lit. , VI, p. 370.
"Hist, of Eng. Lit. , p. 268.
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? 8 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
\
In the following pages an attempt is made to assemble the
more typical expressions of opinion with regard to the poetry and
character of Ovid. The one aim has been to try to see the poet as
the Elizabethans saw him. To the possible objection that there
was ho "Elizabethan^ attitude on this matter, that the citations
represent only partial, scattered, and individual views, it may be
replied that this must be true of almost any other similar study.
In dealing with matters of this kind, one must not lose sight of the
fact that one has to do with varying expressions of personal feeling
and judgment, and must not obscure the situation with any general
term. At the same time Hennequin has shown the value of noting
the groups of admirers and critics of a widely influential writer in
order to form thereby some conception of the literary and moral
ideals of a given epoch. 43 What the Elizabethans thought of Ovid
is not, so far as classical scholarship is concerned, a matter of
very great moment. As a side-light on their ideas and tastes, what
they thought of the poet has its interest, as indeed must everything
have that relates to this fascinating period. Moreover, the attitude
of the times under consideration toward Ovid was, in the main,
but part of a larger and far more vital question--the right of
poetry to exist.
As for the expressions of concern for poetry and for some at
least of the more or less labored and pedantic defenses that figure
in the ensuing pages, the reader may perhaps feel--
Non tali auxilio nee defensoribus istis
tempus eget.
But such was by no means the position of those whose utterances
are to be here considered. Those who really believed that much of
the poetry regarded as classic offended the moral or religious sensi-
bilities, demanded an answer to charges which they preferred in-
sistently and in language that could not be mistaken. These charges
were not infrequently occasions for embarrassment and for resort
to what may sometimes appear to us mere tricks of desperation.
It remained for Sir Philip Sidney to make the one great apology
of his time by transcending in a serene and noble way the turmoil
and logomachy which is here passed in review.
"La Critique Scientifique. Paris, 1888.
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID 9
Widely scattered and radically differing expressions of opin-
ion with regard to the personality and works of Ovid appear in
England from Sir Thomas Elyot's The Governour (1531) to Dry-
den's Preface to the Fables (1700). With very general agreement ^
that the poems often give occasion for offense to the moral sense, ^f
and in some instances with extremely plain speaking upon this
matter, writers commonly see one of two possibilities. Some would
condemn the poems to what they regarded as well-merited oblivion,
while others would have recourse to what they considered a sort
of Higher Criticism. They would separate the good from the evil
in the poems, and ignoring or forgetting the latter, make the utmost
profit out of the good. On their favorite analogy of the bee, which
extracts honey from even the most poisonous plants, . they would,
moreover, find some profit in the evil itself. The latter very natu-
rally, therefore, attach peculiar importance to the manner of read-
ing or interpretation. Moralization, based on the assumed under-
lying allegory, or in some cases very numerous allegories, is the
alchemy with which they would transmute the baser metal. What
appears to the hasty reader or to the untrained mind as a "filthy
fable" must in this view be "moralized in its kind"; whereupon
it yields matter "both pleasant and profitable," thereby justifying
the oft-quoted Horatian maxim.
This method of interpretation goes back, of course, to the
"moralized Ovids" of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance,
and is typified by the Metamorphosis Ozndiana moraliter a Magistro
Thoma Walleys Anglico de professione Praedicatorum sub sanctis-
simo patre Dominico explanata. This work was first printed at
Paris in 1509; and again in 1510, with the text of Ovid, at Lyons.
J. B. Haureau 44 has shown that Thomas of Wales really had
nothing to do with this work, which is to be ascribed to Pierre
Bersuire, (d. 1362). Mr. F. G. Stokes, in his edition of Epistolae
Obscurorum Virorum,45 gives an illuminating specimen of the four-
fold method of interpretation in the work of Bersuire. It may be
taken as typical of its kind. Applying this method to the fable of
Saturn, we have the following meanings:
"Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, tome XXX, pp. 44-55.
* P. 74, note.
