The Protean Ass: The Metamorphoses of Apuleius from Antiquity to the Renaissance

562 Pages·2008·4.3 MB·English

by  Robert H.F. Carver

OXFORD CLASSICAL MONOGRAPHS
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The Protean Ass
The Metamorphoses of Apuleius from
Antiquity to the Renaissance
ROBERT H. F. CARVER
1
1
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For my mother
Mary Fielding Carver
and
in memory of my father
John Henry Carver
(1926–2004)
**
venisti tandem...?
Acknowledgements
Apuleius provides some memorable images of conWnement: Lucius toiling
blindlyinthemill;Charitethreatenedwithbeingsewninthebellyofanass;
thewomanbewitchedbyMeroe,unabletogivebirthevenaftereightyearsof
pregnancy.Iampleasedtorecordthattheexperienceofwritingthisbookhas
neverquitematchedanyofthesetorments,thoughitmayhaveseemedso,at
times,tosomeofmyfriends,family,andcolleagues.MyWrstthanksaredueto
the late Professor A. D. Nuttall of New College, Oxford, who supervised the
D.Phil. thesis from which this monograph emerged. I have also beneWted
greatly from the comments of my examiners, Professors Emrys Jones and
Charles Martindale, and from the generosity and patience of Professor
StephenHarrison,theadviserappointedbytheOxfordClassicalMonographs
Committee.TheAssociationofCommonwealthUniversities,inconjunction
with the British Council, supported me, during the Wrst three years of my
doctoralresearchatMagdalenCollege,Oxford,withaCommonwealthSchol-
arship (1985–88). The Provost and Fellows of Worcester College, the Presi-
dentandFellowsofTrinityCollege,andthePrincipalandFellowsofLinacre
College, Oxford, made the continuation of the work possible (and certainly
more congenial) by electing me to Junior Research Fellowships during the
period 1989–96. For much good conversation and many kindnesses, I have
to thank John Fuller, Ingrid de Smet, Andrew Laird, and the then President,
Mr Anthony Smith, at Magdalen; Dinah Birch, Peter Brown, Bryan Ward-
Perkins, and Clive GriYn at Trinity; Tom Earle and the late Mr Paul Turner
at Linacre; Glenn Black at Oriel College, and Richard Jenkyns at Lady
MargaretHall.
The long process of transforming the thesis into a book was facilitated by
a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship held in the Faculty of English
LanguageandLiteratureintheUniversityofOxford(1990–3),andbyanArts
and Humanities Research Board Research Leave Award at the University of
Durham(JanuarytoApril2001).Iamindebted,also,totheBodleianLibrary
(particularly the staV of Duke Humfrey’s), the British Library, the Vatican’s
BibliotecaApostolica,DrMariateresaHorsfallScotti(whokindlysuppliedme
fromRomewithApuleianaotherwiseunobtainable),DrDanielleMal-Maeder,
and Professor Michael Reeve at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Like ancient
novelscholarsthe world over,Iowea great debt toProfessor James Tatumat
Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, to Dr Maaike Zimmerman and her
colleagues at the University of Groningen, and to Professors Robin Nisbet,
Acknowledgements vii
MichaelWinterbottom,EwenBowie,andStephenHarrisonatCorpusChristi
College,Oxford.
I am grateful to all of my colleagues (past and present) at Durham,
especially to Professors Michael O’Neill, J. R. Watson, David Fuller, Patricia
Waugh,GeraldBonner,TonyWoodman,andEdithHall,andDrsRobinDix,
Barbara Ravelhofer, Corinne Saunders, Alison Shell, Ian Doyle, Regine May,
GeoVBromiley,andAugustineCasiday.
Invaluable bibliographical assistance was rendered by Mike Huxtable and
DrDonataKickasthisbookwasgoingtopress.
Iremember,too,debtscontractedinother timesandcontexts: theinspir-
ation of some of myearliest teachers, Mr J. F. Roe and Dr D. C. C. Daintree
in Adelaide, and Dr P. G. Lennox in Canberra; and the example of humane
scholarship provided at the Australian National University by Professors
C.I.E.Donaldson,G.W.Clarke,andRichardJohnson,DrsColinMayrhofer,
Douglas Kelly, and John Gillies, and Messrs Robert Barnes and F. H. Lang-
man. Of friends, I would single out the late David Reid and Jim Rogers,
Stephen Bennetts (the condiscipulus who introduced me to Apuleius in
1983), Orde Levinson, Richard Major, Christopher Miller, Philip T. Crotty,
Walter Hooper, the Reverend Dr Ian Ker, Sheridan Gilley, the late Fr. Denis
Cleary, Dan Anlezark, and Fr. M. L. Withoos; of family, Commander and
MrsW.M.Norrie,MrandMrsH.Jackson,andMaryAnnCarver.
I cannot close without mentioning my wife, Anna Zaranko (who has
endured the company of Fotis, Isis, Polia, and Phaedria for more years than
she cares to remember), or our children, Clare, Thomas, Anastasia, Helena,
and Aleksander, who betray no signs of having lived the whole of their lives
‘intheshadowofanass’:Noctemediauidisolemcandidocoruscantemlumine.
Thegreatestdebtofallisrecordedinthededication.
R.H.F.C.
UniversityofDurham
November2006
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Contents
Abbreviations x
Introduction 1
NoteonTexts 10
1. TheMetamorphosesofApuleius:FromAntiquity tothe
EarlyMiddleAges 11
2. ApuleiusintheHighMiddleAges 61
3. AsinusRedivivus:TheRecoveryofTheGoldenAss 108
4. TheInkyAss:ApuleiusintheAgeofPrint(1469–1500) 161
5. TheAntiquarianAss:ApuleiusandtheHypnerotomachia
Poliphili(1499) 183
6. TheAcademicalAss:ApuleiusandtheNorthernRenaissance 236
7. TheGoldenAsseofWilliamAdlington(1566) 298
8. AfterAdlington:ApuleiusinEngland(1566–1660) 327
9. TheArcadianAss:SirPhilipSidneyandApuleius 365
10. Psyche’sDaughter:PleasureandTheFaerieQueene 384
11. Shakespeare’sBottomandApuleius’Ass 429
Epilogue 446
Appendix 449
Bibliography 459
IndexManuscriptorum 511
IndexLocorum 512
IndexverborumApuleianorum 518
Indexnominumet rerum 519