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Poetics,
Ideology, Dissent
Beppe Fenoglio and Translation

Valentina Vetri
Poetics, Ideology, Dissent
Beppe Fenoglio, 1960. Photo by Aldo Agnelli – Archivio Centro Studi Beppe
Fenoglio.
 Valentina Vetri

Poetics, Ideology,
Dissent
Beppe Fenoglio and Translation
Valentina Vetri
Department of Philology and Literary Criticism
University of Siena
Siena, Italy

ISBN 978-3-031-29907-0    ISBN 978-3-031-29908-7 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29908-7

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar
or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Note on the Text
Throughout this book I use Harvard referencing for in-text references
and for the bibliography.
Unless noted differently, all translations from Italian into English are mine.
Due to copyright issues Fenoglio’s manuscripts could not be reproduced in
full, but Fenoglio’s heirs have given me their permission to reproduce sections
of them in my commentary. Most of Fenoglio’s manuscripts are either
unnumbered or irregularly numbered. Where possible, I added the page
numbers myself.
 A mio padre
se anche fossi a me un estraneo,
fra tutti quanti gli uomini già tanto
pel tuo cuore fanciullo t’amerei
 Acknowledgements

My sincerest thanks go to Dr Monica Borg and Prof Hugh Adlington, for

their guidance and support. I also wish to thank my family and friends,
for their encouragement and support. I also wish to sincerely thank
Bianca Roagna and Margherita Fenoglio: Bianca, because she is moved as
I am by the wonderful words of Beppe; Margherita, for her kindness, her
devotion to the memory of her father, and her generosity.

ix
 Contents

1 I ntroduction  1
1.1 Beppe Fenoglio: The Translator and the Writer   1
1.2 Methodology and Research Design of the Book   8
1.3 Book Structure  11
References 13

2 “ A Private Affair”: The Critical Response to Fenoglio’s

Translations and New Perspectives from Translation Studies 15
2.1 Introduction  15
2.2 The Role and Critical Fortune of Fenoglio’s Translations  17
2.3 Culture and Ideology in Fenoglio’s Translations: The
Perspective of Translation Studies  30
2.4 From Fenoglio’s Translations to Fenoglio as a
Translator: The Perspective of the Translator’s
Centredness 39
2.5 Fenoglio and the Poetics of the Translator: The Italian
Contribution to Translation Studies  44
2.6 Conclusions  49
References 50

xi
xii Contents

3 C
 hallenging Education and Culture in Fascist Italy: How
Fenoglio Became a Translator 55
3.1 Introduction  55
3.2 Fenoglio’s Education and the Gentile Reforms of School  57
3.3 Fenoglio’s Choice of English as a Rejection of the
Instances of the Regime: The Political and Ideological
Reasons Behind Fenoglio’s “Anglomania”  63
3.4 A Polymorph Concept of Culture: Classic Values and
the Concept of “Open Doors” in the Fascist Culture
with Regard to Foreign Languages  68
3.5 Culture and Politics Between 1920 and 1940 in
Fenoglio’s Alba  72
3.6 Fenoglio and the Italian Translation Scene Between
1920 and 1940  76
3.7 Fenoglio’s Approach to the Art of Translation: The
Search for a New Identity  81
3.8 Conclusions  84
References 85

4 A
 Predilection for Dissenting Heroes: Fenoglio’s
Translations of Cristopher Marlowe’s Dr Faustus and John
Milton’s Samson Agonistes 89
4.1 Introduction  89
4.2 Stylistic Affinities Between Milton, Marlowe and
Fenoglio: A Predilection for Translating Drama  92
4.3 Thematic Affinities Between Dr Faustus, Samson
Agonistes and Fenoglio’s Creative Writings: A Focus on
Tragic Heroes  95
4.4 Fenoglio’s Translation of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor
Faustus: Context and Selection of Scenes  99
4.5 Fenoglio’s “Protestantism” and the Theology of
Faustus: The Translation of Marlowe’s Dr Faustus as an
Expression of Religious Dissent 105
4.6 Fenoglio’s Translation Strategies in His Rendition of
Marlowe’s Dr Faustus: A Poetics of “Patience” in the
Rendition of Religious Terms 108
 Contents xiii

4.7 Fenoglio’s Translation of Milton’s Samson Agonistes: A

Tragedy of Individual Revolt, Resistance and Violence 116
4.8 A Shared Poetics of Violent Resistance: The Affinity
Between Milton’s Samson Agonistes and Fenoglio’s Un
giorno di fuoco118
4.9 Translation as “Openness”: Fenoglio’s Foreignizing
Translation Strategies in His Rendition of Samson
Agonistes124
4.10 Conclusions 131
References132

5 “ Falstaffian” Partisans: Fenoglio’s Translation of

Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1 and Fenoglio’s Original
Writings135
5.1 Introduction 135
5.2 An Examination of the Analogies Between Elizabethan
Outlaws and Italian Partisans as Fenoglio’s Motive for
Translating Henry IV Part 1138
5.3 Realism and Subversion: Falstaff as Fenoglio’s Model
for His Own Partisans 142
5.4 Fenoglio’s “Imperfect” Partisans and the Influence of
Falstaff on Fenoglio’s I ventitre giorni della città di Alba,
Il Vecchio Blister and Solitudine146
5.5 Fenoglio’s Falstaffian Partisans as an Expression of
Fenoglio’s Dissent Towards the Ideology of Neorealism
and Social Realism 152
5.6 Fenoglio’s Translating Approach to Henry the IV Part 1:
Realism and Adherence to the Source Text 159
5.7 Conclusions 168
References169

6 T
 wo Civil Wars Compared: Fenoglio’s Translation of
Charles Firth’s Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the
Puritans in England173
6.1 Introduction 173
6.2 Fenoglio’s Telos in Translating Firth’s Biography of
Cromwell: Preliminary Notes on the Source Text 176
xiv Contents

6.3 Cultural and Sociological Context of Fenoglio’s

Translation of Oliver Cromwell179
6.4 Fenoglio’s Ideology as a Translator: Two Civil Wars
Compared183
6.5 Fenoglio’s Translation Strategies and Approach to the
Source Text 194
6.6 Conclusions 203
References204

7 T
 he Fine Line Between Translation and Adaptation:
Fenoglio’s La Voce nella Tempesta and the Translation of
H.W. Garrod’s Introduction to Wuthering Heights207
7.1 Introduction 207
7.2 Fenoglio’s La Voce nella Tempesta : The Play, the
Influence of Wuthering Heights and Its Critical Fortune 210
7.3 La Voce nella Tempesta and Fenoglio’s Translations:
Formal and Thematic Affinities 214
7.4 The Analogies Between Translation and Adaptation:
How Translation Studies Can Be Incorporated in
Adaptation Studies 217
7.5 Two Hypotexts for One Hypertext: Brontë’s Novel and
Wyler’s Movie. The Creativity of Fenoglio’s Adaptation 221
7.6 Fenoglio’s Translation of W.H. Garrod’s “Introduction”
to Wuthering Heights: The Influence of Garrod on
Fenoglio’s Reading of Wuthering Heights and Fenoglio’s
Translation Strategies 232
7.7 Conclusions 238
References240

8 C
 onclusion243
References250

I ndex 251
 1
Introduction

1.1 Beppe Fenoglio: The Translator

and the Writer
Beppe Fenoglio (1922–1963) is now considered one of the most impor-
tant Italian authors of the twentieth century. His literary production
ranges from short stories to novels and plays, and focuses in particular on
the theme of the Italian War of Resistance of 1944–1945.1 Fenoglio’s
novels Il partigiano Johnny (Johnny the Partisan) and Una questione privata
(A Private Affair) are now considered part of the contemporary literary
canon and in particular provide a narration of the Partisan War of
Resistance during Fascism. However, Fenoglio’s work differs significantly
from that of other writers who also explored similar themes, such as Italo
Calvino, Primo Levi or Cesare Pavese. Fenoglio stands out in the canon
on account of what has been referred to as Fenoglio’s rather original and
explicit “love affair” with England, which started when Fenoglio was an
adolescent and lasted through his lifetime.
Fenoglio’s predilection for English history, culture and literature is wit-
nessed by the many translations from English into Italian that he carried
out in the course of more than 20 years. Fenoglio was such a prolific

1
Fenoglio himself took actively part in the war against Nazi-Fascism with the battle name of
“Beppe/ Heathcliff”.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 1

V. Vetri, Poetics, Ideology, Dissent, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29908-7_1
2 V. Vetri

translator, that the Italian literary critic Maria Corti called his transla-
tions from English “love letters to England” (1973, p. 51), thus high-
lighting the profound admiration that Fenoglio felt towards English
literature. Other Italian authors such as Elio Vittorini or Cesare Pavese
had expressed admiration, even passion, for Anglo-American culture and
literature. Fenoglio, however, went further. Not only did he translate into
Italian the masterpieces to which he was so devoted, he also adopted this
second language as his own expressive literary medium and wrote directly
in English. Later, he would self-translate into Italian from his novels and
short stories in English. While Pavese and Vittorini had brought the fan-
tastic, mythical world of America to Italy through their translations of
Faulkner and Melville, Fenoglio chose to narrate, in English, his own
personal experience of the Italian Civil War. The names of his partisans
are English: Johnny and Milton. His novels and short stories are filled
with English expressions and words; a first draft of Il partigiano Johnny,
which was recovered only after Fenoglio’s death, was written entirely in
English. Therefore, not only did English culture play a key role in
Fenoglio’s formative adolescent years and become part of his inner soul,
but it also led him to adopt the English language, preferring this second
language to his mother tongue when writing.2 The choice of appropriat-
ing English as his preferred language appears particularly original espe-
cially if we take into account the fact that Fenoglio never left the small
native city of Alba, never visited England and was educated in this village
where the majority of people did not even speak standard Italian but only
knew the Piedmontese dialect.
Beppe Fenoglio’s translations are particularly varied, and the choice of
texts also unconventional, because it is not limited to literary works.
Most of his translations are found at the Fondo Fenoglio (Fenoglio
Archive), in Alba, Piedmont. These include his translations of Gerard
Manley Hopkins, Robert Browning, T. S. Eliot, John Donne, Thomas
De Quincey, Geoffrey Chaucer, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Bunyan,
Kenneth Grahame, John Milton, Christopher Marlowe, Edgar Lee

2
In this regard, see the autobiographical notes Fenoglio sent to the Publishing house Einaudi, in
which he stated that his book Primavera di Bellezza “was conceived and written in English. The text
which readers now see is thus only a mere translation” (Fenoglio, 2002, p. 189).
 1 Introduction 3

Masters and William Shakespeare. Moreover, Fenoglio also translated

some historical works, in particular Alfred Leslie Rowse’s The Spirit of
English History, G. M. Trevelyan’s England Under the Stuarts and Charles
Firth’s Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans in England. None of
these translations were commissioned, and only three of them were pub-
lished when he was still alive. These works clearly show Fenoglio’s dedica-
tion as a translator. They also show that the culture and politics of England
interested Fenoglio as much as its literature.
Fenoglio’s literary career was not particularly fortunate when he was
alive, but took a different turn after he died in 1963, aged 41. In his life-
time, Fenoglio published just one novel and a collection of short stories.
His published work received some controversial critical attention, espe-
cially for his unconventional depiction of the war of liberation in Italy
(Pedullà, 2014, pp. 163–233). However, after Fenoglio’s death, the man-
uscript of his novel Il partigiano Johnny was found among his papers and
was subsequently published by Einaudi in 1968. Thereafter, Fenoglio was
recognized as an important author in Italian literature, and his previous
works were reread and reinterpreted in a more favourable light, so that
Fenoglio is now part of the school curriculum in Italian literature courses
both in high schools and at universities. Fenoglio’s translations, by con-
trast, have achieved little recognition to date. After the publication of
Fenoglio’s Quaderno di traduzioni (2000), which consists of a selection of
his translation of poetry, only very rarely have critics examined and com-
mented upon Fenoglio’s intense and long-lasting activity as a translator.
In fact, in most critical works, the translations remain in the background,
subject only to brief comment and analysis. Indeed, the fullest and most
significant critical work to date on Fenoglio’s translations remains Mark
Pietralunga’s Beppe Fenoglio and English Literature: A Study of the Writer as
Translator, published in 1986. Pietralunga’s study is an important and
valued point of reference for this book.
In summary, it is my view that previous studies have paid insufficient
attention not only to the literary interest of Fenoglio’s translations, but
also to their cultural and ideological significance. The majority of critical
works on Fenoglio, although recognizing Fenoglio’s literary debt towards
English literature and culture, do not dwell on the cultural and ideologi-
cal reasons for Fenoglio’s choice of England as his second homeland.
4 V. Vetri

Moreover, scholars of Fenoglio’s life and works rarely if ever take into
account the fascinating thematic and ideological interconnections
between Fenoglio’s translations and his original writings.
This book has its roots in the idea that Fenoglio’s translations, though
critically neglected, are pivotal to understand both Fenoglio’s original cre-
ative writings and his ideology. In particular, they appear to be a missing
piece that contributes to a better contextualization of Fenoglio’s dissent-
ing approach to politics, religion and literature. Moreover, the profound
connections between Fenoglio’s translations and creative works may help
to identify the core of Fenoglio’s poetics, which is based on themes,
images and characters which are recurrent in all his oeuvre, his transla-
tions included. Among the many rewritings carried out by Fenoglio, I
have selected four translations and one adaptation: my analysis focuses
on Fenoglio’s translations of Christopher Marlowe’s Dr Faustus, John
Milton’s Samson Agonistes, Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1, Charles Firth’s
Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans in England, and Fenoglio’s
adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, called La Voce nella
Tempesta. I have selected these specific texts because these are the most
neglected of Fenoglio’s translations; whereas Fenoglio’s translations of
Coleridge, Lee Masters, Eliot and Hopkins have been posthumously
published and analysed by scholars, most texts which appear in this book
have not appeared publicly in print nor been addressed by critics.
Moreover, these translations cover a broad span of Fenoglio’s career as a
translator, and thus show an ideal evolution in his approach to transla-
tion, starting from the early years of his adolescence to the last years of his
life. The earliest translation in this corpus is Marlowe’s Dr Faustus, which
was done during Fenoglio’s school years. His translation of Milton was
carried out after the war, in the early 1950s. The translations of
Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1 and Firth’s biography of Cromwell are later
translations, dating to the late 1950s or early 1960s. As for Fenoglio’s
adaptation of Brontë’s novel, the author donated the typescript of his
work to his friends in the early 1960s, and probably translated Garrod’s
introduction in the previous months, in order to provide his readers with
a critical interpretation of his adaptation. This corpus thus shows the
evolution of Fenoglio’s activity as a translator, and is particularly revealing
if looked at along with his creative writings. The corpus of translations
 1 Introduction 5

analysed in this book also offers an example of the various genres that
Fenoglio translated: tragedy, comedy, historical essays and literary criti-
cism. I have decided not to examine poetic translations, since Fenoglio’s
poetic renditions have been previously analysed by other scholars (Foti
Belligambi, 2008; Pavan, 1998; Pietralunga in Fenoglio, 2000).
The main aim of this book is to demonstrate two fundamental points:
that (1) the activity of translation was for Fenoglio a way to express his
dissent towards mainstream ideology; and that (2), since these transla-
tions were not commissioned by any publishing house but Fenoglio chose
them himself, he was driven to texts and authors with which he identi-
fied, offering a very personal and creative interpretation of the source
texts, which also emerges in his translation strategies.
In order to demonstrate both points, throughout this book I argue that
translation is not simply an activity in which two languages are involved,
but that it is also one in which two cultures come into contact. Translations
in fact include “all cultural transactions, from the most benign to the
most venal” (Brodzki, 2007, p. 3). The cultural and ideological context of
the translations, such as the time in which they were undertaken and the
social environment in which they are embedded, need to be taken into
account in order to understand their significance and their relevance.
Translation is a complex process which involves not only languages, but
cultures and ideologies as well. The activity of translation, moreover, does
not include only the source text and the target text; it also involves the
active participation of the translator, who offers her/his personal reading
and interpretation of the text s/he chooses to translate. Even though
Fenoglio’s translations were not published, and thus apparently excluded
a specific audience, they carry the ideological imprint of Fenoglio as a
translator. It is my view that the choice of texts which were culturally and
ideologically distant from the values which were predominant in Italian
society at the time of Fenoglio’s translations can be considered an expres-
sion of dissent.
This cultural approach to Fenoglio’s translations provides a fresh per-
spective on existing critical research on Fenoglio’s rewritings, which has
mainly focused on the linguistic aspects of these translated works
(Pietralunga, 1987; Frontori, 1991; Foti Belligambi, 2008) and their
influence on Fenoglio’s writing style. Literary critics Corti (1978, 1980),
6 V. Vetri

