Metamorphoses
1500
- fiction
- classical mythology
- metamorphosis
- latin fiction
- translations into english
- translations into italian
- translations into spanish
- translations into french
- isis (egyptian deity)
- metamorphosis in literature
The story
To the Right Honourable and Mighty Lord, THOMAS EARLE OF SUSSEX, Viscount Fitzwalter, Lord of Egremont and of Burnell, Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, Iustice of the forrests and Chases from Trent Southward; Captain of the Gentleman Pensioners of the House of the QUEENE our Soveraigne Lady.
What it’s like
Dense, ornate Elizabethan prose unspools here in long, rhythmic sentences, with the sensory world rendered in heaped detail: river crossings, bandit caves, sun-scorched roads, banquets that glitter with gold and wine. The voice is wry and confiding, a storyteller who delights in digression, tall tales within tales, and the sly humour of a man turned into an ass who observes his masters' follies with growing disgust. The mood swings from bawdy comedy and riotous farce to hushed, almost devotional passages of wonder, especially in the late chapters where a radiant goddess appears in moonlight over the sea. Pacing is leisurely and episodic, more a string of vivid vignettes than a sprint, so it suits a slow afternoon or a long stretch of reading in an armchair. The intensity is mixed: bawdiness and crude jokes, some cruelty and grim violence in the robber episodes, and a few sexual scenes handled with frank, comic bluntness rather than erotic lingering. It is best for readers who relish archaic English, mythic wonder, and a picaresque sense of humour, and less suited to anyone wanting something gentle or wholly uplifting.
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