No More Learning

In later times both Landor and William Morris retold the tale of
Atalanta, taking a few circumstances from Ovid. According to Landor,
the maiden ignored the first and second apples but stopped for the third.
Petrarch in his Triumph of Love referred to Atalanta as vanquished by
three golden apples and a beautiful face, Boiardo mentioned her rac-
ing, and Shakespeare referred in As You Like It to her nimble heels.
Guido Reni treated the story in a famous painting. The subject
attracted also the French artist Paynter and the sculptors Gaspard
Coustou, de Paultre, Inj albert, and Derwent Wood.
*******
Most of the longer stories in Ovid's Tenth Book had been of early
origin and had attracted a number of Greek authors and artists. And
many of these tales had interested Ovid's Roman predecessors. But the
tales of Pygmalion and of Atalanta's metamorphosis were of Alexan-
drian origin and were little known. Of the seven lesser tales only that of
Erigone was either old or familiar. Ovid contrasted stories well known
to his Roman audience with stories which were new. Readers of medieval
times found available some earlier Roman accounts of Orpheus and
Ganymede and versions of Orpheus and Eurydice by Roman authors
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? BOOK TEN
after Ovid's time. But Ovid gave the tales of Hyacinthus and Myrrha
their fame, and he saved from oblivion the important tale of the sculptor
Pygmalion.
In choosing his material from earlier versions, Ovid made some use
of the Iliad for the tale of Ganymede and of the Catalogues for that of
Atalanta's race. Otherwise he followed predecessors of Alexandrian
and Roman times. Phanocles helped him repeatedly in the first half of
the book; Philostephanus, the Manual, and Nicander became important
in the second half. Theocritus, Euphorion, Bion, and Theodorus each
proved valuable for one or more tales. For incidents in the stories of
Eurydice, Ganymede, and Atalanta's race, and for three minor tales,
Ovid relied on Alexandrian authors whom we cannot identify. Greek
artists contributed to the stories of Orpheus calling together his audi-
ence and to both stories of Atalanta. Cinna suggested part of the tale
of Myrrha, and Vergil was a very important source in the earlier part
of the book. Ovid used his own account of Medusa for his version of
Atalanta transformed. To the Alexandrians and their Roman follow-
ers the themes of the entire book would have been congenial.
In improving this material, Ovid took suggestions from many
authors, a number of them the greatest of ancient times. The Iliad
provided him with details from the thr^e stories of Hyacinthus, Myrrha,
and Atalanta's race. Sophocles contributed to the tale of Myrrha,
Euripides to the stories of Myrrha and Pygmalion. Aratus furnished
the prologue to the tale of Ganymede. Ovid took suggestions often from
the earlier Roman poets. Horace added valuable incidents to the tales
of Eurydice and Adonis, Propertius contributed to the tales of Eury-
dice and Myrrha, Vergil offered improvements either of incident or of
phrase in almost every important tale and in the lesser narrative of Cy-
parissus. And oftener than in any previous book Ovid profited by his
own earlier work -- the Heroides, the Art of Love, and at least nine
tales of the Metamorphoses. He contrived to do this both unobtrusively
and with good effect.
In handling the chief problems of the book, Ovid was unusually
successful. He introduced novelty into the familiar tales of Ganymede
and Adonis; he reconciled conflicting versions of his predecessors in
the stories of Myrrha, Adonis, and Atalanta ; and with remarkable skill
he varied the account of Eurydice from that of Vergil and the story of
Myrrha from his own earlier tale of Byblis.
He solved also the formidable problem of giving many separate
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
tales a plausible connection. As Ovid found his material, it had no re-
lation to the proceeding books of his poem, and most of the tales had no
relation to one another. There was only a rather close connection be-
tween the two stories about Orpheus and a vague association of the tales
about Pygmalion, Myrrha, and Adonis.
