Writing: The Poetry of Henry VIII, Mary Stuart, Elizabeth
I, and James VI/I, edited by Peter C. Herman, 135–153.
Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance
Studies, 2002.OVID (PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO) (43
B.C.E.–CA. 17 C.E.) Ovid was born in Sulmo, Italy.
With VIRGIL, he is considered one of the foremost Latin
authors. Not much is known about his personal life. As
a young man, Ovid traveled to Rome to study law,
becoming a pupil of Porcius Latro and Arelius Fuscus,
both master rhetoricians. He then embarked on an
administrative career, working at the mint and in the
prison system before becoming a judge. He was mar-
ried three times.
Ovid wrote Amores (a collection of love poetry), Heroi-
des (letters from/about female heroes), Remedia Amoris
(The Cure for Love), Ars Amatoria (Art of Love), Medicam-
ina Facici Feminae (a treatise about cosmetics), Metamor-
phoses (a collection of mythological legends), Fasti (a
book on the months), and a number of other works, now
lost. In 8 C.E., Ovid was exiled to Tomi on the Black Sea,
where he remained until his death. No specifi c reason for
his exile has been found. Scholars speculate that the
emperor Augustus, who had recently undertaken a cam-
paign to clean up Rome’s debauchery, was offended by
Ovid’s Art of Love. The volume, which contains frank
descriptions of love and actions inspired by love, likely
made the conservative government uncomfortable.
Ovid is known for his preservation and elevation of
Roman mythology, as well as for his love poetry. His
verse forms vary, but he favored the elegiac COUPLET
(alternating lines of dactylic hexameter and dactylic
pentameter).
Ovid’s infl uence on medieval and Renaissance
poetry was substantial. For instance, GEOFFREY CHAU-
CER relied on Ovid’s Metamorphoses for both The LEG-
END OF GOOD WOMEN and The BOOK OF THE DUCHESS,
both for inspiration and for source materials. Likewise,
JOHN GOWER drew on Ovid’s works, especially his let-
ters and Art of Love, for the CONFESIO AMANTIS. The Art of
Love served as inspiration for the later work The ART OF
COURTLY LOVE by ANDREAS CAPELLANUS.
During the Tudor era, English translations of Ovid’s
works only served to increase his visibility as inspira-
tion for poets. Arthur Golding is credited with the fi rst
English translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in 1567.
Similarly, CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE translated the Amores
before his death in 1593, though the work was pub-
lished posthumously in 1599 and subsequently banned
as “offensive.” Ovid’s works were particularly fertile
ground for the sonneteers. Numerous SONNET SEQUENCEs,
including Sir PHILIP SIDNEY’s ASTROPHIL AND STELLA and
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’s, owe a debt to his works. ISA-
BELLA WHITNEY’s works, especially her “ADMONITION BY
THE AUTHOR,” directly reference Ovid’s works. These are
but a few examples—Ovid’s infl uence continued to be
felt strongly in British poetry throughout the early mod-
ern period and well into the modern era.
See also CLASSICAL TRADITION, TRANSLATION TRADITION.FURTHER READING
Davis, Peter J. Ovid and Augustus: A Political Reading of Ovid’s
Erotic Poems. London: Duckworth, 2006.
Desmond, Marilynn. Ovid’s Art and the Wife of Bath: The
Ethics of Erotic Violence. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University
Press, 2006.
Oakley-Brown, Liz. Ovid and the Cultural Politics of Transla-
tion in Early Modern England. Aldershot, U.K., and Burl-
ington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2006.
Rimell, Victoria. Ovid’s Lovers: Desire, Difference and the
Poetic Imagination. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2006.OWL AND THE NIGHTINGALE, THE
ANONYMOUS (ca. 1189–1216) The Owl and the Night-
ingale is a Middle English poem (see MIDDLE ENGLISH
POETRY) of 1,794 lines, written in the late 12th or early
13th century. There are two extant manuscripts con-
taining the poem, both from the late 13th century, but
internal evidence suggest it was written a good deal
earlier, since references in the text to the late King
Henry suggest it must have been written between
Henry II’s death in 1189 and Henry III’s taking the
throne in 1216. It is a debate poem in which the sol-
emn Owl disputes with the spirited Nightingale over
their relative value to humankind.
The poem is comic, depicting the self-important
Owl as melancholy, severe, and quick-tempered, and
the lighthearted Nightingale as sanguine but shallow.
The two argue about a variety of random subjects,302 OVID