Shelley, reader of the "Dyonisiaca": a Note on an Unnoticed First English Translation of Nonnus

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“RES PUBLICA LITTERARUM”
DOCUMENTOS DE TRABAJO
DEL GRUPO DE INVESTIGACIÓN ‘NOMOS’
2005-04

D.L. M-24672-2005
ISSN 1699-7840
Autor: Instituto Lucio Anneo Séneca
Editor: Francisco Lisi Bereterbide

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Shelley, a reader of the Dionysiaca?
David Hernández de la Fuente
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Could Percy Bysshe Shelley have read with critical attention the Dionysiaca, the largest
Greek epic from Antiquity, written by the enigmatic poet Nonnus of Panopolis (5th
century)? It seems that Shelley asked for a copy of this work upon the advise of his
friend Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866). And it is our purpose in this working paper
to research the possible knowledge of Nonnnus’ poem in early XIXth century England.
Hopefully, this note will allow a thorough discussion on the topic and a future
conclusion to be published soon.
Peacock, a novelist and a poet, was fascinated by Nonnus1 and imitated his
bombastic style, full of repetitions and daring metaphors. Not being a mainstream Greek
author, we believe that it is necessary to summarize here some points about Nonnus. He
was a Greek-Egyptian poet dated, by all accounts, in the middle of the 5th century AD:
we do not have any further information about his life. His Dionysiaca are a fascinating
compilation of myths about the figure of Dionysos, an enormous epic poem that
emulates Homer2. Besides telling about the god’s birth and deeds, his crusade against
the Indians and his final apotheosis, the poem also includes descriptions, erotic
1 See W. CHISLETT, The classical influence in English Literature in the nineteenth century, and other
essays and notes, Walton Press, Philadelphia 1918, pp. 136-139. Cf. also W.H.D. ROUSE, Nonnos’
Dionysiaca, Loeb Class. Libr., Harvard-Heinemann, Cambridge (Mass.)-London 1940, vol. III, in the
preface, without quoting his name
2 He tries not only to imitate Homer, but to overcome him: 48 books, as the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Together.

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adventures, epigrams and epitaphs, imitations of idylls, mourning songs and much
more. On the other hand, Nonnus also wrote –or at least it is usually attributed to him– a
Paraphrase to St. John Gospel, both works being written in a very peculiar hexameter.
In the latter he tries to ennoble the simple language of the Gospel with metaphors and
sometimes daring innovations, such as Dionysiac references and epic vocabulary
referring to Christ. And the other way round: there are possible references to
Christianity in his pagan work. Both poems and Nonnus’ possible intention have
puzzled Classical scholarship for a very long time3.
Now, Peacock was so fond of this obscure Greek poet from Egypt that he took
some malicious delight using his knowledge of this strange poem –not even a normal
topic for Classical scholars– to puzzle Oxford professors4. Peacock, in M. Butler’s
words,“was prodigiously well read in Greek and Latin, French and Italian, as well as in
English Literature, and takes a special pleasure in confounding the reader by allusion to
an esoteric favourite, such as the Dionysiaca of the fifth-century poet Nonnos”5. In his
extravagance, Peacock considered the Dionysiaca “the finest poem in the world after
the Iliad”6.
Peacock alluded in his novels to several passages of the Dionysiaca, both in the
original Greek and in his own translations. In The misfortunes of Elphin and Crotchet
Castle, for example, Peacock quotes directly in Greek in the middle of a speech: “as
3 Only on the basis of these two works, some claim that Nonnus converted, in some moment of his life, to
Christianity, having written first the Dion. and then the Par., but this, of course, is a disputed matter.
Thus, there are many theories on the real identity of Nonnus: some say he was the bishop of Edessa of the
same name, some other that he was a commentator of Gregory of Nazianzus, some even think that he
could not have written both works, etc.
4 C. VAN DOREN, The life of Thomas Love Peacock, New York 1966 (repr. 1991) where quotations from
Nonnus are frequent: pp. 18-19, 110, 132, 152, 156.
5 M. BUTLER, Peacock Displayed. A Satirist in his context, Routledge & Kegan Paul, Londres 1979, pp.
19.
6 See again C. VAN DOREN, The life of Thomas Love Peacock...

