1796,[1] was well received, especially as compared with Pye's. The Critical Review of July, 1796, says:
Turning to the translation itself [as distinct from the designs] we find it faithful and spirited. In the latter part particularly, we think Mr. Spencer has clearly the advantage over his two competitors. Our readers will judge from the following extract—[gives last four stanzas, of which the last is]
Collected roll his nostrils round;
High reared his bristling mane he shakes,
And sinks beneath the rending ground.
Demons the thundering clouds bestride,
Ghosts yell the yawning tombs beneath:
Leonora's heart, its life-blood dried,
Hangs quiv'ring on the dart of death![2]
Outside the Reviews we have some evidence that Mr. Spencer's version was especially appreciated by those likely to be influenced by his connection with a noble house. Attention has already been called to the admiration of Miss Seward when she received a copy from Lord Bagot. She says at the beginning of her letter to Miss Wingfield, July 19, 1796:
And now I must proudly boast to you of Lord Bagot's goodness. He has honoured me with an obliging billet, accompanied by a very acceptable literary present. It is a superb book,— A German poem entitled Leonora and translated by Mr. Spencer. I apprehend the fine poetic talents of that gentleman have done much more than justice to the sublimity of his author's ideas. This tale of despairing love, reaches the ne-plus-ultra of horrific greatness.[3]
She then follows with the quotation regarding Taylor's translation already given on p. 31.
- ↑ It has not been noticed that each of the plates in the book bears a date of publication. In all but one the statement is Publish'd June 1, 1796, by E. & S. Harding, Pall Mall; in one of the tail-pieces, Published by E. & S. Harding, Pall Mall, July 1, 1796. The latter date is doubtless correct, as even this would be in time for the July Reviews.
There are four full-page plates besides the frontispiece, and head and tail pieces for both the German and English versions of the poems. The frontispiece, etched by Bartolozzi from Lady Diana's drawing, shows the sarcophagus of Leonora on which a winged child places a wreath as he turns away in mourning. On the other side another winged child holds a garland of flowers, as he gazes at the great pall, supported by two skeletons, on which is written Leonora's name. Above is another winged child bearing a lacerated heart toward heaven. The other full-page plates, three of them engraved by Harding, one by A. Birrell, represent 1) Wilhelm on horseback with Leonora ready to mount; 2) the meeting of the "funeral train"; 3) the "spectres of the guilty dead" following at William's bidding; 4) Wilhelm a skeleton, aiming the "dart of death" at the swooning Leonora, with ghostly figures to right and left, and the open grave.
The head and tail-pieces are all engraved by Bartolozzi. The left head-piece represents two naked children decorating a helm and corselet which they have placed upon the stump of a tree. In the distance are a city, no doubt Prague, and companies of soldiers parading on the plain, or perhaps being led against the city. The right head-piece is the seated figure of a female child plaiting a wreath, a village in the distance. The tail-piece represents winged child figures in mourning, the one at the left beside Wilhelm's tomb, the one at the right beside Leonora's. - ↑ Critical Review XVII, 307.
- ↑ Letters of Anna Seward, IV, 314.
