"Juno Thunders with the Tongue": A Misogynistic Latin Epigram Attributed to Dryden and Its Afterlives

Hilton Kelliher showed that the late-seventeenth-century Harley MS 6054 contains a previously undocumented Latin epigram that the manuscript's compiler attributes to John Dryden. Kelliher did not insist that the attribution to Dryden was correct, but he did lay out a strong circumstantial case...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhilological quarterly Vol. 101; no. 1-2; pp. 71 - 93
Main Author Blaine, Marlin E
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Iowa City University of Iowa 01.01.2022
University of Iowa, Philological Quarterly
Subjects
18th century
Authorship
British & Irish literature
Criticism and interpretation
Dryden, John (1631-1700)
Dryden, John (English poet)
Elections
English literature
Epigrams
Historical text analysis
Latin language
Latin literature
Latin philology
Misogyny
Poets
Portrayals
Sons
United Kingdom
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Summary:Hilton Kelliher showed that the late-seventeenth-century Harley MS 6054 contains a previously undocumented Latin epigram that the manuscript's compiler attributes to John Dryden. Kelliher did not insist that the attribution to Dryden was correct, but he did lay out a strong circumstantial case for its plausibility and discussed the theme of the epigram in the context of Dryden's reputedly unhappy marital relations and his possible misogyny; he also specified that the occasion upon which the unnamed son of Dryden might have recited the verses was likely a Westminster School election dinner. Here, Blaine presents evidence that buttresses Kelliher's case for the attribution to Dryden and traces the trajectory of the distich from the probable occasion of its composition to its vogue in the popular press.
ISSN:0031-7977
2169-5342