16 Facts About Arthur Golding

Arthur Golding 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 Golding worked on a translation of Pompeius Trogus that he planned to dedicate to Oxford.

Arthur Golding borrowed heavily in the 1580s and was in debtors' prison in the early 1590s.

Arthur Golding is remembered chiefly for his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Arthur Golding's translation was read by Shakespeare and Spenser and "conveys a spirited Ovid with all his range of emotion and diversity of plot".

Arthur Golding represents the stories he translates in a vivid way, "delivering every twist and turn in as whole-hearted a manner as possible".

Arthur Golding's translations are clear, faithful and fluent, as seen in this excerpt where Ovid compares blood gushing from Pyramus' wound to water bursting from a pipe:.

In 1567 Arthur Golding completed all fifteen books of Ovid's poem.

Arthur Golding prefixed a long metrical explanation of his reasons for considering it a work of edification, in which he asked his readers to look past the heretical content of the pagan poem, set forth the morals which he supposed to underlie the stories, and attempted to show how the pagan machinery might be brought into line with Christian thought.

Arthur Golding translated Leonardo Bruni's History of the War Against the Goths, Froissart's Chronicles in Sleidan's epitome, and Aesop's fables.

Arthur Golding was given the job of completing John Brende's translation of Caesar's Gallic War when Brende died.

Arthur Golding completed a translation begun by Philip Sidney from Philippe de Mornay, A Worke concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion.

Arthur Golding inherited three considerable estates in Essex, the greater part of which he sold in 1595.

Arthur Golding's "puritan cast of mind" is an important aspect of his writing.

Arthur Golding did not allow conformity to sway his work.

Undoubtedly, Arthur Golding spent time translating works by Calvin that would further his reputation as a decent Puritan, but by challenging the authority that condemns so-called "pagan" texts such as the Metamorphoses, Arthur Golding forged a path for subsequent writers.