Page:The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore - A Study in English and German Romanticism - Emerson (1915).djvu/62

 — heard; bone—skeleton; heaven—forgiven. The homonyms fare—fair are once used, the identical rime thee—thee, and the eye rimes come—home. These faulty rimes were probably the principal reason why M. G. Lewis did not wish to use, for his Tales of Wonder, Scott's William and Helen, although he had desired to have it when it was read to him in London by, Scott's friend.

The reception of Scott's William and Helen in his immediate circle was in the highest degree satisfactory, as was to be expected. Dugald Stewart, John Ramsey, William Erskine and Miss Jane Cranstoun, to take those whose letters are preserved in Lockhart, were enthusiastic. Miss Cranstoun, with something of future insight, wrote to a friend: "Upon my word Walter Scott is going to turn out a poet,—something of a cross I think between Burns and Gray." She even went so far as to dispraise Taylor in favor of her friend: "William Taylor's translation of your ballad is published, and so inferior that I wonder we could tolerate it." She adds, "I have seen another edition too, but it is below contempt. So many copies make the ballad famous, so that every day adds to your renown."

Beyond his immediate circle the first praise came from William Taylor, in acknowledgment of Scott's letter and a copy of his translation:

About the same time, too, we get another English glimpse of the poem. We have seen how enthusiastic Anna Seward became over Mr. Spencer's translation of Lenore. In a letter to Lady Eleanor Butler (Feb. 7, 1797), she refers to what she could not then have known was the edition of one who was to be a frequent