venuti

Canon 53written a version of the Aeneid II–VI, and in 1668, he revised andpublished part of IV under the title, The Passion of Dido for Aeneas. In1656, he chose to issue the excerpt whose “argument,” the fall of Troy,better lent itself to topicality. The topical resonance of his versionbecomes strikingly evident when it is juxtaposed to the Latin text andprevious English versions. Book II had already been done in severalcomplete translations of the Aeneid, and it had been singled out twiceby previous translators, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and Sir ThomasWroth. Yet both of them had rendered the entire book (some eighthundred lines of Latin text). Denham, in contrast, published anabbreviated translation (some 550 lines) that ended climactically withPriam’s death.haec finis Priami fatorum, hic exitus illumsorte tulit Troiam incensam et prolapsa uidentemPergama, tot quodam populis terrisque superbumregnatorem Asiae. iacet ingens litore truncus,auulsumque umeris caput et sine nomine corpus.(Mynors 1969:ll. 554–558)Thus fell the King, who yet surviv’d the State,With such a signal and peculiar Fate.Under so vast a ruine not a Grave,Nor in such flames a funeral fire to have:He, whom such Titles swell’d, such Power made proudTo whom the Scepters of all Asia bow’d,On the cold earth lies th’unregarded King,A headless Carkass, and a nameless Thing.(Denham 1656:ll. 542–549)By removing the character and place names in the Latin text(“Priami,” “Troiam,” and “Pergama,” the citadel at Troy) andreferring only to “the King,” Denham generalizes the import of thepassage, enabling Priam’s “headless Carkass” to metamorphoseinto a British descendant’s, at least for a moment, inviting thecontemporary English reader to recall the civil wars—althoughfrom a decidedly royalist point of view. Denham’s translationshared the same impulse toward political allegory thatcharacterized, not only the various revisions of Coopers Hill, butalso royalist writing generally during the years after Charles’sdefeat, including Fanshawe’s translation of Guarini’s Il Pastor Fido