Page:The seven great hymns of the mediaeval church - 1902.djvu/18

 alone a fragment taken from an extended poem. The ubequent notes, retained from the firt edition, will discloe the difficulty, the almot impoibility of tranlation into Englih and the incomparable adaptability of the Latin, both for meaure and rhyme. Nevertheles, the Rev. Samuel W. Duffield has made a tranlation in the meaure of the original with the intermediate dactylic rhymes and the final double-rhymes, which moreover, is a literal rendering of the poem line for line and often word for word. The introduction of Mr. Duffield is alo a valuable eay upon the construction of the vere.

The great difficulty of rendering thee mediæval hymns into Englih is caued by the fact that generally they are both in Latin and in rhyme, and the rhyme is often double-rhyme, an element which is little better than artificial in our monoyllabic Englih tongue. If the reader will compare the following pecimens he will ee how far apart tranlators can be.

The firt tranlation is Mr. Duffield's; the econd is one which I made for the Seven Great Hymns; the third, it is needles to ay, is Dr. Neale's.