*
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? IO SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
#
(Literaliter) "Saturn is said to devour his own sons, because
a person born under the 'constellation' of Saturn rarely lives. "
(Naturaliter) "Saturn devours his own sons, because he signifies
Time, and whatsoever is born of Time is by Time wasted and
consumed. "
(Historialiter) "Saturn was King of Crete, of whom his brother
Titan predicted that one of his sons would drive him from the
throne. Whereupon he determined to devour his sons and avert
the evil fate. "
. ' (Allegorice) "An avaricious man, armed with rapine as with a
scythe, devours his children, in the sense that by his extortions he
impoverishes them and consumes their substance. "
The method of interpretation illustrated by the foregoing ex-
tract has played a tremendous role in the history of human thought.
First seen in the fragments of Aristobulus, the method culminated
in the work of Philo Judaeus, On the Allegories of the Sacred
Laws. 4" It developed in an attempt to reconcile Greek philosophy
with Jewish legislation,47 and followed lines that had already been
applied to the study of Homer. 48 Founded on the sincerest of
motives, and dedicated to the most pious purposes, it came to be
regarded during the Middle Ages as a very pillar of the faith. It
gave pith and point to religious instruction and furnished ideals for
human conduct. The leading exponent of the allegorical method
of scriptural interpretation was Origen. 49 Clement of Alexandria
declared that all scripture must be allegorically understood. 50 Al-
though there were protests against the views of Origen, and against
"Farrar, F. W. : History of Interpretation, p. 127.
For a summary of Philo's rules, see pp. 139-157.
Seeberg, R. : Lehrbuch der . Dogmengeschichte, I, 52 ff.
Cf. Hatch: The Hibbert Lectures, 1888, pp. 59-65; 66-79.
Bigg: The Christian Platonists, pp. 56-58; 92; 134.
Davidson, S. : Sacred Hermeneutics, Ch. IV.
"Farrar, op. cit. , p. 131.
? lb. , p. 125.
? lb. , p. 177.
M lb. , p. 183.
Cf. Ebert, A.
: Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters im
Abendlande, Vol. I, pp. 139; 147; 150; 215; 245; 378; 516; 550; 596.
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID II
what appeared to be hazardous extensions of the idea,51 the ad-
herents of the allegorical method ultimately carried the day. 52 It
became the recognized method of scholastic exegesis, as is exempli-
fied notably in the works of Aquinas. 53 Despite the sincerity of
the motives, there is small room for doubt that the persistent
tendency to seek for veiled meanings in even the most literal state-
ments exercised a dangerous fascination over certain types of mind,
and led directly or indirectly to excess, exaggeration, and puer-
ilities of all sorts. Brunetiere remarks in this connection: "Un-
fortunately, if the intentions were excellent, the method was false;
--for the idea did not become clearer in proportion as recourse was
had more and more to allegory;--and the writers got further
away from truth and nature in the same proportion. This is
what Petrarch meant when he made the authors of the Roman de
la Rose the reproach that their 'Muse' was asleep;--and when he
contrasted with their coldness the passionate ardour breathed by
the verses 'of those divine singers of love', Virgil, Catullus, Pro-
pertius, and Ovid. "" Before the dawn of critical yr. bnlarshin such
intellectual exercises were doomed to lead to wild inconsistencies
when they concerned themselves with the classics. To what lengths
they actually did go in this direction Comparetti has given ample
illustration in his famous account of Virgil in the Middle Ages. 85
If Virgil became to the popular imagination a wizard and a pro-
phet of Christ, we need feel no surprise when, in 1467, a monk
of Paris copies the Ars Amandi "ad laudem et gloriam Virginis
Mariae. " 56 Horace, as Stemplinger has shown, met with the same
general treatment. 67 A curiously belated example of the method
is to be found in two poems by Laurence le Brun (1607-1663):
a Farrar, pp. 206-222.
"lb. , p. 239.
See also the summary in Taylor, H. O. : The Classical Heritage of the
Middle Ages, pp. 97-103.
M Farrar, p. 271.
Cf. Haureau, B. : Histoire de la philosophie scolastique, Vol. I, Chap. III.
M Manual of (he History of French Literature, trans, by R. Derechef, p. 27.
