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A burning creffet steept in blood, and girdeth her about
With wreathed fnakes, and fo goes forth, and at her going out,
Feare, terror, griefe, and penfiueneffe, for company she tooke,
And also madneffe with his flaight and gastly-staring looke.
Within the house of Athamas no fooner foote she fet,

But that the poftes began to quake, and doores looke blacke as iet.
The funne withdrewe him: Athamas and eke his wife were caft
With ougly fightes in such a feare, that out of doores agaft
They would have fled. There ftood the fiend, and stopt their
paffage out;

And fplaying' foorth her filthy armes beknit with snakes about, Did toffe and waue her hatefull head. The fwarme of scaled

fnakes

Did make an yrksome noyce to heare, as the her treffes shakes. About her shoulders fome did craule, fome trayling downe her

brest,

Did hiffe, and fpit out poifon greene, and fpirt with tongues

infeft.

Then from amid her haire two fnakes, with venymd hand she

drew,

Of which the one at Athamas, and one at Ino threw.

:

The fnakes did craule about their brefts, infpiring in their heart
Most grieuous motions of the minde: the body had no smart
Of any wound it was the minde that felt the cruell ftinges.
A poyfon made in fyrup-wife, she also with her brings,
The filthy fome of Cerberus, the cafting of the snake
Echidna, bred among the fennes, about the Stygian lake.
Defire of gadding forth abroad, Forgetfullness of minde,
Delight in mischiefe, Woodneffe, Tears, and Purpose whole
inclinde

To cruell murther: all the which, fhe did together grinde.
And mingling them with new-shed blood, the boyled them in

braffe,

And ftird them with a hemlock stalke. Now while that Athamas

A torch. The word is ufed by Milton.

f Displaying.

• Madness.

And

And Ino stood, and quakt for feare, this poyfon ranke and fell
She turned into both their brefts, and made their hearts to swell.
Then whisking often round about her head, her balefull brand,
She made it foone, by gathering winde, to kindle in her hand.
Thus, as it were in tryumph-wife, accomplishing her hest,
To duskie Pluto's emptie realme, fhe gets her home to rest,
And putteth off the fnarled fnakes that girded-in her brest.

We have here almost as horrid a mixture as the ingredients in Macbeth's cauldron. In these lines there is much enthusiasm, and the character of original compofition. The abruptnesses of the text are judiciously retained, and perhaps improved. The tranflator seems to have felt Ovid's imagery, and this perhaps is an imagery in which Ovid excells.

Golding's verfion of the METAMORPHOSIS kept its ground,. till Sandys's English Ovid appeared in 1632. I know not who was the author of what is called a ballet, perhaps a translation from the Metamorphofis, licenced to John Charlewood, in 1569, "The vnfortunate ende of Iphis fonne vnto Teucer kynge of Troye h." Nor muft I omit The tragicall and lamentable "Hiftorie of two faythfull mates Ceyx kynge of Thrachine, and "Alcione his wife, drawen into English meeter by William Hubbard, 1569." In ftanzas.

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Golding was of a gentleman's family, a native of London, and lived with fecretary Cecil at his house in the Strand *. Among his patrons, as we may collect from his dedications, were allo fir Walter Mildmay, William lord Cobham, Henry earl of Huntington, lord Leicester, fir Christopher Hatton, lord Oxford, and Robert earl of Effex. He was connected with fir Philip

REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 186. a. See Malone's SUPPL. SHAKESP. i. 60. feq.

i Impr. at London, by W. Howe for R. Johnes. Bl. Lett. 12mo. In eight leaves

* His dedication to the four first books of Ovid is from Cecil-house, 1564. See his Dedication to his English verfion of Peter Aretine's WAR OF ITALY WITH THE

GоTHS, Lond. 1563. 12mo. To this he has prefixed a long preface on the causes of the irruption of the Goths into Italy. He appears to have alfo lived in the parish of All Saints ad murum, London-wall, in 1577. EPIST. prefixed to his SENECA. His POSTILS of Chytræus are dedicated from Pauls Belchamp to fir W. Mildmay, March 10, 1570.

Sydney:

Sydney: for he finished an English translation of Philip Mornay's treatise in French on the Truth of Christianity, which had been begun by Sydney, and was published in 1587'. He enlarged our knowledge of the treasures of antiquity by publishing English tranflations, of Juftin's Hiftory in 1564", of Cefar's Commentaries in 1565, of Seneca's BENEFITS in 1577°, and of the GEOGRAPHY of Pomponius Mela, and the POLYHISTORY of Solinus, in 1587, and 1590 '. He has left verfions of many modern Latin writers, which then had their ufe, and fuited the condition and opinions of the times; and which are now forgotten, by the introduction of better books, and the general change of the fyftem of knowledge. I think his only original work is an account of an Earthquake in 1580. Of his original poetry I recollect nothing more, than an encomiastic copy of verfes prefixed to Baret's ALVEARE published in 1580. It may be regretted, that he gave fo much of his time to tranflation. In GEORGE GASCOIGNE'S PRINCELY PLEASURES OF KENILWORTH-CASTLE, an entertainment in the year 1575, he seems to have been a writer of fome of the verses, "The deuise of "the Ladie of the Lake alfo was mafter Hunnes-The verfes, "as I think, were penned, fome by mafter Hunnes, fome by "master Ferrers, and fome by mafter Goldingham." The want of exactness through haste or careleffness, in writing or pronouncing names, even by cotemporaries, is a common fault, especially in our old writers; and I suspect Golding is intended in the last name '. He is ranked among the celebrated tranflators by Webbe and Meres.

In quarto. It was afterwards corrected and printed by Thomas Wilcox, 1604.

