Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/95

 118. XL JAN. 30, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

85

the Act directs by Longman & Rees London 21 st May 180.1," and the prose version has its frontispiece marked, " Published as the Act directs by Longman & C. London 21 st May 1805." Otherwise the engravings are the same. The " Advertisement " may help us :

" The Public are already acquainted with the Poem of Hermann and Dorothea ; written by the celebrated Goethe, and translated into blank verse by Mr. Holcroft. It is replete with beauties of every kind : but the extreme simplicity of manners and of incident, which prevails through- out, is a defect in the eye of some English readers ; who have not been accustomed to see the common occurrences of life written in the language of the Muses. This consideration occasioned the present translation, in prose, to be undertaken ; in which a style and method are observed totally different from the original : and the translator has en- deavoured, without essentially deviating from Goethe, to tell a plain and connected tale ; by adding little phrases which seemed to rise out of the story, and making other trifling alterations. Little touches to this effect have been given to the characters of the hero and heroine, and trivial deviations ha,ve been made. The host and hostess are likewise rather varied in some parts ; and the pastor and apothecary are here and there slightly touched upon. The translator also has somewhat extended the tale at the conclusion, because, though an abrupt manner of ending may be a beauty in poetry, it is certainly a defect in prose ; and if the translation had adhered to the original in this instance, particularly, it would have deviated from the plan here adopted."

We find in the ' Memoirs ' (p. 229) the following :

" Mr. Holcroft, while abroad, translated his [Goethe's] poem of Hermann and Dorothea. A note from the author to the translator on this subject will be found among the letters at the end of the volume."

But the letter was evidently one of that elusive fourth manuscript volume which was never published (' Memoirs,' p. viii), and which Mr. W. C. Hazlitt says was offered to his father and declined (' The Hazlitts,' Edinburgh, 1911, p. 434n.). This is very unfortunate, as there might have been some light on this prose translation.

The engravings opposite p. 3 of the verse and p. 5 of the prose translation are also similar in every detail, save the legend concerning the publication " as the Act directs," and the quoted lines which accom- pany the illustration.

At any rate, whatever we may see in these coincidences of illustrations, my strongest reasons for attributing the 1805 edition to Holcroft arise from a simultaneous reading of the original and the two translations. Of course the translations are bound to be similar. But I found many free renderings, far from the literal reading of the German,

repeated from the verse into the prose translation, as well as many characteristic phrases.

So, having arranged the evidence, and having read the books, I can only state that, in my opinion, both the prose and the verse translations are Holcroft's.

1801. ' The Escapes ; or, The Water Carrier.' This was a musical piece produced at ovent Garden, 14 Oct., 1801, with Fawcett and Incledon in the leading roles. It was well received, but has never been printed. Genest says (7: 548) that it was acted twelve times. Reference to the piece is to be found n the ' Memoirs ' (p. 235) and Oulton (ed. 1818, 2: 96). ELBBIDGE COLBY.

Columbia University, New York City.

(To be continued.)

INSCRIPTIONS IN THE ANCIEN CIMETLftRE, MENTONE.

(See 11 S. x. 326, 383, 464, 504.)

FOURTH TERRACE. LEFT SIDE, BEGINNING AT FAB END.

287. Grace Elizabeth, w. of Harry A. Ewan r Wellington, N. Zealand, d. 23 March, 1896, a. 27.

288. Neville Wells Cole, b. July 24, 1865, d. April 2, 1876. Elizabeth Wells Cole, b. Aug. 14, 1862, d. April, 1876.

289. Charlotte, 4th dau. of Admiral Sir Henry Prescott, d. June 27, 1876. R.IiP.

290. Colonel Meadows Taylor, C.S.I., d. May 13, 1876, a. 66.

[The 'D.N.B.' states that Meadows Taylor's full name was Philip Meadows Taylor, and that he was born on 25 Sept., 1808, and died at Men- tone on 13 May, 1876. If the date of birth given in the 'D.N.B.' is correct, Meadows Taylor was* 67 at the time of his death.]

291. Jane Abbay, dau. of Benjamin and Jane Hobson, b. at Hong Kong, Sept. 22, 1844, d. March 25, 1876.

292. Alexander Maclean, d. Feb. 7, 1876, a. 34.

293. Anna Maitland, w. of George Cheetham Churchill, Esq., of London, d. Jan. 2, 1867, a 51.

294. Alicia, w. of William Powis, Esq., of the Middle Temple, Barrister, d. Dec. 6, 1866.

295. John Gandy, of Philadelphia, Pa., d. Nov. 6, 1865.

296. Robert Burdon, Capt. 13th Hussars, 5th s. of George and Elizabeth Burdon, b. at Heddon House, Northd., d. May 18, 1866.

297. James Lewis Siordet, b. Sept. 20, 1829, d. Dec. 22, 1912.

298. Duncan Archibald McNeill, d. 31 March, 1866, a. 25.

299. Eliza Anne Georgiana, dau. of the late Joseph Kinnaird Murphy and Elizabeth his w., of West a, Yorks, d. March 24, 1866, a. 26.

300. Matilda Mary Anne Crosse, d. March 6, 1866, a. 27. The Rev. R. Crosse, Rector of Ockham, Surrey, b. 30 Ap., 181(2), killed, by the fall of a rock, 4 Dec., 1871.