Thomas Twyne's Appropriation of Thomas Phaer's Æneidos: ‘Worke unperfyt’ Perfected?

Abstract

Abstract: This paper attempts to reconstruct from the limited evidence available the rationale and development of Thomas Twyne's completion (1573–84) of Thomas Phaer's unfinished English translation of the Aeneid (1555–60). In Phaer's hands, it is suggested, ‘continuation’ and ‘completion’ gradually turn over time into ‘competition’, ‘absorption’, and even ‘appropriation’. A key element in this process is Phaer's decision to add to the twelve books of Virgil's epic his translation of Maffeo Vegio's Latin Supplementum (1428): Twyne brings a similar kind of closure to Phaer's project to that involved in Vegio's Aeneid Book 13.