Ovid invented the transition from his Ninth Book to the tales
about Orpheus and included the other important tales in a song of the
minstrel. Then he sought further connection. By contrasting one tale
with another, he related the stories of Ganymede, Hyacinthus, and the
Cerastae and Propoetides. He invented a relation between the story of
the Propoetides and that of Pygmalion, and he caused Venus to tell
Adonis the two stories about Atalanta. Ovid succeeded also in finding
an appropriate background for the minor tales. He introduced a plaus-
ible relation between his account of Orpheus assembling an audience and
the metamorphoses of Attis and Cyparissus and also between the trans-
formation of Adonis and that of Menthe, and he contrived to associate
with the dismay of Orpheus two accounts of petrifaction.
The first half of Book Ten attracted a number of later Roman
authors. The book as a whole interested men of the middle ages and the
modern period. Of the nine longer tales, seven won attention during the
centuries that followed. Of the lesser tales only two were remembered
for their own sake, those of Attis and Cyparissus. But the tale of the
Propoetides was mentioned sometimes in relation to Pygmalion.
Among authors who rarely noticed the Metamorphoses, the Tenth
Book attracted a remarkable number. They included Calpurnius Sicu-
lus, Marston, Congreve, Thomson, Fielding, Freneau, William Hazlitt,
Bulwer Lytton, and W. S. Gilbert. Petrarch, Camoens, Gray, and
Cowper made frequent allusions to this book. Single tales had an im-
portant effect first on Celtic and other medieval romance, and then on
the work of such leading authors as Chretien de Troyes, Jean de Meun,
Rousseau, Alfieri, and Hawthorne. More than one tale became impor-
tant in the poetry of Chaucer, Lope de Vega, Goethe, and William Mor-
ris. Many tales proved valuable to Spenser, Shakespeare, and Marini.
But the most persuasive effect occurred in the work of Milton. It began
with his earliest prose and still continued in his Paradise Regained.
Almost all the longer tales of the Tenth Book attracted modern
painters, and five of them attracted sculptors. But masterpieces were
few. The tale of Adonis had an interesting effect on modern science, and
the tale of Eurydice became exceedingly important in the history of
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? BIBLIOGRAPHY
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? BIBLK
Works read or consulted since
Addison, Julia DeWolp
Anthony, E. W.
Antoninus Liberalis
Ariosto, Lodovico
Avery, Mary Myrtle
Bacon, Janet Ruth
Baker, George Pierce
Batrachomyomachia
Billiard, R.
Boethius, A. M. S.
Braune, Julius
Bush, Douglas
Butler, H. E.
Chamberlin, H. H.
Chateaubriand, Rene de
Chinard, Gilbert
Classical Journal, 1927
Darembourg, Charles
Dennis, John
GRAPHY
he publication of the First Volume
The Classic Myths in Art
A History of Mosaics
Partheni Libellus, Antonini Liberalis
MsTqAopqicoaetov Suvayw-f^ by Ed-
gar Martini
Orlando Furioso
Use of Direct Speech in Ovid's Meta-
morphoses
The Voyage of the Argonauts
Shakespeare's Development as a Dra-
matist
French Edition by J. Berger de Xiv-
rey
L'Agriculture dans l'Antiquite d'ap-
res les Georgiques de Vergile
Consolation of Philosophy
Nonnos und Ovid
Classical Mythology and the Renais-
sance Tradition
Classical Mythology and the Roman-
tic Tradition
Post Augustan Poetry
Late Spring (A Translation of Theoc-
ritus)
Last Flowers (Translations of Mos-
chus, Bion, and Hermesianax)
Tradition of the Trees, The (unpub-
lished)
Atala et Rene
Quelque Origines de Bene (Publica-
tions of the Modern Language
Association, March, 1928)
Articles on the Georgics and Caesar
and the Roman Poets
Dictionnaire des Antiquites Grecques
et Romaines
Miscellany Poems
877
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? BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ditmaes, Raymond L.
Ebert, Adolf
Encyclopedia Italiana, La
Encyclopedia Britannica, The
Erasmus, Desiderius
Fairbanks, Arthur
Fairclough, H. R.
