Oliver Farrar Emerson

“ Not only is the wedding guest most important in Coleridge's poem, but other wedding guests are seen through opened doors in the distance, as William tells his bride in Taylor's translation,
"The wedding guests thy coming waite,
The chamber dore is ope."
The beating of the breast by the wedding guest in his impatience is paralleled by the same action of Lenore in her grief for the lost William. The roaring of the on-coming wind as heard by the mariner is like the blasts that "athwart the hawthorne hiss" in the Taylor poem. ”

“ Indeed, the translators of Bürger's most famous poem were merely returning to its native land an originally English ballad, which had inspired the most successful of the German ballad imitators.
Yet the slight acquaintance of Englishmen with Germany fully explains the lack of literary influence from that source. Throughout the eighteenth century the literary relations of England and the personal relations of Englishmen had been with France and Italy. In the early part of the century an Englishman would have been about as likely to visit Russia in travel, as any part of Germany. ”

“ He is the eldest son of Sir John Stanley, Bart., of Cheshire, has been in Iceland, published an account thereof, has translated a Poem from the German called Leonora—with considerable additions of his own, is, for anything I know to the contrary, an F. R. S., and what is more, has the most amiable feeling heart I believe a Man can be possessed of, and what is still more, if faith is to be put in Words, Actions and Looks—loves me with the most perfect Love. . . . As to description of the outside of the Man you perhaps would not be enchanted with his first appearance. ”

“ In Edinburgh, according to Scott's Imitations of the Ancient Ballad, Henry Mackenzie had lectured on German literature as early as 1788, but even this had produced little immediate effect.
This late influence of Germany on English literature of the eighteenth century is also the more remarkable, because the Germans had long recognized the inspiration of English masters. Shakespeare and Milton for the older periods had already been studied and imitated in Germany, as well as numerous writers of the eighteenth century, notably Thomson, Richardson and Goldsmith. ”

“ William Taylor's interest in German literature is well known, but some additional facts may now be given regarding his translation of this particular poem. To do this we must review briefly certain parts of his life. He was the son of a prosperous tradesman of Norwich, where he was born in 1765. His most important early schooling began at Palgrave near Diss, Norfolk, in 1774. At the head of the school in these years was the Rev. Rochemont Barbauld, husband of the more famous Anne Letitia Aikin, the Mrs. Barbauld of English literature, who also assisted in the school. ”

“ Wilberforce—everything that was everything, and everything that was nothing, flocked to Leonora; and here, since my return, the fame of this business having travelled from Buxton hither, the same curiosity has prevailed. Its horrible graces grapple minds and tastes of every complexion. Creatures that love not verses for their beauty, like these for their horrors. [12]
Thus, at least in certain quarters, did the sedate and serious English mind respond to the new romanticism.
Mr. Spencer's translation of Bürger was to receive one further flattering notice from an eminent woman. ”

“ Lewis, the Monk-man, is about to publish a compilation of ballads, a superb quarto I understand, with prints. He has applied to me for some of mine, and to some person who had translated 'Lenore,' and to whom your translation had been attributed; so that instead of yours he has hampered himself with a very inferior one. I suppose he will get rid of it and request yours. [23]
Taylor's answer to Southey perhaps indicates something of the chagrin he may rightly have felt at the preference shown for another version less excellent than his own. ”

“ Stanley's translation for her designs, was William Robert Spencer, son of Charles Spencer, second son of the third Duke of Marlborough. Educated at Harrow and Oxford he lived without taking part in public life, or distinguishing himself in any way except as a social favorite. As such he was the friend of statesmen like Pitt and Fox and Sheridan, as he was later to be the friend of Byron and Moore and the London representatives of the new literature. Beginning with his translation of Bürger, too, he was to be something of a minor poet, as well as a wit and popular member of society. ”

“ It is the wildest and oddest of all terrible things, and has made considerable noise amongst our few poetic readers. [She notes the relation of Lenore to the English Sweet William's Ghost, and thinks Bürger was also influenced by the Scripture 'Death on his white horse.'] The short abrupt measure of the translation before mentioned, suits the rapidity of a midnight journey of a thousand miles. The German poet has given a great accession of sublimity, in spite of the vulgarness of cant phrases, used for the purpose of picturesque sound. ”

