Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - Book XII, p. 145r, 'Trojan Nestor'..

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Date:1603

Description:A source for Shakespeare’s character of Nestor, the elderly nobleman in Troilus and Cressida

This page in Ovid's story of the heroes of Greece and Troy may have provided Shakespeare with ideas for his play about love and torn allegiance, Troilus and Cressida, set in the Trojan wars,. When the Greeks discuss their enemies, ‘venerable’ Nestor offers to challenge the Trojans ‘tell him of Nestor, one that was a man when Hector’s grandsire suck’d: he is old now, but... I’ll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver... I’ll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.’ Troilus and Cressida, Nestor 1,3, lines 288-289.

On the page in which Achilles asks Nestor for his opinion in the discussion, the last 16 lines of the page read:
And among the rest, Achilles said, ‘Declare I pray thee (for we long to hear it every one of us) O eloquent old man, the wisdom of our age: what was that Cene, and how [did] he win another than his natural shape, and in what road or in what fight or skirmish, between your first acquaintance did begin and who in fine did vanquish him, if any vanquished him.’ Then Nestor [spoke]: ‘Though the length of time has made my senses dim, and divers things erst [long ago] seen in youth now out of mind be [are] gone, yet bear I still many things in mind, and of them all is none among so many both of peace and war that yet doth take more steadfast root in memory, and if time may make a man great store of things through long continuance for to see, two hundred years already of my life full passed be and now I go upon the third. This foresaid Cene was the daughter of one Elatey. In beauty did she pass the maidens of Thessaly...’


Full title: Publius Ovidius Naso, The XV [15] bookes of P. Ovidius Naso, entituled Metamorphosis. Translated out of Latine into English meeter, by Arthur Golding, Imprinted at London by W. W[hite], 1603.


Timeline

The timeline shows resources around this location over a number of years.

1570s
Henri Estienne, A mervaylous discourse upon... Katherine de Medici…, 1575 - title page
Henri Estienne, A mervaylous discourse upon... Katherine de Medici…, 1575 - title page

Shakespeare may have owned this book. Shakespeare purchased New Place, the largest ...

1590s
William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, 1594, leaf F4v.
William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, 1594, leaf F4v.

Shakespeare’s first published works. The long poem, Venus and Adonis, was ...

1610s
Michael Drayton, Polyolbion, 1613 - 13th Song, p. 213
Michael Drayton, Polyolbion, 1613 - 13th Song, p. 213

Warwickshire, and Shakespeare's ‘merrie meeting’. According to John ...

1630s
John Fletcher and William Shakespeare, The Two Noble Kinsmen, [London], 1634  - p. 18, D1v
John Fletcher and William Shakespeare, The Two Noble Kinsmen, [London], 1634 - p. 18, D1v

A Shakespeare collaboration. The Two Noble Kinsmen includes pageantry in the ...

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Donor ref:SR 99.4 [25] (32/10637)

Source: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust - Library

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