Milton and the Metamorphosis of Ovid

398 Pages·2012·2.418 MB·English

by  Maggie Kilgour

CLASSICAL PRESENCES
GeneralEditors
LORNA HARDWICK JAMES I. PORTER
CLASSICAL PRESENCES
The texts, ideas, images, and material culture of ancient Greece and Rome
have always been crucial to attempts to appropriate the past in order to
authenticate the present. They underlie the mapping of change and the
assertion and challenging of values and identities, old and new. Classical
Presencesbringsthe latestscholarship tobear onthe contexts, theory,and
practiceofsuchuse,andabuse,oftheclassicalpast.
Milton and the
Metamorphosis
of Ovid
MAGGIE KILGOUR
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp
OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship,
andeducationbypublishingworldwidein
Oxford NewYork
Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi
KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi
NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
Withofficesin
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress
intheUKandincertainothercountries
PublishedintheUnitedStates
byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork
#MaggieKilgour2012
Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted
DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker)
Firstpublished2012
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,
storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,
withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,
orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate
reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction
outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,
OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove
Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover
andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
Dataavailable
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Dataavailable
TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India
PrintedinGreatBritain
onacid-freepaperby
MPGBooksGroup,BodminandKing’sLynn
ISBN 978–0–19–958943–2
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
For Brian, Sole partner and sole part of all these joyes
and Nell, musa iocosa mea
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xxi
NoteonEditions xxii
Introduction:MiltonandtheRenaissanceOvids 1
Milton’sOvidianart 1
SomeotherRenaissanceOvids 13
OvidandVirgil 19
BeyondtheMetamorphoses 28
Portraitoftheartistasayoungdevil 35
1. ChoosingOvids(1) 49
Masteringtheartsofallusion 49
Firstflowers 54
ComusandtheTranslatioOvidii 74
2. ChoosingOvids(2) 97
MoreOvids 97
RereadingOvid’srapes 111
Poetoftheyear 115
It’sabouttime 126
Miltonandthepassingoftime 139
Masquingrevolution 149
3. ReflectionsofNarcissus 165
Formsofchange 165
Ovid’soriginal 175
RenaissanceNarcissi 184
Milton’soriginalcopy 196
Falling,inlove 213
4. Self-ConsumingArtists 229
MiltonNarcissus 229
Envyandemulation 231
viii Contents
Ovidianinvidia 242
Miltonandtheartsofenvy 251
Fallingpoets 264
Sinandheroriginals 272
Conclusion:LastWords 285
TheonceandfutureMilton 285
Ovid’sbadreaders 287
Theauthorasreader 292
Theanxietyofreception 297
ReadingSamsonAgonistes 298
Aphoenixtoofrequent 306
‘ThelastofmeornoIcannotwarrant’ 315
GoLittleBook 319
Bibliography 329
Index 365
Preface
Every thing must have a beginning...and that beginning must be
linked to something thatwent before. TheHindoos give theworld an
elephanttosupportit,buttheymaketheelephantstanduponatortoise.
Invention,itmustbehumblyadmitted,doesnotconsistincreatingout
of void, but out of chaos; the materials must, in the first place, be
afforded: it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot
bringintobeingthesubstanceitself...Inventionconsistsinthecapa-
city of seizing on the capabilities of a subject, and in the power of
mouldingandfashioningideassuggestedtoit.1
Given the fact that Paradise Lost tells the story of the origins of all
things, it is not surprising that readers have often been interested in
tracingitssources.Asprefacestocriticalstudiesalsooftenprovidea
narrative of their origins, I feel that I should begin with something
about my own beginnings. This book has been a protean project,
whichhastakendifferentshapesbeforesettlingintoitsfinalform.It
started with a rather simple love of both Milton and Ovid, and a
desiretogetthetwoofthemtogetherasmuchaspossible.Onebasic
problemIfacedfromthestart,however,wasthatoftryingtounder-
stand how Milton read Ovid. The range of reading practices during
the Renaissance means that this is not self-evident. Increasingly,
moreover, I found myself thinking about a larger question: why
does figuring out how Milton reads Ovid matter? What does it tell
usaboutMilton?Ovid?Evenourselves?
ScholarsoftheRenaissance haveofcoursealwaysbeenfascinated
by the role that classical culture played in the astonishing outburst
of creative energy in this period. In literature especially, studies of
imitationandallusionhavereturnedustothinkingaboutindividual
artists’ relations to their models. Thomas Greene’s influential work
argued that these relations were deeply ambivalent, a complex mix-
ture of admiring emulation and envious rivalry.2 For ambitious
1 Mary Shelley, ‘Introduction [1831]’, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Pro-
metheus,ed.D.L.MaconaldandKathleenScherf(Plymouth,1999),356.
2 ThomasM.Greene,TheLightinTroy:ImitationandDiscoveryinRenaissance
Poetry(NewHaven,1982).