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Nonnus sweetly sings”7. One of the characters of Crotchet Castle, reverend Folliott,
quotes Dion. XXV 280 in chapter II and Dion. I 528 in chapter XIV. The misfortunes of
Elphin contains a kind of summary of books XIV-XV from Nonnus’ Dionysiaca
(chapter III) and chapter VIII begins quoting Dion. XII 21-24 in translation, as in
chapter X (Dion. XXXIII 29-32)8. In his poetry, some influence of Nonnus style can be
found as well, e.g. in his Rhododaphne9. Moreover, he had conceived a huge poetic
project: a Nympholepsy, of which there is a draft in a manuscript from the British
Library10.
Peacock had a very intense correspondence with many men of letters, among
whom we find often references to Shelley. It seems that his letters dealt frequently with
questions of literary criticism. He wrote an essay about his friendship and contact with
Shelley. In an essay entitled The four Ages of Poetry11 (to be published afterwards along
with his Memoirs of Shelley), Peacock classifies the four stages of ancient verse: “The
iron age of classical poetry may be called the bardic; the golden, the Homeric; the
silver, the Virgilian; and the brass, the Nonnic”, and he praises “the Dionysiaca of
Nonnus, which contains many passages of exceeding beauty in the midst of masses of
amplification and repetition”. This article stimulated the debate with Shelley.
Peacock tried to arouse Shelley’s interest for the Dionysiaca in other occasions.
In a letter of August 19th 1818 addressed to Shelley, Peacock writes: “I read Nonnus
occasionally. The twelfth book, which contains the ‘Metamorphoses of Ampelus’, is
7 Cf. The works of Thomas Love Peacock, vol. IV: The misfortunes of Elphin and Crotchet Castle, AMS
Press Inc., New York 1967, pp. 24, 70, 83, 191-192.
8 Dinas Vaur’s war song in this book has a certain Dionysiac inspiration. It is printed in the preface of
Nonnus’ first English edition and translations, W.H.D. ROUSE, Nonnos’ Dionysiaca…, vol. III
9 Cf. D. BUSH, Mythology and the Romantic tradition in English poetry, Harvard University Press,
Cambridge (Mass.) 1937, pp. 184
10 British Library, Ms. 36815, ff. 120-122. Cf. M. BUTLER, Peacock Displayed..., pp. 110-111.
11 Published in 1820, cf. T.L. PEACOCK, Memoirs of Shelley and other essays and reviews, edited by H.
Mills, Rupert Hart-Davis, London 1970, pp 124.

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very beautiful [...]”12. Both in Van Doren’s study and other sources, such as Peacock’s
letters, edited by Joukovski13, it is obvious that Peacock wrote in some occasions to his
friend Shelley concerning the excellence of Nonnus’ poetry. Apparently it became more
than enough encouragement for Shelley, who finally asked for a copy of the book,
incited by the insistence of his friend Peacock14. We know, therefore, that Shelley wrote
to his bookseller as early as December 1817 in order to ask for a French translation of
Nonnus’ Dionysiaca, “printed I think at Paris”15.
R.L. Lind, who has studied Nonnus and his readers across the ages, fails to
examine the question in detail. He says: “The edition Shelley ordered according to the
letter in Peck II, 49, specifies the edition ‘printed I think at Paris’. The editions printed
before 1817 could not have fitted this description, of course, since none was published
at Paris until that of the Comte de Marcellus, Didot, 1856.”16
Lind argues, therefore, that it is not likely that Shelley ever read Nonnus in a
French edition, as stated in that letter, since, in his opinion, there was not a French
translation printed in Paris until that of Marcellus in 185617. But the fact is that there
were several French translations and versions of Nonnus’ poem before that date.
Nonnus’ Dionysiaca enjoyed some success in the 16th and 17th century, both in
Italy and France. Poets such as the Italian Giambattista Marino (1569-1625) imitated the
Greek author in several works18. In France, Jean Dorat (1508-1588) knew so well that
12 C. VAN DOREN, The life of Thomas Love Peacock..., pp. 134.
13 N.A. JOUKOVSKI, The letters of Thomas Love Peacock. Vol. I: 1792-1827, Clarendon Press, Oxford
2001.
14 Cf. N.A. JOUKOVSKI, The letters of Thomas Love Peacock. Vol. I…, pp. 134-144, letters 73, 75, 76.
15 W.E. PECK, Shelley: His Life and Work, Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1927, 2, pp. 48-49.
16 R.L. LIND, “Nonnos and His Readers”, Res Publica Litterarum I, 1978, University of Kansas, pp. 159-
170, p. 169-170, n. 23
17 COMTE DE MARCELLUS, Les Dionysiaques ou Bacchus. Poème en XLVIII chants, grec et français,
précédé d’une introduction, suivi de notes littéraires, géographiques et mythologiques, d’un tableau
raisonné des corrections et de tables et index complets, rétabli, traduit et commenté par le Comte de
Marcellus, ancien ministre plénipotentiaire. Paris, Librairie de Firmin-Didot frères, 1856.
18 See GIOVAN BATTISTA MARINO, La Sampogna, V. DE MALDE (ed.), Parma 1993, pp. 137-189, F.
TISSONI, Nonno di Panopoli. I canti di Penteo. La nuova Italia editrice. Firenze 1999, pp. 56-61, esp. 57-
58.

