FOOTNOTES:
[A] Tablas, in allusion to those celebrated calculations drawn up under the superintendence of this monarch, and called, after him, the Alphonsine Tables, a work truly extraordinary for the age.
[B] Some learned men question whether these two works do actually belong to the time and author to whom they are ascribed; and the improvement which the versification and language present, forms a very strong presumption in favour of this doubt.
"Again and yet again do I deplore
This injury; dissatisfied Castile
Has lost a treasure, whose rare worth, I feel,
The thoughtless nation never knew before.
She lost thy books, all unappreciated!
In funeral expiation some were thrown
To the devouring flames, and others strewn
About, in ruinous disorder spread.
Surely, in Athens, the false books of fled
Protagoras, esteemed so reprobate,
Were to the fire consigned with greater state,
When to the angry Senate they were read."
[D] Macías was a gentleman of the Grand Master's, Don Enrique de Villena. Among the ladies who attended on this nobleman was one with whose beauty our poet became captivated; and neither the seeing her married to another, the reproofs of the Grand Master, nor, in fact, the prison into which he ordered him to be consigned, could conquer his fatal attachment. The husband, fired with wrath, concerted with the alcaide of the tower in which his rival was imprisoned, and found means to dart at him, through a window, the lance he bore, and with it pierced him to the heart. Macías was at that moment singing one of the songs he had composed upon his mistress, and thus expired with her name and love upon his lips. The two qualities of troubadour and lover united in him, made him an object of celebrity, and almost of reverence, with the poets of the age. Most of them celebrated him, and his name, to which was joined the title of Enamorado, is still proverbial, as a designation for devoted lovers. The reader will not be displeased to see the verses which Mena devoted to him in the Laberinto: they may serve to show the character of that poet's fancy.
"We in this radiant circle looked so long,
That we found out Macías; in a bower
Of cypress, was he weeping still the hour
That ended his dark life and love in wrong.
Nearer I drew, for sympathy was strong
In me, when I perceived he was from Spain;
And there I heard him sing the saddest strain
That e'er was tuned in elegiac song.
'Love crowned me with his myrtle crown; my name
Will be pronounced by many, but, alas,
When his pangs caused me bliss, not slighter was
The mournful suffering that consumed my frame!
His sweet snares conquer the lorn mind they tame,
But do not always then continue sweet;
And since they caused me ruin so complete,
Turn, lovers, turn, and disesteem his flame:
Danger so passionate be glad to miss;
Learn to be gay; flee, flee from sorrow's touch;
Learn to disserve him you have served so much,
Your devoirs pay at any shrine but his:
If the short joy that in his service is,
Were but proportioned to the long, long pain,
Neither would he that once has loved, complain,
Nor he that ne'er has loved despair of bliss.
But even as some assassin or night-rover,
Seeing his fellow wound upon the wheel,
Awed by the agony, resolves with zeal
His life to' amend, and character recover;
But when the fearful spectacle is over,
Reacts his crimes with easy unconcern:
So my amours on my despair return,
That I should die, as I have lived, a lover!'"
[E] This song of Santillana, not entirely devoid either of grace or pathos, may serve as a specimen of the manner in which these writers applied their learning.
1.
First shall the singing spheres be dumb,
And cease their rolling motion,
Alecto pitiful become,
And Pluto move devotion,
Ere to thy virtues, printed deep
Within my heart, I prove
Thoughtless, or leave thine eyes to weep,
My soul, my life, my love!
2.
Successful Cæsar first shall cease
To fight for an ovation,
And force defenced Priamedes
To sign a recantation,
Ere, my sweet idol, thou shalt fret,
Neglect in me to trace,
Ere I one lineament forget
In all that charming face.
3.
Sinon shall guilelessly behave,
Thais with virtue, Cupid
Meekly—Sardanapalus brave,
And Solomon grow stupid,
Ere, gentle creature, from my mind
Thine image flits away,
Whose evermore I am, resigned
Thy biddings to obey.
4.
