Aristotle: "But those [poets] who produce not the terrible, but the marvelous only, have nothing in common with tragedy."[1] 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.[2] The Monthly Mirror and the Monthly Review both give precedence to Stanley's translation.[3] 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.'[4]
Indeed, Pye's translation of Bürger may be dismissed at once as the least important of those appearing in this prolific year.
V. The Leonora of W. R. Spencer.
The fourth translator of Bürger's Lenore in 1796 has already been mentioned in connection with Mr. Stanley. The translation to be published next after Pye's, and Taylor's first version in the Monthly Magazine, was that of Mr. W. R. Spencer. The circumstances of its inception have also been made clear from the letter of Maria Josepha Holroyd, quoted on page 11. As already noted, also, Mr. Stanley's lending of his translation to Lady Diana Beauclerk probably occurred in the latter part of 1795, and this sufficiently dates the beginning of Mr. Spencer's undertaking.[5]
The nephew of Lady Diana, who was to "improve" Stanley's
- ↑ 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."
- ↑ See quotation on p. 21.
- ↑ See quotations on p. 22.
- ↑ Gentleman's Magazine, N. S. LXXXIII, 293.
- ↑ See p. 15, and footnote.
