No More Learning

Some Elizabethan opinions of the poetry and character of Ovid . . .
by Clyde Barnes Cooper.
Cooper, Clyde Barnes.
Menasha, Wis. , George Banta publishing co. , 1914.
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? Some Elizabethan opinions of the poetry and character of Ovid . . . Clyde Barnes Cooper
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? 278
en
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? (C)I}? Inttttrattg of (Elprago
FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
Some Elizabethan Opinions of the
Poetry and Character of Ovid
A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND
LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH)
BY
CLYDE BARNES COOPER
MENASHA, WIS.
THE COLLEGIATE PRESS
GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING CO.
1914
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? ir
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015031370292 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? The literary fortunes of the Roman poet Ovid are little short
of the marvelous. Accorded among his own people a rank second
only to that of Virgil, distinguished for admirable narrative, tender
elegy, and for at least one notable experiment in tragedy--the lost
Medea, he received even in his own lifetime that striking mixture of
praise and censure that has continued to the present. 1
Throughout mediaeval literature his influence was potent and
pervasive. 2 He appears in various ways in Italian, Provencal, Span-
ish, Bohemian, German, Icelandic, French, and English. He was a
main source of inspiration for the first part of the Roman de la j?
1 For remarks of Seneca and of Quintilian on the character of Ovid, see
Teuffel-Schwabe-Warr: Hist. of Roman Lit. , I, p. 495.
'The character and extent of the references to Ovid during the Middle
Ages in England may be seen in part by consulting the carefully prepared
indexes to the following: (Rolls Series. )
Warner, G. F. : Giraldi Cambrensis Opera. VIII vols.
Haydon, F. S. : Eulogium Historiarum.
Anstey, H. : Munimenta Academica. II vols.
Riley, H. T. : Chronica Monasterii S. Albani.
Luard, H. R. : Roberti Grosseteste Epistolae.
Luard, H. R. : Annales Monastici.
Lumby, J. R. : Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden. IX vols.
Wright, Th. : Alexandri Neckham de Naturis Rerum Libri Duo.
Madden, Sir F. : Matthaei Parisiensis Historia Anglorum. Ill vols.
Luard, H. R. : Flores Historiarum.
<fc The most extensive collection of mediaeval citations of Ovid is in
Manitius: Beitrage zur Geschichte des Ovid im Mittelalter. Philologus,
Suppl. VII (1899), pp. 721 ff.
No study of Ovid in mediaeval literature such as Comparetti's VWgilio
nell medio evo has yet appeared. The following references are of value:
Bartsch, Karl: Albrecht von Halberstadt und Ovid im Mittelalter. Qued-
linburg, 1861.
Belloni, Egidio: Note sulle traduzione dell' Arte Amatoria e dei Remedia
Amoris d'Ovidio anteriori al Rinascimento. Bergamo, 1892. Completed
study, Turin, 1900 [Romania, 22, 339, and 29, 630].
Cloetta, W. : Beitrage zur Litteraturgeschichte des Mittelalters und der Ren-
aissance. Erster Theil, Halle, 1890. P. 164 ff.
Dernedde, R. : Uber die den altfr. Dichtern bekannten epischen Stoffe aus
dem Altertum. Gottingen, 1887.
Kuhlhora, G. : Das Verhaltnis der Art d'amors des Jacques d'Amiens zu
Ovids Ars amatoria. Quedlinburg, 1908.
284970
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015031370292 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 2 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
^L Rose,3 and he supplied a code of laws for the Courts of Love. 4 The
poem Flamenca, says Mr. Ker, "is really the triumph of Ovid over
all his Gothic contemporaries. "5 Monastic annalists frequently
quote him,8 and the numerous manuscripts bear witness to his
popularity. 7 Dante makes some hundred references to Ovid, and
-k ranks him third among the four great poets of the world. 8 Chaucer
aCand Gower knew him well, as did a host of lesser men. " \The med-
iaeval mind, however, approached the classics in its own way. The
schoolmen admired Virgil's Fourth Eclogue because they saw there
a prophecy of the birth of Christ. ^x Allegorizing was the recog-
nized mode oJJntexpTM>>tatinn; and the ingenuity that exercised itself
on the mystic properties of numbers and the hidden significations
of the parts of speech saw justifiable meanings in even the most
licentious passages in Ovid, and insisted that here also were moral
and religious lessons had one but the wit to find them. 11 As Canon
iyC ;_ Neilson, W. A. : The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love. Harvard
Studies and Notes--Vol. VI, pp. 170-212, The Ovidian Tradition.
