FAIRFAX'S TRANSLATION OF TASSO.
On referring to my memoranda, I find that the copy of Fairfax's translation of the Gerusalemme Liberata of Tasso, containing the third variation of the first stanza, noticed in my last, has the two earliest pages reprinted, in order that the alteration might be more complete, and that the substitution, by pasting one stanza over another (as the book is usually met with) might not be detected. A copy with the reprinted leaf is, I apprehend, still in the library of the late William Wordsworth; and during the last twenty years I have never been able to procure, or even to see, another with the same peculiarity.
The course with the translator was, no doubt, this: he first printed his book as the stanza appears under the pasted slip; this version he saw reason to dislike, and then he had the slip printed with the variation, and pasted over some copies not yet issued. Again he was dissatisfied, and thinking he could improve, not only upon the first stanza, but upon "The Argument" by which it was preceded, he procured the two pages to be reprinted. It is, however, by no means clear to me that, after all, Fairfax liked his third experiment better than his two others: had he liked it better, we should, most probably, have found it in more copies than the single one I have pointed out.
As your readers and contributors may wish to see "The Argument" and first stanza as they are given in Mr. Wordsworth's exemplar, I transcribe them from my note-book, because, before I gave the book away, I took care to copy them exactly:—
THE ARGUMENT.
"God sends his angell to Tortosa downe:
Godfrey to counsell cals the Christian Peeres,
Where all the Lords and Princes of renowne
Chuse him their general: he straight appeeres
Mustring his royall hoast, and in that stowne
Sends them to Sion, and their hearts upcheeres.
The aged tyrant, Judaies land that guides,
In feare and trouble to resist provides.
"I sing the sacred armies and the knight
That Christ's great tombe enfranchis'd and set free.
Much wrought he by his witte, much by his might,
Much in that glorious conquest suffred hee:
Hell hindered him in vaine: in vaine to fight
Asia's and Affrick's people armed bee;
Heav'n favour'd him: his lords and knights misgone
Under his ensigne he reduc'd in one."
I own that, to my ear and judgment, this is no improvement upon what we may consider the author's second attempt, although I think that the slip pasted over some (if not most) copies is better than the first experiment.
THE HERMIT OF HOLYPORT.