A burning-cresseto steept in blood, and girdeth her about
With wreathed snakes, and so goes forth, and at her going out,
Feare, terror, griefe, and penfiuenesse, for company the tooke,
And also madnesse with his flaight and gastly-ftaring looke.
Within the house of Athamas no sooner foote she fet,
But that the postes began to quake, and doores looke blacke as iet.
The sunne withdrewe him : Athamas and eke his wife were cast
With ougly fightes in such a feare, that out of doores agaft
They would have fled. There stood the fiend, and stopt their

paffage out; And splaying' foorth her filthy armes beknit with snakes about, Did toffe and waue her hatefull head. The swarme of scaled

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

brest, Did hisse, and spit out poison greene, and spirt 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 snakes did craule about their brests, inspiring 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 stinges. A poyfon made in syrup-wise, she also with her brings, The filthy fome of Cerberus, the casting of the snake Echidna, bred among the fennes, about the Stygian lake. Defire of gadding forth abroad, Forgetfullness of minde, Delight in mischiefe, Woodnesses, Tears, and Purpofe whole

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

brasse, And stird them with a hemlock stalke. Now while that Athamas

• A torch. The word is used by Milton.

s Displaying.

& Madness.

And

And Ino stood, and quakt for feare, this poyson ranke and fell
She turned into both their brests, and made their hearts to swell.
Then whisking often round about her head, her balefull brand,
She made it soone, by gathering winde, to kindle in her hand.
Thus, as it were in tryumph-wise, accomplishing her hest,
To dulkie Pluto's emptie realme, she gets her home to rest,
And putteth off the snarled snakes 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 composition. The abruptnesses of the text are judiciously retained, and perhaps improved. The translator seems to have felt Ovid's imagery, and this perhaps is an imagery in which Ovid excells.

Golding's version 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 balkt, perhaps a translation from the Metamorphosis, licenced to John Charlewood, in 1569, .. "The vnfortunate ende of Iphis sonne ynto Teucer kynge of

Troye h.” Nor must I omit The tragicall and lamentable “ Historie of two faythfull mates Ceyx kynge of Thrachine, and “ Alcione his wife, drawen into Englilh meeter by. William “ Hubbard, 1569.'.” In stanzas.

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

b RegistR. STATION. A. fol. 186. a. See Malone's Suppl. SHAKESP, i. 60. feq.

Impr. at London, by W. Howe for R. Johnes. Bl. Lett. 12mo.

In eight leaves

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

Goths, 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 also 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 tranlations, of Justin's History in 1564", of Cesar'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 P. He has left versions of many modern Latin writers, which then had their use, and suited the condition and opinions of the times ; and which are now forgotten, by the introduction of better books, and the general change of the system 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 verses prefixed to Baret's ALVEARE published in 1580. It may be regretted, that he gave so much of his time to translation. In GEORGE GASCOIGne's PRINCELY PLEASURES OF KENILWORTH-CASTLE, an entertainment in the year 1575, he seems to have been a writer of some of the verses, “ The deuife of " the Ladie of the Lake also was master Hunnes—The verses, “ as I think, were penned, some by master Hunnes, some by “ master Ferrers, and some by master Goldingham.” The want of exactness through haste or carelessness, 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 translators by Webbe and Meres.

' In quarto. It was afterwards corrected and printed by Thomas Wilcox, 1604. 9 Signat. Bij.

* Lond. 4to. Again 1578. There is But I must obferve, that one Henry the Psalter in English, printed with Goldingham is mentioned as a gefticulator, Henry Middleton, by Arthur Golding. and one who was to perform Arion on a Lond. 1571. 4to.

dolphin's back, in some spectacle before * The Dedication to Cecil is dated from queen Elisabeth. - MERRY PASSAGES AND Pauls Belchamp, 12 Octob. Lond. 12mo. Jeasts, MSS. HARL. 6395. One B. Again, 1590. There was a translation by Goldingham is an actor and a poet, in Tiptoft earl of Worceiter, printed by Rai. 1579, in the pageant before queen Elisatall. No date. I suppose about 1530.

Norwich. Hollinsh. CHRON. iii. • Lond. 4to. To fir Christopher Hatton. f. 1298. col. 1,

The

P Lond. 4to.

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 some other Latin measure. He says,

“ Indeed, Chauser, Thomas Norton of Bristow, my “ Lord of Surry, M. Wiat, Thomas Phaier, and other gentle

men, in translating Ouide, Palingenius, and Seneca, haue

gone as farre to their great praise as the coppy they followed « could

cary them. But if such 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, “ selves with that barbarous and rude Ryming, amongest theyr “ other woorthye prayses which they haue iuftly deferued, this “ had not been the least, to be counted among men of learning " and skill, more like vnto the Grecians than the Gothians in

handling of theyr verse'.” The sentiments of another cotemporary critic on this subject were somewhat different.

queene Maries time forifhed aboue any other doctour Phaier, “ one that was learned, and excellently well translated into

English verse heroicall, certaine bookes of Virgil's Æneidos. “ Since him followed maister Arthur Golding, who with no less « commendation turned into English meetre the Metamorphosis • of Ouide, and that other doctour who made the supplement “ to those bookes of Virgil's Æneidos, which maister Phaier “ left vndoone.” Again, he commends “ Phaier and Golding, “ for a learned and well connected verse, specially in translation “ cleare, and very faithfully answering their authours intent !."

I learn from Coxeter's notes, that the Fasti were translated into English verse 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 source. In 1569, 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 PoE. se, Lond. 1589, 4to. Lib. i. ch. 30. fol. 49. 51.

• Registr. Station. A, fol. 174. a. To John Alde. The story might however have been taken from Livy: as was “ The " Tragedy of Appius and Virginia," in

verse.

licenced to James Robertes, “ A ballet of the death of Lu“ cryslia W.” There is also a ballad of the legend of Lucrece, printed in 1576. These publications might give rise to Shakespeare'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 successively 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 translated by Thomas Peend, or De la Peend, in 1565. I have seen it only among Antony Wood's books in the Alhmolean Museum. An Epistle is prefixed, addressed to Nicolas Saint Leger esquire, from the writer's studie in Chancery-lane opposite 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

TOLARUM

verse. 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.

w Registr. A. fol. 192. b.

* It is remarkable, that the sign 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 story. Laneham, in his Narrative of the queen's vifit at Kenilworth-castle in 1575, mentions among the favorite story books “ Lucres and Euria. “ Jus." p. 34. This is, “ A boke of ij “ lovers Euryalus and Lucressie (Lucretia]

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,

Oe. 19, 1596. REGISTR. C. fol. 14. b. This story was first written in Latin prose, and partly from a real event, about the year 1440, by Æneas Sylvius, then im. perial poet and secretary, afterwards pope Pius the second. It may be seen in EpisLACONICARUM

ET Selec. TARUM FARRAGINES DUÆ, collected by Gilbertus Cognatus, and printed at Bafil, 1554. 1 2mo. (See FARRAG. ii. p. 386.) In the course of the narrative, Lucretia is compared by her lover to Polyxena, Venus, and AEMILIA. The last is the Emilia of Boccace's Theseid, or Palamon and Ar. cite. p. 481.

v It is licenced to Colwell that year, with the title of the “ pleasaunte fable of “ Ovide intituled Salmacis and Herma“phroditus.” RegistR, STATION, A.

fol. 135. a.

poem