 Most of Prospero's renunciative speech in Act V of "The Tempest" is taken word-for-word from a speech by Medea in Book VII of the "Metamorphoses".Among other English writers for whom the "Metamorphoses" was an inspiration are John Milton—who made use of it in "Paradise Lost", considered his "magnum opus", and evidently knew it well—and Edmund Spenser.In Italy, the poem was an influence on Giovanni Boccaccio (the story of Pyramus and Thisbe appears in his poem "L'Amorosa Fiammetta") and Dante.