Metamorphoses (tr. Golding)/Too the Reader

by Ovid

Too the Reader.

Would not wish the simple sort offended for to bee,
When in this booke the heathen names of feyned Godds they see.
The trewe and everliving God the Paynims did not knowe:
Which caused them the name of Godds on creatures to bestow.
For nature beeing once corrupt and knowledge blynded quyght
By Adams fall, those little seedes and sparkes of heavenly lyght
That did as yit remayne in man, endevering foorth to burst
And wanting grace and powre to growe to that they were at furst,
To superstition did decline: and drave the fearefull mynd,
Straunge woorshippes of the living God in creatures for to fynd.
The which by custome taking roote, and growing so to strength,
Through Sathans help possest the hartes of all the world at length.
Some woorshipt al the hoste of heaven: some deadmens ghostes & bones:
Sum wicked feends: sum wormes and fowles, herbes, fishes, trees and stones.
The fyre, the ayre, the sea, the land, and every roonning brooke,
Eche queachie grove, eche cragged cliffe the name of Godhead tooke.
The nyght and day, the fleeting howres, the seasons of the yeere,
And every straunge and monstruous thing, for Godds mistaken weere.
There was no vertue, no nor vice: there was no gift of mynd
Or bodye, but some God therto or Goddesse was assignde.
Of health and sicknesse, lyfe and death, of needinesse and wealth,
Of peace and warre, of love and hate, of murder, craft and stealth,
Of bread and wyne, of slouthfull sleepe, and of theyr solemne games,
And every other tryfling toy theyr Goddes did beare the names.
And looke, how every man was bent to goodnesse or to ill,
He did surmyse his foolish Goddes enclyning to his will.
For God perceyving mannes pervers and wicked will to sinne
Did give him over to his lust to sinke or swim therin.
By meanes wherof it came to passe (as in this booke yee see)
That all theyr Goddes with whoordome, theft, or murder blotted bee.
Which argues them to bee no Goddes, but woorser in effect
Than they whoose open poonnishment theyr dooings dooth detect.
Whoo seeing Jove whom heathen folke doo arme with triple fyre
In shape of Eagle, bull or swan to winne his foule desyre,

Or grysly Mars theyr God of warre intangled in a net
By Venus husband purposely to trappe him warely set,
Whoo seeing Saturne eating up the children he begate
Or Venus dalying wantonly with every lustie mate,
Whoo seeing Juno play the scold, or Phoebus moorne and rew
For losse of her whom in his rage through jealous moode he slew,
Or else the suttle Mercurie that beares the charmed rod
Conveying neate and hyding them, would take him for a God?
For if theis faultes in mortall men doo justly merit blame,
What greater madnesse can there bee than to impute the same
To Goddes, whose natures ought to bee most perfect, pure and bright,
Most vertuous, holly, chaast, and wyse, most full of grace and lyght?
But as there is no Christen man that can surmyse in mynd
That theis or other such are Goddes which are no Goddes by kynd:
So would to God there were not now of christen men profest,
That worshipt in theyr deedes theis Godds whose names they doo detest.
Whoose lawes wee keepe his thralles wee bee, and he our God indeede.
So long is Christ our God as wee in christen lyfe proceede.
But if wee yeeld to fleshlye lust, to lucre, or to wrath,
Or if that Envy, Gluttony, or Pryde the maystry hath,
Or any other kynd of sinne, the thing the which wee serve
To bee accounted for our God most justly dooth deserve.
Then must wee thinke the learned men that did theis names frequent,
Some further things and purposes by those devises ment.
By Jove and Juno understand all states of princely port:
By Ops and Saturne auncient folke that are of elder sort:
By Phoebus yoong and lusty brutes of hand and courage stout:
By Mars the valeant men of warre that love to feight it out:
By Pallas and the famous troupe of all the Muses nyne,
Such folke as in the sciences and vertuous artes doo shyne.
By Mercurie the suttle sort that use to filch and lye,
With theeves, and Merchants whoo to gayne theyr travail doo applye.
By Bacchus all the meaner trades and handycraftes are ment:
By Venus such as of the fleshe to filthie lust are bent.
By Neptune such as keepe the seas: by Phebe maydens chast,
And Pilgrims such as wandringly theyr tyme in travell waste.

