The first half of the talk will explore Latin poems by Andrew Marvell (1621-78) alongside that poet's better-known English oeuvre.  In particular Hortus will be read alongside The Garden, with the argument being pressed that the two poems gain from being read as a cross-referential pair.  The talk will then move across to John Milton (1608-74):  not, however, to the earlier Milton of the 1645 'Poems both English and Latin', an actual bilingual collection published in a double volume, but to the Milton of the English but famously Latinate Paradise Lost (1667).  Various case studies will seek to provoke general thoughts about post-antique poetic engagement with classical Latin, and about the cross-currents of Latin and vernacular within early modern epic practice (touching on French as well as English).

Stephen Hinds is working on a book on cross-linguistic consciousness in the classical tradition, both ancient and (early) modern. His working title is Poetry Across Languages: Literature, Literalism and the Latin Tradition.