Pietas from Vergil to Dryden

James Garrison

Published by Penn State University Press 1992

Pietas from Vergil to Dryden

James Garrison

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271075402

Overview
Contents

About this book

For centuries the most revered poem in the Western literary canon, Vergil's Aeneid celebrates the Roman virtue of pietas. In the preface to his English translation of the poem, John Dryden attempts to explain all that this virtue includes: "Piety alone," he writes, "comprehends the whole Duty of Man towards the Gods, towards his Country, and towards his Relations." Dryden's definition belongs to a dialogue about meaning that reflects a history of contention over religious, political, and moral issues of enduring cultural significance. Because it is the site of antagonism between pagan and Christian, republican and imperialist, emperor and pope, Protestant and Catholic, pietas and its derivatives in the modern languages bring to literary works multiple contexts of ideological dispute. This book traces the history of the Vergilian ideal from classical Latin to neoclassical English literature. In the process of, it comparatively engages interpretation of a range of literary works diversely responsive to the Aeneid: from the histories and historical epics of the Silver Age, to the medieval mirrors for magistrates, to Renaissance adaptations of Aeneid 4 and 12, and finally to Dryden's complete translation.

Author / Editor information

Garrison James :

James D. Garrison is Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas, Austin. He is the author of Dryden and the Tradition of Panegyric (1975).

Reviews

“This is a remarkably good book. Garrison has identified an enormous topic never previously studied in a coherent way: the tradition of ideas and terms for pietas in the premodern West. . . . I found his discussions not only of Renaissance commentary and mythography but also of the medieval Investiture controversy original, lucid, and compelling.”
—Anthony Grafton, Princeton University

“The author has written an extraordinary history of the meanings and applications of a single word—pietà—and its cultural and Roman antiquity, early Christian Europe, the European middle ages, and sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy, France, and England. . . . This study is clearly a major contribution to comparative literature.”
—Paul J. Korshin, University of Pennsylvania

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 Pietas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
2 Auctores Pietatis: Classical and Christian Ideas of Pietas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
3 History: Pietas and Roman Destiny Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
4 Governance: Royal and Ecclesiastical Pietas in the Middle Ages Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
5 Love: Dido and Pietas in the Early Renaissance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
6 War: Turnus and Pietas in the Later Renaissance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
7 Heredes Pietatis: Pietas and Piety in the Work of John Dryden Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
Selected Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	305
Index of Words and Phrases Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	329
General Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	333

Language: English
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 356
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 6
- Images: 6
- Other: 6 illustrations
Keywords: James Garrison; 0-271-00787-7; 0-271-02636-7; History European; Comparative Literature; cultural; Roman; antiquity early Christian Europe; European; middle ages sixteenth- and seventeenth -century; Italy; France; England; John Dryden Aeneid

eBook

Published: May 26, 2021
ISBN: 9780271075402