Who thinketh not that
it proceedeth from aboue.
it proceedeth from aboue.
Ovid - Some Elizabethan Opinions of the Poetry and Character of OVid
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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.
*
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? l8 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
, of allegory for meanings and lessons completely hidden from the
eyes of the ignorant reader. And although Homer and Virgil had
. distinctly greater claims upon his attention, he could find in Ovid
"right commendable and noble sentences. " Turning now to the
more distinctively critical writers, such as are represented in Mr.
G. G. Smith's Elizabethan Critical Essays, one sees at once the
limitations and the experimental character of their work. With
them the chief object of concern was not Ovid, or indeed any one
poet. Rather were they interested in the nature and scope of
poetry and in the validity of its claims to the attention of serious
men. Such expressions of opinion about Ovid as have come down
to us from the more obviously critical writings are, therefore,
mainly incidental to the wider and more absorbing question. Sincere
if narrow-minded men like Gosson were ready to condemn the art
of poetry because of the outrage to their moral ideals which they
found in such poems as the Ars Amandi or the Metamorphoses.
Others like Breton felt that poetry was but "a study of Idleness",78
and to be tolerated only as a form of relaxation from the sober
and practical affairs of the day. Others who rallied to the defense
of poetry and who insisted that the errors and shortcomings of
one poet were not sufficient to condemn the art itself, were never-
theless not always agreed that it was something to be prised and
cultivated for its own sake. Golding, Lodge, Webbe, and others,
with whatever delight they may have read poetry and discussed
it with their intimates, ventured to defend the poems of Ovid only
on the ground that superior insight into such matters or the proper
method of interpretation enabled them to see deep meanings of
moral or philosophical import where ignorant or untrained readers
saw only "toyes. "
Most blatant of all was Stephen Gosson in his Schoole of Abuse
(1579). In his strictures on the poetic art he lays stress on the
fact that "Ouid bestirreth himself to paint out his Flea76
[and shows] his cunning in the inceste of Myrrha, and that trumpet
of Baudrie, the Craft of Loue. " 77 He expresses approval of the
"A Packet of Letters, Book II, Letter XVI.
"G. G. Smith: Elizabethan Critical Essays, I, p. 364, note. The reference
is to the pseudo-Ovidian De Pulice.
"Arber's ed. , p. 19.
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID IO.
fact that Augustus banished the author, whom he terms "the hight^
martial of Venus fielde," and "the amorous Scholemaister. "78 Direct
issue to this position is taken in the swiftly ensuing and vigorous
Defence of Poetry by Thomas Lodge. "Haue you not reason",
he asks, "to waye that whatsoeuer either Virgil did write of his
gnatt or Ouid of his fley was all couertly to declare abuse?
you remember not that under the shadow of byrds,
beastes, and trees the follies of the world were desiphered; you
know not that the creation is signified in the Image of Prometheus,
the fall of pride in the person of Narcissus; these are toyes, because
they sauor of wisdome which you want. " TM Here again recourse
is had to allegory, and the critic is charged with ignorance in that
he failed to interpret. Moreover, "Ouids abuses, in describing
whereof you labour very vehementlye, terming him letcher, and
in his person dispraise all poems: but shall on(e) man's follye
destroye a universal commodity? I like not of an angrye
Augustus which wyll banishe Ouid for enuy. I loue a wise Senator,[/
which in wisedome wyll correct him, and with aduise burne his
follyes. "80 Not content with thus meeting the objections of Gosson,
Lodge is drawn on by the fluency of the Latin poet to exclaim:
"Who liketh not of the promptness of Ouid? who not unworthily
could boast of himself thus, Quicquid conabar dicere versus erat.
Who then doth not woonder at poetry?
Who thinketh not that
it proceedeth from aboue. " 81
The sage and serious doctrine of allegorical interpretation^
aroused even greater enthusiasm in William Webbe. The essay
Of English Poetry (1586) has this to say: "Ouid, a most learned
and exquisite Poet. The work of greatest profite which he wrote was
his Booke of Metamorphosis, which though it consisted of fayned
Fables for the most part, and poetical inuentions, yet beeing mora-
lized according to his meaning, and the trueth of euery tale beeing
discouered, it is a work of exceeding wysedome and sounde iudge-
ment. If one lyst in like manner to haue knowledge and perfect
"Arber's ed. , p. 29.
