“To Secure a Favourable Reception” - The Role and Place of Translations of the Poetry of Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski in 18th Century Collections of Minor English Poets

Joseph Hucks, the author of Poems (1798), explaining his decision to add to the volume of his own poems (both original and translated) the four translations of poems of Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (1595-1640) done by his friend William Margetson Heald, ended his brief “Preface” with the following words: “my motives, I fear, will be deemed self-interested, in thus endeavouring to secure, by so valuable an addition to it, a favourable reception to the volume which contains them”. The subject of the present paper is the roles which such translations from the Polish Baroque Neo-Latin poet played in collections of poetry, original and translated, published (usually at the authors’ expense) by various minor 18th century English poets. The point of departure will be an analysis of three such collections (the anonymous Mele Ephemeria, 1783, Talbot Keene’s Miscellaneous Pieces, 1787, and Hucks’ Poems, 1798), the position of the translated poems with the volume, authorial comments, as well as the quality of translation and characteristics of the selected poems of Sarbiewski. The analysed material includes also numerous translations published in the press and other collections of poetry (e.g. William Mason, S. T. Coleridge, William Herbert, Jesse Kitchener) in the period and critical response to them. The aim of the paper is on the one hand to present the position of Sarbiewski and his poetry in England of the late 18th century. On the other hand, however, it is to show how Sarbiewski’s poetry could be used to establish a poet’s credentials as translator along the greatest Latin authors such as Horace, Ovid, or Virgil.