“ Other faulty rimes are joy—victory; o'er—star; noise—voice; seat thee—await thee; arose—pursues; door—tower; scared — heard; bone—skeleton; heaven—forgiven. The homonyms fare—fair are once used, the identical rime thee—thee, and the eye rimes come—home. [25] These faulty rimes were probably the principal reason why M. G. Lewis did not wish to use, for his Tales of Wonder, Scott's William and Helen, although he had desired to have it when it was read to him in London by William Erskine, Scott's friend. ”

“ Supernatural incidents are the darling subjects of his countrymen. Their minds vigorously conceive, and their language nobly expresses the terrible and majestic: and it must be allowed, that in this species of writing they would force from our nation the palm of excellence, were it not secured by the impregnable towers of Otranto. ”

“ It is difficult to say which is the best—they have all their different degrees of merit. Mr. Pye's is nearest to the original, but has less spirit than Spencer's, and less simplicity than Stanley's. The first translator [Mr. Stanley] is perhaps entitled to more indulgence than his competitors, since they have had the opportunity of profiting by example.
Before dismissing Mr. Stanley and his translation of Bürger, a word further on the man himself. He never published anything after the Leonora, except Letters on his resigning his commission and some reports on farming. ”

“ Not only is Coleridge's use of the ballad meter apparently due to Taylor's use of that form in so serious and effective a manner, but the archaic spelling of the first form of the Ancient Mariner is probably directly due to Taylor's similar use, far more pronounced in his earlier than his later version. It is true such use of archaic forms might be imitation of the Percy ballads or of Chatterton. Yet the fact that Coleridge had never before used such archaisms, and the nearness of the Mariner to Coleridge's enthusiasm for Taylor, would imply the special influence of the latter's poem. ”

“ Another significant feature of the Ancient Mariner is its considerable use of internal rime, that is double rime within the line. We know, too, from a later letter of Coleridge to Southey, that the former greatly liked this feature, while Taylor thought it of little importance. [10] Yet Taylor had used internal rime in six of his stanzas, [11] twice in one of them, and this had apparently drawn Coleridge's attention to it. It need scarcely be mentioned that internal rime is not a normal feature of ballad poetry, yet Coleridge made it very prominent in his poem. ”

“ Spencer sums up the excellences of the particular poem he was presenting to his English readers. It will be noticed, too, that he emphasizes, much as Mr. Stanley had done, the moral of the piece. In this he seems as peculiarly English as his predecessor:
Of all their productions of this kind, Leonora is perhaps the most perfect. The story in a narrow compass unites tragic event, poetical surprise, and epic regularity. The admonitions of the Mother are just, although ill-timed. The despair of the Daughter at once natural and criminal ”

“ Here we may turn to a final account of these incidents, given by Scott himself in his Essay on Imitations of the Ancient Ballad. In this, written in 1830, after reciting the circumstances of Mrs. Barbauld's reading and its reaching him, he says:
A lady of noble German descent, whose friendship I have enjoyed for many years, found means . . . to procure me a copy of Bürger's works from Hamburg . . . ”

“ They will be pleased to find the Almighty no longer held out to their contemplation as an irritable and vindictive ruler, ever watchful for offence, and prepared to punish; but instead, as a friend and affectionate parent, having but one interest with his creatures, happy in their happiness, and associated to their nature In the captivating forms of sympathy and love. ”

“ There is no reference in Spencer's Preface to the occasion of his translating Bürger, or Burgher as he regularly spells the name, nor to the previous version of Mr. Stanley, unless perhaps in a single sentence which may convey a slight:
To this merit [simplicity] Mr. Burgher has an undoubted claim, a claim our countrymen would be the first to allow, could they enjoy his expressions in their original purity, or his ideas in a faithful translation. ”