Swart Ethiopia shall grow chill
With wintry congelation,
Cold Scythia hot, and Scylla still
Her boiling tide's gyration,
Ere my charmed spirit shall have power
To tear itself away,
In freedom, but for one short hour,
From thy celestial sway.
5.
Lions and tigers shall make peace
With lambs, and play together,
Sands shall be counted, and deep seas
Grow dry in rainy weather,
Ere Fortune shall the influence have
To make my soul resign
Its bliss, and call itself the slave
Of any charms but thine.
6.
For thou the magnet art, and I
The needle, oh my beauty!
And every hour thou draw'st me nigh,
In voluntary duty;
Nor is this wonderful, for call
The proudest, she will feel
That thou the mirror art of all
The ladies in Castile.
[F] The Spaniards call quebrado those shorter verses which are, as it were, broken from, and intermingled with their redondillas mayores, or octosyllabic lines, as for example:
"Recuerde el alma adormida,
Avive el seso y despierte,
Contemplando
Como se pasa la vida,
Como se viene la muerte,
Tan callando."
Manrique.
They do not however strike an English ear as destitute of harmony, but it is a harmony that in any long composition would become very monotonous.
[G] These signs I think sufficient for my purpose. Whoso desires yet farther proofs may compare the ode of Torre, which begins "Sale de la sagrada," with the two canciones of Quevedo, "Pues quitas primavera al año el ceño," and "Dulce señora mia," placed in Euterpe, whence Velasquez took the verses which he cites here and there in his discourse, to prove the resemblance. He may do more; he may look in Melpomene for the funeral Silva of the Turtle, and compare it with the very beautiful cancion of Torre, to the same bird. What a troublesome ingenuity, what exaggeration, what hyperbole, what coldness in the first; what melancholy, tenderness, and sentiment in the second! It is quite impossible that the same object could produce an inspiration so different in the same fancy. The example of Lope is cited, in the poetry of Burguillos; but the real and absolute similarity that exists between these verses and the diction of Lope and Burguillos, notwithstanding the difference of subject and character, the insinuation of Lope himself, that of Quevedo in his approbation of the same poems, the conclusive authority of Montalban and Antonio de Leon, friends and cotemporaries of Lope, who attribute them to him, make the identity of Lope with Burguillos as evident, as the reasons already alleged do the diversity of Francisco de Torre and Quevedo.
[H] Luis de Leon, although a native of Granada, finished his studies and lived in Salamanca, and consequently does not contradict this general observation.
[I] The meaning of this term will be fully understood by the English reader, when he is reminded of the style of writing which was prevalent in the time of Elizabeth, under the name of Euphuism; rich specimens whereof are exhibited by the author of Waverley, in the delectable speeches of sir Piercie Shafton.
"But when to lash loose vices you aspire,
And seek to catch the true satiric fire,
All others' leaves pass over, all neglect,
But Juvenal's, the shrewd and circumspect;
None to the high court-taste with such success
Feels the town's pulse—ev'n Horace's is less."
"What of the swain Anchises shall I say,
But ask Idalian Venus by the way
Who is the gardener of those flowers of hers,
Or Ida's pencil who her fancy stirs?
Did not Ulysses farm the watery waste?
How then could he Calypso's fruitage taste?"
What ridiculous nonsense! Will any one believe that these are by the same author, and found in the same piece as the following?—
"Come, then, fair mountaineer, hide not nor flee,
Thou, by thy marriage with this stream, shalt be
Queen of the sweetest waves that in their sweep
Love to give lustre to the shady deep.
'Tis just that thou respond to love's light pain,
With kind acknowledgment, not coy disdain."
[L] One of his sapphics is written with so much delicacy and beauty that I cannot resist the temptation of translating it.
To the Zephyr.
"Sweet neighbour of the green, leaf-shaking grove,
Eternal guest of April, frolic child
Of a sad sire, life-breath of mother Love,
Favonius, zephyr mild!
If thou hast learned like me to love—away!
Thou who hast borne the murmurs of my cry;
Hence—no demur—and to my Flora say,
Say that 'I die!'
