Page:The Life of Benvenuto Cellini Vol 1.djvu/113

Rh with fidelity. The French, which appeared subsequently to a version of Vasari by the same translator, displays a more intimate familiarity with sixteenth-century Italian than Goethe's; but it is sometimes careless, especially toward the conclusion, showing that the writer did not always choose to follow Cellini in his redundancies of phrase. Of the English version which bears the name of Thomas Roscoe, son to the distinguished author of the Lives of Lorenzo de' Medici and Leo X, I am unable to speak very highly. It has the merit of a sound old-fashioned style, but it is grossly inaccurate; the unintentional misunderstandings of the text are innumerable, and the translator has felt himself at liberty to omit or to misrepresent whole passages which he deemed unfit for ears and eyes polite. Since my excuse for offering anew translation to. the English public rests upon the deficiencies of Roscoe, I must be permitted to point out a few of his errors in this place.

To begin with, although Mr. Roscoe in his preface declares that he has adhered closely to the original text published by Molini,he deals unscrupulously with some important passages. For example, he blurs the incident of Faustina and her waiting-maid recorded in book i. chapter xxix. He suppresses the episode of Paolo Micceri and Caterina in book ii. chapters He confuses the story of Cencio and La Gambetta in book ii. chapter It is true that he might defend his action on the score that these passages are unedifying and offensive; but he ought to have indicated the nature and