“ By woman wailing for her demon lover;
the sinking of the ship in the Ancient Mariner, like the disappearance of the horse under Lenore at the grave of William; the general likeness of Christabel, and the breaking off of the Dark Ladie from its perceived resemblance, he thinks, to the ballad of Bürger. In his later Life of Coleridge, [7] Brandl has also connected parts of the Ode on the Departing Year with the Bürger influence, and assodates the poem of the Three Graves with the others of this period. ”

“ He thus condemns the poem which he had translated, and which was already making some noise in England, by these words of Aristotle: "But those [poets] who produce not the terrible, but the marvelous only, have nothing in common with tragedy." [4] 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. ”

“ Ally their hearts to his:
When man will bear, and be resign'd,
God ever soothes his suffering mind,
And grants him future bliss.
It was thus that he thought to explain and strengthen for his countrymen the didacticism of the poem. [23]
In Mr. Stanley's modifications of the poem there was, of course, no intention to mislead. Free paraphrasing of foreign works was common enough at the time. Besides, Mr. Stanley provided for the printing of the German text, "which may be had, sewed up with the translation, by such as should be desirous of comparing the one with the other." ”

“ The interest excited by Stanley's translating of the Lenore not only inspired, before its publication, the proposed edition of Wm. R. Spencer to accompany Lady Beauclerk's drawings, but brought out two others. The first, and by far the more important, was the version of William Taylor of Norwich, made some years before as we shall see, and now printed for the first time in the March number of the Monthly Magazine. The second was by Henry James Pye, the poet laureate. ”

“ Aikin is not as definite as it might be, there can be no reasonable doubt that it refers to Taylor's Lenora. Indeed the Arthur and Matilda of Aikin is much more closely modeled upon Bürger's poem and Taylor's translation than the author's note implies. Reversing the situation of the German poem, Aikin's hero is sailing in a "stately ship o'er the Indian seas," ardently longing for home. ”

“ For so, at least, shall not thy soule
⁠Its heavenly bridegroom miss."
"O mother, mother! what is blisse,
⁠And what the fiendis [2] celle?
With him 'tis heaven any where,
⁠Without my William, helle.
"Go out, go out, my lamp of life;
⁠In endless darkness die:
Without him I must loathe the earth, [3]
⁠Without him scorne the skye." ”

“ The Public will judge between the merits of the first, and this new publication of Leonora, and it remains with me only to express my hopes that no purchaser of the former edition will be displeased at the appearance of another so much altered, and to inform such as may be desirous of exchanging the one for the other, that I shall, at all times, be ready to obey their orders.
W. M. Old Bond Street.
It is clear from the letter of Mr. Stanley, found in the advertisement, that he was no child of the new romanticism. ”

“ This date, although at variance with what Scott himself says, [16] fits in with every other detail we know. Lockhart also confirms the Countess Purgstall by adding, "A few days afterwards, Scott went to pay a visit at a country house where he expected to meet 'the lady of his love'." [17] If the account by the Countess of printing Scott's William and Helen without his knowledge is to be trusted, and there seems no reason to doubt it, the first copies of the poem were struck off in the spring of 1796, perhaps before Mr. Spencer's edition had been issued. ”

“ By reason of them Stanley became a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [10] He also presented the seeds and plants he had gathered in Iceland to Sir Joseph Banks, eminent scientist and president of the English Royal Society, who had himself visited the Hot Springs of Iceland in 1772. [11] This led to Stanley's being elected fellow of the Royal Society of London, and to intimate acquaintance with the learned of the capital. In 1790 Mr. Stanley was chosen member of parliament for Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, and in June of that year became a member of Lord Auckland's embassy at the Hague. ”

“ In these accounts we have the significant details regarding Scott's translation of Bürger's Lenore. It remains to consider times and seasons, especially as mistakes have frequently been made respecting some of them. [9] It is unnecessary to account more fully for Mrs. Barbauld's knowledge of Taylor's translation, after what has been said of her teaching the young Taylor, his appreciation of her influence, and the intimate relations of Taylor and her brother, Dr. Aikin. Doubtless Taylor communicated his new German studies to her soon after they had begun. ”