As a member of the equestrian order by birth, Ovid (43 B.C.-A.D.17) entered immediately into recognized social status. As a youth, he dabbled in politics, but eventually abandoned the political life of the forum for one of composing poetry. He wrote on a variety of topics, including some poems on the "Art of Love" and the "Cure for Love." Because of their content, quite obviously no mention is made of these poems in any descriptions of the grammar school curriculum in colonial America!1 It is also reported that because of the indiscrete nature of his love poetry Ovid was banished from Rome to the area of the Black Sea in A.D.8. There he resided in the town of Tomis where he wrote his sad letters (Tristia) which describe his forlorn life away from Rome. Nathaniel Williams tells us that the Tristia of Ovid were studied as early as the fourth and fifth grades in the grammar schools of early America.2 Also, once the young student was introduced to prosody, scanning and verse making, Ovid's other great work, the Metamorphoses, followed shortly thereafter. The Metamorphoses is a delightful work which served as a mythological sourcebook and which, as Cotton Mather tells (see Introduction), so inspired the grammar school student to read, on his own, all fifteen books so as "not a Change to miss."
Selection "I," Ovid's unique, poetical autobiography, is from Nicolaus Heinsius' 1676 edition of Publii Ovidii Nasonis Operum, Volume I, printed in Amsterdam; selection "II" is from the 1713 Delphin edition of P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseon Libri XV, printed in London.
Ille
ego, qui fuerim, tenerorum lusor amorum,
Quem legis, ut noris, accipe, Posteritas.
Sulmo
mihi patria est gelidis uberrimus undis,
Millia qui novies distat
ab Urbe decem.
Editus hic ego sum: necnon, ut tempora noris;
5
Cum cecidit fato Consul uterque pari.
Si quid et a proavis usque est vetus ordinis heres;
Non modo Fortunae munere factus eques.
Nec stirps prima fui; genito jam fratre creatus,
Qui tribus ante quater mensibus ortus erat.
10
Lucifer amborum natalibus adfuit idem:
Una celebrata est per duo liba dies.
Haec est armiferae festis de quinque Minervae,
Quae fieri pugna prima cruenta solet.
Protinus excolimur teneri, curaque parentis
15
Imus ad insignes Urbis ab arte viros.
Frater ad eloquium viridi tendebat ab aevo,
Fortia verbosi natus ad arma Fori.
At mihi jam puero caelestia sacra placebant;
Inque suum furtim Musa trahebat opus.
20
Saepe pater dixit, studium quid inutile tentas?
Maeonides nullas ipse reliquit opes.
Motus eram dictis: totoque Helicone relicto,
Scribere conabar verba soluta modis.
Sponte sua carmen numeros veniebat ad aptos:
25
Et, quod tentabam dicere, versus erat.
Interea, tacito passu labentibus annis,
Liberior fratri sumta mihique toga
est:
Induiturque humeris cum lato purpura clavo:
Et studium nobis, quod fuit ante, manet.
30
Jamque decem vitae frater geminaverat annos,
Cum perit; et coepi parte carere mei.
Coepimus
et tenerae primos aetatis honores;
Eque viris quondam pars tribus una fui.
Curia restabat: clavi mensura coacta est.
35
Majus erat nostris viribus illud onus.
Nec patiens corpus, nec mens fuit apta labori,
Sollicitaeque fugax ambitionis eram:
Et petere Aoniae suadebant tuta sorores
Otia judicio semper amata meo,
40
Temporis illius colui fovique poetas;
Quotque aderant vates, rebar adesse Deos.
Saepe suas volucres legit mihi grandior aevo,
Quaeqtle necet serpens, quae juvet herba, Macer.
Saepe suos solitus recitare Propertius ignes;
45
Jure sodalitii qui mihi junctus erat.
Ponticus Heroo, Bassus quoque clarus Iambo
Dulcia convictus membra fuere mei.
Et tenuit nostras numerosus Horatius aures;
Dum ferit Ausonia carmina culta lyra.
