Aethiopissae: the classical tradition, Neo-Latin verse and images of race in George Herbert and Vincent Bourne

Abstract

This article examines two Latin poems, one by the well-known writer of English as well as Latin poetry, George Herbert (1593–1633), and the other by Vincent Bourne (c. 1695–1747), probably the most widely read British writer of Latin verse in the eighteenth century. Each of these poems is written in the voice of a black woman, and, at least on the surface, appears to seek the reader’s sympathy for her position in a white world. A common point of origin is suggested, in the figure of the AEthiopissa in Terence’s Eunuch, and the popularity of Terence in education in the period. The poems are analysed in relation to classical antecedents and to the position of Latin verse in seventeenth and eighteenth century British culture, as well as to contemporary attitudes to race, and it is suggested that they reinforce, rather than challenge, negative stereotypes.