Page:The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore - A Study in English and German Romanticism - Emerson (1915).djvu/58

 The edition ordinarily known as Scott's first issue of his translation is one of the autumn of 1796. It then included a translation of Bürger's Der Wilde Jäger, under the title of The Chase, and the small quarto of 41 pages was called: The Chase and William and Helen, two Ballads from the German of Gottfried Augustus Bürger. The book was issued anonymously. Later the title of the first poem was changed to The Wild Huntsman, a more direct rendering of Bürger's title. The latter poem, according to Lockhart, "appears to have been executed under Mrs. Scott's eye, during the month that preceded his first publication." The month of publication was October, as we are also informed with great definiteness:

Besides the single couplet which Scott acknowledged he took from Taylor's version, as it had been repeated to him by his friend, he disclaims any influence of other translations. Indeed he says, in his first letter to Taylor, Nov. 25, 1796:

Yet the Critical Review, noticing his edition, makes the charge of further use of Taylor's translation:

This charge, too, seems to have some reason when the two poems are examined. In the first place the stanza structure is the same in each, as it must have been if Scott was to use a couplet of Taylor's verse. To this simple ballad form Scott might have been led independently, since he was steeped in ballad poetry. Yet there