The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore: a Study in English and German Romanticism/Chapter 4

by Oliver Farrar Emerson

IV. The Version of Pye.

The publication of Stanley's Leonora not only resulted in the speedy issue of William Taylor's first version of the poem, but also in a new translation by Henry James Pye, the poet laureate. That Mr. Stanley's first version was primarily in Pye's mind is clear from the first paragraph of the Advertisement which preceded it:

This attempt would not have appeared, to anticipate a promised translation of the same Tale by the pen of a young poet of illustrious birth, with ornaments by the pencil of elegance and beauty, had there not been one already published. Between that publication and this there can be no competition, as that is a free paraphrase, and this a translation line by line, and as near the original as the restraints of versification, and the idiom and genius of the different languages would admit. A closer version would, in some places, have been ridiculous, and in others profane.

The reference to the "free paraphrase" "already published" must be to Stanley's version, and to his use of "freely translated" on his title-page. The allusion to "a promised translation of the same tale by the pen of a young poet of illustrious birth" is as clearly to the version of Mr. Spencer, thus indicated as already announced. Besides, the purpose to make a more literal translation than the "free paraphrase," "a translation line by line," would indicate that Pye was primarily influenced by Stanley's effort. Was that alone responsible for Pye's poem?

It would seem so but for a statement in the Dictionary of National Biography, which must be examined. In the article on William Taylor it says that Pye's translation was made as early as 1782. This is based upon a reference by Herzfeld,^[1] from the Tableau de l'Allemagne et de la littérature allemande, par un Anglois à Berlin pour ses amis a Londres (1782). In this the writer says of Bürger's ballad: J'en connois une traduction anglaise que le traducteur a communiqué à quelques-uns de ses amis; mais le ridicule que ceux-ci ont jetté sur ce poème l'a empêché de la faire paraitre." Such a statement is proof enough that some English translation of Lenore was in existence as early as 1782, but surely not necessarily that it was Pye's. Indeed, to jump from this slight allusion to Pye, rather than to any of the other known translators, seems wholly unwarranted. The case must be regarded as distinctly unproved.

Of course it still remains a possibility that Pye's translation may have been intended by the allusion in the Tableau de l'Allemagne, although we have no knowledge of Pye's having been in Berlin, or of how the Englishman then residing there knew of Pye's version. In fact so little is known of Pye's life, except on its public side during his membership in parliament, that even a conjecture is hazardous. It is true that in 1775 Pye began his career as a verse writer by making verse translations, though so far as we know of the classics only. It is possible that, in this translation period, he may have turned to German, since his version of Lenore shows his later knowledge of that language. Yet, on the other hand, it seems more likely that, knowing German as he did and noting Mr. Stanley's emphasis upon his "freely translated" of the title-page, Pye set himself at once to prepare a closer rendering of the original. At least any question of an earlier date for Pye's poem must still be regarded as in the highest degree uncertain.^[2]

The question might also come why Pye did not mention Taylor's translation in his preface. Indeed Mr. W. W. Greg has expressed the opinion that the "free paraphrase" was Taylor's.^[3] But there is little on which to base this suggestion. The Monthly Magazine in which Taylor's version appeared could not have been printed before Pye wrote his advertisement, and probably not before his book was issued. The reference to the latter as among the new publications in the Monthly Magazine for April, is clear evidence that Pye could not have printed much, if any before April first. As already shown the Monthly Magazine was printed at the close of the month, not at the beginning, as with magazines today. The evidence all indicates that Pye's and Taylor's versions were printed almost, if not quite simultaneously, and that Pye could have referred only to Stanley's Leonora in his preface.

It must be accepted, then, that Pye's publication, and probably the composition of his poem were the result of Stanley's issue of his first version. Although the advertisement is not dated, too, Pye's translation could hardly have appeared much before April first, and it seems more reasonable to believe that the exact date of issue. The title-page reads as follows:

Lenore/A/Tale/From the German of/Gottfried Augustus Burger/By/Henry James Pye/οἱ δὲ μὴ τὸ φοβερὸν . . . ἀλλὰ τὸ τερατῶδες μόνον παραστκευάζοντες οὐδὲν τραγῳδίᾳ κοινωνοῡσιν/London/Printed for the author/And sold by Samson Low, No. 7, Berwick Street, Soho./1796.

