PREFACE.
In all works rendered from the German into the English tongue, the adaptation must necessarily lose much of the beauty of the original, the language of this Country being too weak and barren to convey to the mind of the reader the delicate metaphor, and redundant sentences of the German. The translator has however as closely as possible followed the style of the German, and if his readers should remark a somewhat strange expression of thought, action, or idea, they must attribute this, which may be considered a fault in English Literature, solely to his desire to make the work what in truth every translation ought to be, a faithful reflection of the original.
The translator of the “Enchanted Knights,” and of the “Demon of the ring,” need offer no reasons for introducing to the English public two of the best tales of one of the most renowned writers of fiction and legendary romance that even Germany, so prolifick in works of imagination and ghostliness, ever produced.
These stories so ingenious in their construction, so wonderful in their character, so replete with incident and adventure of the most exciting nature, but withal so clear of comprehension have met with universal favour in Germany.
Musæus, the author, was a man of deep intellect and fertile imagination, embracing at once the tact of the dramatist and the energy and enthusiasm of the romancist: capable of imparting his ideas with the utmost vividness and enchaining the attention of his readers.
But the fame of Musæus has not been confined to Germany: a translation by Paul de Kock has been published in France with very great success. Without using more words of our own in praise of the eminent romancist, we lay before the reader the opinion of Wieland, justly called the German Voltaire, and of Paul de Kock, upon the merits of this singular production.
Extract from the Preface of Paul de Kock.
“The popular Fancy Stories of Musæus are entertaining as well as moral. In every line the author excites our curiosity and amuses our imagination and at the same time neglects not to present ridicule in its true light, to chastise vice, and to throw irony and satire upon folly and prejudice.
If Musæus had only written the Chronicle of the Three Sisters that story alone would have been sufficient to establish his reputation, and to place him upon a level with the first authors of Germany. None of the tales of the Thousand and one Nights—so rich in beauties and wonders—can enter the lists against this production, in which the author has lavished all the treasures of fairyism, and joined to the most extraordinary tales, an interesting story of which the progress in the midst of the most fantastical events is always clear and not interrupted at every instant by episodes foreign to the tale, as in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. The plan of suspending one tale to begin another, and then suspending that to begin a third, tires the attention of the reader, who obliged to follow up three stories instead of one, loses sight of the events in the early portion of the work before he has half perused it, or else he is compelled to pause to arrange in his mind the events of the narrative, lest he should confound the different tales, and thus grows weary of the work which, instead of diverting fatigues.
Musæus cannot be reproached with this fault; his stories are never crossed by new tales, and the reader arrives untired at the denouement. The “Chronicle of the Three Sisters” presents everything that can be expected from a work of this kind. The marvellousness of the subject, the charm of the descriptions, the fantasticalness of the enchantments, make these tales powerfully interesting, so that the reader can scarcely leave off before he reaches the conclusion. If his works seem frivolous to some persons who disdain all which belongs not to high literature, there are others who will be much gratified in the opportunity of indulging, after their more grave occupations in the perusal of these tales, and will be glad to experience again in mature age some of the sensations which charmed their youthful days.”
Extract from the Preface of Wieland.
“This work in its kind is one of the best publications of late years—so rich in the most splendid literary productions. The tales it contains may be, without the slightest danger, put into the hands of every youth. Far from corrupting the heart they are, on the contrary, adapted to develope in young heads the ideas which ought to germ there. At my age (seventy), I have consecrated considerable time to superintend a new edition of this work. That is, I think, a sufficient proof that I consider its perusal far from dangerous.”