“Wilde’s” Translation of the Satyricon

The Publication • 1902 Charles Carrington • 515 copy edition with finely decorated covers, print, and pages • Contains Nodot supplements (added, not translating Petronius) • Seems to have been copied from Burnaby, Addison, and Kelly translations (Bellum Civile section belongs entirely to Addison) • First translation not to conceal the explicitly sexual scenes, e.g. Quartilla scene • Translation ascribed to a “Sebastian Melmoth,” Wilde’s well known pseudonym after his exile Wilde’s Pirate Publishers • Leonard Smithers o Publishing relationship with Wilde originally licit o “Rare” book tradesman (Victorian cover for covert pornography dealing) o Helped Wilde publish after his release from prison • Carrington o Well known English pornographer working in o Less familiar with Wilde o Took up publishing Wilde’s works after Smithers died • Both produced works under Wilde’s name and without his permission after his death o Both potentially collaborated to produce no overlapping pirated texts Problems with Translation • Carrington could not produce original manuscript to prove its authorship • Carrington’s background in pornography and continued piracy of Wilde’s work suggest advantage of using Wilde’s well-known pseudonym • Unoriginality of the translation not characteristic of Wilde, trained in Classics at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen Why Relevant? • Despite inauthenticity of translation, Wilde and Petronius intimately connected in the modern imagination • Wilde plays significant role in weaving Petronius into nebulous queer genre o Text often still referred to as “Wilde translation” o Petronius used to articulate queerness in Dorian Gray • Translation reflects a significant expression of non-normative sexuality and expands accessibility of text

Bibliography

Boroughs, R. 1995. “’s Translation of Petronius: The Story of a Literary Hoax.” English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 38: 9-49. Endres, N. 2017.“From Eros to Romosexuality.” In K. Riley, A. Blanshard, and Iarla Manny, eds. Oscar Wilde and Classical Antiquity, 251-66. Oxford: . Guy, J. and Small, I. 2000. Oscar Wilde’s Profession: Writing and the Culture Industry in the Late Nineteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hyde, M. 1964. History of Pornography. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Morales, H. 2008. “The History of Sexuality.” In T. Whitmarsh, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Greek and Roman Novel, 39-55. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McElroy, H. 2000. “The Reception and Use of Petronius: Petronian Pseudepigraphy and Imitation.” Ancient Narrative 1: 350ff. Ziolkowski, T. 2016. “Petronius the Man in Modern Fiction.” Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics 23: 57-86