By Pluto such as delve in mynes, and Ghostes of persones dead:
By Vulcane smythes and such as woorke in yron, tynne or lead.
By Hecat witches, Conjurers, and Necromancers reede:
With all such vayne and devlish artes as superstition breede.
By Satyres, Sylvanes, Nymphes and Faunes with other such besyde,
The playne and simple country folke that every where abyde.
I know theis names to other thinges, oft may and must agree
In declaration of the which I will not tedious bee.
But leave them to the Readers will to take in sundry wyse,
As matter rysing giveth cause constructions to devyse.
Now when thou readst of God or man, in stone, in beast, or tree
It is a myrrour for thy self thyne owne estate to see.
For under feyned names of Goddes it was the Poets guyse,
The vice and faultes of all estates to taunt in covert wyse.
And likewyse to extoll with prayse such things as doo deserve,
Observing alwayes comlynesse from which they doo not swerve.
And as the persone greater is of birth, renowne or fame,
The greater ever is his laud, or fouler is his shame,
For if the States that on the earth the roome of God supply,
Declyne from vertue unto vice and live disorderly,
To Eagles, Tygres, Bulles, and Beares, and other figures straunge
Bothe to theyr people and themselves most hurtfull doo they chaunge,
And when the people give themselves to filthie life and synne,
What other kinde of shape thereby than filthie can they winne?
So was Licaon made a Woolfe: and Jove became a Bull:
The t'one for using crueltie, the tother for his trull.
So was Elpenor and his mates transformed into swyne,
For following of theyr filthie lust in women and in wyne.
Not that they lost theyr manly shape as to the outward showe,
But for that in their brutish brestes most beastly lustes did growe.
For why this lumpe of flesh and bones, this bodie, is not wee.
Wee are a thing which earthly eyes denyed are to see.
Our soule is wee endewd by God with reason from above:
Our bodie is but as our house, in which wee worke and move.
T'one part is common to us all, with God of heaven himself:
The tother common with the beastes, a vyle and stinking pelf.

The t'one bedect with heavenly giftes and endlesse: tother grosse,
Frayle, filthie, weake, and borne to dye as made of earthly drosse.
Now looke how long this clod of clay to reason dooth obey,
So long for men by just desert account our selves wee may.
But if wee suffer fleshly lustes as lawlesse Lordes to reigne,
Than are we beastes, wee are no men, wee have our name in vaine.
And if wee be so drownd in vice that feeling once bee gone,
Then may it well of us bee sayd, wee are a block or stone.
This surely did the Poets meene when in such sundry wyse
The pleasant tales of turned shapes they studyed to devyse.
There purpose was to profite men, and also to delyght
And so to handle every thing as best might like the sight.
For as the Image portrayd out in simple whight and blacke
(Though well proportiond, trew and faire) if comly colours lacke,
Delyghteth not the eye so much, nor yet contentes the mynde
So much as that that shadowed is with colours in his kynde:
Even so a playne and naked tale or storie simply told
(Although the matter bee in deede of valewe more than gold)
Makes not the hearer so attent to print it in his hart,
As when the thing is well declarde, with pleasant termes and art.
All which the Poets knew right well: and for the greater grace,
As Persian kings did never go abrode with open face,
But with some lawne or silken skarf, for reverence of theyr state:
Even so they following in their woorkes the selfsame trade and rate,
Did under covert names and termes theyr doctrines so emplye,
As that it is ryght darke and hard theyr meening to espye.
But beeing found it is more sweete and makes the mynd more glad,
Than if a man of tryed gold a treasure gayned had.
For as the body hath his joy in pleasant smelles and syghts:
Even so in knowledge and in artes the mynd as much delights.
Wherof aboundant hoordes and heapes in Poets packed beene
So hid that (saving unto fewe) they are not to bee seene.
And therfore whooso dooth attempt the Poets woorkes to reede,
Must bring with him a stayed head and judgement to proceede.
For as there bee most wholsome hestes and precepts to bee found,
So are theyr rockes and shallowe shelves to ronne the ship aground.