'Flora once knew what bitter tears I shed;
Flora once wept to see my sorrows flow;
Flora once loved me, but I dread, I dread
Her anger now.'
So may the Gods, so may the calm blue sky,
For the fair time that thou, in gentle mirth,
Sport'st in the air, with love benign deny
Snows to the earth!
So never may the grey cloud's cumbrous sail,
When from on high the rosy daybreak springs,
Beat on thy shoulders, nor its evil hail
Wound thy fine wings!"
"Spanish Anacreon! none your Highness meets,
But says most courteously, that though your lines
Move elegiacally sad, your sweets
Have all the tasty syrup of new wines!
They say that they should like to see each song
With scrupulous exactness, for a freak,
Translated well into Anacreon's tongue,
Your honest eyes not having seen the Greek."
Góngora.
"Although he said that all would hide from shame,
When the fine splendours of his genius came."
Lope.
[N] The eclogue of Tirsi of Figueroa, and the translation of the Aminta by Jauregui, are the only exceptions to this general decision, and the only examples that can be quoted among the ancient Spanish poets, of blank verse well constructed.
[O] The Asonante is a sort of imperfect rhyme peculiar to the Spaniards; it consists in the uniformity of the two last vowels, counting from the accent, as for example:
Tras una mariposa
Qual zagalejo símple
Corriendo por el valle
La senda á perder víne.
Their perfect rhymes are termed Consonantes.
Until the surety comes whom I oblige
With my Jerusalem, which I indite,
Prune, polish, and correct from morn till night.
Epistle to Gaspar de Barrionuevo.
What ideas of taste, correctness, elegance, and order, must the writer have had, who with such diligence and study, produced so wild a work!
If my free neck had not been broke
To strict necessity's hard yoke,
I should have seen around my head
Some honour due to merit shed,
That would have given, as honour goes,
Green lustre to its hoary snows.
I ever have invoked the laugh
Of the vile vulgar on behalf
Of love-intrigues, meet or unmeet,
Oft dashed off at a single heat;
So—but far less impolitic,
Great painters daub their canvass quick.
Lope; Eclogue to Claudio.
Achilles' pictured wrath to Greece,
In gold-illumined palaces
Decorum kept, vile flatterers shamed,
The headstrong youth with love inflamed,
The beauteous lady under ban
Of some stern sire, the rich old man
Shrewd and sententious as a Jew,
To whom are these creations due?
[S] After his death, Calderon, Moreto, and others, who in his lifetime were contented with the title of his pupils, eclipsed him in the scene, though his name was always respected as a writer. This respect was, however, daily diminishing under a more attentive observation of the principles of taste and of good models, till the representation in later days of some of his comedies with general applause served to re-establish his tottering reputation. In France, a very good translation of some of his poems, has within these few years been made by the Marquis d'Aguilar; and in England, a man respectable as well for rank and character as for learning, philosophy, and taste (Lord Holland), has published an excellent essay and criticism on his life and writings. A vicissitude sufficiently singular; and which at least proves, that although Lope may be a very faulty writer, he is yet very far from being an object of but little interest in the history of Spanish literature.
[T] Three odes of Herrera, and some fragments little interesting, are no more than an exception of this general position. Neither the Gulf of Lepanto, nor the Carolea, nor the Austriada, approach at all near to the dignity and importance of their subjects. Even in the Araucana itself, if there is any thing well painted, it is not the Spaniards, but the Indians.