TM G. G. Smith: Elizabethan Critical Essays, I, p. 65.
"lb. , p. 75.
"lb. , p. 70.
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? 20 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
intelligence of those rytes and ceremonies which were obserued
after the Religion of the Heathen, no more profitable worke for
. that purpose then his bookes De fastis. The rest of his dooinges,
^though they tende to the vayne delights of loue and dalliaunce
(except his Tristibus wherein he bewayleth his exile), yet surely
are mixed with much good counsayle and profitable lessons, if
\they be wisely and narrowly read. "82 Webbe believed that his
countrymen owed a great debt to Master Arthur Golding, "for
his labour in englyshing Ouids Metamorphosis to profit
this nation in all kind of good learning. " 83 Webbe is ready too
with an answer to the censure of the moralist: "Nowe, if the ill
and undecent prouocations whereof some unbridled witts take oc-
casion by the reading of laciuious Poemes, bee objected--such as
are Ouids loue Bookes and Elegies I thinke it easily
aunswered. For though it may not iustlie be denied that these workes
are indeed very Poetrie, yet that Poetrie in them is not the essentiall
or formall matter or cause of the hurt therein might be affirmed . . .
vK. . the workes themseules doo not corrupt, but the abuse of the
vsers Ouid, in his most wanton Bookes of loue and the
remedies thereof, hath many pithy and wise sentences, which a
\ heedfull Reader may marke and chose out from the other stuffe. "84
Here we are on familiar ground, as we are also in Nashe's
>S Anatomie of Absurditie. "I woulde not haue any man imagine that in
praysing of Poetry I endeuor to approue Virgils vnchast Priapus, or
Ouids obscenitie: I commend their witte, not their wantonnes, their
learning, not their lust: yet euen as the Bee out of the bitterest
flowers and the sharpest thistles gathers honey, so out of the filthiest
\ Fables may profitable knowledge be sucked and selected. Neuer-
thelesse, tender youth ought to bee restrained for a time from the
reading of such ribauldrie they that couet to picke more
precious knowledge out of Poets amorous Elegies must haue a dis-
cerning knowledge. "85 Furthermore: "When as lust is the tractate
of so many leaues, and loue passions the lauish dispence of so much
"lb. , p. 238.
M Ed. Arber, p. 34.
84 G. G. Smith: Elizabethan Critical Essays, I, p. 252.
"Ed. McKerrow, I, pp. 29-30.
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID 21
paper, I must needes send such idle wits to the vicar of S. Fooles
Might Ouids exile admonish such Idlebies to betake
them to a new trade Henceforth let them alter their
posies of profit with intermingled pleasure, inserting that of Ouid
in steed.
"Si quis in hoc artem populo non nouit amandi,
Me legat, & lecto carmine doctus amet. " 8a
The attitude of distrust toward works of the imagination was,
however, not to be cleared away by any single utterance, and is
perhaps nowhere more characteristically shown than in Breton's
A Packet of Letters, Book II, Letter 16: "And take heed of Poetry,
lest it run away with thy wit: for it hath commonly one of these
three properties, belibelling the wicked, abusing the honest, or
pleasing the foolish: in a word, it is more full of pleasure
then profit. " The same production has this further recommen-
dation: "Doe thou rather reade in an Euening, then make thy dayes
worke in the study of idlenesse. " Those who delighted in produc-
tions, "where more is meant than meets the ear", would fall
back on such statements as that of Wilson in The Arte of Rhetor-
ique: "For undoubtedly there is no one tale among all the poets,
but under the same is comprehended something that pertaineth,
either to the amendment of manners, to the knowledge of truth,
to the setting forth of Natures work, or els the understanding of
some notable thing done. "87 With that belief men like Golding,
Sandys, and later Garth himself, would search with the utmost
diligence for every trace of concealed meaning that might appear
to justify their admiration for a given author and for the art itself.
For an expression of this point of view even the most enthusiastic
of them could scarcely have asked for more than was offered by Sir
John Harington in his vehement Apologie for Poetrie (1591).
