The Dunghill Fight: Maurice Wheeler’s translation of Polemo-Middinia from the Oxford edition

Abstract

ABSTRACT I present a case study of the translation practice of Maurice Wheeler (1647/8-1727), compiler of the first Oxford Almanack. Using the edition published by Edmund Gibson in 1692, Wheeler translated William Drummond of Hawthornden’s Polemo-Middinia as The Dunghill Fight, and bound it alongside Gibson’s edition as a kind of appendix. I edit this translation from the unique manuscript in the Bodleian, and place it in the context of Wheeler’s life and varied interests. My annotations show how Gibson’s footnotes shaped Wheeler’s readings, attesting to the influence of editorial apparatus, conjecture, and interpretation in reception history. My introduction considers Wheeler’s other writings and his neglected place in the Oxford antiquarian firmament through his correspondence with men such as William Wake and Edward Lhwyd. I also discuss the evidence for his authorship of a schoolbook published in 1695, whose remarks on English verse offer a parallel to his take on Drummond’s poem.