[U] The author of that very delightful old work, half romance, half history, Las Guerras Civiles de Granada, whence Bishop Percy translated the ballad, "Gentle river, gentle river," has introduced amongst others a Romance which perpetuates this action; only that he attributes it to the father of Garcilasso the poet, saying that it was performed by that personage in his youth, during the siege of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella. But this is evidently a great mistake, as the surname De la Vega is ascribed to the family in chronicles of a far earlier time. This contradiction could not escape Lord Holland's perspicacity; he makes mention of it in his life of Lope de Vega, but seems somewhat disposed to doubt the truth of the story altogether, as it is related, he observes, of another knight, with little variation, in the Chronicle of Alonzo the Eleventh. But I would say, with great deference to the judgment that dictated this remark, that the popular ballads of a nation generally take their rise from some event of commanding interest, universally recognised at the time as true, and like our own beautiful ballad of Chevy Chase, perpetuate the memory thereof to long posterity, with the authority and assuredness of history. The language of this ballad, it is true, precludes us from giving it a date of greater antiquity than the author of the above imaginative work; and it may be rational to suppose that finding a Garcilasso at the siege of Granada, he chose to embellish his book as well as his hero, by ascribing to him the deed, known either from its mention in the chronicle or from current tradition. But a full confirmation of the truth of the story is, I think, to be found in the family arms; they bear, or, the words Ave Maria, Gracia Plena, per pale in letters azure; and the house of Mendoza show the same words in their scutcheon, only per pale a bend dexter, assumed, I am inclined to think, on the marriage of D. Diego Hurtado de Mendoza with Leonora de la Vega. I at one time thought that the incident specified in the Chronicle of Alonzo the Eleventh, might refer to the Garcilasso so favoured by that monarch, more particularly as Mariana gives him the surname; but subsequent research satisfies me in ascribing it to his son, which I do on the authority of Sandoval. Appended to the Chronicle of Alonzo the Wise in the British Museum, is a work by this historian with MS. notes of his own, under this title: Genealogies de algunos grandes Cavalleros que florecieron en tiempo de Don Alonzo VII. Emperador de España. Cuyos descendientes ay oy dia A. D. 1600, por Fr. Prudencio de Sandoval, predicador de la orden de San Benito. His words I have translated in the text, and there is a MS. note in the margin to much the same effect. I should have been glad to give the incident alluded to by Lord Holland, but the chronicle I consulted was printed so villanously in Gothic type, that it is little wonder I missed finding it: the reader may not however be displeased to see a translation of the Romance.[3]
[V] Don Nicolas Antonio: Bibliotheca Hispana. Art. Garcias Lassus.
[W] Don T. Tamaio de Vargas. Anotaciones, p. 45.
[X] Pelegrin. Hispania Bibliotheca, p. 579.
[Y] Sandoval: Historia de Carlos V. vol. i. fol. 428.
[Z] Sandoval, l. v. fol. 211.
[AA] Sandoval, lib. v. fol. 214, 274.
[AB] Sismondi, Histoire des Républiques Italiennes, t. xv. p. 47.
[AC] June 11th, 1525.
[AD] Naugerii Opera; Viaggio in Ispagna, p. 352.
[AE] Las Obras de Boscán y algunas de Garcilasso de la Vega, 1547.
[AF] Herrera. Anotaciones, fol. 15.
[AG] Jovii Fragmentum, p. 119, 120. Brit. Mus.
[AH] Lettere di M. Pietro Bembo, vol. i.
[AI] Petri Bembi Epistolæ, lib. vi.
[AJ] Bellaii Comment. lib. vi. p. 277.
[AK] Imhof. Histoire de Trente Fam. d'Espagne, p. 131.
[AL] There is a copy of this first edition in the British Museum, printed in old English characters.
[AM] It was supposed originally that Nemoroso was intended to represent Boscán, and that the word was formed from an allusion to his name, Bosque—nemus, as that of Salicio is an anagram of Garcilasso. Herrera was the first that combated this opinion, applying the name to Don Antonio de Fonseca, the husband of Donna Isabel Freyre, who died in childbed. [Anotaciones, p. 409, 410.] From that time this became the prevailing supposition, till D. Luis Zapata in his Miscellanea affirmed, in contradiction of it, that Antonio de Fonseca was at no time intimate with Garcilasso, whilst Boscán had been the suitor, or servidor of Donna Isabel before her marriage, to whom it is highly probable the verses in the first book of his poems were addressed, beginning—
"Señora Doña Isabel,
Tan cruel
Es la vida que consiento,
Que no mata mi tormento," &c.