One might almost be tempted to regard the statement as a parody;
but Harington believed that he was fighting Philistines, and he was
determined to make out his case.
"Perseus sonne of Iupiter is fained by the Poets to haue slaine
Gorgon, and after that conquest atchiued, to haue flowen up to
"lb. , p. 10.
"Ed. G. H. Mair, p. 195.
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? 22 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
heauen. The Historicall sence is this, Perseus the sonne of Iupiter,
by the participation of Iupiters vertues that were in him
slew Gorgon a tyrant in that country (Gorgon in greeke signifieth
earth) and was for his vertuous parts exalted by men up into
heauen. Morally it signifieth this much, Perseus a wise man, sonne
of Iupiter endewed with vertue from aboue, slayeth sinne and vice,
a thing base and earthly; signified by Gorgon, and so mounteth up
to the skie of vertue. " Another allegory is then declared, and
"also another Theological Allegorie", until like a schoolman of a
later day the triumphant apologist tells us: "the like infinite Al-
legories I could pike out of other Poeticall fictions saue that I
would auoid tediousnes. It sufficeth me therefore to note this, that
the men of greatest learning and highest wit in auncient times did
of purpose conceale these deepe mysteries of learning for
sundrie causes; that they might not rashly be abused by pro-
phane wits [for] conservation of the memorie of their pre-
cepts: to be able with one kinde of meate and one dish (as
I may so call it) to feed diuers tastes. For the weaker capacities
will feede themseules with the pleasantness of the historie and
sweetnes of the verse, some that haue stronger stomackes will as
it were take a further taste of the Morall sence, a third sort more
high conceited than they, will digest the allegorie. "88
Allegorical interpretation had by no means gone out of fashion.
It could and did still do yeoman service for the champions of poetry.
I What a part it played in Elizabethan literary criticism is clearly
-* pointed out by Mr. G. G. Smith. 89 Bacon himself shared the cur-
rent view of the matter. "Upon deliberate consideration," he says
in De Sapientia Veterum, "my judgment is that a concealed instruc-
tion and allegory was intended in many of the ancient fables. " He
took great pride in his interpretation of the Orpheus legend. Long
before, Sir Thomas Elyot had been sure that: "No man can ap-
prehende the very delectation that is in the leeson of noble poetes
unlasse he have radde very moche and in diuers autors of diuers
lernynges. " *? Gascoigne, in his Notes of Instruction (1575)
"Haslewood, II, p. 128 ft.
? G. G. Smith, I, pp. XXIV-XXX.
"The Governour, Bk. I, Ch. XIII.
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID 23
regards the ability to write allegorically as a badge of distinction:
"I woulde discouer my disquiet in shadowes per allegoriam,
or use the couertest meane that I could to auoyde the vncomely
customes of common writers. " 91 Nashe appears to take a sly dig\
at over-subtle interpretations of Ovidian story thus: "To see how
lovingly hee made the sence of the Apostle and Ouids fiction of
Phaetons firing of the world to kisse before they parted was
sport enough for us to beguile the way. " 92 Gosson, in his Schoole
of Abuse, is frankly contemptuous of the fashion: "It is a Pageaunt
woorth the sight, to beholde how he labors with Mountains to/
bring foorth Mise. " 9S So J. Eachard makes this remark: "It is
usually said by those that are intimately acquainted with him, that
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey contain, mystically, all the Moral Law
for certain, if not a great part of the Gospel (I suppose much
after the rate that Rabelais said his Gargantua contained all the
Ten Commandments) but perceivable only to those that have a
poetical discerning spirit. "94 Owen Felltham was, however, of
another opinion. In his Resolves96 he speakes thus Of Poets and
Poetry: "Surely he was a little wanton with his leisure, that first
invented Poetry But the Words being rather the drossie
part, conceit I take to be the principal. And here though it disgress-
eth from Truth, it flies about her, making her more rare, by giving
curious raiment to her nakedness. . . . -. If the Learned and
Judicious like it, let the Throng bray Two things are com-
monly blamed in Poetry: nay, you take away That if Them, and
these are Lyes and Flattery. But I have told them in the worst
words: For 'tis only to the shallow insight that they appear thus.
