Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Series Editors’ Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on the Text
- Introduction
- 1 The Search for a Lofty British Virgil: The Early Elizabethan Aeneids of Thomas Phaer, Thomas Twyne and Richard Stanyhurst
- 2 ‘Sound this Angry Message in Thine Eares’: Sympathy and the Translations of the Aeneid in Marlowe's Dido Queene of Carthage
- 3 Courteous Virgil: The Manuscript Translations of an Anonymous Poet, Sir John Harington and Sir William Mure of Rowallan
- 4 Virginian Virgil: The Single-Book Translations of Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Dudley Digges and George Sandys
- 5 Rome at War: The Military Virgils of John Vicars, Robert Stapylton and Robert Heath
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Series Editors’ Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on the Text
- Introduction
- 1 The Search for a Lofty British Virgil: The Early Elizabethan Aeneids of Thomas Phaer, Thomas Twyne and Richard Stanyhurst
- 2 ‘Sound this Angry Message in Thine Eares’: Sympathy and the Translations of the Aeneid in Marlowe's Dido Queene of Carthage
- 3 Courteous Virgil: The Manuscript Translations of an Anonymous Poet, Sir John Harington and Sir William Mure of Rowallan
- 4 Virginian Virgil: The Single-Book Translations of Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Dudley Digges and George Sandys
- 5 Rome at War: The Military Virgils of John Vicars, Robert Stapylton and Robert Heath
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
On 13 April 1594, King James VI of Scotland wrote a letter to Queen Elizabeth I in which he complains about her generous treatment of the Scottish rebel, the earl of Bothwell. James expresses his horror at ‘how my avowed traitor hath not only been openly reset in your realm, but plainly made his residence in your proper houses’. Recalling to the Queen her promise that Bothwell ‘should have no harbor’ within her country, James hopes that she will not let her subjects overrule her – for surely that is the only reason she would allow this traitor to reside in her land. Permitting James's avowed enemy to live in England would be ‘so far against all princely honor as I protest I abhor the least thought thereof’. To plead with her, James sent this letter with two ambassadors to the Queen in London. He concludes the letter with an allusion to Virgil's Aeneid:
I trust ye will not put me in balance with such a traitorous counterpoise, nor wilfully reject me, constraining me to say with Virgil, Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo [‘if Heaven I cannot bend, then Hell I will arouse’]. And to give you a proof of the continuance of my honest affection, I have directed these two gentlemen unto you, whom I will heartily pray you to credit as myself in all that they have in charge to deliver unto you; and because the principal of them goes to France, to return the other back with a good answer with all convenient speed. And thus assuring you that friendship shall never fail upon my part, I commit you, madame and dearest sister, to the holy protection of the Almighty. From Edinburgh the 13 of April, 1594.
Quoting from the seventh book of the Aeneid, James warns Elizabeth that if she refuses to aid him, he will be forced to seek other methods. If need be, like Juno, he will not hesitate from stirring up hell.
Elizabeth was furious with James's letter. In her reply she writes, ‘I am that prince that never can endure a menace at my enemy's hand, much less of one so dearly treated.’ She had interpreted James's allusion to Virgil as a threat.
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- Information
- The English AeneidTranslations of Virgil 1555-1646, pp. 1 - 18Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2015