Page:The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore - A Study in English and German Romanticism - Emerson (1915).djvu/23

 This account, true enough in itself though not stating the whole case as we now know, is doubtless the reason why less attention has been given to Mr. Stanley's translation and its priority to others. Apart from this, the preface shows the characteristic attitude of many Englishmen toward the new romanticism. Mr. Stanley felt he must apologize for such extravagance, as he does in his second paragraph:

Again, Mr. Stanley frankly admits that he has altered the poem, as "translated freely" of the title-page implies. He says:

The Poem will be found, in many respects, to have been altered from the original; but more particularly towards the conclusion, where the translator, thinking the moral not sufficiently explained, has added several lines. The German poem concludes with a stanza, the literal meaning of which may be given in the following words:

To his translation of this last stanza, free enough in itself, Mr. Stanley added one of his own as follows:

It was thus that he thought to explain and strengthen for his countrymen the didacticism of the poem.