AcontiusCydippe1.0013

William Morris, "The Story of Acontius and Cydippe," poem in The Earthly Paradise, vol. 4 (London: Ellis, 1870). —— William Morris, The Earthly Paradise, ed. by Florence S. Boos. Routledge, 2002. [morrisarchive.lib.uiowa.edu/items/show/2762]

Acontius binds unwitting Cydippe to marriage by writing on an apple (or orange) the words "I will marry no man but Acontius." When Cydippe reads the oath, she is bound.

A tale originating with Callimachus, it was of interest to Ovid (the most Callimachean of the Roman poets?). Dryden is not the first, but perhaps the most influential English poet to treat the tale. Florence C. Boos suggests that Morris might have been influenced by Aristaenetus' Epistle 10, where the story is also recounted.

Morris 1910—15, vol. 5

Calhoun 1975, pp. 178, 183

Bush 1963, p. 314 n.