Meddemmen (1982) and Beccaria (1984), to name but a few, have anal-
ysed the first drafts of his short stories and novels, noting how English
had influenced Fenoglio’s style in terms of creativity and stylistic concise-
ness. If examined in a cultural perspective, Fenoglio’s so-called Anglomania
acquires a significance that goes beyond literary fascination and linguistic
experimentation: in fact, it seems that Fenoglio, feeling oppressed by the
impositions of the Fascist regime, turned to and found solace in England
or what Corti called the “enchanted island”(Corti, 1978, p. 24) because
it offered moral and cultural models which in his view were lacking in
Italian society. The rich literary tradition of this country and the indi-
vidualistic traits for which it was known provided him with a series of
literary and historical characters who, in oppressive times, had plucked
up their courage and rebelled against the religious and political authori-
ties of their times. As I explain in Chaps. 4 and 5 of this book, the model
heroes that populated the texts which Fenoglio translated found their
way into Fenoglio’s original writings as well. As a result, it can be argued
that the act of translation started as a subversive activity which helped
Fenoglio give full but covert expression to his dissent against the Italian
Fascist regime.
As I explain in Chaps. 5 and 6, Fenoglio’s translations are also a testi-
mony of Fenoglio’s challenging attitude towards mainstream ideology
well beyond the years of Fascism. In the years following the Second World
War and the establishment of the Republic, Italy was still a profoundly
divided country (Pavone, 1991, p. 551). Fenoglio’s political position at
that time was once again non-conformist, because it did not embrace a
one-sided reading of the war of Resistance as a war of liberation from the
German foreigner; Fenoglio instead represented the war of Resistance as
a civil war, a definition which was not accepted by most of the political
exponents of the political left in Italy. Paying due attention to relevant
scholarship on the literary and political history of the period, I focus my
attention on the ideological and political reasons behind Fenoglio’s deci-
sion to translate, in the late 1950s, Charles Firth’s biography of Oliver
Cromwell and his account of the English civil wars.
This book also considers Fenoglio’s translations as a form of self-­
representation. In fact, Fenoglio always chose texts and authors that
reflected his values and personal beliefs, or that shared a similar literary
 1 Introduction 7

poetics. My analysis of Fenoglio’s translations, in particular the drama

translations and his adaptation of Wuthering Heights, carried out in the
late 1950s or early 1960s, adds to the existing critical perspectives on
Fenoglio’s writing and poetics, underlining the cultural and ideological
similarities and analogies between Fenoglio’s translations and his original
writings. Fenoglio’s concept of liberty, his religious attitude and his tragic
view of life are manifestly evident in his translations, and significantly
enrich existing critical debates around Fenoglio’s literary output.
By examining Fenoglio’s translations I shed fresh light on the cultural
and ideological background to key features of Fenoglio’s thoughts and
literary art. For example, Fenoglio’s concept of liberty has often been
depicted as extreme and uncompromising: Fenoglio has often been
described as a man who could not tolerate any sort of imposition nor
standardization, with a deeply felt but also tenacious sense of self (Mauro,
1972, Sipione, 2011). He appeared as an “individualist” (De Nicola,
1989, pp. 3–19) because he was not interested in the literary disputes
which were going on at the time of his writing. He also seemed to have
been unbothered by literary critics who often negatively reviewed his
writing. His religious attitude derived from seventeenth-century English
Puritanism, and on many occasions he admitted that his view was closer
to Protestantism than to Catholicism. Moreover, he chose to get married
in a civil ceremony and not a religious one, which in 1960 caused a scan-
dal in the small city of Alba (Negri Scaglione, 2006, p. 229). Fenoglio’s
fictional narratives have been defined as tragic by many commentators,
because the main characters of his novels are complex and solitary indi-
viduals who face an irresolvable conflict, often succumbing to a destiny
of death and self-sacrifice (Marchese, 2014, Chiodi, 2002). All these
aspects are presented by literary critics and biographers as a part of the
complex personality of Fenoglio, yet the cultural and ideological reasons
for these attitudes have not been explored in depth. Close examination of
Fenoglio’s translations helps us to understand these reasons more fully.
Finally, this project focuses on the translation strategies through which
Fenoglio was able to convey his own creativity and his personal reading
of the source text. I argue that the translator himself does not merely
transpose the words of others in another language, but in translating s/he
offers her/his own interpretation of the text, thus reshaping and remaking
8 V. Vetri

the original into a new, creative text (Bassnett, 2014, p. 5). In order to
achieve this aim, I compare Fenoglio’s translations to other translators
whenever possible, revealing the distinctive characteristic of Fenoglio’s
translation strategies. This analysis demonstrates not only that transla-
tion, adaptation and creative writing are deeply intertwined in Fenoglio’s
literary output, but also that his translations carry his specific literary and
philosophical imprint as much as his own original creative works.

1.2 Methodology and Research Design

of the Book
The methodological foundation of my analysis is based on the most
recent theories of Translation Studies. The theories that I found most
helpful focus in particular on two general concepts. The first is that trans-
lation, like any other text, “is never innocent. There is always a context in
which the translation takes place, always a history from which a text
emerges and into which a text is transposed” (Bassett and Lefevere, 1990,
p. 11). Thus, translations are texts that are both political as well as rela-
tively autonomous with respect to the source text, since they are created
in another culture, at a different time and for a different audience than
the source text. Moreover, translations are linked to specific cultural and
ideological environments, and they carry the imprint of these specific ele-
ments. In this regard, the works of Susan Bassnett and André Lefevere are
key to my understanding and interpretation of Fenoglio’s translations.
This is because of their effort to understand the process of translation not
only from a linguistic standpoint but also as the result of a complex inter-
pretative and communicative system, in which the target culture and ide-
ology play a pivotal role. For example, Bassnett’s argument that social and
cultural factors influence the process of translation (Bassnett, 2014,
pp. 30–34) is particularly useful in my analysis of Fenoglio’s education
during the years of Fascism. As a matter of fact, the cultural background
of Fascist education is of fundamental importance when we consider
which texts Fenoglio chose to translate and the themes and values
expressed in those texts. For example, Fenoglio’s preference for
 1 Introduction 9

translating dramatic texts whose protagonists are tragic heroes contrasts

with the ideal of the hero that was promoted by Fascist propaganda in
those years. As I explain in Chap. 4, Fenoglio’s choice of translating—
during the years of Fascism—an author such as Marlowe demonstrates
that he was looking for a model hero who was characterized by a strong
individualism, a desire for self-affirmation and rejection of authority,
whereas Fascism considered any form of individualism as subversion and
rebellion.
The second theoretical concept which guides my analysis of Fenoglio’s
translations focuses on the centrality of translators in the translation pro-
cess. In fact, in the past ten years a new field developed within the disci-
pline of Translation Studies, dubbed “Translator Studies” (Chesterman,
2009, pp. 13–22). The scholars within this field stress the importance of
the subjectivity and originality of translators, arguing that translators
make very specific choices which are indeed both creative and personal.
In particular I draw on the works of Lawrence Venuti (1995, 2000) and
Andrew Chesterman (2009), who both tackled the issue of addressing
the specificity of the translator’s contribution to the translated text.
Venuti, on the one hand, argues that translations are “an independent
form of writing, distinct from the foreign texts and from texts written
originally in the translating language” (Venuti, 2000, p. 230). This inde-
pendent form of writing is indeed the result of the single translator’s
interpretation and is the result of the specific translation strategies
employed by the translator. Moreover, as I show in Chap. 1, Venuti intro-
duced the concepts of foreignization and domestication to define the
translator’s tendency to model his translation on the source text or the
translator’s tendency to deviate from the source text in order to make it
more acceptable to the target culture (1995, pp. 15–22). These two defi-
nitions are applied to Fenoglio’s translations throughout this book, in
order to examine the specificity of Fenoglio’s translation strategies, reveal-
ing how original and personal Fenoglio’s interpretation of these texts was.
Fenoglio’s translations are also compared to the work of other translators,
in order to identify the main differences in their approaches to translation.
Andrew Chesterman’s research, on the other hand, focuses on the per-
sonal motives of translators with regard to their choice of texts.
Chesterman refers to the translator’s motives and aims as his/her “telos”,
10 V. Vetri

a Greek word for “goal”, in order to distinguish it from the aim of the
text, which other translation theorists refer to as “skopos” (Chesterman,
2009, p. 17). I examine Fenoglio’s telos in translating in order to identify
the personal and ideological motives which prompted him to translate
these specific texts. These theories are also relevant to the field of
Adaptation Studies, which comes into play in the final chapter of this
book with regard to Fenoglio’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
Finally, I also examine and apply theories proposed by Italian scholars
Mattioli (2004) and Buffoni (2007), whose research considers the poetics
of translators. Both scholars believe that translations are the result of the
fruitful encounter between the poetics of the author of the source text, in
terms of style and themes, and the poetics of the translator. Thus transla-
tions not only reflect the author’s world-view, but also the translator’s.
This concept is particularly apt with regard to Fenoglio, since, as I will
show, Fenoglio only selected the authors and texts he felt represented his
world-view or his values. From my analysis of the various parallels and
analogies that exist between Fenoglio’s original creative writings and his
translations I demonstrate how Fenoglio’s poetics as a translator coincides
with his poetics as a writer of fiction. In doing so, this book aims to pres-
ent a more complete image of Fenoglio’s literary poetics and world-view.
It must also be noted that all the translations analysed in this book are
fragmentary or incomplete. This is a characteristic which all of Fenoglio’s
translations have in common, even the ones which were published by
Mark Pietralunga in Quaderno di Traduzioni (2000), with the single
exception of Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The tendency
to incompleteness is a stylistic feature of Fenoglio: since the majority of
his original writings were published after his death and without his final
approval, he was often defined as a posthumous author (Boggione, 2011,
p. 165), and in the same way he was also a posthumous translator. If, on
the one hand, the fragmentary and incomplete nature of these transla-
tions does not allow for an exhaustive understanding of Fenoglio’s
approach to the source texts as a whole, on the other hand it turns our
attention to the reasons why Fenoglio selected some specific sections of
these texts, and makes them particularly interesting in the perspective of
Translator Studies. As I explain in Chap. 2, the selections that a translator
operates on a source text are revealing of his/her poetics, in that s/he
focuses on specific aspects of a text and neglects others.
 1 Introduction 11

1.3 Book Structure

This book is divided into eight chapters, each of which tackles different
works in Fenoglio’s corpus of translated texts. Chapter 2 provides an
overview of previous scholarly research on Fenoglio’s translations, identi-
fying potentially fruitful and important research opportunities. In par-
ticular, it underlines how research on Fenoglio’s translations has
systematically excluded cultural and ideological discussions, focusing
instead on considerations of linguistic choices. In response, the chapter
turns to relevant theories developed in Translation Studies which take
into account key elements in the translation process that have previously
been overlooked, such as ideology, culture and creative contribution on
the part of Fenoglio as translator.
Chapter 3 explores the cultural and ideological scene in which Fenoglio
was immersed when he became a translator. This chapter shows how
Fenoglio turned to translation given the literary and ideological vacuum
created by the Fascist regime’s cultural and educational programmes.
Here my emphasis is placed on the subversive nature of Fenoglio’s choice
of the English language and culture against the impositions of Fascism.
Fenoglio’s translations must be considered as creative research into a set
of cultural and ideological values upon which he could draw to reinforce
his own, which opposed those of the political culture of the time. The
exploration of these values led him to build his own identity as a man,
and to actively transport those values and themes into real life, and thus
to put into practice what he had learned.
Chapter 4 examines in detail Fenoglio’s translations of Christopher
Marlowe’s Dr Faustus and John Milton’s Samson Agonistes. Drawing on
the concept of poetics of translators, which I presented in Chap. 2, and
by comparing these translations to Fenoglio’s creative writings, this chap-
ter underlines the profound similarities between Fenoglio’s poetics and
Marlowe’s and Milton’s poetics, with particular regard to the depiction of
tragic heroes and the structure of the dramatic form. This chapter also
shows how these translations shed light on Fenoglio’s unconventional
religious beliefs and his idea of armed resistance towards oppression.
Fenoglio’s translation strategies are also examined in order to highlight
Fenoglio’s creativity in the rendition of these two source texts.
12 V. Vetri

Chapter 5 analyses Fenoglio’s translation of a section of Shakespeare’s

Henry IV Part 1. This chapter investigates in particular Fenoglio’s interest
in the character of Falstaff. It emerges that this character acted as a model
for Fenoglio’s own representation of partisans in his short fiction and in
his one-act play Solitudine. In these works, Fenoglio portrayed partisans
as flawed individuals, instead of knights in shining armour. This unflinch-
ingly realistic representation of partisans was criticized by many contem-
porary literary critics since it did not conform to the mainstream ideas
about “literary commitment” and what that was supposed to be. The
analysis of this translation, both in terms of strategies and cultural signifi-
cance, brings to the foreground a rather thorny issue about Fenoglio’s
dissenting view of the men and women who fought in the war of
Resistance. It also demonstrates his uncompromising commitment to
truth in translating and narrating.
Chapter 6 takes into account Fenoglio’s translation of C.H. Firth’s
Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans in England. Though dis-
carded by critics, this translation proves to be pivotal in understanding
Fenoglio’s depiction of the Italian Resistance as a civil war, a view that was
extremely controversial in Italy in the years which followed the war. This
chapter points to the cultural and ideological connection which Fenoglio
shares with Firth’s account of the English Revolution, showing how
Fenoglio self-identified with English Parliamentarians in terms of values
and ideals. The classical roots of these ideals are also examined. Finally,
Fenoglio’s translation strategies are discussed in order to understand
Fenoglio’s own personal interpretation of the text.
Chapter 7 examines Fenoglio’s theatrical adaptation of Emily Brontë’s
novel Wuthering Heights and Fenoglio’s translation of W.H. Garrod’s
Introduction to the novel. Fenoglio used the latter as an introduction to
his adaptation. This chapter identifies Brontë’s novel and William Wyler’s
Hollywood movie as the two source texts on which Fenoglio modelled
his adaptation. By comparing the three texts, this chapter demonstrates
how Fenoglio built an entirely new creative text, which has much in com-
mon with the translations examined in the previous chapters. This final
chapter thus seeks to establish the profound cultural and thematic con-
nections between Fenoglio’s translations, his adaptation and his original
writings.
 1 Introduction 13

Finally, Chap. 8 summarizes the original contribution of this book,

noting its specific findings, their implications, and ways in which this
project opens up opportunities for future research both on Fenoglio’s
work and more generally in the field of Translation Studies.

