The poem of Taubah, and the comments on it, are taken from C.J.L. Lyall's "Translations of Ancient Arabic Poetry, chiefly prae-Islamic" (1885), P. 76.
The Hebrew text of Moses ibn Ezra's poem—cited with reference to the figure of love surviving the grave—may be found in Kaempf's Zehn Makamen (1858), p. 215. A German translation is given, I believe, in the same author's Nichtandalusische Poesie andalusischer Dichter.
Many Hebrew love-poems, in German renderings, are quoted in Dr. A. Sulzbach's essay, Die poetische Litteratur (second section, Die weltliche Poesie), contributed to the third volume of Winter and Wunsche's Jüdische Litteratur (1876). His comments, cited in my essay, occur in that work, p. 160. Amy Levy's renderings of some of Jehudah Halevi's love songs are quoted by Lady Magnus in the first of her "Jewish Portraits." Dr. J. Egers discusses Samuel ha-Nagid's "Stammering Maid" in the Graetz Jubelschrift (1877), pp. 116-126.
GEORGE ELIOT AND SOLOMON MAIMON
The Autobiography of Solomon Maimon (1754-1800) was published in Berlin (1792-3) in two parts, under the title Salomon Maimon's Lebensgeschichte. Moses Mendelssohn befriended Maimon, in so far as it was possible to befriend so wayward a personality. Maimon made real contributions to philosophy.
The description of Daniel Deronda's purchase of the volume is contained in ch. xxxiii of the novel. In Holborn, Deronda came across a "second-hand book-shop, where, on a narrow table outside, the literature of the ages was represented in judicious mixture, from the immortal verse of Homer to the mortal prose of the railway novel. That the mixture was judicious was apparent from Deronda's finding in it something that he wanted—namely, that wonderful piece of autobiography, the life of the Polish Jew, Salomon Maimon."
The man in temporary charge of the shop was Mordecai. This is his first meeting with Deronda, who, after an intensely dramatic interval, "paid his half-crown and carried off his 'Salomon Maimon's Lebensgeschichte' with a mere 'Good Morning.'"
HOW MILTON PRONOUNCED HEBREW
Milton's transliterations are printed in several editions of his poems; the version used in this book is that given in D. Masson's "Poetical Works of Milton," in, pp. 5-11. The notes of the late A.B. Davidson on Milton's Hebrew knowledge are cited in the same volume by Masson (p. 483). Landor had no high opinion of Milton as a translator. "Milton," he said, "was never so much a regicide as when he lifted up his hand and smote King David." But there can be no doubt of Milton's familiarity with the original, whatever be the merit of the translations. To me, Milton's rendering of Psalm lxxxiv seems very fine.
The controversy between the advocates of the versions of Rous and
Barton—which led to Milton's effort—is described in Masson, ii, p. 312.