It is just the book
for a Christmas gift.
_Reynard the Fox, after the German Version of Goethe._ By THOMAS
JAMES ARNOLD, Esq. With Illustrations from the Designs of Wilhelm von
Kaulbach. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 346 and 348 Broadway. 1860. pp.
226.
It is very well that Mr. Arnold should tell us on the title-page that
his version is _after_ that of Goethe. Nothing could be truer,--and it
is a very long way after, too. By substituting the slow and verbose
pentameter of what is called the classic school of English poetry for
the remarkably forth-right and simple eight-syllabic measure of the
original, the translator has contrived to lose almost wholly that homely
flavor of the old poet, which Goethe carefully preserved. We do not mean
to say that this is altogether a bad version, as such things go; on the
contrary, it has a great deal of spirit, as it could hardly fail to
have, unless it belied its model altogether;--but it is as far as
possible from giving any notion of the characteristic qualities of
"Reinaert de Vos." If Mr. Arnold must change the measure, Chaucer's
"Nonnes Preestes Tale" would have been a safer guide to follow.
Pages:
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394