For my own part, setting aside the circumstance that Nemoroso, in the second eclogue, in describing the urn of Tormes passes a handsome eulogy on Boscán, a circumstance which does not necessarily enter into the consideration, I am inclined to believe that it was Boscán who was signified, and moreover, that the eclogue was designed to commemorate the sadness they both felt in the memory of their first loves.
[AN] To obviate as much as possible the effect of this error, I have divided it into three silvas, a term quite common in Spanish, and which in a scholar's ear may, as applied to the divisions of an eclogue, have a better grace than any other that could be adopted.
[AO] "Questa battaglia sensibile tra la Ragione e il Senso, mi fa pur sovvenire d' alcuni bellissimi versi di Garcilasso de la Vega, uno de piu riguardevoli poeti della Spagna. Racconta egli in una sua Canzone, come senza avvedersene s' innamorò:
Estava yo a mirar, i peleando
En mi defensa mi Razon estaba," &c.
Della Perfetta Poesia Italiana.
[AP] Scelta di Poesie Castigliane tradotte in verso Toscano, e illustrate dal Conte Giovambatista Conti. 3 Tomi. Madrid, 1782.
[AQ] Vol. i. p. cclxv.
[AR] Aristotle: Ethici, lib. viii. c. 3.
[AS] A Valencian troubadour of the fifteenth century.
[AT] This elegant little piece has been already translated by Mr. Moore, in the notes to his Anacreon; I should not have thought of attempting it after him, had not the heroic measure which he has chosen struck me as less fitted to convey the playfulness of the original than a lighter, though more diffusive stanza.
[AU] Sandoval, l. i. cap. 40, p. 30.
[AV] Histoire du Duc d'Albe, l. i. ch. 10. p. 32.
[AW] Páxaro, or Páxara, is also a cant word, expressing sharpness or cunning. Ese es paxaro, is equivalent with the vulgar expression, he is a knowing one: hence perhaps some of the allusions that will be found in these jeux d'esprit.
THE END.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY JAMES MOYES, GREVILLE STREET.
NEW TRANSLATION
OF THE
"JERUSALEM DELIVERED."
PROPOSALS
FOR PUBLISHING BY SUBSCRIPTION
A NEW TRANSLATION
OF
TASSO,
In English Spenserian Verse.
BY J. H. WIFFEN,
AUTHOR OF "AONIAN HOURS," "JULIA ALPINULA," "THE DEATH OF MUNGO PARK," ETC.
"You will, perhaps, be inclined to laugh at the warmth with which I express myself; but I feel that the not having good modern translations of Ariosto and Tasso is a disgrace to our literature, and conceive that we are only debarred from this by Mr. Hoole's lumbering vehicle having so long stopped the way."—Stewart Rose's Letters from the North of Italy.
At a time rich beyond all former ages but that of Elizabeth, and scarcely less prodigal than that in works of imagination; at a period when our Poetry, following in the steps of our refinement as a nation, and becoming, from the industry and success with which it is cultivated, no less the theme of the aged than the passion of the young,—whilst some superior intellects of the day, in their thirst for distinction, are spending their great powers on startling and vain experiments, it were surprising if there were not some more willing to confine their ambition within the boundaries of classical study, and, tracing the improvements which English Poetry has undergone in its progress, to the Tuscan Muses as their principal source, to explore, as their adventure, the treasures confined under the golden key of Italian language. Never has the inspiration of those Muses been invoked without the most signal advantage, not only to our literature, but our language. It softened, under Chaucer, the Saxon roughness of our early tongue; it ruled and regulated the cadences of Surrey and Wyatt, till from an uncouth and often arbitrary metre, our Poetry grew into proportion, harmony, and grace; it gave to the lyres of Spenser, Milton, Collins, and Gray, much of their compass, richness, and luxury of sound. The advantages have indeed been such, and of so permanent a nature, as to lead the historians of our literature to assert, that all the grand renovations which have been made from time to time in our Poetry, have either originally sprung from the Italian school, or been promoted by it. Nor can the increasing taste for Italian literature, spread by the excellent productions of Roscoe, Foscolo, and Matthias, nor the farther cultivation and extension of it by Commentators and Translators, lead to less important results.