References
Bassnett, S. (2014). Translation. Routledge.
Bassnett, S., & Lefevere, A. (Eds.). (1990). Translation, History and Culture.
Routledge.
Beccaria, G. L. (1984). La guerra e gli asfodeli. Serra e Riva Editori.
Boggione, V. (2011). La sfortuna in favore. Saggi su Fenoglio. Marsilio.
Brodzki, B. (2007). Can These Bones Live? Translation, Survival and Cultural
Memory. Stanford University Press.
Buffoni, F. (2007). Con il testo a fronte. Interlinea.
Chesterman, A. (2009). The Name and Nature of Translator’s Studies. Hermes –
Journal of Language and Communication Studies, 42, 13–22.
Chiodi, P. (1965/2002). Fenoglio scrittore civile. In B. Fenoglio (Ed.), Lettere
(pp. 197–202). Einaudi.
Corti, M. (1973). Traduzione e autotraduzione in Beppe Fenoglio. Atti del
Convegno sul problema della traduzione letteraria, Edizione del Premio
Monselice, pp. 50–54.
Corti, M. (1978). Il viaggio testuale. Einaudi.
Corti, M. (1980). Beppe Fenoglio. Storia di un continuum narrativo. Liviana.
De Nicola, F. (1989). Introduzione a Fenoglio. Laterza.
Fenoglio, B. (2000). Quaderno di Traduzioni. Einaudi.
Fenoglio, B. (2002). Lettere 1940–1962. Einaudi.
Foti Belligambi, V. (2008). Bellezza cangianti: Beppe Fenoglio traduttore di
G. M. Hopkins. Unicopli.
Frontori, E. (1991). The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: dalla traduzione al testo
creativo. In Beppe Fenoglio Oggi. Mursia.
Marchese, L. (2014). Tragico e tragedia in Una Questione Privata. Italianistica,
XLIII(2), 103–112.
Mattioli, E. (2004). Il problema del tradurre. Mucchi editore.
Mauro, W. (1972). Invito alla lettura di Beppe Fenoglio. Mursia.
14 V. Vetri

Meddemmen, J. (1982). Documenting a Mobile Polyglot Idiolect: Beppe

Fenoglio’s Ur partigiano Johnny and its critical edition. Modern Language
Notes, 97, 85–114.
Pavan, L. (1998). E ho una strana potenza di parola. In Il Lettore di
Provincia. Longo.
Pavone, C. (1991). Una guerra civile. Saggio storico sulla moralità della Resistenza.
Bollati Boringhieri.
Pedullà, G. (Ed.). (2014). Beppe Fenoglio. Roma.
Pietralunga, M. (1987). Beppe Fenoglio and English Literature: A Study of the
Translator as Writer. University of California Press.
Scaglione, N. (2006). Questioni private: vita incompiuta di Beppe Fenoglio. Einaudi.
Sipione, M. L. (2011). Beppe Fenoglio e la Bibbia: il culto rigoroso della lib-
ertà. Cesati.
Venuti, L. (1995). The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. Routledge.
Venuti, L. (2000). The Translation Studies Reader. Routledge.
 2
“A Private Affair”: The Critical Response
to Fenoglio’s Translations and New
Perspectives from Translation Studies

My attitude towards the critics’ judgment of my work is shared, I believe,

by all artists: amazement for what critics can see in your work, and the
same amazement for what they cannot see. Beppe Fenoglio1

2.1 Introduction
A private affair (Una Questione Privata), the title of Fenoglio’s most
famous novel, is an apt title for this chapter which sets out to explore the
critical response to Fenoglio’s translations, the role that English culture
and language play in his life, and his established reputation as a writer. A
quick overview of critical literature about this writer suggests that most
Italian scholars and critics have had what looks like an uneasy relation-
ship with Fenoglio’s translations, as though this activity was too private
an affair to be dealt with. Fenoglio himself, rather diplomatically,
expressed his own scepticism about critics when he argued that he was
equally amazed at what “the critics can see” but also aware of “what they
cannot see”: in the quotation reported above, Fenoglio—answering to
journalist Elio Accrocca—stressed the fact that oftentimes literary critics

1
Fenoglio’s words are reported in Accrocca (1960, p. 180).

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 15

V. Vetri, Poetics, Ideology, Dissent, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29908-7_2
16 V. Vetri

appear to be particularly selective in their examination of a writer’s work,

neglecting aspects which the author himself would probably have found
of great relevance. Although they recognize the importance of English
culture and literature in Fenoglio’s literary output, critics seem to want to
relegate Fenoglio’s translation to a linguistic and literary exercise whose
only aim was linguistic experimentation.
In this chapter I focus on that part of Fenoglio’s production which has
gone unseen. With this in mind, the first part of this chapter explores
some scholarly works dedicated to Fenoglio and his output, with the aim
of bringing to the foreground a much neglected but integral part of
Fenoglio’s work: his translations. The second part of this chapter outlines
some existing translation theories in order to see how useful these are in
shedding light on the cultural and ideological choices underpinning
Fenoglio’s translated works.
The first section of this chapter explores key critical responses to
Fenoglio’s oeuvre with the aim of highlighting the critical neglect of
Fenoglio’s translations. Some scholars, such as Segre and Raimondi, pass
Fenoglio’s translations by altogether, others regard them as stepping
stones (Corti, 1980, pp. 26–28) or stylistic exercises (Pietralunga, 1987,
p. 177) leading Italian readers to Fenoglio’s brighter realm of short stories
and novels. Moreover, these scholars deal almost exclusively with linguis-
tic issues, leaving aside cultural and ideological factors which are instead
of great importance. Fenoglio’s use of the English language in his creative
writings shares a similar fate, and is commonly approached by critics as a
stylistic tool, a passing stage directed towards the renovation of the Italian
language (Beccaria, 1984, p. 36). My aim is to prove that English more
than Italian was in fact the language of creativity for Fenoglio, and that
this aspect is what made him stand out in the contemporary Italian liter-
ary scene.
In order to address this neglect, in the second section of this chapter I
present the existing translation theories which in my view help provide a
better understanding of Fenoglio and the cultural and ideological context
which defined him and informed his translation strategies. These theories
belong to the recent field of Translation Studies, which developed in the
1980s and 1990s, and focus on the impact which a translation produces
in the target culture, taking into account the extra-textual factors which
 2 “A Private Affair”: The Critical Response to Fenoglio’s… 17

previous theories had overlooked. In this section I will attempt to dem-

onstrate why this writer’s translations should be given more visibility,
arguing that far from being ancillary to his novels and short stories, trans-
lations are core to demonstrating who Fenoglio was as a man of his times,
as a writer and above all as a translator.
The specific role of the translator and his personal stance is further
explored in the final sections of this chapter. In fact, recent trends in
Translation Studies have started to focus on translators as the “central
concept of the research question” (Chesterman, 2009, p. 14), emphasiz-
ing their creativity and individuality. Section three, in particular, explores
the theories which, challenging the supposed neutral position of the
translator as a mediator between two cultures, may help understand
Fenoglio’s original approach to both English and Italian culture through
his translations. Finally, I examine the contributions of two Italian schol-
ars who view translation as a dynamic encounter between the poetics of
the translator and the poetics of the translated author. These theories
bring my argument full circle back to the title of this chapter, but from a
rather different perspective: it is because of their private, personal nature,
that Fenoglio’s translations reveal themselves to be the truest expression
of his poetics, and are worthy to be recognized as an important part of his
literary contribution along with his creative writings.

2.2 The Role and Critical Fortune

of Fenoglio’s Translations
Fenoglio’s activity as a translator lasted his entire lifetime and was
extremely varied. As noted earlier, not only did he translate numerous
English authors into Italian, but also produced a theatrical adaptation of
Charlotte Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, which I examine in the final chap-
ter of this book. Yet, the importance of translating in Fenoglio’s work is
generally overlooked by critics. As a matter of fact, Fenoglio’s literary
fame in Italy is primarily connected with anti-fascist Second World War
fiction, mainly his novels Il partigiano Johnny and Una Questione Privata.
Fenoglio is often associated with other two contemporary writers Cesare
18 V. Vetri

Pavese and Italo Calvino not only because of their common Piedmontese
origins, but also because they all chose the Resistenza—or at least some
aspects of it—as the subject of their novels. Fenoglio’s Il partigiano Johnny,
Pavese’s La casa in collina and Calvino’s Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno are
regarded as the novels which have given the greatest contribution to the
understanding of the Civil War in the history of Italian literature. The
strong anti-fascist beliefs which these Piedmontese writers shared
prompted both Fenoglio and Calvino to join the armed resistance move-
ments, while Pavese—who had previously been sent to the confino (exile)
for his political ideas—chose to hide and live in isolation until the end of
the war.2
The studies completed by De Nicola (1989), Corti (1980), Grignani
(1981), Beccaria (1984), Lagorio (1998), Bigazzi (2011), Gioanola
(2017) Bufano (1999) clearly demonstrate that while Fenoglio has always
been taken seriously as a writer, he has never been given sufficient credit
for his translations. In fact, very few scholars have taken the latter into
serious consideration both from a practical, theoretical and aesthetic
point of view. The lack of appreciation of this aspect of the writer’s pro-
duction can be seen, in particular, through Italian literature anthologies
and also through curricula and university courses which only mention
Fenoglio’s translations in passing, if at all. A case in point is Gabriella
Fenocchio, who describes Fenoglio’s translations as a “preparatory exer-
cise to his linguistic research” (Fenocchio, 2004 p. 104), implying that
they are simply a form of training preparing the writer for his original or
more serious writings. Another example can be found in an important
anthology of Italian literature edited by Cesare Segre (1992), in which it
is argued that the great number of translations produced by Fenoglio is
not in itself proof of the relevance of this activity in Fenoglio’s literary
work. In fact, while it is acknowledged that Fenoglio’s translations are
numerous, the value of these translation is contested: “Fenoglio himself
considered them of a small value, which is proved by the fact that they are
almost entirely unpublished” (Segre, 1992, p. 1086). The subordinate

2
For an in-depth analysis of the similarities and difference between the work of Pavese and Fenoglio,
see Lajolo (1971) and the interesting comparative analysis offered by Balbis and Boggione (2014),
who also examine the work of Italo Calvino.
 2 “A Private Affair”: The Critical Response to Fenoglio’s… 19

role assigned to Fenoglio’s translations is further corroborated by the rich

editorial fortune of Fenoglio’s novels and short stories. In fact, in contrast
to the publishing success of his literary works, very few of the numerous
and varied translations produced by Fenoglio have been published. In
fact, Fenoglio’s novels and short stories were scrupulously edited and
published, notwithstanding the fact that they are as fragmentary and
incomplete as the translations.3 In order to understand why this is the
case, I wish to explore a number of key publications produced between
the 1960s and the 1990s which deal with the issue of translation in
Fenoglio’s work. I will argue that by excluding Fenoglio’s translations
from their studies, scholars have missed out a fundamental aspect of
Fenoglio’s specificity. I hope to demonstrate that his translations are one
of the key elements which offset Fenoglio’s originality on the Italian liter-
ary scene.
The Italian literary critic and philologist Maria Corti was one of the
first scholars to address the issue of Fenoglio’s translations. As a matter of
fact, it could be said that she was the first critic to have explicitly excluded
them from Fenoglio’s Complete Works. In fact, when in 1969 Corti pub-
lished, with the help of other scholars, the complete edition of Fenoglio’s
work—which was meant to collect all his writings, including the first
drafts of his novels which were discovered after his death—she decided
not to include in the volume Fenoglio’s translations of English authors
such as Eliot, Shakespeare, Milton and Marlowe. Fenoglio’s theatrical
transposition of Wuthering Heights and the Ur-Partigiano Johnny (a par-
tial first draft of Il partigiano Johnny written entirely in English), were
published along with his creative writings. Corti provides a justification
for this exclusion in the preface of the volume. Here she suggests that
Fenoglio’s translations of other authors were to be considered as non-­
creative, therefore not suitable for a collection of all his creative writings;

3
The majority of Fenoglio’s work is unfinished or fragmentary, because it was edited and published
posthumously: the only books that were published while Fenoglio was alive were a collection of
short stories called I ventitré giorni della città di Alba, a brief novel called La malora, and another
novel called Primavera di bellezza. The typescripts of Il partigiano Johnny were discovered in
Fenoglio’s drawer only after his death, and were deciphered and assembled by editors in order to
give them unity and cohesion. The same happened with most of the first drafts of his short stories,
which were published in 1973 with the title Un Fenoglio alla prima Guerra mondiale.
20 V. Vetri

in fact, she writes: “we present here Fenoglio’s entire creative work; there-
fore, his numerous translations of prose and poetry are excluded from the
volume” (Corti, 1969, p. ix). The task to tackle his translations, she
argues, belonged to Anglicists and not to literary critics (Corti,
1980, p. 18).
The choice of excluding Fenoglio’s translation from this important edi-
tion of his literary output seems to be in tune with Corti’s formation as a
linguist and philologist. In fact, the Italian scholar tended to express an
attitude which was defined by Octavio Paz “imperialism of linguistics”
(Paz, in Nergaard, 1995, p. 348), and which focused predominantly on a
scientific study of language. This approach originated in a school of
thought which maintained a clear difference between creative work and
translations, and has its roots in the idea, which was prevalent until the
development of Translation Studies in the 1970s and 1980s, that transla-
tion was mainly a skill which did not involve creativity, but whose only
aim was reproducing the original text in a different language. The com-
mon theoretical position among critics when Corti embarked in the edi-
tion of Fenoglio’s work regarded translation as a mainly linguistic activity
focused on the source text, linked to the idea of the search of equivalence,
and to the concept of faithfulness to the source text. As a result, the liter-
ary merit of a translation was devaluated, because “the preeminence of
the SL text—the ‘original’—is assumed de facto over any TL version (the
copy)” (Bassnett, 2007, p. 173). This view of translation

exists and seems to have been in operation for some time now, which has
led to translation being seen as the poor relation of writing, often referred
to as “original” or “creative” writing, and widely perceived as supe-
rior. (p. 173)

As a consequence of this approach, Corti focuses entirely on the cre-

ative original writings of Fenoglio and regards his translations simply as
an homage he made to a literature he devotedly admired, reducing the
attention Fenoglio gave to “all things English” to a matter of private, per-
sonal taste or infatuation (Corti, 1980, p. 18). Moreover, favouring a
perspective of exclusion rather than inclusion, she seems to have failed to
 2 “A Private Affair”: The Critical Response to Fenoglio’s… 21

recognize the interdisciplinary approach which is necessary to tackle the

entirety of Fenoglio’s work in terms of creativity.
However, not all scholars agreed with the idea that Fenoglio’s transla-
tions had to be considered non-creative or negligible. For instance, the
critic John Meddemmen challenged Corti’s interpretation of Fenoglio’s
translations. The scholar—who has produced several articles dedicated to
the influence of the English language on Fenoglio’s work, and has explored
with great insight the role of English in the creation of Fenoglio’s idiolect
and in his peculiar use of language (Meddemmen, 1982, pp. 85–114)—
lamented the exclusion of Fenoglio’s translations from the edition of 1969.
He argued that “in a very real sense the Corti edition is not ‘all Fenoglio’
at all, by any manner of means” (Meddemmen, 1982, p. 88) and advo-
cated for a more serious attempt to coming to terms with the many trans-
lations which were not included in the critical edition. Indeed, according
to Meddemmen translations play a very important part in Fenoglio’s liter-
ary production, and should not be considered a secondary activity since
“it is on this predominantly private, strangely non-­commercial experience
that Fenoglio’s formation as a writer in Italian to a very considerable extent
depends” (Meddemmen, 1982, p. 88, my italics). Meddemmen thus con-
tests the approach which tends to regard writing and translating as sepa-
rate and entirely unrelated activities, and brings to light the seminal
relationship which exists between them. Moreover, he acknowledges that
the creative writings which Fenoglio produced are linked to and even
depend on Fenoglio’s activity as a translator.
The importance of the relationship between writing and translating in
Fenoglio’s work was explored by literary scholar Mark Pietralunga.
Pietralunga published a volume of Fenoglio’s translations, which includes
G.M. Hopkins, T.S. Eliot, E. Lee Masters and S.T. Coleridge: the
Quaderno di Traduzioni. Even though it only contains Fenoglio’s transla-
tions of poetry, Quaderno di Traduzioni is of great importance, because it
has become the point of reference for scholars who have investigated
Fenoglio’s activity as a translator. The Quaderno has had the merit to have
disseminated knowledge and arisen scholars’ interest on Fenoglio as a
translator; however, it has not paved the way to a more complex and
wider outlook on the ideological and cultural significance of Fenoglio’s
translations: in the introductory comments the editor approaches
22 V. Vetri

Fenoglio’s translations only from a linguistic and stylistic point of view.

