Gottfried August Bürger

“ It takes the literary form of a modern-antique, and throws the period of the ballad back from the Seven Years' War to crusading times. Next, Sir Walter Scott, in 1796, published a version anonymously. He borrowed from his predecessor (not from Bürger) the well-known lines—
"Tramp tramp along the land they rode,
⁠Splash splash along the sea—"
(only substituting the word "along" for "across") . Considering that, according to Scott's and Taylor's translations, the lovers are riding to Hungary, the second of these lines is just as reasonable as Shakespear's "Bohemia near the Sea" ”

“ His face is not an interesting one: fleshy, with round eyes, and, save the mouth, large features. A professorship at Göttingen, without fixed salary, formed his principal dependence. Lenore, published towards 1775, was the first poem of his to fix attention, which it effectually did; there was also the equally celebrated Wild Huntsman. Unlucky in most things, Bürger was specially unlucky in his marriages, three in number. Shortly after publishing Lenore, he married a Hanoverian lady named Leonhart, and then by his misdoing consigned her, as his spectral Wilhelm did Lenore, to an early grave. ”

“ Without dwelling further upon details, I will quote here stanza 27 of the German ballad, which the reader can compare with the translated stanza:—
"Wie flog, was rund der Mond beschien,
⁠Wie flog es in die Ferne!
Wie flogen oben über hin
⁠Der Himmel und die Sterne!
"Graut Liebchen audi! Der Mond scheint hell!
Hurrah! die Todten reiten schnell!
⁠Graut Liebchen auch vor Todten?"
⁠"'O weh! Lass ruhn die Todten!'"
So far as I am aware, the first English rendering of Lenore appeared in the Monthly Magazine, done by William Taylor of Norwich, and entitled Ellenore. ”

“ Be a hope and a home and a bridegroom to thee."
"My mother, what is happiness?
⁠My mother, what is Hell?
With William is my happiness,—
⁠Without him is my Hell!
Spark of my life! down, down to the tomb:
Die away in the night, die away in the gloom!
Earth and Heaven, and Heaven and earth.
Reft of William are nothing worth."
Thus grief racked and tore the breast of Lenore,
⁠And was busy at her brain ”

“ In 1844, when Rossetti translated Lenore, this poetic invention was known to English readers as well as almost any other foreign poem that could be named: I presume that it is a good deal less familiar to the present generation. I will therefore say a few words about the ballad and its author. Gottfried August Bürger, a very ill-starred specimen of the poetic race, was born on January 1st, 1748, son of a Lutheran minister, at Molmerswende in Halberstadt. He was fond of romantic solitude, and was anything but a strict moralist. ”

“ The famous designer Retzsch made a series of outlines to Lenore, published at Leipsic in 1840, with the text in German, and likewise in an English rendering by F. Shoberl. Of all the translations that I have seen, this is the faithfullest. The metre is correctly followed, and the diction comes as close as one could demand. Many lines however are very poor, from a poetic or literary point of view. What could be more miserable than
"What ho! the dead can nimbly fly—"
instead of
"Hurrah! ”

“ This appears to be the first translation (of any sort of importance) that Dante Rossetti ever undertook. In 1842 he had begun the study of German under Dr. Adolf Heimann, of University College, London,—a most kind friend as well as excellent instructor. My brother learned the language pretty well, but not so as to have an absolute and ready mastery over it. No doubt Dr. Heimann must have coached him up to some extent when his juvenile ambition pointed to Lenore. ”

“ Literal it most certainly is not, but it is moderately faithful. He allows himself (contrary to his original) the latitude of leaving lines 1 and 3 in each stanza unrhymed and of lengthening lines 7 and 8 from three feet to four. I myself regard this latter change as a decided improvement to the ear: but my opinion is not much to the point. The most salient modification, however, is in general tone. The Lenore of Bürger is, notwithstanding its startling and grisly theme, noticeably simple in treatment: Rossetti has largely reinforced it on the picturesque or romantic side. ”