The ''Eneados'' is a translation into Middle Scots of

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

's Latin ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

'', completed by the poet and clergyman Gavin Douglas in 1513.

Description

The title of Gavin Douglas' translation, ''Eneados'', is given in the heading of a manuscript at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, which refers to the "twelf bukis of Eneados". The title of the first printed edition (London, 1553) was ''The xiii Bukes of Eneados of the famose Poete Virgill''. The work was the first complete translation of a major classical text in the Scots language and the first successful example of its kind in any Anglic language. In addition to Douglas's version of Virgil's ''Aeneid'', the work also contains a translation of the "thirteenth book" written by the fifteenth-century poet Maffeo Vegio as a continuation of the ''Aeneid''. Douglas supplied original prologue verses for each of the thirteen books, and a series of concluding poems. There is also an incomplete commentary, covering only part of the first book, written as marginal notes (almost certainly in Douglas's own hand) in the Cambridge manuscript. In the first general prologue Douglas compares the merits of Virgil and Chaucer as master poets and attacks the printer William Caxton for his inadequate rendering of a French translation of the ''Aeneid''.

Critical reception

Douglas's reputation among modern readers was bolstered somewhat in 1934 when

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

included several passages of the ''Eneados'' in his '' ABC of Reading''. Comparing Douglas to Chaucer, Pound wrote that "the texture of Gavin's verse is stronger, the resilience greater than Chaucer's". C. S. Lewis was also an admirer of the work: "About Douglas as a translator there may be two opinions; about his ''Aeneid'' (Prologues and all) as an English book there can be only one. Here a great story is greatly told and set off with original embellishments which are all good—all either delightful or interesting—in their diverse ways." Kenneth Rexroth called it "a spectacular poem", albeit one that "bears little relationship to the spirit of Virgil".

Sample

Douglas translates the opening of the poem thus:

Manuscripts and editions

The principal early manuscripts of the ''Eneados'' are * Cambridge MS (c. 1525), in the library of

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

* Elphynstoun MS (before 1527), in the library of the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

* Ruthven MS (c. 1535), also in the library of the University of Edinburgh * Lambeth MS (1545–1546), in the library of Lambeth Palace. The poem was copied into this manuscript by Thomas Bellenden. * Bath (or Longleat) MS (1547), in the Marquess of Bath's library at Longleat The first printed edition appeared in London in 1553, from the press of William Copland. It displays an anti–Roman Catholic bias, in that references (in the prologues) to the Virgin Mary, Purgatory, and Catholic ceremonies are altered or omitted; in addition, 66 lines of the translation, describing the amour of Dido and Aeneas, are omitted as indelicate. The 1710 Edinburgh folio edited by Thomas Ruddiman, which includes a full glossary and a biography of Douglas by Bishop John Sage, is based on the 1553 edition and the Ruthven manuscript, perhaps with corrections from the Bath manuscript. The Bannatyne Club edition of 1839 is a printing of the Cambridge manuscript. The standard modern edition of the ''Eneados'' is the four-volume Scottish Text Society edition by David F. C. Coldwell. The recent two-volume critical edition by Gordon Kendal regularises the spelling.Gordon Kendal, ed., ''Gavin Douglas's Translation of the Aeneid (1513)'' (London: MHRA, 2011)

Notes and references

External links

* Online reproduction of the Bannatyne Club edition
vol. 1vol. 2

Online reproduction of Ruddiman's 1710 Edition

Online reproduction of the Cambridge Manuscript
* Ebook of the ''Eneados'' at

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