Classical World

In this excellent new volume in the Classical Presences series, Stuart Gillespie has gathered a plethora of as-yet-unpublished manuscript translations between 1600 and 1800 to deepen our knowledge of how people across social classes of the period engaged with the classical world. Newly Recovered English Classical Translations, 1600-1800 deals with an impressive range of texts, classical authors and translators, providing a welcome window onto the period's constant and evolving interest in the classical world.

Presented in this volume alone are over 300 translations, which range (e.g.) from a partial translation from Horace of Epistle 1.18 (HO47) possibly by Ben Jonson (or John Roe) to an anonymous translation of Juvenal by "A Young Gentleman, who died at the College at Dublin, aged 14" (JU06). Some classical poets only receive one entry in the volume—such as Callimachus, amiably translated by Maurice Johnson (Greek Epigram [GP] 28); whereas Horace and Ovid see a [End Page 368] healthy amount of their respective corpora translated. Equally enjoyable are the Scottish renditions of the classics, such as the anonymous Anacreontea (EP22) or Allan Ramsay's Horace (HO43). By any measure, the breadth of NRECT is to be applauded. The criteria for including a text as outlined in Gillespie's introduction attest to the volume's desire to present an engaged and sophisticated understanding of the role of the classics in the period: where (as in the case of Horace) hundreds of poems are available, those included have claims to literary or historical interest, thereby allowing a fresh engagement with the original text. In the cases where material is abundant, the criteria for inclusion are more selective, though aesthetic merit is (rightly) not always paramount. The reason for this, as Gillespie explains, is that routine translations were set by schoolmasters. Certainly, the didactic utility of the classics is a frequent refrain throughout the collection, with some translations noted as possible schoolboy exercises (e.g., VI01). As to deciding what constitutes a "translation," Gillespie maintains an open approach, which allows for adaptations of materials that, e.g., have relocated the original setting to contemporary London but continue with the tone, ethos, and message of the original Greco-Roman source. By contrast, texts that have simply used the Latin or Greek originals as a starting point are not included.

Alongside the translations, Gillespie begins each of his nine sections with an introductory essay on the reception history of the particular poet or theme in question. While brief, these insights into the general conception of each classical poet are most useful. Furthermore, subcategories also receive some comments on the particular history of the works they contain before, during, and after the period in question. NRECT, then, is not only a volume for those desiring to learn more about the specific translations of individual works and authors, but will also be a useful resource for any student seeking to learn of the currents and counter-currents of classical reception during the period in question.

Gillespie does not have any pretensions to characterizing NRECT as comprehensive; rather, the range presented implies the potential for further studies in this field. Indeed, in an acknowledgement of this point, Gillespie has provided Annex, a companion website, with further translations. To offer a sample of the content of Annex, a parodic extract from Book IV from Homer's Odyssey by Warren Hastings (XGA01) stands alongside Judith Madan's Ovidian story of Narcissus (XOV09), despite her not being known as a translator. Of the roughly 100 named figures across print and digital resources, many had either attended university or had received some form of higher education, some translations are by women, and a diverse range of works by English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh hands is presented. As a reflection of historical circumstances, women are less represented in this volume, at least by name; but their possible presence in the considerable number of anonymous...