Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/23

 a perusal, which well nigh becomes a labour.

From this defect Musäus is perfectly free; none of his tales are interrupted in this manner, and the reader without fatigue reaches his conclusion. The ‘Chronicle of the Three Sisters’ contains all that could be wished in this kind of writing. The marvellous nature of the subject, the charm of the descriptions, the strange nature of the enchantments, all concur to render this tale extremely entertaining, and do not allow us to pause till we have reached the conclusion.

The ‘Volksmärchen’ of Musäus, for some reason which I am at a loss to understand, have never yet been translated into English, in a complete form. There was, I am told, an English version of about one-half of them published in or about 1790, but I have never met with a copy of this translation. Two or three other of Musäus’ tales have appeared in English specimens of German Romance, published at various periods, and have ever re-