Fripp, Edgar
Graf, Arturo
Grimm, Jakob L. C.
Harrison, Jane Ellen
Hadzsitts, G. D.
Halliday, W. R.
Harrington, K. P.
Heinze, R.
Hyginus, Caius Julius
Keller, Otto
KlTTREDGE, G. L.
Klimmer, Wolfgang
Lafaye, Georges
Lang, Andrew
Lonnrot, Elias
Lowell, Amy
McPeek, James A. S.
Moore, George Foot
Murray, A. S.
Reptiles of the World
Snakes of the World
Der Anachronismus in Ovids Meta-
morphosen
Edition of 1935
Edition of 1939
The Praise of Folly
Mythology of Greece and Rome
Love of Nature among the Greeks and
Romans
Shakespeare's Use of Ovid's Meta-
morphoses (Shakespeare Essays,
1930)
Roma nella Memoria del Medio Evo
Kinder und Hausmarchen
Mythology
Prolegomena
Lucretius and his Influence
Sappho and her Influence
Greek and Roman Folklore
Catullus and his Influence
Vergils Epische Technik
Hygini Fabulae by H. J. Rose, 1934
Die Antike Tierwelt
Thiere des Classischen Altertums
Witchcraft in Old and New England
Die Anordnung des Stoffes in der Er-
sten Vier Biicher von Ovids Meta-
morphoses
Catulle et ses Modeles
Les Metamorphoses, Texte et Traduc-
tion, 1930
Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus
The Kalevala by W. F. Kirby
John Keats
Catullus in Strange and Distant Brit-
ain
History of Religion
The Sculpture of the Parthenon
? ? 378
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? BIBLIOGRAPHY
NlCANDER
Nonnus Panopolitanus
Oldham, John
Pascal, Carlo
Pease, A. S.
Plesent, Charles
Plato
Plutarch
pontus de tyard
Rand, E. K.
Ribbeck, Otto
Roscher, W. H.
Rose, H. J.
Sandys, J. B.
SCHEIDEWEILER, F.
SCHELUDKO, 0.
Schultze, G.
Scott, John
Seneca, L. A.
Slater, D. A.
Stoll, B. A.
Symonds, John A.
Tennyson-Turner, Charles
Thompson, D. W.
Tillyard, E. M.
Verral, A. D.
Walpole, Horace
Nicandrei Theriaca et Alexipharmaka
by Otto Schneider (includes tales
by Liberalis, taken from the Het-
eroioumena)
Les Dionysiacques by the Comte de
Marcellus
Dionysiaca (Books 1-35) by W. H. D.
Rouse
Satires upon the Jesuits
Letteratura Latina Medievale
Publii Vergili Aeneidos liber quartus
Le Culex. fitude sur l'Alexandrian-
isme Latin
Dialogues in the Loeb Edition
The Republic by Paul Shorey
Lives by A. H. Clough
Oeuvres Poetiques
Catullus and the Augustans
Geschichte der Romischen Dichtung
Ausfiihrliches Lexikon
Aberystwyth Studies, Volume 4
(Dionysiaca)
Handbook of Greek Mythology
A Short History of Classical Scholar-
ship
Euphorionis Fragmenta
Ovid und die Trobadors (Zeitschrift
fur Romanische Philologie, Vol.
54, 1934)
Euphorionea
Homer and his Influence
Tragedies by F. J. Miller
Ovid in the Metamorphoses
Shakespeare Studies
Studies of the Greek Poets
Collected Sonnets
Glossary of Greek Birds
Milton's Private Correspondence and
Academic Exercises
The Medea of Euripides
The Mysterious Mother
? ? 379
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? BIBLIOGRAPHY
WulaiNer, P. E. De Publii Terentii Varronis Atacini
Vita et Scriptis
Xenophon The Anabasis by W. W. Goodwin and
J. W. White
The Anabasis by Paul Masqueray
Zinsser, Hans Rats, Lice, and History
*******
I take pleasure in acknowledging also the help of the following
friends, each of whom read a large part of the present volume and offered
valuable suggestions:
J. Harry Hooper,
Minister of the historic First Parish, Hingham, Massachusetts
WlNSLOW H. LOVELAND,
Professor of English at Boston University
Fred B. Lund, M. D.
