Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/515

 ii is. i. JUKE 25, mo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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A SPANISH SONNET AND ITS ENGLISH TRANSLATION. In 1818 'An Essay on Spanish Literature,' by A. Anaya, was pub- lished in London by Boosey & Sons, Broad Street, Exchange. In the appendix (pp. 172-3) he prints the following sonnet, entitled ' El Pensamiento/ by Don Juan Melendez Valdes, to which he subjoins a translation but little inferior, I think, to the original poem. Let, however, the readers of ' N. & Q.' be the judges :

"Qual suele abeja inquieta revolando

Por florido pensil entre mil rosas,

Hasta venir a hallar las mas hermosas, Andar con dulce trompa susurrando ; Mas luego que las ve con vuelo blando,

Baxa y bate las alas yagarosas,

Y en medio de sus hojas olorosas El delicado aroma esta gozando ; Asi, mi bien, el pensamiento mio

Con dichosa zozobra por hallarte Vagaba de amor libre por el sufclo. Pero te vi, rendime ; y mi albedrio,

Abrasado en tu luz, goza al mirarte Gracias que envidia de tu rostro el cielo.

Even as the bee 'mid circling roses flies,

Nor pauses once to rest his wandering wing,

Until, at length, the fairest he doscries, And sinks upon its bosom murmuring ;

There, fixed and fluttering with delight, he lies, Incumbent on its dewy, fragrant leaves, From its soft cup the honey draught receives,

And scents th' aroma perfumes as they rise :

So, with a palpitating heart, my love,

I traced my lowly path in search of thee ; Thou wert the Rose, and I the humble Bee.

For thee my every thought, my fancy strove ; I saw I loved ; and feast my gladdened eyes On charms that shame the lustre of the skies.

I think that this delightful version of an almost perfect sonnet would have been improved by using the word "dainty" in the eighth line, as it is the exact equivalent of delicado. Thus :

And scents the dainty perfumes as they rise. " Aroma," as an adjective, is an abuse of language.

In a foot-note on p. 173 the composer of the volume says, in Spanish of which this is a translation :

" I \vill add the free translation, or rather the imitation of this sonnet, done by a friend of name whose modesty is as great as his acquaintance with and his knowledge of Spanish literature."

At the end of the version is appended the letter " M." I think I have some- where read that Sefior Anaya was known to the Molesworth family. Was any member of it, who lived at the date given above, possessed of such acquire- ments as those mentioned ?

JOHN T. CURRY.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their name's and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

DR. MAGINN'S WRITINGS. In what journal or magazine did Dr. Maginn's ' Don Juan Unread,' a parody of Wordsworth's ' Yarrow Unvisited,' first appear ? It is included among the ' Testimonies of Authors,' prefixed to ' Don Juan,' in the one-volume edition of Byron's ' Poems,' published by Murray, 1853. Possibly that famous skit on the Don may have originally seen the light in the John Bull newspaper, to which Maginn is said to have been a frequent con- tributor, shortly after it was started under the editorship of Theodore Hook. However, I cannot personally ascertain whether my surmise be correct, as, so far as I am aware, there are no sets of John Bull to be found in this city or anywhere else in Australia. A further query respecting Maginn : Early in the forties the doctor issued selections from his writings entitled 'Magazine Mis- cellanies,' which seem to have come out in numbers. The speculation was a failure, and the series abruptly ended. How many numbers were printed, and what articles did they contain ? MORGAN McMAHON. Sydney.

TENNYSON'S ' MARGARET.' In the second stanza of the above occurs :

Your spirit is the calmed sea Laid by the tumult of the fight. Will some reader kindly refer me to some positive statement (or contradiction) of this fact (or fiction) that the tumult of a sea-fight causes a calm of the water in the neighbourhood. H. K. ST. J. S.

FONTS : THEIR SIZE. It is a matter of common knowledge that during the Georgian

Eeriod the fonts in the few churches then uilt were often constructed with bowls so small that the immersion of infants was impossible. My impression is that in the Jacobean period also this custom prevailed, to a greater or less extent, in disobedience to, or in neglect of, the rubrics. I am in search of instances of this breach of the law in churches built in pre-Reformation times as well as later. I shall be much obliged to any of your readers who will give me the names of churches where such fonts exist. HENRY TAYLOR. Rusthall, Kent.