Lond. 4to. Again 1578. There is the PSALTER in English, printed with Henry Middleton, by Arthur Golding. Lond. 1571. 4to.

a The Dedication to Cecil is dated from Pauls Belchamp, 12 Octob. Lond. 12mo. Again, 1590. There was a translation by Tiptoft earl of Worcester, printed by Raftall. No date. I fuppofe about 1530.

• Lond. 4to. To fir Christopher Hatton.

P Lond. 4to.

9 Signat. Bij.

But I must obferve, that one Henry Goldingham is mentioned as a gefticulator, and one who was to perform Arion on a dolphin's back, in fome fpectacle before queen Elifabeth. · MERRY PASSAGES AND JEASTS, MSS. HARL. 6395. One B. Goldingham is an actor and a poet, in 1579, in the pageant before queen Elifabeth at Norwich. Hollinfh. CHRON. iii. f. 1298. col. 1.

The

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The learned Afcham wishes that some of these translators had used blank verse instead of rhyme. But by blank verse, he seems to mean the English hexameter or fome other Latin measure. He fays, Indeed, Chaufer, Thomas Norton of Bristow, my "Lord of Surry, M. Wiat, Thomas Phaier, and other gentle“men, in tranflating Ouide, Palingenius, and Seneca, haue gone as farre to their great praise as the coppy they followed " could cary them. But if fuch good wittes, and forward diligence, had been directed to followe the best examples, and "not haue beene caryed by tyme and custome to content them"felves with that barbarous and rude Ryming, amongest theyr "other woorthye prayses which they haue iuftly deferued, this "had not been the leaft, to be counted among men of learning " and skill, more like vnto the Grecians than the Gothians in handling of theyr verfe." The sentiments of another cotemporary critic on this fubject were fomewhat different.

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"In

queene Maries time florifhed aboue any other doctour Phaier, "one that was learned, and excellently well translated into English verfe heroicall, certaine bookes of Virgil's Æneidos. "Since him followed maister Arthur Golding, who with no less "commendation turned into English meetre the Metamorphofis " of Ouide, and that other doctour who made the fupplement "to those bookes of Virgil's Æneidos, which maister Phaier " left vndoone." Again, he commends " Phaier and Golding, "for a learned and well connected verfe, fpecially in translation "cleare, and uery faithfully answering their authours intent '."

I learn from Coxeter's notes, that the FASTI were tranflated into English verfe before the year 1570. If so, the many little pieces now current on the subject of LUCRETIA, although her legend is in Chaucer, might immediately originate from this fource. In 1568, occurs, a Ballett called " the grevious com"playnt of Lucrece "." And afterwards, in the year 1569, is

Fol. 52. a. 53. b. edit. 1589. 4to. Puttenham's ARTE OP ENGLISH POESIE, Lond. 1589, 4to. Lib. i. ch. 30. fol. 49.5*.

"REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 174. a. To John Alde. The ftory might however have been taken from Livy: as was "The "Tragedy of Appius and Virginia," in verse.

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licenced to James Robertes, "A ballet of the death of Lucryffia "." There is also a ballad of the legend of Lucrece, printed in 1576. These publications might give rise to Shakefpeare's RAPE OF LUCRECE, which appeared in 1594. At this period of our poetry, we find the same subject occupying the attention of the public for many years, and fucceffively presented in new and various forms by different poets. Lucretia was the grand example of conjugal fidelity throughout the Gothic ages *.

The fable of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, in the fourth book of the METAMORPHOSIS, was tranflated by Thomas Peend, or De la Peend, in 1565'. I have seen it only among Antony Wood's books in the Ashmolean Museum. An Epistle is prefixed, addressed to Nicolas Saint Leger efquire, from the writer's ftudie in Chancery-lane oppofite Serjeant's-inn. At the end of which, is an explanation of certain poetical words occurring in the poem. In the preface he tells us, that he had translated great part of the METAMORPHOSIS; but that he abandoned his defign, on hearing that another, undoubtedly Golding, was engaged in the fame undertaking. Peend has a recommendatory

verfe. This, reprinted in 1575, is entered to R. Jones, in 1567. Ibid. fol. 163. a. And there is the Terannye of judge Apius, a ballad, in 1569. Ibid. fol. 184. b.

REGISTR. A. fol. 192. b.

* It is remarkable, that the fign of Berthelette the king's printer in Fleet-street, who flourished about 1540, was the Lucretia, or as he writes it, LUCRETIA ROMANA.

There is another Lucretia belonging to our old poetic ftory. Laneham, in his Narrative of the queen's vifit at Kenilworth-caftle in 1575, mentions among the favorite story books" Lucres and Euria"lus." p. 34. This is, "A boke of ij "lovers Euryalus and Lucreffie [Lucretia]

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pleafaunte and dilectable," entered to T. Norton, in 1569. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 189. a. Again, under the title of "A booke entituled the excellent historye "of Euryalus and Lucretia," to T. Creede,

Oct. 19, 1596. REGISTR. C. fol. 14. b. This ftory was first written in Latin profe, and partly from a real event, about the year 1440, by Eneas Sylvius, then imperial poet and fecretary, afterwards pope Pius the fecond. It may be feen in EPISTOLARUM LACONICARUM ET SELECTARUM FARRAGINES DUE, collected by Gilbertus Cognatus, and printed at Bafil, 1554. 12mo. (See FARRAG. ii. p. 386.) In the course of the narrative, Lucretia is compared by her lover to Polyxena, Venus, and AEMILIA. The laft is the Emilia of Boccace's Thefeid, or Palamon and Arcite. p. 481.

It is licenced to Colwell that year, with the title of the "pleafaunte fable of "Ovide intituled Salmacis and Hermaphroditus." REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 135. a.

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