tor" himself—an LL.D., and therefore, perhaps, he could hardly have been expected to enter completely, or at least con amore, into the spirit of Faust's cruel sarcasm. But the following, we can assure him, is what Faust intends to express—"Here am I," says he, "classed with 'masters,' and such scum," (heisse doctor gar,) "and yea with 'doctors' by my soul!"—as if human degradation could not possibly sink lower. To "lead" a person's creed, is hardly an allowable expression the right word as "to shape." Besides, if used at all, the expression should have been "I have led." Then in the translation a little further down, where Faust says, "I have been more acute than all these triflers," &c., the spirit of the original entirely evaporates. As in the preceding lines we found him ironically classing himself with the doctors of the schools, so here he ought to have been exhibited to us seriously and vehemently asserting his real superiority, and bursting high above them in the native and indignant energy of his soul. "Could dog (were I a dog) so live?" We ask, would any man, even in his most doggish mood, when speaking to himself, have naturally interpolated such a parenthesis as that? Would he not simply have said, as the original says, "not even a dog would endure the life that I am leading?" But we shall make no more remarks upon these lines, as we intend, by and by, to endeavour to illustrate our notion of their spirit by trying our own hand upon the passage, and shall thus give Dr Anster and others an opportunity of retaliating, which we fear they will be at no loss to do, if they choose to take the trouble, as we all know that practice is very different from theory, and that to preach is one thing, and to perform another. In the mean time we continue the passage, quoting from Mr Birch:—
"Oh! that thy beams, fair moon, did take a peep
For the last time on my sorrow's deep.
Oft at this desk I have quail'd my brain.
The midnight through—but quail'd in vain—
When o'er my books and papers thou
Would'st show thy pensive friendly brow.
Oh! that I might but calmly tread
In thy pure light the mountain's head.
Round mountain-caves with spirits glide,
Or float o'er fields in thy waning tide,
From all my knowledge qualms befreed,
Bathe in thy dew—and feel relieved."
We need not waste our own time or the reader's, by pausing to criticise such stuff as this. Let us take a peep into some of the other translations. We carry on Faust's soliloquy from the Hon. Mr Talbot's[1] version:—
"Oh! am I to this dungeon still confined,
This cursed dismal hole, alas,
Where cheerful daylight scarce can find
A passage through the painted glass!
Hemm'd in by books on every side,
Which dust begrimes, and worms devour,
Which, wrapp'd in smoke-stained paper, tower,
Up to the roof in dingy pride!
These tools—these phials—boxes without number—
This heir-loom trash, and other useless lumber,
In careless heaps together hurl'd—
This is thy world—oh, to call this a world!
There is no fair rhyme in the iteration "confined" and "find"—"worms devour" is a thousand degrees too strong, and dose not express the way in which these reptiles perpetrate their depredations upon libraries. We think we see them crunching the boards, bolting the bindings, and growling over their prey. "Which, wrapped in smoke-stained paper, tower up to the roof in dingy pride." The books were not wrapped in smoke-stained paper; the paper was simply that with which the walls of his den were papered. The word "tower" appears to us to be an overcharged expression here, Faust feeling nothing but the crampness of his situation; but a still stronger illustration of vicious poetic diction is presented to our notice in the word "pride." This, it ever there was one, is an instance of language wrested from its proper use; a word denoting a passion of the soul employed to characterise a set of book-shelves! Conceive how the expression would look in German, (in dunkelm Stolze,) or in any other language. "Hurl'd" is generally an unhappy word in poetry, and seldom
- ↑ We, of course, give Mr. Talbot the benefit of his latest emendations by quoting from the second edition of his work.