50
Virgilium vidi tantum: nec avara Tibullo
Tempus amicitiae fata dedere meae.
Successor fuit hic tibi, Galle; Propertius illi.
Quartus ab his serie temporis ipse fui.
Utque ego majores, sic me coluere minores;
55
Notaque non tarde facta Thalia mea est.
Carmina cum primum populo juvenilia legi;
Barba resecta mihi bisve semelve fuit.
Moverat ingenium totam cantata per Urbem
Nomine non verbo dicta Corinna mihi.
60
Multa quidem scripsi: sed, quae vitiosa putavi,
Emendaturis ignibus ipse dedi.
Tunc quoque, cum fugerem, quaedam placitura cremavi,
Iratus studio carminibusque meis.
Molle, Cupidineis nec inexpugnabile telis
65
Cor mihi, quodque levis causa moveret, erat.
Cum tamen hoc essem, minimoque accenderer igni;
Nomine sub nostro fabula nulla fuit.
Paene mihi puero nec digna, nec utilis uxor
Est data: quae tempus perbreve nupta fuit.
70
Illi successit, quamvis sine crimine, conjunx
Non tamen in nostro firma futura toro.
Ultima, quae mecum seros permansit in annos,
Sustinuit conjunx exsulis esse viri.
Filia bis prima mea me foecunda iuventa,
75
Sed non ex uno conjuge, fecit avum.
Et jam complerat genitor sua fata; novemque
Addiderat lustris altera lustra novem.
Non aliter flevi, quam me fleturus ademptum
Ille fuit. Matri proxima juxta tuli.
80
Felices ambo, tempestiveque sepulti,
Ante diem poenae quod periere meae!
Me
quoque felicem, quod non viventibus illis
Sum miser; et de me quod doluere nihil!
Si tamen exstinctis aliquid, nisi nomina, restat,
85
Et gracilis structos effugit umbra rogos;
Fama, parentales, si vos mea contigit, umbrae;
Et sunt in Stygio crimina nostra foro;
Scite, precor, causam (nec vos mihi fallere fas
est)
Errorem jussae, non scelus, esse fugae.
90
Manibus id satis est: ad vos studiosa revertor
Pectora, quae vitae quaeritis acta meae.
Jam mihi canities, pulsis melioribus annis,
Venerat; antiquas miscueratque comas:
Postque meos ortus Pisaea vinctus oliva
95
Abstulerat decies praemia victor eques:
Cum maris Euxini positos ad laeva Tomitas
Quaerere me laesi Principis ira jubet.
Causa meae cunctis nimium quoque nota ruinae
Indicio non est testificanda meo.
100
Quid referam comitumque nefas, famulosque nocentes?
Ipsa multa tuli non leviora fuga.
Indignata malis mens est succumbere, seque
Praestitit invictam viribus usa suis;
Oblitusque mei, ductaeque per otia vitae,
105
Insolita cepi temporis arma manu.
Totque tuli terra casus pelagoque, quot inter
Occultum stellae conspicuumque polum.
Tacta mihi tandem longis erroribus acto
Juncta pharetratis Sarmatis ora Getis.
110
Hic ego, finitimis quamvis circumsoner armis,
Tristia, quo possum, carmine fata levo.
Quod, quamvis nemo est, cuius referatur ad aures:
Sic tamen absumo decipioque diem.
Ergo, quod vivo, durisque laboribus obsto,
115
Nec me sollicitae taedia lucis habent,
Gratia, Musa, tibi. Nam tu solatia praebes;
Tu curae requies, tu medicina mali:
Tu dux, tu comes es: tu nos abducis ab Istro;
In medioque mihi das Helicone locum.
120
Tu mihi (quod rarum) vivo sublime dedisti
Nomen, ab exsequiis quod dare Fama solet.
Nec, qui detractat praesentia, Livor iniquo
Ullum de nostris dente momordit opus.
