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Read Ebook: The First Printed Translations into English of the Great Foreign Classics A Supplement to Text-Books of English Literature by Harris William James
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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
Superscripts are denoted by ^ eg S^r.
E.E.T.S. stands for Early English Text Society.
Footnotes are all positioned within a specific section as in the original text. One section uses to denote a multiple-reference footnote. All other footnotes are denoted by in the original, and are denoted here by for clarity.
Obvious punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.
More detail can be found at the end of the book.
The First Printed
Translations into English
of the
Great Foreign Classics
LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, LIMITED NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO
To my Wife
THE
FIRST PRINTED TRANSLATIONS
INTO ENGLISH
PREFACE This bibliography has been compiled with the view of supplementing existing text books on English literary history, and assisting students in preparing for examinations in Bibliography and Literature. It will also be found of service to those who are working for the professional examinations of the Library Association.
Students of literature, more particularly of English literature, experience much difficulty in tracing the outside influences which at various periods, or, perhaps, speaking more correctly, at all periods, have affected or moulded our literature. The great foreign classics have exercised a direct and decided influence upon English literature and the object of this bibliography is to give in concise form the authors and titles, translations and dates of the first English translations of the chief foreign authors, and incidentally to enable students to note the effect of such translations on the works of many of our great imaginative writers.
So far as it has been possible to discover, no work of this kind exists in this country. Students are frequently reminded of the special need for such a bibliography as this, and to all interested in the subject it should serve a useful purpose, and perhaps help to fill a gap in literary bibliography.
The dictionary form of arrangement has been adopted with the authors in alphabetical order. In some instances a work has been noticed twice, in which case the first entry will generally be found to be an edition, either issued in an incomplete form, or with a doubtful date. It has also been found necessary to enumerate in nearly all cases the separate works of each author; the complete works not appearing till a much later time. The date of original publication has occasionally been given in brackets, and where a date is seen in square brackets , it denotes the approximate date of publication.
The anthologies, collections, folk and fairy tales, poetical and traditional literature have been placed in their national order under French, German, etc., many important minor works have been published in these forms, and many important poems have been first translated in these anthologies, often long before they have appeared in the author's translated works.
The most important of the Anglo-Saxon, etc., romances have been included in this Bibliography and appear generally under their titles. These have played a very important part in the development of our literature, and many may be considered as foreign, having derived their origin from foreign sources.
No one is more conscious than the compiler of the difficulties this little work has entailed, and no one is more conscious of its imperfections. As far as possible each entry has been verified at least three times, and from different sources, yet inaccuracies may have crept in, and any corrections, additions or suggestions will be thankfully acknowledged.
This bibliography could have been much enlarged, but the endeavour has been to include only those authors whose work has gone to the making of English literature, or who stand pre-eminent as introducing a special school, class or form.
I desire to offer to Mr. James D. Brown my best thanks for his suggestions in the early stages of this compilation, and to Dr. Baker for his kindly criticism, and also for going through the proofs.
WILLIAM JAMES HARRIS.
FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS
One of the decadent Greek novelists. An erotic novel of a conventional type.
Eminent Saxon prelate, one of the most learned of his time. His works, upwards of eighty in number, have been republished by the AElfric Soc. .
Only three orations of A. are extant, and they relate to charges of 'malversation and corruption against Demosthenes'. The 'De Corona of D.' is in reply to AEschines.
The tragedies of AEschylus have affected English drama chiefly through French and Italian dramatists. 'Samson Agonistes,' by Milton, and 'Prometheus Unbound,' by Shelley, are unmistakable echoes, and the latter was intended to be a sequel to AEschylus' 'Prometheus Bound'. 'Manfred' and 'Cain', by Byron, are modelled upon A. Influenced also Racine and Corneille. The most famous speech in Swinburne's 'Atalanta in Calydon' is a translation from A.
Here begynneth the book of the Subtyl Historyes and Fables of Esope.... Translated out of the French into Englysshe by William Caxton, 1484.
The fables of AEsop are among the very earliest of their kind, and probably have never been surpassed for point and brevity.
Nearly all subsequent fables are based upon AEsop. Has affected all European literature. All educated or even intelligent Greeks were supposed to know AEsop, hence their important influence.
LA COLTIVAZIONE .
The purest text of this poet will be found in the 'Museum Criticum', vol. i. pp. 421-44. Edited by Bishop Blomfield.
'Museum Criticum, or Cambridge Classical Researches,' 1814-25, 2v.
Said to have invented the metre called 'Alcaic'. The style has been much imitated.
THE ROGUE; or, THE LIFE OF GUZMAN DE ALFARACHE. . 1623.
MISCELLANEOUS PIECES IN LIT. HIST., AND PHILOSOPHY. 1746.
THE BUIK OF THE MOST NOBLE AND VAILZEAND CONQUEROUR, A. THE GREAT. Bannatyne Club, 1834.
At about the beginning of the reign of John the great French romance was composed in nine books, containing altogether about 20,000 of the twelve-syllabled lines since known, from their use in that poem, as 'Alexandrines'.
LIFE OF ALISAUNDER.
THE FIRST BOOK OF A. OF GAULE MS. note .
THE SECOND BOOKE OF A. DE GAULE 1595.
These extravagant chivalric romances, with their even more phantastic descendants dating from thirteenth century, had a great vogue for about 300 years, but were ridiculed out of existence by Cervantes.
'Like the Arthurian and Carlovingian romances, portrays the manners, the religion, and the ideas of love, honour and morality that prevailed when it was written. The "Amadis", says Ticknor, is admitted by general consent to be the best of all the old romances of chivalry'.
The influence of Anacreon on English literature was chiefly through Horace; Waller, Lovelace, Herrick and Suckling imitated the lyrics of A. to a great extent.
One of the great story-tellers of the world.
His original genius is most conspicuous in his fairy tales. His numerous works have been translated into most of the European languages.
A national record of events, which is said to have been begun at the instance of King Alfred the Great . Its last record is of the accession of Henry II, 1154. It is the oldest historical work written in any Germanic language, and is the basis of most of our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon History.
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