Page:The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore - A Study in English and German Romanticism - Emerson (1915).djvu/44

 it says that Pye's translation was made as early as 1782. This is based upon a reference by Herzfeld, from the Tableau de l'Allemagne et de la littérature allemande, par un Anglois à Berlin pour ses amis a Londres (1782). In this the writer says of Bürger's ballad: J'en connois une traduction anglaise que le traducteur a communiqué à quelques-uns de ses amis; mais le ridicule que ceux-ci ont jetté sur ce poème l'a empêché de la faire paraitre." Such a statement is proof enough that some English translation of Lenore was in existence as early as 1782, but surely not necessarily that it was Pye's. Indeed, to jump from this slight allusion to Pye, rather than to any of the other known translators, seems wholly unwarranted. The case must be regarded as distinctly unproved.

Of course it still remains a possibility that Pye's translation may have been intended by the allusion in the Tableau de l'Allemagne, although we have no knowledge of Pye's having been in Berlin, or of how the Englishman then residing there knew of Pye's version. In fact so little is known of Pye's life, except on its public side during his membership in parliament, that even a conjecture is hazardous. It is true that in 1775 Pye began his career as a verse writer by making verse translations, though so far as we know of the classics only. It is possible that, in this translation period, he may have turned to German, since his version of Lenore shows his later knowledge of that language. Yet, on the other hand, it seems more likely that, knowing German as he did and noting Mr. Stanley's emphasis upon his "freely translated" of the title-page, Pye set himself at once to prepare a closer rendering of the original. At least any question of an earlier date for Pye's poem must still be regarded as in the highest degree uncertain.