Dryden: The Poetics of Translation

Judith Sloman argues that the collections of translation that Dryden produced or contributed to are unified works of literature, not just miscellaneous collections. Through his selection of passages, through his use of language, and through changes and new emphases in the passages he translated Dryden could express his personality and convictions. In this book the author is therefore concerned in part with the connection between personality and art and in part with the political, religious, and literary context in which Dryden worked. Although Fables receives most emphasis, Ovid’s Epistles, Miscellany Poems, Sylvae, Examen Peticum, and the Aenesis are also examined in some detail.

Dryden has a re-creative approach to translation, integrating groups of short poems into a whole with epic force. Just as multiplicity and complexity were facts of Dryden’s character and situation, they are characteristic of his composite poems, which create a unified and integrated whole out of a multiplicity of parts. Fables is thus not a unique entity in Dryden’s canon but the conclusion of a pattern that can be traced through his entire career as translator and poet

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