A Critical Annotated Edition of Sir John Harington's Aeneid VI Verse-Translation and Commentary (1604)

Abstract

Sir John Harington's Aeneid VI verse-translation and commentary, long lost to sight and hitherto unpublished, is here edited for the first time. The copy-text is Trumbull Additional MS 23 in the Berkshire Record Office, a fair copy made for presentation to Prince Henry, who in 1604 was ten years old. All but the parallel Latin text of this MS is in Harington's autograph. However, I have also consulted the only other known MS, a posthumous scribal copy of the commentary only, now in the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The edition is 'critical' not 'diplomatic', but my emendations are not very numerous and are restricted almost entirely to 'substantives'. The translation is in ottava rima, an unusual and not altogether happy choice for Virgil, but understandable in view of Harington's earlier translation of Ariosto in the same stanza. Harington's commentary combines elementary assistance to the reader with a detailed and systematic critique of Virgil's fable (the Descent of Aeneas to the Underworld). His approach is theological rather than literary, and he draws heavily on his recent reading of Augustine, especially in De Civitate Dei. The final chapter of the commentary, 'Of reeding poetry', sounds in places almost like a palinode of Harington's famous defence of poetry in the Ariosto Preface. Thus the work is of interest on several counts. It throws new light on Harington's known concerns-and especially on his part in the long-running contemporary controversy about the descent of Christ into hell. It records a detailed response to the Aeneid VI by a minor writer of idiosyncratic personality but utterly conventional education and orthodox opinions. And like other works by Harington, this one has some unexpected 'meriments' in the prose. In my introduction and notes, I set the work in the context of Harington's life and literary career. I annotate Harington's (not Virgil's) text, and in doing so make frequent reference to his other writings. I have been able to trace with some exactitude his use of various sources-including (for example) Phaer, Servius, Charles Estienne, and King James I, as well as the Bible, Augustine, and Ariosto. For purposes of comparison and contrast, I also frequently refer to the works of Harington's contemporary, Ben Jonson.