John Frederick Nims

Ovid's Metamorphoses : the Arthur Golding Translation of 1567 John Frederick Nims

Since its first publication in 1567, Arthur Golding's translation of Ovid has had an enormous influence on English literature and poetry. This is the translation that Shakespeare knew, read, and borrowed from. Golding's witty and beautiful verse continues to delight today's readers. This volume promises to be a valuable resource for students and teachers of Ovid and Shakespeare indeed, for anyone interested in the foundations of English literature.

"It is a tour de force of translation, and it deserves, more than 400 years after its composition, to be read." ?Rain Taxi Review of Books

"This 1567 translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses . . . is tough, surprising, and lovely . . . To read it is to understand the Renaissance view of the classical world, storytelling and also Shakespeare's language and worldview." ?A. S. Byatt

From the Introduction by John Frederick Nims:

"[Golding's translation] was the English Ovid from the time of publication in 1567 until about a decade after the death of Shakespeare in 1616. The Ovid, that is, for all who read him in English during the greatest period of our literature. And its racy verve, its quirks and oddities, its rugged English gusto, is still more enjoyable, more plain fun to read, than any other Metamorphoses in English."