But little, however, has yet been accomplished in giving to England the Poets of Italy; and our writers may with justice observe, that this neglect is a disgrace to our national literature. If we except the Amynta of Tasso, recently given in a good translation by Mr. Hunt; if we except Fanshaw's old version of Guarini's Pastor Fido, so justly eulogised by Sir John Denham, Lloyd's Alfieri, and the Dante of Mr. Carey, where shall we look for adequate pictures of her thousand Spirits of Song? This deficiency has arisen from neglect, from disdain, from any thing but inability. What Italy has been in the possession of her Dantes, her Ariostos, her Petrarcas, and her Tassos, England is in her Byrons, her Scotts, her Campbells, and her Moores; not omitting others that have powers little less, if at all inferior, who might, if they desired it, by Translations almost as original in composition as are those glorious types themselves, become at once personifications of their beauties, and inheritors of their fame. The severe simplicity and wrathful grandeur of Dante is already transfused with spirit and condensity. There is perhaps but one living poet possessed of an equal versatility of talent, of the same various powers of passionate description, fancy, wit, and whim, to transfuse the Proteus-spirit of Ariosto, the Prince of Romancers; and but one gifted with an equal feeling, melody, and charm of language, who could, with a graceful hand, pour out music and lamentation from the Urn of Petrarch: but they could do it to the life; nor may it be altogether a vain expectation that some of their future hours will be consecrated to the service, and that their names will thus become consociated in immortal brotherhood with the names of these Patriarchs of Italian verse.
But if the writer does not calculate amiss, it is to a Translation of Tasso,—of Tasso, who possesses much of the sublimity and fervour, with nothing of the obscurity of Dante,—the romance and the picture, the fantasy and fire of Ariosto, without his eccentricity and caprice,—the melody, tenderness, classical elegance, and transpicuousness of Petrarch, without his subtilty: of Tasso,—who, by the specific account of Serassi, his best biographer, had passed, at the time when he was writing, through one hundred and thirty editions, and had been translated into twenty languages and dialects of Europe, that the liveliest sympathy is likely to be accorded, and the greatest favour shown, by a People whose pride must be gratified by the celebrity which he has given in his Poem to the exploits of their ancestors, with minds sufficiently imaginative to abandon themselves at will to the spells of his delightful genius, and with hearts that cannot avoid taking a warm part in the generous heroism of his Rinaldo and Tancred, in the enchanting beauty of Armida, and the yet more interesting fortunes of his sensitive Erminia.
In speaking of the ten former attempts that have been made to give Tasso an English dress, the writer has no desire to undervalue, or unjustly to decry them,—they may all have been more or less serviceable: he is admiringly alive to the harmonies and graces of our most masculine Fairfax, as well as to the stoical fidelity of antique Carew; but he cannot be blind to their great defects, still less can he shut his eyes upon those empiric pretensions and empty performances of the Usurper of their honours, which have led "the Ariosto of the North" (whom Britain also tenaciously claims for her Boccaccio) to observe with his characteristic truth and humour, that "to rescue this charming Poet from the frozen paws of poor Mr. Hoole, would be to do our literature a service at which he must rejoice." Stimulated by the approbation accorded by his mighty mind, no less than by that of other literary characters whom it would be ostentatious to mention, the task commenced under favourable auspices, and in which great progress is made, will be prosecuted with the care and devotedness which so exquisite a poet demands, and the nature of the measure chosen as most true to his genius, of necessity enforces. It has been observed that Translation is but little popular in England: to render it so with the mass of readers it may be requisite to aim at giving it the air and charm of original composition; but with the very many to whom the Italian poem must be familiar, it cannot be doubted that their pleasure must be doubled in having added to their contemplation of the original their criticism of the artist, more particularly if, as in the fine Translation of Coleridge from Schiller,—that criticism should fortunately derive gratification from his skill. Neither is the Iliad of Pope unpopular, nor Sotheby's Oberon, nor any Translator who has trod with freedom and spirit in the steps of the Master with whom he has endeavoured to identify himself. But if the name of Tasso should be insufficient to bespeak attention to a project which cannot be perfected but with great labour of thought, the Author will look for it in the story and the subject, and believe it impossible but that those who view with interest the present exertions of Christian Greece against the Mussulman Ottomite, will still find emotion and amusement in a transcript, though it may prove a too unworthy one, of the celebrated pages in which all Europe stands in banner-array against the despotic Ottomite of the Middle Ages, in a land full of the most sacred recollections.
