Arthur Golding
Encyclopedia
Arthur Golding was an English
translator
of more than 30 works from Latin
into English
. While primarily remembered today for his translation of Ovid
's Metamorphoses because of its influence on Shakespeare's works, in his own time he was most famous for his translation of Caesar
's Commentaries
, and his translations of the sermons of John Calvin
were important in spreading the doctrines of the Protestant Reformation
.
and Halstead
, Essex, an auditor of the Exchequer
, and his second wife, Ursula (died ca 1564), in a family of seven children. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Golding family had prospered in the cloth trade and by marrying heiresses, and were fairly wealthy and respectable by the time of Arthur's birth, probably in London. In 1548 his half-sister, Margery, by John's first wife, Elizabeth, became the second wife of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford
, one of the richest peers in England, and by 1552 his brother Henry was steward
for his brother-in-law's household.
By 1549 Arthur was in the service of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
, then Lord Protector
. He matriculated as a fellow commoner at Jesus College, Cambridge
in 1552. Henry was elected to Parliament
in 1558, probably because of Oxford's influence, and from the later 1550s Arthur worked on a translation of Pompeius Trogus that he planned to dedicate to Oxford. But Oxford died in August 1562, and his son Edward, the 17th earl
, became a ward in the house of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, in The Strand
. Cecil appears to have employed Golding as his nephew's receiver for several years, for two of his dedications are dated from Cecil House, and in 1567 he dated a dedication from Barwicke, one of the de Vere manors near White Colne
, Essex
.
, written in rhyming couplets of iambic heptameter (fourteeners
). The Fyrst Fower Bookes of P. Ovidius Nasos worke, entitled Metamorphosis, translated oute of Latin into Englishe meter (1565), was supplemented in 1567 by a translation of the complete poem. Strangely enough, the translator of Ovid was a man of strong Puritan
sympathies, and he translated many of the works of Calvin
. To his version of the Metamorphoses he prefixed a long metrical explanation of his reasons for considering it a work of edification, asking his readers to look past the heretical content of the pagan poem. He sets forth the moral which he supposes to underlie certain of the stories, and shows how the pagan machinery may be brought into line with Christian thought.
It was from Golding's pages that many of the Elizabethans drew their knowledge of classical mythology, and William Shakespeare
was well acquainted with Golding's translation, using it as a source for both his plays and poems. The poet Ezra Pound
characterised it as "the most beautiful book in the English language."
Golding translated also the Commentaries of Caesar
(1563, 1565, 1590), the history of Junianus Justinus
(1564), the theological writings of Niels Hemmingsen
(1569) and David Chytraeus
(1570), Theodore Beza
's Tragedie of Abrahams Sacrifice (1575), the De Beneficiis of Seneca the Younger
(1578), the geography of Pomponius Mela
(1585), Calvin's commentaries on the Psalms
(1571), his sermons on the Galatians and Ephesians
, on Deuteronomy
and the book of Job
.
He completed a translation begun by Sir Philip Sidney
from Philippe de Mornay
, A Worke concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion (1604). His only original work is a prose Discourse on the earthquake of 1580, in which he saw a judgment of God on the wickedness of his time. He inherited three considerable estates in Essex, the greater part of which he sold in 1595. The last trace we have of Golding is contained in an order dated 25 July 1605, giving him license to print some of his works.
Golding, in translation of The sermons of J. Calvin upon Deuteronomie, has the first known recorded instance of the idiom: "neither here nor there."
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
translator
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
of more than 30 works from Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
into English
English language in England
The English language in England refers to the English language as spoken in England. These forms of English are a subsection of British English, as spoken throughout Great Britain. Other terms used to refer to the English language as spoken in England include:...
. While primarily remembered today for his translation of Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
's Metamorphoses because of its influence on Shakespeare's works, in his own time he was most famous for his translation of Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
's Commentaries
Caesar's Commentaries
Caesar's Commentaries may refer to one of two works written by Julius Caesar:*Commentarii de Bello Gallico, concerning Caesar's campaigns in Gaul and Britain, 58–50 BC...
, and his translations of the sermons of John Calvin
John Calvin
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
were important in spreading the doctrines of the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
.
Biography
He was the second son of John Golding of Belchamp St PaulBelchamp St Paul
Belchamp St Paul is a village and civil parish in Essex, England.It is located approximately west of Sudbury, Suffolk and is north-northeast from the county town of Chelmsford. It is near Belchamp Otten and Belchamp Walter. The village is in the district of Braintree and in the parliamentary...
and Halstead
Halstead
Halstead is a town and civil parish located in Braintree District of Essex, England, near Colchester and Sudbury. It has a population of 11,053. The town is situated in the Colne Valley, and originally developed on the hill to the north of the river...
, Essex, an auditor of the Exchequer
Exchequer
The Exchequer is a government department of the United Kingdom responsible for the management and collection of taxation and other government revenues. The historical Exchequer developed judicial roles...
, and his second wife, Ursula (died ca 1564), in a family of seven children. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Golding family had prospered in the cloth trade and by marrying heiresses, and were fairly wealthy and respectable by the time of Arthur's birth, probably in London. In 1548 his half-sister, Margery, by John's first wife, Elizabeth, became the second wife of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford was born to John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford and Elizabeth Trussel, daughter of Edward Trussel...
