'The Subtle Tree': Idolatry and Material Memory in Surrey's Aeneid

This article looks at the translation ( c .1540) of Books 2 and 4 of the Aeneid by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, concentrating on passages of linguistic density which surround descriptions of sacred objects and acts of interpreting and destroying them. Surrey's treatment of these urgently relev...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Translation and literature 2011-07, Vol.20 (2), p.137-156
Main Author:	Wilson-Lee, Edward
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	1500-1599 Aeneid Altars Authors Bibliography British culture description English language translation English Literature Epics Historical Context History of Publishing and Bookselling Iconoclasm Idolatry Language translation Literary history Literary Studies Materiality Memory Poetry Protestantism Reformation ritual objects Sixteenth Century Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of (1516/17-1547) Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of(1517?-1547) translation Translations Tudor Publishing Virgil Virgil(70-19 B.C.)
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Summary:	This article looks at the translation ( c .1540) of Books 2 and 4 of the Aeneid by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, concentrating on passages of linguistic density which surround descriptions of sacred objects and acts of interpreting and destroying them. Surrey's treatment of these urgently relevant elements of Virgil are deeply ambivalent, partaking both of the righteous iconoclasm of Reformist writers and the elegiac tones of traditionalists, and can be placed in a wider Tudor tradition of typological interpretations of Aeneid 2 by both Protestant and Catholic writers. Surrey's ambivalence is ultimately captured by the fact that his text mourns the loss of material culture while offering itself as a replacement for what has been lost.
ISSN:	0968-1361 1750-0214 1750-0214