Introduction -- Virgil in the 1650s and 1660s: Dismantling Augustanism -- Virgil in the 1670s and 1680s: The Emperorâ‚‚s New Clothes -- Virgil, 1688-1700: A Watershed of English Literature -- Virgil, 1700-1760s: Redefining Neoclassicism -- The Legacy: Tradition Metamorphosed -- Bibliography
Summary
Virgil Made English traces Virgil's fate from the Interregnum through mid-eighteenth-century England and beyond by examining translations, imitations, adaptations, and discussions of the poet and some of his fellow Ancients. Along the way, it examines English and French neoclassical theorists, demonstrating the unacknowledged gap between theory and practice in this period. The central argument here concerns the decline in influence and authority of Virgil and the Ancients in this neoclassical period. The study also shows how literary features and notions about literatures historical and social function that are associated with the eighteenth century can be traced back through mid-seventeenth century rejection of classical precepts and examples
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-246) and index