Nam tulerint magnos cum saecula nostra poetas;
125
Non fuit ingenio Fama maligna meo.
Cumque ego praeponam multos mihi; non minor illis
Dicor: et in toto plurimus orbe legor.
Si quid habent igitur vatum praesagia veri;
Protinus ut moriar, non ero, terra, tuus.
130
Sive favore tuli, sive hanc ego carmine famam,
Jure; tibi grates, candide lector, ago.
II. From Ovid's Metamorphoses 3. 138-252:
Prima
nepos inter tot res tibi, Cadme, secundas
Causa fuit luctus, alienaque cornua fronti
Addita, vosque, canes, satiatae sanguine herili.
140
At bene si quaeras; Fortunae crimen in illo,
Non scelus invenies. Quod enim scelus error habebat?
Mons erat, infectus variarum caede ferarum:
Jamque dies rerum medias contraxerat umbras;
Et Sol ex aequo meta distabat utraque;
145
Cum juvenis placido per devia lustra vagantes
Participes operum compellat Hyantius ore;
Lina madent, comites, ferrumque cruore ferarum:
Fortunaeque dies habuit satis. Altera lucem
Cum croceis invecta rotis Aurora reducet;
150
Propositum repetamus opus. Nunc Phoebus utraque
Distat idem terra; finditque vaporibus arva.
Sistite opus praesens: nodosaque tollite lina.
Jussa viri faciunt; intermittuntque laborem.
Vallis erat piceis, et acuta densa cupressu,
155
Nomine Gargaphie; succinctae sacra Dianae:
Cujus in extremo est antrum nemorale recessu,
Arte laboratum nulla: simulaverat artem
Ingenio Natura suo: nam pumice vivo,
Et levibus tophis nativum duxerat arcum.
160
Fons sonat a dextra tenui perlucidus unda,
Margine gramineo patulos incinctus hiatus:
Hic dea silvarum venatu fessa solebat
Virgineos artus liquido perfundere rore.
Quo postquam subiit; Nympharum tradidit uni
165
Armigerae jaculum, pharetramque, arcusque retentos:
Altera depositae subjecit brachia pallae:
Vincla duae pedibus demunt: Nam doctior illis
Ismenis Crocale, sparsos per colla capillos
Colligit in nodum; quamvis erat ipsa solutis.
170
Excipiunt laticem Nepheleque, Hyaleque, Rhanisque
Et Psecas, et Phiale: funduntque capacibus urnis.
Dumque ibi perluitur solita Titania lympha;
Ecce nepos Cadmi, dilata parte laborum,
Per nemus ignotum non certis passibus errans,
175
Pervenit in lucum: sic illum fata ferebant.
Qui simul intravit rorantia fontibus antra;
Sicut erant, viso, nudae sua pectora Nymphae
Percussere, viro, subitisque ululatibus omne
Implevere nemus: circumfusaeque Dianam
180
Corporibus texere suis. Tamen altior illis
Ipsa Dea est, colloque tenus supereminet omnes.
Qui color infectis adversi Solis ab ictu
Nubibus
esse solet, aut purpureae Aurorae,
Is
fuit in vultu visae sine veste Dianae.
185
Quae quanquam comitum turba stipata suarum,
In
latus obliquum tamen adstitit: oraque retro
Flexit: et ut vellet promptas habuisse sagittas,
Quas
habuit, sic hausit aquas: vultumque virilem
Perfudit: spargensque comas ultricibus undis,
190
Addidit haec cladis praenuncia verba futurae:
Nunc tibi me posito visam velamine narres,
Si poteris narrare, licet. Nec plura minata,
Dat sparso capiti vivacis cornua cervi:
Dat spatium collo: summasque cacuminat aures.
195
Cum pedibusque manus, cum longis brachia mutat
Cruribus: et velat maculoso vellere corpus:
Additus et pavor est. Fugit Autonoeius heros:
Et
se tam celerem cursu miratur in ipso:
Ut vero solitis sua cornua vidit in undis,
200
Me
miserum! dicturus erat: vox nulla secuta est.