Truth may dwell more clearly in Allegory, or a moral 'd Fable,
than in a bare Narration The greatest danger that I find
in it is that it wantons the Blood, and Imagination; as carrying a
man in too high a Delight. " John Davies of Hereford was moved
to declare in Humours Heauen on Earth:96 "Poets, whiche all men
w The Posies, ed. Cunliffe, p. 466.
"Ed. McKerrow, I, p. 89.
"G. G. Smith, I, p. 365.
"Arber: English Garner, VII, p. 253.
"Ed. of 1696, p. 96.
"His note to stanza 148.
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? 24 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
taxe for lying, doe least lie of any, the morall of their fictions
considered. " No ordinary ridicule sufficed to strike out of the hand
of the defender of poetry his trusted weapon of allegory. With
that he felt ready to meet any attack.
The most enthusiastic appreciation of the poetry of Ovid occurs
in the introduction of Arthur Golding to his famous and widely
influential translation of the Metamorphoses. In the Dedication of
the first four books to Leicester, "at Cecil House, the 23rd day of
I December, 1564," Golding says:
"If this woorke was fully performed with like eloquence and
connying of endyting by me in Englishe, as it was written by Thauc-
thor thereof in his moother' tonge, it might perchaunce delight your
honor for the nomber of excellent devices and fine inven-
tions conteined in the same, purporting outwardly moste pleasant
tales and delectable histories, and fraughted inwardlye with moste
pithie instructions and wholesome examples, and conteynyng bothe
wayes moste exquisite connynge and deepe knowledge. "
In the dedicatory epistle of 1567 to his noble patron, Golding
undertakes to show by elaborate analysis what he regards as the
great significance of the poem. Ovid has brought the entire philoso-
phy of "turned shapes" into "one whole masse. " The poet shows
that nothing persists without change, and that in these changes
nothing is lost; that the soul is immortal; and that the Pythagor-
ean view of the transmigration of the soul applies to the spirit of
animal life, not to the rational soul.
"and in all are pitthie apt and pleyne
Instructions which import the prayse of vertues, and the shame
Of vices, with the due rewardes of eyther of the same. "
Hence the translator sees in the Daphne story "a myrror of
virginitee. " In the story of the fall of Phaethon he reads the
miserable end of youthful ambition.
"This fable also dooth advyse all parents and all such
As bring up youth, too take good heede of cockering them too
much.
It further dooth commend the meane: and willeth too beware
Of rash and hasty promises which most pernicious are,
And not to bee performed: and in fine it playnly showes
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID 25
What sorrow too the parents and too all the kinred growes
By disobedience of the chyld: and in the chyld is ment
The disobedient subject that ageinst his prince is bent. "
The metamorphoses of the crow and of the raven warn against
the consequence of ill report; the mishaps of Ocyroee show the
perils of undue curiosity; and the tale of Battus is to be taken as
"a very good example" for the covetous. Those who delight in
hawking and hunting, in wantonness and gluttony
"Upon the piteous story of Actaeon ought to think.
For theis and theyre adherents used excessive are in deede ?
The dogs that dayly doo devour theyre followers on with speede. "*
Thus to Golding every myth is an exemplum, and from that point of^
view he thus sums up his account:
"Theis fables out of every booke I have interpreted,
Too shew how they and all the rest may stand a man in sted. "
The next object of the translator's concern is to remind his
patron that the ancients in their ignorance attributed to many gods
what is actually the will of "the true eternall God. "
"For Gods, and fate, and fortune are the terms of heathenesse,
If men usurp them in the sense that Paynims doe expresse. "
These terms Golding proceeds to interpret, admitting the while
that their most satisfactory explanation is to be found in Scripture.
Nevertheless, he insists that the legends that employ the terms
are really of value in promoting virtue and godliness, especially
since in the opinion of many pious and learned men the legends
originated in Scripture.
"What man is he but would suppose the author of this booke
The first foundation of his woorke from Moyses wryghtings
tooke?
Not only in effect he dooth with Genesis agree,
But also in the order of creation, save that hee
Makes no distinction of the dayes. "
Not only does Golding square to his own satisfaction Ovid's
account with that of Moses, but he further argues that the order of
creation is in agreement. According to this position Prometheus
appears to be "theternall woord of God. " The Golden Age finds
its counterpart in Eden; the four ages have biblical parallels; and
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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.
