Inaugural-Dissertation--Würzburg, 1913. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Paris. / "Addenda et corrigenda": 2 leaves, inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. [ix]-xx) and index.

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In translating the Aeneid as faithfully as possible, Gavin Douglas saw himself as an innovator, breaking with the tradition of adaptation and instead presenting a faithful literary translation. In the Prologues to his Eneados Douglas discusses his theoretical principles, comments on the work of his predecessors in the transmission of Virgil in English, and raises issues pertinent to the contents of the Books of the Aeneid. However, the Prologues also reflect Douglas's perception of a conflict between his religious and artistic impulses, and show his gradual resolution of this conflict inherent in his dual role as critical artist and churchman. By placing Douglas's Prologues in the context of prologues by other medieval writers, Chapter I shows that Douglas's new approach to faithful literary translation is matched by his independence in the employment of conventional literary devices, which he revitalizes by using them in a meaningful way rather than applying them because custom so dictates. Chapter II focuses on the narrator in his various and divergent roles, especially those of the poet and priest; while these two roles initially seem to make conflicting demands on the translator-narrator, he eventually resolves the conflict and recognizes a sublime harmony between divine and human artistry. Chapter III examines Douglas's practice of translation in light of his own theory; even though Douglas tends to "modernize" Virgil, he produces a genuine translation in which his avowed aims are largely realized. Chapter IV focuses on the connexions of the individual Prologues with their respective Books and demonstrates that even though the translation itself is generally accurate, the interpolation of the Prologues with their re-interpretation of common archetypes as foreshadowings of Christian doctrine causes a radical transvaluing of the Aeneid as a Christian allegory. Chapter V shows that there is not only a linkage between the Prologues and Books, but that the Prologues are also connected to each other by the narrator's search for a theologically acceptable yet also artistically satisfying re-creation of a non-Christian work. Aeneas and the translator-narrator are thus engaged in parallel quests during which they have to overcome physical obstacles and resolve inner conflicts before they can reach their final destinations. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

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The Thesis analyses and evaluates how Gavin Douglas (Eneados, 1513) has refocused Virgil's Aeneid, principally by giving more emphasis to the serial particularity inherent in the story, loosening the narrative structure and involving the reader in its retelling. Chapter I pieces together (from the evidence not merely of what Douglas explicitly says, but of what his words imply) what for him a "text" in general is, and what accordingly it means for a translator or a reader to be engaged with it. This sets the scene for what follows. The next four Chapters look in turn at how he re-expresses important (metaphysical) characteristics of the story. In Chapter II his handling of time is discussed, and compared with Virgil's: the Chapter sets out in detail how Douglas consistently refocuses temporal predicates, foregrounding their disjunctiveness and making them differently felt. In Chapter III spatial position and distance are analysed, and Douglas' way of dealing with space is found to display parallels with his treatment of time: networks are loosened and nodal points are accentuated. In Chapter IV the way in which he presents individuals is compared with Virgil's, and a similar repatterning and shift reveals itself: Douglas provides his persons with firmer boundaries. Chapter V deals with fate, where Douglas encounters special difficulties but maintains his characteristic way of handling the story. The aim of these four Chapters is to characterise formally how Douglas concretises and vivifies the tale of Aeneas, engaging his readers throughout in the retelling. Finally, Chapter VI looks at certain general principles of translation theory (notably connected with the ideas of faithfulness and accuracy) and argues for a way in which Douglas' translation can be fairly experienced by the reader and fairly evaluated as a lively retelling which (albeit distinctive) is fundamentally faithful to Virgil.

This thesis examines the increasing sophistication of sixteenth-century French literary engagement with Virgil's Aeneid. It argues that successive forms of engagement with the Aeneid should be viewed as a single process that gradually adopts increasingly complex literary strategies. It does this through a series of four different forms of literary engagement with the Aeneid: translation, continuation, rejection and reconciliation. The increasing sophistication of these forms reflects the writers' desire to interact with the original Aeneid as political epic and Roman foundation narrative, and with the political, religious and literary contexts of early modern France. The first chapter compares the methods of and motivations behind all of the sixteenth-century translations of the Aeneid into French; it thus demonstrates shifts in successive translators' interpretations of Virgil's work, and of its application to sixteenth-century France. The next three chapters each analyse adaptation of Virgil's poem in a major French literary work. Firstly, Ronsard's Franciade is analysed as an example of French foundation epic that simultaneously draws upon and rejects Virgil's narrative. Ronsard's poem is read in the light of Mapheo Vegio's “Thirteenth Book” of the Aeneid, or Supplementum, which continues Virgil's narrative and carries it over into a Christian context. Next, Agrippa d'Aubigné's response to Virgilian epic in Les Tragiques is shown to have been mediated by Lucan's Pharsalia and its anti- epic and anti-imperialist interpretation of the Aeneid. D'Aubigné's inversion of Virgil is highlighted through comparison of attitudes to death and resurrection in Les Tragiques, the Aeneid and Vegio's Antoniad. Finally, Guillaume de Salluste du Bartas' combination, in La Sepmaine and La Seconde Sepmaine of the hexameral structure of Genesis with Virgil's narrative of reconciliation after civil war is shown to represent the most sophisticated understanding of and most complex interaction with the Aeneid in sixteenth-century France.