Page:The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore - A Study in English and German Romanticism - Emerson (1915).djvu/17



The earliest translation of Bürger's Lenore to be published in England was by one too little known in connection with the subject. Yet he was an interesting man, a member of parliament, a fellow of the Royal Societies of England and Scotland, and long acquainted with German life and German literature. Besides, his translation, while not the first or the best, was the occasion of the appearance of three others in the same year.

The materials for a knowledge of this first translator to publish his work have been accessible for some time. Moreover, they present the key to the conditions which led to much Bürger activity in England during the year 1796. We may begin with a reference in the Girlhood of Maria Josepha Holroyd, a book printed an even century after the appearance of the first English translation of Lenore. In a letter of "Serena to Maria Josepha," which is undated but immediately precedes one of Feb. 22, 1796, Serena, or Sarah Martha Holroyd, sister of Lord Sheffield, asks, "Have you seen a little Thing called 'Lenore'?" To this question Maria Josepha replied on Feb. 22 as follows:

This spicy letter of Maria Holroyd, who soon became the wife of Mr. Stanley, gives us almost at first hand the story of a literary embroilment which precipitated the first appearance of an English Bürger translation. The Mr. Stanley referred to was John Thomas Stanley, son of Sir John Stanley of Cheshire. His interest in Ger-