Runge, O. : Die Metamorphoseon-Verdeutschung Albrechts von Halberstadt.
Berlin, 1908. Palaestra--No. 73.
Sudre, L. : Publii Ovidii Metamorphoseon libros quomodo nostrates medii
aevi poetae imitati interpretatique sunt Paris, 1893. [Romania, 22, 242]
Sandys, J. E. : History of Classical Scholarship. Cambridge, 1906. Page 638,
Seldmayer, H. : Beitrage zur Geschichte der Ovid-Studien im Mittelalter,
Wiener Studien, VI. 1884.
* E. Langlois: Origines et sources du Roman de la Rose, pp. 69-75.
*L. F. Mott: The Court of Love, p. 55.
'Epic and Romance, p. 361.
'Indexes to the Rolls Series.
'Teuffel-Schwabe-Warr: Hist, of Roman Lit. , I, sec 249, note 3.
"Scartazzini: Enciclopedia Dantesca, II, p. 1412.
Moore: Studies in Dante, pp. 206-228.
ROCKEFELLER
Some Elizabethan Opinions of the
Poetry and Character of Ovid
A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND
LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH)
BY
CLYDE BARNES COOPER
MENASHA, WIS.
THE COLLEGIATE PRESS
GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING CO.
1914
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015031370292 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? ir
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015031370292 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? The literary fortunes of the Roman poet Ovid are little short
of the marvelous. Accorded among his own people a rank second
only to that of Virgil, distinguished for admirable narrative, tender
elegy, and for at least one notable experiment in tragedy--the lost
Medea, he received even in his own lifetime that striking mixture of
praise and censure that has continued to the present. 1
Throughout mediaeval literature his influence was potent and
pervasive. 2 He appears in various ways in Italian, Provencal, Span-
ish, Bohemian, German, Icelandic, French, and English. He was a
main source of inspiration for the first part of the Roman de la j?
1 For remarks of Seneca and of Quintilian on the character of Ovid, see
Teuffel-Schwabe-Warr: Hist. of Roman Lit. , I, p. 495.
'The character and extent of the references to Ovid during the Middle
Ages in England may be seen in part by consulting the carefully prepared
indexes to the following: (Rolls Series. )
Warner, G. F. : Giraldi Cambrensis Opera. VIII vols.
Haydon, F. S. : Eulogium Historiarum.
Anstey, H. : Munimenta Academica. II vols.
Riley, H. T. : Chronica Monasterii S. Albani.
Luard, H. R. : Roberti Grosseteste Epistolae.
Luard, H. R. : Annales Monastici.
Lumby, J. R. : Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden. IX vols.
Wright, Th. : Alexandri Neckham de Naturis Rerum Libri Duo.
Madden, Sir F. : Matthaei Parisiensis Historia Anglorum. Ill vols.
Luard, H. R. : Flores Historiarum.
<fc The most extensive collection of mediaeval citations of Ovid is in
Manitius: Beitrage zur Geschichte des Ovid im Mittelalter. Philologus,
Suppl. VII (1899), pp. 721 ff.
No study of Ovid in mediaeval literature such as Comparetti's VWgilio
nell medio evo has yet appeared. The following references are of value:
Bartsch, Karl: Albrecht von Halberstadt und Ovid im Mittelalter. Qued-
linburg, 1861.
Belloni, Egidio: Note sulle traduzione dell' Arte Amatoria e dei Remedia
Amoris d'Ovidio anteriori al Rinascimento. Bergamo, 1892. Completed
study, Turin, 1900 [Romania, 22, 339, and 29, 630].
Cloetta, W. : Beitrage zur Litteraturgeschichte des Mittelalters und der Ren-
aissance. Erster Theil, Halle, 1890. P. 164 ff.
Dernedde, R. : Uber die den altfr. Dichtern bekannten epischen Stoffe aus
dem Altertum. Gottingen, 1887.
Kuhlhora, G. : Das Verhaltnis der Art d'amors des Jacques d'Amiens zu
Ovids Ars amatoria. Quedlinburg, 1908.
