Page:The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore - A Study in English and German Romanticism - Emerson (1915).djvu/68

 Scott The Chase, in what is ordinarily known as the first edition during October. Finally Taylor printed, for the first time in separate form, a revised version of his translation in November or December. This, like Stanley's second version, was altered in some details, notably in a change of one stanza, suggested by the translation of Mr. Spencer. Thus are the seven versions of the five earliest English translations of Bürger's famous poem interwoven and interlinked with one another.

It is not easy to estimate the influence in England of these Bürger translations of the year 1796, at least as distinct from other German works of romantic cast which were then known. Yet the numerous references to the Lenore translations in Reviews, in biographies, and in letters, show that this bit of German verse had probably given more English people their first taste of German literature than all the translations that had preceded. Besides, his translation of Lenore was clearly of immense importance in the case of Scott, leading him into his first poetic period, that of ballad translation and imitation during 1796 to 1803. Indirectly, too, as has been often shown, Scott's first poetic effort was due to the yet unpublished version of Lenore by William Taylor. The reprinting of Scott's William and Helen in his collected works, after his fame as a poet had been established by the Lay of the Last Minstrel and its poetic successors, has made this version of Bürger more easily accessible and more generally known than any of the others.

That Stanley's version must have been read to a considerable extent is clear from the three editions which appeared so near together in the early months of the year. Mr. Spencer's edition also continued to be called for, partly no doubt because of the drawings of Lady Beauclerk, and it was issued in 1799, and again in 1809. Especially did it have its influence in stimulating Spencer to continue to write poetry, and thus to take at least a minor place among the poets of the early nineteenth century.

Yet of all these versions the most influential in its time was that of William Taylor. Not only was it to produce the imitation of Dr. Aikin before its publication, but it was to thrill the Edinburgh assembly of cultivated people when read by Mrs. Barbauld, and thus be carried by one of them to the young Scott. This was the version about which Lamb became so enthusiastic in his letter to Coleridge, already noted. This was known to Wordsworth, doubtless through Lamb or Coleridge, and a portion of it praised