On Thomas May’s Translation of Lucan

At FENCE.

Teaser quote: John Aubrey says he heard that May, when drunk, used to mutter against the Trinity. But do that, so…. Anyhow, what readers of this article want to know is: Do I really need to read this early-17th-century translation of Lucan, when I don’t even know my Ovid or my Virgil? And the answer to that is yes. You have to read everything on Dante’s list, and you have to read each of them in multiple translations. Whatever was the greatest translation in such-and-such century? That. You read that. And this right here—May’s Lucan—is clearly and undeniably the best English Lucan of the 17th century.

[originally posted Thursday 23 March 2023]