- K English trans, by Benecke. London, 1888.
"Monnier: Le Quattrocento, Vol. I, p. 113.
m Das Fortleben der Horazischen Lyrik seit der Renaissance, p. 26.
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? 12 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
k
Virgilius Christianus and Ovidius Christianus. In the second of
these the Metamorphoses undergo transformation into stories of
converted penitents. 68 The spirit of Pierre Bersuire lived on in
Webbe, Harington, Golding, Sandys, Garth, and many others; it
colored the whole Elizabethan attitude toward Ovid and toward
the general interpretation of poetry.
Occasionally, to be sure, a voice was raised in protest. Thus
in his Obedience of a Christian Man, Tyndale found cause for
indignation at the methods of the schoolmen in the fact that, "some
will prove a point of the Faith as well out of a fable of Ovid or any
other poet, as out of St. John's Gospel or Paul's Epistles. "*8 An/
allegory in itself, he thinks, "proveth nothing, neither can do. For
it is not the scripture, but an ensample or a similitude borrowed
of the scripture, to declare a text or a conclusion of the scripture
more expressly and to root it and grave it in the heart If
I could not prove with an open text that which the allegory doth
express, then were the allegory a thing to be jested at, and of no
greater value than a tale of Robin Hood. "60 Although he admits
the utility of allegory under proper conditions, Tyndale warns
expressly against its dangers: "Finally, beware of allegories; for
there is not a more handsome or apt thing to beguile withal than
an allegory. And contrariwise; there is not a better, vehementer,
or mightier thing to make a man quickwitted and print wisdom in
him, and make it to abide, when bare words go but in at the one
ear, and out at the other. "61 Whitgift is equally plain in his
warning as to the dangers attendant upon the method: "All men
know how uncertain a reason it is that is grounded upon figures and
types, except the application thereof may be found in the scriptures.
For a man may apply them as it pleaseth him, even as he may do
in allegories. "62 Whitaker argues to the same purpose: "We
affirm that there is but one true, proper and genuine sense of scrip-
tures, arising from the words rightly understood, which we call
"Dictionnaire Universelle, X, p. 291.
"Tyndale's Works, Parked Society, I, p. 306.
M lb. , p. 428.
<<Ib.
"Works, Parker Society, II, p. 92.
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID 13
the literal: and we contend that allegories, tropologies and ana-
gogues are not various senses, but various collections from one
sense, or various applications and accommodations of that one
meaning The sense of scripture, therefore, is but one. "83
Expressions such as the foregoing were, however, restricted
to the field of theological controversy and appear to have exerted
little influence on the current application of allegorical interpretation
to works of literature. Apparently not even the keenest satire
availed at once to wean the minds of readers and commentators
from their delight in subtleties and far-fetched interpretations.
Letter number 28 of the Epistolae Virorum Obscurorum, as trans-
lated by Mr. Stokes, reads, in part, as follows:
"I already know by rote all the fables of Ovid in his Meta-
morphoses, and these I can expound quadruply--to wit, naturally,
literally, historically, and spiritually--and this is more than the
secular poets can do
"You will hence understand that nowadays these Poets do but
study their art literally, and do not comprehend allegorizing and
spiritual expositions: as saith the Apostle, 'The natural man re-
ceiveth not the things of the spirit of God. '
"Now you may ask where I have obtained this subtle skill. I
reply that I lately bought a book composed by a certain English
Doctor of our Order, Thomas of Wales by name; and the book is
all writ concerning Ovid's Metamorphoses, explaining each story
allegorically and spiritually, and its profoundity in Theology pas-
seth belief.
"Most assuredly hath the Holy Spirit inspired this man with so
great learning, for in his book he setteth forth the harmonies be-
tween the Holy Scriptures and the fables of the Poet, and of these
you may judge from the instances subjoined.
"Of the Python that Apollo slew, the Psalmist saith, 'This
dragon which thou hast formed to play therein! ' And, again,
'Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk. '
"A Disputation on Holy Scripture, Parker Society, p. 404.
