The Life, Travels, and Literary Career of Bayard Taylor

by Russell H. Conwell

Belongs but to the elements.”

—Faust.

Some portions of Bayard Taylor’s life have been but lightly touched upon in the previous chapters, because the writer felt that if mentioned in their chronological order, he would be compelled to repeat them when he should reach this chapter. In fact, the history of Taylor’s translation of “Faust,” which we propose here to outline, so far as we have been able to learn it, necessarily includes the whole life of Mr. Taylor, from his first visit to Germany to the day when his mortal body gave way under its accumulated load of work. “Faust” was intimately interwoven with all the threads of his life; and whenever Messrs. Houghton, Osgood & Co. publish another edition of Taylor’s translation, they could not better please and instruct the public than by prefacing it with a synopsis of Mr. Taylor’s life, wherein “Faust” was his inspiration and guide.

It appears that when he began the study of the German language at Heidelberg, one of the books used by him contained a selection from the First Part of Goethe’s “Faust.” His instructors and companions there were delighted with Goethe’s works, and, with pride, mentioned him as Germany’s greatest man. Meeting him, as it did, on the very threshold of the language, at a time when there was a romance about the country, and a fascination in the language which only youthful ambition could give, he was ambitious to know more about the master-mind, and sought those works which contained the requisite information.

At Frankfort, he found the works of Goethe and Schiller, and was fortunately a member of a household where those authors were admired and often quoted. He was told, as he afterwards declared, that if he knew enough of German to read Goethe and Schiller, it was all that he would need to know of the language. How much that remark included he did not at the time comprehend, and declared, when his translation was in print, that he did not feel sure that he was able to read all of Goethe as Goethe intended it should be read, and that there were very few Germans who understood the wonderful figures and metaphors found in Goethe’s “Faust.” Being of an ambitious temperament, which would not be satisfied with any half-performed task, but which, nevertheless, aimed at the highest achievements, he conceived the idea, as early as 1850, of translating into English the greatest work of Goethe. He could not at that time comprehend how vast an undertaking he had assumed. It required something more than a mere knowledge of words to be able to translate accurately and fully; and it was no light task for a person to master the common meaning of all the words and compounds which Goethe so recklessly used.

But when it became necessary not only to be able to give the meaning of each word by substituting in its stead one of another language, but also to give the sense and shades of meaning which the words in combination convey to a reader of the original, then the task became formidable. But that was not all. As Goethe, like every great genius, had many eccentricities, as he drew many of his illustrations from events in his own experience and scenes which he had visited, it was necessary to a full understanding of the great theme, to study Goethe’s characteristics, habits of thought, education, and experience.

In short, if one were to translate Goethe, he must be like Goethe in experience and mental composition. He must know what Goethe knew; must look upon man and his complicated life as Goethe looked upon it in his time and circumstances. To the work of education and self-discipline Mr. Taylor applied himself most assiduously.

Twice, when some new difficulty presented itself which he had not foreseen, he became discouraged and resolved to give up the enterprise. Once was when the appearance of Rev. Charles T. Brooks’ translation seemed to forestall him in his hope for a profitable sale of the book; and once when he saw with unusual clearness the great difficulty of obtaining words in the English language which should not only express the meaning, but do so in acceptable rhyme.

But those discouraging facts were soon surmounted or forgotten in the great passion of his literary life and the study of the language, manners, and beliefs of the German people was not abandoned.