*
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? l8 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
, of allegory for meanings and lessons completely hidden from the
eyes of the ignorant reader. And although Homer and Virgil had
. distinctly greater claims upon his attention, he could find in Ovid
"right commendable and noble sentences. " Turning now to the
more distinctively critical writers, such as are represented in Mr.
G. G. Smith's Elizabethan Critical Essays, one sees at once the
limitations and the experimental character of their work. With
them the chief object of concern was not Ovid, or indeed any one
poet. Rather were they interested in the nature and scope of
poetry and in the validity of its claims to the attention of serious
men. Such expressions of opinion about Ovid as have come down
to us from the more obviously critical writings are, therefore,
mainly incidental to the wider and more absorbing question. Sincere
if narrow-minded men like Gosson were ready to condemn the art
of poetry because of the outrage to their moral ideals which they
found in such poems as the Ars Amandi or the Metamorphoses.
Others like Breton felt that poetry was but "a study of Idleness",78
and to be tolerated only as a form of relaxation from the sober
and practical affairs of the day. Others who rallied to the defense
of poetry and who insisted that the errors and shortcomings of
one poet were not sufficient to condemn the art itself, were never-
theless not always agreed that it was something to be prised and
cultivated for its own sake. Golding, Lodge, Webbe, and others,
with whatever delight they may have read poetry and discussed
it with their intimates, ventured to defend the poems of Ovid only
on the ground that superior insight into such matters or the proper
method of interpretation enabled them to see deep meanings of
moral or philosophical import where ignorant or untrained readers
saw only "toyes. "
Most blatant of all was Stephen Gosson in his Schoole of Abuse
(1579). In his strictures on the poetic art he lays stress on the
fact that "Ouid bestirreth himself to paint out his Flea76
[and shows] his cunning in the inceste of Myrrha, and that trumpet
of Baudrie, the Craft of Loue. " 77 He expresses approval of the
"A Packet of Letters, Book II, Letter XVI.
"G. G. Smith: Elizabethan Critical Essays, I, p. 364, note. The reference
is to the pseudo-Ovidian De Pulice.
"Arber's ed. , p. 19.
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID IO.
fact that Augustus banished the author, whom he terms "the hight^
martial of Venus fielde," and "the amorous Scholemaister. "78 Direct
issue to this position is taken in the swiftly ensuing and vigorous
Defence of Poetry by Thomas Lodge. "Haue you not reason",
he asks, "to waye that whatsoeuer either Virgil did write of his
gnatt or Ouid of his fley was all couertly to declare abuse?
you remember not that under the shadow of byrds,
beastes, and trees the follies of the world were desiphered; you
know not that the creation is signified in the Image of Prometheus,
the fall of pride in the person of Narcissus; these are toyes, because
they sauor of wisdome which you want. " TM Here again recourse
is had to allegory, and the critic is charged with ignorance in that
he failed to interpret. Moreover, "Ouids abuses, in describing
whereof you labour very vehementlye, terming him letcher, and
in his person dispraise all poems: but shall on(e) man's follye
destroye a universal commodity? I like not of an angrye
Augustus which wyll banishe Ouid for enuy. I loue a wise Senator,[/
which in wisedome wyll correct him, and with aduise burne his
follyes. "80 Not content with thus meeting the objections of Gosson,
Lodge is drawn on by the fluency of the Latin poet to exclaim:
"Who liketh not of the promptness of Ouid? who not unworthily
could boast of himself thus, Quicquid conabar dicere versus erat.
Who then doth not woonder at poetry?
Who thinketh not that
it proceedeth from aboue. " 81
The sage and serious doctrine of allegorical interpretation^
aroused even greater enthusiasm in William Webbe. The essay
Of English Poetry (1586) has this to say: "Ouid, a most learned
and exquisite Poet. The work of greatest profite which he wrote was
his Booke of Metamorphosis, which though it consisted of fayned
Fables for the most part, and poetical inuentions, yet beeing mora-
lized according to his meaning, and the trueth of euery tale beeing
discouered, it is a work of exceeding wysedome and sounde iudge-
ment. If one lyst in like manner to haue knowledge and perfect
"Arber's ed. , p. 29.
