Georgics 4.197-205

Tone and Meaning in Translations of Virgil’s Georgics

Georgics I-III are unlike Georgics IV: in Georgics I-III, Virgil examines agricultural essentials—crops, trees, and animals—but in Georgics IV, he examines bees. Why bees? Studies of Georgics IV conclude that they represent Man (Ross 188). In Georgics 4.197-205, Virgil describes the unusual, yet ideal, labors of bees. English translations of the Georgics have many forms: John Dryden uses heroic couplets, but Henry Fairclough uses heroic prose. Despite using the same source, each translation presents a nuanced tone. This post will analyze the tone of Dryden and Fairclough's translations of Georgics 4.197-205 to reveal each translator's interpretation of Virgil's ideal, human laborer: dignified and obsequious, respectively.

Both translators conserve Virgil's praise of the bees' proclivity for self-restraint over self-indulgence. However, Dryden's translation presents an admiring tone, and Fairclough's presents a grim one. Dryden describes the bees as heroic, strong, and genial: "No lust enervates their Heroic Mind, / Nor wasts their Strength on wanton Woman-Kind. / But in their Mouths reside their Genial Pow'rs" (290-292). In contrast, Fairclough describes them as unindulgent and unloving: "they indulge not in conjugal embraces, nor idly unnerve their bodies in love" (198-199). Despite conserving the literal meaning, Dryden's tone suggests that Virgil's bees—and the ideal human laborer—are less slavish than Fairclough's interpretation of them.

Similarly, both conserve Virgil's description of the bees upholding the monarchy and bourgeoisie, but Dryden presents an unassuming tone, and Fairclough presents a subservient one. Dryden describes the mutualism between the upper and lower class: "Thus make they Kings to fill the Regal Seat; / And thus their little Citizens create: / And waxen Cities build, and Palaces of State" (294-296). Fairclough describes the lower class's duty to serve the upper class: "freely yield their lives under their load … provide a new monarch and tiny burghers, and remodel their palaces and waxen realms" (201-204). Again, despite the literal meaning's similarity, Dryden's tone suggests that the ideal human laborer has more agency than Fairclough's interpretation.

Overall, despite maintaining the original text's literal meaning, differences in the tones of Dryden and Fairchild's translations of Georgics 4.197-205 reveal the authors opposing attitudes towards Virgil's ideal human laborer. Dryden's dignifying tone characterizes the laborer as strong and cooperative, whereas Fairclough's obsequious tone characterizes them as unfeeling and submissive. From this small sample, we can start to see how translations subtly distort the original text's exact meaning.