translations.[1] It is my good fortune to have seen the copy possessed by Miss Adeane, a granddaughter of Maria Holroyd, the copy used by Mr. Stanley himself in preparing both the second and the new editions, and containing emendations in his own hand. Its title-page reads:
Leonora/A Tale/translated freely from the/German/of/Gottfried Augustus Bürger/"Poetry hath Bubbles, as the water hath:/"And these are of them"—/London/Printed for William Miller/Old Bond Street/1796.
The frontispiece is a plate by D. Chodowiecki (spelled Chodowiecke) and engraved by Harding, one of the eight made by Chodowiecki for the first collected edition of Bürger's Gedichte in 1778.[2] It portrays William, with Lenore on the horse behind him, dashing through the gates into the city, i. e. Prague. In the clouds above him the devil, blowing a horn, is encircled by eight naked devlets dancing in a ring. Below is the Icelandic motto,
At the bottom of the page, "London Printed for W. Miller, Old Bond Street." The preface covers pages v to viii. Before the poem is a head-piece, picturing William at the left in the attitude of the dying gladiator, his horse lying dead at the right; horsemen and a fortress are in the middle distance. The tail-piece is a cupid with torch reversed, sleeping on a new-made grave, a full moon in the sky. Both these pieces are by J. Harding.
The preface, which I infer was written by Mr. Stanley though signed by the publisher, explains the issue of the translation as follows:
The following little Poem was translated by a respectable friend of the publisher, who, being favoured with a perusal, was much pleased with its wild originality; and he has thought himself fortunate in obtaining permission to lay it before the public.
- ↑ It is the edition reviewed in the Monthly Mirror of March, 1796, not Dec., 1795, as by Brandl, who seems to have been misled by the date of the first number in the bound volume. The anonymity of this edition is attested by this review. It gives no name of translator in its heading of the article, and closes with: "The public are indebted to Mr. Miller [the publisher] for this fantastic little work, which betrays all the singularities of the German muse."
- ↑ See Sauers, Bürger's Gedichte, Einleitung, lxiii. Brandl describes the second edition as the one with the frontispiece by Chodowiecki (Characteristiken, I, 244 f.), but he had probably not seen the first edition.
- ↑ The Icelandic motto below the frontispiece is apparently Stanley's, as it does not occur in the first collected edition of Bürger, for which the plate was made by the Polish artist. It is not unlikely that, in preparation for his expedition to Iceland, Stanley may have made some study of the older language. Perhaps it may be noted that Gray gives a brief quotation from Icelandic before each of his Icelandic translations.
The motto is appropriate, as will be seen from its meaning: "Go (fare) thou now where all fiends may have thee."