,
Overseer of the Classical Department, Harvard University
Maurice W. Parker,
Dramatic Coach and Musician
Mary Richardson,
of Hingham
W. L. Richardson,
Author of Literature of the World
380
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? REVIEWS AND OPINIONS
Ovid's Metamorphoses in European Culture
VOLUME ONE, Treating Books One to Five (inclusive)
By Wilmon Brewer
The companion volume to Ovid's Metamorphoses
in blank verse, by Brookes More
The first survey to make a comprehensive study of the Metamorphoses
in relation to the entire history of western culture. Evidences of its influ-
ence are to be found in tapestry, painting, sculpture, and opera, as well
as in the work of a host of major and minor poets. -- The Evansville
Courier-J ournal.
Mr. Brewer's critique will prove an eye-opener to the average reader
of today. The influence of Ovid on European culture is definitely shown
by illustration. Here is an excellent opportunity to find profitable en-
joyment. -- The Knickerbocker.
Mr. Brewer has supplied material of much historical and critical
interest. The volume begins by telling the story of Ovid's life. It relates
his work to that of his Greek and Roman predecessors, then recounts the
influence of Ovid on writers who followed. Complete data is given for
each book and each story in the book: the origin of the tale, Ovid's treat-
ment of it, subsequnt use of the tale by classic, medieval, and modern
poets and prose writers of Europe. This comprehensive survey, which
has its own clarity of style and contains much new material, is a fine
piece of scholarly work in itself, as well as a fit commentary on Brookes
More's excellent translation. -- The Louisville Courier-Journal.
The adventures of the gods and men who people the Metamorphoses
of Ovid have interested readers for centuries. It is interesting to note the
varied reactions of succeeding ages to these tales of strange predicaments
and amazing mutations. -- The Dallas Times Herald.
Wilmon Brewer traces for us the influence of the Metamorphoses
on the major poets, including Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and Goethe.
Certainly his treatise is of sound scholarship and deep interest. -- William
Zehv in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
381
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? REVIEWS AND OPINIONS
The lover of literature and art who is not familiar with Ovid is in-
adequately equipped to understand such writers as Petrarch, Marlowe,
Corneille, or Pope and such artists as Tintoretto or Botticelli or Titian or
Rubens. -- The Providence Sunday Journal.
The biography of the Roman poet and a study of the great influence
of Ovid's masterpiece on literature and art, which accompanies the trans-
lation, is by Wilmon Brewer, who in a very scholarly and thought-pro-
voking style has succeeded eminently in renewing modern interest in this
most picturesque poet of Rome's great Augustan era.
You cannot have escaped contacts with this gentle Roman and his
mythological tales in your literary and artistic wanderings. From the
literary dawns of Dante, Boccaccio, and Chaucer, down to the great poets
of the Georgian and Victorian periods, the influence of Ovid has left
illuminated trails. In painting and sculpture the gods and goddesses and
the episodes of love human and divine of Ovid's Metamorphoses have
been perpetuated in classic masterpieces.
Pew of the great poets have escaped his touch. Spenser in his Faerie
Queene borrowed liberally from Ovid's pages, Shakespeare took from him
his Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and his Merchant of Venice
sparkles with Ovidian allusions. Ben Jonson translated the book in part,
and it was a favorite -- and a storehouse of mythical legend -- for Milton.
The winged foosteps of Ovid are clearly traceable throughout Paradise
Lost. And these are only a few of the many references to the enduring
influence of this familiar epic that Wilmon Brewer has traced in his intro-
ductory survey. -- The Kansas City Times.
