The Poetical Works of Christopher Smart: Volume V. The Works of Horace, Translated Into Verse

Rose Mary Crawshay Prize 1997, awarded by British Academy

Published here for the first time since 1767, Christopher Smart's verse translation of Horace was made in the years between his release from the madhouse and his death. The introduction places Smart's methods in the context of 18th-century attitudes to the translation of classical works.Published here for the first time since 1767, Christopher Smart's verse translation of Horace was made in the prodigiously creative years between his release from the madhouse and his death. The translation strengthens the impression made by all Smart's later verse of a poet of remarkable lyrical virtuosity and boldness of expression. The translation now emerges as testimony to Smart's tireless creativity and poetic energy, and as a significant contribution to the present reappraisal of Horace's influence on English literature. Smart's contemporaries, however, either ignored the project, or treated it with contempt, and it was never reprinted. This edition includes Smart's own critical preface, which is important for its declaration of the writer's principles as translator, and for its unorthodox ideas about poetic language. Karina Williamson's informative introduction discusses Smart's principles and methods in the context of eighteenth century attitudes to the translation of clasical works. Full scholarly apparatus is provided, together with a detailed and clarifying commentary which explains Smart's more obscure passages.