Arthur Golding

Arthur Golding (* around 1536 probably in London ; † May 1606 ) was an English translator .

Life

Arthur Golding grew up as the younger son of John Golding, a tax clerk from Belchamp St Paul's, Essex . His half-sister Margaret was married to John De Vere , 16th Earl of Oxford . Golding was from 1549 in the service of the ruling Lord Protector Edward Seymour . He seems to have lived for some time with his nephew, the poet Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford , in the house of William Cecil , 1st Baron Burghley , on The Strand, London . Cecil was one of the most influential advisors to Queen Elizabeth I.

Despite his origins from a wealthy family, Golding often had financial difficulties, which even an inheritance after the death of an older brother could not alleviate over the long term. Nor did his literary fame and influential friends prevent him from ending up in the Fleet Prison in 1593 for indebtedness ; His family or friends probably helped him out of this predicament. An entry in the church book of Belchamp St.Paul's from May 13th 1606 certifies Golding's death.

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Arthur Golding's main work was the translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses into English . The first four books of Metamorphoses appeared in 1565 under the title The Fyrst Fower Bookes of P. Ovidius Nasos worke, entitled Metamorphosis, translated oute of Latin into Englishe meter , in 1567 the translation of all 15 books appeared. The appreciation of Ovid by Golding, a follower of the Puritans , may seem astonishing, especially since he also translated many works of the strict reformer John Calvin . But Golding also put his Ovid translation into a Christian context by means of a preface written in verse, by granting many of Ovid's subjects a deep moral and emphasizing the possibility of linking pagan and Christian traditions.

It was from its translation that the English scholars of the Elizabethan age drew much of their knowledge of classical mythology. It can be assumed that William Shakespeare was also inspired by his works. In the 20th century the poet Ezra Pound called Golding's translation "the most beautiful book in English" .

Golding also translated works by Caesar , Seneca , Junianus Justinus and Leonardo Bruni (Leonard Aretine), among others .

His only work of his own is the prose treatise The discourse upon the Earthquake that hapned throughe this realme of England and other places of Christendom, the sixt of Aprill, 1580, between the hours of five and six in the evening about an earthquake in the south England, which also caused damage in London and saw golding as God's punishment for the corruption of its time.

literature

• Louis Thorn: Golding. To Elizabethan Puritan . Richard R. Smith, New York 1937

Web links

• Biography and list of works (English)
• Golding's translation of the Metamorphoses in full text (English)