TM G. G. Smith: Elizabethan Critical Essays, I, p. 65.
"lb. , p. 75.
"lb. , p. 70.
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? 20 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
intelligence of those rytes and ceremonies which were obserued
after the Religion of the Heathen, no more profitable worke for
. that purpose then his bookes De fastis. The rest of his dooinges,
^though they tende to the vayne delights of loue and dalliaunce
(except his Tristibus wherein he bewayleth his exile), yet surely
are mixed with much good counsayle and profitable lessons, if
\they be wisely and narrowly read. "82 Webbe believed that his
countrymen owed a great debt to Master Arthur Golding, "for
his labour in englyshing Ouids Metamorphosis to profit
this nation in all kind of good learning. " 83 Webbe is ready too
with an answer to the censure of the moralist: "Nowe, if the ill
and undecent prouocations whereof some unbridled witts take oc-
casion by the reading of laciuious Poemes, bee objected--such as
are Ouids loue Bookes and Elegies I thinke it easily
aunswered. For though it may not iustlie be denied that these workes
are indeed very Poetrie, yet that Poetrie in them is not the essentiall
or formall matter or cause of the hurt therein might be affirmed . . .
vK. . the workes themseules doo not corrupt, but the abuse of the
vsers Ouid, in his most wanton Bookes of loue and the
remedies thereof, hath many pithy and wise sentences, which a
\ heedfull Reader may marke and chose out from the other stuffe. "84
Here we are on familiar ground, as we are also in Nashe's
>S Anatomie of Absurditie. "I woulde not haue any man imagine that in
praysing of Poetry I endeuor to approue Virgils vnchast Priapus, or
Ouids obscenitie: I commend their witte, not their wantonnes, their
learning, not their lust: yet euen as the Bee out of the bitterest
flowers and the sharpest thistles gathers honey, so out of the filthiest
\ Fables may profitable knowledge be sucked and selected. Neuer-
thelesse, tender youth ought to bee restrained for a time from the
reading of such ribauldrie they that couet to picke more
precious knowledge out of Poets amorous Elegies must haue a dis-
cerning knowledge. "85 Furthermore: "When as lust is the tractate
of so many leaues, and loue passions the lauish dispence of so much
"lb. , p. 238.
M Ed. Arber, p. 34.
84 G. G. Smith: Elizabethan Critical Essays, I, p. 252.
"Ed. McKerrow, I, pp. 29-30.
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID 21
paper, I must needes send such idle wits to the vicar of S. Fooles
Might Ouids exile admonish such Idlebies to betake
them to a new trade Henceforth let them alter their
posies of profit with intermingled pleasure, inserting that of Ouid
in steed.
"Si quis in hoc artem populo non nouit amandi,
Me legat, & lecto carmine doctus amet. " 8a
The attitude of distrust toward works of the imagination was,
however, not to be cleared away by any single utterance, and is
perhaps nowhere more characteristically shown than in Breton's
A Packet of Letters, Book II, Letter 16: "And take heed of Poetry,
lest it run away with thy wit: for it hath commonly one of these
three properties, belibelling the wicked, abusing the honest, or
pleasing the foolish: in a word, it is more full of pleasure
then profit. " The same production has this further recommen-
dation: "Doe thou rather reade in an Euening, then make thy dayes
worke in the study of idlenesse. " Those who delighted in produc-
tions, "where more is meant than meets the ear", would fall
back on such statements as that of Wilson in The Arte of Rhetor-
ique: "For undoubtedly there is no one tale among all the poets,
but under the same is comprehended something that pertaineth,
either to the amendment of manners, to the knowledge of truth,
to the setting forth of Natures work, or els the understanding of
some notable thing done. "87 With that belief men like Golding,
Sandys, and later Garth himself, would search with the utmost
diligence for every trace of concealed meaning that might appear
to justify their admiration for a given author and for the art itself.
For an expression of this point of view even the most enthusiastic
of them could scarcely have asked for more than was offered by Sir
John Harington in his vehement Apologie for Poetrie (1591).
One might almost be tempted to regard the statement as a parody;
but Harington believed that he was fighting Philistines, and he was
determined to make out his case.