This approach, as we will see, is usually the one assumed by most of the
scholars who have examined Fenoglio’s translations.
Pietralunga’s most interesting contribution to the study of Fenoglio’s
translation is his book Beppe Fenoglio and English Literature: A Study of the
Translator as Writer (1987). In the first pages of his study Pietralunga
immediately puts forward his point of view on the significance of
Fenoglio’s translations: in fact, he defines translation as a “prime feature
in understanding Fenoglio” (Pietralunga, 1987, p. 8), and stresses the
“intense union that existed between his adopted English culture and his
human and poetic expression” (p. 9). Moreover, Pietralunga challenges
the idea that Fenoglio’s translations were simply the symptom of an infat-
uation, and recognizes that they are extremely revelatory and deeply con-
tribute to a better understanding of Fenoglio’s original writing: “Fenoglio’s
decision to translate the texts examined in this study was not merely a
consequence of a fascination with a tradition, but an attraction to works
that enabled him to explore and expand his own artistic expression”
(p. 41).
Pietralunga’s analysis proceeds following two fundamental lines of
thought, both of which deal with stylistic and linguistic issues. The first
focuses on the function of translation in Fenoglio’s work, which in
Pietralunga’s view is “primarily of propaedetic value, a kind of exercise”
(p. 117). In fact, the scholar argues that Fenoglio translated with the aim
of becoming an original writer and translating gave him the chance of
confronting himself with different styles and linguistic experimentations.
In this perspective, Fenoglio’s translations acquire value or relevance
because of the influence they exert on the style which he used in his nov-
els and short stories. In fact, Fenoglio’s activity as a translator is defined
by Pietralunga as an “apprenticeship” (p. 118), which suggests that trans-
lating is a preparatory activity to the act of writing.
The second idea which shapes Pietralunga’s analysis of Fenoglio as a
translator, concerns the criterion which seems to have guided Fenoglio in
his selection of English authors. In this regard, Pietralunga believes that
Fenoglio was attracted to translating mainly for linguistic and stylistic
reasons. He argues: “Fenoglio must have realized at an early age that his
incurably bookish and rhetorical Italian had to undergo an operation”,
 2 “A Private Affair”: The Critical Response to Fenoglio’s… 23

and therefore he “selected texts that allowed him to explore his own lan-
guage’s expressive capacity” (p. 106). As a consequence, Pietralunga sug-
gests that Fenoglio might have chosen to translate Marlowe, Shakespeare
or G.M. Hopkins because of their “stylistic and linguistic explorative ten-
dencies” (p. 194), which would inspire him to be equally experimental in
his own language. Pietralunga also identifies in the English authors trans-
lated by Fenoglio a specific “freshness and naturalness of expression”
(p. 98), which seems to be one of the key stylistic elements of Fenoglio’s
creative writings as well. Because of his interest in linguistics and style,
the scholar carries out an in-depth analysis and comment on Fenoglio’s
linguistic choices in his translations, in search of parallels and similarities
in the language Fenoglio used in his novels and short stories. For exam-
ple, in approaching Fenoglio’s rendering of the poems by G.M. Hopkins,
the scholar analyses Fenoglio’s use of assonance, alliteration, rhyme pat-
terns and iteration, and notes that “a strong attraction to these phonetic
expediencies, which are characteristic of the English language, returns in
his prose” (p. 54); thus, in Pietralunga’s view, Fenoglio’s translations of
Hopkins were in fact an exercise through which Fenoglio was able to
“elaborate and nourish his own linguistic expression” (p. 54).4
While I fully agree with what Pietralunga maintains on the depth of
the relationship between translating and writing in Fenoglio’s work, I am
at variance with the scholar’s interpretation both of the function and of
the role of Fenoglio’s translations within his literary work. The first thing
I dispute is the above-mentioned idea of apprenticeship, used by the
critic to define the function of Fenoglio’s translations. In my view, if—as
Pietraluga suggests—Fenoglio’s translations had been simply a propae-
deutic activity to the act of writing, he would have abandoned it once he
had found his own voice or style in his original writing. But Fenoglio
never abandoned his translating activity, even when he was in fact a rec-
ognized author and had published two books of short stories. This sug-
gests that translating does not precede or prepare the act of writing, but
it is rather a complementary activity. Moreover, the concept of
apprenticeship implies a distinction between the act of writing and the

4
For an accurate linguistic analysis of Fenoglio’s choices in translating G.M. Hopkins see Foti
Belligambi (2008).
24 V. Vetri

act of translating, suggesting that they are two separate activities, which
may have some elements in common, but ultimately are ontologically
different. On the contrary, my own view is that in Fenoglio’s work trans-
lating and writing are deeply intertwined, which is proved by the fact that
Fenoglio’s creative writings are in fact translations themselves, since he
first drafted them in English and then proceeded to self-translate them
into Italian.
The second aspect which I dispute in Pietralunga’s interpretation of
Fenoglio’s translations is that it is limited to a strictly linguistic point of
view. In fact, the central purpose of Pietralunga’s examination is to dem-
onstrate that Fenoglio translated because he felt “the necessity to find in
the English language a step towards revivifying the semantic and phono-
logical aspects of an anemic Italian language” (p. 15). Fenoglio’s curiosity
towards linguistic issues and experimentation is indeed undeniable, but it
is not sufficient to explain Fenoglio’s attraction to English literature and
culture, especially with reference to the historical essays he translated,
such as Charles Firth’s Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans in
England and A.L. Rowse’s The Spirit of English History. Pietralunga prefers
not to take them into account, arguing that they appear to be “fruitless
for our stylistic interests and offer little insight for our thematic concerns”
(p. 126). What I dispute here is that Pietralunga’s approach, privileging
the language and the style of these texts as Fenoglio’s focus of interest,
does not account for the cultural and ideological content of these works.
If, moving beyond an analysis based exclusively on language, we approach
them from a cultural and ideological point of view, we discover that these
translations are extremely fruitful. Fenoglio’s choice of translating a biog-
raphy of Cromwell, for example, can be better understood in view of the
political and cultural values Cromwell held and represented, also in the
light of Fenoglio’s own values and beliefs—such as his strong dislike of
absolute authority and power, his interpretation of the concept of liberty,
as well as his morality and sense of duty with regard to political engage-
ment. In my view, when Fenoglio translated he was not only looking for
a new creative style through the example of others, but also a way to
express himself from an ideological and aesthetic point of view.
The idea that Fenoglio’s translations are essentially a linguistic affair,
that is, that they derive from an interest in form and style, and that
 2 “A Private Affair”: The Critical Response to Fenoglio’s… 25

consequently they are a form of linguistic apprenticeship, is shared by

many of the scholars who have dealt with Fenoglio’s translations. Laura
Pavan (1998), for example, offers an interesting reading of Fenoglio’s ren-
dition of Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, focusing in particular
on the suggestive use that Fenoglio makes of alliteration and assonation.
In particular, she stresses Fenoglio’s extraordinary capacity of assimilating
and re-creating—though creatively and originally—the stylistic and lexi-
cal power of the original text, noting that “the word endowed with mes-
merism draws its strength from the enchanting power of its form, which
bewitches and enchains through artifice” (p. 24). Viola Papetti (2011)
and Dea Merlini (2014) both identify Fenoglio’s motive in translation in
his desire to “reinvent the Italian language” (Papetti, 2011, p. 72), and to
“overcome the rhetorical characteristics of Italian” (Merlini, 2014,
p. 155). Massimo Colella (2014), instead, while insisting on the necessity
of considering Fenoglio’s translations as autonomous works of art, exam-
ines Fenoglio’s translation of Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral only in lin-
guistic and stylistic terms. Even though these contributions remain
extremely fruitful and interesting, they seem to lack the courage to move
beyond the linguistic description of translation choices.
Critics have also shown a particular interest in Fenoglio’s use of English
in his creative writings. In my view, a key point for understanding the
importance of Fenoglio’s translations is to explore the deep and complex
rapport he held with the English language, and investigate the reason for
such a fruitful relationship. As already mentioned, Fenoglio used to write
the first drafts of his novels and short stories in English. On more than
one occasion Fenoglio himself revealed this aspect of his writing.
According to Italo Calvino, Fenoglio confessed to him: “Now I’ll tell you
something you won’t believe. I always write in English first and then I
translate into Italian” (Bigazzi, 1983, p. 185). Another testimony is
offered by the poet Giovanni Giudici, who recalled that in 1958 Fenoglio
mentioned the novel he was writing at the time, adding that he was draft-
ing it in English (Pedullà, 2012, p. 3). Fenoglio’s revelations seem to be
proved by one piece of writing, the so-called Ur-Partigiano Johnny, an
earlier draft of one section of the novel Il partigiano Johhny, written
entirely in English and found in Fenoglio’s drawer after his death. Even
though we do not possess other texts entirely drafted in English, we know
26 V. Vetri

that Fenoglio often resorted to English words and expressions in the ear-
lier versions of his novels and even in his short stories set in the Langhe.
The response of scholars to this specific aspect of Fenoglio’s writing is
rather surprising. In fact, they generally tend to scale down the signifi-
cance of Fenoglio’s choice of English, preferring to concentrate on his
final drafts in Italian. In so doing, they reduce the cultural and ideological
significance of Fenoglio’s first choice of English, often dismissing
Fenoglio’s own claims of writing in English as “provocations”. The reason
for this lack of insight is probably due to the importance of asserting
Fenoglio’s reputation as an Italian writer. These scholars seem reluctant to
admit that Fenoglio’s creativity as a writer depended so entirely on a dif-
ferent culture and on a different language, as though such an admission
would damage his position in the Italian literary scene. It seems that the
recognition of Fenoglio’s debt to the English language and culture, far
from being in itself an enrichment, is perceived by these scholars as a
threat to his identity as an Italian writer. The main point, in these views,
is not that Fenoglio turned to England, but that in the end he came back
to Italy.
In fact, if one looks at the contributions of critics and scholars on
Fenoglio’s use of English, two general attitudes seem to emerge: one
which investigates Fenoglio’s reasons and another which explores
Fenoglio’s purpose in his use of English. With regard to Fenoglio’s rea-
sons, scholars tend to relegate Fenoglio’s use of English to a matter of
personal taste, which concerns the writer’s private sphere. For example,
Raimondi argues that “all critics agree that Fenoglio’s choice of English
was primarily due to his love for the English language and literature”
(Raimondi, 2016, p. 86), but the cultural and ideological roots of this
love are not further explored. Another example is the Italian critic Dante
Isella, who relates Fenoglio’s interest in English language and culture to
his desire of isolating himself, “discovering a world of his own, more fas-
cinating and dignified” (Isella, 1978, p. 485) than the one he was living
in. The interest in English thus becomes an expression of a personality
trait, more than a specific cultural choice.
On the other hand, the scholars who explore Fenoglio’s purpose in his
use of English in his creative writings, tend to argue that Fenoglio had a
very pragmatic aim, which was to “turn Italian into a more concise
 2 “A Private Affair”: The Critical Response to Fenoglio’s… 27

linguistic code” (Raimondi, 2016, p. 86). The English drafts are referred
to as a phase of transition, or an “intermediary of the creative act” (Corti,
1980, p. 22). Fenoglio’s English is thus simply a stylistic device, and the
focus of the argument remains, indeed, the Italian language. As a case in
point, Maria Corti in her essay Beppe Fenoglio, storia di un Continuum
narrativo maintains that Fenoglio utilizes the English language as a “lad-
der to rise up to the expressive act”5 (Corti, 1980, p. 24). She further
explains:

Having conquered a respectable degree of bilingualism, Fenoglio uses it for

a stylistic-linguistic operation which has two ends: an English writing and
a mixed writing, both conceived as a private phase, work in the factory
with an eye towards the passage to a final writing almost entirely in Italian.
(Corti, 1980, in Escolar, 2011, p. 79)

The term private is used to identify a stage of Fenoglio’s creativity

which gets little attention because of its provisional nature. Since Corti
considers Fenoglio’s writings in Italian the most relevant, the draft writ-
ten in English is safely relegated to a phase which will soon be surpassed.
The same meaning can be attributed to the expression “work in the fac-
tory” (Corti, 1980, p. 24):6 in Corti’s view English was only a working
tool whose final aim was the creation of a personal style in Italian. As a
result, she chooses to define Fenoglio’s self-translations in terms of a “gen-
eral stylistic revision” (p. 63). Moreover, Corti suggests that Fenoglio’s use
of English is more instrumental than instinctive: “Fenoglio’s relationship
with English is not instinctive nor spontaneous, but one that exists only
between an author and a literary medium” (Corti, 1978, p. 22).7
A similar point of view is offered by Pietralunga and Galaverni, who
both focus on Fenoglio’s use of English as functional to a renovation of
the Italian language. Pietralunga seems to agree with Corti’s opinion that
English was destined to “disappear once in print” (Pietralunga, 1987,
p. 11), therefore Fenoglio “sought to establish a style that meant turning

5
In Italian Corti uses the expression: “scala per salire all’atto espressivo”.
6
In Italian: “lavoro di cantiere” (translation in Escolar 2011, p. 80).
7
In Italian: “Non un rapporto istintivo e spontaneo, ma più un rapporto fra autore e mezzo
letterario”.
28 V. Vetri

toward another tradition before returning to his own” (p. 32). For his
part, Galaverni (2006, p. 95) writes about Fenoglio and his use of English,
focusing again on Fenoglio’s final choice of Italian, and interpreting it as
a journey whose final goal is coming back home: “along with Johnny,
Fenoglio finds a round trip ticket to England (I repeat it: the return ticket
is important)” (Galaverni, 2006, p. 95). Gianluigi Beccaria also believes
that Fenoglio used English in order to creatively transform his mother
tongue. In fact, he argues that Fenoglio was sceptical about the Italian
language, which he learned at school but did not speak at home. As a
result, according to the scholar, Fenoglio adopted English in order to
combine its morphological, lexical and syntactical structure with that of
Italian, giving birth to a hybrid solution that Beccaria names “Il Grande
stile” (the Grand style) (Beccaria, 1984, p. 35).
In my own opinion, these interpretations of Fenoglio’s use of English
have several shortcomings. In the first place, putting forward an interpre-
tation of English as a working tool, they disregard the fact that Fenoglio
considered English the language of creativity. It is undeniable that
Fenoglio would translate into Italian his writings in English in order to
publish them. Nonetheless, the fact that he first wrote those texts in
English should not be dismissed only because they would not reach the
publication stage. His choice of English as primary language is indeed
very significant if we are to understand Fenoglio’s creative process, and it
is also fundamental with regard to Fenoglio’s translations of other authors.
In my view, for Fenoglio English is always an instinctive, existential
choice. It has much to do with what he was and what he believed in as a
man and as a writer. To prove my point, I intend to quote some passages
in which Fenoglio himself discussed his relationship with English, con-
tradicting Corti’s idea of English as a mere stylistic device. In a passage of
the first draft of Primavera di bellezza, Johnny—the protagonist of the
novel and Fenoglio’s alter-ego—reflects on the importance that English
has for him and he is himself surprised by the naturalness with which he
handles it:

For example, I don’t know why words come to me more easily in English
than in Italian; I don’t know why they seem more precise and exact in
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
 [590] In reference to this practice Horace says:

“Si noles sanus curres hydropicus.” (Serm. I., 1.)

