Page:The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore - A Study in English and German Romanticism - Emerson (1915).djvu/39



The English lines here quoted are from Taylor's version, though with a slight change in the last, doubtless due to imperfect memory.

Southey also had read the Bürger translations of Taylor, though he seems to have preferred the second in the Monthly Magazine, The Lass of Fair Wone, to the Lenora. He writes to Bedford, July 31, 1796:

Some years later Southey seems to have felt a higher regard for Taylor's Lenora. He had come to know who Taylor was, and was now in correspondence with him. On May 30, 1799, he writes:

Taylor's answer to Southey perhaps indicates something of the chagrin he may rightly have felt at the preference shown for another version less excellent than his own. He wrote on June 23, "Of Mr. Lewis I have heard nothing, and conclude that he prefers to associate with Mr. Spencer's rank and style in poetry." Lewis did finally print Taylor's first version, though with no hint of the author. He gives the translation high praise, however, in his prefatory note:

This version of Bürger's well-known ballad was published in the Monthly Magazine, and I consider it as a masterpiece of translation. Indeed, as far as my opinion goes, the English ballad is, in