Virgilio in Inghilterra.

This volume contains twelve essays examining the knowledge of and interest in Virgil on the part of such writers as Marlowe, Shakespeare, Milton, Swift, Pope, Thomson, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, and Hardy. All but the essay on Shelley are adaptations of entries in the Enciclopedia Virgiliana (vol. 1-4, Rome, 1984-90); in addition, Portale provides a hefty bibliography of the authors at the end of the work.

Each chapter is self-contained, linked to the next only by the common thread of the presence of Virgil. As much as Portale has tried to make the essays into chapters, they still have the distinct ring of encyclopedia entries. This is not necessarily a liability, but it does define the readership for whom this book is intended; scholars of English literature will find each chapter's introductory material elementary, but such sketches would on the other hand be useful to someone unfamiliar with, for example, the early life of Shakespeare and his frequently-cited relationship with "small Latine and lesse Greeke." Beginning with a biographical sketch of each individual author, all essays proceed to discuss those authors' relationships with Virgil, from grammar school training to Virgilian themes in their works to sometimes word-for-word "translations" of Virgiljan phrases. Interspersed in the chapters are critics' reactions to the Virgilian presence in each author's works.

Of the more intriguing types of information provided are quotations culled from the letters, diaries, and other sources concerning the individual authors' debts to and plans for Virgil in their works. Taking Alexander Pope as our example, we see the young man reading poets in English, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek, and then beginning his own poetic experiments by "hunt[ing] in the authors for a syntax of my own" before proceeding on to "[translate] any parts that pleased me particularly in the best Greek and Latin Poets" (89). What unfolds through the various quotations chosen by Portale is Pope's personal authorial relationship with the idea of imitatio and his own (dis)comfort with that idea. He writes to a friend, "I would beg your opinion as to another point: it is how far the liberty of borrowing may extend?" and later notes in the preface to his Works in the 1717 edition that "those who say our thoughts are not our own because they resemble the Ancients . . . may as well say our faces are not our own, because they are like our fathers" (88). While Portale presents us with these fascinating glimpses into the mind of Pope, he does very little to develop them because his scope is limited to defining Pope's relationship with Virgil via quotation without then fully exploring the implications of that relationship in the life of the author.

Other important components of each chapter are the critical surveys provided, with critics ranging from those contemporary with the particular author to those of the present day. We thus get a quick and concise overview of several hundred years of literary criticism, which, combined with the lengthy bibliography at the end of the volume, will give the neophyte a good start on understanding the relationship of one or all of the English authors with Virgil.

Portale more than realizes his goal of "rintracciare, in tutti gli autori, la conoscenza e l'interesse per Virgilio" (ix). But he goes much further in piquing our interest in the links between the English classics and the ancients. The little tidbits that he throws out, either in the form of quotations from the English authors' works or from the critics, tempt us to delve deeper into some of the more complicated arguments that arise from the ideas of roots, imitations, conceits, and authorial credibility. The book is ideal for an audience who needs an introduction to great English literary figures, especially in regard to extent that their works are influenced by the classics. Even beyond that, there is much to draw the knowledgeable literary critic into the world of imitatio.

ELIZABETH H.D. MAZZOCCO University of Massachusetts, Amherst