The book should be read with pleasure not only by the scholarly few
but by a large company of those who care for beautiful things presented
faultlessly. It is most informing and has opened up many matters of
great interest. It will put classical scholars much in debt, especially be-
cause of the care taken to show Ovid's influence through the centuries
and in all countries. The work is very carefully written, with good
organization and with ease and clarity of style. The format, too, is pleas-
ing to a degree, and the typography leaves nothing to be desired. --
William L. Richardson: Author of Literature of the World; Editor of
World Writers.
The volume of illustrative comment is very interesting. It is packed
with information, scientifically arranged and presented in a pleasing
style -- S. G. Owen: Leading English authority on Ovid; Editor of
Ovid's Tristia; Author of Ovid and Romance.
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? REVIEWS AND OPINIONS
What you are doing for Ovid and the Metamorphoses is a work that
I have long wanted to see done in just the complete way in which you are
doing it. All students of Ovid will be glad. -- Frank Justus Miller:
Editor of Ovid's Metamorphoses for the Loeb Classical Library.
It brings the reader the fruit of much erudition, yet saves him effort
by the clear, pleasing way of presenting the facts. -- Winslow Loveland:
Professor of English, Boston University.
Admirable research into Ovid's influence through the course of
European literature and art. -- Smile Ripert: French Poet and Scholar;
Author of Ovide Poete de VAmour, des Dieux, et de I'Exile.
With full information and sure command of material, it pursues the
study of Ovid's effect among many attentive readers and many nations
and in the divers arts of literature, sculpture, and painting. -- Luigi
Castiglioni: President of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, Uni-
versity of Milan, Milan, Italy; Author of Studii intorno alle Fonti delle
Metamorfosi.
Much material presented clearly in simple, readable form. Instruc-
tive and enjoyable. -- Harold Files: Professor of English, McGill Uni-
versity, Montreal, Canada.
Traces clearly and in detail the background and the subsequent for-
tunes of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Practically a History of Classical Myth-
ology, a mine of information on one absorbingly interesting aspect of the
past, both in the ancient and the modern languages. -- Walter Llewel-
lyn Bullock: Chairman of the Department of Italian Studies, Univer-
sity of Manchester, Manchester, England.
The two volumes of the Metamorphoses have opened to me an entirety
new appreciation of Ovid's literary significance. These are books that
I love to read and read again, and they will always occupy a place of
regard in my classical library. When my children come to read Ovid, I
hope by means of these books to give them an earlier and fuller apprecia-
tion of his beauties than I obtained at school. -- Robert Green: Former
President of the Boston Classical Club.
383
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? Sonnets and Sestinas
By Wilmon Brewer
A fresh and interesting volume both of original creation and of
scholarship. Splendid histories of the sonnet and the sestina. -- State
Journal, Columbus, Ohio.
Mr. Brewer is an accomplished sonneteer in the tradition of the
Elizabethan age. His work includes both original poems and transla-
tions . . . Detailed and thorough histories of the sonnet and the sestina re-
spectively. They possess what is important for history, authoritativeness.
The book is well indexed. An excellent format, with a frontispiece of the
author. -- Sigmund Fogler, Poetry Editor, in The Brooklyn Teacher.
The author has presented a number of original sonnets and sestinas
worthy of high rank. . . . His translations into English from other
tongues preserve both the structure and the finely chiseled thought of
the original. . . . In a history of the sonnet and a history of the sestina,
he opens wide the doors to understanding and appreciation. A book out
of the ordinary and deserving attention. -- W. D. Manning in The Demo-
crat and Chronicle, Rochester, New York.
The sonnets, as the author says in his preface, "illustrate almost
every important form, the three called Algernon's Philosophy, The Lily,
and The Mystery of Life representing varieties never before used in
English. The sestinas represent every important form, the two called
At Ghizeh and Shellfiire being the only English examples of their kind. ''
Histories are given both of the sonnet and of the sestina. The book will
be treasured by those into whose possession it comes. -- Belfast News-
Letter, Belfast, Ireland.
Two difficult forms of poetry are discussed with skill, information,
and understanding in this very interesting volume. The author's verse
has merit of its own and value as an illustration of the many types of the
sonnet and sestina. Both forms are a challenge to the ingenuity of poets.