Ingemuit; vox illa fuit; lacrymaeque per ora
Non sua fluxerunt. Mens tantum pristina mansit.
Quid faciat? Repetatne domum et regalia tecta?
An lateat silvis? timor hoc, pudor impedit illud.
205
Dum dubitat, videre canes: primusque Melampus,
Ichnobatesque sagax latratu signa dedere;
Gnossius Ichnobates, Spartana gente Melampus.
Inde ruunt alii rapida velocius aura,
Pamphagus, et Dorceus; et Oribasus; Arcades omnes:
210
Nebrophonusque valens, et trux cum Laelape Theron,
Et pedibus Pterelas, et naribus utilis Agre,
Hylaeusque fero nuper percussus ab apro,
Deque lupo concepta Nape, pecudesque secuta
Poemenis, et natis comitata Harpyia duobus,
215
Et substricta gerens Sicyonius ilia Ladon:
Et Dromas, et Canace, Sticteque, et Tigris, et Alce,
Et niveis Leucon, et villis Asbolus atris,
Praevalidusque Lacon, et cursu fortis Aello
Et Thous, et Cyprio velox cum fratre Lycisca:
220
Et nigram medio frontem distinctus ab albo
Harpalos, et Melaneus, hirsutaque corpore Lachne:
Et patre Dictaeo, sed matre Laconide nati,
Labros, et Argiodos, et acutae vocis Hylactor:
Qiiosque referre mora est. Ea turba cupidine praedae
225
Per rupes, scopulosque adituque carentia saxa,
Qua via difficilis, quaque est via nulla, feruntur.
Ille fugit, per quae fuerat loca saepe secutus:
Heu famulos fugit ipse suos! Clamare libebat,
Actaeon ego sum! dominum cognoscite vestrum.
230
Verba animo desunt: resonat latratibus aether.
Prima Melanchaetes in tergo vulnera fecit:
Proxima Theridamas; Oresitrophus haesit in armo:
Tardius exierant; sed per compendia montis
Anticipata via est. Dominum retinentibus illis
235
Caetera turba coit, confertque in corpore dentes.
Iam loca vulneribus desunt. Gemit ille, sonumque,
Etsi non hominis, quem non tamen edere possit
Cervus, habet: maestisque replet juga nota querelis:
Et genibus supplex pronis, similisque roganti,
240
Circumfert
tacitos, tanquam sua brachia, vultus.
At comites rapidum solitis hortatibus agmen
Ignari instigant, oculisque Actaeona quaerunt;
Et velut absentem certatim Actaeona clamant.
Ad nomen caput ille refert, ut abesse queruntur,
245
Nec capere oblatae segnem spectacula praedae.
Vellet abesse quidem; sed adest: velletque videre,
Non etiam sentire canum fera facta suorum.
Undique circumstant, mersisque in corpore rostris
Dilacerant falsi dominum sub imagine cervi.
250
Nec nisi finita per plurima vulnera vita,
Ira pharetratae fertur satiata Dianae.
Selection I: Tristia 4, 10 is written in the elegiac meter, which
consists of a dactylic hexameter followed by a dactylic pentameter. It
is also quite unusual in this metrical scheme for a thought unit to continue
from one couplet to the next.
L.2 noris, perfect active subjunctive
second person singular of nosco.
accipe posteritas, "you, posterity, hear."
L.3 Sulmo, a village of central Italy, east of Rome.
L.4 millia novies decem, with passuum
understood;
translate "90,000
paces" or "80 miles from Rome. " One thousand Roman paces were
equal to 4,850 feet.
L.5 necnon, also written nec non,
introduces an emphatic affirmation,
"and besides."
L.6 "when both consuls fell to a like fate."
In the year 43 B.C., the
consuls Hirtius and Pansa defeated Antony at the battle of Mutina.
Hirtius, however, died in the battle, and Pansa died shortly
afterwards from the wounds which he received in the same battle.