"Perseus sonne of Iupiter is fained by the Poets to haue slaine
Gorgon, and after that conquest atchiued, to haue flowen up to
"lb. , p. 10.
"Ed. G. H. Mair, p. 195.
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? 22 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
heauen. The Historicall sence is this, Perseus the sonne of Iupiter,
by the participation of Iupiters vertues that were in him
slew Gorgon a tyrant in that country (Gorgon in greeke signifieth
earth) and was for his vertuous parts exalted by men up into
heauen. Morally it signifieth this much, Perseus a wise man, sonne
of Iupiter endewed with vertue from aboue, slayeth sinne and vice,
a thing base and earthly; signified by Gorgon, and so mounteth up
to the skie of vertue. " Another allegory is then declared, and
"also another Theological Allegorie", until like a schoolman of a
later day the triumphant apologist tells us: "the like infinite Al-
legories I could pike out of other Poeticall fictions saue that I
would auoid tediousnes. It sufficeth me therefore to note this, that
the men of greatest learning and highest wit in auncient times did
of purpose conceale these deepe mysteries of learning for
sundrie causes; that they might not rashly be abused by pro-
phane wits [for] conservation of the memorie of their pre-
cepts: to be able with one kinde of meate and one dish (as
I may so call it) to feed diuers tastes. For the weaker capacities
will feede themseules with the pleasantness of the historie and
sweetnes of the verse, some that haue stronger stomackes will as
it were take a further taste of the Morall sence, a third sort more
high conceited than they, will digest the allegorie. "88
Allegorical interpretation had by no means gone out of fashion.
It could and did still do yeoman service for the champions of poetry.
I What a part it played in Elizabethan literary criticism is clearly
-* pointed out by Mr. G. G. Smith. 89 Bacon himself shared the cur-
rent view of the matter. "Upon deliberate consideration," he says
in De Sapientia Veterum, "my judgment is that a concealed instruc-
tion and allegory was intended in many of the ancient fables. " He
took great pride in his interpretation of the Orpheus legend. Long
before, Sir Thomas Elyot had been sure that: "No man can ap-
prehende the very delectation that is in the leeson of noble poetes
unlasse he have radde very moche and in diuers autors of diuers
lernynges. " *? Gascoigne, in his Notes of Instruction (1575)
"Haslewood, II, p. 128 ft.
? G. G. Smith, I, pp. XXIV-XXX.
"The Governour, Bk. I, Ch. XIII.
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID 23
regards the ability to write allegorically as a badge of distinction:
"I woulde discouer my disquiet in shadowes per allegoriam,
or use the couertest meane that I could to auoyde the vncomely
customes of common writers. " 91 Nashe appears to take a sly dig\
at over-subtle interpretations of Ovidian story thus: "To see how
lovingly hee made the sence of the Apostle and Ouids fiction of
Phaetons firing of the world to kisse before they parted was
sport enough for us to beguile the way. " 92 Gosson, in his Schoole
of Abuse, is frankly contemptuous of the fashion: "It is a Pageaunt
woorth the sight, to beholde how he labors with Mountains to/
bring foorth Mise. " 9S So J. Eachard makes this remark: "It is
usually said by those that are intimately acquainted with him, that
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey contain, mystically, all the Moral Law
for certain, if not a great part of the Gospel (I suppose much
after the rate that Rabelais said his Gargantua contained all the
Ten Commandments) but perceivable only to those that have a
poetical discerning spirit. "94 Owen Felltham was, however, of
another opinion. In his Resolves96 he speakes thus Of Poets and
Poetry: "Surely he was a little wanton with his leisure, that first
invented Poetry But the Words being rather the drossie
part, conceit I take to be the principal. And here though it disgress-
eth from Truth, it flies about her, making her more rare, by giving
curious raiment to her nakedness. . . . -. If the Learned and
Judicious like it, let the Throng bray Two things are com-
monly blamed in Poetry: nay, you take away That if Them, and
these are Lyes and Flattery. But I have told them in the worst
words: For 'tis only to the shallow insight that they appear thus.
Truth may dwell more clearly in Allegory, or a moral 'd Fable,
than in a bare Narration The greatest danger that I find
in it is that it wantons the Blood, and Imagination; as carrying a
man in too high a Delight. " John Davies of Hereford was moved
to declare in Humours Heauen on Earth:96 "Poets, whiche all men
w The Posies, ed. Cunliffe, p. 466.
