Page:The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore - A Study in English and German Romanticism - Emerson (1915).djvu/24

 In Mr. Stanley's modifications of the poem there was, of course, no intention to mislead. Free paraphrasing of foreign works was common enough at the time. Besides, Mr. Stanley provided for the printing of the German text, "which may be had, sewed up with the translation, by such as should be desirous of comparing the one with the other." Yet on the whole, this preface shows, quite as clearly as the poem itself, the spirit of the time immediately before the romantic revival gained its headway.

The preface to Mr. Stanley's first edition is dated Feb. 8, 1796. The advertisement to the third, called a "new edition" is dated April 15 of the same year. Between these two appeared a second edition, a clear indication of considerable popularity. This second edition was an exact duplicate of the first, except for two slight changes on the title-page. There, just before the two verses, appeared the words "By J. T. Stanley,. Esq. F.R.S.," and just after, "Second Edition."

The interest excited by Stanley's translating of the Lenore not only inspired, before its publication, the proposed edition of Wm. R. Spencer to accompany Lady Beauclerk's drawings, but brought out two others. The first, and by far the more important, was the version of William Taylor of Norwich, made some years before as we shall see, and now printed for the first time in the March number of the Monthly Magazine. The second was by Henry James Pye, the poet laureate. This interest also encouraged Stanley's publisher to propose a new edition with better plates, in anticipation of that with the designs of Lady Diana Beauclerk. It is possible also that Mr. Spencer's known purpose to "improve" the translation may have had its influence. At least Mr. Stanley now made his own improvement.