"Arthur Golding, gentleman, &c. Imprinted at London by Wil"lyam Seres 1565'." But foon afterwards he printed the whole, or, "The xv. Bookes of P. Ouidius Nafo entytuled METAMOR"PHOSIS, translated out of Latin into English meetre, by Ar"thur Golding Gentleman. A worke uery pleasant and delec"table. Lond. 1575." William Seres was the printer, as before. This work became a favorite, and was reprinted in 1587, 1603, and 1612. The dedication, an epistle in verse, is to Robert earl of Leicester, and dated at Berwick, April 20, 1567. In the metrical Preface to the Reader, which immediately follows, he apologises for having named so many fictitious and heathen gods. This apology feems to be intended for the weaker puritans. His ftyle is poetical and fpirited, and his verfification clear his manner ornamental and diffuse, yet with a sufficient observance of the original. On the whole, I think him a better poet and a better translator than Phaier. This will appear from a few of the first lines of the fecond book, which his readers took for a description of an enchanted castle.

The princely pallace of the Sun, stood gorgeous to behold,
On ftately pillars builded high, of yellow burnisht gold;
Beset with sparkling carbuncles, that like to fire did shine,
The roofe was framed curiously, of yuorie pure and fine.
The two-doore-leves of filuer clere, a radiant light did cast:
But
yet the cunning workemanship of thinges therein far past
The stuffe whereof the doores were made: for there a perfect plat
Had Vulcane drawne of all the world, both of the fourges that

y It is entered "A boke entituled Ovi"dii Metamorphofes." REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 117. b.

z Bl. Lett. 4to. It is fuppofed that there were earlier editions, viz. 1567, and 1576. The laft is mentioned in Coxeter's papers, who faw it in Dr. Rawlinson's collection.

* All in Bl. Lett. 4to. That of 1603,

by W. W. Of 1612, by Thomas Purfoot.

• Afterwards he says, of his author, And now I have him made fo well acquainted with our toong,

As that he may in English verfe as in his owne be foong,

Wherein although for plefant ftile, I cannot make account, &c.

Embrace

Embrace the earth with winding waves, and of the stedfast

ground,

And of the heauen itself alfo, that both encloseth round.

And first and foremost of the sea, the gods thereof did stand, Loude-founding Tryton, with his fhrill and writhen trumpe in hand,

Unstable Protew, changing aye his figure and his hue,

From shape to shape a thousand fights, as lift him to renue.— In purple robe, and royall throne of emerauds freshe and greene, Did Phoebus fit, and on each hand stood wayting well beseene, Dayes, Months, Yeeres, Ages, Seasons, Times, and eke the equall Houres;

There stood the SPRINGTIME, with a crowne of fresh and fragrant floures:

There wayted SUMMER naked starke, all saue a wheaten hat: And AUTUMNE fmerde with treading grapes late at the preffing

с

vat:

And lastly, quaking for the colde, ftood WINTER all forlorne,
With rugged head as white as doue, and garments al to torne;
Forladen with the ifycles, that dangled vp and downe,
Upon his gray and hoarie beard, and fnowie frozen crowne.
The Sunne thus fitting in the midft, did cast his piercing eye, &c.

But I cannot refift the pleasure of transcribing a few more lines, from the transformation of Athamas and Ino, in the fourth book. Tifiphone addreffes Juno ‘.

The hatefull hag Tifiphone, with hoarie ruffled heare *,

Remouing from her face the snakes, that loosely dangled theare, Said thus, &c.

He proceeds,

The furious fiend Tifiphone, doth cloth her out of hand,
In garment streaming gory blood, and taketh in her hand

• Overladen.

Fol. 50. a. edit. 1603.

3 F 2

• Hair.

A burning

A burning creffet fteept 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-ftaring looke.
Within the house of Athamas no fooner foote fhe 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

Inakes

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

breft,

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

infeft.

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

drew,

Of which the one at Athamas, and one at Ino threw.
The fnakes did craule about their brefts, inspiring in their heart
Moft 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, fhe alfo 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 mifchiefe, Woodneffe, Tears, and Purpose whole
inclinde

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

braffe,

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

A torch. The word is used 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-wise, accomplishing her hest,
To duskie 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 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 balkt, perhaps a translation from the Metamorphofis, licenced to John Charlewood, in 1569, "The vnfortunate ende of Iphis fonne vnto Teucer kynge of "Troye ." Nor must 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.

h

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 allo fir Walter Mildmay, William lord Cobham, Henry earl of Huntington, lord Leicester, fir Chriftopher 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.

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-houfe, 1564. See his Dedication to his English verfion of Peter Aretine's WAR OF 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 alfo lived in the parish of All Saints ad murum, London-wall, in 1577EPIST. 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 translations, of Justin's History 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 use, 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 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 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 feems to have been a writer of fome of the verses, "The deuise of "the Ladie of the Lake also was master Hunnes-The verses, "as I think, were penned, fome by mafter Hunnes, fome by "mafter 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 fufpect 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.

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

⚫ Lond. 4to. To fir Chriftopher Hatton.

⚫ Lond. 4to.

↑ Signat. Bij.

But I muft 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