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? 14 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
"Concerning Saturn--who is always feigned an old man, and
the father of the gods--devouring his own children, Ezekiel saith:
'The fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee. '
"Diana signifieth the Blessed Virgin, Mary
"Cadmus, too, seeking for his sister, is a figure of Christ who
seeketh for his sister, to wit, the soul of man; and he buildeth a
city, that is, the Church.
"Concerning Actaeon, who beheld Diana naked, Ezekiel prophe-
sied, saying 'Thou wast bare and full of confusion, and I passed
by thee and saw thee. '
"Not without cause is it written in the Poets that Bacchus was
twice born, for by him is denoted Christ, who was twice born
"Semele also, who nursed Bacchus, is an image of the Blessed
Virgin.
"All this, and much more, I have learned out of that book.
If you were but with me you should behold marvelous things.
"And that is the way in which we ought to study Poetry. "
Here is keen satire of the allegorical method uncontrolled by
reason and accurate knowledge, a satire addressed, with a final
thrust, to Frater Dollenkopfius (Dunderhead). Rabelais, too, poked
/- fun at the method,64 though, as may be seen, without destroying
so deeply rooted a mental habit, or shaking its hold on such writers
as were determined to read moral truths and allegorical lessons
into the Metamorphoses, and were carried away with the exercise
of intellectual subtlety in the face of what were seemingly the
greatest difficulties. Rather perhaps it was the very consciousness
of such difficulties and the delight in appearing to reconcile them
that spurred such minds on to further effort. It was an absorbing
'game.
In The Governour Sir Thomas Elyot gives first place in the study
of poetry to Homer, an eminence not called in question in any of
the works under review. 65 He recommends, however, that some
Latin author be studied along with the Greek: "and especially
Virgile; which, in his wark called Eneidos, is most like to Homere
in latine and none one autor serueth to so diuers wits
"Trans, by Urquhart, Book I, Ch. 58.
"Cf. Prolong of the first Bulk of Eneados, by Gavin Douglas, ed. J. Small.
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID 15
as doth Virgile wherefore he is in the order of lernyng
to be preferred before any other autor latine. " "6 "I woulde set
nexte to him two bookes of Ouid, the one called Metamorphosios,
whiche is as moche as to say as, chaungynge into other figure or
fourme: the other is entitled De fastis: where the ceremonies of the
gentiles, and especially the Romanes, be expressed: bothe right neces-
sary for the understandynge of other poetes. But by cause there
is litell other lernyng in them, concernyng either vertuous maners
or policie, I suppose it were better that as fables and ceremonies
happen to come in a lesson, it were declared abundantly by the
maister than that in the said two bokes, a longe tyme shulde be
spente and almost lost: which mought be better employed on suche
autors that do minister both eloquence, ciuile policie, and exhor-
tation to vertue. Wherefore in his place let us bring in Horace,,
in whom is contayned moche varietie of lernynge and quicknesse
of sentence. " 6T
Incidentally to his statement of the proper subjects of instruc-
tion, Elyot opens what was to prove a long and absorbingly inter-
esting debate by undertaking, "to shewe what profite may be taken
by the diligent reading of auncient poetes, contrarye to the false
opinion, that nowe rayneth, of them that suppose that in the works
of poetes is contayned nothynge but baudry, (suche is their foule
worde of reproche), and unprofitable leasinges. "68 The cause of
such an error of judgment is, in Elyot's opinion, ignorance. "But
they whiche be ignoraunt in poetes wyll perchaunce obiecte, as is
their maner, agayne these verses, saying that in Therence and
other that were writers of comedies, also Ouide, Catullus, Martialis,
and all that route of lasciuious poetes that wrate epistles and ditties
of loue, some called in latin Elegiae and some Epigrammata, is
nothynge contayned but incitation to lechery. "89
Such a view Elyot undertakes to refute by dwelling on the
"good sentences", even in what he regards as the extreme case
of "Ouidius, that seemeth of all poetes lasciuious, in his mooste
"Croft's ed. , I, p. 66.
"lb. , pp. 67-68.
"lb. , p. 123.
"lb. , p. 123.
