M. There is nothing in the affair! there is not a word of truth in the whole business. We have deceived you from the very beginning and the minister himself.

C. You have deceived me, wretch! I know it well, and must I be remembered of it? Answer my question without delay. How far is your connexion with the girl advanced? You are dead unless you confess the truth.

M. You mistake my words. To break off her connexion with you, her father....

C. ....Threw his daughter into your arms? Why what care 1? Answer me directly to my question, or I'll murder you. How far is your connexion advanced? Tell me ! tell me! tell me! (shaking him violently.)

M. You rave! you will not hear me! I never spoke to her! I never saw her! I know her not.

C. (drawing back.) Thou hast never spoken to her? Thou hast never seen her? Thou knowest her not? Juliá is lost for ever for thy sake, and thrice in one breath hast

F. (zurücktrettend.) Du sahst sie nie? kennest sie nicht? Weist gar nichts von ihr? Die Millerin ist verloren um deinetwillen, du Jängnest sie dreimal in einem Athem hinweg? Fort schlech-thou denied her? (opening the ter Kerl. (er gibt ihm mit der door with disdain.) Pistole einen Streich und stöszt wretch, go, powder were ihn aus dem Zimmer.) für dei- thrown away on miscreants nes gleichen ist kein Pulver er-like thee. funden!

Go,

With regard to the great additional matter, which the translator has inserted, and which on a nice comparison with the original will be demonstrable, I shall say nothing. The reader, however, will here observe, that Ferdinand is working the cowardly marshal; and with a pistol to his breast demands that confession from him, which he knew he had a right to obtain, being himself so strongly suspected. The Marshal, in his pusillanimous confusion, when he was developing to Ferdinand the plot that had been laid, uses the following expression: So hören sie doch nur Ihr Valer.... Ihr eigener leiblicher Vater.... Now the English translator, who did not understand the idiom of the phrase, has not only substituted something of his own fancy, but being unacquainted with the meaning of the pronoun Ihr, translated her, has given to the English reader only the single, when it is evidently intended by Schiller to convey a double one; namely, that Ferdinand in his rage should understand her father; although the marshal meant his (Ferdinand's) father, the president. Now the double entendre, could no way be so happily introduced, as through the medium of this equivocation. For which reason, without an annotation, the English reader can have no clear conception of the meaning of the German author.

Indeed upon the pronoun Ihr*, the whole merit of the scene depends. The truth of this will be sufficiently evident from the following remark: if

the

* The pronoun Ibr, may signify your, or ber, in German. There is, however, for this idiom no equivalent word in the EngJish language by which it can be translated. This circumstance ought to have been explained in a note by the translator, which would have at once cleared up the matter.

the Marshal had expressed himself by the word which the translator has done, he would then have entirely prevented the subsequent catastrophe of the drama, which he has now accomplished by inserting some additional matter of his own invention. A true knowledge of the German idiom, and as I have said before, a note, explaining its singularity to the English reader, would have saved the translator much trouble and perplexity, and consequently the subsequent plot would not have been spoiled; for under this very conception follows the poisoning of Ferdinand and Louisa. Whereas, according to the English translation, the poisoning of both was unnecessary, and out of all question.

I shall only point out one other great mistake, in the same play, less pardonable than the former. (Page 112, English translation). This beautiful scene is thus translated:

LUISA. Und der Fluch deines Vaters uns nach !-Ein Fluch Unbesonnener, den auch Mörder nie ohne Erhörung aussprechen, den die Rache des Himmels auch dem Dicb auf dem Rade hält, &c.

JULIA. Pursued by your father's curse! a curse, unthinking youth, never mentioned without horror-even by the assassins; which the mercy of heaven with-holds from the very robber upon the rack, &c.

The original is quite the reverse:

A curse never mentioned by a murderer on the wheel, never unheard by heaven; and which heavenly revenge, never withheld from the robber broken on the wheel.

Compare this meaning with the above*.

The

* I shall have numerous opportunities in the sequel of this work, to make the student acquainted with many more such er

The student will find, that the most beautiful productions of my learned countrymen have too often been degraded by bad translations of the German language, and which might have been prevented if the natives of this country had shewn their translations to any learned German, before they sent them to the press, in which case the public might have relied upon the preservation of the originality.

It is now twelve years since I first had the hap piness of treading the soil of Great-Britain, in which space of time I have had many opportunities of studying the English language, and have obtained some knowledge of the manners and customs of the inhabitants; and were I to continue twelve years longer here, I should never venture to issue a publication until I had first submitted it (I mean the English part) to one or more of the literati of this country.

Before I proceed further in this treatise on language, I shall make some observations on our modern German authors. It is an indisputable fact, that Schiller's writings are more difficult to be understood than any other, owing to the numerous obscurities with which they abound. His tragedies are the most unintelligible of his performances, in consequence of the peculiarities of the German idiom, and the energetic mode of expression for which he was not only remarkable, but inimitable. There are even many of the natives of Germany who misconceive him. The chef d'œuvres of Schiller are his

Tra

rors, and with the peculiar phraseology and idioms of my native language; and for that purpose I shall always take the most striking passages from our best authors, accompanied with my own translation.

d

Tragedies of Cabal and Love; — Fiesco;-Don Carlos; and the Robbers; together with two other dramas, which have lately appeared in Germany, called, the Death of Wallenstein, and Piccolomini, which works undoubtedly entitle him (and justly) to the appellation of the German Shakespeare.

The chief scenes in all his dramatic writings appeal forcibly to the heart; and his readers will always feel the alternate working of horror, anxiety, terror, compassion, and admiration. The Rev. W. Whiter, of Cambridge, (who I am proud to call my pupil) in his learned and profound work on languages, Etymologicum Magnum, says

"Mr Schiller has acquired his fame by the study of ancient and modern languages, and by comparing one with the other, he learned the affinity of the whole. By that means we ought to urge and repeat, that as we advance forward in these studies of languages, in speculations of the beauties and affinities, the nature of the human mind will become more fully unfolded, and more faithfully exhibited. As we ascend by slow but persevering steps to those higher seats and more commanding stations in the regions of knowledge, from which the mind delights to look abroad on the world, the clouds vanish, the scene opens, and the prospect brightens to our view. Our conceptions will enlarge, as our ideas are expanded; and, while the understanding grows enlightened by the contemplation of its own faculties, we shall be still more enabled to appreciate to feel and to enjoy the energies of intellect the powers of knowledge and the blessings of truth."

This learned gentleman proceeds in his commentary on Schiller's tragedy of the Robbers, thus:

"The dream of Francis exhibits the most solemn narrative, that can well be presented to the feelings of an audience. It is the Day of Judgment in all its terrors, from the mouth of guilt in the moment of delirium. The picture is too beautiful and natural to omit it here.