Englishing The Lusiad. Richard Fanshawe?s translation of Os Lusíadas and its relation with the contemporary English political context

Os Lusíadas, by the Portuguese poet Luís de Camões, was first translated into English at a

time of profound social and political uncertainty. Published in 1655 during the Interregnum, and

translated by Sir Richard Fanshawe (1608-1666), a loyal royalist and courtier of Charles I, The

Lusiad became the first translation of the epic to be made outside of the Iberian Peninsula, and the

first major literary exchange between Portugal and England. In addition to its foundational role in

bringing Portuguese literature into England, the timing of The Lusiad's publication and the political

allegiances of its translator raise the possibility that, in its first iteration in English, Camões's epic

was re-shaped by the political context in which it was produced.

This thesis re-visits the first English translation of Os Lusíadas in order to ascertain to what

extent and in what way the Portuguese epic was shaped by the British political environment of the

1650s. It closely examines the life and career path of Richard Fanshawe that led to the choice of

Camões's epic as an object of translation and how that choice changed his life in the aftermath of

the Restoration, effectively making him the ideal candidate for the post of Ambassador to Portugal.

It performs a close reading of the translation and its accompanying paratexts in relation to the

context of the publication, identifying and highlighting the elements that Fanshawe consciously

refashioned to address the specific problems Britain faced in the mid-seventeenth century.

Englishing The Lusiad argues that Richard Fanshawe performed a specific kind of

appropriation of its object by subtly redirecting themes and scenes in the original Portuguese text

towards the events of the English Civil Wars and the Interregnum.