, one of the richest peers in England, and by 1552 his brother Henry was steward
Butler
A butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its...
for his brother-in-law's household.
By 1549 Arthur was in the service of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp of Hache, KG, Earl Marshal was Lord Protector of England in the period between the death of Henry VIII in 1547 and his own indictment in 1549....
, then Lord Protector
Lord Protector
Lord Protector is a title used in British constitutional law for certain heads of state at different periods of history. It is also a particular title for the British Heads of State in respect to the established church...
. He matriculated as a fellow commoner at Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...
in 1552. Henry was elected to Parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
in 1558, probably because of Oxford's influence, and from the later 1550s Arthur worked on a translation of Pompeius Trogus that he planned to dedicate to Oxford. But Oxford died in August 1562, and his son Edward, the 17th earl
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was an Elizabethan courtier, playwright, lyric poet, sportsman and patron of the arts, and is currently the most popular alternative candidate proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works....
, became a ward in the house of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, in The Strand
Strand, London
Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...
. Cecil appears to have employed Golding as his nephew's receiver for several years, for two of his dedications are dated from Cecil House, and in 1567 he dated a dedication from Barwicke, one of the de Vere manors near White Colne
White Colne
White Colne is a village and parish in Essex, England, on the north side of the River Colne, opposite Earls Colne, and on the Colchester road, 4 miles East South East of Halstead. It traces its history back to the Domesday book and beyond. There is evidence of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic settlement...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
.
Translations
Golding's chief work is his translation of OvidOvid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
, written in rhyming couplets of iambic heptameter (fourteeners
Fourteener (poetry)
A Fourteener, in poetry, is a line consisting of 14 syllables, usually having 7 iambic heptametric feet, most commonly found in English poetry produced in the 16th and 17th centuries...
). The Fyrst Fower Bookes of P. Ovidius Nasos worke, entitled Metamorphosis, translated oute of Latin into Englishe meter (1565), was supplemented in 1567 by a translation of the complete poem. Strangely enough, the translator of Ovid was a man of strong Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
sympathies, and he translated many of the works of Calvin
John Calvin
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
. To his version of the Metamorphoses he prefixed a long metrical explanation of his reasons for considering it a work of edification, asking his readers to look past the heretical content of the pagan poem. He sets forth the moral which he supposes to underlie certain of the stories, and shows how the pagan machinery may be brought into line with Christian thought.
It was from Golding's pages that many of the Elizabethans drew their knowledge of classical mythology, and William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
was well acquainted with Golding's translation, using it as a source for both his plays and poems. The poet Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
characterised it as "the most beautiful book in the English language."
Golding translated also the Commentaries of Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
(1563, 1565, 1590), the history of Junianus Justinus
Junianus Justinus
Justin was a Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire. His name is mentioned only in the title of his own history, and there it is in the genitive, which would be M. Juniani Justini no matter which nomen he bore.Of his personal history nothing is known...
(1564), the theological writings of Niels Hemmingsen
Niels Hemmingsen
Niels Hemmingsen was a Danish Lutheran theologian. He studied at the University of Wittenberg 1537 to 1542 under Melanchthon. Returning to Denmark, he became a prolific author of works in Latin...
(1569) and David Chytraeus
David Chytraeus
David Chytraeus or Chyträus was a German Lutheran theologian and historian.His real surname was Kochhafe, which in Classical Greek is χυτρα, from where he derived the Latinized pseudonym "Chyträus".Chytraeus was professor of the University of Rostock and one of the co-authors of the Formula of...
(1570), Theodore Beza
Theodore Beza
Theodore Beza was a French Protestant Christian theologian and scholar who played an important role in the Reformation...
's Tragedie of Abrahams Sacrifice (1575), the De Beneficiis of Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
(1578), the geography of Pomponius Mela
Pomponius Mela
Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera and died c. AD 45.His short work occupies less than one hundred pages of ordinary print. It is laconic in style and deficient in method, but of pure Latinity, and occasionally relieved by pleasing...
(1585), Calvin's commentaries on the Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
(1571), his sermons on the Galatians and Ephesians
Epistle to the Ephesians
The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, often shortened to Ephesians, is the tenth book of the New Testament. Its authorship has traditionally been credited to Paul, but it is considered by some scholars to be "deutero-Pauline," that is, written in Paul's name by a later author strongly influenced by...
, on Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy
The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch...
and the book of Job
Book of Job
The Book of Job , commonly referred to simply as Job, is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. It relates the story of Job, his trials at the hands of Satan, his discussions with friends on the origins and nature of his suffering, his challenge to God, and finally a response from God. The book is a...
.
He completed a translation begun by Sir Philip Sidney
Philip Sidney
Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier and soldier, and is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan Age...
from Philippe de Mornay
Philippe de Mornay
Philippe de Mornay , seigneur du Plessis Marly, usually known as Du-Plessis-Mornay or Mornay Du Plessis, was a French Protestant writer and member of the Monarchomaques .- Biography :...
, A Worke concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion (1604). His only original work is a prose Discourse on the earthquake of 1580, in which he saw a judgment of God on the wickedness of his time. He inherited three considerable estates in Essex, the greater part of which he sold in 1595. The last trace we have of Golding is contained in an order dated 25 July 1605, giving him license to print some of his works.
Golding, in translation of The sermons of J. Calvin upon Deuteronomie, has the first known recorded instance of the idiom: "neither here nor there."