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| Mr. James Hatchard, Pimlico. | Mr. Louis Parez, Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square. |
| Thomas Gent, Esq. | C. H. Smith, Esq. Portland Road. |
| W. Chippendall, Esq. Islington. | Mr. Richter, Soho Square. |
| John Parry, Esq. Newman Street. | Mr. Joseph Edmondson, Penketh. |
| Mr. G. Sinclair, Abbey Gardens. | S. Woolriche, Esq. |
| Richard Matthews, Esq. Histon. | G. J. Strutt, Esq. Percy Street. |
| Rob. Moyse, Esq. Denny Abbey. | Mr. J. D. Basset, Leighton, 2 Copies. |
| Edward Fordham, Esq. Royston. | Miss Whateley. |
| Mr. Marshall, Kendal. | James Harvey, Esq. Crayford. |
| R. A. Reddall, Esq. Woburn. | John Kenyon, Esq. London. |
| John Anster, Esq. Brury, Ireland. | Mr. F. C. Lewis, Paddington. |
| The Rev. W. Lisle Bowles. | Mr. Triphook, Old Bond Street. |
| Rev. Dr. Maltby. | Joseph Beldam, Esq. Royston. |
| Rev. Dr. Collyer. | Miss Lea, Broughton, near Chester. |
| Rev. George Croly. | W. Jeffery Locket, Esq. Derby. |
| Rev. Thomas Roy, Woburn. | Mr. Rich. Ratliffe, Little Brickhill. |
| Rev. Neville White, Norwich. | Mr. Benj. Abbot, Bermondsey. |
| Rev. Thomas Raffles, Liverpool. | H. Brandreth, jun. Esq. Middle Temple. |
| Rev. James Reed, Eversholt. | Mrs. Trowell, Thorn Hill, Derby. |
| Rev. John Fisher, Wavendon. | John Moilliet, Esq. |
| Rev. Richard Pain, Aspley. | Miss Todd. |
| Rev. M. Castleden, Woburn. | The London Literary Society of Friends. |
| Rev. T. Belgrave, South Kilworth. | Henry Corbould, Esq. Crescent Place, Burton Crescent. |
| Rev. W. T. Birds. | Messrs. Ogle, Duncan, and Co. Paternoster Row, 2 Copies. |
| Mr. B. Willmore, Leighton. | Messrs. Thomas and George Underwood, Fleet Street, 2 Copies. |
| Mr. Richard Oddie, Warrington. | Mr. Moyes, Greville Street. |
| Miss Taylor, Purle Hall, Batley, near Leeds. | Henry Harker, Mansfield. |
| Mrs. Howard Galton, Spring Hall. | E. Smith, Fir Vale, near Sheffield. |
| Joseph Strutt, Esq. Derby. | C. Ridgway, Leighton. |
| Miss Caroline Strutt. | Miss Becker. |
| W. Strutt, Esq. Derby. | Mr. W. Wilson, Nottingham. |
| G. B. Strutt, Esq. Belper, near Derby. | John Sharland, Leighton. |
| Mr. Lawford, Leighton. | |
| Thomas Edmonds, Esq. High Wycomb. |
In Octavo, price 5s. 6d.
JERUSALEM DELIVERED,
BOOK FOURTH:
BEING
THE SPECIMEN OF AN INTENDED NEW TRANSLATION,
In English Spenserian Verse,
WITH
A PREFATORY DISSERTATION ON EXISTING TRANSLATIONS.
BY J. H. WIFFEN.
PUBLISHED BY HURST, ROBINSON, AND CO.