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poem19 that he drew leitmotifs from Nonnus for some frescoes by Niccolo dell’Abate
devoted to the celebrations of the grande entrée of Queen Elizabeth of Habsburg, wife
of Charles IX, in Paris (March 30th, 1571)20. And that was the beginning of the interest
for Nonnus’ poem in Baroque France.
In 1605, when the Latin translation of Nonnus’s Dionysiaca is printed in
Germany21, Claude Garnier publishes L’Ariadne de Nonnus Panopolitain, dedicated to
the duchess of Longueville (dédiée en étrennes à Madame la Duchesse de Longueville,
en l'an 1605)22. No place of publication is printed, but arguably it is again Paris.
However, twenty years later, Claude Boitet de Frauville translates the whole
poem, 48 books in some 20,000 hexameters in the original Greek23. This French
translation of the whole poem, heavily based in the Latin version, will have an
enormous influence upon the arts of this epoch. The painter Nicholas Poussin, for
example, read it and used Nonnus as a source for inspiration24 and Michel de Marolles
quotes him in his Tableaux du Temple des Muses (1655), as a useful source for artists of
all times. This accessible French translation contributed greatly to making the
Dionysiaca popular. Quoting Malcolm Bull, “insofar as Nonnos ever found a wider
audience it was through this edition”25.
19 Cf. R.G. PFEIFFER, A History of Classical Scholarship from 1300-1850, Oxford University Press 1976
[Ger.tr. Die klassische Philologie von Petrarca bis Mommsen, Verlag C.H. Beck, Munich 1982, pág. 133]
y G. DEMERSON, Dorat et son temps. Culture classique et présence au monde, Adosa, Clermont-Ferrand
1983, pp. 174, 175, 179.
20 N. MAHE, Le Mythe de Bacchus dans la poésie lyrique de 1549 à 1600, P. Lang, Bern-Frankfurt-New
York-Paris 1988, pp. 39-40.
21 E. LUBINUS, Nonni Panopolitae Dionysiaca, nunc denuo in lucem edita et latine reddita per Eilhardum
Lubinum, poeseos in Academia Rostochina professorem. Ex Bibliotheca Ioannis Sambuci Pannonii. Cum
lectionibus et coniecturis Gerarti Falkenburgii Noviomagi et indice copioso. Hanoviae, typis Wechelianis
apud Claudium Marnium et heredes Iohannis Aubrii, 1605.
22 L’Ariadne de Nonnus Panopolitain [...] par Claude Garnier, S. L. 1605.
23 Entitled Les Dionysiaques, ou les voyages, les amours et les conquestes de Bacchus aux Indes, traduites
du grec de Nonnus Panopolitain, R. Fouët, Paris 1625.
24 M. BULL, “Poussin and Nonnos”, Burlington Magazine 140, 1148 (Nov. 1998), 724-738.
25 M. BULL, “Poussin...”, p. 724

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But there was one more version of Nonnus’ epic in Baroque France: the literary
rewriting of the Dionysiaca by P. de Marcassus: Les Dionysiaques, ou, le parfait heros
(1631)26. The book was also printed in Paris.
It seems clear that Shelley could have ordered a copy of Nonnus’ Dionysiaca, in
French translation and “printed I think at Paris”, since, as we can see, there were even
three French versions of the poem published in that city. We would suggest that Shelley
bought Boitet de Frauville’s translation, printed in Paris en 1625, for it was by far more
widely read than the other two versions (Marcassus’ and Garnier’s). Certainly, it was
not Marcellus’ edition, published centuries later.
Now, there was also an English translation of Nonnus that Shelley could have
read. Let us mention, as a coda to these notes, that in October 1822 an anonymous
writer praised Nonnus’ poetry in some remarkable pages of The London Magazine. “On
the poetry of Nonnus”, mysteriously signed by some unknown Vida, is a defence of
Nonnus’ style27 and includes excerpts of translations from Nonnus’ Paraphrase to Saint
John (IV 25 ff. and XI 40 ff.) and Dionysiaca (book I), and a comparison to the opening
of Milton’s Paradise Lost28. It includes a long passage of book X, concerning the love
relation between Bacchus and Ampelus, in an elegant English translation, published in
the following issue (November 1822, pp. 440-443). We are inclined to think that this
anonymous text could be ascribed Peacock
Shelley died in July 8th, 1822, when his boat sank during a stormy voyage to
Lerici, so he could not read the anonymous translation of The London Magazine, but we
26 P. DE MARCASSUS, Les Dionysiaqves, ov, le parfait heros [...] A Paris: chez Tovssainct dv Bray...,
1631.
27 “On the poetry of Nonnus”, The London Magazine (oct. 1822) 336-340 / (nov. 1823) 440-443.
28 Some parallel has been noted between Milton and Nonnus. The Dion. I 206-18, II 644-49 speak of the
rage of Typhon, and so does Milton, Paradise Lost I 199 and II 539-546: Others, with vast Typhoean
rage, more fell / rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air / in whirlwind. See G.F. BUTLER, “Nonnos
and Milton’s ‘Vast Typhoean Rage’: The Dionysiaca and Paradise Lost”, Milton Quarterly 33, no. 3
(1999 Oct) 71-76. See also the comparison between Dion. XLI 185-203 and Paradise Lost IV 340 ss.
suggested in W.H.D. ROUSE, Nonnos’ Dionysiaca…, vol. III, pp. 210-211.