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? l6 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
wanton bokes [who still] hath right commendable and noble sen-
tences; as for proufe thereof I will recite some that I have taken
at aduenture. " TM And here he translates lines 131 to 136 of De
Remedio Amoris. In fine, he makes a plea in extenuation: he
cannot deny that there are matters in his author that may justly
give offense; but he still maintains that whatever is good in the
poet should be turned to enjoyment and profit. On the whole,
this may be regarded as a very characteristic expression of the
more moderate view that prevailed throughout the period. In
the case of Ovid and in that of the poets of love generally it
was frankly admitted that occasions for offense to moral ideals were
sometimes given. The defense generally made was that such oc-
casions were negligible, or at least should not be allowed to out-
weigh the excellencies of the poet. So Elyot argues:
"Martialis, whiche, for his dissoulute wrytynge, is mooste sel-
dome radde of men of moche grauitie, hath not withstandynge
many commendable sentences and right wise counsailes, as among
diuers I will reherce one which is first come to my remembrance.
If thou wylte eschew bytter aduenture,
And auoide the gnawynge of a pensifull harte,
Sette in no one persone all holy thy pleasure,
The lasse ioy shalte thou haue but the lasse shalte thou smarte.
"I coulde recite a great nombre of semblable good sentences out
of these and other wanton poetes, who in the latine do expresse
them incomparably with more grace and delectation than our
englische tonge may yet comprehende.
"Wherefore sens good and wise mater may be picked out of
these poetes, it were no reason, for some lite mater that is in their
verses, to abandone therefore al their warkes, no more than it were
to forbeare or prohibite a man to come into a faire garden, lest
the redolent sauors of swete herbes and floures shall meue him to
wanton courage, or leste in gadring good and holsome herbes he
may happen to be stunge with a nettile Semblablye if he
do rede wanton mater mixte with wisedome, he putteth the warst
under foote and sorteth out the best, or, if his courage be stered
or prouoked, he remembereth the litel pleasure and gret detriment
wIb. , p. 133-
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015031370292 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID \J
that shulde ensue of it, and withdrawynge his minde to some other
studie or exercise shortly forgetteth it
"So all thoughe I do nat approue the lesson of wanton poetes
to be taughte unto all children, yet thynke I conuenient and neces-
sary that, whan the mynde is become constant and courage is
asswaged, or that children of their naturall disposition be shamfaste
and continent, none auncient poete wolde be excluded from the
lesson of suche one as desireth to come to the perfection of wyse-
dome. ""
In The Scholemaster, published in 1568, Ascham lays no stress
on the reading of Ovid: Varro, Sallust, Caesar, and Cicero are his
favorites as subjects of instruction. And he approves the dictum
of Sir John Cheke--"I would haue a good student passe and iorney
through all authors both Greke and Latin: But he that will dwell
in these few books onelie: first, in Gods holie Bible, and than
ioyne with it, Tullie in Latin, Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Isocrates,
and Demosthenes in Greke: must nedes proue an excellent man. "72
Erasmus, De Ratione Studii Commentariolus (1512) recommends
that the teacher "should himself have travelled through the whole
circle of knowledge among the poets, Homer and Ovid. "73
Webbe, however, in his essay Of English Poetry carries Elyot's
view still further: "For surelie I am of this opinion that the
wantonest Poets of all, in their most laciuious workes wherein
they busied themselues, sought rather by that meanes to withdraw
mens mindes (especiallie the best natures) from such foule vices
then to allure them to imbrace such beastly follies as they de-
tected. " 74
So far then the lover of poetry and the friend of Ovid had
before him certain clearly defined possibilities. Enjoying and ap-
propriating whatever was good in the poet, he could ignore or
forget any "unhonest matter", he could regard it as an exemplum,
he could "moralize it in its kind", or he could explore the mine
n lb. , pp. 123-131.
"G. G. Smith: Elizabethan Critical Essays, I. p. 18.
"W. H. Woodward: Desiderius Erasmus Concerning the Aim and
Method of Education, p. 167.
TM G. G. Smith: Elizabethan Critical Essays, I, p. 251.
*
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