[591] Galen finds many things in this section also carelessly

and confusedly written, and therefore unworthy of Hippocrates.
For example, the list of cases in which purging is inapplicable,
Galen holds to be incomplete; and even in some of the cases
specified by Hippocrates he demurs to admit his views to be
correct; for example, in diseases of the spleen he contends that
melanogogues are strongly indicated. Many more of the rules he
considers to be vaguely and inaccurately stated. Altogether, then,
he holds that it is a loss of time to devote much attention to
writings of such a stamp; but, he shrewdly remarks, there is no
persuading many people to study only such writings as are clear,
and to leave such as are not so to the writers themselves; for it is
just that, as they have paid no regard that we should understand
what they have written, we should not be very anxious to find out
and learn what they say.
[592] Galen correctly remarks that this rule is applicable in
certain cases, but not in all.
[593] As Galen remarks in his Commentary, something
appears to be wanting here in order to indicate the disease to
which these directions apply. Perhaps, as he suggests afterwards,
they are meant to apply to general pains.
[594] The Cantharis of the ancients was indisputably the
Mylabris cichorii, or M. Fusselini. It continued to be used in
ancient times as a diuretic, (see Paulus Ægineta, Vol. III., p. 153;)
and is well known in the East at the present day.
[595] All the remaining part of this work evidently consists of
fragments put together, without any method or arrangement.
Though not devoid of interest, they decidedly have no connection
with the treatise On Regimen in Acute Diseases. Indeed an
impartial examination of the whole Appendix must satisfy any one
that there are but too good grounds for holding with Galen, that
the whole work is a disorderly compilation, which, although it
may have been made up of notes written or dictated by
Hippocrates, had certainly not been published by him.
[596] It most probably is the Reseda mediterranea. See Paulus
Ægineta, Vol. III., p. 331.
 [597] This description has always been regarded as very
obscure. According to Galen it is the operation which was
afterwards named anabrochismus. See Paulus Ægineta, Vol. III.,
pp. 262, 269. M. Littré gives the following interesting observations
on this passage by M. Malgaigne: “Quoiqu’il semble que l’auteur
emploie deux fils, cependant il n’est fait mention que d’une
aiguille. Il paraît bien indiqué que l’aiguille traverse deux plis
transverseaux en marchant de haut en bas. Voici comment je
traduirais le passage en question: pour le trichiasis, avec une
aiguille armée d’un fil, traversé de haut en bas le point le plus
élevé (ou la base); de la paupière supérieure, après lui avoir fait
former un pli, et repasser l’aiguille de la même manière un peu
plus bas (ou près du bord libre); rapprochez les extrémités du fil,
et fixez-les par un nœud: puis laissez-les tomber d’eux-mêmes. Si
cela réussit, c’est bien: si non, it faudra recommencer.” (Op.
Hippocrat., tom. iii., p. xliv). In my Commentary on Paulus
Ægineta, (Vol. II., p. 163.) I have in so far fallen into the mistake
of supposing this description to apply to the lower eyelid, and M.
Ermerins would appear to have done the same. See Littré, l. c.
The operation by the ligature on hemorrhoids will be found more
circumstantially described in the treatise on that subject, of which
a translation is given in this volume.
[598] For the weights and measures mentioned here, and in
other parts of our author’s works, see the Comment. on the last
section of Paulus Ægineta, Syd. Soc. edit.
[599] A mineral, consisting principally of sulphate of copper.
See Paulus Ægineta, Vol. III., pp. 400–2.
–
[600] The μηκώνιον was applied to three totally distinct
substances; 1st, To a sort of opium, that is to say, the expressed
juice of the poppy (see Paulus Ægineta, Vol. III., p. 280); 2d, to
the Euphorbia peplus, L., (see Appendix to Dunbar’s Greek
Lexicon, under the name): and, 3d, to the excrement of new-born
children. It is singular that the learned Foës, in his Œconomia
Hippocratica, should apply it in this place to the last of these; for
if Hippocrates had used such a substance medicinally, we may be
well assured that it would not have been overlooked by
Dioscorides and Galen. There is every reason, however, to
suppose that it is the same as the πέπλος of Dioscorides and
Galen, that is to say, the Euphorbia peplus, which was
recommended as a drastic purgative by all the ancient authorities
on the Materia Medica, and consequently would be a medicine
very applicable either in coma or dropsy.
[601] All the commentators admit that the last section is
obscure. It would appear to me that Galen understands the
expression τὸ ἀπὸ τῶν κοπρἰων as applying ἑδρικοῖς, that is to
say, to affections of the anus. I have followed Littré in giving the
passage a very different interpretation, but I am by no means
sure that Galen may not be right.
[602] De Diebus Decretoriis, i.
[603] See the Argument of the Prognostics.
[604] Μηδὲν εἰκῆ, μηδὲν ὑπερορῇν. (Epid. vi., 2, 12). Νούσων
φύσιες ἰητροί· ἀνεθρίσκει ἡ φύσις αὐτὴ ἐωυτῇ τὰς ἐφόδους·
ἀπαίδευτος ἡ φύσις ἐοῦσα καὶ οὐ μαθοῦσα τὰ δέοντα ποίει. (Ibid.
vi., 5, 1.)
[605] Galen, De Venesect. adv. Erasist., c. iii.
[606] One cannot help being struck with the resemblance
between this description and a passage in Aretæus’s chapter on
Causus: Ψυχῆς κατάστασις, ἄισθησις σύμπασα καθαρὴ, διάνοια
λεπτὴ, γνώμη μαντικὴ, κ. τ. λ. In the yellow fever of the West
Indies, which would certainly appear to me to be a variety of the
causus, the mind is said to be wonderfully entire to the last. Dr.
Fergusson gives a very striking instance of this in describing the
case of Sir James Leith, the British Governor of Guadaloupe.
[607] Traité des Fièvres ou Irritations Cérébro-spinales
intermittentes, d’après des Observations recueillies en France, en
Corse et en Afrique. Paris, 1836.
[608] Œuvres d’Hippocrate, etc., tom. ii., p. 565.
[609] Prax. Med. nova Idea, i., 31.
[610] Tom. ii., p. 565.
[611] On the Influence of Tropical Climates.
[612] Tom. vii., p. 290; ed. Kühn.
[613] Copland’s Dictionary of Practical Medicine, P. iv., p. 974.
[614] Clinical Observations on the more important Diseases of
Bengal. Calcutta, 1835.
[615] Epidém. d’Hippocrate.
 [616] See Ægineta. The narrative contains the most distinct
and unequivocal traces of the belief in the contagiousness of
consumption.
[617] Thasus is an island in the Ægean sea, off the coast of
Thrace, which bears the modern name of Thaso or Tasso. It was
in a flourishing condition in the time of Hippocrates, and a
tributary to Athens, but revolted from that power after its
disasters in Sicily during the Peloponnesian war. See Herodot., vi.,
47; Thucydid., i., 101; viii., 66. Galen states that it is cold, with a
northerly exposure.
[618] According to Galen, in his Commentary on this passage,
the setting of the Pleiades takes place fifty days after the
autumnal equinox. See the Argument to the treatise On Airs, etc.
[619] We have already stated that the ardent fevers or causi,
of which repeated mention is made in the Hippocratic treatises,
were fevers of the remittent type, in short that they were the
same as the bilious remittent fevers of Pringle and Monro.
[620] I need scarcely say that the disease here described is
cynanche parotidæa or parotitis. It is a remarkable proof of our
author’s talent for observation, that he has pointed out the
tendency of the disease to be complicated with swelling and
inflammation of the testicles. Altogether the description of the
disease here given is quite applicable to the mumps of modern
times. As stated by him, the swelling of the testicles is generally
painful. See the Commentary of Galen.
[621] On reference to Galen’s Commentary it will be seen that
anciently the reading of this passage was reckoned equivocal.
According to one of the readings, the meaning is that those who
were sick did not require to come to the Iatrium for advice. See
also Littré’s annotations on this passage.
[622] Galen thinks our author expresses himself confusedly in
this place, but Littré justly defends him from this charge.
According to Littré, Hippocrates means that those who had been
long affected with consumption (the term used, ὑποφθειρομένων,
rather signifies had obscure symptoms of consumption), then
betook themselves to bed; but those who were in a doubtful
state, then first manifested signs of confirmed phthisis; and,
finally, that there were some who then for the first time felt the
attack of phthisis, and that these were persons who were
predisposed to it. According to Galen, the phthisical constitution is
marked by a narrow and shallow chest, with the scapulæ
protuberant behind like wings; and hence he says chests of this
construction have been named alar. He further states that there
are two forms of consumption, the one originating in a defluxion
from the head, and the other being connected with the rupture of
a vessel in the lungs. I may be allowed to mention in this place,
in confirmation of our author’s accuracy of observation with
regard to the connection of hemoptysis with phthisis, that Louis
found hemoptysis to a greater or less extent in two thirds of his
cases. (Researches on Phthisis, p. 166, Sydenham Society
edition.) The same author relates several cases in which death
occurred suddenly and unexpectedly, as Hippocrates states to
have happened to some of his patients. (Ibid.)
[623] I am of opinion that the species of phthisis noticed in
the latter part of this section was the acute form of phthisis
described by Louis (p. 351). Our author, it will be remarked,
states that his patients were mostly delirious when near death.
Louis, in like manner, mentions delirium in, I believe, every one of
the cases of acute phthisis which he relates. Galen justly remarks,
that, in the ordinary forms of phthisis, delirium is not a common
symptom. I would also call attention to our author’s observation
regarding the inflamed state of the fauces, which is also amply
confirmed by the observation of Louis in this form of phthisis.
 [624] The nature of the continual fevers of the ancients is fully
explained in the Commentary on the twenty-seventh section of
the Second Book of Paulus Ægineta. Galen, in his Commentary on
this passage, marks their nature very distinctly in few words. He
says that such fevers as have an exacerbation of fever ending in
complete apyrexia are called intermittents, whereas such as do
not end in a complete remission of the fever are called continual.
See further De Diff. Febr., ii., 2. In a word, the continual fevers
were decidedly of the remittent type. See further Donald Monro’s
work on Army Diseases, in the beginning of the chapter on the
Bilious Remittent Fever.
[625] The introduction of phthisis in this place has created
some difficulty in the interpretation, as may be seen on reference
to Galen and Littré. Galen gives a very interesting account of the
way in which interpolations often took place. (Opera, tom. v., p.
356.)
[626] The text of this last sentence is in an unsettled state.
The following would be a translation of it as it stands in the Basle
edition of Galen’s Works: “Of all the cases described under this
constitution, those alone which were of a phthisical character
proved fatal. But they (the phthisical affections?) did not
supervene upon the other fevers.” Provided this be the true
meaning of the passage, it would merit great attention, as
seeming to contain a declaration that intermittent fevers
superinduced an immunity to phthisis. I need not say that this
supposed fact has been exciting a great deal of interest lately in
the profession, more especially in France.
[627] It is to be borne in mind that the autumn began with
the rising of Arcturus, and ended with the setting of the Pleiades.
The setting of the Pleiades then indicated the commencement of
winter. The classical reader will find the different seasons,
strikingly defined by the rising and setting of the stars, in Virgil’s
Georgics. See in particular Georg. i., 221.
[628] Galen thus explains the origin of the ophthalmies. He
says, the constitution of the air being not only cold and humid,
but attended also with hurricanes. The eyes were thus injured,
and consequently were the first part of the body to show
symptoms of disease. The dysenteric and other alvine complaints
which followed, he ascribes to the constriction of the skin induced
by the cold, and to the humoursæ of the system aggravated and
increased by the humid state of the season. These humours being
thus shut up by the occlusion of the pores of the skin, part of
them were determined to the intestines, occasioning diarrhœa,
tenesmus, dysentery, etc.; some to the bladder, inducing
strangury; and some to the mouth of the stomach, occasioning
vomiting.
[629] Galen states in his Commentary that the phrenitis is
connected with inflammation of the parts about the brain. We
have mentioned before that the phrenitis of the ancients was a
febrile affection, and not idiopathic inflammation of the brain, as
is generally supposed.
[630] According to Galen, the causi or ardent fevers are
occasioned by yellow bile collected about the vessels of the liver
and stomach, and the tertians by the same diffused over the
whole body.
[631] Galen states in his Commentary that children are
peculiarly subject to convulsions owing to the weakness of their
nervous system. He adds, that in their case convulsions are not
attended with so much danger as in other cases. See the
Hippocratic treatise On Dentition.
[632] The fever here described is evidently the semitertian.
See Paulus Ægineta, Book II., 34. “The true semitertian,” says M.
Bartels, as quoted by M. Littré, “is a real complication of an
intermittent fever with another fever of a continual type. It does
not show itself but rarely in our countries; but it is more frequent
in the hotter countries of Europe, although the false semitertian
has oftener than once been confounded with the true. In the
true, the intermittent fever is tertian; the non-intermittent is
quotidian.” See also Galen, Opera, tom. v., p. 362; ed. Basil.
[633] The text here is in an unsatisfactory state, and, as usual
in such cases, no ingenuity nor pains can do much to mend it.
See Foës and Littré. I have translated the disputed words “not
resolved,” which seems to me to agree best with the sense. Every
practical physician knows that swellings of the glands, which
continue long and do not suppurate, are unfavorable in fevers.
[634] The modern physician will not fail to be struck with this
observation as to the termination of certain cases of fever in
determination to the kidneys. Galen remarks in his Commentary
on this passage, that as the general system is often purged by
the bowels, so is it also sometimes by the kidneys and bladder.
This, he adds, is a protracted and painful mode of resolution in
fevers. The reader will remark the characters of the urine as
stated below by our author. One cannot help being struck with his
statement, that all these cases recovered. I am not aware of any
modern observations bearing on this point.
[635] There is considerable difficulty here in determining the
reading. See Littré, whom I have followed.
[636] I need scarcely remark that this passage is of classical
celebrity. Galen, in his Commentary, remarks that the first time he
read it he thought it unworthy of Hippocrates to lay it down as a
rule of practice, that “the physician should do good to his patient,
or at least no harm;” but that, after having seen a good deal of
the practice of other physicians, and observed how often they
were justly exposed to censure for having bled, or applied the
bath, or given medicines, or wine unseasonably, he came to
recognize the propriety and importance of the rule laid down by
Hippocrates. The practice of certain physicians, Galen remarks, is
like playing at the dice, when what turns up may occasion the
greatest mischief to their patients. The last clause of this passage
is very forcibly put. Galen, however, informs us that in some of
the MSS. instead of “art” he found “nature;” that is to say, that
the physician is “the minister (or servant) of nature.” Either of the
readings, he remarks, will agree very well with the meaning of
the passage.
[637] The reader will find it interesting to refer here to the
Prognostics. See also the Commentary of Galen. Let me here
impress upon the reader the necessity of making frequent
comparisons of the Prognostics with this work, if he would wish
rightly to apprehend the bearing and meaning of the latter. That
the Epidemics are entirely founded upon the principles of
prognosis there can be no doubt.
[638] It is to be recollected that the rising of Arcturus marked
the beginning of autumn, and the setting of the Pleiades the end
of it. See above.
[639] The season of the Dog-star was immediately after the
summer solstice, namely, when the sun enters the constellation
Leo. The classical reader will readily bring to his recollection the
lines of Horace, which are descriptive of this season:
 “Jam Procyon furit;
Et stella vesani Leonis,
Sole dies referente siccos.”