Some naughtie persone seeing vyce shewd lyvely in his hew,
These persons overshoote themselves, and other folkes deceyve:
Dooth take occasion by and by like vices to ensew.
Another beeing more severe than wisdome dooth requyre,
Beeholding vice (to outward shewe) exalted in desyre,
Condemnetb by and by the booke and him that did it make.
And willes it to be burnd with fyre for lewd example sake.
Not able of the authors mynd the meening to conceyve.
The Authors purpose is to paint and set before our eyes
The lyvely Image of the thoughts that in our stomackes ryse.
Eche vice and vertue seems to speake and argue to our face,
With such perswasions as they have theyr dooinges to embrace.
And if a wicked persone seeme his vices to exalt,
Esteeme not him that wrate the woorke in such defaultes to halt.
But rather with an upryght eye consyder well thy thought:
See if corrupted nature have the like within thee wrought.
Marke what affection dooth perswade in every kynd of matter.
Judge if that even in heynous crymes thy fancy doo not flatter.
And were it not for dread of lawe or dread of God above,
Most men (I feare) would doo the things that fond affections move.
Then take theis woorkes as fragrant flowers most full of pleasant juce,
The which the Bee conveying home may put to wholesome use:
And which the spyder sucking on to poyson may convert,
Through venym spred in all her limbes and native in her hart.
For to the pure and Godly mynd are all things pure and cleene,
And unto such as are corrupt the best corrupted beene:
Lyke as the fynest meates and drinkes that can bee made by art
In sickly folkes to nourishment of sicknesse doo convert.
And therefore not regarding such whose dyet is so fyne
That nothing can digest with them onlesse it bee devine,
Nor such as to theyr proper harme doo wrest and wring awrye
The thinges that to a good intent are written pleasantly,
Through Ovids woorke of turned shapes I have with peinfull pace
Past on untill I had atteyned the end of all my race.
And now I have him made so well acquainted with our toong
As that he may in English verse as in his owne bee soong.

Wherein although for pleasant style, I cannot make account,
To match myne author, who in that all other dooth surmount:
Yit (gentle Reader) doo I trust my travail in this cace
May purchace favour in thy sight my dooings to embrace:
Considring what a sea of goodes and Jewelles thou shalt fynd,
Not more delyghtfull to the eare than frutefull to the mynd.
For this doo lerned persons deeme, of Ovids present woorke:
That in no one of all his bookes the which he wrate, doo lurke
Mo darke and secret misteries, mo counselles wyse and sage,
Mo good ensamples, mo reprooves of vyce in youth and age,
Mo fyne inventions to delight, mo matters clerkly knit,
No, nor more straunge varietie to shew a lerned wit.
The high, the lowe: the riche, the poore: the mayster, and the slave:
The mayd, the wife: the man, the chyld: the simple and the brave:
The yoong, the old: the good, the bad: the warriour strong and stout:
The wyse, the foole: the countrie cloyne: the lerned and the lout:
And every other living wight shall in this mirrour see
His whole estate, thoughtes, woordes and deedes expresly shewd to bee.
Whereof if more particular examples thou doo crave,
In reading the Epistle through thou shalt thy longing have.
Moreover thou mayst fynd herein descriptions of the tymes:
With constellacions of the starres and planettes in theyr clymes:
The Sites of Countries, Cities, hilles, seas, forestes, playnes and floods:
The natures both of fowles, beastes, wormes, herbes, mettals, stones and woods,
And finally what ever thing is straunge and delectable,
The same conveyed shall you fynd most featly in some fable.
And even as in a cheyne eche linke within another wynds,
And both with that that went before and that that followes binds:
So every tale within this booke dooth seeme to take his ground
Of that that was reherst before, and enters in the bound
Of that that folowes after it: and every one gives light
To other: so that whoo so meenes to understand them ryght,
Must have a care as well to know the thing that went before,
As that the which he presently desyres to see so sore.
Now to th'intent that none have cause heereafter to complaine
Of mee as setter out of things that are but light and vaine,

If any stomacke be so weake as that it cannot brooke,
The lively setting forth of things described in this booke,
I give him counsell to absteine untill he bee more strong,
And for to use Vlysses feat ageinst the Meremayds song.
Or if he needes will heere and see and wilfully agree
(Through cause misconstrued) unto vice allured for to bee,
Then let him also marke the peine that dooth therof ensue,
And hold himself content with that that to his fault is due.

FINIS.