90, CHEAPSIDE, AND 8, PALL MALL.
"There are certain ages in the history of the world, on which the heart dwells with interest and affection; but there are none which excite our curiosity, our admiration, and our love, more intensely than the days of chivalry."—
Campbell.
"Il existe en Angleterre plusieurs traductions de la Jérusalem Délivrée; mais elles ont presque toutes de grands défauts. Celle de Hoole est sans contredit la plus mauvaise. Fairfax en a publié une où l'on rencontre de très-beaux passages, à côté de choses triviales; il franchit souvent l'espace qui sépare le sublime du ridicule. M. Hunt a publié une traduction du poème du Tasse, mais la mesure de vers qu'il a adoptée ne convient point au poème héroique, et nuit à l'effet général: on peut aussi lui reprocher d'être diffus, et de ne pas toujours choisir le tour le plus neuf et le plus concis. M. Wiffen, si l'on en juge d'après l'essai qu'il offre au public, est appelé à faire enfin passer les beautés du poète Italien dans la langue Anglaise. Sa traduction, élégante et fidèle, a parfois le charme et la magie des vers du Tasse: on voit qu'il s'est d'abord pénétré des pensées de son modèle, afin de parvenir à les rendre sans les dénaturer, comme cela n'arrive que trop souvent aux traducteurs vulgaires."—La Revue Encyclopédique de Paris, Avril, 1822.
"In conclusion, we must state our opinion, that this Specimen is highly creditable to the taste and talents of Mr. Wiffen. He possesses strong powers of versification, which are absolutely necessary to a translator of Tasso, and he manifests a warm and vigorous imagination. His acquaintance with poetical phraseology, also, is various and extensive. A poet himself, he is delighted with his labour, and appears, like Ariel, to do 'his spiriting gently.' The task which he has undertaken is most difficult and arduous, on which the highest minds might enter with diffidence and distrust: but Mr. W. certainly has the power of producing a work which will be honourable to the literature of his country and to his own fame; and we hope he may meet with the encouragement which the attempt deserves."—Monthly Review, June, 1821.
"The present Specimen is prefaced by a sensible and liberal criticism on the merits of those who have preceded the Translator in this great work. The pretensions of Hoole, which, to the astonishment of all who are acquainted with the subject, have been so long suffered to pass unquestioned, are ably and judiciously exposed; and the version of Fairfax, so much talked of, and so little known, receives the tribute of praise which is its due, unmixed, however, with any portion of that slavish admiration which mistakes blemishes for beauties, and want of taste for exuberance of genius. The result of Mr. Wiffen's inquiry is inevitable—that a new Translation is necessary, and that at present we possess none which gives any adequate idea of the original. * * * * * But we must set limits to our extracts. Indeed, we should transcribe the whole Pamphlet, if we were to show all that has pleased and delighted us. The whole is splendidly and powerfully written, and the sense and style of the original scrupulously preserved. Some of the extracts we have given, beautifully as they are versified, are almost literal transcripts from Tasso. Most sincerely do we congratulate Mr. Wiffen on the success of his labours, and we hope that it will not be long before he fully realizes the hopes which so promising a specimen must necessarily excite."—Monthly Magazine, April, 1821.
"Upon the whole, we have never met with a translation possessing more of the spirit and interest of the original; and we can confidently recommend it to our readers as a work abounding with merit, and likely to add much to the already well-earned reputation of its author. Mr. Wiffen possesses a genuine vein of his own, and has given to the present work a life and intrinsic interest very seldom met with in productions of this class. He displays a fervency, an enthusiasm, an instinct of beauty, a seriousness of tone and manner, which accord admirably with the spirit of his author. We have no hesitation in affirming, that very many of his stanzas equal the originals in every thing but the language; and we think we could point out more than one or two that are absolutely superior."—Investigator, April, 1823.
By the same Author,
AONIAN HOURS and OTHER POEMS. Price 7s.
JULIA ALPINULA, with the CAPTIVE OF STAMBOUL, and OTHER POEMS. Price 7s. 6d.