284970
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015031370292 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 2 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
^L Rose,3 and he supplied a code of laws for the Courts of Love. 4 The
poem Flamenca, says Mr. Ker, "is really the triumph of Ovid over
all his Gothic contemporaries. "5 Monastic annalists frequently
quote him,8 and the numerous manuscripts bear witness to his
popularity. 7 Dante makes some hundred references to Ovid, and
-k ranks him third among the four great poets of the world. 8 Chaucer
aCand Gower knew him well, as did a host of lesser men. " \The med-
iaeval mind, however, approached the classics in its own way. The
schoolmen admired Virgil's Fourth Eclogue because they saw there
a prophecy of the birth of Christ. ^x Allegorizing was the recog-
nized mode oJJntexpTM>>tatinn; and the ingenuity that exercised itself
on the mystic properties of numbers and the hidden significations
of the parts of speech saw justifiable meanings in even the most
licentious passages in Ovid, and insisted that here also were moral
and religious lessons had one but the wit to find them. 11 As Canon
iyC ;_ Neilson, W. A. : The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love. Harvard
Studies and Notes--Vol. VI, pp. 170-212, The Ovidian Tradition.
Runge, O. : Die Metamorphoseon-Verdeutschung Albrechts von Halberstadt.
Berlin, 1908. Palaestra--No. 73.
Sudre, L. : Publii Ovidii Metamorphoseon libros quomodo nostrates medii
aevi poetae imitati interpretatique sunt Paris, 1893. [Romania, 22, 242]
Sandys, J. E. : History of Classical Scholarship. Cambridge, 1906. Page 638,
Seldmayer, H. : Beitrage zur Geschichte der Ovid-Studien im Mittelalter,
Wiener Studien, VI. 1884.
* E. Langlois: Origines et sources du Roman de la Rose, pp. 69-75.
*L. F. Mott: The Court of Love, p. 55.
'Epic and Romance, p. 361.
'Indexes to the Rolls Series.
'Teuffel-Schwabe-Warr: Hist, of Roman Lit. , I, sec 249, note 3.
"Scartazzini: Enciclopedia Dantesca, II, p. 1412.
Moore: Studies in Dante, pp. 206-228.
Inferno, Canto IV, line 90.
* Skeat: Chaucer, VI, p. 387.
Lounsbury: Studies in Chaucer, II, 251-252.
G. C. Macaulay: The Complete Works of John Gower, IV, p. 369 ff.
u Greenough: The Greater Poems of Virgil, notes, p. 27.
For the best account of the legend, see Comparetti: Virgil in the
Middle Ages, Eng. trans, by Benecke.
11 See below, note 46.
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID 3
J. Janssen has shown, mediaeval writers employed such Latin
authors as they knew as aids toward a deeper knowledge of Chris-
tianity and as incentives toward a purer moral life. 12
In the Renaissance also Ovid was a great favorite with painter,
poet, and cultivated readers generally. 18 To an astonishingly early
reading of that poet Montaigne ascribed his love of literature,
although in later life his fondness for Ovid left him. 14 Clement
Marot promised: "de tout mon povoir suyvre et contrefaire la
veine du noble poete Ovide. " 15 Of the whole Rhetorical School
in France, M. Guy observes: "Le poete qu'ils preferent, c'est Ovide;
viennent ensuite Virgile, Horace, Terence. "18 During the same
period, however, appeared also the note of disparagement or cen-
sure, as may be seen in the following opinions. Thus in 1450 ^Eneas
Sylvius remarked in his De Liberorum Educatione: "Ubique tristis,
ubique dulcis est, in plerisque tamen locis nimium lascivus. "17
And Ludovicus Vives, whose writings were widely influential, ob-
served in his De Tradendis Disciplinis, 1555: "Imo vero amissa
sunt tot philosophorum et sacrorum autorum monumenta, et grave
erit et non ferendum facinus, si Tibullus pereat aut Ars Amandi
Nasonis. " 18 The latter statement is not, of course, to be inter-
preted as evidence of a special attack on Ovid. As will appear in
the course of the discussion, it is really but a part of the prevailing
attitude toward the claims of poetry. But it shows that in the very
heyday of his fame doubt and censure were mingled with the
praise of Ovid.
That Elizabethan poets and playwrights had a special fondness
for the poetry of Ovid has long been a commonplace of English
UJ. Janssen: History of the German People at the Close of the Middle
Ages. English trans. , London, 1896. I, p. 63.
"The painters of the Renaissance found Ovid a source of suggestion for
mythological subjects. Cf. Schoenfeld, P. : Ovids Metamorphosen in ihrem
Verhaltnis zur antiken Kunst. Wunderer, W. : Ovids Werke in ihrem Ver-
haltnis zur antiken Kunst.
"Montaigne: Essays, trans, by Cotton, I, p. 204.
"Oeuvres de Clement Marot, Lyon, 1870, II, p. 154.
"L'Ecole des Rhetoriquers, p. 10.
"Elyot: The Governour. Ed. Croft, I, p. 124, note.
"lb.
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? 4 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
literary history.