LONGFELLOW'S ORIGINALITY.
(Vol. viii., p. 583.)
J. C. B. has noticed "the similarity of thought, and even sometimes of expression," between "The Reaper and the Flowers" of this popular writer, and a song by Luise Reichardt. But a far more extraordinary similarity than this exists between Mr. Longfellow's translation of a certain Anglo-Saxon metrical fragment, entitled "The Grave" (Tegg's edit. in London Domestic Library, p. 283.) and the literal translation of the same piece by the Rev. J. J. Conybeare, transcribed by Sharon Turner in Hist. Ang. Sax., 8vo. edit. 1823, vol. iii. p. 326. With the exception of a few verbal alterations, indeed, which render the fact of the plagiarism the more glaring, the two translations are identical. I place a few of the opening and
concluding lines of each side by side, and would ask if the American poet has the slightest claim to the authorship of that version, to which he has affixed the sanction of his name.
Conybeare's Translation.
"For thee was a house built
Ere thou wert born,
For thee was a mould shapen
Ere thou of mother camest.
"Who shall ever open
For thee the door
And seek thee,
For soon thou becomest loathly,
And hateful to look upon."
Longfellow's Translation.
"For thee was a house built
Ere thou wast born
For thee was a mould meant
Ere thou of mother camest.
"Who will ever open
The door for thee
And descend after thee,
For soon thou art loathsome,
And hateful to see."
Wm. Matthews.
Cowgill.