Posted by
Buster Foghorn on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 4:52:33 PM
This is a review of: Boethius: Fortune’s Prisoner: The Poems of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy.
There are many translations of The Consolation of Philosophy (The Consolation), the influential classic written about an imaginary conversation Boethius has with Lady Philosophy while awaiting his execution. So why read Fortune’s Prisoner? How is it different? How is it better?
After reading a translation of The Consolation of Philosophy by David R. Slavitt, in the original style of prosimetric text (alternating prose and verse), I turned to this James Harpur edition offering a collection of just the thirty nine poems. And I am glad I did.
There are several good reasons to purchase this book in addition to a translation of The Consolation. The poems stand together as a complete work by themselves. They are thoughtful, and they are beautiful. Additionally, the author has added several features that I found contributed to a better understanding of the text and verse. First, Appendix II has an excellent overview of each of the five books of The Consolation. Additionally, Harpur gives each of the verses a title, helping the reader to focus on a key idea covered in the poem, and thus meets his stated objective “to suggest the poem’s theme and provide a little orientation.” Furthermore, most of the verses include one or two epigraphs taken either from the verse itself or from an outside source. I enjoyed these thoughtful quotations, and I found they also furthered my understanding of the theme and my enjoyment of the verse. Further, I believe they met the objective of the author: to demonstrate that “Boethius was part of a philosophical and spiritual tradition extending backwards and forwards from his time: indeed ... He preserved and transmitted this tradition.” Fortune’s Prisoner is well worth your consideration.