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must remark here something that has passed unnoticed until now. Elton published in
1814 a book entitled Specimens of the Classical Poets ... from Homer to Tryphiodorus
translated into English Verse, and illustrated with biographical and critical notices
(Baldwin, London 1814, in three volumes) and it seems that there was a translation of
some passages of the Dionysiaca. We shall leave the question here sub iudice for further
research. A visit to the British Library can make clear if this can be considered the first
English translation of the poem, in 1814. Charles Abraham Elton (1778-1853), a
classical scholar and poet29, used to sign with the pseudonym Olen in The London
Magazine, where he dedicated some verses to Charles Lamb (1775-1834), another poet
and friend of Shelley also enamoured of Antiquity30.
Before that date, the Dionysiaca were undoubtedly known before to Bentley31
and, probably, to Milton; but no translation into English that we know of existed before.
More than a hundred years later, in 1939, the modern translator of Nonnus, W.H.D.
Rouse, claimed to have written the first English version, in the general introduction to
his extraordinary work32: “This is the first English translation of Nonnos, and there are
no others in any language except the Latin and French, and quite lately, one in German
hexameters.” Obviously, he was nor aware of what we just saw.
At this point, it becomes necessary to examine Shelley’s poetry and search for
possible influences of the Dionysiaca. It seems that he followed the advice of his
persevering friend Peacock and that he read the poem, either in French or in English.
29 The Brothers and Other Poems, 1820
30 Apparently we have a group of poets and scholars very fond of Greek myths, who could have had
access to Nonnus’ mythological poem. Some further considerations are required here, but it goes beyond
the aim of this paper.
31 Bentley’s appreciation of Nonnus was as follows: “He had a great variety of Learning and may pass for
an able Grammarian, though a very ordinary poet”, as written in A Dissertation upon the Epistles of
Phalaris. With an answer to the objections of the Honourable Charles Boyle. London, Henry Mortlock &
John Hartley, 1699 [Dissertations upon the epistles of Phalaris, Themistocles, Socrates, Euripides, and
The fables of Æsop. Edited, with an introduction and notes, by the late Wilhelm Wagner. London, G. Bell
& sons, 1883, pág. 90]. However, Bentley shows a good knowledge of Nonnus’ poem, for he quotes by

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But, is it possible to find any Nonnian echoes in Shelley? We shall leave this question
open, for it goes beyond the aim of this note. Since Shelley was very fond of classical
mythology, it would not seem odd to think that he looked up in the Dionysiaca, an
enormous mythological poem, in search for inspiration. In the light of what we have
seen, his verses dealing with Actaeon’s myth in Adonais (XXXI: […] he, as I guess, /
Had gazed on Nature's naked loveliness, Actaeon-like, and now he fled astray / With
feeble steps o'er the world's wilderness, / And his own thoughts, along that rugged way,
/ Pursued, like raging hounds, their father and their prey) could be compared now to
Dion. V 287-551, one of the longest and most interesting versions of that myth. In any
case, Shelley is not the only English poet who could have read and followed the author
of the Dionysiaca33.
The fact is that we know that Peacock advised Shelley to read the story of
Bacchus and Ampelus, as written by Nonnus. For Peacock it was an extraordinary work
of art (“The twelfth book, which contains the ‘Metamorphoses of Ampelus’, is very
beautiful”). And Shelley himself wrote some notes about one of his early friends, in a
passage upon the antique group of Bacchus and Ampelus that he had seen in Florence.
“Look, the figures are walking with a sauntering and idle pace, and talking to each other
as they walk, as you may have seen a younger and an elder boy at school, walking in
some grassy spot of the play-ground with that tender friendship for each other which the
age inspires.” And he describes the group at the Uffizi in a lovely and similar manner:
“Bacchus and Ampelus. Ampelus with a beast-skin over his shoulder, holds a cup in his
right hand, and with his left embraces the waist of Bacchus. Just as you may have seen a
younger and an elder boy at school, walking in some remote grassy spot of their
heart and very precisely Dion. XLVII 29 as a source for the correct spelling of the name “Zagreus”. Some
of his critics thought he had invented this verse (cf. W.H.D. ROUSE, Nonnos’ Dionysiaca…. III, p. 374, a).
32 W.H.D. ROUSE, Nonnos’ Dionysiaca…, vol. I, p. viii.

