A Cockney Catullus : the reception of Catullus in Romantic Britain, 1795-1821 / Henry Stead.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stead, Henry, author.

Series:

Classical presences

Classical Presences

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catullus, Gaius Valerius--Criticism and interpretation.

Catullus, Gaius Valerius.

Catullus, Gaius Valerius--Appreciation--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Romanticism.

History.

Criticism and interpretation.

Great Britain.

Latin poetry--History and criticism.

Latin poetry.

Romanticism--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Romanticism--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Art appreciation.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

xv, 338 pages ; 23 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2016.

Summary:

Catullus, one the most Hellenizing, scandalous, and emotionally expressive of the Roman poets, burst onto the British cultural scene during the Romantic era. It was not until this socially, politically, and culturally explosive epoch, with its mania for all things Greek, that Catullus' work was first fully translated into English and played a key role in the countercultural and commercially driven classicism of the time. Previously marginalized on the traditional eighteenth-century curriculum as a charming but debauched minor love poet, Catullus was discovered as a major poetic voice in the late Georgian era by reformist emulators-especially in the so-called Cockney School-and won widespread respect. In this volume, Stead pioneers a new way of understanding the key role Catullus played in shaping Romanticism by examining major literary engagements with Catullus, from John Nott of Bristol's pioneering book-length bilingual edition (1795), to George Lamb's polished verse translation (1821). He identifies the influence of Catullus' poetry in the work of numerous Romantic-era literary and political figures, including Byron, Keats, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Hunt, Canning, Brougham, and Gifford, demonstrating the degree of its cultural penetration.

Contents:

1 Catullus Unchained: The Translations of John Nott and George Lamb 33

1.1 Catullus in Britain: the Seventeenth and Earlier Eighteenth Centuries 34

1.2 An Educational Turn 40

1.3 The Vices of Catullus 43

1.4 Beastly Catullus 47

1.5 Pioneers and Settlers 49

1.6 'Acquainted only by halves' 57

1.7 Novi Catulli, Warmth, and Bile 60

1.8 Pedicabo et irrumabo-Expurgating a Satirical Menace 62

1.9 Translation as Murder, Absolute Murder 65

1.10 'Tis Meet-mifis 68

1.11 Unfashionable Rhymes 70

1.12 Dr Nott's Triangulation 71

1.13 Lamb Reading Nott Reading Catullus 73

1.14 Odious Parts (Poems 97 and 98) 74

1.15 Formal Translation 79

1.16 Same-Sex Love 1: Juventius, or 'Dearest Maid of my Soul' 81

1.17 Same-Sex Love 2: Poem 61 and the concubinus 83

1.18 Spreading the Word 93

2 Catullus 64 in Translation and Allusion 99

2.1 Translating 64: C. A. Elton and Frank Sayers 101

2.2 Symbolic Allusion: T. L. Peacock, Leigh Hunt, and Keats 122

3 Non-Cockney Responses to Catullus 153

3.1 W. S. Landor, Wordsworth, Thomas Moore, and Lord Byron 153

3.2 An Anti-Jacobin Catullus 205

4 Catullus the Reformer: Leigh Hunt's Reception 223

4.1 Catullus at the Feast of Poets 227

4.2 Catullus amid the Foliage 253

5 Keats's Catullan Samphire 269

5.1 Educating Keats 271

5.2 Keats and Latin 274

5.3 Keats and Catullus 279

5.4 Sonic Allusion and a Direct Bond? 298

5.5 Writing in Water 300.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780198744887

0198744889

OCLC:

932382450