Georgics (Hoyt)

The Living World in Virgil’s Georgics: A Comparison of Two Translations

Both John Dryden’s and J. W. Mackail’s translations of Virgil’s Georgics strive to give the reader the sense that the Earth and the things that occupy it are just as alive as humans are. However, the differences in how Mackail’s and Dryden’s translations describe the reproductive cycle of trees reveals two different visions of the natural world. While Dryden’s translation locates the source of the trees growth within the trees themselves, Mackail’s translation suggests that the trees are mere inanimate objects, waiting to be acted upon by humans. As a result, Dryden’s translation imbues the trees that he describes with their own autonomy, as if they are conscious agents in their own growth. Mackail’s translation fails to achieve the same result.

In Dryden’s translation, the trees he describes are imbued with a sense of autonomy and agency, as if they are just as alive as any human. He describes the Poplar tree as “Herculean,” (Dryden, 2.18) the Broom as “tender.” (Dryden, 2.18) The “Herculean Poplar” suggests that the tree’s growth is the result of its own strength and tenacity, as if the tree willed itself to grow. Even the ground itself possesses human qualities: “the watry Genius of the Ground.” (Dryden, 2.16) The descriptions that Dryden employs carry a distinctly human connotation. There are many adjectives that could describe both humans and trees, but “Herculean,” “Genius,” and “tender” are rarely among those adjectives. These trees, through their reproductive process, provide evidence for the “bounteous Nature” (Dryden, 2.13) that is so central to Virgil’s Georgics.

In contrast, Mackail’s translation of Virgil’s Georgics, completed in 1910, does not succeed in imbuing nature with human qualities to the extent that Dryden’s translation does. This is because Mackail’s descriptions of the trees does not locate the source of the tree’s action within the trees themselves, as Dryden’s translation does. Where Dryden describes the chestnut tree as “the mastful Chestnut mates the Skies,” (Dryden, 2.20) Mackail describes the chestnut tree as merely “the towering chestnuts.” (Mackail, 2.10) The difference in the two descriptions might seem insignificant, but Dryden’s translation suggests that the chestnut grows on its own accord, it “mates” with the sky above it. Mackail’s simpler description lacks this sense of autonomy in the tree itself. He simply describes the trees as they are: “towering.” The tree does not do anything, it lacks the agency that Dryden’s translation suggests. In this way, Mackail’s translation does not locate the source of the tree’s growth inside the tree itself.

The vision of nature that Mackail’s translation evokes is not the lively and complex vision that is present in Dryden’s translation. The adjectives that Dryden uses the describes the tree around him suggest that they grow on their own accord, through their own persistence. The adjectives the Mackail uses in describing the trees fails to elicit such a reaction from the reader. Although these differences between Mackail’s and Dryden’s translations might seem insignificant, the dueling visions of the natural world that underlies them has significant implications in how humans react to the natural world around them. By creating the sense that all the trees possess as much agency and autonomy as humans, Dryden’s translation suggests a reverence for the natural world that is not present in Mackail’s translation. In Mackail’s translation, the trees are merely inanimate objects, beautiful, but static and unchanging things waiting to be acted upon my humans. Dryden’s vision of a living nature suggests to the reader that the natural world must be respected and treated with great care while Mackail’s vision suggests that the natural world exists only for humans to act upon it.

Works Cited

Virgil. Georgics. Translated by John Dryden, Oxford University Press (1697).

Virgil. The Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil. Translated by J. W. Mackail, Longmans, Green, and Co. (1910).