94 Monthly Review of Literature. 



on the difficult task ; and in a later age Boyd and Hay ley tried their wings ill 

 these poetic flights ; but alas, their names as translators are only known as 

 coupled with their disgrace. Coleridge understood Dante ; and he could have 

 performed the task which has been left for a later generation. The latest 

 translators of Dante are Gary and Wright. Mr. Gary is an erudite Italian 

 scholar ; he has understood his author and he has succeeded in transferring 

 some portion at least of the original spirit into his version ; but he made a 

 fatal mistake in imitating a Miltonian model, in disguising the breathing 

 rhythm of Dante's terza rima under the formal solemnity of the blank-verse. 

 Mr. Wright, the translator of the " Inferno" and the " Purgatorio," has sur- 

 mounted the difficulties, or rather, has cut the Gordian knot by modifying the 

 metre without really altering its character. This difference between Gary's 

 and Wright's version constitutes the superiority of the latter over the former. 

 We have taken some pains, by strict comparisons with the original, to ascer- 

 tain the merit of Gary ; and certainly in correctness, minute correctness of 

 translation, and in gravity of style, he is at least equal, if not superior, to his 

 younger rival. But we look over Gary's version in vain for the spirit, energy, 

 and harmony that Mr. Wright has succeeded in transfusing into that which 

 now lies on our table. 



The Paradise is yet to be translated ; but we caution Mr. Wright against 

 supposing, that (as the translator of Dante) he will ever become popular. Dante 

 will ever be "caviare to the multitude." 



The Forsaken, a Tale. In 2 vols. post 8vo. Whittaker. 



IN private life we may act on the principle, that as by trying to please all we 

 please nobody we ought to please ourselves. But with authors, and especi- 

 ally novel-writers, this doctrine will not pass current : for they themselves are 

 the very last persons to be pleased, the first and most important being the 

 fickle-minded and capricious public, for whom they cater. Has any of our 

 fair readers ever contributed to the annoyance and vexation of a portrait- 

 painter, by finding faults and suggesting improvements in the "likeness" ol 

 her lover with all the freedom and impertinence of sheer ignorance of the 

 fine arts? Such is the common treatment of painters by their sitters and 

 friends ; and such, we will venture to say, is also the uncivil treatment with 

 which many unlucky wights of "' novelists" get at the hands of reviewers, 

 and through them of the public. We heard it said the other day by a modern 

 scribbler, whose work, very lately published, has been unmercifully criticised 

 every where, except by the paid advertising notices in the Chronicle, that he 

 liked the reviewers' abuse as well as their praise, as both served to circulate 

 the book. God save the mark! Who after this will say with lago in the 

 play, " Good name in man or woman, dear my lord. 



Is the immediate jewel of their souls, &c., " 



especially if instead of making them " poor indeed" such evil report contri- 

 buted to fill the author's pocket ? Where then is the value of criticism, if its 

 exercise produces exactly the reverse of its intended effects ? The fault is not 

 ours; if the public, like children, will do the forbidden thing and buy the 

 book which the reviewer conscientiously disapproves and condemns, his con- 

 science is clear : with them rests the responsibility of supporting a bad cause. 

 Let the reviewer do his duty fairly and without bias : and then, why voyue 

 la galore. 



" The Forsaken" is a book that has been most unsparingly abused by our 

 contemporaries, many of whom we are sure from their remarks, have not 

 taken the trouble to read the volumes through. Whether our opinion is worth 

 any thing we do not pretend to say j but having read the tale from one end to 

 the other, we must say that we see no cause for the out-pourings of wrath so 

 liberally bestowed on the ill-starred author. Not having the most remote 

 connexion with the author, not even so much as to know his name, we fear 



