Amoryus and Cleopes: neglected sources and Modern English translation of a Christianized Ovidian myth

Abstract

The aim of the present thesis is to provide a contribution to the study of the English reception of Ovid during the late Middle Ages through the translation and the analysis of the Middle English poem Amoryus and Cleopes. The work is a free adaptation of the well-known myth of Pyramus and Thisbe and inserts itself within the ample and intricate reception of Ovidian mithology across the Middle Ages. The first part of the dissertation will offer an overview of the ambivalent inclinations toward what can be considered to be the Ovidian literary heritage, and will pay a special attention to the necessity of revising classic themes and subjects, adapting them to the expectations of a new kind of audience. The second section will be reserved to the presentation and the study of John Metham’s Amoryus and Cleopes. The work has been generally neglected by modern scholars, despite representing an interesting case among the set of Christianized readings. A special attention will be reserved to the analysis of the poem’s sources, particularly to the influence exerted by the set of religious sermons comprising the Pyramus and Thisbe myth, a field that still has to be investigated. Finally, a readable version of the poem in Modern English will be proposed, together with an apparatus of explanations. The aim is to facilitate the fruition of the text and to allow a more extensive understanding of it.