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Part of the book: Horace’s Epistles, Wieland and the Reader

Jane V. Curran

MHRA Texts and Dissertations 38

Bithell Series of Dissertations 19

W. S. Maney & Son Ltd for the Modern Humanities Research Association and the Institute of Germanic Studies

GermanPoetryTranslationopen

Abstract.  Wieland’s principles as a commentator are very similar to those which guided his translation (and which were analysed in the fourth chapter above). His aim remains the same on every level of the enterprise: to put the reader first. In the translation, this meant removing possible obscurities, building bridges where Horace abruptly jumps from an observation to an image, adding colourful or dramatic details to aid the imagination — in short, doing all within his power to make Horace accessible to the eighteenth-century non-specialist reader. The commentary, which includes introductions, footnotes, and short informative essays, carries on this work, but with an added dimension. There are notes and references to be found in the commentary which presuppose an occasional reader in touch with specialist issues, or a genuine scholar likely to take exception to the point Wieland is making.

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