Apart from the first paragraph, already quoted, Pye's advertisement has little except an explanation of the Greek motto of the title-page, and the pronunciation of the German name Lenore, the final e of which, he is careful to say, must be pronounced.

Of the Greek motto placed on his title-page Pye says in his preface:

The motto prefixed deviates from the usual partiality of translators. This little poem, from the singularity of the incidents, and the wild horror of the images, is certainly an object of curiosity, but it is by no means held up as a pattern for imitation.

He thus condemns the poem which he had translated, and which was already making some noise in England, by these words of Aristotle: "But those [poets] who produce not the terrible, but the marvelous only, have nothing in common with tragedy."^[4] Perhaps this is the best evidence of how far Pye missed the romantic spirit which actuated Bürger in writing the ballad, and which appealed so strongly to the rising romanticism of such men as Scott and Coleridge, as of William Taylor among the other translators.

Pye's literalness in translation, so much emphasized in his advertisement, did not save his version from the mediocrity characterizing all his work. As we have seen the Critical Review did not place his effort above Stanley's even in exactness.^[5] The Monthly Mirror and the Monthly Review both give precedence to Stanley's translation.^[6] The only really favorable comment on Pye's poem, so far as I have found, is in the obituary of the laureate in the Gentleman's Magazine of Sept., 1813. Yet the value of the notice is rendered nugatory by the absurd criticism of Bürger. I give it as a curiosity:

Of the several translations of this Tale which have appeared, Mr. Pye's is esteemed the best; but neither English morals nor English taste are likely to be benefitted by the translations of such poems as 'Lenore.'^[7]

Indeed, Pye's translation of Bürger may be dismissed at once as the least important of those appearing in this prolific year.

 

1. William Taylor von Norwich, p. 21-22. This reference is not given in the article cited, but I have it from the writer of the article, the Rev. Alexander Gordon himself.
2. "If I were to hazard another conjecture regarding the translator of the Tableau, it would be that it may have been the Rev. Benj. Beresford, who did print another translation of Lenore in a Collection of German Ballads and Songs, Berlin 1799, by the translator of the German Erato (misprinted Grotto) in Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica. Whether he was in Berlin so early or not, Beresford is said by Watt to have been "formerly lecturer to the late Queen of Prussia," and he had published, as early as 1782. A Narrative . . . of Mr. B's marriage to Miss Hamilton. He was thus old enough to have begun his translations in 1782.
   Frequent errors have been made regarding this translation of Lenore and its author. Brandl gives merely "Leonora übersetzt von Rev. Beresford (der lang in Berlin geweilt) um 1800 in einer Sammlung deutscher Melodien, abgedruckt in der Specimens of German Lyric Poetry 1821." Greg (Mod. Quar. of Lang, and Lit. II, 13 f.) says "translated by the Rev. J. Beresford," and Professor H. A. Beers (Hist, of Engl. Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century p. 392) makes the more deliberate statement: "A sixth translation, by the Rev. James Beresford, who had lived some time in Berlin, came out in 1800; and Schlegel and Brandl unite in pronouncing this the most faithful, if not the best, English version of the ballad." A Rev. Jas. Beresford did publish some works (see Dict. of Nat. Biog.) but he did not translate this version of Lenore.
3. Modern Quarterly of Language and Literature II, 13f. Brandl had even suggested that the reference was to Scott's version, but to this Mr. Greg demurs in the article above. Scott's translation was not in existence when Pye probably wrote his advertisement, and at any rate he could not possibly have seen it before his own version was published. See the later discussion of Scott and his translation.
4. In his Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, Butcher translates, or partly paraphrases the passage: "Those who . . create a sense not of the terrible but only of the monstrous, are strangers to the purpose of Tragedy."
5. See quotation on p. 21.
6. See quotations on p. 22.
7. Gentleman's Magazine, N. S. LXXXIII, 293.