Thomas May, Lucan's Pharsalia (1627)
- Submitting institution
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City, University of London
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 11
- Type
- B - Edited book
- DOI
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- Publisher
- Modern Humanities Research Association
- ISBN
- 978-1-781880-08-1
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- December
- Year of publication
- 2020
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- This 452-page critical edition modernises Thomas May’s early modern translation of Lucan’s historical poem on the death of the Roman republic and represents significant editorial labour. May’s 1627 text totals approximately 81,000 words, including 9000 lines of English verse plus numerous paratexts. This critical edition collates the 1627 text with four others as recorded in separate textual notes. The critical edition also includes a co-authored introduction of 13,000 words, a substantial amount of textual and contextual commentary (numbering some 2500 individual notes), and a lengthy glossary, unique to this edition.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Thomas May’s translation of Lucan’s historical poem on the death of the Roman republic, one of the most important works of Roman literature, is now recognised as an important witness to political and literary trends before the English Civil War. This edition represents significant editorial labour. It modernises an early modern text totalling approximately 81,000 words, including 9000 lines of English verse plus numerous paratexts (frontispiece verses, dedicatory letter, life of Lucan, verse arguments, dedications and historical notes to each book). The 1627 text is collated with four others in the author’s lifetime as recorded in separate textual notes. A substantial commentary (numbering approximately 2500 individual notes) highlights and comments on the translation’s use of several identified contemporary editions and commentaries, its indebtedness to contemporary factual and literary sources (including borrowings from early modern poets such as Ben Jonson or Shakespeare) and other relevant historical, literary and political information. A co-authored introduction of 13,000 words introduces the Latin text, Thomas May’s literary career and techniques as a translator, and the translation’s political and literary contexts. A lengthy glossary, unique to this edition, helps readers to understand Lucan’s vast geographical, historical, astronomical and ethnographical range of reference.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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