L.8 with factus understand sum.
L.12 liba, "cakes," the custom was to offer a cake to the gods on one's birthday.
L.14 The festival of Quinquatrus (19-23 March)
was held in Minerva's
honor. On the last four days of the festival combats took place. Ovid
was born, then, on the first of these combat (pugna) days, or on
20 March 43 B.C.
L.20 understand me as direct object of trahebat.
L.21 tentas = temptas; see also 1.26.
L.22 Maeonides, "an inhabitant of maeonia,"
a poetical designation for
Homer who was reputed to have been born in Maeonia, a district
of Lydia.
L.23 Helicone, the Helicon was a mountain in Boeotia, sacred to the Muses.
L.28 liberior toga = toga virilis, put
on by a Roman youth upon reaching
manhood, or the sixteenth birthday sumta = sumpta.
L.33 coepimus, usually read cepimus in modern texts.
L.34 eque, the preposition and the enclitic.
viris tribus, the Tresviri,
a board of three officials, but with limited authority.
L.35 clavi mensura coacta est, "the
size of my purple stripe was
restricted." Roman senators wore a toga with a broader purple
stripe than members of the equestrian order. Ovid here states
that he decided not to pursue the senatorial rank.
L.38 fugax . . . eram, "I avoided."
L.39 Aoniae sorores, "the Muses."
L.44 Macer, a poet of Ovid's day who
wrote didactic poetry about
snakes, birds, and plants.
L.45 Propertius, elegiac poet, ca. 54 B.C.-16 B.C.
L.46 qui, archaic form of quo, ablative meaning "by which."
L.49 numerosus, "of many meters." Horace,
65 B.C.-8 B.C., the most
famous of lyric poets and satirists of the Augustan Age (See Unit X).
L.51 Tibullus, elegiac poet, ca. 48 B.C.-19 B.C.
L.53 Gallus (ca. 69-26 B.C.) was an Alexandrian
poet and friend of
Augustus Caesar; Propertius (ca. 54 B.C.-16 B.C.) was an elegiac poet.
L.55 with ego, understand colui.
L.56 Thalia is the muse of lyric poetry.
L.60 verbo, usually read vero
in modern texts. Corinna is the heroine
of Ovid's Amores.
L.61 antecedent of quae is carmina understood (see L.57).
L.63 quaedam placitura, "certain poems that would likely please."
L.78 a lustrum was a five-year period of time.
L.79 fleturus + fuit, the future participle,
when used with past tense
of esse, is often equivalent to the pluperfect subjunctive.
L.80 justa, as well as busta are read for juxta.
L.83 Me quoque felicem, accusative of exclamation.
L.90 causam + jussae fugae, "the cause of my mandated flight."
L.95 Pisaea vinctus oliva, "wreathed
with the Pisean olive." Every
five years the Olympic games were held in the district of Pisa
in Elis. Ovid was fifty years old when he was exiled in A.D. 8.
L.108 occultum . . . conspicuumque polum,
"the hidden and visible
pole," i.e., the northern and southern hemispheres.
L.110 Sarmatis, nominative singular adjective agrees with ora.
L.117 solatia, eighteenth-century reading for solacia.
L.130 protinus ut moriar, "since I
shall soon die."
Selection II: Metamorphoses 3. 138-252. The beginning of Book 3 describes the adventures of Cadmus and the founding of the city of Thebes. The meter is dactylic hexameter.
L.140 canis, both masculine and feminine;
here feminine modified
by satiatae; herili = erili.
L.143 infectus, perfect passive participle of inficio, "stained" or "darkened."
L.144 medias, modern texts read
medius
agreeing with dies. The time
described was high noon; "now the daylight has reduced the shadows
of objects to half size."
L.147 Hyantius, an old name of the Boeotians, with juvenis, Actaeon.
L.155 acuta is ablative with cupressu; densa is nominative with vallis.
L.169 Ismenis, a patronymic; "daughter of Ismenus."