The sestina is the more interesting because the greater difficulty of its
form has preserved it from so much mishandling. The distinguishing
trait is that its key words are repeated in stanza after stanza, although
with a different order. Two stanzas from the author's ingenious Medita-
tion by Moonlight will make this plain.
384
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? REVIEWS AND OPINIONS
When the full moon turns night to softer day,
With ebon shadows under grove and tree,
I seek white lawns to watch the clear beams play
On silvered branch and tree-top. Memory
Joints in the present wonder of my way,
Reviving moonlit scenes by land and sea.
Dry, sparkling drifts are billowing like a sea,
As the cold moon succeeds the winter day.
They change and hide from sight and memory
All track of man and beast, for chill winds play,
Sweeping from snowy hill and laden tree
White, dazzling clouds to whirl them on their way.
C. B. F. in The Cincinnati Times Star.
A scholarly and fascinating history of the origin, growth, and muta-
tion of two forms, one of which is employed by practically every poet and
the other shunned by all except a few. -- The American Mercury.
Many examples of the sonnet and the sestina. A book that should
restore luster to some of these forgotten forms. -- Hildegarde Fillmore
in The Survey Graphic.
Delightful reading. A distinct addition to American poetry and
criticism. Among the sonnets I should think it invidious to select any
one. Among the sestinas I should mention At Ghizeh, not necessarily as
being superior to the others, but as one that did appeal to me with special
force. The historical essays have compressed into wonderfully small com-
pass the knowledge gained by profound research into European litera-
ture. I can appreciate them from my own adventures in the realm of his-
torical research. -- H. Addington Bruce: Fellow of the American Acad-
emy of Arts and Sciences, Former Editor of The New York Tribune Re-
view, President of the Boston Browning Society, Former President of
the Boston Author's Club, Author of The Riddle of Personality, Self
Development, and Your Growing Child.
The Christmas poems are in a class by themselves. Wilmon Brewer
is among the very few persons who seem unimpeded by the sonnet form,
and the atmosphere of Great Hill must be peculiarly favorable to poetry.
-- LeBaron Russell Brigqs.
A fine and rare combination of excellence in critical interpretation
and of deft and happy original achievement in the difficult but lovely
verse with which it deals. The work gives me great pleasure -- especially
some of that in lighter vein: Algernon, The Bee, and The Recipe. But
385
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? REVIEWS AND OPINIONS
the whole of it, in this rough world, is refreshing to the spirit. -- Alwin
Thaler : Professor of English, University of Tennessee; Author of Shaks-
pere's Silences.
The poetical part of the book shows great versatility and charming
style. The dignity is admirable but not to the exclusion of humor, as in
Algernon's socks! I was surprised at all the variations of the sonnet. I
particularly enjoyed Meditation by Moonlight, Bluebirds, and the striking
At Ghizeh. An excellent study of the sonnet and the sestina, lucidly
written and amazingly comprehensive. -- J. Milton French: Chairman
of the Department of English, Rutgers University.
What delighted me was the workmanship of the poetry. Everything
is done with exquisite care and reverence for poetic form and for words.
There is not a careless or jarring line in the whole book. I was particu-
larly glad to have the history of the sonnet. I had not in my hands any
clear, satisfactory account such as this. -- Stephen Hayes Bush: Chair-
man of the Department of Romance Languages, Iowa University.
The sonnets made pleasant reading -- smooth, accomplished, and
various as they are. Some of them offered plenty of surprises. For ex-
ample, it was curious to observe in The Witch Hazel how little one cared
about the absence of rhyme. From Algernon to The Mystery spans an
immense range. -- Harold Files: Professor of English, McGill Uni-
versity, Montreal, Canada.
The history of the sonnet is going to be useful and that of the sestina
invaluable to me, but my greatest pleasure came from the translations,
especially those of the short Chinese poems. -- Merritt Y. Hughes:
Chairman of the Department of English, University of Wisconsin;
Author of Virgil and Spenser.
I have read it with the greatest interest and enjoyment.