Page:The seven great hymns of the mediaeval church - 1902.djvu/21

 For this he diplaced the tanza of the firt verion which the Rev. Franklin Johnon has characterized as never urpaed in "its high finih, its delicate uggetion of the antique and its perfection of form." I have, therefore, retained the firt verion. The effort of tranlators generally has been to reproduce the double-rhyme of the original; but the truth is that the ingle-rhyme better preerves for the Englih reader the two important elements of implicity and trength. Of uch tranlations I have found none better than that of Mr. Sloon.

In 1883 a tranlation of the Dies Iræ was publihed by the Rev. Franklin Johnon, of Chicago, which I regard as the mot nearly perfect in form that has ever been made, and which I have incorporated in this edition. Dr. Johnon ays in his preface that he publihed a previous edition in 1865; that the work of tranlation occupied his attention at frequent intervals during a period of fifteen years, and that there were weeks in succeion during which, both day and night, his mind was filled with the tanzas. I may well believe this, for nothing has ever been publihed which denotes