2009/02/27 by Clinton Bond · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Chemistry · #Scottish History and National Identity #Poetry #Literature #History #Chemistry #Philosophy #Art
paper · doi:10.1093/res/hgn169
openalex publication_date 2009/02/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Thomas Ross (1620–1675), courtier, poet and tutor to the first Duke of Monmouth, is known principally because he was accused of encouraging Monmouth's hopes of the crown. But Ross's literary career deserves study, too, and this essay assesses the accusation against him as part of a fuller consideration of his life and writings. Ross was the first English translator of several works of Imperial Roman literature, and his version of Silius Italicus’ ‘Punica’, dedicated to Charles II, provides an illuminating example of how Classical literature was used by a courtier in a competition for the king's favour. But Ross also produced several anonymous pieces for Monmouth: an original poem on the Third Punic War and translations from Cicero and Claudian, together with a hitherto unstudied letter in MS. These works were plainly intended as mirrors for a prince. Monmouth was both a possible heir, with the favour of his royal father, but also illegitimate, with many enemies. Ross's consistently apt choices of examples and analogies for this peculiar situation demonstrate the learning and imagination behind his remarkable skill at refashioning the speculum principis. A proper examination of Ross thus advances our understanding not only of the history of translation and of a perplexing question of courtly intrigue, but also of the broader relationship between literature and politics in the Restoration.