English Translations from the Greek: A Bibliographical Survey — John Shaqi
English Translations from the Greek: A Bibliographical SurveyFoster, Finley Melville Kendall
General
English Translations from the Greek: A Bibliographical Survey
Foster, Finley Melville Kendall
Greek literature -- Translations into English -- Bibliography; Thesis (Ph. D.)
During the one hundred and fifty years following the Civil War English
literature was partly under the domain of those principles which are
generally known as neo‐classical. For this reason the facts of Greek
translation are very interesting and to a certain degree provide an index
of the importance of Greek literature during these years. At least five
hundred and four translations of Greek authors were published, of which
two hundred and thirty‐nine were reprintings of those previously printed.
The average number published per annum between 1530 and 1650 was 1.30 +;
whereas for these one hundred and fifty years the annual average is 3.36
+. This increase may be due to the fact that the reading public of these
later years was larger than that of the preceding age; but I doubt if it
was almost three hundred per cent larger. I would much rather attribute
the increase to an equal growth of interest in Greek literature encouraged
by the principles of literary art which were flourishing at that time and
fostered by the steady development of Greek scholarship through those
years. Aristotle’s _Poetics_ was one of the sources of criticism during
these years and, as I shall show in the next section, the interest in
Greek philosophy was predominant throughout the period. The authority of
the classics and the classics themselves were uppermost in the current of
literary thought; hence it seems plausible that Greek translation should
show a positive reaction at this time.
Before leaving this period I desire to point out one or two matters which
have become evident upon a study of the chart at the beginning of this
section. The curve as it passes through the decades after 1650 rises
gradually to a peak in 1720. It is interesting to note that this was the
hey‐day of Pope: his _Iliad_ was published volume by volume between 1715
and 1720. Through the latter years of Pope’s life the curve declines,
reaching its lowest point four years before his death. Shortly after his
death Doctor Johnson began to exert his influence on English literature,
an influence which was powerfully classical. This continuation of the neo‐
classical principles raised the curve again; and Doctor Johnson himself
assisted in producing that result by reprinting a number of translations
in his _Works of the English Poets_, 1779‐81. The decline of the last
twenty years of this period, 1780‐1800, is synchronous with the fading of
the supreme authority of neo‐classical principles; for with the death of
Johnson in 1784 the last star of the first magnitude in the neo‐classical
firmament had set. The curve would go much lower but for the reprinting of
a number of translations in Anderson’s _Poets of Great Britain_, 1792‐94.
As appears from the chart Greek translation was waiting for the tide to
turn and come forth into the nineteenth century with renewed vigor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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