[640] Galen, in his Commentary, remarks that the attacks of

paraplegia (that is to say, of apoplexy) were brought on by the
cold winds of the winter succeeding to a humid autumn.
[641] The causi or ardent fevers, it is worthy of remark, began
this season in spring, but were not of a fatal character until
autumn. In modern times the bilious remittent fever has
uniformly been found to be most aggravated in autumn, and
hence it has been named by some authorities the autumnal
remittent fever. See the works of Sydenham, Pringle, Monro, and
Cleghorn. Monro mentions that he seldom saw it in spring, but
that it is common in the neighborhood of London towards the end
of summer and beginning of autumn. All these authorities are
agreed that it is of a highly bilious nature.
[642] Monro mentions epistaxis as occurring in the autumnal
remittent fever; he says it did not prove a crisis in any case.
[643] The complication of the autumnal remittent fever with
jaundice is noticed by Sir John Pringle (Obs. iii., 4), and by Monro
(On Army Diseases, p. 161). Galen, in his Commentary, remarks
that when nature is unable to evacuate the bile, it is collected in
the skin, and occasions jaundice. He adds, that the occurrence of
the jaundice in this case was unfavorable, owing to its taking
place before the seventh day. When occurring on the seventh
day, jaundice was reckoned a favorable symptom. See On Crises,
3; Aphorism, iv., 62, 64.
[644] The reader may feel interested to learn Galen’s
hypothesis by which he accounts for the hemorrhage in this case.
He says it is produced by the redundancy of yellow bile, which,
being mixed up with the blood and heating it, is carried up to the
head, where it produces rupture of the vessels and hemorrhage.
[645] Modern observations have confirmed this account of the
generally fatal issue of febrile diseases after parturition. In the
Hippocratic work On Diseases, fever after delivery in a woman is
reckoned among the cases which generally prove fatal.
[646] I would again request the attention of my
contemporaries to the characters of the urine before a crisis, as
given by Hippocrates; and, in confirmation of them I will venture
to introduce here an extract from Donald Monro’s admirable
account of the autumnal remittent fever: “The urine in the
beginning was commonly of a high color, though sometimes it
was pale and limpid; but when the fever came to remit, there was
often a small sediment after each paroxysm; and as the fever was
going off, it let fall a sediment in all.” (Army Diseases, etc., p.
159.) The absence of the sediment in the urine before the crisis is
an important fact in the history of febrile diseases, which I have
reason to think is not now sufficiently adverted to.
[647] Galen does not hesitate to give it as his opinion that the
dysentery was owing to the bile not being properly purged off by
the urine.
[648] The reader will find it interesting here to mark the
alliance between the causus and phrenitis, to which we formerly
adverted. Galen remarks that both arise from the same humour,
that is to say, bile, which when it collects in the veins of the lower
part of the body gives rise to causus; but from the beginning of
autumn to the equinox, produces phrenitis by being determined
to the brain.
[649] This is perhaps the most striking account of an
aggravated form of causus which is anywhere to be found.
Although less finished than the celebrated picture of the disease
given by Aretæus, it is evidently more original. In fact, any
human production which is very original cannot well be finished,
and consequently a very finished work can scarcely be expected
to be very original.
[650] It is impossible to overrate the importance of these
observations on crises in fevers, provided they be correct and
confirmed by general experience. Monro, without appearing to
have our author in view, seems to give an ample confirmation of
his doctrines on crises as here laid down.
[651] From Galen’s Commentary it appears that the text here
is in a doubtful state. See also Littré.
[652] Allusion is here made to the symptoms of delirium as
described in the fourth paragraph of the Prognostics. See Galen’s
Commentary on this passage.
[653] What an admirable and comprehensive enumeration of
all the circumstances upon which the prognosis and diagnosis of
diseases are to be founded! Here we find nothing either wanting
or redundant; and with what conciseness and precision the whole
is stated! Galen gives an elaborate and, upon the whole, a very
interesting Commentary on this section, but does not supply any
new views, and there are few terms in it requiring explanation.
[654] Having already stated in this work, as well as in the
Commentary on Paulus Ægineta, Book II., 27, my opinion
respecting the nature of the continual fevers, I need not enlarge
on the subject in this place. Whoever wishes for more information
may find much to interest him in the Commentary of Galen.
Respecting the septans and nonans, he remarks, that, although
conversant with fevers from his youth, he had never met with any
cases of these.
[655] Galen, in illustration, states that epilepsy is sometimes
carried off by an attack of quartan fever.
[656] The semitertian was always looked upon as a very
formidable form of fever. See Paulus Ægineta, Book II., 34. Galen
gives a prolix, but not a very distinct account of it.
[657] Galen, in his Commentary, states that he had often seen
persons in consumption attacked with tertian and quotidian
intermittents, but admits that he had no more experience of
quintans than he had of septans and nonans. Avicenna. however,
is not so sceptical as to the occurrence of these rare forms of
intermittents. Indeed he says, he had often met with quintans,
and that a trustworthy physician of great experience had assured
him that he had met with nonans. (iii., 1, 3, 67.) Rhazes also
would appear to acknowledge the occurrence of all these varieties
of intermittent fever. (Contin., xxx., 10, 1, 409.)
[658] The text is much improved in Littré’s edition, so that the
meaning is pretty intelligible without any commentary. Galen
states in explanation, that the three varieties of fever are thus
marked and distinguished from one another: in the first, the fever
attains its height at the commencement, and gradually diminishes
until the crisis; in the second, it begins mild, and gradually
reaches its height at the crisis; in the third, the fever begins mild,
gradually attains its height, and then gradually subsides until the
crisis.
[659] These are all febrile diseases, and for the most part of
the ardent type. In order to enter properly into the spirit of them,
the reader will find it necessary to revert frequently to the
Prognostics, and compare the parallel passages. See also the
Argument.
 [660] Galen, in his Commentary, remarks that the fatal issue
of this case might have been anticipated after the return of the
fever on the third day, with a complication of bad symptoms, such
as great thirst, dry tongue, black urine, delirium, coldness of the
extremities, and so forth. The modern reader will be struck with
the description of the respiration, namely, that the patient
seemed like a person who forgot for a time the besoin de
respirer, and then, as it were, suddenly recollected himself. Such
is the meaning of the expression as explained by Galen in his
Commentary, and in his work On Difficulty of Breathing. By “rare”
is always meant “few in number.” The reader will remark that this
is a striking case of a fever having regular exacerbations on the
even days, and slight remissions on the uneven.
[661] This, it will be remarked, is a case of fever induced from
obvious causes, namely, excessive fatigue and dissipation. We
must take into account, however, the febrile constitution of the
season. According to Galen, the fatal result could have been
confidently foreseen from the seventh day. The distention in the
hypochondriac region here described would appear to have been
meteorism. The throbbing in this region was no doubt owing no
the same cause. The rash was most probable miliary. It is
described as resembling vari (ἴονθοι), by which was probably
meant acne. See Paulus Ægineta, Vol. I., p. 454. Upon reference to
the Prognostics, it will be remarked that the characters of the
urine are all bad, that is to say, it was either suppressed, or the
sediment was either wanting or black and farinaceous. See
Prognost. 12. By “black,” as applied to the urine, is to be
understood “a dark-red color,” like that of wine.
[662] There is nothing in this case very remarkable, or which
stands in need of elucidation; but yet the reader may feel
interested in Galen’s reflections upon it. The recovery he holds to
have been unexpected, as a different result might have been
anticipated from the characters of the alvine discharge, and of the
urine at the commencement. The favorable change he attributes
to the swelling of the spleen, whereby the peccant humors were
attracted to it; and he further remarks, that as the swelling of the
spleen diminished, the humors are described as having passed
down to the extremities, after having first affected the groin of
the side on which the spleen is situated. He further calls attention
to the improved characters of the urine when the swelling of the
spleen and pains of the limbs supervened. Still, however, he adds,
there was a remnant of the cacochymy in the system which gave
rise to the relapse on the fourteenth day, so that the complete
crisis did not take place until the seventeenth day.
[663] This is evidently a well-marked case of puerperal fever,
or of fever complicated with the puerperal state. There is nothing
particularly interesting in Galen’s commentary on it. He states
that the application made in order to remove the suppression of
the lochial discharge may either have been a pessary or a
suppository. It seems most likely to have been the former. On the
composition of the ancient pessaries, see Paulus Ægineta, Book
VII., 24. He remarks that the symptoms first stated are
unfavorable, but not necessarily fatal, until we come to the
coldness of the extremities, which is an extremely mortal
symptom in the beginning of a disease when combined with a
very violent fever. The modern reader will be struck with the
expression that “the attendants seldom put her in mind” to make
water; it is very descriptive, however, of the state of stupor the
patient was in when she was so insensible that she did not attend
to the calls of nature.
[664] Galen remarks that it was reckoned very extraordinary
for a rigor not to be followed by febrile heat. See Comment. et de
Rigore; de Diff. Febr., ii.; and Foës’s long annotations on this
passage.
[665] It will be remarked that the characters of the urine
throughout are favorable. Though darkish at first, this was
reckoned not unfavorable, as being connected with the lochial
discharge. (See Galen. Comment. 2, Epid. iii.) The sediments
afterwards are all of good omen; but, as Galen remarks, its first
characters indicated a prolonged fever.
[666] On the Critical Days, see Paulus Ægineta Book II., 7.
[667] On comparing the symptoms here enumerated with the
Prognostics, it will be remarked that none of them are of fatal
omen. But the white sediment, and afterwards the reddish color
of the urine, while they indicated recovery, at the same time
prognosticated a protracted attack of fever. See Prognost., 12.
The reader will further remark that there is an absence of all the
decidedly fatal symptoms, such as delirium, coldness of the
extremities at the commencement, and so forth.
[668] The rapid recovery in this case would seem to be partly
attributable to the decided plan of treatment, namely, the copious
affusion of hot water on the head. Hippocrates probably had it in
view when he wrote the forty-second Aphorism of the Seventh
Book: “In fever not connected with bile, if a large quantity of hot
water be poured over the head, it proves a resolution of the
fever.” Galen points it out as a remarkable circumstance, that in
this case the crisis took place without concoction of the urine, in
consequence of the hemorrhage from the nose, and the
sweating.
[669] In this case, as Galen remarks, the continued sweats,
unfavorable condition of the hypochondriac region, and the black
urine, precluded all hopes of recovery. He thinks our author
related the case as an instance of sudden death in fever, this
patient having died on the fourth day after the attack (the first
not being counted). See his Commentary. He also makes
reflections upon this case in his work On Difficulty of Breathing,
where he points out the danger of meteorism of the
hypochondriac region as being necessarily accompanied with
dyspnœa, and connected with inflammation (2).
[670] This case, as Galen remarks, is interesting from the
suddenness of the fatal result. We should not hesitate nowadays
to set it down as a case of malignant erysipelas; the pain,
swelling, and bullæ of the foot and ankle must have been of this
nature. By the way, these bullæ, when not followed by
suppuration, are represented in the Coacæ Prænotiones, as a
fatal symptom. Galen thinks it strange that this patient was not
bled, but accounts for it by supposing that Hippocrates had been
called in too late. He remarks on this case in the Second Book of
his work On Difficulty of Breathing.
[671] Galen looks upon this patient as an example or
paradigm of general principles in Prognostics. Thus, with regard
to the characters of the urine, it is stated that on the eleventh
day the urine was thin, of a good color, and having many
substances floating about in it, but without sediment. Thus
matters remained until the sixteenth, when the urine became
somewhat thicker, and had a slight sediment. Now Galen remarks
(as the reader will find on turning to the Book of Prognostics) that
these characters of the urine are indicative of recovery after a
protracted disease. Galen further points out that no one of the
fatal symptoms are mentioned, and that swellings of the parotid
glands and the dysenteric affections of the bowels indicated that
the crisis would be distant. He also calls attention to the case as
confirmatory of the doctrines of Critical Days. In the Second Book
of his work On Difficulty of Breathing, he makes some remarks, of
no great importance however, on the meteorism of the
hypochondriac region, as noticed in this case.
[672] In this case, as Galen remarks, the characters of the
urine from the first were such as to indicate a fatal and speedy
result. On the second day the urine was turbid, and without any
sediment; on the third day the same, and consequently
confirming the anticipation of the disease proving mortal; on the
fourth, oily urine, with epistaxis, so that it was not to be
wondered at that the patient died on the sixth. Indeed, when we
further take into account the state of the breathing, the coldness
of the extremities, the meteorism of the hypochondriac region,
and the subsultus tendinum, it is difficult to imagine a more
hopeless case of fever. Having mentioned “oily urine,” it may be
well to state its characters, as fully given by one of the later
authorities on urology, namely Theophilus. He says, when the
urine in fevers assumes the color of oil, it indicates that the fat of
the body is melting down; when the appearance of the urine still
more resembles oil, it shows a still greater melting; and when the
urine in consistence and color exactly resembles oil of a dark
color, it prognosticates a fatal collapse. (De Urinis, 17; ed. Ideler.)
On this subject, see further some very interesting observations by
Foës, in his annotations on this passage (p. 988). With regard to
the respiration in this case, see also the remarks of Galen in the
Third Book of his work On Difficulty of Breathing (tom. vii., p.
932; ed. Kühn). As Galen here remarks, Hippocrates explains the
meaning of this passage in one of his Aphorisms, where he writes
thus: “In fevers, when the respiration stops, it is a bad symptom,
for it prognosticates convulsion.”
[673] According to Galen, this case is an instructive example
of the danger of neglecting the diet at the commencement of
complaints which appear unimportant. This man, having taken
supper at the beginning of a fever which appeared slight, suffered
therefrom as the result showed; that is to say, vomiting ensued,
followed by serious symptoms, among which Galen particularizes,
as indicating a fatal result, urine at first thick and without
sediment, and afterwards oily. So much importance did the
ancient physicians attach to observations on the urine in fevers!
Galen further calls attention to the fact, that the patient died on a
critical day, that is to say, on the eleventh.
 [674] Galen, in the commentary, makes a remark regarding
this report, which appears more important to him than it will do
to most modern readers, namely, that he wonders Hippocrates
did not state the age of this patient. He adds, that it is very rare
for a pregnant woman to have such a serious fever without
parting with her child. He thinks the patient, in the present
instance, owed her recovery to the strength of her constitution,
as “urine white, and not of a good color,” in combination with the
other bad symptoms, indicated an unfavorable result. By the way,
upon reference to the Basle edition of Galen, and to Foës’s
annotations on this case, it will be seen that there is a difference
of reading in the words descriptive of the urine, that is to say,
some read ἀχρόων, some εὑχρόων. Certainly it appears to me
that Foës is right in preferring the latter. The decided crisis, it will
be remarked, took place on a critical day, that is to say, the
fourteenth, by a sweat.
[675] Here again Galen calls attention principally to the
characters of the urine, which is first described as being “of a
good color, but thin.” Now, by a good color of the urine, Galen
observes, was meant of a slightly yellow color. In this case, as
usual, the crisis was marked by a sediment in the urine.
[676] Œuvres d’Hippocrate, tom. iii., Arg., pp. xxxvi.-xlii. tom.
v., pp. 57–70.
[677] There is some doubt, however, even on this head;
indeed Riolanus does not scruple to affirm, with a considerable
degree of plausibility, that Ruffus must have lived after Galen,
since he is nowhere mentioned by the latter. (Anthropographia, i.,
5.)
[678] In illustration, consult Plutarch (Placit. Philosoph., v.,
29).
[679] De Differ. Feb., i., 7; tom. vii., p. 296, ed. Kühn.
[680] Commentary on Paulus Ægineta, Book II., 16, 36; IV., 25,
Syd. Soc. edition.
[681] Disquisitio Historico-Medica de Natura Morbi
Atheniensium. Stuttgart, 1831.
