Shakespeare's Ovid, Being Arthur Golding's Translation of the Metamorphoses

About Shakespeare's Ovid, Being Arthur Golding's Translation of the Metamorphoses

Ovid represents his work as a celebration of mutability in the form of a history of the world's notable transformations. It is a compendium of Greek and Roman mythology, valuable not only as a guide to the study of ancient literature and religion but also as an aid to understanding and appreciating later literature since it has been studied and often alluded to by educated Western writers. Mutability is not only the subject of the poem but the essence of Ovid’s narrative technique. The subject matter permits the poet to alternate between exciting action scenes and detailed psychological portraits in the form of interior monologues, especially of women tortured by indecision. The pace of the narrative varies greatly as he lingers here, rushes there, some stories occupying five pages, others five lines. The tone too varies greatly, for the characters have unique voices that alter according to emotion and audience, and the narrative voice itself also changes unpredictably. One story of violence, like the death of Hercules, may be treated with great dignity throughout, while free-for-all battles defiling places better suited to celebration crescendo from one bizarre death to one yet more bizarre until we find ourselves laughing at carnage. One such episode is followed incongruously by a recital performed by the nine Muses to a bored divine audience. Tone can undergo drastic changes even within a single tale.

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