Affectionately yours,
W. WORDSWORTH.[79]

[79] Memoirs, ii. 62-3.

48. The Classics:  Translation of Aeneid, &c.

[Laodamia, Dion, &c.] These poems were written in 1814-16.  About this time Wordsworth’s attention was given to the education of his eldest son:  this occupation appears to have been the occasion of their composition.  In preparing his son for his university career, he reperused the principal Latin poets; and doubtless the careful study of their works was not without a beneficial influence on his own.  It imparted variety and richness to his conceptions, and shed new graces on his style, and rescued his poems from the charge of mannerism.

Among the fruits of this course of reading, was a translation of some of the earlier books of VIRGIL’S AENEID.  Three books were finished.  This version was not executed in blank verse, but in rhyme; not, however, in the style of Pope, but with greater freedom and vigour.  A specimen of this translation was contributed by Wordsworth to the Philological Museum, printed at Cambridge in 1832.[80] It was accompanied with the following letter from the author:—­

TRANSLATION OF PART OF THE FIRST BOOK OF THE AENEID.[81]

To the editor off the Philological Museum.

Your letter reminding me of an expectation I some time since held out to you, of allowing some specimens of my translation from the Aeneid to be printed in the Philological Museum, was not very acceptable; for I had abandoned the thought of ever sending into the world any part of that experiment—­for it was nothing more—­an experiment begun for amusement, and, I now think, a less fortunate one than when I first named it to you.  Having been displeased, in modern translations, with the additions of incongruous matter, I began to translate with a resolve to keep clear of that fault, by adding nothing; but I became convinced that a spirited translation can scarcely be accomplished in the English language without admitting a principle of compensation.  On this point, however, I do not wish to insist; and merely send the following passage, taken at random, from a wish to comply with your request.

W.W.[82]

[80] Vol. i. p. 382.

[81] Philological Museum, edit.  Camb. 1832, vol. i. p. 382.

[82] Memoirs, ii. 68-9.

49. On the same:  Letters to Earl Lonsdale.

MY LORD,

Many thanks for your obliging letter.  I shall be much gratified if you happen to like my translation, and thankful for any remarks with which you may honour me.  I have made so much progress with the second book, that I defer sending the former till that is finished.  It takes in many places a high tone of passion, which I would gladly succeed in rendering.  When I read Virgil in the original I am moved; but not so much so by the translation; and I cannot but think this owing to a defect in the diction, which I have endeavoured to supply, with what success you will easily be enabled to judge.