[682] On this case Galen has left very lengthy and elaborate
commentaries, containing much important and amusing matter,
but not a little verbose trifling, to say the least. Our limits, as well
as our tastes, dispose us to be very sparing in our extracts from
them. Passing over his remarks on the solecism in syntax, with
which the Report commences, and his observations on the
absence of all mention of the exciting causes, as is the usual
practice of our author, I shall proceed to state what Galen says on
the apparent neglect of venesection in a case where it would
certainly appear to have been clearly indicated. In this case, as
Galen remarks, one or other of these suppositions may be made:
either that bleeding was not practiced, or that the author did not
think of mentioning the practice here, as supposing that it would
be taken for granted that it was applied. Now, he adds, the
former supposition is very improbable, considering how partial
our author shows himself to this practice in his works which are
unquestionably genuine, such as On the Regimen in Acute
Diseases, the Aphorisms, the work On the Articulations, and even
in this very book, where in one place he mentions that he
abstracted blood copiously on the eighth day. If, then, he bled so
late in febrile diseases, Galen contends that he was not likely to
neglect the operation in an earlier stage, when so much more
demanded. He argues further, that in many of the other reports
of cases he neglects to mention that the usual routine of practice
was followed: and therefore he inclines to the opinion that it is
omitted to be mentioned here, because the author supposed
there could be no question on this point, more especially as it
was his universal rule to bleed in all great complaints, when not
prevented by the age or powers of the patient. He afterwards
insists strongly on venesection having been indicated in this case,
in order to procure revulsion from the brain. As usual with the
commentator, he calls attention to the characters of the urine,
and explains the meaning of the term “cloudy,” as applied to the
eneorema, or substances floating in the urine, by which he
contends is to be understood a color intermediate between white
and black. What follows in this very lengthy Commentary is very
interesting in a general point of view as regards the views of
some of the older commentators, but is not directly applicable to
the present case. His observations on the characters affixed to
this and many of the subsequent cases have been noticed in the
Argument. The reader will further remark of this case that it is an
instance of fever passing into a deposit (or abscess), and the
latter into strangury, of which our author had made mention in
the First Book of the Epidemics. I may further mention that the
reader will find much interesting matter in Galen’s work On
Trembling, in illustration of the nature of the attack under which
the patient labored.
 [683] Galen, in his Commentary, communicates a singular
notion which one of the earlier commentators maintained
respecting the name of the place where this patient was laid, that
is to say, that this new wall, having been recently washed with
quicklime, had been the cause of this patient’s illness. Galen,
however, rejects this paltry conceit. He says on his own authority,
that there being three distinct classes of fever, namely, the
ephemeral, the hectic, and those connected with putrid humors,
the present case belongs to the last of these.
[684] Galen compares the characters of the urine with their
indications as given in the Prognostics. None of them are
favorable, although not decidedly fatal.
[685] This complication cannot fail to attract attention, from
its resemblance to an epidemic which prevailed in Scotland in the
year 1843. In this epidemic, as in the present case, the fever was
very subject to relapses and to jaundice at an early stage.
Hippocrates, in one of his Aphorisms, pronounces jaundice in
fevers before the seventh day to be a fatal symptom. (iv., 62, 64.)
Galen justly thinks it somewhat singular that no further mention
of the jaundice is made in the course of the report; but he
inclines from this to draw the conclusion that it remained in the
same state throughout. As there was no crisis by the stomach,
the bowels, the urine, or sweat, he concludes that the jaundice
could not have been carried off. From all that has been said, he
adds, it is clear that the organ primarily affected was the liver.
Galen, then, decidedly opposes the view taken in the Explanation
of the Characters respecting the cause of this man’s death, which
he contends was not connected with any suppression of the
alvine discharges, but with the affection of the liver. On the
Scotch Epidemic, see Ed. and Lond. Med. Journal, March, 1844.
[686] Most of the ancient authorities regarded deafness as an
unfavorable symptom in fevers. See Paulus Ægineta, Book II., 4.
The modern are divided in opinion on this point. Pringle and
Huxham regard it as a favorable symptom, but Home looks upon
it as unfavorable.
[687] Here again Galen mentions the absurd notion of Sabinus
the commentator, that this man’s disease was occasioned by the
locality in which he was laid. Galen, on the other hand, thinks it
likely that the patient was conveyed to the garden as being a
favorable situation for a person ill of fever. He further alludes to
this case in the Second Book of his work On Critical Days.
 [688] Galen remarks, that as there is no mention of a single
favorable symptom up to this date, the patient would certainly
have died if he had not been of a vigorous constitution.
[689] Thus, as Galen remarks, after two ineffectual attempts,
Nature accomplished a cure on the fortieth day.
[690] There is not much to remark in this case. A modern
reader will suspect that there had been cerebral disease before
the attack of the fever, and that matters had been brought to a
crisis by the drinking of wine. Indeed Galen, in his Commentary,
remarks that the precursory symptoms indicate a congestion of
humors in the brain, which of course would be much aggravated
by the wine, the brain then being, as he says, in a bad state; and
the patient having inflicted an additional injury to the organ, by
means of the drink, brought on the acute attack, which proved
fatal in five days. The deafness, delirium, spasms, and bilious
vomitings all indicate a cerebral affection. The state of the
hypochondria, as described in the report, Galen would seem to
attribute to a spasmodic affection of the diaphragm, from
sympathy with the brain. Retraction of the hypochondrium is
pronounced to be a bad symptom in the First Book of the
Prorrhetics. Galen justly contends that there is no reason in this
case to suspect any inflammation in that region.
[691] Galen’s remarks on this case are unusually brief; he
attributes the fever to a bilious plethora, and states that the
result was such as might have been anticipated from a knowledge
of the critical days, and of the characters of the urine. Indeed the
latter appear to me well deserving of attention.
[692] This is in many respects an interesting case, and more
especially, from its being stated that the disease was complicated
with hereditary consumption. Galen, in his Commentary, remarks
that some authorities denied that any disease is congenital, but
this opinion he decidedly rejects. The phthisical affection,
however, as he justly remarks, would not have occasioned so
sudden an issue if it had not been complicated with a complete
prostration of the natural powers. He insists strongly on the
striking description here given of the total loss of the natural
appetite, both in regard to food and drink. Of course, no worse
state of the system can be imagined than that in which it is totally
insensible to its own wants, nay, that it loathes the very articles
which it stands most in need of. Galen properly remarks in
another place (Comment. I., in Epid. i.), that it is an extremely
unfavorable symptom when in an ardent fever there is no thirst.
The small abscess about the nates would seem to have been an
incidental complication. It would appear to be now settled by the
best pathological authorities that there is no natural alliance
between phthisis and fistula in ano, as was at one time
suspected. See Andral (Cliniq. Médicale, tom. iv., p. 308), and
Louis (On Phthisis, p. 89, Sydenham Society’s edition). The
affection of the fauces and throat, which is described as having
attacked the patient at “the commencement of the disease,”
would appear to have been a common complication of that
epidemic. It is noticed in the First Book of the Epidemics. Foës
remarks, however, that some had referred it to that redness of
the fauces to which persons laboring under consumption are
liable. Compare Louis, l. c. p. ii., § 12. Galen makes mention of a
difference of reading in the MSS. he used in reference to the
Critical Days.
[693] On this brief case Galen has left a lengthy and elaborate
Commentary, abounding in most interesting matters on a variety
of subjects; as, for example, the different readings and opinions
of the more ancient commentators on the characters at the end
of this and the other reports; on the formation of the Hippocratic
Collection, and the extraordinary zeal of the Ptolemies in
procuring books for their great Library at Alexandria, and so forth.
There is not much in it, however, which bears directly on the
present case, and therefore we shall give but a very brief abstract
of it. It appears from Galen that there was a considerable
diversity of readings in the latter part of it, more especially in
regard to the number of days the patient lived; some of the old
authorities having placed the death on the fifth, some on the
seventh, and others on the eighth. Galen inclines to hold by the
text as we now have it, and maintains, apparently with good
reason, that under such a combination of fatal symptoms it was
not likely that the patient’s strength should have stood out longer
than the fourth day. Another curious subject connected with this
case which Galen slightly touches upon, but without throwing any
light upon it, is the omission of the treatment. He justly remarks,
that if Hippocrates treated the patient himself, or superintended
the treatment as managed by another, it is singular that there is
no mention of a clyster having been administered, nor of a
cataplasm having been applied, nor of venesection having been
practiced. I shall not attempt to solve the question here
propounded by Galen. See the Argument. His Commentary also
contains an interesting discussion on the meaning of the
expression “respiration elevated.” To give the sum of what has
been advanced on this subject in a few words, it may signify
laborious breathing so as to move the labia of the nose; or it may
mean simply orthopnœa, or it may signify laborious respiration,
attended with elevation of the chest. By the way, this is evidently
the “sublimis anhelitus” of Horace, in his famous ode entitled
“Nireus.” I have often wondered that such a learned physician as
Julius Cæsar Scaliger, in his celebrated critique on Horace in his
Poetics, should have remarked on this expression: “Ex toto
Galeno non intelligo quid sit sublimis anhelitus.” Galen, in fact,
treats fully of the “sublimis anhelitus” in various parts of his
works. See in particular On Difficulty of Breathing.
[694] Galen has given us a lengthy Commentary on this case,
but a great part of it relates to the characters and to other
matters not of any very great importance in this place. As he
remarks, it is a striking example of an acute fever induced by
immoderate fatigue. It appears from his Commentary, moreover,
that some of the older authorities had added “drinking” to the
excesses which induced his affection; that is to say, they
proposed to read πότων instead of πόνων. The symptoms, upon
reference to the Prognostics, are all such as indicated a fatal
result, namely, the blackish and thin urine, “the fumbling with the
bedclothes,” the coldness and lividity of the extremities, the
meteorism, and so forth.
[695] In Galen’s Commentary on this case there is not much
of any great interest to the professional reader of the present
day. He animadverts again on the omission of all mention of the
treatment, although, as he states, venesection and the other
usual means had no doubt been tried; indeed the report implies
as much. Hippocrates, he repeats, never thinks of mentioning the
usual routine of practice, as he takes it for granted that the
reader will understand that it was not neglected. It is only on
special occasions, then, that he thinks of making any particular
reference to the treatment. Galen remarks, that ileus being an
inflammation of the upper intestines, is a particularly dangerous
affection.
[696] As remarked by Galen in his Commentary, this was no
doubt a case of ardent fever or caucus, complicated with an
incidental miscarriage. There is no reason for looking upon it as
being a case of puerperal fever. Galen thinks that the last word
(caucus) is an addition made by the copyists, having been
transferred from the Glossarium to the text in the course of
transcription. Galen, as usual, directs attention to the characters
of the urine, which in this case are particularly unfavorable, being
defective both in quantity and quality.
[697] Galen’s remarks on the circumstances of this case are
sufficiently to the purpose, but there is nothing very striking in
them. He states that the abortion may have been occasioned
either by external causes—such as the application of pessaries for
this purpose, and the like—or internal, such as hemorrhage from
the neck of the uterus. and so forth. As in the former case, he
pronounces the last word (phrenitis) to be an addition to the text,
as Hippocrates never enters upon the diagnosis of diseases, as is
done in the work On Diseases. I suppose he means that our
author’s real works are all founded on Prognosis; whereas the
other, being derived from the Cnidian school, is founded on
Diagnosis. See our observations on this subject in the Preliminary
Discourse, and the Argument to the Prognostics.
[698] Galen remarks, that with such a combination of fatal
symptoms, namely, coldness of the extremities, fetid vomiting,
etc., it is wonderful that this patient stood out until the fourteenth
day. He thinks, however, that this is to be explained from her age
and constitution. He justly remarks that the occurrence of the
epistaxis could not be supposed sufficient to carry of such a
combination of unfavorable symptoms. He once more protests
against the last word of the report (causus) being admitted as
genuine. He confesses himself unable to determine whether “The
Liars’ Market” was in Athens or elsewhere.
[699] This is entitled the pestilential constitution by Galen. By
constitution, he explains, is meant not only the preternatural state
of the atmosphere, but also of everything else which influences
the state of the general health.
[700] Galen remarks, that in the First Book of the Epidemics
three constitutions of the year are described and also that others
are described in the Second Book; but that these are not carefully
drawn out for publication like those of the First and Third. He
further remarks on this head, that the constitution of the season
might prepare us for the putrid diseases, which are described
below, as heat is the active, and humidity the material, cause of
all putrefaction.
 [701] Galen remarks that erysipelas is occasioned by a bilious
defluxion, but that it is not always of a malignant and putrid
nature; on the contrary, when the defluxion is mild, and the bile
which produces it is natural, it is not attended with any
considerable injury to the body, if properly managed; but that the
humor which produced the erysipelas about to be described was
not such, but of a malignant, corrosive, and septic nature, being
engendered by the humid and calm state of the weather in such
persons as were of a choleric constitution.
[702] According to Galen, aphthæ in general are superficial
ulcerations in the mouth, produced by the acrimony of the nurse’s
milk, and which are easily removed by an astringent application.
But in the present instance the aphthæ were of a malignant
nature.
[703] The carbuncle (anthrax), Galen says, is always
dangerous, and the product of bad humors. See Paulus Ægineta,
Vol. II., pp. 78, 79. Galen, in his excellent work On the Difference
of Fevers, writes thus: “In constitutions of the year, similar to
those which Hippocrates describes as taking place in Cranon (See
Ep. ii.). I have known cases of anthrax prevailing epidemically in
no few numbers, the formation and other symptoms of which
were exactly as described by him.” (Tom. vii., p. 293; ed. Kühn.)
[704] Galen explains under this head that the term epidemic is
not applied to any one disease, but that when many cases of any
disease occur at the same time in a place, the disease is called an
epidemic; and that when it is remarkably fatal it is called a
plague.
[705] The history of the epidemical erysipelas here described
cannot fail to prove interesting to the modern reader. I need
scarcely remark that epidemics of a similar nature are
occasionally met with in Great Britain at the present day. I myself
have encountered two such epidemics in the locality where I am
now writing, the one in 1823, and the other in 1846. As described
by Hippocrates, the disease sometimes supervened upon a slight
injury, and generally terminated in gangrene. On epidemical
erysipelas, see De Haen (Ratio Medendi), Bartholinus (Hist.
Anatom. Rat. Hist., 56), Wells (Transactions of a Society for the
Improvement of Medical and Chirurgical Knowledge), Cooper’s
Surgical Dictionary; and Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine, under
Erysipelas.
 [706] Galen amply confirms this statement, that when
erysipelas fixes on a particular part of the body it is more
formidable in appearance than in reality, and that the disease is
attended with most danger when it leaves an external member,
and is determined inwardly.
[707] The classical reader will here call to his recollection a
striking passage in the celebrated description of the Plague of
Athens, as given by Thucydides: “For the mischief, being at first
seated in the head, spread over the whole body, and if one
survived the most formidable symptoms, an attack on the
extremities manifested itself; for it was determined to the genital
organs and to the hands and feet, and many escaped with losing
them, and some with the loss of their eyes.” (ii., 49.) The passage
is thus rendered by Lucretius:

“tamen in nervos huic morbus et artus

Ibat et in partes genitales corporis ipsas;
Et graviter partim metuentes limina lethi
Vivebant ferro privati parte virili:
Et manibus sine nonnulli pedibusque manebant
In vita tamen et perdebant lumina partim.”
(vi., 1203.)

Lucretius, it will be remarked, understands the historian to

mean that the mortified parts were amputated; and this opinion,
although rejected by most of our non-professional editors of
Thucydides, is confirmed by what Galen says in his Commentary
on this passage, namely, that in erysipelas of the genital organs
“we (meaning the physicians of his own time) are often obliged to
excise the putrid parts, and apply the cautery to them.” I would
here further point out a singular mistake into which Dr. Bloomfield
falls in his note on this passage of Thucydides; he says that the
words of the original (ἄκρας χεῑρας καὶ πόδας) “can only signify
the ends of or lower joints of the fingers and toes.” No one who is
acquainted with the language of our author will require to be told
that this is an entire misconception. In the works of Hippocrates
χεῖρες is often put for the arms, and χεῖρες ἄκραι are always
applied to the hands.
[708] Upon reference to the Glossary of Erotian, the
Commentary of Galen, and the Annotations of Foës and Littré, the
reader will see that there is great difficulty in determining the text
in this place. After examining all that has been written on the
subject, one cannot come to any satisfactory conclusion as to the
true reading. I have adopted the meaning which seems to suit
best with the passage. The professional reader will scarcely
require to be reminded that in cases of phthisis there is often a
notable impairment of the voice.
[709] Galen makes the important remark on this word, that, in
febrile diseases, epistaxis is always a bad symptom.
[710] This obliviousness is a feature of the plague, as
described by Thucydides: “And some, when they first left their
beds, were seized with an utter forgetfulness of all things, and
knew not themselves nor their relatives.” (l. c.)
[711] Our author alludes to the affection called coma vigil by
the later authorities. In this affection, as Galen remarks, the
patient lies with his eyes shut, but can get no sound sleep. This,
of course, is so much more the case provided pain be present, as
it necessarily will prevent the occurrence of sleep. See Galen’s
tract On Coma.
[712] The low muttering delirium of typhoid fevers is here
evidently alluded to. Galen, in his Commentary, guards the reader
against supposing that the fever passed into lethargus.
[713] This description apparently can refer to nothing but
pestilential buboes.
[714] It is impossible not to recognize this as a description of
purulent ophthalmia. Celsus thus describes the ficus: “Est etiam
ulcus quod a fici similitudine σύκωσις Græcis nominatur, ubi caro
excrescit; et id quidem generale est. Sub eo vero duæ species
aunt. Alterum ulcus durum et rotundum est: alterum humidum et
inæquale. Ex duro exiguum quoddam et glutinosum exit: ex
humido plus, et mali odoris.” See the Lexicons of Hesychius and
Phavorinus, and also Paulus Ægineta, Book III., 3. It will be
remarked that Hippocrates also makes mention of fungous
excrescences about the pudenda. Were they syphilitic? In other
words, did they derive their origin from elephantiasis? See the
Annotations on Paulus Ægineta, Book IV., 1, Sydenham Society’s
edition.
[715] The meaning of this term is not precisely determined.
Galen’s account of it may apply both to exanthemata, and
pustulæ. The description of the eruption in the Plague of Athens
is likewise vague and indeterminate. (Thucyd, ii., 49.)
 [716] These intestinal complaints are all mentioned in the
description of the Plague at Athens. (l. c.) Upon reference to the
Commentary of Galen, the reader will remark that there is a
question here respecting the reading.
[717] Galen, in his Commentary, makes the remark that he
observed the same symptom in the plague which raged in his
time.
[718] It will readily be understood that a colliquative diabetes
would prove a very unfavorable complication of these complaints.
[719] By nocturnal fevers, according to Galen, was meant
quotidians, which had their paroxysms during the night. Foës
inclines to think that diurnal should also be inserted in this place.
These nocturnal fevers are thus described by D. Monro: “The sick
were restless and uneasy at night; but commonly felt themselves
cooler and lighter in the daytime: and although they had no cold
fit, as the fever came on at nights, and many of them no
breathing sweat, as they became cooler and freer from the fever
in the morning; yet the fits were so remarkable, that many of the
patients used to say that they had a regular fit of an ague every
night, and some few that they had the fit every second night.”
(Army Diseases, etc., p. 158.)
[720] The account of the origin and progress of consumption
here given is, upon the whole, wonderfully correct. Common
experience seems to have decided that spring and autumn are
the most fatal seasons to phthisical patients. Avicenna makes the
remark, which is very important, and deserves to be kept in mind,
that by phthisis, in this place, Hippocrates most probably meant
hectic fever, connected with disease of the internal viscera, which
had been in an inflamed state during the acute attack of the
fever. (iii., 1, 3, 67.)
[721] I shall not enter into a discussion of the different
readings of this interesting passage. I may mention that our great
pathological authority on phthisis, Dr. Louis, agrees with
Hippocrates in deciding that the lymphatic temperament
constitutes a more or less marked predisposition to the
development of phthisis. (p. 483.) Galen describes the phlegmatic
temperament as being attended with a soft and slightly tumid
skin. He attributes the disease in their case to a cacochymy, that
is to say, to cachexia. I need scarcely remark that this opinion is
strongly advocated by one of the highest authorities of the day, I
mean Sir James Clark. See his treatise on Tubercular Phthisis.
Galen gives a discussion on the color of the eyes, about which
there is some difficulty, as the ancient terms which relate to
colors are not very well defined. The term here used (χαροπὸς)
may signify either blue or gray. Galen considers this color of the
eyes as a symptom of a cold and humid temperament.
[722] There is an ambiguity in the part of the sentence which
relates to women, as Galen states in his Commentary. Galen does
not hesitate to declare that women are more subject to phthisis
than men, an opinion upon which modern authorities are not at
all agreed. See the recent publications of Louis and Clark on
Phthisis.
[723] The last paragraph, and the latter clause of the
preceding one, were at first attached to the end of the
subsequent cases, and were transferred to their present position
by Dioscorides the commentator a short time before Galen. They
evidently embody a most distinct and admirable enumeration of
the general facts with which the practical physician ought to make
himself acquainted.
[724] We learn from the Commentary of Galen that some of
the older critics supposed that the sixteen cases about to be
related had been selected by Hippocrates in illustration of his
doctrines, as laid down in the preceding description of what is
generally entitled the Pestilential Season. Galen, however, does
not incline to this opinion.
[725] This is an example of one of those protracted fevers of
an intermittent type, which, as I have been informed by an
intelligent physician who practiced for several years in the Ionian
Islands, are so common in the climate of Greece. There is not
much of any particular value in Galen’s Commentary on this case.
He informs us that one of the older commentators absurdly
maintained the opinion that the country of this patient was given
because, according to Asclepiades, the inhabitants of Paros were
most especially benefited by bleeding. But, as Galen says, this
remark is particularly out of place here, since no mention of
venesection occurs in the report. Galen, and after him Foës, have
given very lengthy and elaborate disquisitions on the nature of
oily urine. The result is, that it is an unfavorable, but not
necessarily a fatal, character. It is minutely described by the later
authorities on urology, namely, Theophilus and Actuarius. See
also the Commentary on Paulus Ægineta, Book II., 14, Sydenham
Society’s edition.
 [726] This appears clearly to be a case of fever, complicated
with, but not produced by parturition. Galen, however, seems to
ascribe the fever and its fatal results to the retention of the
lochial discharge. The characters of the urine, he properly
remarks, are unfavorable, being copious, thin, and black. He also
calls attention to the want of proper concoction in the sputa, to
which he attributes the fatal relapse.
[727] Galen’s Commentary on this case is written in his usual
light and diffuse style, but contains very little which is calculated
to throw light on the text, or on the nature of the disease which
is here described. If any one find difficulty in comprehending the
characters of the respiration, as given in this narrative, he can
turn to Galen’s work, On Difficulty of Breathing, where they are
explained very fully. I may just mention that by shortness of
breath (βραχύπνοος) was understood, by Hippocrates and Galen,
frequency of the act of respiration.
[728] This case, as Galen remarks, is an instance of the most
acute form of phrenitis. He states that he himself had met with
cases of phrenitis in which the patients had died on the fourth
and fifth day, but that he had never seen a case which proved so
suddenly fatal as the present one. He further makes some very
interesting reflections on the suddenness of the attack in such
cases, which is the more wonderful, as the exciting cause of them
must be gradually collecting in the system, and acquiring strength
and intensity, and it is singular that it should then be developed
all at once, and cut off the patient in a very short time, as if he
had swallowed poison, or had been stung by a venomous animal.
He compares the latency of the febrile humor in the system to
that of the mad dog, which will remain for a long time in the body
of a person who had been bitten, and then all at once will
manifest its effects, by inducing the rage. For the ancient views
on the subject of Hydrophobia, see Paulus Ægineta, Book V., 4,
Sydenham Society’s edition.
[729] Galen, in his Commentary on this case, enters into a
train of reflections how a physician ought to proceed when called
in to a patient so circumstanced. He ought, in the first place, as
the Commentator properly remarks, to make careful inquiry, in
order to find out whether the pain in the limb be occasioned by
any external cause, as persons often meet with local injuries by
sudden twisting and movements of their limbs, or even by laying
a limb uncomfortably in bed, without being aware of it. When no
such cause of the complaint can be discovered, Galen says the
physician should try to ascertain whether or not it be connected
with the regimen or temperament of the patient. If it shall turn
out that the body is in a plethoric state, general bleeding must be
had recourse to, before any local applications are made to the
part. It is then to be fomented, and liquid and heating medicines
applied to it. Whether or not this was the mode of treatment
which Hippocrates adopted in this case, Galen cannot take upon
himself to affirm, as no mention is made in the report of
venesection, nor of the particular remedies which were used. I
am of opinion that this is one of the most interesting cases in the
whole Collection, for I believe it to be a faithful report of a
disease which on three several occasions I have met with during
an active professional practice of thirty years, and which I have
not seen described elsewhere. In all my cases, indeed, the
patients were from twelve to sixteen years old, but in other
respects the symptoms were the same as here described by
Hippocrates. In every one of the cases the patient was seized
with pain and swelling of the thigh, attended with high fever,
great jactitation, and partial delirium. They all proved fatal in the
course of three or four days. Whether the disease be connected
with diffuse inflammation of the areolar substance, or with
inflammation of the veins, or whether it be a general fever
complicated with a local affection of the limb, or what may be the
exact nature of the affection, I have not been able to determine.
From what is stated above, it will be clearly seen how justly
Hippocrates deserves the compliment paid to him by Galen, of
having been, of all medical authorities, the most careful in
observing the phenomena of disease. (Opera Galeni, tom. vii., p.
829, ed. Kühn.)
[730] Galen remarks, that this is one of those cases which
appear formidable to the inexperienced, but which those who are
practiced in the art judge of as being likely to come to a speedy
crisis. He adverts to the slight swelling of the spleen and the
characters of the urine, which soon showed a proper sediment, as
being particularly favorable symptoms. The more that we study
Hippocratic medicine, we shall be the more convinced that too
little attention has been paid of late years to the physical
characters of the urine in all febrile complaints.
[731] Galen’s Commentary on this case is unusually brief. He
holds it to be a case connected with general plethora, as
indicated by the good color of the urine. He once more makes the
remark that a favorable issue of the case might have been
anticipated, from the characters of the urine.
[732] Galen remarks in his Commentary, that of all the cases
related in the First and Third Books of the Epidemics, this is the
only one in which Hippocrates says that the patient was bled, not,
he adds, that this was the only case in which venesection was
adopted, but because, although the general rule was not to bleed
after the fourth day, the patient, in the present instance, was bled
on the eighth. Many others, he says, were no doubt bled on the
second, third, and fourth days, but of these bleedings, and the
other means used, Hippocrates in general takes no notice, except
that he sometimes states, in order to render the malignity of the
disease more apparent, that it was nowise benefited by the
remedies applied. In other cases he adds, he would appear, from
the words he uses (such as “as far as I am aware”), not to have
attended the patient at the commencement. Galen further directs
attention to the characters of the expectoration, the concoction of
which he looks upon as having proved the means of carrying off
this fever. Galen has reviewed the symptoms of this case very
fully, and in a most interesting manner, in the Second Book of his
work, On Difficulty of Breathing, see ed. Kühn, tom. vii., p. 854,
etc. That it was a case of fever complicated with pleurisy seems
clear, as Galen remarks. Galen further treats of the characters of
the sputa in this case, in the First Book of his work, On Crises.
Upon reference to the edition of Littré, it will be seen that
unfortunately there is considerable variation in the readings of
this passage.
[733] On this case Galen makes the remark that this patient
must have had a strong constitution, otherwise it could not have
withstood such an affection. He adds that, moreover, his pulse
must have possessed strength, but that, as formerly said by him,
this department of prognostics is altogether omitted by
Hippocrates, in his reports of febrile cases. He further remarks
that the respiration and appetite were not to complain of, and the
only bad symptom was the thinness and blackness of the urine,
which therefore required a long time for nature to overcome, by
occasioning hemorrhage, pain of the hip-joint, and determination
downwards. He adds, that great diseases require decided crises,
and that even with those now mentioned, the disease was not
entirely removed in this case, until concoction in the urine took
place.
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