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playground with that tender friendship towards each other which has so much of love.
The countenance of Bacchus is sublimely sweet and lovely, taking a shade of gentle and
playful tenderness from the arch looks of Ampelus, whose cheerful face turned towards
him, expressed the suggestions of some droll and merry device.”34 Shelley seems to
know the episode of Bacchus and Ampelus as told in the Dionysiaca: the myth is quite
rare to find in other Ancient sources. Ovid alludes very shortly to the story of Ampelus,
in relation to the star Vindemitor (Fasti III 409-410: Ampelon intonsum satyro
nymphaque creatum / fertur in Ismariis Bacchus amasse iugis). The star Vindemitor
appears in other sources35, but the myth of Ampelus, as told by Nonnus, cannot be
found elsewhere. There must have been a common Hellenistic source for Ovid and
Nonnus that would associate this star with the myth of Ampelus and his metamorphose,
developed in late Antiquity: but Nonnus’ tale is the only complete reference. Some
other sculptures seem to allude to the story: some of them in the British Museum and
some other example that have little relevance36. Nonnus tells the story in three long
books (X to XII), which start with Bacchus in love with Ampelus, a puer dilectus
superis. It is told how they play as comrades in a sportive mood –and some topoi of
homosexual love–, mentioning a grassy playground, a river, etc. Just as Shelley
describes the group, as two fellow students playing.
To sum up, Shelley could have read a copy of the Dionysiaca, in a French
translation, before his death; he could have even had access, in English translation, to
rare mythological narrations such as the story of Bacchus enamoured of Ampelus. The
33 Gamaniel Bradford argues that Keats could have read Nonnus’ poem when he wrote Endymion, cf. G.
BRADFORD, Journal, Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1933, pp. 264-265.
34 See P. B. SHELLEY, Poems and Prose, T. WEBB (Editor), Everymann S., 1995, From [Notes on
Sculpture] Bacchus and Ampelus.
35 G. CHRÉTIEN, Nonnos de Panopolis, Les Dionysiaques. Tome IV: Chants IX-X, Les belles lettres, Paris
1985, p. 67, quotes some minor references in Euctemon (Geminus III 6) and Aratus Ph. 138.
36 A piece at the Pushkin Museum, in Moscow, another at the Pelizaeus-Museum of Hildesheim. Cf.
M.A. ZAGDOUN, “Ampelos”, in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae I, Zurich-Munich 1994,
pp. 691-692. See also G. CHRÉTIEN, Nonnos de Panopolis, Les Dionysiaques..., pp. 68-69

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English translation of this passage was published in 1822, the year of his death, by an
anonymous admirer of Nonnus; but nevertheless Shelley seems to have known well the
episode. As a new contribution, we have also brought to light a possible first English
translation which had passed unnoticed to Nonnian studies, published in 1814, more
that a century earlier than Rouse’s one. Undoubtedly this translation could have been
accessible to Shelley before his death.
Nonnus’ Nachleben is still an open question and much work needs to be done.
Many years later, in August 16th 1851, a reader (with the pseudonym Aegrotus) sent a
letter to Notes and Queries. In his question –which would never be answered–, this
person asked for any English translation of Nonnus’ poem: he did not know that the
only existing translations were the fragments in Elton’s Specimens and the mysterious
translation of book X, on Bacchus and Ampelus, by some unknown Vida, in The
London Magazine; this anonymous reader never knew that there were one of the
greatest poets of the English language could have found inspiration in such obscure
epic, the Dionysiaca.
We leave the question open for the time being and announce a forthcoming
article with some conclusions.