L.170 with solutis, understand capillis.
L.184 note the spondaic line and the hiatus between purpureae and Aurorae.
L.185 is refers to color of L.183; it also is the antecedent of qui, L.183.
L.186 quae, refers to Diana; turba is ablative.
L.187 "she, however, stood sideways."
L.188 understand se (Diana) as subject accusative of habuisse.
L.189 antecedent of quas is aquas.
L.198 Autonoeius, Autonoe, mother of Actaeon.
L.201 me miserum, accusative of exclamation.
L.206f.the names of the dogs are all descriptive
terms, derived from
the Greek, e.g., Ichnobates, "the trail searcher," or Pamphagus,
"all consuming."
L.227 feruntur, plural verb with a
singular subject, turba, which has,
however, a collective, or plural, meaning.
L.241 circumfert . . . vultus,
"he turns round his silent gaze, as if he
were spreading out his own arms."
L.245 understand eum = Actaeon as subject of abesse.
References
Ever since the first settlers erected their crude huts on the shores of New England and Virginia, Ovid has been a part of the literary, artistic and cultural tradition of this country. The very first English translation of a classical author in the New World was Ovid's Metamorphoses, completed by George Sandys, the resident treasurer of the f i rst colony established in Virginia. Sandys had begun his translation in England but finished his work in Virgina and sent it back to the mother land to be published in 1626.3 For two hundred years after Sandys' accomplishment, Ovid's Latin text was carefully read by every American youngster after just a few years of instruction in a Latin grammar school. Nathaniel Williams tells us that Ovid's Tristia were recited by heart at the Boston Latin Grammar School and that his Metamorphoses were learned during the fifth year of instruction at the same school.4 Williams also states that the fifth-year grammar school student was introduced to "Prosodia Scanning and the turning and making of verses."5 Undoubtedly, Ovid's text was often the first large dosage of metrical reading which a student encountered in Williams' classroom. The same was true in Philadelphia where the Latin grammar school student was also expected to practice his metrics by "scanning . . . every lesson that is said in Ovid."6 Although none of the Founding Fathers have left direct evidence on how the metrics of Ovid's text were presented in the colonial classroom, we can form some idea of the seriousness with which the dactylic hexameter verse of his Metamorphoses was studied on the basis of a somewhat humorous description by John Adams of how the same meter in Vergil's Aeneid was examined at the grammar school level. Adams recalls the following story told at a Saturday dinner in November of 1769 by Benjamin Gridley:
Gridley
to us a Story of his Uncle Jeremiah the late Head of the Bar. "When
I was a school Boy, at Master Lovells, Mr. Gridley my Uncle used to make
me call at his Office, sometimes, to repeat my Lesson to him. I called
there
one Day for that Purpose. - Well, Ben! What have you to say, Ben? Says
he.
- I am come to say my Lesson sir to you, says I. - Ay? Ben? What Book have
you there? Under your Arm? - Virgil sir. - Ay! Ben? Is that the Poet, Virgil?
- Yes sir. - so I opened my Book and began: Arma, virumque Cano, Troja,
qui primus ab oris. "Arma, virumque Cano!" , You blockhead.
- does
John Lovell teach you to read so - read again. - So I began again. Arma
Virumque can. "- Cano" you villain, "cano" - and gave me a tremendous
Box on the Ear. - Arma Virumque cano. You blockhead, is the true
reading.
Adams then records how young Ben Gridley became so upset that he threw his Virgil at his uncle's head, which moment of indiscretion caused a disagreement between his father and uncle that evening.7 Although Adams humorously recounts young Ben Gridley's troubles with the long and short quantities of Virgil's dactylic hexameter, the underlying truth of his account is that in eighteenth-century Amererica even the young grammar school student was expected to be familiar with the rules and practice of metrics and possess a reasonable mastery of both before admission to college.8 In fact, faulty pronunciation and metrical incompetency were causes for the most serious concern about the efficacy of the classical preparation for the University of Virginia, as Jefferson complained in 1825:
Finally, Ovid was one of the most commonly invoked classical authors in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century letters.12 John Adams, for example, used his knowledge of classical mythological figures, presumably acquired from Ovid, in several of his romantic letters to Abigail Smith during their courtship. In the following letter, written in August 1763, Adams flatters Abigail's modest beauty by comparing her to the mythological Diana:
2 See Introduction, p. 9; in the grammar school
of Philadelphia in the late eighteenth century it is not stated which
specific works of Ovid were read (see p. 16).
