He considerably altered the translation in details, and especially wrote a new conclusion.
The importance of this new edition, especially in relation to the conflict between the old and the new spirit in our literature, merits a fuller description than has hitherto been given. Its title-page reads:
Leonora/A Tale/Translated and altered from the/German/of Gottfried Augustus Bürger/By J. T. Stanley, Esq. F.R.S. &c./
"And these are of them,"—
Does not the idea of a God include
The notion of beneficent and good;
Of one to mercy, not revenge inclin'd,
Able and willing to relieve mankind?
A New Edition/London/Printed by S. Gosnall/For William Miller, Old Bond Street/1796.
The frontispiece of Chodowiecki is now replaced by one designed by Blake and engraved by Perry. There are head and tail pieces by the same artist.[1] Below the frontispiece are the following lines, "altered from Young" of the Night Thoughts:
Of Death affecting Forms least like himself;
I've seen, or dreamt I saw the Tyrant dress,
Lay by his Horrors, and put on his Smiles;
Treacherous he came an unexpected Guest,
Nay, though invited by the loudest Calls
Of blind Imprudence, unexpected still;
And then he dropt his Mask."[2]
The preface of the first edition is reprinted with slight changes, and a new preface, called an advertisement, explains the new issue. In this the publisher says:
- ↑ The illustrations by Blake have their special interest, both in themselves and in connecting Stanley with this eccentric but important romanticist. The first is reproduced in the Early Married Life, p. 103. It portrays a greatly elongated horse plunging in the air, breathing out flame, and spurning the earth with a similar display of fireworks. On its back is William, clutched round the waist by the terrified Lenore, William waving to an "airy crew" of creatures, mainly heads, which show joy and terror. Below are human figures, half sunk in the earth and looking up with amazement, while a naked "ghostly crew" of three men and two women dance frantically across the face of the full moon just above the horizon.
The head-piece represents the return of the soldiers from the war. At the right a husband and wife are clasped in each other's arms, a child also clinging to the father's leg. Two grenadiers with their sweethearts are in the center, "their helms bedecked with oaken boughs," and before them three youths, one blowing a reed instrument, and one with a drum. At the right Lenore and her mother look on, taking no part in the joyous return.
The tail-piece contains three figures. Lenore is starting from her couch, as if waking from a dream. William, with arms outstretched, is rushing toward her, followed by the mother close behind. This, of course, illustrates Stanley's new conclusion. - ↑ The passage is from The Complaint or Night Thoughts, Night V near the end, the paragraph beginning "He most affects the forms least like himself"; phrases are taken from some four paragraphs. This is not unlikely Blake's work, as it seems a part of the plate itself. In 1796 Blake was making designs for an elaborate edition of Young's Night Thoughts, still a popular book, and this may have accounted for his choice of a motto from that poem; see Gilchrist's Life of Blake, I, 135.