"Ed. McKerrow, I, p. 89.
"G. G. Smith, I, p. 365.
"Arber: English Garner, VII, p. 253.
"Ed. of 1696, p. 96.
"His note to stanza 148.
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? 24 SOME ELIZABETHAN OPINIONS OF
taxe for lying, doe least lie of any, the morall of their fictions
considered. " No ordinary ridicule sufficed to strike out of the hand
of the defender of poetry his trusted weapon of allegory. With
that he felt ready to meet any attack.
The most enthusiastic appreciation of the poetry of Ovid occurs
in the introduction of Arthur Golding to his famous and widely
influential translation of the Metamorphoses. In the Dedication of
the first four books to Leicester, "at Cecil House, the 23rd day of
I December, 1564," Golding says:
"If this woorke was fully performed with like eloquence and
connying of endyting by me in Englishe, as it was written by Thauc-
thor thereof in his moother' tonge, it might perchaunce delight your
honor for the nomber of excellent devices and fine inven-
tions conteined in the same, purporting outwardly moste pleasant
tales and delectable histories, and fraughted inwardlye with moste
pithie instructions and wholesome examples, and conteynyng bothe
wayes moste exquisite connynge and deepe knowledge. "
In the dedicatory epistle of 1567 to his noble patron, Golding
undertakes to show by elaborate analysis what he regards as the
great significance of the poem. Ovid has brought the entire philoso-
phy of "turned shapes" into "one whole masse. " The poet shows
that nothing persists without change, and that in these changes
nothing is lost; that the soul is immortal; and that the Pythagor-
ean view of the transmigration of the soul applies to the spirit of
animal life, not to the rational soul.
"and in all are pitthie apt and pleyne
Instructions which import the prayse of vertues, and the shame
Of vices, with the due rewardes of eyther of the same. "
Hence the translator sees in the Daphne story "a myrror of
virginitee. " In the story of the fall of Phaethon he reads the
miserable end of youthful ambition.
"This fable also dooth advyse all parents and all such
As bring up youth, too take good heede of cockering them too
much.
It further dooth commend the meane: and willeth too beware
Of rash and hasty promises which most pernicious are,
And not to bee performed: and in fine it playnly showes
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? THE POETRY AND CHARACTER OF OVID 25
What sorrow too the parents and too all the kinred growes
By disobedience of the chyld: and in the chyld is ment
The disobedient subject that ageinst his prince is bent. "
The metamorphoses of the crow and of the raven warn against
the consequence of ill report; the mishaps of Ocyroee show the
perils of undue curiosity; and the tale of Battus is to be taken as
"a very good example" for the covetous. Those who delight in
hawking and hunting, in wantonness and gluttony
"Upon the piteous story of Actaeon ought to think.
For theis and theyre adherents used excessive are in deede ?
The dogs that dayly doo devour theyre followers on with speede. "*
Thus to Golding every myth is an exemplum, and from that point of^
view he thus sums up his account:
"Theis fables out of every booke I have interpreted,
Too shew how they and all the rest may stand a man in sted. "
The next object of the translator's concern is to remind his
patron that the ancients in their ignorance attributed to many gods
what is actually the will of "the true eternall God. "
"For Gods, and fate, and fortune are the terms of heathenesse,
If men usurp them in the sense that Paynims doe expresse. "
These terms Golding proceeds to interpret, admitting the while
that their most satisfactory explanation is to be found in Scripture.
Nevertheless, he insists that the legends that employ the terms
are really of value in promoting virtue and godliness, especially
since in the opinion of many pious and learned men the legends
originated in Scripture.
"What man is he but would suppose the author of this booke
The first foundation of his woorke from Moyses wryghtings
tooke?
Not only in effect he dooth with Genesis agree,
But also in the order of creation, save that hee
Makes no distinction of the dayes. "
Not only does Golding square to his own satisfaction Ovid's
account with that of Moses, but he further argues that the order of
creation is in agreement. According to this position Prometheus
appears to be "theternall woord of God. " The Golden Age finds
its counterpart in Eden; the four ages have biblical parallels; and
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