Abstract

When Wordsworth was eighteen he embarked on a series of translations from Virgil's Georgics. All that survives of them today is a series of rough drafts and jottings, among which is a short note in which he attempts to resolve the well-known crux at 4.228–30 Suppose we read it thus – ‘prius haustu parcus aquarum / Ora fove, etc.’ – and construe it thus: First sparingly steep the mouth of the hive in water