Unfinished Aeneids

• In Event: Translating Epic and Lyric

Abstract

Maffeo Vegio's 1428 Latin supplement to Virgil's Aeneid brought decisive closure to the inconclusivities of Virgil's poem by justifying Aeneas' killing of Turnus and celebrating his marriage and apotheosis. Vegio's Supplementum was included in numerous editions of the Aeneid from 1471 onwards and translated by Gavin Douglas (Middle Scots, 1553), Thomas Twyne (English, 1584) and Pierre de Mouchault (French, 1588). What is at stake in translating the Supplementum? My paper will focus particularly on Twyne's motivations and methods. Here we face two 'unfinished' Aeneids: the Latin text which Vegio concluded and the incomplete translation of Thomas Phaer, which Twyne completed. I shall propose that Twyne's incorporation of Vegio's supplement had moral and aesthetic motivations and I shall analyse his approach to Vegio's praise of Aeneas by examining his translation of key epithets in Vegio's text.

Author

• Susanna Braund, University of British Columbia