3 See Meyer Reinhold, The Classick Pages, pp. 136-1.
6 Introduction, p. 19. Mark Morford gives additional
evidence for the metrical use of the Ovidian text in early
America in "Early American School Editions of Ovid," Classical Journal
78 (1983), pp. 150-158.
7 L. H. Butterf ield, Diary and Autobioqraphy
of John Adams 1 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press, 1961), pp. 345-347.
8 Shortly after arriving at Princeton, James Madison,
for example, writes to his grammar school teacher, the
Reverend Thomas Martin, that "I have by that means read over more than
half Horace and made myself pretty well
acquainted with Prosody, both of which will be almost neglected the
two succeeding years." The point is that Madison
was expected to demonstrate proficiency in metrics as a freshman in
college. See Hutchinson and Rachal, eds., The
Papers of James Madison 1 (Chicago, Illinois: The University
of Chicago Press, 1962), pp. 42-43, 10 August 1769.
9· Karl Lehmann, Thomas Jefferson: American Humanist (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1947), p. 65.
10 See F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and
the Antique. The Lure of Classical Sculpture (New Haven,
Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1981), pp. 14, 278, 282.
11 See William B. O'Neal, Jefferson's Fine
Arts Library (Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press,
1976), pp. 327-330.
12 Nathaniel Williams and Cotton Mather attest
to the prominence of Ovid's Tristia in the curriculum of the Boston
Latin Grammar School. However, the only explicit reference to any of
Ovid's
Tristia which I have found in my reading
of eighteenth-century American literature is by Mather to Tristia
2, 33, in his The Christian Philosopher, p. 64. See
Winton U. Solberg, "Cotton Mather, The Christian Philosopher,
and the Classics," 96 Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society
1987, pp. 323-366, for this reference as well as countless others to
the classical authors referred
to in Mather's monumemtal work.
Tristia 4.10 has been chosen
as the reading selection for this chapter because it is a
unique autobiographical work from the pen of an ancient writer. From
the attention which was paid to the Tristia in the
early American classroom this work was undoubtedly quite familiar to
our forefathers, especially since it, as well as
Ovid's Metamorphoses, was frequently cited by Addison and Steele
in their Spectator essays--e.g.,
Trisita 1.3.36
and Metamorphoses 2.5.13-14, 36-38; 4.287.294-295. See Angur
Ross, Selections from the Tatler and the
Spectator of Steele and Addison (New York: Penguin Books, 1982).
The Spectator was an extremely popular
source of reading in early America which James Madison claims was "one
of the earliest books which engaged his
attention" and which from his own experience, he inferred to be peculiarly
adapted "to inculcate in youthful minds, just sentiments, an appetite for
knowledge, and a taste for the improvement of the mind and manners." See
Hutchinson and
Rachal, eds., The Papers of James Madison 1, p. 32.
13 James B. Peabody, John Adams: A Biography in His Own Words 1 (New York: Newsweek, 1973), pp. 83-85. Abigail Smith's knowledge of classical authors was not typical of eighteenth-century women. She came from a well-educated family and although she had not received a formal classical education she was strongly urged by her family to read classical authors, especially in English translation. Finally, Adams was obviously reading Ovid in August of 1763 since he also quotes from the Metamorphoses (Bk. 13, 363-369) in a essay on political faction which he submitted to the Boston Gazette, published 5 September 1763. See Robert J. Tyler, et al., eds., Papers of John Adams, 1 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1977), pp. 84-90.