PREFACE
There is something grotesque in the idea of a prose translation of a
poet, though the practice is become so common that it has ceased to
provoke a smile or demand an apology.
There is something grotesque in the idea of a prose translation of a
poet, though the practice is become so common that it has ceased to
provoke a smile or demand an apology.
Virgil - Aeneid
gutenberg.
org
Title: The Aeneid of Virgil
Author: Virgil
Release Date: August 29, 2007 [eBook #22456]
Language: English
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AENEID OF VIRGIL***
E-text prepared by David Clarke, Lisa Reigel, and the Project Gutenberg
Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www. pgdp. net)
Transcriber's note:
Numbers in brackets [ ] refer to line numbers in Virgil's
Aeneid. These numbers appeared at the top of each page of text
and have been retained for reference.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A complete
list follows the text.
THE AENEID OF VIRGIL
Translated into English
by
J. W. MACKAIL, M. A.
Fellow Of Balliol College, Oxford
London
MacMillan and Co.
1885
Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh.
PREFACE
There is something grotesque in the idea of a prose translation of a
poet, though the practice is become so common that it has ceased to
provoke a smile or demand an apology. The language of poetry is language
in fusion; that of prose is language fixed and crystallised; and an
attempt to copy the one material in the other must always count on
failure to convey what is, after all, one of the most essential things
in poetry,--its poetical quality. And this is so with Virgil more,
perhaps, than with any other poet; for more, perhaps, than any other
poet Virgil depends on his poetical quality from first to last. Such a
translation can only have the value of a copy of some great painting
executed in mosaic, if indeed a copy in Berlin wool is not a closer
analogy; and even at the best all it can have to say for itself will be
in Virgil's own words, _Experiar sensus; nihil hic nisi carmina desunt. _
In this translation I have in the main followed the text of Conington
and Nettleship. The more important deviations from this text are
mentioned in the notes; but I have not thought it necessary to give a
complete list of various readings, or to mention any change except where
it might lead to misapprehension. Their notes have also been used by me
throughout.
Beyond this I have made constant use of the mass of ancient commentary
going under the name of Servius; the most valuable, perhaps, of all, as
it is in many ways the nearest to the poet himself. The explanation
given in it has sometimes been followed against those of the modern
editors. To other commentaries only occasional reference has been made.
The sense that Virgil is his own best interpreter becomes stronger as
one studies him more.
My thanks are due to Mr. EVELYN ABBOTT, Fellow and Tutor of Balliol, and
to the Rev. H. C. BEECHING, for much valuable suggestion and criticism.
Title: The Aeneid of Virgil
Author: Virgil
Release Date: August 29, 2007 [eBook #22456]
Language: English
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AENEID OF VIRGIL***
E-text prepared by David Clarke, Lisa Reigel, and the Project Gutenberg
Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www. pgdp. net)
Transcriber's note:
Numbers in brackets [ ] refer to line numbers in Virgil's
Aeneid. These numbers appeared at the top of each page of text
and have been retained for reference.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A complete
list follows the text.
THE AENEID OF VIRGIL
Translated into English
by
J. W. MACKAIL, M. A.
Fellow Of Balliol College, Oxford
London
MacMillan and Co.
1885
Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh.
PREFACE
There is something grotesque in the idea of a prose translation of a
poet, though the practice is become so common that it has ceased to
provoke a smile or demand an apology. The language of poetry is language
in fusion; that of prose is language fixed and crystallised; and an
attempt to copy the one material in the other must always count on
failure to convey what is, after all, one of the most essential things
in poetry,--its poetical quality. And this is so with Virgil more,
perhaps, than with any other poet; for more, perhaps, than any other
poet Virgil depends on his poetical quality from first to last. Such a
translation can only have the value of a copy of some great painting
executed in mosaic, if indeed a copy in Berlin wool is not a closer
analogy; and even at the best all it can have to say for itself will be
in Virgil's own words, _Experiar sensus; nihil hic nisi carmina desunt. _
In this translation I have in the main followed the text of Conington
and Nettleship. The more important deviations from this text are
mentioned in the notes; but I have not thought it necessary to give a
complete list of various readings, or to mention any change except where
it might lead to misapprehension. Their notes have also been used by me
throughout.
Beyond this I have made constant use of the mass of ancient commentary
going under the name of Servius; the most valuable, perhaps, of all, as
it is in many ways the nearest to the poet himself. The explanation
given in it has sometimes been followed against those of the modern
editors. To other commentaries only occasional reference has been made.
The sense that Virgil is his own best interpreter becomes stronger as
one studies him more.
My thanks are due to Mr. EVELYN ABBOTT, Fellow and Tutor of Balliol, and
to the Rev. H. C. BEECHING, for much valuable suggestion and criticism.
