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]
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ "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.
