The Passion of Dido

This chapter’s discussion of translations of Book 4 of the Aeneid spans sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English renditions of Virgil, when England and the English language were becoming prominent on the European and global scene. There is a consistent self-consciousness in this effort of using Virgil as a vehicle for translatio imperii , but also in the search for an English metre and idiom which could adequately convey the epic gravity of the ancient epic poetry. Braden shows that while most of the translations of this era usually serve as the background to the most prominent of them, that of Dryden, they nonetheless are important for understanding how translation practices developed at that time. Book 4, in which the hero’s imperial mission is most seriously threatened, provides a focus of discussion of some key passages that illuminate the literary tendencies of that time.

Art · Consciousness · DIDO · EPIC · HERO · Key (lock) · Literature · Metre · Passion · Poetry · Historical and Linguistic Studies · Historical and Literary Studies · History · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy · Psychology